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Chapter 132

――What am I even doing?

「Please, Lute! Come back to your senses!」

Hey, Cordelia? Come on, that’s not good. Even with this body of mine battered and falling apart, I still have a significant advantage. Rushing in recklessly isn’t going to get you anywhere. Besides, this is how you swing a sword…

「Kyaaaah!」

Blood splatters from Cordelia’s shoulder.

――Again

Even though I swung my sword intending to kill, my aim faltered.

――What am I even doing?

My body is in tatters, and I’m in so much pain. Oh, right. I came here to get the Sacred Beast’s gem. Where is this place? Ah, the Dragon’s Altar. How nostalgic. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll finish the job, hand it over to Moses, and then…

「…Thank you for buying time, Cordelia Allston. Golden Roar (Dragus Genocide).」

Golden light envelops me. My flesh burns and chars, unable to regenerate fast enough. Ah, I see. Cordelia charged in recklessly for the sake of the combination attack. The real threat is this one. With Lilith’s Golden Roar, it can indeed harm me.

――They’ve become strong. They’re holding their own against me in my demon form.

Cordelia and Lilith must have pushed themselves to the limit to become this strong. I don’t even need to hear about their efforts to understand them.

But…

「…Lute. I want you to come back. I want you to pat my head like you always do.」

It’s not enough. To kill me, they’re still far from enough.

I move behind Lilith and slash at her back.

「…Ugh.」

Blood splatters again, but it’s just a superficial cut, barely grazing the flesh beneath the skin. I’ve already inflicted over twenty slashes on Cordelia and more than ten on Lilith, and both of them are covered in blood. I aimed to kill every time, but for some reason, my hand always slips at the last moment.

And I, too, am in tatters. The damage I took from Liu Hai and Merlin hasn’t faded.

Ha, what a joke. All three of us are worn out and battered.

――Ah, what am I really doing?

I’ve asked myself this question countless times. No one answers, and I can’t find an answer. Eventually, my eyelids grow heavy. No, they melt into a mushy mess.

――Ah, is this the end?

This is the one thing I know for sure. My consciousness has drifted many times, but this time it’s truly the end. This time, my awareness will completely vanish.

Probably, that last attack from Lilith brought me close to a fatal state… I can feel my instincts overpowering my reason, triggered by the life-threatening situation deep within my body.

――And then

I sink into a sea of melting consciousness. My vision darkens, and an endless black space stretches out before me.

In the endlessly dark view――

――It’s warm

It’s like floating in a gel-like lukewarm bath, drifting endlessly in a dark night ocean…

――I’m tired of thinking

There’s always been a thought in my head that I have to resist something. But thinking about that just makes me feel so exhausted… So, I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what happens.

And so, in the midst of drowsiness, my consciousness melted into the darkness, as if falling asleep.