I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

127. The one who was not chosen

After getting out of the wall, Alfred dusted himself off and looked around lightly.

I don’t know how I ended up here, but I feel relieved because there are no visible injuries.

“I guess it was this way… Strangely enough, I said I couldn’t feel any magical power, so it was cleverly hidden.”

There was a barrier here that hid magical power.

Alfred just flew in and it seems to have broken.

“But how did it fly all the way here?”

“It’s no big deal. I guess I should say that I suddenly encountered turbulence while flying and fell headlong to the ground.”

Just now, it seemed like it was going beyond falling headlong into the center of the world.

It must have flown here due to the aftermath of the battle with Morian.

Otherwise, it would be inefficient to physically penetrate deep underground.

“So how far has it progressed? “Things have gotten a little weird, but you’re not completely done yet, are you?”

Alfred spoke while looking at the magic stone.

“Not yet. Overloading the magic stone was more difficult to control than I thought. So I couldn’t work properly because I thought it would explode if I touched it incorrectly.”

“I guess it was a little difficult… Well, overloading the magic stone without causing it to explode is not easy, even for demons who have been dealing with magic for over 100 years.”

“You’ve just entrusted me with such a difficult task?! If that fails, everything on earth might blow away?!”

Arsel said as if he was dumbfounded by Alfred’s words.

“If you defeat the demon lord and say it is difficult, you will be able to do it. Don’t be afraid and just do it once. “If you fail anyway, half of the world will be lost.”

The plausible nonsense that followed was Alfred’s trademark.

Arcel, knowing that continuing her story here would only hurt her own mouth, finished with a sigh.

Now that Alfred is here, it would be better to ask him how to overload the magic stone.

Little Alfred didn’t answer, but he would tell the story straight.

“It is done. Just tell me how to overload that magic stone. “When I overloaded the other magic stones here, they all exploded shortly after.”

“It doesn’t matter as long as I succeed in overloading it, it will be damaged before the magic stone. “If you succeed in overloading just enough to neutralize it, then you can stop.”

“What if I stop in the middle?”

“It’s simple, it’s your magical power. The easiest and quickest way to prevent magical power overload is to extract magical power externally. In short, you just have to absorb it.”

“I understand. But there is a certain level of magical power that I can accept…”

“What are you worried about? Just use it elsewhere as much as it absorbs. “It may be a bit of a waste, but all you have to do is simply release it.”

If you think about it, unlike magic stones, Arcel can release the magic power within the body through magic or other methods.

Of course, this is the same for Morrían, but while Arcel absorbs magical power slowly through his own will, Morrían has a lot of magical power transferred to his body at once.

There is a limit to the amount of magical energy that can be released at once, so if magical energy suddenly begins to oversupply, Morrigan cannot withstand it.

“But if you are here now, where is Morrían? Or are you using your alter ego to hold on like before?”

“No? That guy’s condition suddenly became strange. He used to fight with a holy sword, but now-“

Cow-!!!

Before Alfred finished speaking, a loud noise came.

Something small in shape came in at incredible speed through a hole in the underground.

When the smoke cleared, the person standing there, as if it were obvious, was Morian.

However, as Alfred said, the situation was strange.

“Uh, uhm…”

Unlike the previous Morian, his blue eyes were stained red and he was trembling as if he could not control himself.

Furthermore, I don’t know where I left the holy sword, but my hand was bare, and for some reason, I felt like my body had grown slightly.

“Alfred, what happened?”

“That’s the part I really want to ask.”

More than anything, he didn’t seem sane.

The slightly sunken eyes contain a feeling reminiscent of an animal.

And those eyes were staring at Arcel and Alfred, so at least one thing we can be sure of is that Morian could no longer be called a hero.

It’s not like he’s a real hero to begin with…

It now felt closer to a monster than a human.

“Ahh…!”

“It’s coming!”

“I know!”

In the end, Morian attacks with tremendous force.

There is no holy sword right now, so it doesn’t attack everything on the ground like before, but dealing with Morrigan felt more annoying than before.

Boom!

They attack like animals, smashing walls with their bare hands.

“What on earth have you done?!”

“I don’t know! “I suddenly changed like that on my own!”

Alfred shakes his head and says he doesn’t know.

Then, he puts a leash on Morrían with a magic chain, but he tears it all off with his hands.

Kaang!

“…Pfft!”

In addition, the invincible defense power is still the same as before, so even though he was cut with a holy sword, the cut side bounced back.

“Keep avoiding it! Avoid scratching on the left! “Dodge the kick to the right!”

“I know how to avoid you even if you don’t say anything!”

As the holy sword bounces, Morian does not miss the opportunity and focuses his attack on Arcel.

These are sharp attacks that are instinctively ferocious like an animal and target only the weak points of the target.

Although it is not a firefight using the unique massive magical power, that doesn’t mean the invincible defense goes anywhere, and it is still annoying either way.

In the end, the fact that you must avoid all of Morrían’s attacks as before has not changed.

“aaah-!!!”

Kwasik!

“Ugh-!”

Arsel took a step back after being hit by a fist in his abdomen.

The armor hit by the fist was not simply dented but shattered.

‘It would be better to use a holy sword.’

Although attacks driven by rough and animal instincts have become more difficult to avoid, there are other factors as well.

‘The reach increased instantly. It’s not by magic. ‘Did that mean your body just grew?’

Morian’s body had already become similar to Arcel’s.

When I saw him outside the castle, he looked like a child, but now he has the same body shape as Arcel.

It may be an effect of being supplied with excessive magical energy.

Even though it was not at the level of her overload right now, Morian continued to absorb her magic power from her magic stone.

“Are you okay? “If you feel like you’re going to throw up, can I get you a bucket?”

Alfred immediately runs over and supports Arcel.

“It’s not that bad… But, it’s still strange. “Is it possible to change like that simply by absorbing magical power?”

“Even though it is within the category of human, it is not a pure human, so the action of magic may be different as it is a body formed by magic.”

If Morian is indeed the same as the children in her magic stone, her body may not grow simply over time like humans do.

“Sigh…! hahahaha…!”

The Morrían is exhaling her harsh breath with her fangs bared.

Perhaps it is a side effect of the instantaneous growth, smoke is coming out of the body and he is unable to control himself right now.

In this gap, Arcel attempted to infuse magical power into his holy sword.

If her slashing did not cause any damage, she intended to blast the Morrigan with a wave of her holy sword.

“Stop it. If you used that kind of magical power here and now, the magic stone would react and explode, right?”

“Tch, the curse is gone, but I still can’t use my magic freely.”

But I stopped because of the risk of the magic stone exploding.

No matter how many effective hits were given to Morian, it was meaningless if the magic stone actually exploded.

“But not me! “You thought you might have put me in here earlier?”

“Ugh…?”

At that time, Alfred pulled out one of her underground pillars and rushed towards Morian.

“Now it’s your turn to become a star in the sky!”

BOOM!!!

Next, he puts his magic power into the pillar and swings it with all his might.

The pillar hit Morrigan exactly on the head, instantly blowing him from the underground to the sky.

After that, the pillar was reduced to powder, so there was no need to explain how hard it had been blown away.

“…I guess he didn’t just pass out because of that.”

Of course, even with that much of an impact, there wouldn’t be any significant damage.

“Yes, but it will still be flying into the sky, so it will take a few minutes to come back.”

“Okay… Then what happened, and when did it start to change like that?”

It is significant that we have gained some time to understand the situation.

“I did as you said and came down to this basement to overload the magic stone. But there were not only those magic stones, there were also small ones with a blue tint.”

Arcel explained to Alfred everything he had experienced and done underground.

Of course, we talked about little Alfred, but Alfred himself did not pay much attention to that part or point out that it was important.

That may feel a little strange.

“So, there were children in the magic stone, and that red magic stone contains the remains of the Demon King, right?”

What Alfred was concerned about was something else.

The children who were inside the blue magic stone and the queen who died when the magic stones suddenly exploded at the same time.

And every time the blue magic stone was destroyed, the red magic stone absorbed more than half of the magic stone.

“That’s right. As a child like you said, I destroyed the blue magic stones one by one-“

“The rest will come later, because it’s not important now.”

There is no need to worry about anything else, and Alfred says that is all you need to worry about.

“This is the magic stone in question.”

Alfred began to look closely at the red magic stone.

Is it because the magic stone has absorbed magic while Morian is not currently using it? The red magic stone also seems to have grown in size compared to when Arcel first saw it.

“…”

However, Alfred’s expression as he was examining the magic stone did not look very good.

Was there something different from what he expected, or was there an unexpected variable?

Alfred puts his hand on the magic stone and looks at it, but the more he looks at it, the more frustrated he looks.

“Why are you doing this, Alfred?”

“That queen is crazier than you can imagine.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She said the queen did nothing to stop you when you destroyed the magic stone, right? There was a reason for everything. “She didn’t necessarily feel the need to stop her.”

Alfred pointed to the remains of the Demon King in the magic stone.

I think that’s the reason Alfred is frustrated.

“Every time this magic stone supplies magic power to the counterfeit over there, it is also sending a little bit of the devil’s energy mixed in. “There’s a reason why you suddenly throw away the holy sword and fight with your bare hands, even though you were firing it wildly just a moment ago.”

“No way, that means…”

“Should I change my plan for this? If you try to deal with it by overloading the magic stone, the demon king will be resurrected. No, it might create a new demon lord. “The Queen must have had this possibility in mind from the beginning, or she designed it that way on purpose.”

In other words, each time Morian receives magical energy from her magic stone, the remnants of the Demon King are also absorbed little by little.

Normally, the amount is very small, so there is no problem in absorbing more than half of the magic stone’s magic, but if you overload the magic stone and absorb a lot of magic at once, all of the demon king’s remnants will be absorbed at once.

“If her plan fails, she plans to create the strongest and worst demon lord and destroy them all.”

Then the devil will be resurrected.

To be precise, a new demon lord is born.

“In short, if I can’t have it, should I say that I will destroy it?”

Even the demon king does not intentionally achieve imperfect peace with humans like previous demon kings.

Just like the Morrigan we saw a moment ago, it is just a monster that has lost its mind and runs wild.

“But if you overload your magic power and defeat it…”

“No, it is made so that the connection with this magic stone is lost the moment you turn into a demon lord. And it’s faster to turn into a demon lord than if your body can’t withstand it.”

The demon king created in this way will have a power that cannot be compared to any demon king in history.

A demon king with even more overwhelming power than the demon king who was said to have led the demons to their heyday in the past, as well as the demon king whom Arcel barely defeated with all his might, is born.

But such a demon lord descends as a mere destroyer?

At that time, there was no hope or future.

Only silence will remain forever.

“Now I understand why I felt the energy of the devil from that fake.”

Alfred sensed that the situation was more serious than expected and immediately began manipulating the magic stone.

“First of all, we will somehow separate the remains of the Demon King from this magic stone, and then we can proceed as originally planned. But the problem is that the magic power in the magic stone is not my magic power, so it takes some time…”

“Are you asking me to buy you that time? I get it. It’s not right for me to just suffer. And if you don’t use the holy sword, you don’t have to worry about being outgunned.”

“Yes, but that kind of hand-to-hand combat suits you better than me, who is thin and weak, right?”

Alfred smiles and waves his hand.

“…I’ll come back.”

Arsel did not feel the need to respond.

I climbed the wall and jumped out of the basement through the hole in an instant.

‘This can’t even be called a ruin anymore.’

While he was underground, the ground was completely devastated.

The capital of Hermod, which had been luxurious with a festival a few days ago, disappeared, leaving only a scene where everything on earth was swept away by the waves of the holy sword.

†††

“Haa…! Ha…!”

Morian, who had been driven to the ground by Alfred, was breathing heavily.

It didn’t hurt her body too much, but at some point, a headache that was more than just breaking her head continued to torment her mind.

I don’t know why.

She was clearly moving to deal with the former warrior and Satan according to the Queen’s orders, but an unknown voice was coming directly into her mind.

-Kill everything in front of you.-

–

-Kill everything that stands in your way.-

–

-Kill all living things on this earth.-

–

-Give eternal peace to this world.-

–

-Make this world silent forever.-

Of course, I didn’t want to do that.

Although she knew that she had to follow her queen’s orders, she still lived and educated herself as the new warrior.

She immediately wanted to stay with those three, but unfortunately the queen ordered them to be eliminated, saying they were enemies of Hermod.

It was okay up to that point.

She knew that she was a created creature, but it didn’t matter.

Even if she had to fight Arcel, who was no different from her own mother and a warrior she respected very much.

But even though this voice was different, it was very different.

No longer the guardian of the Kingdom of Hermod, this is just the voice of a madman calling for the destruction of the world.

You even ask yourself to do that to become a new hero?

“Why are you doing this? “It looks difficult somewhere.”

“W-Queen…?”

At that moment, the queen suddenly appeared in front of Morian.

Obviously, there was no one there and there was no sign of anyone just a moment ago, so where did the queen appear?

Furthermore, why did the world suddenly become dark?

I look around, but there is only a black background.

The sun disappeared, and all Morrian could see was the floor stained with red blood.

“Queen…! Weird…! Suddenly, I heard a strange voice in my head, and the world suddenly changed like this-“

Perhaps that’s why, in Morrían’s eyes, the queen seemed to be the only source of salvation.

In a world where even a little bit seemed like it would drive one crazy, the queen was the only one who seemed normal.

“Shh, it’s okay. “There is no need to be scared.”

Fortunately, the queen gave Morrian a warm hug and smiled her kind smile as usual.

“Queen…”

Thanks to you, it seemed to calm down a bit.

“You just have to follow what the voice tells you. Then everything will be easier.”

“…Queen?”

Until I found out that the queen’s voice was the same as the voice in my head.