Ch.185The Demon King (1)

The sky darkened with Olivia’s magic. Beyond it, Aria’s artificial sun cracked open, revealing its core.

With the slowly crumbling sun behind her, Olivia moved gradually toward Aria.

*Creak, creak…*

In a world where the concept of time had frozen, she alone could move.

Everyone else had turned gray and become rigid.

In this halted world, maintaining one’s consciousness consumed enormous magical power.

Even great mages couldn’t withstand this temporal horizon for more than a moment.

The burden was too heavy even for someone like her who had awakened to truth.

She moved slowly to minimize that burden as much as possible.

*Tss, tss, tss…*

As Olivia approached Aria, who had been silent like a frozen person, Aria slowly lifted her eyelids.

“…Impressive.”

Surprisingly, Aria hadn’t lost consciousness.

She had awakened to two truths: flame and time.

She must have used time-based magic.

“To freeze… not just time… but all concepts… humans can perceive.”

“…”

But that didn’t mean she was completely unaffected.

Aria’s speech was slower than usual, and her movements were even slower—almost at a standstill.

“How are you… completely… fine?”

“Because it’s my magic.”

Aria shook her head very slowly, as if that explanation wasn’t sufficient.

“Even if you’re the caster… when the world is your target… you can’t be free. That’s… the most basic principle.”

*Tick, tock.*

The sound of a second hand ticking came from somewhere.

Olivia noticed where the sound was coming from and smirked.

“Trying to buy time?”

“That’s not… wrong.”

The ticking sound emanated from behind Aria. Its pace had become much faster than before.

“But I’m genuinely curious. Even a transcendent being who has touched truth… cannot completely… ignore the laws of the world.”

As the intervals between ticks shortened, Aria’s voice gradually returned to its normal speed.

Aria’s gaze, which had only been following Olivia’s back until now, accurately measured Olivia’s position for the first time.

Like someone whose time had finally synchronized.

She hadn’t restored the world’s time axis to its original state. She had merely adjusted to match Olivia’s unfrozen time axis.

She regained her senses so quickly because she chose a relatively simple method.

Aria glared at Olivia with a piercing gaze.

“This is impossible without half-shedding the shackles of mortality. What exactly… did you do?”

“Well…”

Olivia looked around and let her words trail off.

Even at this moment, she was pouring out endless magical power, but perhaps because Aria had broken free from control, parts of the world were rapidly regenerating.

*…There’s no point in maintaining this any longer.*

After all, she had used this magic to eliminate Aria’s artificial sun, not to attack Aria herself.

In a world where everything was frozen, even the concept of “attack” couldn’t be applied.

“If you’re curious, ask the Emperor inside you.”

“…What?”

“He should know.”

Further conversation was meaningless.

Olivia decided to quickly release the magic and obtain Aria’s clue first.

[Until the Demon Lord’s arrival…]

Time was running short.

*Crack, crack…*

The frozen space-time expanded, instantly returning to its original state.

The gray-tinted world regained its colors in an instant. The magical power and air that had been stagnant in one place returned to their proper positions.

“Huff…”

Olivia, who had endured pain like her entire body was boiling, reached for her staff floating in the air.

“Let’s finish this.”

*****

Livga closed her eyes and opened them again.

In that momentary instant, the world turned gray and then returned to normal.

“The, the sun is gone!”

“Don’t panic…! It was just an illusion!”

“We’re all going to die!”

Livga swallowed dryly and looked around. Did others not feel it? What happened in that brief moment?

“…”

The sun that had been emitting tremendous heat had vanished, and the sky was calm as if nothing had happened.

As the burning heat disappeared, a cold chill touched her skin.

The sky was filled with silence.

In that space where only the sound of Glacia’s wings could be heard, Livga bit her lip and looked around.

The air was cold.

It wasn’t just because she was riding on the White Dragon’s back. It was more refreshing and a familiar coldness.

“…Lady Glacia.”

[I felt it too.]

At those words, something seemed about to surge up from within her.

Was it because this was a completely unexpected kind of encounter?

“Please.”

*Whoosh!* As Glacia flapped her wings widely, the air completely flipped, and a strong wind engulfed Livga. Livga firmly secured herself by gripping tightly with both hands.

In Livga’s eyes, as she soared above the clouds in an instant, she saw a woman.

The destructively cold magical power that wrapped around her entire body with each step closer.

Not only its force but also the overwhelming conviction contained in the magic was enough to evoke nostalgia in Livga.

At that moment, a faint voice echoed from behind Livga.

“Get any closer and you’ll freeze to death.”

It was a voice she had never heard before. Livga turned around in surprise.

A tanned-skinned woman looking down at her, holding a long pipe in her hand.

The fact that she was floating effortlessly at such a high altitude proved her strength.

The Great Witch, Aurelia.

She had finally arrived on this battlefield.

Glacia stopped advancing and bared her teeth toward Aurelia.

She realized that the woman before her was no ordinary human.

But Aurelia calmly received the wary gazes of the Saintess and the dragon.

“Don’t look at me like that. Believe it or not, I’m here because Olivia asked me to come.”

“…”

“I know you’re happy to see Olivia after a long time, but you’ll only get in the way if you go there.”

Livga opened her mouth to say something to Aurelia, but Aurelia shook her head and said:

“Olivia asked me to stop anyone coming up, regardless of the reason.”

*Always making me do the hard work.*

Aurelia grumbled like that while forming a hand seal to draw out her power. Simultaneously, a massive summoning circle appeared in the air.

As the purple light flickered and faded from the summoning circle, a huge Red Dragon with its jaws wide open appeared beside Aurelia.

[…GRAAAAH!]

Every time the Red Dragon screamed, hot flames writhed inside its throat.

“…This guy is always so noisy.”

Aurelia clicked her tongue and casually threw a talisman. The talisman she threw circled around the dragon at regular intervals, creating a transparent barrier.

Glacia was shocked when she recognized the Red Dragon’s identity.

[H-how did you… Lord Eryas…?]

“It’s just a dragon, what’s the big deal?”

It was a monster that could destroy a kingdom with just a casual movement of its body, but to Aurelia, it wasn’t particularly impressive.

After all, it wasn’t like she had only fought Eryas once or twice.

[How dare you…!!]

Eryas’s eyes filled with anger as he looked at Aurelia.

It was a terrifying situation, directly receiving the killing intent of a Dragon Lord.

But Aurelia continued speaking as if nothing was wrong.

“He can’t control his power since he was sealed in there. It’ll be extremely painful, and I don’t want to see you guys getting crushed when I’m on Olivia’s side.”

*I should have put up a barrier earlier.*

She had arrived much later than she’d planned, causing this situation.

However, Aurelia had her reasons.

In Olivia’s last “no-kill” loop, she had belatedly remembered what had happened.

“So, if you understand, go back down to the ground.”

“But…!”

“Saintess. You have a different role.”

Aurelia could instinctively sense it. The ominous signs she had felt even before arriving at the battlefield.

“Soon, demons will…”

Before she could finish speaking, a thunderous sound erupted from the ground.

*CRASH!*

Vision blurred momentarily, and then the sky began to darken.

An eclipse occurred without any warning. At the same time, black scar-like marks appeared in the sky, pouring terribly contaminated dimensional debris onto the ground.

Everyone lowered their weapons and looked up at the sky at the sudden noise.

*Drip, drip, drip.*

Something kept falling. At some point, it piled higher than mountains and undulated like a living creature.

The soldiers were terrified by the approaching demonic energy. They instinctively knew.

If touched by that, one would become something other than human.

“N-no!”

“AAAAARGH!”

“M-my body…!”

The sound of flesh melting could be heard.

The sound of teeth chattering. The sound of bones being crushed.

“…Ha.”

Aurelia twisted her lips.

Ominous, terrible, disgusting, and monstrous creatures from the demon realm.

And.

“Ahhh…”

The Demon Lord.

“Greetings, mortals.”

Asmodeus.

He had finally appeared.