CHAPTER. 163: THE HERO OF HUMANITY (PART 5)

And here I thought I could relax after this bullshit, I thought, gritting my teeth. All things considered, the fake Hero of Arlas was strong, and while I wasn’t confident in taking him on, I did feel like I could. Especially with the use of World Ender. However, right now I was not in perfect shape, and I knew the injury I got from the Hero of Humans was definitely going to make me lose our fight.

So that leaves talking to him, huh… It was… very annoying. I glanced over at the Hero of Humans that I had dropped to the ground.

“So you are his pet?”

At that, the hero frowned but said nothing, instead the reply I got came from the Hero of Arlas, the fake Hero of Arlas.

He chuckled. “Nothing of the sort, he is simply important for my plans to stop the end of the world.”

“Ah, yes.” I feigned understanding filled with sarcasm. “We don’t want our poor Arlas to end up consumed by the Forgotten Places, it’s not like there have been much stronger worlds that have suffered the same fate or anything. And it’s not like our strongest hero is down there either trying his best, while you sit here pretending to be him.”

At that, the keeper of order simply shook his head. “There are things you don’t understand⁠—”

“Cut to the chase,” I interrupted, losing all pretense of friendliness as my voice turned into a growl. “You know that I don’t plan on sparing this asshole.”

Following my words, I gripped my spear tight and glared at the fake hero, my voice turning venomous.

“So, unless you plan to fight me and are prepared to lose a good chunk of this world, I suggest you back the fuck off.”

At that there was a short silence as he stared at my spear, and while it was just a second or two, I could see him tense.

“I see,” he finally said. “It seems that my gamble has backfired.”

“Fuck you.”

I appeared before him and jabbed my spear into his chest, breaking through it before sending him flying with [Repulse]. In an instant he traveled through the forest, before crashing into the crater from the skill the Hero of Humans used on me.

Then I turned to the Hero of Humans as he scrambled.

“P-Please, I’ll do anything, I-I simply just want⁠—”

And I stabbed, puncturing through his stomach as I hissed.

“I don’t care.”

He grunted and I continued.

“Fact of the matter is that, not only did you hurt Ceylon, but it seems killing you would piss the keeper of order quite a lot,” I said simply before pointing my finger at him. “So, die.”

[Judgment of the Ice God].

There was a flash above me as the ice coalesced into an ice spear in a fraction of a second, and then, it⁠— shattered. The keeper of order stood before me, shaking his head.

“It seems you misheard me⁠—”

“Stasis,” I interrupted as he froze, and continued, this time directly looking at the Hero of Humans. “Destroy.”

At that moment, a dozen of ice spears exploded from the ground, impaling the defenseless hero that lay before me. Blood splattered, and his life… came to an end.

[ You have vanquished the: Hero of Humans, from the world. Tier: SS. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

…

And with that, it was over.

* * * * *

The Hero of Humans attempted to plead but not scream came out, instead, there was simply a sharp burst of pain, and then there was… darkness. Just an infinite void with ebbing particles, it wasn’t what he expected for an afterlife, but part of him felt at peace.

He was dead.

All his responsibilities, his ambitions, his drive⁠— they didn’t matter anymore. And while most people would have felt sad, the Hero of Humans instead felt some level of relief that he would have never expected.

At last, it was over. That’s how he felt. He had been liberated from all responsibilities, good or bad; it was simply the end. And now, he could move on, truly move on from this life. Perhaps his consciousness would soon fade, or perhaps it would take a while, but for now it was simply: relaxing.

He closed his eyes, and then, he heard a voice.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

It was familiar, but the Hero of Humans thought he was imagining it. However, the next voice made him think otherwise, after all; it was the vicious cold female voice belonging to none other than the Heroine of Frost.

“I don’t care.”

Hearing that, the Hero of Humans opened his eyes, and for a moment he saw nothing, but then, the void cleared. Like a haze that was being cleared, he saw the world in a misty veil, all from an omniscient view next to the Hero of Arlas, and he was standing before the Heroine of Frost.

“But you should care,” the Hero of Arlas said simply. “After all, the less strength we have available to repel the end of the world, the more likely it is for everything you hold dear to be destroyed.”

At that, the heroine frowned. “I’ll figure out something.”

“Will you now? You may think you have hundreds of years left, but there really isn’t that much time.”

And witnessing this, the Hero of Humans came to a realization.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He was still very much alive.

The Hero of Arlas had rescued him in time. And while he should’ve felt dread at having all his responsibilities, instead he felt exhilaration, because now he knew that revenge was only a matter of time.

Now he had an opportunity to take everything that the heroine held dear.

* * * * *

This was strange.

I frowned looking at the fake Hero of Arlas. I would have expected that killing the Hero of Humans would royally upset him, but instead he was trying to reason with me.

“Think about it, Arc,” he said. “Do you really think that killing every hero that threatens you is a good idea? You’re just making the inevitable worse.”

I didn’t have an answer to that, in the first place. I hadn’t even thought about how to deal with the impending doom yet, considering I had only returned a week ago to this world.

“Will you kill the Heroine of Water now considering she was planning on murdering your dragon friends and Ceylon too?”

I frowned. “Was she?”

“The Hero of Humans was called to protect your city from her,” he said simply. “If you kill every hero, you will only doom this world further.”

My frown deepened. Learning that the Heroine of Water had been planning on doing that was… upsetting. But now that Lily was around, I felt quite confident that she wouldn’t try anything.

Plus, he’s trying to distract me, I added in my mind before focusing on the fake Hero of Arlas once more, it truly was strange. There was no anger coming from him, there was simply talking. He wasn’t leaving either. It was odd. But I didn’t let my thoughts distract me from the conversation.

“Do you really think all the heroes will rally together to save this world?” I asked. “We both know how selfish they are; they simply won’t.”

He shook his head.

“There are a lot of things you don’t understand, but I won’t waste any more time trying to convince you,” he said before turning around. “After all, I have to plan.”

“You can always sever the System from this world,” I said simply.

It was a solution, and in fact, it may have been the best solution. The System was what was going to doom the entirety of this world. But rather than even listen, he scoffed at what I said.

“Looks like you cannot be reasoned with.”

With those words he began to walk away, normally he teleported when leaving; appearing and disappearing in a mere fraction of a second. But this time, he simply was walking away, something that made me frown immediately.

Why?

He was the keeper of order, always appearing and disappearing whenever he pleased, yet this time it wasn’t the case. I stared at the fake Hero of Arlas as he continued to walk away, and eventually, I saw him raise his arm only to shake his head as I saw the mana in the air flicker.

He can’t teleport?

It was ever so subtle, but I could tell. His skill had failed. Why? What could potentially cause a skill to fail? And there was also something else. He seemed… tense. The more I focused the more I could tell his movements seemed far from calm, in fact I could sense each of his footfalls slightly shaking. frowned before calling out to him.

“Wait.”

The fake hero stopped on his tracks and glanced back.

“Did you change your mind?”

* * * * *

The keeper of order couldn’t help but frown as he saw Arc’s expression. The peculiar hero that had come to this world rather recently. She seemed dubious. Not angry, not full of hatred, but rather, skeptical.

Had she discovered the fact that she hid the Hero of Humans? No, that was unlikely. His skill couldn’t be sensed, let alone the pocket dimension.

So what is it?

Something felt… wrong.

“I didn’t change my mind,” she began, before she appeared before him. “I simply am curious.”

“Curious? About?”

She tilted her head. “Why do you pretend to be the Hero of Arlas, and who are you really?”

At that he frowned and shook his head. That… was a long story. Did Arc deserve an answer? No. Nobody did. But if this was going to help her leave him alone, then giving her a vague answer didn’t hurt. He turned around and began to walk away once more.

“The world needs a hero, Arc. If the heroes knew that the Hero of Arlas has been gone for centuries, they would rampage. It is because of me there is order, and it is because of this identity that I took that it is possible,” he said solemnly. “As for my hero identity; that is something that you cannot know about.”

“I see.”

In the end, she didn’t suspect a thing. And in the end, he truly bought enough time.

A notification flashed in front of him, only one he could see.

[The threat to humanity fades. The Hero of Humanity no longer needs aid.]

And now, as he took a look into his own dimension, he could see it.

[Hero of Humans. Tier: SS].

Blake’s Tier had finally reverted. Meaning that, there was no longer interference with his skills. With that, he could finally make his return, and be done in this place. Even though it had been hard, he had managed to rescue the Hero of Humans from the fiend that he had created.

A smile settled on his lips as he prepared to use his teleportation skill.

Good.

Everything had gone smoothly, thankfully. Otherwise, his plans would’ve been ruined.

“You know, I had been wondering what you were hiding,” a venomous voice reached his ears.

The keeper of order tensed, and before he could react, a sharp pain went through his chest as Arc’s spear went through his body. It hurt, bad, it was the damned object she got in the Forgotten Places, and probably the strongest Artifact in this world.

“Ugh.”

“Turns out, you couldn’t teleport for a reason, and I want to find out why.”

Arc smiled viciously before she muttered⁠ the name of a skill, except, he couldn’t sense its activation completely as he cursed.

He dashed out of the way as a gigantic ice spear crashed on the spot where he had just been, all while he had a gaping wound on his chest. Worst of all, when he pointed at the girl, he couldn’t do anything to her.

After all⁠—

[This being is protected by the world itself.]

He inwardly cursed at the Hero of Arlas as he prepared to use his escape skill, except his mana was frozen⁠.

Shit.

And then he saw it, he sensed it. A distortion in the air, he turned only to see Arc flicking her spear wildly, as rifts tore into the air. It was a skill he knew of, it was a skill that was well beyond SSS Tier, it was the spear’s World Ender, and it was aimed straight at him.

“You know, on second thought, it’s better if I kill you instead of finding out whatever it is you’re hiding,” she said coldly as the attack began to reach its end. “So, goodbye then⁠—”

At that, the keeper of order forced himself to use the skill he didn’t want to use, but he had to, otherwise not only would he be responsible for unforeseen destruction, it would also heavily injure him. He clapped his hands, as Arc used her skill.

“World Ender⁠—”

[Gate to the Other Side].

And a gaping hole of darkness swallowed the strike that Arc sent out, and at the same time the Hero of Humans was spat out from another hole as the keeper of order gritted his teeth. The worst outcome had happened, but he was faster⁠—

“Stasis.”

She spoke simply as he froze, and the keeper of order couldn’t help but look as the Hero of Humans tried to back off.

“[God Step].”

But with his mana frozen, the Hero of Humans also couldn’t do anything. However, he too was an SSS Tier existence, for how long could Arc do this? Certainly not very long⁠— [System Accelerant], he chanted in his mind as he was freed from his shackles. Instantly breaking through the heroine’s Stasis skill.

“P-Please⁠—”

In an instant, he appeared before Arc as she swung her spear and blocked it, protecting the Hero of Humans, as he hit the ground, panicked.

“You don’t want to kill him,” he said gravely. “If you do⁠—”

Arc stomped, interrupting him as an ice spear appeared behind him and pierced through the hero.

[The Hero of Humans has been slain by the Heroine of Frost!]

Just like that, she killed the Hero of Humans. The keeper of order blinked in shock as she raised her brow mockingly at him.

“You were saying?”

Hearing that, the keeper of order exploded in boiling anger.