134. Quick and Decisive
134. Quick and Decisive
[Belphegor's Demon Archbishop has been defeated. He fought bravely and met a glorious end. His soul will live eternally at the side of the Great Demon.]
Not much time had passed, yet the Demon Archbishops had already gathered urgently.
Though two seats stood vacant—the one belonging to the fallen Demon Archbishop of Belphegor, and the disconnected seat of Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop—that was hardly a major issue.
In the first place, it was rare for all the Demon Archbishops to convene for a meeting.
One or two absentees were typical for their gatherings.
Even so, seeing them reassemble like this again was uncommon.
And it was an equally urgent matter.
A Bishop, of all things, had been killed.
[Then, who will be the next to bring the Academy to ruin?]
Though one Demon Archbishop had fallen, Satan's Archbishop still sat there acting smug, thinking only of ordering the others around from the center. Someone, infuriated by this, spoke out.
[Until now, infiltrating the Academy has been easy because it is an area little touched by the Holy See's reach, and thus weakly defended.
This is our third invasion. They've been hammered enough that even if the Empire consists of fat, gut-stuffed pigs, they cannot help but be stirred from their heavy seats...
Even though we've already failed three times, it only means it will be harder from now on.
I ask again. For what exact reason must we concentrate so heavily on the Academy?]
The speaker was Leviathan's Demon Archbishop.
Part of it was that he was always annoyed by Satan's Archbishop acting as if he were the commander, but he was also genuinely convinced that attacking the Academy now was a foolish act.
Even Belphegor's Demon Archbishop, who possessed the Power of Dominion—the most useful in such a place—had failed. It was painfully obvious that it would only get harder from here.
[If this is a plan to concentrate all attention on the Academy and then expand our forces at other vulnerable points, I will follow without complaint.
But attempting a frontal assault knowing it won't work is nothing but incompetence.]
[Nothing has changed from before. I am simply relaying Lord Satan's will.]
Leviathan's Demon Archbishop gritted his teeth.
Again, it was that same damn 'Satan's will.'
[Lord Satan has seen the future. The burning Academy, the Emperor in mourning alongside the Five Pillars—the Empire's collapse begins with the fall of the Academy. When the Academy's students are slaughtered and the entire Empire is plunged into despair, that is the time of revolution.]
[Then couldn't the timing be pushed back a little...! Now is the time to retreat!]
[The year of the prophecy is this year. The end must come this year to bring hell upon this world. Lord Satan spoke with such clarity.]
[But...!! We, the ones who must attack, are a complete mess! The cult following Belphegor is on the verge of collapse with even its Bishop lost—so who exactly is supposed to step up?!]
Demon Archbishops are not easily made.
A Demon Archbishop, who is both a contractor of a Great Demon and a Magically Infected Human, differs somewhat from those in ordinary demonic contracts.
Finding a vessel capable of accepting a Great Demon is difficult, and the contract with a Great Demon itself takes a long time.
A mere human attempting a simple contract would have to offer far more sacrifices, given the vast disparity in what each party possesses.
Finding Belphegor's next contractor should be the priority—what talk of invasion was this?
[Ah, are you concerned about the Bishop's disappearance? That's no problem at all...]
But Satan's Archbishop spoke calmly, as if such a thing were a trivial concern.
[Did you truly think I wouldn't have prepared for something like that? Now, come forth.]
As he spoke, the vacant seat of Belphegor lit up once more.
[Exchange greetings. This is the one who became Lord Belphegor's new contractor as of yesterday.]
[How is that...?!]
It hadn't even been a full week since Belphegor's Demon Archbishop died.
Yet everyone was shaken by the fact that Belphegor's new contractor had already appeared.
[Lord Satan watched over the process. It takes a long time when you try to do it alone, but isn't it so easy when we help each other?]
No matter how much they helped, it wasn't a problem that could be solved in a day or two.
They had clearly prepared this in advance.
[You... could it be that even we...?]
It was then that a chilling plan dawned in the mind of Leviathan's Demon Archbishop.
[Intruder!! Stop them!!!]
Commotion erupted from the side of the newly appeared Belphegor's Demon Archbishop.
It seemed external sounds were bleeding through.
[Satan's Archbishop-nim... It seems an intruder has appeared. Since I need to familiarize myself with Lord Belphegor's Authority anyway... I will deal with them shortly.]
[Yes... Show the gods' lapdogs what the Power of Dominion truly is.]
The newly appointed Belphegor's Demon Archbishop reported to Satan's Archbishop as if he were his subordinate, then vanished.
No one voiced it aloud, but they all seemed to be thinking the same thing.
[Chijijik]
[Tukwang!!!!]
The sounds from Belphegor's Demon Archbishop's location continued to echo through his now-empty spot.
The fight seemed quite fierce.
But something was off.
If the Power of Dominion had been used properly, it shouldn't have remained so noisy for this long.
His seat was filled again a few minutes later.
[Heheh... You're a bit late. Holy Knights must have shown up, I take it?]
Satan's Archbishop, thinking Belphegor's Demon Archbishop had returned, called out to him.
[Ah... Aah... Oh, I see. So this is how it was structured.]
[[[[?!!!!]]]]
But the voice that echoed back belonged to an entirely different person.
A staticky, unrecognizable voice distorted by a voice-altering spell reverberated through the meeting hall.
[Trash. It's our first meeting, isn't it?]
—————————————————-
The moment I used Shukuchi, my vision shifted.
I was in front of the spell formula generating the alarm barrier, the location I had scouted when I first investigated.
'Yesss.'
The formula itself was protected by powerful defensive magic, but one slash of my Aura Blade shattered it into pieces.
After neutralizing it, I sent a signal outside, swiftly slipped away, and searched for the Demon Archbishop residing in this facility.
Even for a facility housing a Demon Archbishop, the scale was small due to its nature as a secret, small-scale gathering point, limiting the places one could traverse.
After I killed a few Magically Infected Humans who rushed out, commotion began to stir from another direction.
Amy and the nearby church forces, seeing the signal I sent after smashing the alarm system, must have arrived via teleport.
Picking up my pace, I saw a figure who appeared to be the Demon Archbishop standing at the center of a magic circle.
I finally found him.
"Intruder..?!"
Realizing I had entered, the man in thick robes standing at the center turned to look at me.
His face was covered with a mask featuring large, striking compound eyes.
"Die—!!"
The first strike wins.
Before he could do anything, the white-hot Aura Blade in my hand split his torso.
No, I thought I had split it.
'No sensation in my hand.'
The Aura Blade, poised to cut through anything, cleaved the empty air in vain.
-Wheeeeeeeeng
"Kikick..!! You bastard, you're a Master..!! To dare invade even a place like this!"
The voice of the Demon Archbishop wearing the fly mask echoed from all directions.
The ear-piercing, unpleasant noise grated on my nerves.
The source of the noise was none other than the sound of countless flies' wings beating.
His body had transformed and scattered into a colony of thousands, tens of thousands of flies.
I had tried to kill him with a sword strike before he could use his Authority, but it seemed he had already activated it.
'Plan to kill him before he uses his Authority—discarded...!'
Possessing Beelzebub's Authority, he could transform his entire body into a swarm of insects.
From the bugs of this world to the bugs of hell, he could spew forth all manner of insects from his body.
Though it was a demon's Authority, it took little damage from Holy Power, and no matter how many died, their numbers multiplied faster than they were slaughtered, devouring everything in their path. That was the Power of Gluttony held by Beelzebub.
"If it was going to be like this, I should have brought a flyswatter, not a sword."
"Keu... Did you... look down on me because I wear a fly mask...!! You're nothing more than a mere swordsman, you wretch!!"
Now that he had used his Authority, taking him down with only a sword would be difficult.
No matter how much I slashed, Beelzebub multiplied faster than that.
"I'll devour you without leaving a single bone behind!!!"
The room filled with a swarm of flies, surging in from all sides.
The flies manifested by Beelzebub's Authority, turning them into hell insects, were no ordinary flies but terrifying hell bugs that tore through animal flesh.
"Ugh, I really hate bugs."
But all of this was an expected development.
Instead of focusing the Aura Blade against the bugs rushing in at terrifying speed, I loosened its control slightly. The single blazing line of light thickened a little.
It became similar to the Aura Blades of top-tier Experts.
Though its output was far stronger.
"Hup!"
As I swung the thickened Aura Blade, tens of thousands of flies were swept up in the sword aura and vanished in sudden puffs, as if erased by an eraser.
But even though a single attack seemed to annihilate all the flies in the room, they evidently weren't all dead, for their numbers swelled again in an instant.
"Such... primitive attacks cannot inflict even a scratch on this Power of Gluttony! I'll watch and see just how long you can defend."
"As expected, this is endless."
It was exactly as Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop said.
I tried it just in case, but as expected, there was no end.
It seemed best to use what I had prepared here.
"I don't have a flyswatter, but I do have insecticide."
I swept away the fly swarm rushing toward me once more with sword aura, then pulled out the item I had tucked at my waist.
The object, reminiscent of a small drum, wasn't some great artifact on its own.
The sole function of this artifact was to widely disperse the liquid stored inside it in the form of a smoke screen.
As I pulled the safety pin, dense green smoke spewed from the end of the drum in all directions.
"Do you... think such mere chemicals will work...!!"
-Pwooshwoooooosh
Compared to the fierce swarm of flies rushing in, it truly burst out weakly, but its spread speed was incredible.
The room was quickly filled with green smoke.
And the effect showed immediately.
"Keua... Aaaaargh!!!!"
The flies began to scream.
The thrashing swarm staggered, then coalesced in one spot, reverting to their original form.
"Wha... What is that stuff...!!!"
White foam dripped from beneath the mask of the returned Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop.
He seemed to be foaming at the mouth.
His body was probably paralyzed, and he could barely speak.
He genuinely seemed to have no idea why he was being taken down.
Under normal circumstances, the best-known method was for a unit composed of multiple Holy Knights to mark Beelzebub exclusively, continuously pouring Holy Power to prevent his colony from multiplying.
But the truth was, while Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop possessed an immensely powerful Authority, he also had a fatally critical weakness.
The weakness of Beelzebub's Authority, which took no damage even from Holy Power, was precisely a special insecticide mixed from 'Dried Weed of Hell'—purchasable from a black magic shop in some back alley of the capital—combined with a basic 1st-Circle pest-control spell.
Since he had never been hit by it even once before, he probably didn't know his own weakness.
The Great Demon Beelzebub himself likely knew, but it seemed he hadn't told him.
The true identity of 'Dried Weed of Hell,' the ingredient in the insecticide, was a carnivorous plant native to hell.
This plant produces a 'paralytic poison' that is incredibly effective against hell's insects. Satan had used it to defeat Beelzebub in the struggle for supremacy in hell.
Since it was a plant that grew only in hell, he must have thought there was no need to worry about it here.
Could he have ever imagined such a thing would be rolling around for pocket change in some back alley?
But in the original story, a scholar eventually discovered this, and Hayden inherited that knowledge and used it to defeat Beelzebub.
Beelzebub was defeated by a future he had yet to experience.
"You don't need to know."
Even having seized his weakness, there was no time to spare.
If he came to his senses and fully transformed into a Magically Infected Human like this, it would be annoying.
I swung the Aura Blade down with all my might at the Demon Archbishop of Beelzebub, whose entire body was convulsing from paralysis.
"I'll send another bastard along with you as company for the road."
A pure white line was carved through the darkened room. His head and body separated, rolling across the floor.
Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop, unable to use his Authority, was nothing more than a mere Magically Infected Human.
.
.
.
.
After swiftly dealing with Beelzebub's Demon Archbishop, I moved to the next base. Just like before, I destroyed the alarm barrier, contacted those waiting outside, and began the operation.
This time, it ended even faster than at Beelzebub's base.
Outside the door, I could hear screams and the clash of weapons.
And frequently, the sound of people slamming into the stone walls like baggage.
It seemed Casey's telekinesis magic was rampaging in spectacular fashion.
"For all the preparation, it ended rather anticlimactically."
The room I stood in was a grim, deeply unpleasant place.
Maybe living in dumps like this is why demon followers all end up with those kinds of personalities. I wondered if they knew that.
On the floor, the remains of what had been a person just moments ago were scattered. Among the debris was a horn-shaped mask fused to a skull.
He was the successor to Belphegor's Demon Archbishop, the one I had completely erased without a trace a few days ago.
I knew it took time to contract a new Demon Archbishop, so I was surprised one had already been prepared.
Due to the aftereffects of the new contract with Belphegor, his traces were the most distinct, making him easy to find quickly.
'Foolish intruder, you would do well to kneel before Lord Belphegor's Authority!'
He spouted nonsense, so the moment I ran into him, I annihilated him from head to toe in one go.
He seemed about to use his Authority, but my attack was faster.
Unlike the previous Demon Archbishop, this one apparently hadn't prepared any spell to transfer his damage to someone else, and so he died instantly.
"What's this?"
Glad it ended quickly, I swept my gaze once across the room where the Demon Archbishop had been and discovered a suspicious magic circle in the center.
Seeing demonic energy still squirming and leaking out of it, I approached, wondering if it was for summoning a demon, but it was different from that.
It sounded like voices were coming from inside it.
'Could it be...?'
I had heard of this before.
The Demon Archbishops didn't meet each other directly but used a special communication method to hold their meetings.
Just in case, I braced myself and stepped up onto the center. My senses twisted.
My sight and hearing were transported to another location.
Several people were gathered in that place. Perhaps due to the settings they had in place, everyone's identity was obscured.
Seeing that, I understood what situation I was in.
It was exactly like the descriptions of Demon Archbishop meetings that occasionally appeared in the novel.
Shadowy phantom-like figures of unknown identity stared directly at me, but none of them had yet realized I had entered.
"Ah... Aah... Oh, I see. So this is how it was structured."
Remembering their positions, I deliberately made my presence known.
"Trash. It's our first meeting, isn't it?"
At my single remark, all the other phantoms appeared visibly startled.
If they were in the middle of a meeting, so much the better.