“Raaaaah!”
With his shield still raised, Ferd just charged bullishly ahead; he simply ran and ran. He blocked every bit of the torrent of flames. In his right hand, he tightly gripped the sword of light that even the Great Demon King, the embodiment of darkness, had feared.
“Hup!”
Ferd swung his sword downward. Despite being an amalgamation of all monsters of the Nightless Inferno, this hideous mass had been compressed down into a form that was only slightly larger than a human, granting it a density that no ordinary sword would work against.
But the same was true for Ferd. Even Albert, one of the founding fathers of the way of the monk, who stood at the pinnacle when it came to manipulating life energy, had once said that he couldn’t understand how Ferd could even maintain a human form and not simply disperse back into light. The pure power of light—a power of a magnitude that went beyond measure—had been concentrated into his sword.
“AAAH?!”
The sparking mass could put up no resistance against a sword like that. As Ferd’s sword smoothly cut into the ugly mass, light surged from the many monster faces sticking out of its form...and then the creature vanished. The power of it was overwhelming. But the Hero wielded a sword clad in the power of light and raised his shield to endure. Brute-forcing his way through this was all that he could do. Frankly, it was already a miracle that a boy from nowhere could manipulate the power of light at all, so it would be unreasonable to ask for more than that from him. It was thanks to this power that during the great war, Ferd the Hero had made it farther than anyone else, stood at the front of the front lines, and taken more attacks than anyone else could, even in the fight against the Great Demon King.
But that power came with a price. Just like too much medicine could be poisonous, too much light and life energy could have a negative impact on surrounding people. That was all the more true for the power that Ferd, who had become the vessel for all living things and transformed into light itself during the decisive battle against the Great Demon King, wielded. As a result of this, after the war, Ferd suffered from aftereffects that caused his powers to adversely affect his surroundings, so he’d decided to seclude himself in a remote area. His only visitors had been his powerful comrades, who could resist the force of his power, and the disciples they brought along when he was occasionally able to suppress it. In exchange for saving the world, he’d had to sever his ties with it.
However, in the decades following the war, the concept of the Hero as a vessel faded from people’s minds, and the power of light gathered in Ferd grew weaker. Now, he had finally returned to the world, only after his own end was coming into view.
In other words, this was what he was like after his powers had weakened.
“Phew, that takes care of that. Lara, I’m leaving the investigation of who did this up to you.” This was Ferd the Hero, the man who’d once saved the world.
“There’s still one more level to go. Look over there.” Lara pointed at a spot on the ground where the hilt of a sword was protruding, ever so slightly. Right next to that, there was an entrance to an underground area that was being magically concealed. “The wielders of the profane swords searching for the enhancement drug, the heretics trying to extract the demon’s power from the magic tome, and the Death Wave monk going berserk might all be connected,” she said stoically while undoing the magical concealment.
“I’m guessing you were trying to determine whether it would be easier to use the energy of death, or to extract power from a demon stronger than yourself,” she continued, speaking to no one in particular. “The mage cultists completely lost their minds, but the one with a body like a monk’s still had enough sense of self to speak of his past trauma. However, that was still too dangerous. In the end, you decided that the power of life and light is the easiest to wield, and also more powerful. There’s precedent for it too. During the great war, darkness undoubtedly lost to light, even though they’re supposed to be two sides of the same coin.”
Fear had been the source of the culprit’s actions. No matter how one looked at it, the world of man should have ended back then—unmistakably, certainly, absolutely, without a doubt. But fate and destiny had been overturned. This led one to realize that though the Great Demon King had nearly destroyed all life with his power, the Hero’s party had been more powerful than him yet, and so the world of man had continued to exist.
“But you weren’t confident in your body’s ability to absorb and store light. So, being an expert on weapons, but an amateur on enhancement drugs, you decided to seek that thing out. You senile old fool. Was it just because your life was coming to an end? Or did you grow anxious because we took care of everyone else involved?”
So, it seemed the power of light was necessary to avoid death.
“I’m right, aren’t I, Grace? It’s a bad habit of yours. You always leave a mess. You never think ahead.”
After the concealment and seal were undone, Ferd and the rest descended to the level below, from where light was shining.
“Aha ha ha ha ha ha! You were too late, you damn geezerrrrs! It’s already done!”
The woman who now called herself Ginny had manipulated those obsessed with power and even exploited adventurers, all to make the very life energy of this dungeon—a relic of the gods, some would say—go haywire and begin creating monsters again. Ginny had once been called “Grace the Grievous” and had used the holy sword that converted life energy into light, containing that energy within her body, thereby transforming herself into a giant luminous body with no trace of her former human form.
“Even if destruction comes! Even if death comes! Even if the Great Demon King is revived!” Grace screamed, her form shining. In a sense, she could be said to have a mistaken admiration for the Hero’s party, though it wasn’t their convictions she admired, but simply their status as the “strongest.” “Now get out of the way, you senile, old fools!”
“There’s no way we’re letting you get to the surface like that. I can’t believe you’ve even managed to stack black magic atop all that. Any human without resistance would turn into light and be absorbed by you,” Lara completely shot down the ambitions of this giant, luminous form.
Grace, in her endless pursuit of power, had even layered black magic atop herself that would turn the people around her into light and absorb them. If she went free on the surface, all of the weak would end up getting absorbed. But for Grace, that was only the natural course of action.
“What’s wrong with turning the weak into my food?! If you could get stronger by exploiting the needless, everyone would do it! Even if the world of man is destroyed, it’s fine as long as I get to survive!” Grace had already lost her marbles. Though she’d been called a genius craftsman, none of her creations ever brought decisive victory against the Great Demon King’s forces, and she’d been unable to overturn the world’s fated destruction by her own hands. Now, she’d grown senile and was simply doing all she could for her own self-preservation.
“You’re being an idiot. You aren’t trying to cull the weak, but to destroy lives and potential. What’s the benefit of limiting the prospects of future generations?” Ferd the Hero, the man who’d fought for the future, would in no way tolerate that.
“Who cares about that?!” Naturally, Grace wouldn’t tolerate the ones standing in her way either. It was a clash between a twisted body of light obsessed with flawed ideals and an older, fading light. “You doddering old foooools!”
Thankfully, a few stood in her way.
“Let’s do this,” said the Hero, sword and shield at the ready.
“Light, come forth,” said the Saint, staff in hand.
“Yeah,” said the Blademaster, hand on his sword’s grip.
“Dear me,” said the Witch, her fingers glowing.
“Hmph!” huffed the Monk of the Null Wave.
“Argh, dammit!” cursed the Dragon Knight, his aura tinted blue.
The Hero’s party had assembled. Not every member was present, of course—just the ones who were still alive. Moreover, they were all old geezers with only a decade or so left to live. However, if the Great Demon King had been present, he would likely have chided the twisted light that was Grace, saying something like, “Do you truly think you can defeat me, the darkness of the world, with a light only that strong?”