Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Chapter 28. When in Trouble, Ask AI
“Very well.”
Faced with Lilith’s tearful complaint, Asmodeus merely answered in a calm voice.
His right hand rubbed her head, then casually helped her brush the white hair away from her cheek.
The burning heat of his fingers carried a strange sense of reliability. Combined with the Demon King’s deep, magnetic voice, it gave an overwhelming sense of security.
Then, to Lilith’s utter disbelief, he lowered his head and lightly kissed her on the forehead.
Smack.
「Awoo?!」
Caught off guard by the sudden sneak attack, Lilith’s eyes flew wide open. Her pupils trembled, and her soft pink lips parted into a perfect “O.”
As for Asmodeus, he simply wore an indifferent expression, as though this were the most natural thing in the world, and loftily ordered,
“Go save Hill. I will deal with Augustine.”
With that, he gently set the dumbfounded Lilith down from his arms, spread his demonic wings, and flew straight toward the Pure White Collector.
「I... I...」
Lilith, now back on the ground, blushed faintly. Her tiny pink fists clenched tightly as she practically ground her teeth in silent complaint.
「I only put on that pitiful act on purpose so I could humiliate that freak... but who asked you to kiss me?! Do you really think I belong to you now?! Damn it!」
「Mm... but...」
As she thought that, Lilith did not know why, but she unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself.
Her slender legs, wrapped in black silk, pressed together, and her knees lightly rubbed against each other with the slight movement.
Then she bit down on her soft lips, her eyes glistening with tears, as though resisting some kind of emotion.
「My body... my body is heating up again... Why do I think Asmodeus looks so handsome like this?!」
「No! I have to stay rational! I absolutely cannot become a slave ruled by desire!」
“Mmph! Mmmpfh!”
While Lilith was still tangled up in her own thoughts, Hill, who was hanging nearby, let out a muffled sound of struggle. That finally jolted Lilith back to her senses, and she hurried over at once.
“All right, all right, I’m getting you loose now~”
At the same time, on the other side—
“Hahahahaha! Asmodeus! You cannot kill me!”
The Pure White Collector manipulated the bandages filling the sky, making them thrash wildly like a plague of giant serpents.
“Just think about it—this Sealing Formation was created specifically to imprison you! As its guardian, how could I possibly be destroyed by you?”
“Here, I am the king! I am a god!”
“Even if your magic is inexhaustible, you still cannot contend against the sealing power of the entire eighth layer! Die!”
Rumble rumble rumble—!
The instant it finished speaking, countless bandages transformed into sharp lances and shot toward the Demon King in a blanket that covered the heavens.
“How noisy.”
Flying in midair, Asmodeus did not even raise an eyelid.
He merely waved one hand.
【Ninth-Tier Magic · Extinguishing Black Flame】
Boom—!!!
Black flames erupted like a tidal wave, surging in furious torrents! In an instant, every bandage, every wall, even the space itself for hundreds of meters ahead was swallowed by that sea of fire!
The destructive power unleashed in that instant was so horrifying that words like landslides and earth-shattering collapse could scarcely do it justice.
And yet—
even after devastation on that scale, a few seconds later, it was still the same...
“Useless! Useless! Hahahahaha!”
The intact walls all around began squirming again. Countless fresh bandages rapidly filled the empty gaps, while the Collector’s body re-formed the instant the flames went out, completely unharmed.
“So long as I refuse to die, you will never pass through here! I will drag this out until you are exhausted to death!”
After that, the Collector’s figure and Asmodeus’s figure flashed across the sky without cease. The ferocity of their battle left Lilith inwardly speechless.
“Go, Demon King!”
Hill, who had just been freed from the bandages, immediately shouted his encouragement to the Demon King the moment he saw this scene.
But behind him, Lilith had furrowed her brow, deep in thought.
「This is not going to work.」
She bit her finger, her mind racing.
「Asmodeus is absurdly strong, yes, but this monster’s recovery speed is utterly ridiculous too! Even for the Demon King, magic is not infinite. Sooner or later, he’ll be worn down to death.」
「There has to be a weakness... Bosses with gimmicks like this always have a weakness!」
「Could it be like the Abyss Watcher from before? Does it also have some core or true body hidden somewhere?」
「But the phone couldn’t detect an exact location just now...」
“Wait! The phone?”
At that moment, a flash of inspiration struck Lilith.
「Not being able to detect its location doesn’t mean I can’t analyze its properties!」
She hurriedly pulled out her phone from inside her chest and skillfully opened that cheat app—
【Omniscient AI Answers】.
Click!
She snapped a picture of the distant Collector locked in fierce battle, along with the countless bandages filling the sky.
【Uploading image...】
【Problem description: See this shameless monster? It won’t die, and it resurrects infinitely. How do I deal with it? Is there any solution? Urgent!】
A few seconds later, the AI’s analysis results popped up on the screen:
【Target Analysis: High-Rank Vengeful Spirit】
【Traits: Physical Immunity, Elemental Recomposition. Its true body is not a physical entity, but an extremely well-hidden “Core of Resentment,” concealed somewhere in the environment through the highest-tier “Soul Stealth Art.”】
【Solution: 1. Destroy every attached medium—that is, every bandage in the labyrinth bearing Mana Circuits. 2. Use high-tier spiritual or Holy Light magic to directly destroy its true Vengeful Spirit body.】
【Recommended method: Use a Holy Light spell to lay it to rest.】
“A Vengeful Spirit? So that was it!”
After reading the AI’s analysis, Lilith suddenly understood!
No wonder the thing could not be killed. The Pure White Collector had never been a physically based undead like a mummy or zombie in the first place—it was a ghost! Its current “body” was just a puppet!
“Demon King!!!”
Having understood everything, Lilith cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted with all her strength toward the man’s back on the battlefield.
“That thing is a Vengeful Spirit! It’s using a stealth art to hide its true body! Just burning the bandages is useless!”
“A Vengeful Spirit?”
The moment those words were spoken, Asmodeus, who had been about to unleash another wave of black flames, paused.
On the other side, the Pure White Collector’s pupil contracted violently.
“This is bad!”
But before the Collector could make its next move, Asmodeus had already flicked his right hand. Magic gathered at his fingertips and scattered into a cloud of golden powder.
【Support Magic · Revealing Dust】
Rustle rustle rustle—!
The golden dust spread like starlight, instantly covering the entire hall.
Then, in the very next second—
Sizzle—!
Under the attraction of that golden dust, a half-transparent, distorted black ghostly outline suddenly appeared above the Collector’s head, where there had previously been nothing at all!
That ghost manipulated the bandage puppet below through several invisible threads of magic.
Under the effects of the Revealing Dust, dark red Mana Circuits also appeared across the surface of the puppet and every last bandage in the area.
In other words, every bandage on this floor had merely been a puppet tool of the Pure White Collector.
“I found you.”
Asmodeus lifted his head, his icy gaze locking directly onto that ghost.
With its true body exposed, the Collector was struck with terror. Both the ghost and the puppet let out shrill screams of panic at the same time.
“How did you discover me?! Damn you! Get away!”
It frantically controlled every bandage it had. Layer after layer of bandages swept together, finally gathering like a hurricane in front of the Collector and forming wall after wall like impregnable fortifications.
But Asmodeus gave it no chance at all.
He merely slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward.
A pure, holy golden radiance—so warm and sacred that it made one want to kneel in worship—instantly gathered in his hand.
“Since you are a Vengeful Spirit, I shall lay you to rest with this.”
Asmodeus’s voice was solemn and vast, like a god passing judgment upon evil itself.
“【Tenth-Tier Sacred Magic · Forge the Dawn】”
“No————”
Boom—!!!
A pillar of golden light that seemed to pierce both heaven and earth erupted from Asmodeus’s hand, instantly blasting through the entire eighth layer!
It was not a flame of destruction, but purification brought to its ultimate extreme!
Under the illumination of that sacred radiance, all the white bandages dissolved as swiftly as ice and snow under spring sunlight.
As for the Vengeful Spirit’s true body hidden in midair, it did not even have time to utter a final plea for mercy before it was completely vaporized within that warm light, reduced to absolute nothingness.
The entire eighth layer was engulfed in that dazzling holy light.
...
A long while later—
the light finally faded.
The Collector had completely disappeared, together with that suffocating white labyrinth.
The eighth layer had reverted to a dark dungeon much like the ninth floor. Not far ahead, the staircase leading toward the seventh floor had faintly emerged into view.
“All done.”
Asmodeus clapped his hands lightly, his expression utterly relaxed, as though he had merely swatted a fly to death.
Behind him, however, Lilith was already standing there dumbfounded, her jaw nearly hanging to the floor.
「Hey, hey...」
「What on earth was that thing he just used? Sacred magic?」
「A Demon King can even use sacred magic? If he’s this omnipotent, then what weakness could he possibly even have?!」
“Uhh... uhh...”
Looking at the back of that man before her—cold-faced, proud, self-assured, and practically radiating invincibility from every line of his body—Lilith felt her heart skip violently, and an inexplicable sense rose within her.
It felt as though she had no chance whatsoever of escaping from him in this lifetime.
「Can this guy really be defeated? My buddy is supposed to fight him in the future? How is he supposed to win against that?!」
「Wait? No, that’s not right.」
At that thought, Lilith suddenly remembered something, and could not help touching her chin suspiciously.
「Asmodeus was already pushing universal education and racial equality three hundred years ago. That mindset is way too far ahead of its time... Could it be...?」
「Did he transmigrate here too?」