The Demon Hero Party Assembles
Ultimate Skill.
Altar: Darkfang Sanctuary
It was an area-of-effect skill, a type that had rarely appeared until now.
In the game, this barrier inflicted a general debuff to all stats and a very minor damage-over-time effect on enemies, while granting Denarua increased attack and movement speed.
Compared to other Ultimate Skills that turned the tide of battle with a single, massive burst of power, it wasn't flashy. However, when wielded by a dual-wielder with exceptionally high base stats, it was more than lethal enough.
"Ggah!"
Dodging Arciel's fist, Denarua slapped her across the cheek with the hilt of her sword.
Arciel was sent flying, blood bursting from her mouth, but the shield knight quickly stepped in to protect her.
"Arciel! Don't charge into the vanguard! Stay back and focus on healing the party!"
"Tch!"
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Arciel immediately channeled her divine power to heal herself.
She had a bad habit of rushing forward, but her capabilities as a healer were second to none.
"Please buff us too!"
"I already did! It's only this bad because it's clashing with that bitch's barrier debuff!"
In fact, all of their stats were slightly lower than usual.
Even with the buffs active, their stats had decreased.
The Hero's party had never faced an enemy like this before.
Even the Demon King had relied on raw, overwhelming damage; he didn't possess debuff skills like this.
Nydrian fired a three-arrow volley.
The dual-wielder deflected them effortlessly, redirecting the projectiles toward Lucy, who was rushing at her.
"Haaah!"
Lucy didn't bother blocking. She lowered her stance to dodge and swung her sword, but Denarua blocked it with one hand and thrust forward with her other blade.
The advantage of dual-wielding—allowing simultaneous offense and defense—shone brilliantly.
The Hero quickly bent backward to evade.
Estel-style Secret Art: Sky Rend
However, since Denarua was blocking with only one hand, her defense would naturally be weaker than a two-handed block.
Lucy unleashed the same downward strike that had pressured the shield knight earlier.
Yet, Denarua crossed her twin blades to block the blow and immediately delivered a sharp kick to Lucy's abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Lucy was sent flying backward, but she grit her teeth and held her ground.
As she steadied her stance, Reinfold shouted to her.
"Luciena! We have to cooperate right now! Prepare your ultimate skill like we always do! We'll buy you time!"
But the moment Reinfold finished speaking, he had to block a furious downward strike from Lucy herself.
Clang!
"Prepare it like we always do? So you can take my head this time?!"
"Anger isn't going to solve this! The porter is still bleeding out! If we leave him like this, he'll die!"
"I won't let that happen!"
Lucy knew it too.
Even a brief glance showed that the pool of blood around Rin had grown larger than before.
She was terrified.
Terrified of losing him.
"Use me. I'll lend you my strength."
"Shut up! I can't even see you, so where the hell are you babbling from?!"
"I'm waiting just outside the barrier~. Come on, hurry. All you have to do is nod. You can't even deal proper damage to that demon without me anyway, right?"
"And what if I end up facing the demon alone? Those bastards might take Rin while I'm distracted!"
While Lucy was forced to converse with the Demon Sword as it pried through her mind via telepathy, Tigria cast the magic formula she had completed.
"Restrict."
It wasn't a targeting spell.
The restriction formula, which quickly designated and narrowed down an area, took priority.
"Extract, transfer, eliminate, replicate, freeze!"
As a magic circle manifested beneath her feet, Denarua glanced down, smirked, and spread her arms wide.
Crack, crack!
The area within the magic circle began to freeze rapidly.
In an instant, her lower body was encased in ice. As the frost crawled up past her navel, Denarua simply flexed her muscles and shattered the ice.
The dual-wielder kicked off the ground and dashed forward.
Moving within her own barrier, which boosted her attack and movement speed, her speed was such that even Lucy might lose track of her if she let her guard down.
"Harden—"
"Too slow."
Naturally, neither Nydrian nor Arciel could keep up with that speed.
Getting behind Tigria, the vampire sank her fangs straight into the mage's neck.
"Ahhh!"
The sickening sound of blood being sucked echoed eerily within the barrier.
After taking a deep gulp, Denarua frowned and spat the blood onto the ground.
"Pah! What have you even been doing all this time? I feel nothing but empty curiosity from you. You're the spitting image of that woman."
"Insult...! I am... different from her."
"That woman had nothing but curiosity too. Then she learned of affection, and to test if that affection was real, she did something foolish and brought disaster upon the world!"
"That is why I... do not make myself the subject, but observe and research..."
"Oh?"
Denarua sneered at the mage, her expression filled with contempt.
"I suppose a doll who has never been loved could never make herself the subject of anything."
"Absolutely not!"
The enraged mage gathered her mana, but Denarua casually slashed her from the shoulder down to her abdomen.
"Ah...!"
"Tigria!"
Seeing the mage collapse, Nydrian drew her bowstring, but the dual-wielder closed the distance in a flash. She drove a blade into the archer's abdomen and slashed Arciel, who was standing right next to her, in the same motion.
"Dammit!"
The shield knight attempted to tackle her, but the fact that she had reached Nydrian and Arciel meant she had already bypassed his shield and infiltrated their rear line.
"It's useless."
Slash.
The moment the shield knight turned around, his shield and upper torso were cleanly sliced halfway through.
Just like that, the entire Hero's party was incapacitated.
"Only you are left, Hero."
"Kh!"
Lucy took a stance, but she couldn't focus on her enemy because of the Demon Sword whispering incessantly in her head.
"They're all down! Oh no! What do we do! What do we do!"
"Shut up!"
"Hey~ let's face reality. She's the strongest among the Demon Heroes. You're no match for her right now."
"I could handle her if you'd just stop babbling!"
"Ahahaha."
This is taking too long.
Denarua was checking on Rin's condition.
Even though the Hero was the only one left, she showed the leisure of someone who didn't care at all.
The Demon Sword decided to exploit that leisure.
"By the way, if Rin dies like that, he'll become a demon."
"That's nonsense!"
"That's what happens when you die from demonic energy corruption. You know those weak demons you've been fighting all this time? Most of them were made that way."
While the two of them conversed, Denarua gently caressed Rin's mask.
"My brother and sister sacrificed themselves for humanity. But they couldn't protect the precious people right beside them."
What was the point of a peace where she herself wasn't happy?
In the end, the one who survived in her family was neither her brilliant brother nor her kind sister, but her twisted self, born a vampire through experiments.
"The Illusionist said we had to leave you with the Hero for a while for the sake of the plan, but I disagree."
Denarua was also running out of time.
She intended to turn Rin into a demon right here and take him with her.
"Our savior, the one who rescued us from an eternity of Avici hell... how could I not fall for you?"
She firmly believed that as long as she had Rin, he would fill the void inside her.
"I have a bad personality and act harsh, but please don't hate me for it."
With that, Denarua reached out to remove Rin's mask.
However, the moment her hand touched the mask, a chilling voice called out from behind.
"Hey."
"Pitiful Hero, who has neither comrades nor love. I left you alone out of pity for your miserable state, so leave on your own accord."
"I don't know anything about that."
Lucy raised her sword.
"But who the hell do you think you are, putting your hands on my Rin?"
It was not a crimson sword, but a dull, ink-black blade.
Denarua recognized it instantly.
"The Demon Sword! You bastard, are you siding with the Hero?!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry. I used to be a Holy Sword, after all. And more than anything..."
The playful voice of Abyss echoed in Lucy's mind.
"I'm just looking forward to the regret I'll get to witness from this side. It's going to be the highest quality of regret. Fufu, fuhaha!"
"You damn hedonist!"
Then, for the first time in a very long time, the ink-black Demon Sword began to glow slowly.
"Hey there, Hero? Since you're purifying my energy to use it, the holy damage won't hit as hard as the second Hnoni. Keep that in mind, okay?"
"This is enough."
"Aw, come on. This is my comeback stage, so this much is hardly enough."
Absorbing Lucy's mana, the Demon Sword turned completely white, radiating a brilliant red-gold light.
Rumbleeeee!
An artificial divine power that shook heaven and earth dissolved Denarua's barrier with light.
With a sound like shattering glass, the dark red barrier broke apart, revealing the coastline once more.
"Over there! It's the light!"
"Is that the Holy Sword? Is that woman the Hero?!"
All the people of the archipelago had gathered.
Gendry, who had rushed at Rin, the guards, and Ganal, who had hurriedly run over with her escorts.
Everyone was looking at Lucy, who held high the Holy Sword clad in light.
"Even so, you cannot defeat me! I am Denarua! The strongest of the Demon Heroes!"
Yet, Denarua moved as far away as possible, fearing Rin might get hurt.
Thanks to that, Lucy was able to swing the temporary Holy Sword without holding back.
Estel-style Secret Art
"Crescent Slash!!"
A brilliant red-gold sword energy flew forward as if to swallow Denarua whole.
Its thickness and width made it impossible to dodge.
This is dangerous!
Just as she took a defensive stance to brace for the impact with her body,
"Yees~ I'm here to save you~."
The Demon Hero spearman appeared, slung Denarua over his shoulder, and leaped away with a jumping power rivaling Lucy's.
Boom!
The sword energy, having missed its target, crashed somewhere far beyond the coastline, creating a thunderous roar.
"That guy is...!"
Arciel, who had barely managed to heal herself with divine power, gasped in shock.
The other members of the Hero's party, who had also received Arciel's treatment, began to regain consciousness one by one.
"Well, nice to meet you. We are the Demon Hero party. This is our first face-to-face meeting as party versus party."
Standing on the large boulder where the spearman and the dual-wielder had landed was the Illusionist, Adora.
"Adora!"
Lucy recognized the Illusionist instantly and adjusted her grip on her sword, but Adora merely sneered at her.
"Are you planning to make the same mistake as last time? The poor porter of our Hero's party is dying, you know?"
"If you let him die, it's all-out war right then and there~. I'll skewer every last one of you with my spear."
"Hmph. If you had just left him, he would have become one of us."
As Denarua muttered her complaint, Adora whispered to her.
"Are you seriously trying to turn Rin into some low-class demon?"
"...The process of making him like us is too painful."
"He has suffered more than enough. You know exactly why he ended up like this, so are you going to keep being stubborn?"
"...Fine."
"Thank you for understanding."
Once Denarua reluctantly agreed, Adora smiled warmly and looked back at the Hero's party.
"It's a pity, but we aren't in perfect condition either. And on your side... well, from the porter to everyone else, you all seem to be groggy, so let's call it a day. Oh! And I'll release the illusion I cast on the archipelago."
Snap!
Adora snapped her fingers, lifting the hypnosis she had placed over the entire Zramun Archipelago.
Except for Gendry, the residents of the islands fell into confusion as their forgotten memories rushed back to them.
"What is this? Why is Lady Ganal wearing a maid outfit?"
And it was the same for Ganal.
"Gendry, what on earth is..."
"Ganal! Oh, finally!"
The coastline quickly descended into chaos with the confused civilians.
Both the Hero's party and Lucy lost their will to fight.
"We shall take our leave now. The next time we meet, please be prepared for total annihilation."
With a wave of her hand, the Illusionist signaled the Demon Hero party to retreat.
Turning into black smoke, they drifted across the sea and vanished, but not a single member of the Demon Hero party left without worrying about Rin.
"The demons are retreating!"
"Long live the Hero's party!"
"Long live the Hero!"
Lucy grit her teeth at the hollow victory.
The sun was rising over the coastline as the night passed.
By the time the Hero's party and Lucy hurriedly carried Rin away and got him past the critical danger, the sun was already high in the sky.