CH 16.4

Translator: Smaturin

She must have come from the plaza in a hurry in order to save Aur. Lilu’s body was covered in wounds, one of her wings was broken, her shoulders were heaving with every coarse breath.

The Spinas looked at her with chilling expressions.

「…Do not bother us, you pathetic familiar. The master will now stay with me, forever. We have no need of you. Vanish from our sights.」

Pathetic familiar. Lilu felt a strange sensation as Spina spoke those words with an icy glare. Spina had always built walls between herself and others, she had not tried to commune with anyone else besides Aur. While Lilu had had conversations with her, not once had Spina ever called her by her name.

But even so, Lilu had felt that a kind of trust had existed between them. At least, she did not feel that their relationship was the kind that would warrant such disdainful words as, 「pathetic familiar」be said to her.

「It will not be! Aur is…mine! He is my master!」

Lilu’s hands stretched out and attempted to grab Aur. But the moment they touched Spina’s body, they vanished as if dissolving.

「…!」

In a panic, Lilu pulled back the arm that was now cut off at the elbow.

「My body will dissolve all magical energy and absorb it. There is nothing a demon like you can do. …I will say it one last time. Be gone.」

That was the biggest concession that Spina could make.

It was not as if she absolutely felt no friendship between herself and Lilu or Yunis. If anything, they were the few people in this world that she could trust, she had a feeling similar to respect towards them.

What had made her fearful more than anything else was the death of Yunis.

Spina, who had no combat ability to speak of, had greatly admired Yuni’s strength and had an unshakable trust in her, even though she never put these feelings into words.

Yet even someone such as Yunis had died so easily. And if that was possible, than Aur should be no different. He too, could one day lose his life. Imagining this had caused her to become mad with fear.

「No, I will never. I can’t let him go either.」

Lilu’s left hand ran down her severed right arm. The stump began to glow a brownish yellow, her arm began to slowly regenerate.

「I am sorry Aur, I promised to only use one-tenth… But I have to take more of your magic!」

An amber colored whirlwind of magic surrounded Lilu like a chain, her wounds slowly healed themselves, and her broken wing returned to normal. As her wings spread wide, she charged forward into Spina with as much speed as she could muster.

「It’s useless… Do you not understand!」

Out of the countless number of Spinas, two of them came out and stopped Lilu, grabbing both her legs and arms. In an instant, Lilu was nothing more than a body and head; she rolled onto the ground.

「Your whole body is a mass of magical energy. You cannot beat me no matter what you might do. And…」

「And so what? Would you give up Aur, if you could do nothing for him?」

Spina’s body suddenly shook as Lilu screamed.

「Why, why are you going to these lengths…」

「I don’t know, how would I know! I’ll tell you something, I…!」

Lilu regenerated her limbs once again, amidst her boiling emotions, a calmer side of her thought:

Ohh, this is the second time. Really, both the master and student are most infuriating.

「I am furious!!」

Click. A sensation similar to the click of a switch echoed in Lilu’s head.

She once again thrust her regenerated right arms into Spina and stretched out her hand towards Aur. As expected, the arm within Spina began to dissolve, but Lilu forced magic through her arm and regenerated it.

「You, you are mad…!」

As Spina instantaneously absorbed the magic, Lilu matched her by regenerating the arm with a ferocious speed. It was an impossible speed. Even taking into account that demons had a less complex structure compared to humans, it would usually take much longer to reconstruct a body like this. At the very least, it was not something that could be done so immediately.

She had to have advanced and intricate skills of magical manipulation to achieve this.

…like Aur for instance.

「Impossible, how could a mere succubus have such skills…!」

Lilu’s regeneration of her arm began to pick up speed. And in spite of having her arm thrust into Spina, the area passed her elbow had obstinately remained. And now, that speed was starting to overtake Spina’s ability to absorb it. And in the midst of the conflict between dissolution and regeneration, Lilu’s arm inched closer and closer to Aur.

「Just, a little…!」

First, her wings disappeared. Then it was her left leg, her left arm, her right leg and the rest of Lilu’s body began to destruct. She had run out of magic, she was now using the remaining parts of her body to feed her arm’s regeneration.

「Lilu! Please let go!」

「…You finally, called me by my name.」

Lilu smiled with what remained of her face, she grabbed Aur with her right arm. And as she pulled his body out, that right arm too, dissolved and only her face was left.

Lilu’s head fell to the floor. Without thinking, Spina returned to her human form and held the head in her arms.

And with all her remaining strength, Lilu buried her fangs into Spina’s wrist.

「…!?」

In an instant, Lilu drained the magic from Spina and regenerated her whole body once again.

「I knew it. There was plenty still left.」

Lilu spun around as if inspecting the state of her new body, she smiled happily.

「Aur’s magic, that entered your stomach.」

Unlike Lilu who happened to have a similar type of magic, there was no point in Spina keeping the magic that was combined with Aur’s seed. If anything, if she didn’t do anything with it, it would be absorbed as part of her own magic.

But Spina would have surely saved it. So Lilu believed, and she was able to use her own magic to its limit, without hesitation.

「Now, are you satisfied? Let’s go home.」

「…I cannot.」

Spina raised both hands and held them to her cheeks.

「Because…I, did such a thing…the Jizo will hate me…」

And then she began to cry like a little girl.

Lilu watched this in mute amazement, she finally sighed and forced a smile. After carrying out such an outrageous plot, now she was crying like a child over such a thing. Really, she was a most troublesome girl.

「Stop crying, it does not fit your character. See…I will do something about that. Understand?」

Lilu patted Spina on the head and comforted her with a tone appropriate for a child.

She lightly patted her head as Spina nodded and attempted to stop crying even as she was racked by hiccups. She approached Aur. Robbed of all magic, he now appeared to be unconscious.

As Spina watched Lilu’s back, she sensed that something was odd. What had she meant by 『I will do something about that』? Usually, she would have said something like 『I will apologize with you』. But for her to confidently say 『I will do something』seemed very strange.

Lilu took in a deep breath and shouted loudly.

「『Ein Sof Aur! Awaken!』」

With words full of magical power, Aur’s body shuddered, and his eyes opened.

「La….Lilu…?」

Aur blinked, not being able to comprehend what had happened, Lilu smiled brightly and raised her hand.

And with a snap, the hand swung downward and slapped the side of Aur’s face with a great force.

Spina could only shrink back at that loud, gratifying sound.