A Call Left Unanswered
"Ah."
The sound slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Honestly, I hadn't expected it to end this quickly.
I knew it was an intelligent demon that fought with its head, but still... it's a demon.
And not just some weak one, either. This was a top-tier demon that had received a considerable share of power from Lust itself.
Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would go down from a single punch — a punch I hadn't even thrown at full strength.
"Hey... are you actually one of the executives?"
I'd asked toward the direction Ren had been sent flying earlier, but no answer came back. The dust settled, and the figure it revealed — Ren — was already unconscious.
"Unbelievable..."
I was so dumbfounded that my mouth wouldn't close.
What I'd come here to capture was Lust and her demons. But things were progressing far too smoothly — so smoothly that I kept wondering whether this was really okay.
"Ahh...! I want you so badly!"
That was when Lust, who had been watching from the sidelines until that very moment, finally opened her mouth. And hearing her first words made me feel a little sick.
She hadn't lifted a finger even as her most trusted subordinate was being beaten down, and only now did she decide to move.
So he's just a disposable tool to her... disgusting.
If she had truly cherished him, Envy would have moved before my fist ever landed. Mental attacks may have been her specialty, but as one of the Seven Great Demons, she was more than capable of responding to my strike.
But Lust didn't. She simply let him take my punch.
"My, my — how would you like to become mine? I'll give you everything you desire."
"Everything I desire, you say?"
"That's right. Money? Power? People? I'll give you all of it. Everything except women."
As she spoke, Lust subtly began to release her demonic energy outward. She was probably banking on the hope that I would feel it and surrender.
Ha. Pathetic.
I burst out laughing inside.
The demonic energy I felt was overwhelmingly greater than Envy's had been. And yet, unlike with Envy, I felt no pressure at all.
I guess that means I've gotten that much stronger.
There were still areas where I fell short compared to before my regression, but my mana had already surpassed it. Once I recovered my techniques, I would be able to claim strength even greater than my past self's.
"And why exactly can't I have women?"
"Because when it comes to women, I alone am enough for you."
Lust said this with a sly smile. Every part of me wanted to rush in right then and cut her down, but I held back a little longer.
If I attacked now and won outright, she would never summon her contract demon, Asmodeus.
This is my chance to whittle away at her power.
Just like with Leviathan before, if I dealt with Lust while Asmodeus was dwelling inside her body, I could strike a blow against her true self.
For that, I need to shatter her composure first.
As long as her mind stayed clear, she would choose to run long before reaching the point of summoning a demon into her body. Which meant I had to strip away her ability to think rationally.
"So then, how do I go about becoming a demon?"
"Don't you worry! I'll handle everything for you."
Lust said this and slowly began closing the distance between us. As she approached, she wore the same seductive expression and gestures as the Lust I knew from before.
If I were still the me of this era, pre-regression, I'd have fallen head over heels.
But the me of now didn't.
I stood perfectly still and waited until Lust had come just a little closer. She believed I had completely fallen for her words.
A delusion leads to colossal carelessness.
And that carelessness leads to a fatal mistake.
"Kghk—!"
I drove my dagger into the abdomen of the Lust who had approached me. Convinced that I'd fallen for her, she failed to react at all and allowed my attack clean through.
"Damn it!"
Though struck, Lust immediately put distance between us and unleashed her specialty — Bewitchment. The instant she used it, demonic energy tinted pink wrapped itself around my body.
"Heehee! Now that you've fallen under my Bewitchment, you belong to me!"
The moment I touched the pink demonic energy, Lust giggled and began approaching me again.
"Ahh, I finally have it — the ultimate weapon, in my hands!"
Saying this, Lust brought her hand up to my cheek. Then, ever so delicately, she traced her fingers down along it, lower and lower.
"We could have been doing this from the very start, you know."
"Is that right? And what exactly should we have been doing from the start?"
"Wh-what?!"
I caught her hand before it could reach that place. The moment I moved, Lust's face twisted in alarm and she tried to flee from me.
"Let go! I said let go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that. You said it yourself, didn't you? When it comes to women, you alone are enough."
With those words, I pressed my face right up close to hers.
"So there's no reason to let you go, is there?"
I said it with a bright grin.
After I went that far, even she finally caught on that I was toying with her, and began to panic.
"Hnngh! Let go! I said let go of me!"
Letting out a voice so fragile you'd never believe it came from a demon, she grimaced in pain.
Given her nature, Lust's physical abilities weren't particularly high. At best, she ranked in the middle tier even among S-Rank Awakeners.
Then why had Lust been able to hold her territory all this time? The answer was simple.
She just bewitches S-Rank Awakeners into serving her.
Filling the gap in her strength with numbers — that was Lust's method.
But right now, her subordinate Ren had gone down from a single one of my punches, and the ones lying in wait to ambush me in this room were all unconscious as well.
"So this place just isn't suited for putting your abilities to use — that's why you're losing."
"Kyaaaah!"
I considerately explained the reason for her defeat while tightening my grip on her arm. With only a slight squeeze, Lust was already screaming.
The common trait shared by the innately gifted and those who climbed to the top without effort is a total lack of resistance to pain.
She probably figured that bewitching me would solve everything.
Which was why she'd never imagined she would suffer pain like this, never imagined she would end up this pathetic. And now, cornered in a situation where escape was impossible, there was only one action left for Lust to take.
"Iik!"
"Oh? So you've finally decided to call for help, have you?"
Lust's eyes flushed red as demonic energy began to gather around her. I pulled the dagger out of her stomach and released the arm I'd been gripping.
"You will regret this!"
Lust declared with great bravado and cackled wildly. Watching her, I felt not the slightest trace of menace — only a crushing wave of secondhand embarrassment.
Oh. Why am I even doing this?
Had I really been grinding levels just to clean up something like this? I felt ashamed of myself for raising my level and gulping down elixirs on the off chance I'd need them to catch her.
I should've just done it a month ago...
I was mortified that I'd ever been nervous facing something like this. And the sight of her, brazenly summoning a demon right in front of the person she was fighting, looked utterly moronic.
"KYAHAHAHAHA!"
The more I watched her laughing her head off like that, the more my self-respect withered away. I strapped my dagger to my waist and drew the Unwoldo from my inventory.
"Gleipnir, Link."
Gleipnir — Link
The divine chain manifests from the wielder's body and binds to the chosen weapon.
"Yes, Master!"
I linked Gleipnir to the Unwoldo, and the chain flowing out of my body fastened itself to the very base of the blade.
"By the way... how long do you think that's going to take?"
I still haven't the faintest idea, Master...
There should have been signs of the demon descending by now, yet Asmodeus showed no indication of entering Lust's body at all.
"KYAHAHAHAHA!"
Whether or not that lunatic knew it, she just kept laughing. Watching her made my skin crawl.
"At this point, she's genuinely insane..."
The plan had been to let the demon possess her, deal with it swiftly, and get out fast — but this madwoman had thrown the whole thing off schedule.
"Oppa? It's not over yet?"
"Master, you're taking a while."
"Master, is something wrong?"
That was when the kids opened the door and came in. I gave them an awkward smile and pointed at Lust, who had been glowing this whole time.
"What is that, Master?"
"KYAHAHAHAHA!"
"Master, what's wrong with that lunatic?"
The kids looked at the glowing Lust and reacted pretty much the same way I had. In other words, to anyone watching, Lust currently looked every inch the raving madwoman.
"So why on earth is she doing that?"
"She called for Asmodeus, but apparently there's been no answer."
I gave the kids a brief rundown of the situation.
"Poor thing."
"She's so pitiful!"
"The poor dear..."
Having heard my explanation, the kids gazed at Lust with pity. Honestly, if you called that hard and got no response, you'd have to assume you'd been abandoned.
"Kya-ha... haha... ha!"
Even Lust, who had been laughing like a maniac, seemed to have worn herself out, unable to produce the same laughter as before. A few minutes passed like that, and eventually she collapsed to the floor in exhaustion.
"Why...? Why won't he answer my call?!"
Watching her wail like that, she looked exactly like a tragic heroine straight out of a comic book.
Hm... I'm starting to feel a little guilty...
I had been fully prepared to kill Lust, yet suddenly a twinge of conscience crept in. My will to kill her almost faded — until I heard her next words, and sentenced her to death on the spot.
"I see — my body was simply too tempting for you, wasn't it? Go on, then. Do with me as you please."
With that, Lust let the shoulder of her yukata slip slightly down. Objectively speaking, she really was a beautiful woman — but to me, it hardly registered as temptation at all.
"Juliet!"
"Yes? Did you call for me, Master?"
I called Juliet over from where she'd been waiting in the back and set her down in front of Lust. The moment Lust laid eyes on Juliet's face, her jaw dropped wide open.
"She's prettier than you, isn't she?"
"M-Master?!"
"With someone like her standing right beside me, do you think someone like you would even register in my eyes?"
I said this, delivering the final confirming blow to Lust. Beside me, for some reason, Juliet's face had flushed bright red.
"Now that you understand why you lost — die."
I said it coldly and swung the Unwoldo.
Shhk!
And so ended the life of one of the strongest demons in the world.
"Lord Asmodeus!"
"Yes, yes — flatter me a little more, why don't you."
Asmodeus, king of the incubi and succubi and the Demon King of Lust, was enjoying himself with a woman who had finally caught his fancy after a long drought.
Vvvvvmm!
Then a vibration sounded beside him — but Asmodeus, utterly absorbed in his play, failed to hear it.
"Now, which insolent wretch dares interrupt my amusement?"
When he finally tracked down the source of that grating vibration, the stone bore the name of his contractor.
"Oh... so it was her, was it?"
She — the one who had become the demon of Lust — was the only being Asmodeus had ever intended to take as his formal wife, and the only one whose offer he had refused. Perhaps because of that, Asmodeus had always shown a peculiarly intense fixation on Lust.
"I wonder why my darling called for me?"
Belatedly, Asmodeus moved to go to his contractor.
Vvvvmm! Clang!
He cast the spell — and it failed.
There was only one circumstance in which that spell could fail: the death of the contractor.
"No! That's impossible!"
And so, one of the strongest demons in existence belatedly came to realize that his contractor was dead.