The World (10)
Kyaaaaah!!
The instant the demon’s shriek drove into his ears, Deathbringer’s fading consciousness flared back to life. He was nowhere near ready to pass out.
“……!”
He carefully lifted the plank crushing him and checked his surroundings. Whether the building had collapsed or not, every direction was nothing but the remains of what used to be a structure.
Kreeeeek!
“…….”
Luckily the debris had covered him, so the demons hadn’t spotted him. Even better, the wreckage wasn’t arranged in a way that would actually kill him. Only the wooden boards that had once been the ceiling lay across him, letting him keep his body mostly intact. Whether it was because the building was only three stories or because he had been on an upper floor when it came down—either way, it was pure luck.
“Hurts like hell…….”
The real question was whether that luck had extended to Meister as well. The moment the thought crossed his mind, pain lanced through his arm. Hunched over, he groped with the hand he could still move and found blood soaking the fabric. Some shard of debris had punched into his shoulder.
“Goddamn it…….”
A wound from getting buried under the building. If that was all it was, he could almost call it fortunate. Then a scrap of memory flashed through Deathbringer’s head. The building hadn’t fallen because of the demons. The artillery device had exploded the moment it fired, bringing everything down with it. And the one standing closest to that artillery—
“Ugh.”
A low groan drifted faintly through the rubble. Close.
“Hey, you alive?”
He whispered the question. No answer came, but the pile nearby shifted a little. It didn’t feel like the thrashing of demons. Meister, then? Buried underneath? No—didn’t seem fully buried. Looks like he got lucky too and only had a few ceiling fragments pinning him. Still, if anything had punched through him, he could easily bleed out.
Worry made Deathbringer shift. Kreeeeek! If not for the demons still prowling outside, he would already have crawled free.
“…Please just leave already.”
His wish went ignored. The demons kept circling overhead. Whether they had caught the scent of blood or sensed the movement, they showed no intention of withdrawing. Perfect. He needed to dig Meister out fast and bind the bleeding in his shoulder, but he couldn’t do a damn thing until those things left. Someone who had barely kept his life was still grinding his teeth in danger.
KWAANG!
Ironically, what saved him was another demon. Beyond the planks and rubble, pitch-black flames erupted in every direction. Thunder and magma followed. Startled demons screeched, spread their wings, and took flight. Judging by the direction, they were bolting.
KWAANG!
Hard to blame them. The scene that followed looked nothing like anything belonging to this world.
“Fuck, is that even a fight……?”
Deathbringer’s lips clamped shut the moment he tried to scramble free and find Meister.
“Erasing a sketch with bread would look cleaner than that.”
He remembered watching the young lady erase a few wrong lines with bread while she sketched. Back then all he could think was “what a waste of good bread,” but right now that seemed preferable. Those insane demons were wiping entire buildings off the earth the same way—erasing every fragment that had stood on the ground with a single gesture, leaving only scraps of residue. If they turned this way, he and Meister would vanish without a trace.
Deathbringer shuddered at the miserable image and kept searching for Meister. He knew plenty of people died without even a corpse to bury, but he still didn’t want a death that left not even a handful of bone dust.
“Damn it, you’ve got decent luck yourself.”
Deathbringer’s hands shoved aside the boards and stones pinning Meister. The unconscious craftsman had only his legs trapped; the wounds didn’t look catastrophic.
“Why the hell won’t this budge……!”
He strained to free Meister’s legs. Whatever structural nightmare the debris had formed, the chunk crushing the legs refused to lift. The scrap of cloth he had hurriedly bound around his own wound turned an even deeper red.
“Demons could show up any second…….”
KWAANG!
Shit, he shouldn’t have said it out loud. With a sinking feeling that his words had jinxed them, he slowly turned his head. Boom. Even then the ground kept shaking, announcing that something was still falling without pause.
“…What.”
It was all butchered demon corpses. Deathbringer’s legs gave out and he nearly toppled backward.
“Goddamn it…….”
On pure instinct he crawled backward and shook the fallen Meister.
“Hey, wake up.”
It was half reflex. Waking Meister wouldn’t fix anything, but at least the end of their lives wouldn’t be lonely.
“Fuck, we’re about to die…….”
Crunch.
Something that looked almost human yet utterly featureless stood before him. The being that had diced every flying demon to death, yet still gave off no sense of being an ally. He honestly wondered whether it even counted as alive.
“Urgh…….”
And what the hell was the Inquisitor doing in that thing’s hand? While Deathbringer reeled at the unexpected arrival, it reached out. Black energy peeled away like melting wax and coiled around Deathbringer’s entire body like vines. The same happened to Meister. The debris crushing Meister’s legs was suddenly chewed up by black flames and vanished completely.
“You crazy…….”
Should he resist? His whole body was bound too tightly even to draw the Cursed Blade. Just as Deathbringer was about to despair that this was the end, his vision suddenly lurched. The thing holding them had launched itself forward. An inhuman speed he never experienced in daily life crushed his body with pressure and turned his stomach inside out, forcing nausea. Gray, black, red, white—the wildly flipping scenery made it impossible even to tell directions.
“What the—!”
After what felt like forever the shaking stopped and his vision steadied a little. A familiar voice reached his ears, but his body—dumped onto the ground—prioritized retching far too hard for him to answer. He vomited several times before he could finally look around.
The first things he saw were the two humans sprawled on either side of him. The Inquisitor and Meister lay unconscious. Even more shocking was Berserk lying face-down right next to the Inquisitor. Covered in blood and completely still, she made his heart seize for a second.
“Ah, the demons…….”
Slash!
While he staggered toward Berserk, the unidentified being that had brought them here casually waved a hand and butchered most of the surrounding demons. A gesture that saved the people dying in the standoff with the demons—or at least that was the apparent intention. The carelessness of the attack left plenty of people crushed under demon bodies or swept up and killed alongside them. Compared to the demons staying alive, the temporary damage was smaller, but… could they really call this thing an ally?
Whoosh.
Once he confirmed Berserk was still breathing, Deathbringer’s doubts returned. If it wasn’t an ally, the lives they had barely kept would all be forfeit. He wrapped himself protectively around the one person he had failed to look after the most—and therefore felt the heaviest guilt toward—and stared at the unknown figure. Before he could open his mouth, the weight on his back suddenly lightened. The troublesome longsword he had never been able to leave behind, given the situation, had been taken by the other party. Half a beat late, Deathbringer’s eyes flew wide.
“That’s—!”
It was the item meant for the Demon Knight. The moment he tried to shout it, the figure that had taken the sword simply sank into the shadows. Could you even call that a shadow? The instant it submerged into the pool of demon-energy flames that had gathered like a shadow, the energy drained away like water disappearing into a tiny hole and vanished without a trace.
“It’s gone…….”
He truly had no idea what was happening anymore.
“You there!”
“That damn grandson of mine……!”
Until the two Great Sages came running from the distance, Deathbringer could only keep staring.
──!
The moment an attack that even swallowed sound swept the area, Mammon lost all words under the incoming shockwave.
So this was Flash Slash—the technique that had killed Gluttony, Baalzebub.
Lucky it wasn’t at its prime……!
Seeing it and experiencing it were two completely different things. The flames he had once found so dazzlingly beautiful he had yearned for them now left him with nothing but bleak emotion—no room left even for envy.
What’s wrong? You look scared.
Of course it burned through so much demon energy that the other side couldn’t spam it either. Even against Baalzebub he had only seen Flash Slash used a few times. But the instant he faced it head-on, Mammon made his judgment. A clean hit would kill him regardless of any difference in demon-energy grade. His entire body still throbbed even after he had spent twice the demon energy the other side used just to defend. A power that truly made his teeth grind.
You’d be scared too if you were me!
Well… I’ve always just killed every bastard who tried to scare me!
Yeah, that tracked. The kind of guy who had found some way to reverse-kill Asmodeus—who used to torment him as a pet human—and Baalzebub—who tried to hunt him for trespassing on territory—wouldn’t fear anything. To that one, even terror was nothing more than fuel to stoke his own flames. Mammon recalled the existence that had raged at everything in the world even back when it was still called Deceit and Trickery, before it gained the name Wrath. If he could go back, he would have gone in person with his true body and killed it instead of watching through a clone. A regret that came far too late.
Slash!
But it was already too late. Once the fight began, he had to win. Mephisto would never spare him, and Satan would never forgive him either.
Fine… then I’ll just do the same!!
If he won, all the riches of Hell would be his. That was the drive that made him move. He would win. At Mammon’s gesture, chunks of earth erupted on every side like active volcanoes, spewing lava in masses thick enough to blot out the sky and choke the air. Things meant both to block Mephisto’s approach and force her to burn demon energy.
A few razor-sharp attacks sliced through the lava. They achieved almost nothing. Unless she spent demon energy to burn the lava itself, cutting something that was practically liquid magma was meaningless.
Tsk.
What’s wrong? Looks like your attacks aren’t working!
Watching Mephisto waste a few swings like that gave Mammon confidence. Against her true body it might be different, but in this state her attacks couldn’t reach him. He smothered the black fire under overwhelming mass and crushed the area with lava puppets. Lava rolling in by the hectare instead of the acre left even Mephisto with no good options; she had to pull back. The city that had once drawn seawater into every canal was now buried under magma.
Slash!
Of course Mephistopheles was never the type to just take it. Latel, still shaped like a sword, melted away, and as Mephisto’s foot slammed the ground, demon energy bored deep beneath the earth.
Crack!
The ground shattered and surged upward into the exact shape Mephisto desired, forming a shield that blocked the incoming assault.
KWAANG!
Beyond it, a colossal cannon of pure force flew in to smash everything to pieces—spiraling flame fired in a straight line while vision was blocked. He could tank this much. At Mammon’s gesture a giant rose from the lava, stopped the blast, and returned a similar attack. Pure demon energy condensed and fired melted and split the earth, sweeping the spot where Mephistopheles had stood.
Tap.
Naturally someone only human-sized and that fast wouldn’t just stand there and take it. Mammon knew that and pressed the assault without pause. Dozens of boulders slammed into the ground, making the earth heave like waves; the magma that had half-flooded the city sprayed in every direction.
Slash!
Slow.
When had she—? Startled, Mammon still dove into the lava and piled up power. Before the lava could raise spines in every direction, a crimson blaze flashed through the area like lightning and annihilated everything that had been standing there. Mammon barely pulled free; the nape of his neck went cold.
Slash!
But Mephisto’s attacks still weren’t finished. A sword strike came from the opposite side of where her true body stood. Listening with six ears told him its true nature at once: a meticulously constructed puppet. That damn sword of Mephisto’s—Latel—had taken living form and was baring its claws.
You really use that sword dirty!
That’s a compliment, you know?
Boom! Boom! Black flames buried in the magma ignited like embers and exploded; Mammon watched Latel melt and return to its master. Crash! Rumble! Mephisto wasn’t exactly relaxed either. She kept burning demon energy to block the lightning that was raining down at random around her.
You’re starting to fight dirty yourself. That bat bastard would love this if he knew!
Mephistopheles, a veil of flame floating above her head, drew a blade—Latel—from her palm. Then she kicked the ground hard enough to boom and closed the distance to Mammon in an instant. Slash! Dozens of razor-black trajectories carved themselves into the empty air.
Slash!
But he still had plenty of demon energy left. If nothing else, stripping the Magic Tower that had entered his sphere of influence would let him replenish what he spent. Keeping that point in mind, Mammon hid inside the lava and fell back. Then he summoned and poured out lava hundreds of meters wide. No matter how fast she ran forward, back, or sideways, she couldn’t dodge this.
Pathetic trick.
Mephisto knew it too and abandoned evasion. She understood Mammon was trying to force her to exhaust her demon energy, but she had no special counter. She reshaped Latel into rings, floated them around herself, and gathered power.
Splash!
A tidal wave of lava crashed over her.