Book 4: Chapter 29

The countless Alva fired fireballs.

The cluster of fireballs had reached enough power to equal a large magic, and it was fired towards Nino.

「……I see. How troublesome.」

Nino ran forward without hesitation, and evaded the cluster of fireballs.

The cluster of fireballs that missed its mark burned away the several Alva that tried to attack and got close to Nino.

Cutting up the Alva that were at the place she rushed into, Nino confirmed the surrounding situation.

Around her, there was nothing but Alva.

For the time being, if she cut them away one after another, the end of it might come eventually but──

「Gigagegugegoga.」

「Gugegogigegegu.」

Nino cut up the Alva that unleashed their claws from the left and right with both of her curved blades at the same time.

Nino was not weak enough to be defeated by Alva of this level.

Nino cut up the Alva that unleashed their claws from all four directions with super fast movements at almost the same time.

If they were at this level, it was possible to deal with them.

But, numbers were power.

Several Alva simultaneously came attacking from every direction.

The Alva that flew up once again had a cluster of fireballs appear.

But, it was there that a voice resounded.

「O wind, gather. Whirl, surge, run wild!」

That was the voice of one who should have escaped into the passageway.

「Wind Tornado!」

A tornado that appeared together with those powerful words rampaged, and it scattered the Alva that created fireballs.

What she found at beyond the area that the Alva were temporarily swept away from was the figure of Nefas.

「You……」

「There is no way I would run away! At this point……At this point, as if I could live that kind of pointless way of life!」

Seeing Nefas trembling in anger, Nino clicked her tongue looking displeased while continuing to cut up the Alva.

「You’re a hindrance. Turn around right there and go somewhere else.」

「I don’t wanna!」

Nefas shouted while using his sword to repel the claw of an Alva that came attacking after having deemed Nefas as a threat.

「Even if I’m a hindrance or anything else……If I run away here, I will end up losing myself!」

The space that should have been opened up with the tornado was immediately filled by other Alva.

「Just watch, Nino! I’ll……!」

Nefas’s shout was immediately drowned out by the grating voices of the Alva.

Nino cut up the Alva while breathing a sigh, and evaded fireballs.

Nino thought “he really is a foolish Human”.

Since she went out of her way to let him escape, he should have just gone off just like that.

「……Fuu」

Sharpening her mind, she grasped the number of enemies that there here with her senses.

The enemies, were many to the point that it became stupid to try and count them all.

Even while thinking, Nino continued to raise her battle speed.

The black fog had started to thin, but most likely, the number of Alva would increase until that vanishes.

In that case, what she needed to do was simple. She just had to continue cutting them up until the Alva no longer appeared.

Raising her speed even further, Nino was already impossible to confirmed by sight.

Everything she touched would be turned into small pieces……and turning into a wind that spread death, Nino ran.

「Gigagugegugogegoga!!」

She cut them up.

Nino ran, cutting up every Alva that entered her sight.

Even so, the Alva showed no sign of running out.

High in the sky, a number of fireballs that seemed like they were infinite had appeared.

It seemed that they had switched over to a plan where they would bury Nino in it along with their comrades.

And that was correct.

If they commenced an attack with all of their strength without minding anything else, that certainly would defeat Nino.

「……Tsk.」

The fireballs drew near.

The Alva surrounded Nino.

The fireballs drew even closer.

A withdrawal──she wouldn’t make it in time to do one.

An intense blizzard wiped away the fireballs that approached to being right in front of Nino.

And then, a dazzling beam of light was fired from the direction that Nefas was at, and it mowed down the Alva.

「……Eh.」

The instant the blizzard settled down, as if making an additional blow to an already unfortunate situation, countless lightning strikes were fired with the force of trying to completely destroy the Alva.

The Alva that were next to Nino were turned into black burnt charcoal and vanished.

When Nino turned her gaze to the direction that the lightning strikes were fired from, a familiar black figure was there.

It had been so long since she had seen that figure.

That black hair, and those red eyes.

That figure that wore luxurious clothes that had black as the basic theme, and held an unfamiliar sword.

For the Alva that were still continuing to increase, he used overwhelming magic that had enough force to overtake their increase rate to scatter them about.

The Alva were unable to get close to that threat that had suddenly appeared.

With a single wave of the black man’s arm, flames were born.

Wind was born, water was born, lightning was born.

Everything brought about certain death.

No matter how large their numbers were, it was meaningless.

Mere Alva had no way of resisting that man.

As for why, it was because that man was the king of all Mazoku, and the embodiment of the absurd.

──Because he was the Demon King Vermudol.

「Demon King-sama……」

「Nino.」

Vermudol turned towards Nino and expressed a gentle smile.

「I’ve come to pick you up.」

With just those words, joy ran through Nino’s entire body.

Strength was bursting in every corner of her body, and strength filled her hands that gripped her curved blades.

Nino arrived at the Alva that tried to target Vermudol from the back in an instant.

Tearing the Alva into little pieces, Nino smiled.

She was happy.

So tremendously happy.

She wanted to hug Vermudol right now.

But, the Alva were in the way of that.

Seeing Nino in that state, Vermudol smiled while looking a bit troubled.

「……Well, I guess we should first annihilate these Alva.」

「Un!」

The Alva within the room had decreased in an instant, but even more new Alva appeared from within the black fog.

The Alva that seemed to be innumerable.

However, as things were now, they were absolutely no match for them.

「Demon King-sama, come to think of it, there was a single Human that came along with me.」

「Nn? Ahh, no problem on that end.」

Nino didn’t ask about what wasn’t a problem.

If Vermudol said that it wasn’t a problem, then it wasn’t a problem.

「Is that so. In that case, there’s only the bunch that remain here.」

「Let’s see……They’re increasing little by little but, is that black fog the cause of it?」

「Un. But, it’s already considerably thinned out.」

The black fog had already thinned out to the point that it could be called mist.

If they were to continue defeating the Alva with this momentum, it probably wouldn’t be long until it vanished.

「Demon King-sama, you really are amazing.」

「Is that so.」

「Un!」

Nino swung her curved blades, and turned all of the Alva that approached Vermudol into little pieces.

Vermudol was beside her, and was watching her.

With just that, Nino didn’t feel like she could lose.

Having gained more leeway in battle, Nino casually turned her eyes towards the sword gripped in Vermudol’s hand.

「……What’s with that sword?」

「Nn? Ahh, I received it from Margaret.」

「That’s Altejio’s wife, isn’t it. Did you meet her?」

「Yeah.」

「How unfair.」

Saying that, Nino puffed her cheeks.

Even Nino had many times where she wanted to see Margaret after hearing about her.

「Now, now, don’t say that.」

「But, it’s unfair.」

Placing a hand on Nino’s head, Vermuldol made a wry smile.

The Alva that tried to approach Nino were pierced by lightning bolts and were scattered about.

「There’s still the matter about Sancreed’s sword. So I will be going there again.」

「Muu……」

Nino’s curved blade tore up an Alva.

Nino peeked at the sword once again, and smiled as if she had come up with something.

「That’s it. Demon King-sama’s sword technique, it’ll be fine if Nino teaches them.」

「Nn!? Ahー……」

Vermudol swung his sword and defended against an Alva’s claw that approached him.

Nino tore it to pieces……then stared at Vermudol.

「……Those movements just now……」

「Wh, what is it?」

「……It’s nothing.」

After Nino said that, she returned to her usual displeased expression.

It seemed that she felt that Vermudol’s sword technique was something similar to Gordy’s.

Understanding that Nino discerned that, Vermudol wiped a line of sweat.

「……Once we get back, sword training. Let’s do it together.」

「Y, yeah.」

In response to Nino who turned her head and glared at him, Vermudol had no choice but to say that and nod.

Vermudol felt that Nino’s double sword technique didn’t really suit him, but right now, it wasn’t the atmosphere to be saying something like that.

As if having read Vermudol’s mind, Nino muttered.

「……It’s fine. Nino, is strong even with a single sword after all.」

Nino thought that Gordy had stolen a march on her while she was gone.

She was also surprised thinking “putting Ichika aside, to think that Gordy would do that……”.

It was a misunderstanding, but Nino couldn’t help but think that.

Nino thought “How unfair. Once this is over, Nino should get Vermudol to do something for Nino’s sake for a while”.

If he didn’t, that would be unfair.

The Alva that was finely chopped into even finer pieces had represented the jagged state of Nino’s heart.

「……Looks like it’s thinned out quite a bit.」

Seeing that the black fog had disappeared for the most part, Vermudol muttered that.

He didn’t know the reasoning behind how this fog had occurred, but there was no mistaking that the Alva were some sort of disposable type that would appear and then disappear once they were done.

Before long, the fog would vanish, and the Alva would cease appearing.

Vermudol thought “looks like it’s ending”, but the thinning fog started to gradually gather in one spot.

The condensed fog turned into a black clump, and after that, it changed into a single Special Type Alva.

It had a large build that was worth three adult sizes.

Holding swords in both hands, that Alva got down to the ground together with an earth tremor.

「Gugigegogagegogigagagago!!」

After it howled and spread its wings, fireballs were fired at every direction.

Vermudol held up his sword, and deployed a red transparent wall……a Magic Guard・Fire. Nino clung onto Vermudol, and entered inside the Magic Guard・Fire.

Those fireballs were defended against by that Magic Guard・Fire and vanished.

At the edge of Nino’s field of vision, she saw that a blue transparent wall had been deployed in the distance.

「……That magic is.」

「Yeah, I brought him along with me.」

After the fireballs’ violent explosions settled down and the blue wall vanished, a single man ran headed towards the Alva from there.

Sensing that, the Alva turned around towards the man’s direction.

What was in the man’s hands was a sword that glistened red.

While evading the fired fireballs, the man approached the Alva.

「Well, it’s probably fine to just leave the rest to him.」

「True.」

Nino nodded at Vermudol’s words.

At the spot that the man that approached the Alva──that Sancreed was at, the figure of a Human man that seemed to be spacing out could also be seen.

While thinking “so that’s the Human that Nino mentioned……”, Vermudol gazed at the man, and started thinking about what he should do about him.

He didn’t even think of the possibility of Sancreed’s defeat.

As for why, it was because that man was the Western Army’s Western General, as well as the Mazoku Hero.