Chapter 95
Chapter 95
Chapter 95
The Final Battle, Marbas (4)
Wait, a battleship?
Just as Rudian was about to question what Adi meant, the translucent golden city began to disappear.
As that city vanished, a miracle occurred at the location where Rudian stood.
-Gooooo!
"Crazy...!"
A massive space battleship with a diameter of approximately 800 meters, its entire body dyed in dark colors, was leaping through space with undeniable substance.
While Rudian trembled at the battleship's majesty, he urgently gave orders to Adi.
'Adi, give me just one more item needed for defense!'
If Marbas charged at them to kill while the battleship was being summoned, there would be no answer!
-There's no need for that.
The moment Adi's words ended, Rudian and Maria suddenly felt their vision completely flip.
Without even using levitation magic, clouds filled the view beyond the glass windows, and various incomprehensible mechanical devices were scattered around them.
"Wh-where is this? How did you pierce through my barrier and interfere with space?"
Maria was visibly flustered as her vision suddenly switched to the sky.
She was especially shocked that her defenses had been breached and space had been forcibly moved.
"A... Control room?"
Rudian was relatively familiar with the scene before his eyes, having often seen such things in SF movies and comics.
Of course, the empty space without a single pilot or crew member was somewhat eerie.
"It seems we've escaped immediate danger."
Rudian sat down and let out a sigh of relief.
The control room of the Heavenly Demon Dragon's battleship was transparent like glass windows on all sides, including the floor, showing the outside.
Due to their changed position, the current situation had become one where Rudian was looking down at Marbas, who was raising his head to look up at them.
But...
"Why is he acting like that?"
"Well... I wonder?"
Marbas, who they expected would attack Rudian before the battleship was fully summoned, was somehow unable to take his eyes off the battleship.
Marbas quietly opened his mouth.
"Why...?"
"...?"
"Why is the incarnation of the Machine God and the relic of the Demon God... here...?"
'What? Does that bastard know the identity of this battleship?'
Rudian roughly knew about the Machine God and Demon God that Marbas mentioned.
Though they didn't appear in the main story of , they were incredibly powerful supreme deities in the setting.
They were tremendously powerful beings on a universal scale, not inferior even compared to the boss-level gods appearing in Chapter 4.
'It was a setting the original author left only as a MacGuffin, so why is it suddenly coming out of that bastard's mouth?'
If this really was a mythical-grade relic as Marbas said, then Adi might be a much bigger deal than he thought.
Seeing that Marbas was spacing out without any thought of fighting proved this.
'No, this is actually good!'
Whatever the truth was didn't matter.
What was important now was victory, only that!
Rudian pulled himself together and gave orders to Adi.
"Now that his mind is distracted is our chance, eliminate him!"
-Aye, aye, sir!
As soon as Adi's resounding response was heard, the exterior of the Heavenly Demon Dragon began to shine brightly.
"Damn...!"
Marbas finally came to his senses and realized his mistake, but by then a massive beam-shaped ray had already struck him directly from the sky.
KUUUUUNG!
"Kraaaack!"
Marbas, who hadn't let out a single groan no matter how much his body was slashed by Rudian's sword, finally screamed in pain!
AHHHHHHHH!
Emitting strange sound waves, a massive pillar of light connecting heaven and earth was created.
"Wh-what the hell is that...?"
"Lord Marbas?"
Sonya and Seere, who had been fighting their enemies for a while, hurriedly stopped their offensive and retreated when light strong enough to interrupt their duel struck the surroundings.
Sonya stared blankly at the scene that destroyed her common sense and muttered.
"Am I... Seeing things wrong? A scene that should only be seen in mythical times, how...?"
While Sonya was spacing out looking at the pillar of light, Seere discovered Marbas caught in the center of that pillar and urgently threw herself forward.
"No! Lord Marbas, I'll come to rescue you!"
At those words, Sonya also came to her senses.
"Ah! You damn bitch! Where are you running!"
"Don't be troublesome, human!"
Seere and Amdusias tried to urgently finish the battle, but the two people they faced absolutely wouldn't allow it.
"Hehehe, that seems to be the work of our allies, so I can't let you go even more, can I?"
"You're not going anywhere, damn demons!"
Sonya's barrier and Archduke Quihiller's sword energy desperately held back the two demons' ankles.
Meanwhile, the light descending from the Heavenly Demon Dragon steadily destroyed Marbas' body.
The battle taking place near Nevan was finally racing toward its end.
***
"Kuhehe! Thrilling! Kraaaack!"
Marbas desperately endured even after taking a direct hit from the Heavenly Demon Dragon's attack.
But this light was truly a natural enemy to demonic nature.
It was the power of the Machine God that thoroughly crushed even Marbas' nearly infinite demonic energy.
"I am Marbas... One who will someday surpass even the Seven Seats and become the strongest in the demon realm!"
Marbas exploded his authority of challenge to the maximum and endured until the Heavenly Demon Dragon's attack ended.
When the light finally died down, Marbas let out a roar of joy at having survived the attack amid the smoke flowing from his entire body.
"Kahaha! It hurt quite a bit, but such an attack is insufficient to destroy this Marbas! Try something stronger!"
Then Rudian's answer came from the battleship as if through a loudspeaker.
-Sure, why not.
"...What?"
Marbas looked at the Heavenly Demon Dragon with a stupid expression for a moment.
And a few seconds later.
-Exactly twice the firepower. Try enduring this one too.
True to Rudian's boast, a ray twice as intense and bright as before struck Marbas directly.
BAAAANG!
"Kraaaaaaah!"
This time Marbas truly couldn't resist the pain and writhed.
But what tormented Marbas more than anything right now wasn't the physical impact.
'The, the power is being forcibly restrained again!'
The moment that light hit him, the chains of causality that had been released began to wrap around Marbas again.
"This is... So one-sided that I almost feel sorry?"
Rudian, who was quietly watching from the control room, noticed the chains of causality appearing again and let out an exclamation of admiration.
Maria, who was wiping the blood around her lips with a handkerchief, glared at Rudian upon hearing those words.
"...Are you really sorry?"
"No, not at all. I was just saying it. Rather, I'm annoyed that he's still not dead."
"As expected."
In fact, it was strange that just one battleship could unilaterally devastate a highest-grade Demon King whose restrictions had been completely lifted.
And with just one collectible stored in Eldorado!
Adi resolved Rudian's doubts.
-This battleship is among the top ten most powerful weapons among all the collectibles stored in Eldorado. Moreover, since Eldorado is pouring all of its vast power into this single battleship, such firepower and authority are inevitable.
"Is, is that so?"
-And the fact that Master significantly weakened that bastard's power is also one of the reasons. That bastard only looked fine on the outside; inside, he was a complete mess.
Especially, the chaotic power mixed with Outer Force had properly turned Marbas' insides upside down.
In such a situation, faced with the battleship's surprise attack, Marbas, who would normally have somehow intercepted it, ended up being unilaterally beaten as visibly shown.
"Kraaak!"
With these two attacks, Marbas fell into a completely critical state.
"Power... The chains of causality..."
Moreover, his power was completely restricted, becoming no different from before he left the capital.
Conversely, Rudian and Maria were able to recover their strength to some extent by absorbing the spiritual power overflowing within the battleship.
-If we had recovered paradise, I could have fully restored you in one second... It's a bit regrettable.
"I'll find that for you someday too, so don't worry."
Rudian stared intently at Marbas lying face down.
"Kr, kuhehe... Power, power is draining away..."
Marbas gritted his teeth and tried to stand up by putting strength in his legs.
"Adi, send Maria and me back to the ground."
-...Will you be alright? Wouldn't it be better to just finish safely from long range?
"I also agree with the eyeball monster's opinion. We don't know what tricks that Demon King might be hiding, so I don't think there's any need to take unnecessary risks."
"No, I still have to go."
This was simple intuition, but perhaps it might be certainty.
"Even if it's dangerous, I feel like I can get some information from that bastard."
-...Understood.
Adi no longer objected to Rudian's words.
***
The nearby area contaminated with demonic energy was cleanly purified by the battleship's single strike.
It was bewildering that something with the name Heavenly Demon showed power that was rather like anti-demonic energy.
As soon as Rudian and Maria reached the ground, they saw Marbas in a completely different state than before.
"Heh, hehe... You were hiding quite an amazing trick."
"Marbas..."
"To think you could handle that dungeon's core... Even we Demon Kings couldn't solve it despite decades of effort, so who could have predicted it."
Marbas' monster-like recovery ability had already restored his body enough to raise his upper body.
But even so, the result didn't change.
Marbas, who had used the life energy of one million people to release his power, now had his power restricted again, rendering that ceremony meaningless.
Now he couldn't handle either Rudian or Maria alone.
"You will now be annihilated. Do you have any last words?"
"Last words..."
He had originally come over in his true body rather than through possession or descent, and after releasing his power only to have it rolled back, the backlash seriously damaged his very demonic essence.
No matter how fine he looked on the outside, Marbas would soon die.
"Well, aside from saying it was a decent life, I don't really have anything to leave behind. If possible, I would have liked to face Diablo in perfect condition. That's a bit regrettable."
-Hmph! If you had, you wouldn't have even left a corpse behind.
Diablo snorted.
But surprisingly, seeing that he didn't say anything more, it seemed he had no intention of mocking Marbas' death.
Then Marbas casually said this:
"...Be careful of Baal."
"What...?"
"That's the only thing I want to leave you with. Our invasion of the middle realm was entirely led by Baal's active initiative. He's dumped the work on us and the actual perpetrator remains silent, but he absolutely won't just end things like this."
Marbas, perhaps having had many complaints about Baal usually, continued to pour out words unlike his normally stern image.
'This bastard unexpectedly has a lot of last words?'
Unaware that Rudian was thinking this, Marbas continued speaking.
But as he kept listening, information that absolutely couldn't be ignored began coming out of Marbas' mouth.
"It was Baal who originally informed us of the dungeon's existence and told us to proceed with the work."
"...!"
"And he's joined hands not only with the heavenly realm but also with extraterrestrial beings."
"Do you know who they are?"
"I don't know. In the past, I saw several angels coming and going from Baal's palace in the demon realm, but I couldn't confirm which god's angels they were."
"What about the extraterrestrials?"
At Rudian's urgent question, Marbas let out a mocking laugh.
"You're quite a curious fellow."
"You're the one who brought it up, so tell me right now."
"Well, fine. Honestly, I don't know much about the extraterrestrials either. The beings from outer space are even more vast and mysterious than the heavenly realm. But their appearance was like cephalopods that moved using tentacles, like the black eyeball monster that appeared before you earlier. That's all I know."
"...!"
Rudian's complexion hardened rapidly.
Cephalopod aliens.
That referred to the race of main villains that decorated Chapter 3 of , the Space War.
"Seems like something clicked. I don't know what you're thinking, but that's all I have to say."
"Good."
"If possible... I'd like you to end it comfortably."
Originally, he would have stabbed Diablo into him and absorbed his power while he was still alive.
That would be most efficient.
But if he had given this much information, Rudian had enough heart to show mercy.
SWISH!
Diablo's blade instantly cut Marbas' head into dozens of pieces.
Anyway, Adi would take care of collecting the scattering magical power, so at least the pain could be reduced.
-Hehehe... Very high-quality demonic energy is coming in.
The trace of sympathy for Marbas had apparently disappeared, as Diablo was drooling while coveting the slowly scattering demonic energy and demonic essence.
"Phew..."
Only after Marbas' body completely disappeared did Rudian let out a sigh of released tension.
'He really was a formidable enemy...'
There was no chance of victory in a direct confrontation, and he could only deal with him after pulling out the cheat key called Eldorado.
"Are you okay, Rudian?"
At Maria's worried tone, Rudian nodded with a gentle smile.
"I'm fine. Come on, let's go. The fight isn't completely over yet."
"Huh? What do you... Ah!"
Maria tilted her head wondering what he meant, then finally remembered the existence of Asmodeus who had fled inside the dungeon.
"Only by killing that bitch... Can we truly say this fight is over.”