Chapter 206
Chapter 206
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 206
Chapter Title: Red Night (6)
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“The aura... it’s different from before, isn’t it?”
As Eliya spoke those words, Dawood Campbell, standing beside her, quietly nodded.
He had sustained injuries here and there while pushing through to this point, dispelling the spirit bodies along the way, but he showed no sign of caring about them.
As if these wounds were utterly insignificant compared to what lay ahead.
“So now the real fight begins.”
The reason the devil’s true body summoning in phase two remained a nightmare for most Sera players was that the event had been designed from the start to etch the devil’s ‘might’ firmly into the players’ minds.
The pillar of fire before them had gone beyond merely scattering demonic energy; it was now ‘transforming’ the entire surrounding environment.
The blazing flames were no longer just dyeing the surroundings red.
The smell of sulfur. The stench of scorched vegetation.
Along with those, a pitch-black energy spreading from the burned remnants began to envelop everything.
It was completely altering the earth and the air into something ‘else.’
Into an environment that felt like it belonged to an entirely different world.
“...What is this?”
“Terraforming.”
Dawood let out a sigh as he said it.
“Its mere existence is turning this area into something identical to Pandemonium.”
An absurd ability.
In terms of lethality, it was the power to kill the world just by breathing. After all, in Pandemonium’s environment, nothing could survive except the lifeforms native to it.
And this was the standard ‘passive’ that all devils possessed.
“...”
Fortunately, for now, its effect wouldn’t spread across the continent. The devil’s true body hadn’t descended in person.
But.
Summoning a ‘powerful entity’ that shouldn’t exist in the material world was more than feasible.
-!
-!!!
A dimensional gate opened nearby.
But this one was on a completely different level from the previous ones.
It carried an ‘aura’ that could overwhelm a human just by looking at it.
-!!
-!!!
What emerged from within was a demonic beast in a form resembling a human.
Its entire body was clad in what looked like ‘armor’ made of demonic power, equipped with a ‘weapon.’
“...A knight?”
Dawood chuckled softly at Eliya’s murmur.
It was an affirmation.
“Kings always have their escorts, right?”
Dawood muttered.
A devil. The king of Pandemonium.
Naturally, it would have creatures drawn to its overwhelming strength.
“Something like that.”
Hell Guard. Hell’s royal guard.
Powerful lifeforms that ranked high even within Pandemonium.
They gave off a vibe similar to the automatons used by the underworld’s angels, but their combat prowess and lethality were on another level entirely.
“...”
The moment she saw it, Eliya instinctively realized.
‘I... can’t win...!’
The gap was utterly despairing.
She had faced all sorts of insane things alongside Dawood, but this one was...!
“Eliya.”
“Yes?”
Just before Eliya’s mind began to fade, Dawood’s low, steady voice pierced her ears.
“I’ll say it again: at the end, it has to be you.”
“...”
“No matter what happens to me, don’t look back. You have to see it through to the end. Got it?”
“...”
The fact that he was saying this.
Meant this man was undoubtedly about to suffer something horrific.
“...How strong is that thing?”
“...”
Dawood fell silent.
As if he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“We can’t beat it. Either of us. Not right now.”
He let out a deep sigh.
“But one of us has to push forward.”
“You’re not saying you’re going to face that alone again, are you?”
“Yeah.”
Eliya gritted her teeth, barely forcing out the words.
“...Teacher.”
This time.
She could say it with certainty.
“You’ll die.”
“...”
“...You’ll really die.”
She could feel it clearly.
This time, he had no special plan—he was just charging in blindly.
Because he had no choice.
“...But.”
Dawood replied with a bitter smile.
“We still have to do it.”
“...”
“Go on ahead. I’ll handle this.”
Eliya looked at him with trembling eyes.
●
Cecilia XI glared at Marquis Bogart with a fierce gaze.
It was an unusual sight for her, who always wore a gentle smile, but she knew full well that such pretenses were unnecessary with this man.
“...First off.”
Even his follow-up words confirmed it.
“Do you realize that a mere marquis barging straight into the emperor’s chambers is an enormous act of disrespect?”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Of course, her opponent wasn’t even pretending to listen properly.
Right in front of the emperor, whose expression was openly souring, Marquis Bogart grinned and continued.
“What do you think?”
On the desk between them sat a crystal orb projecting an image.
Likely footage from near the site of the third trial.
“...”
Cecilia XI turned her gaze to the screen.
The sky, the ground.
Everything nearby was being reduced to ash.
She could even imagine that if there had been a sea nearby, it would have been burned away too.
‘Red Night.’
The rampage of the crimson devil.
The national-scale catastrophe this man had pointed out would happen someday.
“That pillar of fire, Your Majesty.”
As the emperor pondered this, Bogart spoke up again.
“It’s getting stronger, isn’t it?”
“...”
“If we leave it like this, even the Seraph’s barrier will shatter, right?”
“...”
“Three fragments in a devil’s vessel going berserk, barrier destroyed, contact with the devil’s true body in the void zone... yeah, world’s done for.”
His light tone and flippant manner irritated her a bit.
But it was undoubtedly an unprecedented crisis. Serious enough to call it the end of the world without exaggeration.
If the true body met an awakened vessel, that would be a true ‘devil descent.’
Even one of the seven great devils succeeding would be enough to doom the entire continent.
“...Troops have already been dispatched from within the Empire.”
The emperor said in a stiff voice.
“The absolute elite, ensuring nothing like that happens—”
“No.”
Bogart cut her off curtly.
“They’re all useless. You know that too, Your Majesty.”
“...”
“Why do you think the Holy Kingdom chose this location for the trial in the first place, Your Majesty?”
“...”
“It’s their way of saying they’ll quietly bury this incident somewhere no one from their side gets swept up. No matter how much power they pour in, it’s meaningless against a devil.”
Marquis Bogart continued with his ever-present grin.
“A devil rampage. Anything within ‘human’ limits is pointless.”
“...”
“The nation with the highest authority on anti-demon measures is like that. It’d be a miracle if Imperial forces could do anything.”
It was sound logic.
Of course, sound logic didn’t make her any less angry.
As the emperor glared at him silently, Bogart grinned and said.
“The only ones who could’ve handled it were the Guardians, that collection of humanity’s final evolved forms...”
His eyes gleamed slyly.
“But you ground them all to dust. Personally.”
The emperor bit her lip until blood welled up.
“...”
“You issued direct orders through Grand Duke Tristan. Sent them all to die. To suppress the devil incident.”
After a long silence, the emperor finally spoke again.
“...This seems unrelated to now.”
“Ah, right! Sorry.”
The emperor glared daggers at the shamelessly agreeing Bogart, then growled.
“What’s the point of showing me this?”
“So you can see clearly the power you’ve had your eye on.”
“What?”
“Your interest in that man, Dawood Campbell, is because you’re curious how far he can go against ‘devils,’ isn’t it?”
“...”
“To extract that ‘dead blood’ flowing in your body, inherited from your parents—”
〔You’d best watch your mouth.〕
Bogart quickly shut up.
In any case, he had an uncanny knack for knowing where the line was.
Like right now.
Scales began sprouting on the emperor’s skin, her eyes slitting like a reptile’s, and demonic power billowed around her.
Pushing further wouldn’t end well.
〔If you want to keep your neck long. Even my patience has limits.〕
The pressure in that voice flattened Bogart. No magic at work—just the natural reaction to their difference in ‘level.’
The air vibrated. Glass cracked nearby, the floor split, and fragile objects shattered.
The absurd part was that this was just from her ‘presence.’
Dragon Blood.
The overwhelming ‘ruler’s’ dignity infused in it.
The pinnacle of material world lifeforms. The origin of all magic power.
“...My apologies. Consider it a slip of the tongue.”
At his compliant response, the emperor withdrew her aura while still glaring.
At least this answer lacked any playfulness.
“Anyway.”
The emperor looked at Marquis Bogart with exasperation as he immediately resumed grinning once the pressure lifted.
She wondered what his nerves were made of.
“In that situation, we have no choice but to leave stopping the devil’s descent to that man.”
With those words, the screen swiveled.
One woman with orange hair, and beside her, a man running in tatters.
“...”
The emperor’s eyes widened.
Faces she couldn’t possibly mistake.
“Hero candidate Eliya Chrisanax. And Dawood Campbell, the eternal heartthrob of devils. Not a bad combo, eh?”
Ignoring his flippant tone, the emperor scrutinized the footage.
One thing, at least, had firmly captured her attention.
“...His body.”
She murmured in a low voice.
Dawood Campbell’s body was clearly far from fine at a glance.
Hard to even call it ‘injured.’ It was as if something was ‘rotting’ his entire form.
“...”
And ahead of him.
An overwhelming foe whose intimidation pierced even through the image.
“Hell Guard... wow, a devil’s about to descend, so even that shows up.”
“...You know it?”
“Not in detail. Just the name.”
Bogart grinned as he continued.
“Everyone who’s seen one dies, so records are scarce. Some past hero probably died fighting it too—records would’ve been lost.”
“...”
She couldn’t fathom why he spoke of lost records like he’d witnessed them himself.
As the emperor sighed in disbelief, Bogart casually continued.
“It’s definitely a crisis. Maintaining sanity in the demonic energy forming the ‘Red Night’ is rare for humans, so they can’t expect immediate help either.”
“...”
The emperor bit her lip again.
“...If it continues like that, he’ll die. He can’t fight a foe like that in his condition.”
“Is that so?”
“Didn’t you say there’s no one to help? His chances of survival are virtually zero...!”
“He’s not the type to die easily.”
Marquis Bogart replied indifferently.
As if the emperor’s worries were utterly pointless.
“Sullivan the Prime Minister fretted over his death, and that creepy masked woman too. Strangely, lots of people worry about him dying when they should be concerned elsewhere.”
“...What do you mean?”
“Most scenarios where this world ends hinge on that man, but the ‘form’ it takes has a ton of possibilities.”
“...”
This man had a habit of spouting cryptic nonsense like he knew everything.
Infuriatingly so.
The emperor glared at him with that sentiment.
“And from what I see.”
Undeterred, Marquis Bogart continued nonchalantly.
“At least in this ‘incident,’ that man won’t die.”
In fact.
The scene in the crystal orb.
Was unfolding in a way utterly unlike the emperor’s worries.
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