Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Archdemon
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Whooooosh!
A heavy wind roared from all directions, blocking external interference like an arena enclosing me and Magan.
It seemed to represent the current situation, where retreat was impossible and not even considered.
I had come to rescue Pindenai, but it was no longer just about her.
The Clock Republic had launched a preemptive strike without any declaration of war.
My head burned with anger, but I had no intention of repeating the mistake I made in the Marias Great Forest by using the souls of innocent people living nearby.
From the start, I doubted that ordinary souls could inflict damage on that demon.
So, I awakened the souls dormant within me.
Valkzar, the great warrior of the Marias Great Forest with a massive build even larger than an adult man's.
Sung, the sorcerer from Dante who had deceived both him and Horua.
And Dina, Dante's monster sorcerer I fought in Claren, the land of artists.
These three were the souls I commanded as a necromancer.
Their translucent forms charged straight at Magan.
"Hmm."
Magan stroked his thick jowls, scrutinizing the three before pointing at Sung the sorcerer.
"For later, I should eat the least appetizing one first."
Crack!
The ground split open, and something with black skin and red claws burst forth, snatching Sung and dragging him before Magan.
What followed was all too predictable.
Magan devoured Sung like a drink, rubbing his belly with a sly smile.
"Still, being from Dante made it quite the delicacy."
He shook Stella's left hand this way and that, cackling in a way that continued to provoke me.
I hesitated to use Valkzar and Dina recklessly, fearing the same fate, and planned to support them with Horua's flames instead.
[Gather the souls.]
Unlike usual, the Black Necromancer standing beside me, watching Magan, spoke up.
[They're just prey anyway. Human souls can't harm that thing.]
"Quite right."
Magan responded to the Black Necromancer's words instead of me. She seemed annoyed by that alone but continued.
[Demon. An archdemon, no less. Fighting them with human souls is just feeding them.]
"Especially you, Deus Verdi. You're a truly tempting man. If you'd come just a few years later, I'd have eaten you already."
Magan licked his lips, muttering he couldn't hold back. But he soon licked Stella's arm in his hand to suppress his desire.
[Deus, listen carefully from now on.]
"......"
I involuntarily turned my head toward the Black Necromancer. She wore not her usual playful smile, but a bitter one.
[I'll handle it.]
"......"
[I'm a soul too, and a necromancer. And I taught you magic.]
"It's dangerous."
It meant she would fight the demon up close.
I couldn't send the Black Necromancer ahead against a being that devoured souls.
[Deus, we can't win any other way.]
"Didn't you say human souls can't hurt that man?"
I pointed out the contradiction from her earlier words, but she shook her head.
[I'm not an ordinary human.]
"......"
[I'm a necromancer.]
A woman who had raced beyond human limits, pursuing the pinnacle of necromancy.
She subtly pointed at Remegaton and said.
[I'll borrow it for a bit.]
"......"
My grip tightened on Remegaton.
I knew what could happen if I handed this stone to her carelessly.
I tried to refuse, but her mana, stronger than I anticipated, pressured my hand holding Remegaton and snatched it away in an instant.
The Black Necromancer infused mana into Remegaton, and her translucent body soon gained color.
Her proficiency far surpassed mine, despite the months I'd handled it.
No, it wasn't just proficiency.
"Remegaton..."
It accepted her as its true master. I'd thought I was using its full power, but I was wrong.
Simply holding it, she demonstrated something beyond the limits I'd known.
And the answer came from Magan.
"Ha! Haha! What's this? I see! So that's it! Uhahahahaha! You wench, you're the descendant of the girl Learic gave that stone to?!"
Remegaton.
The gem a girl who lost her mother early received from a demon to see her again.
Her descendant?
I looked at her involuntarily, but the Black Necromancer gave no answer and began wielding Remegaton.
[Deus, there are lines in life you must never cross.]
Her voice carried a sense of distance.
It held a wish that I never come to where she stood.
[You showed me the path to the truth I couldn't reach.]
"......"
[So. That's why.]
This was new too.
The faint tears welling in the Black Necromancer's eyes held many regrets.
[Please, keep going as you are. Cherish humanity because you are human.]
"Black... Necromancer."
[Unlike me.]
Kaaaaaaaah!
A scream.
All the swirling souls cried out in agony.
The one inflicting pain on every soul was the woman right before me.
The Black Necromancer.
"No matter how many human souls you gather... it's not that interesting."
Magan scratched his chin with thick fingers. But toward him, the Black Necromancer, slowly rising into the sky, extended her hand.
[I never treated souls as human, not for a single moment.]
"Oh?"
[To me, they're just my magic and tools.]
The souls' screams echoed everywhere, captured by her mana and slammed down like meteors.
Magan's gaping mouth stretched like rubber, jaw hitting the ground in response.
"Hwooooob!"
He inhaled deeply. Even from this distance, the suction pulled at me.
But the Black Necromancer stood unmoving, forcing souls into his mouth.
The souls were shoved into Magan's insatiable belly.
As countless souls were captured and their numbers dwindled, he smirked, about to close his mouth in satisfaction.
Boom!
A chain of explosions erupted from his gut. His bloated belly thrashed wildly.
"Krgh."
Clutching his belly, black smoke poured from Magan's nose and mouth. His emerald-haired secretary rushed over in panic.
But he swatted her away, glaring at the Black Necromancer.
"Yes, it's always been like that."
Absurd yet amused somehow, Magan stomped forward heavily and muttered.
"Weak humans who transcend humanity. They threaten our solid positions."
For example, transcending humanity.
Stella, who became the saintess herself.
Transcending being human.
Aria Rias, who became the hero to save the continent.
"I acknowledge you. You have the worth to challenge my seat."
Transcending humanity.
The Black Necromancer, who became a necromancer.
[I don't need your acknowledgment.]
She still didn't stop, manipulating the surrounding souls, determined to end Magan here.
"Such a convenient item, isn't it?"
Magan cackled, pointing at Remegaton.
"A gem that half-forces all nearby souls. The ultimate treasure for necromancers, called the Spirit Stone?"
[......?]
The Black Necromancer's brow furrowed at the anomaly. Remegaton reacted strangely, unlike before.
"The original owner of Remegaton. Do you know what we called Learic?"
We had little info on archdemons, so of course not. Magan laughed as if pronouncing a death sentence.
"Archdemon of Deception."
My legs were already moving forward. Remegaton had become a massive void, sucking in the Black Necromancer.
"Ah...."
She realized she'd been tricked and sighed.
"Where did the girl who got the stone from Learic go? Did she really meet her mother?"
Kekekekeke.
The demon's laughter echoed widely.
Souls sensing fear scattered in all directions.
The vortex vanished, leaving only the gray sky.
As the Black Necromancer began to be absorbed by Remegaton, she slowly turned her head toward me.
She tried to bid farewell with pitiful eyes, unable to even say sorry.
But I, with my body reinforced by mana, was already before her.
[De... us?]
"It'll hurt a little."
My mana-wrapped hand severed the Black Necromancer's wrist holding Remegaton.
[Khup!]
She looked at me with teary eyes. But I'd already seized Remegaton.
[De... Deus!]
She called desperately, but I blasted her away with fierce mana.
Remegaton in my right hand sucked at my soul and body like a black hole.
If I lost focus or strength, I'd be pulled in.
Unexpectedly, the sound came from.
"Umph?!"
Magan.
The archdemon of gluttony and greed. He saw the republic itself as a grand table.
He'd been eyeing me, smacking his lips, muttering about aging me like wine.
Right before his eyes.
The delicacy he thought most delicious was slipping to another archdemon.
Magan couldn't tolerate it.
"What are you doingggg!"
The ground quaked as he charged. For the first time today, urgency filled his eyes.
Despite his bulky body, he arrived at impossible speed.
He extended long claws to sever my arm holding Remegaton, but.
I was already shoving the hand clutching Remegaton into his mouth.
"Ubwup!"
Magan's face lit with ecstasy, tasting something sweet. His thick tongue licked my arm inside his mouth, unable to resist.
Then crunch!
His grotesque teeth bit off my arm, and soon Remegaton exploded massively in his belly.
Kaaaaaaaaboom!
* * *
"Heh, hieeek."
Ragged breaths burst out.
As if after intense exercise, Magan's breathing sounded like it would give out any moment.
To avoid being sucked into the Remegaton trap, he'd unleashed full power. The clash of two archdemons resulted in a massive explosion.
"Hieeek! Hwaaak!"
A huge hole gaped in Magan's belly. His lower body was completely gone.
No ordinary human could survive, but Magan clung to life somehow.
"President!"
"No fuss! Don't tremble!"
The emerald-haired woman, flung far by the blast, rushed to him desperately.
Snapping at her annoyance, the famished Magan sought Stella's left hand in his grip.
But Stella's hand was now held preciously in the hand of Deus Verdi, flung far away.
[Deus! Deus!]
The Black Necromancer wailed his name. But Deus lay motionless.
"To dare, against me."
Magan wanted to rush and devour the man in one bite.
But even an archdemon couldn't move with his lower half gone and a huge hole near his heart.
And.
"Shall I retrieve it?"
The woman asked tentatively, knowing Magan's taste for humans.
But he shook his head.
Magan was an archdemon.
Not some roadside stray.
"I don't eat corpses."
Losing a prime delicacy already dead was regrettable. But better abandoned on the ground than in another archdemon's mouth.
He might take the soul, but the Black Necromancer would block it fiercely, and in his state, fighting was risky.
At least the exquisite taste from Deus's hand lingered on his tongue.
Preserving his wrecked body took priority.
In the distance, kingdom members approached, including the girl fated to save the continent.
"We're leaving."
[Deuuuus!]
Leaving only the Black Necromancer's scream, Magan fled with the woman's help.
* * *
My closed eyes opened calmly.
A pure white landscape.
Like standing on blank canvas, devoid of anything.
My fatigue-crushed body felt feather-light.
Seeing my right hand, bitten by Magan, restored, I realized I was now a soul.
A woman's sobs reached me.
She stifled them desperately, yet tears still flowed.
In the distance.
A woman huddled, weeping.
The saintess in nun's garb, with pale blonde hair and teal eyes, even after death.
"Stella."
As I cautiously called her name, tear-streaked Stella turned and shouted.
"Idiot!"
"......"
"And also... dummy!"
Childish insults like a kid's.
"As a former saintess, your vocabulary for insulting others is quite lacking."
At my words, two horns sprouted instantly on Stella's forehead, her eyes changing shape.
Then.
"You fucking bastard!"
A perfectly vulgar curse rang out.