Mock Demon King Battle (3)
There was one piece of good news.
Elves who had come searching out of concern for me caught wind of our battle, and the Elven Masters, Latipi and Benoite, joined the fray.
Granted, Benoite couldn't use magic because of Kubel's Soul Totem, so Latipi was the only one who could practically take part... but honestly, even that was more than enough to be grateful for.
No, to tell the truth, she alone was plenty.
Though my eyes couldn't properly track her shots, her arrows were dealing the heaviest blows to the Demon King.
Focused fire on a single point.
Except now, imbued with spirit power.
Its sheer destructive force blew apart the Demon King's upper and lower torso entirely, granting our frontline warriors a fleeting moment of respite.
I had looked down on her a bit before since she'd been overpowered so helplessly back then, but it seemed that really was just because she'd been caught at point-blank range.
Had there been even a little distance between them, taking her down might not have been nearly so easy.
"Ah, aaaagh...! Aaaaaaaagh...!"
Otiliv was hovering in a critical, near-fatal state.
It had taken eight agonizing days, but we had finally brought her to this brink.
"Haah, haah...!"
"Haa... haah...!"
"Huff, ugh...!"
Yet our own party had also reached their absolute limits, and our state was nothing short of pitiful.
Aura Blades that had seemed like they would hold forever now lost their shape every so often, aura trailing off like spilled fluid. Faces pale and hollowed from chronic sleep deprivation were layered in haggard exhaustion, breaths coming ragged and uneven while limbs occasionally seized in involuntary spasms.
The frontline fighters weren't the only ones in dire straits; the rearguard support was just as bad.
"Wheeze... huff...!"
Arpe could no longer produce a voice. She remained slumped on the ground, head hanging low.
Even after chugging potions, it looked like she wouldn't be able to rejoin the fight anytime soon.
"L-Lord Aljen... ugh..."
Cecilia groaned and staggered on her feet, attempting to wring out whatever divine power she had left to do something about the plague, demonic energy, and demonic authority coiling around me.
"Dammit..."
Weller, too, had collapsed from sheer exhaustion after casting 1st-tier magic three additional times to buy the fighters brief windows to rest.
That was even with Benoite aiding her to shoulder the burden.
The only ones among us who were relatively intact were Lampon Pashtra and Vivian.
"Aaaaaagh...! Hraaaagh...! Do you... do you truly think I will die like this?! I... I will never die...! I'll kill you all... every single last one of youuuu...!"
Without tire, the Demon King spewed malice and bloodlust alongside waves of plague, demonic energy, and authority. Venom and hatred began to etch deeply into the faces of everyone present.
And beneath that hatred lay the instinctual dread and terror born of facing something beyond mortal comprehension.
If Rubias of Space-Time had carved her presence and terror into the soul in a single, sharp, overwhelming stroke, Otiliv instilled dread at a creeping, insidious crawl—seeping inward like poison.
"Just die already! Please...!"
"Huff... Even for a Demon King, isn't this... way too damn stubborn?! Hngh!"
"Just how much longer..."
"Pant! Pant!"
The trajectories of the swords hacking and rending the Demon King had slowed to the point where even my eyes could follow them.
Of course, the Demon King had slowed down just as much, so the flow of the battle remained unchanged... but it was glaringly obvious that we were all reaching our breaking point.
"......"
In truth, I was nearing my end as well.
I had endured by drinking alcohol instead of water, but thanks to the plague, demonic energy, and authority swirling around me, it had been eight whole days since I had eaten a proper bite of food.
Naturally, getting real sleep had been out of the question as well.
"Whew..."
Everything else I could tolerate, but fighting off the drowsiness was truly, agonizingly difficult.
I was sleepy... just so damn sleepy.
Everything felt sluggish, surreal, and distant.
My brain refused to process any other thoughts.
Crunch...!
I bit down hard on my tongue once more to snap myself awake.
...I had bitten it so many times that my tongue felt noticeably shorter.
Crunch, gnaw... gulp. Whew...
The only reason I had held out this far was probably thanks to having consumed the Permanent Flesh and the World Tree's Fruit.
She's persistent beyond all reason.
If an avatar is this ridiculous, just how unkillable is the real Demon King's main body?
Even acknowledging that a video game had turned into reality, this felt downright unfair. A hollow laugh slipped past my lips.
Ten days had passed.
"Pant... pant..."
"Huff, ugh..."
"Ah, aagh... aaaaagh..."
Now, neither side had anything left to wring out. Rather than a battle, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a desperate flailing match soaked in sheer malice and murder.
"Hup!"
Only Latipi, who had joined late in the fray and still had stamina to spare, continued to vigorously fire spirit-imbued arrows crafted from pure mana.
"...Time to put an end to this."
Muttering in a cracked, hoarse voice, I slowly pushed myself upright.
"Ugh..."
Having run out of alcohol long ago, I hadn't tasted a drop of water in the past two days.
As my knees trembled and I forced strength into my swaying legs, worried gazes flew toward me from the rearguard support—Pashtra, Vivian, Cecilia, and Arpe.
No, to be precise, despair had already filled their eyes.
It was understandable.
The plague, demonic energy, and authority shrouding me had long since surpassed any level they could hope to treat.
"...Ha."
A raspy chuckle broke from my throat.
Look at who was worrying about whom.
Did they have any idea what kind of state they themselves were in?
"I'm not dying. Don't... look at me like that."
Probably.
When push came to shove, all I had to do was die once.
"Whew... Pashtra."
"Y-Yes! Lord Aljen!"
Answering with difficulty through brimmed, tearful eyes, Pashtra's lips trembled before she pressed them firmly together, fixing me with a gaze that burned with unyielding resolve.
"Get ready... to pull the totem."
"Yes!"
"Arpe... prepare the Forced Awakening."
"Is it finally... the final battle...? I've been waiting..."
"Cecilia."
"Y-Yes...!"
Clasping her hands together as if in prayer, Cecilia looked up at me with desperate eyes.
"Get ready to invoke God's Miracle."
"...!! Understood...!"
Clutching the necklace-shaped legendary artifact, Holy Divinity of Early Dawn, she clasped both hands tightly in prayer.
"Whew..."
Staggering slightly, I glanced back. The Master-rank warriors, having already caught on to what was happening, were radiating a taut, razor-sharp tension like racehorses waiting at the starting gate.
Clenched jaws, contorted grimaces, and deep diaphragmatic breathing as if gathering every shred of remaining strength... they were preparing to wring out the absolute last dregs of their power.
And, at the same time, bracing for death.
"This is the final strike. If this doesn't work, we all die... Well, at least none of us will be dying alone. Right?"
I quipped playfully and shrugged. The rigid, frozen expressions on the women's faces softened ever so slightly.
"Whew... Pashtra. Pull it."
"Yes!"
The instant Pashtra pulled out the totem, the suppressed authority of Demon King Otiliv erupted like a roaring tempest.
Yet without faltering, I locked eyes with Arpe.
"Arpe, focus Forced Awakening solely on the Master ranks."
"──!!"
Arpe screwed up her face and wrung out her voice with everything she had.
It was a far cry from her usual breathtaking, enchanting melody—a raspy, ruined, hoarse song, off-pitch and out of rhythm. Yet to my ears, that desperate tune sounded far from terrible.
"Haaah...!"
"Inhale...!"
Muriel, Rebecca, Nazareth Nemeth, Wendy, Lira, Cacciola, and even Latipi.
Their momentum swelled in an instant, crashing down like a thunderous tremor that pinned the earth.
Incomplete though they were, such was the overwhelming presence of seven simultaneous Demi-Gods.
"Kh-gaaah...!?"
What followed mirrored before in that the Demon King was severed and shredded into pieces, but it unfolded far more silently and with devastating speed.
For the invisible, soundless Mind Sword cleaved not merely the Demon King's physical flesh, but severed parts of her soul and authority as well—literally slicing through everything that made up her existence.
"Aaaagh...! Aaaagh, hraaaaagh!"
Yet the Demon King stubbornly resisted even the Mind Sword, enduring as she regenerated her wounded soul and authority.
Even if it wasn't a perfected Mind Sword, that technique too was effectively an authority.
What an utterly sickening, horrifying creature.
"Phew..."
Inhaling deeply on my very last cigarette, I furrowed my brow.
Was the timing too early? Should I have pressured her a bit more before pulling the trigger?
"Tsk..."
Worrying about it was useless once the move was already made.
"...Cecilia. Pray. Invoke God's Miracle."
"Yes."
Bowing her head, Cecilia began to murmur an earnest, fervent prayer.
Now, let's see what happens.
In the game, the miracle granted through Holy Divinity of Early Dawn was entirely random.
Stat boosts, increased skill potency, full recovery, weather alterations, bountiful harvests, debuffs, purification... the list went on.
Whatever came out was guaranteed to possess absurd power, but on rare occasions, it would trigger a miracle completely irrelevant to combat, making it nothing short of a gamble.
"...Whew."
In response to Cecilia's prayer, a brilliant, blinding radiance blazed from Holy Divinity of Early Dawn.
Following that light, the heavens parted, revealing the azure flesh of the high skies—only for a torrential downpour to suddenly scatter down without warning.
"Did we bust..."
Since this was reality, I had hoped the Goddess watching over us might bestow a suitably tailored miracle, but apparently I had expected too much.
Resigning myself to death, I drew in one last, deep drag of the cigarette and exhaled a long trail of smoke.
...Still, rolling over and dying without a fight didn't sit right with me.
"Benoite. You can use magic now, right?"
"Y-Yes! The totem's effect is gone, so I can cast!"
"Then I'm counting on you. Join the fight—"
"Kk-kyaaaaaagh?!"
My words were cut short by a ghastly shriek that echoed across the field.
Turning around, I saw Otiliv thrashing frantically on the ground, wrapping her arms around her melting body.
"What the?"
"Hah... It's holy water," Cecilia spoke up, prompting me to look back at her.
"Holy water?"
"Yes. What is falling right now is not rain, but holy water. And with a purity even I have never witnessed before... truly, the tears of the Goddess."
"...Ha."
I had never even heard of such a miracle existing.
It was only fair to conclude that the Goddess had personally intervened.
Sorry for doubting you, Goddess.
After offering a brief apology in my heart, I surveyed the Demon King's condition.
"Aaaargh! Kraaaagh!"
Though writhing in unbearable agony, the monster persistently clung to life, continuously regenerating her flesh.
"K-Kill me...! Just kill meeeee...!"
"......"
No, perhaps she couldn't die even if she wanted to.
Just as Rubias, the Demon King of Space-Time, had suffered and gone mad from her own authority, Otiliv was also one of the Demon Kings driven insane under the influence of her own power.
"......"
Sukra's instant-death skill that inflicted a semi-permanent penalty, Primordial Plague... did I not need to worry about that?
If she could still unleash something like that in this state... well, there was no helping it. I'd just have to take the hit and die.
"...Finish it."
"Yes."
The warriors unleashed their Mind Swords once more.
Merciless sword strikes drove deep into her body alongside the flesh-melting holy water.
Eleven days had passed.
Even in that state, the Demon King had endured for an entire extra day. Only now did her struggles cease as she slowly began to perish.
"Huff, pant..."
"Seriously... impossibly... stubborn..."
"I'm sick of it... truly..."
"For a while... I don't even want to look at a sword..."
"......"
Having poured out every last ounce of strength until the very end, the warriors collapsed the moment Arpe's Forced Awakening ended, gasping for air as they stared at the Demon King.
With dull, lifeless eyes, the Demon King looked up toward the sky and reached out an arm.
"Ah, aah... I am dying. Once again... I meet death... How peaceful and comforting. In this moment, at least..."
It was neither a timid, gloomy mumble nor a frantic shriek born of losing her sanity.
Spoken in a calm, melancholy voice, the words sounded remarkably alien.
Her rolling pupils shifted, landing upon me.
"Stanashila Aljen... I shall remember you, who granted me death..."
"I'd really rather... not see you... ever again..."
When I forced those words past my parched, cracked lips, a faint chuckle slipped from hers.
"An intriguing human... I eagerly anticipate... seeing you again..."
Immediately following those words, the Demon King's body crumbled into ash and vanished.
"...Is it over...?"
"Is it really... the end...?"
For the final moments of a Demon King who had held on with such horrific persistence, it felt somewhat hollow and surreal. The party members stared blankly at the empty spot where she had stood, unable to fully process the reality of the situation for quite some time.
"Whew... haah..."
In a sense, it was an obvious outcome.
From start to finish, our party's combat strength had been overwhelmingly superior.
It was just... yeah, it had just taken a little while.
"...Lord Aljen."
The first to regain her senses was Muriel.
Far from rejoicing, she looked toward me with eyes brimming with anxiety and dread.
Yet she couldn't bring herself to rashly approach.
Because the dense shroud of plague, demonic energy, and demonic authority still clung tightly around my body.
"......"
I had hoped it would disperse once the Demon King's avatar perished, but things were never going to be that easy, were they?
"...Lord Aljen. What will you do?"
"I've got an idea. I'm going to try it."
"What kind of method is it?" Cecilia looked at me with deep trepidation.
"What kind? This, of course. To be honest, I don't have anything else to rely on anyway."
I feebly gave the rings on my fingers a light shake, and Cecilia's expression grew even more alarmed.
"And if that doesn't work?"
"Then I die."
"...Wouldn't it be better to look for another way..."
"I'm at my limit. I probably won't last another day."
"......"
Cecilia's mouth pressed into a tight, silenced line.
"You must not die, Lord Aljen." Arpe glared at me, her voice thoroughly wrecked. "You belong to me. So..."
"...Hearing you say that suddenly makes me not want to live anymore, you know?"
At my playful retort, Arpe's eyes snapped open with a murderous glare.
Can't even make a joke without fearing for my life.
"Whew, let's see..."
I tentatively activated the Absolute Ring of Taunt toward the swirl of plague, demonic energy, and divine authority.
The ring did not trigger.
"Figures. I anticipated this much. Then..."
Exhaling a short sigh, I deactivated the function of the Invitation of the Forgotten that had been shielding me all this time.
The moment the authority isolating me from all interference vanished, the three dark energies lunged forward instantly, as if they had been lying in wait.
"Lord Aljen?!"
"Lord Aljen!"
"Orabeoni!"
Hearing the cries of my companions, I spread both arms wide toward the surging miasma rushing to engulf me.
"...Well, look at that. It works..."
A smirk tugged at my lips as I glanced down at my body, glowing translucent in a faint violet light.
The Demon King's avatar was dead, so I had wondered if it would count, but my hunch was right on the mark.
An attack whose originator had vanished—left behind by a target that was already dead, carrying neither will to fight nor hostile intent—satisfied the ring's condition of being a 'first attack.'
The reason the Absolute Ring of Taunt hadn't worked was simply that these mindless energies lacked an ego.
"...Now then, where's this going to go?"
Clutching my spinning, dizzy head, I focused my consciousness into the Absolute Counter Ring.
The black energy that surged out from the ring wrapped around the plague, demonic energy, and divine authority like a thin coating, then vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye.
...Don't tell me it went straight to the Demon King's main body? I certainly hope it did.
"Phew..."
Letting out a long, heavy breath, I collapsed straight onto the ground.
"......"
Now I can finally get some sleep.
As soon as my eyelids fluttered shut, an irresistible wave of drowsiness crashed over me, dragging me down into a sleep so deep it was indistinguishable from passing out.
"Lord Aljen?!"
"Orabeoni!"
The frantic cries of the girls echoing in my ears coaxed a faint chuckle out of me.
You guys go to sleep too. You're exhausted.
And just like that, we claimed victory in our mock Demon King battle.
A truly priceless, hard-won victory.
The heavy burden weighing down my shoulders felt just a tiny bit lighter, lulling me into peace.