CH 41

Chapter title: A Miscalculation

★

In front of me, a group of human adventurers held up their swords and had grim expressions on their faces.

All of them were reluctant, and if I strengthened the miasma, they would immediately start panicking.

「Hmmm?」

In the midst of all this, I spotted 2 different kind of person. A young human man and an elf woman.

The two seemed to be unafraid of me, or perhaps they were holding their weapons and looking to see how I would react. I was slightly annoyed by their attitude………….

「Wh, what’s wrong? Come on!」

Then the man who claimed to be the leader of this group challenged me.

I’ve been observing that guy for a while now…….

「Why don’t you come?」

「Hmm. What’s up? You went to call for help, didn’t you? I’m going to wait for them.」

「Wh!?」

A feeling of fear welled up in the man. For us demons, human fear is the ultimate treat.

「It’s too much trouble for me to move, so I’ll hold off on attacking until we have enough people.」

As far as I can tell, they’ve set up a number of bases in the vicinity.

It would be inefficient to go around destroying them one by one. If that’s the case, it would be easier to hit them after everyone has gathered.

「You’ve got to be kidding meeeeeeーーー!」

One of the adventurers pulled out his sword and slashed at me.

「【Darkwave】」

「Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!」

A black shockwave envelops the man. The man continued to scream in pain as a black haze took hold of his body. And…………

「Cleg!?」

The man stopped moving. He seems to be dead.

「Hahahaha! Too fragile! You’re too fragile! I hope you can at least entertain me a little!」

The feeling of fear I felt around me. I’m comfortable with that.

「Wh….at?」

A feeling I’ve never experienced before moves inside me.

「Elt. He’s still breathing……」

Before I knew it, the elven woman was looking at the man called Cleg.

「Huh? You think he’s breathing?　What’s the matter with you? My 【Darkwave】 was created over 500 years by imitating the techniques of the evil god. The inside of his body is corroded and any healing is meaningless.」

A black shock envelops the body, tearing it to shreds from the inside out. It’s not something that even the highest level of recovery magic can cure. But………….

「I’ll see to it.」

The young man approaches and touches Cleg like it’s nothing.

「【Perfect heal】」

The next moment, a white light enveloped Cleg.

「What? Where am I?」

「Whaaaaaa!?」

My jaw widened in surprise.

「Cleg, you almost died.」

「Did you save me, by any chance?」

「I’m glad I could make it. Please don’t do anything rash again.」

Cleg got up and thanked the man. It looks like he’s really healed.

「Don’t be silly!　My 【Darkwave】 is an attack that will consume you from the inside out!　There’s no way you can heal it!」

My shouting drew the attention of the people around me. However, the expression on their faces does not show the fear that they had just seen………….

「I’ve been quiet since you said you’d wait for people to gather, but I can’t overlook this any longer.」

A man walks up to me. Then I felt some kind of emotion inside me.

「Elt. What are you going to do?」

The leader of the group asks Elt a question.

「Serena and I will take care of this one. Everyone else should take shelter as to not get injured.」

「Don’t be sily! You human!」

With the anger that was bubbling up in me, I launched an attack on the elt in front of me.

「【Chaos Wing】」

I floated up into the sky and flapped my wings, striking a shockwave.

This technique causes continuous damage by sending a blast of wind that is laced with miasma. It attacks over a wide area, so there is no way to avoid it.

「【Windshield】」

However, when the elf woman casts the spell, a wind film is formed and prevents the attack.

「Cheeky elf! Spirit magic!」

Some elves are born with a special status that allows them to use spirits.

The elf in front of me seems to have made a contract with the spirit of the wind.

「You’re an enemy.」

「Wh!」

I must have been blown away by the wind magic, because the next thing I knew, Elt was right in front of me.

「D, damn it!」

The demon’s body cannot be harmed by a half-hearted weapon. I should be able to catch it and then hit it with a counter. That’s what I was thinking………….

――Zan―― (TL: SFX for arm getting cut)

A black arm was flying through the air. For a moment, I stopped thinking. But as soon as I saw that it was my arm…….

「Guaaaaaaaaa!」

「I’ll take your wings while I’m at it.」

The pain I felt in my back. And my body falling.

I crashed into the ground. Fortunately, there was a pile of dead leaves on the ground, so I didn’t get much damage………….

「You! Not only did you slash my body, you put dirt on it!」

I glared at Elt in front of me, humiliated in a way I had never felt before.

「What’s wrong? You still want to do this?」

I looked at the sword on my shoulder. I had seen that sword before.

「Th, that sword!」

The [Divine Sword Borumunk] that was displayed behind the Evil God when he and the Demon Lord visited the Evil God’s castle. This is the only weapon that the heroes of the past have used to challenge the evil gods and wound them. I’m not sure why this guy has such a sword on him…….

「Hmm. Do you know this sword?」

Elt approaches me carelessly. The reason why this sword is here and the Demon King’s words, ‘The evil god have been silent lately,’ come back to me.

For the first time, I understood the words to describe the feelings I was having.

The emotion I got from Elt.

It was――

【Fear】

――It was nothing but fear.

「It’s okay. It’s going to be a problem if we let him get away with this, so let’s shut his mouth before he says anything else.」

It’s as easy as plucking a herb and trying to reap the life out of me.

「Ahhhh…」

I’m getting impatient, and Elt is getting closer to me.

「【Darkwave】」

I unleashed my biggest move as a last gamble. But……….

「What… it’s not working?」

I could feel it. But the moment I activated it, it disappeared as if it had been sucked into something.

「Fuck! That’s it!」

「Ah! He’s flying away!」

The elven woman shouted. For demons, wings are not an essential part of flight.

This huge body is made up of magical power, and is hardly pure matter. If all I want to do is fly, I can so by manipulating magic power.

「Kukuku. I let my guard down!　But it was a good thing that I got to know who you are. I’ll back off for now. But don’t expect to be able to sleep with your head held high in the future!」

If we knew about the divine sword and the elves, we could deal with them. The reason for the delay was a lack of information. I leaned over to see Elt’s frustrated face for the last time………….

「Impossible! That’s…!」

Elt had his hands close together in front of his chest. And in the center of it was a black wave.

It’s a far cry from my Darkwave.

「You’re not the evil god…………」

The next moment, it was unleashed. A black wave loomed in front of me.

The last thing I saw was the sight of that wave piercing my body…….