242
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake
Chapter 242
Caesar gripped the reins tightly. As Caesar appeared ready to rush out to save Yan at any moment, Raven blocked his path.
"No. Are you planning to just go there without knowing what traps might be laid?"
"But we can't just leave him to die like that."
"Then let's go together. I'll try to find a way somehow."
"No, you stay here."
Raven furrowed her brows.
"What are you saying? You're going to face those devils alone when even Yan couldn't handle them?"
"It might be their plan to get both of us to leave this place. While I'm gone, guard against any surprise attacks from the devils."
"Hey! If you end up like that too, then what about us...!"
Raven bit her lip hard, swallowing her words.
"...What are we supposed to do?"
"Don't worry. Even if I didn't know how to handle them before, I know exactly how to deal with those creatures now."
Caesar handed the golden dagger from his waist to Raven.
"So protect the unit. Don't worry about me at all. Please."
After hesitating for a long while, Raven finally accepted the golden dagger.
"If things get even slightly dangerous, I'm coming to help immediately."
"Thank you. And..."
Caesar felt utterly wretched that he could only cause pain to Raven and ask for favors. Seeing the magic waves stabbing at Caesar's heart, Raven spoke.
"I know. Go quickly."
Caesar immediately took flight toward Luxhope.
"Jerry, focus on communications. The operation is suspended until my orders."
"Understood."
Caesar sighed as he looked at Yan who had been swallowed by the quiet sea.
'I'm coming, you idiot. Just hold on a little longer.'
***
Belial watched as Caesar flew toward him like an arrow.
"He falls for provocation more easily than expected."
It was like watching a moth fly to flame, as Caesar approached without even knowing how Yan had fallen into the trap. Belial pointed at Caesar and said:
"Mahmut, begin."
"Yes."
Mahmut stretched both hands toward Caesar.
"You shall not escape from the infinite prison."
Mahmut spread his index fingers and thumbs to form a rectangle. And he captured the airborne Caesar within that rectangle.
Thud!
As Mahmut's eyes flashed purple, light burst forth. The purple flash enveloped Caesar and the surrounding area according to the rectangular frame. Then a cuboid box made of purple lines appeared around Caesar. When Caesar tried to escape by breaking through one side of the box, he emerged from the opposite side. When Caesar shot upward, this time he came up from the bottom surface. Mahmut didn't stop there.
"Your prison is too spacious."
Mahmut crossed his left and right hands in an L-shape, gradually narrowing the rectangle. The cuboid surrounding Caesar began to shrink steadily.
"Also, your prison is too free."
The wings of Whitey, which had been flying about in confusion, became rigid.
Unable to even glide, Whitey fell like it was crashing. When Whitey's body hit the bottom surface of the cuboid, it passed through to the top surface again. Pulled by gravity, Caesar and Whitey's fall continued to accelerate.
"Your prison is too warm."
The moisture contained within the cuboid froze instantly, filling it with white fog. The fog was so thick it made the cuboid appear completely white. Purple blood flowed from Mahmut's eyes.
"Freeze to death in your prison."
Belial smiled wickedly as he watched Caesar struggling in the fog.
"If I had known we could catch him this easily, I would have acted sooner."
"What should we do now?"
"What else? We need to force him into transforming into Barre."
The prison containing Caesar slowly approached Mahmut and Belial.
"I'll make you a proposal now, Caesar. If you prove that you are a doppelganger right now, we will hand over Luxhope and all withdraw."
"But if you refuse, we will kill Yan, and we will kill all your subordinates. Especially Gloria and Raven, I will personally burn them to death."
The fog filling the prison writhed violently.
"How about it? You just need to prove to everyone that you are Barre and a doppelganger. Then your subordinates and the hero can live."
"You're talking bullshit."
"So you won't reveal your identity even if you die?"
Crash!
At that moment, Mahmut's cuboid shattered simultaneously.
As the cuboid broke apart, both of Mahmut's eyes burst.
"Aaaaaarghhhh!"
Caesar caught Whitey that was rapidly falling to the ground. Then he caught Thunder that flew in from the right and swung it down forcefully.
Whoosh!
The powerful headwind that Caesar created acted as a soft air mattress, receiving both Whitey and Caesar's bodies. Upon safely landing on the ground, Whitey quickly regained consciousness and took flight.
Mahmut, who had barely regenerated his right eye, trembled.
"H-how did you escape?!"
"Is that important right now?"
Caesar waved his left hand.
"Aren't you more curious about where my Lefty is?"
Thwack!
Lefty flew silently and lodged into Mahmut's neck.
Mahmut couldn't even scream.
Caesar jumped off Whitey's behind and immediately threw himself toward Mahmut.
Although Mahmut tried to escape somehow, with Lefty embedded in his spine, he couldn't properly control his body. His limbs only trembled like earthworms meeting salt.
At that moment, the smell of ash powder hit Caesar's nose strongly. Caesar created a new wind path and escaped. Ten ash powder arrows that Belial had shot passed through the empty space where Caesar had been.
Caesar performed a somersault and landed on the rooftop of a nearby building. Caesar looked at Belial, who was still glaring at him from below.
"What are you staring at?"
"How did you escape from Mahmut's prison?"
"Why? Feeling upset because you thought you had won the game and bragged about it, but suddenly you're losing? Who told you to brag first?"
Belial thought he would never escape from that prison, like Yan. Or more precisely, he thought he could capture Caesar in that position. After all, Belial had no idea that Mahmut's prison could be broken.
"Mahmut, the Prison Devil - it's known that once caught in his prison, one can never escape. When you pass through one side, you emerge from another side, and when you pass through that side, you emerge from the opposite side. It's literally like an infinite hell."
Mahmut tried his best to regenerate his body somehow.
Though dangling, his neck wasn't completely severed yet.
However, without removing the axe embedded in his spine, there was no way to fully regenerate.
"There are two ways to escape from his infinite hell. Either have someone break the prison from the outside, or throw objects simultaneously through all six sides of the rectangular prison, which will cause it to break automatically. Of course, when the prison breaks, the caster's eyes burst as a recoil."
Caesar swung Thunder. Belial tried to block Caesar's Thunder with ash powder.
However, it was impossible to block the heavy wind flowing from Thunder with ash powder. When the heavy wind struck Lefty lodged in Mahmut's neck...
Crack!
It sliced through Mahmut's dangling neck. Mahmut's head rolled and fell to the ground. Belial looked at the deceased Mahmut. Unlike other Devils, Mahmut didn't have remarkable regenerative abilities nor the power to resurrect. He had kept Mahmut as his subordinate because his abilities were quite useful, but he never dreamed he would meet such a futile death.
"Raum's death wasn't a coincidence."
"Absolutely not."
Caesar moved to where Mahmut had died with one jump and picked up Lefty.
"By the way, what did you say? What do I need to do if I want to save Yan?"
Boom!
A huge water pillar rose from the wave-breaking coast. It was a water pillar as high as Yan's anger. At the top of that water pillar, a black dot was looking down at Luxhope.
It was Yan.
Yan detected all the Devils scattered throughout Luxhope.
-----!
He launched a sword energy bombardment toward them.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Most of the Devils were all cut down without even being able to react to Yan's sword energy. Caesar smiled seeing Yan's truly enraged face.
"Now you're screwed."
Thud!
Ash powder clumped together and fell from Belial's face. The fallen clumped ash powder instantly vaporized the dew held by weeds and burned the grass.
Caesar raised Thunder.
"Of course, I know you'll die by my hand."
"Death is nothing more than a gift to me, Caesar."
Belial stretched out his right hand. Then a long staff made of ash powder appeared.
"The one who promised to give me that gift is my master."
With each step Belial took, flames rose.
"Then I guess I should be called master from now on."
"Shut up."
Belial charged at Caesar with his staff.
It's common sense that Wizard-type devils are much more advantageous in ranged combat than close combat.
But he was different.
Belial waved his staff in the air.
Then three magic circles unfolded in succession.
As soon as Caesar saw the shape of his magic circles, he immediately evacuated the spot.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Black flames rose wherever Caesar's feet touched. The rising flames tracked Caesar while instantly burning the surrounding grass and stumps. When the stumps that had turned to charcoal exploded and became dust, Caesar escaped from the dust cloud as quickly as possible. The dust cloud gathered as one like a creature with consciousness and transformed into a giant snake.
"I am Belial, the Devil of Ash." Belial stroked the snake's head. "I am your death."
***
As Caesar began to seriously engage with Belial, Raven gave orders to the wizards.
"Prepare immediate support......"
At that moment, Raven caught sight of a strange magic wave.
Was it hidden until now? Or did it just appear? Countless devil magic waves were leaking from the front. A wizard urgently spoke to Jerry and Raven.
"Unknown monsters are approaching from the front!"
Raven immediately sent a bluebird for reconnaissance. The corpses that had been mass buried near Luxhope were rising and running madly toward the main force.
Shadow-made guns and swords were attached to both hands of those creatures. Raven saw the Devil who was reviving the corpses. It was a four-horned Devil wearing a skull necklace. Next to it were four three-horned Devils guarding that Devil.
"They're Devils."
Following that, four huge fireballs flew from Luxhope.
Those appeared to be the 'Bombing Devil Alt' that Caesar had mentioned.
The waiting wizards intercepted the fireballs. However, the intercepted fireballs split into multiple fragments and fell upon the main force.
"Block it!"
Though the wizards blocked with barriers, the fireballs exploded and spewed viscous lava.
"Aaaaargh!"
Soldiers touched by the lava screamed and rolled on the ground.
Raven gritted her teeth as she watched the ash snake attacking Caesar indiscriminately.
'Caesar...!'
Raven could support Caesar with spatial movement magic right now if she wanted to. As long as something was within her sight, she could move anywhere. Or she could cast a one-man support magic from here.
But Raven knew what Caesar wanted. Rather than supporting Caesar, she would want to save as many troops as possible. Yet why was she still worried about Caesar?
"Master!"
Gloria swung her sword at the approaching living corpse. Its neck was instantly severed by Gloria's sword, spilling black blood. Gloria's eyes flashed as if consumed by madness.
"I must save Master......"
Gloria felt like she had seen this scene somewhere before.
Seeing that figure of Caesar fighting alone in an unreachable place...... Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would jump out of her mouth.
"I must save Master!"
Gloria's aura frantically pumped power into her muscles. As Gloria's wall eyes crossed, her sword flowed along that path. The living corpses that received the sword spilled black blood and perished. Following that, soldiers with shadow-made guns took aim at Gloria. Gloria raised her left arm.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The black bullets fired at Gloria were all blocked by the shield that appeared from the bracelet on her left hand. The shield-type artifact that Raven had made for Gloria, who had no armor, had activated.
"Gloria!"
Even at Raven's cry, Gloria did not stop advancing. There was only one very clear answer in Gloria's mind. To save Caesar, she had to cut down all the enemies before her. Focusing only on that one thing made Gloria's world seem divided into just two.
Gloria's enemies and non-enemies. As she concentrated, her field of vision widened, and as her goal became clear, everything became distinct. Gloria could recognize all the positions of the monsters aiming at her. She could even sense the positions of enemies taking aim at her.
Thud!
Black bullets were fired at Gloria. At that moment, Caesar's words came to mind.
-Where their eyes are directed is definitely where the bullets will come from.
Should she block with the shield?
No. Seeing the shield flicker, the magic stone energy was almost depleted. The shield might break after a few more hits. Then there was only one way.
Ding!
Gloria swung her sword, and all the black bullets shattered and disappeared.