Chapter 60
Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Great Sin (3)
ZZZZZZIIIING!!
The outer wall of the lord's castle was sliced clean off by a slash that rent through space itself. The identity of what had cut through the solid stone as if it were tofu was a crescent glaive.
With his white hair whipping around him, Duke Rayhem extended his hand, a faint smile on his lips.
A pitch-black, ominous aura that no ordinary human could wield—or even should wield.
WHOOOOSH—!
Magical power swirled above his hand like a vortex. A silver blade came shooting in like an arrow from beyond the crumbled outer wall, only to be blocked by that very gale of magic.
CLANG!!!
"Grk...!"
Duke Rayhem's grip twisted grotesquely from the energy wave piercing through the intangible barrier.
Blood spurted from his wrist, bent in a direction it was never meant to go, like juice squeezed from fruit.
Yet Duke Rayhem did not erase his smile. He simply accepted it. Indeed, one could not hope to defeat head-on a human blessed even after abandoning their humanity.
The duke's lips curled high, savoring the pleasant sense of inferiority flooding his mind.
It was odd, no doubt—feeling inferiority yet being swept up in ecstasy and thrill.
But he had never intended to capture the woman before him with raw force in the first place.
"Hup!"
BOOM!!
Duke Rayhem stomped the ground viciously, spreading his magic like mist. For a split second, her line of sight to him was blocked by the thin wall of rising magic.
In that interval, the magic circulating from his heart twisted his mangled wrist back into shape with corrupted healing magic.
Flesh and bone—not to mention nerves—had been utterly shredded, yet his right wrist was pristine in an instant.
BAM! The next moment, the makeshift barrier he'd erected shattered like paper against the blonde woman's thrust blade... but...
Against a Special Inquisitor, the duke was no amateur—he had anticipated even that much.
He too was a mage who had surpassed human limits. Not on the level of those irrational beings in the mountains blessed by the goddess, but still.
Duke Rayhem's lips twisted unpleasantly.
"What did you see? Lady Sedent. Tell me of the sights that enraged you."
"......Shut your mouth, traitor."
"Did you see the altar of human sacrifice in the commercial district? Or the dismembered villagers? Failed chimeras, perhaps? Ah, I see."
Reciting the atrocities he'd committed in his own territory one by one, gauging Isabel's reactions, the duke nodded as if suddenly realizing.
His eyes gleamed with delight as he murmured casually.
"Last but not least, your watchers reported the back alleys, didn't they, Lady Sedent?"
She must have seen the slaves.
Duke Rayhem added that, and Isabel immediately kicked off the ground.
BAM—! With a roar like an exploding shell, her figure vanished.
The duke's eyes rolled sideways in their sockets, but as a mage, chasing even her afterimage was the best he could do.
SLASH!!
"Gurk...!"
He couldn't even naturally block the attack. A flash gleamed, and Duke Rayhem's neck spurted dark red blood from Isabel's unhesitating crescent glaive swing.
A wound that would kill any ordinary human—even a sword master transcending physical limits.
Squelch—
But for a grand mage who had grasped the devil's hand, it was different. The gash on Duke Rayhem's neck rewound like time reversing itself—
"Kuh, kuhehehe...!"
And erased even the tiniest scar. Duke Rayhem burst into manic laughter laced with rapture, while Isabel's expression hardened.
Such rapid regeneration from a fatal wound was not a power permitted to ordinary black mages.
A miracle beyond the impure ones, unachievable with their crude devilish might.
"......Duke Rayhem, you."
Isabel soon pierced what the man before her had joined hands with. Her delicate brow furrowed as she swallowed a groan.
Demon nobles ruling dimensions beyond, far above lesser devils.
Viscount? Marquis? No, not even that level. Far higher up.
A more cataclysmic power than Duke Ortus, who once descended on the empire's western swamps.
"Honored to be recognized, Isabel Sedent."
Duke Rayhem gazed contentedly into Isabel's eyes and clasped his magic-infused hands together.
Even the formal honorifics he had maintained were now gone. He no longer intended to remain an imperial duke.
SHRIIIP!
Duke Rayhem—no, Dietrich Aulos Rayhem—parted his clasped hands, tearing space itself.
Crunch, crack! Craaaack! The air split in two, and from beyond poured countless crimson-black claws.
Beings using a formless void as a foothold to cross into this world.
"Even you... couldn't withstand 'us' in this state."
The demon king's most loyal kin and servant, said to raze nations single-handedly.
"The Archduke stands with me."
Dietrich intoned lightly, and the next moment, the blue sky was painted pitch black.
RUMBLECRASHCRASHCRASH—!!
The demon archduke had descended into the human realm. Along with a black tidal wave swallowing the entire city.
"Have you given it proper thought these past five days? Why I would take the risk of summoning a priest as strong as you to this city."
"......"
"Truth be told, if I truly sought safe achievement of my goals, there was no reason to request aid from the Sun Church. I know well how keenly priests detect the devil's power."
Dietrich clasped his hands behind his back as he trampled the grounds where the grand lord's castle once stood.
It hardly counted as proper with one arm blown off, but even so, he continued speaking with remarkable calm for someone missing a limb.
"By the same token, having already forsaken humanity, I had no cause to delve into slave trading. I gathered them not for sale."
And with a smooth motion, he knelt on one knee, leveling his gaze with Isabel, who gripped her crescent glaive.
Still, alongside the colossal black giant looming imposingly behind him.
"Do you have any inkling why I lured a divine caster as powerful as you here?"
"......Cough."
Isabel spat crimson blood, looking past Dietrich at it. Now that the former demon king was dead, the most threatening existence in the demon realm.
Demon Archduke Behemoth.
Gleaming obsidian hide, six pairs of ceaselessly rotating eyes, bizarre fangs protruding downward in jagged curves, countless arms.
Isabel could fell a demon duke alone, but this was a monster beyond specs.
With Israfeel, perhaps. Alone, she saw no path to victory.
Forcing down the rising blood, Isabel's eyes trembled weakly. She glared at Dietrich and rasped.
"You intend... to use me as a sacrifice to bind Behemoth to this land."
"......"
Dietrich smiled silently, offering no firm confirmation. With suppression complete, there was no need to hide further... but.
"......To add a note, I was quite flustered at first. I didn't expect you to reach my city quite so swiftly."
Revealing the truth early wasn't entirely joyless. Dietrich hoped the woman before him would feel greater anxiety and impatience.
"Five days ago, the summoning array in the lord's castle wasn't even fully complete. I likely couldn't have claimed such easy victory against you then."
"......"
"So I bought a little time. Pressuring the inns wasn't solely to harass you. Heh, sorry if it inconvenienced you."
Grind. Isabel clenched her teeth quietly, and Dietrich's eyes curved in delight at the sight.
This monstrous woman kneeling so helplessly before him.
A searing thrill raced up his spine.
Since his goal was her body, snapping her arm and knocking her out posed no issue... but Dietrich decided on leniency.
Having subdued her like this, he could at least explain why she'd been caught.
"......The goddess's power and magic are near-perfect opposites. At that level, divine power holds a slight edge, but against a being like a demon duke or higher, not so."
The abrupt topic. Isabel regulated her ragged breathing to expel the invading magic, glaring fiercely at Dietrich all the while.
No clue what preamble this was for, but Dietrich pressed on undeterred.
"Isabel Sedent, your divine power could inflict great harm on the Archduke. But the reverse holds true as well. With the power bestowed by the Archduke, I can suppress you."
"......What are you getting at?"
"In a suppressed state, there's room to exploit opposing forces either way."
"......"
"Just as offering your soul to the Archduke could prolong this descent. Hm."
Pausing briefly, Dietrich's voice trailed off. Then suddenly, he reached out and roughly seized Isabel's blonde hair. Crunch!
"Ugh...!?"
Ignoring her pained groan, he merely twisted his lips coldly.
Tilting his head as if her reaction pleased him greatly.
"But, Isabel. I'm thinking of altering the method slightly. No need to waste this immense power on a one-time use, right?"
"......Kuh. What are you."
"What? It's simple. No need for complications."
Yanking Isabel's hair upward to wrench her head back, Dietrich grinned viciously.
"What do you think I gathered divine power users for? Mimicking slaves, of all things."
"......"
Isabel pressed her lips shut without reply.
But that composure didn't last.
"Kuh...!"
Realization dawned, hardening her expression, and Dietrich erupted in a mad laugh upon confirming it.
He roughly released her hair and rose to full height.
Gazing down imperiously at Isabel's dawning horror.
"Absorbing divine traits through sexual acts doesn't have to be your exclusive privilege forever. Nowhere does it say so. Right?"
"......You filthy heaven-defier...!"
"Soon, the demon legions led by the Archduke will descend on this city. They'll feast freely on the banquet I've prepared underground."
Blood trickled down Isabel's chin. Backlash from forcibly wielding divine power after heavy stamina drain.
Even enduring that to raise her glaive, a bladeless strike held no meaning.
CLANG!!
Her desperate thrust didn't graze a hair on Rayhem.
Behemoth's massive hand had blocked it first.
[......]
The demon's hand thoroughly guarded its contractor. Defeat colored Isabel's face, and Dietrich swung his arm.
"......!"
BOOM!! A deceptively light gesture, yet Isabel was flung far back.
Tumbling through the rubble of the ruined lord's castle before crashing into the debris.
Dietrich dusted his hand and continued.
"I'll claim your body myself—it's exceptional, after all... And I don't exactly hate embracing women."
"......Kuh, hup."
"Ah, I'll leave your consciousness intact, so no worries. Watching how long you keep that defiant glare? Should be fun."
As if. She burned to retort, but controlling her trembling body was ordeal enough.
Dividing strength endlessly to repel the magic invading with every clash.
Nothing more was possible now.
Isabel glared at Dietrich with bloodshot fury.
"Foolish resistance."
That was her limit, and Dietrich knew her powerlessness well. Drawing a faint smile, he approached.
"If only you'd blocked the Archduke's black wave during his descent, you wouldn't be like this. Quite the farce—you caring more for this city's people than its lord."
No strength to fight him, nor to flee.
Isabel bit her lip amid stone debris, and Dietrich leered darkly.
"It's an honor to take you, Isabel."
Behemoth loomed protectively behind, tilting its head in interest.
The moment Isabel squeezed her eyes shut, imagining her grim fate—
[......!]
FLASH!!
And.
KABOOOOOM—!!!
[KYAAAAAH...?!]
A crimson claw plummeting like a meteor from the sky savagely tore into the giant's face.