Chapter 45

Arian smiled at them as she walked slowly up to the Demon King. “We’re not allies. But right now, I think we have an even greater enemy facing us.” “I know.” With a nod, the Demon King and Arian looked up at the massive dragon towering over them. As the others witnessed the almighty Demon King stand side by side with a hero, they broke into a smile, faces beaming with optimism—the polar opposite of their shell-shocked expressions moments before. “We can win! We can defeat it!” the men started to chant. Inside the Black Boulder Dragon’s head, Shinichi was holding his breath and desperately trying not to laugh at the scene that was unfolding like some cheesy manga for young boys. “Heh-heh-heh. Oh wow, this is hilarious…!” He gasped between chuckles. “I can’t laugh at this. The heroes are too pitiful,” snapped Celes, questioning whether Shinichi actually was an unholy priest. Despite taking part in his underhanded schemes, she was starting to feel a bit afraid of him. This was all part of his plan: The Demon King stepping in to protect the heroes; Arian and Sanctina descending down on the scene. He knew that they couldn’t defeat an army of undying heroes. And if it wasn’t possible to make them all allies, he needed to dispel their hostile attitude for a moment. The only time two enemies came together was in the face of a common enemy. He called it, the “My Enemy’s Enemy is My Friend for the Day! A Third Party Makes a Violent Intrusion!” strategy. It was an ingenious plan, if he could say so himself. It used the appearance of an incredibly powerful enemy—the Evil God, in this case—to allow the humans and demons to work together because they’d have no other choice. Plus, if they could make some false accusations toward that annoying stalker of an ex-bishop, thereby destroying all trust in him—well, that’s killing two birds with one stone. “It’s all thanks to their discontent and distrust of Hube. Even if evil has taken root, justice will win in the end!” Shinichi cackled. “Exactly what part of you is just?” asked Celes. “Well, I might be evil, but Rino’s the total opposite, so we’re all good!” Under his mask, Shinichi’s smirk was so diabolical, he’d never let Rino, the Super Justice Lover, see it. As the director of this grand play, he added the finishing touches. “Mwa-ha-ha! You’re no match for Elazok’s power! The Demon King’s scarred with injuries, and you’ve added a measly two heroes! Hellsaur, finish them!” The hair-raising sound erupted for the third time, but the Demon King and Sanctina used Fortress to repel the rain of iron bullets. Arian drew her magic sword as she dashed toward the dragon. “Here I come, Shin—er, I mean, unholy priest True One!” Just like a scripted pro-wrestling match, the audience—the heroes, in this case—wouldn’t buy it if they didn’t fight with everything they had. She dashed across the ground faster than the wind, slashing at the dragon’s thick leg. “Hyah!” Backed by Arian’s half dragon strength, the razor-sharp magic sword made by the hands of the dvergrs could slice through diamonds with the ease of ripping through paper. It cut easily through the obsidian armor on the dragon, and clumps of dirt spilled from the wound. Even Shinichi’s smile widened at the marvelous attack. “Way to go, Arian. All right, time for our counterattack!” “Impossible,” Celes said. “…Excuse me?” “We have no way to attack the ground.” “Uh, we’re giant. Can’t we just stomp around or sweep our tail?” “We can’t move because this whole thing is too heavy. In fact, if we move too much, we’ll destroy it.” “Are you kidding me?!” screeched Shinichi in shock, but it should have been obvious from the get-go. The Black Boulder Dragon was just a golem, which have bodies made from dirt. Not even special dirt. Just your regular, old, run-of-the-mill dirt that you could find anywhere. The best ones ranged from doll-size—like the ones they used for Rino’s live performances—to twice the size of a human being, max. Any bigger than that, and they wouldn’t be as operable. Now this Black Boulder Dragon was over a hundred feet tall. It held together, strengthened with a Protection spell. Its outer shell was made of obsidian to support the inside, but that meant it couldn’t move much more than its cannons and head. “Gah! Okay then, you’ll have to use magic to—” started Shinichi. “That’s also impossible,” interrupted Celes. “…WHAT?” “I have almost no magic left.” She pointed to the Tears of Matteral behind them. That had been acting as her primary source of magic. Her face showed visible signs of fatigue. The massive magic conductor should have been sparkling, full of tens of thousands of people’s magic. By now, it’d turned dark and cloudy—a small shard of light flickering inside like a candle in the wind. “I expended more of my magic than I expected, holding the large body together and reducing recoil when we fired the cannons.” “I still feel like that was too fast…” “Oh, maybe it’s because I cast False Dragon Breath, which used 90 percent of my magic.” “That’s obviously the only friggin’ reason!” “I’ve never used so much magic at once. It was fun.” She flashed a grin. “So…cute… I mean, stop messing with me!” They continued to banter. Meanwhile, at their feet— “Urgh, I suddenly feel sick for some reason!” With her woman’s intuition alerting her that Shinichi was flirting with Celes, Arian let her anger out by hacking away at the feet of the Black Boulder Dragon. The sight suddenly brought back the heroes’ spirit. “Look! The dragon isn’t moving anymore!” “I don’t know why, but this is our chance! Let’s get in there, too!” “Yeah, let’s not forget that we’re also heroes!” Surrounding the Black Boulder Dragon, they put the last of their remaining strength into their swords and magic. Individually, they were weak, but collectively, they started to tear though its titanic body. “We won’t be able to last much longer,” Celes warned. “You bastards… Those bastards—!” shouted Shinichi, letting out the cry of a small animal backed into a corner. That was the signal to end the charade. “Heroes fall back!” boomed the Demon King, as waves of powerful magic swept from his body. “Everyone back off!” ordered Arian. “Uh, yeah!” They hurriedly clambered away from the half-destroyed beast. The corners of the Demon King’s mouth twitched upward as he faced off against the golem. “Dragon Breath, hmm? …Something I haven’t seen in a long time.” It was the same spell that’d been cast by his wife and greatest rival—the Blue Princess of War, Regina. That was why he needed to respond with an equally powerful spell. “Blue flames that shine below ground, savior light that created our demon world, show one moment of your destructive power, turn my enemies to ash—” He’d used this once before against Ruzal’s party, but unlike that time, he wasn’t shortening the incantation or holding back one bit. He poured all his remaining magic into the spell and created the sun of the demon world above the surface. “—Blue Raging Flare!” A brilliant orb of fire bathed the world in blue as it bolted toward the Black Boulder Dragon. “You trying to kill us?!” cried Shinichi. “Fly.” At the last second, Celes grabbed him and launched them out of the dragon. Shinichi looked down as it was swallowed up in the flaming tempest, leaving behind no trace of its existence. A violent gale of hot wind scraped the surface of the world. “Agh!” Arian, Sanctina, and the army of heroes dashed away from the flames, but they were knocked off their feet, tumbling across the dirt. The only one standing was the Demon King, stock-still and unfazed by the wind. He glanced up at the mushroom cloud blooming over the site as dissatisfaction crossed his face. “Even if I was slightly worn down by the heroes, I seem to be losing my edge.” He reflected that he needed to hunker down, get it together, and retrain if he ever wanted to show his face to his wife again. Covered in debris and grime, the group—including Arian—only had it in them to sigh. “He really is incredible…,” she mused. “There’s no way we could have ever have won against him…,” Sanctina commented. Behind them, the rest of the heroes still rolled around in the dirt as shock passed over their faces. But they were beyond fear. They couldn’t begin to understand just how powerful their enemy was. “Mwa-ha-ha. An impressive display of power. Hats off to the Blue Demon King for standing against Elazok. Out of respect for your good fight, I will let you be—for now.” “No matter how you look at it, we were utterly defeated,” murmured Celes, but Shinichi decided to ignore her matter-of-fact comment as he threw his last words down at the Demon King. “But don’t make the mistake of believing this is all there is to Elazok’s power. Prepare yourself! There will be a second or third assassin to take your life. I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you. Mwa-ha-ha!” “…I apologize for the inconvenience, but it’s getting difficult to hold us up with Fly.” “Just a bit longer, Celes!” he whispered as her control over magic started to waver. Shinichi, aka the unholy priest, the True One, disappeared into the sky. Arian watched them go before inching up slowly to the Demon King. “Now I don’t think we know each other enough to be on friendly terms. But a greater enemy has appeared. Don’t you think we should put a hold on our fighting for the time being?” She offered a small, pale hand, which the Demon King enveloped in his massive, blue one. “We have never desired war with the humans. All is good as long as I can feed my darling little daughter some delectable delights.” The two species gave each other a firm handshake. Following Sanctina’s lead, the other heroes started to clap their hands. The sounds of applause rained down on the two. Arian and the Demon King gave each other wry smiles as they continued their handshake. “I figured this would be embarrassing, but I’m starting to feel reeeeeeally guilty,” Arian admitted. “Heh, I suppose we’ve joined the ranks of the sick and twisted,” he replied. In the future, this moment would be remembered as the “Day of Friendship between Humans and Demons.” But the masterminds behind it knew it was nothing more than an uncomfortable charade. Regardless, that was how the pointless fight between the demons in Dog Valley and the undying heroes came to a temporary halt.