“Huh? What are you laughing about?” asks Shiva.
…the Devil Lord is certain of her victory.
✦ ✦ ✦
The enormous bipedal beast had disappeared without a trace. A deep crevice is left in the ground, perhaps from the explosion that destroyed the creature.
The beast was merely a few yards from breaching the capital’s walls.
“That was close! But we managed somehow.”
Inside the cockpit, Char lets out a sigh of relief. Irisphilia and Marianne also look pleased.
Just then, they notice a figure standing along the gorged earth.
“Is that Mr. Alexei?”
A slim male student is waving his arms in the air.
Charlotte, realizing she hadn’t given him a communication magic device, decides to call out to him.
“Mr. Alexei, is something the matter?”
“Shiva entrusted me to deliver a message, as well as this.” He holds up a metallic card.
“Is that the Lucifer Card?!”
“Yes, I found it right here on the ground. Sorry I went ahead and collected it,” he says.
“No, not at all. Thank you so much. And what is the message?”
“His message is, ‘I discovered how to seal the cards. With this method, you can completely seal the Devil Lord Lucifyra’s powers.’ Do you mind coming down here to take the card? I’ll explain in detail when you’re down here,” he says as he waves the card around with a mischievous grin on his face.
Charlotte is surprised; she’d never seen him make that expression before. Brother Haruto must’ve left me with a final assignment, she figures, and doesn’t hesitate to answer.
“Okay. I will be right there.”
Once she decides on something, she doesn’t hesitate to act on it. That is one of Charlotte’s positive traits, and at the same time, a recipe for disaster.
The Devil Lord may as well be a sitting duck at this point. It’s only a matter of minutes before Gizelotte’s body completely collapses.
Yet Lucifyra is smirking as if she’s assured of victory.
In the distance, she can see a colossal humanoid object looming by the capital walls.
It must be some sort of highly efficient magical device Shiva conjured to protect his master and main entity, Charlotte.
With Charlotte taking shelter in its core, there’s nothing the Devil Lord could do.
It could probably be destroyed with the Divine Blade of Light, but that’d be difficult in her current position─standing face to face with the Black Knight.
But Lucifyra was prepared for such a situation; she had made a few modifications to Alexei Guberg.
Alexei’s soul had been completely seized, and his memory of his connection to Lucifyra was erased.
Right now, Alexei is simply acting on Lucifyra’s order to lure Charlotte into coming in contact with him, dangling Shiva as bait.
The Devil Lord had embedded a spell in Alexei’s body. When Charlotte touches him physically─even through a small object like a card─a huge explosion would occur.
Charlotte is guarded by a strong defensive barrier, and even has a spell that could relocate an attack to another location, which is likely a derivation of teleportation magic.
But that was just proven to be permeable.
Lucifyra had utilized one of the unique functions of the Divine Blade of Light─the holy sword that could cleave through any force of magic─by engraving a spell directly on Alexei’s body.
A spell that would cancel all defensive magic and cause an explosion.
Alexei has no malicious intent or rivalry toward Charlotte; she wouldn’t think twice about approaching him. When the spell activates once she’s within arm’s reach…
The plan is flawless, no doubt. Shiva is right here, preoccupied with me. He couldn’t possibly act to defend her.
Lucifyra keeps her gaze on Shiva while focusing on Charlotte and Alexei’s situation in her peripheral view.
Alexei extends his hand to pass the card to Charlotte.
She takes it carefully.
“Ah-hahahaha! Looks like I win, Shiva!”
Now! A massive explosion─a condensed version of all the attacks she had launched at Shiva earlier─is about to go off…
H-Huh?
The card is in Charlotte’s hand. The Devil Lord catches a glimpse of Alexei happily chatting with her.
“Wh-Why…?”
The preparation was perfect, yet nothing is happening. The Devil Lord attempts to manually activate the spell, but there’s no response.
Shiva speaks up. “What the hell are you─oh, are you wondering what’s going on over there?”
He turns around to look at where Charlotte and the others are and utters the unbelievable.
“Alexei-senpai is back to normal. Sucks for you.”
“What…?”
“I was gonna ask him for a favor after the first round ended, but he was acting weird, so I knocked him out, probed around, and found a dangerous explosion spell,” explains the Black Knight. “I found some other spells, too. Like the one you transferred from your sword. They all looked unsafe, so I removed them all.”
The spell engraved in his physical body isn’t something you could simply deactivate, let alone remove. Not even the caster could completely erase it.
“By the way, that little piece of yours, or residue or whatever that was infesting him─I peeled that off, too.”
Shiva keeps talking, but Lucifyra is no longer listening.
Why does every move I make get nipped in the bud? Every single one…
The man dressed in black says, “I’m sure you know by now that I’m aware of all of the tricks you set up. And I have an idea of the scope of your strength as well.”
He looks down on the Devil Lord─literally, although the metaphorical distance between them feels much greater.
“You’re like a book with a misleading cover─wait, that’s not quite what I’m trying to say. It’s more like you’re only pretending to give me your best shot. It’s all a bluff, right?”
“Wh-What…?”
What the hell is he saying?
“Let’s see… My best guess is… What you’ve shown me so far is only twenty percent of your full powers when you were in your prime. No, wait, you’re supposed to be a god-like being, so maybe not even ten percent…”
What Shiva is saying is definitely not the case. The current Devil Lord is able to wield almost eighty percent of her full potential. For just a few seconds when she bombarded Shiva earlier, that number was close to one hundred. The magic missile attack was so intense, it could’ve flattened not just the capital, but a whole mountain.
“Welp. I’d like to finish you off before you’re fully revived.”
Hypothetically speaking, had Lucifyra, in her fully revived form, accounted for every possibility and made every preparation to combat every scenario…
No… I couldn’t… Not even an army of us Mythical Rulers could…
It’d hardly be a fight.
I never should’ve gotten involved with him…
He’s beyond what anyone could ever imagine.
This man can’t possibly be defined as something so weak as a devil. That raises the question of what exactly his relation to Charlotte is, but she couldn’t care less about that anymore.
Right now, surviving is all that matters to Lucifyra.
“Shall we negotiate a deal?” the Devil Lord cries.
“The heck? Why the hell would I do that with you?”
That’s an expected reaction.
But it’s not like Lucifyra has no bargaining chips at all.
“I’ve embedded numerous magic circles that emit poison all across the capital.”
“…”
The Devil Lord can sense the overwhelming mana seeping from Shiva.
“The spells will be activated the moment I perish.”
It’s not a lie. Normally, the spell could be activated manually from afar, but in the worst-case scenario, the spellcaster’s death would be the trigger.
“I’m sure you’d be able to find each one if you take the time to look for them. Go on and do so. I will take my leave for now,” says Lucifyra. Pride and shame have gone out the window. At this moment, leaving Shiva’s field of view is all she can think about.
“Uh, no?”
Yet another expected reaction. However, there’s still a chip left.
“That little girl will be sad, no?”
“Well, yeah, if you scatter poison all over the capital, the citizens will be in pain. That’ll make Char sad,” answers Shiva.
That should buy me some time.
The man dressed in black would probably stalk Lucifyra relentlessly. However, if she’s able to escape this current vessel, and if Shiva doesn’t notice, perhaps she still has a chance of surviving.
It looks like my new vessel, Vari, is still alive. Good.
They hadn’t lost their connection. She appears to be knocked out, but her physical functions are still intact.
It seems I’ve gotten myself into the worst-case scenario after all. How could I, the Devil Lord…? Still, as long as I’m alive, there’s still hope for recovery…
“But that’s not an issue either,” says Shiva.
Vr-Vrrn.
Countless translucent screens appear before the Black Knight.
At this point, witnessing an outlandish form of communication magic that not only displays visuals but also plays sound is nothing for Lucifyra to be surprised by; the X marks on every single screen, however, leaves her at a total loss.
“You’re talking about these, right?” asks Shiva.
Her lifeless eyes are fixed on the screens, and she’s unable to even nod.
“I haven’t touched them because I didn’t know what you’d do if you discovered them broken, but…”
Kli-Kli-Kli-Kli-Kli-Kling!
Lucifyra gapes as each spell in the magic circles dissipates. She has no more chips left.
I… I must…escape…
She turns around, showing her back to her opponent. I’ll let Shiva have me and immediately take shelter in Vari’s body. Recovering my mana can wait.
For now, I must escape…and stay alive. I must survive─
“Ah…”
The scenery changes.
It’s the same blank white space as before. Such a large-scale barrier would’ve required some preparation to conjure.
“This one’s sturdier than the last one. I’m not letting you get away again,” warns Shiva.
He was able to conjure a completely closed off space in an instant. His powers exceed the realms of gods.
Before Lucifyra realizes, she’s lost all connection to Vari.