CH-145.2

 Chapter 145.2

Holding them back with his hand, Avos Dilhevia looked down at me.

I open my lips placidly, "The great spirit Avos Dilhevia, originating from the rumors and folklore of the Demon King of Tyranny." As I shot out the words, the Masked Demon King reacted with a jerk momentarily. "That is your true identity, Misa."

Avos Dilhevia doesn't utter a word, but simply fixes his gaze on me.

"In a match of wisdom with Zeke, I asked him, 'Who is the Demon King of Tyranny?'. His answer was Eldemade. That's obviously a lie. Yet he did not lie about the question of his identity."

If so, he was probably lying about matters regarding me. But that was inexplicable.

There's no need for Zeke to fabricate information about me.

"And he also said this. 'Fifteen years ago, a child was born to Reno, the Great Spirit, and Shin Reglia, the Demon King's right-hand man. That was Misa Ilioroagu. But that was just as the Heavenly Father, Nousgalia, had intended. Misa's legacy as a spirit means that she is of the order that will terminate the Demon King. And that lore has spread among neither the humans nor the demons, but among the gods.'"

There was only one child of God who could wipe me out, and it was one of my own people.

"This was a lie. He lied 'about the child of the Great Spirit Reno'. Between Reno and Shin, no child was born, nor is the lore of Misa as a spirit of the order that would annihilate the Demon King. For it was the rumors and lore of the Demon King of Tyranny, Avos Dilhevia, that constituted her very source."

As spirits, rumors and lore indicate, i.e., the Child of God. He deceived my mind by telling half the truth and the other half as the order that would put an end to the Demon King's reign.

"Had I known that Misa is the Demon King of Tyranny, I would have asked, 'Who is the Demon King of Tyranny?' and so, the answer to this question would be either me or Misa or Avos Dilhevia. Needless to say, both Misa and Avos Dilhevia are children of the Great Spirit Reno. In other words, the answer had to be a lie all along, for this answer involves an answer regarding Reno's child."

He couldn't even provide a half-correct answer of Anos Voldigord, so he lied about being Eldemade.

"When I questioned him about it, Zeke proceeded to end the match of wisdom so that I wouldn't find out."

Naturally, this match of wisdom isn't the only factor in getting the right answer.

"The purpose of trying to kill Melheis was to ensure that the news that Avos Dilhevia had been a fake would not spread throughout Dilhade when the ceremony of the second coming of the Demon King was notified to commence. Should the truth break forth and the rumors and lore fade away, Misa would suffer from spirit illness, rendering it impossible for her true identity to emerge."

That is, at worst, he did not necessarily have to kill Melheis.

If the Seven Elder Demon Emperors were targeted, they would be driven to conceal themselves.

If that turned out to be the scenario, the notification of the ceremony would be delayed, thus producing a reprieve until the rumors and lore of Avos Dilhevia could be erased.

In fact, had it not been for that raid, a message would have been handed down prior to today that there is no such thing as Avos Dilhevia.

"The reason the Cursed King's subordinates and the Spirit King wanted to kill Misa was to force her to awaken her true body by endangering her temporary body."

Given that, having Lay in crisis would have contributed to it.

In an effort to save her lover, Misa sought to release the power that lay dormant within her. And the power as Reno's own child was awakened.

However, that was not yet complete. Being Reno's biological child was half of her power as a spirit.

Simultaneously, her true body, that of the Demon King of Tyranny, Avos Dilhevia, was on the verge of awakening.

"That mask came to be because Avos Dilhevia, in the guise of Kanon, had once shown himself to the people of Dilhade. A spirit, shaped by rumor and lore, derives its manifestation from the people's vision of it."

From rumor and lore arise spirits. In this post-2,000 year period, nothing is more prevalent throughout the demon race and human beings than the rumors and lore of Avos Dilhevia, an entity that never truly existed.

Thus, despite being a half-spirit and half-demon, Misa had a firm source that never afflicted her with spirit illnesses.

"Is there anything you have to say against this, Misa?"

And then that person said,

In the same voice she always used.

"Misa Ilioroagu is a temporary figure."

Avos Dilhevia loosely placed one hand on the mask and removed it.

As if to reveal her true identity, her long, deep ocean-like hair appears in a swaying manner.

When she took off her cloak, beneath it was a binroujiguro dress.

Albeit more or less grown-up, her face is indisputably that of Misa Ilioroagu.

"I am Avos Dilhevia. The one who shall set Dilhade as the land of the Imperial Family and lead this world to its rightful place. For this purpose, the other Demon King of Tyranny, Anos Voldigord. I will execute you, the false one, the misfit."

A spirit has both a temporary and a real body.

While the manifestation of a spirit's true body yields more formidable magical power, the spirit's heart is not really that different from its initial form.

Upon the transformation into her true body, Misa's personality has been retracted to the inner part of her body, and the personality of Avos Dilhevia has surfaced.

Until now, the personality of Avos Dilhevia, which has persisted in rumor and folklore in Dilhade and Azeshion, has risen to the forefront.

"Whatever action you may take, it is futile. This magical broadcast has circulated throughout Dilhade. Even so, the demon race has no alternative but to acknowledge me as the Demon King of Tyranny. For I am a spirit conceived according to the lore of the Demon King of Tyranny."

The Seven Elder Devil Emperors cast their magic into the magic circle.

"That's right. She is, beyond any doubt, the Demon King of Tyranny, Avos Dilhevia. Our king of the demon race," Melheis says.

The Great Spirit, the embodiment of the lore of the Demon King of Tyranny, possesses the force that actualizes being the Demon King of Tyranny.

Just as Aharthern is the Mysterious Forest, and the Great Spirit Reno is the Mother of All Spirits, she is the Demon King of Tyranny, irrespective of what anyone claims.

"I see what you are up to. The Reason Destroying Sword huh. Since it will cost you time to seize it, that's why you won't let me shift to this place via ｢Teleportation Gatom｣. Or else, why don't you just kill me right now, since I am just a misfit?"

"Silence, you fool, who rebel against the Demon King of Tyranny!" Ivis lifted his voice, and the Seven Elder Demon Emperors unleashed ｢Black Burning Flame Griad｣ at once. The reddish-black flame scorches my magic body that was sent to that place.

A magical body is incapable of putting up much of a fight.

Although it can converse, it does not have the requisite magical power to engage in combat.

"Hmm. You are a fool, Avos Dilhevia."

Upon hearing my words, she lets out a derisive laugh.

"You are the one being comical. Anos, you have been deprived of everything. Your name, your subordinates, even your castle. This time, you are really nothing, a mere demon race."

I raise my lips even as the flames engulf me.

An involuntary laugh was rising from the pit of my stomach.

"Hahaha. All of it? Robbed from me? By who? You?"

In front of me, Avos Dilhevia's magical power is quite extraordinary. She is after all a spirit born from the rumor and lore of the Demon King of Tyranny. That magical power may be equivalent to my own.

Nevertheless, I mildly laughed at this great spirit, "Don't get carried away, phony. You can snatch my name, snatch my subordinates, or snatch my castle, yet will never deprive me of what makes me who I am."

In the midst of the flames and the fading of the magical body, I majestically asserted.

"At best, you can dream of glory. Until the genuine Demon King returns, that is."