Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 10===
In order to fight against the Demon God Chaos, Leohart, Basara decided to change the location of where they would fight. Chaos’ first strike had completely burned down everything except for the surface of the ground, so let alone escape, it was impossible to dodge or defend there since there were no objects that could be used for defence. Leohart’s wings had been damaged by Basara’s gravity waves, making it difficult for him to fly at high-speed, so he flew together with Basara using flight magic to an area with a dense population of high-rise buildings. As soon as Chaos saw them moving, it followed them at the same speed; it was in no hurry to catch up, yet it would not allow them to pull away either, it simply maintained a certain distance.

“This place should do — take us down.”

After Leohart said that and confirmed that Chaos was following them, Mio nodded as she released the flight magic on Leohart and Basara, allowing them to descend towards the ground. Mio moved further away, and landed on top of a building some distance away. If the legends were true, then Mio’s magic would most likely be ineffective against the Demon God Chaos, and she obviously couldn’t engage in close combat with it either. So in this battle, Mio was relegated to a support role while Leohart and Basara who specialised in close combat would face off against Chaos. Currently, the two of them were standing atop tall buildings along the road while they looked up at Chaos. At the same time—

[——]

The Demon God Chaos also rapidly descended, and in the hands of four of its six arms, various weapons such as a gigantic sword, a long spear, a war axe, and a war hammer manifested while it flew closer.

“—I’ll leave half to you.”

“Alright — understood.”

Leohart raised Loki, while Basara beside him also nodded whilst gripping Brynhildr tightly. Facing Chaos as it used four weapons to attack at once, Leohart and Basara both spread out and prepared to dodge — and then, the ground in a ten metre radius began to rumble as explosions occurred. It signalled the beginning of their death match against the Demon God Chaos. The ground damaged by the earthquake turned into sand, and despite all of the dust surrounding Chaos, Leohart and Basara moved forward at the same time. With one person on each side, they charged towards Chaos whilst swinging their swords down. Leohart was immediately met with a solid sensation against his hands and a harsh metallic noise. The war hammer and gigantic sword in Chaos’ hands had blocked both of their attacks.

[——]

When Chaos raised its long spear and long-handled axe to counterattack, Leohart and Basara evaded it, and they prepared for a second assault. The two of them had moved to the front and back of Chaos respectively, where Basara slashed at its left shoulder diagonally while Leohart slashed from below. As Basara was in front, Chaos used its enormous sword to block, but for Leohart who was behind it, that was beyond the reach of its limbs, so he precisely drove his sword directly into Chaos’ back — but Leohart felt a strange sensation that was very different from a normal stab in his hands.

“—!”

Looking around, two of Chaos’ tentacles had moved around to its back, and blocked Loki’s strike. Although Loki had cut off Chaos’ tentacles, its body was still unharmed. A purple liquid then gushed out of the cross-section of the tentacles, filling Leohart with a bad feeling that caused him to reflexively jump backwards. The liquid that spilled out then dissolved the ground, and made sizzling noises as it did so.

''…Its body fluids are a strong acid!''

If his sword pierced through its body, it could possibly cause effective trauma, but its body fluids could ruin the blade. When Leohart jumped backwards to gain some distance after being faced with this tricky new problem, Chaos began to chase after him. The tentacles that had been cut off instantly recovered, and they stretched forward to chase after Leohart. Even though he dodged from side to side, the tentacles were still in hot pursuit, and after tracing out curves in its path, they straightened out and continued moving straight towards him.

“Kuh…”

Leohart moved to the left to evade once more, and at the same time, the tentacle swiped across horizontally — and with a boom, it toppled the high-rise buildings behind him in a single sweep.

“——”

Leohart used one hand to roll over to the side, followed by a backflip to swiftly escape the scene. Amidst the sound of the mayhem and crumbling of the buildings behind him, Leohart moved towards Chaos’ body, and at the same time he heard a loud voice from the top of a building that was opposite the road—

“—Oooooooooooooooohhhh!”

In front of him, Toujou Basara unleashed an ultra-high speed assault against Chaos’ four-pronged attack. Let alone defence, the counterattack of his blade simply appeared like flashes of light each time. But in order to go on the offensive, it was inevitable that he had to sacrifice defence and evasion. Basara found an opening amidst all of Chaos’ mad attacks and slashed horizontally, but it was flawlessly blocked by Chaos’ war hammer. The heavy impact pushed Brynhildr away forcefully, causing Basara to lose his stance slightly — and the tip of the spear was immediately thrust towards him.

“—As if I’d let you!”

Accompanied by the cry of a girl, a blade of wind deflected the tip of the spear away. Since Chaos’ body was unaffected by magical damage, Mio aimed at its weapons to provide cover. When the spear which had strayed off its original course went past Basara and pierced into the ground, Chaos had entered the attack range of Loki.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

Leohart’s fierce slash from diagonally behind it successfully sliced off the hand that held the spear from the very root of the arm.

''…That’s one.''

When they felt that there was some progress in the battle’s situation—

“—Leohart!”

Basara suddenly shouted, but his tone was not thankful, rather, it carried a tone of warning. Because of that, Leohart instinctively turned around, but Chaos’ tentacles immediately rammed into his cloak from behind. By the time he felt the tentacle touching his cloak, Leohart’s body had already been thrown into the air.

“……!”

If he didn’t break free, he would be pounded into the ground or into a nearby building. Leohart made shaking off Chaos’ tentacle his first priority and quickly undid the buckle on his cloak, but this still didn’t eliminate the inertia of the swing. Simultaneously with the loosening of his cloak, Leohart flew straight towards the wall of a building — however, there was a sudden gust of wind that formed a buffer between him and the wall, allowing him to escape unscathed from the collision.

“………”

After recovering his stance and landing safely, Leohart didn’t look back at Mio, and simply kept his eyes looking in front. It was enough for him to simply keep his own eyes on the enemy that had to be defeated…Mio would not ask for thanks either. Her attention had long left Leohart, and her attention was now fixed on Basara who was in close combat with Chaos. Until now, they had successfully taken off one of Chaos’ arms — so long as they continued, victory would be within their reach. In order to obtain that necessary victory, Leohart charged straight towards Chaos. Chaos’ movements shifted between straight lines and curves. The tentacles without any joints acted like whips, meaning that there was no restriction on its range of movement, and its attacks could change at will. Its arms that held a variety of weapons were continuously engaged in multi-angled attacks. The strength of its limbs far exceeded the level of a human or a demon, and if blocked incorrectly, one’s arms could be instantly paralysed, resulting in a loss of offensive and defensive ability. However — the cooperation of Basara and Leohart smoothly dealt with Chaos’ actions. —There was no tacit understanding between Basara and Leohart as comrades. But, they both had a way of cooperation and understanding as two people who had fought each other to the death. They knew how their actions would affect the other party, and after the other’s actions, they knew what their own next move would be. Because when they were enemies of each other, they recognised each other’s strength more than anyone else, and when it was time for them to cooperate, the same trust could be established between them.

“Uoooooooooooohh!”

“Haaaaaaaaaaahh!”

Basara and Leohart shifted positions indefinitely, and changed positions front, left, back, and right at incredible speed as they unleashed strike after strike on Chaos. When it was Leohart’s turn to attack, Basara blocked against the difficult to avoid counterattacks for him, and when Basara struggled to defend against the stream of Chaos’ attacks, Leohart’s actions would allow him to switch onto the offensive — the two of them complemented each other in this situation, gradually improving the accuracy of their cooperation in the battle so that they could take the most suitable course of action for each other. Together with Mio who provided cover for them from afar in critical situations, this allowed Basara to move towards its body to unleash a full-powered strike, while Leohart swiftly swung his sword as he moved past its side, allowing them both to cut off the arms which held the axe and war hammer. Including the unarmed hands that it had kept in front of its chest, only three remained now. However—

They had finally gotten to the halfway mark. But—

“……!”

The facial expression of Basara who had constantly engaged with it at high-speed and at a short distance began to look heavy. Fighting continuously at a close range underneath Chaos’ oppressive aura grinded away at Basara’s consciousness, and the drain on his stamina was beyond expectations. Leohart’s body appeared to be in a similar condition, and his movements were clearly not as good as they were before. Of course, Chaos had lost three of its arms, so the battle situation had become more favourable for them, but—

''…The problem is those tentacles.''

Chaos’ tentacles were different from its arms, and they would immediately regenerate regardless of how many times they were cut off, meaning that effort on them was wasted. Before becoming physically exhausted, it was impossible to come up with a way to defeat Chaos…under the gradually increasing pressure of these thoughts, Basara attempted to slice off the arm that held the enormous sword—

“! ——?”

But his anxiety caused a slight slip in concentration, and that put Basara in danger. The two arms of Chaos that had remained motionless so far suddenly moved. Once the number of its arms had been reduced, it was natural for this to happen, and it was something predictable. But for Basara in his current state, that was actually outside of his expectations — and after jumping away from Chaos’ sudden move Basara realised that his choice was a fatal mistake. The new weapon that Chaos summoned was an enormous bow.

[———]

Chaos then drew back the bowstring, and released a magic arrow that had no physical form.

“Kuh — oooooooooohh!”

Basara jumped backwards as he unleashed [Banishing Shift] to just barely eliminate the arrow. There was no other way of saving himself — but that was only able to deal with the immediate threat before his eyes, the crisis had not yet passed. —In this battle against Chaos, Basara had not used [Banishing Shift] until now. In order to use [Banishing Shift], he had to be focused and had to wield Brynhildr with both hands. This action would always result in momentary opening in his stance. Hence, Basara only used it to eliminate long-range attacks during his battle against Leohart. Moreover, it was necessary to eliminate its barrier for complete erasure, but Chaos was so overwhelmingly strong even without the barrier in its body. He couldn’t fully unleash it, but he was able to more or less scatter Chaos’ attacks. But if it was ineffective against Chaos, then the moment he used that technique, it would result in a fatal injury for Basara. Under the circumstances where the three of them were cooperating, they had all been forced into a corner by Chaos. If Basara was to fail and die, Mio and Leohart would probably be killed one after the other. But at the moment, Basara had used [Banishing Shift]. The Demon God naturally did not let go of this opportunity.

[———]

Chaos leaned forward with its body close to the ground, and the tentacles wrapped in front of its lower body violently hurdled out. The winding tentacles across the ground rapidly approached, and they gave off the impression that they were a single large and dreadful snake. Leohart, who had moved around behind Chaos, was unable to stop the surprise attack, and was tossed into the air by the shockwave that Chaos generated. ''The bad things all have to happen at the same time'' — when Basara thought that, Chaos was already in front of him.

“—Basara!”

Just in the nick of time, Mio’s help arrived. Basara was propelled into the air by a powerful blast of wind from below — and when Chaos noticed that it had lost its target, it turned towards Mio who was the cause of it. ''This is bad'' — just as he had a bad feeling about it, Chaos jumped towards Mio who was on top of a distant building.

''…!…''

In that instant, Basara could hear the intensification of his heartbeat in mid-air. Mio was a high-level magic user, and it was impossible for her to cause damage to Chaos. Leohart had mentioned the legend that magic was unable to harm it, and that was confirmed in their earlier attempts. In order to combat Chaos’ weapons, Mio used offensive magic to provide cover, but when she missed and it landed on its body, it all disappeared without a trace the moment it came in contact with its body. Even so, Mio could not use flight magic to escape. Doing this would only serve to further increase her own distance from Basara and Leohart, which would isolate herself and make it more dangerous. —Of course, they also considered the situation in which Mio became Chaos’ target. That was why Basara always occupied a location to fight where he could protect Mio, so that if anything was to happen, he would immediately be able to rush over to Mio’s side. In a hurry, Basara lifted Brynhildr up while in mid-air to rescue Mio—

“!——”

But he suddenly stopped his own body. In order to stop Chaos’ attacks, he had to use the power of elimination. But if he attacked Chaos from his current position, not only would he put Mio in the line of fire, he could also be blown away just like Leohart was. In that period of time — Chaos continued to move closer to Mio.

“Damn — iiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!”

Even though he was angry at his own hesitation, Basara still didn’t give up on acting. Treading on the wind that pushed him up, he flew towards the side of a building along the main road — and with a forward facing position on the surface, it was a preparatory stance so that he could sprint ahead at full speed. —As Basara was desperate to make it to Mio’s side, he felt that even Brynhildr was too heavy. So he dispelled the demonic sword and instantly accelerated. As he directed all of his energy into his legs, he became like the wind, there was barely any sound as he ran across the side of the buildings; he ran upwards diagonally across the flat walls of the grid of buildings one after the other — but he still could not catch up. Basara was still some distance away from Mio, but there was no doubt that Chaos was a step ahead of him. However — Toujou Basara still did not give up on the girl that he cherished.

“—Mio!”

At the same time that he cried out her name, the girl at the far edge of his vision responded with an action. She released offensive magic towards Chaos as it approached from just below her.

The magic that Naruse Mio chanted was lightning magic. Towards the rapidly approaching Chaos, she released a plasma ball that discharged electricity. —Even magic that was more lethal than that would simply disappear the moment that it touched Chaos’ body. So, Mio did something else just before it made contact with Chaos.

“——!”

When the offensive magic was about to hit, she suddenly clenched her right hand, and the plasma ball immediately burst. It was not because went out of control and it collapsed. The explosion of the plasma ball erupted with a thunderous boom, dying everything around it a dazzling white — Mio had used that flash of lightning to blind Chaos’ eyes. —Magic was unable to harm the Demon God Chaos. It was probably because it had some kind of ability or barrier, a power that allowed it to block magic. So, it was likely that Chaos used sound or heat sensing to identify objects. So when Mio detonated the plasma ball, it was an attempt to hinder Chaos from detecting her presence.

“———”

Mio had closed her eyes before the detonation to protect her sight, and she jumped sideways to get away from Chaos amidst the blinding white light — she leapt into the air on her left side above the road from the rooftop that she was standing on. There was no time for her to cast flight magic, and all she could do was jump towards the ground.

[———]

There was an enormous sensation of pressure in the air that brushed past Mio’s right side in that instant — and then, the sound of an explosion could be heard behind her, most likely from Chaos smashing the rooftop that Mio was originally on. It succeeded — Chaos lost sight of Mio, but that was also the same for Mio who had closed her eyes. Due to the blinding white light that pierced through even her eyelids, Mio had lost her balance and was freefalling, and she didn’t know what state she was in, she only knew that she was falling. The violent flash was so blinding that even Mio couldn’t tell where she was. But — there was a unique person in this world who knew where Naruse Mio’s body was. That was the person who was connected to her soul and had made a Master-Servant contract with her, the one with absolute authority who could make her sacrifice everything, and also the person who would fight for her with everything on the line. Precisely because he called out Mio’s name, Mio was able to jump off the roof without any hesitation. —Afterwards, Mio’s idea had become reality. There was a force that sturdily intercepted the falling Mio from the side. A pair of strong arms carried her firmly, and pulled her into his chest as if he was reluctant to let go — so, Mio slowly opened her eyes within the dazzling light, and the face of ‘him’ appeared before her as though it were only natural.

“………”

Basara smiled gently at Mio. No matter the distance they were separated by, he would rush to her side in a moment.

“———!”

Naruse Mio’s heart became elated for a moment, and she hugged onto Basara tightly. Within the blaze of light on the battlefield — it felt like a moment that belonged only to the two of them.

The Demon God Chaos noticed that the girl who should have been a sacrifice had escaped. Since Chaos was a being greater than a human or a demon, its eyesight recovered quickly, and it looked down from the rooftop. It then looked over to see Basara and Mio who had landed on the road a short distance away. —But Basara was holding the girl with both hands, so he couldn’t move his arms. Chaos immediately understood what that meant.

[———]

In the next instant, Chaos reached out with its remaining right arm, and used the same burning ray of light that it had first used in this fighting space. Even if Basara could summon his weapon, he would not make it in time. They would be erased along with Leohart who was rushing over to help them. The absolute light that was able to destroy everything instantly expanded in an arc from where Chaos stood — but there was a sudden boom, a red dimensional fault encircled and blocked Chaos’ attack.

[………]

The gravity of the entire surrounding space suddenly surged, leaving the Demon God Chaos with a seemingly puzzled expression. There was a man who stood in front of the young boy and girl who had been marked as sacrifices to protect them. It was a red-haired demon with a sharp gaze — Ramsas.