Chapter 39: Hero Slayer

"H…how!?" Asakura Akane spluttered as she stared up at Regis Gremory, stunned. Crawling away, she clutched her wounds and winced. "There's no way…!"

Regis didn't bother to listen. His sword, still dripping with his victim's blood, was raised and poised to deliver the killing blow.

"Tch!"

Asakura clicked her tongue and activated her skill, fading away as she turned invisible. Regis merely snorted and closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

A gust of powerful air blasted at him, but Regis merely cut the wind blade into two with his sword. He twisted around and slashed in the direction of the spell. Blood spurted onto the floor and I almost saw a shimmer as Asakura dodged and recast her ability to cloak her presence. It was just a graze, but Regis had succeeded in dealing a blow to her nonetheless despite her invisibility.

A few more wind blades came spiraling from multiple directions. Asakura had gotten wise and was launching her spells from different places at timed intervals to ensure that her position wouldn't be sounded out so easily.

Asakura clearly isn't an idiot.

I had to hand it to her grudgingly. Despite my simmering resentment, I was impressed by the way she fought. There was no way I could fight against someone of her caliber. I lacked the battle sense or keen intuition that Regis Gremory possessed, and my reflexes weren't fast enough to evade or defend myself from her spells.

I still had a long way to go.

Yet, Regis Gremory was easily countering all the wind blades that Asakura was sending at him. With his eyes closed, he expertly slashed and sliced the offensive spells while stepping forward and advancing inch by inch. At times, he would lash out and send sprays of blood spilling across the ground. Asakura was quick to react, often repairing her invisibility ability and fading away despite these brief, forced revelations.

"Shit…!

Asakura swore under her breath before disappearing somewhere again. Regis readied himself for another barrage, but this time Asakura's wind blades sailed toward the vulnerable queen and daughter. Diana and Denise glanced up in dismay as the spells lanced toward them mercilessly.

That bitch!

I couldn't believe Asakura would stoop so low…then again, like Sakaguchi and all the other bullies who tried to murder me after ganging up and bullying me, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Gritting my teeth, I threw myself forward.

I was too slow.

Regis had already reached his wife and daughter ahead of me. Without missing a beat, he slashed the first couple of wind blades and then threw up a hand to parry the last one. It bit into his flesh deeply, drawing several drops of blood, but he didn't even wince.

His wife and daughter were safe.

"Tsk!"

Despite her underhanded tactics, Asakura felt frustrated as she melted away into the shadows. Regis merely checked on his family, and then closed his eyes again. Taking a deep breath, he waited for Asakura's next attack, which came from behind. Without even batting an eyelid, he brought his sword back and parried the wind blade.

Then suddenly he lunged forward, somewhere toward his right, and slashed. Another scream rang through the air, along with a huge splatter of blood. Staggering from the grievous wound, Asakura's spell wore off and she sprawled onto the ground, bleeding profusely.

"Impossible!"

"Hmph."

Regis merely smirked as he held his sword up, Asakura's blood dripping off the huge blade. He shook his head, almost disappointed.

"Once you figure out the trick, it becomes really easy to find you."

"Kuh!"

Asakura knew she was cornered, and she quickly retreated, disappearing once again.

Amazing.

I looked at Regis in awe. I had no idea how he did it, but he pinpointed Asakura's exact location despite her near-perfect concealment.

Regis Gremory himself merely maintained his steely expression as he held his sword in both hands, waiting for the next attack.

It never came.

"Fu…"

The king of the Gremory clan suddenly relaxed and lowered his sword with a shake of his head. Glancing around, he snorted.

"She…escaped, huh?"

"Eh?"

The demonic nobles – most of whom were seeking shelter and taking cover in whatever furniture there was in the throne room – slowly raised their heads and surveyed the surroundings. There were quite a few who had jumped into action, readying their spells and weapons to deal with the hero, but were unable to act because they couldn't locate her the way Regis did, which meant there was still hope for the demon race after all.

"What an annoying ability," Regis remarked as he sheathed his sword. Bending down to check on his wife and daughter, he asked, "Are you both all right?"

"Yes." Diana nodded as she slowly rose to her feet. She carried Denise, who had fallen silent from shock and fear from the commotion, but otherwise seemed unhurt. After confirming Denise's condition, Diana turned toward her son. "Richard, Yuan! Are you all right?"

"Yes, Mother."

Richard nodded, having been one of the many demons who had drawn their weapons to confront the invisible hero. Or assassin. Even though he had pushed Yuan behind him to guard her, the Dragon Princess had also drawn her sword.

"What are you waiting for?" Marquis Kratz shouted at the royal guard, who were still milling about in the confusion. "Go chase the Evelyn's Chosen down! We can't just let her leave like this, not after such a heavy humiliation!"

"Yes, sir!"

The royal guard immediately began to set out, only for one of the soldiers to ask what seemed like a simple but significant question.

"How do we track the Evelyn's Chosen?"

"By whatever means necessary!"

The commander's answer didn't solve anything and the soldiers merely stared at him. He coughed and just stomped out of the throne room, gesturing for his troops to follow him, and they obeyed without any further questions.

His point was clear. Even if they didn't have any way of tracking Asakura Akane, there was little point in staying in the throne room. Blindly charging out and securing the castle would be preferable to standing around like incompetent fools.

"Wait."

However, Regis Gremory wasn't done. He raised a hand to stop the royal guard from leaving. The soldiers turned to him, surprised. The lord of the Gremory Clan merely smiled and pointed in one direction.

"The girl seems to have exited that way. And I wounded her pretty badly, so she can't have gotten far."

"Yes, sir!"

As the soldiers filed out of the room in haste, I trailed after them.

"Where do you think you're going?"

It was the fat demon noble with gray skin and sharp ears. He was glaring at me suspiciously.

"You don't think I'll believe it's a coincidence that one of Evelyn's Chosen attacked our Lord right after you showed up? You brought her here, didn't you?"

"If I did, then all the more it is my responsibility to hunt that hero down."

"What nonsense!" Fat Man roared. "You don't seriously think you can brush a crime of such magnitude off like this? You brought danger to the royal family! You committed treason and consorted with humans!"

"That's enough, Count Raum."

Regis's voice was enough to silence the raging noble. The fat demon named Raum immediately went quiet, his already ghastly complexion turning more grotesque.

"Forgive me, your majesty! I only…!"

"I do not question your loyalty, Count Raum. Think nothing of it. However…" Regis turned to me with an ominous smile. "I would like to see for myself how the rumored Hero Slayer earned his title. So show me, young man…how you hunt heroes."

With a challenge issued in such a manner, there was no way I could refuse. Smiling, I nodded and turned to chase after the royal guard.

*

Regis Gremory was right.

The courtyard that we stumbled across when following his directions was stained with blood. Apparently, in her flight, Asakura had left a trail of blood as she bled out. Before, in the throne room, she had somehow managed to stem her bleeding to ensure that she didn't leave any clues behind, but the more she moved, the more her wounds opened up and by now she was unable to stem the bleeding. Blood must have leaked through her fingers or whatever makeshift bandages she used to wrap around her injuries, leaving red drops on the ground.

"The trail ends here! She must be here somewhere!"

The guard commander was shouting and ordering his troops around to track her whereabouts. They spread out over the courtyard, vaulting over walls and checking for areas where Asakura could be while covering each other's backs.

I followed them, especially keeping my eyes on the trail of blood that had stopped right in the middle of the courtyard. Despite leaving such visible signs behind, Asakura was nowhere to be seen. I was sure she would have realized that it was pointless to continue casting her invisible spell when she was leaving such a clear trail behind.

However, the soldiers had already thought about that ahead of me. A couple of them had poked the space around and on the end of the trail of blood, only to find nothing. I swallowed as I studied their efforts, and then glanced around the courtyard.

Absolute Appraisal.

Nope…despite its absoluteness, Absolute Appraisal couldn't detect invisible beings. I sighed and shook my head in disappointment.

How am I going to find Asakura when she's invisible? How did Regis Gremory do it? Even if he's a Demon Lord…

Speaking of which, either my Absolute Appraisal still wasn't at a high enough level or the absolute in its name was a lie. How the heck did I get an error when trying to find out about his special abilities? Regis Gremory was a true mystery.

Whoosh.

Even though I couldn't see anything, the moment I heard the slight sound I was already instinctively moving. Something invisible sliced through the place where I had been standing on, and would have taken off my head if I hadn't dove. Around me, a couple of soldiers who were trying to sniff out Asakura's location fell, blood spurting from their wounds.

"Enemy!"

"She's here! Evelyn's Chosen is here!"

"Damn it! I can't see her! Where is she!?"

"Gaaaah!"

The courtyard was slowly turning into a bloodbath as the royal guard fell, taken out by Asakura one by one. I would have joined the dead if my instincts hadn't helped me evade the next few wind spells that sliced sharply through the air.

"Hah. Tanaka. So you did come after me, after all. I'm so glad I didn't run away completely. I knew you would try to chase after me."

Asakura's gleeful voice rang across the courtyard. I gritted my teeth and held up my staff, only to get knocked over by a powerful wind blade. All around me, gusts of winds combined to turn into a huge hurricane that lifted the royal guards high into the air.

"Aaaah!"

"Help!"

"T…this is the power of one of Evelyn's Chosen…!"

Despair and fear drenched the entire place as the demonic warriors were helplessly thrown about and held aloft by the terrifying gale. Asakura's laughter echoed as she cast a second set of spells that sliced them into pieces.

A rain of blood descended down upon me. Unlike the others, I had somehow managed to bury part of my staff into the ground and prevent myself from being lifted into the air like the others. Unfortunately, that meant I ended up getting drenched by the rain of blood that splattered onto the ground.

It wasn't just the blood. The falling body parts slammed heavily onto the ground, and I was forced to conjure a Dark Barrier to prevent myself from getting crushed to death by a heavy, falling object, piece of sharp armor or broken weapon.

This is the power of a hero, huh? She really is a one-man army…

There was little point in reanimating the undead as zombies or summoning the undead. Whatever familiar I conjured would be instantly sliced to death by Asakura. Not unless I could create a powerful, armored monster with enough protection…

"Gah?!"

A powerful wind blade sliced through my Dark Barrier and slammed into me. Blood spurted from my arms as I tried to defend myself, but I fell over as my staff – which was dislodged by the immense impact – crashed against me.

"Finally…I can finally kill you and rid the world and our class of your foul presence!"

"Just what sort of grudge do you have against me?!" I yelled angrily. This made no sense. Why were they so intent on killing me?

"You're weak," Asakura sneered. The same reply as Minamoto Kureha, Tsukishima Tomoyo and Kijima Takeshi. The same, stupid, unreasonable logic that made no sense whatsoever. "Even though you're just a weak, filthy, creepy loser, you refuse to acknowledge your place and standing and try to elevate yourself. Trash will always remain trash. They should just let themselves get stamped over and accept the reality instead of always challenging us and upsetting the status quo!"

"What kind of fucking bullshit logic is that?!"

"Oh, shut up!"

Unable to counter my retort, Asakura resorted to bombarding me with a barrage of wind blades that carved huge gouges in the ground around me. I managed to conjure another Dark Barrier, but it cracked under the relentless onslaught.

"…! There!"

While my defenses crumbled under the weight of Asakura's attack, I was beginning to see a pattern. Taking a deep breath, I waited for my Dark Barrier to completely break before I launched a Doombolt in the area where I anticipated Asakura would be.

I was right on the money.

"Aaaaah!"

Asakura fell back, her invisibility shimmering to nothingness in an instant as my spell struck her. She rolled on the ground as the dark energy crackled around her, trying to devour her despite her innate magical resistance.

I did it!

I didn't know if this was how Regis Gremory managed to sound out Asakura's location – by predicting her location after deciphering the pattern of her attacks or relying solely on battle instinct – but if it worked for me…

"??"

While I seized the opportunity to charge forward to land another attack, I saw that Asakura wasn't as injured as I thought she was. Especially after being slashed by Regis Gremory earlier and forced to retreat, plus the sheer amount of blood she left while escaping, I thought she would be more hurt than that.

But other than the decaying damage that my Doombolt dealt to her, Asakura looked virtually unscathed.

How…?

Even as the thought ran through my mind, I didn't hesitate and swung my staff down to clobber her. Asakura threw her hand up and countered with a gust of wind that buffeted me and threw me off my feet. I managed to flip in the air and land on my feet, but she had disappeared again.

As if I'll let you…!

I spun around when I felt the attack come and I unleashed a Shadow Lunar Fang that arced across the courtyard and slammed into Asakura. At the same time, her wind blades slammed into me, cutting me in various places and causing me to stagger.

"Kuh!"

I dropped to my knees, but managed to withstand the pain somehow. My wounds slowly regenerated due to my ability and I sighed a breath of relief as the pain lessened somewhat. Gingerly climbing back to my feet, I observed the fallen Asakura.

This was why I didn't mind trading blows with her. Even if I got hit by her attacks, my Regeneration would heal my wounds near instantly. With her Invincible Invisibility in effect, I doubted she could cast a defensive barrier.

I was right. Asakura isn't as durable as Sakaguchi. She doesn't possess the same armor or protection!

Of course. There was no need for armor or Divine Defense if she was invisible and couldn't be hit in the first place. In fact, the heavy armor and powerful defense would only render her cumbersome and hinder her movements when she attempted to move while invisible. It was much better to stay lightweight and agile.

"You…what are you?!"

Asakura spat as I approached. Her whole body was charred and battered from my strike, but other than that, I didn't see any sword wounds that Regis Gremory should have dealt to her. No matter. If she had healing spells, then I just had to kill her before she casted them…

"How the hell are you able to heal yourself just like that?"

I snorted. "What are you talking about? Same as you, right? You healed the injuries you received from the new Demon Lord with healing spells, right?"

"Healing spells?" Asakura stared at me blankly, and then laughed. "What are you talking about?"

Perhaps I was mistaken, but I didn't care. My priority was to finish her off before she could fight back. I raised my staff to launch a second Shadow Lunar Fang, but at the same time she raised her hands and blasted me with a fireball.

"…!"

I managed to raise my staff in time to block the massive fiery projectile, which exploded in a flash of orange and black as my Shadow Lunar Fang detonated from the impact. Buffeted from the shockwaves, I was thrown off my feet and sent slamming into the sea of blood and body parts. My injuries slowly healed, but the scorch marks were taking more time to heal than usual.

"…!"

Oh no…I haven't fully healed or replenished my mana yet!

That was right. I had been beaten pretty badly by Sakaguchi Seiji earlier. Despite eating a single fish to recover a bit of my strength, that had been way too small for me to fully recover. Between then and now, I hadn't eaten anything else, so I had continued to run low on mana and energy. Furthermore, while in such a weakened state, I had used quite a bit of mana to heal the wound I sustained when fighting Dragon Princess Yuan. Thanks to that, I was running out of fuel to supply my Regeneration.

Once again, I regretted handing my Redwood Robe over to Hughes. That treasure-grade equipment would have helped a lot in protecting me if I was wearing it, but I had to counter this crisis with the cards I currently had in hand, which looked pretty bleak.

This was bad.

"Heh!"

Asakura had dragged herself to her feet, fireballs floating above her. Before I could conjure my Dark Barrier, the projectiles blazed forward at incredible speeds and slammed into me, incinerating parts of my body into ash.

"Gaaah!"

F…fuck! That hurt! That hurt a lot!

Groaning and trying to roll around, I tried to stand up, only to realize that my limbs had been burned off. My left arm and both legs, to be precise. Somehow my right hand had remained intact, but it had been blackened and fused to my staff.

Fortunately, as slow as it was, my Regeneration was kicking in. my limbs were slowly growing back and I managed to gradually get back to my feet. Asakura, after expending so much mana on such a massive spell, was temporarily winded. A fortunate thing, for she wasn't able to finish me off.

However, that didn't mean she wasn't done yet.

"Heh…still alive, aren't you?"

Wiping the blood from her mouth and gingerly rubbing her injuries, Asakura glared down at me as she slowly closed the distance.

"Not as alive as you." I grinned as I tried to sit up while my legs were still growing back. "But you don't seem to be in perfect condition yourself."

Asakura's face darkened when she saw my limbs regenerating like a starfish's.

"You…monster. What the hell are you? I've never heard of such a powerful healing spell before. You really are a disgusting cockroach, aren't you?"

I was far more dangerous than any cockroach, but I wasn't able to tell her that. I wanted her to continue lowering her guard, after all.

"You don't seem very far away from being a squashed bug yourself."

Huh, that insult didn't come out right. Then again, I wasn't used to bantering with my former classmates, having been on the receiving end more often than the giving side. I was too nice of a person to call people names.

Unlike my former classmates.

"Hmph."

Asakura dusted herself off and then produced a vial from her pockets. Golden liquid sloshed slowly inside it, gleaming in the soft sunlight. Uncapping it, she downed the entire contents in one gulp before dropping the empty vial and letting it shatter on the floor.

Right before my astonished eyes, Asakura's injuries healed. The burns…the corruption, the black scars…everything vanished. In just a few seconds, Asakura was back to full health, having healed completely.

"What the…?"

"Why are you so surprised? I bet you're using the same thing to heal yourself. I don't know which Elixir you're using, but if it can even restore lost limbs, then it has to be more powerful than the Elixir I'm using."

Ah. So that was a healing potion, after all. But not just any healing potion – an actual Elixir. In gaming terms, it was the strongest healing potion that could revive any near-dead person back up to full health.

However, it was supposed to be so rare and valuable that no one could afford it. not only that, given how Asakura no longer bore the fatal wounds she sustained when fighting Regis Gremory, she must have used another vial earlier. No wonder the trail of blood had stopped. Upon noticing that she was leaving clues to her whereabouts, Asakura must have stopped to heal herself with that legendary item, and thus stop the bleeding completely. The real question was how she was able to so casually use two vials of such rarity…

That was right. Of course a hero like Asakura would possess such a rare item. Either they had stored up a decent supply of Elixirs during the heroes' quest to vanquish the demons, much like a typical role-playing game, or the human kingdoms they were fighting for spared no expense in equipping their precious heroes with the very best items and equipment.

"Kuh…!"

And right now I was back to square zero, my mana more severely depleted than before while Asakura Akane was back to full health. There was no way I could defeat her.

"I doubt you have more than one Elixir, though. It was such a pain for me to procure only two bottles. Ah…I can't believe you and that new Demon Lord forced me to use both in the same day! Ugh! How dare you waste so much of my gold!"

Asakura was complaining, almost as if she was stomping her foot as she threw a tantrum, cursing both me and Regis Gremory. But then she calmed down and shook her head.

"I'm so glad I bought them, though. If I didn't, I would be dead. That attack from that new Demon Lord earlier almost caused me to bleed to death. And if I didn't use this, I might actually lose to you. I can't believe how a weakling loser like you has gotten to such a level where you can actually scratch a hero like myself!"

"Why do you think I'm an anti-hero?" I retorted. "My role is to kill heroes such as you."

Asakura's face darkened and she raised her hand. Fireballs materialized again and she sent them at me. I tried to roll away, but the explosions sent me flying, my body immolated as I crashed, screaming and thrashing about in the pool of blood.

"Shut up. I never liked you, Tanaka. Nobody likes you. You're just a pitiful loser who deserves to be hated by anyone. You should never have existed. You should never be born! I feel sorry for your mother, who was forced to give birth to you. Just die already. Everyone will be much happier that way."

"I hate to say this, but my mother is actually proud of me. As is my father."

I chuckled. Unlike my insane, psychotic former classmates, my family was actually normal. Hell, it wasn't just my family…most normal people didn't possess such an unreasonable, illogical hatred for me. It was just my former classmates alone.

I had no idea what their deal was. I never did anything to them. And their reasoning about my very existence, or me being a weakling loser who didn't know his place made no sense to me whatsoever. It was almost like they weren't real people. Just caricatures who existed for the sole purpose of being specific antagonists to make my life miserable.

I just didn't understand.

"Just fucking die already!"

With a screech, Asakura disappeared, turning invisible once again. However, with her disappearance, a storm of wind blades came crashing down on me from all directions, slicing my limbs off and cutting my body into pieces. I crashed onto the ground, blood gushing out from my neck, my head nearly severed from my body.

Was this how I died?

No…I can't die like this. Not until I take my revenge. I can't…I will never forgive these bastards. Never!

Yet my vision was already fading away. My mind, subsumed by a red haze of pain, was slowly being overwhelmed by eternal darkness. It was a small mercy that Asakura's wind blades had cut my spinal cord, for I felt nothing below my neck. Just a phantom agony of a body that should be there, and still was partly there, but…

Am I really going to die like this?

As I fell into the sea of blood and body parts, my consciousness slowly fading away, a small blue window flickered to life at the corner of my glasses. Despite the cracked lenses distorting the words and box, I could still make them out.

Adaptive Mutation…now in effect.