Chapter 245: First Defeat
"Augustus, can we just pause this? Seriously? We’ve got bigger problems, even if I did start the attack," Laplace says with fake sincerity as I notice we’re completely surrounded by those strange, doll-like things.
’Is this Evelyn’s power?’ They’re just standing there, they’ve got us both cornered, but they’re silent, just watching. They look weak, but I don’t know how to react. One thing’s for sure, though, I’m not trusting Laplace.
"Laplace, I’m not letting you leave here alive." I tighten my grip on the dagger and lunge at her. She swings a massive greatsword down at me.
I dodge, slipping around to her side, and unleash a burst of ice magic, a huge wave of ice surging forward. She barely avoids it, shooting up into the air with her wings, then plummets back down, spinning her sword for a devastating strike.
I leap to the side as the blade hits the ground, the sheer weight and force of the blow splitting the earth. I touch the floor and use ice magic again, flash-freezing the ground and forming a dome of ice around us.
This keeps those frozen things out so they can’t surprise me, and it also grounds Laplace, stopping her from flying around.
Clang!
Her sword meets my dagger as she strikes with a spin. The impact is so violent it sends me flying back, my dagger cracking, almost shattering from the force.
’I always thought a sword that stupidly big and impractical was something Lucien would use.’
"That desperate, are you?" I ask coldly, dodging a strike from behind and hurling my dagger at her, slicing her cheek.
She slips, nearly losing her footing, and I fire ice lances at her. She deflects them with a defensive spin of her sword, then uses some skill that disperses the ice.
"Desperate? You don’t know anything." She points at me and unleashes a massive torrent of purple flames that engulfs the entire dome. I defend with a barrier, but her attack starts eating away at its magic.
"!!!" I drop the barrier and switch to physical ice magic to shield myself from the flames that drain magic itself.
"Haa..." I gasp, feeling the immense cost of fighting Laplace while maintaining my domain. Between the multiple domains and its sheer size, the energy drain is monstrous.
’Damn it... I can’t use my Blessing here, outside help isn’t allowed, even from someone I defeated. And with all these domains, my own domain’s ability won’t activate...’
"Urgh!" Laplace shatters my ice barrier with a sword strike, hitting me with a deep cut. I hit the ground, groaning in pain. I never thought I’d run out of magic this fast.
I was never good at the domain technique. Having to create one this big used up 70% of my Hikishin instantly. And in this short fight with Laplace, I’ve already burned through 15% of the remaining 30%.
Domains, easily the strongest technique for most demons, are usually used much more cautiously and precisely.
’Damn you, Evelyn... Did she know this?’ When I saw a domain being raised, I didn’t think straight. Paranoia of losing for not using mine just took over, so I tried to compete. I thought it was Esther’s domain, but it was actually Evelyn’s. I never even needed to use mine.
"...Gaaahhh!!" Laplace hits me as I try to get up, driving her sword through my legs and severing them. I scream in pain, trying to use magic, but I’m so exhausted.
With 30% Hikishin left, I normally wouldn’t be this tired. The problem is, when Hikishin is drained too fast, your body suffers because we demons are made of the stuff.
Most demons get exhausted, nauseous, and experience pain when they lose 50% of their Hikishin at once. I lost 70% right away. The price for that is hitting me hard.
"Aahh..." Laplace grabs me by the throat, pinning me down, while she pulls magical shackles from her storage ring.
"Those shackles... are against... the rules..." I manage, recognizing them as the prisoner restraints the castle uses for the most dangerous inmates. The rules are clear: no accessories or artifacts except direct combat weapons.
You can’t use storage artifacts to retrieve anything but bandages, spare weapons, and non-relic armor pieces. The shackles don’t fit any of that, since she pulled them from her storage ring.
"I know. But I can’t afford to lose this. I’ve already lost 55% of my Hikishin in this stupid domain battle. I don’t care anymore."
"W-What are you doing?!" I yell as she starts stripping my clothes off after shackling me.
"I’m starving!! Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through because of that trash Lucien? He hasn’t let me eat in weeks!! All I’ve had is the tiny bit of vitality he’s given me himself! It was practically nothing!" Her eyes are wild, glowing a faint pink.
"Y-You damned succubus!" I try to stab her with my dagger, even while shackled, but she grabs my wrist.
"Don’t worry, little brother! I’ll be quick," she says, licking her lips.
"Have you no honor?! Acting like a depraved whore?" I spit at her.
"HONOR DOESN’T MATTER WHEN I’M THIS HUNGRY!! LUCIEN ONLY GIVES ME ENOUGH TO KEEP ME FROM DYING!! YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND!!" she screams at me, furious.
’I can’t believe I lost in the first twenty-three minutes of the fight...’ I vomit blood from my injuries as I close my eyes. Laplace doesn’t even seem to be thinking straight anymore. Just like every damned succubus on a battlefield who drains the vitality from fallen enemies and allies alike.
...
...
...
"Evelyn-sama? Is something wrong?" Eve asks, seeing my nauseated expression.
"I-It’s... I just happened to see something extremely disturbing..." My puppets are near Laplace and Augustus. I’m watching their situation, and it’s disgusting.
’I can’t believe Laplace stooped so low as to do that to Augustus while he’s bleeding like that... So gross...’ Not that I have much room to talk. Esther has fucked me while my tail was cut off.
’Haa... why do demons act like animals sometimes?’ It’s unsettling. When this was all just a game, I loved this world so much. It’s sad to see how different reality is from the games.
"Laplace and Augustus are out of the competition." With those injuries and his vitality drained by Laplace, Augustus will probably die. And Laplace broke a rule by using those shackles, which don’t count as a permitted item.
’That was close...’ Inside my puppets, I’d packed bombs filled with various poisons. It’s allowed, since it counts as a direct weapon.
"Is what you’re seeing really that disgusting?" I don’t know what expression I’m making, but for Eve to ask again, it must be pretty bad.
"Yes... it is..." I really didn’t want to see that. My puppets were keeping watch to see who would be eliminated. Now that those two are out, my puppets are starting to move away to surround Lucien, Marie, and Esther. But I can’t unsee what I saw.
’Lucien forced Laplace to stay near him, and considering what Lucien was doing, Laplace really must be at her absolute limit of hunger.’ Succubi need vitality. There’s usually a threshold that determines if they’ll die or not.
But hitting that threshold drives them mad with hunger for it. Seems that’s the case with Laplace. She didn’t care about doing something so dirty and disgusting for vitality, just like the succubi on the battlefield.
’At least everything is going according to plan. The fights are so much faster. Instead of long, calculated battles, everyone was forced to fight desperately just to gain an advantage.’ I feel so malicious for coming up with such a diabolical plan.
"Eve, I still have 25,000 standard model puppets and you. For now, things are going well. But when it’s time to defeat Esther, it’ll be complicated... I miscalculated the timing." I’m still exhausted.
I thought the fights would take at least three days to finish. But seeing how fast Augustus and Laplace lost, this fight will last a day at most. That means I won’t have time to recover my magic.
And I wanted to use some of the abilities I have, but without magic, it’ll be impossible. Looks like I’ll be 100% dependent on Eve to defeat Esther. But the problem is Esther will have her domain powers to use when it’s just the two of us left.
"That’s okay, Evelyn-sama! I’ll do my best!" Eve cheers me on as I just smile at her.
"Yeah... thanks, Eve..." I sit down in one of the spectator stands seats, watching the sky crack. Augustus’s domain just shattered. The sword-shaped trees have turned back into regular trees, and some other things are starting to change.
Laplace deactivated her domain too. Looks like she got too lost in her feeding. With that, the previously flat terrain now has rises, distortions, and a few other minor changes.
’Four active domains... I can use 25% of my domain’s power...’ Everyone has at least the basic domain ability now.
’Esther... please win...’ I’m hoping for Esther’s victory. I doubt she’ll lose, but I still have this fear that she might be defeated. If Esther loses, I lose, because Marie or Lucien wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill me.
"The fastest succession for the throne in history..." I murmur, realizing how this will appear in the kingdom’s records. Easily, a battle that lasted weeks has been reduced to the absolute minimum.
I’ll literally go down in history books as the traitor who cowardly killed the Demon King, and as the one who reduced a legendary battle to a short, frenzied fight for survival.
’Looks like future generations will have a terrible opinion of me... how embarrassing...’ I don’t know how I’ll be remembered in history, but it’s shameful to imagine that everyone in the future, who doesn’t know the truth or the context, will only see me as a coward, instead of someone who did the best they could.
"..." I stare at the explosions in the distance. The fight between Lucien, Marie, and Esther looks so destructive. If not for the domains, that battle would literally alter the entire continent’s ecosystem. It’s so much magic being released, it’s almost... incredible.
Even though I know it’s my fault. I’m messing with their biology. Demons, who are made of Hikishin, when they expend so much at once, revert to the most basic survival state.
They stopped caring about pride, nobility, honor, or justice. They fought in the most brutal, destructive, and savage way possible just to survive. And I knew this and used it.
"..." And it’s so unpleasant and unsettling. At the same time, it’s hypocritical. How can I feel bad about something I did on purpose, knowing the consequences?
’More and more, I’m becoming like a manipulative nymph like Arial...’ Now that I know I’m a nymph, I can’t help but see my actions as exactly the kind of thing a nymph would do.