The Last Memory (6)
The Last Memory (6)
[The Great Demon Belphegor has manifested!]
If the player had fifteen major NPCs, the Demon God had the Demon King and the four Great Demons. They were incarnations of evil, each ruling one quarter of the Demon World. One of them was the Belphegor before her eyes.
A serpent that devours the darkness.
True to that epithet, he was dark and more colossal than most dragons. The starlight of the night sky was almost blotted out by Belphegor's body.
- Hoh, you are no mere insect after all. I will acknowledge that courage—to stand before me and not tremble.
Belphegor's power was restricted as the price of manifesting in the Human World. The proof was that despite bearing the title of 'Great Demon,' his level was only 90.
Of course, 90 was not a low level by any means.
Had Belphegor been summoned to any nation other than the Empire, the Holy Kingdom, or the Free City of Mikavel, that day would have been that nation's last.
Goooooooo!
Belphegor raised his aura. The air surged upward as if gravity had reversed.
- Young mage, I have a proposal.
Despite the word 'proposal,' the atmosphere was far too menacing.
- Make a contract with me.
Belphegor's eyes glowed red. His eyes were up in some impossibly high place.
"A contract?"
- Indeed. A vessel of your caliber should be able to receive all of my demonic power.
"...And if I refuse?"
Belphegor looked toward the academy and spoke.
- Until you accept the contract, I will kill the insects behind you. I will be generous and kill them a hundred at a time. That will be better than killing them one by one, won't it?
The corners of Belphegor's mouth curled upward. The darkness that composed his body was so immense that space itself seemed to warp every time he laughed.
'Young. So unbearably young!'
Despite his threats, Belphegor was utterly taken with Olivia—with the unflinching eyes that looked up at him.
'How sweet and delicious that one's soul must be.'
Belphegor licked his lips. Even swallowing the souls of every other witch he had ever contracted with all at once would not match Olivia's alone.
That was how mighty her soul was. Souls of such stout resolve and lofty pride were rare.
Beings who possessed such souls all became heroes, sooner or later.
And Belphegor knew better than anyone how delicious a hero's soul could be.
The ecstasy of casting them into despair, of making them fall—nothing could compare to it.
'Now, what will you do.'
Belphegor's eyes curved into an arc. Anyone who was not a thoughtless idiot would know that fighting here would sweep away thousands at the very least.
- Do not think of stalling for——
It was the moment he began to speak.
Kwa-gwagwagwagwagwang!
With the sound of space bursting apart, dozens of lightning bolts pierced through Belphegor's head. Not a trace of his head remained. Yet his body did not topple; it still stood in place.
A moment later.
Shwaaak!
Darkness began to well up where his head had been blasted away. Belphegor drew in the surrounding darkness and regenerated his head. As expected, something on the level of a Great Demon did not die from having its head blown off.
When Belphegor's face reappeared, the earlier amusement was nowhere to be found.
- You...!
"I have a proposal too. Belphegor."
Olivia smiled, a grin spreading across her face.
"If you promise to stay flattened right there, I'll let you live for the next two days."
- You have lost your mind. Do you truly desire a painful death?
"Can you even kill me?"
Olivia lifted her chin slightly. Then she looked down at Belphegor with contempt, as though regarding a worthless insect.
"You're the weakest, most pathetic runt among the Great Demons."
—Snap.
In that moment, Belphegor felt something sever in his head.
A provocation?
A mere human, provoking him?
Belphegor's eyes blazed with a vicious red light.
The soul no longer mattered. Belphegor's mind was filled with the urge to tear Olivia limb from limb this very instant.
- I will tear you apart.
"As if."
- I will kill every human connected to you. If I keep killing and killing, hundreds of thousands will die at the very least. It will all be your doing, wench.
"My doing, my ass. You were planning to do that from the start."
Olivia's eyes went cold.
The location was bad. If it were up to her, she would have liked to keep Belphegor pinned down for two whole days, but doing that would destroy not only the academy but half the imperial capital as well.
In conclusion...
'Now that he's already been summoned, I have to kill him as fast as possible.'
She did not want to take on the risks that would arise after consuming favorability, but there was no choice.
The fallout from keeping Belphegor alive for two days without killing him seemed like it would be even worse.
'Some weird hidden quest might pop up too. The activation condition might be "keep a Great Demon alive for two days, then kill it."'
She thought she knew everything there was to know in Lactea, but she never dreamed a bullshit quest like this was hidden away.
Thanks to that, things had gotten seriously twisted.
Blue lightning flickered around Olivia.
Pajijijik!
The next moment, Olivia's form moved into the sky. In her hand was a lightning spear as massive as a great tree.
[Skill 'Lightning Spear' activated.]
Tu-kwaaaaang!
The fierce lightning pierced through Belphegor's face. But as expected, it regenerated in an instant.
- It is useless.
Belphegor loosed countless scales. The scales sharpened as they flew, turning needle-like and streaking toward Olivia.
Shwaaaak!
The scales missed Olivia by a hair's breadth. Some she dodged; others froze and crumbled before they could touch her.
- The sight of you fleeing like a gnat is quite amusing.
Belphegor opened his enormous maw.
Goooooooo!
An aura unlike anything before filled the air. Everything nearby was sucked toward Belphegor's maw. The sight resembled...
[The Great Demon Belphegor is using Dragon Breath.]
...a dragon's breath.
Endless darkness poured out.
Gguk.
Olivia's hand tightened.
A chill, overwhelmingly beyond anything before, blanketed the atmosphere.
Immediately after, an immense shield of cold appeared before Olivia.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
The cold had no form.
The cold simply froze everything it touched.
It froze and froze, refusing to let anything even draw near.
[Ancient Magic 'Absolute Zero' activated.]
The breath froze and fell to the ground.
Belphegor's eyes contorted.
- This is...
That was when it happened.
Belphegor's gaze snapped to the side. A warrior wielding an absurdly enormous greatsword was charging toward Belphegor like a madman.
- What in the world is——
Kwajijijijik!
But by the time Belphegor registered that fact, his head had already been split by the greatsword.
The swordsman shouted.
"How dare you!"
A pure-white sword slash bisected Belphegor's body. At the sudden appearance of reinforcements, Olivia's eyes went round.
It was Kiel.
A vertical stroke was drawn across the night sky. With each added stroke, Belphegor's body was carved into pieces. The sword slashes did not stop. Rather, they grew faster.
Belphegor roared.
- You damned insects!
Belphegor's tail lashed out at Kiel. Kiel blocked the attack, but he could not stop his body from being sent hurtling backward.
The place where Kiel landed was, by coincidence, right beside Olivia. As Kiel dusted off the dirt and rose, Olivia scolded him.
"Why did you come? I told you to wait."
"You never told me not to follow."
"Hah..."
Olivia looked at Kiel with an expression that said she had taken a hit.
Of all people, she had not expected Kiel to say something like that.
He was supposed to be the type who, far from talking back, was just straightforward and——
'...No.'
She had briefly forgotten.
Kiel had always been like this.
"...You lunatic."
"I will take that as a compliment."
Olivia let out a short laugh.
The memory surfaced: the time he was mistaken for a bandit twenty-three times and killed, and was finally permitted to accompany her.
After that day, their first encounter had always taken place in the Wood Demon Realm.
And the last had always been atop the Demon God's corpse.
Olivia had watched that scene from beyond the screen countless times.
When those who had saved the world held their festival, she had been unable to join them.
She had still enjoyed it.
It had been fun.
'Come to think of it, he really was like this from the start.'
She had forgotten.
It seemed she had erased it from her memory without even realizing it.
"...-ia."
At the voice from beside her, Olivia lifted her lowered head.
"Olivia. What is that thing's weakness?"
"..."
Olivia's pupils slowly returned to the present.
"Hm?"
"I asked you what that thing's weakness is."
Olivia's voice shook slightly.
"...It vanishes when the darkness that makes up its body runs out. Then it can't regenerate."
"It is night right now, though."
"That's why we have to wait until morning."
Kiel's eyes went round.
Then, realizing it was a joke, he furrowed his brow. But strangely, it did not put him in a bad mood.
"We need light."
"Light?"
"Yes. A very bright light, one that lasts a long time."
"Shall I buy you time until you can prepare flame-element magic?"
"No. To catch it, the light has to be sustained for at least thirty minutes, and my efficiency with that is terrible."
"Then you can bring your teacher."
"Right. That would——"
In that instant, Olivia's eyes widened.
One method came to mind.
A way to transfer 20 Favorability into the Genocide Run.
If she used this method, she would not even need to keep Belphegor pinned down for two days.
And Kiel would not have to remember his own death as cruel and agonizing.
"...Kiel."
Two days.
That was the last span of time granted to Olivia.
Because of that, tonight had originally been meant to be a long night.
She had planned to open up through the night, to talk while snacking on treats.
But...
"Go quickly and bring my master here."
"It would be better for me to hold out——"
"Quickly!"
"Ah, fine!"
Now she could not do that anymore.
Kiel kicked off the ground and ran in the direction of the Gold Tower. For a long while, Olivia could not pull her gaze from Kiel's back.
- As if I would permit that!
Before Belphegor's eyes could move to stop Kiel, countless bolts of lightning rained down.
- Kuaaaaaagh!
At the pain of his whole body being pierced through, Belphegor shuddered violently. It was the first pain he had felt since manifesting in the Human World.
- H-how can you...!
"Belphegor."
Kiel would bring Melina soon.
"You."
Of course, by then...
"Crossed the line."
...the Olivia of the present would be gone.