244
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake
Chapter 244
The physical difference between Gloria and Spell Eater was clear. Spell Eater was large enough to remind one of a boulder, and the blade of the greatsword he wielded was as tall as Gloria. Moreover, Spell Eater had absorbed all the large-scale magic that the wizards were simultaneously casting and converted it into aura, causing his aura to overflow. Just seeing how he sent shield-equipped Tank knights flying like bowling pins with a single swing showed that his strength was no joke.
However, surprisingly, Gloria withstood Spell Eater's attack. Although one knee bent slightly from the difficulty of enduring, she managed to block Spell Eater's downward strike alone.
"...?"
Gloria found this strange herself. Gloria had actually jumped in prepared for her shoulder to be dislocated. But far from dislocation, there wasn't as much resistance as she had expected. It might sound strange to express it this way, but it felt as though the armor had absorbed Spell Eater's downward strike in her place.
'I'll think about this later.'
Dealing with Spell Eater is more important right now. Spell Eater swung his greatsword down again. The way Spell Eater brought down his greatsword was very barbaric. It was an intuitive movement like that of a monkey swinging a club rather than swordsmanship.
However, surprisingly, that greatsword contained a purple sword energy. Gloria had no confidence in blocking that sword energy. But if she retreated here, the wizards behind her would be massacred.
"Lady Raven!"
Raven responded to Gloria's call. Raven waved her wand. An unprecedented power dwelled in Gloria's body. She had cast a strength enhancement buff spell in that brief moment. Gloria pushed back against Spell Eater's attack with all her might.
Clash!
A terrible sound burst forth loud enough to cause ringing in the ears. If the sword Gloria was holding wasn't 'Flawless,' it would have broken long ago. Meanwhile, the Wizards began preparing their magic. Raven shouted in alarm.
"No!"
Blink.
When the third eye in the middle of Spell Eater's forehead blinked once, all of the Wizards' attack and defense magic disappeared. And that magical power was completely absorbed into Spell Eater.
"Wuooooooh!"
When Spell Eater let out a roar, Gloria felt like her ears would split. The creature charged at Gloria in a state of extreme excitement. His greatsword pressured Gloria with strikes too fast for the eye to follow. Seeing that, Raven cast a 'reaction speed buff' spell on Gloria while telling the Wizards:
"Everyone, stop the attack and defense magic! Don't give Spell Eater any magic!"
The Wizards finally recalled the Spell Eater's ability that Caesar had mentioned. Spell Eater had the ability to devour magic and convert it into aura. They couldn't understand where such an absurd ability came from, and why this devil hadn't revealed itself to the world until now. But Spell Eater was right before their eyes, and it remained true that he was a devil impossible for Wizards to face.
Clash! Clash!
Gloria dodged and blocked Spell Eater's attacks. His attack patterns were simple. He just struck down and slashed. Gloria recalled Caesar's teachings from earlier.
-Guys who just rely on strength to slash and strike are easy to handle.
-Because they move very instinctively, you can sufficiently guide them into consistent attack directions.
Gloria carefully observed his shoulders. The direction his shoulders faced was the direction the greatsword would swing. Upward strike, downward strike, horizontal slash, diagonal slash. She led him away from the Wizards while inducing simple movements that showed no trace of psychological warfare.
"Wuooooooh!"
Of course, there were times when his attacks were so fast that Gloria couldn't keep up. Although Raven's reaction speed buff allowed her to quickly grasp his attack patterns, her body was too tired to follow through. This was because she had expended too much energy in the beginning.
She needed wisdom.
Gloria looked at the reanimated corpses filling the surroundings. Gloria dove among them with gleaming eyes. They fired guns and swung swords. Gloria easily ignored their attacks. They could be handled at the level of Gloria's armor. Gloria marveled for the first time at the majesty of proper full plate armor.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gloria dealt with the reanimated corpses while deflecting and blocking the attacks of the excited Spell Eater. She didn't even need to cut them down directly. After all, Spell Eater had lost his reason long ago.
"...You fool!"
A strange woman's voice was heard from somewhere. Gloria quickly scanned her surroundings. Three devils wearing black hoods were looking down at Gloria and Spell Eater from atop a tree.
"This is why we shouldn't have trusted that brainless fool."
"It seems we'll have to step in..."
Crack!
Ice thorns sprouted where they were standing. The thorns dug in, grinding their flesh.
"Aaaaargh!"
"Finally showed yourselves."
Raven waved her wand again with killing intent gleaming in her green eyes. The thorns tightened around their bodies, crushing their limbs. The devils eventually couldn't endure and retreated, abandoning their hoods and frozen limbs. They each had 3 horns on their heads.
"Damn... It's Raven."
"Spell Eater! Face Raven right now... Ugh!"
A red spear pierced through the devil's back. The devils turned around. There stood 8 vampires including Borden, showing their gleaming fangs.
"I heard devil blood doesn't taste good."
Borden formed another spear.
"But it must be better than Orc blood."
***
Caesar scattered the head of the swirling ash snake with Thunder. The scattered ashes gathered again to reform into a giant snake.
Belial mounted atop that giant snake.
"Impressive."
"What an elegant way to say 'This is fucked.'"
Caesar lightly rolled Thunder between his fingers. Heavy wind scattered in all directions, pushing away the dust clouds. Though dust flew at Belial, he didn't even blink. Belial just stared blankly toward the port of Luxhope.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The enraged Yan was turning the Luxhope area into a wasteland.
Not only were the devils left behind to deal with Caesar being utterly destroyed by Yan, but Alt, the bombing devil positioned to bombard Caesar's main force, no longer spewed fire. At this point, Belial's plan had gone seriously awry.
"If I had known it would come to this, I should have killed you as quickly as possible."
"Regret always comes too late."
"Then killing you right now would be the way to regret less."
Belial waved his finger. The snake then swallowed an entire building whole and chewed it with crunching sounds. There were people tied up inside the building.
"Mmph! Mph!"
"Mmph!"
Those fellows were terrified as soon as they saw Belial. Some of them rolled their eyes back and fainted.
"You're not thinking of threatening me with these ones' lives, are you? These fellows are thieves. They deserve to die."
"I know. Even if these fellows were your subordinates, you wouldn't have batted an eye. A doppelganger has no reason to care how many humans die."
Belial reached his hand toward them.
"Mmmmph!"
The huge snake swallowed them in one gulp. The acrid smell of burning flesh tickled Caesar's nose. Like a snake that had swallowed eggs, Belial closed his eyes and savored the life force. In the end, he consumed the kindling.
"They're low quality, but the quantity isn't bad."
Belial lightly waved his hand. Then a translucent dome-like thing spread out from Belial at its center. Caesar felt the surrounding air become scorching hot. In fact, the dew that had faintly collected on the surrounding buildings all evaporated and disappeared. Caesar immediately realized that this domain deployed by him was what would be called the 'Domain of Ash' in terms of the Valent Saga.
The ability of the Domain of Ash is simple. It can turn all inanimate objects within it into ash and control them. Belial slightly raised both hands. Then all the buildings, trees, and garbage around Belial turned to ash and covered the sky. As if an eclipse had arrived, the Luxhope area was plunged into darkness.
Rumble! Rumble!
The dry ash particles collided with each other, causing the ash clouds to gain an electric charge, and the accumulated charge produced lightning. That lightning fell toward Caesar as if it were only natural. Caesar swung his Thunder to absorb the lightning.
"Aaaaagh! Lord Belial!"
"Let us out! Please let us out!"
When the buildings all disappeared, the Luxhope area became completely flat and the view opened up. The devils who hadn't managed to escape Luxhope screamed and rioted, trying somehow to get outside the dome. They dug up the ground and threw their bodies against the dome. But the dome neither broke nor was penetrated. Yan stopped hunting devils as their behavior seemed strange and moved to Caesar's side.
"What's the situation here?"
"Belial is pissed off."
Rumble!
Lightning struck the devils.
"Aaaaaagh!"
The electrocuted devils shuddered. The ash floating in the sky clumped together to form snakes, which immediately devoured them.
"...He's eating his companions?"
"He probably thinks other devils are useless for killing us. His way of thinking is completely different from ours."
Belial licked his lips.
"Not a bad taste."
Yan glared at Belial with a disgusted expression.
"You're properly insane."
"This world was always insane. Don't you know?"
"Seems like you played a big role in making it insane though?"
"Let's end the wordplay here."
Belial lightly waved his hand. Then dozens of snakes from the sky plunged down toward Caesar and Yan. Yan and Caesar swung their swords.
Whoosh!
The heavy wind created by Caesar and Yan scattered all the ashes. However, unlike before when they merely scattered, dozens of snakes divided into hundreds of snakes and attacked Caesar and Yan again.
"I'll handle this."
As Yan's sword moved, it split the sky into hundreds of pieces with a blue light. Caesar could tell that the technique Yan used was 'Falling Flower' that Gideon had shown to Caesar in the past. However, even with the same technique, the effect changed when the caster was different. Where the Falling Flower passed, from the snake's head to its tail, everything scattered into thousands of pieces.
At this level, he could be called a Wizard rather than a swordsman. Yan scattered his sword strikes toward Belial. Belial's neck was severed in one strike and fell with a thud. Belial's head turned to ash and spilled onto the ground with a soft sound.
"Come at us anytime, Belial. You don't think you can kill us with just this level, do you?"
Belial revealed himself above the spilled ashes.
"If I had wanted to kill you, I would have done so long ago. What just happened was merely a greeting."
Belial slowly lowered his hand. Then the ashes that filled the sky slowly began to settle. It was so majestic it created an illusion of the sky falling. Only now did Yan swallow dry saliva.
"What I want is not your death."
"...What are you saying?"
"Didn't I tell you? I want your true face to be revealed, Caesar."
Belial slowly walked forward, looking straight at Caesar.
"Barre. This is my final warning. If you don't reveal your true form right now, it won't end with just killing Yan. I will turn all your struggling troops in the distance, Raven, and Agatha into ashes before your eyes."
"I've heard so many 'final warnings' that my ears are growing calluses. If you're just going to run your mouth, anyone can do that."
"It seems we'll only be able to talk after Yan dies."
Belial lowered his hand. The ash clouds covering the sky began to descend rapidly. Yan gripped his sword tighter. If told to cut waves, he could cut them. If told to cut the sea, he could cut it. But if told to lift the sea, Yan wasn't confident. Though he had said he would stand proud before any fire, even Yan trembled slightly before those overwhelming ash clouds.
'This is nothing.'
Since coming to the demon realm, Yan had already encountered walls dozens of times. It was like that when facing the Moon Knight, when facing the Demon King, and when trapped in the 'Forest of Labyrinth,' the beasts' sealing magic.
But Yan didn't die and survived. The reason was just one. Thanks to Yan's strong arms and legs, and the companions he trusted and relied on. Yan took a deep breath and sought a way to slash through all the ash clouds. Beyond simply cutting through them, he needed to blow them far enough away so Belial couldn't control them.
How should he do it?
What sword technique would work?
As Yan's mind filled with sword techniques, a very small sound of flapping wings penetrated his ears.
"...?"
Both Yan and Caesar turned around to follow the source of the wing flapping. There was a bat flying toward Caesar. And in an instant, it changed its form and reached out its hand toward Belial.
"Fall into a nightmare, Belial."
A stream of dark blue light from Agatha's hand shot toward the center of Belial's forehead. Belial couldn't avoid the light Agatha shot... And the ash clouds falling from the sky stopped. Belial's eyes turned dark blue and he began to blankly stare at the sky. Yan retreated slightly while staying wary of Agatha. It was questionable why the Demon King was here, but it was also questionable why she helped.
"What did you do, Demon King?"
"You still don't know after seeing it? I saved you."
Agatha dusted off her hands while pointing at Belial.
"That guy won't come to his senses for a while."
Agatha wagged her tail toward Caesar like a child seeking praise and Caesar pretended not to see it.
"Then shall we start thinking about how to escape from here?"
"Escaping from here is secondary, attacking that guy with nightmare magic is meaningless."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Belial's body trembled. Then his entire body turned to ash and disappeared onto the ground.
"Ugh..."
An unfamiliar voice echoed from the ashes. And the ashes formed into a small child who fell to his knees and burst into tears.
Aaaahhhhhhhh!
At the boy's cry, the ash-covered sky began to flow down.