Ch.165The Demon Lord Belphegor (4)

# Demon Lord Belphegor (4)

The strength of Legion Commander First was more straightforward than expected, making it easy to understand.

Blood manipulation—an ability with clear strengths and weaknesses.

Versatile and powerful, but requiring the clear cost of using one’s own blood.

Overusing such power could lead to self-defeat through anemia.

However, even with this risk, the power demonstrated was absurdly strong.

Hadn’t Esmeralda been shocked enough to lose her holy sword from just a single drop of blood?

She who had blocked even Eleven’s sword, a being who had stepped into transcendence.

Yet with mere blood manipulation, not even a transcendent ability, he could produce such power.

If he were to use enough blood to be visible, Esmeralda would be unable to resist at all.

Yes, for example…

“How is this even possible?”

Like this current situation where the entire sky was dyed with blood.

Esmeralda muttered in disbelief. First’s strength. A transcendent ability. It was the type that enhanced a vampire’s innate abilities.

He had completely erased the disadvantage of blood manipulation by dyeing the sky itself with his blood.

An ability to effortlessly produce more blood than his entire body could possibly contain.

Blood Sky.

Each raindrop falling from the sky contained enough power to instantly kill Esmeralda.

She knew First was strong. He was famous, after all.

But she never imagined such an unfairly powerful ability.

“Damn it.”

A situation that naturally drew out curses.

Esmeralda gripped her tingling hand more firmly and looked up at the sky.

Just defending against First’s attacks had left Esmeralda battered. No one except Robeno could even get close.

But what wounded her most was something else.

“…You talked about helping me and all that, but what are you actually doing?”

“…”

Robeno’s gaze expressed the look of someone forcibly burdened with baggage.

Esmeralda was indirectly experiencing how difficult things had been for Lug in their party all this time.

The gap was greater than expected.

Far from being a nuisance to her opponent, she was just getting caught in the crossfire of a battle between giants.

“…I’ll prove to you that I can do this well, starting now.”

Backed into a corner, Esmeralda first displayed one of a hero’s characteristics: baseless confidence.

And the destiny she carried had enough power to turn such baseless confidence into reality.

‘Hopefully.’

That was Esmeralda’s wish.

***

Though she had suddenly received Lacrima, Eirene was simply bewildered. She had no means to heal her.

Her heart had been pierced. Her focus was already blurring and her breathing was stopping.

Even as a saintess, she might have been able to attempt a miraculous recovery using holy power, but…

‘Holy power would only be poison to a demon.’

It was impossible with this opponent.

Demons are strong.

Their physical abilities are incomparably superior to humans.

And as a price, they cannot accept holy power into their bodies.

The very reason they’re strong is because they’ve adapted to the demonic realm’s environment and survived while addicted to demonic energy.

Eirene couldn’t do it.

“…”

Due to this practical problem, one conclusion naturally came to Eirene’s mind.

There was nothing she could do anyway. Heroine Esmeralda and Robeno had begun their joint attack on First and had no margin to worry about this situation.

‘Yes, that’s right. I can’t heal her, and there’s no reason to heal her anyway.’

If so, was there any need to waste energy here? Even with Esmeralda and Robeno joining forces, defeating First would be difficult.

Only with her and Millia’s support would a fight be barely possible.

Rather than wasting energy on an impossible task, it might be better to give up early and support the two of them.

‘Yes, if I support the heroine without Second noticing…’

That was the practical judgment.

And she was the one person in the hero’s party who could make realistic judgments while others dreamed of ideals.

If it weren’t for her, the hero’s party would have been overthrown long ago.

Yes, someone had to do it, and she took on that role.

The choice to sacrifice the few for the many, even if it meant being condemned.

Wasn’t that what she had always done?

That day, when she decided to shoulder the burden of the Celestial God Order as its saintess.

Hadn’t she willingly immersed herself in ugliness?

“…”

But Eirene could only stare blankly at the fallen Lacrima without doing anything.

She needed to make a practical judgment.

Moreover, it was a demon who had thrown Lacrima at her, telling her to save her.

She was someone who despised demons more than anyone else.

Yes, that should certainly be the case, but…

“Wake up… please wake up! Even for just a moment, wake up! If you stay like this, you could die!”

She suddenly found herself desperately trying to stop Lacrima’s wounds.

Why? Why was she doing this?

Why had she made such a foolish decision instead of a rational one?

Eirene’s red clothes had long been stained red with Lacrima’s blood.

Despite facing the absurd monster called First, she didn’t even glance in that direction.

And realizing this belatedly, Eirene became aware:

‘Something… has changed in me.’

When? At what point? For what reason?

She didn’t know. There was no time to think.

Eirene began doing her best with what she could.

Even if she couldn’t use holy power, she could still wrap bandages, pour potions, or press acupressure points.

Yes, that was all she could do.

“…”

This wasn’t enough.

She shouldn’t be swept away by impulse. If she was going to do it, she needed to do it properly.

The best she could do.

An effort to save a life.

“Ms. Lacrima.”

Eirene’s frantic movements stopped. In that brief moment, she could recall.

The reason she had changed.

-Faith and love are different.

That day.

The day she had reversed the hasty steps she had been taking.

-Your heart is in the right place, but let’s not rush and move forward slowly.

She had been forgiven.

She who thought she would never be forgiven and had sworn not to lose faith even if she couldn’t be.

-Your heart alone is enough to comfort me.

She had been forgiven by the god she served.

Yes, she no longer denied herself. She no longer believed that she, a sinner, couldn’t be loved.

She knew now that besides blind devotional faith, there was also love that could be given and received.

-Will you match your pace to mine?

That day. The day they confirmed each other’s feelings.

-Of course, my saintess.

She had been acknowledged and could be forgiven.

Therefore, what she had done and what she had strived for were not denied.

“There’s exactly one way to save you. It’s something I don’t want to reveal to others and never want to do again.”

“What… is it…?”

Lacrima responded to Eirene’s desperate voice as she gently caressed her cheek.

She who had been dying without uttering a word suddenly opened her mouth and answered.

She didn’t want to die either. Of course not.

But at the same time, she knew there was no hope for her survival.

That’s why she had been quietly dying in pain.

But this time was different.

“Can you… save me…?”

“Yes, but I need your ability for that.”

There was certainty in Eirene’s voice, and emotion that she would definitely save her.

Just moments ago, she had been frantically trying to stop the bleeding, but now she seemed calm as if she had found an answer.

Lacrima had no choice but to believe. Even in pain, she had to speak.

She wanted to live. She wanted to be with Robeno.

“Right now…”

Eirene spoke to Lacrima with a determined face.

“Create your missing heart with illusion magic.”

“What…?”

Lacrima tilted her head.

She seemed to understand what Eirene was trying to do. Her ability. The power to turn imagination into reality.

Using that, she could create a new heart instead of regenerating one, and survive.

But it was impossible.

“Look at my condition… Who would believe that…?”

No, even if someone believed it, there was a problem.

It was her heart. A part of the body located in an invisible place.

If it were created by someone else’s imagination, it could cause bodily abnormalities.

In other words, to create her own heart, she needed to believe in the illusion she created herself.

It was absurd.

“No, I’ll make you believe it. I can make it happen, so stop arguing and use your illusion magic now!”

But there was someone who could make it possible.

Someone who had lived more than half her life wearing a mask in front of people.

Someone who appeared to be a flawless saintess in others’ eyes, but in reality was an utterly ugly being.

She even hated herself and was on the verge of collapse because of it.

Someone who deceived others and induced the flow of consciousness to make them hallucinate.

“Manipulating people’s minds is actually my specialty.”

Eirene smiled self-deprecatingly.

She loathed herself for having such a specialty, but that ability was exactly what was needed now.

Brainwashing Lv. 32

Incitement Lv. 31

Torture Lv. 40

Intimidation Lv. 47

Evidence that she had played with people’s hearts. But now, that ability was most suitable for saving someone.

“I’ll brainwash you if necessary to make you believe in that illusion.”

Saintess Eirene decided to listen again to her own ugliness that had once driven even herself to ruin.

There was no need to hesitate.

She wasn’t afraid of being caught and condemned by others.

She had already been forgiven.

She had been forgiven by the person from whom she most wanted forgiveness.

So she didn’t deny it.

Her own ugliness.

“Trust me.”