Chapter 1514: Chapter 214 - The Gluttony (5)
You would think that would finally be the end of Beelzebub.
Honestly, after seeing her get completely obliterated like that, most people probably would’ve assumed the fight was over. I wanted to think that too. It would’ve made my life a lot easier if I could just say, "Alright, that’s one terrifying monster dealt with. Let’s go home."
Unfortunately, this was Beelzebub we were talking about.
Considering how absurd her regenerative abilities were, I never really believed it was going to end that easily.
And, as expected, I was right.
When I looked around, I noticed that the countless droplets of slime scattered throughout the room had already started moving. At first, it almost looked like some kind of illusion. Tiny fragments that should have been nothing more than remnants were slowly crawling toward one another.
Then they began merging together before my eyes.
It was as if being completely disintegrated hadn’t actually mattered to her at all.
The pieces fused together effortlessly, one after another, reforming into a familiar shape. Arms, legs, torso, face. Everything reconstructed itself with such ridiculous speed that it almost felt insulting.
A few moments later, Beelzebub was standing there again.
She looked completely fine, as though nothing had happened.
"Ta-da!" she exclaimed cheerfully.
She spread her arms as though she had just performed a magic trick at a children’s birthday party instead of regenerating from what should have been certain death.
Although, apparently, she had forgotten one important detail.
That important detail happened to be her clothes.
Or maybe she just didn’t care about them at all.
Honestly, with Beelzebub, either possibility was equally likely.
"Fufufufu," she giggled while placing a finger against her cheek. "Do you find my body appealing?"
She winked at me.
Of course she noticed that I had been staring at her.
The problem wasn’t even that I wanted to stare.
The problem was that when someone literally regenerates in front of you without clothes, your eyes tend to notice.
That wasn’t exactly a personal failing on my part.
At least, that was what I wanted to believe.
"I don’t actually have any reproductive organs," she continued casually, as though this was somehow a perfectly normal conversation to have in the middle of a battle. "I can grow one if I want to, though. I can make a male one. I can make a female one. Whichever you prefer, I can become that, you know?"
She smiled brightly at me afterward.
I wasn’t sure what disturbed me more.
Whether it was the fact that she was saying this.
Or the fact that she was saying it with the same energy someone would use while discussing clothing options.
Before I could even begin to process whatever kind of conversation this was turning into, Lucielle stepped forward.
"Enough already, Beelze," she said with an exhausted expression. "If you’re really planning to continue this, then you’ll have to fight me too."
When Lucielle said that, I expected at least some reaction.
Perhaps surprise, annoyance, or even caution from her.
Instead, Beelzebub laughed.
She laughed as though she had genuinely found it amusing.
It wasn’t a nervous laugh.
It also wasn’t a mocking laugh either.
It was more like she had just heard the funniest thing in the world.
"Kukuku..."
She covered her mouth as she laughed, looking genuinely entertained.
"Alright, alright," she said eventually, waving one hand dismissively. "I suppose this is as far as I can go today."
She stretched her arms over her head.
"I’m basically out of mana. If I keep pushing myself any further, I might actually end up unable to regenerate again."
The reason wasn’t because she was weak.
The reason was because I couldn’t even tell if she was telling the truth.
Then she looked at the three of us.
"And honestly," she continued, "fighting all three of you together would probably kill me."
She said that so casually that I almost believed her.
I really did almost believe her for a moment.
The problem was that Beelzebub had spent the entire fight acting like somebody who considered common sense to be a personal enemy.
Because of that, it was difficult to trust anything she said.
Her expression softened slightly.
"I’m quite certain that you two aren’t getting out of the Demon Continent alive."
That sentence immediately killed whatever humor had existed.
"And I’m equally certain that Satania is going to hear about this," she continued. "Whether she hears it from me or from someone else doesn’t really matter."
She smiled.
"And once she does, she might start looking for the other three fragments as well. It’ll only be a matter of time."
There wasn’t even any malice in her voice.
She was simply stating what she believed was inevitable.
"Right now, Satania is still focused on expanding her undead armies," Beelzebub continued. "Every day, they become larger. Every day, they become stronger."
She looked up at the sky.
Her gaze remained fixed on the sky above us.
"She’s preparing for the day the worlds collide. She believes that when the clashes between worlds begin, she’ll be ready."
Lucielle frowned.
"She really thinks those armies are going to be enough?" she asked. "You know as well as I do that Satania is fighting a losing battle."
Beelzebub laughed quietly.
"Perhaps," she answered after a brief pause.
She shrugged her shoulders casually afterward.
"But she’s fighting."
There was something strangely sincere in her voice.
"She believes she can win."
For the first time since meeting her, Beelzebub’s smile didn’t look particularly playful.
"And if she believes that, then I’ll believe in her too."
She looked back at us.
"After all, she’s the one who made defeating Lilith possible."
Silence followed between all of us.
The reason wasn’t because we had nothing to say.
The reason was because there wasn’t really anything that could be said.
After a few moments, Beelzebub’s smile slowly widened.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a comforting smile.
It was the kind of smile that reminded me why she was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
"Well then," she said cheerfully. "I suppose it’s time for me to leave."
She bowed slightly.
"You fragments should be careful."
Her smile became even wider than before.
"Your lives are in very serious danger right now."
As she spoke, her body began melting.
She wasn’t collapsing from exhaustion or injury.
She was literally melting away.
It looked like liquid being poured onto the ground.
I reacted immediately.
I threw Ayuru without hesitating for even a moment.
The attack hit.
It landed directly on her body.
But despite being struck, Beelzebub simply continued melting into the floor.
She didn’t scream in pain.
She didn’t react to the attack at all.
She just kept smiling until the very end.
I wanted to finish her before she disappeared.
I genuinely wanted to kill her before she escaped.
But as I watched her vanish, I finally understood.
"I guess..."
I stared at the spot where she had been.
"That wasn’t her real body after all, huh?"
The Beelzebub we’d been fighting this entire time wasn’t actually her real body.
Well, calling it a fake body wasn’t exactly correct either.
She was a slime.
For someone like her, concepts like "real body" and "fake body" were probably meaningless.
She could split herself apart.
She could multiply herself into separate bodies.
And somehow, despite doing all of that, her power didn’t seem to weaken at all.
If anything, every fragment retained the same terrifying strength as the original.
That alone was horrifying to think about.
But what truly made her dangerous was the way she fought.
Nothing about her combat style was predictable.
She used her body in ways that didn’t make sense.
Every movement felt experimental, as though she wasn’t simply trying to defeat me.
She was learning as the battle continued.
She was testing different possibilities and outcomes.
She was creating new techniques in the middle of battle itself.
And because of that, every second of fighting her felt like trying to predict the actions of someone who didn’t even know what they were going to do next.
Looking back on it now, I finally understood what Lucielle had been trying to tell me.
I might really not make it out of this place alive.
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