And the Winner Is!
Sloan looked truly pitiful as she pouted, gazing up at Camilla with the eyes of a stray dog left out in the rain.
"But… he's a Demon King? As the Hero, I'm the one who should kill him… You guys just need to help me, right?"
Vallitics already knew the Hero was a murder addict — but he had never imagined she'd gone this far off the deep end.
She's like an opium junkie. What kind of woman is this? So desperate to kill someone she's practically vibrating… This is the worst.
With that sharp insight of his, Vallitics carefully studied Sloan's condition.
She really did look no different from a drug addict. Her pupils were blown wide, drool was trailing from the corner of her mouth. Her hands wouldn't stay still, fidgeting restlessly, and her feet kept tapping — tap, tap — with nervous energy.
She's not going to suddenly attack me, is she? Now that it's come to this, she said she'd settle for a substitute…
That would be truly horrific. Vallitics kept his stealth active and quietly edged backward.
Fortunately, some shred of reason still remained in Sloan. She shot Camilla a look.
Even a mage of Camilla's talent froze under that murderous gaze. There was no telling what Sloan might do when she was this displeased with a situation.
"You said it yourself, didn't you? That the age of women protecting men has arrived."
"I diiid…!"
"Do you like Val too?"
Sloan answered without hesitation.
"If you're asking whether I like him as a comrade — yeah. But not as a romantic interest."
"That so?"
"Yep!"
"Then if we fight him now, you should yield to us. You don't need any points, right?"
"…That's true, but."
"Then we're done talking. We'll fight first. You stay right there and don't move."
It was no different from telling a starving dog not to touch the slab of meat sitting right in front of it. Vallitics was astonished that someone so powerful could wear such a submissive expression.
"Urgh…! F-fine. So you're saying you'll fight him first? All right. Do whatever you want."
"Yay."
Elisa drew her bowstring back with astonishing tension. Budalin still couldn't grasp this absurd situation at all — he simply stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him.
"You lot… What on earth are you talking about? What exactly do you intend to do to me?"
"We're going to kill you. For the sake of my healthy sex life."
"…Why? I said I wished to make peace with humanity. Why reject this offer of mine?"
Unable to process the sudden turn of events, Budalin activated his innate ability.
"What is this octopus bastard even saying?"
Faster than the ability could fully deploy, Elisa's arrow cut through the air toward Budalin's brow. The Steel Octopus never even registered the strike.
Because he didn't need to. Metal buried deep within the bedrock surged together at a transcendent speed, forming a single shield wall.
His ability activation is pretty fast.
Elisa's arrows broke the sound barrier. But Budalin's steel shield formed even faster, intercepting the attack.
And considering those arrows were powerful enough to punch clean through ordinary shields, the barrier he'd conjured in that single instant boasted tremendous defensive strength.
"O fire, o radiance — unleash your wrath upon them!"
"Fine! You want a fight? Then I'll kill you two first! If you thought I was some fool who relies only on his subjects and neglected his own training — you are sorely mistaken!"
The steel wall he'd raised split into thousands of daggers and rained down on Camilla just as she prepared to cast.
"…Wall of Flame!"
There were so many of them, and they were faster than expected, so Camilla switched from offense to defense. The mana gathering at the tip of her staff transformed into fire, and the moment the steel daggers passed through the wall, they melted into slag.
"It's still my turn! No — it continues to be my turn!"
The molten steel re-formed of its own accord. Dozens, then hundreds of blades materialized in midair and attacked Elisa and Camilla simultaneously.
He's not even giving them room to counterattack?
Both of them dodged in their own ways just before the strikes landed — but the fact that it was still Budalin's turn to attack never changed.
The blades whirling through the air became axes, the axes became long spears, and the spears became swords again, shifting form over and over as they lashed out.
"Tsk…"
Elisa was the first to take a wound from the unpredictable assault. Unlike Camilla, who blocked each attack with a mana barrier, Elisa was dodging purely on dynamic vision — so the cuts inevitably began to add up one by one.
"Ugh… What a filthy way to fight. Seriously!"
Camilla wasn't exactly at ease either. She'd blocked every incoming attack, so she had no wounds — but a single hit would take an arm or a leg clean off.
"I clearly showed you mercy! And you could have fought me together! Every bit of this situation is the choice you made!"
Of course, if Sloan jumped in even now, Budalin would certainly be killed. He knew that himself, which was why he prepared his finishing blow.
Even so, if her comrades get hurt, she won't follow… First I'll take their limbs, then escape in the opening.
He'd seen enough of their skill. If he assembled a proper subjugation force and sent it after the hero party, he could inflict real damage. Just as a child bitten by a dog grows up still fearing that experience — if they took heavy losses from Budalin, they would give up…
Budalin's judgment came from that experience, so instead of fleeing he fought back with everything he had. Just a little more… The moment their stances broke, he would fire every scrap of steel he'd created and pierce them both through.
"Ghk…?!"
And that plan failed spectacularly. A cold sensation drove into his back, and searing agony bloomed outward at the same time.
"You…!"
"Your internal organs are the same as a human's, right?"
Vallitics had held his stealth until the absolute last second. Then he slipped behind Budalin and drove a dagger deep into his lower back.
A fellow Demon King had appeared out of nowhere — and instead of helping, stabbed him in the back. Enraged, Budalin swung his arm to throw him off, only to be stunned by the realization that he couldn't so much as twitch a finger.
"This poison…!"
Recognizing it as a kin's paralytic toxin, Budalin desperately tried to move the dagger — but that was his final thrashing.
"This… can't be. Dying so pointlessly here? Me?!"
The icicle Camilla conjured drove precisely into Budalin's throat, and the arrow that followed punched straight through his heart.
Even so, he didn't die instantly — but the fact that he was about to die remained unchanged.
"I cannot die yet… My subjects still need my guidance! If I perish, they will be like sheep led to slaughter! I will not allow it. They still need my—"
"I really can't understand freaks like you."
Vallitics genuinely could not comprehend Budalin's attachment to his subordinates.
Weren't a Demon King's minions supposed to be disposable tools you used and threw away? Caring about them made no sense at all.
I've heard more of these types have been popping up lately… Have they started discovering emotions?
Demon Kings were strong precisely because unnecessary feelings had been stripped away. Things like compassion — caring about others — were inefficient.
Vallitics pondered the growing number of kin who possessed such emotions. Should he welcome it, or worry about it?
That thought lasted only a moment. Camilla's whole body shuddered as she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"I got him! You saw that just now, right?! I killed him!"
"Th-that's… so enviable— I mean, well done. Good job."
"Elisa! Per our bet, Val is mine for a while. Any objections? No, right? Because if you do, Sloan will beat the crap out of you!"
A bet? This was the first Vallitics had heard of it. He knew the two of them had been up to something shady involving him, but—
Whoever kills him first gets to have sex with me… Something like that? Give me a break.
Naturally, he had no reason to accept it. Vallitics scowled as Sloan approached.
"Those people say they made a bet over me? What kind of nonsense is this?"
"Val. Attention."
"…Pardon?"
"Attention. From now on, you're Camilla's property. Only for the next three days, but still."
"Says who?"
"Says me."
Sloan calmly raised her hand. Vallitics's body was fairly sturdy. So she hit him softer than she would Elisa — and harder than she would Camilla.
"Tighten your core."
Thud! The back of her hand, swung roughly, slammed hard into Vallitics's stomach. The blow was so agonizing he couldn't breathe for a moment.
"Sloan! Did you just hit Val?!"
"I was annoyed, so I took it out on him…"
"Don't hit him!"
Because for the next three days, only I get to hit him. Camilla whispered it quietly to herself.