“Damn it, what the hell is this…!”

Fabian cursed. He tried to get rid of the magi from his body but to no avail.

The human body could use magic without limit, but that did not mean that the human body could withstand the power of magic.

The holy power applied in such a state must have been a great blow.

Fabian’s body, which had reached its limit, gradually broke down.

There was no way Meyer was going to stand by and watch. As if nailed to the broken ice, he threw out his sword, which was coiled around with holy power.

Perplexed by his breaking body, Fabian had no choice but to give his vital point to Meyer’s sword helplessly without doing anything unlike before.

Meyer’s sword went through Fabian’s chest.

“Keuaaaaaaaak!”

A scream so terrible that it made my pupils reverberate. The white, holy power-clad sword began to flap and burn Fabian’s black magi.

Then, as if the magi were fleeing to avoid the holy power, more explosively leaked from Fabian’s body.

“No. Not this vainly..! How I got the power I have..!”

Fabian shouted. Black blood and tears flowed from his crimson eyes.

Meyer infused more magic into the sword that penetrated Fabian. Fabian’s body, which had been broken, had now become smoke and began to scatter.

“N…!”

Fabian’s tremendous final cry could not even be properly concluded.

Black dregs of magi scattered like ashes in the air.

He who had been a warrior at one time, but who had succumbed to the magi and willingly became the second Demon King, was completely dissipated along with the magi.

“Is it… over?”

Axion murmured incredulously.

Meyer also looked blankly at the sky. It was a shabby exit, not even leaving a corpse, compared to the endless torment we suffered.

***

However, it was too early to relax now that everything was over. It was because the dungeon began to collapse.

There was a huge roar and rocks fell one after another from the ceiling.

The ground shook with the impact of the human-sized rocks falling.

The dungeon, having lost the immense power of the Demon King, could not sustain the world as it was, and was destroyed like Fabian.

“Gate… We have to find the gate!”

Julieta looked around and shouted in a hurry.

At least Sevi, who could fly, hurriedly looked around. However, no trace of the gate was found no matter how hard he looked around.

“I can’t see the gate… What’s going on?”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before…”

Axion wrinkled his forehead. His eyes shook anxiously over the cracked glasses.

Sevi asked impatiently whether the anxiety had spread.

“…what if the gate doesn’t open?”

“Just like this… We’ll be trapped in a dungeon.”

I replied in a whisper.

I was equally dismayed by the unexpected turn of events. I had never thought that we would be isolated in a dungeon because the gate would not open even though we had defeated the Demon King and the second Demon King.

But there was no time to think. Because while I was doing so, the dungeon continued to collapse.

Nova raised his shield to protect the expedition members from rocks falling overhead, but it was not the best way to endure it for a long time. We had to find a way out somehow.

Nova muttered vainly, looking at the collapsing ceiling.

“Will we die like this…”

“Still, we stopped the Demon King, so we accomplished one of our goals. At least world peace was protected, right?”

“I don’t think Axion is a good match for world peace.”

“Even this positive thinking really makes me want to cry if I don’t get my shit together.”

To Sevi’s sarcasm, Axion shrugged his shoulders calmly and answered.

But I didn’t want to die like this, so I desperately analyzed why the gate wouldn’t open.

The gate opens only when the boss of the dungeon dies. The gate won’t open because the boss isn’t dead…

But the Demon King should not be alive. The dungeon collapses when the Demon King dies…

There was one hypothesis that haunted my brain that I had been thinking about often.

No, no way.

I shook my head in denial, but was it a coincidence? My gaze met Meyer’s.

“As expected.”

Meyer laughed bitterly. It was a smile that seemed both dejected and refreshed.

Meyer looked at the expedition members and said,

“I think you all got the idea from the Demon King’s words… I have the power of the Demon King in me.”

“… I don’t care about that, Your Excellency. You are our superior and a hero to mankind.”

Replied Axion immediately. The quick-witted man also felt something uneasy, and his face turned white.

At Axion’s words, Meyer gave a big smile. He immediately stared at his palm and went on.

“The reason the gate doesn’t open now is… It’s probably because I still have the Demon King’s magical energy inside me. The dungeon accepts that the Demon King’s power hasn’t disappeared.”

“Meyer!”

In a fit of pique, I cut off Meyer’s next words.

The words he was about to say were drawn in white as if he could grasp them in his hand. My fingertips went cold just thinking about it. I didn’t want to believe it.

“Don’t say outrageous things. You…!”

I tried to calm down my trembling voice and speak as calmly as possible. But I couldn’t help it as much as my voice was filled with tears.

Meyer looked at me calmly. His golden eyes were silent. As if he had accepted everything.

“But you know this is the best way to be rational.”

“But it’s just a guess, isn’t it? You can’t risk your life for that…!”

“It’s a credible guess.”

“There’s got to be another way. I’m sure…!”

There was a low cry and a lot of anger. How could this happen? Why?

How could this be the end of the man who threw himself most devotedly into saving the world? I couldn’t accept it.

But Meyer shook his head.

“We’re running out of time, Jun.”

Then his hand took mine. I could feel his strong will riding on my firmly held hand.

The faces of the expedition members, who had sensed the situation through the conversation between Meyer and me, contorted miserably.

Sevi and Nova began to weep bitterly, and Julieta and Axion’s faces were crowded with self-loathing at their own helplessness in such a situation.

“That’s not right, Your Excellency.”

August gasped, barely breathing, and opened his mouth-. Except for Meyer, August was the most seriously injured.

“It’s not right or wrong. This is the only way. August, are you going to make me an incompetent superior who destroyed the whole expedition?”

“…”

August shut his mouth.

Meyer, who looked through the other expedition members one by one, finally said, holding my shoulder, still unconvinced of the reality.

“If you get out of the dungeon… Jun. I’ll let you be emperor. If it wasn’t for you, it would’ve been impossible.”

“…”

“I made a promise to you. I’ll leave your name in history books for a long time… You will be praised all your life as the founder of the empire. What do you think?”

“After hearing that, I am very happy and pleased. Did you think it would be like that? You are…!”

I was so angry that I shook Meyer’s hand off. I let out a cry that became like that of an animal.

Meyer patted me on the back with a large hand to soothe me and whispered softly.

“Remember me instead. Please engrave my name next to you. I can be satisfied with that alone.”

I glanced at him with wet eyes and clenched my teeth.

“…you’ll regret it.”

“I won’t regret it.”

Meyer smiled broadly. A wrinkle-free smile that did not match the situation at all seemed the most relieved I had ever met him.

“Meeting you made me realize that happiness really does exist… You were the only hope I had.”

Meyer’s golden eyes shone like the North Star in the night sky as he gazed at me.

Despite the gravity of the situation, I was unintentionally mesmerized and gazed blankly into his twinkling eyes.

I was fascinated. It was all thanks to him that I made it this far in one piece.

He is my North Star. My guide. My purpose…

My hero.

“My hero.”

Meyer smiled and sobbed as if he had read my own thoughts.

His fingertips lovingly grazed my cheek…

And then, the sword in Meyer’s hand pierced his heart without hesitation.

“Meyer!”

Suddenly, I screamed.

I tried to grab Meyer’s body, which was about to collapse, but I couldn’t do it.

That was how Meyer’s body slumped to the floor. The red blood continued to flow through his heart as if to prove he was human.

The pain was unbearable, despite the fact that it was so sudden and so expected. I could not breathe, as if my throat were choking.

Meyer soon disappeared silently, not moving an inch.

The Black Knight, who had destroyed countless demons with a single stroke, also took his life at once.

It was as if taking his own life was also his purpose.

That fact was too deeply embedded in my mind.