Sorcery Hacker:Volume4 Phase04
Phase 04: King of Kings Hall – Audience Chamber[edit]
Part 1[edit]
“Secondary Icicle Rock!!”
Teleria Nereid Aquamarine’s cry echoed through the vast space.
“Whoa.”
“Don’t fall, Mamilis! Or you, half elves!!”
Henrietta pulled a thin needle from her armor and readied her bolt-action carbine once more.
They were no longer underground.
The space below the palace was now filled with transparent tentacles. Staying there would get them crushed to death before they could even fight.
Queen Astaroth Revolver only had to extend those tentacles like limbs to collapse the bedrock and send devastating cracks through the palace’s walls and ceiling.
With support from Teleria’s water magic, Ayato’s group had no choice but to make large jumps with water jets and land on ice platforms to continue ever upwards and away from the transparent tentacles threatening to engulf them.
But this couldn’t last forever.
(Where is this?)
Ayato carefully observed his surroundings as he prepared his linkage plug sword.
The space was filled with chandeliers and candlesticks that glowed with the pale light of sorcery instead of lit candles. It was more than 1000 esoule[1] deep and wide, making it an especially large part of the palace. The space alone rivaled a small castle or town and it formed the very center of the palace. The gorgeous space looked empty now that the aged king was gone. It was…
“The audience chamber, huh?”
“Not a bad location, don’t you think?”
Something flowed out from the cracks.
But the voice came from the ceiling.
Something fell straight down and splatted down onto the floor like boiled pasta dumped from the pot onto a plate. She wasn’t limited to the underground anymore. How far did she spread?
Queen Astaroth Revolver.
The blonde devil glared down at them from atop a 100 esoule[2] mountain of transparent tentacles.
“It is known as the audience chamber, but it is in fact a great hall that can take on any number of forms depending on the furniture and decorations brought in: a dining hall, a dance hall, a strategic headquarters, and even a court for judging traitors.”
“…”
A court. Judgment.
Was she saying that made this the perfect venue to determine the fate of their Static Continent and the wider world beyond it?
“Do you think you have the right to judge others when you refuse to face your own misdeeds?”
“My strength gives me the right.”
Something solid audibly snapped apart. When enough were brought together, even those transparent tentacles took on a cloudy hue. The Queen’s tentacles continued to grow as they crushed the furniture and lights around them. No, this wasn’t just destruction. What was this?
“Strength has always been beautiful,” said the devil, a spellbound smile on her face. She might be wrong about that, but she was still the ultimate weapon that had charmed so many people. “Everyone wants my strength. They want to be stronger than anyone. You say weakness is just another personal trait? You think everyone should be treated equally? Only the people looking down from a position of superiority say that. No one wants to be pitied by the majority who refuse to even try to understand them, do they, Ayato?”
She really did only look to the person whose strength she acknowledged.
She paid no attention at all to Teleria, Mamilis, Henrietta, the Philosommelier half elves, or anyone else.
Disturbing cracking and snapping sounds came from inside the mountain of tentacles and the Queen sneered.
As if showing off a new toy.
“Physical hacking. Kee hee hee. If I must compare it to what you do, I can destroy any kind of material, break it down, and scan each individual component to make it part of my own power. Like this.”
The mountain of tentacles split to the sides and a thick silver gun barrel emerged from the center.
This was not a mere sorcery gun.
That was a…!?
“Railgun.”
Even the boom sounded distant.
A sharp ringing in the ears and powerful nausea. If Ayato hadn’t instinctually gotten down on the floor, his upper half would have been blown away before he could even feel pain.
He couldn’t get the girls involved without being 100% certain of their safety.
He gritted his teeth against the pain in his temples, but then he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
From Teleria.
A short distance away, Mamilis and Henrietta nodded too.
Their eyes were telling him to ignore that personal rule just this once and rely on them.
Finally, he regained just a bit of his calm.
(Really, I don’t deserve them.)
And this meant he could not let them die here. No matter what.
The devil’s mocking laughter forced its way past the ringing in his ears to rattle his mind.
“This is a microwave incinerator and this is an electron beam!! Ah ha ha! Oh, do these weapons not exist yet!? I do more than just create weapons – I can rearrange the existing blueprints to create brand new weapons the world has never before seen!!”
He didn’t know how far she could take this.
Whatever the case, Ayato decided they couldn’t give the Queen time. In the worst case, leaving her to her own devices could allow her to complete some ultimate bomb that could destroy the entire continent or world at once.
“This is the royal palace at the center of the capital at the center of the Static Continent. There are more weapons and sorcery devices than you could ever want here! Which I will use to cast off my outdated sorcery gun category of revolver and rocket up to a new stage. Heh heh heh ah ha ha. Now watch, Ayato, this is my new power!!!”
She shoved a lithe arm into a clump of transparent tentacles and pulled something out.
The Queen raised a giant object.
Time froze.
The object in her hand was horribly twisted and as big as a cannon, but it was a revolver.
“Wha-?”
Queen Astaroth Revolver’s smile froze in her face.
Her temples writhed disconcertingly.
“Queen. The boundaries of the species you were born as are not so easily surpassed. Yet people have learned to accept and join hands with people different from themselves. And that’s what allows this world to function in its own complex way.”
Ayato kept his voice low.
And he raised his linkage plug sword with a demon girl by his side.
“You’ve done nothing but scorn everything around you and tear apart everyone’s bonds, so how do you expect to find the means to evolve? In fact, it was you messing with your own body that violated the rules of the universe to give yourself that twisted revolver form in the first place. Don’t run from what you’ve done. No one can do that. Aren’t you the one who created the revolver’s curse that infects its owner, drives them to failure, and ultimately kills them?”
“Uh, kh…”
“You can’t evolve.”
The light in the boy’s eyes and his words tore into the truth.
“All a devil like you has is stagnation.”
That was the difference between Ayato and the Queen.
The boy had gone as far as throwing out his position as the strongest Forward and become a Sorcery Hacker to continue the pursuit of his past sins, so he would never accept this devil who was so easy on herself.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
A screamed exploded out.
The transparent tentacles raged even more violently than before.
Part 2[edit]
Sorcery hacking and physical hacking.
Ayato Criminaltrophy and Queen Astaroth Revolver took control of the entire scene around them and threw it at each other.
“Ayatooo!!”
“Are all my old acquaintances idiots who let their eliteness get to their head?”
A great mass stirred up the air.
It was a collection of those thick jellyfish-like tentacles.
Ayato did not try to compete her with strength. Teleria and the others chose routes that wouldn’t endanger half elves as they rolled and accurately dodged.
The mountain of transparent tentacles parted and something emerged.
Humanoid figures.
One, two, ten, twenty…the number kept increasing.
These weren’t quite like the printer soldiers used by the Royal Guards. These muscular figures were forcibly created by winding a large number of tentacles together.
“Ew!? Wh-what are those things!?”
“A new rule’s been added to the fight. Although these don’t seem like an unknown new weapon.”
Teleria paled and Henrietta clicked her tongue.
If those managed to score a clean hit with a sorcery gun they collected somewhere, their target would die. Ayato clicked his tongue, but then another group cut in.
It was the Philosommelier half elves from the Collaborative Continent.
“Leave them to us!! You focus on her!”
“…Understood!!”
If he didn’t focus on the Queen, she might start firing with the giant revolver she held. To ensure the half elves wouldn’t be targeted, he kept his distance from them and resumed aiming for his enemy.
Of course, the thick transparent tentacles did more than just swing around the space.
Their surface was covered with tiny venom needles.
Seeing a tentacle bend like a bow and swing unnaturally outside of her range, Mamilis frowned while keeping up a barrage of fire magic with her full-auto shotgun.
“Watch out!!”
Henrietta rushed in from the side and tackled her to the floor.
Something slashed through the space directly overhead.
And not just once. This attack was as dense as a sandstorm.
“Can those venom needles detach from the tentacles to launch at her enemies?”
No, maybe there was no point in counting up how many ways she could use this. Even now, the Queen was continuing her process of destruction, analysis, and evolution. Her deck was increasing in real time.
Teleria immediately erected a water barrier, but Ayato quickly pulled her back toward him. A tentacle thicker around than her torso pierced right through the water barrier. The water barrier was effective against the rush of tiny needles, but it was no protection against a massive attack.
The jellyfish-like tentacle missed its target and smashed a thick column instead.
The entire palace shook violently.
“I’m not done yet.”
Queen Astaroth Revolver laughed.
The sounds of solid objects being destroyed never ceased. She was not targeting the blades and sorcery guns that would make good weapons. She was using her transparent tentacles to destroy everything indiscriminately, including the candlesticks and carpet.
By combining them all in some complex way, she would produce another horrific super weapon.
A voice left her alluring lips.
“All things are in flux. And all things contain all things within them.”
There was a sound like a thick spring releasing.
The mountain of so many tentacles split apart on its own and several gun barrels thicker around than Ayato’s torso emerged.
(Tch, is she doing alchemy in her belly or something?)
After more mocking laughter, the blonde devil gave a roar.
“Heavy laser cannon.”
A storm of light split the space around the Queen.
That wasn’t magic. Which meant stabbing his linkage plug sword into it might not be able to sorcery hack it. Ayato had no way to cheat this with his “weapon”, so the massive amount of deadly force simply rushed in!!
Ayato’s group immediately got down on the floor, but that wasn’t enough. The vast audience chamber already had very little in the way of cover and only Teleria could create thick shields out of water or ice. The explosions and audible impacts did not target Ayato’s group at first. Instead, they went for the half elf bodyguards.
Along with the soldiers made from tentacles.
It wasn’t that the bodyguards had been slow to react.
Some of them very clearly changed position to act as a shield for Ayato’s group. There were even distinct sounds of defense magic and armor being burned through.
“Kh.”
Ayato gritted his teeth at that too-straightforward choice that a cowardly Sorcery Hacker could never make.
He understood the weight and value of what they had defended.
“Miss Teleria! Miss Mamilis too!! Focus your attack on the Queen. Miss Henrietta, use your great strength to retrieve the fallen half elves and drag them out of the audience chamber!!”
“Do you really think I’ll let you?”
More metallic sounds rang out.
He had hard this singsong voice before. What emerged was a super weapon that shouldn’t have existed in this world.
“Electron beam. Railgun. Now, let’s see what I can create for you next, Ayatooo!!”
One was a beam of light that burned through everything. The other was a steel projectile given extreme acceleration.
These weapons attacked along with the transparent tentacle strikes and venom needle sandstorm.
“A-Ayato!! We can’t hold her back like this! We’ll all be killed!!”
Multiple explosions sounded in quick succession and a massive chandelier fell from high above.
“What the hell happened this time!? Ah.”
The minotaur emerged with Butterfly Effector in his hands, but he stopped in shock.
14th Princess Carrisy clicked her tongue.
“Tch! We’ve run into real trouble this time!!”
Oh, no, thought Ayato.
They had likely sensed a terrible accident and come running with the best of intentions, but Queen Astaroth Revolver could slip right past any sorcery security connected to the royal family. In this case, the swords of succession and the maids were nothing but a risk.
Instead of a sorcery gun, 14th Princess Carrisy used a small gun to fire a metal spike into the floor, but she soon spat out some bitter words.
“My forced cooperation antenna isn’t working… But she’s using a revolver-type sorcery gun!”
The Queen had already hacked Micha Angelos.
This threat was much greater than the tentacles and the many sorcery guns.
If they couldn’t respond in time, the devil’s revolver would take each of their lives in turn.
“What, do you want to be hacked again, you sitting ducks?”
“Give up. With Micha aiming at you, you can’t use your sorcery hacking. I’ve already patched that vulnerability.”
Ayato was bluffing.
Even if Micha Angelos was safe, the other maids were a different story. Angela Messenger, Rachel Seraphim, Julielt Resurrection…if a group of those powerful maids were hacked, Ayato wouldn’t be able to use the recovery method he had used before.
“Get back, you two- whoa!?”
After just barely dodging a dreadful beam of light from the giant revolver, Henrietta bit her lip.
The tentacles weren’t the Queen’s only weapon.
“Damn. I’m supposed to be a Striker, so why do I get the feeling I’m being used as a test fire target!? …Hey, wait. What are you grinning about? You’re human, the same as me. And you also don’t have a sword of succession, a special maid, or a sorcery gun that rivals them.”
“Oh? Are you forgetting my linkage plug is still inked to Guardeleo’s Creation Sword Publitie and the maids?”
A strange pressure burst from Ayato’s sword.
He couldn’t directly draw out the power of the sword of succession, but he had a sorcery hacking level of nearly 25000. Even a certain demon lord had only been level 9999. This level of freedom meant his personal actions could influence the stability of an entire continent.
Not to mention…
“Ah hah hah. It’ time I paid you back for everything you’ve done, Micha Angelos. You thought you could get away with working me so hard without batting an eye? Well, now I’ll be heating you up on the inside!!”
“Gh!? I-I am sorry, Your Majesty. I cannot control my body…ahh.”
It was the minotaur prince – and now king – whose eyes opened wide.
“Really…? The fate of the world and all living things is on the line and you’re making moves on my woman? And right in front of me no less!?”
“Oh, what’s this? You don’t understand the desire to want what someone else has, you cow? Well, complain all you like, but I’m the one with control over this beautiful maid right now. Wah hah hah!!”
It was scummy behavior, but you couldn’t expect goodness and righteousness from a Sorcery Hacker.
They had mostly been dragged into the fight, but Micha and the other maids weren’t just sitting around waiting to be destroyed.
Angela Messenger and Julielt Resurrection used the recoil of their own gunfire to perform a big jump.
Rachel Seraphim appeared to be an expert in using her fists and legs, so she ducked low to avoid a transparent tentacle and then darted sharply toward the Queen’s mountain of tentacles.
The many sorcery guns in the arms on the maids’ backs all had top rate firepower. And they were not restricted to their human forms.
“Sh.”
As tiny venom needles rushed Micha’s way like a solid wall, she let out a quick breath and transformed into a purple butterfly. This shrank her collision detection and she slipped through a gap in the net. She immediately retook her beautiful maid form and resumed firing.
The Queen grinned.
“Oh, how reliable. You might be a royal toy who chose to reduce yourself to a useless doll, but I see even you can manage something halfway decent.”
“I’ll blow your brains out. Did you think we’d thank you if you complimented us?” asked young Angela Messenger.
The devil grinned and said, “Oh, you will thank me. After I take control of you.”
(Tch!!)
The fundamental threat of sorcery hacking remained.
Ayato looked to the maids and readied his linkage plug sword.
And at that moment…
“Heh heh. Then what about us?”
“I suppose a monster like this conquering the Static Continent would throw off the intercontinental balance. I certainly don’t want that hideous thing crossing the ocean.”
A bunny girl and a holy woman appeared. The former was Sidney (Goldbank) Mardhazath and the latter was Pope Agatha Canalace Properod.
This war had begun on the Static Continent, but they knew they were next if nothing was done.
So of course they wanted to nip the problem in the bud. Before this horrific war reached their continents.
“Hee hee.”
As if enforcing the dress code at the entrance to a party, the Queen blocked her targets’ escape with those ugly humanoid tentacle shapes and then sent out another bundle of tentacles on course to attack the two intruders along with their her own tentacle soldiers.
“Extend, Plant Spear Parasitio!!”
The floor exploded with the color green.
No. A great quantity of plants had grown from it. And using that as footing, the holy woman and the bunny leaped high into the air.
Several arms emerged from the Queen’s hips, wielding shotguns and handguns, but the women created new platforms to jump out of the way of the fire and water magic launched their way.
“Such a righteous and holy spear. Nee hee hee. Those creepy parasitic plants have really made a name for themselves, huh?”
“H-hey! Are you trying to throw off our coordination!?”
The Pope of the Properod Divine Water Nation complained in her ear, but the President Bunny Girl of the Mardhazath Banking State looked thoroughly amused. Were they old friends or something?
Meanwhile, Sidney (Goldbank) Mardhazath was swinging around a golden axe with both hands. She left deep wounds in the giant plants they were using as platforms and the incoming tentacles. Then a fountain of pure gold coins and decorations burst forth. The eruption of ultra-heavy metal acted as a shield to hold back the incoming attacks while also creating plenty of deadly force.
But…
“Oh, damn. I’m making more money again!!”
The bunny girl clicked her tongue at her own actions and Mamilis tilted her head.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Not really, Miss Dark Elf. Scarcity is everything with gold. The more of it there is, the less it’s all worth, so do this too much and I could bankrupt myself. All the most powerful sorcery devices are like this. It’s a threat capable of shaking the very foundation of our gold standard system, but Asset Axe Filterinda is just too powerful a weapon to give up!!”
Of course, the weapon couldn’t possibly create gold where there was none. Just as a special filter could concentrate the minuscule amounts of precious metals dissolved in the ocean, the axe was gathering up all the microscopic gold dust scattered around the area and creating solid pieces.
And.
Queen Astaroth Revolver laughed.
“I like it.”
She didn’t look like someone facing a new threat.
She had the eyes of a child facing a large pile of toys.
“So I will break it apart and use the designs as inspiration for new weapons. But first…”
The mountain of transparent tentacles wriggled from within.
And something emerged.
(A Shade Swallow…no!?)
“Rank 1 Winged Space Shuttle☆”
They couldn’t even see this one.
What had she combined to create this?
A black guillotine sliced through the air. Ayato obeyed the chill he felt to leap to the side with all his strength, but he wasn’t quick enough. Teleria immediately raised a water barrier, but that was easily broken through. Just as a blade’s edge is dulled by blood, the slight film of water was the only reason he avoided being bisected. But his blessings ended there. The strange wing mercilessly collided with his right shoulder.
He heard an unpleasant crunch.
He was sent rolling along the floor a few times and he couldn’t get back up.
“Don’t you want to be so powerful you can overpower the world, Ayato?”
The Queen was ecstatic.
She raised her thickest tentacle which had swelled out past the limit.
“I will prove to you that you are not and never were the strongest. What you had was only the power I gave you.”
“So without your interference, I couldn’t have taken this bloody path.”
“Oh, such resilience. Which makes you the perfect sample for analyzing love, understanding it on the level of a science, and placing it under my full control. But I do finally understand something. I know exactly what will make you want the ultimate power once more. Ha ha. You would never take that step for yourself. Logical statistical analysis tells me I instead need to beat you until you cannot possibly interfere and then steal away everything you care about while you watch on!!!”
Even as her mocking laughter echoed out, Ayato slowly got to his feet.
He forced his shoulder back into its socket, causing what may have been even more pain than when it dislocated.
This wasn’t over yet.
He still had his linkage plug sword and his monitor crystal tarot cards.
So he could still fight.
“Kee hee hee. Ayato, I will allow your rebelliousness. Humans, demons, the Static Continent, and even the other continents – you could say I love them all.”
Even now, Queen Astaroth Revolver had a sneer on her face.
Perhaps her smile wouldn’t falter even when she died.
“Because without so much diversity in the world, there wouldn’t be any war. The simple fact that different types of people will argue, hate each other, and act on that hatred is the driving force behind war!!”
Continent vs. continent. No, if she played her cards right, she could trigger a great war between all four continents.
Ayato had assumed she was discussing that, but this went further.
“That is why I made sure demons would be hated.”
Humans vs. demons.
They had been neighbors who didn’t even need separate words for each other.
“I snuck into the palace in the guise of a human researcher, stole the top secret data on the maids, remade my own body, and used that power to kill a member of the royal family. One who wanted to be friends with the demons, naturally. True loathing comes from more than just anger and hatred – it comes from fear as well. I proved that there is no safe place for humans. I proved that even the aristocracy could be killed by demons. By making sure the humans viewed demons as a threat, the rest was easy.”
“Coach…”
“You mean you caused the malicious history of an entire continent?”
“Ah ha ha!! I am a sorcery gun!! Maintaining a state of war is the most efficient way to evolve myself as a weapon!! And I will do whatever it takes to do that. I will stand in he way of all who seek peace and stagnation and I will always ruin their plans! Like I am now!!!”
A thick tentacle swung out.
Ayato immediately moved to evade, but then he realized that would leave someone else in danger.
Teleria Nereid Aquamarine.
He couldn’t dodge this!!
A moment later, the great mass dropped down from above.
Part 3[edit]
She awoke to a solid sensation.
Feeling a gentle tug on her long elf ear, Hemylina Luxshine slowly lifted her eyelids.
“Quit it. Who are you anyway?”
“Me?
The voice was the high-pitched soprano of a child.
But standing over her was a bird with a 500 esoule[3] body. Its fat body and long skinny neck felt mismatched. This member of the Four Lords had followed an odd path of evolution, like the ostrich that had given up on flying and instead chose to race across the ground.
“Earth Lord…Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky?”
“Believe it or not, I really am one of the Four Lords. Heh heh!”
Even after seeing and hearing it for herself, it really was hard to believe. She had expected the Four Lords to be more dignified.
The Lord tilted his head.
“Do I look that weird to you?”
“Well…”
“It’s fine. I am a selfish and spoiled crybaby, after all. Only Guardeleo ever accepted me for who I am. He never told me to stop crying and he never got mad at me. He also never told anyone that I’m a selfish and spoiled crybaby.”
…Did that mean aged Guardeleo had kept that secret to the grave? That showed just how seriously he had taken a verbal promise with a nonhuman being. That was likely the side of him that led the Four Lords to reach an agreement with him as an individual instead of with the kingdom or the world.
Hemylina bit her lip again.
She had definitely chosen the wrong target for baring her fangs.
“By the way, what is going on? How am I still alive?”
“I think that devil didn’t notice you because you weren’t moving. Just like me! That’s what saved you.”
Did that count as good fortune?
Probably so. It had kept her alive.
But after a more careful observation of her surroundings, she realized low tremors were continuing intermittently. The battle had moved up above.
Her emperor’s life had been saved, but he was up in the palace now.
Along with the people who had saved him.
Her emperor was alive, but Guardeleo was not. Even as the grief threatened to crush them all, they hadn’t lost control like Hemylina had and they were even now fighting from a belief that they could bring about peaceful days.
“Gh…”
Hemylina Luxshine tried to get up, but her body refused to obey. Had it been the force of a physical blow, or those venom needles? Regardless, she reached out a trembling hand to collect her fallen glasses, grabbed Wall Staff Ablatia, and tried to reach the stairs even if she had to crawl the entire way.
The spiral staircase had collapsed.
The walls and ceiling were slashed by huge cracks. Queen Astaroth Revolver had sent her transparent tentacles down into the ground to try and bring down the palace’s foundation.
There was no way up.
But Hemylina still had to get there.
To the front line where the fighting continued.
The round Lord looked down at her and tilted his head.
“You aren’t going to stay down here? You will be safe here underground.”
“I can’t do that… I didn’t come this far to take the easy way out.”
“Stay with me. I know it’s safe here, but it’s still scary hiding all alone.”
“I will not spoil you the way Guardeleo did!!”
She couldn’t even get up on her feet, but she still shouted from deep in her throat.
It was enough to intimidate one of the Four Lords.
“The people who saved me are up there. They are fighting even now. To ensure the things their king sacrificed his life to protect will not be destroyed! And you want me to stay down here? You want me to stay put because it’s safe? To hell with that, Lord. Their king may not have died if it weren’t for my actions. Maybe he didn’t have long regardless, but he may have survived today at least! It is my emperor who I serve from the bottom of my heart, but that doesn’t mean I will insult that king’s memory any further!!”
Another tremor.
Followed by silence.
Finally, Terracockatrio swayed his enormous body side to side and a pillar-like boulder flew out. More and more came from the crumbled walls and floor.
They formed a stairway leading up and up through that collapsed world. Although these stairs were sized for a giant.
The Lord grabbed Hemylina’s torso in his beak and swung his skinny neck to point his face upwards. He tossed her and gently caught the bespectacled dark elf on his ostrich-like back.
Buried in soft feathers, Hemylina still gripped Wall Staff Ablatia in both hands.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because I also want to protect the things Guardeleo cares about,” said Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky. While looking up from the depths. “I don’t want to be a selfish and spoiled crybaby. I want to be someone who won’t worry him.”
The flightless bird set his sights on the heavens.
He had decided he would be a proper bird regardless.
Part 4[edit]
That was why they just barely arrived in time.
“Wall Staff Ablatia!!”
“Toryahhhhh!!!”
The thick transparent tentacle swinging down toward Ayato had its momentum stopped by a thick wall. This may have been a first. Queen Astaroth Revolver’s attack had been directly stopped and repelled.
“Tch. I knew there would be plenty of nuisances in this palace, but still…”
The blonde devil didn’t try to hide her irritation.
Her beautiful face distorted as she gathered a large number of tentacles and sent them toward Terracockatrio.
“Ultimate Guard!!”
Stone slabs larger than the average house shot up from the floor in great quantity.
The transparent tentacles thicker than human torsos smashed through the stone shields one after another, but they still couldn’t push through with the Earth Lord constantly creating new shields. They were like feathers protecting against the biting chill of winter.
The shields did more than just guard the Lord himself.
More and more appeared, some protecting Ayato, Teleria, and his group and others protecting the half elves who had collapsed after taking magic gunfire. Stone shields covered the audience chamber. They jutted up like massive shields that would fully cover the soldiers on a battlefield and provide shelter from a storm of projectiles.
It wasn’t just Teleria’s water and ice anymore.
With help from one of the Four Lords, they could continue fighting on the offensive and defensive side.
This was a crucial difference.
At the very least, they weren’t just waiting for the deaths of the half elves who had fought alongside them.
But.
The Queen was still gradually overwhelming their side.
Managing to choose defense against a monster like Queen Astaroth Revolver was enough of a miracle. Terracockatrio and his defense specialty was a powerful and useful ally in this battle, but his inability to attack meant he couldn’t clinch it for them.
That he wasn’t killed by the very first attack was a testament to the power of the Four Lords, but he was still being worn down.
Meanwhile.
Was the Queen so irritated because her deadly revolver was gradually losing its decisive power? She was receiving external confirmation for her own complaints about the weapon’s obsolescence.
“Going all in on defense? Not even considering offense? Quit your complaining. Is curling up and delaying the inevitable all you can do, scum!? How dare you interrupt my honeymoon with Ayato!?”
“Ghh, sniff…”
Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky’s massive body shook irregularly.
Like a bowstring drawn taut.
Then he exploded.
“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
The world was flipped upside down.
That 500 esoule[4] body swayed side to side and the fastest legs on the surface stomped in fury. The ground shook vertically and Ayato’s group couldn’t stay on their feet.
He was a selfish and spoiled crybaby.
But as one of the Four Lords, his power could shift the military power balance between continents.
Wailing, Terracockatrio puffed out his body as much as he could.
His words were completely broken.
“What, why, how can you say all these things say like you don’t even care!! What’s wrong with you, did you think I wouldn’t say anything back, nothing at all!? Sniff, well, you were wrong because even I can fight if I get mad and you made me mad!!!”
“Wha-?”
Not even Queen Astaroth Revolver had expected this reaction.
For a moment, she really did freeze up.
Then the Earth Lord hit her head-on with a full force tackle.
All that mass at max speed produced an explosive roar. He was like a horizontal meteor.
The many transparent tentacles had countless microscopic venom needles much like a jellyfish, but Terracockatrio didn’t seem to care. He had puffed his feathers out from within, preventing any of the needles from reaching his skin.
The crested honey buzzard specialized in attacking hornet nests. When they many venomous hornets fought back, the bird didn’t swiftly dodge out of their way. That storm of death caused enough pain to leave a giant brown bear writhing in pain, but the bird would repel the many stingers with its solid armor of feathers as it feasted on the nest.
The unexpected attack caused the mountain of tentacles to reel backwards.
The Queen immediately sent tentacles out to try and stop it, but the changes continued.
First, a dry cracking sound.
The formerly transparent tentacles grew white as they petrified.
This was the Earth Lord.
“Perfect Petrify!! And Absolute Petroleum too!!”
“Tch!?”
The devil stopped the spread of petrification by quickly separating the tentacles from the base. And with a sticky splatting sound, the tentacles turned to a dark liquid. Crude oil. That stuff made when animal carcasses turned to a flammable liquid after spending long periods of time underground.
First they turned to stone.
And then to fuel.
“You’re more than just that big body. Have you tamed microbes too!?”
Even touching one of the Four Lord’s bodies without permission was dangerous.
And since the bespectacled dark elf surrounded by the plumage on his back was safe, this wasn’t just an indiscriminate and powerful attack. He could accurately kill only his enemies.
But it turned out that Terracockatrio wasn’t listening anyway.
“Ohhhhhh!!”
Wailing, Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky snapped his beak, swung his long neck around, and bit at the tentacles, severing them and swallowing them. The venom needles didn’t matter at all. Did the Earth Lord have the ability to turn anything “back to earth”?
So much was happening at once that Ayato couldn’t keep up.
Was that Lord strongest after his pride was wounded by breaking through his defensive specialty?
And for some reason, Queen Astaroth Revolver held her cheeks with her hands and blushed.
Come to think of it, wasn’t she only able to measure others by their attack power and deadly force?
She seemed somehow spellbound.
“Oh, my. You’re not so bad after all.”
“Ugh, hic, wehh. Sniff, it’s too late to flatter me now!!”
“I am very serious.” The Queen licked her lips. “Now, what to do about this Earth Lord. I have heard that the Four Lords can be hacked, but I should probably prioritize vivisecting him to acquire materials and plans for developing new weapons. Hee hee. Not to mention that dark elf’s weapon. Wall Staff Ablatia was it? I was thinking I should learn about the Collaborative Continent’s alternate magic system. I only have the Combined Royal Family’s security now, but analyzing sorcery devices from every continent will let me bypass all forms of security.”
The threat level had risen again.
She had more than her physical hacking by destroying things and stealing their plans. If that illegally leaked model spread beyond the Combined Royal Family, then all four continents would be thrust into a war.
This would lead to an age where the blonde devil used the power of the Four Lords as her plaything and no human sorcery guns or magic worked against her.
It wasn’t just Wall Staff Ablatia.
Plant Spear Parasitio and Asset Axe Filterinda were also sources of alternate magic systems that the Queen could use to hack into the central systems of the other continents. Did she plan on gathering all those blueprints and creating a unified master key for all four continents?
Realizing this, Terracockatrio puffed his body out even further.
And shouted tearfully.
“Sniff, I won’t let you!! Naughty girl, I will protect this glasses lady!!”
“Did you miss the part where you are my delicious prey as much as she is, you foolish feast?”
A disconcerting straining sound came from within the Queen.
She was attempting to acquire another new card.
What emerged was a bit different from the earlier railgun. She had likely added something else to it. Based on its appearance, could be it be a giant electromagnetic pile driver used to break through castle gates?
“Shelter Opener.”
“Gah!?”
She fired it at the ground at her feet.
A huge crack ran through the floor of the already trashed audience chamber. Terracockatrio just about slipped and fell deep below ground.
He was the Lord of Earth, yet he was a bird who had evolved beyond the ability to fly.
His weakness was obvious from the start.
The ground below him quickly petrified and swelled up, sealing the crack and preventing him from falling.
But in the instant this kept him in place…
“Here, take this.”
“!?”
The sea of transparent tentacles tangled together to rush out as a single torrent that launched that 500 esoule[5] body straight back, where he rolled like a ball. He didn’t appear critically injured, but it took all his efforts to avoid crushing Hemylina on his back.
(Dammit, Queen. You’re already learning.)
Queen Astaroth Revolver was a monster who would continue evolving no matter what.
She was dangerous enough as it was, but this was all over if the gap in their strength grew too far. Once they couldn’t catch up to her, every continent in the world would be destroyed. So they couldn’t afford a long-term battle.
Ayato knew that, but he couldn’t come up with an effective and speedy strategy.
“Earth Lord Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky. You are certainly powerful, but your parameters are fixed. You cannot change the amount of pure power at your disposal or the element of the magic you wield after coloring the colorless mana.” The devil’s lips split in a smile. “Which means you cannot defeat me as I continue to gather new blueprints, evolve, create weapons never before seen in this world, and constantly boost my parameters.”
She evolved.
Too quickly at that. Had she already reached a level not even one of the Four Lords could reach?
Ayato gritted his teeth, but then the situation changed.
Boooom!!! The audience chamber’s wall collapsed.
Ayato’s view rapidly expanded.
The marble wall crumbled to reveal the nighttime world beyond. And the presences outside overwhelmed all else.
“Do not speak of the Four Lords when you only know the Lord of Earth. We will teach you what we all can do.”
This came from a giant dragon.
And he wasn’t alone.
Fire Dragon Blasthogg Promethe Bergerson.
Water Fish Fleurelisia Nereid Aquamarine.
Wind Horse Escalrain Hraesv Iron.
And.
Earth Bird Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky.
“Kh.”
Someone gulped – Queen Astaroth Revolver.
This changed things.
Meanwhile, the giant winged fish, Water Lord Fleurelisia Nereid Aquamarine, seemed somehow relaxed. She literally ruled over water, but she was currently creating viscous clouds and rainbows and bouncing fancily between the fluffy platforms. Ayato hadn’t seen this ability before. If removing her from the water wasn’t enough to stop her, did she even have any weaknesses? And was Laguntreat alright? The sudden departure of the Water Lord seemed like it would cause enough of a panic for the mermaid community to collapse.
Fleurelisia waved her wing-like fins or gills from atop the clouds.
“Oh, there’s Teleria. Hee hee. Over here, sweetie! Mommy’s here, so everything will be okay.”
Before, this reveal might have made the girl foam at the mouth and faint.
But not anymore.
Teleria nestled against the boy’s chest and stuck her tongue out at the giant mother.
“I’m fine now. You can’t get at me like that.”
“My, my. You sure have grown since I last saw you. Hee hee. …But if you think a successful confession means things will be smooth sailing forever, you still have a lot of growing left to do.”
“Bwa, bwuh, what are you even hoping to sneak around and accomplish now, you persistent cuckolding mother!?”
The hunter’s look in Fleurelisia’s eye made Teleria bristle. That suggestive announcement was terrifying coming from a mother who claimed to find a new first(?) love every single day. If she was willing to steal away someone else’s man like a chocolate when they showed the slightest opening, just how broad was her definition of a first love?
This kind of sweet and peaceful exchange may have been the kind of thing the Queen most wanted to stop.
Even if it meant ignoring her strategic plan.
“I won’t let you!!”
Earth Lord Terracockatrio responded swiftly.
Giant rock shields grew from the floor to forcibly stop and deflect the Queen’s transparent tentacles and Rank 1 Winged Space Shuttle.
Meanwhile, Escalrain blocked the line of fire with his four wings and responded with irritation.
“So in the end, you act entirely on emotion. This is the problem with you children.”
“Heh heh. I’m a child who knows he’s a child. That makes me more mature than you, at least.”
“What was that?”
Escalrain and Terracockatrio glared fiercely at each other. Their prideful conflict seemed awfully childish for such enormous beings.
And Fleurelisia, who had shifted to a support role, moved her great form side to side as she cheered them on.
“Kyah, keep fighting, everyone☆ No matter how bloody you get, my healing magic will have you back on the front line in a jiffy. So think of it as an infinite loop keeping you fighting.”
“Okay, that water mama is the scariest one.” “Okay, that water mama is the scariest one.”
In a party of the ultimate adventurers, pissing off the healer was the worst move to make. They might seem harmless at first, but they could easily set aside their ethics regarding life.
Maybe the selfish and spoiled crybaby was a good match for a mother because Fleurelisia gently encouraged him.
“Terraco, get us started please.”
“That I can do. Toryahhh!!”
Earth Lord Terracockatrio puffed himself out and made several giant stone walls grow at his feet. Those defended all of his allies. Any gaps were filled by Fleurelisia’s water barriers while Wind Lord Escalrain flapped his four wings. That allowed him to manipulate the four winds to manifest any kind of weather disaster.
“Tch!!”
Queen Astaroth Revolver clicked her tongue.
An overwhelming gale rushed in from the side along with hail larger than fists. Each individual attack wasn’t lethal, but the broad range covered by the attack magic meant not even the Queen could fully avoid it.
And holding her in place even momentarily for defense was enough.
“Gahhh!!!”
Fire Dragon Blasthogg spread his bat-like wings and opened his great maw. A destructive breath fired straight out.
This was a devastatingly powerful attack.
That meant it had poor accuracy and could hit his allies if he wasn’t careful, but there were ways around that. As long as the other Lords created thick shields to protect his allies and made sure his attack could hit their enemy, he could cause massive damage to even the most powerful foe.
The explosion sent a cloud of dust into the air, but as Fleurelisia lay atop a rainbow, she scattered sparkles carried by tiny droplets.
“Okay, everyone. Time for mommy to heal you all up.”
That ended their first turn.
And they of course weren’t going to give their enemy a chance to recover or strike back.
Repeating this one-sided cycle allowed the Four Lords to wear down any enemy. This was what made them the Lords known as the strongest. Only one being in history had ever broken through this cycle. Only Demon Lord Nirvelphany who could control the world’s random fluctuations to mess with the cycle.
Flame Lord Blasthogg groaned a little.
“Damn her. She’s set up some kind of barrier.”
“The one used for the consul guest quarters? But that’s only a material. What kind of monstrous barrier has the Queen created by combining different bluepri-”
“But I can break through it by brute force. This cannot stop us.”
Ayato had been preparing to give the Four Lords some advice, but he shut his mouth instead.
Apparently they really were extraordinary.
“There’s nothing to do,” honestly said Mamilis, unsure what to do with her full-auto shotgun.
“Well, in that case, I will give you access, so can you use your sorcery gun to provide targeting instructions? These children’s attacks are powerful but their aim isn’t the best, so some support would help. Especially with fire and wind.”
In that case.
Mamilis complied and Henrietta, who normally stuck to close-quarters combat, also joined in, peering through the sight of her bolt-action carbine. Apparently not even the great Striker had the courage to charge into that barrage and begin a fistfight.
Of course, they were all still the Queen’s targets.
She must have decided to take out the targeters first. The tentacles tore through the dust cloud and launched venom needles to attack Mamilis and Henrietta.
Four-winged Escalrain and winged Fleurelisia allowed the two to jump high with wind and water spouts.
The Earth and Water Lords created stone and ice platforms for them to land in midair.
“This isn’t enough…”
“…to stop us!!”
The Four Lords continued their cycle. They received targeting support from Mamilis and Henrietta while sending more and more intense attacks rushing out to the other side of the cotton-candy-like dust cloud.
Were the high-pitched shattering sounds the result of the Queen’s barrier being broken?
Nothing remained to protect the blonde devil.
Only a series of explosive booms followed.
“Hm. So the young dark elf is supporting me. I thought you were only firing that full-auto shotgun at random, but your aim is quite precise.”
“Ehh?”
“Why would you sound so dissatisfied with a compliment coming from the Fire Lord!?”
Perhaps Mamilis’s reaction was to be expected when Blasthogg was (unwittingly) responsible for nearly getting her captured by human traffickers back in the sky city.
“Honestly, I would have preferred Terracockatrio. Cause he’s cuter. I feel like I got the short end of the stick.”
“What!? You specialize in fire, so you should be bowing down to me, the Fire Lord!! All the world’s fire magic is formed when I provide a red coloring to the colorless ma-”
“Well, at least you’re better than the rambunctious and annoying Escalrain. Sigh, I guess I can live with this.”
“I have several complaints!” “I have several complaints!”
Ayato felt a mild chill. He could only call it astounding that Mamilis could point to the Four Lords with the ultimate power and categorize them as either “cute” or “not cute”.
However…
“Not good enough.”
Something exploded.
The cloud of dust was blown away and countless tentacles raged about, lashing Blasthogg hard.
The Fire Lord was the Four Lords party’s decisive attacker.
With that pillar down, their cycle couldn’t actually defeat the Queen. Maybe they could continue to fight, but Fleurelisia couldn’t continue casting her healing magic forever without resupplying. They would be worn down until they eventually lost.
Queen Astaroth Revolver licked her fingertip, bringing some of the microscopic venom needles into her mouth.
“Your four-person cycle can continue forever, but what if I prevented that at the very start? I knew your feathers could repel my venom needles, but that protection is based on certain rules. If I do not go against the flow of the feathers and slip them in between the feathers, they can reach your skin.”
Next was the ostrich-like Earth Lord.
A beam swept out from the giant revolver and one of the Four Lords was sent rolling.
Queen Astaroth Revolver really was faster and her strength continued to grow, preventing anyone from catching up.
Was it impossible to defeat this devil no matter how much you built up your strength by traditional means?
“Ah.”
Mamilis was nearly crushed by the rolling Lord, but Escalrain moved to protect her. The giant horse clenched his teeth as one of his four wings was bent at an unnatural angle by the impact.
The Queen licked her lips.
“That ends your coordination. Now, what can a healer do on her own? Will you continue healing your allies endlessly with no hope of ever delivering a lethal strike? Like the undead? Hee hee. You will eventually run out of breath. And doing it that way is fine with me!!”
“Oh? I’m not so sure.”
Just as Fleurelisia made that comment, light exploded out.
Even the Queen Astaroth Revolver was forced to halt her attack. She used her mountain of tentacles as a shield, but even that wasn’t enough and she was forced to let the attack pierce through her transparent tentacles to alter its path enough for her to avoid it. Yes, she was pierced through.
Even with her railgun, heavy laser cannon, electron beam, and so many more weapons, the Queen shouted helplessly.
“An anti-dragon rifle? But how is it so powerful!?”
The name of the weapon classification reminded Ayato of something.
The Four Lords had made an appearance.
But they were not actually the true leader of all demons.
He heard a footstep.
This person did not tower over them like the Four Lords. She was human-sized just like Ayato and his companions. But her mere presence completely changed the atmosphere.
“Oh, dear. Don’t tell me you forget about me, you junk weapon. Who did you think delivered the Four Lords here?”
Flowing, straight red hair.
A red vest with an open chest, and a long, crimson leather skirt with large slits up the sides.
Real and fake bat-like wings spread wide on either side.
And horns and tails added on as expansion devices.
“Demon Lord…Nirvelphany,” said Ayato.
She wasn’t like the fixed ultimate power of the Four Lords. By accepting the fact that she could easily be killed if she screwed up, this truly ultimate demon gambled on the fluctuations to defeat any powerful enemy.
Queen Astaroth Revolver blinked twice.
“You too?”
“I know I said I wouldn’t appear again until precession made the north star take up a new position. But, well, maybe I said that because I knew something would happen at these major turning points.”
It had been odd for the Four Lords to all appear at the capital like this. But it made sense if an even more powerful being had ordered them to and had won the gamble. The Demon Lord’s goal in life was to live through the same time as the human hero’s descendants, so she had no reason at all to let this situation continue.
Now things were finally changing.
Yes.
It was because no one could defeat Queen Astaroth Revolver by traditional means that Demon Lord Nirvelphany had used unexpected fumbles and critical hits to create opportunities to take control away from the Queen.
The Demon Lord easily rested Critical Disaster, her anti-dragon rifle, on her shoulder.
“I really had hoped to never wield this kind of deadly power again. I hate having to keep a secret from the old man, so can you just die already? I want to get back home and flirt with him some more. I’d so prefer to be eating homemade cookies with him right now, so stop ruining my day, scum.”
Hearing that, Ayato stared into the distance.
“I’m learning the strongest housewife’s secrets? How do I even wind up in these situations?”
“Say that again and I’ll blast you, her ex, before moving onto the junk weapon herself. You two have caused far too much trouble for a single couple.”
Teleria grew quietly upset at that.
Did she want to delight him that much?
And the Queen’s temples writhed disturbingly as she treated as no more than an ex-girlfriend.
Which was plenty terrifying for Ayato.
“Are you stupid? Did you miss the part where I showed you all that a powerful enemy is nothing more than more materials I can use to create new toys?”
“Oh? Incorporating my structure into your super weapons will add in a random chance if you dying, you know?”
“Kh.”
For the first time, Queen Astaroth Revolver was hesitant to analyze and scan.
Strongest and weakest.
Pros and cons.
Victory and defeat.
The fluctuations controlled by the Demon Lord included everything from top to bottom.
Maybe the Queen hadn’t expected to come across someone who would reduce her level if she stole their ability.
“And since I showed up late, I had time to analyze your trick from all the weaklings fighting. You broke the Four Lords’ coordination by secretly attacking the earth crybaby? Wrong. Of course, I get why you would encourage your enemies to misinterpret that when you’re trying to hide your weakness.”
“You…”
“This wasn’t my win.”
Demon Lord Nirvelphany winked and smiled with her red hair blowing in a crosswind. That Demon Lord had once been unable to trust anyone and fought against the entire world to save the person she felt indebted to.
She spread her real and fake wings wide as she continued.
“This is their win for hearing the Demon Lord’s words and trusting them. That is the form this jackpot takes. Do no underestimate the power of the bonds between people, discarded junk woman.”
Part 5[edit]
It happened in a blind spot for Ayato and the others fighting in the center of the palace.
But they should have realized.
Railguns, heavy laser cannons, electron beams, and the other super weapons wielded by Queen Astaroth Revolver had been created by destroying the palace’s equipment and acquiring their designs, but the original data didn’t exist in the audience chamber. Then where had she gotten it from?
She could use alchemy within her own body, but there was still only so much she could create in this one spot.
Cracks ran all throughout the capital.
Her transparent tentacles had moved beyond the palace.
That allowed her to directly gather objects without having to create them.
“What is that?”
The Royal Guards hesitantly approached with their battle rifle sorcery guns at the ready.
A tremor rumbled in the distance.
Another tentacle stuck up higher than the roofs as it rampaged along another street.
“This one is going to attack people too. Kill it before it kills us!!”
They launched fire magic amplified within their battle rifles. But this failed to slice through the transparent tentacle thicker around than their torsos.
A clione-like orange mass quivered disturbingly within the transparency.
The tentacle sticking up from the ground swung itself around, scattering unseen venom needles and then slamming down toward the Royal Guards once their reactions were dulled.
But the Royal Guards were not crushed.
The thick tentacle suddenly shook and then stopped.
“This powder is used to control large monsters!! It doesn’t work on humans!!”
Half elves from the Philosommelier Personal Empire had arrived.
“Wait, whose side are you on now!?”
“We are always on the same side: whoever will save Emperor Milbert’s life!!”
It didn’t end there.
Several blades pierced the clione-like core.
Thanks to 10th prince George carrying his fiancee who had washed her hands of marriage scams and 73rd Prince Carving who ran through the battlefield as he liked with a frankfurter in one hand.
“Is this the source of all our problems the Demon Lord mentioned?”
“So we just have to destroy all these cores, right?”
In the end, this was Queen Astaroth Revolver’s secret.
She did not place her weakness on the front line.
She had split up her core and distributed the pieces around the capital, always far removed from the audience chamber. Unless they were destroyed, the Queen would regenerate no matter how badly she was wounded.
That was why she hadn’t been fazed by the solid attacks she took from the Four Lords.
It didn’t matter if they were aware of all this.
“Dammit. Does this monster not know this is prime sunbathing time!?”
“I would really prefer not to use this…”
105th Princess Charlotte clenched her teeth as she protected an ordinary small park and 18th Prince Thocimas’s pure righteousness had him clear a path for the people to escape.
Sometimes it was in the burning capital and sometimes it was in the palace’s gardens on the top level.
Many people worked together to destroy the tentacle cores.
Altogether, it created a single large trend.
Inside the palace, it turned out that the protection of the tuxedo-wearing bodyguards from the banking state(?) wasn’t enough.
3025th Prince Geranud wielded his newly acquired sword of succession and protected the children from the bottom level.
A giant tentacle broke up through the floor. The swollen-tipped sword was stabbed deep into the orange core as the transparent tentacle throbbed.
It wasn’t dead yet.
“Help me!! We can protect Isabella and the rest of the kids!!”
Hearing 3025th Princes Geranud’s call, the maid waiting behind him tilted her head a bit.
And she spoke.
“Understood, my beloved prince.”
Mana-conducting silver arms burst from her back and a wide variety of sorcery guns took aim at the tentacle core.
“I will take care of that immediately.”
Part 6[edit]
Queen Astaroth Revolver shook.
Her face was pale.
There was a panic on her face she clearly hadn’t shown before.
“Tch!!”
“All those disgusting tentacles are a part of your body, aren’t they? And you replaced your organs for artificial ones. Biological gems, was it? So there’s no guarantee those vital organs will stay put in their usual locations. But even if you can move them around, you’re still reliant on them. You’re immortal, but not perfectly so. I just knew you would split your weak point up and keep it far away from here.”
Demon Lord Nirvelphany sneered wickedly in her outfit of red leather.
In a way, exactly as a Demon Lord should.
“No more tricks up your sleeve? Then we can smash what’s left of you and end this.”
No one in the world could defeat Queen Astaroth Revolver fighting by traditional means.
So what?
Sorcery Hacker Ayato and Demon Lord Nirvelphany had zero intention of an honest fight based on their specs. They stirred up the world said to be entirely impossible and made use of the resultant fluctuation.
“You know how it’s done, don’t you, Sorcery Hacker? You did already do it at the sky city.”
“Yeah.”
“Once you take in my power, you can make the unstable fluctuations your plaything. Don’t lose the gamble and self-destruct. You need to make good use of my Demon Lord power!!”
He inserted his linkage plug sword into the Demon Lord’s body.
Nothing visibly happened, but something definitely changed.
Ayato had acquired something more. The Queen should have been in charge here, but it was Ayato who had turned everything around him into his own power.
Humans, demons, the Four Lords, and the Demon Lord. By linking them all together, he had a completely different form of strength from Queen Astaroth Revolver who had grown so large all on her own.
However.
Even after being cornered like this, the blonde devil was looking only at Ayato.
“What’s wrong with trying to become stronger?” whispered the monster who had been born a demon stronger than humans but wasn’t satisfied with that and remade herself. “Maybe it’s the swords of succession, maybe it’s the Four Lords, and maybe it’s the Demon Lord and her unexpected results. In the end, everyone looks up to the powerful and the special. They see beauty in being the strongest. Everyone feels that way!”
She had chosen the dead end weapon of a revolver.
But she hadn’t been able to give up on the possibility of evolving and had betrayed everyone.
To maintain a state of war, she had created conflicts throughout history across a variety of dividing lines: human and demon, continent and continent, etc.
“So I aimed to be the very best I could imagine! Looking at the numbers, I am the strongest!!”
But Ayato didn’t avert his eyes even once.
“That isn’t strength. Queen, you lack the strength to bear standing still.”
“Wha-?”
“Living beings will eventually evolve without anyone having to do anything. In fact, we’re all evolving little by little even now. None of us cares how slow the pace of that evolution is. Because we have the strength to feel no pain in living our lives to the fullest in a boring world. You’re the only one in the world without that. That you couldn’t stand it and felt stifled by it is nothing more than weakness.”
Queen Astaroth Revolver was struck speechless.
Several transparent tentacles rushed in.
But Ayato only swept his linkage plug sword out and the flash flood of tentacles was sliced through before corrupting and withering away.
“Ayato, did you…?”
“You’d better not be suggesting this is anything as embarrassing as my justice and courage awakening my true power. That’s just refusing to think. I’m a Sorcery Hacker who overturns everything with tricks. Everything I do is based on clear, underlying logic!!”
With no one to interfere, the rest was straightforward.
Teleria and Fleurelisia.
Water magic exploded at his feet, launching him 100 esoule[6] into the air. The boy had arrived at Queen Astaroth Revolver’s eye level.
He jabbed his linkage plug sword toward the devil’s gut.
With a dull sound, it stabbed in.
The linkage plug sword sank in, but Queen Astaroth Revolver grinned.
“I won’t die yet. No, it’s not over yet… Ayato, your failure to deliver a finishing blow means you have lost. Hee hee. Now, I will gently hug you with a tentacle covered in venom needles!!!”
“Don’t be…so sure.”
(My level is…)
he glanced aside to see something odd on his floating crystal tarot display.
F*F8A*.
The value was beyond what could be properly calculated.
The capital, the palace, Guardeleo’s sword, the Four Lords, the Demon Lord, and everyone fighting alongside him, be they human or demon. All that power was concentrated into a single point.
Did he really need all that just to challenge Queen Astaroth Revolver?
He felt a scorching pain in his hands.
But not from the Queen’s venom needles. From the linkage plug sword. He had reached such an immense level that the sorcery hacking tool was heating up disconcertingly.
Any further would be dangerous.
He knew that, but he pushed on regardless.
Queen Astaroth Revolver was a demon and also a revolver sorcery gun.
Which meant she was a sorcery device.
This was the same as when he interfered with the tentacles and made them self-destruct. With a high enough level, he could hack her and destroy her from within!!
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
She exploded.
Queen Astaroth Revolver’s mountain of tentacles ruptured from within. And not just the tentacles. Maybe they were crushed by the thick tentacles as they thrashed about against her will, but the many super weapons she had created began exploding in a chain reaction.
In the past, Ayato had dismantled the devil’s revolver, smashed each component with a heavy hammer, and thrown them in a blast furnace, but it hadn’t been enough. The revolver had returned to him unchanged.
But this was different.
He had dismantled and neutralized the very logic that made her the strongest being.
She could never regenerate again.
“Gafh!?”
The beautiful devil coughed up a lot of blood.
“Maybe it’s best if love is never fully analyzed as a science.”
Nevertheless, she spread her arms and welcomed Ayato.
“A…yato… Even so…I still…want…”
Queen Astaroth Revolver’s final wish was never granted.
In an even greater explosion, the linkage plug sword’s limits were passed and it ruptured from within. The close-range explosion launched Ayato straight back. Which allowed him to slip out of the Queen’s embrace.
Her face twisted in greater frustration than ever before and all life vanished from her eyes.
Blood spurted from Ayato’s body as he rolled across the floor until he came to a stop.
And he remained motionless afterwards.
“Ayato!!”
Teleria rushed over to him.
She aimed her handguns that could use both water and healing magic. But then she froze.
“Hm? What is it, Teleria?”
Mamilis tugged on her clothes, but as an expert, Teleria could already tell.
It was no use. His body had too many wounds.
Several metal shards had pierced thick blood vessels from his wrists to his shoulders and embedded themselves in vital points from his face to his chest. All the magic Teleria had at her disposal couldn’t heal this with a single piece of general healing magic. However, carefully removing each shard individually would take too much time and he would die of blood loss.
Ayato had a satisfied smile on his face as he lay there, eyes closed and unmoving.
(It’s not enough…)
Teleria got down on her knees to be by the unmoving boy’s side, but she spoke the words in her mind.
More strongly than anyone.
(I don’t have enough power to save him!!)
“Don’t give up yet.”
She was interrupted by a voice.
The voice of her mother, Fleurelisia Nereid Aquamarine.
“Maybe it’s too much for you alone. But, Teleria, what if you held a special position? As Water Lord Teleria Nereid Aquamarine, one of the Four Lords, wouldn’t you have enough magic power to save the boy you love?”
This suggestion meant Fleurelisia was ready.
Ready to give up her position.
This was the trial in which a child must eventually surpass their parent.
Teleria looked up in surprise.
“Mother…are you sure?”
“I was only ever guarding my throne so I could pass it down to my daughter.”
That meant it was entirely up to the girl.
Was she prepared to be known as one of the Four Lords?
Did she have the courage to take that step in order to save a loved one? She would become a being decisively different from a human, but did she have the confidence to still stay by his side?
There was only one answer.
“I’ll do it.”
“I see.”
“I will complete myself as Water Lord Teleria Nereid Aquamarine!!”
“Very well then. …When did you learn the true meaning of love, Teleria?”
A small light shined from the center of the Water Lord’s giant body. It was a bluish-white and somehow refreshing orb of light. It silently floated up into the air before being absorbed into the center of Teleria’s chest.
Even among the demons, only those with the title of “Lord” would know what this meant.
The girl had clearly taken her first step into that realm.
By her own choice.
Instantly, her mimic options burst away, revealing her lower half as that of a fish. With her true form revealed and with a dreadful power contained within her, Teleria aimed her handguns at the boy.
The two sorcery guns shattered.
They weren’t enough to control the Water Lord’s power.
So she didn’t need any tools.
She reverted to the most basic of basics.
She spread her arms, directed her hands out ahead, and used all of her power to boost her water element healing magic. So that she could use all of herself to save the boy she loved.
And she gave the incantation.
“Secondary Ex Aid!!!”
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