CH 17.8

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Final Chapter: Let’s show them the willpower of those who crawl on the ground Part 8

Without hesitation, Yunis jumped straight at Melizand with the speed of lightning.

「It’s useless. Unlike 『Immortal』 over here, this body is truly unable to die.」

Melizand said, holding her head up high.

「Your movements have grown unsightly.」

Copies of 『Immortal』 surrounded Yunis and restrained her by taking hold of both her arms.

「…I can’t get away?!」

Yunis tried to free herself by shifting into Spirit form, but was unable to do so. 『Immortal』 strengthened his grip on her arms.

「If magic can be sealed by magic, then it should be obvious that the same thing can be done with any techniques or laws.」

Melizand said pleasantly.

「Yunis!」

『Immortal』 restrained both Lilu and Spina as they tried to jump in to save Yunis. Then, he also surrounded Aur and pointed his sword at him.

「There’s no way…!」

They tried to resist, but neither Lilu’s magic nor Spina’s slime form proved to be effective.

「I’m sorry, but I had your powers analyzed during the earlier battles. Now that I know them inside out and experienced them myself, I can counter them all easily. The same goes for you, old man.」

『Immortal』 declared triumphantly. Right now, his countless copies were attacking the Dungeon Core. If it gets destroyed, it’s going to be game over for them.

「Wait.」

The saint’s voice stopped him.

「Eh, what is it now, boss? Trying to protect the enemy?」

『Immortal』 asked, clearly displeased.

「Simply killing them here won’t be enough of a punishment.」

Melizand looked at Yunis with narrowed, cruel eyes and said:

「This girl, rape her. Right here, right now.」

「You serious boss? That does not sound like you at all.」

He asked with a doubtful tone.

「I won’t say it again. That’s an order.」

Hearing that, 『Immortal』 sorrowfully dropped his head.

「As you wish, boss.」

Saying that, he reached towards Yunis’ clothes.

「Don’t hold it against me, missy, I’m not happy about this either.」

He then proceed to tore off her clothes. At first Yunis raised her voice, but she immediately clenched her teeth. Even in this situation, she did not want to give their enemy the satisfaction.

Entertained by this whole situation, Melizand observed the two with great interest. Right now, the poor girl in front of her was going to get brutally raped by this many men, all because she gave them the order to do so. Her chest should be filled with disgust and self-hatred for commanding such a thing…

But she felt nothing.

People who love you, people that you love, people who would come to rescue you, people who admire you… She had none of those. Why was it then, that this Demon Lord had all that she ever desired, but just couldn’t have? Her heart hurt just thinking about that.

It was unfair, and that’s why she felt no remorse about destroying it.

「『Immortal』…」

Aur whispered to the Heroic Spirit as he and his clones surrounded Yunis.

「You really can’t play the hand you were given right.」

「What?」

『Immortal』 stopped in his tracks and turned his attention to Aur, who’s restrained and cannot do anything.

「Lilu. Support Spina.」

「….! Roger!」

With just that short sentence, Lilu understood what Aur was planning to do.

「Yunis, don’t mess this up.」

「Aur?」

Yunis look at him puzzled, unable to read his intentions.

「Spina… or perhaps Lilu, as you were both the first ones to notice. I beg of you, my disciple.」

「Master?」

It was as if…

Without any warning, a large fist made of rock fell through the ceiling, making a gaping hole in it and crushing a large number of 『Immortal’s』 clones. The Dungeon Core was peeking through the stony fingers.

The Dungeon Core, which normally was so large that it took an entire floor, was now reduces to the size of one room. But for Aur, that was more than enough.

The hand of the Golem sucks the last remains of the magical power, and then it crushes the Dungeon Core.

「Spina, protect Yunis!」

When Aur shouted, the Dungeon Core crumbled and shattered, and the vast amount of magical power which overflowed out of it changed from liquid to gas in the blink of an eye. The transition caused an explosion that blew 『Immortal』 away. Magic and Natural Laws are two polar opposites. That is why a large enough amount of magical energy should be enough to harm the body made by such laws, and even destroy it completely. Spina avoided the blast by changing into her slime form, shielding both herself and Yunis from harm.

Without the main body all the copies disappeared, allowing Yunis to stand back up with the help of Lilu and Spina who gave her back her clothes as they moved away from Melizand.

「Master….! Master…!」

Losing control over herself, Spina jumped at Aur.

「Calm down, Nerris Bia Spina!」

Such words might not have worked on someone like Lilu, but when Spina heard him say her full name, she visibly calmed down.

「You said it, Aur. *I beg you*」

It wasn’t exactly like that, but nevertheless, it wasn’t something that should just be brushed aside.

For the first time Aur, who did not trust anyone, relied on others to do something.

「You are alive, Aur, and we’re still here. Those are the only things that matter to me.」

Lilu said confidently. When she awakened to Raz’s memories, the contract between them which stated that she’d return to the demon world should Aur die was cancelled, therefore her master’s death would no longer pose any danger to her personally.

But nevertheless, she decided to stay with Aur and the others and follow them to the end. Those were her true feelings, what she truly believed.

「For now, what we should do is to find the core of this place. Melizand herself doesn’t appear to be it, so it must be here somewhere.」

「But we’ve already searched through the entire temple.」

Yunis said weakly. In order not to let Melizand escape, they searched through the entire temple before. They weren’t able to find anything that even remotely resembled a core.

「That appears to be the case.」

Lilu frowned her eyebrows and thought. They’ve conducted a thorough exploration of the temple by means of magic, but just to be on the safe side they’ve also searched through the temple’s basement and the sky above it. All to no avail.

As Lilu was groaning in thought, Spina thought back to Aur’s previous words. He said that she (and Lilu) were the first to notice. As a sorcerer, her knowledge of magic should be vastly superior to Lilu. And she certainly had more experience in that field than Yunis.

And despite her only possessing the powers of the slime that could nullify magic, Aur decided to take her along with him. And since he’s not the kind of man who would leave things up to mere coincidence, there must be some meaning in her being here together with him.

「…. So some of them were alive after all.」

Yunis muttered bitterly as she looked at one of the passages where leftover copies of 『Immortal』 were converging in large numbers. Why didn’t they disappeared together with their master? Was there some kind of time limit, or some other trick to it? Either way, if they get captured, it’s going to be over for them.

「Spina, Lilu, I’ll stop them here and buy you all some time, so… go, please.」

「Wait.」

Spina stopped Yunis as she was about to rush into the enemy.

Aur thought that he and the saint were somewhat alike, and that made Spina think that she is also like her to some extent. Following that line of reasoning, the most obvious thing to do about the core would be to hide it away. When it came to Aur, he’s put it in the only place where it could be easily protected, the dungeon, but Melizand’s core was nowhere to be found within the temple.

And hiding something that was connected to your own soul far away seemed foolish and unlikely. Since Melizand is here, the core must be somewhere within eyes reach.

Somewhere where eyes could reach.

The force, connected to the sky.

And of course, energy source.

「Lilu, what did you said back then?」

「Back then?」

「When master explained to us about the differences in the force.」

And then, Spina remembered. It was as if the pieces of the puzzle started to all fall together, and when she

finally realized, she pointed towards the sky.

「That’s it! Sun is the source of the core’s power!」

When she looked down, Yunis was embracing the two of them tightly.

「Yunis, there’ll be time for this later! So do your best, just a little more!」

「Got it!」

She changed into her spirit form and scanned the entire sky with her enhanced vision. When she found nothing, she flew higher and higher, until the blue sky was slowly dyed black, and then she found it.

「……. A star?」

Yunis said so, but she couldn’t hear her own voice. Articulating the sounds seemed to be impossible so high up in the atmosphere.

The star itself looked like a big, enormous globe filled with transparent liquid with bubbles occasionally rising on its surface.

There could be no doubt. That was Melizand’s core, the source of her power. It was hidden in the sun’s shadow, orbiting around it and accumulating its power.

Knowing where to hit, Lilu channeled the magical energy she was storing in her womb to her hand, and Yunis and Spina lend her theirs. To destroy something similar to the Dungeon Core, just simple spells were not enough. It had to be hit with the direct outburst of magic.

「「「GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!」」」

From her upward pointed fist, the mass of magical energy shot out like a bullet, piercing the temple’s ceiling and rushing through the sky. All this time, Lilu continued to release her magic while clenching her teeth. Her body shrunk and grew younger, because she even used the magic which she normally used to maintain her body’s condition.

When she shrunk to about the size of a palm, the cracks started to appear in the core of the star. They’ve started to spread, and covered all of it in an instant. Yunis held the bodies of her friends and fell to the ground.

And then the core exploded and disintegrated, unable to withstand the pressure of their magical energy.

「Well, seems like we’ve been defeated.」

『Immortal』 muttered to himself, sensing the explosion of the Star Core in the shadow of the sun. He couldn’t help but to wonder, what was the defining factor of their loss. Was it the fact that Melizand clung to the past so stubbornly while Aur even forsaken his beloved dungeon for the future? Or was it perhaps that Aur made friends whom he could trust, while Melizand always thought she was alone?

Or maybe it was just the matter of poor fortune? After all, Lady Luck is said to be a cruel and fickle mistress.

His body slowly began to disappear. Without the power to sustain themselves, all of his copies will be gone too, and only the original will remain.

In other words, the army of 『Immortals』 will be no more.

「Hey, boss? No……」

As he disappears, he finally regains his original form.

His gender, abilities, personality and appearance are almost all opposite to his current ones.

「Me… I’m sorry I cannot keep up with you until the very end.」

Melizand is not a hero herself, and she’s unable to die either. So she created artificial heroes based on her own soul. That is what 『Immortal』 and the others were.

「With that…. Please, if possible….」

Those last words faded away without being spoken.

The destruction of the Star Core affected Yunis as well. She lost the ability to use her powers as a Heroic Spirit, but she did not disappear, as her body was not something created by the saint herself.

「Now that I lost my core, I’m just a powerless child.」

She muttered vaguely.

「Go ahead and do whatever you see fit with me. Cut my head off, tear my heart up, aside from feeling pain, it matters little to me.」

Melizand smiled in a self-deprecating manner. It’s been quite some time since she last received such treatment.

「In that case, how about experiencing death?」

When those words sounded in the temple, the three girls’ faces shone brightly as they flocked to their master.

「「「My Lord! Aur! Master!」」」

「It might be too early to say this, but good job, everyone.」

「Aur, what kind of tricks have you used this time?」

Lilu asked while standing beside Spina, who clung to Aur and had her head patted by him, showing a smile that she has never shown before.

「It’s easy. My life has been sealed inside that which is the most precious to me.」

Lilu buried her head in his chest and pounded it with her fists for the next few moments. The fact that the Dungeon Core was not the most important thing in the world to him could only mean only one thing… no, only one person. Besides, during their previous orgy, Aur poured unusually large amounts of magic infused semen inside her. There’s no way that wasn’t a hint!

「The dungeon itself.」

「And here I thought we’re going to have a moment here, but no, it’s always about that stupid dungeon!」

「That going a bit overboard, even for you, Aur…」

Yunis also sighted. Melizand placing her Star Core so high up in the sky was one thing, but Aur was on a totally different level.

「But master what happens now that you destroyed the Dungeon Core?」

Spina asks while trying to compose herself and refraining from smiling like an idiot, failing.

「That is not a problem. I stored my magical power in women’s wombs exactly for that purpose. And even without that, making a new one should take only around seventy to one hundred years.」

He made it once, so he can do it again. And now that he has Lilu and the others, as well as the support of the Figlia royal family, maybe he could create a new one in only ten years if luck would be on his side.

「Well saint Melizand, even without your power you’re still dangerous, so we cannot leave you unattended like this… that said, you’re going to die.」

「You truly think you can make me?」

She laughed with a sneer.

「How do you intend to kill this body, cursed by the Sorcerer King himself? It’s impossible to lift it even if you had the combined powers of all the angels, devils, magic, and Natural Laws, Demon Lord Aur!」

Melizand was slowly raising her voice until it reached turned into high pitched cries.

「It is indeed impossible.」

Aur’s reaction however, was rather pale.

「So what do you do if you cannot lift something? You bypass it.」

At that moment, Mari and Logan entered the scene.

「Well, you heard the guy.」

Seeing Melizand, Logan mage a goat-like face and got excited, making everyone else around him feel uncomfortable.

「Well if it isn’t Logan and his favorite, most beautiful little girl in the world! Ogling another target, are we?」

Yunis said in a sarcastic tone. It doesn’t matter who she was, saint or a sacrifice, to Logan they were all the same.

「Don’t be absurd and don’t make fun of me, Logan, the Great Connoisseur of Little Girls! Or did you really thought I won’t be able to make the difference, huh? That all little girls look the same to me?! Is that it?!」

His words knocked Melizand unto her knees. She hated and feared the devils with all her heart and existence for all her life. All this time that she lived, she devoted to their complete and utter annihilation.

「Haha… hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!」

But hearing that, she could not help it but laugh. She laughed and laughed while shedding tears.

「Melizand, this girl was sent as a sacrifice to me.」

Aur placed his hand on Mary’s head and patted it.

「And she’s exactly the same as you. Age, height, hair color. And even though she’s cursed just like you, I intend to raise her nonetheless.」

「Master, that’s…」

It was a curse based on the magic that worked on the same principle like turning a man into a frog, or a prince into a swan.

「If you cannot lift your curse, then work to bypass it. If you come with me, I will make you age together with Mary. Saint Melizand, you said that you wanted to die. If you pledge yourself to me, I swear to make you age, and die, like a normal human being.」

Tears filled Melizand’s eyes, and soon she broke down into a heartfelt cry.

「Pleased to make your acquaintance. I look forward to being friends with you, Meri~~」

Mary took her hand and shook it with a smile.