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Wheezing like a wind-broken horse, Diablo staggered as fast as his weak knees could carry him to his first-floor study in a distant part of the manor. This particular room contained a secret passageway known to his family for generations, and seeing how Diablo couldn’t escape through the front doors, where Light and his powerful servant, the Wicked Witch of the Tower, were blocking his way, he decided the passageway was his best bet.
“Why?!” he bleated. “Why is this happening to me?!” He still couldn’t believe his misfortune. “Why must I experience this utter insanity? I worked harder than my brother so that I could prevail over him, and I finally managed to wrest control of this fiefdom. So why must I suffer through this adversity? Why?!”
At no point did he even consider that he might have been at fault for attempting to murder Light out of his own self-interest. He similarly believed himself blameless for hiring the Bourreaux to assassinate “Dark,” and for dispatching his own soldiers to raid human villages, though he could point to the fact that he’d been compelled to volunteer his troops by Prince Voros on that one.
Diablo would have at least understood it if he was being targeted for killing someone of his own race, but all he’d done was try to kill some inferior, and the death of any number of that particular race was, in his eyes, as immaterial as killing termites. But now that very same inferior had returned, harboring a murderous grudge against the blue-blooded Diablo simply because he was nearly killed in the Abyss. And not only that, but this inferior had made the Wicked Witch his retainer—the same sorceress who had toppled several nations—and attained the incomprehensible power level of 9999 himself. All of a sudden, peals of maniacal laughter echoed off the walls behind him.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Light called out to him. “Garou, Sasha, Sionne, Naano, and Oboro are all waiting for you at the bottom of the Abyss!”
“Stay away from me, you monster!” Diablo cried out. “Don’t come near me!”
He finally managed to yank open the thick door to his study, then locked it behind him, even though he knew there wasn’t really much point. He lunged at the bookcase in front of him and started tossing books onto the floor to lessen the weight on it. They were all rare editions and practically priceless, but he didn’t have time to care about that. When the bookcase was finally unencumbered enough, he slid it aside to reveal a metal door that marked the entrance to the secret passageway. The door was unlocked and swung open with a sharp yank of the handle. Just as the oral history passed down by his forefathers had said it would, opening the door revealed a staircase that plunged down into a tunnel that would lead him to the outside world and freedom. Diablo dashed toward the staircase, but unexpectedly smashed his face against something that shouldn’t have been there.
“What? Why can’t I get through?” he yelled. “Is there some solid invisible wall stopping me?”
Diablo put every ounce of his Level 400 strength into breaking down this unobservable barrier, but try as he might, it refused to yield. His knowledge of sorcery finally clued him in on what was going on.
“A force field?” Diablo gasped. “Did the witch do this?”
It was indeed a force field, a magical spell that created a band of energy that had a range of uses: shielding someone from attacks, keeping people from coming inside a specific demarcated area, or stopping people from leaving that area. And depending on the type of spell, multiple force field layers could be formed. Ellie hadn’t just placed a force field around the entire manor, she had also placed ones in front of this particular passageway and over all the other possible escape routes. She had made sure that Diablo had no way out. Her unwavering devotion to Light would never have allowed one of his sworn enemies to slip through their net.
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Diablo yelled, repeatedly slamming his fists against the force field in a pointless fit of rage. He even unleashed a series of combat spells to try to shatter the barrier, but it remained as solid as ever. Diablo finally gave up on the secret passageway, opened a nearby window, and tried to jump out.
“There’s a force field here too?!” he cried out. When Ellie had been placing force fields around the manor, she had of course included some over the windows. With tears welling up in his black eyes, Diablo could only futilely punch the window force field until the sound of knocking on the entrance door made him pause with a start. It was a polite knock of the kind that he had taught Light many years earlier. The knock was followed by the doorknob rattling menacingly, then by Light speaking through the thick door.
“Diablo, I know you’re in there,” he said. “Everyone from the Concord of the Tribes is waiting for you in the Abyss. So are you going to open up or what?”
“No, I won’t!” Diablo shrieked. “Don’t you dare come in here, you unspeakable horror!”
Light laughed delightedly at the demon’s plight. “Come on now. Don’t be so cold, Diablo. All I want to do is get the gang back together.”
The doorknob rattled again and again as Light tried to enter the room, and the sound alone was enough to put Diablo on the edge of mania. It’s like I’m in a nightmare, he thought.
Unfortunately, the scene unfolding was all too real, and Light didn’t need to bother with any doors, given that he was Level 9999 now. Predictably, Light suddenly forced his way in by tearing the door effortlessly off its hinges, proving that the rattling of the doorknob had been nothing more than a ploy to frighten Diablo out of his wits. The boy strode in, laughing.
“Found you, Diablo,” he said. He had that same bubbly, innocent smile on his face that had been a frequent feature there more than three years earlier, back before the Concord of the Tribes left him for dead. Back then, Diablo had secretly mocked the boy each time he saw that smile.
This carefree child doesn’t even realize it’s all an act, Diablo thought at the time. We might even have to do away with him, for all we know. Just shows how ignorant these loathsome inferiors are. Witnessing that smile again in the present, however, that past scorn was replaced with uncontrollable terror. The demon let go of the windowsill and backed away into a corner, trying to get as far from Light as he could.
“Don’t come near me!” Diablo yelled. “No, spare me! Monster! Spare me, please! I’m sorry! Forgive me! No, don’t do this to me!”
His face wasn’t just streaked with tears, drool, and snot, his pants were also soaked in urine as he sank to the floor. His final words were a jumbled mess of pleading, refusal to believe it, insults, and apologies. Light plodded almost lovingly toward Diablo, like an angel of mercy descending from on high, beaming with an equally heavenly smile.
“Come now,” Light said. “Let’s journey to the Abyss where everyone is waiting for you.”
“Nooo!” Diablo let loose a tearful, bloodcurdling scream as Light grabbed hold of him.
“Teleportation—release,” the young boy said. “Take us to the very bottom of the Abyss.” The pair disappeared from the study in a flash, leaving just two more enemies left on Light’s revenge list.