Noooooo!
How did this happen?!
In front of me is my mortal enemy, the Demon Lord.
She's currently attacking me, in the midst of the swirl of shrieking and destruction that is the battlefield. There's no longer any distinction between Sariella and the Ohts Alliance troops. My battle with the Demon Lord has thrown it all into chaos.
Battle?
Yeah, you could call it a battle. It's a defensive one for me, but I'm still holding my own. The first time, I got blown to bits by a single attack, but my stats have gone up ridiculously high since I absorbed Mother's power.
I'm not going to get utterly annihilated like last time! Although I still have to be on the defensive! I release a single Light Magic shot toward the Demon Lord. She already has Divine Dragon Barrier invoked over the area, so I can't put together any complicated magic.
That means I can't teleport, and I'd be hard-pressed to use more powerful attack magic than this, too. All I can really do are simple one-shot attacks. And since the Demon Lord's high resistances can nullify most attributes, those aren't going to work.
My only hope is the Light series of magic that I acquired when I was doing all that healing near town. But even if my Light Magic shots hit, they do only one damage, which gets recovered pretty much instantly!
The Demon Lord keeps charging at me, paying no mind to the Light Magic shots hitting her, so I create a wall with Earth Magic to stall her.
Since this magic works on the ground and not an opponent, even Divine Dragon Barrier has a hard time blocking it. A wall of earth rises up, blocking the Demon Lord's charge. But then the wall disappears with a crunching sound. The Demon Lord keeps moving, visibly chewing something as she goes. Then she gulps it down, and her SP recovers. Enough of this already!
No matter what I do or don't do, it just ends up restoring the Demon Lord's SP!
The reason for this is the totally broken effect of one of the Demon Lord's skills, Gluttony.
So basically, the Demon Lord can eat literally anything. That means earth or anything else that has substance. No, she can even eat invisible things like magic! I activate Dragon Barrier to counter the Demon Lord's Divine Dragon Barrier. I was hoping this would neutralize the Divine Dragon Barrier somehow so I can use magic properly, but it doesn't work.
One, my barrier's not as powerful as the Demon Lord's, and two, the Demon Lord can eat mine. She can consume even things that have no physical form and absorb them as her own strength.
Considering that she already has cheat code–tier stats, the addition of this overpowered skill makes her pretty much unbeatable.
I know I can't figure out any way to do it! Dammit! How am I supposed to fight this beast?!
The Demon Lord swings her arm, slamming it into my body. Guh?! Some kinda liquid is coming out of my mouth! That's blood, you idiot!
I get blown away so fast it's almost funny and roll along the ground, tangling up with soldiers along the way.
The soldiers caught in my path get shredded into mincemeat. If my defense was lower, the same thing probably would've happened to me, too. Stats are the best. But I have no more time to appreciate my own high stats. Chasing me down as I roll away, the Demon Lord descends from the sky.
I hurriedly avoid her feet as she lands, but the explosion when she hits the ground sends me flying again. Yeah. She drop-kicked the ground so hard it exploded. Look, I don't really get it, either.
Excuse me, Miss Demon Lord, are you sure you're not in the wrong story?
'Cause to me, it seems like a character from some power creep–ridden shonen manga has made her way into a fantasy story by mistake. I tumble away from the crater the Demon Lord has made.
The soldiers from both sides are fleeing all over the place, their war basically abandoned. Seriously, how did this happen?!
Actually, the only reason I've survived all the damage I've taken is the people around us. I seem to be gaining experience points for the ones who get killed in the aftershocks. Thanks to that, I get to level up and fully recover.
I'm sorry, soldiers whose names I don't even know!
Your deaths are the reason I get to live!
Thank you!
Unfortunately, the molting and recovery from my level-up aren't perfect. Since my stats are so high now, it doesn't fully heal me anymore, and every time my skin molts off, it trips me up for a few seconds.
Besides, there are fewer and fewer people around now, for obvious reasons. At this rate, my level-up recovery won't be able to keep up with the damage, and I'll lose for sure.
I have to find a way to escape before that happens!
"I am your opponent, monster!"
A courageous but very young male voice reaches my ears. Honestly, I don't have time to deal with this, but I can't help glancing over to see who's speaking.
Then I look again. Uh, what is a little kid doing here? It's an actual child, wearing kinda fancy clothes and looking completely out of place.
He trembles as he stands in front of me, sword in hand. Huh? What's going on exactly?
Somebody, please explain!
"Hero?"
Oddly enough, the one who answers my unspoken question is the Demon Lord. She's looking directly at the young boy. Dumbfounded, I Appraise the child. Sure enough, much to my surprise, the boy really is a hero.
< Human
LV 14
Name: Julius Zagan Analeit
Status:
HP: 476/476 (green) SP: 455/455 (yellow) Average Offensive Ability: 469 (details) Average Magical Ability: 488 (details) Average Speed Ability: 435 (details)
MP: 497/497 (blue) : 401/455 (red) Average Defensive Ability: 465 (details) Average Resistance Ability: 476 (details)
Skills:
[Magic Power Perception LV 10]
[Precise Magic Power Operation LV 1]
[Magic Warfare LV 9]
[Magic Power Conferment LV 8]
[Magic Power Super-Attack LV 1]
[MP Rapid Recovery LV 1]
[MP Minimized Consumption LV 1]
[Swordsmanship LV 7]
[Destruction Enhancement LV 6]
[Cutting Enhancement LV 2]
[Impact Enhancement LV 1]
[Mental Warfare LV 4]
[Energy Conferment LV 2]
[Concentration LV 9]
[Hit LV 5]
[Evasion LV 5]
[Light Magic LV 10]
[Holy Light Magic LV 1]
[Vision Enhancement LV 9]
[Auditory Enhancement LV 8]
[Olfactory Enhancement LV 6]
[Taste Enhancement LV 2]
[Tactile Enhancement LV 5]
[Life LV 9]
[Magic Hoard LV 2]
[Instantaneous LV 8]
[Endurance LV 8]
[Strength LV 9]
[Solidity LV 9]
[Monk LV 2]
[Talisman LV 1]
[Running LV 7]
[Hero LV 3] >
First a demon lord, now a hero?!
Wait, but is it just me, or are his stats pretty weak?
I guess they're probably pretty good for a child, but still. In fact, his stats are way better than most of the soldiers around here.
That's about it, though. I guess he doesn't have many skills yet because he's still a kid?
Okay, now's not the time to stand around analyzing this!
What's the Demon Lord doing?
Huh?
She seems kinda wary of the kid hero?
Why?
An awkward three-way standoff ensues, with the kid hero, the Demon Lord, and me all frozen in place. I don't know why the Demon Lord's so nervous about this kid. Discreetly booting up Professor Wisdom, I do a search for "hero."
Ahaaa!
Now, that's the kinda system loophole I like to see! The Demon Lord is too wary of this hidden effect to lay a hand on the kid hero! I don't think "ability to defeat" necessarily means it's a guaranteed win, but now I've got one card to play against the Demon Lord!
The kid hero's stats are pathetic even compared to mine, never mind the Demon Lord's.
However, the Demon Lord is definitely afraid of this weird hidden hero effect. Can I use that to improve this situation somehow?
As I contemplate how to do that, the standoff continues. What finally ends it isn't because of me, the Demon Lord, or even the kid hero.
No, it's a huge ball of fire falling from the sky. I don't know which army caused it, but are they trying to get rid of all three of us at once?!
Of course, that spell's not gonna make it through the Demon Lord's Divine Dragon Barrier. But the kid hero doesn't know that, so he stares up at the flames in horror. The Demon Lord takes that opportunity to move.
Specifically, she starts aiming a spell at me.
Crap!
That spell is bad news!
The spell she's invoking is Abyss Magic. Magic that destroys even the soul itself.
Abyss Magic is no ordinary attack magic. It has a hidden effect, too: disintegrating the soul. It's the ultimate execution magic, smashing the soul to bits until it can't be reincarnated again. If that hits me, even Immortality won't save me from dying when my soul is destroyed. But I don't have enough time to get away.
Steeling myself, I make a life-or-death gamble.
The Demon Lord's Abyss Magic activates, and something that looks like all the darkness in existence condensed into one spot swoops toward me.
Unable to avoid it, my body is swallowed up inside the darkness and disintegrates without the slightest resistance.