Demon Lord Nakshatra’s declaration to invade human territory was still fresh in Moolah’s mind. With the timing deemed appropriate, a date for the invasion had finally been set. That was when she’d gotten this summons from the most suspicious of men.
“Oh? I see you’ve arrived ahead of me.”
She heard a voice playing dumb from just outside the room. She directed her hostility through the door, but Lishbaum paid her anger at his late arrival no mind.
“Good day, Lady Moolah.”
“Hmph.”
“Oh my, it seems I’m rather hated.”
“Of course you are. My liege is the only one who favors your existence.”
“I can’t even imagine what makes you hate me so.”
“How shameless. Put a hand to your chest and give it some thought,” Moolah spat out in disgust before cutting to the chase. “So? Why have you called me here?”
“You’ll be commanding the upcoming battle, yes?”
“You know that. I hear you’re the one who proposed this damned plan to Nakshatra-sama to begin with.”
“I apologize if I’ve offended you. I was simply thinking of having you take the Evil God’s new children with you.”
“The ones you unveiled the other day?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have Nakshatra-sama’s approval?”
“I do.”
“Then I don’t mind... So? Where are these new children?”
“Right here.”
“What?”
A visible change occurred in the room. The veil of darkness in one of the corners was suddenly peeled back, as if a curtain had been there from the very beginning in order to put on this ostentatious display.
What was revealed was an utterly grotesque monster. Its figure was asymmetric and misshapen, possessing a ferocity and fiendishness entirely without intelligence. A human would certainly faint upon seeing such an ominous, repulsive figure.
Though it was the second time Moolah had seen one, she felt like she was never going to get used to it. Even a demon born of the Evil God found it so horribly disgusting. Within its hideous form lay an irrepressible potential for destruction; the demons she’d commanded before couldn’t possibly compare to its power—they were like babies to this thing. It was simply that powerful.
“Also, there are several changes regarding the upcoming battle,” Lishbaum said.
“What changes?”
“It wasn’t my personal decision, just so you know. All is by our liege’s will.”
With that, Moolah could no longer refuse.
“Our liege would like you to directly invade the human nation,” Lishbaum explained.
“Directly? What does that mean? It’ll take a month for a small army of winged—”
“No. By using my magicka to connect space, it’ll be possible to invade immediately. And directly to their capital at that.”
“Impossible. Such a thing can’t be done,” Moolah refuted. “Your bravado knows no bounds.”
“I’d rather you not make light of my power. But you’ll see it for yourself soon enough.”
“Truly...?”
Lishbaum nodded. Despite his confidence, she still had doubts. If such a thing was possible, why hadn’t he done so before this?
No, she didn’t need to ask. He’d made it easier to cull the unnecessary demons.
She understood, but there were still some aspects of this she found hard to swallow. Lishbaum’s approach was far too roundabout. If he possessed such power, he could’ve attacked the humans far earlier. If he chose not to, it was because he was scheming something.
“Lishbaum... What the hell is your objective?” Moolah asked.
“My objective? To attack and take down a human nation. That is Nakshatra-sama’s wish, is it not?”
“Not that.”
“You mean to say I have another goal?” Lishbaum inferred. “I do believe I’ve been working toward the destruction of the human race.”
Moolah fell silent. The demons’ greatest ambition was to eradicate every last human from the world so that the Evil God’s desire could be fulfilled. To that end, it was only natural to take down humanity, country by country. The approach wasn’t wrong, but she couldn’t help but think he had some other plans. She sensed it wasn’t anything that would put the demons at a disadvantage in their upcoming war, but something about this man’s thoughts seemed to hold an eerie fixation on total destruction—as in, he expected not only humanity but everything in existence to be destroyed.
“I’d rather you not look at me with such animosity,” Lishbaum said.
“Then stop being so shady. It’s repulsive.”
“Nothing can be done, then. I’ll have to put up with your enmity.”
Moolah’s glare intensified at his joking behavior. She was practically out for his blood, but Lishbaum paid it no mind. He even smiled gently, as if he found her hatred charming.
“I’m surprised you can maintain such composure,” Moolah said. “Do you think you can simply spur that demon into action?”
“Not at all. As you are now, you‘re not able to pose me any threat.”
“Are you saying I can’t kill you?”
“I am. After all, in my case, simply killing me isn’t enough. You need to kill me utterly and completely.”
Lishbaum stifled an ominous laugh at this.
“Utterly and completely?” Moolah repeated.
“Yes. Exactly.” Lishbaum paused, then added in a theatrical manner, “Magicians aren’t ones to die from being killed once or twice.”
Moolah didn’t understand what he was saying. He didn’t seem to mean his words figuratively.
“So, what? Are you saying you can’t die?” she asked.
“Not at all. I can definitely die. However, I’m simply hard to kill.”
Moolah fell silent again.
“If you detest me so much, keep that in mind.”
This was the reason this man was so eerie—his seeming omnipotence. He possessed seemingly common knowledge Moolah didn’t understand, and spoke words from languages she didn’t know.
He was far too mysterious. His depths were fathomless, like trying to understand an ocean simply by sticking a hand in and groping in its shallowest waters.
“Come,” Moolah said, shifting her gaze from Lishbaum to the demon.
With that one word, the demon Lishbaum had created obediently followed her. Seeing this, Lishbaum smiled in a way that was awfully arrogant and suspicious. That smile seemed to clearly suggest he was hiding something and enjoying her reaction.
“Have a safe trip,” he said. “I expect much from your victory.”
“Don’t waste your breath on unnecessary words.”
A while after Moolah left the room, Lishbaum muttered quietly to himself.
“To welcome the new, space still has to be made. Creation requires the old to be destroyed. Birth needs suffering. Even if that leads to the destruction of everything.”
Lishbaum stifled a laugh, enshrouding the room into even further darkness.
With the demons’ plan at the front of their minds, Reiji’s group made the journey from the Nelferian Empire to the Kingdom of Astel as quickly as possible, pushing their horses to the very limit.
Upon their first arriving in this world, such a forced march would’ve been impossible for them. Traveling by horse took an unexpected amount of stamina. Though much better than traveling by foot, riding still required the occasional break.
Back in those days, they’d made frequent stops and been troubled with all the aches and pains horseback riding entailed. However, Reiji’s physical abilities were now augmented by the Ishar Cluster, while Mizuki’s endurance had been improved by the journey itself. Thanks to that, they were able to endure a forced march and ride their horses without any issues. Getting Graziella into the country had taken a fair amount of time, but they’d still managed to get to Astel’s capital in half the time of their previous journey.