chapter_0186

‘What the hell is going on?’

I stared blankly at the absurd situation.

Why did the Demon Lord attack Aria, why was Aria attacked after summoning him, why was he attacking everything he saw, and so on. Countless questions kept popping into my head and disappearing.

A shockwave swallowed the building in the distance and plunged down. Just one strike was enough to make the shockwave, like a living snake, jump and writhe several times. It reminded me of a not-so-good memory.

“I wonder who she think she is, giving orders to me.”

In the midst of all this, the Demon Lord turned his head, not paying attention to the unusual sight of the soundless shockwave.

“……Are you talking to me?”

I asked reflexively. It seemed like a question for me, but I didn’t realize it was a question for me. The situation was so absurdly bizarre that it was a million times lucky that I didn’t have cognitive dissonance.

“Then, who else is here besides you and me? Are you trying to make me a fool who talks to himself in the air?”

His voice was almost flat, his skin was a deep crimson, and his body was moderately muscular, but if you ignored the skin color, he looked like a handsome man.

His appearance was that of the Demon Lord I knew, but why was he talking to me so casually? I couldn’t understand it at all.

‘Could it be that he doesn’t know who I am?’

If he was summoned from a time before he fought and lost to me, it wouldn’t be surprising that he was acting like this. The Demon Lord I first met was exactly like that.

At a glance, he seemed like a reasonable person who could be persuaded to stop the war, and his calm personality was so incomprehensible that it was hard to believe he was the cruel king of the demons.

Of course, that was not the case.

“I’d like to tell you that your thinking is wrong. I remember you, the savior of humans. I clearly remember fighting you for seven days and nights and eventually losing and having my head cut off.”

“……”

I felt a reflexive sense of disgust at the fact that someone other than me could read my thoughts. I frowned, and the Demon Lord smiled.

“It’s an interesting reaction. Surely, after fighting against an enemy for so long, you can’t even read their emotions?”

“I can’t read them, and I don’t want to.”

I aimed Eternity at him. The Demon Lord found my reaction amusing.

“What are you up to? Are you trying to surprise me by acting so familiar?”

“Surprise? That’s a ridiculous idea. I know exactly how you feel right now. You don’t have to point your sword at me.”

“……”

“Hmm, are you embarrassed? I understand. I’ll have to say it myself.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s a joy. I can finally follow my instincts as a demon.”

“……What the hell are you talking about?”

Anyway, this guy wasn’t sane either.

Instead of answering, the Demon Lord swung the Demon Sword again. Aria, who was about to burst out of the crimson shockwave in the distance, crashed back to the ground.

The crimson shockwave enveloped the area, forming a vortex that began to tear apart the space nearby. The space inside the vortex was bound, and it relentlessly unleashed shockwaves. Just one strike had caused all this.

What were the odds of winning if I had to fight without healing magic?

The only certainty was that there would be no second chance if even a hair’s breadth of my body touched that shockwave.

“That woman summoned me to this strange world. And she ordered me to capture you. Right?”

“Yes, but what’s the problem?”

“That’s the problem. Why should I follow the orders of a woman I’ve never seen before?”

The end of the Demon Lord’s sentence rose slightly.

“Demons submit to the strong. That’s why I was called the Demon Lord, and that’s why I reigned at the pinnacle of all demons. Is there anything wrong with what I said?”

There was nothing wrong with what he said. In the first world, the demons submitted to those stronger than them, just as they did here. It was probably because both worlds were written by Laura.

However here, unlike in the first world, the stronger the demon, the more they stripped down and walked around. In fact, wearing good armor was a privilege of the strong in the first world, and the stronger ones tended to be heavily armored.

“I, too, am a demon. What do you think that means, savior of humanity?”

“……”

“It means I only listen to the orders of those stronger than me. Isn’t there only one person here stronger than me? The human who fought the king of demons for seven days and nights and eventually cut off his head.”

As I frowned, a shockwave behind the Demon Lord disintegrated. In the distance, a black sphere flashed, and it flew straight towards us.

The Demon Sword was drawn horizontally. A crimson shockwave rose and blocked the sphere.

“Go on, order me. I, too, am a demon now, and I will gladly obey your order.”

“What the hell are you up to?”

The Demon Lord’s behavior was completely out of character. The Demon Lord I remembered was not the type to listen to humans, so my reaction was understandable. The Demon Lord chuckled at my reaction.

“How many times do I have to tell you? I’m following my demonic instincts. You don’t have time to doubt my intentions.”

Aria was approaching with a venomous look from a distance. I alternated between looking at Aria, who was filled with venom, and the Demon Lord, who was smiling faintly, and made a decision.

For some reason, he was volunteering to help, so I had no reason to refuse.

“Good. I’ll do as you wish. Fight that guy and buy me some time. Until one dies.”

I didn’t specify who would die. Even if he won, I didn’t want to see him appear in front of me alive.

It was because of him that he had to slaughter the surrendered humans with his own hands and awakened the Holy Lance?

“I understand. I will gladly obey, Demon Lord.”

In reality, it was a death sentence, but the Demon Lord nodded with satisfaction, as if he had expected it.

“Are you the savior now or the Demon Lord?”

I didn’t like either the original or the new title. It wasn’t that I wanted him to call me by my name, but that wasn’t an option either.

“You are the one who defeated me. What else could you be but the Demon Lord? Go. I’ll give you some time.”

“Uselessly putting on airs. You just said you would, didn’t you?”

“That’s true.”

The conversation ended there. I drew a dimensional magic circle. I had never opened a dimensional gate before, but since it was a magic of this world, I might be able to barely manage it.

I needed to find the other four.

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The Demon Lord watched as Mira disappeared into the dimensional gate, then turned his head. The woman who had summoned him to this strange world, where sound didn’t travel and nothing broke, was approaching with a scowl on her face.

“What the hell are you doing? Do you want to die again?”

“What the hell are you doing, human woman? How dare you humiliate me like this?”

In fact, the Demon Lord had an emotion he didn’t tell Mira.

Anger.

The Demon Lord was angry. He was angry at being summoned at will, being ordered around, and being forced to continue a conversation he had perfectly ended.

His life had ended satisfactorily. The Demon Lord had smiled as his head was cut off in a desperate fight where both sides had poured out everything, because he had longed for that fight.

But that woman had ruined it.

The Demon Lord was humiliated, and the savior of humanity was much weaker than before. The Demon Lord could see that humanity’s savior was covered in so many restrictions that it was almost comical. How did he feel about that?

This was an insult to both himself and his arch-nemesis, and it was also an insult to the last fight they had. The Demon Lord couldn’t accept that.

“You have insulted me. And you have insulted my life.”

‘That woman was strong. Even now, victory is much less likely than defeat. So, according to the instincts of the demons, I should have followed her orders, not my arch-nemesis.’

‘But I didn’t. It was a choice I made of my own free will.’

He held the Demon Sword indifferently. He had thought he would never hold it again after letting it go, but now he was holding it. The Demon Sword, which had absorbed its owner’s negative emotions, writhed and began to grow in size.

“Anyway, you’re all crazy……!”

Aria drew a magic circle with angry eyes. She had summoned the Demon Lord because she wanted revenge for the pain cause by Mr. Mira, but she hadn’t expected him to be such a lunatic.

Soon, crimson shockwaves and magic soared into the sky.

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“……Are you sure you’re in the right place?”

I cautiously checked my surroundings. There was a large tent for the Saint in the center, and everyone else was frozen in place, chatting away, except for a few on guard on the city walls.

I had hesitated a little because I didn’t know the exact coordinates, but fortunately, I had arrived at the right place without making a mistake.

‘If I feel holiness from inside……’

I still couldn’t summon the Holy Lance, but I could sense holiness by focusing my mind. I could feel holiness from the tent for the Saint.

I approached it. I heard the sound of people talking. They were familiar voices. Fortunately, the four of them didn’t seem to be panicking.

-Shh. I hear footsteps.

ELysier gave small warning, and the voices stopped. They were probably quiet to check who had come.

“Are you all okay?”

“Mira! Are you safe? Are you hurt?”

“Wow, Mira! You came to rescue us! Are you saying you were captured too?”

“I’m fine. That’s good.”

“We’re fine, except that we’re stuck here and can’t get out.”

Various answers came back. It was a relief that they weren’t panicking.

“What’s going on outside? Someone must be using a time magic spell that affects the entire world, right?”

“It’s a long story to explain. It’s really long.”

It really was a disgustingly long story. It had to start with Aria revealing her true colors.

“First, we need to figure out how to undo this.”

I looked around the tent. I needed to rescue them, but the problem was how to get the stopped time flowing again.

“What if…… you hit it with the Holy Lance? It won’t hurt us, right?”

“That’s why we’re stuck here. It doesn’t work.”

“……Why?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know why, but I can’t use it.”

I didn’t mention that it had been like that since I met Latina. If I brought that up, I would have to explain everything from the beginning.

“Hmm…… what should we do?”

I heard a sound of someone humming inside, deep in thought. So was I. How could we undo this? Suddenly, I had a good idea.

An idea that might not be completely impossible.