“That’s it?! That’s what he meant?! He knew… Augh, that’s why he’s so obsessed with you!”
Shouma had been too strong and struggled out in the world.
His passion had been restored only by the sight of weak little Lloyd doing his best.
But Lloyd’s new admission explained just why that was.
Lloyd was an ordinary boy, taken in by Kunlun.
And watching a normal human try and keep up with Kunlun villagers had made Shouma want to cheer Lloyd on.
“Ah-ha. So that’s why he’s the weakest villager.”
“But he had the stuff to keep up with them…the power to never give up.”
Satan and Anzu were both nodding. Only Eve was still reeling.
“Th-that’s ridiculous! Of all things! Of all punch lines—you’re the one person it doesn’t work on?!”
“It’s working just fine! It got in my eyes!”
“It’s not supposed to blind you!”
All the efforts she’d gone to, all dashed right at the last second. Eve was about to lose it.
But…it was only one weapon that had failed her. She soon got her mojo back, and she was once again ready to handle the one last big job before her vacay.
“So close… I’m so close… No way am I going down here!”
Fight after fight, powerful foe after powerful foe. If she let her ambitions be thwarted by some silly kid who didn’t even get what she was trying to do, she’d never live it down.
She forced her fingers back in line, made a fist, and braced for combat.
“I still have the other demon lord powers! I’m strong enough to defeat a fake Kunlun villager! If I falter here, all my hard work—the centuries since I was reborn—will be for nothing!”
She was clearly trying to encourage herself.
Deep down, she knew Lloyd had already beaten her once, and that nagged at her.
And that meant she knew she had to thoroughly trash him here, or it would come back to haunt her.
“I don’t wanna be looking over my shoulder! I want to sit back and play with my new toys!”
Nothing was worse than lying awake at night revisiting her defeat.
Some people can’t stand to see a speck of dirt. Others must try every limited item. Gamers have to get 100 percent completion. All of us have things we’re fixated on—and Eve took that to the extreme.
“One compromise, and I’m finished. That’s tantamount to denying my entire life!”
She looked ferocious.
Lloyd wasn’t the least bit intimidated.
“I’m pretty lost…”
“Try to keep up, then!”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to. I don’t need to understand how the villain thinks! You’re just closing your eyes to everything and telling yourself it’s okay!”
“You have not lived a tenth of my life! You can’t tell me shit!”
With each phrase, she moved a step closer—then she lunged at the boy.
She buffed her arms with the golem’s power, sent treant roots writhing all over her, sprouted Abaddon’s wings on her back, and breathed Surtr’s fires—all the demon lord powers at once.
Eve was unchained.
And Lloyd simply worked through them.
All those fights had diminished Eve’s powers, but that alone did not explain what was happening.
Perhaps her attacks were a bit sloppy—but the biggest factor was simply that Lloyd had kept a level head.
When the golem arm came in, he deflected it with the back of his hand. When the treant roots tried to grab him, he dodged in the nick of time.
“Damn it!” Eve raged.
She tried moving unpredictably, rocketing around on her wings and breathing fire.
But Lloyd kept up with that easily, evading the flames and landing kicks as she passed him.
“Gotcha!”
“Blegh!”
Her rather goofy squeak was followed by a rather nasty crack. That was a broken bone.
Eve was as spooked as she was furious, thoroughly vexed.
This was her ultimate body—she could heal a break as fast as any Kunlun villager. It was no different from a minor scrape.
But her attacks were doing nothing. This hit had merely been a broken bone—but she feared the next blow would be life-threatening.
Frustration was setting in, the kind that comes with making the same mistake over and over.
“Tch!” She hid inside her shadow—Satan’s patented shadow slide.
“?! My move?!” Satan yelped.
But Lloyd didn’t bat an eye.
He simply waited for Eve to emerge.
Shpp.
Her fingers alone slipped out above his head, and she fired a rune cannon.
“There you are!”
Lloyd easily dodged and grabbed Eve’s fingers, dragging her out of her shadow.
There was a noise like tearing fabric, but it was coming from inside her. She let out a little squeal.
“You! Little!”
Like a rodent trying to stay in her hole, Eve tried to spray Dionysos’s breath in his face. The boozy cloud should induce illusions.
But Lloyd had seen that coming and batted it aside with a little wind spell.
Eve gaped at him—and he didn’t let that opening go unpunished, slamming a second spell into her.
“Gotcha! Aero!”
“Gahhhh?!”
A face full of wind sent Eve slamming back into the wall. She was still somehow upright, but she was definitely woozy.
“What is this…? What’s happening…?”
Unable to hide her irritation, she was muttering questions aloud.
He was matching her blow for blow; whatever was giving him the upper hand, it wasn’t sheer power. She was losing because of something else, some mystery force Shouma and Alka lacked.
“How can you dodge demon lord powers so easily?!”
She was a wreck by this point—screaming was all she could do.
And Lloyd was always one to answer questions.
“You want to know why I can dodge you?”
“Yes! There must be some trick! Fess up!”
“Nothing that dramatic. I’ve just fought people who can use almost all your attacks before. I know how you move, and I know how to handle it. I guess it’s just plain old experience!”
“Huh?!”
Yep—Lloyd had fought nearly all the demon lords before.
One of Eve’s greatest strengths was their combined power. But flip that around, and it meant all her moves were things Lloyd had already beaten or watched his companions use.
And on top of that—Eve hadn’t done much fighting herself.
No matter how much she was physically capable of, no matter how hard she tried to be unpredictable—she was an amateur. She’d devoted no time to fighting or learning the techniques it required.
Lloyd had her beat on combat experience. Really, her previous victories had all been a combination of surprise skills and her forked tongue.
But her wiles didn’t work on Lloyd, and he’d already overcome all her moves—so her disadvantage was perhaps inevitable.
The finishing touch—Lloyd’s training—had been almost entirely against superior opponents.
His newfound confidence had been acquired by conquering the odds.
That little frame of his was radiating strength, the fortitude to stand his ground.
Eve had been alive for centuries, but she’d gained her powers less than a day ago.
No matter how great the power, there was a huge gulf between someone just starting to wield it and someone who’d spent the bulk of their life overcoming their own weakness to find it.
That left Eve fragile. Deep down, she was a con artist. Deceit was her main weapon, and that weapon didn’t work on him. All that was left was her unvarnished pride.
For the first time in her life, Eve felt helpless.
Maybe she couldn’t win.
And that fact made her panic.
“Augh… Hurk…”
She was in no state to take the lead.
“I know,” Lloyd said, nodding. “When there’s nothing you can do, you get so flustered, you just shrivel up. Used to happen to me a lot.”
Not wanting to give him any more insights, Eve did her best to act normal. “O-oh? So you’ve overcome that now? Do tell me how.”
But Lloyd’s response hit extra hard. “I just remember all my friends!”
“Huh?”
“I’m not alone. I’ve got friends backing me up, and I want to be there for them. Those feelings always get me going again!”
Lloyd smiled pleasantly.