“Wh-What is this, you fool?!” Beelzé shrieked, finally shaken.
It seemed he had finally figured it out. One by one, each of the devil flies that had gathered around the light of the dome shield flew themselves directly into the path of Death Beam.
“I-It isn’t possible! Why are they flying into it?!”
“It’s phototaxis!”
“Phototaxis?! What in the hell is that?!”
“It’s a trait that insects have!” I said. There was phototaxis that drew some organisms toward light and phototaxis that caused light to repulse others. Flies possessed the former variety.
Devil flies were monsters, yes, but in outward appearance, they were strikingly similar to any old housefly. The poison moth, though also a monster, had also been influenced by phototaxis. Given that, it was no small wonder that the devil flies were much the same.
As a consequence of their tendency to seek out the strongest light, the swarm had ignored the shield surrounding Beelzé and gone straight for the one covering the city. Seeing that, I had decided to take advantage of that behavior by creating an even bigger light: the brilliant luminescence called “Death Beam.”
Just as I had planned, the devil flies threw themselves into it one after another, decimating their numbers in the blink of an eye. They truly were just bugs, drawn like moths to flame.
With his fighting power effectively neutralized, the once-calm Beelzé was suddenly worked up into a panic.
“Wh-Why did they just kill themselves?! Couldn’t they at least understand that touching it kills them?!”
“The light I cast was just that attractive to them!” I said.
“Do not mock me! I’m glowing too, aren’t I? Come here, damn it! Kill this human!”
“It won’t work. The light around here just isn’t the same as the light of the Death Beam!” I said. Even the light of the dome covering the city could not compete. The glow of the comparatively tiny shield surrounding Beelzé stood no chance against Death Beam’s radiance.
“Stop killing yourselves! Can’t you hear my orders?!” Beelzé shouted, seized by an urgent impatience. Right now, his heart was probably thumping furiously in his chest. Even so, he was powerless to rein in the devil flies as they continued to charge into the beam’s path.
At last, the entire swarm had been annihilated.
I let Death Beam dissipate, and our surroundings were once again consumed by the darkness of night. The faint glow of the shield surrounding Beelzé revealed a face contorted by rage and fear.
“So, that just leaves you,” I said.
“Shut up and stop messing around! Do you really think a human like yourself is capable of defeating me?!”
“Of course I do!”
“You’re bluffing again! You’ve already expended all your magic! You’ve run out of energy to use your powers, surely!”
“Far from it! I could keep firing that thing all night,” I said. If anything, I’d have liked to.
The reason being, of course, that Death Beam was the greatest! It made me feel good in a way that nothing else could even come close to! Huge amounts of dopamine had poured into my brain while I was firing it. In truth, I was still feeling the incredible high I’d gotten from shooting the beam for so long at once.
“Even if you aren’t bluffing, you cannot defeat me!”
“But that’s the bluff, isn’t it? The ace you had up your sleeve is already gone!”
“You think the devil flies were my trump card? You think me no better than an insect?! Even without the damn devil flies, I am a force to be reckoned with! In the beginning, the devil flies weren’t even a part of the picture! Back in the day, I fought single-handedly! I used to eat petty adventurers like you by the dozen—even the ones like you, all brimming over with confidence!”
It upset me extremely to hear him brag about killing, even if it was the distant past he was talking about, but I was still riding high on the experience of firing Death Beam for so long.
My friends were waiting for my safe return. There was no time to waste: I had to take care of this guy once and for all.
I pulled my hands close to my body and placed them down by my hips. Light began to gather between my palms.
“I’ll show you something marvelous! My true form!” Beelzé shouted. The moment he did, his skin began to turn purple. His hair started to fall from his head, and fangs erupted from his mouth. His eyes bulged out, assumed a scarlet hue, and began to expand. His muscles swelled in size, causing the tailcoat he wore to burst at the seams.
He had transformed into a purple-tinged monster with the compound eyes of a fly. His arms had grown to the thickness of logs, and the fangs that had torn their way out of his mouth were as sharp as a tiger’s.
“This is my true form! I only take on this appearance when I haven’t had enough to eat, so normally I retain my human facade. No matter, I’ll just kill you and satisfy my appetite with your flesh! The strength I have now completely eclipses that of my previous body. There’s no comparison! I’m one hundred million times stronger! With this strength, I’ll crush your pitiful shield in a single strike! After I do, I’ll make a meal of you to satisfy my hunger!”
Beelzé had said the same thing twice. Maybe that was just because he wanted to eat me so badly, but his voice had been rife with tension, and the number—one hundred million—was clearly an extreme exaggeration... It seemed as though the transformation had lowered his intelligence.
The stronger a monster, the higher its intellect and ability to behave like a human. The form Beelzé took now, though, didn’t seem all too with it, nor did it look like a person. That meant that—
“You can’t break through the shield!” I said. Beelzé’s strength was even lower than Vlad’s had been. If Vlad hadn’t been able to break out, I didn’t think that Beelzé was going to.
Provoked by my words, Beelzé began to violently slam his fists into the walls of his cage. Every time he did, though, they were repelled with the same old crackling noise.
“Ah! Ah ha ha ha ha! Quite the robust shield you’ve made, isn’t it? Then let me get serious too!”
“All right, let’s both get serious!”
“Your ‘serious’ doesn’t amount to much, kid! If you don’t want to die, then you’ll let me out of here! If you do, I’ll at least let you live!”
“I refuse!”
“Th-Then I won’t attack the city either!”
“Once I kill you, there won’t be any attacks to worry about anyways!”
“Th-Then, then... Ah, that’s it! Then I’ll serve you incredible food! I’ve lived as an epicure for so long now, I’ve eaten so many wonderful meals! I-I can cook wonderful meals too! Gourmet dishes the likes of which you’ve never even tasted!”
“I know what real gourmet food is like! Food that you’ve never—” I started, only to realize that any further dialogue was just a waste of time. I took aim at Beelzé and fired Death Beam.
Kiiiiiiiii!