Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 7 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 3===
Naruse Mio looked towards her opponent in this decisive battle — while the current Demon Lord’s vanguard set foot onto the stage. It was a boy whose appearance seemed as tender as Maria. —Having said that, Mio wouldn’t underestimate her opponent based on appearances alone. The appearance of a demon wasn’t always aligned with their age, so youth and cute looks didn’t necessarily mean that one was weak. Yet — from this youth who stood before her, the atmosphere and stance that he exuded did not appear to give off the feeling that he was particularly strong. His hands carefully held onto a large book similar to a dictionary which seemed like his weapon; but he seemed to have difficulty even holding it, so it would be somewhat cumbersome if used as a weapon and he also had fairly large openings in his stance. After Mio subconsciously carried out such an analysis, she was reminded again that this was the front-runner that the current Demon Lord had chosen, so she cautiously asked

“…So you’re my opponent?”

The youth facing her immediately answered with a

“Yes.”

“—However, the one you are fighting is not actually me.”

After declaring that, the youth opened the book with his right hand, and at the same time, not far away — a magic circle appeared upon the floor of the stage. The thing that slowly began to emerge from it caused a wave of exclamation to ensue from the audience. The first thing to appear was an enormous head…followed by thick, muscular shoulders, a torso, and finally, the even sturdier-looking lower body and feet. At last, Mio’s ‘opponent’ appeared before her eyes in its entirety. Mio knew exactly what it was, because she had seen similar things during the defensive battle against the Current Demon Lord faction in Wildart City a few days ago, only its appearance and size differed.

“Heroic Spirit…”

After Mio whispered that name under her breath—

“Indeed. However, this Heroic Spirit and the ones that were used to attack you the other day are different. Naturally, it is different from the high-level spirits that were used by those who were sent by the Council. It will not passively follow plain commands, it is capable of thinking of tactics to suit the situation and implementing them autonomously as a high-level warrior spirit…in the records of the era of the Demon God War, there have only been a few of these.”

The youth who stood before the great spirit continued.

“I used all of my knowledge and experience to forge a contract with it…although you might think that it is cheap of me not to take you on personally.”

Upon hearing this, Mio said to the youth with slightly closed/narrowed eyes

“I don’t care…you are also fighting with your own strength.”

Just like how Basara used his speed, Maria used her power, and Yuki used her various techniques, Mio also used her own magic to fight; and so this youth before her was simply using his knowledge as a weapon. If that was called cheap, then it denied all battles that involved abilities. So, Mio did not mind. Then — after both sides had confirmed their opponents and were ready to begin the battle, the entire ring transformed into another dimension just like Mardones had described. The familiar scenery was part of their daily lives, it was also the starting point of where they had once fought against the Hero Tribe in the past — it was the nearest station square from the Toujou household and Hijirigasaka Academy. It was evening. Aside from Luka, who was not actually fighting, Mio, and the enormous spirit that towered above her like a building, there was no one else in this dimension, all that existed were the shadows of false motorists as they drove along the road. Rather than a copy of the station itself, it seemed to be a copy of the entire situation.

“I see.”

Naruse Mio quietly expressed her understanding. The stable and peaceful daily life that she enjoyed was interrupted by the Current Demon Lord faction who were after the power that she had inherited from Wilbert because they thought of her as a threat that had to be ruled out; in some ways, fighting with a spirit here was more meaningful than anywhere else. After feeling satisfied by this stage for their battle, a sound echoed throughout the station’s modern square. It was from the large gong at the side of the arena — a signal for the beginning of the battle. Then—

“——”

[——]

Mio and the enormous spirit began moving at almost the same time. In order to widen their distance, and so that she could prepare more powerful offensive magic, the first thing that Mio did was use flight magic, whereas the first step that the spirit naturally took was an attack that utilised its enormous body to the limits — it thrusted its bulky fist out. —However, the spirit did not go for a straight jab, rather, it drew out a curved hook. Thus it sacrificed the shortest possible distance and took slightly longer, but more than made up for that in its second attack.

“!——”

Upon seeing it, Mio gasped whilst flying in mid-air via magic. The spirit’s hook punch had hit its target — not Mio, but the lofty building in front of her. Following the sound of the collapse of the building, a sea of shattered glass and debris was flung forwards toward Mio due to the impact, and everything around her was instantly consumed. Then, after that stunning wide-area attack — was a follow-up by the spirit’s massive right fist. Isolated outside the dimension of the battle, Luka saw it in that very instant. A stream of the dimension that the battle was occurring in was projected onto the stage, showing the scene of the debris and dust that submerged Mio, as well as the fist of the spirit that chased after her, resulting in an explosive and earth-shattering noise which caused the city of the human realm — the entire area to be razed to the ground. As the audience witnessed this scene, and also because of the impact that seemed akin to a meteor striking the earth, they became euphoric and shouted endlessly in excitement.

“………”

Despite the cheers of the crowd from all directions, only Luka’s expression remained serious. Although he did not possess any combat strength on his own, he had keen eyesight which allowed him to clearly see — something had flown out of the cloud of debris just before the spirit’s fist levelled the square in front of the station. The projection was still showing the site of the original incident, and showed the body of the spirit that had turned towards something in the distance — Naruse Mio, who flew through the purple sky at high speed. Even if she had been engulfed in the shockwave and debris, she appeared unharmed. Not only that, her clothing didn’t have the slightest trace of having been dirtied. Although it was not known how she had done it, it was clear that she had gotten away unharmed from that attack. But—

“—It’s not over yet.”

As Luka whispered, the projection returned to show the spirit. It pulled its fist out from the ground as it slowly stood up, and then turned towards the north-eastern corner.

[——]

And then it narrowed its eyes — tightly locking on to the flying enemy that remained within its sight as it curled its body forwards. It was preparing for the next pursuit. Naruse Mio continued flying away from the source of the explosion towards the horizon. She was able to escape from the shockwave of the building’s debris thanks to this flight magic. —However, she did not get out in time before the debris swallowed her. At that time — the instantaneous shockwave’s area was too vast, and it was necessary to get away from that debris as soon as possible. If she simply used flight magic to ascend, the debris and shards of glass would have certainly collided with her and she would be hurt all over, but she didn’t temporarily suspend her flight magic to create a barrier either — if she did do something like that slowly, she would have been crushed by the spirit’s fist so hard that not even any residue would remain. A shield made in that brief amount of time would not have been able to defend against that enormous spirit’s attack. So she continued to chant flight magic, and cast it — not on herself, but on the surrounding atmosphere, which successfully transformed it into a powerful gust of wind, and by wrapping herself in this wind, she was able to borrow its momentum to safely escape from the site of the impact.

“!…I’ve finally succeeded in finding cover.”

Mio let out a sigh of relief. She had chosen an area outside of the shockwave generated by the spirit’s destruction of the station — and descended into a station three stops away. Chanting powerful offensive magic whilst also casting flight magic required more time; in a situation where she had lost her concentration, she was unable to draw out that power. By stopping in a moving train, she would be able to focus on chanting offensive magic whilst moving away from the spirit at the same time. Luckily, Mio had landed on an express train. This dimension had faithfully reproduced the situation of the real world, thus the next station that it would stop at would be six stations away; it was faster than an ordinary car and would be able to increase her distance away from the spirit. She could not let go of this opportunity.

“——”

Thus, Naruse Mio immediately began chanting offensive magic. However, a large figure was still in the far corner of her vision, now bent down up in a crouching position. What did it want to do…that question was answered as soon as it was asked. Like a beast, it unleashed the power that it had stored within its body in an instant, and charged towards its prey with explosive energy. As she felt a slight tingling sensation on her skin, the premonition she had became a reality. The spirit had levelled everything that stood before it to the ground with one punch…yet its legs seemed far more powerful than its arms; so when those legs exerted their full power against the ground, that large mass instantly flew off with a frightening rocket-like speed. In the blink of an eye, that enormous body flew through the debris, parallel to the tracks over the river on the southern side. It charged in a straight line towards the city, approaching the express train that Mio was on.

“…Damn it!”

Mio hastily cast her explosion magic. The magic circle unleashed a torrent of flames that burned through the atmosphere and landed a direct hit on the spirit’s head — amidst the sound of the violent explosion, the rest of the spirit’s body became engulfed in flames.

“—?”

However, Mio widened her eyes in amazement. Even though her magic had struck its head directly, its speed didn’t decrease at all and it continued to charge towards the source of the inferno. Of course, that blow was only meant to delay it, but Mio hadn’t reduced her firepower, and the spirit’s head should have been damaged severely. She did not expect that—

[——]

Not only did the spirit continue to move, but the parts of the spirit’s head which had been damaged restored itself in an instant, almost as if time itself had been reversed.

“How could…!”

It was truly an incredible recovery rate. The spirits that attacked Wildart City could be temporarily immobilised with an attack to the head, which is why Mio aimed for its head directly…being able to recovery so quickly under such circumstances basically meant that it had an immortal body. There was no time to be surprised though, the spirit was quickly charging through the horse racing track alongside the road like a hot knife through butter — as soon as it caught up to the last carriage, one sweep of its arm would knock the whole train over.

“Haahh—!”

Mio jumped backwards, and at the same time, she cast wind magic. Following a sharp metallic sound, the gales of wind sheared the connection between the carriages apart — soon after that, the carriages following the fifth one that she had originally gotten on at were detached and fell off to the side with a ‘clang’. After narrowly avoiding that situation, the distance between Mio and the spirit had also been increased slightly, thus she immediately began to chant offensive magic—

[——]

But the spirit did not seem to care that the train that Mio was on was further beyond its reach, and continued with its next move. It cupped its left hand and continued to move it as if digging a hole — but before it actually began digging into the ground, it grabbed onto a particular thing. It was the train track. It was too late by the time that she realised that it was bad; the spirit pulled the tracks from the surface in an instant, catapulting Mio and the express train that she was into the air.

“!—”

This forced Mio to temporarily change her offensive magic into flight magic, and by re-enacting what had happened the previous time, she cast magic onto the surrounding atmosphere to keep herself safe. The impact that the spirit created on the ground was akin to a giant tsunami as it pounced towards Mio in the air — facing the overwhelming impact, Mio chose her route of escape as upwards. Since she couldn’t attack right now, she had to retreat first. Thus Mio focused on flight magic, and flew in a straight line to pull away from the spirit, and in one fell swoop, she had reached an altitude of several thousand metres above the ground.

[——]

But the spirit below her suddenly crouched down again — and in the next instant, it carved out a crater in the asphalt road as it jumped upwards with incredible force, and was likewise able to fly up into the air without the use of magic. Like this, the enormous body thrust itself upwards from the ground and gradually approached her at a pace even faster than flight magic.

''…There are still other ways…!''

She absolutely could not lose — that was what Mio impatiently thought. Of course, this was a set of duels, so even if she did lose, it would still count as a victory to Mio if the others were able to win.

''…But.''

Basara and the others came here of their own volition. If she lost, and had to rely on their help…no matter how much she wanted to stay together with Basara and the others, she would not be able to raise her head alongside them. In the face of this desperate situation, the thought of liberating Wilbert’s power flashed across her mind. However—

''…I definitely cannot do that!''

Just as she had declared to Leohart, this was her own fight. As soon as she used Wilbert’s power here, it would mean that this was a battle between the Moderates faction and Current Demon Lord faction — the previous Demon Lord against the Current Demon Lord. Everyone wanted to help unshackle Mio from the fate of being the Demon Lord’s daughter, and from the political calculations of the Demon Realm; they were willing to lend their strength…they were even risking their lives to accompany her. Mio could not betray their intentions.

''…Basara…!''

Facing the spirit that was getting closer by the second, Mio recalled the youth who was more important to her than anyone else. —Late last night, Basara left the guest house on his own and did not return. She did not want to think about what the consequences would be if he was discovered to have taken individual action whilst in enemy territory. Mio and the others were worried about Basara’s safety, and had asked him to bring one of them along, but Basara insisted on acting along until the end, and remained firm on that.

[For the sake of this battle, there is one thing that I absolutely must do.]

That was all Basara had said before he asked Maria to hypnotise the guard maids while they were cooking, and ask them for information on the structure of Lundvall Castle and its guard configuration. He simply said

“I’ll do my best to come back before dawn”

He set off to take advantage of the night — but in the end, he did not return. Even though the sun had risen high — and the battle had begun, he was nowhere to be seen. According to Maria, the master-servant contract would immediately lose effect upon the master’s death, so as servants, Mio and the others would definitely notice; and so, they could confirm whether Basara was alive at the very least. As for the tracking ability, it was the same as Sheera had said; because the level of their master-servant contract had improved, they would not be able to sense Basara’s location so long as he refused. If that really was the case, it would mean that Basara’s consciousness was still normal, so there was no need to be too worried; but if Basara was inside a special barrier such as the one at Zolgear’s hideout, the effects of the master-servant contract would be nullified, and it would be hard to say whether he was safe or not. Moreover, that man on the Council called Mardones knew that Basara was not present. Basara was able to use [Banishing Shift], and that was a threat to them. If they found out that Basara had ventured out on his own, it was highly possible that they would seize the opportunity to ambush him. But—

''…Basara will definitely be fine!''

Naruse Mio’s trust in Toujou Basara was unshakable. Basara had also told Mio and the others what to do in case he did not return. Basara being the finisher, and Mio acting as the front-runner were all pre-arranged things. So — he wouldn’t be an exception this time either, he would definitely return. In this regard, Mio was certain. If Basara returned and what awaited him was the bad news of their team’s loss—

“If I disgrace myself here, how can I ever look him in the eye…!”

Basara had once said that when faced with life and death not to worry about the meaning of the battle, it was more important to stay alive, and even if she did have to use Wilbert’s power, she had to live on. Thus — along with Naruse Mio’s cry, she released the power that was within her. As the spirit soared through the air towards Mio with its fist prepared, Luka believed that he had obtained victory.

''…She will die.''

In the face of the attacking spirit that had such immense strength and dominance, Mio’s defences were paper-thin in comparison. Even if she was somehow able to escape the first hit, the spirit would simply continue to attack until a winner was decided. Sooner or later, Mio would eventually reach a junction where she would not be able to evade or defend, and even if she counterattacked, Luka’s spirit was able to regenerate its wounds instantaneously — as long as she used the power that she had inherited from Wilbert, she could use gravitational magic to crush it into a patty; on the other hand, if Mio showed any openings during her attack, the spirit instead would completely crush her.

''…If possible.''

Luke hoped that she would take the initiative to surrender before that. Leohart did indeed want to get hold of Mio’s power, but not by killing her. Although Leohart publicly declared that Wilbert’s only daughter who had inherited the power of her father was a great threat that could not be ignored, his true purpose was to obtain the so-called strongest power of the previous Demon Lord so that he could use it as a trump card against the Council. Once he succeeded in doing that, the Demon Realm would be unified by absorbing the Moderates faction. In order to achieve the latter, it was necessary for Mio to survive. Hence, Leohart immediately replaced Zolgear after he ignored his task when he tried to kill her, and chose the spy, Lars, whom the Moderates faction had sent as her new monitor and bodyguard to keep her safe. Even in doing so, it greatly increased the risk of the Moderates faction bringing Mio to the Demon Realm to endorse her as the new Demon Lord. When Leohart received the order from the Council to attack Wildart City with the spirits, he still asked Gardo to protect Mio’s life as much as possible. This was because Leohart himself — also felt a pain in his heart towards Mio who originally lived and grew up in the human realm, but lost both of her parents simply because she was the daughter of the former Demon Lord and was forced onto the path of revenge. Even so, Luka could not intentionally allow his opponent to win in front of the Council. Having come so far already, he could not allow the Council to use such faults as excuses. So — Luka did not control the spirit. And in that moment, the spirit threw out a right punch that was enough to turn Mio into dust.

“Eh—…?”

In that instant, Luka let out an exclamation of surprise. Just before the spirit’s colossal right fist struck Mio — from the fist to the elbow, the entire lower arm had vanished as if it had been instantly vaporised.

“That is…”

In the projection that displayed the dimension that the battle was occurring in, Naruse Mio’s body glowed red, and was emanating a red aura.

“—How could it be?”

Although the spirit began to regenerate immediately, its speed couldn’t keep up at all…the spirit didn’t even have a chance to repair its flesh as it seemed to be eroded by the red aura that Mio was radiating, and it’s body continually evaporated and disappeared.

[——]

The spirit then thrust out its other fist, but that wasn’t able to touch Mio either, as it disappeared before her as if it had been vaporised. The kick from its right leg suffered a similar fate, causing the gigantic spirit to lose its balance, and it crashed down into the city with a loud sound like a clap of thunder.

“The spirit’s body and self-healing ability have both been eliminated by her…?”

While Luka stared at the projection and murmured in shock, Mio landed in front of the spirit. The choice that Mio made when put into that desperate situation was not to use Wilbert’s gravitational magic. But the power that she possessed on her own. —In the past, Mio had also used this power when she destroyed Zolgear’s right arm. Now, her master-servant relationship with Basara was far deeper than it previously was, so she was able to instantly unleash her own strengthened power. And the result of that was the spirit that lay before her, unable to get up from the ground. The red aura encased around Mio also caused the very space around her to become unstable.

“…I know that you also have certain goals for which you must win.”

Mio extended her right arm out towards the spirit before her, and said to Luka, who was presumably watching this scene unfold from the broadcast on the stage

“But it’s very unfortunate — because I need to return to see Basara with my head held up high.”

At the same time, the red aura that she released swept from the feet to head of the spirit — destroying that gargantuan body without a single trace.