The Meaning of Being Together
“Found you.” Bagan gazed at the two Sins with a satisfied expression. Their appearances gave him a clear idea of who they were, so he saw no need to ask their names.
“Slepitass and Limut, then.”
When Bagan murmured the names, Slepitass heard him. The demon’s face twisted into an ugly snarl as he continued speaking. He had clearly believed this was the perfect chance to kill Vidion, and his fury was impossible to hide.
“What the hell are you?!”
Bagan let out a derisive laugh. “Me? Someone who’s killed countless filthy, disgusting demons just like you.”
Technically, Bagan hadn’t slain many himself, but since the ultimate goal of Fantasy of Pangea had always been to destroy Lucifer, his words weren’t wrong. Slepitass, however, took them at face value.
“Kuhuhu, impossible. You’re all talk. Still, I’ll give you credit for standing unharmed beneath the black sky.”
The black sky Slepitass spoke of carried an inherent power that depressed the mind. Anyone who grew frightened or fell into despair would inevitably submit to him. Adventurers who had faced this situation before and refused to yield had simply never been afraid in the first place. Bagan and Vidion were no different.
“Mass Healing.”
Paying no attention to the demon’s words, Bagan cast a healing spell after checking Vidion’s condition.
“I’ll need Arien if I want to treat him properly.”
Vidion insisted he was fine, but his state was dire. Even Bagan’s healing magic showed little effect; at best, it only stopped the bleeding.
“You came here too, so you must want to die.” Slepitass scolded Bagan, his tongue far looser than Limut’s. Bagan paid him no mind.
“Won’t you shut up?”
When Bagan feigned cleaning his ear while glaring, the demon flinched. That reaction became his defense mechanism, and he unleashed indiscriminate dark magic.
“Mad Darkness!”
A massive black sphere hurtled toward Bagan.
Whoosh!
Yet the sphere never reached him. Slash! Empowered by Sally’s power of condemnation, Bagan sliced through the dark magic in a single stroke. The greater the Sin he faced, the stronger Sally’s power became. He had felt it while fighting Leviathan. This pair of Sins was on a similar level, so Bagan’s condition was at its peak.
“I-impossible! Darkness Hand!”
Panicked, the demon cast another spell. Having absorbed life force earlier, his mana overflowed, allowing him to spam magic freely. Dark energy from his crimson staff seeped into the ground, creating a blood-red terrain from which countless hands erupted toward Bagan.
“Dark magic really is grotesque.”
(I agree. Calling that a technique is laughable.)
Bagan dodged the hands with ease while chatting with Sally. But Slepitass refused to give up, pouring more power into the endless assault. At the same time, Limut closed in and swung his spear.
Whoosh!
Having anticipated the attack, Bagan evaded it with an incredible movement. With Thought Acceleration active, dodging such techniques was trivial—even with his hands in his pockets. Still, there was one thing Bagan had to be careful about: never letting his weapon clash with Limut’s.
‘Limut is the Demon of Constraint. He imposes absurd restrictions on anything he touches.’
It was no surprise Vidion had struggled without knowing that fact. Facing two opponents at once, the fact that he had lasted this long was impressive. If he had fought either one alone, he likely would have won once he understood their abilities.
‘But the shock seems to have hit him hard.’
While leisurely avoiding both demons’ attacks, Bagan glanced at Vidion and tilted his head. Even after the healing and regaining some stamina, Vidion’s pupils trembled as he stared at the ground stained with his allies’ blood. This wasn’t his usual personality, but the casualties caused by his own powerlessness had clearly taken a mental toll. That was why Bagan couldn’t forgive the two demons.
Though he appeared relaxed, the fact that he wasn’t angry meant Bagan had truly resolved himself. Sally could see it too. She felt his genuine desire to toy with the demons before killing them in the most miserable way possible. In the end, Bagan made his decision.
“You two were subordinates of Lilith, the Sin of Lust, weren’t you?”
Mentioning their master’s name finally provoked a reaction.
“How do you know that?!”
“Obedience and Constraint aren’t particularly strong among the subordinates of the Seven Deadly Sins. That’s why you stick together.”
Grind! Limut, who had shown little emotion until now, clenched his teeth. They both knew the truth. Even though they had received power from the Seven Deadly Sins, they were not superior to the other demons of Pandemonium.
“Shut up! I’ll admit you’re strong. But won’t you despair at this?”
Slepitass was the type of demon who resorted to underhanded tricks when lacking power. While that suited a demon, it didn’t fit Pandemonium, where strength explained everything. Limut was the same—aside from his power of constraint, he only had a slightly superior physique. Any demon possessed that much.
So in the end, Slepitass touched something he shouldn’t have.
“Vidion, one of the Seven Heroes—submit to me!”
Pouring every ounce of his strength, he directed the power of obedience at Vidion, who stood some distance away in despair. Vidion was currently doubting himself, wondering if he was truly worthy of being called a hero. With his true form unsealed and his appearance returned to normal, his mind was in the perfect state for such intrusive thoughts.
‘Submit. Submit.’
The voice echoed in Vidion’s ears.
‘Submit.’
“Shut up!”
‘Submit.’
“I said shut up!!”
‘There is no shame in being lacking. You only need to be together. So submit to me.’
The voice that had invaded Vidion’s mind slowly ate away at him until it finally changed his state. Bagan realized something was wrong when Epentes began to hum and emit a sinister aura while floating on its own.
“You really do resort to every dirty trick. But the Vidion I know isn’t that weak.”
Bagan believed in Vidion until the very end. His convictions weren’t fragile enough to yield to something so petty.
“Yeah. There’s no shame in being lacking. Even demons can be helpful sometimes.”
Vidion’s expression was refreshingly clear. It felt as though the heavy knot in his chest had finally come undone.
“Bagan, I can’t attack that rabbit-headed bastard because of the Demon of Constraint. So you handle him.”
Vidion’s body overflowed with power, radiating a fierce aura so intense that Epentes resonated and floated into the air on its own.
‘That’s new even for me.’
It was essentially a technique that embodied the principle of sword control. Seeing Vidion’s awakened resolve, Bagan nodded unconsciously.
Crack, crackle!
Vidion loosened his body as if to signal he was ready, then charged at Limut. While not as fast as when he used his true form, his physique had always been exceptional. There was a reason he was called one of the Seven Heroes. Combined with Epentes flying through the air under his will, he displayed the pinnacle of spearmanship that had previously been difficult to achieve. The spear spun brilliantly, blocking Limut’s attacks while striking at openings and slashing—Bagan couldn’t look away.
But Bagan had his own task.
“Now then, let’s get started too.”
Leaving Vidion’s battle with Limut behind, Bagan turned to Slepitass, who was grinding his teeth so hard they might shatter.
“I’ll make you regret angering me. I only planned to take Vidion, but if I defeat a strong opponent like you, it’ll ultimately help Lady Lilith.”
Ignoring the demon’s rambling, Bagan dug at his ear and spoke.
“Weaklings who can’t fight always talk too much. Shut up and beg for your life. Not that I’ll spare you.”
With that, Bagan firmly gripped the Dragonic Sword. His body felt stiff from lack of movement, so he had no intention of using other magic.
‘How a warrior fights a mage. It’s the exact opposite.’
He closed the distance.
Bang!
Adding Acceleration (C), Bagan moved in front of the demon as if teleporting and swung his sword toward Slepitass’s right shoulder and neck.
“Dark Barrier!”
The demon barely reacted in time to form a barrier, but the Dragonic Sword sliced through it effortlessly.
Slash!
The bisected barrier became useless. Slepitass twisted his body at the last moment and avoided having his neck severed.
“Graaah!! Y-you bastard! Death Bind! Lava of Hell!”
Even with one arm half-disabled, the demon refused to drop his staff. He bound Bagan’s legs with the hands of the dead before generating Pandemonium’s lava beneath him. As expected of a demon, his physical abilities were monstrous. Bagan, though a homunculus, couldn’t remain unscathed in lava. He immediately severed the hands and escaped. The demon’s dark magic casting was so fast that Bagan had nearly taken a fatal blow.
“What kind of cheap trick was that? I wasn’t aiming for it, but trading flesh for bone isn’t a bad strategy.”
The problem was that only the flesh had been traded. Bagan widened the distance and casually shook off the lingering dark magic clinging to his pant leg. Even though he had cut it away, the unpleasant aura was unbearable.
During that time, Slepitass barely managed to reattach his dangling arm and cast another spell.
“Rise! Shadow Engage!”
True to his cowardly style, the demon commanded various minions besides those bound by obedience. One of them was the shadow wraiths summoned through dark magic.
Shaaaaah!!
The shadow wraiths surged toward Bagan with a howling wind. An ordinary sword wouldn’t have touched their incorporeal forms, but the Dragonic Sword was a mass of energy. Thanks to that, Bagan could tear them apart in a single strike.
Slash! Slash!
Yet the wraiths felt no pain and continued charging even when torn apart. They were more devoted to slaughter than even undead driven mad by it.
“Summoning something like this—!”
Slash!
“If you still had mana left—!”
Slash!
“You would’ve run away!”
Thud, thud, thud!
This time, Bagan didn’t even use acceleration. He simply cut down the shadow wraiths one by one as he approached the panting Slepitass.
“Tired?”
It wasn’t a genuine question. He asked to mock and deceive the demon.
“What now? You’re out of mana.”
In contrast, Bagan showed no signs of fatigue. As long as he fought Sins with Sally’s buffs, he felt he could battle for days without tiring. After all, it was the power of a Spirit King.
“You demon-like bastard.”
Slepitass spat words that didn’t suit Bagan, who was the one humiliating and toying with him.
“Self-introduction?”
With that, Bagan raised the Dragonic Sword high. No more shadow wraiths came, so he calmly adjusted his stance and prepared to bring it down. This time, he aimed for a vital point—the crown of the head, precisely.
Shunk!
He didn’t even swing with full force. Slepitass’s body split cleanly in half, like tofu being cut. That marked his end. Since Bagan had imbued the attack with Sally’s power, condemnation was meaningless. The demon wasn’t human, and demons never had the chance to be judged for their sins in the first place.
(Looks like it’s over there too.)
Hearing Sally’s voice, Bagan turned his gaze from the spot where Slepitass had vanished and looked at Vidion. There stood Vidion, panting as if exhausted, and Limut’s body, sliced into countless pieces. Bagan could roughly understand how furious Vidion must have been to reduce the demon to chunks.
(As expected, I need to use my power to finish this. If we leave him like that, he’ll return to Pandemonium.)
“Right.”
Accepting Sally’s words, Bagan wore an expression that said he couldn’t allow that. He drove the Dragonic Sword deeper into Limut’s dismembered corpse. Just like Slepitass, Limut turned to dust and disappeared.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the sky cleared.
Plip! Plop! Plop-plop!
Whoosh!
“Why’s it raining again?”
Bagan wrapped himself in mana to avoid the unpleasant sensation, but Vidion showed no intention of moving. He still couldn’t let go of what had happened to the dead soldiers. Unable to say anything to him, Bagan simply sent a quiet, warm energy his way.