“Hey there, Camael. Long time no see. You been doing good? We wanna see Ignora about something, but…”
“…”
“…Yeah, I guess you won’t let us. And I doubt you’re here to negotiate an armistice, but it’s not like you can do anything about this force we got…”
“Gabriel, get back!!”
“Huh? Whoa?!”
Seeing the spear Camael had sluggishly readied, Maou grabbed Gabriel by the neck and pulled back hard. The next moment, the spear barely scratched Gabriel’s nose, the flame it emitted a completely different color from what they’d seen at Sasahata North High.
“Wh-wha?!”
As far as everyone knew, Gabriel had never been hurt by anything but his own Durandal weapon. Now there was a notable hole in his toga.
“Huh? You… Huh? That…!”
Camael’s three-pronged trident was now shining in golden light, something it had never done before.
“His flames have gotten pretty heavy, y’know. I think there’s some more backbone to ’em now.”
Urushihara, who had his own experience fighting Camael, was showing signs of deep anxiety.
“This isn’t gonna be as easy as Ashiya mowing down the Regiment. I’ll handle this. I gotta pay him back for Chi’s school, and I bet he wants to say something about ‘Satan’ to me.”
Maou motioned the two of them to fall back, prepared his holy sword, and moved forward. He may have overwhelmed Camael once before, but he couldn’t underestimate this foe.
“Yo, Camael. Remember me?”
“Devil King… Satan…”
“Right, right. Y’know, I’ve really been wondering; what’s your beef with the name ‘Satan’ anyway? I think we only met for the first time at Sasahata North High…”
“…Satan.”
“What? Are we ever gonna hold a coherent conversation, or what?”
“Satan… The name of the betrayer… The unenlightened one that failed to see Ignora’s ideals… The man…who killed my wife…”
The revelation spoken by that grating voice came as a shock to everyone on hand.
“I will never forget having to leave my wife’s body on the red moon.”
“Your wife? What?”
“Those who block our way…who block Ignora’s way…must fall. Every single one of you… Ignora has sacrificed everything for her lofty ideals. I will never let you impede her will!”
“Whoaahh?!”
The next moment, his divine speed closed the distance between them as he thrust his weapon. Maou blocked it with Acieth in sword form, but it still sent him flying toward the ground.
“Ugh! He finally starts talking sense, but that’s all he’s got?!”
Spreading his wings in the air to stop his fall, Maou flew behind Camael’s back, drawing out the edge of his holy sword. Camael easily blocked it with the prongs of his spear, but that single moment was all Maou needed.
“Come on, guys! Let’s go!!”
Emilia didn’t fail to notice Maou’s signal with his eyes. Despite Camael’s improved power, the Better Half was still effective against him—that’s why he stopped that blade with his spear. He would never let the sword escape his sight.
Emilia, immediately recognizing Maou’s intentions, held Laila under one arm as she flew straight for what looked like the main building of All a Lijeh.
“Here’s your chance to kill that ‘Satan’ you hate so much! You ain’t gonna get distracted now, are ya?”
Maou saw the helmet swiveling his way. He landed a powerful hoof kick on Camael’s chest. It didn’t seem to cause any damage at all, but it was enough to divert Camael’s attention.
“Come on! My main general’s gonna be here once he’s done crushing your soldiers! Where there’s life, there’s hope! And it’ll be a lot easier for you to live if you surrender like Gabriel did!!”
“I…have long since thrown away my life!!”
“Oh, how nice to hear! So you’re ready for me to pulverize you, huh?! All the way…”
All it took were a dozen or so clashes of sword and trident for the battle to be decided.
“You’re wasting your life!!”
“Face the death! Hraahhh!!!”
Listening to Acieth’s war scream, Maou unleashed a thrust aimed straight for the middle of Camael’s chest. But:
“Ngh?!”
A small hand stopped the holy blade.
Maou’s Better Half, infused with Acieth Alla, had been completely invincible up to now. It had been halted by a human palm, one that didn’t belong to Camael—in fact, the arm extended out from his chest, like an illusion.
“Hey… Hey, hey, hey, hey, what the kind of funny business is this… This is the betrayal! We were gone for little bit, and what you do to us now…!”
“Whahhh?!”
The next moment, the holy sword disappeared from Maou’s hand as Acieth decided to separate from him. At the same time, he transformed from half-man, half-demon to his full form, brimming with demonic force—and for the first time since Heavensky, Acieth gave Camael a truly ominous look.
“Maou! This is the little bit of problem!”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
The hand that stopped the blade slowly extended, bringing the rest of the body behind it from Camael’s chest, as if there was a door made of thin air on the armor. She was a girl who looked a bit older than Acieth, around the same age as Chiho. Her short, crystalline white hair included two-toned bangs—one half bright yellow, and one half a dim shade of black. Her eyes were both that same eye-catching yellow, and she was dressed in a sheer, almost transparent robe of white, the same color as her hair.
“Acieth, I don’t know much about theology, but do those colors mean what I think they mean?”
“Huh? What? What do you mean?!”
Now, perhaps, wasn’t the time to ask vague questions to Acieth in a situation as charged as this.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Maou said, not taking his eyes off the new girl. “It’s Malchut.”
“Huh? You did not know, Maou?!”
“No, all right? I’m sorry I asked you in a funny way! Just stay focused!”
“You are one who asked me… Ah, but now is not time… Hey, Malchut. Do you have the name? You recognize me?”
“Acieth Alla, younger sister of Yesod,” acknowledged the girl, her first words. The voice sounded dry to Maou.
“Okay, sister, then I ask. Tell me your name. Also, you tell me why you protect our enemy. It better be the convincing, or else death by a thousand butts!”
“My name is Eleos. I must protect him. He is the latent force I selected.”
“That is the bullshit! Have you eaten the strange thing or something, Malchut—I mean Eleos?! They are the demons! They blocked our growth and tore us apart!”
“I know.”
“In last planet of theirs, they did such stupid thing, their own Sephirah nearly kill them all! Why protect them?!”
“I never intended to, until a little bit ago.”
“Huhh?!”
“Acieth. I’m sure you must be aware. Da’at flew off with your companions. He is the last member of our family.”
“So what?! I do know that! He look just like Lucifer! We all rolling on floor laughing ass off!”
“We didn’t laugh that much, you know…”
Satan’s rejoinder was ignored.
“Lucifer is the problem, Acieth. Do you know what kind of being he is?”
“Yes! He unemployed bum!!”
“Well,” Maou interjected, “I think he’s actually been working pretty hard lately…”
“Then what else do I say to her?!”
This time, Acieth bothered to react to him. But Maou didn’t know what to say next.
“…Look, what’s going on? Because Amane looked pretty floored by Copyhara taking on Urushihara’s look, too. Is there some important meaning to it?”
“Da’at is the result of the selection.”
There, for the first time since Eleos’s appearance, Camael spoke up.
“Ignora had waited long for that selection. She spent many months and years, blocked by so many obstacles, betrayed by so many people, almost fully giving up. But…after this near-infinite span of time, we finally have a place of our own again.”
“The hell does that mean? A place of your own? We smashed up all that junk you attached to the Sephirot. You’re not getting your way in Ente Isla. You can try fighting us now, but you know it’s just a matter of time. You seriously think Malchut alone is gonna change anything? How can you be sure of that…?”
“Da’at picked Lucifer, leader of the second generation of angels, as the primary race of human beings on the planet affiliated with this moon. It has been decided that Lucifer and his kin are the race that will evolve and commandeer the planet.”
That stopped Satan’s childish taunting quickly.
“Your companions may be traveling to Ignora…but killing me, or killing Ignora… It does nothing to threaten our victory.”
For the first time, Maou thought he saw Camael’s face exhibit a genuine emotion. It was a cruel sneer, showing total contempt for his enemy—but it was vacant, withered, and a sense of resignation seemed to rule over it.