How far was the castle, though? It was so large Diablo couldn’t help but feel anxious. It felt like it was close, but it also looked like it was very far away from the capital.
Isn’t it a little too far...?
Diablo spoke despite his fears, and if he didn’t use some kind of magic after telling his opponent to ‘prepare himself,’ it would seem terribly lame. So he had to fire something... regardless of the effect.
“Glacies Cannon!”
Diablo fired a massive lump of ice from the tip of his wand. This high-level water element spell once blasted a hole into one of Castle Grandiose’s walls, effectively increasing the number of windows. How would it fare against the Gelmed Empire’s castle, then?
Diablo’s eyes were fixed on the lump of ice. So were those of Rem’s group, Aira, and even the Gelmed soldiers, each watching it soar. And then...
The castle shined, and for a single moment, a sphere of light covered the Magimatic Castle Viovix. The moment it made contact with the sphere, the Glacies Cannon shattered. The next moment, a booming blast shook the air.
The spell just barely reached the castle. For how massive it was, it took time for the attack to connect. But Diablo recognized that shining sphere which surrounded the castle.
“A Fallen-repelling barrier...!”
It was likely the same as the one used in Faltra, a barrier for disarming the Fallen and magic. Of course, it could have been structured differently from the one Diablo knew. In Faltra, the towers standing along the walls formed the barrier. Viovix didn’t seem to have anything analogous to that.
This, of course, meant the spell didn’t actually deal any damage to the castle, despite hitting it. The face of the old man floating in the sky didn’t change in the slightest. He didn’t assume a single Glacies Cannon was going to make that major of a difference.
Diablo felt a chill run through his body.
“Bring forth... the Girl of the Vessel...” the Emperor repeated his words.
“Stop repeating yourself, fool! You will not have your way! As a true Demon Lord, I will...!”
“Do so, and you shall be forgiven...”
The Imperial soldiers all pointed at something, and Lumachina raised her voice in fear.
“S-Something... I feel something malevolent in the air...!”
A sphere of light shot up into the sky from one of Viovix’s spires. Even without the High Priest’s warning, Diablo’s intuition warned him.
This thing is dangerous.
But if it’s magic...
Diablo looked down at his left hand. Sitting on his ring finger was the Demon Lord’s Ring, capable of deflecting any and all magic.
“This could do it...” he muttered to himself.
The sphere of light began falling down... But it wasn’t falling toward them. It wasn’t headed for the castle’s courtyard, where Diablo and his group were.
It’s... north of the castle? A bit to the east... Anyway, it’s far from here.
It would likely land not in the central district, where the castle was, but in the first district. It reminded Diablo of something, though. It looked small from afar, but the sphere of light was likely larger than a building...
“It can’t be...!” Diablo’s eyes widened.
The sphere approached the ground ever so slowly.
“Don’t look at it!” Diablo shouted. “Get doooooooooooown!”
But before he could finish his warning, a blinding flash washed over the capital. The world was whited out for one long moment. The rumbling sound that followed completely deafened out any other sound.
Yes, Diablo knew what that sphere was. It was 《White Nova》. And unlike the one he used, it wasn’t a small scale one. It was dozens... no, hundreds of times larger than the spell he used. Would the destruction extend this far? Would Rem and the others be safe, then?
Diablo reached out his hand. At that point, the blast had reached them. There was no way he would make it.
“Reeem! Sheraaa!” he shouted.
But the rumbling explosion completely drowned out his voice. Then the light died down. The flash disappeared, as if being absorbed into the sky, and the thundering sound of the blast petered out. The powerful impact that felt like it might white out the world became silent as if it had never been there to begin with.
We’re safe. Me, everyone else...
Viovix’s attack didn’t seem to reach the courtyard Diablo’s group occupied. Did he miss? No, that couldn’t have been it. It was because Rem, the Girl of the Vessel, was here. The Emperor couldn’t have risked losing her.
Diablo gasped heavily as he felt thick beads of sweat drip from his forehead.
The bad feeling was far from gone. Lumachina fell to her knees, hugging her own shoulders. She probably realized what had happened already. Diablo used flight magic, and floating up, he reached higher than the castle’s walls and looked at where the sphere had impacted.
The first district was gone.
“Aah...?!”
Diablo realized what it felt like to have every hair on one’s body stand on end. This was terror. His body shivered, overcome by more fear than he’d ever felt before. It was all gone. The once circular surface of the first district had been reduced to a water canal in the shape of the crescent moon. The buildings on what little land was left of it were completely knocked down and blown away.
And what of the people? The first district was occupied by the Empire during yesterday’s battle. The enemy army had retreated from it later on, but the Church’s soldiers didn’t have the manpower to push the front back and retake it. So there was hardly anyone left there...
...Or so Diablo hoped.
There might have been wounded soldiers that were left behind, or citizens in hiding. And anyone who might have been there... was gone. No one could have hoped to survive a blast that wiped out the entirety of the land like that.
“Kuh... That bastard... He wiped out... an entire town...!” Diablo grumbled angrily, looking up at the image of the old man projected in the sky.
“Bring forth... the Girl of the Vessel... Until you do... I will destroy a Human town... every sunset...” the Emperor spoke.
For the first time in his life, Diablo truly and utterly feared an opponent.