Ch.170Answer (1)

Lug’s first impression upon seeing Belphegor approach him with her short legs was how incredibly small she seemed.

It wasn’t just about her physical size. Well, of course she was small—looking at her frame, even smaller than Tina’s, one could easily mistake her for a child.

But what struck him more was the burden she carried.

Compared to the enormous weight she shouldered, she appeared far too small.

She looked so precarious, as if she might collapse at any moment.

“Haha.”

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, just thinking how all my followers tend to be extremists.”

Eirene Saintess was like that, so was the Pope, and now Belphegor too.

Every single one of them trying to gather more than their hands could possibly hold, making themselves dangerously unstable.

Aren’t they far more ambitious and grand than the celestial gods who only take responsibility for what’s within their reach?

“Followers… Isn’t it a bit arrogant to consider me your follower?”

“Is it?”

Lug smiled gently. Belphegor found that expression unsettling.

Even now, standing just a step apart, Lug showed no hostility.

Was it because he was a god? Did his thought process fundamentally differ from theirs?

“Hmm, thinking about it now, that might have been offensive.”

“No, you…”

Belphegor, who had been tense in the face of Lug’s calm demeanor, let out a deep sigh.

She had delivered her speech with such gravity, yet her opponent seemed completely unbothered.

At this point, she couldn’t help but question Lug’s true intentions.

In this situation, Lug maintained his smile as he spoke.

“Since the Demon Lord began with an apology, I’ll start with gratitude.”

“Gratitude…?”

“Yes, I wanted to talk with you. And you took the initiative to start the conversation.”

Belphegor furrowed her brow, thinking that gods must truly be insane creatures.

However, since he had expressed gratitude, it was difficult for her to respond with hostility.

So, uncharacteristically, she decided to approach this logically.

“I don’t understand… why are you speaking to me with honorifics?”

A reasonable question.

“Ah, it’s a habit. I’ve been with the Demon Lord’s army for the past few years.”

A shocking answer.

“????”

Unprecedented information.

Belphegor froze momentarily at Lug’s chilling statement.

The very being she had feared and guarded against had been right behind her all along.

How should she process this? An ordinary person would feel hostility, thinking Lug had gone to such lengths to kill her.

Of course, a clever person would consider other possibilities.

“Haha! That’s more like it!”

“…?”

And Belphegor was somewhat distant from cleverness.

“Shall we end the small talk and begin?”

“Begin what?”

Whoosh!

Belphegor ignited her fighting spirit.

And so the battle between the two beings closest to godhood on earth began in the most absurd manner.

***

Esmeralda had honestly tended to underestimate Lacrima.

After all, she had easily overwhelmed her in their first encounter.

But she didn’t realize how significant relative power could be in determining outcomes.

How absurdly powerful Lacrima’s abilities were, and how ridiculously powerful Esmeralda’s ability to nullify them was.

Now she was experiencing this indirectly.

“Oh! That was close! This time it was really just by a hair’s breadth!”

Lacrima’s deceptions were more meticulous than expected.

She walked a tightrope to the most precarious position, deceiving First.

Even First, who maintained an expressionless response throughout, couldn’t completely see through Lacrima’s lies.

“Wow! Here comes a really big one this time!”

Already the seventh bombardment.

An attack that would require Millia to pour out all her mana had already been repeated seven times.

Needless to say, they were all illusions. At this point, one might blame the person being fooled…

But Lacrima was skilled at creating situations where one had no choice but to fall for her tricks.

However…

“I see. It seems the first thing I should have done was deal with that one.”

If you’re deceived repeatedly, you eventually understand the cause.

The reason First was being fooled was because of Millia’s ritual magic.

Millia could unleash abilities that Lacrima alone could never produce. Thus, even the possibility made First recognize these absurdly large ritual spells as real.

With all her sweet talk, gestures, expressions—she seemed born to deceive others.

“If I remove the cause, there’s no need for further doubt.”

First, who had been flying arrogantly overhead, suddenly began diving toward where Millia was positioned.

Eliminate the source of the perception.

“Tch! This is why she was just providing support!”

The moment Esmeralda realized First was targeting Millia, she immediately followed.

Of course, she couldn’t catch up. But what about Robeno, who surpassed even First in speed?

“Since when did you become such a coward, First?”

“…”

Robeno blocked First’s path with an arrogant smile, as if completely forgetting they had ganged up on him.

And behind him, Esmeralda targeting First’s back.

He had been hasty.

He had taken a risk trying to eliminate the greatest threat preemptively.

“This is certainly a disadvantage.”

But First remained composed. He advanced without even bothering to defend against Robeno’s claws or Esmeralda’s holy sword.

Mist transformation.

A vampire ability that turns the body into mist at the cost of blood.

Considering the power contained in Robeno’s claws and Esmeralda’s holy sword, it would consume a considerable amount of blood, but the blood of the Blood Sky was nearly infinite.

Yes, because of that…

“But it was worth the cost.”

“Millia!!”

First could have severed Millia’s neck with a swing of his hand.

In the long run, allowing Robeno and Esmeralda’s attacks would consume less blood than blocking Millia’s magic.

He made a rational choice.

However…

“Wow! The hero is a good actor too!”

“Right? I have quite a bit of acting experience, so I’m pretty good.”

That would only be true if he had actually killed Millia, the genius mage.

First realized it when he saw Lacrima’s grinning face.

The sensation had been real. He definitely felt the texture of cutting through flesh.

He had been so “certain.”

“…I was completely fooled. You had a fake out there from the beginning?”

First sighed in frustration. Just looking at the two, it was clear. What he had just struck down was an illusion created by Lacrima.

And as if confirming this, a massive beam of light poured down from the sky toward First.

Millia’s ritual magic.

“One-on-one fights are certainly less tiresome than these third-party battles.”

What he had just killed was an illusion.

And there was no guarantee that the girl casting magic from the sky was real either.

He had to continue this unreasonable fight without being able to discern what was real.

Facing enemies firing ultimate weapons, not even knowing if the firing platforms themselves were real.

Forced into an unreasonable battle.

He had tried to resolve it but failed. So he had no choice but to embrace the unreasonable. And First was capable of doing so.

“I see. Trying to conserve my strength was a mistake.”

The fight with Shiva had already dragged on quite a bit. It was a mistake to fight minimally to preserve strength for the future invasion of the human realm.

He needed to decisively eliminate them here, even if it meant pushing himself a little.

With that determination, First looked up at the red-stained sky.

A sky stained with blood. That eerie vision depicting First’s life.

Blood began to fall.

Compared to the drizzle-like shower until now, the blood falling this time had a clear form.

The thick, congealed blood flowed down like paint on a canvas.

As it did, the blue sky hidden behind the blood began to show through, but…

The color of the blood flowing to the ground was too deep to glimpse any hope from that blue.

It was easy to imagine what would happen next.

Easy, and therefore terrifying.

“Blood…”

Esmeralda, watching the world of flowing blood, started to mutter “run” but then closed her mouth.

Run?

To where exactly?

Could anyone escape this?

In a scene where the world itself seemed to be melting away, where could one flee?

Where in this narrow canvas could one escape the red paint flowing down from above?

“Everyone…”

Witnessing what looked like the world melting into apocalypse, Esmeralda murmured.

“…just try to survive.”

Eventually, the flowing red blood swallowed everything in its path.

***

The sky regained its original color. But the price was steep.

In exchange for the sky’s return, everything on the ground was devoured.

The blood-stained world contrasted eerily with the clear sky above.

The battlefield, where dragon and demon races had been fighting moments ago, was now unnervingly clean.

Most living beings there had sunk into the sea of blood.

“Hmm.”

First descended to the ground and picked up one of the corpses submerged in the blood sea, sinking his teeth into its neck.

He had pushed himself quite hard, so some recovery was necessary.

Of course, for him, it was merely enough to fill his stomach.

“I’m surprised you’d bother to spare your own kind.”

After continuing to feed for a while, First slowly raised his head at the voice from behind him.

He could see the hero Esmeralda standing, using her holy sword as support.

Since his attack had wiped out a wide area at once, it seemed she had managed to survive.

First didn’t particularly care. He had thought she might survive anyway. His target had been the fragile Lacrima, so it wasn’t strange that the hero had survived.

What puzzled him was what Esmeralda had said.

“My own kind…”

First belatedly realized who he had been feeding on. The corpse was too damaged to recognize.

Only after hearing Esmeralda’s words did he understand who it was.

“I see. Ten, was it?”

Legion Commander Ten.

A vampire who had admired him.

After confirming this fact, First continued feeding.

Who it was didn’t matter. Yes, whether it was his own kind or someone who admired him.

“But does that have any meaning? In the end, all are just creatures that bleed.”

As long as blood flows, it’s just a meal.

From that response, Esmeralda understood why First was considered a monster even among his own kind.