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Chapter 78 – Part 2

「Ah, if you mean those people, then they were already destroyed by me and all the people of Ente Forest. You, too, will meet the same end」

「You’re quite confident. Bastard, it seems the only human-like part of you is your appearance.

You’ve slightly piqued my interest, but the only thing I am aiming for is Yggdrasil and nothing else. Diabla, Elenes, get rid of them」

「Yes!」

Responding to Gaban’s order in unison, the two demons who had been restrained up until now finally began to move. It seems the male demon was Diabla, and the female demon was Elenes.

As soon as they received their Lord’s permission, the two demons’ aura of aggression immediately rose, their hostility sharp enough to cut air.

They were probably rejoicing that they could finally cut down the lowly human who had dared to show their master disrespect.

Diadora used his right hand, and Elenes her left, and the two of them attacked me, so symmetrical they were like mirrored reflections of each other.

Behind me, the Great Spirits moved to interfere, but with a single glance, I let them know that they did not need to.

I’d feel bad if I made them do all the work, after all.

「Scorching Demon Flame Gun」

The pitch black flame that released from Diabla’s right hand was as big as a giant dragon’s jaw, and hot enough to put the core of the sun to shame.

「Wind Slash」

Elenes released a blade of wind from her left hand, which broke the laws of physics as it traveled faster than light, cutting through time and space.

So Diabla was a fire-using demon, and Elenes was a wind-using demon. Well, this attack was probably just a warm up for them, so the truth might still be different.

Not limited to just demons, but all higher class beings have the power to destroy the souls of subordinate beings completely. Such was the attack they were sending toward me.

Ignoring the laws of this three dimensional and material world while attacking was a feat that only high class beings could achieve.

Besides myself and the Great Spirits, there wasn’t anyone else here who could receive such an attack and leave with their soul undamaged.

I tried to pull my long sword out from where I thought it was hanging from my waist, but I recalled that I had left it behind with Marial and Aziram. With a slightly bitter smile, I turned to face the oncoming fire and wind while raising my right arm.

「You don’t even have a sword, how unexpectedly pitiful」

My right arm was enveloped in the magic my soul was pouring out, covered in the semi-translucent shape of the white dragon arm. It met with the attack of the two demons, and pulverized the attack, making it disappear without a trace, as if simply brushing off dirt.

Even though the attack had been just like a warm up exercise for them, it was still something that no creature on this earth could just defend against like that, no matter how much they struggled. But since I had so easily brushed it off, they finally began to take me seriously.

「Dragonkin, or maybe that was power the level of the Dragon King?」

「He blocked our attack. He might be a Dragon Emperor, or an Imperial Dragon, or maybe a True Dragon……」

「How should I put this, since I’m always holding back, people like you tend to always look down on me until I do something like this, and then you’d be so surprised after. This pattern always happens.

If the reaction is always the same every single time, then even I will get a little tired of it」

My left arm also took on the shape of a dragon arm, and the wings and tail of a white dragon extended behind me, making me look like a half dragon person.

It was the form that I’d shown off during the fight with Georg in the demon world. For me, it did demonstrate quite a bit of my power as an Ancient Celestial Dragon.

「Niezhel is already dead. It might be troublesome to get more involved like this, but you all will be going to the underworld, and receiving judgement together with Niezhel in that place」

Without waiting for me to finish talking, Diabla and Elenes continued the attack.

Flapping their wings, and moving their feet — they did not. They leaped through space using teleportation.

Without any gap in time at all, the two demons appeared on my left and right.

Unlike just moments before, where they’d been holding back, they were now coming for me seriously, with the intent of killing me. The power that was embedded in Diabla and Elenes’ arms and legs were much stronger, and couldn’t even be compared to the power they had used before.

「It can’t be compared, but the difference in power between you and me couldn’t be compared from the start either」

「Burn straight to the soul, Miraculous Flaming Hand!」

「Bite down to the atom, Biting Wind!」

「I don’t mind if you’re going all out now, but it still won’t change your fate」

Though the two of them were putting out power stronger than anything on this earth with their attacks, I raised both arms towards them while feeling some mercy.

Diabla’s hand sword, which held heat exceeding anything on this earth, and Elenes’ fangs of wind, which could bite through anything in this forest; I raised my arms and grabbed each of them, and without feeling any pain at all, I began to crush them.

「What!?」

「G-guah, this, this is damaging straight to our souls!」

My attack didn’t stop at just the temporary physical bodies they had created for themselves to use in this world. It also inflicted deep wounds into the core of their souls, and in response, they let out genuine cries of surprise.

Hmm, I’ve seen this kind of response so many times, I’ve gotten used to it already. But now that I think about it, Caravis had challenged me over and over, no matter how messed up she became, so I ended up once again impressed by the guts she had.

「I feel a little bad since you people finally made it out of the demon world, but there’s no place in this world for you」

I continued to let the destructive power flow through the illusionary white dragon arms, and into the souls of the captured demons, until they finally disappeared without a trace left.

Hmph, if their souls disappear, then I guess they won’t be going to the underworld after all. Oh well.

As the two demons raised up wordless screams while disappearing, I could hear Headmaster Olivier, Selina and the Great Spirits all let out gasps as they looked on with admiration and disbelief.

Gaban closed the distance between us in an instant, and jumped from in front of me to above me. He then swung his greatsword with all his might down towards me.

His slashes were faster than even the vampire prince that I had once fought before, and it wasn’t just one slash, but over a hundred of them launched toward me all at once.

I blocked the first slash with my left palm, and then blocked all the rest with the illusionary arm.

In short, even though these slashes were on the level of a Demon Lord, for me, there was no need to go out of my way to avoid them.

「Your composure from earlier is gone now, isn’t it? You can’t say I’m just a human, or I’m just a dragon anymore, can you?」

「That’s exactly right. To think I would lose my loyal servants all at once, in a single moment while I was admiring the fact that I had acquired the lovely Yggdrasil」

「This happened because you were too greedy. You should just be satisfied with what you have in your own world」

「There will be no need for that if I just kill you!」

Sword and dragon scales clashed with a loud clang, as Gaban swung his greatsword sideways at me, bringing his black and gold colored magic with it.

Linked after the thrust of his greatsword, Gaban sent a roundhouse kick my way. I scoffed lightly as I very easily stopped his roundhouse kick with my right hand.

「Be trapped in darkness, Cage of Darkness」

With me in the center, black lines formed into a square around me and rose above, trapping me inside like a casket.

Anything trapped inside the black cage Gaban had used would be assimilated into the darkness, and return to nothingness.

「There’s nothing to be said about being devoured by darkness, except: it’s annoying!」

From inside the cage filled with darkness, I swung my white dragon arms, and crushed the cage of darkness from the inside, like I was just breaking glass.

Probably because I had sparred with Caravis many times in the demon world already, Gaban’s attacks all felt cliche and boring to me.

Well, with that said, I understood that it wasn’t fair to compare them, when he is still imperfect, the son of a Demon Lord and still in training, but…

In front of me, who had broken free of the cage of darkness, was the figure of Gaban thrusting his greatsword towards me again.

It was pushing through five layers of magic circles, and those circles were rotating at a tremendous speed. With each rotation, the speed increased, and the destructive power of the magical energy also increased further and further.

These were magical circles meant for increasing magical strength and for helping to control it too. I have heard that it’s a spell that even the highest level of human mages rarely perform.

「Swallow my foe, Darkness Whirlpool!」

A bombardment of whirlpools and raging tides launched from the tip of Gaban’s greatsword, kneading miasma and magical energy summoned from the demon world into Gaban’s own energy, and it swallowed up everything around it too, no matter what it was.

It was an intense bombardment that could nullify any kind of defense, so it would be much faster to just nullify this large number of attacks by overcoming it with an attack of the same type, but stronger!

「In that case, then I’ll attack too」

I added a new head to the illusionary white dragon I wore, and in contrast to the pitch black bombardment that filled up my vision, I opened up the mouth of the dragon illusion wide, and let out a white, fog-like breath of light.

The flow of darkness and the white foggy breath battled each other for a short moment, but the high wall between the power of the Ancient Celestial Dragon and that of a Demon Lord proved to be absolutely impenetrable, as Gaban was swallowed up by the breath.

「You had this much power!? A True Dragon shouldn’t have this much power!」

In the middle of experiencing severe pain as he took a direct hit from the breath and both his body and soul started to collapse, Gaban gambled the remainder of his life as he struggled to find out my true identity.

This also happens every time. Feeling as if I were just doing some chore, I told Gaban who I was.

The eyes of my white dragon illusion sparkled in rainbow colors, and showed him the soul of the Ancient Celestial Dragon, which was usually covered by the shell that resembles a human soul.

「If you still don’t get it, then you should ask the three gods of the underworld. You could ask  the one in charge of the place of judgement, Enma, or you could ask the warden of the underworld, Hades.

You could also ask all the other Demon Lords and evil gods who got sent there before you, but they may have been driven to madness from the fear, so I wouldn’t recommend it」

「It can’t be, it can’t be, you are–!!」

「Those words as well; I’m already far too tired of them. Couldn’t you at least try saying something different than everyone else for your final words?」

Hmm, well, Gaban didn’t have any time left for that.

At the very, very last moment, he finally figured out who I was — or rather, was forced to figure it out, but Gaban’s willpower to resist was already completely gone, and he was swallowed up by the breath, following after his fellow demons as he disappeared without a trace.

The dimensional pathway Gaban and his people had used to get here seems to have closed, and the remaining magic soldiers and low class demons were being taken care of by the Great Spirits.

With that, once the air and atmosphere is purified from the pollution, and Yggdrasil and the injured are nursed back to health, then it could be said that this unusual event would be over and resolved.

By taking the dragon magic circle I had used to protect Selina and the others, and expanding it to cover the whole of Deep Green, the miasma and poison from the demon world could be purified.

That was originally the job for Yggdrasil itself, or for the priestess princesses, but taking into account their fatigue, it would be better for me to handle it to the end.