Chapter 1: Infiltrating the Imperial Castle
Diablo crossed the Cloth Gate. Fighting had already broken out where he emerged. There was rain pelting down, making the ground quite slippery. But then again, everyone present was a high enough level to not be hindered by it.
A large number of small, Human-sized, Magimatic Sol-like units were lined up there. The former corps commander Aira told them these things were called Magi Guards.
“Aaaah, aaah, aaaaaah!” Alan howled as he swung his sword about.
The Magi Guards were by no means weak opponents, but despite this, he swept through them like they were made of twigs, each swing decreasing the number of surrounding Magi Guards. Even in the poor visibility of the heavy rain, he didn’t need to wipe his eyes. It definitely looked like he was swinging randomly, but each blow hit its mark.
He was, without a doubt, a high-level warrior. He wasn’t all talk; he certainly had the strength to match his boasts.
The Elf warrior clad in black, Thanatos, swung his black longsword as if refusing to lose to his comrade. He seemed to be having a bit of a harder time, though.
“Haaa! Demon Buster Breaker! Sacred Drag Slave! Aaaaaaah!”
The Demon magi gunner girl standing behind them raised her voice.
“Stop shouting your stupidly long attack names! Just cut them down! They’re mooks, dammit!”
“Silence! Women have no say in matters of manliness!”
“Mocking women again, are you?! I’m telling Lady Noah!”
“Ngh?! Daisy!”
Right, her name was Daisy. Diablo hadn’t memorized their names yet.
Thanatos thrust his black sword toward Daisy...and stabbed a Magi Guard that had snuck up behind her. After letting out an adorable yelp, she awkwardly spoke, “...Th-Thanks.”
“Tch... I cannot believe myself,” Thanatos clicked his tongue bitterly. “I defeated it before I could declare my attack’s name.”
“If you can do it once, do it all the time!” Daisy exclaimed.
“I shan’t do it again, not unless I must protect my comrades.”
Thanatos then turned around sharply and charged at another enemy, shouting out yet another flamboyant attack name.
“Geez,” Daisy pouted and aimed her gun at another Magi Guard.
Watching them bicker, Diablo felt an odd, burning sensation smolder in his stomach.
“...Kuh.”
—Look at them, flirting in the middle of an important battle.
Diablo hated nothing more than having to talk to other people, especially young women. This wasn’t really the reason he felt this way... Honestly, it was definitely not the reason, but...seeing couples flirt on the battlefield filled him with the urge to murder.
But this wasn’t jealousy! For sure! Honest!
—Bringing romance into battle is just unforgivable! The battlefield is a sacred place! For sure!
Probably...
“Tch. We need to defeat the Emperor, but...will I need to defeat those normies first?” Diablo muttered to himself.
“What in the world are you talking about?” Noah asked, cutting into his dark monologue.
She was listening to him, apparently.
“Hmph. It looks like you can manage just fine without me,” Diablo said.
“I honestly hope that’s the case,” Noah said with a frown.
“Magi Guards are just lookouts,” Aira said, shaking her head as she stood beside Noah. “It’d be for the best if we could infiltrate the castle before the main force shows up, but— Ah!”
Suddenly, Aira gasped. Sensing an approaching enemy, Diablo glared in that direction. A golden Magimatic Sol approached them... 《Goldinus of the Gold》.
As an eerie cackling rang out from within the massive Magimatic Sol, it approached them as if gliding over the ground. Diablo thrust out his staff to intercept the enemy who ground to a halt in front of him. Its metallic legs dug into the castle’s outer walls with a cacophonous metallic screeching. A voice issued from what looked like a megaphone on its headpiece.
“I didn’t think you’d really come! Trying to charge into the Magimatic Castle Viovix... How foolish can you be?!”
“That voice... It really is you, Alicia,” Diablo said.
The Magimatic Sol seemed to stir at the sound of his words.
“You are...”
After a long moment of hesitation, Goldinus of the Gold’s hatch opened with a creaking sound. Inside it was Alicia, enveloped in what looked like tentacles, her body clad in a rubbery suit. She leaned her torso outward.
“...You really did come here, Lord Diablo,” she said.
“Hmph... It seems you haven’t forgotten who I am,” Diablo replied.
“Of course I haven’t. I have sworn my life to serve you, after all.”
Diablo was honestly relieved. If Alicia would have attacked in a mad, bloodthirsty rage, Diablo wasn’t sure what he’d do. Assuming she’d turned on them, defeating her without mercy would have been the correct thing to do. But she’d helped him and his friends more than once, and he did feel pressed to save her if she was dominated by enslavement magic or something of the sort.
When Shera was brainwashed by her brother Keera, Diablo saved her. And while she did do so out of self-interest at the time, Alicia did help him do it.
“Please pass right through, Lord Diablo,” Alicia said, beaming at him.
“Mm?” Diablo’s brows furrowed suspiciously.
“As an extra, I shall also let Lady Klem pass too,” Alicia added.
“An extra! How nice!” Klem raised her hands in a cheer.
It wasn’t an extra like when someone gave her an extra candy, though, so her joy was misdirected. Edelgard’s expression was anxious.
“...Meaning you won’t let the rest of us pass, right?” Noah said with a smirk.
“Heheh, of course not,” Alicia said, still smiling. “Right now, half of me belongs to His Majesty the Emperor, and he ordered me to kill all intruders. But most importantly...”
A crimson glint appeared in Alicia’s eyes.
“...Noah Gibun. I can’t tolerate the fact that ugly beings like you exist.”
Alicia always did harbor a deep hatred for the people at the upper echelons of the Kingdom of Lyferia. So much so that she even wished to see the Demon Lord revived and the Fallen slaughter the mortal races.
“Ugly?” Noah scoffed at her. “How about you take a look at yourself before you call other people names? You’re disgusting. You were nothing more than a noble girl in knight’s clothing. Just because you got inside a Magimatic Sol doesn’t mean you may turn your blade against me!”
Her long time in a palace had likely made Noah develop a discriminatory outlook. Honestly, the two of them were polar opposites of each other.
“...I will kill you here and now, Noah Gibun,” Alicia said, her voice several degrees more chilling than it was a moment ago.
And with an indomitable smile on her lips, she slithered back into Goldinus of the Gold. The hatch snapped shut, tearing a few of the tendrils that had wandered out. They fell to the ground and thrashed like severed lizard tails. The Magimatic Sol looked robotic from the outside, but inside it was some kind of tentacle monster. And those tentacles were apparently some kind of terminal for Emperor Gelmed.
The backstory was that Emperor Gelmed was supposed to be human, but...
—I think he’s long since discarded any humanity he had.
“You traitorous wench...!” Noah spat out bitterly.
“Wait, Lady Noah!” The Order’s captain, Maximum, stopped her. “I don’t think we need to cooperate with her trying to stall us here!”
He stood in front of her, as if trying to cut off her glaring stare with his massive frame.
“Get out of my way, Max!” she snapped at him. “That little slut called me ugly! She called me...!”
“She’s provoking you!” Maximum called out at her.
“Yeah, but still!” Noah insisted.
“Lady Noah!” Maximum raised his voice with uncharacteristic roughness.
This made Noah flinch. She then took a long, deep breath and finally seemed to have regained her composure. She was apparently a lot more impulsive than she looked.
—Or maybe something happened to make her hate the word ‘ugly’...?
To Diablo, a woman’s heart was a deep ocean of secrets; its fathoms were well beyond his understanding. He didn’t have the first idea as to how women’s minds worked, but he could relate to being traumatized by certain words.
Having regained her usual cool expression, Noah began calmly issuing orders.
“Thanatos, Chobi, keep her occupied. I’ll go on ahead.”
Chobi was a tall Pantherian member of the Palace Knights, a warrior who wielded a spear three times her height.
“Wait!” Aira said, her expression severe. “Goldinus of the Gold is different from the other Magimatic Sols. We’re all going to have to fight it off together!”
“We need to defeat the Emperor by nightfall.” Noah shook her head. “If that’s a powerful enemy, then that’s all the more reason for us to avoid fighting it as much as possible.”
“You’re going to treat your men like sacrificial pawns?!” Aira asked her, shocked.
But Thanatos stopped her from going on. He swung his black longsword through the air and laughed scornfully.
“Heh... You said we’re to keep her occupied. But surely you don’t mind if I defeat h—”
“She’s charging us!” Chobi cut into Thanatos’ narcissistic spiel with a shout and thrust her long spear forward. The martial art she unleashed made the tip of the spear light up, but unlike Thanatos, she didn’t shout out some long name. And of course she didn’t; it wasn’t like this was a spell she had to chant.
†
Goldinus of the Gold responded to Noah’s challenge.
“Very well, Palace Knight! I’ll start by slaughtering you! You will regret ever serving such a foolish mistress!”
Palpable bloodlust rolled from the Magimatic Sol in waves. It seemed like Alicia had retained her ego and memories; since she was an Imperial Knight, her purpose had been taken away when Noah formed the Palace Knights, which made this a personal grudge.
Of course, considering Alicia was a Demon Lord worshipper, one could say this was overall unjustified... But people don’t always have logical reasons for doing battle.
There was no telling how much influence the Emperor’s tendrils had over her personality. If Alicia was under the influence of enslavement magic, they wouldn’t fight her even if she did show this much hatred toward them. After all, she put her life on the line to defend Lumachina and Rem in the twelfth district.
“Aaaaah!” Chobi moved forward, thrusting her spear.
“Ah!”
Chobi was tall by the standards of the mortal races, but Goldinus was still at least three times her height and wielded a gigantic sword appropriate to its size. It swung through Chobi’s body, severing it in half...
—Wait, no... Her form faded away?!
The next moment, a clamorous metallic clanking sound rang out from Goldinus’ back.
“Gah?!”
“Too slow!”
Chobi had used a movement-type martial art.
《Blink Thrust》?!
No, it was a different technique. It used the afterimage as a decoy to fool the enemy.
“Get away, you troublesome insect!” Goldinus swept its sword through the air in an attempt to swat her away.
“That armor might increase your power and speed, but your reaction time is still just as sluggish!” Chobi called out.
“You’re calling me slow...?!”
But as Goldinus was confused by Chobi’s swift movements, a crescent-shaped shock wave crashed into it. It was one of Thanatos’ martial arts.
“True Demon’s Slash!”
“Kuh... You...! Are you really normal warriors?!”
“Tch... Such firm defenses! You’re the second opponent to ever withstand my secret arts!” Thanatos grimaced.
“Don’t you say that every time...?” Chobi asked as she rebalanced her spear.
“N-N-No, not at all!” Thanatos sputtered.
But as Diablo watched them fight Goldinus, something felt off to him.
They’re overwhelming it...
This was supposed to be the strongest Magimatic Sol, but it was losing so spectacularly it was almost anticlimactic... Was it really because Alicia was its pilot? She was always talented, but her skill as a knight was average at best. She was level 40 or so, while the Palace Knights were all over level 100.
Both Chobi and Thanatos were using martial arts Diablo wasn’t familiar with, which they’d likely learned with Noah’s help. After all, Noah reincarnated into this world from further into the future than Diablo.
But despite being pushed back, Goldinus of the Gold didn’t show any signs of receiving true damage. It felt like this battle was going to drag on, and that gave Diablo a sinking feeling, like he’d been eating some fruit when he suddenly bit down on something hard...
But he didn’t have time to ponder about this.
“Let’s go!” Noah ordered him.
“Ugh...” Diablo grimaced with displeasure.
“Diablo, the Demon Lord won’t be satisfied if you stay behind,” Noah told him.
“Well...”
Klem was the one who insisted Diablo had to be there when they fought the Emperor. It really would be meaningless if he stayed behind.
“My read on the situation is that the enemy’s trying to split us up,” Noah continued.
“I’d imagine,” Diablo replied as if it were obvious.
But despite his words, he was unfamiliar with fighting in a group. He hadn’t really considered the possibility the enemy would want to divide their forces.
Noah then approached him and whispered into his ear. “Diablo, Diablo. Have you forgotten your promise to me? You said you’d obey me.”
“I-I know!” Diablo said hurriedly.
“And while I’d like nothing more than to tear that annoying woman’s hair out, I do understand the situation. I promise we’ll save her.”
“Seriously?”
“I assure you, Chobi and Thanatos are even more adept at saving people than you are.”
“...Well, I am a Demon Lord, after all.”
He had no experience in playing in a party, so he certainly wasn’t used to helping people in combat. And so, the planned course of action was to leave this place to Chobi and Thanatos and go on ahead — regardless of if they were winning or losing this fight.
This was the kind of decision-making that was necessary when one fought with others. And while this was a situation Diablo wasn’t familiar with from how he usually played games, it wasn’t uncommon to see this happen in stories.
“Leave this place to me and go ahead!” Thanatos shouted.
“That was the plan to begin with, Thanatos,” Chobi said sarcastically.
“Now’s not the time for your boorish quips, Chobi!” he snapped back at her. “I’m feeling quite dashing right now! See, this is why women are terrible. You just don’t get it...”
“Say that too many times and we’ll see who ‘gets it’...”
Thanatos didn’t make it seem like he was making a tragic sacrifice by staying behind — perhaps owing to his personality. And if Noah picked him for this role while taking that aspect of his character into play, then her planning was, indeed, pretty impressive.
Diablo turned his back to them and ran off. He couldn’t shake off that bad feeling he had about Goldinus, but leaving behind words of encouragement wouldn’t be very Demon Lord-ly of him.
“...I’m counting on you,” he whispered under his breath.
Before long, he ran into a small, open iron door. It was probably a side entrance into the castle. With Aira’s guidance, Diablo and the others finally made it into the interior of the Magimatic Castle Viovix.
†
As they closed the iron door behind them, the din of the rain and the echoes of the battle outside died down. Diablo blasted through a few walls and floors, and they continued straight ahead. The walls and floors seemed to be made of stone, but such a gigantic moving castle couldn’t possibly be stonework. It was probably some kind of product of magimatic technology.
The corridors were mostly dark, likely since the Magi Guards didn’t need light to fight. Utata lit up their direct path using a spell or a magical lantern, but the long corridors were still mostly dark. Countless enemies rushed in on their position from out of the darkness, and their shadows weren’t humanoid. They had beast-like and insect-like forms, but they were still Magi Guards.
The Magi Guards attacked, growling all the while.
“Aaaaaaaaah, let’s goooo!” Alan was the first to pounce.
He swept through countless enemies, cleaving open a path. His berserker-like passion for battle granted him limitless stamina and willpower, and his skill was high to match. He wielded a longsword Diablo had never seen before that seemed to slash into the enemy regardless of how far from him they were. The Magi Guards scattered like crushed, dry leaves in the wind.
Standing at his back, the Demon magi-gunner Daisy offered Alan covering fire.
“《Umbrella Shot》!”
Her martial art unleashed the gun’s bullets in a scatter shot that gouged multiple enemies at once. And despite the bullets scattering in all directions, none of them so much as skimmed Alan. Diablo couldn’t tell if it was some kind of special effect of her weapon or her own skills at play.
Standing even farther back was the Grasswalker sorceress Utata, who granted them multiple buffs.
“《Barrier》! 《Penetration》!”
In terms of class, she was the same type of sorcerer as Sylvie — an enchanter.
Since he was part of their party, it meant all her enchantments targeted Diablo as well, but his 《Demon Lord’s Ring》 ended up reflecting all the effects back to Utata.
He couldn’t help but feel pathetic. Between Alan, Daisy, and Utata, this party was powerful enough as it was. Each of them was strong individually, and on top of that, they covered for each other’s weak spots and were perfectly coordinated. He’d never seen such a well-organized party in Cross Reverie. And without even noticing it, he was leaving all the enemies to them, when—
“Lady Noah?!” Daisy called out.
One of the Magi Guards she failed to shoot down rushed in Noah’s direction, one of its wings missing. Standing next to her, Diablo held up 《Tenma’s Staff》. Firing a spell would be simple, but Noah was — or at least said she was — a level 300 sorcerer.
Was there really any point in shielding her from such a weak enemy?
But while Diablo was questioning himself, the enemy reached them, and—
“Insolent fool!” Maximum roared out a battle cry.
He looked like an orderly bank employee, except his head sat on a macho body full of rippling muscles. He easily swung a two-handed sword, not so much slashing the Magi Guard as much as bashing it away with the side of the blade like a tennis ball. The blow crushed it to bits.
“Are you unharmed, Lady Noah?” Maximum asked her.
“Of course, Max,” she nodded with a collected expression.
—Like I thought, he’s a high-level power-type warrior.
But as Diablo looked on from the side like none of this had anything to do with him, Noah spoke to him with a cold tone.
“I see you’re the kind who can’t act without explicit orders.”
—Ugh?!
That wasn’t the case at all, but he wasn’t sure what his role was in the party...and if no one told him what exactly he was supposed to do, he’d stay clueless. Still, a Demon Lord couldn’t exactly ask for orders.
“Hmph...” Diablo retorted haughtily. “I shouldn’t have to spare any effort on slaying such weak enemies!”
“Listen, I’ll issue orders if it’s necessary, but I need you to act voluntarily and adapt to the situation. There’s no end to how many things we’ll have to look out for here.”
He felt like he was a new worker being scolded by a senior. Diablo felt his stomach shrink and go in knots. Klem didn’t do anything either, after all. But just as that thought crossed his mind—
A wave of heat hit Diablo from behind, making him stagger forward. Turning around, he saw Klem unleash some kind of flashy attack. Apparently she’d run into a trap, prompting a spiky wall to close in on them, but now it was melting like hard candy. Klem’s right hand was enveloped in a glow of magical energy.
“Hmhm... I remembered I could use it, so I tried casting 《World Halation》, but it looks like I shouldn’t use that when there are allies around...”
Indeed, the force of the spell she just used was so powerful that anyone unlucky enough to be caught in its range wouldn’t come out unscathed.
“Oooh, Demon Lord!” Edelgard called out, seemingly moved to tears. “So, wonder, ful! Wonder? Wonderful!”
Looking at this now, Diablo noted to himself they actually made for quite the large group, including their guide, Aira. Said Aira was gawking at Klem, her eyes wide with shock.
“I believe this device was meant to kill intruders, but... I can’t believe you destroyed it before we even needed to stop it!”
“I am a Demon Lord, after all!” Klem said boastfully.
Edelgard clapped excitedly.
They seriously don’t need me here, do they...? Diablo wondered to himself.
†
Up until now, Diablo had been forced into situations where he had had no choice but to fight. But now, Klem was here. And there was even a level 300 sorceress right next to him, though he hadn’t seen her cast any spells yet.
Which reminded him — Gewalt wasn’t here, but he thought he saw him fighting earlier before they invaded the castle. Was he still fighting down in the capital? Did he get lost? Or maybe, being the selfish person he was, he decided he wasn’t interested in this fight.
But Gewalt aside... Diablo had no place here.
—Do they think I’m just a burden? That I’m getting in the way?
He had no way of knowing what everyone else was thinking, but the moment he started suspecting they looked down on him, he couldn’t escape the fear that he was right. He was always a socially crippled shut-in gamer. Being cooperative or helpful was never in his nature.
—I wanna go home...
“This castle is massive; we don’t have time to go through it slowly,” Noah told Aira. “Do you know where the Emperor is?”
“Of course. I don’t want to waste any more time either. There’s a long trench ahead. If we go down there, we should reach the Emperor’s throne. And the distance shouldn’t be that—”
“Good, show us the way.”
“Over here!”
Aira led them unflinchingly through the branching corridors. Everything seemed to be going well. So well that it was boring.
Diablo thought that, after all his adventures with Rem, Shera, and the others, he’d gotten a bit more used to playing in a party. This made him expect he’d do a bit better this time around. But he wasn’t doing any better. It felt every bit as awkward as the times he tried to play with other players.
“Ugh, I’ve had enough,” Diablo sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. “I’ll just keep going by myself...”
It was then that he saw something shine farther into the dark corridor. Diablo felt a chill go down his spine.
“Huh?!”
Then he heard a blunt noise and the sound of tearing flesh. One of the party members collapsed loudly. It was the Kobold girl, Aira, crimson blood gushing from her chest.
“Kah, nngah?!” she gargled.
Alan, Daisy, Utata, and Noah stood shocked. Maximum moved ahead to guard Noah from any danger while Edelgard jumped ahead of Klem to protect her.
You idiots!
Diablo chose a different course of action.
“《Diamond Dust》!”
Countless blocks of ice whizzed through the corridor, rushing into the darkness like a barrage of frozen knives. What enemy was he up against? What kind of attack did they launch? Diablo didn’t know, but it was clear he was up against a high-level threat. He didn’t have time to investigate and think it over.
—What good would panicking and freezing up do?!
Alan was the first to come to. He stood up with his sword at the ready, his eyes burning with anger.
“You did it now, you bastards!”
He rushed forward, his body enveloped with a shining aura. A charge-type martial art that used his stamina points — in other words, an Outglow. It looked reckless at first, but a vanguard’s job was to tank the enemy’s attacks. He was effectively playing by the book.
Diablo clicked his tongue, though.
We wouldn’t be seeing weak enemies this late into the game, would we?
If this were the MMORPG, this was the time a strong enemy would pop out — probably one too strong for Alan to handle on his own. And this world wasn’t a game; it was cold, hard reality. It didn’t have to conform to genre conventions.
This is a dangerous opponent!
The light of Alan’s martial art dispelled the darkness, revealing a large wall of red, writhing flesh.
—Is this some kind of serpent? A worm? No...
Diablo recognized this, but not from the game. It was the same thing that filled the Magimatic Sol’s cockpit. The tentacles.
—That’s the Emperor!
Had he shouted it, would it have changed what happened next?
“Gaaah?!” Alan screamed as his right arm went flying into the air.
The floor was dyed red with blood. Daisy screamed and started firing her magi-gun haphazardly. Her shots produced a few flashy explosions...but they didn’t seem to deal any damage to the tentacles.
Calm down! Diablo thought angrily. Bullets on that level wouldn’t even faze it! Can’t you tell he has magic resistance?!
The Diamond Dust spell he’d sent earlier didn’t seem to deal any damage to it either. In other words, spells below level 70 wouldn’t work on it. This was something Diablo expected, though. The Shadow they faced earlier and the Magimatic Sols all had considerable magic resistance.
—If I’m going to get enough firepower to burn the Emperor’s tentacles away... I’ll need time to charge my spell.
Letting Alan and the others die would buy him that time. But letting them die would mean...
“Tch!” Diablo grit his teeth. “This is why I can’t stand fighting in parties!”
Diablo charged the enemy. He could use contact-based spells without having to chant and charge. The number of tentacles reaching out from the darkness was...progressively growing. A few of them were reduced to piles of flesh and littered the ground, likely the result of Alan’s slash.
Alan was now kneeling on the ground, his arm missing. Countless tentacles extended toward him, like the gigantic wall of flesh was closing in on him.
“Goddammit!” Alan thrust out his left fist.
His fist shone, knocking the tentacles away. But knocking a few of them away didn’t really make much of a difference. More reached out from the darkness, as if to compensate for the ones that were destroyed. It looked like they might envelop him entirely.
“Aaaaah?!” he shouted.
—Damn brat.
His stats were high, but he had zero understanding of strategy. Didn’t he know how to fight those kinds of enemies? Diablo quickly closed the distance between them using 《Sword Smite Ⅲ》 and thrust Tenma’s Staff at the tentacles.
“《Matoi Izuna》!”
The wall of tentacles let out a voiceless howl, shuddering.
Matoi Izuna was a spell that surged electricity through its target. It had the significant limitation of requiring that the caster touch the target directly, but its firepower was considerable. And as Diablo had demonstrated over the course of his many adventures, in situations where there were multiple enemies, the spell could spread to other enemies in a group through physical contact. On top of that, the spell rattled the enemy from within, yielding a passive, continual damage effect that could induce paralysis.
A sorcerer risking physical contact with an enemy was a gamble that could very well cost one their life. But this spell’s effects were potent and powerful enough to warrant using it.
Some of the tentacles were shredded to bits and crumbled to the ground. While the enemy remained stunned, Alan fell back to the rest of the group. It seemed he wasn’t stupid enough to continue fighting recklessly.
†
“Captain, it’s crazy strong!” Alan fell back, clutching his wounded shoulder.
“You were careless, you idiot!” Maximum shouted, landing an iron fist on Alan’s head.
“Ngh!” The argent-haired Dwarf fell face-first on the floor.
For a moment, Diablo had to wonder if that punch finished him off...but Alan soon hopped back to his feet with a smile.
“That hit the spot!”
Much to Diablo’s surprise, Alan’s right arm was completely whole and healed. His gauntlet was crushed and he’d lost his sword, but his body was back to normal.
—Is Maximum a Healer?! He looks more like a strength-based warrior...!
The fact that he could restore a missing limb put him on the same level as the High Priest. Aira was standing next to them, and the last time he saw her, she was gushing blood from her chest. It looked like a fatal injury, but now she was cradled in Noah’s arms, awfully pale but still alive.
“Ugh... I’m sorry...” she moaned. “I didn’t think the Emperor’s grasp reached this place too...”
“Would burning those tentacles defeat the Emperor?” Noah asked her.
Aira shook her head.
“That’s just a detached part of the Emperor, like the ones that fill the Magimatic Sols. You can destroy a detachment, but it won’t deal any damage to the real thing.”
“...And it’s still this strong,” Noah muttered bitterly.
“But a detached tentacle shouldn’t have that much individual power,” Aira added. “That means it should lead us directly to the Emperor.”
“It’s risky, but we’ll have to act on that,” Noah nodded pensively.
But they weren’t in a position where they could take their time. Matoi Izuna had turned most of the tentacles into charred flesh, but there were more and more tendrils extending from the darkness. Diablo felt like he was plunging into a den of snakes.
“《Flare Burst》! 《Rock Cannon》!”
Diablo shot the fleshy tentacles extending toward him with high-firepower spells, but they kept coming out faster than he could destroy them. Daisy and Utata drew back, but Diablo snapped at them.
“Don’t let the ones in the front distract you!”
“Huh?!” Utata wheeled around...but there was nothing there.
However, the next moment, tentacles fell down on them from above. Just as it seemed like they would crush the party, a white flash blotted them out.
“《Infinity Detonation》!” Klem cast one of her many spells, the light of which was dazzling to behold. Her power was every bit as overwhelming as a real Demon Lord’s should be. After all, she was Krebskulm, the strongest of them all. And despite not being in her true form, she was still this powerful...
Alan picked up his sword and removed it from the grip of his old severed arm. With this, he’d regained his position as vanguard.
Klem was keeping watch for above and behind them, while Diablo was roasting the tentacles rushing in from their flanks. With Alan, Daisy, and Utata regaining their composure, they were able to stabilize their ranks again. So long as they remained calm, their fighting potential was high.
“So we’re supposed to follow these things back to their source, right?!” Alan shouted. “Let’s cut them down as we go!”
It was a difficult but certain way to get to the boss. They moved ahead gradually, cutting the tentacles down faster than they could regenerate...but they were being careless with respect to a certain attack they’d seen earlier. Diablo felt a sense of panic creep in.
—Don’t tell me they haven’t noticed.
“Alan!” Noah shouted. “There should be an enemy capable of ranged attacks! Watch out for any you might run into!”
“Oh, right!”
The flash in the darkness that gouged into Aira’s chest — some enemy had to have fired that attack.
But Diablo ended up raising his voice despite himself.
“No! You’re wrong!”
“What are you saying, you fools?!” Klem scolded Noah at the same time as Diablo spoke. “A tentacle fired that attack! Weren’t you looking?!”
“Huh?!”
Alan and Noah were shocked at this chiding. It attacked too quickly for them to see what had really happened. It was so sudden that by the time Diablo had noticed it, the attack had already reached Aira. The answer was fairly obvious once he thought about it.
—They’re tentacles! Of course they’d fire something out of their tips!
It was cliche.
The tentacles all around them parted open and unleashed beams of light. Instead of telling everyone else to be careful, Diablo cast a spell.
“《Prism Wall》!”
This formed a powerful barrier that successfully blocked off an attack from one direction, but there were still shots coming at them from everywhere else. The countless tentacles around them fired white, cloudy bullets at them — the same color as the nerve connection threads used to link a Magimatic Sol to its pilot’s consciousness.
Alan cut down the shots headed for him. So long as he remained focused, he could handle this. But he was a high-level warrior, and the rest of the party was not. He could hear screaming from the other members.
“Gyah?!”
“Nng!”
Blood spurted through the air.
“Captain, they got Utata and Daisy!” Alan called for help.
“U-Ugh...”
But Maximum was kneeling on the floor, his greatsword cracked and his body bloodied from having to shield Noah. Diablo had healing potions, so he could give one to Maximum, who would go on to heal Daisy and Utata...
But while that thought did cross his mind, he didn’t have the time or the presence of mind to actually do it. He had a flurry of attacks coming his way that he had to block.
—How long can they keep shooting us for?!
It seemed the Emperor intentionally went easy on them to lure them deeper into his lair. Daisy and Utata were too injured to move, and Alan was shielding them from any further shots, but his stamina was limited. There were only a few seconds left before Daisy’s enchantments would run out, and Maximum had his hands full defending Aira and Noah.
The attacks were gradually chipping away at their HP. More tentacles slithered in around them, increasing the rate of fire.
It was then that Klem counterattacked. She never was one to remain passive.
“This Demon Lord will fry you to a crisp! 《Thunder Storm》!”
This was a spell Krebskulm used once when Diablo fought her in her complete form. Countless bolts of lightning would sizzle through the air, electrocuting the enemy. However, if she were to blast away all the tentacles at once, more would emerge to attack them, but it would grant them the time they needed to heal or retreat.
While this was an appropriate decision, there was one thing Klem was overlooking. Diablo tried to shout a warning at her...but the rumbling of thunder blotted out his words.
“Some of them resist lightning!”
After fighting them for some time, Diablo realized each individual tentacle had its own unique elemental affinities and resistances. The tentacles all looked roughly the same, but each one must have been imbued with either earth, wind, fire, water, light or darkness.
Lightning element attacks were light spells with a fire attribute. They would deal double damage to tentacles with the wind or darkness attributes, but dealt reduced damage to any with the water attribute — meaning they would survive the spell.
Worse yet, using such a high-firepower spell meant the caster would have a longer cooldown after casting it. And if the enemy were to make use of that opening...
One thick tentacle extended toward Klem. Its tip was wide open, revealing three large fangs. It screeched as it lunged at her.
“You dare to try and eat this Demon Lord...?!”
But someone jumped to Klem’s rescue — the spear-wielding Fallen, Edelgard.
“Demon Lord!” she shouted as she gouged her spear into the fanged tentacle with a powerful blow.
An explosion boomed in Diablo’s ears. Edelgard’s martial art blasted the tentacle into fragments of flesh. It was a reckless attack that didn’t take defense in mind. The remaining tentacles spewed their bullets at Edelgard in concentrated fire.
“Agh?! Kh?! Ngaaah?!”
After taking a few direct hits, Edelgard was blown back. Her scaly skin cracked like pottery and fragments of her hard flesh flew through the air.
“Edelgard!” Klem screeched.
“This party...is gonna get wiped out,” Diablo whispered to himself with painful clarity, his heart sinking.
He’d slain many challengers in his days, so he’d seen this happen time and time again. The more members that fell off, the harder it became for a party to regain its footing.
Klem’s spell had destroyed all of the tentacles except for the water element ones, so Diablo fired an earth spell to sweep them away. But before he could do anything else, more were already extending toward them.
There was no breaking this deadlock. It felt like a foregone conclusion to him that they would wipe here.
But it was then that Noah seemed to make a decision. She raised her hands up to the air and chanted.
“《Grand Crash》!”
It was a spell Diablo didn’t know. Noah was a level 300 elemental sorcerer, and back when Diablo played the game, level 150 was the upper level limit any character could reach. Noah, however, played the game in a different time period. She then thrust her hands down to the ground and unleashed her high-level magic.
The floor, which seemed to have been made out of some magimatic material resembling concrete, cracked beneath them, and the stonework under Diablo’s feet disappeared. It was as if the floor was never there to begin with, like a fissure had been torn through the world itself. Noah and the rest of the party were now falling.
—Did she fumble the spell...?
Apparently not; this seemed to be exactly her intent. That was her only way of pulling everyone out of the death trap at once.
“Everyone, I give you an absolute order!” Noah shouted. “No matter what, don’t die!”
Maximum plummeted down, holding her and Aira in his arms. Alan, Daisy, and Utata were falling too...but they didn’t scream, or even respond.
—Are they still alive?!
Klem fell as well, holding onto Edelgard’s limp form.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login