The Fake Hero Is Too Strong

Chapter 189

Aktion felt troubled.

‘What’s this? The speed suddenly got way too fast.’

At first, he had expected the barrier spell to hold out for a while until it finally broke, crushing or drowning its caster.

But instead of breaking, the spell had grown even stronger.

After thinking it over, Aktion realized something.

“Serein must have turned her fame into power too.”

He pulled on the chains binding Idria.

The chains bit even deeper into her skin.

“You should have told me sooner. You already knew, didn’t you? You were talking to them with some kind of trick.”

“Kh…” “Haa. This is getting annoying.”

“If you’re that bothered, why not go back and take a nap beside Velosian?”

“Still got that mouth working, huh.”

“I learned from Mide how to keep it sharp.”

Aktion gave a small laugh.

“Mide… that Mide again.”

“……”

“I have been wondering for a while now, what in the world is that guy, really?”

“Maybe the heir of Impelium or something like that.”

“That’s not wrong, but… that alone doesn’t explain it. It bothers me too much. Don’t tell me…”

Cracks formed in Aktion’s smile.

Idria narrowed her eyes, watching his face closely.

Fear.

It was faint, but unmistakable, fear flickered across his expression.

‘Unbelievable. For that self-proclaimed god to show fear in this room…’

Then Aktion spoke again.

“No, no. That’s impossible. I’m just imagining things.”

“……?”

“Anyway, Mide still makes me uneasy. All the more reason to kill him now.”

“If that’s how you feel, stop turning the ground into an ocean for fun. Why not just fight him head-on, like Adin or Velosian?”

“I hate direct fights. I’m a pacifist.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m serious. That’s why I will change the scenery a bit.”

Tap.

Aktion snapped his fingers.

And at once, the seawater turned into molten lava.

“We are almost there. I can see that bastard Aktion now.”

“That’s the harshest insult you have managed so far.”

Just as Serein said, Aktion’s reflection appeared on the surface above.

Beside him was Idria, still tightly bound by chains.

Just when it seemed only seconds remained.

Tap.

Aktion snapped his fingers again.

The surroundings changed in an instant.

The cold sea became boiling lava.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Calm down, or the spell will break!”

“Ah, this is worse than the deep sea!”

Sweat poured down Serein’s face.

She carefully began to shrink the size of her barrier spell.

“I will have to make it smaller if I want to keep it up.”

Neril nodded.

“It’s still enough. We are almost there anyway.”

He was right.

Even though the sea had turned to lava and the barrier had shrunk, their basic plan hadn’t changed.

[So now it’s lava after the ocean? You said that too, didn’t you?]

‘Did I?’

[The mouth is the root of all evil…]

‘How is that my fault?’

Anyway, not much farther to go now.

Certain that my voice would reach, I shouted upward:

“Stop changing the damn scenery already!”

“Hey. You were cold before, right? I just warmed it up for you.”

“You can freely manipulate the world inside this room, can’t you?”

“Of course.”

“How is that possible? This room was made by Velosian.”

Grade had told me, Velosian gifted him the gate under the imperial palace… a door that had once stood alone in the middle of a field.

But Aktion just smirked.

“The doors he made were only the white ones outside this room. He copied this place to make fakes. He is the Demon King of Lies, after all, creating fakes is what he does best.”

“……! Then you’re saying you made this room?”

“Something like that.”

“……”

“That’s why I can change everything inside it however I want. Like right now.”

Watching us struggle in the lava, he spoke mockingly.

“Keep trying. You’re almost here.”

“Hmph. Let’s see how long you can stay smug.”

Neril focused harder.

Our bodies shot upward even faster.

We were about to burst out of the lava and reach Aktion…

But then.

“W-what?”

The distance between us and Aktion didn’t shrink.

The lava still surrounded us.

We could feel we were rising, but nothing around us changed.

No, something did change!

‘What’s that? That wasn’t there before!’

[Is that… a mountain?]

‘Yeah. More like a crater.’

A ring of lava-filled craters surrounded us.

A flash of realization struck me.

Then Neril said,

“The distance isn’t closing! The spell is working fine, though.”

“That’s because the volcano is growing taller.”

“What?”

“Aktion is raising the mountain and the lava level in real time to match your flying speed.”

No one even questioned if that was possible.

We all knew there was no point using normal logic in this room.

Gritting her teeth, Neril said,

“Fine! Then I will just pour in more mana!”

Sure enough, our speed increased.

Lisel joined in to help.

“Mime! Push us upward!”

“Yes, my King.”

With Neril’s flight spell and Mime’s support, this was the fastest our group could move without Agril.

But as we got faster, the volcano grew taller just as quickly as if Aktion was toying with us, curious to see how far we could go.

In an instant, we rose high enough to pierce the clouds.

Yet Aktion still looked down at us… from the exact same distance as before.

Pirensha said,

“This won’t work. Neril, I will send you my soul, just eat it.”

“I would rather die.”

“Then what do you want me to do!”

“Did you just talk down to me?”

Offense cut in.

“I will use my sorcery to get us out. Mime, scout the area outside this lava.”

“Y-yeah. Mime.”

“Ah, that won’t do.”

It was a faint voice, barely loud enough for us to hear even though he was right beside us.

Then Aktion snapped his fingers lightly.

In an instant, Mime’s body began to fade away.

“Wait, this is just like last time….”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence before he vanished completely.

Aktion spoke.

“Anything else?”

He was toying with us.

Enjoying himself.

If he wanted to, he could have simply dropped the sun from the sky and killed us all. That would have been the easy way, but boring.

I said, “Neril. Let’s stop rising.”

“But…”

“It’s pointless now.”

“If we keep going up, he will start to suffocate. We could use that.”

“Then he will just flip the sky and ground upside down. We will fall right back down.”

Neril gave me a puzzled look, as if wondering what I was talking about.

But I was serious.

Sure enough, Aktion said,

“Smart. Mide Mohan.”

“Enjoying the view from up there?”

“More or less.”

“You will regret it. Guys like you, so full of arrogance and calm, always die the most pathetic deaths.”

“That’s something you would find in a novel. Reality tends to be even more miserable.”

“Didn’t Adin die the same way?”

The corner of his mouth twitched.

“That’s because he wasn’t a real god. He was a fake one, worried humans would stop believing in him.”

“……”

“I don’t need faith from humans. I’m a real god, at least inside this room. And you, the fake hero, should know better than anyone how big the gap is between fake and real.”

I ignored his taunts and focused on escaping from this situation.

Then, Sobius spoke quietly.

“Use the power you stole from me. Absorb all this lava.”

“Then he will just create more. If he can raise mountains at will, that won’t stop him.”

“Then what do we do?”

I spoke through my soul. Adwin was still acting as a bridge from the underworld.

[Lisel. Are there spirits inside this room too? I mean, right here with us.]

[Spirits? There’s a huge number of them. This place is pure nature untouched by humans.]

[Then attack Aktion through the spirits. Even just to distract him for a moment.]

[…Even that won’t be easy.]

I went quiet.

But Lisel had already taken out the Branch of Corruption.

[Don’t look like that, Mr. Mide. Even Serein has made up her mind, I can’t be the one to hesitate.]

[Don’t say my name with that serious face.]

[I will give up on becoming human.]

Lisel’s wish had never changed.

She snapped the branch in half.

And then…

Lisel became something beyond words.

“Li… Lisel?”

Her form vanished.

Now, she stood between the realms of spirit and human.

Normally, she would have needed to give up her humanity completely to become a true Spirit King.

But by using the Branch of Corruption, she had bought herself a month as something in between, half human, half spirit.

“Where did Lisel….”

—Badreena. Mater. Torreim!

Before Offense could finish speaking, Lisel’s voice filled the air.

It spread through the entire room.

It reminded me of the time Adin made rain fall across the whole continent.

Lisel was commanding all the spirits within this space.

I couldn’t understand the spirit language, but I could see the results.

“Ugh!”

Aktion let out a sharp grunt and hunched over.

A massive storm swirled around him.

Blizzards that felt like they could slice through flesh raged.

And somehow, fire broke out where there was nothing to burn.

It felt like watching the end of the world.

Neril murmured, “That’s a Spirit King…”

“No time to stare. Focus.”

“R-right. I will cast again…”

“No. Watch Aktion closely.”

Neril lifted her gaze, but her eyes weren’t sharp enough to see clearly.

Offense spoke for her.

“He is looking at us.”

“Yeah.”

Aktion had curled himself up like a turtle in its shell, enduring the attacks of countless spirits.

But even as he cowered, his gaze never left us.

“Neril, if you rise again, the lava level will rise too.”

“Then what should we do?”

I went silent and spoke through the soul again.

[That’s why you have to act, Idria.]

Her voice came back, calm as ever.

[I figured as much. I am, after all, the one closest to him.]

[Right.]

[But what can I do? I can’t even use my strength.]

[You can still move, at least a little.]

I explained quickly.

[He is watching us, not you.]

[…Heh. So Lisel attacked him just to make him focus on you. Clever girl.]

Exactly.

Aktion wasn’t stupid. He had probably guessed why Lisel became a Spirit King.

He must have thought, “Lisel was the bait. The real attack will come from Mide.”

But he was wrong.

Lisel was bait. And so was I.

The real attack would come from Idria.

[Bite his arm.]

[Did I hear that right?]

[You absorbed Adin’s memories, didn’t you? When we rescued Agril, he bit the enemy’s arm too.]

[You’re comparing me to a beast.]

[Sorry, Agril.]

[…]

[The only part of you that can move is your neck. So move it and bite him. Draw his blood.]

I braced myself.

I had turned all 1.2 million fame into power, and poured it all into my legs.

Crack. Pop.

My muscles swelled.

[On three, bite him, puppy.]

[Shut up.]

[One, two… three!]

Kwaaaang!

I shot up through the lava at terrifying speed.

“Heh. I knew it.”

Aktion raised the volcano’s height again to match my speed.

The distance between us didn’t shrink.

But that wasn’t the goal.

Crunch.

“Aaah…?”

Idria had sunk her fangs into Aktion’s arm.

No, she tore into it.

“Sorry, Batore. I will heal you later.”

Like a predator ripping apart its prey, she ripped the skin clean off his hand.

“Pah.”

Then she spat it toward me.

I could clearly see the shock widen Aktion’s eyes.

Time seemed to slow.

I focused on the drop of blood falling from that torn piece of skin.

I pulled out the vial of Greed.

Then, with a move so precise it was almost acrobatic.

Drip.

“No…..!”

The blood drop landed perfectly into the vial.

“Tch. You think I will let you drink that?”

Thud!

Aktion kicked Idria away and began reshaping the world again, this time lowering the volcano rapidly.

The distance between us closed in an instant.

But I could already tell.

I have plenty of time.

Plenty of time to shake the vial, and drink that filthy liquid.

I even waved the vial at Aktion as he closed in.

“For your destruction.”

Gulp.

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