After the Gods Volume 1

One

In the luxurious and dark palace——

On the throne, the dark and ruined monster took a deep breath as its body rose and fell, and the chaotic black mist gathered again and surrounded it.

Under the shroud of black mist, the fresh wounds on the monster's body healed quickly. It stared at the challengers under the steps with bright red pupils that seemed to be filled with blood, and its scaly mouth opened slightly, as if mocking the innocence of the enemy.

Even though the monster's thick right arm and left leg had been cut off, the monster's powerful healing ability made everyone in the Rose Knights feel extremely ****.

Looking at the monster's wound surrounded by black mist, which was constantly growing disgusting granulation, Laika realized at this moment that the holy sword in his hand was getting heavier and heavier.

'Is it because you're tired from consuming too much mana, or because...'

'...Am I, scared? '

In a moment of absent-mindedness, Laika noticed this terrifying fact. Even though he is a brave man, he is terrified in front of his own destiny.

That is the sense of oppression brought about by the absolute power gap. This gap is ****.

Is it really possible to defeat such a constantly reviving monster?

"Damn it...the Demon King..." Laika gritted her teeth and said the frightening name.

Not only that, the aura of the monster named "Devil King" is rising steadily, and the thick dark aura is like a shaped object, pressing heavily on everyone's shoulders. This made the members of the Rose Knights present almost unable to breathe.

"Laika...can you still fight?"

The beautiful girl with a pair of pointed elf ears put down the compound longbow in her hand, drew out her long sword instead, turned her head to look at Laika, the leader of the Knights, and asked worriedly.

"Well, I'm fine, Angelica." Laika put away the fear in her heart, and responded to her companion's concern as usual.

"Laika, when the devil's physical strength is exhausted to a certain level, he will erupt an amazing recovery ability. Although we don't know if there is an upper limit to his ability...but..."

Lucia shook her head wearily, and her blood-stained lavender hair shook, "We have no chance, except—use that method."

Laika glanced at the Demon Lord who was still recovering. Very good, the demon king in the recovery period can't move, there is still a little time to think.

Laika was originally an ordinary adventurer, but he passed the test of the brave unintentionally, obtained the holy sword, and became a human brave. Knowing his fate, he learned the truth about the holy sword and the brave man, so he formed the current Rose Knights to fight against the devil.

The brave Laika, the magician Kaifius, the elf swordsman Angelika, the holy knight Shati, the healing priest Tavia, the puppeteer Lucia, and the saint Emilia. This team of seven people has overcome obstacles all the way, and even marched in the most core castle of the devil world without any obstacles. Now, it is defeated in front of the devil king, like ants.

However, Leica cannot be blamed for this. As a brave man, he has done enough. Against such a powerful enemy, it is already a miracle that the Rose Knights have maintained zero casualties from the beginning of the battle until now.

All this is the result of his excellent leadership command.

However, there is still no real solution to the recovery ability of the demon king, and everyone's physical strength is getting lower and lower.

Once the members of the Rose Knights severely injured the Demon King, a moment later, the drowsy black mist around the Demon King would wrap it up and mend the wound.

Faced with this situation of the Demon King, the Bishop of the Healing Church had already expected it, and gave him a way to break out of this predicament.

The first plan is to complete the last blow to destroy the devil by sacrificing brave men of the same rank and opposite attributes as the devil—that is, the holy sword and Laika himself. In this way, the devil will not have time to heal the wound.

In other words, in order to defeat the Demon King, Laika's life must be sacrificed.

The second option makes Leica even more unacceptable.

He looked at a certain girl in the knight order who couldn't directly participate in the battle—Saint Emilia of the Healing Church. She is the person in the world who can understand Laika best, and she has helped Laika a lot in her adventures. It was also Emilia's idea to form the Rose Knights.

By sacrificing a saint whose attributes are opposite to those of the demon king and whose strength level is the same as the tenth rank, it can also achieve the same effect as sacrificing the holy sword of the brave—killing the demon king directly during the recovery period, without giving the demon king time to recover to its heyday .

This method is only known to Laika in the Rose Knights. The Healing Church also had this intention in sending its own saintess to accompany Laika on the expedition.

The power and holy sword of the Laika hero are indispensable to the human kingdom.

The kingdom needs "heroes", and as for the saint, the church has many options. Especially the rumored second saint. It is said that her strength and appearance are not much worse than Emilia.

For this reason, the alternative method is to let Emilia, who is a saint, be sacrificed.

However, as a hero, Laika, how could she bear to sacrifice Emilia, a girl who accompanied her all the way?

Staring at the holy sword in his hand, Laika's heart throbbed.

Looking away, looking at the exhausted people behind him, Laika's gaze became more determined.

As girls, they have worked hard enough, and there is no need to sacrifice them for their own selfish desires.

Then, there is only one method.

Laika made up her mind to devote herself, raised the holy sword again, and walked towards the devil with staggering steps.

The humanoid maid doll, Xiao Hui, seemed to have sensed something, and stood in front of Laika one step at a time, blocking the way. The metallic parts vibrated and made a sound, "Master Laika, you can't do stupid things."

Although it's just a mechanical doll, there is nowhere in the mechanical texture of the voice that reveals the care and concern for Laika.

And Xiaohui's master, the girl Lucia who is a puppeteer, also propped up her tired body, and said in a weak girlish voice, "Laika...you run away, everyone in the knights will help you hold the devil... ...As long as you, Laika, are still alive, humans still have the possibility of defeating the Demon Race and the Demon King."

After finishing speaking, Lucia lifted the thread with all her strength and took over control of Xiao Hui's body.

Xiao Hui's body stiffened abruptly, she mechanically turned to the Demon King, and the mechanical shield in her hand instantly turned into a sickle—this was the last hidden ability of the defensive puppet created by Lucia.

Manipulate the defensive puppet with the will of the puppeteer, and make it have the lethality of the **** puppet under the manipulation condition of no hardware foundation at all-the price is the **** consumption of the manipulator's mental power and the damage to the human body. Even irreversible damage to hardware.

In other words, Lucia and Xiao Hui decided to fight to the ****.

"don't want……"

Laika had a sore nose and her voice choked up.

The other girls in the Knights also took up weapons one after another, and blocked the Demon King, leaving their backs to Laika.

"Mr. Laika, I am very glad to meet you, and the time spent with you is really pleasant. Now, it is time for us to repay you."

The knight girl Xia Ti smiled, and once again held the weapon.

Xia Ti, who stood in front of everyone and turned into a shield, was attacked by the devil most violently. For this reason, her breathing became irregular, and even her body trembled slightly.

"Brother, Tavia is also very happy to meet you. There is really nothing happier than being able to come into this world as my brother's sister...Taviya will always remember it!"

Laika's younger sister, Tavia, is just a priest of light who uses healing magic, and has no strength to fight at all, but she also smiled, and then resolutely raised the priest's staff and joined the defensive front.

"Lika-kun, please take care of the rest~"

Kaifius smiled slightly, then raised her staff and joined the camp ahead. As a princess, she understands that only Laika, who is a hero, has the possibility of defeating the Demon King.

Protect the brave even if you sacrifice your own life.

"Well, Laika-kun, you are a brave man, and a brave man cannot shed tears because of such things." The elf girl named Angelica smiled, and at the same time raised the silver-gray long sword in her hand, and the tip of the sword straightened Refers to the devil.

Kaifius, Angelica, Xia Ti, Lucia, Tavia... all the girls stood in front of Laika, blocking Laika's sight.

"you……"

Kara——

In an instant, the demon king's broken body was restored to integrity. Not long ago, most of the scars that Laika had carved on the Demon King's body with the holy sword had almost disappeared.

It moves its newborn right arm and left leg, and seems very satisfied. Immediately, he shifted his gaze to the people under the throne.

Witnessing this scene with their own eyes, the members of the Knights present could not help but gasp.

I saw it standing up from the throne, and the extremely powerful black mist around it turned into magic energy, like a shock wave, sweeping across the entire battlefield.

In front of the Demon King, the barrier made up of the girls' bodies was as fragile as if it was made of paper.

boom--

The berserk demon sword composed of black mist swung down, and the turbulent sword energy swept across.

"don't want!"

Laika didn't know when tears were streaming down her face, she stretched out her hand as if to grab the backs of the girls.

He hurried up a few steps, and was about to activate the sacrificial magic to sacrifice himself with the holy sword, but unfortunately, it was too late.

Ding--

There is no sound of fragmented flesh as imagined, but a crisp sound of collision.

The entire arena was shrouded in a quiet holy light, and the battlefield was so quiet that one could hear a needle falling on the ground.

The beautiful girl wearing the nun costume of the Holy Church stood up, and the holy light burst out from her body. Under the holy light, the faint golden light dyed the girl's silver hair yellow.

The demon king stopped doing anything, as if he was overwhelmed by the girl's beauty.

Everyone in the Knights was also dumbfounded.

The people who appeared at this moment were both unexpected and reasonable.

"Idiot... how could I let you and your companions die?"

Emilia turned her head, her face was full of crystal tears, but her tone seemed to be smiling and slightly reproachful.

"I'm also afraid of ****...but there's no way...who made me like you?"

Laika's knees couldn't help but soften, and the holy sword fell to the ground with a "ding".

The ground trembled, the castle shook, and the glass from the ceiling fell.

The sacrifice has already begun, and no one can stop it.

"I believe that everyone in the knight order also likes you as an idiot... It's just that they don't have the power to help you at this time like me. I think if they stand in my position, they must You can also make the same choice as me without hesitation..."

Laika was speechless, and he raised his head to prevent tears and wailing from pouring out of his heart.

The rest of the knights also understood what was going on, and the dazzling white light made them unable to open their eyes.

The body of the Demon King Wei'an is like a sand sculpture, continuously melting and disintegrating in the white light, and finally dissipating into particles shining with dim light, drifting away with the wind.

"Take care of yourself, idiot..."

After the voice fell, the brightness of the light suddenly increased, and everything was submerged in white light.

……

"Have you given it?"

A man wearing a crow mask sat on the desk belonging to the bishop of the Church of the Holy Light, playing with the knife in his hand. But the owner of the office knelt down on the ground trembling.

"Yes, Mr. Crow, the scroll you gave me has been handed over to the girl named Lucia in the Rose Knights." The bishop said complimentingly, sweat dripping down his fat face.

"Sooner or later, she will open the scroll. When the time comes, someone will come to you, just let nature take its course."

Speaking of this, the man wearing the crow mask jumped off the desk and squatted down in front of the bishop, with a cold breath permeating through every pore of the bishop, "After all, the knights are the heroes who crusade against the devil, and it is appropriate to give some rewards .I believe that you, Mr. Bishop, will understand what I mean...obedience to me will benefit you, if you don't obey..."

"...It doesn't matter if the Church of the Holy Light changes a bishop." The crow man warned in a cold voice.

"Yes Yes!"

The bishop lowered his head, afraid that the crow man would raise the knife at his waist and chop off his head.

A cold wind blows.

The bishop raised his head and took a sneak peek, and at some point he was alone in the room.

……

After the battle, Tavia used powerful healing magic to heal everyone's injuries.

However, there is only one person... only one person, and Tavia cannot save it.

Laika held Emilia's body in his arms. The soft body was becoming cold and stiff, and life was passing by little by little.

All the knights formed a circle and waited silently beside Laika. The joy of killing the devil did not appear on anyone's face.

Tears fell drop by drop on the nun's dress, and the creamy white ribbon on the girl's chest became darker.

"Ugh……"

A trace of unbearable flashed in Lucia's purple eyes, she took a scroll from Xiaohui, the puppet servant behind her, and handed it to Laika.

"Laika, the bishop gave it to me before departure. He said that it will be delivered to you after the demon king crusade is over."

Laika raised her head, and the scarred and tear-stained face made Lucia feel an inexplicable sadness.

Opening the scroll, Laika's expression gradually changed with the movement of her eyes, and finally turned into excitement and ecstasy.

"Weiya! Come on!"

Laika stuffed the scroll to Tavia beside her, "This is resurrection magic, a forbidden magic of the healing church, it can resurrect Amy!"

Tavia glanced at it, and a gleam of joy flashed across her fair face. She nodded and said in a positive tone, "If there is nothing wrong with the scroll that the leader gave us, with the spells recorded on it, Tavia You can revive Sister Amy~ But Tavia needs half of her brother's magic power as the price for activating the spell."

Speaking of this, Tavia looked at her brother with some concern, and clenched the wand in her hand even tighter, "Although the magic power will recover in a short time, it is too dangerous to draw more than half of it all at once... Oni-chan, is this really okay?"

Laika handed Tavia's hand without thinking: "I am willing!"

……