Duke Jonas, Taking Yujun for a Lich
Convinced that Yujun was a Lich Lord, Duke Jonas declared he would fight with magic alone.
"Suits me."
Yujun took the first move. Jonas had beckoned him in, so he answered with a lightning spell—hard-hitting, and fast. The bolt lanced out in a heartbeat and burst directly in front of the duke. A shield snapped up just as quickly, and the lightning died against it.
Fast casting, as expected.
He had deliberately tested him with a spell that manifested quickly, and the man was a duke for a reason. Yujun decided not to give him a breath. Elemental magic of every kind hammered down on Duke Jonas. A few shields shattered, but he never broke through the layers stacked beneath them.
"Your spells are certainly potent," Jonas said quietly. "But if this is all, I suspect I shall be disappointed."
Yujun only smiled, thin and silent. Spells like these were not his real strength. The tasting was over. Now he would use Ancient Magic.
Ancient Magic held more than a hundred kinds of spells. He chose a few. Bless amplified the power of every spell he cast. Next came Black Chain Lightning. Last of all, Hard Bind locked around Jonas's body. The entire sequence took less than a second.
Bound in an instant and left utterly exposed, Jonas's eyes went wide.
A binding spell of this caliber?
To be restrained before he had even registered it—that was impossible unless a lich's mastery of magic was extraordinarily high. Then Black Chain Lightning drove into the shield. He threw up several more in a rush, but the spell's power was beyond anything he had imagined. It punched through every shield at once and reached him.
"Kh—!"
Jonas cast healing magic and raised his shields again. The situation had shaken him badly.
A spell that smashes eight of my shields with ease? What in the world is he wearing?
Nothing short of being plastered in Mythic-grade items could explain it. If this continued, Jonas realized, he might make an unsightly showing of himself. He was called a master of magic. He could not lose so emptily here.
He prepared an attack. Flame swelled until it filled the training yard—a savage blaze, though the barrier kept the yard itself from taking so much as a scorch. Heat crashed over every inch of his body, thick enough to make breathing a labor. Then the fire gathered in one place and lunged for Yujun.
In a duel between mages, the power of one's spells, the sturdiness of one's shields, and the speed at which those shields could be raised all mattered a great deal. Casting ability went without saying. But that was not the only way a mage fought.
The dark-crimson firestorm rushing in to swallow Yujun vanished in a single instant.
"What...?"
Jonas's eyes flew wide, startled.
"Don't tell me—Magic Cancel?"
"Oh. You know it."
"I know it as a branch of Ancient Magic. Did you acquire it as a skill?"
"That's right."
"Magic Cancel is possible only when the gap in mana is considerable. There is little point in fighting any further."
Jonas laughed, hollow and rueful.
"I had no idea a Lich Lord could be this strong. Impressive. I acknowledge it."
"Oh? You're finally admitting it?"
"Of course. In magic, you stand several moves above me. At this level, you would have few rivals even in the Demon Realm."
"Thanks for the praise. So we're on the same side now?"
Jonas smiled and nodded.
"No need to test the rest?"
"No need."
And with that, the trial was over.
A week passed.
Yujun and his companions stayed at Jonas's castle through those days, preparing to face the Demon King. In truth, there was no guarantee a fight would happen at all. The problem was that Rozent was tangled up with the Demon King. If that held, the odds were high they would come face to face with him. The day of the decisive battle was not far off.
Duke Jonas and those who followed his will were already drawing up plans to strike the Demon King. The demons lending the duke their strength were no small number: one marquis, and no fewer than four counts. Even they alone made for a considerable force, and on top of them hundreds of beings at the level of high-rank demons or greater had gathered.
"The scale of this is no joke."
Do Jiyun said it with a faintly tense look. On the Continent she was called the Fire Empress, a ranker of the very highest tier, but standing here she couldn't help feeling small. There were that many powerhouses. There was a reason the Demon Realm was called a place where strength alone held sway.
Then the murmuring of the demons swelled until it rang in the ears. Jonas had appeared. Three undead followed behind him, and Manuela as well, her cloak pulled low.
"Who are they?"
"Undead are in on this too?"
"His Grace's summons, maybe?"
"So he can command summons as well. Look—two liches. His Grace is as capable as they say."
The demons mistook Yujun's party, standing at Jonas's back, for summons. It was understandable. Undead were, surprisingly, rare in the Demon Realm. In most cases they were acquired as summons by demons lucky enough to obtain an item or an ability, and used that way.
Standing on the platform before that great host, Jonas spoke.
"The day we have awaited is here. You have all worked hard."
He did not draw the speech out. After a brief account of what was to come, he simply stood there.
"We depart when the hour comes. Be ready in advance."
"Yes!"
The demons answered in a roar. Being demons did not mean they were incapable of standing together.
"But will the rebellion actually succeed?"
Manuela murmured it, her face uneasy.
"No way to know."
"This has gotten way too big. What do we do?"
Looked at one way, they had joined a revolt against the Demon King just to get a bit of money back. Honestly, the risk was great and the gain was small. That was Manuela's situation, of course. Yujun's was different. What he was after was the Transcendent Stone.
"You're a wanted woman, aren't you? If Duke Jonas takes the Demon King's seat, won't that bounty come off you?"
"Huh?"
"Then you won't have to sneak around anymore."
"And you?"
"Hm?"
"What do you get out of it?"
"I told you. I'll make good the damage from clearing your dungeons. Think of this as part of that."
"Shin Yujun..."
Manuela looked genuinely moved. He felt a prick of conscience—he had other motives—but it was true that he was helping her.
"We are not simply charging straight into the Demon King's Castle, I trust?"
Paranet asked.
"Barge in blind and we don't stand a chance."
The knight hadn't properly heard the plan. Yujun recalled what Jonas had laid out.
The plan was this. All but a chosen few would wait a short distance from the Demon King's Castle. After that, Duke Jonas and the marquis and counts—those whose strength stood out—would enter the castle first. They were going under the pretext of a party, so there was no need to infiltrate. Joining them on top of that would be Yujun's group.
So we've just been tacked onto the original plan.
Jonas, always hungry to strengthen his forces, must have thought this was the moment. The timing had been good: Yujun had contacted him, proposing they join hands. At first, though, he had suspected Yujun's party. Spies sent by the Demon King, perhaps. Revealing Manuela's identity to him had washed that suspicion clean away.
The demons set out with Jonas at their head. Yujun's group followed directly behind him.
"Haa..."
Tension closed in.
The Demon King. Even in the game, after he had hit max level, Yujun had never dared to face him. And now, not even level 400, he was going to fight the Demon King. How could he not be shaken?
At least I'm far stronger now than that level 500 No-Pay Casual Gamer ever was.
That was why he was heading for the Demon King's Castle. Had he not had this much power at his back, the thought of attacking it would never have occurred to him in the first place.
Duke Jonas's domain was vast. It took a full day just to reach the midpoint. Jonas spoke.
"From here, we move in separate groups of ten."
He did not raise his voice, yet everyone understood. The reason the entire force would not move at once was simple. They would draw the eye. Demons rarely traveled as a body to begin with. If nearly a thousand of them were seen moving all at once, the Demon King's side would be bound to notice. So the demons scattered, and they did not even depart together—they left a gap between each group.
"They're more thorough than I expected."
"People assume they're a race built only for battle, but demons use their heads too."
Manuela answered Do Jiyun.
"Even so, I never imagined they'd move like an actual army."
"If we didn't go this far, someone watching us—not even the Demon King himself—would be likely to catch the scent."
"And you, Lady Manuela? What will you do? Demons seem rather good at sniffing out a witch..."
From the game, Do Jiyun knew a little of witches and demons. She was saying, in a roundabout way, that having the witch Manuela along was not entirely to their advantage.
"You don't need to worry about that. I've got my ways."
Manuela said it with complete confidence. Among pure-blood witches she was close to elite, and she knew well enough how to keep demons from noticing her. She had wandered all over the Demon Realm by that very method. She drew a black cloak over herself. Seeing it, Yujun's eyes widened a fraction.
That's a Mythic-grade item.
It did not raise combat ability, but it reduced the wearer's presence to an extreme. In the game, a monster with keen senses could pass right beside you and fail to notice a thing. That was how outstanding the cloak was.
She's got something good.
It was a difficult item to obtain, but Yujun had one as well. The equip restriction was level 500, so he couldn't wear it for now—not unless he used a Rainbow Sticker he had been saving.
The road to the Demon King's Castle was very smooth. They were passing through Duke Jonas's own domain to begin with; there was no way trouble would arise. And so Yujun's party, together with Duke Jonas and the other nobles, reached the castle's territory with ease.
Is it the invitation? Getting in feels absurdly easy.
The procedure for entering the Demon King's Castle was not particularly strict either. Did that mean the guard demons inside were that confident in their strength?
So many barriers.
Thanks to the percentage effects of various items, Yujun's mana ran into the thousands, and he could tell—how many barriers ringed the Demon King's Castle, and even the gazes watching them. He did not seem to be the only one who felt it. Walking at the front, Jonas's face had gone slightly rigid.
Shall I take a look inside?
Yujun spread his senses as wide as they would go. The Demon King's Castle, soaring to a dizzying height, was vast as well—so large and so tall that he found himself wondering how anyone had ever raised such a building.