Chapter 200: Four Heavenly Kings
The original plan was to move the tower into the deepest reaches of the abyssal sea and welco the incoming floating battleship and heroes there.
Even if he was confident of victory, there was no need to deliberately take on an enemy force numbering in the tens of thousands.
However, the floating battleship’s speed was far too fast, and the distance from the main force widened.
Hundreds of units of distance, a span that would take days to cross.
Directly above the tower, there was only a single floating battleship drifting lazily in the air.
The situation had changed.
Naturally, the plan had to change as well.
“We annihilate the heroes and seize the floating battleship before the main force arrives.”
“Is that really necessary? Fighting them underwater itself gives us a pretty big advantage.”
“There are tens of thousands of humans. When they gather, you never know what kind of variables might arise. So it’s better to force the issue and settle this now.”
Whether to fight at sea while forcing the heroes on the floating battleship to endure a disadvantage in the deep, with tens of thousands of troops standing by—
Or to fight above the sea, without those tens of thousands of troops.
Berje’s choice was the latter.
“I share the sa opinion. If one is a Demon King, one should face them head-on.”
“Then what about the sea bombs we worked so hard to make....”
Roger’s expression darkened. Berje brushed it off lightly.
“So we’re just going out and fighting directly?”
“First, we fire the main cannons. If we made them, we might as well use them.”
A massive gun barrel was mounted atop the tower’s summit. With a flamboyant bombardnt, they would announce the start of the battle.
“After that, Ernan and Reina will ss with the ship. Freezing the sea surface entirely to set the stage wouldn’t be bad either.”
That would only empty out the deck even more.
The problem was the Four Heavenly Kings.
Ernan Hilderan, Kaede Zespine, Lavinia Arkan, and Louise Berfht.
They were fully capable of facing stars, and Ernan had even reached the point where she could overwhelm most stars outright.
But they were princesses, after all. Other Demon Kings were one thing, but if it beca openly known that they stood alongside a Demon King, the repercussions would fall squarely upon their kingdoms and empire.
“I’ll ask you.”
The choices given to them were two.
Do not step forward at all.
Or slaughter them completely, leaving not a single survivor.
“Ah, the dwarves are an exception. Capture all of them and put them to work as slaves of the tower—no, as mbers.”
“Then I’m in favor. I’ve been itching to fight anyway.”
Louise agreed.
“...I will follow.”
Kaede quietly bowed her head.
“Yeah.”
Lavinia did not hesitate for even a mont.
And then.
“Hmm.”
Ernan asked back instead.
“What would you like to do?”
“I am a Demon King. And....”
“And?”
“You are one of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
“So you’re asking to fight for you, Demon King?”
Berje nodded.
“If you give sothing.”
Ernan held out her hand. Berje handed her chocolate. It was almond chocolate he had hurriedly obtained after going to the continent.
Ernan put the chocolate in her mouth. The sweetness made her smile brightly.
“Give the order.”
Ernan put on her mask.
“For now, I’m not Ernan Hilderan, but the Spirit Sorceress of Darkness.”
“Yeah, I’m certain now. She really is that crazy woman who made sothing as bizarre as the Four Heavenly Kings.”
Louise’s muttering was quietly buried.
“Go.”
Berje commanded.
“Go and kill them all, and bring the floating battleship before .”
Ernan and Kaede bowed their heads. Lavinia instinctively followed suit. Kaede forcibly pressed down Louise’s head, who was standing there blankly.
““We receive your command.””
Spirit Sorceress of Darkness.
Dark Knight.
Commander of the Legion of Death.
Giant of Hell.
For the first ti, the Four Heavenly Kings, now a complete force, set out.
“You will never regret taking this one as your vassal.”
“Ugh, I’m not even a combat-type demon.”
The two Demon Kings of Frost and Lust accompanied them as well.
* * *
The mission Berje entrusted to the two Demon Kings and the Four Heavenly Kings was simple.
To Reina, he assigned command of the legion and targeted the floating battleship.
To Ernan, he assigned prioritizing the floating battleship above all else.
And to the rest, he assigned dealing with the stars.
In any case, it was the sea.
If the floating battleship fell into Berje’s hands, none of the heroes who had co here would be able to escape.
That was why he was free from the obsession of having to let no one slip away.
He planned to finally settle the unfinished contest without restraint.
Balraf Dislode.
“I’ll take him.”
And now.
The Demon King, who had instilled an unparalleled terror into the great heroes and humanity stood face to face with them atop the sea.
“We’ve t before, haven’t we?”
“So it really was you, the Demon King of Dark Fla. You tucked your tail and ran away—doesn’t that sha you as a Demon King?”
“And you’re not ashad of trying to gang up on with tens of thousands of troops? Do you still deserve to be called a great hero?”
“We’ve always hunted Demon Kings together.”
“You’re so shaless I have nothing to say. So will you try a coordinated attack again this ti?”
“I’ve never once tried a coordinated attack against you.”
Killing intent thickened by the mont.
The overflowing pressure forced heroes and monsters alike to retreat backward.
“I won’t ask why the Demon King ca out to greet us instead of staying atop the tower.”
After all, you’re going to die anyway.
“Then I’ll let you live.”
At least for now.
“There’s a lot I’m curious about. A lot I want to ask.”
How he obtained the Red Dragon Sword.
How a hero who claid to have slain just one Demon King could be this strong.
What his true identity was.
The Demon King and the hero kicked off the ice at the sa ti.
Claws and blade crossed.
The battle had just begun.
* * *
Aina chanted a spell. She ford hand seals and drew in mana.
Raging waves surged forth. A single second—the ti it took for a wave that swept away everything to collapse.
With a light gesture from the Spirit Sorceress of Darkness, that was all it took.
“I don’t have ti. I have to carry out the orders the Demon King gave .”
That’s far more valuable than dealing with you.
Faced with eyes and a tone as if she were looking at a re insect, Aina trembled.
“H-how. How can this even be possible?”
She hurled water once more. It was neutralized.
She hurled it again. Once again, it was neutralized.
“How is this possible?!”
She was a grand mage specialized in water magic. She had high affinity with water and was intimately familiar with it.
As she established seven Sigils, her power had only grown stronger.
Her magic was domination and shaping of water.
Since becoming a star, she had never once had that dominion taken from her. Yet the Spirit Sorceress of Darkness, wearing a mask one might use at a ballroom, stole away her control with absurd ease.
“It’s a simple problem. It’s because I’m more intimate with water than you are. Because I’m closer to water.”
Do you know why?
“A mage tries to dominate water, but a spirit sorcerer befriends water itself.”
Spirits were, in the end, the elents themselves. Magic, which used mana to transform elents, and spirit sorcery, which borrowed the power of the elents themselves—there was a clear hierarchy between the two.
Even so, spirit sorcerers were rare because unless one was born with it, it could not be learned.
“You—you’re a demon! How can a demon wield spirit sorcery?!”
“Who said I’m a demon?”
“...What?”
Kugugugugu—
Space cracked apart. Terrifying mana poured forth. An incomparably pure and fresh aura of water spread outward.
Aina shuddered.
“Ahh...!”
That world was the place she had longed for so desperately.
The being erging from that gate was the object of admiration she had wished to see at least once.
“...Water Spirit King Naias?”
- You know , young human.
“Why, why would you serve a re demon?”
- As the contractor said, this child is not a demon. She is human.
“Human? No way....”
Aina conceived of a single, worst-case possibility.
The greatest spirit sorcerer among all living humans.
It had caused an uproar when it was said that soone who summoned a high-grade spirit at a young age and returned after being abducted by a Demon King would, after several hundred years, form a contract with a Spirit King.
‘The Demon King who abducted that human was....’
The Demon King of Dark Fla.
That tower was the Tower of Dark Fla.
“...No way, that can’t be.”
It was far too extre a delusion. That was what Aina told herself.
“It seems that ‘no way’ is actually correct.”
“That can’t be, it can’t be. Are you really Ernan Hilderan?”
“Looks like ‘no way’ was right.”
“Why? Why would a princess act like a Demon King’s dog? That bastard is the very Demon King who kidnapped you!”
“Kidnapping...that’s one way to put it. But everyone has their own circumstances.”
“That’s what you call an answer right now...!”
“I don’t want this conversation to drag on. I’m busy carrying out what the Demon King ordered to do.”
“Treating people like baggage you can kill anyti! You think being Crown Princess makes you sothing special?!”
“That’s unfortunate for you.”
Ernan looked at her with pity.
“You’re a star and incredibly strong, but you just happened to end up fighting .”
The Spirit King was the master of all elents. The Water Spirit King was the master of water.
A water mage who forcibly manipulated water could never defy the contractor of a Spirit King.
“Water.”
Absolutely.
“Cannot harm .”
“...Ha.”
The mage, having lost her most powerful weapon, let out a hollow laugh.
The waves engulfed her. Her consciousness faded.
- Contractor. What do you wish to do?
“Please spare her. The Demon King will make good use of her.”
- Very well. I never thought I would serve a Demon King in all my existence as a Spirit King, but this is amusing in its own way.
- And your relationship with the Demon King. I can understand a little why Nairuniel is making such a fuss.
Aina, trapped in a prison of water, was taken into the opened tower.
“...Please don’t end up like Nairuniel, Lady Naias.”
- That is an insult to . I will not beco that unsightly.
“Yes. Then shall we carry out the orders my Demon King gave ?”
After all, I’ve definitely received my reward.
Aduk—
She put an almond chocolate into her mouth.
It was sweet.
She looked up at the sky. About fifty ters above, the floating battleship could be seen pouring bombardnt down toward the ground.
“It’s big. Can you grab that and drop it for ?”
- How rude.
“Rude?”
- To ask a Water Spirit King about what is or isn’t possible, when this is the sea.
“So that ans it’s absolutely possible?”
- Of course.
- The sea is my domain.
- Everything will proceed according to your will.
Thousands of streams of water began to surge toward the floating battleship.
* * *
“Ugh, I think my trauma’s acting up.”
Not far from the battlefield of Ernan and Aina, Rozel, who had been hurling flas at Vivian, shuddered.
Unfortunately, her hearing was far too good. No—rather, it was more accurate to say she had intentionally focused, curious about the power of the Crown Princess who had summoned a Spirit King.
She shouldn’t have.
“How can she say the exact sa things as the Demon King?”
The nightmare of the day she had been captured by the Demon King resurfaced.
The Demon King had said the sa thing to her.
That fire could not reach him.
And now the Crown Princess was saying the sa thing.
That water couldn’t harm her?
It was absurd.
“Well, that’s because the two of them are lovers.”
Vivian, who was fighting alongside her, replied to Rozel’s muttering.
“...What did you say?”
“Didn’t you hear? I said lovers.”
“A human and a Demon King?”
“Well, Berje is still in the denial stage, but as the Demon King of Lust, my instincts are very accurate.”
“You’re Lust, you know?”
“Succubi are also missionaries of love.”
“Give a break.”
Rozel snorted.
‘Well, if a star hero like ended up as a Demon King’s subordinate, what’s so strange about a kidnapped Crown Princess and a Demon King being in love?’
It was very strange.
But that wasn’t the important part. What mattered was that the Crown Princess’s words had poked at her trauma.
And that made her a little angry.
“...Hey, doesn’t it feel like the flas are getting fiercer?”
“They are getting fiercer. I’m a bit angry.”
“Did I do sothing wrong?”
“No, it’s not your fault, but....”
You’re just right in front of .
“I think I need a target to vent my anger on.”
“...Why? Why ? Stop, flas!”
“Kyaaaaaaah—!”
Vivian’s scream echoed across the battlefield, but unfortunately, it was swallowed by the explosion of flas.
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