Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 9===

「………………」

Gardo silently descended into the theatre.

He had only a single aim – to clean up the enemy before his eyes.

--the demonic sword wasn’t seen in Basara’s hands while he laid on his back, most probably because he sustained an injury which did not allow him to preserve his weapon. Even then, Gardo will still not show mercy to his opponent.

However, this means that he would be destroying the future of a young person—

“…Please don’t blame me.”

After Gardo announced in a low voice to the person lying on the ground unable to get up – in order to reduce Basara’s suffering, as well as to show respect to his opponent who dared to engage a life-or-death battle against him, Gardo raised his right hand with the flame dragon entwining around it.

--The strongest attack of Gardo, the one known as the leading candidate for the seat of the Demon lord.

Not only could it turn Basara into mincemeat, it carried enough power to burn away this theatre building as well as everything around it with ease.

''…With this.''

It should probably be enough to take care of Zest who was fighting nearby. With this, it’ll probably be enough to make up for the spirit fighting with Zest, as well as the other two spirits who were paralyzed by the enemy; although it’ll be disrespectful to Luca who worked very hard and with difficulty, lifted the spirit’s seals and forged the new Master-Servant Contract with the spirits, this would show that these spirits were only just at ''that'' level. There were even stronger spirits that were excavated from the ruins that were currently being studied, but they couldn’t be sent into this battle due to time constraints; thus to not waste any more time with attempting to keep the spirits safe, why not just let Gardo himself completely wipe out all of the remaining enemies with more efficiency. Hence—

“—pass in peace, Son of the War God!”

With these words to send Basara off on the road of death, Gardo raised his right arm—

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

And at that moment, Basara’s right hand suddenly moved a little – by the time Gardo noticed it, Basara was already holding up his arm covered with armour, as well as that demonic sword which had newly appeared in that hand. ''Just what had happened'' – at the phenomenon that had happened right before his eyes but yet couldn’t be registered by his mind, Gardo harboured a short-lived doubt as his right fist was on its path of being swung down.

--And in that moment, something belated<ref>coming or happening later than should have been the case</ref> happened.

It was a harsh metallic sound. At the same time Gardo heard that sharp penetrating sound—

A white line cut through his right shoulder – severing the arm from its root.

''…My hand…was severed?''

There was no pain, and no sensation of being cut by a blade. Thus Gardo ignored his right arm that was flying through the air and began to analyse what had just happened to him.

Taking a closer look, Basara’s demonic sword – the air around its blade seemed to be fluctuating.

No, it’s not air. What was fluctuating, was the space around the demonic sword.

And as for that sharp harsh sound – after putting the two pieces together, what was the answer?

''…Iai?''

But lai is usually used when a sword is being drawn out of a sheath, which Basara’s demonic sword didn’t have; additionally – the usual lai will definitely not be able to sever his hand.

''—then, just what was it that just happened?''

The hint to the answer, was the fluctuations of the space around the demonic sword. The materialization of the weapon, was from something like an alternate space or a crack in the dimensions.

To put it bluntly – the demonic sword managed to reach supersonic speeds with lai amplifying the effects from the borders of the dimensions.

What severed Gardo’s shoulder, was [Dimensional Slash], the ultimate in lai. Just then—

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

In the short slight pause while Gardo was speculating on how the situation came to this.

As if grasping the moment, Basara instantaneously adjusted his body the demonic sword – and in the next moment, he was already in a stable horse stance.

This was a very large contrast from when he was lying down not too long ago, with this time him finishing the preparations for using lai properly.

What Basara was preparing to do this time, was to horizontally sever Gardo’s body in the middle.

With eyes that was completely ice cold, he seemed like a completely different person right now.

However – Basara’s ultimate lai was never put into action this time.

“Wha—…?”

The atmosphere suddenly shook and became volatile, and at the same time a flash of light surrounded the both of them.

In the next moment – the theatre that the both of them were in completely exploded.