Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 4

==Chapter 4: In the Wind Blowing Through the Battlefield==
===Part 1===

Here, is a place is filled with tranquillity.

Built on the hill behind Wildart City – this wide area that was directly cut from the hill, is the Demon Lord Wilbert’s Temple.

--Currently, Nonaka Yuki is visiting the resting place of this great Demon Lord’s soul.

Of course, she wasn’t alone – Yuki was accompanying for this journey.

The one beside her was also accompanying to this place, Kurumi.

And before Yuki’s eyes was yet another person. Before the large tombstone of Wilbert, was a young girl firmly raising her head – Mio.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

From when they arrived here, it already has been thirty minutes, yet Mio remained standing there silently all this time. However—

''—No matter how long she wants to stay, let her.''

This was Mio’s first time coming to her biological father’s grave to pay her tributes. Since Yuki completely understood Mio’s history and current situation, she knew clearly that Mio now must have many different complex emotions within her.

That’s why – even though she couldn’t get a reply, there must be a lot she wants to say to Wilbert. Kurumi by her side also understood that, and also waited with no complaints with Yuki. Not long after—

“……Thank you, I’m fine now.”

After Mio said that, she returned back to Yuki and Kurumi’s sides with her back facing Wilbert’s tombstone.

“…Are you feeling better?”

Yuki’s question made Mio give a slight bitter smile.

“I don’t know~. I have never ever seen him, and this is only his grave. Even if you tell me that the one in there is my biological father, I won’t feel anything… I’m fickle, right?”

“No, I feel that that’s normal.”

With her two hands behind her head, Kurumi said while looking at Wilbert’s tombstone:

“I guess it won’t be normal for a person to be crying a lot when seeing the tombstone of a father that person has never seen before, it’ll be as if it was purely acting.”

“……Umn, you’re right.”

''Thank you'' – saying that, Mio’s bitter smile became deeper. She might be wanting to seem as if nothing happened – but her expression showed her loneliness.

“………”        “ ?   What’s wrong, Yuki?”

Yuki’s gaze caused Mio to ask, and her expression returned to one that Yuki and Kurumi were familiar with. Hence, Yuki replied: [Nothing].

''…I guess it's fine even if she’s trying to be brave.''

To that aspect of Mio, Yuki frankly felt admiration. Ever since they were born, Yuki and the others had received a Hero’s education as if it was natural and they were clear about their mission; but where Mio had started from was completely different – she had lived a normal person’s life, and treated herself as a normal young girl.

But one day, both her parents were killed – and thus learned that she was not a human but the Demon Lord’s daughter. But yet this young girl called Naruse Mio, basically didn't point fingers of blame or held any hate towards anyone; no matter how frustrated, pained, or lost she became – she continued going forward; even if she had come to the Demon Realm to face her origins, that point still didn’t change.

“Right… Since we have already come here, are you clearer on what you plan to do?”

“…No. I thought a lot about it, but nothing came out of it yet.”

Mio shook her head while saying that.

--The moment Mio resolved herself on her decision, a chain of irreversible events would definitely occur.

Hence – even after coming to the Demon Realm for three days, she still hadn’t decided. As it would affect not only just Mio, implicating Basara and the others, it also involved the future of the Demon Realm as a whole, so being hesitant about it was naturally unavoidable. Also—

''…The reason Mio is hesitant, is because of that man…''

In Nonaka Yuki’s mind, the current leader of the Moderates Faction Ramsas surfaced. Nobody knows just what he was planning; Klaus appeared every day to speak with Mio, and Ramsas persistently rejected meeting with Mio these three days.

Without being able to meet with both sides, a suitable decision of course can’t be made. In truth – before Mio had come to the Demon Realm, she had already made it clear to Yuki and the others that she had no intention at all of becoming the new Demon Lord. So going by the current situation, the only options would be complying with Ramsas’s request, to have the power handed over to the Moderates Faction, or to return to the Human Realm as they are now. And since Ramsas rejected meeting with Mio, the choice they should make was obvious.

''…But still,''

The reason Mio was so hesitant, was that she was worried that she might fall into some dangerous circumstances if she were to reject the Moderates Faction’s request. The reason she was still able to live despite the threat of the Current Demon Lord faction is all Maria’s credit – in other words a gift from the Moderates Faction. Despite having defeated Zolgear after so much trouble, the Current Demon Lord Faction is still very well and healthy, so receiving an attacking anytime would be normal.

Under these conditions, she would be helpless if she were to reject the Moderates Faction’s request. As the Heroes see Mio as a Demon, they would see the Current Demon Lord attacking her as an internal strife, thus only remaining on the sidelines.

''…Then again,''

If they were to become the enemies of the Moderates Faction, Maria would be faced with a dilemma. Even if Maria had said that she was prepared to leave the Moderates Faction if necessary and move together with Mio; still, after seeing Maria’s tears after learning of Sheera’s safety and being free from Zolgear’s coercion, she won’t be able to agree to Maria leaving behind her family’s feelings. Having once lost her family – Mio who was unable to escape her pain prior to meeting Basara, definitely does not hope for Maria to go through the same pain.Besides—

''…Ever since before we came to the Demon Realm, Basara has always been very worried about Zest.''

And now, there is no need to be so worried for her already. Because on the night they had come to the Demon Realm, Zest had made the Master-Servant Contract with Basara under Sheera’s proposal, so right now her position is similar to Mio and Yuki. If they were to speak of complaints to Basara making the Master-Servant Contract with the former enemy Zest, of course there would be some—

''…However,''

Before everyone came to the Demon Realm, Basara had said that if there was a need, they might return together with Zest; so after finding out about their Master-Servant Contract, the waves of complaints Yuki and the others had were small – except for the unsatisfied Kurumi.

''…But,''

Basara had accepted Mio who had lied to him, and had forgiven Maria who had once assisted Zolgear. Someone like that choosing to accept Zest, could be said was something to be expected. Mio and Maria’s positions were quite similar to Zest, so they were in no position to say anything.

As for Yuki – it was because Basara was someone who was so kind and wished to protect her who was important to him, that she became attracted to him. Right now, Zest were probably also enchanted by Basara, and thinking about the needs for the future, being able to have someone like Zest who could fight so well put her mind at ease.

Since – she had learned of it afterwards, the reason Basara had made the Master-Servant Contract with Zest was that Basara and Ramsas had almost entered into an explosive situation with each other, which also caused his absence back then. With opposition from the leader of the Moderates Faction which limited Basara’s actions with forbidding entry to this Wilbert’s temple, he had to stay behind in the city together with Zest and Maria.

Speaking of which, no matter what their reason for going against each other was, Yuki and Kurumi who were Heroes had managed to get permission to enter this temple while Basara who was once a Hero was denied permission, so they really can’t understand on what basis they were making their decisions from. No matter what – even they themselves don’t have complete freedom with their actions, with Lucia and Klaus each sending a maidservant who were waiting outside monitoring them. But even then—

“That person called Ramsas… just what is he even thinking?”

Returning on the dark outdoor passage, Kurumi said while walking in front of Yuki and Mio.

“If that old man called Klaus still wants to buy time now, it wouldn’t be difficult to understand…”

“……Unn.”       “……..”

Mio nodded at Kurumi’s words, while Yuki expressed her agreement while remaining silent. It was because of Klaus’s side who was pushing for Mio to become the new Demon Lord, who was causing Mo to want to stay longer in the Demon Realm, deepening her feelings towards the Moderates Faction – as well as to Wilbert and Wildart’s civilians, and obtain victory from that; Ramsas who wanted to extract Wilbert’s power from Mio, probably wants to make a quick decisive end to the war.

''…Just what is that man…?''

From the viewpoint of the surrounding people, this disadvantageous situation to Ramsas, was all completely his own fault. So, could it be that he has got some ulterior motives that had not been seen by anyone else yet?

<nowiki>「————————」</nowiki>

As Yuki began to harbour some unexplainable uneasiness, while they were still within a passageway,

The surface of the temple, began shaking together with the atmosphere.

“—Earthquake?”

“Run! –To the outside!”

The three of them began running.

--This temple was completely carved out, just like its passageways.

While the inside of the temple had a barrier to prevent the use of magic to prevent damage by vandals and the surrounding areas had something similar set up to prevent damage due to disasters, the tunnels and passageways might have a different story to tell. If they were to be blocked from the exit by the rubble if the ceiling collapses, they won’t be able to escape in this place where they were unable to use magic – hence, the three of them ran through the passages without even taking time to draw a breath,

Even if the trembles were to stop, they had no way to know if it would get stronger or weaker if it started again. So in order to try to preserve their lives in this kind of situation where anything could happen anytime, they had to leave this temple as soon as possible.

“—I see the exit!”

With Kurumi’s shout, rays of light from the outside came into their view – and immediately after, the three of them left the passageways. Firstly, they had to confirm the current situation.

“—you two, are you fine!?”

Mio asked aloud. The question was not directed to Yuki and Kurumi, but the maidservants who had followed them. While the two of them who were waiting for them to return were fine—

『……………………』

They gave no reactions at all to Mio’s concern.

They only stood there, not moving at all while looking towards the inside of Wildart City from the top of the Hill. And in the next moment, they then saw what the maidservants were seeing after following their line of sight.

“That is-- ……”

The city wall was broken through, and enemies were storming into the city.

However, those maids wouldn’t be stupidly standing there if it was just simply an attack from the enemy. They would’ve at least entered the temple to inform them of the emergency situation and helped Mio to get to safety.

Then – just what could have caused them to forget even that? The answer, was in the scene Yuki and the other were currently seeing. Even though the distance between the hill and the urban areas of the city was as big as Wildart City itself, they could clearly see the figures of the [Enemy] invaders.

“…Just what is that—“

Beside Kurumi, Yuki muttered, at a loss. Something which was incredibly unbelievable, was currently happening before her eyes.

The figures of three giant colossus, invaded into Wildart.


===Part 2===

There was a person, who was currently watching the chaotic situation in Wildart.

Standing on one of the shoulders of the giant spirit<ref>kanji is 英霊 (eirei)</ref>, looking down at the people screaming and running away in a panic, was Gardo who had voluntarily headed the attack on Wildart City.

''…I’m impressed.''

Gardo silently praised Luca who had managed to complete the tuning on the spirits in such a short time. That young child had taken care of it all from restoring them to even setting Gardo as their master, to the point where they were ready for battle. Although there were even stronger spirits excavated in those remains, it was easier to lose control the more power they had, and since there was not enough time to forge new Master-Servant Contracts for this battle, this was currently enough.

“—Damned Monster!”

In order to buy time for the civilians to escape, a group of people who looked like the guards for the city attempted a barrage of attacks. Many magic circles opened up on the ground – and countless lights flew towards Gardo and the spirits, but—

“……--Smash them.”       <nowiki>【【【——————】】】</nowiki>

Reacting towards the order Gardo sent out, the spirits  immediately reacted. They raised their right fists, and sent it flying towards the soldiers on the ground while the attacks bounced off them – in the next moment, a deafening shock resounded out. The ground was sputtered like a giant blast had happened, and a small sandstorm appeared. Immediately after – the spirits pulled back their fists and after the dust settled, what was revealed were the craters from the impact as well as the unidentifiable remains of soldiers from before. The civilians who had witnessed that—

“ ! ! ! –Uuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!”

They severely panicked, and began desperately to try to escape.

When Gardo saw this—

“Wow… They really are amazing~”

A completely relaxed voice came from a nearby building where its roof has collapsed. When Gardo turned to look, a young high-class demon was there. That demon, was sent to supervise them, by the Council who had ordered Leohart to utilize the spirits to invade Wildart.

“That spirits' degree of perfection seems really high. And so it would seem, that there won't be a need for me to make a move at all, then.”

“Of course… Right from the start, I had never considered about borrowing your strength.”

“That’s really impolite of you. Speaking of which, Gardo-dono – I had sent through a Ultimatum<ref>a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown of relations</ref> not long ago telling them to hand over Wilbert’s daughter, and the nearby forces should probably be receiving news soon and would only be dispatching troops with caution – but however, why did you just simply let those civilians go just now?”

“…What do you mean, Nebula?”

The supervisor whose name was called out, then faced Gardo who asked him with a shallow smile and said:

“The ultimatum was sent using broadcast magic, so the civilians of the city would now know about her being here. The number of people who disliked Ramsas’s methods isn’t small, and if everyone were to find out that he concealed the big news of the sole daughter of the great previous Demon Lord – right now, the city is being attacked because of that girl.  Thus, the people's’ discontent towards him, would definitely begin to turn into anger.”

‘’That’s why’’ – Nebula continued:

“Right now we should be working harder – and murder these civilians. If that happens, the Moderates Faction would automatically crumble apart from within. This is such a great opportunity, so how can you just let it pass so simply?”

“…………Listen closely, Nebula.”

“Yes, what are your orders, Gardo-dono?”

Nebula replied impertinently with a smile towards Gardo who shouted at him with a low voice.

“The orders the Council had given you, should be to supervise the status of the battle with the spirits, so stop spouting nonsense. If you dare to do unneeded things – beware of yourself turning into meat scraps.”

“……….……..I understand. You are the most outstanding one amongst the candidates chosen to take after Wilbert, so I am not stupid enough to take you on as my enemy. Unless the situation becomes grave, I will basically stick to my orders to supervise and remain watching by the side-lines and learn from watching you.”

“………”

Gardo showed no reaction to Nebula giggling while shrugging his shoulders, and only said:

“Before they hand over Wilbert’s daughter to us, we will be splitting to take three routes. Ignore those civilians, Leohart doesn’t like needless killing. However – if anyone dares to get in our way, annihilate them.”

<nowiki>【【【——————】】】</nowiki>

Receiving Gardo’s orders, light appeared in the spirits’ eyes.

Facing forward while standing on a spirits' shoulder, Gardo said:

“Destroy your target, Wildart City – begin attack!”


===Part 3===

On the hill, Naruse Mio saw those giants begin moving together.

Despite splitting to take three routes, it was clearly obvious their target was Wildart City.

“Shit – this is bad!”

As Mio and the others realised the enemy’s plan and wanted to return to the city as soon as possible—

“—Mio-sama! You’re alright!”

Someone ran up the mountain out of breath – the maidservant Noel.

Stopping before Mio and after taking a deep breath in relief:

“…This is great. Does anyone of you have any injuries?”

“We’re fine. Noel, what is going on right now?”

Noel answered seriously towards Mio who was still somewhat unclear:

“The Current Demon Lord Faction came. While we don’t know where they got the information from… they said something like that you had inherited his majesty Wilbert’s power and as it might trigger a new wave of fighting, they want to use this attack to prevent any possible future conflicts from happening.”

''In other words—''

“If we want them to stop – we will have to hand you over to them.”

“What, that's completely outrageous… so that means that the Moderates Faction having power is dangerous, yet them having power is not?”

Kurumi said indignantly.

“Since from a long time ago, they have been searching for Mio-sama, wishing to gain his majesty’s power. In order to increase their control over the Demon Realm, they might do things that seem completely outrageous – that was what Lucia-sama had said.”

Hearing Noel’s explanation—

“—we understand the situation, but just what are those giants?”

Yuki asked with a heavy expression. Although they can speculate on their enemy’s intentions, but speculations will remain as speculations, the answer will only be known by the enemy; so what they should be doing right now, was to deal with the danger before them.

“Although we have been unable to confirm that – Klaus-sama had said that they probably are the spirits from the ancient times.”

“In other words, also enemies… Alright, watch me kill them a hundred times and grill them black.”

Mio then asked again with a [ah]:

“What about Basara and the rest, are they in the city?”

“Because of the emergency situation, we had asked them to go into the city to help – Basara-dono and Zest together as a group, and with Maria and Sheera-sama together as another group, they went to confront the enemy.”

Since this was a period of time where the Current Demon Lord Faction and the Moderates Faction were at war, they could attack each other at any time. Hence, Mio and the others had already decided what action to take when something happened – if the civilians were to be involved in the battle, all of them are to help. Thus—

“Basara-dono had asked me to pass this message – Yuki-dono and Kurumi-dono, please obstruct the giants coming from the West side.”

“I got it – Kurumi”

“---No problems here.”

With that, the two of them moved without hesitation. When Yuki had started to ask Kurumi, Kurumi had already finished summoning flying magic – the two of them instantly flew through the air.

“W-Wait a moment – bring me along with you!”

However, Mio who had shouted towards the vanishing figures was blocked by Noel’s arms.

“You can’t. Mio-sama, you have to remain here, until the battle ends!”

“Let me go! …Why are you stopping me, is that Klaus-san’s order?!”

Being glared at by Mio, Noel met het glare while looking directing into her eyes and said:

“That’s right – however, Lucia-sama and Basara-dono also agreed with Klaus-sama.”

“No way… Why?”

Mio asked, dumbfounded.

“If Mio-sama were to appear now, you would be doing exactly what the enemy want you to do. The most effective way to make the Current Demon Lord Faction to take responsibility for this assault, is to let their reason for attacking become untenable<ref>(especially of a position or view) not be able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection</ref>!”

“But… for that, isn’t the Current Demon Lord Faction originally in the wrong for attacking?”

“I understand what you are trying to say, feelings cannot be applied to things like this – that is the nature of politics, Mio-sama. Not letting the enemy bring out their trump card while dealing another blow to them, this is politics.”

“But… if I were to just remain hiding here, I—“

“I understand how you feel! However, as Mio-sama was in Wilbert’s temple, she did not hear the enemy’s broadcast using magic telling of their reason for attacking and their demand for to hand you over to them, causing people to panic and grab the soldiers helping to guide them into the castle to seek refuge to ask just what was going on.”

''Thus—''

“If you were to show yourself now, the civilians’ anger might very well gather onto you alone; even if we manage to successfully repel this attack, Ramsas-sama and Klaus-sama might lose the people’s trust it might even lead to a rebellion. If you are unable to restrain yourself here, we will stop you at full force!”

“I—“

Hearing Noel’s pained indictment, Mio couldn’t help but stand there at a loss – and at this moment, the ground-shaking effects of an attack reached them.

“---!”

An attack then landed on the ground in the city at that moment, causing Noel to suddenly collapse and huddle up on the ground, and after that—

“Oh my god…”

Mio could only whisper that out having just seen ''that''. The spirit walking through the Central Avenue made large craters with every step it made, trampling over the soldiers attempting to obstruct it. And as for the soldiers flying in the sky, only less than half the original number still remained. Soldiers with their bodies burst open, as well as soldiers flying like fireworks<ref>literally on fire</ref> were flying through the air everywhere in Wildart city – and after a spirit attacked with a kick, everything in  its path was flattened.

===Part 4===

In the path of the kick, a group were huddled up together.

They were the soldiers for the City. They had tried attacking from its sides, as well as trying to draw near it by approaching on a path parallel to it, but they were in the end caught up in the crossfire by another attack team. And right now—

“…Guu….aaA, uuh…. Damn-- ……!”

Amongst the remains of the houses hit by the attack, someone was still breathing. That someone was Glen who was taught a lesson by Basara in that narrow alley behind the café.

Despite blood flowing out from various parts of his body like his head and his abdomen, Glen stood up and surveyed his surroundings.

In this neighbourhood, every single building have already become uninhabitable.

The other soldiers in the same team as him – other than Glen himself, no one managed to retain their lives.

“…One after another, just what the hell…”

The time where Glen had come to Wildart City, was after Wilbert’s death – when the Moderates Faction was doing a large-scale recruitment. He had originally chosen to take refuge in the Current Demon Lord Faction whose power had begun to grow back then, but what had caused him to change his mind was that even if he managed to gain no prominent achievements in the Great War, he would definitely be able to gain a job in the government sector as part of the package to appease the public when they lose their troops after Wilbert’s death.

And sure enough, Glen was enlisted to be one of the city’s guards. However, as Glen had only chosen the Moderates Faction in order to get a free job, he held no feelings and relegations to his current job and to this city – at the very least, he used to think that way. However, with how dull life became with the days crawling by, he would begin to habitually visit certain shops to eat and drink, and enjoy his days with the like-minded. In the last resort Glen had taken by choosing the Moderates Faction, he had knowingly managed to gain some things of his.

And right now – as of now, everything before Glen’s eyes had disappeared. And the culprit, is the Current Demon Lord’s giant spirit.

“ ! <nowiki>-----</nowiki>”

Tightly gritting his teeth, Glen deployed the flying magic built into the back of his armour, locked both his eyes and began heading straight for the spirit who did the damage. On its shoulder, there appears to be the high-class demon manipulator. After destroying so many buildings and killing so many soldiers, they still continued onwards as if not bothered by it at all. Hence—

“ ! …JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EVEN THINK YOU ARE DOING!!!”

Glen screamed with his all, discharged attack magics towards the spirit. He shot electrical balls from his right hand, and while it travelled in a straight line while discharging some of its energy to its surroundings, it burst explosively on the forehead of the spirit.

“Haa….aahhh… Now you know just how powerful I am right…..---?”

That attack just now was one that he had put his all in. Originally it was just to vent some of his hate and anger, but yet as if to mock him, the spirit continued onwards as if that attack just now was nothing more than a gust of wind. When Glen froze up from losing his train of thought from that, the spirit sent its right fist flying backwards without even looking back, blowing away the roofs of the nearby still-standing buildings.

“<nowiki>------Ah.</nowiki>”

By the time he had noticed the move, a large piece of debris was already right before his eyes.

Without even a moment to blink, just as the debris was about to smash in Glen awaiting his death – a magic circle suddenly opened up before him as if to protect him, and the debris broke up into dust upon hitting the magic circle and fell onto the ground. With the sudden change in situation, Glen couldn’t process what had just happened—

“That isn’t someone you can fight against – hurry up and fall back, leave this place to us.”

A calm voice came from in front of him. When Glen looked up to take a look—

“…! Aren’t you…?”

It was a woman that he was familiar with. There’s no mistaking it, even if she isn’t wearing a maid’s uniform now, she is undoubtedly the one Glen remembered – Zest. However, her sight wasn’t on him right now, but instead on something else. That something else, was a youth running towards the spirit with a large demonic sword in his hand.

“That person—“

Glen had seen that youth before, and he would definitely never forget the look of that person who had bitterly humiliated him before.

But – within his anger, what Glen felt was surprise.

He had jumped away at the moment the attack landed. Jumping around amidst the flying debris of the buildings – the youth who landed on the arm of the spirit quickly ran up to its shoulder towards the high-class demon, and swung his sword at him.

“…………”

In response, the high-class demon raised his right hand and a wall appeared to defend against the attack, yet—

“OOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

With an energetic roar, the youth brought down his sword with great speed and cut the wall into two, and continued approaching the high-class demon.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

With his defense cut down, the high-class demon was forced to retreat, and jumped backwards off the spirits’ shoulder. The youth also jumped off the shoulder going after him in mid-air.

“Isn’t that…”

The youth wasn’t using flying magic at all. The flying debris from the destroyed buildings, had become a solid trail used by him to move.<ref>like a improvised road</ref>

The cause of that was a magic from Zest who was in front of Glen.

“I will say it once more – hurry up and fall back.”

Zest left behind these words without even turning back to look at him, and flew towards the spirit – high-class demon vs the youth, and Zest vs spirit, with that, the battles began.

In a place Glen can never reach. 



Gardo saw that youth, walk on a footpath created from the debris.

''…Is that Zest’s handiwork?''

Underneath him, a female demon began fighting with the spirit  whose shoulder he was riding on until just now. Gardo had known that under the Council’s Zolgear, there was a trusted aide known as Zest. Although he had known she specializes at earth magic, he had never witnessed her battle. Being able to avoid its attacks while fighting the spirit while supporting each other, indeed only these two were left. Reportedly, Gardo had heard that she had sought refuge in the Moderates Faction after her master Zolgear died – but seeing her battle now, it appears that the death of her master doesn’t seems to be affecting her. After Gardo ordered the spirit to eliminate Zest—

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

The spirits recognised Zest as its enemy, and thus began the real battle against her.

''…And next,''

Gardo returned his attention back to the human youth sprinting towards him. Before he reduced the distanced between them too much, Gardo expanded numerous magic circles around him – and in the next moment, countless fireballs were shot towards the youth.

<nowiki>「！————」</nowiki>

The youth immediately reacted, gripping his sword in reverse, he swept out the footpath Zest had created. The fireballs then hit the debris indiscriminately, turning it into dust, and since the debris became an interference against the attack—

''ZzzBoomboomboomboomboomboomboomboom!''

Gardo’s fireballs exploded upon hitting the debris – and thus causing a chain explosion. Immediately after that—

“…---Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!”

The youth broke through the screen of explosions and continued towards him. Facing his cleave while he was twisting his body, Gardo engaged it while sending demonic power into his right shoulder.

In the next moment, just as the youth’s demonic sword made contact with Gardo’s shoulder—

''*Kake*<nowiki>————————————————！</nowiki>''

With that sharp shock resounding from mid-air in Wildart City, the two of them confronted each other in mid-air.

“…Toujou Basara, right?”

Gardo’s words caused Basara’s expression to slightly tighten up.

“The report had said, Wilbert’s daughter was being protected by Jin·Toujou’s son.”

“………”

The youth gave no reply, but it was obviously acquiescence. <ref>the reluctant acceptance of something without protest</ref>

From just now, he knew Basara is a speed type. Able to quickly ascertain the situation and then use the most streamlined method to evade or defend, and then retaliate with no lag at all—

''…I see, his skill isn’t bad at all.''

In Lars’s report, he had managed to fight with Zolgear for quite some time – but seeing his reaction speed, he would be able to put up a good fight against Zolgear even if they weren’t evenly matched. Since not much time had passed since his fight with Zolgear, it just shows just how much he had grown in this short period. However—

“…You’re too careless.”

Gardo said while looking at Basara in his eyes:

“Even if you are planning to hide Wilbert’s daughter, by standing out here so stupidly, you’re directly telling me that she’s right here in this city.”

“Is that so? Does me appearing here, really mean that Mio is definitely here in this place? Your words have no concrete proof, and they’re nothing more than speculation. I had heard that your reason for attacking was because that Mio was hiding here—“

The youth finally opened his mouth, and said with a shallow smile:

“—But could it be that just because Jin·Toujou’s son is here, you guys had taken it as that Wilbert’s daughter is also here, and thus attacked? If such a ridiculous reason was let known, you’ll be the laughing stock of the big guns of the other forces.”
Hearing Basara’s words, Gardo frankly replied:

“After I deal with you and your companions, and after I find her, you can have as much legitimacy of the reason of this attack as you want.”

“Similarly – if you and those spirits are defeated, forget Mio, when even your presence is questionable, your reason for attacking will also crumble.”

“--Do you really think you are able to do that?”

“That’ll be difficult to say…”

Basara’s expression suddenly became serious.

“If I have no other choice other than to defeat you here, I will do it – that is the reason I am here right now.”

Basara said while gazing firmly at Gardo, his voice completely void of complacency in being able to defeat Gardo and filled with the determination to win no matter what. Hence—

“—alright, I will fight against you for a while, Toujou Basara.”

Gardo said:

“However – if you really want to defeat me, shouldn’t you call your other companions over? Although Zest is present to fight the spirit, there are still two more of them, you know? If you were slow, Wildart City might be flattened just like that you know?”

Basara replied with a short laugh:

“Thank you for your advice – but something like that is obvious.”

At that time, Gardo heard a sound from somewhere far away.

Turning to look, the spirit entering the city from the east had received an attack to the side of its head and thus lost balance.

He saw someone else in battle with an spirit apart from Basara and Zest.

The shadows of two persons moved around the spirit quickly – and after seeing the owners of the shadows, Gardo’s eyes narrowed.

“That – that pair of succubus sisters?”


===Part 5===

In the path of the spirit at the east side, are Lucia and Maria.

“Although girls do like tall men, taking it a tad too far would instead have the opposite results, you know – you marionette♪”

To the grinning little sister who delivered a strong punch to the spirit’s cheek and caused it to sway—

“Refrain from idle chatting in battle, Maria—“

Lucia who had also donned her battle wear said. She was standing on top of a streetlight, and the giant spirit was right in front of her.

“Also, you shouldn’t be hitting its cheek, but instead here.”

What Lucia then sent out, was the whip in her right hand. In that moment with the light and boom, the attack originating from below the spirit swept across its lower jaw. Receiving another attack on the opposite side of its face compared to Maria’s attack, the spirit struggled to maintain its balance.

“It is easy to rock the opponent’s head in this place. But to someone like you who is a melee fighter, how could you not know such basic knowledge…”

Lucia said while sighing:

“Furthermore, this is a defensive battle. Even if our primary objective is to defeat the enemy, you have to think through your actions to try to reduce the damage to the surroundings. Even if other people can’t do it, how can we not even try to protect our own home?”

After realizing Lucia’s intentions are to stop the spirits from destroying the city—

“Ah! I’m sorry, Lucia-oneesama. Then I’ll just—“

Maria hurriedly apologised, and ran towards the spirit on the wall. However—

【………………】

The spirit saw through her plan, swung out its left arm to hit Maria.

''「Hoom!」''The air resounded as the giant arm picked up speed aiming at Maria.

''…Damn!''

Lucia subconsciously wanted to lash out her whip to assist Maria, as there was no footing at all in mid-air for her – and thus her familiar little sister can’t avoid that attack. But—

“—Oh!”

Maria leisurely twisted her body around, using inertia to hit her tail on the arm – and using it as a pivot, she pushed herself under the arm, and only air passing by hit her, leaving her safe and sound.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

As Lucia was shocked at Maria quick reaction, having been forced under the arm away from her original target of its lower jaw, Maria still haven’t given up on her target and then grabbed onto the spirit’s left collarbone and forcefully did a vertical flip upwards, jumping up and—

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”

Following up with a roar, she used her all to kick at its lower jaw from directly below, and then fell downwards—

“How was that, Onee-sama, was it good!?”

Turning backwards to look, Lucia saw an expression she was very familiar with on Maria’s face. No matter what, seeing her little sister all grown up after separating from her for a little while—

''…She had gotten, a lot stronger.''

It was probably the many battles she had been through together with Basara and Mio. Even though she had realised that fact from the reports she received, actually witnessing Maria’s growth made her feel proud – as well as some melancholy. However—

“All that did was to change the direction it will fall, so it will still just destroy the buildings in the city!”

Lucia sighed at Maria searching for a reaction from her: [What a silly child]. After that she jumped from the lamp post and landed on the roof of a building, and then lashed out her whip once again. With another boom, the spirit who received another attack at the back of its head once again stood upright.

“Listen closely, Maria – against a gigantic enemy like this one, you have to knock it down while trying not to knock him over.” 

“Uhh, wouldn’t that mean that we have to try to defeat it without defeating it, one-sama… <ref> The joke is that you have to do something to it while not doing that same something to it, with the something being a word/phrase with multiple sublimed meanings</ref> Is that really possible?”

“No, it isn’t. In the past when I was studying the books the humans read, there were many suitable methods for taking down an enemy like this described.”

''If I remember it right—''

“It something like after attacking its face on the right, attack its face on the left at the same time. In other words – if we attack it on both sides at the same time, there most likely shouldn’t be any problems. If there’s a right, there has to be a left; if there’s an up, there has to be a down; similarly, after attacking it from both sides, we just have to attack it on both side again.”

“I-I see. But I don’t think that it means what you think it means… <ref>a common trope not only in anime? Don’t really want to search it up right now, so do it yourself</ref> Speaking of which, coming up with a battle strategy like that just from that… as expected of onee-sama.”

“That’s of course. When I first read that line, I had first thought it meant that to get rid of a problem, you have to deal with it at its root. I had never expected for the Human’s literature to describe such an effective method for dealing with gigantic enemies.”

Lucia’s recollected, and then returned her sights towards the spirit—

“Although splitting up to attack would be fine, but since it is us two – match up with me well, Maria.”

“—Yes!”

Nodding, Maria gathered up her spirit and then began the attack on the spirit for real. Lucia’s whips, with Maria’s fists and kicks; the succubus sisters’ matched attacks explosively enveloped the spirit’s body. Within the heavy sounds of impact from Maria and sharp crackling sounds from Lucia’s whip, the contrasting sounds seemed to be part of a play, interacting with each other lively – progressively turning into a symphony – Lucia’s whip crackling being the riffs and Maria’s punches and kicks being the melody.

<nowiki>【————————】</nowiki>

Maria and Lucia’s combo gave no time at all for the spirit to defend itself, much less avoiding or returning attacks. But, seemingly as if having just too much fun, Maria who lept from the spirit’s shoulder to deliver a kick—

“Ahahahaha! – Another one!”

With the point of impact on its right cheek, an especially deep reverb resounded out. After eating such a great attack, the giant body of the spirit began falling over towards the left at a speed Lucia was unable to cancel it out with her whip. Hence—

“Mnn… This is bad.”

Lucia immediately moved without turning an eye at Maria’s performance, and shifted the target of her whip from the spirit to Maria. It’s not to attack, but after wrapping the whip tightly around Maria’s ankle after she had just sent out the spinning kick, in the next moment—

“Eh….HYYyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa<nowiki>------!!</nowiki>”

Maria released a shrill scream. Lucia had then forcefully swung her right arm, swinging the whip which had wrapped around Maria’s ankle, making the one who had momentarily forgot about her responsibilities take responsibility by slamming her into the spirit’s left cheek.

With a sound effect where [Pam!] would be exaggerating, the spirit which had begun to fall regained its balance. Maria’s body, was currently stuck on the spirit’s cheek in a 「大」 shape.

“Uuuu…Lucia-oneesama, how could you do this to me…”

“You’re the one who went wild while co-operating with me, and I only returned the favour to you.”

It was just as Lucia was coldly staring while answering the complaining Maria, a new development occurred across the city.

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

The spirit invading Wildart City from the west, went down on its knees after receiving an attack. And after that – a shadow descended at high speed towards the spirit.

“…They’ve made it.”

Lucia said while continuing to lash out her whip at the spirit right before her eyes.

There’s no mistaking it – they are, that pair of sisters who have just rushed to the battlefield.

Nonaka Yuki, and Nonaka Kurumi, the pair of Hero sisters.


===Part 6===

The shockwave Nonaka Yuki had sent out from [Sakuya], had successfully stopped the giant spirit from continuing its advance.

But that wasn't all that had done. The spirit would quickly stand up again and look towards them who were approaching from the air. This fact—

''…Fuji’s protection really does not extend to here.''

Caused Yuki to have a bitter expression. The spirit sword [Sakuya] was born from the rich energy at the mountain peak in the sacred forest, thus in the Human world, the closer it was to Mt. Fuji, it would be able to release more power closer to its original power – However, the attack Yuki had just sent out was far from standards.

Coming to this place that was in a different dimension from the Human Realm, had a really large effect on it. It was similar to the effect she had received within Zolgear’s specially constructed space and barrier to hide himself – but comparing with that time, she was able to put out sufficient battle power back then.

''…However,''

Complaining wouldn’t change anything, and Yuki had no intention to do that. Back in the Human Realm, the Demons Maria and Mio who inherited Wilbert’s bloodline was also carrying the same burden.

--Since they were able to continue fighting to this day, it was now her turn to bring out her battle power. After all, the one who had decided to come to the Demon Realm was Yuki herself. It doesn’t matter if it was for Basara, for Mio – or for herself, she can’t become a burden to the rest. Thus—

“Kurumi – move as according to our original plan.”

“But onee… the [Sakuya] right now—“

Despite Kurumi saying so worriedly while using flying magic while holding onto her, Yuki still gently shook her head.

“No need to worry, I still have things that I need to do – you too probably should focus on what you should do.”

“……”

“—Kurumi.”

After Yuki said that tiredly in a reprimanding tone, Kurumi took an action – expanding a magic circle.

“I’m starting, onee…”        “Nn – please do.”

Yuki nodded, and Kurumi activated the wind magic and sent out a mass of air, and its target – was the air around Yuki. Thus in the next moment—

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

Nonaka Yuki, together with the air around her, was catapulted at high speed downwards towards the spirit. In the moment she passed by the giant spirit in the gust of wind, she swept [Sakuya] in a straight line downwards at its head, and a strong feedback was returned to her arm. Hence—

<nowiki>「——————！」</nowiki>

Yuki’s expression immediately turned grave. The feedback [Sakuya] returned was too strong, which meant that the blade was completely deflected and did not cut into its target. It had the power of Kurumi’s magic supporting it, and her current high speed had increased the force of the slash by a lot – but yet she was unable to slash into the spirit’s body.

Thus Yuki immediately jumped sideways away upon landing, and the ground she had landed on was covered by a large black shadow – [Booom!] and an explosive impact rang out. The spirit had stamped the ground with its left foot. Yuki who had forcefully managed to avoid the stamp—

“Kuu…!!”

Her posture suddenly collapsed. The spirit’s stamp which had broken the ground also let out a strong air shockwave – and had impacted onto Yuki who was in mid-air.

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

The spirit’s attack with its left foot didn’t just end there. With a small movement, it also swept out its right foot using the left foot as a pivot. The instep flew towards her at a speed surpassing her expectations, almost immediately. Yuki immediately used [Sakuya] to draw out a pentacle<ref>or pentagram, I’m not sure</ref>, and with it becoming a wall right before the attack hit her, she managed to preserve her life, but—

“Aaaaaaaa <nowiki>-----!!</nowiki>”

She was blown away like an artillery shell along with a shrill scream, together with the wall.

''…This bad, with this speed……!!''

While amidst turbulence, Nonaka Yuki’s anxiety instantly rose. Despite being able to avoid being instantly pulverized by the spirit’s feet attack, if she were to hit a stone wall at this speed, not even half of Nonaka Yuki’s body would remain in a piece – an instant death.

''…Please let it be on time!''

Yuki desperately swung out [Sakuya], and expanded a magic circle behind her. Even if it wasn’t enough, it’s enough if this could be ended with just fractures or damage to her internal organs. However—

<nowiki>「！————？」</nowiki>

The impact from behind her had hit her much earlier than expected, causing Yuki’s subconsciousness to think that she was dead, but it then changed quickly. What Yuki had hit wasn’t a solid wall of a building--

“……Water?”

Despite being in water, Yuki spoke, confused. A mass of water containing oxygen which allowed a person to breathe within it had caught the flying Yuki as a cushion. The one who had used this magic to save her, was of course—

“Kurumi--…”

Yuki found Kurumi’s figure on the top of a building not too far away. At her little sister looking at her with worried eyes—

<nowiki>”————Sorry, I became a burden.”</nowiki>

Yuki apologised while biting her lip. The original plan – was to let Yuki who was unable to use [Sakuya]’s full power be the bait, and then for Kurumi who had received the black elementals from Lucia and had become able to use the Demon Realm’s spirits to use magic to eliminate the spirit.

Additionally, this was Yuki’s own suggestion, and she had begged Kurumi to agree to this battle plan; yet Yuki couldn’t even become the bait properly, forcing Kurumi to cut off her attack magic just to save her.

Kurumi was different from Mio who utilized the demonic power within her body, she is an elemental master who activated magic by borrowing a spirit’s power. It wasn’t easy to ask for the spirits in the Demon realm for help, and now she had to start over again.

「………………！」

''Ignominious.'' Yuki felt indescribable frustration towards her helplessness, and left the water cushion Kurumi had put up. She once again looked towards the spirit that was a little distance away with water droplets dripping from her bangs, and putting strength into her grip onto [Sakuya] in her right hand – in the next moment, Nonaka Yuki dashed towards her target savagely.

“--Onee!”

Yuki took a glance at Kurumi who had cried out as if wailing.

''Trust me'' – she told her with her eyes silently, ''I will become the bait properly this time''. This wasn’t just her trying to act brave, Yuki knew that she had the power to do that.

--As [Sakuya] was unable to receive the blessings of Fuji here in the Demon Realm, it’s power had dropped considerably.

However – Yuki’s body wouldn’t become weak just because of that. 

After reuniting with Basara, the power she had received from the Master-Servant Contract done with him; the power that she had accumulated all these while – will never betray Yuki. 

Nothing will ever drop from the sky, and one will never reap without even sowing.

That’s why, Yuki had resolutely come here, believing in herself and this power. To which—

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

The spirit violently swung out its right fist, but there was still a big distance from Yuki. Despite the spirit’s large size, its arm was still unable to reach her, but that movement still became a threat to Yuki. The fist had swept away all of the buildings in the path between it and Yuki – causing a wave of tsunami of large rocks. However—

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

Facing the wave of mud and rocks, her reaction was fairly simple. However, it was an action Nonaka Yuki had done tens of thousands of times before. 

She raised [Sakuya] up vertically, and swung it down along the same path – it was that simple.

From the neat handling of the blade, a gust of a blade of wind appeared and rushed ahead. When the blade of wind made contact with the wave of rocks and mud – and the wave split to the left and right with a [Fssh!], going past Yuki by her sides.

--It was a move that had not borrowed [Sakuya]’s power, but one that was from Yuki’s polished skill as a technique-focused swordsman mainly relying on tactics and skills, a return to a display of the powers of her body only. Right now – a straight path had opened up before Nonaka Yuki’s eyes.

[[Image: Shinmai v05 130.jpg|thumb]] 

Thus, she moved her body to attack. Pedalling the ground while keeping her body low, Yuki dashed forward with an explosive force, and shortened the distance between the two in the blink of an eye.

【………………】

Seeing this, the spirit twisted the arm it had swung and slammed the fist into the ground; Yuki skipped to the left, and before the spirit’s fist impacted the ground, she leapt upwards and twisted her body in mid-air. As the arm barely swept past Yuki, she slashed with [Sakuya] and cut through the wrist’s tendon. Although the fist which had lost its gripping strength impacted the ground and swept up debris, the destructive power had dropped a lot – going along with the upwards airflow, Yuki once again soared upwards and sideswiped with the blade, doing damage to the spirit’s elbow.

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

The spirit released a scream from pain, but Yuki ignored that—

“—it’s not over yet.”

Leaving behind her comment in the empty air, she went past the side of the spirit to its back – and left behind two connecting slashes in the shape of ‘X’ while sprinting towards the other side of the body. That severed its Achilles tendon, and caused the giant spirit that lost the support of its legs to topple over backwards and land on its butt with a giant rumble.

With its right hand damaged and its Achilles tendon severed, the spirit then followed its instincts and began to stand itself upright with its only undamaged left hand. Nonaka Yuki had anticipated this, and thus at the spirit’s left hand – she swung [Sakuya] horizontally at the left wrist tendon, severing it in a single slash.

By the time Yuki had done that, she had bought more time than what was in the plan. And at the moment she successfully sealed its movements,

“—Onee, leave the rest to me.”

With a calm voice, Kurumi said while appearing before the sitting paralyzed spirit. With the black elementals she received from Lucia set in the main slot of her gauntlet as the elemental master – green of the Heroes and blue of the Moderate Faction was emitted from before her palm -- a three-dimensional overlapping type magic circle.

【………………】

As if the spirit’s instincts felt danger, it opened its mouth widely aiming to bite Kurumi to death as a last-ditch attack. At that moment—

“--Don’t even think about it.” 

Yuki immediately swung out [Sakuya], smashing it into the jaw of the spirit from the side. By intentionally not slashing with the blade, it is to intentionally create bludgeoned damage. The attack with calculated timing, placing and force, managed to perfectly just dislocate its jaw joints.

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

Eyes widened from shock, the spirit now unable to guard could only just watch with its mouth open—

“Dance -- ”

At the same time Kurumi announced that, large amounts of pitch black flames poured into the spirit’s open mouth – and burned the spirit’s head to nothingness from within.

===Part 7===

The East route with Maria and Lucia, and the West route with Yuki and Kurumi.

As they were battling with the spirit on each route respectively, 

Basara and Zest at the central route were in a difficult battle.

The reason for that, was that while the situation at the other routes were two people working together to fight the spirit, Basara and Zest had to separate to fight against the spirit as well as the high-class demon controlling the spirit.

--though the situation was difficult, thinking about it wouldn’t change anything.

According to Lucia who was paired with Maria, this place was too far away Wildart City from her master for him to rush here quickly; Yuki was unable to obtain protection from [Sakuya], and while Kurumi had received the black elementals from Lucia, she was still unaccustomed to using the spirits of the Demon Realm, so they shouldn’t even be allowed to deal with a strong opponent like this now. Additionally, the spirits possess surprising regenerative power. So it still wouldn’t take them long to heal completely even if they received an injury; taking into account the spirit’s gigantic size and the inability to truss them up, him hoping for assistance from them would be for nothing.

And thus – with the situation not allowing for Mio to be on the battlefield, Basara has become the most suitable person to deal with this strong enemy. After moving the place of their battle field a building like a theatre with complex internal terrain—

“Ooooooooooooooo!”

On the stone-paved floor, Basara began running towards the high-class demon.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

The high-class then had countless magic circles shoot out fireballs, to greet Basara’s attack. As all of them are extremely hot and can combust, the distance he had to take when dodging had to be larger, which forced Basara to do larger side-steps to dodge the countless oncoming fireballs.

As for those that can’t be dodged, those will be just simply cut apart with Brynhildr. However—

“Ku…!”

''Clang!'' The sound along with the feedback transmitted through the hilt, caused Basara to frown. ''Heavy'' – those aren’t just simply fireballs, it probably had some rocks or debris within them; with the option of cutting through it no longer available, being able to deflect them would already be a very good thing. If one were to use a sword to deflect something like this for too much, it would just exhaust their hand quickly. Apart from when using [Banishing Shift], Basara would normally hold Brynhildr in a single-hand grip, but he had now been forced to grip Brynhildr with two hands for practically the whole battle, faced with this high-class demon. For large swords like Brynhildr, once the way of wielding them is changed, the wielder’s movements will too also change. In regards to Basara finely adjusting his actions at his current speed, it’s practically like suicide.

''…Tch, it’ll be great if I could use [Banishing Shift].''

Even if it’ll be unable to banish it whole, it’ll at least be able to eliminate the blaze of the fireballs, or maybe even the rocks within it. But right now, despite Basara knowing that the situation is currently disadvantageous to him, he still does not use [Banishing Shift]. Of course, there was a reason behind it.

After defeating Zolgear, Takigawa had given Basara a piece of advice.

And that advice was that in the battles that would happen with the Current Demon Lord Faction hereafter, there is a need to avoid using that move. [Banishing Shift] is a move where once the target space is slashed, it can eliminate and banish everything beyond the zeroth dimension, and is very unique even amongst the multifarious magics and special abilities in existence. From another angle, its potential as a threat is much higher even when compared to Wilbert’s power inherited by Mio. Just like in the past, Zolgear’s target wasn't just Mio alone, he had also taken interest in [Banishing Shift] and had plotted to take it for himself.

Hence, if Basara were to just show that move carelessly, it might add to Mio’s dangers. But in the first place, it was Basara who had voluntarily went and attracted the attention of the enemy. However, as long as it was to protect Mio and everyone else, Toujou Basara will definitely unhesitatingly use that power, even if it meant that he would have to foul his hands, use underhanded tactics, and doing dishonourable actions, basically if it meant even he had to become scum.

''…But the problem right now is that—''

Just like Zolgear had made use of Maria with a hostage when fixated on Mio – once the enemy knows that Basara has got such a unique ability, they might make a move to those around him.

That is something that Basara would not want to see. If he were to let Mio and the others be in dangerous situations just for him, even to the point of becoming a hostage – the moment he had thought about, Toujou Basara felt chills right from the bottom of his heart. Thus, no matter what, he had to not use [Banishing Shift].

Carefully passing through the troublesome fireballs released by the enemy, and making the enemy enter his range—

“---Haaa!”

Basara immediately slashed out with Brynhildr. The two-handed attack, with its power naturally much higher than usual – however became useless. The enemy had not dodged, as the slash had hit its target.

It’s just, the attack had not caused any injuries – the flesh of the high-class demon was too tough.

''…Damn it!''

No matter how many times Brynhildr hit him, there was only the sharp sounds from the impact. Forget about cutting into his flesh, it couldn’t even make a scratch on his skin.

--The opponent’s attack all consisted of fireball magic, so probably, he is a magic type.

The magic type basically specializes in using magical attacks, so they usually don’t have a very tough body. But this person has got such a tough body. Probably just like Zolgear who was good in not only swordplay but also magic, this high-class demon does not just fights with purely magic, but also with his physical body too.

In the past –in the fight with Zolgear, Basara had been overwhelmed while fighting. Not only just Basara, Mio and Yuki too seemed to never have been a match for him. Thus after the battle, Basara and the others had set aside a large percentage of their after classes time and school break time to train, since after all, Zolgear isn’t the only high-class demon within the Current Demon Lord Faction – of course, they had not forgotten about utilizing the Master-Servant Contract to raise their power by deepening their relationship, but just that alone was definitely not enough; for the future, raising their battle prowess is a must. In this period of time, when Sakazaki had taken action during the Sports Festival, despite how Kurumi had become his hostage, Basara had inadvertently received a heavy injury; but right before that, in the skirmish with Tachibana that roused from a misunderstanding, Basara had quite effectively managed to suppress Tachibana who had Vampire blood.

That undoubtedly was a result thanks to the training. And after the Sports Festival – Basara had continued to train to this day and had undoubtedly raised his levels, but yet his sword now is almost useless. It’s not that he was weak, but that his opponent is overwhelmingly strong, additionally—

''…he is definitely above Zolgear…!''

Although he had once been overwhelmed by Zolgear, as long as his fear was targeted, he could be damaged, and that thus was the way to defeat him; but the opponent before him right now isn’t afraid of his attacks at all, so that was practically nothing Basara could do. Just then—

“…You really don’t know when to retreat, do you?”         <nowiki>”————！”</nowiki>

In the moment the high-class demon released a sigh, Basara reflexively jumped away towards the right, and a fireball then barely scrapped past his body, slightly burning his clothes. Probably because his compatibility with this opponent was bad, that he had given him the chance for a surprise attack. He had managed to get by this time with his luck, but continuing to be this close was extremely dangerous.

“—do you really think I will fall back so easily?!”

However, Basara continued to boldly remain in front of his opponent. If he were to draw distance from the enemy without doing damage to him, he will soon be driven into a corner and then eventually die. Hence, Basara cannot fall back, but instead he had to change his thinking on how to damage his opponent, and only a single answer came to mind.

That answer was to continue attacking, until he managed to do some damage – just like how Yuki managed to cut through Takigawa’s barrier in the past. Basara lowered his body, and then launched another attack at a rapid speed.

“Haaaaaaahhhhhh!”

Brynhildr drew out countless curved lines of lights, continuously slashing at the body of the high-class demon. What sounded out, was the sounds of the strikes, but Basara continued to keep up the speed. The high-class demon that was receiving those attacks, then suddenly activated the magic, but—

<nowiki>「————！」</nowiki>

Basara jumped a short distance sideways, and while sliding slightly on the roof, he then once again launched attacks at the high-class demon. What Basara had just done, was to avoid the enemy’s attack and counterattack. The result of careful and intricate footwork, which allowed him to avoid the enemy’s attacks and quickly launch an attack.

Since the enemy could attack him with their all.

He would be fine as long as the attacks do not hit him.

And at that moment, as if the high-class demon realised Basara’s intentions—

“—what a boring battle tactic.”

Saying that with disdain, he brought out a new attack. No longer firing fireballs – but directly raising columns of fire by his legs.

As if like a wall of fire, surrounding the high-class demon.

“……!”

Basara hurriedly jumped backwards, keeping his guard raised while waiting for the volume of flames to decrease.

By using a magic like this, it appears the purpose of it was to force a distance between them.

Its aim wasn’t to attack, but to defend – so once the flames weakened, he will immediately launch attacks. While Basara was waiting for a chance with such intentions—

“That is--…”

He quickly realised that he was going down in the wrong direction. The blazing columns were not getting weaker, but instead they repeatedly expanded in volume. Very quickly – the flames rising up into the sky, turned into the shape of ‘a certain being’. That being was—

“A flame dragon…!”

As the flame dragon rapidly took shape before his eyes, shocking amounts of heat was still radiated to Basara who had taken quite some distance, even charring his fringe. Once the reins of such a monster that was made up of flames was let go, Wildart City would definitely be flattened.

「Damn it – do I really have no choice but to use that!? 」 

As Basara readied Brynhildr to use Banishing Shift, in that moment—

<nowiki>『——————』</nowiki>

The flame dragon flew upwards with a screech, and then rapidly descended.

“Eh………?”

And swallowed up the high-class demon before his eyes, causing an extremely thick pillar of fire.

''Suicide?'' –Basara began to have doubts in that moment, but the weird thing was that the theatre building had not caught fire as a result at all.

“—I do not wish to waste any more time playing around with you little kids.”

A low voice came from above the swirling pillar – and after that, the body of the high-class demon appeared from within the flames. On his body, there was now a pair of wings and a tail, with two horns protruding on his head and his arms becoming very thick – his appearance as a whole was very red, and he looked like a fire demon god. <ref>魔神majin </ref>

''That appearance...''

Toujou Basara realised why the high-class demon looked had turned into that appearance. It wasn’t that the flame dragon had swallowed him – but instead he had absorbed the flame dragon. The body high-class demon that had absorbed the flame dragon that could destroy the whole of Wildart City into his body before his eyes, radiated a scary amount of heat and feeling of oppression, and at the same time—

“I’m coming—“

Saying that short line – that huge body suddenly appeared before Basara’s eyes just as his mind registered that message.

<nowiki>“Wha————?</nowiki>

What shocking speed. Despite his large body, his speed was much faster than the speed-type Basara. Facing such an opponent with such strength, even any minor doubts in the sub-consciousness would result in a fatal injury. ''This is bad'' – as Basara repented on his reaction, the high-class demon swung his right arm that seemed to almost combust the surrounding air at him, and he wasn’t able to avoid completely it at all.

In the next moment, a large boom accompanied the impact of the attack.

--however, what the right fist of the high-class demon impacted wasn’t Basara.

In the nick of time, at Basara’s feet – from the stone making up the roof, a pillars suddenly rose up, pushing him upwards. Seeing the stone pillar being broken in his place below his feet—

“—Zest?”

Toujou Basara immediately realised who was the one that had just saved him, and called her name. Turning around to look, Zest was still in battle with the giant spirit not too far away, but—

<nowiki>『——————』</nowiki>

Their eyes met for a short moment. Zest was also currently in a difficult battle, but yet she still assisted him in the nick of time with magic. Thanking Zest in his heart. Just as Basara was about to jump away from the shattered  pillar--

Basara suddenly gasped in shock. From the high-class demon’s body part that had shattered the pillar, a flaming tentacle extended from it as its root, and it came flying towards Basara as if wanting to swallow him whole.

Basara hurriedly escaped backwards, and the stone pillar too was swallowed whole by the flames at the same time. After that, Toujou Basara who had just barely managed to escape into the air heard—

“—it’s over.”

The voice that came from directly behind him, told Basara that his movements had been seen through by the enemy, that he had been read through right from the start – and without even the time to turn back to look, an unbelievable attack landed on Basara’s back.

What Basara had felt, was not a heavy blow. Just like how the pillar that the high-class demon shattered burned, Basara who received a punch with extremely high temperatures, his whole body became bathed in flames--

<nowiki>“Ggaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh——————!?”</nowiki>

Just like a meteorite, his body descended towards the ground while burning and screaming.

Hitting the roof within the blink of an eye, Basara impacted onto the ground of the theatre with a large boom. The impact destroyed a large number of the seats in the theatre, sending broken fragments flying everywhere.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

As Toujou Basara laid supine<ref>(of a person) lying face upwards</ref> on the ground of the theatre, he saw the high-class demon descending through the hole in the roof towards him.

And on his thick right arm – coiled the flame dragon he had seen just now.

===Part 8===

“…--Basara-sama!?”

Zest who had heard Basara’s screams, subconsciously turned to look towards the theatre.

And what she then saw, was her Master receiving the high-class demon’s attack head-on, and his flaming body descending towards the ground.

<nowiki>「————！」</nowiki>

Zest reflexively immediately activated earth magic. As she knew that it was too late to do something like creating a stone pillar to disrupt the enemy’s attack, something she had done not too long ago, she moved her consciousness into the theatre – changing the characteristics of the ground, and thus attempting to reduce Basara’s impact on the ground as much as possible.

She had hoped that her hastily casted magic would make it in time – but as fate willed, Basara who received the attack was descending far too fast, and at that moment, the sound of Basara impacting the theatre’s ground reached Zest who a distance away earlier than she would’ve liked.

<nowiki>“Ah…aa….! Basara-sama————!”</nowiki>

Zest shouted, as if wailing, while flying towards Basara.

But she couldn’t reach him. The giant spirit circled to in front of her, as if blocking her way on purpose.

--in the battle with the spirit up to now, she had never gotten the upper hand

She had to fight against an opponent who Yuki and Kurumi, as well as Maria and Lucia had managed to defeat with difficulty with two persons by herself so of course it would be much harder by herself, the really knotty opponent is Basara’s current opponent – Gardo. The one controlling the spirit, Gardo, as well as this spirit before her whose orders had been revised from [Eliminate any enemies, attack Wildart City] to be different from the other two, had been pestering Zest, keeping her busy here. But no matter how difficult an opponent this spirit is -- her past struggles, are no longer there in her mind, and they are no longer important.

Because in her eyes now, Gardo had landed in the theatre after Basara/

Her most important Master – Basara, had befallen immediate danger.

“……Stop meddling…be gone…!”

With her head lowered, Zest said with a shaking voice.

<nowiki>【——————】</nowiki>

And the reaction of the spirit, was to silently swing its giant fist.

Next moment – the air shook as the gigantic mass of the spirit’s fist impacted the earth, but—

<nowiki>【………………】</nowiki>

The spirit slightly raised its head, as it realized that not only had its fist not broken the surface of the earth, Zest was not smashed into pieces too. The spirit’s fist did not even touch Zest, and was stopped by a magic circle Zest had expanded.

And after that – Zest finally raised her head, her usually calm face filled with a certain passionate emotion.

And she roared.

<nowiki>“I said…… be gone————————!!”

At the same time – the rubble around them instantaneously gathered together into a giant golem even larger than the spirit as if responding to her voice, its eyes emitting a certain light——

《——————》</nowiki>

And brought its hands linked together as if praying, downwards. This move, brought the spirit’s head into its arms – and then smashed the spirit onto the ground. After paralyzing the spirit, Zest had the golem continuing pinning down the spirit on the ground—

“Basara-sama…!!”

And she then ran to Basara’s side, not able to wait any longer, this time with no more obstacles in her way – she had originally planned to create a hole in the theatre’s wall, but however—

“--I’ll be troubled, if too many obstacles appear.”

A sound suddenly came from her side, and at the same time—

“！——Gyaaaaaaaaaaa！”

Zest who immediately took defensive actions, suddenly took a surprise attack from behind.

The surprise attack which ruthlessly swallowed Zest whole, swept the whole street clean.

===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.

===Part 10===

After the impact of bombing the theatre along with Basara and Gardo dissipated.

The beautiful streets around it too have already become rubble.

“Yare yare, it appears I overdid it a little…”

Someone said while smiling and looking down on this scene.

That person was Nebula, who had accompanied Gardo in the attack on Wildart City after receiving orders from the Council.

--right now, Nebula’s field of vision was very high and wide, but that was not because he was floating in the air.

He was on the shoulder of a giant spirit much bigger than those Gardo was controlling.

This was an even more powerful high-class spirit that Luca didn’t have enough time to deal with – but yet whose adjustments and contract were completed by the Council behind Leohart and the other’s backs. Nebula’s mission of supervising this attack on Wildart City was just merely a cover, and the Council had given him separate orders; amongst those, were to assassinate Gardo while he led the attack on Wildart City.

--lately, Leohart’s influence has been growing explosively.

While Leohart was the puppet the Council had put as the new Demon lord, him attracting the support of too many civilians and soldiers wasn’t a good thing. Although a puppet would of course attract more attention the more gorgeous it was, it would be futile if the puppet wouldn’t listen in the end. Hence the Council had organised for this attack, which would then be used to weaken Leohart’s influential power. Deliberately not fighting a war decided by numbers and thus sending out the excavated spirits, was because the Council knew that Leohart would definitely send out a subordinate of his to lead on the frontlines. The number of subordinates Leohart could trust wasn’t that big of a number – so by making him choose a commander in the sudden small chaos that would ensue, they could effectively reduce Leohart’s power.

Hence, when the Council received the news that Gardo would be the frontline commander of the attack, they became very happy.

One of the reason Leohart was able to maintain as well as raise his positive influence, was because a powerful Demon Lord candidate had joined his faction, serving as the role of a prime minister. Thus—

“Once someone like you is gone – his majesty Leohart will probably be more obedient.”

Before the eyes of Nebula who said that, was Gardo who had risen to about the same height as him.

“…Nebula, you bastard…!”

“Ah… So you really are angry~. Well, I guess it would be weird if you didn’t get angry though…”

At Gardo’s glare that was filled with anger, Nebula only said that while smiling.

The Gardo right now, no longer had the usual aura and pressure of oppression he had. The reason for that was because he had taken head-on the sneak attack of the spirit Nebula was controlling, and had become heavily injured – he had also lost his right arm that was the symbol of his power.

“But then again, the youngsters of these days still reap what they sow. Even if he is the son of Jin ·Toujou, he is still only a human youth, yet you still need to end his path… so while a bit uneasy, I had accidentally intervened. You couldn’t have already become soft from being content with doing the work his majesty Leohart has for you right, Gardo-dono?”

Hearing Nebula’s mocking—

“……I believe I’ve said it before.”

Gardo said:

“In the event where you do something unneeded – I will personally turn you into meat scraps.”

After saying that, Gardo’s body also disappeared.

“That’s right. But I believe I’ve also said it before—“

Nebula said towards Gardo who re-appeared beside him, as if not giving a damn at all:

“—unless things become grave.”

All of a sudden – Gardo who was about to dish out his attack suddenly disappeared, but that wasn’t what Gardo had planned. A shockwave and boom followed soon after, as if testifying just how explosive that attack that just happened was. High-class demon’s right fist that had just lashed out, had directly landed on the side of Gardo’s body.

Gardo was blown away explosively, smashing through the remains of a large number of buildings in Wildart City – before finally coming to a stop after going through three streets. After the dust cloud caused by the attack settled—

“…Hmm, it is surprising that that was overkill.”

Having dealt with Gardo, Nebula shrugged.

“Now then, let’s move on to my next task… -- aya?”

Just then, he noticed the presence of other enemies.

Probably because he had dealt with Gardo, that caused the other spirits to not operating. Amongst the people dealing with the three spirits, other than Lucia who was Ramsas’s aide and Zest, there were three more people heading towards this place. After seeing the fire within their eyes—

“…Ah, I almost forgot. I had also destroyed your companion.”

Nebula continued while giggling:

“No problem – before I deal with my remaining targets, I shall play around with you guys first.”


===Part 11===

Zest whose consciousness was floating around in darkness, felt something brushing past her face.

Originally she had assumed it to be wind, but—

''…That's not right.''

With her eyes still closed, Zest felt that there seemed to be a certain meaning behind the sensation of her face being caressed.

The sensation on her cheeks – seemed to be desperately urging her to awaken. Hence—

“…!……uuh…”

Opening her eyes just a crack caused sharp pain to suddenly course through her whole body, and moan in pain.

But despite that, she still fully opened both her eyes, and the first thing she managed to make out in her misty vision was the face of a lovely animal. Using its small tongue to lick at Zest’s face was—

“You… are from that time…?”

Zest quickly realised that it was the unicorn pup she had met not too long ago in the alleyway behind the café, when Basara and the others visited the streets. Despite how Gardo had invaded Wildart City with the spirits and destroying many areas of the city, this pup appears to have been very lucky and managed to keep its life.

As Zest’s consciousness thoughts righted itself—

“……Basara-sama————!”

She finally remembered just what she was going to do, as well as what happened afterwards, causing her to suddenly get up while calling out her beloved master’s name. At the same time, there was someone else who heard it.

But the sign of reaction was not speech – but hollering instead.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh—!”

“—Maria?”

Thinking something was wrong, Zest turned to look towards the sound, only to find the scene of Maria being kicked away by an spirit different from the previous three.

Her petite body impacted on the ground after being kicked like a rubber ball, and the shockwave blew away some of the rubble in the vicinity.

「………………」

Seeing this, Zest was shocked. The power and agility of this spirit was incomparable to the spirits from before, and the one controlling this monster wasn’t Gardo, but instead different high-class demon.

“That is—…”

Near the rubble Maria had landed, Zest found the figures of two more young girls lying on the ground in different positions – Yuki and Kurumi. They probably had fought against that spirit while she was still unconscious. The poor miserable condition of the large amounts of rubble in the vicinity, told her of just fierce the battle was.

「…………！」

Despite how worried she was about their conditions, there is something that Zest most do first.

And that was to search out her master Basara’s whereabouts. As long as Basara is still alive, the contract won’t disappear – thus while praying that Basara was safe, she closed her eyes and tried to sense his location. After that—

''…There’s a reaction… Are you alright, Basara-sama…!''

Sensing a reaction from Basara caused her to immediately open her eyes and barely managed to stop herself from shouting out loud from the happiness. Basara is nearby, but his body wasn’t visible, so he is probably now buried under the rubble. Although she very much wanted to go and rescue him now—

''…It is best if I move cautiously.''

If she were to let that high-class demon notice her, not only she would be in danger, as Basara too would be dragged into it. And not forgetting that more importantly, that spirit is not what she alone can win against. Thus Zest held her breath, and began moving slowly.

However – it appears that the high-class demon’s eyes were just too sharp.

“—Oya, the mouse that I thought I’ve already disposed of is still alive?”

Before Zest could even begin to start moving, he already noticed that Zest had already regained consciousness.

The spirit then began to slowly turn towards her, slowly closing the distance between them.

『————』

Perhaps feeling the approach of impending danger, the unicorn pup jumped onto Zest’s right shoulder as if seeking her help. Zest hugged that small body, at a loss of what to do. Since she has been noticed, it would be best if she were to leave the place immediately to bring the danger away from Basara and the others.

''…however.''

The moment she shows an opening, the opponent will definitely immediately attack. The problem now is the power and speed of the spirit that had exceeded expectations. Such strong attacks will definitely flatten the surrounding area, along with Basara and everyone else; but if she were to remain here any longer, Basara would still be in danger, so just what should she do – by wanting to protect her master, she was in a dilemma.

''…! If this continues…!''

In the end, she chose the way which has got the highest possibility of protecting her master, and put it into action. It was at that moment—

A dazzling light suddenly appeared.

「————！?」

Zest thought the spirit had started its attack, and thus used earth magic to erect a barrier – but it appears that that was not the case.

The spirit’s head was wrapped up in an explosion – it was the spirit that received an attack.

However, it seems that there was no damage at all. When the deep red flames dissipated, the head appeared, completely intact and covered in soot. Nonetheless, it seems that someone had saved Zest – as well as Basara, it was an undeniable truth.

''…Just who…?''

Zest began looking around. It was not Basara, not Maria, and not Yuki or Kurumi.

Lucia? No, she is Ramsas’s aide, so she wouldn’t come here.

--Then, just who was it?

The answer was brought into Zest’s ears by the wind.

“…—there has got to be a limit to your arrogance.”

The voice of the young girl who inherited the blood of the noble Demon Lord.

--She, landed in the space before Zest’s eyes.

Zest too, only continued looking intently – at the girl who descended into the battlefield.

Naruse Mio.

「………………」

Seeing the back of someone who originally definitely couldn’t appear on this battlefield—

''…She probably couldn’t bear it anymore.''

Zest wasn’t particularly surprised, since the person in question was Mio.

That just now, was probably not to save Zest – or maybe while she had that intention, the reason she had come down to this place was definitely to protect Basara.

Just like Zest – no, Mio who had done the Master-Servant Contract with Basara long before Zest, should clearly know that Basara was nearby. She couldn’t accept watching from the sides any longer, while seeing those precious to her and the town being destroyed just because of her presence.

That was why she had forcefully shaken off Noel, and rushed here. Just then—

“……Hou?”

The similarly completely uninjured high-class demon, deeply bowed towards Mio while on the spirit’s shoulder.

“My my, if it’s not the Moderates Faction’s princess… I believe this is our first meeting. My name is Nebula, and I am a trusted aide of the chairman of the Council, Belphegor. Please forgive me for my lack of respect for speaking from such a high up place.”

“…If I go with you, will you stop attacking the city?”

Hearing Mio say so calmly, Nebula smiled.

“I believe that we had sent an ultimatum, demanding for them to hand you over, but I had not expected for you to personally appear yourself. In our attack this time, we had undeniably stolen the lives of a large amount of the Moderates Faction’s soldiers and wrecked the heritage-rich Wildart City, causing many civilians to become homeless. All of that, are the price that they have to pay to protect you.”

But however—

“Though I would be ashamed to ask, I really cannot understand why. Could you please explain to me to let me broaden my understanding – you impulsively appearing here and putting to waste all of their efforts and sacrifices, where did that foolishness come from?”

To Nebula’s words that was equivalent to provocation—

“……Someone like you would never be able to understand.”

Mio replied while tightly clenching her fist. The shaking in her voice – most likely come from fear, as well as strong anger and remorse. Although Zest couldn’t see her expression from behind her, Mio’s heart must be filled with frustration, while she glared at Nebula fiercely. After that—

“Hmm, I see – so this is the daughter that Wilbert had left behind.”

Nebula smiled, but in the next moment – he said with ice-cold eyes:

“…— Kill”

At the same time, the spirit under Nebula’s feet began to move. It lunged forward and appeared almost immediately before them, and sent out a punch as if boxing.

“Eh……?”                      “————！”

The unexpected sudden change caused Mio to freeze up, and Zest reflexively erected a stone wall in front of Mio and herself, but however she became just as surprised as Mio.

--Everything the Current Demon Lord Faction had done to Mio, was to gain Wilbert’s power that Mio possessed.

If she was killed, that power will disappear along with Mio’s life. Hence Zest had thought, even if they want to kill Mio, it would be after extracting Wilbert’s power from her.

''…Then why?''

Despite her thoughts being thrown into confusion, Zest still forcefully maintained her focus. Although her wall might not be able to block the spirit’s attack, their death would be set in stone if nothing is done. Hence she put in her all into that wall – and immediately after, a boom filled the air.

From behind Zest and Mio.

“Eh — …?”

Both Zest and Mio turned backwards to look confusedly. They saw the shockwave caused by the spirit’s punch affecting the ground behind them, filling the air with dust.

However, although they understood what the scene before them was, they failed to understand what had just happened.

She was unable to accept that this was the truth. Because – Basara should be in around that area.

While still in a trance, Zest subconsciously used the locating ability of the Master-Servant Contract. Almost immediately, amidst the sandstorm before her eyes, she found a reaction belonging to her master.

「——————」

And after that, Zest’s body began moving without even thinking. She swiftly spread her wings – and flew in a straight line towards where the reaction was from. With the obstruction of the flying dust everywhere, Zest could not see even Basara’s silhouette, thus she used earth magic to – gather all of the flying dust together, settling all of it on the ground far away.

Finally able to see her own master now, Zest stretched out her hands, and plunged into his arms—

“……Basara-sama…?”

And said his name with a shaking voice and widened eyes, but she didn’t receive a reply. That’s of course, since Basara’s injuries received from Gardo weren’t light, and he had also received a surprise attack from the spirit Nebula was controlling – he was already in a state urgently needing treatment for that.

And adding on to that, Nebula has had the spirit send out another attack to exterminate.

Yet Basara was still alive, but he was only just not dead yet.

Basara is still not completely safe yet – he is not moving at all. Just then,

“…Aahh, I’m terribly sorry for the blunder I’ve made. I accidentally skewed my aim, and I had no idea that Jin·Toujou’s son was there. I’m terribly sorry.”

Nebula apologised sacaristically, and then—

“…Speaking of which, Princess, you still have not answered my previous question.”

And smiled. And as if having seen throught all of it,

“In the end – just who did you hope to protect by shamelessly running out here and putting to waste the efforts of those around you?”

That was a line that was sufficient enough to annihilate Zest’s reasoning ability many times.

''I’ll kill you!'' While hugging the unmoving Basara, Zest’s emotions were about to explode.

--But in the end, she couldn’t do it. Because before Zest began to move, or even open her mouth.

''That'' happened.

“——————————”

A deep red wave of energy burst out with Mio as the epicentre.


Naruse Mio who was causing the space to shake uncontrollably and scream—

“…——How dare you…”

Towards the giant spirit and Nebula before her eyes, she said so shortly.

Within her heart, the surging and welling emotions were almost going to make her go crazy. The reason that made her surprised that had allowed her to say such words coldly, was because within her mind, she was extremely calm.

Not only just that – Mio right now, has not lost control of the energy within her body. The torrent of autologous erupting energy with her, was completely under her control.

--However, this was not something accomplished just by chance at this moment.

Being able to control her father Wilbert’s power, as well as her own power – this was the first task she had set for herself after defeating Zolgear. Because from right at the beginning to now, Mio had never provided any effective help in the battles they had.

Not long after knowing Basara, at the battle with Takigawa in the park<ref>都立公园 in real life, formally known as Tokyo Metropolitan Park</ref> at night – although it was to not become a burden to Basara, in the end the result of going alone was that she was not even an opponent for him. She had even lost control of the power she had inherited from her father due to seeing Basara receive a major injury, and was in the end saved by him.

And in the battle with Yuki, Kurumi and the Heroes, she wasn’t able to handle Takashi who wielded [Byakko], and her battle concluded with a conclusion where it seemed that she was powerless.

During the battle against Zolgear, she had fallen into the hands of Zolgear, becoming a burden to Basara. Though she had won the battle and had subdued Zest, that was only possible because Yuki had helped. Right to today, Mio had never really given any real contribution to her comardes.

Hence – to not become a burden to the others any more than she already was, Mio had aimed to be able to completely control her powers, and had succeeded in attaining that goal. Not only did it include her father Wilber’s power, that strong power which had taken Zolgear’s right hand was also now in her control.

''…But.''

Even if she succeeded, Mio never wanted to use that power. Other than the drawbacks of causing much physical strain on her body and sometimes even causing her to losing consciousness, more importantly, using that power was sort of like a taboo in her heart.

--Naruse Mio had witnessed the murder of her adoptive parents without any warning, and had then learned that she was the daughter of the previous Demon Lord.

On that very day, Naruse Mio’s past fifteen years of life was completely overturned.

Despite vowing to take revenge for her adoptive parents and living while learning to fight – behind the emotion known as vengeance, there was a fact that tortured her heart.

And that – was the fact that she was not a human.

The Demon Race. To a normal person, they were an existence that were called Monsters.

But before that day, Mio was completely living her life as a normal person.

It was just like how someone can point at you and say: ‘You are not a Human!’, your own existence being nullified just so easily.

Though Basara, Yuki and Kurumi had abilities, they were Heroes, so they were undoubtedly Human; compared to them, Mio, basically, was completely different. But despite the differences, Mio who saw Maria as one of the Demon Race, did she ever see her as a monster and harbour hostility against her? The answer was never.

Despite that, when she was with Basara and the others, thoughts like she did not belong together with them would occasionally enter her mind, often making her feel as if there was a gap between them that would never disappear, causing her much torment.

Of course, Basara and the others saw her and got along with her as a normal human, and Basara was the one who had accepted her right from the beginning. Though she was thrown out once, that was because Mio and Maria were deceiving Basara and Jin – it was completely unrelated to her being the previous Demon Lord’s daughter.

--Does Basara even understand, just how much his acceptance of Mio gave her heart salvation?

Therefore, no matter what, Mio does not wish to become a burden to Basara. It’s just – using her father Wilbert’s power that she inherited, would make her feel like she was not a human.

Mio is very afraid of experiencing the feeling of being of a different race from Basara. Hence with being unwilling to use her power, she and Yuki had received a sneak attack from an enemy. Naruse Mio wished to stay as a Human, and thus was not willing to use that strong power within her body – at least, until now.

--But, this is fine too.

Even if she were to use Wilbert’s power many many times, Basara will definitely never change. Taking her in even after knowing about her true identity, and saw her and Maria – and even Zest as his precious family, his actions of putting his life on the line for them to this day had proven that point. She only just had to trust in her kind master who was willing to accept her – and be the one who loves him the most.

''…And also,''

Even if using this strong power will increase the distance between her and Basara, she can not allow the enemy before her to act as he pleases.

Hence Naruse Mio said:

“……You asked me, why did I come here?”

''I’ll tell you, then.''

“Right now I am Toujou Basara’s little sister, as well as his subordinate… Seeing my precious family and master wounded, is almost making me go mad.”

''Do you even understand?''

“You have hurt Basara, have hurt my most precious person, and I will now make you pay the price – I’ll kill you a hundred times.”

''That’s right.''

“Daughter of the previous Demon Lord of power… it’s up to you on how you decide to see the situation, it’s something unrelated to me, and I don’t give a damn. I originally was happy, with deciding to give this power which had snatched all that I had to you guys, but how regrettable… don’t even think about it now. I have already decided, that I will never forgive you, who had hurt the one most precious to me, as well as those dogs behind your back.”

''And thus I advise you.''

“—you better not underestimate Naruse Mio.”

With that, Mio released the power within her body.

And in the next moment – with a boom, the enemy before her was crushed.

===Part 12===

Mio released Wilbert’s gravity magic power, immediately crushing the spirit Nebula was controlling into pieces.

And after that—

“————————”

''Perhaps this is my retribution.'' Mio lost consciousness as if being disconnected suddenly.

However – something caught Mio as she collapsed.

It was Zest’s earth magic. The sand in the shape of a chair caught Mio, and gently lowered her onto the ground.

After that, Zest who landed beside her while holding onto Basara—

“……………”

Silently watched the scene before her eyes. In just a single attack, Mio had completely minced that Spirit which was so powerful. Although she knew that Wilbert was hailed as the strongest Demon Lord in history—

''…This display is too shocking.''

And within Zest’s knowledge, Mio had never once voluntarily used Wilbert’s power; so if she trains from now on, forget about the drawback of fainting after usage, she might be able to use even more power than just now.

If used appropriately, this power would certainly be able to take over the Demon Realm, so it wasn’t hard to understand why the Moderates Faction and the Current Demon Lord Faction urgently wanted this power. Right now – though the burst just now was enough to bring down Nebula, the Current Demon Lord Faction would’ve already detected it, which means that now they would not be able to cover up the fact that Mio is within Wildart City.

Soon, the war between the Current Demon Lord Faction and the Moderates Faction for supremacy in the Demon Realm, will start.

The number of causalities or sacrifices that will have to be made in the future, could very well be many times that of today. Yet—

“…Thank you.”

Zest gave her gratitude to the unconscious Mio. Thanks to her, they had managed to tide over the danger from the enemy this time. To many people, making the war even more intense might very well be the worst thing in the world; but in Zest’s heart, her master Basara being safe was the most important thing, and she will protect him with her life.

Hence, having avoided the worst case scenario, Zest let out a sigh in relief.

But at that moment, there was suddenly a burst of magic power.

“ ! — This is…!”

Not knowing what was happening, the disconcerted Zest soon realised where the magic power was coming from.

The answer was – in front of them.

The already-minced Spirit, was rapid expanding with a shocking magic power.


===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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==Translator's Notes and References==
<References/>

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