Volume 2, Chapter 4: Superbia’s Arrogance, Part 4: Dear…
Heard-san’s speed was extraordinary.
As it was, Deon Lords of Pride were said to be able to make the world around them their own, and contract it to their will, but even for that, this was just too much.
While I was using a flying dragon as my means of movement, his speed on the ground could only be expressed with the sentiment, ‘ah, he disappeared.’
What’s more, according to the individual himself, he could put that out even before becoming a Demon Lord. He’s a monster, that one.
Of course, my Pride isn’t weak, but if you were to compare our running speeds, then it would be as if I were in stasis. My Pride wasn’t something that depended on strength, so there was no helping it.
Even when he told me to come with him, it seems he had no intent of waiting for me, so I frantically urged the dragon on. At a speed slower than Heard-san, but much greater than the norm, we headed towards the Crimson Prison, and by the time we reached, the sun had already set.
The temperature of the land ruled by Vanity was high. It’s rumored to be the lingering influence of a Lord of Wrath who governed the area in times past, but the truth of the matter is yet to be determined.
Even if it was now night, the heat was incomparably higher than that on the Dark Prison Leigie-sama once controlled, and the unbearable heat made me let out a single fevered sigh.
I gratefully patted the neck of the flying dragon, who had put out a speed beyond his potential, and lay myself onto the ground for a while.
Still, this place is… really hot…
I lifted my arms to take in my own scent. I checked for dirt on my garments.
Keeping my appearance in order was part of the standard curriculum for the house in service to Leigie-sama. No matter how pained, or fatigued I may be; even on the brink of death, I could not let myself be dirtied.
I feel the anti-heat resistance on the standard Demon Tree gradually starting up.
Just what came to their minds to have them build a town at a place like this? I can only wonder.
If they were going to raise one, it would be best off in a place easier to live in… Like in the Dark Prison that never had any temperature fluctuations year round, day and night.
This town, which seemed to be called Grey Rock was only a few kilos from the Dark Prison… it was right across the horizon.
The information that it was a town that defined the border looked accurate. It was relatively close to both Heard-san’s Castle of Shimmering Souls, and even Leigie-sama’s Castle of Shadows.
And wait, I even passed it overhead. I felt a strong urge to stop by, so please praise me for not taking a detour here…
Well, I can’t tell what Heard-san would say to me, you know?
I let out another deep sigh, and started walking through the town.
But even if it was night, it was still too quiet.
I was able to discern it from the skies, but the number of residents wasn’t anything great. Is the Devouring Lord really at a place like this… no, there’s also the possibility this is what’s left from that Lord’s dinner. I mean, the Devourer apparently eats other Demons for pleasure…
The moment I thought of the possibility, a chill ran through me, and I clutched my shoulders.
This is no joke.
According to Vanity-san, she was being quite well behaved, but he’s not a trustworthy source of information. Our opponent has a bottomless stomach. There’s no enemy I would like to take on less than a Demon of Gluttony.
Even if I was able to Overrule and nullify most of their Skills, I still doubt I’d have a chance of victory.
Well, from what I can tell by looking around, there are no traces of battle.
… Of course, there’s the possibility that all the town’s residents were devoured without being given the time to put up a fight, but if I thought that hard into it, I wouldn’t be able to take any action at all.
Whatever the case, Heard-san should have arrived here long ago. No matter how ill-famed an enemy Zebul Glaucus was, she shouldn’t be able to stand before him. Even if she were here, she was probably gone by now.
While I started forming my perfect theories on the matter, I strained my senses to feel for presences, and started walking down the path lit by the large red moon.
It was an ominous town. But I can’t figure out the reason for the chills I’m experiencing.
Likely the town’s namesake, the countless houses of grey stone gave off not a single sign of life, but still, some of their windows let off dim orange colored lights.
The only one walking about outside was me.
And there, I understood my discomfort.
It was too quiet. There was too little of anything.
As if white paint had been smeared all around me to paint out all the surroundings, it was an unnatural feeling of emptiness.
I wasn’t particularly skilled at picking up presences or anything, but I should at least be able to feel Heard-san’s. I mean, he never held any intentions of concealing that massive power of his.
I hurriedly looked around. The only one standing in the wide plaza of the town was… me.
But I couldn’t tell that. Even if I strained my ears, or concentrated my eyes, there was nothing.
That truth caused my Soul Core to quietly shake.
I put my hand to my chest. The beating pulse I felt on my palm was all I could feel, and all that made my being.
I need to calm myself. Making a ruckus at a time like this is… the work of a small fry.
Dammit! This is why I didn’t want to leave the Castle of Shadows!
I focused myself on the beating of my core, and encouraged myself, as I took a slow glance around.
“… Kusu kusu kusu, what could it be. This is… quite strange.”
It wasn’t that my life was in peril, or anything like that.
I’m not sure the reason, but I was feeling an immense sense of impatience. If reports are to be believed, then a Lord of Angels attacked this land before. Perhaps that’s the cause of my unease.
The possibility that the unperceivable marks left by my natural enemy were ringing alarm bells in my head.
Anyways, my best course of action would be to meet up with Heard-san. If it’s him, then whether it be a Saint Lord, or Devouring Lord, it will work out one way or another. And the reason I’m even here is also his fault, so it should be fine to have him take responsibility for this.
After I took a deep breath, I closed my eyes, and heightened my senses to a level I’d never felt before.
The negative soul beating within me stabilized. I have no Skill to take in everything around, like a Demon Lord’s Abyss Zone.
But my perception should be wider than any of those dime-a-dozen Demons out there. Despite this and that, Heard-san’s kidnapping/training did serve to strengthen me.
My five senses spread out into the surrounding air, and informed me of the world. My cold sweat fell to the ground in beads.
As if using that as a signal, I instantly started to grasp in the depths of my heart that I was indeed on hostile territory.
It was likely something like synesthesia. Not from my expanded five, but from a completely different sixth sense.
Sympathy.
Like I was gazing into a mirror, and uncanny world reflected my own form back at me.
This town had already served its purpose. The reason for its scarcity of inhabitants was likely that as well.
And it was likely… not by Heard-san’s hand.
This is… right. A long time past. My sense of discomfort started to change.
“Hm… how useless…”
“Hyah!!?”
On the voice that suddenly resounded behind me, I unintentionally let out a shameful cry.
What entered my eyes was a man two heads higher than me.
Black hair, and black eyes. His overly arrogant expression was knit in obvious displeasure, enough to make my slight sentiment of wanting to meet up with him not too long ago flip over in an instant.
What was there was definitely the one whose reunion I had been hoping for, a certain Heard Lauder.
But even right before me, his presence was surprisingly faint, and if I took my eyes off him again, I bet I’d lose him again.
For how long has he been behind me?
The reason my perception doesn’t catch anything likely isn’t Heard-san’s power.
It’s this air. This magic, that seems to hang over like a mist to cloak any and everything.
On that air, as if an unknown fear had been eating at the base of my feet, caused me to raise my voice.
“W-what do you mean by useless? Heard-san?”
“… Tsk, damn Egoist… as always, he’s a crafty one.”
Heard-san didn’t turn his eyes the slightest bit in my direction, and merely lorded over the completely empty space. He wore the same grimace as always, but there was a slight color of conviction on it.
… I wonder what this is about.
When I was about to call out again, the blank space Heard-san had been staring at for a while suddenly began to warp.
And as if attempting to muffle the scream I almost let out, a gloomy and broken voice shook the air.
“Don’t… be like… that.”
Vanity the Egoist. Even taller than Heard-san, the mountainous man raised a roar.
His disposition was like he had been watching us from that exact spot the entire time, as he calmly looked down at the both of us. Behind him were numerous Demons with their faces covered in black masks. Their heights and bearings were various, but the platoon of Demons had a strange sense of uniformity.
It wasn’t… at some arbitrary point.
There was surely nothing there until a moment before. My eyesight isn’t bad. There’s no way I’d let pass an army of that size.
The abnormal situation made me begin to shiver.
It’s… not an illusion. There may be a high-level Luxuria Skill to reproduce this phenomenon, but this wasn’t something of that sort. Of all else, the power I felt from Vanity-san was definitely Superbia.
In that case, there’s a high chance it’s an ability of his subordinates, but for these numbers to be hiden away, it would be difficult for even a General.
Of course, Medea-san Class was out of the question. And she wasn’t even Lust in the first place.
Heard-san was calm enough to make one think he had expected all of this.
He calmly spat out his words.
“So even after living a life long enough to erode at one’s memory, you’ll still favor underhanded tactic, Egoist?”
“… Call it… what you will, Prideful Kaiser.”
He grinned.
The edges of Vanity-san’s lips did indeed rise, but is that really a smile?
I raised my evaluation of Vanity-san a level. His appearance and contents didn’t connect. A mismatch. He was much too mysterious. Despite his robust body, he went for roundabout methods.
For a Demon carrying the same sin as me, he remained unidentified. The unknown was the greatest enemy of Pride.
Vanity-san’s and Heard-san’s powers clashed.
Neither of them had moved a step. But I’m sure I felt their mana collide, and mingle.
Just by standing here, I can feel a wind enough to make my body cower.
“Where is the Devourer?”
“That girl… went to… the Lord of Sloth.”
The Lord that governs Sloth.
Those words could only indicate a single place in this vast world.
Leigie Slaughterdolls. The world’s strongest slacker, and the existence I was born in order to serve.
And at the same time, Heard-san’s birth parent.
I haven’t heard the specifics, but at the very least, the Lazy King held a great importance to Heard-san.
Did Vanity-san not know?
No, that’s not it. There’s no way that’s it.
Otherwise… there’s no way he could stand so calmly before Heard-san’s blatant ill humor.
“… You… bastard… so you knew from the start!?”
“Of. Course.”
A short sound rung through the air, and dust whirled into the air to accompany it.
I immediately closed my eyes to handle it.
“Wha… t…”
Vanity’s large build had slid back several meters. His large hand that was perhaps the size of my face saw spread open in front of him.
The scraped off portions of the road revealed bright red soil.
From his upheld hand, smoke quietly started rising up the heavens.
Heard-san was glaring at him with eyes as if to shoot him dead.
I understood.
Heard-san had released his fist, and Vanity-san had blocked. That’s all there was to it.
But that simple truth was enough to beat me down.
That can’t be… there’s someone out there that can stop the Prideful Kaiser, Heard Lauder’s fist…
“You’re also… the same… incredible power.”
“What’s your goal?”
I can’t keep up with this.
Please don’t start conversing with your fists. I don’t understand that language.
His expression covered up with his audacity was simply quiet, and I couldn’t comprehend the feelings he held behind it.
… Well, of course, I’m going to pretend to understand them…
I thought for a moment, before raising a cheerful voice.
“Heard-sann, Leigie-sama is undefeated.”
The greatest monster I had ever met in my lifetime was not Heard-san, but Leigie-sama.
Heard-san was a monster in strength, but completely irrelevant to that, Leigie-sama’s existence was incomprehensible. If I had to say, he was like a deity. Just his existence made me feel awe.
Even when I’ve only ever see him sleeping…
Since he’d already taken down Heard-san once, for argument’s sake, I cannot think of a single one to win against Leigie-sama, and of course, the one who already faced an unsightly defeat at his hands, Zebul-san, is out of the question…
“Hm… I know.”
“Of. Course.”
Unexpectedly, both Heard-san and Vanity-san nodded as if that fact were natural.
I don’t really get why everyone has such a high evaluation of that man when all he does is sleep, but it’s likely that’s just the way this world works.
Still, that makes the reason Vanity-san kept quiet about even harder to comprehend. There’s not a single merit for him in luring Heard-san here.
At that moment, as if the Egotistic Lord had read my thoughts, he warped his mouth into what was, this time, undoubtedly a smile.
A hoarse voice. He included in some sarcastic mimicry towards a sincere tone, and what was there was clearly malice, and at the same time, his will.
His arm that likely had a width three times mine pointed up towards the sky.
His thunderous voice resounded through the unnaturally quiet town scape.
“Like I care about the Devourer… My enemy is… heaven. Alone.”
As if it were waiting for those very words, a heavy wind blew.
The heavy deep-blue clouds covering up the sky split.
What remained was… a pure white light.
Countless strings of light poured through to sever the Demon World’s red moon, and I witnessed a scene I could not believe.
Heard-san made a rare display of gritting his teeth into a sour expression… with eyes full of malice, he looked towards the sky.
“Vanity… bastard…”
“Fu….”
The light danced.
I could only watch it in a daze.
Angel.
The natural enemies of us Demons, and the souls that dwelled in the heavenly realm.
Clad in shining garments of pure white, with large wings sprouting from their backs… their Heavenly Wings caught the wind, and let them race through the open air.
Of course, even I’ve at least seen an Angel before.
But… the number was different.
Even as I watched, the sky continued to clear, and the whole story was made true.
A single cloud still hung, but it was clear enough. Their numbers weren’t just a hundred or two.
I bit down on my quivering lip. As if a silk thread had been strung around my neck, my instincts began to suffocate me.
I had a clear understanding of it.
I was… scared of ‘them.’
“Kusu kusu… why, at a place like this, so many Angels…”
The opposite entity from Demons.
I naturally put an arm over the other to hide my own trembling.
The spectacle I observed for the first time was truly deserving to be called a miracle of god.
The Angels were his vanguard. Unlike Demons, that would never remain bound to any single entity, they held on to the will of the heavens.
The will to bring ruin to all of us.
Standing at the front of such an army was an Angel with conspicuously more luxurious attire. While the others had a single pair of wings on their back, that lone Angel had two sets.
It was only for a moment, but those cold eyes without a fragment of self-consciousness, definitely captured us.
“…”
I could clearly see the difference in power. Regardless of how far apart we were in distance, it was more than clear enough to me.
Without a doubt, if she were a Demon, she would be Demon Lord Class.
There, I recalled the name Kanon-san had presented as the meeting’s agenda.
The Valkyrie of the Silver Blue who acted to take down the Demon Lords all together.
“Could it be, that’s… Serge Serenade…!?”
“Kuku…”
Vanity-san stifled his own laugh.
It was only the span of a blink that their eyes met. But to me, it felt like several minutes. My cold sweat shows no signs of stopping.
But as if to say that he didn’t have interest in Serge anymore, he changed his field of vision.
To the horizon extending over the Dark Prison.
His mouth bent a little, and he formed up a slight grin.
“Heard-san, t-that is…”
I informed Heard-san, who continued to look up at the Angels with a grim expression.
At around the same time, Serge’s heavenly wings flapped grandly.
It was a white light.
Displaying a sudden extreme acceleration, the Angel’s body left a white afterimage in the sky as it disappeared. To accompany that, the other countless angels began to race through the sky without the slightest sound.
It wasn’t towards us.
Not to Grey Rock, where two Demon Lords of Pride had gathered.
To the land that was once ruled by the Demon Lord of Sloth… to the Castle of Shadows.
“So this is… the reason you lured me out.”
“My enemy… is… heaven. Alone.”
Letting out something that sounded a little like an answer, Vanity-san raised his right hand.
From all over the town, from the shadows scattered here and there, numbers upon numbers of masked soldiers started to appear. It was as if they had just come to being at this moment, Vanity-san’s presence-less Legion.
Adding on the ones who were there from the start, it was a considerable force. Even after seeing that number of Angels, their gestures showed not the least bit of unrest.
Vanity-san looked down at Heard-san. As if he were evaluating him.
“Kuku… Prideful Kaiser… go forth, if you must.”
“… Tsk…”
If you were to compare Demons and Angel, the greatest differing trait would be mobility.
Heavenly Wings granted Angels air speed rivalling that of flying dragons. It was something an average Demon wouldn’t be able to follow so easily.
Vanity’s Legion was likely the same. Especially for high ranking Angels with experience on the battlefield like Serge, no normal Demon would be able to catch up.
But here, we had an extraordinary Demon.
The Lord of Pride, left behind by the passage of time.
The decision was instantaneous.
Heard-san’s body blurred for a moment, before a kick jutted out at Vanity-san’s bald head.
The ground shook greatly, and fragments scattered all over.
Blood danced around the air, and with a single wet sound, brown cuts of meat fell to the ground.
I grimaced at the terrible spectacle. I picked off a piece of meat stuck to my apron, and let it fall to the ground.
What was once Vanity-san was now left in ruin. With the attack against Schitol-san, her soul core still remained, but even that wasn’t left within the wreckage. It was likely thoroughly smashed.
Perhaps they were at a loss for words, as Vanity-san’s subordinates remained silent as they watched the blood.
I averted my face, waiting for the end of it.
I’m not sure what he was thinking, but… kusu kusu.
… It’s because you tried to look down on our Heard-san…
He can’t stand being made fun of. And I’m the same as Heard-san in that regard.
That’s why it was natural for Vanity-san to die.
With a bored expression, the perpetrator of all of this trampled over the bloody mess, and said but two words.
“… We’re going…”
“Yes. Will you be using the flying dragon?”
“No need.”
Of course. His feet are faster after all.
Stepping on the ground, Heard-san’s form vanished in an instant. Ah, he’s gone…
There really is such a thing as way too fast.
Well, if he’s not going to use it, I guess I will.
It’ll probably be impossible to catch up with those Angels on this dragon, But as long as Heard-san’s there, there will be no role for me even if I do end up catching up.
Then it would be more useful for me to simulate what to do, and how to appear on my reunion with Leigie-sama.
“Yes, yes, please move aside…”
I passed through the pitiful army that continued to stand frozen in silence, and headed for the flying dragon, as I thought to myself.
Oneechan, I wonder what you’re doing right around now… well, you’re probably the same as always, taking care of Leigie-sama… you’re probably carrying out the exact same routine you’ve been doing for the past few thousand years.
Dear Oneechan,
Yeah… it’s all gone to hell here, but know that I’m doing fine.
Please put in as much needless effort as you so desire.
I will, in you guys’ place, Overrule everything.
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