> Eh?
> Eeeeeeeh?
> He’s giving some kind of lecture lol
> The opponent is the Nether Dragon King Ades!!
> He’s not just some random weakling
> I don’t get it lol
> The old man is a god
> lol
> Who the hell is that old man lol
The auto-tracking camera hovered near me, capturing every second of my confrontation with Ades. The comment stream was scrolling too fast to read properly, but the reactions were clear—chaos, disbelief, and awe.
“Oi. Don’t put them in front of me where I can’t heal them. Over there… gently, got it?”
“Eh? I… understood…”
Ades extinguished the black flames from his hands and, still swaying slightly, began to move the two unconscious explorers toward where Satsuki-chan and I were hiding.
Placing them in front of me, someone without a healing skill, wouldn’t help anyone. With those absurdly long tails of his, he might as well reach over to them directly.
“T-there. Is this satisfactory?”
“Mm. Well done.”
The Nether Dragon King, begrudgingly obedient, had at least complied—for now. The tension remained, but the first step toward saving the others had been taken.
The Nether Dragon King didn’t ignore orders. As instructed, he carefully placed the two of them before Satsuki-chan and Mia-san, setting them down with deliberate slowness. Once the task was done, he neatly retracted his tail.
At least, it seemed he had withdrawn all murderous intent—for now, that was a relief.
“Um… are you… perhaps a relative of the Nether King?”
“The Nether King?”
Nether King… what was that? Was this his superior?
I’m not sure, but the thought of answering incorrectly here made my stomach twist. One wrong word, and he might attack without warning.
Better to bluff my way through…
No, wait. Come to think of it, before coming here…
“…I might’ve eaten him.”
“Huh??”
“The Nether King… I might’ve eaten him.”
“W-what did you just say!?”
“Well, there was something in a treasure chest labeled ‘Nether King’s raw liver’. I ate it.”
This was bad. I had just spoken the unvarnished truth. Come to think of it, I had never been good at lying.
“…I see. So that’s what happened.”
“Huh?”
“Just the other day, the Nether King lamented, ‘One of my organs has gone missing recently…’”
I had no idea how an organ could go missing, but apparently, the raw liver I had eaten was that very organ.
“You have incorporated a part of the Nether King into yourself, haven’t you?”
The expression of the Nether Dragon King shifted, and his aura changed. The malevolence that had waned when they first met was returning, regaining its original, ominous weight.
Wait—no, this is bad!
No, don’t flinch! Keep up the bluff!
“That’s… so what!? I-it’s fine, isn’t it!?”
My words betrayed my panic. My vocabulary failed her utterly.
“My eyes were deceived. Your aura… it matches the Nether King’s, and it unsettled me slightly.”
Ades’s dragon tail twitched again, moving in jagged, unpredictable patterns.
It’s definitely aimed at me. Right?
It had become painfully clear that words alone could not resolve this.
“I understand now. If you have absorbed a part of the Nether King, then by consuming you, the Nether King should restore the lost organ.”
…Ah. That made sense.
Wait—this was not the time to be rationalizing!
Ades’s two dragon tails writhed once more, aiming with terrifying precision.
One tail pointed at me… the other… was aimed at Satsuki-chan and the others!
“You, too, shall serve as the Nether King’s sacrifice, alongside that priestess over there…”
“Cremation!!”
“Guwaaaaahhh!!”
It worked.
My bluff had failed completely, so I struck first, igniting both of Ades’s tails with my Cremation skill. I had used it countless times before. Now, a mere thought was enough to trigger it.
Ades had looked momentarily enlightened, but don’t get the wrong idea, old man. I was just scared to see how you’d react because fighting would have been a pain.
The fact remains that you are a weakling in my eyes!
“My… my tail—AAAHHHHH!”
The Nether Dragon King’s anguished roar echoed across the fiftieth floor of the Nether Dungeon.
For now, both of Ades’s interfering dragon tails had been incinerated.
Perhaps because my Burial Power was maxed out, the tails had burned down to ash, scattering like smoke through the air.
“FOOLISH MORTAL!!!”
Ades shot upward toward the ceiling with terrifying vertical speed.
Simultaneously, he raised both hands, concentrating his magical energy. Black flames, far more malevolent than before, surged toward her with deadly intent.
“Black flames! Burn the unholy with the fires of hell! Purgatory Nether Dragon Fireball!”
“Retribution!”
“Ughhhhhh!!”
He shouted some over-the-top, dramatic spell name—but I simply reflected it back using my [Retribution] skill.
Even Ades own black flames had scorched him a little. But he is still alive.
Well… there was no way I could take him down this easily.
Alright then, time for round two!
Since he had “Nether” in his name, he might be some kind of undead-type… maybe this will work!
“Requiem!”
Without missing a beat, I raised my wooden staff and unleashed the next skill.
The dim cave, lit only by the flickering torchlight, is suddenly bathed in the brilliant radiance of Ascend, revealing solemn rows of carved statues and intricate reliefs. The temple seemed to regain its divine presence, the light gently illuminating every corner of the sacred space.
“I… I’m disappearing…!? Could it be… I… am losing…?”
Ah—this seemed to be working.
Ades’s massive form began to crumble, turning gradually into white dust.
I might actually have won.
Comments exploded in disbelief:
> Whoa… he is actually going to win?
> The Nether Dragon King is… vanishing…
> Unprecedented!
> ….This! The first and probably the last!
Even the spectators were dumbfounded.
I hadn’t really felt the thrill of battle—but if this ended it, I’d call it lucky.
“This… this can’t…be….. to this old human!?”
The death throes of the Nether Dragon King echoed out.
Seriously, he was the old man here!
What a rude fellow.
Go on, vanish into the light already.
“I cannot simply overlook this, you little brat!”
Suddenly, from somewhere I couldn’t quite place, a voice even older than Ades’s rang out.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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