He burst into unhinged laughter, echoing across the broken earth.
“Ha! Hahaha! That’s easy. It’s unavoidable. A wide-area bombardment. There’s nowhere to run!”
I sighed. “Yeah. I figured.”
Then he opened his mouth, and everything changed.
It stretched wider than humanly possible, jaw unhinging like a monster from a nightmare. Particles of energy began swirling toward him, drawn into his lungs like a black hole inhaling light. The world trembled under the pressure, the wind roaring away from him in streaks of shimmering power.
This wasn’t just an attack. It was an annihilation event.
And with the confidence of a creature convinced of its own supremacy, he roared the name of the technique:
“Demon God Howl: Big Bang Impact!”
His expression was perfectly calm, almost serene, as if he were merely reciting a prayer. And why wouldn’t he be? If that thing hit, it would obliterate everything behind me in a cone nearly twenty kilometers wide. A hundred and thirty degrees of total erasure.
Insanity given form.
Too bad it wasn’t going to touch me.
I let out a soft chuckle, raising my right palm toward the incoming energy as if reaching for a breeze.
“Lord of Gluttony: Beelzebub.”
A blinding torrent of energy erupted from the Demon God’s mouth, howling through the air like a storm of light and fury. It tore toward me, a beam dense enough to melt mountains and crack the sky, unstoppable by any ordinary means.
But it never touched me.
Every last particle of that attack vanished the moment it reached my outstretched palm, absorbed and devoured as if the universe itself had swallowed it whole.
“A high-density energy blast, huh?” I murmured, glancing at my hand as the last remnants of light disappeared. “Yeah, if I’d taken that directly, it probably would’ve hurt. But see, attacks like that? This guy loves ‘em. Absolute favorite.”
Across from me, the Demon God stared in horror. “W-What…? Huh…? No, wait, that was… That was my Demon God Howl… What just… What just happened?”
He dropped to his knees like his body had given up. Shaking, slack-jawed, he mumbled as the truth began to sink in. “No wounds… Not even singed… It didn’t miss. It wasn’t blocked. It was just… swallowed? My strongest attack… Gone?”
I didn’t bother answering. With quiet finality, I slid Excalibur back into its sheath. The click of steel against scabbard rang out like a death knell.
“Well then,” I said, stepping forward, my voice steady, ice-cold. “I believe it’s time to hang you.”
Something in his expression broke as panic bloomed in his eyes, realizing exactly what came next.
“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, please wait!” he shouted, scrabbling backward across the ground, desperation seizing his voice.
He’d finally learned how to beg. Shame the timing was off.
“Oh, I’m not waiting,” I said flatly, already raising my hand. I turned, motioning toward Cordelia and Lilith, still unconscious and vulnerable, then leveled a glare back at him sharp enough to draw blood. “You’re going to experience exactly what you had planned for them.”
His face went ghost-white. He choked out something halfway between a gasp and a sob.
“W-What? N-No, you don’t mean—”
“I’m merciful,” I said, smiling without warmth. “You did say you were willing to treat me as a guest. Even if that was a lie, the offer counts for something. So no… I’m not that angry.”
I took another step closer, watching him with cold precision.
“Truth is, I didn’t even feel the urge to kill you until you mentioned Cordelia and Lilith.”
That landed like a hammer. His eyes flickered with fragile hope, his voice trembling as he grasped at the words.
“T-Then… does that mean… you’ll spare me? You’ll let me live?”
I tilted my head slightly. “Personally? I could forgive you. Under the right conditions.”
His entire face lit up, tears streaming freely now, not from pain but from sheer, pathetic relief.
“R-Really?! You mean it?! You’ll actually—?!”
“I’ll give you twenty seconds,” I said.
I glanced over at Cordelia and Lilith, still unconscious.
“So if you want to beg for your life,” I said, turning back to the Demon God, “ask them.”
“Huh?” His expression went blank. For a few seconds, he just stood there, unblinking.
And then it hit him.
The realization cracked through his facade like a hammer. Panic surged back into his limbs, and he dropped to his knees, snot and tears mixing into a pitiful mess as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“P-Please! C-Cordelia-san! Lilith-san! Help me, please!”
His voice was shrill and desperate, half bawling, half pleading, straining to reach the two women lying still behind me. And then, he turned to me with a whimper, his tone shifting to one of quiet, pathetic yearning.
But of course, Cordelia and Lilith didn’t respond.
How could they? They were both unconscious.
Twenty seconds ticked by, and the Demon God looked up at me with eyes full of hope and dread, silently begging for a reprieve.
I gave him a casual shrug. “Tough luck. They’re out cold. Can’t really answer you.”
He visibly deflated, but I wasn’t quite finished.
“Tell you what,” I added. “I’ll give you one last chance.”
He jumped on it like a starving piranha, eyes shining.
“A c-c-chance?!”
“You’re confident in your defense, right?”
He nodded so hard it looked like his head might fly off; first up and down, then side to side, not even sure how to answer properly in his panic.
I mirrored his readiness, gripping Excalibur and pulling it back in a full-power swing.
“Then take it. Survive this hit, and I’ll let you go.”
His eyes went wide. “T-T-That’s… That’s insane! That’s… No, I can’t. That’s impossible!”
Too late.
Excalibur came down with merciless force, the blade meeting his face in a clean, brutal arc that took the upper and lower jaw.
His scream came out in a pitiful, wheezing sputter, like air escaping a balloon.
With a grotesque, boneless thud, the Demon God collapsed. His body twitched violently as it hit the ground with the brain gone and the lights out.
I clicked my tongue and rubbed a hand through my hair, muttering the last line under my breath. “Damn it. Killed him before I could hang him.”