But as was seen, not one servant thought to sacrifice themselves for Diablo, so Light had been cleared to proceed to the second phase.
Dark landed a quick, nonlethal kick on Diablo that sent him flying through the doors of his manor, gagging in pain. Once she was finally back in character as the Wicked Witch, Ellie directed the servants to remove themselves so that Dark could be alone with Diablo.
“Mr. Diablo has attacked me in my capacity as Prince Voros’s official proxy, so I will add high treason to his list of crimes,” the Wicked Witch stated in a measured tone. “The soldiers will kindly escort all of the remaining servants away from this building to a safe location. As for Mr. Diablo, my highly competent bodyguard will now mete out his punishment.”
“A-As you command!” the soldiers replied obediently. As far as the other demons were concerned, at this point, whatever the Wicked Witch said went. The soldiers separated into groups, with some running into the manor to gather up the other occupants, while others escorted the servants already at the entrance away to safety. Once the manor had been completely cleared of bystanders, Dark addressed the Wicked Witch.
“I’m going in,” the masked adventurer said.
“Do make the most of this opportunity, if you can,” the witch said buoyantly. Dark strolled inside the manor alone, picking his way between the broken doors to carry out the revenge that had been several years in the making.
✦ ✦ ✦
✰✰✰
After being kicked like a leather ball straight into the manor, Diablo hacked up a storm as he came to a halt with his back resting up against the wall at the far end of the entrance hall. His arms had taken the brunt of the impact from Dark’s foot, but the kick had also taken a toll on his abdomen, and his back was screaming in agony after being forced through the heavy, wooden doors. If Diablo had been an average man with ordinary stats, that one blow would have been fatal, but since he was a Level 400 demon, the damage was less severe.
The sound of footsteps ominously crunching the wooden splinters of the shattered doors drifted over to him, and when Diablo looked up, he saw a dark-haired boy holding a staff and wearing a mask that covered up the gruesome burn scars that he had once shown to Diablo and his peers. The boy looked down at him with contempt, which once again caused Diablo’s forehead veins to pulsate in fury. The demon raised himself as far as he could, but his lingering injuries kept him down on one knee.
“The nerve of you...” Diablo growled darkly. “A damned inferior has no right to kick a high noble like me! What you just did is tantamount to pulling off your glove and slapping the whole of the Demonkin Nation in the face! This entire nation will hunt you down and kill you!”
“Do you really think the nobles or this nation care what happens to you?” Dark said before letting out a high-pitched laugh. “You’re a commoner now, Diablo. We stripped you of your lordship, remember?”
The demon choked on his rage, his lips trembling as he was on the verge of exploding.
“No...” Diablo breathed. “No, no, no! That woman merely declared it, nothing more! I’m still a noble! I was born into nobility, and I’ve served this nation for many years! I even disposed of a fake Master! This is plainly unjust, depriving me of a peerage like this!”
“Nope,” Dark chuckled. “What you just said is the exact reason why you don’t deserve a peerage.”
The young adventurer placed his free hand on his mask and went to remove it. Expecting to see his horribly disfigured face again, Diablo tried to avert his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to glimpse that stomach-churning sight, but Dark was too quick, leaving the demon staring at the young boy’s face agog, his throat quivering like a leaf.
“Impossible...” Diablo uttered. “But how?”
“Diablo,” the boy said. “The biggest reason you lost your peerage is because you betrayed my trust and tried to kill me, but failed miserably.”
“Light?” Diablo squealed. “Y-You’ve really been alive this whole time?!”
Light grinned from ear to ear on hearing this said by his sworn enemy. “Diablo, I’ve come back from the bottom of the Abyss to get my revenge on all of you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✰✰✰
“Diablo,” I said after removing my SSR Fool’s Mask. “I’ve come back from the bottom of the Abyss to get my revenge on all of you.”
“Is that really you, Light?!” Diablo yelped. “B-But what about the burns? And why haven’t you aged a day?!”
I basked in Diablo’s bewilderment while I answered his questions. “The burns on my face were an illusion created by the mask. As for my age—” I reflexively held up the UR Bracelet of Youth I was wearing and tapped it. “I chose to keep looking this way so that I would never forget the pain and agony you people put me through that day you betrayed me.”
I bathed my foe in murderous fury, making him squeal and shake as if he’d been tossed outside naked in the dead of winter. I callously relished the sight of my betrayer being scared witless of me, when a voice cut through and snapped me back to reality.
“Blessed Lord Light, I’ve finished enclosing the manor in the force field,” Ellie said. She was standing behind me with her hood thrown back. “Now, no one will be able to interfere with you either magically or physically, and no third party will be able to listen in on your conversation or see you in action from afar.”
I turned to her. “Thanks a lot, Ellie. Good work.”
“Your words are too kind, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said, trying to sound calm, but the way she blushed told me she was absolutely beside herself with joy to receive this compliment from me. I grinned back at her but was interrupted by a still-shivering Diablo.
“Wh-Why is the Wicked Witch working for you, Light?” he cried out. “Did she help you to escape from that dungeon? And you’re now borrowing her powers to take revenge on everyone in the Concord of the Tribes! Is that it?!”
Ellie met these accusations with a miffed expression, but I held up my hand to stop her from going any further, and she complied by controlling her emotions and making sure she had a completely composed look on her face.
“You’re not wrong. But you’re not completely right either,” I said with a mean smile. “You see, what really happened is my Gift, the Unlimited Gacha, summoned a whole bunch of overpowered people, including Ellie here. Yes, that’s right. The Wicked Witch of the Tower was a character I invented in order to take my revenge on every last one of you.”
The look on my face hardened as I outlined the chain of events leading up to the present. “I lured Garou into a trap, then toppled the Elven Queendom to take revenge on Sasha and to find out the truth about why you all tried to assassinate me. I had to go deep into a dungeon to find Sionne and get my revenge on her, and then, for good measure, I decapitated the leadership of the Dark Elf Islands. I collaborated with the Dwarf Kingdom to capture Naano, then after that, I got my revenge on Oboro in return for helping out the Holy Princess of the onifolk with her dilemma.”
As I listed off each party member, Diablo’s face grew paler and paler. He gulped and pointed his finger at Ellie. “So what you’re saying is the Wicked Witch is your subordinate?”
“Subordinate? Don’t be absurd,” Ellie gushed. “My relationship with the Blessed Lord is so much more than one of a mere servant. I am—or rather, all of us are—sworn retainers who have offered our very souls to the Blessed Lord. We live for His Blessedness and we will die for His Blessedness. You will not find a more exalted relationship than that.”
Ellie looked totally enraptured while saying her piece, and since I was used to hearing this kind of praise, I genuinely smiled back at her. Diablo, meanwhile, looked deathly pale and stunned into silence. He knew from the way Ellie was conducting herself that she would blissfully die for me in a heartbeat, and her fanaticism made the blood drain from his face.
I continued to turn the screws on him. “And it’s not just Ellie here. I have a whole bunch of allies helping me to make sure you feel some of the pain, despair, and misery you people put me through.”