Chapter 337

“AHAHAHA! I see you still remember me, Poer!”

“Empress Idïa, how are you still alive!?”

“Boy, you see what I am now, and you still have not figured it out? Surely you are a fool among fools.”

She couldn’t have taken a Drop of Eternity. There’s no way a Drop of Eternity would manifest itself to a person with an evil heart.

Still, what is it that she said I saw? Her Devil transformation? Or is this actually a Devil’s original form?

Could it be that Empress Idïa had formed a contract with a Devilkin remnant of her time!?

“…Could that be it…?”

“Hmph, you are free to make all the conjectures you want… But here and now, Poer, I shall take your life! Hell Stamp Rain!”

Damn it, she’s whipping out a big spell right off the bat!?

Countless dark-elemental energy hammers appeared over my head and swung down.

I double-jumped by creating a mid-air arcane energy platform, dodging them.

Looking down, the north-east tower of the castle was already destroyed.

“Yo–! Hoh–! Rise! Elemental Blast!”

“What excellent arcane energy control, Holy Warrior Poer! HOWEVER! Know that I have not been spending all these years doing nothing! Parasitic Control!”

“Huh!? Gah–! Parasitic Control!”

Empress Idïa’s Circle drawing is crazy fast. Almost feels like she’ll actually succeed in absorbing my Elemental Blast…

But that’s not gonna happen — ’cause I invented this spell myself!

“You think you can, but you CAN’T, damn it! OOOHHHHHH!!”

“What–!? Tch…!”

Empress Idïa stepped out of the way, avoiding a direct hit from my Elemental Blast. The explosion destroyed even more of the tower, and Empress Idïa was forced to jump down below.

I took this chance to cast some buffs.

“All Up: Count 6 & Remote Control!”

I did cast them before the infiltration started, but it was about time to reapply the effect, after all.

“KAHHHHHH!”

Suddenly, Empress Idïa jumped back up here with tremendous speed, brandishing her arms.

“Whoa!?”

I successfully parried with my Drynium Rod, but the hit was so powerful — almost as powerful as the Devil King’s punches — that my body still felt quite a bit of the impact.

Though I was blown away, I managed to flip myself upright in mid-air, then land on my feet on top of a wall of the Regalia Castle’s main building.

“God damn it, why’d you have to hit so hard!?”

“Hmph! You are sturdier than I expected!”

Oh? So that was actually a serious hit, by her standards?

Considering that, she’s definitely not stronger than the Devil King… as long as she doesn’t attack repeatedly.

“Rise, A-rise! Zenith Inferno!”

“How intense! Almost as if you were a Devil yourself! Ice Barrage!”

“Well, yeah, I kinda learned that from a Devil, actually! Wind Slash!”

“GWOH–!”

“All right! Now’s my chance! Rise, A-rise, A-rise! Lightning Boundary!”

After learning this Boundary magecraft from Warren, I’ve managed to simplify its formula further, making it practical enough for actual use.

Each cast eats up a whopping 3,000 MP, but if it works, I’ll be able to go help my friends.

“Hmph! This one is too dangerous!”

“Shit! Why’d you have to dodge THAT, of all things!?”

So much for tricking her to defend against everything, I guess. Now, I gotta find a way to land that Boundary magecraft and weaken her — Hey, wait a second…

–If you’d just whip all your power out on your enemies, there’s almost nothing and no one that can beat you — at least right now.

That’s what Tūs told me.

By the time those words came up in my head, I was already drawing more Craft Circles.

It too Empress Idïa a great deal of effort to dodge that first Lightning Boundary — and now I see a big opening I can exploit.

“Rise, A-rise, A-rise… A-rise! Lightning Boundary: Count 10 & Remote Control!”

I deployed the Circles in different directions, surrounding Empress Idïa as she attempted to dodge them by jumping high into the air — then I invoked them all.

“GAAAHHHHHH!?”

It feels like all my arcane energy is leaving my body at once… Probably because this was my first time using up so much MP in such a short time.

But despite how reckless this is, I CAN do it perfectly fine, and I’m thankful as hell for that. 

All the advice from Warren, Tūs, and everyone have helped me realize that I don’t need to hold back. For a moment, I felt as if all the things I had learned from them were empowering me.

I jumped down from the tower, to where Pochi and the Silver trio are fighting Cleath.

Reading their arcane energy auras, they seem to be quite exhausted.

Killing Empress Idïa can wait — gotta keep everyone alive first!

“High Cure Adjust: Count 4 & Remote Control!”

“Ngh–!? Lady Ishtar!?”

Cleath… he’s become even more grotesque after transforming into a Devil, his body pulsating like a vine-y plant.

Branch-like tentacles sprout from his arms, and his abdomen is quite inflated.

“Still good to go, guys!?”

“Thanks to Pochi’s help, yeah! We’ll manage! Ora! Smash-slash!”

“Would’ve had a much better time thick skin, though! Hmph! Seventh Lunge!”

“Aerial Dancer!”

“Pochi Stamp!”

Bruce, Betty, and Blazer used their special techniques to all attack Cleath at once.

“Air Claw!”

It’s amazing how in-sync the Silver trio is.

“GAHHHHHH!”

Looks like I don’t have to worry as much about them now–

“Master! Did you see that move I just did!?”

“I saw it!”

“Thank you, sir!”

Looks like Pochi’s happy to be down there, too, but now I wonder… being so close with others that they could read one another’s minds — does that actually work?

“KAHHHH!”

“What the hell is that!?”

“Poison mist!”

Betty’s right — it’s poisonous. And extremely potent, at that.

“Rise! Air Wall!”

“Ngh…! Stone Lance: Rapid Fire!”

Shit! His stone barrage managed to make a ton of holes in my Air Wall! He’s good!

Now the poison’s gonna seep through– Damn it, I gotta use it!

“HMPH!”

“Ultimate Limit!? Right now, sir!?”

“Air Wall Press! Earth Control!”

“Tch–! You monster!”

“Thanks for the compliment, strange man! Double Drago– What!?”

The moment I was about to cast my next magic spell, my Ultimate Limit was forcibly disengaged. Was that… Arcane Drain?

For a brief moment, I froze in place, startled by what had just happened — and then I sensed a gigantic source of arcane energy in the sky above me.

Levitating up there is a… presumably young man… with fluttering golden hair.

His body is of a burly build, and he’s holding someone in his right hand — Empress Idïa, her Devil transformation disengaged.

“Wait… why’d she turn back!?”

Immediately after, I heard an explosion coming from where Lylia was fighting.

In a corner of my eye, I saw that Lylia had complete advantage over Billy, and was about to finish him off.

But then…

“”What the–!?””

Both I and Lylia blurted out.

Before we knew it, Billy was being held in the big guy’s left hand.

“Holy… I didn’t see that…”

I muttered to myself, and Lylia must have thought that to herself as well.

But she didn’t say it out loud. Probably because she didn’t want to admit it.

“HAAAHHH!!”

“Lylia, no–!”

The guy seemed to… move… for a split second.

But by the time I thought I had seen something, Lylia was flung from all the way there to in front of me.

“Ngh…! Did I just… get kicked?”

And now, the guy is just looking down at us without doing anything else.

Only the moonlight illuminated him, and his robe fluttered in the wind.

Seeing that his robe was gray, I realized who the guy was.

“That’s gotta be Gaspard…!”

Although I could not see his face from this distance, I felt that his eyes were staring me down… or maybe it was all the power his body exuded.

“GWOOOHHH!?”

Not long after, Cleath’s scream entered my ears, startling me out of the petrification.

“Did you see that, Master!? My sick moves– Hmm…!?”

Pochi, casual for only just a moment, immediately put her guard up again — like a toad being stared down by a snake.

“–! Rise, High Cure Adjust!”

I healed Lylia and immediately looked up again.

“I was wondering what all this commotion was… Is this a group of intruders I see?”

“”…!?””

In the time it took for me to blink, Gaspard was behind us.

He put Empress Idïa and Billy down… by throwing them aside, and then…

“…!”

A blast of arcane energy blew Cleath right out of the Castle’s perimeter.

Probably just hard enough to get him out of the way, though, and not kill him outright.

“Useless. Every single one of you, truly useless.”

Gaspard said to Ishtar, then took one step forward.

And the Silver trio took a step back.

Okay, this is bad.

Gaspard is so powerful that he’ll probably overwhelm every one of us combined.

This overwhelming difference in strength… reminds me of my time with Devil King Lucifer.

“…Now, let us have some fun.”