Volume 4 - CH 10

Volume 4, Chapter 10:  The Demon Verse, Part 1

Before my eyes are large metal doors.

It’s like the gate before the last boss in a game: a double-door with many reliefs carved into it.

“Tei~”

Maybe it was sealed with magic, but when I flicked my fingers, I heard a static-electricity-like snap, and the door slowly collapsed towards the other side.

“………”

The space ahead stretched out into an enormous underground space.

To both the left and right were carved stairs that led downwards…… Several hundred meters down that stairway, an enormously large magic formation could be seen.

And on top of that magic formation………

*katsun*…*katsun*… the sound of my black low-heeled shoes echoed on the carved-rock stairway.

Don’t panic… I walked slowly. There is no need to panic. There is nobody who could interfere with us now in this place.

As I went down the stairs, the magic formation came into my line of sight.

“[…………]”

On top of the magic formation, the night-like 【Dark Beast】raised his body and stared at me in silence.

*katsun*……

I descended down the last step of the stairway, and then gently 【Smiled】 at him.

“Has your body recovered…?”

As my voice echoed in that lifeless space, 【His】 silver eyes narrowed a little.

“[……The physical body matters not to a Demon. Did you forget even such a thing…?]”

“Well……”

I stepped forward again, and stepped into the magic formation.

“Since it’s been a long time, I forgot.”

When I smiled at him sweetly, 【He】 bore his teeth slightly.

Are you smiling? Or are you angry…… probably both. If I understand 【His】expressions correctly, it’s about me?

Around him are some clothes that look like they’re from Daemons, scattered about as if the people wearing them had just disappeared.

They were eaten…… I noticed as I approached that all the souls of everyone that were in this underground space were eaten.

Even though Daemon’s souls weren’t very nice to eat at all……

As expected …… we’re serious.

“[I will make you mine.]”

【He】 flatly spoke out about his [Wish].

“………Yes”

I don’t reject 【His】 wish. I don’t reject the Demon’s wish.

When I heard his desire expressed so directly, my chest felt warm.

“I-I’ll do as I like”

I looked directly into 【His】 eyes, and spoke of my own [wish].

【His】 wish is to make me his and to take me back to the Demon World.

[My] wish is to live freely in the human world.

Both are equally selfish wishes, and neither of us want to find a compromise.

Why…?

“The whims of my fellow Demon… that’s certainly something I don’t get……”

The whites of my eyes slowly corroded to [Black], and my pupils were dyed crimson like the color of blood.

Crimson fangs and claws pushed out, and a set of golden bat wings spread out from behind me.

Along with that, my low heels responded by turning into sharp stilettos, and my knee-length dress stretched downwards to cover my feet in order to raise my defensive power.

“[Even if I have to kill and eat you, I will make you return……… Yurushia…]”

As I turned into a human-shaped Demon, the 【Words】 that 【He】 spoke in the spirit language became a pressure that assaulted me. I took it on directly from the front.

“If you win: tear me up, tear my head off, and make me return with you to the Demon World. But… if I win, then you must accept my love”

Starting from that word, [Magic] and [Miasma] began to gush out and spill from the two of us, and at the same time the huge underground space shook and was corrupted into the 【Demon World】.

“Well, let’s begin.”

The foolish struggle of obstinacy between demon companions.

At that time… the expression on my face was for the first time, I think, the most devilishly bright smile I had ever had.

＊＊＊

“u-ho!? (Wh-what was that!?)”

The [Earthquake]’s shockwave spread out, with the Daemon King’s Castle as its epicenter, and stirred up the entirety of the Daemon King’s territory.

Just a few seconds…… she thought it couldn’t be an earthquake. The shock that felt like being struck, which passed her and all of the living creatures in the Daemon King’s territory caused them to shiver in revulsion.

If they were humans, perhaps they might have locked themselves indoors and hoped for rescue from [God]. However, the Daemons who were forsaken by the gods went out and instinctively turned to face the Daemon King’s Castle.

The Iron Princess Francois too, holding hands with her beloved war elephants in the garden of the Daemon King’s Castle felt fear of that repulsive presence, but thinking of that [Weak] girl that had become her new friend, she hesitated to run away.

Francois… rather all of the Daemons who lived around the Daemon King Castle, they saw terrifying things.

The ground broke apart with a thunderous roar, and the upper portion of the Daemon King’s Castle was blown away. As a hole was drilled into the [Clouds of Malice] that the sun never shined through, two pillars, one [Jet Black] the other [Gold], pierced the sky.

＊＊＊

“……This is…”

Daemon King Hebrad raised his head to look toward the repulsive presence he felt in the distance.

Hebrad had been stalled within this Forest of Demons for several months

Black Princess Killian had gone missing. The force that went to search for them didn’t return, either, and from Geas, who had returned from that [Greater Vampire], he heard that there might be [enemies] that were beyond even that, so it became impossible to move the army around carelessly.

However, if they stagnated any further the morale of the army would be lost.

Unless they promptly invaded the Human nations and prepared an army that could take down that unchained 【Demon Beast】, it would evolve into a crisis for the world itself, not just of the Daemons.

Hebrad mocked his own stupidity that he, who was trying to avenge himself on humans, was trying to save the world.

Where did he go wrong………?

Was it in claiming the humans’ magic power? Was it his summoning scheme? He had a relatively decent understanding of the pillar called the 【Demon Lord】, so why was he unable to summon it?

Did the 【Demon Beast】 substitute for the 【Demon Lord】 and force its way into materializing?

Was there something suspicious that he had overlooked……?

Hebrad, who was feeling anxious, suddenly felt a repulsive presence in the far distance.

“…Shit.”

Hebrad spat a little as he began the incantation of the 【Flying】 spell.

He felt it from the center of the Daemon King’s territory. Perhaps the 【Demon Beast】 had awoken and begun to move.

By Hebrad’s estimates, it should still have been six months away………

“Where are you going, Hebrad!”

Throwing away the mask of being a subordinate, Geas called out Hebrad by his first name in panic.

“Geas, did you not feel that!?”

“I know that! But, what are you saying by returning to that land that you abandoned!”

The Daemon King, for the sake of keeping the Daemon race alive, had abandoned the Daemon King’s territory.

But… Hebrad had still left a single hope in that place.

He had reformed the territory. Most of the reforms had failed, but they had taken root in some of the villages, and the productivity had been increased.

And…… there was that Dwarf girl that he had picked up several years ago: a girl who was a born hero that had hence been ostracized and banished. If that girl ever got the chance to wield power, she probably would have walked a different path in life.

Hebrad had imparted to her some of his [Knowledge]. If the Daemon King’s army were defeated by the humans and entirely annihilated, he had hoped that she would escape and lead the remaining Daemons.

“The land is beyond saving; give it up… besides, even if the 【Demon Beast】 rampaged, and ate the people of that land, he would not get souls. I couldn’t do it in the Daemon King’s Castle because he would notice, but I went all around the Daemon territory to apply that special magic.”

Geas who was usually of few words, grinned broadly with a creepy smile.

“…………”

Hebrad who was of the [Same Background] as Geas, knew the purpose for his actions. Still, Hebrad believed that even if Geas knew of his intentions, he would cooperate, but Hebrad finally noticed that even if Geas cooperated with him, he didn’t consider the Daemons at all.

“…I am going”

“Hebrad!”

Floating up into the sky instantly, Geas could only call out towards Hebrad’s back as he flew towards the Daemon territory.

Geas could also use 【Flight】, but he couldn’t possibly catch up with the Daemon King, who had the greatest amount of magic power.

And if the 【Demon Beast】 had awakened, returning to the Daemon territory was suicide.

For he who was of the same background, even Geas had occasionally thought of him as a son, but Geas had thoughts of killing those feelings.

“I will make use of the Daemon King’s army I have received…”

＊＊＊

The daylight filled up the blue skies. A black cloud spread like the sea below.

I broke through the bedrock, and confronted 【Him】 as I sprang up above the clouds.

“[Radiant Bow]!”

“[GuaooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!]”

The hundreds of golden arrows were intercepted by black lightning.

While it struck down all the golden arrows, the black thunder raged and began to shave off the protection of my [Radiant Shield].

But for me, it didn’t mean that I was doing nothing.

“…[Come, darkness, where there was light]…”

I imagined a [Door of Darkness]… on the other side.

“[Open, Black Gate]”

At my 【words】, a door to empty space opened. The air, the light, the darkness, the nothingness, and the black lightning was sucked into it as the 【Black Gate】 crumbled into nothingness.

Honestly speaking, that magic is dangerous.

I think it’s part of the Spirit World, but if I kept forcing the spaces together, the whole country might have disappeared…… but my magic power would run out first.

I had to go to the extent of using such a magic because of the difference in power between 【Him】 and I.

I had prepared several trump cards.

That 【Black Magic】 I’d just used was one of them, but the biggest trump card could only be used once. Moreover, if I misjudged the timing, I would be in quite the pickle.

I had barely expected it, but it was more tiresome than I thought.

“[GooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!]”

【He】 roared towards the sky, and summoned a black storm.

In this place where violent winds and lighting storms raged all the time, a middle-tier demon wouldn’t even be able to exist.

Although I took only a little damage, it was starting to accumulate.

…… It seems he seriously doesn’t intend to let me escape.

The reason why I wanted to settle things with 【Him】 via [battle] rather than words wasn’t because I thought I could beat 【Him】.

But, rather, even if there was a difference in power, I wanted him to think of me as an [equal]…

Otherwise, my 【words】 would never reach 【Him】.

As a result I had to use my final [Trump Card]……

To use my words.

“[Light, flap your wings]… [Shining Wings]!”

To compete with 【Him】, I could only use speed.

Light gathered on my bat wings, and turned into golden feathers like the wings of an angel.

I didn’t choose to make the angel feathers on a whim.

…… It is completely not a whim and preference that they were angel feathers.

“[What!?]”

【He】 cried out. It seems to him that I disappeared.

These wings weren’t for flapping. Using the knowledge I got from the dream world, I pushed out magic power from the feathers, and increased my speed temporarily.

Even I myself couldn’t react fast enough for my speed, and I was hit by lightning, but I didn’t care.

“[GuaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!]”

At the moment 【He】 released a wide-ranging black tornado,

“[Let there be Black Light]!”

I shot out a ray of 【Black Light】 in reaction to his roar, and blocked out 【His】 hearing and sight.

And in that same instant, I spread out my golden wings, and rushed towards 【Him】 beyond the limit of my speed.

In order to use… my final [Trump card].