Ch.203Descent (2)

The Demon King stretched out his hand. The Ancient Elder closest to him disintegrated into letters, then transformed into white bone powder in the next moment, clinging to the Demon King’s flesh.

Slowly, texture overlaid upon the framework of typography.

The Ancient Elders made their judgment quickly. They knew they couldn’t oppose the Demon King with their compromised integrity.

Just as each prepared to abandon their physical forms and retreat—

The Demon King’s branded footsteps. Something rose from an extradimensional crack. With a tearing sound, the earth split open and spewed forth a massive form.

“Good heavens…”

Ortes, who first recognized what it was, sighed.

It was the dimensional exploration vessel of the Extradimensional Expedition Force. Had it become a second Arguirion after being abandoned in the extradimensional space during the accelerated three years? Would it become the commander of the army the Demon King would raise again?

However, Ortes’s concerns proved unfounded. The Expedition Force was confused, discussing things like “We definitely followed the correct route, so why have we returned to the original world?”

It was a trap prepared by Arguirion. By altering the purpose of the dimensional gate originally built for the Demon King’s descent, they had constructed a repeating space-time that would make the expedition force approaching their base wander eternally.

Normally, Eidolon would have detected that they were caught in a cyclic space and escaped promptly, but the entire Eidolon had joined the Demon King’s cause.

The expedition force had been repeating their endless voyage until they escaped through the rift created by the Demon King and returned to the original world.

Ortes could express the scene with a single word.

Lunchbox.

A lunchbox Arguirion had packed for the Demon King.

“Wait, what is—”

Since dimensional exploration vessels had been prepared for each Tower Master who had departed, there were seven vessels in total. Their appearance resembled submarines more than spaceships. An unnamed magician who had emerged from the vessel to survey the surroundings spotted the Demon King.

He was still approaching with unhurried steps.

“Humanoid extradimensional erosion entity observed! Atta—”

He disappeared before finishing his words. The white bone powder increased slightly over the skeletal framework made of letters.

Ortes never thought he would say such words to the magicians of the Ten Towers.

“Run away!”

The only ones who could exchange blows with the Demon King here were Ortes himself, Carisia, and the Pope.

If the Ancient Elders recovered their integrity, things would be different, but right now, even they couldn’t oppose the Demon King.

The departed Ten Tower Masters? Uncertain. If they were connected to the Ten Realms, they could certainly participate in the battle, but in the current situation…

Was there anyone who could match the Demon King in pure skill without the correction of the Ten Realms?

The answer was “yes.”

Seven Tower Masters stepped forward. They seemed to have intuited the Demon King’s identity. Perhaps the Ancient Elders had transmitted information through communications restored as they returned from the extradimensional space to the original world.

The Tower Masters positioned themselves at different points, constructing a magic formation. They formed a surrounding formation with the Demon King at the center.

Surprisingly, the Green Wood Tower Master was among them. He had managed to survive amidst the chaos of the Commander, the Pope, and the Demon King’s descent.

Strangely, he emerged from thin air. A seed germinated, a sprout grew, flowered, and then the Green Wood Tower Master descended, breaking through the fruit’s skin.

And so there were eight.

The magic formation was modified. Two overlapping squares with the Tower Masters at the vertices. At the outermost edge, a circle placing all eight on a single line. Countless geometric patterns were drawn within.

The Demon King’s footsteps halted abruptly. The magical power simultaneously emitted by the eight Tower Masters projected toward the Demon King, binding him.

Then reinforcements from House Hydra arrived as well. They had received urgent news that the final battle determining the direction of the Ten Realms Revolution would be fought on the Green Wood front.

Among them, Hector arrived particularly early. Ortes could guess the reason for his early arrival.

‘Did Master Hector also escape the Pope’s time suppression? Was he steadily heading toward Green Wood even while time was stopped?’

***

Hector, who had climbed the outer wall of the Green Wood Magic Tower and reached the summit, detected an unprecedentedly dense concentration of magical power at the top. He had anticipated that something unusual had occurred since then.

But even for Hector, an old veteran who had lived for many years, the scene before him was astonishing. Eight Tower Masters were facing a single entity.

And yet they couldn’t overwhelm their opponent, barely managing to maintain an even match.

The problem was that it was questionable whether the enemy was even using their full power. The mysterious being, composed of letters with only subtle white wisps around its feet, stood leisurely as if merely feeling a gentle breeze.

Hector approached Ortes, who was at the periphery of the tower’s summit.

Ortes was with Carisia and a man dressed in archaic attire that seemed to belong to the mythical era.

“What is happening here?”

He asked like a prisoner who knew today was his execution day. As far as he knew, there was only one enemy that the Tower Masters of the Ten Towers couldn’t defeat even with their utmost effort.

Ortes glanced at the Pope. The crack that had spread from his neck was slowly but surely spreading throughout the Pope’s entire body. But he should still be able to fight.

Though he wanted to denounce the Pope’s actions right there, he didn’t want to waste time assigning blame unnecessarily.

“…It’s the Demon King. He has descended due to overlapping unexpected situations on the Green Wood front.”

Hector let out a single “Ah.” It sounded like both a lament for the calamity that had arrived and an exclamation at finally facing the Knights’ destined enemy.

The Pope tried to say something. Ortes could see that he was about to pour out stories about how his mistakes had led to this situation and criticisms about the ugly structure of the world.

He snapped at the Pope before he could open his mouth.

“Pope. I’m telling you this kindly because it seems you don’t have many days left, but please shut up and cooperate.”

“…I understand, brother.”

Then Ortes turned to Carisia, who had been silently observing the situation since the arrival of the expedition force. She was focusing on the magic being deployed by the eight Tower Masters.

“What kind of magic is it?”

While it wouldn’t be impossible for Ortes to use his own eyes to determine the elements or properties constituting the magic, analyzing such a highly sophisticated spell would put too much strain on his eyes.

It was more rational to wait for an explanation from Carisia, who specialized in magic analysis, especially now when they needed to prepare for a confrontation with the Demon King.

“…The Ten Towers didn’t completely rule out the possibility of the Demon King’s return. That’s an anti-Demon King formula. Theoretically, it’s identical to Elysion. It neutralizes all attributes against each other, creating a non-attribute zone that can interfere with magic of any attribute.”

It was magic with a similar concept to the anti-magic field¹ that Carisia had conceived. The difference was that while Carisia aimed to reject magical power entirely, they were erasing the attributes they could handle. The non-attribute magical power gathered by erasing attributes became chains binding the Demon King.

“But the problem is ultimately the lack of magical power and personnel. If the Demon King has appeared, it’s already a crisis situation for the Ten Towers, so it wasn’t designed as magic that requires all ten Tower Masters to use. But it’s clear that the more Ten Realms attribute specialists gather, the more the burden is reduced.”

“Boss. Are you going to help the Tower Masters now…?”

“Because the Demon King is at his weakest right now.”

Carisia asserted. The Demon King’s mere existence destroys the structure of the world and devours its components. In other words, he grows stronger with each passing moment.

This very moment was when the Demon King was at his weakest.

“Hmph, so that’s how it is.”

Carisia, who had agreed to retreat to retrieve the Ten Realms bomb, suddenly stopped moving. Ortes had thought she was trying to grasp the rapidly changing situation, but she had been calculating risks and returns. Ortes clicked his tongue.

“The boss and I. Master Hector. The Pope plus eight Tower Masters… Indeed, we couldn’t gather more forces than this.”

The Tower Masters’ magic was binding the Demon King but couldn’t deliver any fatal blow beyond that. Ortes inferred the reason from Carisia’s explanation that the magic was “exclusively for the Demon King.”

From the beginning, it wasn’t a formula designed to fight and win against the Demon King. The dimensional wall and world order reject extradimensional beings.

The Ten Tower Masters were convinced that if the Demon King descended again, his essence would originate from the extradimensional realm, or in other words, from the realm of ascension.

That magic was meant to buy time until the Demon King naturally faded away due to conflict with the world’s providence.

‘As Carisia pointed out, the problem ultimately comes down to the amount of magical power.’

If even one of the Tower Masters were connected to the Ten Realms, it might be different, but right now, no one here was connected to the Ten Realms.

“I’ll contact Lampades. We should have them reactivate the Eleusis construction device in Blasphemia to move Etna City’s location to Green Wood.”

“That would also be good for detonating it if necessary.”

“What?” “Excuse me?”

Hector and the Pope simultaneously questioned Carisia’s response. Ortes hastily stepped in to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Ah. It’s not that Etna City is a bomb, but that a bomb capable of destroying the Ten Realms is stored in Etna City. If all other means fail, we’ll have to use it on the Demon King.”