Observing the battle from above, Diablo began weaving his spells.
“Lightning Meteor!!!”
Countless bolts of lightning rained down on the Fallen army, burning them to the ground. Them being grouped together only increased the effectiveness of the spell.
But he couldn’t easily use his magic where the two forces crashed in melee combat. In the game, magic attacks only affected enemies, but, in this world, it wouldn’t make that distinction, blowing away friend and foe alike.
“I can leave that place to them.”
A Summon clad in white light charged through the battlefield. It was a huge bull with three horns, significantly strengthened by its master’s new equipment.
“Go forth, Asulau!” Rem cried out, spurring her Summon on.
Asulau rammed itself against a Fallen, caught in the chaos of battle.
“Gaha!?”
The Fallen, which had a lion’s head, was blown away. That alone hadn’t done enough damage to finish it off, but they were in a tumultuous battlefield; there were many warriors from the races’ side around. They swung down their swords and axes on the toppled Fallen, striking him like hoes against farmland.
“Gaaah!? Fools, you! Just...weak humans... You dare...!?”
“Yeah, us humans sure are weak! That’s why we gotta gang up whenever we see a shitty Fallen like you down on the ground!”
“A...gah... Stop!”
A blow strong enough to crush the Fallen’s lion-shaped head reduced its body to particles of light.
Fallen and magical beasts turned into light and disappeared when they died. This was the most striking difference between them and other wild beasts and monsters.
“Next one is the Fallen that looks like a bear! Let’s go!” Rem called out.
“Yes, ma’am!” the soldiers responded in unison.
She was an adventurer who popped out of nowhere—and a Pantherian woman at that—but her sound judgment and wise directions bought her the soldiers’ subservience easily. And with each time she threw herself into battle, more and more soldiers came under her command. Having enhanced Summons capable of felling Large-class magical beasts, and several MP potions, helped her greatly. Rem gradually regained control of the chaotic battlefield.
A large magical beast in the shape of a carnivorous beast swooped down from the sky, the breadth of its outspread wings reaching ten meters.
“Gyaaaaaa!!!” the beast screeched.
“Take a 《Triangle Shot》!” A girl’s shrill voice echoed.
Three arrows struck the creature simultaneously, each of them being a Tempest Arrow capable of penetrating the magical beast’s considerable physical defense. If it dealt damage, there was a chance petrification would trigger, with the probability tripling since three arrows would hit it.
The massive magical beast instantly turned to stone, fell in accordance to gravity, and shattered against the ground, turning into specks of light.
Shera had attacked it using her new, special arrows. She had run along the tops of the sand ships, hopping from the sails as if they were treetops, and sniping down magical beasts one after another with superior skill. The sight of her was dignified and beautiful; so much so, a rumor began spreading among the soldiers she saved from distress that “A goddess saved us.”
A large group of soldiers rushed through the battlefield, regrouping with a squad of fellow combatants.
“We’re here to help!”
“Appreciated, boys! Ah, wait, weren’t you just carried over to the medical tent...?”
“Yeah, but can you believe it? Apparently the High Priest healed us!”
“When you were that injured!? Holy smokes!”
The healing miracle had done more than just mend the soldiers’ wounds; it gave them the confidence that, even if they were to be injured, someone would be there to heal them.
Zircon Tower’s church was closed, and there was a great deal of distrust toward the priests because of their demands for donations. Yet many soldiers still relied on religion to support their hearts. And now the Church’s pride, the beloved High Priest, had come to their aid. There could be no greater support for them.
Their fear from the Demon Lord’s army waned, and reinforcements allowed them to quell the fighting around them, tipping the scales in their favor.
There was one part of the battlefield where something unusual had happened...
All the units belonging to the Demon Lord’s army were suddenly eliminated. It happened so swiftly that no fighting actually took place. The corpses of the Fallen and their magical beasts were reduced to light and disappeared, leaving no trace they were ever there to begin with. A lone girl stood there, wearing what looked like a maid’s outfit that was open in the back.
The Magimatic Maid, Rose, surveyed the skies with her emerald eyes.
“Aaah, Master... Master is so wonderful! Seeing Master lord above the battle in the heavens, raining down judgment and lightning on all who oppose Master! Truly, the splitting image of a Demon Lord! Behold, all you fools crawling on the ground! That is a true Demon Lord, Rose’s esteemed Master!”
“This woman... Who...!? Small...weak... Eat her!!!”
A Fallen with an amphibian’s head bore down on her; there were three more Fallen as well. They each had the heads of warriors they had killed dangling from their belts, as if taking pride in a collection. It was a gruesome sight that would surely produce a scream from any ordinary girl, but Rose directed a look of pure displeasure toward them for having gotten in the way of her entranced “Diablo appreciation time.”
“You dumb, foolish frog... You dare get in the way of Rose’s reverent worship of Master!”
A thick tongue extended from the amphibian Fallen’s mouth, coiling around Rose and binding her in place.
“Her, eat!”
“Your disgusting Fallen stench is sticking to the lovely clothes Master gave Rose... How do you intend to compensate for this? You are the only one Rose will not grant the mercy of a quick death. Asterismos!”
A giant double-bladed sword appeared behind Rose. Having seen it, the Fallen didn’t pause or seemed surprised, for when it came to battle, the Fallen never hesitated, never faltered, and never showed mercy.
Seeing the giant sword, and mechanical hand that wielded it, the four Fallen went on the offensive, charging at it.
“Heh... Heheh... Hahahahaha! You would challenge Rose with such paltry strength!?” Rose laughed excitedly. “For how big your bodies are, your brains are so tiny they must rattle in your thick skulls! Rose will carve the true meaning of horror into your bones! Now accept your deaths! 《Dídymos》, 《Karkinos》, 《Leon》, 《Parthenos》!!!”
She invoked the constellations, chanting their names in song. The double-bladed sword danced through the air, as if tracing the positions of the stars.
It cut through the Fallen’s skin, thick enough to deflect the weapons of the races, and shattered their bones. The Fallens’ eyes, keen enough to see bullets zipping through the air, couldn’t follow the blade’s trajectory. Their bodies could regenerate lost limbs, but they disintegrated into particles of light before they even had a chance to.
No fighting had actually taken place here. The only way it could be described was an act of cleaning and sweeping done by the Magimatic Maid Rose.
Low-tier Fallen had no way of opposing a girl capable of effortlessly subjugating even a Large-class dragon.
Looking at the now empty battlefield, Rose heaved an exasperated sigh. “Ah, Rose cannot believe herself... Rose intended to punish the insolent Fallen, but they died before Rose could do that. Rose is such a careless maid... Rose must grow out of this habit or Master might become angry with Rose.”
†
The tides of battle were shifting. In terms of which army claimed the most kills, the Demon Lord’s army greatly surpassed the races. But from the beginning, the races’ army was over one hundred times the Fallen’s army in size. The Demon Lord’s army numbered 300, b
ut by now their numbers were reduced to half. In contrast, the races’ army still had 30,000 troops in fighting condition.
The turmoil was dying down and the battle was slowly coming under the races’ control. Troops were being rescued from the sunken sand ships and reorganized into units.
Diablo descended to the sand ship that stood at the vanguard of the fleet. The boots he had equipped, 《Empty Sky’s Gambol》, had a flight enchantment to them. It did consume his MP, though, and he greatly preferred to conserve his MP if he could.
But he did spot a familiar face on the ship...
—So this was her ship!?
“I see you’re still alive, governor of Zircon Tower.” Stifling his surprise, Diablo spoke as if he knew all along.
“Our name is Laminitus.”
The wound in her flank demanded immediate medical attention. An HP potion could close the wound, but it wouldn’t recover the blood she had lost. Losing this much would leave her in a state of anemia.
Her face was deathly pale. Diablo had to applaud her willpower enabling her to stand up to him even when she’s this wounded.
“We appreciate the assistance...” Laminitus said, pointing at the enemy forces. “But don’t let your guard down! The battle is far from over!”
“What?”
“The enemy’s commander is the Demon Lord’s Army’s commander-in-chief, Varakness. We shot him in the heart and the bugger still wouldn’t die. He also has a powerful Sorcerer and Healer under his command, as well as a Fallen assassin who can strike from within people’s own shadows!”
Diablo nodded. “Have no fear, I assumed this much. I’ll admit that huge magic could be troublesome, but...”
Diablo fixed his gaze in the direction Laminitus pointed, finding the shape of a Large-class, turtle-like magical beast. A young man dressed in a tuxedo reclined on a sofa fixed on the turtle’s massive back. His bat-like wings were particularly conspicuous, and his arms were wrapped around a woman with raven wings.
—Huh...?
Diablo’s body went stiff. There was also a Fallen woman with a lizard’s tail, her face rubbing so close to the young man’s it looked like they would kiss at any second. Another Fallen woman, this time one that looked like a mermaid, stood next to them with a blush on her face as the male Fallen—Diablo doubted his eyes—was fondling her plump breasts.
Diablo couldn’t, for the life of him, wrap his mind around what he was seeing. He simply couldn’t believe it.
“This is... This isn’t happening...” Diablo hardly recognized the hoarse voice coming out of his lips as his own.
Fondling. Her. Breasts.
Then he saw the silver rings on their fingers.
—Wedding rings!?
A couple...
There was no mistaking it: They were a couple. A lovey-dovey, sappy couple, making out in front of his eyes in broad daylight.
Diablo’s mind went completely blank. He could hear someone laughing, but who was it?
After a moment, Diablo realized he himself was the one laughing.
“Hehe... Ha... Hahaha... Hahahahahahaha...”
“Wh-What is it? What’s wrong with you, Diablo?” Laminitus took a step back.
Was the expression on his face really that frightening? Diablo couldn’t tell; all he knew was that a black emotion was surging and swirling in his chest.
Unconsciously, he reached into his pouch and took out a special potion. It was a booster-type potion that temporarily increased his magic power. He gulped it all down in one go, and his magical energy strengthened up to its utmost limit.
Diablo ordered the staff in his hand, the 《Tonnerre Empereur》 , to transform. The top of the black staff clicked open, like a pair of scissors, and purple lightning ran through the parted staff, extending into a blade of plasma.
It had become a broadsword of pure light.
“What is wrong with you, Diablo!? Tell Us!” Laminitus pressed him for an answer again, feeling the horrifying atmosphere that surrounded him.
“I’m fine... It’s all good.”
“It certainly does not seem that way to Us.”
Diablo had no idea what expression his face wore right now, so all he did was tell the person who had just spoken to him what he was going to do.
“I’m gonna go kill him real quick.”
“Wha!?”
Pouring MP into Empty Sky’s Gambol, Diablo took off, flying faster than ever before since his magical power had been boosted. Diablo charged at the large magical beast, zipping through the air like a bullet.
The Fallen youth, Varakness, rose to his feet. “My, aren’t you terribly aggressive? And from the looks of it, you’re a pure Sorcerer, yet you challenge us to a melee battle...”
The magical beast, which served as their headquarters, was guarded by other flying magical beasts. Diablo brandished his broadsword of light, the Tonnerre Empereur, at the beasts, chanting as he did.
“Lightning Arrow!”
The sword’s special effect kicked in, firing the spell seven times in succession.
Between the flight magic, the broadsword of light, and the spell being cast seven times over, Diablo’s MP was depleting fast, so he pulled a MP potion from his pouch and replenished it immediately.
To hell with efficiency—the cost of things was no longer a consideration.
—Utter destruction! The greatest magic possible! Thorough, merciless, unadulterated annihilation!
Lightning Arrow covered the sky over the large magical beast, wiping out the smaller ones guarding it and reducing them to grains of light.
Varakness’s face froze in shock.
“Who is this Sorcerer...!?”
†
“I...will!”
The lizard-woman-sorceress stood beside Varakness, and unleashed her spell again, screaming in a shrill voice.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
It was quite the special chant.
Diablo smirked.
—Awww, you want to fight while holding hands and cooperating? You smug show-offs!
It appeared to be some type of unique earth element spell. It threw a small, palm-sized pebble at the opponent at the speed of sound.
The spell the Fallen woman had used was low level, but packed a powerful punch. It was probably the level 70 spell, 《Sling Diamond》. When the races used it, the stone moved far more slowly.
—It hardly matters, either way.
The Demon Lord’s Ring activated, reflecting any and all spells. The moment it was about to impact with Diablo, the pebble bounced back to the caster. The lizard woman was a pure Sorcerer with no means to evade or defend herself.
A fist-sized hole opened in her slim torso.
“Kha!?” Her eyes widened as she coughed up green blood.
“What...just...?”
Varakness stood next to her, utterly shocked.
“Aaah... Va...rak...” Mouthing his name, the lizard woman burst into specks of light and disappeared.
The mermaid-like Fallen also called out what was apparently his name.
Diablo landed on the large magical beast’s back, a distance of ten steps between him and his opponent.
They were in close quarters combat range. Sorcerers would usually be at a disadvantage, but when Diablo fought seriously, he preferred fighting like this, even against opponents who excelled at melee combat.
The shadow at Diablo’s feet stirred and distorted as a taloned hand burst out of it.
“How dare you! You killed my sister! Now I’ll kill you!!!” the raven-winged Fallen woman screeched.
Her attack had almost reached Diablo’s throat, but he dodged, moving his head only slightly and catching his assailant by the wrist at the same time.
He activated a spell that required contact with the target.
“Everything shall vanish...into a world of complete stillness... 《Absolute Zero》.”
“Heeh!?”
Starting from where Diablo had touched her, the Fallen wo
man’s body began freezing over.
“N-No, I don’t... I don’t want to disappear! I don’t want to die... Save me...” she begged, her eyes wide in terror.
“Oh, that reminds me... Weren’t you the one who said, ‘If you didn’t want to die, all you had to was never be born at all’?”
“Don’t kill me!”
“A bit too late for that.”
The effect of 《Tonnerre Empereur: Libre》 had stacked seven Absolute Zeros on her.
He was impressed, even if she was a Fallen. She was able to resist a spell that would usually freeze the target in a second long enough to beg for her life.
The raven-winged Fallen woman turned into a statue of translucent ice, with only her upper half coming out of Diablo’s shadow. After a moment, she, too, turned into particles of light and faded away.
“Is this a joke...? Batutta was harder to beat than these bozos...” Diablo whispered under his breath.
The mermaid Fallen seemed to be screaming something, but her voice was so small Diablo couldn’t make it out. Then, she threw up her hands. Was she casting a spell? Or maybe using some unique skill?
Varakness threw up a hand of his own, stopping her.
“Stop. This man has the ability to deflect magic. If you cast your special water magic, it would result in nothing but your own death.”
—Oooh. So he could tell by seeing it just the once, huh...
Varakness’ movements were elegant, especially at a time like this.
“I never imagined two of my wives would be defeated like this... You are not just another run-of-the-mill Sorcerer of the races, are you?”
“Quite the composure you have there, lady-killer. Better keep a good eye on your third girl, then... Burst forth, incandescent scorching flames: Flare Burst.”
How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord: Volume 5 Page 17