Lord Demon is behind you

"What are you talking about—"

"I want you to kill me," the little girl calmly maintained her arms outstretched, "If you don't kill me, you won't be able to move forward."

"Come on, let's do it quickly. I have changed my critical damage determination to 1000 times the normal damage. killed."

——No, wait, wait a minute, why did it suddenly become like this.

This is completely different from what I thought before——

"Why do I have to beat you?"

The brave man almost shouted.It was also too sudden; totally unacceptable.

But Ludi just glanced at him in surprise, and then sighed.

"What...you, Brave One, didn't you think that you didn't think of it before? This is the situation where I need to be defeated."

She took a step closer to the hero.

——I didn't expect it at all.The brave man always thought that Ludi had become a companion again, so he would no longer need to fight, at least this time he would not have to kill each other with his former companion——

Why...do you have to kill her?

"……Ugh."

Rudy sighed softly, showing a helpless expression.

"I thought you already knew. So you don't know anything about it? You really, as always..."

She stared at the brave man's face for a long time, and the brave man could even see in her eyes that he was so shocked that he was almost terrified.

"...Idealism."

She took two steps forward again and approached the brave man.The distance between the two parties has shrunk extremely small, but because of the poor body shape, the current situation probably looks like a sibling relationship or something similar.

"I am a witch. Although I have a certain degree of ego, I am still a witch—the witch who guards the seventh floor and stands in front of you."

She was too calm, too; as if she wasn't talking about her own death at all.

"If you don't defeat me, you can't pass the seventh floor. That's how it is; this is the reality. There is no good thing in the world that can get everything without fighting. Even if you are loved by the world consciousness, you must do it at this time Just make a choice."

"But, but, you have clearly...understood the mistakes in the witch's behavior——"

The brave don't know what to do.Didn't you say before that you would become companions and work hard together?Why in the blink of an eye--

too suddenly.Suddenly to the point of psychedelic, suddenly to the point of unrecognizable.

"I fully understand the necessity of stopping the witch's behavior, so I will do my best to help you," Ludi tilted his head, "But since my body has been mixed with demons, this reality just can't help you." It's changed. I... can't go back to the position of your companion, I can only be your 'enemy'."

"Speaking of..." Ludi opened her arms towards the brave, "I've wanted to ask this for a long time. Mr. Brave, can you give me a little hug? It's fine if you are like a friend."

Is this...a farewell hug?

The hero didn't move, and couldn't make a sound.Ludi simply rushed forward and quickly hugged the brave man's waist.Because of the height difference between the two parties, this hug looks a lot like a little sister throwing herself into the arms of a big brother.

"In the end, if you didn't have to kill me to move forward, I wouldn't have to ask that former demon king to take care of you. Wouldn't it be enough for me to stay by your side? I never proposed to go with you Going to the ninth floor together, don't you find it strange?"

She murmured as she buried her face in the hero's arms for a short while.

"However, this is fine... this is fine."

And when she finally raised her head, she actually raised a happy smile.

"Because I was destined to die here a long time ago. In fact, this is a good thing for me; I don't want to have the body of this witch for a moment. If I don't think that you will definitely come to fight the witch, and I If I need to help you—I probably hated myself enough to kill myself when I was first converted."

"That's why, now...if the one who can free me in the end is my favorite hero, you..."

"At least in the last moment, I can get 'happiness'."

"You don't even want to give me this level of happiness, do you?"

——How can being killed be a happy thing?Why do you say such cruel words so calmly?

However, under the expectant eyes of the other party, the brave man couldn't say anything.

"Come on. Do it, Lord Brave."

Ludi took the right hand of the brave man and pressed it on the hilt of the holy sword.The brave man only felt that the familiar hilt in his hand became extremely hot, and he couldn't tighten his fingers to hold it——

"No need to hesitate, please don't hesitate anymore. Anyway, you should know that no matter how long you struggle, the last choice you will make must be that one."

She backed away again, smiling, spreading her arms and closing her eyes.

That petite body, starting from the legs, was engulfed by pure black bit by bit.After a while, the original human form disappeared; standing there was only a distorted black object, a cylindrical torso, slender arms, legs connected together, and the bottom showed the shape of a wheel——

The shape is almost exactly the same as that robot.This is the true posture of the seventh floor witch.

"I will do this sooner or later anyway, why don't we save time?"

...she was right.Although it was cruel, the brave man knew that what she said was right.I will indeed do this, as long as I rationally make a judgment that "this is the price that must be paid in order to move forward", I will do it no matter what.

No matter how unwilling, no matter how painful.

— After all, the other party is a witch.

——You understand, right?

——Since she is a witch, she cannot become a true companion...

——Brave, do you... really want to save her?

——You... it's better not to have too much expectation on this matter...

The conversation from a moment ago flashed vaguely in his mind.

……I see.It turned out to be the case.

At that time, the indescribable worry on that guy's face...was it for this?

■

When the brave man pushed open the door, the demon king who was leaning against the wall suddenly stood up and looked at him anxiously.

The brave didn't say anything, just turned sideways.

"You can come in. . . . It doesn't matter now."

"Ah,...the brave..."

The devil hesitated to speak.

The brave man knew that his complexion must be very bad now.He still hasn't recovered from what happened just now.

Leaning against the wall, he looked down at his palm.

Just now... I held the holy sword with this hand, and directly pierced the witch's heart.

Just as she expected, she was killed with a single blow—so until the end, Rudy smiled contentedly.

After her health bar returned to zero, she fell to the ground, stared at her body, and let out a bitter sigh.

"...This is enough. This is the best, Mr. Brave, I am finally free from this disgusting reality. If there is an afterlife, I hope that I can no longer live as a bastard, I hope that I..."

She looked at the brave man tenderly.That is not the gaze of a child, but the tender gaze of an adult woman looking at her sweetheart.

"I can be a pure human like you, and then meet you at the right time. That way, even if I can't get your love, at least I won't be excluded from the options at the beginning."

"—I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry..."

The brave can only repeat this over and over again.

Now that he was overwhelmed by a heavy guilt, he couldn't tell what he was apologizing for.

"No, it's me who should apologize. I gave you painful and bad memories, right?"

At the end of her life, she called out the name of a robot standing in the shadows.

"Ludi No. [-], you must take good care of the Brave-sama for me? After that - please..."

The witch's body just disappeared completely.

——The vision blurred for a while, the brave man turned his eyes away, lowered his right hand, and slowly clenched it.

"The brave—"

"Ludi gave us this," the brave man took a deep breath to calm himself down, then took out the two weird-looking machines from his backpack, and handed them to the devil, "It is said that after carrying them separately, they can also talk to each other when they are separated—— "

"... Brave!"

The Demon King didn't pick up what was in his hand, but directly grabbed his palm.

Only then did the brave man realize that his fingers were trembling all the time.

"You're pushing yourself too hard... There's really no need to be so reluctant."

The devil seemed to want to say something more, moved his lips, but didn't say anything, he could only hold his hand tightly, as if he was trying to convey the warmth of his palm to him.

"……sorry."

After a moment of silence, the brave man spoke softly.

"You're right. I was too naive—the other party is a witch... After knowing this fact, I still have the idea of ​​turning the other party back into a companion. I am really stupid."

Blindly repeating the wish of "maybe I can save her" in my heart, and self-talking to put the other party back into the camp of companions, this series of behaviors is just self-satisfaction.It's just out of guilt for causing my companions to degenerate into witches before, so I desperately want to grab the salvageable part...

"However, because of this, it is even more impossible to stay here."

Otherwise, what is Ludi's sacrifice?

Bearing the legacy left by his companions, he must cheer up and move forward as soon as possible.

...Must, as soon as possible....

Because one hand was held by the devil, he changed his hand and handed the two flat-shaped machines to the devil again.

"Do you know how to use this kind of thing? Tell me how to use it. After figuring out the method, I will go directly to the ninth floor along this secret passage, and I will definitely try my best to get the Demon Throne."

The demon king looked at him with a sullen face for a while, and finally sighed as if admitting defeat.

"...I see. It seems that it is useless to persuade you to stop here——Okay."

He reached out and took one of the two communication machines.

"Well, no matter what, I will definitely accompany you to the end."

"No," but this time the brave man categorically denied, "Speaking of which, I have never asked you before. Since you are a high-ranking demon and were summoned to the human world by the laws of the world, now that the mission has been completed, you should Can you go back to the Demon Realm?"

"No," the Demon King shook his head resolutely, "I can't go back."

"...It's time like this, so don't lie to me."

Although he didn't blush or breathe when he told the lie, the brave man saw through the lie at a glance.

——This is probably a kind of intuition.Perhaps it is because the relationship between the two parties has been understood enough.

"If I fail," the brave man said with determination, "if you fail to prevent the disaster in front of you, you should stop participating in the human world. Forget about me, and go back to your hometown."