“Tch! Not a bad trick!” Suimei complained.
“I can say the same to you!”
Moolah slashed at Suimei as she turned around. He blocked the blow, and for a moment it seemed they were going to lock swords once more. But just then the demons’ source of power ran through her blade. Faced with Moolah’s daring smile, Suimei immediately tried to back away from the miasma. However, Moolah obstinately hounded him, refusing to allow him out of range.
She seemed capable of wielding significant power, evident in how the miasma encroaching upon Suimei was significantly more potent than usual. Because of that, he didn’t want to defend against it. A poor block would have her sword going right through his defenses, and that miasma would assault his body directly. Unlike other demons, her miasma coiled around her like worms. It was repulsive.
“Tch! Being so persistent with a man will make people hate you!” Suimei shouted.
“Is that so? You want to get away from me that badly? Then feel free.”
“Wha— Guh?!”
Suimei felt a tremendous impact against his mercury katana and was sent hurtling back like a cannonball, flying through the air for only a moment until colliding with the wall of the house behind him. He used magicka to soften the blow and remained unharmed. The house wasn’t so lucky and collapsed entirely, causing rubble to tumble down on top of his head. Suimei defended against this too and sank into thought. What was his opponent’s next move? Would she send miasma flying at him? Or was she going to lunge right at him?
He could see a swaying shadow through the cloud of rising dust. It had to be the latter.
“O flammae, legito. Pro venefici doloris clamoris. Parito colluctatione et aestuato. Deferto impedimentum fatum atrox.”
[Oh flames, assemble. Like the resentful cry of the magician. Give form to death’s agony and burst into flames. Bestow the one who obstructs me with a dreadful destiny.]
He chanted the spell to unleash Ashurbanipal’s flames. Magic circles took shape around him and a gem manifested in his right hand. The gradient glow of the gem from red to orange was like a miniature sun forming. Time slowed as the shadow gradually grew in size through the cloud of dust. Suimei patiently waited for it, and once it was in range, the shadow suddenly flew at him. With the gem clasped in his hand, he countered with a punch.
“Itaque conluceto. O Ashurbanipalis fulgidus lapillus.”
[So shine. Oh Ashurbanipal’s dazzling gem.]
He planted his fist into her chest and crushed the gem at the same time. Immediately following that, flames screamed and rushed toward the demon general. However...
Its power really is lacking...
It was drastically weaker than what he’d used in the modern world the other day. Precisely because he couldn’t manifest its original power, he’d omitted the contagion curse during the construction phase. Normally, that would make this spell capable of neutralizing his opponent, but now he couldn’t use that part of it at all.
The shadow moved within the flames. Had Moolah cut apart the fire with her sword? Or had she defended with miasma? The magician’s flames were quickly blown away. Either way, the magicka he’d used to test the waters and keep her at bay hadn’t left a single wound.
“You’re a fool if you think you can beat me with such lowly magic,” Moolah said.
“So you say, but you couldn’t even dodge it,” Suimei retorted.
“I simply had no need to.”
“Acting tough now?”
It seemed Suimei’s provocation had struck a nerve. A faint crack ran across Moolah’s composed expression. She immediately unleashed the Evil God’s power. It was several times stronger than what she’d been using through her sword.
She’s pretty out-there...
Despite her drawing out miasma so crudely, her power seemed fathomless. It appeared she possessed more strength than Suimei had anticipated. Watching her fight was like watching a battery hold out for far longer than it was supposed to. With slight misgivings about that inconsistency in mind, Suimei desperately wove his magicka. He couldn’t let her get close. He would lose in close quarters, so his only choice was to overwhelm her with magicka from afar.
“Light gathers at my fingertips. This murderous flash penetrates all. It is neither blade nor bullet. It is impossible to repel. Fly, pierce, destroy. Shoot down all who obstruct my path—Precision Beamlight.”
Suimei held out his right hand like a blade as light gathered at his fingertips. He immediately fired it like a laser at Moolah.
“Dissenters, hear me. You’ll do well to join hands and work together. A storm crashes to the earth, creating a wave of surging soil. Watch your footholds. Stare upon the heavens. Such is the delusion of the fools who defy God—Grantornado.”
The ground swelled up into a tornado of soil—a storm of genuine mass. It enveloped Moolah and blew up toward the heavens. Suimei then finished his sequence of attacks with a high-power explosive.
“Chain Explosion!”
Small magic circles formed a line and chased Moolah as she tried to escape the earth tornado. Immediately following that, they started exploding one after the other in a chain, each circle guiding the explosions toward their target. Continuous blasts resounded all over, and the last detonation enveloped Moolah entirely, sending her flying.
“Did that do it?!”
Had he gotten through? Or was she unharmed? Moolah fell to the ground. Miasma suddenly coiled around her, and she slowly swayed to her feet. Her expression was that of unfathomable rage.
“How dare you...”
The chain of attacks seemed to have struck a nerve. Moolah groaned in anger, then roared. Her power swelled exponentially. The earth shook with an explosive boom, and immediately following that, miasma radiated from Moolah like an expanding dome. Everything it touched was contaminated and rendered the same color as the miasma. Suimei was assaulted by nausea, which quickly turned to dread. But there was one apprehension that was far more important to him.
“Tch! Seriously?!”
“Suimei-kun! Be careful!”
“Suimei-dono!”
He deployed his mana to protect his surroundings, but he couldn’t stop the expanding miasma. It was spreading nonstop, as if the floodgates of an enormous dam had been thrown open. He couldn’t hold it back, but he also couldn’t build a barrier fast enough to defend against it.
“Oh come on! What’s going on?!” Suimei screamed in confusion. “Where the hell is this power coming from?!”
“You want to know?! My power here and now is inexhaustible!” Moolah shouted back at him. “Wretched humans! Know how weak you truly are!”
She manifested even more power. Suimei had no idea what was going on. She really did seem to have an infinite source of power. She had to be manifesting more of it than her vessel could hold, either through an influx of power straight from the Evil God or by directly supplementing mana from the ley lines. There were several other ways too, but she wasn’t doing any of them. It didn’t make sense to be able to do this without any preparations to begin with.
However, Suimei had no time to be worrying about any of that. The spreading miasma was like a tsunami.
“Lefi! Menia! Get away! Tch!”
Suimei forcefully pushed them out of range. But he wasn’t able to save himself. Why was she capable of manifesting such power? Why was it limitless? Even as the miasma engulfed Suimei’s head, those questions kept repeating in his mind.
Before long, Moolah’s miasma covered the entire area. Everything around her had been blown away by the pressure. All that was left was a vacant plot of land and a black miasma creeping across the soil. There was nothing there at all. There was nobody there at all.
“S-Suimei-dono...?”
“Suimei-kun!”
Felmenia and Lefille looked around desperately, but couldn’t spot Suimei anywhere. They extended their search range to account for him being blown away, but they couldn’t sense his presence, nor were there any traces that he’d gotten away.
Yakagi Suimei had been completely obliterated by the attack.