The goblin emperor continued to evade my barrage, occasionally grabbing an unfortunate goblin minion and flinging him forward to use the poor thing as a meat shield against my blood spears. He spun away, using another goblin to block a penetrating blood lance, then smashed it apart with his sword. With a triumphant roar, he bounded toward us in a zigzagged manner.
"The color of your ice has changed," Master observed.
"That's not ice!" Selina yelled. "That's clearly blood!"
"I see. Your blood spells kill goblins far more effectively than your ice spells, if my memory serves me well."
"That's not the point!" Selina was clutching her head in despair. I couldn't help but chuckle and draw Nocturne, getting ready to face the approaching goblin emperor.
"No need for that. We don't have to face the goblin emperor in direct combat yet." Master threw out a hand and gestured for me to stay back. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and listened before turning to me. "Get ready to withdraw your dragon."
I immediately understood his intention. The explosives. Glancing at my ice dragon, I saw that he had been battered. Both goblin champions and the goblin paladin were in worse shape, bearing mortal wounds, but somehow they endured.
Goblins were tenacious, if anything. I wasn't surprised that they had survived.
At that moment, the explosives went off. I immediately dismissed my ice dragon, much to the surprise of the goblin champions and the goblin paladin.
"Ah!"
Selina understood that this was her moment. She quickly tapped her staff against the ground and conjured a shimmering barrier of gold that enveloped our party. The charging goblin emperor cursed, but didn't halt in his charge.
The idiot didn't realize the true danger until everything went off. Colossal explosions engulfed the wooden fortress, consuming it within a massive conflagration. The goblin champions and goblin paladin were incinerated instantly, as were all their smaller brethren, their shrieks cut short as they choked on smoke.
Contrary to popular belief, getting burned to death wasn't a quick way to the grave unless you were incinerated outright (but you would need a nuclear bomb for that sort of extreme temperatures and lethal effects). The flames expanded ravenously, devouring the screaming goblins. They didn't die instantly, suffering immense pain as their flesh blackened or melted off their charred bones, their eyes turning into jelly and their lungs filled with scorching air and acrid smoke.
From within the golden barrier, we watched the goblins vanish from sight when the flames swallowed them. Even the heavily armored goblin emperor was knocked off his feet by the shockwave and set ablaze.
Damn, that armor wasn't going to protect him. I could imagine his agony as the heated metal brand his flesh. But the idiot deserved it. He should never have launched raids on humans, abducted and raped women, and murdered men and children.
Okay, I was being petty. Whatever.
The flames slowly died down and I watched the destruction in awe. When Selina's golden barrier faded away, I saw that there were no survivors, save a single massive figure.
The goblin emperor. Somehow the ruler of the goblins was still alive, his immolated body standing upright. With a snarl, he charged at us, his ruined features cracking into an enraged scowl full of hatred and the desire for vengeance.
Master darted forward, reacting far faster than me. He stepped up, first dodging the red-hot blade of the goblin emperor's wildly swinging sword, and then rammed his own weapon into his opponent's neck, running his own blade through his throat. The goblin emperor gurgled and finally dropped to his knees. With a single motion, Master twisted his sword and decapitated the hateful foe.
For a moment, we watched as the body of the goblin emperor was cremated by the flames that continued to ravage his body and blackened armor. The stink of roasted meat filled the air, causing Selina and me to gag, and we retreated while keeping an eye on the smoldering corpse of the once proud goblin emperor.
"It's finally over." Selina breathed a huge sigh of relief when she was sure he wouldn't be getting up again.
"No, not yet." Master turned to look at me. "Keep the blood barrier up. We are going to hunt down whatever goblins that managed to survive this."
As usual, Master was being very thorough. I nodded and joined him, spreading out to search the entire fortress to ensure we didn't miss anything. That said, there wasn't much of the fortress left. It had been razed to the ground by the explosives, and the fires were petering out now that there wasn't much for them to feed on.
We searched for any possible underground passageways that Master mentioned earlier, but there wasn't any.
No goblins survived. We had all of them.
"Good work." Master nodded at me and Selina, but didn't make to move. He looked at me meaningfully and I understood.
"Thank you, Master. Let me check if the holy weapon is still around."
I hurried toward the charred rock where the holy sword was still embedded in. Amazingly enough, despite the multiple explosions and intense inferno, the holy weapon remained unblemished, untouched by the death and destruction occurring around it.
No doubt the sacred relic had been protected by a field of holy magic or something. Otherwise I had no idea how it emerged from the ordeal without even a single smudge of soot.
"How are we going to bring it back?" I wondered out loud. "Do you want to try and pull it out, Master? Maybe you're the Hero."
"No." Master's reply was short and simple. I rolled my eyes. Selina also sighed and waved her hands.
"Why not, sir? If you're the Hero, you'll gain unrivaled power and help repel the demons from the empire!"
"I have no interest in fighting demons. I only slay goblins. There are others who can take on the task of slaying demons."
Selina and I exchanged an exasperated glance. Shaking her head, Selina hopped toward the rock and gripped the handle of the sword with both hands. With a grunt, she yanked with all her might, only to slip and fall. I managed to catch her before she hit the ground.
"Looks like I'm not a Hero," she admitted sheepishly. "But I thought I should try."
"Yeah, I think you should. Nobody knows what will happen until they actually try." I nodded in approval. Selina sighed and narrowed her eyes.
"What about you? Why don't you try?"
Was she kidding? I was the Demonic Emperor. I was a vampire and barely human (I thought of myself as human, but I was under no illusions that the holy sword would think the same). Right now I was on the side of the Demonic Empire, even though I bore no hostility toward the Havan Kindgom. There was no way the holy sword would accept me.
However, Selina might get suspicious if I didn't play along. Also, what the hell. It wasn't as if anything bad would happen. At worst, the holy sword would reject me and I would walk away with my hands intact.
So I hopped up the rock, grabbed the hilt of the holy sword and pulled. The gleaming blade slid free of the rock fairly easily and I waved it about, admiring it as the sunlight from dawn glinted off the shiny metal.
Wait, what?
"Huh? How…?"
"You…you…you…!" Selina spluttered incoherently, pointing at me. "You're a Hero!"
"How is this possible?!" I was gaping at the holy sword in my hands.
"I see." Master was staring at me, his expression impassive as always. "Congratulations, my disciple."
"What do you mean congratulations?!" Selina exploded. "Your disciple just turned out to be a Hero!"
"That's why I'm congratulating him. Was that a mistake?"
"No, no, no! Your whole reaction is wrong! Shouldn't you be more surprised!? Amazed?! In disbelief?!"
"I am surprised."
"THEN ACT LIKE IT!"
Honestly, I was more stunned than Master, and I was the one who pulled the sword out.
A chill ran down my back as I gawked at the holy sword in my hands. What the hell did this mean!? How as this even possible?! I was the Demonic Emperor! I might not be the enemy of humanity because I was a former human, I might not be antagonistic toward the Havan Kingdom, but I sure as hell was the last person who should be a Hero!
Damn it, were the gods playing some sort of sick joke on me? They had to be laughing their heads off in whatever celestial kingdom they resided in.
"This is big news!" Selina stormed at me. "We've to return to the church right away and report this! This is the greatest piece of major news since the death of Hero Herman!"
Not just the church. I had to inform my comrades immediately. Though I had no idea how they would react upon seeing this…
"…eh? Klein?"
I turned and caught sight of Stella approaching the devastated fortress, followed by Larson, the prowlers, Silvia, Rafaela, Chris's party and Harold's party. They were all present for some reason, closing the distance.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We heard there was a goblin emperor here, along with an entire army of goblins," Harold explained. "That's not a mission two silver-ranked adventurers and a single obsidian-ranked adventurer can do on their own. Why didn't you wait for us? You should have called for more reinforcements!"
"When we heard that you left with your master to take on an entire goblin fortress, we quickly rushed to help," Chris added. He glanced about and grimaced. "Looks like it wasn't necessary, though."
"More importantly!" Wilson was gaping at me. "We saw the whole thing! We saw you pull out the holy sword!"
"Doesn't that mean you're the Hero?" Rose asked.
"There's no other explanation, is there?" Maria replied dryly. "Klein did the same thing as Harold. The gods have clearly chosen him."
"That's right," Harold agreed. "This was the exact same process that I underwent to find out that I was the Hero."
"B…but this is strange," Stella spluttered. "Because…because Klein is…!"
"Oi!" Lance hushed her and she nodded, covering her mouth.
"My, my. What a turn of events." Rafaela was rubbing her forehead. "It still hasn't sunk in, but somehow I can't say I'm not surprised."
"This has to be blasphemy!" Priscilla blurted out. Selina glared at her.
"What do you mean, blasphemy?"
"Nothing!" Steve clamped a hand down on Priscilla's mouth and dragged her away before she could say anything else.
"What will you do now, my lord?" Larson asked. I shrugged and pushed my glasses up my nose.
"For now, we'll have to report this to the church?"
"What about the Demonic Empire?" Silvia asked, deliberately remaining vague. I understood her concerns because I was grappling with the dilemma myself. How could I simultaneously be the Demonic Emperor and a Hero? It was paradoxical, contradictory and downright…weird.
Silvia was also concerned that I might just abandon the demonic legions and return to the side of the humans. However, I was sick of war. I was sick of seeing so many people suffer and die because their rulers were greedy and corrupted.
"I will definitely return. I have no intention of abandoning anyone."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Selina asked. I regarded her and then turned to my master. He had been silent this whole time, but I felt I could trust him. I decided to just tell him everything. He deserved nothing but the truth. So I told him everything from start to finish.
To my surprise, he just nodded and said, "I see."
"Really?" I gawked at him. "You're just going to accept everything? Just like that?"
Master shrugged. "As long as you don't get in my way of slaying goblins, I couldn't care less if you are the emperor of demons or monsters or dragons. But there will be times when I will ask you for help. Your dragon and spells will prove useful in eliminating goblins."
Selina groaned and buried her face in her palm. "That's what you're concerned about?!"
"In any case, we should just go to the church." Harold sighed, already dreading the task ahead. "We have a lot of explaining and negotiating to do."