Becoming an Eminence in Shadow in the New World (DxD / StrikeTheBlood) Chapter 186: Game Over. The Curse Unleashed

With her back to the sunset glow, Delta gave a cold smile, snuffing out the last shred of hope in Dulio's heart.

"Ah... Pfft!"

Provoked, Dulio struggled to push himself up from the ground, trying to keep fighting. But Delta drove a heavy blow into his stomach, sending him flying once again.

The little Holy Power left inside him was scattered by that single strike. Powerless, he dropped to his knees and kept retching sour fluid from his mouth.

"The battle is over. How should I put this? I'm a little disappointed in you."

With a sigh, she walked up to Dulio and raised the pitch-black sword in her hand, pale lightning coiling around its blade.

"Why... why... why..."

The low murmur from Dulio's mouth made Cid pause mid-swing. Without changing his expression, he glanced behind him from the corner of his eye.

"Is there sothing you don't understand? Since the opening ceremony is about to end, I don't mind clearing things up for you, so you won't die without knowing why."

Delta crouched down and looked down at Dulio from above. On the giant screen ahead, Dulio's face appeared, once gentle, now battered and covered in blood. Cid spoke in an amused tone.

"Boss, don't fall for it. Prey like this loves pretending it's about to die, then telling Delta it wants to surrender to Delta. But the mont Delta gets close, it jumps up and ambushes Delta. Hmph, good thing Delta is strong..."

Ignoring Delta, who had lifted her head and puffed out her chest beside him as if she were very proud of herself, Cid silently continued controlling Delta's body.

"There's no need to listen to his nonsense, Boss. Just have Delta slash his throat open with one claw, then kill everyone else too, okay? Okay...?"

When Cid ignored her, Delta jumped onto him and started shaking him.

As his body rocked back and forth and the screen before his eyes began to flicker, Cid clenched his fist.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts..."

"It was just a small lesson. Do you understand how rude it is to interrupt soone while they're working?

All right, does it still hurt?"

As Cid rubbed the big lump on Delta's head, erald light flickered in his hand. He began lecturing her in annoyance.

"Uuuh... it doesn't hurt anymore. But Boss, killing him now is the right choice. You can't trust soone like this..."

"Delta, I know. But the best choice isn't always the most suitable one. Sotis, to achieve a certain goal, we need to deliberately make a mistake in order to reach the best possible outco."

"Huh?"

Delta's tearful face froze for a mont. She tilted her head and started thinking over what Cid had said.

"For example, right now, I've run into the villain-exclusive segnt where the villain dies from talking too much. I'll clear it in true Eminence in Shadow fashion: not dying even once, and going beyond godlike."

"Oh... so that's what it ans."

Delta put on an expression as if she understood and nodded with great significance.

"Did you understand?"

"Nope!"

Cid's fist tightened again. He could not understand how Delta had beco so much like a husky after only a short ti apart.

"But Boss must know things Delta can't figure out, so Delta will listen to Boss. Boss is number one in the world."

Perhaps sensing so inexplicable danger, Delta hugged her head and hurriedly started flattering Cid.

Cid glanced at the silly-looking dog and clicked his tongue in irritation before turning his attention back to the real world.

"Why target innocent ordinary people? If you wanted to do sothing, then just do it. No one would go out of their way to trouble you. So why did you have to attack those ordinary people?

Do you know how many people the Black Spot Curse has already spread to?

Over a hundred thousand. They might be the pillars supporting their families. They might be children still growing up. They might be mothers who just brought new life into the world. Why would you do this?"

Dulio practically roared the last sentence. After being defeated, he had completely lost any chance of saving the infected. Crushed by the weight of hundreds of thousands of lives on his shoulders, his mind was already on the verge of collapse.

"That's it?"

After hearing Dulio's words, Delta tilted her head and spoke in a puzzled tone.

"Heh. The answer you wanted so badly before you died was sothing this childish?"

Cid gave a mocking laugh, then paused, staring coldly at Dulio.

"Fine. I said I wouldn't let you die confused, so I'll tell you my true purpose. I wanted to play a ga. The idea suddenly ca to , so I did it. There's no grand reason."

As he spoke softly, Cid watched Dulio's expression twist further and further, while the smile at the corner of his mouth grew more obvious.

"Just because of a ga? Just because of a sudden idea? You used hundreds of thousands of people as tools to entertain yourself. What do you think life is...?"

Dulio said those words blankly, and then his expression twisted completely. Extre rage let him ignore the weakness of his body as he rose to his feet and swung his fist at Delta.

"It's nothing more than the natural law of the strong devouring the weak. This world isn't beautiful. On this blue planet, life is crying out in death every mont. The reason you can't accept what I've done is simply because humans are hypocritical by nature."

Delta easily caught Dulio's punch, then threw him over her shoulder and slamd him hard into the ground, blasting open a crater several ters wide. One hand pinned Dulio's back firmly in place.

"That's just an excuse for you to do whatever you want with your overwhelming strength. Soone like you will eventually et soone stronger than yourself. When that ti cos, what will you do?"

Lightning wrapped in darkness flickered across Delta's hand, crackling sharply.

"If I am weak, then please destroy .

If I am strong, then allow to bring you all to ruin."

Dark energy descended upon Dulio along with the lightning, and his body began thrashing violently. For an Angel like him, a race beloved by the elent of light, darkness was a deadly poison.

Pitch-black radiance swallowed everything around them like a black hole. Not even light could enter the dark void that spanned only a few ters.

When the darkness dispersed and light returned to the arena, Dulio lay collapsed on the ground. The five pairs of wings on his back had grown out again, and at a glance, it looked as if nothing had happened, so long as one ignored the fact that each of his five pairs of wings was now half white and half black, and that his eyes had gone dull and hazy.

"Ladies and gentlen, the opening ceremony has officially ended, and yet I still haven't seen anyone resolve all this. Looks like I won this ga."

The sun sank below the horizon. Watching the evening glow fade from the edge of the sky, Delta ran her fingers through her long hair, a faint smile curling at her lips.

"Ti's up. Darkness has finally swallowed the light. So from here on, everyone, enjoy the grand show that will last through the night."

Delta flew high into the sky and spread her arms, eting the eyes of everyone in the arena before making a snapping gesture.

"One moon can trigger the Black Spot Curse. So what happens when there are two? Enjoy it to your heart's content. Two moons in the sky..."

Cid deliberately drew out the final words to add a sense of ceremony, but Rias and the others no longer had the attention to spare. Their pupils shrank uncontrollably as they stared wide-eyed at the second moon taking shape in the sky, turning from illusion into reality.

"Aaaah!!!"

The mont the second moon appeared in the sky, Irina Shidou, who lay defeated on the ground with the other Church warriors, let out a scream. Large black spots surfaced across her snow-white skin, writhing as they rapidly spread toward the areas not yet covered.

"How... is this possible? With the Holy Power inside , I should have been able to last until at least... tomorrow..."

Irina Shidou stared in shock at her hands, now completely covered in black spots. Feeling her life force being drained away bit by bit, she cried out in disbelief.

The Black Spot Curse was a curse aid at humans, but just as immunity varied from person to person, the curse treated Church warriors and ordinary people differently.

After a Church warrior was afflicted with the Black Spot Curse, if the affected area was not too large, they could spend a great deal of Holy Power to purge most of it. The small portion left behind would burrow into the host's body and wait until several nights had passed, gathering enough energy before launching another attack on the host.

For ordinary people, there were two possible cases. In the first, the curse manifested the mont it was planted, covering the victim's entire body in black spots and draining their life force until they had little ti left.

In the second, it did not reveal itself right away. Instead, it lay dormant inside the host, planting the sa curse in every person the host ca into contact with. Once the sun went down, the moon rose, and the world sank into darkness, the curse would erupt and turn into the first state.

With Irina Shidou's physique and strength, the black spots should have needed at least a few more days to accumulate enough power to cover her completely in one go.

The Church might not be able to find a solution to the black spots in a short ti, but with the curse having already erupted once, figuring out how it existed should have been relatively easy.

Hearing Irina Shidou's voice and seeing the black spots already spreading across her body, Rias's shocked pupils trembled. She swallowed without aning to, as a terrifying possibility crossed her mind.

"Snap!"

As if to prove Rias's guess right, Delta snapped her fingers. The two moons in the night sky seed to react to each other, sending an invisible ripple across the entire world. Everyone in the arena could feel that strange wave.

Among them, Irina Shidou's reaction was the most violent. The black spots on her body seed to have received so imnse stimulus, and their spread suddenly accelerated several tis over.

"The answer is this: when two moons beco one, even beneath the sun, darkness will devour the light."

With a brilliant smile, Cid used Delta's body to give his explanation from high in the air.

"What an incredibly vicious ability. I imagine every black spot planted across the world has already erupted by now..."

"Witch of the Void, your guess is quite accurate. But I should correct one thing. Rather than vicious, I think genius is the more fitting word."

Cid chuckled lightly in response to Natsuki Minamiya. As he sensed the number of Black Spot Curses being triggered across the world, even he could not help feeling shocked.

There was sothing that needed correcting. Dulio's earlier figure of several hundred thousand had been rather conservative. Judging from the large lifeforms currently suffering an imbalance between light and darkness, the number was already approaching one hundred million.

It sounded absurd, but if the curse spread the mont soone touched a cursed lifeform, unless their life level was high enough, then its carriers included but were not limited to rats, ants, and mosquitoes. In the ocean alone, the number of small lifeforms suffering an imbalance between light and darkness had already exceeded one hundred million.

It had to be said that the creator of the Black Spot Curse was absolutely a genius. He had combined biology and mysticism, using living organisms to transmit it while exploiting the loophole of light-dark imbalance to bypass the human immune system.

Cid had originally planned to use the second moon he had created in space to activate all the black spots across the globe in one go, then eliminate them all once and for all. But now, with this number... it was still within the range he could handle, so he could keep playing.

"Hahaha... Witch of the Void, as a strong opponent who has fought again and again, what do you think of this scene?"

As for the idea of quickly dealing with the black spots now to avoid things going wrong later, that never entered Cid's mind at all.

"...Does what you said before still count?"

"?"

There was no need for him to rush. The only reason Irina Shidou had reacted so quickly was because, here in Japan, there was only the moon and no sun. Over in Europe, the sun had not yet set, so he still had another three minutes to play.

"If we defeat you, you'll tell us the solution."

"It counts. Of course it counts. I never added a ti limit."

"Good."

After receiving Cid's answer, Natsuki Minamiya took a deep breath, and the Golden Guardian appeared before her.

"Awaken..."

Following Natsuki Minamiya's soft chant, the Golden Guardian's armor began to tremble, thin cracks spreading across it.

"Rheingold!"

"Moo..."

In the next second, all the armor shattered. A Beastman covered in black fur, with a head resembling an anteater's, appeared. After letting out a cry like an elephant's roar, it charged toward Delta at several tis its original speed.

As if she had not even seen Rheingold's attack, Delta stood motionless and took the blow head-on, instantly being sent flying into the air.

"BOOM!!!"

As if only then reacting, Delta twisted around and blocked Rheingold's follow-up attack. After landing, she looked at her own hand in confusion.

"I see. No wonder that earlier strike didn't kill you. With such a powerful Guardian, you really aren't the kind of small fry who can be dealt with in a single casual hit. It just looks like you can't control him."

"That's right. For , figuring out how to lock this thing back inside the armor afterward is going to be a problem too. But right now, the one in trouble is you. Do you still have enough Magical Power to deal with him?"

Natsuki Minamiya nodded in agreent, then her expression darkened at once. She pointed at Delta, who was constantly dodging.

"Take him down, Rheingold."

Following Natsuki Minamiya's order, Rheingold's body shone with Magical Power. His very existence distorted space and ti as he swung a fist.

Dodging left was the best option. Right was not bad either. The stupidest choice was to retreat.

So...

With that thought in mind, Cid took a step back.

...

...

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