Belphegor’s four knights.
Where they had come from, what origin they had been born from—no one knew, except Belphegor and the knights themselves. Even the Seven Deadly Sins had only limited information on them.
They remembered that unique image only because they occasionally ran into them, but none of them had ever exchanged a single word.
However, Satan knew at least one thing.
That those four knights were the strongest weapon Belphegor possessed,
And the biggest reason Lucifer had come to recognize Belphegor.
"Mammon......!"
Asmodeus looked back and was shocked.
Mammon, swallowed into the maw of the corpse-heap. The corpse-heap had turned back into a horse, and yet none of Mammon’s flesh was to be seen.
Mammon was dead.
A member of the Seven Deadly Sins, killed this easily.
At that moment, Satan opened his mouth.
"All forces."
An order that only Satan, the current King of Demons, could give.
"Stop those knights."
All demons of the Demon Realm, including the army of the Seven Deadly Sins, assembled in obedience to the command.
Darkness devoured the land. It rapidly narrowed the path along which the four knights advanced and—
KWA-DRRRRK!
The swarm of demons crashed down on the four knights.
Seeing that sight, Asmodeus spoke.
"What are those knights. How did they kill Mammon so easily?"
"The reason is simple."
Lucifer spoke.
"Their strength surpasses that of the Seven Deadly Sins."
"What......?"
Asmodeus asked again, as if he couldn’t believe it.
Satan added words, as if to supplement.
"And Mammon was far too careless just now. If he’d known their strength, he could have bought a little more time."
He could have bought time.
In other words, nothing more than delay could have been expected of him, and Mammon would have died sooner or later regardless.
Another of the Seven Deadly Sins, Leviathan, asked,
"How is that possible? Those guys are Belphegor’s subordinates! No matter how «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» powerful Belphegor is, he’s not strong enough to overwhelm Mammon."
"That’s what’s troublesome about Belphegor."
Lucifer spoke.
"He turns opponents stronger than himself into his subordinates."
"......What did you say?"
Asmodeus’s face twisted with disgust.
He turned those stronger than himself into subordinates.
That wasn’t something wholly impossible. They had actually seen it happen.
For example, among humans, it happened from time to time.
But among demons, it did not.
Among demons, order was identical with strength. The strong ruled the weak, and the weak ruled those weaker still. A relationship where strength was reversed could not be maintained, and even if it did appear, it would soon collapse.
And yet Belphegor kept at his side knights stronger than himself? Four of them, at that?
"We don’t have any more time to talk."
Lucifer spoke.
"They’ve broken through the demons."
"......!"
Just as he said—
CRACK, CRAA-CKLE!
The first thing to be seen was the face of some low-ranking demon.
Its head was impaled on the tip of a blade, burning. The long shaft connected to that blade, and the hand grasping it, were wreathed in blue flames, and the horse that shook off the smoke was the same.
The knight of blue flames took the lead.
POP-POP-POP!
In the sky, demons burst like fireworks, and the blood that poured down clung to other demons and melted them. The demon of blood and corpses followed next.
On the ground, demons were swept away wherever the horse passed, bound together in a mass of bone and losing their forms. The knight of bone followed.
And then, as if cleaning up the leftovers, one horse simply passed by, and the demons around it clutched their throats and rolled their eyes back. The knight of ash and soot came last.
The four knights spurred on, making up for the brief delay from the demons’ rush, and continued their pursuit of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Four mounted knights chasing the Seven Deadly Sins, who flew through the air. The distance between them shrank bit by bit.
"Those bastards really......."
Leviathan muttered, feeling a chill.
Those feats were already brushing against the Seven Deadly Sins.
Satan spoke.
"Their horses aren’t real. You saw it before, didn’t you? Don’t think of their speed as that of ordinary horses."
"What do we do? They’re going to catch up!"
"No. At this speed, we’ll reach our destination first."
Satan was still flying forward, looking only ahead. He seemed unconcerned with what was happening behind them.
It was as if he saw everything that had happened so far.
"The Moirai are dead. The World of Salvation is gone, and Bifrost has opened. Right up ahead, there should be......."
Satan spoke.
The four knights were clearly closing the distance, but the Seven Deadly Sins would arrive first.
Satan’s guess was correct.
However—
"Hey there."
Someone appeared right in front of Satan, who’d kept his eyes only on what lay ahead, as if on purpose.
"Where do you think you’re going, Satan."
"......!"
Satan’s eyes flew wide in surprise.
"Belphegor!"
"!"
The Seven Deadly Sins all stopped flying and looked ahead.
Belphegor was there.
"How are you here!"
Asmodeus shouted.
All of the Seven Deadly Sins were confused.
In that moment, Satan’s mind spun rapidly.
‘Belphegor definitely crossed Yggdrasil together with Frondier. Astaroth should have blocked him there. Could Astaroth have betrayed me? No, if he’d done something like that, I would have noticed right away. Then did Belphegor never cross Yggdrasil in the first place? No. Frondier went straight on into the next world. Belphegor sent him. But if that’s so, then no matter how great Belphegor is, there’s no way he could have gotten here this fast. Blocking our path from directly ahead, when we’ve been flying this whole time in the exact opposite direction!’
Satan’s thoughts pressed forward with precise judgment. Assuming arbitrary variables and eliminating what was impossible, his mind advanced in the correct direction.
No matter what method he used, it was impossible for Belphegor to get ahead of them.
In that case—
Whish!
Satan pointed a finger, and a black arrow shot from that fingertip, piercing Belphegor.
SPLUT!
Belphegor’s chest was pierced. Yet he didn’t let out a single scream and said,
"As expected of you, Satan. You figured it out fast."
Soon, Belphegor’s skin grew squishy and melted away.
What remained hovering there was just a corpse.
Asmodeus’s eyes flew wide.
"Possession!"
"How dare you, with such a petty trick!"
The corpse slowly crumbled. As if delivering his last words, Belphegor said,
"Well, I figured you’d catch on quickly. But─"
A few seconds are enough for me.
THUD─
"......Ah!"
The Seven Deadly Sins realized and turned around.
Right in front of them—
NEEEEIGH─!
Four horses raised their hooves high.
Using their heads as a springboard, the four knights vaulted up into the air.
Halberd, glaive, war scythe, bardiche.
Each weapon was slightly different, but at their core they had something in common.
A long shaft.
Whoosh!
Each knight swung that long-hafted weapon at one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
There was no particular standard.
If there was anything, it was that they struck at whoever was closest.
KWA-ANG! KLA-AANG!!
Asmodeus, Leviathan, Satan, and Lucifer blocked their respective attacks.
"Kh, these bastards......!"
As they matched strength with the knights, the Seven Deadly Sins finally realized that the four knights’ power was in no way inferior to their own.
One of the Seven Deadly Sins remained.
Baalzebub.
"Kh, these guys......!"
Baalzebub hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to support one of the others or ignore it all and head for Bifrost.
But his decision came quickly.
He would head for Bifrost. Individual lives were of no importance to a demon. That was the same even for the Seven Deadly Sins. What mattered to them was the system of the Seven Deadly Sins, not who sat in which seat.
Baalzebub turned his body and flew on. Toward Bifrost. He would use that to go to the human world. His alliance with Zeus was still in effect, and the gods would not want the demons to be completely wiped out either. If he aimed for that balance—
THUD─
But then, Baalzebub suddenly felt an impact smash into his flank.
In an instant, his body flew farther and farther away from his destination.
Someone had rammed into Baalzebub from the right and was now flying on endlessly with him.
Baalzebub rolled his eyes to see who had grabbed onto him and was carrying him away.
The instant he saw him, rage surged up inside him.
"Bael......!!"
"Hey."
Bael’s eyes were exactly the same.
"You miss me or something, you bastard."
***
In the human world, a Gate remained.
The Gate Astaroth had used to send demons before the incident in Palma.
Originally, Frondier had discovered this Gate after getting information on one of the 72 Demons, Furfur, and had left it intact to send the 72 Demons back to the Demon Realm.
Satan and the Seven Deadly Sins were hostile to the 72 Demons. So for the time being, they had not sent the 72 Demons back. The 72 Demons were still in Edrium, and instead had become Frondier’s subordinates.
However, the Gate still remained. To send the 72 Demons back someday.
"Bael."
When Frondier and his group had been in Edrium.
While everyone else was resting, Frondier spoke to Bael.
"If anyone ever passes through that Gate, I’d like the first one to be you."
"......I’m your subordinate now. Just give the order."
Bael’s tone was still stiff, but the content made it clear he now saw himself as Frondier’s subordinate.
But Frondier shook his head.
"I can’t. This isn’t something I can order."
"What do you mean?"
"When you pass through the Gate and go back to the Demon Realm—that timing is something I can’t judge."
At this point, Frondier had never been to the Demon Realm.
So he had no idea what the Demon Realm originally looked like, or what its current situation was.
But Bael was different.
"You can feel your connection to Baalzebub, can’t you?"
"......!"
"You two together are Baal, after all."
"That’s true, but you can’t just tear us apart and stick us together again at will."
"I know. I don’t even know why there are two of you in the first place."
Frondier shrugged his shoulders.
"I’m going to kill Satan."
"......!"
"I don’t know about the other Seven Deadly Sins. They haven’t particularly gotten in my way. Still, if they get in the way of me killing Satan, I’ll kill them too."
As he said that, Frondier pointed a finger at Bael.
He smiled.
"But Baalzebub. I’m leaving that bastard alive."
"......!"
"You’ve got a grudge against him."
"......Frondier. I’m weak now. With my current strength, I can’t kill Baalzebub. It’s been a long time since my connection to the Demon Realm was cut off; my power has been fading bit by bit."
Bael felt humiliation as he spoke.
It was something Baalzebub had said with contempt, but he couldn’t deny it.
Bael was growing weaker. In truth, not just him but all of the 72 Demons were slowly weakening, but for Bael it was worse. The body that should have been Baal’s had been split off from him.
"Really? Is that still the case right now?"
"Of course. Even now......."
Speaking, Bael looked down at his own hand.
"......Huh?"
But it wasn’t.
When he focused, Bael could feel that his power had been disappearing.
But that loss had stopped. On the contrary—
"......My power is returning!"
Startled, Bael looked at Frondier.
Frondier spoke.
"Just like you said, your connection to the Demon Realm has been severed now. Same goes for the other 72 Demons. But."
At that, Bael also understood.
What had changed.
"You’re my subordinate now."
"The flow of mana has been linked......!"
"Yeah. I can make up for what you’re missing."
Frondier stood up and walked toward Bael.
"I don’t give mana to every demon I handle. That would be dangerous."
"You’re worried about losing your mana?"
"No. Not me—the demons."
"......?"
Bael couldn’t understand. Frondier explained.
"I’ve got mana from two worlds. One is from the human world, and the other is from Helheim."
"Helheim......!"
"If you want to kill Baalzebub, my human-world mana won’t be enough."
"So I need mana from Helheim!"
"Right. But....... It’s going to hurt quite a bit."
It had been a long time since Bael had stayed in the human world.
Over that time, as he gradually grew used to the human world, he’d no longer suffered any particular side effects when absorbing its mana.
This was a trait possessed only by the 72 Demons among many demons. They were adapted to both the human world’s mana and the Demon Realm’s mana.
So Frondier thought,
If a being that had finished adapting to one other world could exist, couldn’t it also adapt to the mana of the next world?
"Well, Bael. Think you can endure it?"
"O-of course! If it means I can devour Baalzebub and become Baal again, I can endure anything!"
At that, Frondier’s lips tightened.
It almost looked like he was smiling, and almost like he was apologizing.
"......All right. Then endure it, just this once."
Don’t die.
