The Sea… Was Split(3)

The strongest demon, Ar of Calamity, the man loved by the Demon King.

All of these were titles referring to Ar, the demon executive.

Ar, who always walked around with his long white hair fluttering and a huge greatsword on his back, was satisfied with these titles of his and at the same time always did his best to repay the Demon King, the only person he respected.

It was the best Ar could do, as he had stronger loyalty to the Demon King than anyone else, to the extent that if the Demon King said fly, he would fly, if he said roll, he would roll, and if he said bark, he would bark.

He reduced his sleep and prioritized work, and devoted himself to training during meal times. Even after that, in his spare time he went around personally gathering materials to forge weapons, and on days when orders came from the Demon King, he would throw everything aside and rush straight to the castle.

And Ar, who had lived faithfully to the Demon King every day like this, was now preparing to lead a demonic beast army to the underwater kingdom according to the Demon King’s orders, which had called for him after a long time.

“So the problem this time is Idea. I knew it from when she was going wild saying her sister was taken by humans, but she’s troubling the Demon King.”

The order Ar had received from the Demon King this time was none other than to go rescue Idea, who had gone to the underwater kingdom with a small number of people.

He didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed Idea had been cornered by a professor from the academy who came to the underwater kingdom and had requested help.

When he saw Idea returning to the Demon King’s castle with Pensia from Sky Island before and going wild, he thought she would cause some trouble, but he didn’t know she would cause such an annoying incident.

So Ar gritted his teeth once again as he mulled over the contents of the order he had received from the Demon King.

Of course, it’s not that it was annoying for Ar himself, but that it was annoying for the Demon King who was busy with work every day.

“Even though the Demon King is so tired that he needs to rest more even if I take on half the work, for such a thing…”

If he brings Idea back this time, he will have the great generals imprison her for a while, even if temporarily.

With such thoughts, Ar barely calmed his excited feelings and let out a deep sigh. Now it’s Isolde who was kidnapped too, but they are truly troublesome sisters who need a lot of handling.

“Come to think of it…”

And as he was calming his boiling feelings like that and waiting for the large-scale transfer gate being opened by the demon soldiers, Ar suddenly remembered what Pensia had said in the past and narrowed his eyes slightly.

“She said to be careful of someone called Aria, didn’t she.”

After returning from the incident on Sky Island before, when Idea was going wild in a corner of the Demon King’s castle, Pensia had approached Ar and said that.

To be careful of the red-haired swordswoman called Aria.

Pensia’s face as she warned him, adding that she had jumped up to their side on top of the dragon in an instant and launched an attack, was still vivid in Ar’s mind.

“It had been a while since I’d seen such a serious face from her.”

Pensia was someone who didn’t lie even usually.

Moreover, for Pensia, who had recently fallen into boredom from not meeting any strong opponents, to speak with such a serious face, he should at least think of her as having power equal to their executives.

So Ar pondered how he should act if he met her, or if, just in case, he found himself in a crisis, but soon shook his head and shook off the worries.

“There is no ‘just in case’.”

He was the strongest executive and at the same time the man loved by the Demon King. There was no such thing as ‘just in case’.

And because Ar had confidence in his own abilities, he could not imagine a situation where he himself would be in crisis.

No matter how strong this Aria person was, how strong could she be? Seeing that the Demon King didn’t say anything and let her go in, at best she would be only a little stronger than Idea.

“Besides, Idea is manageable if not inside a barrier, so she must have been subdued before she could set up a barrier.”

Idea is a sorcerer. She’s a sorcerer who demonstrates her true abilities inside a barrier.

Of course, this Aria swordswoman would know that too, so she must have fought Idea and subdued her before she could lay a barrier.

“And with this scale of demonic beast army. There’s no way she can handle it.”

Finally, Ar turned to look at the demonic beasts spread out behind him.

Thousands of demonic beasts, each with power comparable to ordinary demon soldiers, swarmed in a group.

No matter how strong one is, it’s too much to handle alone. No one could handle such a large army alone.

Even if it were possible to handle them, since she’s an academy professor, the safety of her own people, the humans, would be the priority, so in that gap, Ar himself would just need to bring back Idea as ordered by the Demon King.

“Yes, that’s how it will be.”

It’s nothing special.

This mission too was just another extremely simple task like always. With this much military force provided for such a task, how could he fail even if he wanted to?

Ar was confident of this, and he entrusted his body to fall into the space of the large-scale transfer gate that was beginning to open.

And this was Ar’s thoughts just 5 minutes before arriving at the underwater kingdom.

---

300 swords floating in the air.

The swords that rose up in a circle above the entire underwater kingdom, surrounding Ar and the demonic beast army who had come down tearing through space, were enough to make them wary just by floating there.

It’s even more effective as they’re vibrating, humming in resonance with my magical power.

And I, standing at the center of it, settled on top of one of the floating swords and faced Ar who was leading the demonic beast army.

“Are you Aria that Pensia spoke of? I can tell from the state of Idea down there.”

“Yes, that’s right. Then you must be Ar, correct?”

“I affirm.”

I nodded to Ar who asked about my identity, and Ar also nodded to my question that naturally followed.

Seeing that he mentioned Pensia, it seems he heard information about me from Pensia who had safely escaped with Idea from Sky Island.

Since it was information about me that had been known from before, I didn’t feel much excitement even if Ar knew about me.

Moreover, no matter how strong Ar was said to be, he was just a demon executive at best. Though I hadn’t fought him, I instinctively felt I could win, so I maintained an attitude of showing carelessness.

“Before the slaughter begins, I want to ask you……”

“Wait. Stop there.”

However, I cut off Ar’s words as he was about to open his mouth next by raising one hand.

Judging from that smile on his lips, he seems quite full of himself. Also, with Idea neutralized on the ground and not wanting to continue this annoying conversation any further, I cut off Ar’s words and waved the swords I held in both hands.

“I’m sorry, but the academy’s field trip has already been completely ruined. Now I want to go back soon, so let’s end this quickly.”

As I said, the field trip had long since been half ruined due to Idea’s terrorism, and it was a situation where it wouldn’t be strange to return to the academy.

The people of the underwater kingdom were also anxious about this situation, and if we dragged it out any longer, there was a possibility we wouldn’t even be able to open the large gate to return to the academy.

To make matters worse, Mu’s condition was even worse in this situation, so my mind had long since become as urgent as it could be.

So when I declared that I would quickly resolve the situation, Ar, who heard my words, hit his forehead and burst into laughter.

“Kuhahahahat!!! You say let’s end this quickly. That’s fine with me. But no matter how I look at it, isn’t it your side that’s going to end? What are you going to do with those swords? Even if you kill 300 with those 300 swords that seem to be there at best, there are over 4,000 demonic beasts here. No matter how strong you are, can you stop 4,000 from rampaging in the underwater kingdom?”

Certainly, it wasn’t wrong.

If over 4,000 such demonic beasts were to rampage in the underwater kingdom, even I wouldn’t be able to stop them.

It’s easy to cut them down one by one, but Aria’s body is only one after all, so it was obvious.

If they start rampaging throughout the entire underwater kingdom, it would be difficult to stop even with Meiyel’s body that can use large-scale magic.

“It seems you’re mistaken about one thing.”

But that only applied if the purpose of these swords was to cut down one beast each as Ar said.

When I said this while resting one sword on my shoulder, Ar tilted his head.

I tapped the sword resting on my shoulder and spoke to correct Ar’s misunderstanding.

“These aren’t just here to fly and kill your demonic beasts. These are here to maximize my attack.”

“Maximize, you say?”

“Yes, one sword per beast would be inefficient, wouldn’t it?”

These 300 swords floating in the air are here to raise my single strike beyond its limit to the highest degree.

That’s why the swords were vibrating in resonance with me.

And at these words of mine, Ar’s head tilted even more.

Seeing that action that seemed to completely not understand my words, I lightly charged towards Ar while crossing my arms on the sword I was riding, to show the answer directly.

Including the feeling of wanting to end this situation as quickly as possible, as it was also annoying to keep explaining.

“Flash Step”

The technique that had moved me swiftly to enemies many times before once again moved my body right in front of Ar’s nose.

“Hm……?!”

However, perhaps as expected of a warrior-type demon, Ar’s vision found my location at a speed incomparable to Idea’s.

Seeing me who had reached right in front of his nose, Ar immediately raised his hand to draw his greatsword.

But it was an incomparably slower speed than me swinging my sword, having already finished preparing in a drawing stance when I arrived.

“These swords are here to cut all of you along with the sea. You fool.”

“Slash”

A large-area technique following ‘Flipping the Earth’ of the dual-sword swordsman job class.

A visualized slash swung with just the single-minded intent of cutting the opponent burst forth from the two swords I held without the slightest deviation.

A slash bursting out in a circle centered on me, as if drawing a full moon.

And as it shattered the swords floating in the air resonating, it grew even larger and more massive, swelling its size and destructive power.

Kiiiiiiiiing─────────

The slash that cut through everything floating in the air too fast to catch with the eye disappears like melting snow.

“Kruru…?”

“Kararara……”

“Kishiii……?”

The demonic beasts let out cries questioning their bodies that showed no abnormalities.

But that was only for a moment. Slowly, on the bodies of the demonic beasts, in all the places the slash had passed, fine lines were drawn.

It didn’t take long for those subtly split lines to cause cracks.

Jjeojuk───

“””……?”””

The fine lines drawn on the demonic beasts’ bodies are colored red as if watermelon juice bursting out.

At the same time, on the underwater kingdom’s barrier covering the sky, lines drawn with an ominous sound were colored blue like the sea outside.

When the demonic beasts and all the people on the ground were questioning the colored lines, finally.

“Wow……”

Someone on the ground let out an exclamation first.

And when I turned to look at the one who exclaimed, what they were looking up at was the sea outside the barrier.

This is the underwater kingdom, where no sky exists.

For the underwater kingdom, the sky was the sea, and it was always just the deep sea where fish swam.

However.

For just this moment, it was different.

“Woooow……”

“The, sea……”

“Is that the sky……?”

Everyone who looked up at the sky exclaimed like the man who had exclaimed first.

What they were seeing was none other than the sky.

No, to be more precise, the sea split flat, revealing a pure white bottom like the Milky Way.

And seeing that, everyone could not help but mutter the same words in unison.

The sea was split.