The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

THE one-sided fight continued. There was still not a hint of scratch on the demon king. But on the humans' side, many people had already died. Aether's gaze was still the same. But if one looked closely, behind the indifference, there was something lurking within his gaze.

It's similar to anticipation. As if he was waiting if one of these humans would be able to get pass the demon king and kill him.

There were those who really tried to get pass the demon king. After all, their target was Lord Aether. As long as they killed him, the demon king would also disappear. But so far, none of their surprise attacked had worked. They should probably be thankful that Lord Aether seemed to not care about them. If he also joined the attack with the demon king, they would probably be wiped out by now.

No, it's not that Lord Aether didn't care. It's more like he's testing them. Or at least that's what they wanted to believe. Since he left that page in the holy scripture that was in the church of every country, it meant that he wanted them to finish everything by killing him. That was even supported by the saintess who was there to wake Lord Aether up.

Or at least that's what they wanted to believe to lessen their guilt of killing the god they believed in.

The one who was working hard the most was Keith. Even though all his attacked were for naught, he didn't stop. No matter if his body became tattered and bloody, he still continued to attack.

His figure trying his best even if the odds were stacked against him was deeply burned in the audience's mind.

When everyone thought that all hope was lost, the next scene completely turned that over.

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As hopelessness descended, the spot where the demon king was standing suddenly lit up. The demon king tried to move but he couldn't. He looked down and saw symbols on the ground where he's standing. They were encircling him. He also noticed that they were roughly drawn. As if they were drawn by a rough, pointed item – a sword for example.

The demon king's eyes widened in shock, especially after seeing the symbols lit up and glowed. One could see that he already had an idea of what's happening. He raised his head sharply and it just so happened that his gaze collided with Keith.

"Got you, you damn bastard," Keith said with a bloody smirk.

In that one look, the demon king quickly understood what was happening. It must be while this shit was attracting his attention by doing all those suicidal attacks, some of the trash went and drew these symbols.

He could feel the strong divine power from these symbols. He saw a lot of the priests who came here in a praying posture. Their eyes were closed and were in deep concentration. Divine power was pouring out of their body and flowing to the symbols drawn on the ground.

The feeling of that divine power was stopping himself meant that these priests were basically sacrificing their own life force just to stop him. Anger boiled inside the demon king. How dare they?

But before he could express it, a knight with a huge body suddenly appeared between him and Aether. The other's back was to him, his arms were stretched out with a sword in his hands, as if he was about to cut Aether.

An animalistic growl escaped from the demon king's lips. "Stop!"

Despite the divine power freezing him in place as well as stopping his demonic energy, he still managed to let out a dark energy. A small sharp dagger like energy that that passed through the knight's chest. Because of the constraint, it did not directly pierce the knight's heart. But it was enough to stop the other's movement.

As the knight fell, his face was shown to everyone. When it was revealed that it was Clyde, one of the four protagonists, the audience gasped. But what they saw next made them even more shocked.

Once Clyde was no longer obstructing the demon king's view, what he saw made him scream in anguish. The saintess was standing in front of Aether, holding a dagger that was now lodged on Aether's chest.

Tears were streaming down on Eleanor's face. She kept saying 'sorry'. And then a flashback of when Aether whispered to her appeared.

There, it was shown that he did not only tell her that they needed to kill him, he also gave her a special weapon that could do the job. It was a dagger. But to be able to make it work, she had to sacrifice all her divine power.

Eleanor was not crying because of that reason. Aside from the fact that Clyde had to act as bait and endanger his life in order for the plan to work, she's more heartbroken by the fact that she had to kill the god she had been serving all her life. It's like the core of her very belief was shattered at this moment.

"You did well, child," Aether's serene voice echoed around them.

Eleanor raised her head to look at the other and was surprise to see the smile on his face. That was the first time she had seen him smile. It was gentle and kind. Almost as if he'd found the peace he'd been looking for.

His form started to fade. As if his existence was starting to slowly fade. But before it did, he turned to the demon king and walked towards the other. Standing in front of the demon king, he enclosed him with his arms. Like a mother comforting his child.

"It's time to leave," Aether said in a soft voice. "Let's go to a place where you will no longer be in pain. Just the two of us. Hmm?"

The demon king slowly raised his arms and hugged Aether. And with them embracing each other, their bodies slowly disintegrated into black and white lights.