By the time Yuma has arrived on the battlefield. He saw many human corpses that had been flattened or had been separated into several pieces after being thrown away from the battlefield.
Amidst the soldier’s formation, he saw Gratian who still wore clothing made out of animal skins.
He is currently only standing less than twenty meters away from Lacius.
Seeing the massive tentacle that kept on flattening the soldiers or throwing them away, Yuma immediately understood that Gratian was the enemy he needed to fight this time. The so-called demon king Cedric has always mentioned.
He charged toward Gratian while getting ready to unsheathe the sword in his hand.
When Yuma had already reached less than ten meters away from Gratian, he had entered Gratian’s attack range, and the tentacle that had been busy flattening the surrounding soldiers immediately took a sharp turn and shot toward Yuma.
Yuma had long since prepared for that attack and quickly enveloped his sword in flames and slashed it toward Gratian’s tentacle. With that attack, Gratian’s tentacle got heavily damaged to the point some of it has been severed.
“This is quite troublesome.” Gratian frowned and the mist surrounding his tentacle gathered toward it and healed it. Then, he slightly squatted before placing heavy force on his leg and dashed at high speed toward Yuma.
When he is a few meters away from Yuma. Gratian’s right arm exploded and turned into five thin tentacles that shot toward Yuma from various angles.
Yuma successfully cut two of them and blocked two of the tentacles targeting his chest and head by placing his sword vertically to guard them. But, he couldn’t do anything to the tentacle that had targeted his hips and torn a large chunk of his flesh.
“Arggh!!” While screaming in pain, Yuma summoned a burst of flames and burned the two tentacles he blocked before retreating while limping away.
Lacius saw it and commanded a nearby blessed to bring Yuma toward granny Maude.
Gratian tried to stop that blessed. But, Lacius quickly moved and summoned several earth walls that delayed Gratian’s chase.
Seeing catching up with Yuma seems to be impossible, Gratian looked at Lacius and clenched his fists in anger. While he has been fighting against Yuma, Lacius has been retreating and has reached a considerable distance from him.
Gratian paused as he looked at Lacius who had stood far away and asked several random questions. “How does being a king feel? Do you feel satisfaction? Is the power to control and be respected by many people satisfying? How many people have you killed with that power? Have you turned into the person you hated the most?”
With every word from Gratian, Lacius felt a sense of disgust toward himself. That sense of disgust even slightly turned into self hate and gave him a fleeting thought of doing suicide.
Feeling something wrong, Lacius silently clenched his hand so hard that some of his nails began to cut through his palm.
He also continuously recalled every single family and friend who had died from Gratian and condensed his hatred to Gratian instead.
Even though Lacius had been in a massive mental battle, he kept his poker face which made Gratian feel his attack had failed. Seeing no reply from Lacius, Gratian felt bored and dashed toward his location.
The surrounding soldiers and blessed tried to block his advance but to no avail. The most they could do is slightly delay Gratian’s advance.
Occasionally, Lacius would lock Gratian’s leg with the surrounding earth while the soldiers and blessed tried their best to damage him.
Soon, Gratian arrived near Lacius and began his attack.
A bit further away from Lacius and Gratian’s battle. Yuma saw Lacius being targeted by Gratian and quickly ran towards them even though his leg hadn’t been fully healed by granny Maude.
When he is only a few meters away from Gratian, Yuma activates the Fire Slash stored inside the [Fire Sword] and prepares to slash at Gratian.
Gratian saw Yuma trying to attack him and controlled his right hand that had turned into tentacles to block Yuma’s advance. But different from before, his tentacle easily got burned by the flame coming from Yuma’s sword.
When he felt something was wrong with it, Yuma had already arrived near Gratian and immediately slashed at him.
The moment the [Fire Sword] slashed through Gratian. The flames in it exploded and caused his body to get charred and exploded into several pieces.
Although Gratian has exploded into many tiny pieces, his voice can still be heard in the surrounding area. “I thought with this newfound power, I could take my revenge easily against the world that disrespected my effort and the god that turned a blind eye to all I’ve given to this world.”
At the place Gratian had exploded, a vortex appeared that swallowed the pieces of his flesh and blood. Soon, a new Gratian appeared under everyone’s view.
Although Gratian seems to be fully healed just like nothing has happened. More than half of the mists surrounding him have disappeared in the process of healing himself. Yuma saw it all and muttered. “Are those mists something akin to his HP bar? Will he continue to regenerate as long as the mist exists?”
“This makes me recall my time on Earth. I never thought I’d do something like a boss raid in another world.” Yuma said while enveloping the sword in his hand with fire and raising it while glaring at Gratian.
Just when Gratian prepared himself for another attack from Yuma. Yuma instead quickly retreated toward granny Maude’s side while shouting. “Try to hold him down.”
Lacius nodded and created a hole in the ground around Gratian while shouting. “Begin Plan C!”
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Gratian who suddenly fell down into a hole finally pulled himself out from the hole and said. “I dislike this hole-digging trick of yours the most.”
The moment he rose up from the hole, several massive fireballs from the blessed that had gathered around Lacius greeted him.
After releasing those massive fireballs, the fire element blessed quickly fell down in exhaustion and got supported by the soldiers to retreat further away.
Seeing the rain of fires, Gratian used the tentacles that came out from his arm to envelop him. Thankfully, Gratian’s defense isn’t as powerful as the ball-like construct that gave birth to him. Being attacked by several massive fireballs has caused Gratian’s body to be damaged, which forces him to absorb the mist around his body to heal himself.
Right after Gratian finished healing himself while most of the fire around him had died down. The blessed around Lacius began creating water balls which drenched Gratian.
Although he is confused about what they’re trying to achieve by drenching him. Gratian is unwilling to test it and quickly dashes toward Lacius’s position.
Before he could run far away, several long lightning bolts appeared from the blessed around Lacius.
Just like the fire element blessed from before. The blessed releasing those lightning immediately fell down from exhaustion after releasing those lightning.
The effect of their lightning attack is quite considerable. Gratian, who was initially extremely energetic and dashed toward Lacius at high speed, immediately stopped as his body began to twitch while releasing a burnt smell.
Once again, the mists around Gratian got absorbed into his body and he began to heal.
Although the two consecutive attacks that have exhausted dozens of blessed have only decreased Gratian’s mists by less than a tenth. Their goal to delay him has been achieved as Yuma has been healed and re-entered the battle.
The moment Yuma got fully healed, he stared at Lacius while pointing at his sword.
Lacius understood the meaning of Yuma’s gesture and gathered several blessed with water, ice, and earth power.
Together with Lacius and several dozen blessed that’s guarded by blessed with divine strength. Yuma reached toward Gratian and prepared to slash his [Fire Sword].
Seeing the flames burning on Yuma’s sword. The blessed around him began to move.
The water element blessed summoned many balls of water and directed them toward Gratian’s location. The moment those water balls almost reached him, Lacius created a hole and quickly buried half of Gratian’s body in it. While the other earth element blessed exhausted themself to continuously solidify the earth and sealed half of Gratian’s body in it.
When most of Gratian’s body and the ground around him had been drenched, the ice element blessed quickly directed their power toward him and encased him in ice.
Those consecutive combos are enough to stop Gratian long enough for Yuma to attack him with his Fire Slash.
Gratian, who had just finished thawing his head and left arm, saw Yuma’s Fire Slash and smiled bitterly.
Before Yuma’s Fire Slash could hit Gratian whose leg has been swallowed into the earth that has been frozen by ice. Gratian shouted in a loud voice. “I am unwilling!!! I curse this land, I curse this world. The prosperous land I have created… everything shall return to desolation!”
Gratian’s body began to inflate as he looked at Yuma before turning to Lacius and smiling condescendingly. “You too will be discarded and forgotten by history.”
Yuma felt something was wrong and infused his own power into the Flame Slash to slightly strengthen it. Before his slash could hit Gratian, Gratian had already exploded and turned into a thick viscous liquid that seeped to the ground.
Gratian’s self-explosion made Yuma’s attack miss and only caused the soil underneath to explode and charred black.
Yuma’s Basic System screen immediately appears and the amount of Exp written in it continuously increases until he leveled up to the upper level 2 before stopping.
With Gratian’s death. Inside the Divine Space, Cedric received a notification from the System.
[Congratulations on killing the demon king in your world! You’ve gained 1 GP.]
[As the demon king has been defeated, most of the NE in your world has been purified. The rate of NE infection has greatly decreased. The chance of the demon king to appear in the near future has been greatly decreased. Your world’s resistance to Negative Energy has also slightly increased.]
Cedric saw the System’s congratulations and smiled.
He grabbed the [Divine Intervention: Word] and sent the good news to Yuma and Lacius.
[Good job. The demon king has been defeated.]
Reading the happy message Cedric sent, Yuma felt a sense of loss. ‘Maybe It’s truly time for me to retire and start a farm somewhere in the world? Or should I begin exploring the world and start another adventure?’
Many thoughts pass through Yuma’s head. The only thing he hasn’t thought of is to return back to Earth. Because except for some games and modern trinkets. There is nothing he missed on Earth. He even doubts his trashy brother, his only family member, has realized he actually went missing.
While the surrounding soldiers cheered. Yuma fell into a trance and silently observed the charred ground. His expression suddenly turned serious as he shouted. “Wait a moment! The charred earth is expanding!”
Just like a trigger, the dark color began to expand toward the surrounding soil at an increasingly faster speed.
Everyone quickly retreated and fled in fear from the weird scene.
With the place where Gratian has just died as the center. The earth in a several hundred meter radius darkened until finally slowing down.
Above the dark earth, every plant began to die off or distort before finally dying. Many worms left the soil in a hurry before they twitched and died. The blood and flesh of dead soldiers began to rot and turn into some dark mist like miasma. Other than the soldier’s corpses, faint miasma also spread out from the ground and caused the soldiers who accidentally inhaled them to feel weakened.
In the Divine Space, Cedric who has just celebrated the successful battle against the demon king saw a sudden warning from the System.
[Warning! A cursed land has appeared in your world.]
Cedric’s smile froze on his face as he asked, “What the hell is it this time?”
[Before your demon king died, it used most of the remaining NE in its body to curse the land in your world. Please purify it as soon as possible, otherwise, it will continue to corrupt the surrounding land and turn it into a haven for NE infected creatures. Once it reaches a certain size, it might even give birth to another demon king level existence.]
“Argggghhh!” Cedric screamed to release his pent up emotion.
He has been fighting against time and spending a lot of GP to finally kill the demon king. Yet, another problem has somehow appeared.
He took several deep breaths to calm himself and asked, “How do I purify those cursed land? Do I need to spend GP and purchase some items?”
[Items that could purify the land indeed existed. But, they were quite expensive. So, the System recommended you to purify it with your own effort instead.]
[You may purify the cursed land by generating positive emotion from people in the area surrounding the cursed land. You can also suppress and purify the cursed land by sending people who have wholeheartedly practiced virtues like temperance, kindness, patience, or other virtues into the cursed land. Those kinds of people will gather some sort of virtue energy that can purify the curse caused by Negative Energy.]
Cedric read the first message and quickly shouted. “Who are you?! Where is the System I know? There is no way it wouldn’t recommend me to purchase things in the shop!”
He only read the System’s second message after he finished shouting.
The System heard his shout and seemed to get speechless as it replied with several ellipses.
[...]
[Has you gone bonkers from stress? Of course, the System wouldn’t recommend expensive items to a poor wretch like you. Otherwise, you will go bankrupt and die.]
Cedric just rolled his eyes.