A hush fell as the noise of battle faded away.
An awkward silence drifted over the lands of hell now that the intruders who had barged in uninvited were gone.
The reason was simple: two demons.
The secret meeting between the [Queen] who ruled this hell and the [Grand Duke] destined to succeed her had been exposed.
Exposed to the white demons who served the [Queen].
"...Hey, secretary..."
"...Why are you calling me?"
"...I saw that right... didn't I?"
"...Most likely... yes."
The [Queen]'s right-hand man, Moss, and her secretary, Cien.
As soon as they had finished dealing with the Phantoms, the two had left the cleanup to their subordinates and rushed straight to where their master had been fighting, only to witness a scene they had never imagined possible.
"Sir Hairo... was bolder than I expected."
"...What? That's the weird part to focus on!! Shouldn't you be more shocked that Lady Blanc actually accepted that?!"
Moss had been standing there in a daze, staring at a scene his brain had simply given up trying to process, when he snapped back enough to cut in at Cien, who was pushing up his glasses and speaking with clear interest.
"Really? But everyone already knew Lady Blanc liked Sir Hairo..."
"Everyone already knew?!"
"Yes... Not just me. All the other retainers knew too."
Cien answered in a tone that practically said, "You seriously didn't know?" as Moss, his childlike face flushed bright red, demanded an explanation.
Aside from Moss, there wasn't a single demon among Blanc's followers, Cien included, who hadn't noticed that she liked Hairo.
Some of the older demons who had spent a lot of time in the Central World had even been quietly rooting for one of them to confess already.
"So everyone knew except me?"
In terms of sheer knowledge, Moss actually knew more than Cien, the so-called secretary. But his mental age skewed far too young, so the thought that those two might be in that kind of relationship had never even crossed his mind.
"Seriously? Everyone figured it out except me??"
Well, at least he'd finally realized it now...
"Seriously?!"
...or maybe not.
*
At the heart of the otherworld where the [Aggressors]—and especially the Phantoms—lived.
"...That Noir. For a lunatic, he still has an annoyingly troublesome power."
Feldway had been lightly tying Noir down to buy time while his subordinates infiltrated hell, but the moment he sensed his two split bodies beginning to be reabsorbed by the main body, he withdrew at once.
He was confident he could defeat Noir, but that was not his current objective, so he judged that the time to fight seriously had not yet come.
Even if he killed him now, Rouge would obviously notice and become a nuisance.
'...Whatever. He's not the target right now. The real objective is that soul akin to a True Dragon.'
Letting out a short sigh and clearing his thoughts, Feldway sensed someone approaching with a presence similar to his own and called out her name.
"You're back, Obera."
A black-haired beauty with six wings on her back and an enormous greatsword strapped behind her—Obera.
After being separated from Corne, she had been forced to face Blanc alone. Not long after Corne was defeated by Adelio, her split body too had been destroyed by Blanc.
After that, she transferred her consciousness back to her true body in the otherworld and came here.
"What happened with the mission? Did you find the owner of that soul?"
Feldway's voice was cold as ice as he questioned Obera. There was not a trace of concern for a comrade in it.
Obera disliked that attitude of his, but remembering the outcome of the mission she had been assigned, she suppressed her irritation.
There was no way this mission could be called a success.
"No. Blanc got in the way, so I couldn't find them. A split body just isn't enough to endure a [Primordial Demons]."
Crackle... zzzt...
However—
The fact that Obera had bothered hiding her irritation became meaningless.
"You failed?"
Feldway let his own irritation spill out along with his magic power, making no effort to hide it.
"I even had you join the mission while monitoring Ivarage so I could uproot not just the chance of failure, but even the possibility of it happening—and you're telling me this failed?!"
The fact that the mission had failed despite two members of the [Seven Angels of Origin] taking part...
The fact that an order from him, a perfectionist, had ended without success...
For the first time in a long while, it scraped harshly against Feldway's temper.
"...It wasn't a complete failure."
But Obera had long since grown used to Feldway's anger. Frowning, she spoke again.
"Right before Blanc took me down, I sensed the power of a demon I believe to be the owner of that soul."
"..."
It sounded like an excuse, but among the [Seven Angels of Origin], Obera was at least one of the more trustworthy. So Feldway remained silent, as if telling her to continue.
Taking that silence as permission, Obera went on.
"That power was... a contradiction. The magic power of a true Demon Lord mixed together with the aura of a Hero."
"...It wielded the power of a monster and a Hero at the same time?"
For the first time, surprise mixed into Feldway's irritation.
Even he had not imagined that the variable named Adelio possessed power on that level.
"Yes. It was unmistakably the power of [Demon Lord's Haki] and [Heroic Aura]. The one who defeated Corne was definitely that demon."
A union of powers so abnormal that even surpassing the demon lord species would not be enough to describe it.
Obera had no choice but to carve that contradictory power into her very bones.
But those were not the only assets that soul possessed.
"On top of that, the rank of that soul's existence had reached a level comparable to a saint."
The rank of existence.
Because Adelio, owner of the soul of nothingness, had evolved after obtaining [the body of a saint], the very rank of his existence had risen explosively as well.
"...A monster and Hero that has reached the level of a saint."
After hearing everything Obera had to say, Feldway fell into thought as he looked at Corne's true body, which still had not awakened.
For a demon to possess not only demonic power but the power of a Hero as well made it the natural enemy of the Phantoms.
All the more so if that Hero was at the level of a saint.
That was why he was considering whether it would be better to eliminate him now by any means necessary, or draw him into the "great board" he was currently preparing and deal with him at the very end together with Rouge, who would become the greatest obstacle of all.
If he handled this carelessly, getting turned on and struck down in return, just as Corne had been, would hardly be surprising.
"...It seems I'll need to gather some information through Dino."
At the appearance of a new obstacle, Feldway's eyes narrowed sharply.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register