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

===Part 13===

The Spirit was already destroyed to the point where its self-healing ability could do nothing.

--But Nebula’s body was unharmed.

Before Mio’s gravity attack hit, he had already escaped far away backwards, thus successfully avoiding it.

“Destroying that high-class Spirit in a single attack… indeed, that is a formidable scary power.”

Nebula said while on a building far away.

“So, as per Belphegor-sama’s orders, I will dispose of her now.”

That’s right – Nebula’s actions against Mio was not him acting by himself. Right from the beginning, Nebula had received two orders; first is to assassinate Gardo in this attack, second is wipe out Wilbert’s power along with Mio.

—Wilbert is the known as the strongest Demon Lord in history, so no matter whether his power falls into the hands of the Moderates Faction or Leohart, things would become troublesome. That powerful power, would easily bring about problems that aren’t under the Council’s control – thus Belphegor gave Nebula the order to make sure to certainly end Mio’s life.

“The Spirits sleeping in the ruins, were naturally to be ones used to defend a City, so… of course it would possess something for the worst case while defending the city -- a self-destruct function to drag down the enemy together with it.”

So—

“Soul of the Demon Lord from the past age – disappear from the world together with your beloved city.”

Saying that, Nebula then began casting the self-destruct magic, and the body of the Spirit far away let out a blinding light. A protective spherical barrier appeared, enclosing him so that he would not be dragged into the self-destruct explosion – an anti-field. Then, after completing the casting with the special code, Nebula smiled—

“—Goodbye.”

And after giving his final farewell – the body of the high-class Spirit suddenly exploded.

A blinding explosion, that wiped out the whole Wildart City.

--At least, that was what should’ve happened.

But in the moment the explosion and shockwave began to spread – it instantly disappeared.

“Wha—Impossible…!”

Witnessing the unbelievable scene, Nebula was heavily shocked.

''—did the activation of the code fail? No, it did explode. After the successful detonation – the heat and shockwave created had suddenly disappeared, and there isn’t a trace of the magic power left.

…W-What in the world just happened……?!''

Nebula looked towards the location where the explosion was supposed to take place. Over there, he saw a young male standing in front of Mio and Zest, as if protecting them. He held a large demonic sword in his hands, in a posture where he just swung the sword – the Toujou Basara that should have stopped moving long ago. Immediately after—

『——————』

Basara’s ice-cold eyes caught the figure of Nebula far away, causing him to involuntarily gasp and step backwards.

“Interesting… I’ll have a great story to tell Belphegor-sama later.”

But he smiled while raising his right hand, and a gigantic black shadow came over the sky. The opponent seemed to be hiding something, but as he cannot fail Belphegor’s orders, Nebula himself has hidden a trump card up his sleeve.

Together with the booms that filled Wildart City, were the same type of Spirit as the one that exploded just earlier, furthermore, there were three of them; two of them landed behind Nebula, and one just beside Wildart City. To fulfil his orders at once, Nebula has decided to simultaneously attack them and Wildart City. Basara might be able to use a strange ability to cancel out the self-destruct explosions and enter melee combat with the Spirits, and even if the Spirit beside Wildart City has to self-destruct as the last resort, the higher-ups of the Moderates Faction along with Ramsas would be also wiped out.

“It’s truly a shame – with this, this is the end for all of you.”

Just as Nebula was about to order the Spirits to annihilate Wildart City—

Two sounds of impact<ref>Boom!</ref> came from behind him.

“Wha—…?”

Nebula hurriedly turned around, and saw a scene even more unbelievable then just now.

Both of the gigantic Spirits behind him, were flying in the air – in a straight line towards the outside of Wildart City, and then the heavy sound of impact of them hitting the ground came from far away. Just as Nebula was at a loss as the shockwave of the impact reached him as he stood on the tower—

“Geez, can you not throw them into a place with many people? What if you crush someone?”

A shout lacking of any tension came from the ground. Looking downwards, there was someone of the same race as that young youth, someone whose name Nebula knew – that was of course, since it is impossible for him to not know the one called the God of War and strongest Hero feared by the Demon race.

“Jin·Toujou……!!”

Nebula recited the name of that man, filled with hate. His whereabouts were unknown ever since he had fought with Leohart, and not even the Council could track him – although he didn’t know if it was by coincidence or planned out, he had come to this place to help his son out in this crisis.

''…Then…!''

Nebula disregarded Jin’s presence and began casting the magic for the Spirits’ self-destruction; his target was not the two which Jin had sent flying, but the last one that was beside Wildart City.

Since Jin is now here, his chances of disposing of either Basara or Mio is now close to zero, so now he should at least attempt to get rid of the higher-ups in Wildart City like Ramsas. However – as Nebula was almost finished with the magic, a sound suddenly sounded out, and the remaining Spirit was crushed by an invisible power.

“—gravity magic!?”

''Mio is still unconscious, so just who'' – his thoughts thrown into disarray, Nebula then saw a male with the Moderates Faction’s proud mother-daughter succubus pair – Sheera and Lucia, standing on a rooftop. It wouldn't be weird for him to use the same magic as Wilbert, that male was someone like that – the current leader of the Moderates Faction, Wilbert’s older brother.

“Ramsas…!”

Immediately after spitting out his name with resentment, his lips curved into a smile.

''…Idiot.''

Even if the Spirit became minced meat, he could still make it explode by completing his casting. Thus, Nebula continued to input the code—

“………?”

But suddenly, he sensed someone behind him, and thus turned around—

「——————」

Only to see a youth standing there. His cold eyes not only stopped Nebula’s mind, it also froze his heart.

It was Toujou Basara.

“Eh——…?”

In the next moment, Nebula let out a funny sound.

His chest – was completely pierced through by Basara’s large demonic sword.




Basara pulled out Brynhildr, and Nebula collapsed on the tower.

Large amounts of fresh blood poured from his chest, and his breathing became ragged, but despite that—

“I… don’t want, to die…”

Nebula desperately squeezed out his voice, begging Basara for mercy.

“If you spit out who was the one that ordered this attack and his aims, I can ask the Moderates Faction to let you live… The Current Demon Lord Leohart should be after Mio’s power, but yet you attacked that demon called Gardo, and even tried to kill Mio—“

''Speak.''

“—who was the one that gave the order for this attack. Is it those guys from the Council or what?”

“ ! …T-That…”

“If you really don’t want to die, you better spit it out. From the amount of blood you’re losing, you only have very little time left – everything of you will be reduced to zero soon.”

Basara’s words caused Nebula to be silent for a while, and then—

“………Uu.”

Just as he was about to say something – a red marking appeared on his neck. That pattern that was very much like a circle, was one that Toujou Basara was very much familiar with.

“That is…”

The curse of the Master-Servant Contract. Nebula planned to beg Basara for mercy by leaking information about his master, causing strong feelings of betrayal which activated the curse. According to what Takigawa said, the Master-servant Contract had the effect of not allowing the leakage of secrets when a subordinate is captured by the enemy, and the subordinate will die when the curse activates at its strongest effect.

Basara’s circumstances were special – his Contract with Mio and Yuki were done with using Maria’s magic, and Zest’s were done with using Sheera’s magic, so the effect of the curse were all aphrodisiac effects.

So, what was the effect of the Master-Servant Contract of Nebula – the answer was very soon shown before Basara’s eyes.

“Uh——…?”

After letting out a short groan, Nebula’s body exploded from the inside with a muffled ‘Pop’.

Basara had hurriedly retreated, afraid that he was doing an explosion by self-destructing. Fragments that used to be Nebula landed by Basara’s feet, dying the rooftop into a pool of red. After that—

“Basara-sama, are you fine?!”              “Aah, I’m fine.”

Nodding slightly to answer Zest hurriedly flying towards him—

“……………”

Toujou Basara, forthrightly, gazed upon the tragic ending that may come to someone that have done a Master-Servant Contract. In the worst case scenario – Mio, Yuki, and Zest might probably lose their lives in a similar fashion. The new realisations weighed heavily on Basara’s heart – the Master-Servant Contract he had done with them used their lives as a wager. It was not something to be joked about. Just then—

“Basara-sama…”

Zest softly leaned onto Basara’s back, and spoke no more.

Snuggling against Basara’s back just like that. That, is Zest’s answer to her master Basara. Thus, Basara turned around and tightly gripped Zest’s waist, and said:

“Let’s go… We need to quickly return back to the city and help treat the wounded.”

After that, the two of them left the rooftop.

Behind them, were the remains of Nebula and Wildart City devastated with debris everywhere -- the peaceful days that was there until yesterday is now gone.

In that place, only the scars known as the cruel reality of War remained.

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