440 At The Top Of The Tower



I landed on the balcony just in time to see the King cut off the head of a Scarlet Fiend, her Valour Skill incinerating the body and leaving only ashes behind.

No… My Demonic core… Oh well.

I secured the rope to the balcony and waved at the three still below, prompting them to start climbing up the rope.

It'll take them a while to get up here so I turned my attention back to the tower's interior, finding the King now standing in front of the nobleman who had previously transformed into the Pale Fiend.

I'm quite surprised to see that he could actually transform back to his human form.

Behind him was the princess suspended in the air with the same chains that bound her limbs while a very ominous mirror half the size of the room floated behind her.

Unlike before where she was conscious, she was unconscious this time.

"Duke Iseo! I'm giving you one last chance to turn yourself in or I will cut you down like the dog you are!" King Justinia roared.

"Haha… Ahahaha! Are you still saying such stupid things, my King?! You can't possibly think I will give up now?!"

"If you still call me your King then you will obey my words!"

"Ahahaha! This is why you will always be weak! Do you think I will give up this power of mine for your silly ideals of peace?! If it wasn't because of you, we would have trampled through the forests and taken those stupid beastmen and Trasifs out! We could have ruled this entire continent! If it was me, this kingdom would have stretched all the way to the mountains and beyond!"

"You speak of strength and yet you kidnap a powerless girl! Where is this strength that you speak of?!"

"Hahahaha! Unlike you, King, I am not against using any method to gain strength! Even if I have to consort with demons to obtain it!"

"The demons are just using you, can't you even see that?!"

"Hahaha! Like how you used us, Your Majesty? How are you any different from them? But by following you, I will remain weak! By following them, I will gain strength! That is where you differ!!"

The King lifted her sword slightly off the ground, "That is incorrect. By following the demons, you will die here, nothing more."

"Hahahaha! You really think you can beat me?! The me you fought before was when I have yet to properly control my strength! Now I know my true capabilities, you can't beat me!!"

"I am the King of Lehcarouc! I have the power of the Gods and my Kingdom behind me! You are the one who shall fall here!!"

The King let out a warcry before leaping at the nobleman, the nobleman letting out a roar before transforming himself into the Pale Fiend and leaping at the King.

Sword clashed against claws as the two of them met in the middle, the screech of metal echoing around the entire room.

I got ready to jump in to aid the King when two Scarlet Fiends dropped down from the ceiling to land in front of me, as though they were waiting for this exact moment.

I brought up my Light Sword just in time to parry away the claw strike from the left demon, my eyes darting to the side as the second demon tried to flank me.

Seeing no benefits in holding back here, I called up one of my Shadow Summons to burst out from my shadow and stab at the second demon with her sword.

Unfortunately, the Scarlet Fiend reacted just in time and tried to leap away from my Summon, though it did receive a nick in his abdomen for that.

Undeterred, my Shadow Summon chased after it, engaging the demon in one on one combat.

I returned my attention to the Scarlet Fiend in front of me, who was momentarily distracted from the appearance of my Shadow Summon.

For that mistake, I pulled back my left hand and enchanted my fist with [Lightning Clad] and [Body Current] before punching into his abdomen.

There was a loud 'crunch' as the bones inside the demon's body shattered before he was sent flying away from me to crash into the wall, throwing up a cloud of dust that hid him from view.

Without a moment's hesitation, I leapt into the dust cloud after him, using a quick cast of [Breeze] to blow the cloud away and reveal the demon that was trying to get back to his feet.

His body was engulfed in flames as the fire worked on healing the demon but that did not bother me in the slightest as I infused my sword with mana to activate the light blade.

The demon looked up just as I was bringing the sword down at his head, his face contorting into a sneer as the flames surrounding him flared up.

Part of it detached away from his body to fly towards my face, forcing me to leap to the side at the last moment to avoid it burning my face off.

I got up into a crouch just as the demon shot another ball of fire at me, this one being cleaved into two with my Light Sword.

I reached into my Pack of Folding to pull out the Demonic Core but before I could, the demon leapt at me to claw at my face. He must have instinctively knew that whatever I was reaching for would not be beneficial for his survival.

My hands went back to my sword as I parried and blocked his blows, holding my ground against his frenzied onslaught.

He pulled back his arm and I ducked right before he swiped at my head, allowing me to slash at his knee and cut off his left leg.

The demon fell over onto the ground with a yelp of surprise, his flames already working on regenerating a new leg for him.

When he tried to look up at me though, all he saw was my blade descending upon his head and splitting his skull into two.

Just to be sure, I pulled back my sword and lopped off the head, only looking away from the body when the head rolled away from me.

My Shadow Summon was still fighting against the other demon, both sides seemingly evenly matched since my summon did not have superior equipment.

Since the demon's attention was locked on my Summon, it was a simple thing for me to sneak up behind him with [Shadow Wall] and lopping his head off with a nice, clean cut to his neck.

As the head bounced on the ground, I saw Katsuki climbing over the railing of the tower, finally having ascended all the way up here.

I didn't get the chance to greet her since the sound of an explosion made me turn back around to see the King and the Pale Fiend still locked in combat.

I was wondering why the King was struggling against it since her Sacred Slash skill seemed to be able to cut through anything anyway.

That was when I saw her slice her sword through the demon's torso but instead of it being a debilitating blow, the demon merely staggered backwards before the two halves of the body joined together and it leapt at the King again.

Godamnit… It has high speed regeneration and magical reflection? How the heck are we supposed to kill it then?!

Does the regeneration have a limit? Do we just go for the head? Do we strike it with a blow that completely disintegrates it so that it can't regenerate at all?

While I was still thinking of a way, the King still continued to slash at the demon even though it seemed to be futile.

I wonder if she was just continuing her attack because she had a plan or because there was nothing else she could do.

Just as I considered jumping in to aid the King, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see the older Tiara looking ahead.

"Is that… The me of your dimension?" She asked.

She must be referring to Tiara who was suspended in the air behind the fight so I nodded, "That she is. Seems like she's your younger self isn't it?"

The older Tiara nodded before shifting her gaze to the Pale Fiend that the King was fighting, "I know that demon… I've fought one of its kind before… The only way to kill it is to destroy its core but it has an irritating ability of being able to shift its core around its body and its core is the size of a marble."

Ok, good, at least we know how to kill it so that's something at least. But how are we supposed to--

"Alright! Then that just means we need to smash it into paste so that core or whatever is also smashed! Let's go, Katsuki!!" Odeta roared, already charging towards the demon without waiting for the rest of us.

…

Oh whatever… Charge!!