The Fake Hero Is Too Strong-Chapter 137

As if in response to that shout, Adin spoke.
“Why have you come here again?”
We all readied ourselves for battle.
I deliberately answered in a mocking tone.
“This time your performance is rather lacking, huh?”
“….”
“What, no grand entrance from the sky like last time? And you’re even speaking with your actual voice now.”
“Hmm.”
“At this rate, you would be better off hiding. What’s the matter, do you think appearing when the trumpet blows is one of the laws of the world?”
For a moment, his white figure Shuddered.
Anyone could see he was clearly shaken.
But he forced himself to speak in a calm tone.
“Law…. who told you about that?”
“I didn’t need to hear it from anyone. It’s obvious enough just looking at you, overwhelmingly powerful, yet heavily restricted in what you can actually do.”
“…..”
“No need for long talk. Return Agril.”
Adin gave a short, mocking laugh.
“If I were going to return him just because you asked, why would I have taken him in the first place?”
“Handing him back politely would be better for you. Who is going to believe you’re some God looking like that?”
“….”
“By stealing Agril, you have gone beyond ‘passive cooperation,’ haven’t you? That’s why the laws of the world are placing restrictions on you.”
His silence was confirmation enough.
Xenia spoke sharply.
“Agril is our comrade. The place he belongs is at our side.”
“That was a gift I bestowed upon humanity in the second era of the hero.”
“If that’s true, what kind of petty bastard takes back his own gift?”
“You are a holy knight, yet your tongue is so foul. Where has your reverence for the divine gone?”
“I didn’t sell it. I threw it away. No buyers.”
Xenia, who rarely dropped her formal speech, sounded unusually biting.
And her final remark truly enraged Adin.
Just as planned, we had succeeded in provoking him.
Ssst.
He raised a finger.
“So, you put your faith in that pitiful shield technique and dare to act arrogant.”
“….”
“Or are you planning to throw around Impelium’s name again to intimidate me?”
“Who knows.”
“This will not be like before. I have heard that what happened then was nothing but your bluff.”
“……”
Heard? From who? What?
I wanted to ask, but there was no time.
“Coming here to the starting point was your mistake. Here, I can kill you and face no restrictions whatsoever.”
“……”
“Rest in peace. Fake hero.”
From his fingertip, divine radiance blasted forth.
–Kwoom! Kwooooaang!
It tore through the hundreds of layers of shields we had prepared as if they were nothing.
Three seconds.
In just three seconds, half the shields were destroyed.
“Neril!”
“I’m on it!”
Clutching the Gem of Desolation, Neril formed hand signs at a frantic pace.
“Transcendent Disintegration.”
It was the same spell she had once used in the Atrium territory, creating thousands of disintegration spears to erase a mountain.
But this time, she formed only a single spear.
A colossal spear, tens of meters long.
She braced it with both arms, then hurled it against the divine radiance.
At that exact moment, the remaining half of the shields shattered.
–Chiiiiii! Shyaaat!
The transcendent spear and the divine radiance clashed head on.
“Ugh…”
“Neril!”
“Hang in there!”
As planned, Xenia and Serein supported Neril’s back.
On the way here, Neril had already taken a short crash course from Iori, thanks to Adwin.
Sssss.
The secret of converting divine power into mana.
“Ghh!”
The life force of the Gem of Desolation.
The monstrous divine power of Xenia and Serein.
And Neril’s own mana.
Even with all that combined into the transcendent spear, it was still being overwhelmed by Adin’s divine radiance.
Crack.
The ground beneath Neril’s feet split open.
“Ugh. I—I won’t last much longer.”
“Just a little more.”
“Mide……..”
“Not yet. Hold on a bit longer.”
Neril bit her lip.
Blood trickled down, but determination burned in her eyes.
“Haaaaaah!”
The transcendent spear, forged from their combined strength, flared even larger.
It held out against the divine radiance for a few more seconds.
[Not yet. Still not yet?]
‘Just a bit.’
[She won’t hold out much longer.]
‘Not yet. Wait.’
I fixed my gaze on Adin’s shining form.
Through the Eye of Omniscience, I had seen it, just for an instant, he had reverted to a human form.
Back then, when he fired that radiance at Agril, it had lasted only five seconds.
But now, it had already gone past twenty.
He was desperate too, but he had to be reaching his limit.
Then it happened.
“Ghh. Stop struggling and die already, insects.”
His radiance suddenly flared brighter.
Through that blinding light, I clearly saw it.
His left arm.
Only there, the light had vanished, exposing bare skin.
I quickly signaled to Adwin.
He had already finished the incantation.
[It’s connected! To Agril’s soul!]
The moment I heard that, I shouted without pause.
[Bite his left arm, Agril!]
Offense had been hiding behind Agril’s massive body all this time.
He had been there for quite a while.
When Adin’s divine radiance shattered half the shields, Mide had told him:
[Now. Move into Agril’s shadow.]
‘In this chaos?’
[Neril is preparing Transcendent Disintegration. And Adin noticed it.]
‘….’
[He no longer has the attention to spare for Agril. If you move now, you won’t get caught.]
Offense trusted Mide’s intuition.
That intuition was unlike Trail’s Eye of Omniscience or the power to manipulate time.
It was Mide Mohan’s own unique gift.
Without hesitation, Offense had slipped into Agril’s shadow.
By the time he hid behind Agril’s massive frame, the shield spell had broken and Neril’s prepared disintegration spear had been unleashed.
‘He really didn’t notice.’
Seeing it this close, he was sure.
Adin’s face was hidden in the white brilliance, but his attention was entirely fixed on the spear of disintegration.
Clink.
With utmost care and caution, Offense opened the potion bottle.
He recalled Serein’s words from yesterday.
“You don’t need to apply it to the wound directly. Just pour it over Agril like you’re sprinkling it.”
“Will that work?”
“Yes. I brewed this one properly. I plan to make it the trademark of my future business.”
“….”
“For reference, I’m thinking of pricing it around a hundred gold coins.”
Offense had scoffed at that absurd price at first, but now he had changed his mind.
‘Even if it cost a thousand gold coins, I would buy it.’
It was practically a potion of resurrection.
Agril’s breathing began to steady.
The bleeding stopped, and the torn skin knit back together.
It was as if time itself were turning backward.
Through the soul link Adwin had prepared in advance, Offense called out.
[Are you alright, Agril?]
[Grrrk?]
[Shh. Don’t make a sound.]
[Grrrr.]
[Mide will give you the signal. When he does, bite exactly where he tells you.]
After saying that, Offense pulled out a tool from his cloak.
The same tool he had once used to draw Hyran’s blood.
It was capable of extracting fresh blood even from dust dried for days.
A few seconds later.
Through the soul link, Mide’s voice suddenly rang out.
[Bite his left arm, Agril!]
“Graaaaaah!”
With a roar that vented all his pent-up rage, Agril lunged at Adin’s arm.
By then, Offense was already hidden deep within the shadows.
Adin’s voice rang out in shock.
“Agril? How did you….ugh!”
Crunch!
Agril’s fangs sank into Adin’s arm.
Normally, that bite would have torn the limb clean off.
After all, Agril’s fangs were as thick as a man’s forearm, no one could say it wasn’t a sound plan.
But this time, his teeth only managed to pierce slightly into the flesh.
And that was enough.
He had bitten flesh, not the radiance.
“You wretched beast!”
Still blasting divine light from his right hand, Adin swung his left.
That single strike sent the colossal Agril flying dozens of meters away.
—Kwooong!
He crashed through five trees before slamming into the ground.
Adin raised his left hand, pointing at him.
To kill the beast that had dared bite its master.
But then.
Whoosh.
Agril’s unconscious body lifted into the air.
It looked as though some unseen strings were pulling him up.
Adin’s eyes widened.
“A spirit? No… there’s a spirit I can’t see?”
He focused his sight, channeling divine power into his eyes.
And then, a familiar figure came into view.
“Mime!”
“It seems you have picked up quite a few strange tricks since I last saw you, Adin Press.”
“Gh… damn you.”
Tap. Tap.
Adin hurled several orbs of light at him.
But Mime evaded them with ghostlike speed and flew toward Mide.
That sight alone told Adin everything.
He shouted at Mide in rage.
“So this was all a ploy from the beginning! Just to take back Agril?”
Mide replied with a lazy grin.
“You really are slow.”
“Gh…”
“No, I mean truly slow. Taking back Agril wasn’t the only goal.”
“What?”
“What do you think this is?”
Swish.
Mide held up a small vial.
A vial filled with dark-brown liquid.
‘That’s… no, it couldn’t be. The Gem of Greed?’
He had heard the story.
That Idria had lost the Gem of Greed to Mide.
Adin recalled the moment Agril’s fangs had drawn blood from his skin.
Blood. Could it be my blood?
‘But who…?’
Just then, Adin spotted the man stowing away his tool behind Mide.
The Bright Death, Offense!
“Impossible! Even distracted, you mean I didn’t notice you come right to my side?”
“If that bothers you, then what about Neril still clashing with your radiance?”
“….”
“Or Xenia and Serein, holding her up? Or Adwin, who connected Agril’s soul to us? Or Lisel, commanding the duke spirit Mime?”
“Gh…”
“Even a so-called god of the heavens can be struck down if we work together. How does that make you feel?”
At that moment, Neril gasped.
“Mide, stop rage bating him and just finish this already!”
“She is right! We are seriously about to die here!”
“We need to start running, now!”
“Yeah.”
Mide uncorked the vial.
Adin roared.
“No! Stop! Don’t you dare!”
Gulp.
Ignoring him, Mide swallowed the liquid.
His face twisted in disgust.
“Second time already. Damn it.”
Humans are creatures of adaptation.
The second time drinking that filthy vial of greed, it was….
[Manageable?]
‘I almost said it out loud. But if I had, I think there would be no going back.’
[Too late. Thinking it is the same as saying it..]
Shut up.
Either way, the instant I drank that foul vial…
“Gh…”
Adin let out a groan.
I had stolen his power to shoot radiance.
The light vanished from his fingertips.
And through that opening, Neril’s Transcendent Disintegration shot toward him.
But Adin hurled himself aside just in time.
‘Damn, close.’
Still, the sight of him tumbling gracelessly across the ground was some consolation.
Adin snarled.
“To think you would drag me through the dirt.”
“No one told you to roll around down there. You could have just taken the spear head-on.”
“Gh. Don’t think stealing my radiance means you have taken everything from me!”
He opened his jaws wide.
I hurriedly pulled Neril behind me.
“Stay back.”
“Haah… sorry.”
“What are you saying? You have done more than enough.”
I gripped my sword.
That filthy vial of greed was a strange thing indeed.
Just like when I had stolen Sobius’s power before, I somehow knew how to wield this stolen ability without anyone teaching me.
‘But to think even the powers of a god could be stolen…’
[That’s because he is no true god. And once he bled as a man, he was no higher than the Demon King.]
I was about to agree when…
…Kuwaaaaaaah!
From his mouth came a torrent of light, far greater than before.
“Your dignity just keeps dropping lower!”
I leveled the Fake Hero’s Sword at Adin.
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