It has not only been days but months since the voyage for the demon king's castle has begun.
The castle was filled with such silence it could tear apart one's own ear. Blood was scattered for months, and the foul smell has started to reach a mile away.
Deep within the castle, at the most secluded and secure room, lies one man deprived of all reasons for living.
Kneeling down with his left leg and holding a sword in his right, he prayed and prayed for hours to no end.
"God! If you truly exist please show me mercy! Please show me mercy!".
A man full of wrinkles, that shows his dying age. With a beard and hair fully colored in white, oh how age and stress has treated him.
"God! If you truly exist please show me mercy! Please show me mercy!".
With one line repeated endlessly at the volume that rivals even a thunder. The room is filled with echoes that overlap each other. It sounded more like a ritual, other than a prayer.
With the man's comrades lying body beside him, he finally stood up.
"Freya, Grandur, Piero, wish me mercy, my friends...".
With a face paler than the dead. With eyes that have turned darker than night. The man dragged his great sword on the ground, and the sound of eery grating metal filled the room.
As he got closer to his journey's end. The entrance to hell became bigger than a portcullis of a great kingdom.
The man slowly pushed the double door that pushed inward.
"I'll be there soon... Freya...".
As the door opened the room that came after was wider and taller than one can imagine. The size was so impractical no one will ever need such a size of a room. Even if it was a main chamber, its size was out of this world.
Staring straight ahead, a small figure can be seen. At such length, the figure a man no one has ever witnessed before laid standing steadily, with its back as its spotlight.
The structure of the man is even comparable to the size of his palm.
"Is this your answer to me God? Even after all of this... I can barely see him...".
The man rushed in. As his great sword was magically transforming into a single handed sword. The man still ran and ran. The longer it took the more his morale seems to have gone down.
He not only ran but shouted noises that are only yelled by barbarians. "Arrrrghhhh!".
At quarter point his voice started to lower. At the halfway point his body started to wither.
"Is this what I am to you! I eradicated every demon in your palace, yet you still dare to ignore me!"
At the third quarter point, his speed and demeanor was seemingly coming back. His age was being reversed and his hair was starting to change. The grip at his sword became tighter
"Was my 71 years of anguish really wasn't enough to overcome you! Answer me Demon King Kalios!"
The man jumped at the elevated platform that Kalios was standing on. He aimed his sword straight in front of him, like a stupid soldier who has learned nothing about swordsmanship. He couldn't help but feel nothing other stupidity, in a fight he has fully believed he would lose.
As he got closer, Kalios noticed a breeze behind his shoulder and looked behind him. As the man turned, his face was just that of a human, unlike his subordinates. His face was glamorous, and his hair was smoother than marble. But unlike the outer appearance he was showing, the pressure that his eyes gave as soon as they came into contact, was enough to kill a normal man.
"Oh Hero Karu, I didn't notice you there.".
The man spoke in an enthusiastic formal tone as he was rubbing his hands with cloth, like he just finished washing his dishes. The man then bowed with his greeting.
"It is an honor to meet such a great her-".
Kalios was stopped in the middle of his grandiose act. Kalios was hit with the tip of the sword, but it dealt no damage to him at all.
Kalios waved his hands and Hero Karu was blown to the other end of the room in an instant.
"I am disappointed Hero, are you really this weak.".
Remarked by Kalios in a cocky and haughty tone. Kalios slowly walked towards the fallen body of Hero Karu. As his body slowly touched the ground when its glue to the wall expired.
"If you were this weak, I would have never let you live.".
Hero Karu stood up, and rushed immediately, like he wasn't just thrown at such length with just the gust of Kalios's hand.
"Oh Hero Karu, are you stupid or just ignorant.".
Karu was holding his sword differently this time. As he got closer with his running and Kalios's menacing walk, he instantly teleported behind Kalios.
He aimed for his neck, with his sword imbued with magic, he attacked full force.
Kalios turned around and grabbed the sword almost reaching his neck. With the burning of the energy on Hero Karu's sword, Kalios hands were cut instead of his neck.
As soon as this happened Hero Karu backed off. But as Kalios was admiring his sliced off fingers, Hero Karu appeared behind him aiming for his legs.
Kalios kicked back with his right leg. Using intense heat made with aura, Hero Karu grabbed the leg and melted it.
It was a slight hope for victory, but the demon king has already twisted his body in an inhumane level and had directed his hand to Hero Karu's neck.
Hero Karu blocked and was pushed back to the end of the room again. Just the sheer strength of Kalios is not something Hero Karu can match.
"Oh great hero, is this truly all you have... I am already quite bored.". Said by Kalios with the expression of pity directed at Hero Karu.
Hero Karu has lost all his skills, and has now started to just panic. 'Why won't my body fucking move the way I want. Fuck! Fuck!'.
He tried to avoid acknowledging the truth to his weakness. 'WHY HAVE MY BODY BECOME SO WEAK! WHY WON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE.'.
Seemingly out of desperation, Hero Karu rushed with his sword out again. His body was already moving on its own while he repent in his mind.
Demon King Kalios has already regenerated all his severed and burned body parts. Kalios swung his hands again, sending Hero Karu flying to the end of the room for the third time.
"Oh Hero Karu, you can't be this weak right?".
It was exhaustion of the mind, body, and the heart. 'Is it... because of the sadness in my heart.'.
Karu repeatedly rushed and repelled once again. "Are you making fun of me? Hero Karu, are you still alive?".
'Is it because I wasn't able to mourn my friends properly? Is it because I couldn't say goodbye to my friends and family? Is it because, there's no meaning if I am left behind...'.
Hero Karu had no more motivation, no more drive to continue. His body has been endlessly fighting for months, and had no proper rest nor even medical support. With his physical body at its mere limits, even his destroyed mentality can't ignore the pain. Seeing the people he has spent more than half his life with die, oh sadness truly envelops greatness. With months of no sleep and zero companionship to keep his sanity. It was better to be left alone in the forest.
Hero Karu, despite having the will to live, his soul has given up to exist.
'Freya, i'm sorry I have no more choice... I will do anything, to not put everyone's death in vain.'.
[Art of Ego: Last Form -]
'Fine, I admit it... I can't fight anymore... just because even at the age of 83, I still wasn't mature enough to not let my emotions get to me. Sorry Freya, sorry Grandur, sorry Piero, I can never accept your deaths...'.
From the suffering emotion of losing ones precious. The immaturity, or can you even call it that. But whatever the weakness Hero Karu has failed to overcome, respecting one's wishes to rest beside his precious, it will never be disdain to humanity.
"Oh Great Hero Karu, have you decided to kill yourself!"
[- Ego Destruction]
The forbidden technique invented by the Blood Society. By sacrificing ones soul, erasing ones own existence, to not even be able to reincarnate or reach the heavens, one will gain the ability to fight to their highest potential.
"It's a small price to pay... right?". As tears fell from Hero Karu's dead eyes, his body started to move on his own.
"You're already dead, yet... You still have the will to fight-"
As the hero rushed towards Kalios, Kalios has once again waved his hands, like he has gotten used to everything already. But the hero was not pushed back, the hero appeared behind Kalios once again.
"INTERESTING!"
Kalios turned back to face the hero, but unbeknownst to him...
"Do you really think I'll fall for your tricks every time!"
...the hero was able to parry and even take control of the fight.
'I'm being pushed back? Oh Hero Karu, you interesting rat.'. Karu was striking his sword incredibly fast, and whenever a strike was strong enough to push him back, the hero just moved his body at the Demon King's blind spot. This continued for some time, till the Demon King started to lose his patience, and started to slowly show his arsenal.
"I guess I have no choice, I admit, you're better at fighting than me, I guess I spent too much time getting stronger rather than honing!"
Spikes appeared around the whole chamber, the spikes would be better be called spear of bloods, every inch of the chamber had spikes tinnier than sticks popped up.
"Ever heard of the phrase 'Don't fight the demon king in his palace'. Well this is why."
[Infinite Castle Of Blood: Second Form - Endless Blood Spears]
Millions, even maybe billions of spear of blood was directed at the hero.
As the blood was controlled by the Demon King, the blood speaes went through the Demon King's body and just past through him.
With countless attacks around his entire body, that there is no space to even escape to.
Demon King Kalios and regenerated his ravaged body. 'Well, that was fun Great-'.
The hero didn't even stop nor pay attaintioned to the bloods, he rushed straigh to the Demon King. The hero was protected by his own magic, melting most of the attack. But even then, some has reached his body as tinny scratches and even tinny injuries.
"Fucking Hero!". The Demon King lost his composure and started to act unlike his original presentation.
The hero's energy on his sword became even greater. The hero slashed his sword to the Demon King, but rather than slicing the body completely, the Demon King was bounced off to the the left edge of the room. In the middle of being repelled in the air, the hero initiated his final attack.
[Aura Sword Art: Seventh Form - Myriad Thunder Slash]
The hero leaped to the air and slashed the Demon King's body in many different directions in almost an instant. By doing this, the hero's protection on his body was slightly lightened. The hero had lost too much blood and even flesh to continue.
But everything was in vain, as the Demon King was still able to regenerate by taking the blood spear that he continuely striked at the hero.
"The... was close... hero... I let my gaurd down too much... hahahaha." The hero was kneeling and his body was frozen and wouldn't even drop to the ground.
"Bye, bye, great hero.". The Demon King sliced the head of the hero, and it came rolling on the ground. "It will take a couple months to regenerate fully... Fuck you, Her-".
For an unknown reason the point of view of the Demon King was not looking straight to his throne, yet was staring the cieling. It was like his head was rolling on the ground.
He was speechless, but more like he couldn't speak. At his lost moment before his eyes completely closed, he saw the sight of the hero's beheaded body slicing his entire body to pieces. It wven came to him and slashed his sword.
...
That was the end of the Great Hero, and the Demon King. An unfortunate and deppressing ending to such a great adventure.
Everything comes to an end, yet the end has always been a sorrowful one. May the journey of the other Heroes next life be greater than the current one. Oh Great Hero Karu, you who have lost his own existance, you who have laid all for humanity, shall be forever remembered. May your story inspire the young, and may the next, save the world without unnecessary sacrifices.