Before anyone noticed, there was no one left where the demon lord was previously standing.
".... Did... Did we win?" (Ifrit, flame hero)
"I... I think so. We did it!" (Velve, aqua hero)
"Wait!! I'm detecting something!"
(Hufaistas, scout hero)
"GUAKK!!" ( Diskea, assassin hero)
"...!!" (Aegis, blade hero)
" [Divine wrath]!!" (hevock, Priest hero)
In an instant, the whole of the demon lord's army had reappeared on the other side of the heroes. The undead legions and monstrosities heading for the human kingdoms while the assassin hero suffered an abrupt end. The priest hero had fired back a dense mass of light energy, but all it struck was thin air. The demon lord's speed was completely on another level. Initiating time stop to intervene, the time stop itself had dissipated out of existence. Magic particle's became unstable and friend my surroundings, revealing my location to everyone present while the scout hero, aqua hero and priest hero fell to the demon lord at the same time.
Before anyone could understand it, only the blade hero and flame hero are left on the field. Scrutinising their expressions, they were absolutely pale. The blade hero was barely holding on to his blade through sheer practice, the fire hero's knees gave out. Both of them, lost of their will to fight. At this point, I brought over Kido and Yuuki through [shadow step]'s teleportation effect. What exactly was going through the remaining heroes' minds while they stared at the corpse of their 4 subordinates? That was easy, it was the face of someone about to die. It was similar to when I first entered the boss room in that certain dungeon.
Come to think of it, could opening the dungeon trigger the demon lord's awakening? Well not like it mattered now. It all came rushing to my head, why the timing was particularly sticking through my skull, conjuring a warning at the tip of my tongue while I paid attention to the battle between the heroes and the demon lord. The priest hero couldn't use [revive] in time and the other 2 merely anchored their souls to this world. Forcing the world system to go into overdrive from sheer will, they anchored their existence into reality to prevent the demon lord's power from killing them.
Have they actually died once already? Or did something else happened? Whatever ensued, the 2 hero class individuals were rooted to their spot, the only thing I could do was take advantage of the demon lord's arrogance and evacuate them with [shadow step]. His speed was overwhelming compared to the heroes, too bad if it was a competition in speed, I still won.
Lunging in at full speed, the surroundings looked like a buddhist depiction of hell, craters, destruction and chain explosions consume the environment. Without the world system, the earth and the universe would be gone when a black hole forms from every step I took. Swinging completely, my axe kick struck through the demon lord before he was able to react.
Forming a scythe in my hand, I pulled all my strength together to give my strongest strike. Abyss given solid form rained down on the demon lord, [true death] disabled any form of revival, regeneration and immortality, [fate lock] prevented any form of evasion unless time and space was broken, [reality displacement] was used to lock in time and space to prevent the possibility of evasion. It seemed that I needed to push my [Abyss control] to the maximum to beat such a foe.
A deep black dome engulfs the demon lord, exerting pressure on par with a dwarf planet. Bringing down the scythe, the world system was temporarily breached as the earth split in half before being immediately mended back to normal. Dissipating into thin air, the demon lord remanifests unharmed. A sort of cackle was seen escaping his mouth, but for some reason I couldn't see or hear or feel, I could only ascertain that his mouth moved in such a manner with [Omni detection]. Just what is going on?
Lunging in once more, I chained my hits to continuously strike at his body, each time my attack slips off as if I was swing a rubber stick. With [omni detection], it was definitely confirmed to be a normal sjadow scythe formed by my magic, his stats are definitely below mine, how is he deflecting every blow?
This was my last resort, a skill I haven't used in a long time. "[Diamond speed enhancement-tier 5]!" I haven't used this skill since my battle with uncle Vadim, in a strange way I was thankful because the strange environment he provided forced me to grow stronger at a young age. With this speed and [reality displacement], the demon lord's perception of time around him became muddled. He probably has a skill that forces him to track my movement, or his 'authority' would just miss if people had higher agility than him. This skill that forced information into his brain was taken advantage of, as the faster I run, the larger amount of stress and burden is placed. Of course, I did neglect to stop attacking, hacking, slashing, firing shockwaves, I kept pressing on without a break.
So why? Why is it not working? How is he still alive? Why is he grinning?! Kido realising the situation tried her best to help, using her 'commandment's that she received from Kurisu, she had trained for roughly a year. Slowing down the demon lord's attacks by 3 digits, she tried to read his mind with the other 'commandment' to predict his next attack.
But all of that abruptly ended with a thud. Kido had... Died. This shouldn't have happened! What went wrong? Ah, I see. He was just toying with us the whole time. His authority was that strong that he had room to toy with us. Getting worked up over the death of a subordinate? No, I have no more energy to do that. What should I do? The heroes were useless, I can't do anything either!
***
Seeing Emily's expression and accessing the situation, nothing was stopping the demon lord from killing Yuuki other than his mischief. Judging it to be useless, she thought it would be at least meaningful if she could calm Emily down.
Constructing a barrier with 'lust', she gave it the properties of deflecting the demon lord's 'authority', but given the utility of his power, the barrier would just last 1 second longer than a normal barrier. And that was enough time. Hugging Emily, she exited the barrier to protect her master. Disregarding her partner's corpse, she couldn't afford to slack since her master can't do anything either.
***
After receiving a hug from Yuuki, it was evident that they were prepared for death, it seems. Huh~ guess there's no hope, the dwmon lord's ability prevents me from reviving my subordinates. It wasn't an interference skill, their soul no longer existed. I could no longer remember their faces, only a painful and empty corner in the back of my mind, there were 2 corpses on the ground, were they my subordinates or the rumoured heroes?
Whoever they were, I still need to fight the demon lord regardless.