The Sea… Was Split(2)

Isolde. My lovely little sister.

This was what Isolde meant to Idea.

The only blood relative left after her parents died during the war with humans.

In the impoverished household after her parents’ death, Isolde was the precious little sister who became something of a support.

No matter how hungry she was, looking at Isolde made her feel full. Even when her demonic energy ran out during training, looking at Isolde seemed to refill it. And even when suicidal thoughts, which were like a chronic disease, arose, she barely managed to live on just by looking at Isolde.

Isolde, who did cute things with a face exactly like hers at a young age, was such an existence to Idea.

An existence that gave her strength just by being beside her, that illuminated her path forward to live.

Of course, perhaps due to poor education when she was immature, at some point Isolde started not treating her like an older sister and ignoring or being indifferent to her, but even such unpleasant feelings were completely swallowed up by the beautiful feelings from childhood, making her a precious existence.

To the extent that Idea thought that if Isolde hadn’t existed, she herself might have long ago ended her life and rotted away in the ground due to the suicidal thoughts she had constantly lived with.

So, because of that.

“Come to think of it, I know another funny thing. Your little sister, she’s being tortured every day for being a demon, but her cries are quite pleasant to listen to. It sounds like a fairy’s neck being twisted, so I use it well as an alarm clock every day. As expected, you demons are quite useful in this way.”

Idea could never forgive Aria, who kidnapped her sister and was spouting such nonsense right in front of her.s who wouldn’t be satisfied even if she chewed them to death. Come to think of it, wasn’t it humans who killed her mother and father too?

She will definitely kill her here.

She will kill her without leaving even a bone fragment, not letting even a drop of blood fall to the ground.

Thinking this, Idea roughly swung the staff she had been gripping as if it might break, and following Idea’s emotions, disasters began to form in the barrier in the sky, incomparable to before.

Each one was an attack aimed at killing Aria standing before her.

She shapes the demonic energy and magical power coming through the channel connected to the Demon God into spells without wasting even a bit, and hangs them on the barrier.

Spells forming beautifully even to her own eyes. Idea looked up at that sight, then lowered her head again to fix Aria in her pupils.

And in a bizarre voice that seemed to scratch her throat, coming out without her realizing, Idea muttered.

“Definitely, I’ll definitely kill… y-?”

Before finishing one word, Idea realized what her voice sounded like and involuntarily stopped speaking.

Then, after touching her face with the hand not holding her staff, Idea drew in air from deep in her lungs and let out a deep sigh.

“No, this won’t do. I’m the older sister after all.”

She is Isolde’s older sister. She shouldn’t make such an expression.

If she’s the older sister, she should always look happy, smiling cheerfully and playfully so as not to worry her little sister.

So Idea slowly fixed her expression, and after fixing it, she removed the hand covering her face and shouted.

“Well then, are you ready to die now~? Come on, show me that method you said would kill me!”

Idea’s face with a bright smile drawn on it.

And at Idea’s following shout, the disasters that had been forming in the sky began to fall towards the ground.

Aiming at only one person Idea desired.

---

Hundreds of disasters begin to form in the sky.

Spells each containing enough power to threaten me. However, rather than being impressed by that, I couldn’t help but get goosebumps at the sight of Idea whose face had changed in an instant.

“Well then, are you ready to die now~? Come on, show me that method you said would kill me!”

Idea with a completely changed face, to the point where I couldn’t think she was the same person who had been muttering expressionlessly about killing me just moments ago.

That cheerful smiling appearance as if she had never been angry made me feel disgusted rather than uncomfortable.

‘Was Idea someone with multiple personalities?’

Idea’s appearance had changed 180 degrees to the point where such a thought naturally arose, but unfortunately, it seemed I didn’t have the luxury of leisurely having such thoughts.

Kugugugu─────!!!

“Kuk……”

The spells in the barrier begin to fall, aiming solely at me.

Seeing those spells approaching at a terrifying speed, I put aside the thoughts I had been having until now and pushed off the ground with strength in my legs.

“Flash Step”

The technique that allowed me to cut down Idea who was on top of the dragon even on Sky Island.

In an instant, before the falling spells could strike me, my form disappeared from its spot and the distance of over 100m with Idea was reduced to zero in a moment.

It was so fast that only after I had arrived right in front of Idea’s nose did the roar caused by the spells resound in my ears.

However, perhaps because she had experienced it once before, this time Idea noticed me reaching her faster than I thought.

Idea’s eyeballs that rolled over precisely reflected my face.

“It’s the second time but still so fast~! I couldn’t even see you properly!”

“Hmph, for a sorcerer to boast about reacting this much.”

In the brief moment of not even a few seconds, hundreds of spells that had been falling aimed at me collided with empty space and exploded, and in that interval I exchanged a few words with Idea while looking around.

‘The barrier is intact.’

The barrier Idea had laid was still intact and didn’t show even a small gap. At this rate, what was needed to break the barrier was time.

If Mu had been in a normal state, I would have asked Mu, but now Mu’s stability was the top priority above all else, so breaking the barrier was something I had to do from start to finish.

To succeed in the plan to kill Idea, I first had to drag Idea outside the barrier, so the thought continued.

And the answer derived at the end of these thoughts was only one.

“I’ll drag you to the barrier and break it.”

“Kyahat! Try if you can! But it’d be better not to think I can’t use spells just because you’re close~?”

Pushing Idea right up to the barrier and then breaking it with force.

If I were far away, I’d have to cut it with my sword so it would take a few seconds, but if I could just touch the barrier, it was possible to break it by pressing with force. After all, Aria’s strength was beyond my imagination.

However, at these words of mine, Idea burst into laughter and began to drop the newly created spells in the barrier towards herself.

More precisely, towards me who was attached to her.

A mad act possible because she had the power of immortality. And perhaps to protect herself, something transparent wrapped around Idea’s body.

‘A protective barrier?’

Something transparent where demonic energy could be felt thickly. I frowned at it which couldn’t even be seen properly unless I concentrated, but soon I reached out my hesitating hand and grabbed Idea’s face.

“Kakhuk?!”

“I’ll bury you like this.”

Idea let out a short scream and firmly grasped my hand that had grabbed her face. But there was no way Idea, who was just a sorcerer, could free my hand with her strength.

I applied even more strength to my hand and ran with strength in my legs, avoiding the falling spells, and the spells fell on the spot I had run from a step late.

Even if I couldn’t use Flash Step without a target, it was easy to avoid the spells with just Aria’s basic speed.

Kwang───!!!

As Idea’s body that had been caught in my hand collided with the barrier, Idea let out a groan mixed with pain at the impact but still gave a sardonic laugh.

“Kuhehe…… As expected, it doesn’t work on someone with divine power~ It worked well on that homunculus though.”

“You’re annoyingly chatty. Stay quiet until I break the barrier.”

“Kuuuk……!”

Judging from Idea’s words, it seems the reason Mu’s arms and legs were blown off was probably because of this transparent protective barrier.

I don’t know why it doesn’t work on me, but if it doesn’t work, that wasn’t what I needed to pay attention to right now.

I narrowed my brows and pressed Idea against the barrier while pressuring her, and snatched away Idea’s staff from her as she exhaled empty breaths, then shattered it right away.

Idea’s staff breaks pathetically with a crack as I apply force between my fingers.

At the same time, feeling the barrier’s strength weaken, I put more strength into the arm pushing Idea.

“Break like this…!”

Kwajijik───

As I push with more force, a huge crack is engraved on the barrier behind Idea’s back.

Like a huge box being split, the cracks gradually start to swell in size.

As cracks begin to spread throughout the barrier covering the surrounding area, I set Idea whom I had been holding down beside me for a moment, and swung the sword I was holding along the direction of the engraved crack.

Kwachachachang────!!!

As the blade precisely enters the engraved crack, the barrier shatters. The barrier collapses like delicate ice sculptures breaking.

And watching the barrier pieces falling in showers, I grabbed Idea by the collar and lifted her up again as she burst into a hollow laugh.

“Kuhuhuk! This barrier I had set up so carefully is all ruined~ And my head was pressed until just now so it’s throbbing terribly. I might not be able to fight anymore……”

“That’s fortunate. Then I’ll kill you now so stay still.”

“But how exactly are you going to kill me~? Sorry, but even if the barrier is broken, my immortality hasn’t disappeared yet.”

“…You’re right, I probably can’t kill you who has the power of immortality.”

“Hm~? Didn’t you just say you would kill me?”

Idea’s body shakes as she drawls out the end of her words at my statement.

Instead of answering, I turned Idea’s body that I had grabbed by the collar towards outside the barrier covering the underwater kingdom.

How should one kill an enemy who doesn’t die due to the power of immortality?

After fighting the Demon King, the simple answer I came up with to this seemingly unsolvable problem was:

Why not throw them into a place where they would face death again even if they revived?

For example, inside lava, or at the bottom of a highly acidic swamp, or in outer space.

And a place matching such locations was conveniently prepared in this underwater kingdom.

“If I throw you into this deep sea without your staff, even you would keep dying over and over.”

If you keep drowning to death even after reviving, wouldn’t you rather crave death?

If death doesn’t end even if you die and die and die over and over, wouldn’t it be no different from being dead even if you’re immortal?

At these words of mine, Idea started laughing again like a madwoman.

“Kyahahahahahat!!! Ahat, ahahahahahat───!!! Hu, huhu…… Huhahahahahak!!”

Idea laughs so much like a truly insane person that I wonder if she might die from laughing too much. And only after about 10 seconds of that did Idea finally stop laughing and look back at me with teary eyes.

“Yeah, that’s right~ Even I would die like that. It’s scary just imagining it.”

“But you look quite relaxed.”

Idea’s words sound too relaxed for a voice that seems sincere.

When I asked about that, Idea glanced up at the sky. As if there was something there.

At Idea’s action, I looked up at the sky warily following her, and then Idea muttered in a small voice close to talking to herself.

“That’s because……”

With a crack. The sky above the underwater kingdom splits like a watermelon being cut.

As the space forcibly splits open, demonic beasts pour out in swarms like ants falling, centered around one man.

An army of demonic beasts that looks to be in the thousands just from what can be seen.

And at the appearance of the demonic beast army, Idea who had stopped speaking continued her remaining words.

“That’s because there’s no way I wouldn’t have prepared for unexpected situations?”

Saying that, Idea raised the corners of her mouth as if they would tear, and hearing Idea’s words, I voiced the name of the man standing at the vanguard of the demonic beast army.

“Ar…… is it.”

Ar of Calamity, evaluated as the strongest among the demon executives.

Morgan said she was stronger than Ar, but it was hard to imagine that, and he was quite a powerful figure. Moreover, the army of thousands of demonic beasts visible behind him each looked so strong that it would take about twenty students rushing in to barely catch one.

In short, this situation was completely outside of my assumptions.

“But looking at it from another angle.”

However, looking at it from another angle, it was just that a situation outside of my assumptions had occurred.

-……, ……..!

The figure of Ar seemingly shouting something as if giving orders to the demonic beast army.

At that sight, I threw Idea, whose collar I had been gripping, to the ground once more and drew up the magical power in my body.

“Ugh, what~? Are you trying to do something? Even if you can kill them all, you won’t be able to prevent the people around from dying~? And in the meantime, I’ll run away?”

Idea, who had been thrown to the ground, sneered at the sight of me drawing up magical power and spoke mocking words, but ignoring that, I overlaid the drawn magical power onto words and spoke.

“‘Rise up.'”

Woowoong────

Hundreds of swords begin to rise up from all over the underwater kingdom, resonating with my voice imbued with magical power.

They were all swords I had bought from the Kraken Weaponsmith earlier and scattered throughout the underwater kingdom in advance.

-……? …! ……!!

Perhaps surprised by the sudden rising of swords, Ar raises his hand and gives the order to stand by.

Thanks to that, the demonic beasts became stationary, making them easy to cut. Grateful to Ar for this, I turned to Idea who had spoken mocking words to me before jumping up and said:

“Watch. This was originally meant to be used on you.”

Originally, this was prepared to cut through the solid barrier of the underwater kingdom before throwing Idea into the sea, but now that more suitable targets have appeared, I have no choice but to use it now.

I jumped up from my spot and flew towards the sky, taking in the targets with both eyes.

I’ll cut the sea along with those things.

In the game it was vertical, but this time.

Horizontally.