I stood on the red roof with my arms crossed, thinking. Even if I wanted to pursue Diasnexus immediately, there was one problem: my MP was depleted. If I were to confront the Ghost King again in my current state, he would make quick work of me.
“What are you pondering?”
I turned to see Coeurl standing beside me. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been there.
“The city is in chaos,” he went on. “Without your instructions, everyone will be immobilized.”
“I was thinking about what Diasnexus wants. Coeurl, what do you think?”
The black panther raised his head and looked at me. “Is that my name?”
“Uh, yeah… Wait, I heard Yuuki-senpai named you that; was I mistaken? Or, did you not like it?”
“No, it’s fine… So, Coeurl, huh?”
Though I couldn’t quite read his facial expression (was it a smile?), his tail was wagging excitedly.
Damn, that’s cute.
“Regarding Diasnexus’s objective… He was obsessed with the Demon King. That’s why Lord Algrafth decided to destroy him.”
“So, he really went to the Demon King. Was all this chaos just a way to buy time?”
“If that were the case, there would be no need to use an avatar.”
Wait, you just casually dropped something pretty significant.
“What do you mean, ‘avatar’? The thing we just defeated, was that a copy of Diasnexus?”
“Exactly. That was Diasnexus himself and yet also one of the entities that make up Diasnexus. He divided himself in two, attacking you with one half. Therefore, he now has only half of his power left.”
“You could have led with that super important information…”
I sighed with resignation. Looking down, I saw that the battle on the ground had ended. Ah, there’s Wan coming out of that collapsed school. Good to see that the Greater Ninja’s master survived…
Seeing the elderly man running toward us completely unharmed, with a smartphone in one hand, truly showed his vigor.
“Let’s regroup with everyone for now,” I decided. I waved to Kayla, and Coeurl and made our way down to street level to join the others. I shared what Coeurl had explained about Diasnexus’s avatar—that there was another Diasnexus still out there.
“He’s still alive!”
Arisu and everyone else widened their eyes in surprise, and Wan crossed his arms and hummed thoughtfully. I could completely understand their frustration.
“That’s right. But dealing with the Ghost King comes later. Kayla, take Arisu and go help Shiki-san. Arisu, can you support Kayla the best you can?”
“Yes! We’re off!”
“We’ll be back, Papa!”
Screams from citizens attacked by Shadows could be heard from various directions, but at this moment, helping Shiki was probably more critical than assisting random people.
Once Kayla and Arisu were gone, the rest of us turned our attention back to Coeurl.
“Coeurl, I want to hear your thoughts again. What do you think Diasnexus will do next?”
The black panther growled softly in his throat, clearly somewhat troubled.
“It’s okay if you’re not sure. But I want to hear any ideas you might have, anything at all. We know next to nothing about Diasnexus.”
“If he creates more undead, it consumes mana,” Coeurl finally responded. “Especially those entities you’ve named ‘Shadows,’ they are formed entirely of mana. Even for the Ghost King, producing so many Shadows is no trivial task.”
That’s exactly the kind of information I was looking for.
“So, we can assume he’s somewhat cornered?”
“I cannot be certain, but it’s highly probable. However, he is a strategist. He must have gained some benefit worth the damage he’s incurred.”
“The real question is what benefit he was after, even at the cost of half his being and a vast amount of mana.”
Rushia raised her hand. “Perhaps he wanted to secure mana.”
“Um, what do you mean, Rushia?”
“Didn’t Coeurl mention earlier? That mana is flowing into this world from the Sixth Wedge?”
Ah, right, I remember now. The story was that the Demon King was using that mana, which comes from the Wedge.
“Maybe the Ghost King is trying to go to the Demon King after all.”
“That might have been his initial plan. But if the Ghost King realized there was an attempt to sever the connection from the Demon King to the Wedge…”
Wait, hold on. Ah… Oh, oh.
“Mr. Wan, the barrier is almost ready to deploy, right? For Diasnexus, since he wants to protect the Demon King and also wants mana, that would be really problematic. If he knows what we’re trying to do…”
“We should get in touch now,” Mr. Wan agreed. But just as he reached for his phone, we found ourselves in the White Room.