My sword and armor were still dripping with blood as I stood before the hall the so-called “Demon King” resided in. I could always dispel and resummon them to fix that, but having a shiny weapon and armor would just look so out of place with my blood drenched hair. An outfit has to match, even at its worst. I pointedly ignored the fact that I was wearing glowing, translucent armor over jeans and a graphic t-shirt.

    I glanced over to Gloria in jealousy. As the mage in our two person party, her clothing was practically spotless. Either she would kill the monsters well before they were in range to splatter on her, or I would get in between her and the monsters, which led to the situation where we looked like complete opposites, me drenched in gore, her only lightly sweaty.

    I looked away, resisting the urge to say something that would send a death flag crashing down upon me, and did a quick check of my summoned weapon and armor. It was a habit purely out of nerves, as I would be able to sense it if there was anything wrong with them. I took a deep breath and opened the door to what would hopefully be the end of earth’s troubles.

    Inside of the massive hall wasn’t at all what I had been expecting. I’d been picturing it as some sort of massive throne hall, maybe with a bunch of powerful monsters there as guards, but what I saw was vastly different. It looked like a massive ritual chamber. Magic circles were everywhere within it, dozens of them surrounding one large circle, in which the monster humanity had oh so originally decided to nickname “The Demon King” sat.

    As we entered, he looked up to us, and began speaking in the same language the System had imprinted into our minds when it had arrived.

    “I see that some more fools have come to their graves. Seems I’m going to get some exercise.” He slowly stood up, and walked towards us, stopping about halfway to us. “Come.”

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    I obliged him. My sword swept out at him as I dashed forward, multiple spells flying from Gloria to bombard him. He went to block my blade with just his arm, and I grinned. He was surely expecting to be able to block my blade the way he could probably have blocked any of the bladed weapons we could currently make. Unluckily for him, mine was made out of pure, highly compressed mana.

    The expression he made as the blade sunk a good inch into the flesh he had been expecting to hold firm was priceless. After that, the fight devolved into him trying to dodge the assault of both Gloria and I while occasionally trying to land his own blows.

    He may have done much better, except Gloria quickly noticed that he couldn’t actually move out of the large ritual circle, so the fight devolved from a dance, to me sitting back and protecting her as she spammed gigantic area of effect spells inside of it.

    It was at the very end I did something I really should not have. I got greedy. Diving in, my blade pierced into his battered body, straight through where his heart should be, and I released my control over my blade. It decompressed in a terribly explosive fashion, ripping his chest to shreds. The Demon King and I both stepped back as Gloria watched from the sidelines.

    I resummoned my sword and held it at the ready, feeling the strain as my mana dwindled to practically nothing, but not willing to risk being without a weapon, even if he was about to die.

    The Demon King coughed a bit, blood coming out. I was wondering how he was even able to do that considering his heart and lungs should have been utterly destroyed. He looked at me in disbelief, but it quickly transitioned into a look of madness. “If I’m going back to that damn place, I’m bringing you with me!” he shouted, and an absolutely massive amount of mana began to swell, the ritual circles in the room beginning to glow.

    I started to run, but my legs were somehow stuck in place, feeling like they’d been chained to the floor. The Demon King finally collapsed, but the glow only grew brighter, and I could feel this bizarre sensation of separating from myself. Figuring there was no reason to avoid the death flag at this point, I turned to Gloria, seeing her running towards me, casting all the healing and curative magic she knew.

    “Gloria. I love you.”

    I saw her face morph into shock, and then into sorrow before she replied. “I… I’m sorry, I only see you as a friend.” I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry as I felt the last tether to my body snap, and everything went black.