Chapter 212: Strategy (2)

Chapter 212: Strategy (2)

“Get off me—!”

The Red Devil’s voice, filled with anger, echoed in the space.

Her burning gaze was fixed on me.

“You...”

Her voice sounded like a growl.

Like a roar of an agitated beast.

“Speaking as if you know about me...!”

I knew about you though.

Well, my knowledge was limited to the things written in her settings, but still...

[...She’s really mad at you.]

Of course she is.

A fucker she had never seen before suddenly appeared, stole a kiss from her, then spewed nonsense about how he’d make her happy and shit, it was understandable that she’d get angry.

Anyway, don’t you think it’s fascinating, Caliban?

[What is?]

How the Devils are doing things that are similar to what humans do.

Pretty sure I said something like this to the Fist Saint once.

How the things called the Devils...

Were more similar to humans than we thought.

That was why, the thing that I was trying to do was going to work, no matter what.

“...Enough. I’m sick of dealing with you.”

As I was occupied by my own thoughts, the Image World’s appearance began to change drastically.

“Struggle until you die, you bug-like human...”

My surroundings began to wriggle, as if it was trying to envelop me and swallow me.

However...

System Messagen n

[ ‘Fallen’s Seal’ reacts to the presence of a Devil! ]

[ The target’s Aura is hostile. The inhabiting Auras automatically resist! ]

nn nn nn

Contrary to what she wanted, barely anything happened to me.

Instead, the Seal on my chest shone. A murky light came out of the Seal, blocking all the red light that was coming at me.

Seeing this, her eyes slightly widened.

“...Gray...”

She then gritted her teeth.

“She engraved a Seal on a human? What the heck was she thinking?”

“Well...”

I let out a sigh.

Honestly, I had no idea as well.

I knew that this Seal thing wasn’t merely an amazing ability that could change my ‘species’, but it was also filled with all kinds of abilities.

But... I had a feeling that there was another important, yet hidden ‘ability’ within it.

It was as if groundwork had been laid for a very important situation that would happen later.

...Anyways.

That wasn’t important. The important thing here was...

“Now you know that I won’t die as easily as you thought.”

You see, I wasn’t crazy enough to go against a Devil completely defenseless.

This Seal had eaten the Auras of the White Devil, the Gray Devil, the Purple Devil and the Blue Devil. It could give me enough time to resist for a moment even if I were to encounter a Devil’s main body in the Image World.

“...So, why don’t we have a small talk?”

“...”

I asked the Red Devil, who gave me a silent glare.

From the way it looked, she seemed to plan on letting me babble as much as I wanted before the Seal’s effect ran out since she would be able to kill me by then.

[...You're trying to defeat the Devil only with that?]

Who said I'm going to defeat her?

I let out a smirk.

Dude, I came here to talk to her.

Not to fight her.

“...Whatever, babble all you want.”

The Red Devil's eyes shone as she crossed her arms.

Her dark red irises twinkled with a wicked glow.

“Once that thing stops working, I’ll immediately kill you and rip your soul apart. Then, I’ll continue everything as scheduled. Those small fries outside won’t be able to stop—”

“So you’re going to burn the whole world and left Faenol alone in that world?”

“...”

The Red Devil frowned before closing her mouth.

My words hit the bull’s eye—that was exactly what she was trying to do.

Like I said, the first thing this punk would do once she found the Devil’s main body in the Void zone was to turn the world into ashes.

The reason for that was...

“...It's better to be alone than to get hurt.”

So that nobody would hurt Faenol.

‘Like before’.

She was trying to erase the possibility of that happening.

The first place she belonged to, the small village in the countryside.

And the second place she belonged to, the Magic Tower.

Both places had evidently left memories that were close to a trauma for Faenol.

From what I knew, back in the game...

The things they did to Faenol were so horrible to the point that the Red Devil would decide that ‘it would be better to burn everything down rather than letting her get hurt again’.

This was also the reason why I couldn’t treat this punk harshly as soon as I saw her.

But, still...

“I won’t let you do that no matter what.”

“...”

“...Then, why don’t you just start from there? You were thinking about that man, right? So, what kind of thoughts did you have that made the Bright Light come out?”

“...”

A light blush appeared on her cheeks as she took a deep breath for a moment.

She then closed her eyes tightly before stammered in a quiet voice,

“...When I came to realize that...um...Teach is a precious person to me...the sword...let out the light...”

“Oh!”

Suddenly.

Lana exclaimed.

“...It shone just now.”

At Lana’s words, Iliya opened her eyes and glared at the Holy Sword.

“...What?”

“I saw it shining slightly when Miss Iliya was talking about him just now.”

“...”

Iliya scanned the Holy Sword from top to bottom with a dumbfounded look.

This thing...?

Shone?

When she said something about him?

“Why don’t you try it again?”

“...What?”

Iliya replied, as if finding Lana’s words absurd, but the latter just tilted her head, probably thinking that Iliya was the strange one here.

“I mean, the Sword reacted after you acted like a maiden-in-love at the thought of Mr. Dowd. So, why don’t you continue doing that to see if it’s related?”

“...A-Are you kidding me...?!”

Iliya blurted out while shaking, but Archbishop Luminol replied hurriedly.

“I believe her words are true, I swear on my title as an Archbishop that the light just now was the Bright Light of the Holy Sword!”

“...”

“Now, try to piece it together that way. Quick!”

Seeing how his face was so serious, without even a hint of playfulness, Iliya’s face blushed rapidly.

“U-Ugh...”

“Hang in there Miss Iliya! But, you have to do it right now!”

With their continued urge, Iliya finally managed to open her mouth while trembling in embarrassment.

“T-To me... Teach is... A very cool person...”

At that moment, a faint Light came out from inside the Holy Sword.

An extremely faint light to be exact.

“Um, it’s shining, but it’s not enough! State your feelings more clearly!”

“W-Well... I-I think h-he’s cool... S-Sometimes, when he flashed his smile at me, I could feel my heart just melt right there and then...”

The flickering light appeared again.

However, its brightness was still far from being enough.

“More! We need something a little bit more intense!”

“S-Something more intense than this...?!”

“Yes! Miss Iliya, how much do you like Mr. Dowd?!”

At Lana’s shout, Iliya’s eyes began to tremble.

“I-If you ask me how much... U-Um...”

“Do you love him?!”

Her eyes trembled even more now.

“Y-Yes...! I-I love him!”

As soon as she said that, the faint light on the Holy Sword appeared again.

After confirming that this was working, Lana exclaimed an ‘Oh’. Perhaps something clicked in her head since her words became even bolder after that.

“Then, if you love him, you must’ve dreamed of marrying him! How many kids do you want to have with him?!”

“U-Um...? K-Kids?! M-Maybe three would be enough?”

“What gender do you want your first child to be?!”

“Aaa...aaa... I-I want my first child to be a girl!”

“What about your honeymoon? Where do you want to go? Beach? Hot spring? Resort?”

“...H-Hot spring!”

“Why is that? Be truthful!”

“B-Because Teach’s body is way nicer than I thought! I-I want to see it more!”

With the questions becoming bolder and bolder, Iliya’s answers also became bolder as she was clinging dearly to the last string that held her sanity together with trembling eyes.

“...”

“...”

Everyone around them slowly began to turn their attention to them, wondering what they were even doing.

Even Archbishop Luminol, who had told Iliya to think in this direction, was looking at the two of them with narrowed eyes.

However, since every time Iliya blurted out those bold answers, the Bright Light coming from the Holy Sword became stronger, he couldn’t just stop them in the middle.

A while after those two continued such questions and answers.

“Alright, last question! What do you want from Mr. Dowd!?”

“I want him to fuck me—!!!”

As if what they did was not in vain...

A radiant Bright Light burst forth from the Holy Sword, accompanying the words that came out of Iliya’s mouth that came out like a scream as tears filled her eyes. The cluster of lights intertwined, forming a complex symbol.

Seeing this, Luminol’s eyes widened.

“This is the Bright Light of a Seraphim...!”

Seraphim, the one who stood among all the Angels.

Their symbol was now being drawn above the Holy Sword.

“Father, is it working?”

“...It's on and off, but none of the previous Heroes had the Bright Light of a Seraphim emanating from the Holy Sword...!”

Iliya moved next to Archbishop Luminol, who was speaking as if he had made a groundbreaking discovery.

“...I...wanna die...”

Her quiet, sniffling voice, reverberated through the surroundings in a somber /genesisforsaken