Chapter 123
Chapter 123
Chapter 123
Southern Great Forest (6)
Baaaaang!
The battle gradually intensified.
While great magic still hadn't been activated, the combined power of dozens of low-level spells could easily compare to the power of a single great spell.
Naturally, it was inevitable that the flow of magic would draw the attention of those around them, not only through magical energy but also visually and audibly.
"What's that all about?"
"Humans are fighting each other in the elves' territory."
The high-ranking demons dispatched to this Great Forest sent bewildered glances at the humans who were suddenly fighting each other while ignoring them.
"That old human is familiar. He's one of those who constantly interfered with us."
"Right, unlike the others, his battles are filled with emotion, making him annoying to deal with."
"The other three are new. Are they outsiders who just flowed in from the outside?"
"But why are they fighting?"
The demons were well aware that they were public enemies.
As such, this battle was incomprehensible to them.
"Kukuk, they may not join forces, but they never showed hostility toward each other before."
"They're doing something foolish."
Sneers appeared on the demons' lips.
"No, not all humans are foolish. The truly dangerous ones are watching the situation like we are."
At that moment, one of the supreme-level demons leading them glared at the far opposite side of the forest.
"It would have been dangerous if all those bastards had joined forces, but fortunately they didn't. There's no need to mock them for being foolish."
"Yes, Jagan."
The demons came to their senses at Jagan's words and nodded.
"Report to Crosel. Tell him that a variable has been added from the outside."
"Yes!"
"If those bastards are distracted by such matters, that's actually good for us. We'll do what we need to do. Find the clues to at all costs. You can sacrifice as many monsters as needed!"
Just as the demons were about to respond loudly to those words;
"I wondered why you were pushing monsters in so recklessly, but it was indeed to find ."
"Who's there?"
Jagan was startled and whipped his head toward where the voice came from.
'Th-this... I couldn't sense any presence!'
As a supreme-level demon and demon realm noble who had reigned as a predator for thousands of years, this was a first.
But what made him feel even more unsettled was...
'W-wait. The face looks familiar?'
Originally, demons don't remember human faces well, but for some reason, this opponent's face seemed very familiar.
And very recently too.
"Was Demon King Crosel here? Well, if the purpose is to recover , naturally there should be at least one Demon King-level."
An attitude as if they weren't even worth considering.
'He looks strong for a human, but doesn't seem capable of handling all of us... Ah!'
Jagan's eyes widened as he finally recognized the opponent's identity.
"Rudian Belstad!"
"You finally noticed?"
"The Demon King Slayer who killed Marbas and Asmodeus!"
"...Why are you leaving out Rigos?"
Despite Rudian's complaint, the demons seriously entered combat stance.
"We heard information that you disappeared from the capital, but who would have thought you'd appear here in the Great Forest."
"Naturally, it's to faithfully fulfill my bet with Baal. Isn't that obvious?"
"Hmph, while I highly evaluate your achievement of killing Marbas, that doesn't mean I'll meekly let you have your way!"
BANG!
Immediately, demonic energy explosively flowed from Jagan and the surrounding demons.
The power was beyond expectation, making Rudian slightly furrow his brow.
'They've released quite a substantial level of power restraint.'
Usually, a power-restricted supreme-level demon can be handled by an ordinary Sword Master level, but the Jagan before his eyes was much stronger than that.
'34,000...'
Not only Jagan, but his subordinate demons all had combat power approaching 10,000.
They were definitely on a different level from the demons in Morian.
This was a glimpse of how substantial the demons' power base in Rohans was.
'Well, considering Baal is holding his ground and can summon monsters in millions, naturally they should be at least this strong.'
Otherwise, there would be no point in coming here.
"Hey, wait a minute."
Rudian raised his hand to stop the demons who were about to charge while emanating killing intent.
The demons, who had been greatly tense, obediently accepted Rudian's restraint.
"What?"
"I didn't come here to fight."
"What? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Listen calmly. I actually came to propose a temporary alliance."
"A-alliance?"
Rudian's finger pointed to a place much farther than where Gray's party was fighting.
"Those bastards."
That was exactly where the ones Jagan had determined to be dangerous were hiding.
"They're quite bothersome for you too, aren't they? How about forming an alliance until we get rid of all of them?"
"Are you... Serious?"
Jagan's expression turned bewildered.
No matter what, if he's the Demon King Slayer, he should be called a hero or guardian on the human side, yet such a person was proposing an alliance to deal with fellow humans?
"Of course I'm serious. Why, should I make an oath for you?"
"I can't believe it. What's the reason?"
At Jagan's question, Rudian smiled coldly.
"Because they're useless even if they stay alive."
Rudian used Adi's ability to roughly grasp their identity.
Unlike the Golden Dawn Society, which simply dreamed of revenge against demons, they were ones who, like Celestial, sought to acquire to prepare for the coming Day of Great Liberation.
But their purpose was ultimately the dominance of earth.
They weren't like Celestial, who purely aimed higher as magicians, but merely simple evil forces seeking to take the ruler's seat in this world.
The reason Rudian wanted to form a temporary alliance with them was simple.
'Because they're too much for me to handle alone.'
With Holy Sword Daylight and Diablo, there was no great difficulty in dealing with demons.
But now that he couldn't use Eldorado, dealing with those who weren't even demons with only Diablo and Adi's support would be quite challenging.
'I need to clean them up thoroughly before entering the Hall of Heroes.'
They were opponents his companions couldn't handle yet, and they would also interfere with their growth, so there was sufficient justification to eliminate them.
Rudian briefly explained their unnecessariness based on the truth.
"How about it? Doesn't it sound appealing?"
"Uh, uhm...!"
Jagan pondered.
In fact, for Jagan too, those beyond were opponents he couldn't answer with a direct confrontation.
While they had the advantage with the overwhelming quantity of monsters, that was all.
Excluding Crosel, who was responsible for this place, there was no one who could definitively overwhelm them.
"It's certainly a tempting proposal, but it's not a matter I can decide on my own."
"You can ask Crosel about my proposal. I'll wait with a generous heart."
"...Fine."
Anyway, Jagan wasn't in a position to either refuse or accept.
The fighting spirit that had been surging roughly subsided.
The demons started to withdraw from their positions one by one, watching Rudian's mood.
***
"What? I thought they were going to have a proper fight."
"It ended anticlimactically. Did they just probe each other and call it quits?"
"The nickname 'Demon King Slayer' must be crying. To just retreat with demons right in front of him."
Those who had been expecting a clash between Rudian and the demons from afar clicked their tongues at the anticlimactic outcome.
"But why did they stop?"
"Maybe they were conscious of us?"
"If they knew about our existence from the beginning, they shouldn't have approached in the first place."
They chatted quietly while speculating about the reason the fight was stopped.
"Don't tell me... They didn't form an alliance to attack us, did they?"
One of them voiced the perfect answer, but it was immediately denied with intense ridicule from his companions.
"Hahaha! That's the most ridiculous story of all."
"A guy who fought so fiercely with demons in Nevan would form an alliance with demons now?"
"And does Rudian even know who we are?"
The man who had given the correct answer sheepishly retracted his words.
"Well, I suppose so."
But his eyes still didn't lose their suspicious glint.
'Still, I can't think of any other reason for that situation.'
His companions completely forgot about what had just happened and focused on what was in front of them.
"Let's forget about it and just watch that duel. It looks like it's about to be decided."
"It's been a while since we've seen a fight, so it would be a loss to miss it."
"Let's see, oh? The magician looks like he's in trouble?"
"The coordination skill has rapidly improved, but the magician's response can't keep up."
"Kukukuk, as expected, he's a hothouse flower. What good are hundreds of known spells?"
***
When Rudian returned, the battle was gradually reaching its climax.
"Huh, huk!"
"Whooo! Whooo!"
"These guys are more tenacious than leeches...!"
When they poured out all their magic and stamina to drag it into a prolonged battle, the outcome slowly became visible.
'A contest of stamina versus magic?'
Dormel boasted tremendous magic befitting his reputation as 8th Class.
However, due to his advanced age, his limits in stamina and concentration came quickly.
On the other hand, the trio didn't have as much magic individually as Dormel, but they had stamina, concentration, and the tenacity to keep clinging on relentlessly.
The result was the trio's advantage.
'He's reaching his limit now.'
Dormel's artifacts were no inferior in quality, but the same was true for the trio.
'Especially winning without properly using the Underworld Sword is encouraging.'
Elvin didn't transform into a Dark Knight like during the Archbishop battle.
Even so, defeating an opponent with similar combat power meant that his companions had also grown in the meantime.
"Not yet! Not yet!"
Dormel, panting and unable to construct precise magic, was now simply gathering magic into light bullet forms to face the trio.
Simple desperation with only some power, expecting neither precision nor swiftness.
That level couldn't possibly escape Luciella's attacks.
"This is the end!"
Luciella deflected the light bullet's trajectory and rushed toward Dormel.
Though she had squeezed her magic to the limit and was on the verge of exhaustion, she could still endure that much with willpower.
"Th-this bitch!"
Dormel looked at his greatest mistake with a distorted expression.
The main culprit who had gnawed away at his stamina with a thorough mutual destruction strategy.
The opponent was a supreme-level swordsman who had risen to a level similar to his guard Barto.
If he had known that, he wouldn't have made such a mistake!
Shuaaaak!
Dormel moved his light bullets to bombard Luciella, but the light bullets, which had no targeting formula implemented at all, uselessly cut through empty air.
PHEW!
Luciella, who had approached right in front of Dormel, dodged the light bullets and went around behind him, striking the back of his head with the flat of her sword.
"Ugh!"
Dormel's form slowly collapsed as he let out a single scream, forgetting all dignity.
"Heook, heook...!"
Luciella exhaled heavily and sat down right there.
"...We won."
At the same time, Gray and Elvin, who had also squeezed their magic to the limit, collapsed as if fainting.
"Good work."
Rudian approached behind Luciella.
She smiled weakly and looked up at Rudian.
"I'm tired."
"Yes, you look it."
Rudian looked at her quietly.
Her whole body's muscles were taut, and her skin was covered with cold sweat.
Though she was clearly exhausted, the fighting spirit enveloping her entire body was burning even more fiercely than before the fight!
This meant only one thing.
"Still, it's fortunate you gained something."
Luciella slowly gathered magic in her fist.
"...!"
Rudian was genuinely surprised by the clearly felt mass of aura.
Tsutsusu!
The magic gathered in her fist was now enveloping her entire body.
How could he not know what this phenomenon was?
Rudian himself had experienced it once!
'Awakening!'
Sword Expert supreme level.
It was already amazing that she had reached that level in her early twenties, but now she was trying to surpass even that level so soon after.
That is to say.
At this very moment, Luciella was...
Taking her first step into the realm of Sword Master.