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Chapter 34

The Demon Lord’s Plan, The Goddess’ Wisdom, and My Power

 

The Demon Lord made the first move by casting a simple magic called Fireball.

He’s literally just playing with us.

 

「My 《Fireball》. You’ve deflected this one too, huh…… But still, you can’t win just by deflecting my magic with your sword, can you?」

 

He shoots his magic nonchalantly from a distance.

He just takes his time slowly walking toward us with his hand pointing at me.

 

That is, of course, the leisure only the strong have.

It’s a sign of confidence as a Dungeon Maker who controls this Adria dungeon.

 

And against those attacks, all I can do now is to defend against it.

I’m not exactly good at defense, but if it’s just deflecting this kind of simple magic, I can still do it somewhat.

 

「Fumu, how persistent. Then how about this, 《Fire Spread》!」

 

He switched to fire magic that Sybilla had never used before, so I lowered my posture while keeping my guard up.

The next moment, a small fireball appeared from the Demon Lord’s hand.

But then it scattered and came to attack me all at once.

 

「——Tch!」

 

「Fufufu…」

 

I clicked my tongue audibly and put my hands up to guard my face.

A moment later, I can feel something slightly touching my robe as the fireball hit me.

And the result… I was completely unharmed.

 

I can understand when this Black Kite-colored was stained with the blood of the Fire Dragon, Sybilla said, 『With this, the robe is in its complete form!』.

Even though it’s the weakest magic that has been scattered after being made into smaller pieces, it’s still the magic of the Demon Lord, but to think it didn’t even scratch the robe…

Looks like I’ve really underestimated the blood of the highest species of lizard.

 

With this, we still have a chance.

 

「Hou hou… I see now. You used the materials from that salamander for your equipment, huh? No wonder fire magic doesn’t work on you.」

 

「Well, are you ready to get up close and settle this in close combat?」

 

「Hahaha, close combat? No way. I’d rather take my time to burn you off little by little. Besides, I’d still like to see how sturdy that robe is.」

 

The purple guy shrugs his shoulders playfully as he squints at my robe with a smile on his face.

He then lifts his right hand towards me again.

 

「《Flame Strike》!」

 

……He shot a higher-ranking magic this time!

After confirming the attack coming at me with a glance, I put up my sword again to protect my face.

 

My Mithril-coated Dragon Fang sword that has been imbued with my Dark Magic cut through the Demon Lord’s magic.

But by doing that, I can’t say my face behind the sword is completely safe either.

I closed my eyes and held my breath when blocking the magic, but I couldn’t say for sure that my insides wouldn’t burn the moment I breathed in.

 

No, actually, I think I accidentally inhaled some of the gas already. If my throat ends up burning, I won’t be able to use magic anymore since I can’t make a sound.

And of course, there was no way this cunning Demon King wouldn’t know that.

 

「……Ugh……」

 

I let out a groan as my knees hit the rocky red-colored ground of the dungeon.

……Hmm, it’s a pretty messy paint job now that I look closely. If only I were calm, I could easily tell the ground is painted.

 

「Kukuku…」

 

The Demon Lord of Adria dungeon let out a hearty laugh.

 

「That now was a powerful high-rank magic with a shock effect, but… kukuku, KUKUKU…! To think that even such powerful magic was incapable of burning your robe, but it seems that your body itself wasn’t completely harmless, hm? Ahahahahaha!」

 

I stood up and unsteadily walked to the side to avoid the Demon Lord.

Then I slowly move backward and take a stance while holding my sword with both hands.

 

「No, no, no, are you sure you can take another hit with that condition? I wonder how long you can endure the same attack with that unsteady stance.」

 

「……Tch……」

 

「Kukuku… what a pleasant reaction… that’s exactly the reaction I wanted to see.」

 

The Demon Lord once again lifted one of his arms and turned it toward us——.

 

「《Stone Javelin》!」

 

——Right at that moment, a stone spear flies at high speed toward Demon Lord’s head from the side.

 

Perhaps because Sybilla had decided to remain quiet ever since the exchange earlier——or perhaps because he doesn’t think that a Goddess would help a human——he was unable to evade the attack from a completely unexpected direction in time, and his neck was bent from it.

 

The Demon Lord’s head was gushing out purple blood as it turned around toward Sybilla with the playful expression he had earlier erased from its face.

He tilted his head as is, not a care in the world for the blood gushing out from his neck.

 

「Geez, the Goddess here sure knows how to pour cold water on the fun, doesn’t she?」

 

The Demon Lord who got hit by Sybilla’s offensive magic squinted his eyes and furrowed his brow at her.

Looks like the Demon Lord who intends to attack me one-sidedly with his long-range magic has instantly gotten into a bad mood with the appearance of an enemy who can attack from a long distance as well.

 

「《Flame Strike》」

 

He then points his hand at me and shoots another powerful offensive magic without looking at me and any expression on his face, unlike before.

The impact was so great that my sword fell out of my hands with a clang as it hit the ground

All that remains is my groaning sound.

 

「Hmph, with this, you won’t be able to get up anymore. It looks like I no longer have to worry about being cut down from behind. But still, Goddess…. you’re a pain in the butt, you know?」

 

「……」

 

「I’ve always thought that Godesseses’ who bound people with pacts are nothing but beauties who leave everything to others to do their bidings, but it seems it’s going to be worth it toying with you.」

 

As the Demon Lord recognizes Sybilla as his next opponent, he walks toward her.

Sybilla took a stance to protect herself with the small shield attached to her arm as she glared at the Demon Lord.

Then, as the Demon Lord raises one of his hands in Sybilla’s direction——

 

It was then——

 

「Guuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa——!!」

 

I shoot my chantless Dark Sphere at the red jewel-like object in the middle of the Demon Lord’s back, who had lowered his guard.

And since there was no longer the need to hide it, the moment the sphere hit it, I stood up and started shooting magic at him with both of my hands.

 

「《Dark Javelin》」

(《Dark Javelin》)

 

A powerful dark spear, which sucks up all the surrounding light flew at high speed and stabbed the Demon Lord, who looks back at me.

As expected, just as I was about to shoot another one, the Demon Lord stepped back warily.

 

「Yo, Yo, Youuuu! My, My, My 『Dungeon Core』! AAHHHHHHHHH!!!」

 

With a shocked face, the Demon Lord who’s still gushing with blood is busy scratching his back with his left hand.

It seems he worries about his back more than the blood gushing from his head.

 

「Ho-How… How… How are you…」

 

「How, you said… It’s because I’m the 【Saint】, of course. How else am I able to use healing magic, are you an idiot?」

 

「I-Idiot you say!? Me, who has reached the peak of knowledge… this me, you’re calling an idiot!? How dare you, you imbeci—— no, wait. Just now, what did you say?」

 

「I’m telling you that I’m the Saint. I’ve been a Healer since the beginning.」

 

「T-The Saint… wasn’t in the Hero Party? A Healer… Solo… using Healing Magic and Dark Magic… I-Impossible… it’s too unexpected… something like this…」

 

「Impossible, huh?」

 

I pick up my sword that fell on the ground.

……Good grief, pretending to lose is harder than I thought. 

 

It’s not that I’m completely unscathed because of it after all.

 

(《Extra Heal》)

 

It doesn’t matter that much if I burn my throat since I can heal them immediately with the chantless healing magic that Sybilla had taught me.

I bet the Demon Lord didn’t even realize when I used healing magic.

 

「Also, unexpected, huh? Come to think of it, you intentionally made this Floor Boss area on the lower layer just to catch us off guard with an unexpected situation too, didn’t you?」

 

「Of… course… I did…」

 

「What if I tell you that we already expected that?」

 

「——Ha?」

 

We had expected the plan that he thought we would never have suspected.

He’s making quite a dumb face after hearing that fact.

Well, I didn’t realize it myself when I was fighting, but… there’s someone who already expected that something like this would happen even before entering this boss floor.

 

It goes without saying that that person is my adventurer-senpai who’s an expert in avoiding dangers.

 

「Sybilla had told me in advance that I might have to face the Demon Lord right away after fighting the Floor Boos. And I merely carried out the plan as Sybilla had instructed.」

 

「Plan, you said…?」

 

「That’s right. If the magic wall at the entrance of the Floor Boss room didn’t disappear and we couldn’t get out after the boss was defeated, she told me to sit down and pretend to be out of breath.」

 

It’s true that hitting the 『Living Armor of Oblivion』 with magic earlier was troublesome.

It was troublesome, but… that’s all there is to it. 

 

My magical power is limitless. No matter how much dark magic I use, I still can’t see the bottom of it.

A normal person would’ve been so exhausted that they would’ve thought they couldn’t use magic anymore.

How could I’ve been most apt at Dark Magic even though I’m a Saint? If I ever meet the Goddess of the Sun, I’m going to question her until I’m satisfied. 

 

And so, it can be said that our victory was the result of the Demon Lord being caught up in 『common sense』.

It was also the result of him getting careless after being convinced of his victory.

 

Because of that, he failed to see through the plan that Sybilla had made in advance to destroy the 『Dungeon Core』 which the Demon Lord—— or Dungeon Maker used to keep the dungeon running.

 

「I had heard that the core would be located somewhere on his body, but I never thought it would be in such an easy-to-target place. It would be troublesome if we fought head-on, but who would have thought that this idiot would show his back.」

 

「Kuh…!」

 

「So to put it simply—」

 

I raise my sword with my right hand and enchant it with Dark Magic once again.

The sword emits a light that looks like it’s ready to reap life, and I point its tip at the Demon Lord.

 

「It means you were in the palm of Sybilla’s hand the whole time, a Goddess who anticipated even the most unexpected situation that could happen. You’re a hundred years too early to outwit the likes of a Goddess, you third-rate!」

 

「You… Bas…tard…」

 

「Listen, that orphanage is not only an important place for the 【Holy Knight】 Emmy, but it’s also the place where I, the 【Saint】, grew up. That’s right, you’ve been blabbering about destroying that place right in front of my face without even knowing that… and I’ve sworn to myself to destroy you at any cost the moment you planned to mess with that place.」

 

I pointed my hand at the Demon Lord while gripping my sword with the other.

 

Back in those days, using Healing Magic was the only thing I could do.

I was desperate just to escape.

 

But now I have Sybilla, the world’s most clever goddess of victory, by my side.

I have the power that she bestowed on me.

 

If it’s the me right now, I can win.

 

「Now then, it’s the time for 『Black Kite Saint』 Russell.」