Chapter 95
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 95
The earth shook once more. Following the monstrous shriek, the screams of humans swept in like a deafening aftershock.
Melju covered her ears.
Filtering out the noise as best she could, she meticulously scanned the mana rippling through the shockwaves.
"…There is no room for doubt."
Now she was absolutely certain.
Ever since she was a child, Melju had attended the Demon Kings’ social gatherings several times a year. She had felt and recognized this exact mana every single time, even outside of her encounters with Marmolia in Judeca.
Having been exposed to that unique mana from such close proximity, how could she possibly fail to recognize it?
Melju hurried toward the source of the sound.
It took only an instant to reach the epicenter of the shockwaves.
And then…
Upon arriving, Melju looked up at the owner of the shadow looming over her, and only then did she understand.
Melted skin reminiscent of a mud golem. A massive frame that rivaled the nearby shops in size. A hideously torn, grotesque maw.
Marmolia, the one who had summoned her here, was no longer a Demon King.
"…So it has come to this."
Melju murmured.
Since she had already witnessed the collapse of Marmolia's mind back in Judeca, this sight wasn’t entirely beyond her comprehension.
In fact, Melju's reaction was calmer than usual.
She simply let out a sigh heavy with complex emotions and surveyed her surroundings.
The scene was a chaotic melee. A fierce battle raged between the humans and Marmolia, who had taken the form of a colossal monster.
Each of them seems to be at least A-rank.
That was Melju's assessment after a quick observation of the humans.
Judging by their seasoned movements, high-grade equipment, and the auras they exuded, they were undoubtedly humanity’s elite. An A-rank subjugation squad composed of such individuals, accompanied by only a few non-combat support members, would be capable of standing against an ordinary Demon King's army.
If my knowledge is correct, the human forces should be quite strong.
Yet, a single glance at the battlefield revealed that Marmolia held the upper hand. Two humans already lay motionless on the ground, their lives clearly extinguished, while the rest were battered and bruised.
Were they ambushed?
As she analyzed the situation, Marmolia's massive head swung toward her.
The surviving humans followed its gaze.
A sudden, chilling silence fell over the bloody battle.
—All eyes turned to Melju.
Melju stood perfectly still. Only Marmolia moved, crushing and demolishing the structures in her path as she lumbered forward. The colossal figure finally ground to a halt directly in front of Melju.
"Ga… aaakh."
A massive, hideous mouth split wide open, threatening to swallow Melju whole.
Despite the terrifying sight unfolding before her, Melju remained utterly composed.
Instead, three magic circles materialized on the ground, one after another. She had cast them in advance before arriving, keeping them hidden with concealment magic.
Finally, from within the monster’s gaping maw, an entity poked its head out. It was hideously melted but bore the unmistakable form of the ‘Demon King’ Marmolia whom Melju knew.
"Mel… ju…"
With the sound of tearing flesh, the entity pushed its head further out, its voice a grating, hideous rasp.
"You have truly become wretched."
Of all the forms she had ever seen, this was by far the most unsightly.
It wasn't merely a matter of physical appearance.
Melju had her own distinct color, and Marmolia should have had hers. Yet, the current Marmolia possessed no color at all. It was as if she had been stripped of her very essence.
"You have fallen into the abyss."
That act of endlessly repeating her name was surely driven by hatred, not regret. Melju was no fool; she understood this well.
Their relationship hadn't always been like this. When they first met as Demon Kings of the 'same generation', Marmolia had been her most comfortable friend. Marmolia only began to suffer from comparisons and feel slighted when Melju, despite Marmolia being of 'direct descent', began to display far greater talent in magic.
"Did you hate me so much that you couldn't forget, even after falling to this state?"
As she spoke, Melju thought to herself.
It was a pity. But…
—All Marmolia had to do was be stronger than me. It was her own fault for being weak.
After all, didn't they both know that the law of the jungle ruled the world of monsters? One shouldn't blame others for the suffering brought on by their own weakness.
When Marmolia had previously driven her into a corner, Melju had blamed her own incompetence, not her rival.
She had absolutely no intention of offering understanding or sympathy.
High-grade magic, <Black Extermination>.
Melju unleashed the spell she had prepared.
A dark flash of light—renowned even among high-grade spells for its peerless destructive power—struck Marmolia's torso dead-on.
The black beam pierced straight through her body and shot dozens of meters into the sky.
A deafening shriek, fitting for such a massive frame, erupted from the giant beast.
Her body pierced with a gaping hole, Marmolia shrieked for a long moment before swinging her fist in a counterattack.
Boom!
The ground shuddered from the impact. Melju evaded the blow using the teleportation magic she had prepared.
Though she avoided a direct hit, sharp stone fragments kicked up from the ground sliced her skin. Blood began to well from the scratches.
Intermediate magic, .
Gritting her teeth, Melju cast another spell. The ground beneath Marmolia's feet trembled as a massive stone spike erupted upward.
The spike impaled Marmolia's torso, yet she showed no reaction whatsoever.
As a flicker of panic crossed Melju’s face, Marmolia swung her heavy arm once more. Melju hastily cast another short-range teleportation spell.
"…!!"
But even as she shifted her position, she failed to completely evade Marmolia's lightning-fast arm and was sent flying dozens of meters backward.
A cloud of dust billowed where she crashed. Slumped on the ground, Melju coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The impact was far greater than expected. She could endure three more hits at most. Any more than that, and her internal organs would rupture, regardless of whether she could stay conscious.
Hearing the rush of wind through the dust cloud, Melju snapped back to her senses and urgently cast her teleportation spell.
Marmolia's fist slammed down on the exact spot she had occupied a split second prior.
Having barely bought herself some time, Melju erected a double-layered barrier. At the same time, she unleashed another intermediate spell.
Blows were traded in rapid succession. Marmolia shrugged off the attacks to press her counteroffensive, while Melju moved desperately to avoid letting a single strike connect.
…And the humans watching this spectacle could not bring themselves to act.
Those horns, that dense demonic energy, and the absurd power to cast intermediate magic while virtually skipping the incantation.
"…It's a Demon King."
As if unable to believe his own words, the mage's lips trembled as he spoke.
A Demon King was a legendary foe, one who usually stood at the vanguard of a Demon King's army or only appeared when humanity was on the brink of annihilation.
They had never heard of a Demon King wandering around alone, let alone waging a battle deep within human territory.
"What should we do…?"
To minimize damage to the town, they had to stop the monster—but the Demon King was just as much of a threat.
Whom should they attack? Both? Or should they seize the opportunity to flee while the two clashed?
At his wit's end, the mage turned his gaze back to the battle.
The Demon King was only using intermediate magic, but intermediate magic could barely scratch that monster. Having fought the beast themselves, they knew this for a fact.
The Demon King must know that as well.
To inflict any significant damage, she would have to use high-grade magic, just like that <Black Extermination> from earlier. The fact that she wasn't using it meant she simply didn't have the leeway to do so.
Indeed, though the monster seemed to be swinging its arms wildly, it never gave her a large enough window to cast a high-grade spell. It was almost as if the beast possessed an intimate understanding of magic.
"Let's retreat," the knight suggested.
The mage nodded in agreement.
This time, the swordsman, who had remained silent until now, spoke up.
"Reinforcements still haven't arrived. Under normal circumstances, we would already be dead or on the brink of death."
"But then the Demon King appeared. And it seems she has absolutely no interest in us; she's only been attacking the monster."
"Even in times of war, if monsters invade the battlefield, both nations declare a temporary truce to subjugate them first. It’s only logical to target the common enemy."
"But once that monster is dead, there's no telling what the Demon King will do to us…"
"We can worry about that after the monster is dead."
As if refusing to force his decision on the others, the knight—having recovered somewhat thanks to the mage's <Cure>—raised his sword. His squadmate, the mage, let out a heavy sigh and gripped his staff with grim determination.
*
The staff flashed incessantly, and the giant arm tore through the air again and again.
The battle grew increasingly chaotic.
Melju unleashed a barrage of spells at Marmolia at every opportunity. Since she required virtually no casting time for intermediate magic, there was almost no delay between her attacks. The moment one spell ended, the next immediately bombarded Marmolia.
Fire and ice clashed wildly, the ground collapsed, and before it could even cave in, a gravitational field materialized to crush everything beneath it.
Yet Marmolia remained completely unfazed. Her massive body not only absorbed the spells head-on but moved freely through the magical bombardment.
A devastating fist aimed straight for Melju's throat, slamming into the ground with a thunderous crash.
It was a strike of such sheer speed and power that it required no technique whatsoever.
Melju waited until the very last second, when the fist was right before her nose, before using her teleportation magic. This was to maximize her time efficiency. A single split-second delay in her casting would result in fatal injuries, making the battle feel like walking a tightrope between life and death.
"This is turning into the worst-case scenario," Melju muttered, catching her breath as she widened the distance between them.
She hadn't been firing spells blindly, either.
When facing an unknown foe, identifying its nature is the first step to victory. Thus, she had been systematically targeting every spot she suspected to be a weakness.
And yet…
The nape of the neck, the abdomen, the face, the spine—
None of it had any effect.
Or rather, there was an effect, but it was ultimately meaningless.
Her hideous skin was not some impenetrable armor. It burned, tore, froze, and sloughed off under the magic just like ordinary flesh. But no matter how much damage she inflicted, writhing, shifting flesh from deep within Marmolia's body immediately surged forward to fill the wounds.
That wasn't regeneration. It was compression. A massive amount of flesh was compressed inside Marmolia's body.
…Since she was merely using compressed flesh to ‘replenish’ the damaged areas, there had to be a limit.
But Melju's mana had its limits as well. If anything, she would be the one to exhaust her resources first in a war of attrition.
"…"
Even as she was lost in thought, Marmolia did not halt her assault. This time, Melju cast an earth-shaping spell, raising a stone wall to deflect Marmolia's arm and alter its trajectory.
The deflected fist slammed into the ground right beside her. The resulting shockwave sent her purple hair whipping wildly about her face. Choosing not to counterattack this time, Melju cleared the dust storm with a wave of her hand and organized her thoughts.
At present, the only way to inflict decisive damage was high-grade magic.
The efficacy of high-grade magic had already been proven. The <Black Extermination> she had unleashed at the start was clear proof of that. The hole it had blasted through Marmolia's body still hadn't healed. It was safe to assume the spell had completely obliterated even the compressed flesh deep within her.
Of course, if I could have cast it, I would have ended this with high-grade magic long ago.
Though the monster before her had lost its color and its form had warped, its essence remained that of Marmolia. The beast still possessed the magical knowledge of the ‘Demon King’ Marmolia.
Every time Melju had attempted to cast a high-grade spell, Marmolia had immediately lunged forward to disrupt her. She refused to grant her even a moment's respite.
I need to buy time.
Only as she was weighing her options did she finally take notice of the humans, whom she had largely ignored until now.
Contrary to her expectation that they would have fled, their numbers remained unchanged. They had used the time to hide in the rear, heal their wounds, and reorganize their ranks.
…This is troublesome.
To the humans, she and Marmolia were likely one and the same—enemies. From Melju's perspective, having more enemies was the last thing she needed.
Clicking her tongue, she glanced at the humans and locked eyes with the mage holding a staff.
Exchanging a look with the visibly anxious man, she read the intent in his eyes.
—And Melju smiled.
She murmured softly.
"How amusing."
Whoever the human leader was that made such a decision—he was either looking several steps ahead, trusting his enemy far too easily, or betting his very life on a whim of fate.
Whichever it was, he was undoubtedly a madman. And Melju didn't particularly dislike madmen.
The corners of her mouth curled upward.
"I shall personally see if you are a chess piece worth your price."
"Gaak, gaaaaaaak!"
The moment the words left her lips, Marmolia's fist hurtled toward her. Melju raised her staff in response.
The first spell she cast was not a teleportation spell to escape, but—