chapter 275

chapter 275

Chapter 275:

–Ajuka Beelzebub–

“For fuck’s sake! This is why I hate humans—useless vermin, the lot of them!” Ajuka cursed, his voice echoing with frustration as he sensed his generals either unconscious or dead. He had granted them power surpassing that of most gods, yet they couldn’t even last a week. Granted, he hadn’t actually taught them how to properly utilize that power... but still!

All of his carefully laid plans were probably ruined, and he still hadn’t finished dealing with the Magical Girl menace. How dare she betray him! Their race had been on the precipice of world domination! His greatest ambition had been so close to realization!

“Sunshine Smasher!” Serafall snarled from directly above him. A giant hammer, appearing rainbow-colored but actually crafted from ice magic, materialized in her hands. She swung it down at his head with crushing force. Few knew that Serafall was, in fact, the physically strongest of all the Maous.

“You’re wasting your time, Serafall!” Ajuka raised his hand, dispelling the ice hammer with a burst of superheated fire magic before it could make contact. “Just give up. You got one lucky shot on me at the start, but you’ll never land another now that my guard is up.”

“Never!” Serafall shot back with an angry pout. “You threatened So-tan, so you have to die!”

Ajuka gritted his teeth in annoyance, regretting that spur-of-the-moment threat. Serafall could hold a grudge like no other woman he had ever known. While she wouldn’t be able to defeat him, she was doing an annoyingly good job of preventing his escape. He knew why, of course—she was buying time until that monstrously strong Fallen Angel arrived to slay him. He could already sense her approaching; her power was unmistakable and indescribable.

“I promise I won’t target Sona Sitri in retribution,” Ajuka said, desperation seeping into his voice as sweat beaded on his brow.

“Liar!” Serafall charged at him again, fury etched on her face. This time, an icy blue greatsword appeared in each of her hands. She wasn’t wasting any Demonic Power on making them look like pretty magical girl weapons—this meant she wasn’t playing around anymore. With both swords raised, she swung down at him, channeling an enormous amount of power into a single strike. Ajuka knew he could dispel the attack, but doing so would cost him precious Demonic Power that he needed to conserve for his fight with the Fallen Angel.

A short-range teleportation magic circle flared to life beneath Ajuka’s feet. It always stung his ego to dodge an enemy’s attack rather than countering it, but he swallowed his pride this once.

His eyes widened in shock when the teleportation abruptly failed. “What the hell!?” In a panic, he encased himself in a cocoon of flames, forming a desperate, last-second shield.

“I won’t let you hurt So-tan or Layla! Die!” Serafall roared, putting everything she had into her dual strike. The moment the icy blades touched the flames, they snuffed out the fire instantly.

Ajuka took the full force of her blow head-on. Blood spewed from his mouth as he was violently hurled from the sky, plummeting over a thousand meters before crashing into the forest below. His innate resistances were the only thing keeping him alive. Bruises marred his entire body, and two deep gashes on his chest marked where the blades had struck him. “My teleportation failed, and her blades snuffed out my fire magic instantly. How is that even possible?” he muttered to himself, struggling to comprehend the situation.

Serafall slowly descended, hovering 30 meters above him. The icy greatswords in her hands dissipated, unable to be sustained any longer. She was breathing heavily, drained from expending so much Demonic Power in a single attack. Despite her exhaustion, a vindictive smirk curled her lips. “Everyone always says I'm the weakest Maou, but no one knows how much I've truly mastered ice magic!”

Ajuka, pulling himself out of the dirt, came to a chilling realization. “You reached the impossible... Absolute Zero.”

Absolute Zero was a concept even he, with the Power of Imagination, couldn’t believe Serafall had actually achieved. Those icy greatswords of hers had reached an impossible temperature, rendering his fire magic useless. They had even managed to temporarily freeze him in place, disrupting his teleportation.

Fortunately, it seemed such an attack had taken a toll on her. He doubted she could summon those swords again in this fight.

He was severely injured, but she was nearly out of Demonic Power. Sensing an opportunity, Ajuka decided it was time to finish Serafall off and escape. But he couldn’t resist taunting her one last time. “You were right, Serafall! I was lying. I’m going to kill you... But I’m going to do so much worse to your baby sister. The Devils can’t afford to lose another pillar clan. I’ll destroy Sona’s mind. For the rest of her existence, her only purpose will be as a baby-making slave!” he gloated, his voice dripping with malice.

Instead of the expected rage, Serafall simply looked at him with pity. Confusion flickered in Ajuka’s eyes—until something massive suddenly gripped him tightly. A crushing force enveloped his body, lifting him into the air.

He was caught in the hand of a colossal, purple, angel-like construct. It radiated burning Light Energy. The massive angel raised its hand, bringing him level with its face. Embedded in its forehead was a large purple gem, and inside it, Layla, the 14-winged fallen angel, stared at him with fury blazing in her eyes.

“You just threatened to kill one of my previous lovers and turn the other into a mindless sex slave...” she said coldly. “I was planning on killing you slowly, but now, I just want you gone.”

The construct’s grip tightened, the pressure increasing dramatically. Ajuka screamed in agony as he felt his bones on the verge of shattering. Never before had he endured such humiliation, such helplessness. He couldn’t do anything against this woman!

‘No, I can’t die!’ Panic surged within him. ‘My race is doomed without me!’ He thrashed wildly, desperately summoning every ounce of his Demonic Power reserves to escape the crushing grasp of the giant hand.

But no matter how fiercely he struggled, he couldn’t break free!

–Layla–

Serafall had done far more damage to Ajuka than I’d expected. I caught the tail end of their battle and was amazed to see her wielding ice at the temperature of absolute zero! Ajuka bore two massive gashes across his chest, his attention entirely focused on Serafall. It was remarkably easy for me to sneak up on him—he was so consumed by anger that he didn’t even sense me summoning my Susanoo.

With Ajuka gone, the Devils would be effectively neutered. He wasn’t just a genius—he was *the* genius of their entire race. Without him and Serafall, their race would have imploded long ago under the weight of infighting and greed.

I tightened my grip, and my Susanoo mirrored my actions perfectly. Ajuka’s struggles ceased after a few seconds, his body going completely limp. I maintained the crushing hold for a moment longer, just to be sure he wasn’t faking. When my Susanoo finally unclenched its hand, his arms and legs hung like broken pretzels, bent at grotesque angles.

I set his mangled and unconscious body down beside Serafall and canceled my Susanoo. She was grinning at him vindictively as I landed next to her.

“You were pretty amazing, Levia-tan,” I said sincerely.

Serafall shuddered, then gave me a flustered grin. “Fuck, I really love it when you call me Levia-tan! No one else ever does! It gets me so hot and bothered. I just want to push you down and right here and now!” she said with hearts in her eyes–literally. She was using some kind of unconscious magic to turn her pupils heart shaped.

McGonagall raised her nose in the air. “Hmph! We haven’t had a single fatality in over 20 years. It’s perfectly safe. Wizards and witches are made of sterner stuff than the average Muggle. A fall from 30 or 40 feet won’t kill them,” she didn’t like people talking bad about Hogwarts.

“What about horrific injuries, though?” Isane asked.

McGonagall pointedly avoided answering.

“If either of my kids turn out to be magical, they’re never coming to this school...” Frank said, and the older woman grumbled in response. I decided not to mention that his son and daughter were both magical. Whether it was pure coincidence or because I awakened any latent magic in their bloodline after healing them, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that Frank’s reaction would be priceless when both his kids received their letters on their 11th birthdays.

Eventually, we reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room. McGonagall, as the Headmistress, knew its location but had admittedly never been inside. With the removal of the Slytherin head of house last year, the students were now monitored by an alternating team of SHIELD agents to ensure they corrected their behavior and moved away from their deeply ingrained racism.

Since we didn’t know the common room password, I simply punched the wall in front of us. There was a hidden door concealed with some basic illusion magic. The door collapsed backward with a heavy thud. I ignored the glare McGonagall shot me for damaging school property. It shouldn’t be too difficult to repair with magic later, I don’t know why she was so upset.

The sight we encountered inside was unsettling.

“Okay, this is kind of messed up,” Isane said while taking a few steps behind.

“This is like the start of a horror movie, or the end of it,” Serafall added, even she sounded a bit unnerved. “I can’t believe Ajuka actually did this, even an Evil version of him...”

All the Slytherin students were standing in the middle of the common room, completely motionless. They were entirely mindless, awaiting orders from their devil masters. Ajuka might have succeeded in creating his perfect mind-controlled army if we hadn’t intervened in time.

“Have any of you seen Professor Snape?” I asked the unmoving students. Not a single one responded.

[Maybe they only respond to commands from a noble devil.]

That made sense. I asked Serafall to try giving them orders.

“Listen up. We’re looking for that ugly Snape guy! Has he been through here?” Serafall shouted. This time, there was a response. As if they were one organism, they all raised their right arms and pointed to a door at the back of the room. Their arms stayed raised and didn’t move afterward, awaiting further instructions.

“This is horrible. Please fix them, Layla!” McGonagall pleaded.

“I will,” I assured her. “But I can’t do that until I interrogate Ajuka and find out what he did to them. Before that, we need to capture Snape. He was locked up with Dumbledore when Ajuka freed them. He might have some information for us. I still don’t know how the Maou found out about them in the first place.”

I carefully navigated through the students and reached the door I suspected to be Snape’s old office. As expected, the handle was locked tight with magic. With a playful smirk at McGonagall, I proceeded to break down my third door of the day!

Frank stormed into the room with his weapon at the ready. “It’s clear—he’s not in here,” he called out to us, and we followed inside.

“Where is this guy?” Isane asked. “Didn't the zombie students all point here?”

“There’s no Floo in Snape’s old office. He couldn’t have escaped from here,” McGonagall said, glancing around the dusty room. It was clear that no one had been here in over a year.

Thanks to the neglect, I spotted a pair of footprints on the dusty floor, leading to a bookcase in the corner. “It’s always the classics...” I muttered to myself with a smirk. Behind the bookcase, a secret passage awaited.

“Please don’t break anything else, Layla. The castle has already taken so much damage today...” McGonagall pleaded as I prepared to rip the bookcase off the wall.

I pouted but eventually relented and let her handle it. With a wave of her wand, she cast a few unlocking spells, and the bookcase slid smoothly to the side.

Beyond it was a small room, housing a shrine of some kind. Snape was kneeling in front of it, as if in prayer. On the shrine sat a photo of a red-haired woman, a wand, and a few locks of red hair.

“Oh, Lily! I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you! Muggle prison was awful. I thought I’d never escape! But I never gave up hope, and true love found a way! I’m back with you now, my love.” Snape reached for a lock of the red hair, bringing it to his nose and inhaling deeply. “Even after all these years, you still smell amazing, my love!” he declared passionately to the shrine of Lily Potter.

“Jesus Christ...” Isane muttered.

“Ow!” Serafall pouted at Isane while rubbing her head.

“This guy is absolutely messed up,” Frank said. “Can I shoot him?”

Snape hadn’t noticed the bookcase move or that we were no longer alone. His entire focus remained on his disturbingly creepy shrine dedicated to Heather’s deceased birth mother.

Heather was going to be pissed when she finds out Snape had been holding onto her mother’s wand all this time, keeping it locked up in this weird shrine.

[Definitely don’t mention the hair sniffing...]

XXX