An Unexpected Situation(2)

Morgan’s body, which had been holding out stubbornly, collapses.

Thud──

I supported Morgan’s collapsing body, which was crumbling like jelly, then pulled out the two demon swords I had stabbed into her abdomen and shook off the purple blood staining them.

“Indeed, games and reality are quite different. To think I could do this much.”

In fact, snatching the demon swords Morgan was holding as she charged at me and stabbing them back into her was a gamble even for me.

I just tried it because Aria’s body said it could be done.

If I had failed, I would have been the one stabbed by the demon swords and would have taken considerable damage.

Well, after that, I would have pulled out the demon swords stuck in my body, taken them, and used them to defeat her anyway.

In other words, the result would have been the same whether I succeeded or failed, but anyway, it was an experience that allowed me to learn quite a few new things.

“I should take these first.”

Clank──

I was roughly bandaging Morgan’s wound area after she collapsed when I suddenly noticed the demon swords hanging at her waist and unfastened them to hang them on my own waist.

Just in case she wakes up and starts acting up. If I take all the demon swords away, she won’t be able to cause trouble until we return to the temple and restrain her.

Woong──!

As soon as they were hung on my waist, the demon swords rebelled, spewing demonic energy as if telling me to return them to their owner, but I pacified them by slapping them and then hoisted Morgan onto my shoulder.

By now, Mu’s side should have concluded as well. According to the original plan, both Mu and I should have rushed to subdue the remaining executives as soon as we took down our opponents, but it seems we have too much time left.

“I didn’t expect it would take less than 3 minutes to subdue one of them.”

I had planned for at least 5 minutes, but it took less than 3 minutes per person, so if possible, it seemed better to send the two we subdued to the temple in advance.

Once we send them to the temple, the people there will take care of the rest.

And as soon as I made a new plan, I quickly ran and leaped into the open west gate of the central tower.

The east gate where Mu is is on the opposite side, so it would be faster to cross through the central tower.

In one step to the interior of the central tower, and in another step to the exit of the east gate. With just two strides, I arrived at the east gate and came out to the sunlight shining outside the east gate.

The scenery at the east gate wasn’t much different from the west gate. As I came out to the east gate, I was greeted by Mu, who was subduing Isolde in Meiyel’s form.

“Ah, Mother!”

“Well done, Mu. You handled it quickly.”

What was lying under Mu was Isolde, unconscious with a frustrated expression.

From the looks of it, she seemed to have been properly overwhelmed by magic from Mu in Meiyel’s state and subdued in an instant.

The surroundings were slightly destroyed, but she had certainly subdued Isolde in a short time.

So I honestly praised Mu for that, and at my praise, Mu was delighted, not knowing what to do with herself.

However, Mu had now learned to prioritize work over praise, so after giggling for a bit, she looked at Morgan slung over my shoulder and asked.

“That must be Morgan. As expected of Mother, to subdue her even faster than me! But weren’t you supposed to go subdue the others?”

“That was the original plan, but we finished too quickly and had time left. Mu, are the clones still remaining?”

“Yes, both are still responding by holding out as much as possible and haven’t taken much damage yet.”

Both clones are fine. Hearing this, I nodded greatly and put Morgan, who had been slung over my shoulder, down next to Isolde who was collapsed under Mu.

“First, we’ll transfer these two to the temple, then deal with the remaining two. Having them with us now would only create unfavorable possibilities.”

“Certainly…”

Mu murmured in agreement with my words.

Unlike blindly agreeing with my words before, it seemed that Mu also felt this way upon thinking about it.

There’s nothing beneficial to us in keeping these two.

Hostages? To begin with, there was no meaning in hostages among demon executives who didn’t care much for each other.

Moreover, if these guys woke up, it would be troublesome when subduing the others or after subduing them.

Mu seemed to have thought about this roughly as well, as she soon swung her staff and drew a magic circle under Isolde and Morgan, who were collapsed on the ground.

“Then, as you said, Mother, I’ll move these two to the temple.”

Mu instantly calculated the coordinates to the temple and engraved the transfer technique.

Thinking that it was indeed Meiyel’s body, I moved my hand to my sword.

…Why to my sword?

A chilling sensation brushing past my skin.

“Mu, get back!!!”

“…Understood!”

My body moved before I could even recognize it, and I immediately shouted at Mu, who promptly leaped far back while maintaining the magic circle, following my words.

And as soon as Mu pulled back, a large shadow began to spread on the ground.

I turned my gaze to the sky to look at the owner of the shadow, and.

The next moment, a huge dragon landed on top of the central tower.

“Kyaooooooooo─────!!!!!”

Boom, boom, boom, the central tower, unable to withstand the dragon’s weight, begins to collapse one floor at a time.

Although the central tower had been built firmly, it crumbled in an instant under the dragon that was twice its size.

“Kuh…!”

As the central tower crumbles, debris explodes like a volcano, covering the area in sandy dust.

I groaned and covered my eyes from the stinging sandy dust, but the next moment, a strong wind blowing from the dragon blew away the sandy dust.

No, more precisely, a strong wind blowing from the woman riding on the dragon’s back blew away the dust.

And as the dust flew away, revealing the silhouette, all my nerves focused on her.

My gaze was fixed solely on her, to the extent that I didn’t even glance at anything else.

As I tried to move my body, which had stiffened at the woman exuding such a strong presence, Mu approached my side.

“Mother, I’ve transferred the two to the temple. But who is that…?”

Mu, who had maintained the magic circle even while pulling back, had somehow sent the two to the temple and approached my side, asking.

To Mu’s question of who she was, I could answer with absolute certainty.

The woman with long gray hair, crimson horns growing on both sides of her head, looking down at us with detached golden eyes as if observing everything.

She was a woman that no user who had played through the game could not recognize.

“…The Demon King.”

The Demon King.

The King of Demons. The supreme ruler who commands all demons and the actual head of the demon race.

In the game, she was a boss that took a full 10 minutes even for endgame characters like me in a 10-person raid, and there wasn’t even a single solo clear record.

Of course, as seen with Morgan, games and reality are different, but even I couldn’t guarantee victory in a one-on-one fight.

“The, the Demon King, you say?! Why is the Demon King here…!”

And Mu asks back in confusion at my words. But honestly, I couldn’t understand why the Demon King was here either.

However, one thing was certain: this situation was extremely, billions of light-years away from what I had anticipated.

In fact, I was prepared for the story I knew to be twisted because of my existence. That’s why I tried to kidnap the executives so that even if it twisted, I could easily prepare and proceed.

And since I was preparing for the kidnapping, I was also prepared for the original Sky Island quest to be somewhat twisted because of this.

In the worst case, I was even prepared for all the executives to focus their full power on targeting just me.

However, I never anticipated the Demon King’s appearance. It wasn’t even at the level of what could be called the worst case.

No, to begin with, the Demon King hardly even appears in the main story and is only mentioned in tales.

The Demon King only appears once. Only during the Human-Demon War quest, which is the finish line of this path I’m running.

Until then, her appearance and story are only shown through NPC dialogues and illustrated notes in books.

In other words, there’s no way she should appear in such an early quest story.

So why on earth does the Demon King pop up in this extremely early quest story of the Sky Island?

I pulled down my nails that were about to dig into my skin and racked my brain.

But it seems she wouldn’t even let me think comfortably, as the Demon King slowly parted her lips and raised her voice.

“…I see. So you’re that one.”

Words I couldn’t understand. But the Demon King continued speaking as if it didn’t matter whether I understood or not.

“I came personally to see your face, but there shouldn’t be any problem. By the way, have Isolde and Morgan already been taken care of?”

“…We took down both of them, but did you come for revenge?”

“…?”

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Oh crap, I’ve really lost it. Why am I suddenly talking back provocatively?

I shut my mouth tightly at the sight of the Demon King tilting her head at my words, which I had spoken without realizing.

They say the mouth is the root of all evil, and it seems to be true indeed.

How could I ask so recklessly here, no matter what? Moreover, true to Aria’s filtering, it was completely provocative speech.

However, fortunately, the Demon King snorted and laughed at my provocative words before answering.

“How could that be? I only came to confirm you. I don’t care what happens to the executives who have already been taken care of.”

I was just beginning to inwardly sigh in relief at her words of not caring, when I voiced a question at the strangeness I noticed upon revisiting her words just now.

To confirm me? Could it be that the Demon King knows everything about me?

It was an ambiguous statement that aroused great curiosity, as the Demon King was shrouded in mystery even within the game, but it didn’t seem like she would answer if I asked.

Still, considering the possibility, I seriously considered throwing out a question just in case, but before my deliberation could end, the Demon King turned to look behind her and shouted.

“Idea! Pensia! Come here at once!”

A shout filled with demonic energy. It was a force that made my body tremble even though I was on the opposite side of where she shouted.

To think it would make me tremble to this extent even with Aria’s body, is this indeed the Demon King?

While I was inwardly admiring this, albeit slightly, Mu suddenly pulled my hand and whispered to me.

“Mother, the clones have been destroyed. It seems they were destroyed by the Demon King’s shout just now.”

To think the clones were destroyed by just that one shout. I feel like my already low odds of winning are being crushed miserably to the ground.

I bit my lip slightly and looked at the Demon King’s back, and soon after, seeing Idea and Pensia flying in from afar, I drew the sword I had only been holding up until now.

A precaution against the possibility of those two rushing in. However, it seemed they had no intention of moving arbitrarily now that the Demon King’s order had been given, as they climbed onto the dragon the Demon King was riding and looked down at us.

“Wow~ I didn’t expect those to be clones! We were completely fooled, weren’t we? To think only you two actually came here, how disappointing!”

“As a fellow fist-user, I had hoped to exchange blows, but it’s truly regrettable that it was a clone.”

It seems both of them felt considerable disappointment at learning that what they had been facing were clones.

To use an analogy, they had faces like children who had their toys taken away.

Well, it wasn’t particularly my concern, so I answered with a snort.

At that, Idea burst out in anger, speaking so fast I couldn’t understand what she was saying, while Pensia furrowed her brow.

And the Demon King, who stepped forward to calm the two down, patted the head of the dragon she was riding on and said to me.

“I don’t know how you intend to use the children you’ve subdued, but I hope you’ll entertain me. I intend to meticulously drive the human race to extinction. Dipailance, let’s return to the Demon King’s castle.”

“Kuooooo───!!!”

“Farewell then~! Let’s play again next time! That time, I’ll kill you for real!”

“Until we meet again.”

The Demon King bids farewell, foretelling the extinction of the human race.

At her command, her dragon called Dipailance flapped its huge wings and soared into the sky, and from atop the dragon that had begun to fly, Idea fidgeted while Pensia silently bid farewell along with the Demon King.

“…They’re leaving like this.”

Dipailance rising high into the sky in an instant. Seeing this, I unconsciously let out a sigh of relief and started to put my sword back in its scabbard.

No, I was about to put it back.

“Mu.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“How long would it take to construct a transfer magic to move all academy members on the Sky Island, including you and me, to the ground?”

“Huh? Ah, that… It’s not exact, but with Meiyel mother’s body, it should be possible in about 2 to 3 minutes.”

“Start right now.”

Mu seemed a bit perplexed at my words but immediately began composing the magic circle.

And with Mu behind me, I continued to hold my sword, thinking about something.

‘The odds of winning are not zero.’

Even though the Demon King is the enemy, the odds of winning are not zero.

Dealing with Idea and Pensia beside the Demon King would be problematic, but with Aria’s body so enhanced like this, it felt like I could sufficiently handle them.

At first, I thought it was for the best that the Demon King was leaving, but what about in reality?

If I were to compromise, it would be retreating cautiously, but situationally, it’s throwing away the best opportunity.

The Demon King coming here was certainly an unexpected situation, but in a way, it was the best opportunity.

How many more times will the Demon King, who hardly ever appears, show up like this? Thinking about it, this might be an opportunity to kill the Demon King and prevent the Human-Demon War 5 years in advance.

But of course, considering the worst-case scenario where I might die, I entrust Mu with constructing the transfer magic.

With this, the preparation of a spare life is complete.

The result is unknown. Neither I, nor the Demon King, nor Mu, nor anyone here knows the result of my actions.

But that’s why.

“Swift Step.”

That’s why I kicked off the ground and leaped up.

It’s only fools who just watch when an enemy retreats without pursuing.

At the very least, if the enemy is fleeing, shouldn’t one close the distance with the fleeing enemy and plunge a sword into their chest to feel satisfied?

Whoosh───

An intense wind brushes past my ears. At the same time, with each passing of that sound that seemed like it would tear my ears, the distance to the dragon, which had looked like a dot, closed instantly.

The dragon’s tail passed under me as I leaped up. The distance to the three riding on the dragon’s head is now just 3 meters.

Only then did Idea and Pensia notice the presence and turn around to discover me, but it was already too late.

“‘Full Moon’.”

“Kyaaah?!!”

“Ugh?!”

My sword, swung in a rotating circle, inflicts deep wounds on Idea and Pensia, causing them to fall from the dragon’s head.

The two were knocked down instantly, unable to even resist the surprise attack.

Although the Demon King was left alone with the executives guarding her sides gone, she turned to look at me leisurely, spreading her arms as if she had known from the beginning.

“Why do you try to jump into the fire pit yourself? I simply cannot understand…”

“Demon King.”

And I interrupted the Demon King, who was speaking with such a leisurely behavior and tone, and rushed at her.

Bam───!!!

“Don’t carelessly show composure in front of me.”

“Gahk?!”

In an instant, I reached the Demon King’s front, grabbed her horns, and slammed her face into the dragon’s head. She screamed and grabbed her nose, having hit face-first.

I knew from the beginning. That the Demon King deliberately didn’t stop me from attacking the executives.

She must have shown such composure because she’s that strong. I also acknowledge the Demon King’s strength.

But you know what.

You shouldn’t show composure even in front of someone trying to kill you right before your eyes.

I’m still quite enhanced, you know?