Chapter 144: Teammates, Come Save Me!
At the same time. On the plains of Hell.
Just after the Electric Lizard bearing the Tiangong Society's emblem had vanished.
Before Horikita Suzune had even had the chance to take a careful look at the item wares in this mysterious shop.
A gust of sinister wind swept past.
In the air, an unintelligible croaking of frogs and a dull beating of drums suddenly rang out.
The Fiends, as if by silent agreement, dropped to their knees and began crying out in alarm:
"We're done for… We're done for, we're done for!"
"It's coming… It's coming! It's coming!"
"…The Darkness Devil!!"
Almost as soon as the voices fell.
The Darkness Devil made its entrance.
This time there was no red carpet of astronaut corpses lined up in a row, nor any stunningly spectacular entrance effects.
It simply appeared, soundlessly, within the darkness.
Holding a hair-raising posture, it quietly watched this assembled mixture of humans, Fiends, and weapon-humans before it.
Then. Neither hurried nor slow, it came walking toward them, step by step.
When they truly beheld the Darkness Devil's bizarre form, pieced together from countless severed limbs and broken arms.
For some reason, Kushida Kikyo—whose state of mind had only just been steadied by the Electric Lizard's appearance—instantly felt her legs go weak again, growing afraid in spite of herself.
But in truth, this time it really wasn't Kushida's cowardice that was to blame.
As a devil representing primordial darkness, it itself symbolized humanity's purest fear of the "unknown" since ancient times.
Naturally, even if you were boundlessly brave to begin with, you'd still feel your heart pound on account of this human instinct rooted deep within the genes.
Even Hayakawa Aki, Kouenji Rokusuke, and Amanatsu Kazuha were breaking out in cold sweat.
To say nothing of a contestant like Kushida, whose courage was propped up by pretense in the first place.
But while fear that piles up gradually can make a person lose their courage and turn cowardly.
Fear that surges abruptly to its utmost extreme, however, is enough to make a person lose their reason and turn reckless!
Especially for the naturally clever Matsushita Chiaki, who instantly realized she was being affected by this Darkness Devil's passive ability.
"Drop dead!"
She bit through her own lip and, without the slightest hesitation, leveled her Y-GUN and squeezed the trigger at the Darkness Devil!
Hayasaka Ai, beside her, moved in step with her too.
Raising her Black Sphere combat blade, she sent the elongated blade stabbing straight at the devil's skull!
Their tactic was simple.
They didn't expect to strike or bind it directly—they only needed to make it falter for even a fleeting instant.
Then Amikura Mako, Kouenji Rokusuke, and the others, seizing the opening, could follow up with finishing blows!
What's more, a speedster like Quanxi beside them, capable of beheading dozens of people in a fraction of a second, surely wouldn't stand idly by either.
Unfortunately. Faced with this combined assault of the brave.
The Darkness Devil stood with hands on its hips, noncommittal.
The next instant—at some unknown moment—it had already crossed the distance of space and arrived among them all.
Immediately after. "Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!"
Without any swing of a blade, everyone's arms, astonishingly, dropped away cleanly all at once from the shoulders!
Falling neatly to the ground!
Including Quanxi, the strongest one present—not a single person managed to react at all.
Though their clothing bore not the slightest tear, their arms had already been severed.
Even Amikura Mako, clad in [Leo Cavalry] armor, was not spared the disaster—both her arms were likewise severed.
Crimson blood began to flow freely.
And the laser ropes that had just been glimmering with fluorescent light in the darkness, along with the Black Sphere combat blade Hayasaka Ai had thrust out, naturally vanished as well along with the falling arms.
For a moment, everyone was stunned—the searing pain hadn't even reached their brains yet.
Toriga, who had already been turned into an exquisite doll by Santa Claus, knelt on one knee at this moment and spoke in a mechanical voice:
"As per the contract, I have brought Denji's heart."
"Please grant me… the power to kill Makima!"
"…What? Kill Miss Makima?" "Huh?!"
Denji, lying on the ground with both arms severed, went wide-eyed, murmuring in disbelief.
The Darkness Devil, however, paid him no mind.
It merely reached out, grabbed Toriga by the neck, and plucked it off as easily as plucking a flower—counting that as the deal being fulfilled.
In sync with this, as Kusakabe, gritting through the agonizing pain, tried to use the blood gushing from his severed arm to carve out a summoning circle for the Stone Devil on the ground.
The Darkness Devil reached a hand backward and, across the empty air, directly drew over the spectral image of the Stone Devil.
A light pinch of its fingers. "Crack!"
The Stone Devil shattered, and Kusakabe's body, together with the contract, collapsed into a puddle of bloody water.
Just as the Shark Fiend desperately crawled to Denji's side, poured its own blood into Denji's mouth, and prepared to bite the pull-cord on his chest to help him transform.
And just as Horikita Suzune summoned [Crazy Diamond], preparing to heal everyone, and Kouenji Rokusuke simultaneously summoned [The World], preparing to provide cover.
The Darkness Devil tilted its head slightly, merely extending a single finger, and pointed lightly.
"Bang! Bang!"
In an instant, their forms collapsed.
Together with their Stands, shattering into several indistinct chunks of bloody flesh!
Even the Public Safety Devil Hunter beside Denji, who'd been waiting for a chance to ambush, as well as Power, who was simply playing dead with her eyes shut, were not spared—all met the same shattered fate.
Denji, the Shark Fiend, Power…
Because of their special nature as devils and Fiends, even cut into eight pieces, they could still barely survive by virtue of their blood.
But ordinary humans like Horikita Suzune and Kouenji Rokusuke were as dead as dead could be, their bodies simply collapsing and vanishing outright.
They could only be forced to wait for the on-the-spot revival three seconds later.
Kushida Kikyo stared at the severed limbs strewn across the ground, and at her companions dissolving into blue light.
Her legs could no longer hold her up, and she slumped down once more onto the blood-soaked grass.
"Th-this is insane!"
Kushida Kikyo wailed in despair deep in her heart: 'Chris, Ichinose… I feel like I'm not going to make it…' Where are my teammates, where are my teammates, hurry up and come save me!
Like Kushida, having witnessed this overwhelming display of instant slaughter with their own eyes, the survivors—Matsushita Chiaki, Hayasaka Ai, Amikura Mako and the rest—were all shaken to their cores.
For a moment, not a single one of them dared to make the slightest rash move.
After all, the Combat Suit provided by the Black Sphere, once shattered in a single blow, would directly lose its functionality.
They were now, in effect, facing an unreasonable primordial devil with nothing but mortal bodies!
And because their arms had been severed, even if they wanted to use the [Vampire Capsule] they'd snagged for free earlier in the Time Chamber to regrow their lost limbs, they couldn't do it—because they couldn't even reach the capsules!
However. The Darkness Devil's original aim had been to lure Makima into making a move.
Thus, apart from the first few expendable pawns who'd attacked recklessly to convey a sense of intimidation, it hadn't deliberately gone out of its way to wipe everyone out.
The likes of Quanxi, the Spider Devil…
It had merely severed their limbs, robbing them of the ability to act, without killing them outright.
As for Makima, far away in the real world, just as it had anticipated, it had the battered Spider Devil summon her over.
"Understood."
With that, Makima stepped out expressionlessly from within the Spider Devil that had been torn in two.
"Shwoosh——!"
Chris and the others, at this very moment, descended with precision onto this pitch-black field.
Because Chris and his group's entrance was instantaneous, accompanied by the Black Sphere's dimension-transcending concealment, no one before this moment had detected their arrival.
This left both Makima, who had just appeared, and the Darkness Devil, who was just about to make its move, momentarily stunned.
As if by silent agreement, they both instinctively turned their heads to look.
Looking at Chris and his group, dressed in the same style of clothing as Horikita Suzune and the others it had just casually crushed.
On the Darkness Devil's pterosaur-like face, for some reason, one could faintly make out a sense of relief.
After all, as the primordial devil representing darkness.
On its home turf of Hell, enemies it had to take seriously were—well, not nonexistent, but certainly not many.
But compared to that freak from earlier, the one with the green hourglass emblem on its chest, who could ignore the laws of Hell with a mere snap of its fingers.
These humans before it, however finely equipped, were ultimately just humans after all.
Yet facing that Electric Lizard, it had felt utterly powerless to resist.
To make even a primordial devil feel fear.
It sounded absurd, but it was exactly what had just truly happened.
As for Chris and his group.
Since they'd only just touched down, they hadn't actually even had time to open and check the controller's radar.
But honestly, just from looking at the severed arms and limbs all over the ground, and the man and woman standing off against each other amid the mountain of corpses and sea of blood.
They could pretty much tell at a glance which was the enemy and which was a potential ally.
To say nothing of the Darkness Devil's SAN-draining, grotesque appearance, which made it inherently hard to regard as a friendly party one could communicate with.
"Tch."
Ryuuen Kakeru cracked his neck and raised a hand, taking aim at the Darkness Devil.
He turned his head and coldly issued an order to Yagami Takuya and the others beside him:
"You lot go help Kouenji and the rest—find that mysterious merchant first.
"Chris and I will hold it off for now."
Yagami Takuya glanced at the utterly fearless Ryuuen Kakeru, then at the calm-faced Chris, and nodded heavily.
If he remembered correctly, Ryuuen Kakeru was currently in a state with zero margin for error!
Who'd have thought that someone who usually looked like a sinister delinquent could, at the critical moment, actually possess such resolve to stake everything on a do-or-die gamble.
As for the Darkness Devil.
Once it confirmed that they weren't of the same kind as the Electric Lizard and posed little danger, it had actually refocused its attention on Makima.
In its eyes, of everyone present.
Only the Control Devil, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, was worth its taking even slightly seriously.
However… it would soon suffer dearly for this arrogance and negligence that belonged to the strong.
When Ryuuen Kakeru's finger twitched slightly, and a transparent, high-pressure air bullet struck the Darkness Devil, letting out a soft "bang."
The Darkness Devil had initially chosen to ignore it.
Merely raising its hand, preparing to engage Makima in their signature finger-pointing duel.
This first clash was Makima's victory.
As great gouts of blood erupted without warning from all over its body, the Darkness Devil was gravely wounded, half-crouching on one knee.
Makima, expressionless, turned around and strode toward the Santa Claus doll slumped to one side.
The Darkness Devil swiftly rose and abruptly pressed its two hands together. "Crack!"
This time, the arm Makima had extended anew twisted and deformed as though wrung into a twisted cruller by some invisible, immense force.
And just as a strange treasure-sword hung with little bells emerged from the darkness above the Darkness Devil's head, ready to aim at Makima for the final killing stroke.
"Hummmm——BOOM!!!"
Ryuuen Kakeru had already gone full-throttle, the energy cannon on his chest trained on the Darkness Devil's back, unleashing a long-charged shockwave of destruction!
This time, because he'd spent 100 S-points to upgrade it into the complete [Lion God Template].
Its power was more than ten times stronger than when he'd attacked the Pillar Men back then!
The utterly defenseless Darkness Devil had a huge hole blown straight through its body by this energy!
The Darkness Devil's body swayed slightly, surprise flashing through its eyes.
But it didn't redirect the attack of the sword hanging overhead—it merely casually raised a hand, preparing to return the favor to Ryuuen Kakeru with a single point.
But before its attack could be carried out—
"Shwoosh!"
Chris, having equipped [Demon Possession], had already crossed the spatial distance as if teleporting, closing right in front of it.
Nothing fancy—just a simple punch, slammed viciously into the Darkness Devil's head!
With the HP bonus of several thousand layers of [Heart of Steel] + [T-Virus] evolution + [Super-Soldier Serum] raising the ceiling + [Combat Suit] tenfold enhancement + [Black Marionette Dance] + the adaptive amplification of [Demon Possession]…
Honestly, Chris hadn't even dared to use his full strength with this blow.
Otherwise he'd have just killed it outright, and then what would be the point of carrying on?
"Boom—" A blast wave exploded outward in a ring, sending the surrounding turf flying off in one whole sheet!
The Darkness Devil's face contorted, its entire body sent flying backward by the impact!
Watching this outrageous physical destructive power.
A glint of intrigue flashed through Makima's ringed eyes, and she arched a brow.
But her movements didn't pause.
She briskly walked up to Toriga, who'd already become a doll, placed her hand on his head, and said in a cool, clear voice:
"O Devil of Hell, I offer up all that I am."
"Please let us… return."
As the contract was sealed.
A gateway in the sky opened, and a pale, enormous hand descended from above.
It enveloped the entire group—including Kouenji Rokusuke and Horikita Suzune, who had only recently revived from the three-second death penalty—every last one of them.
And in an instant they appeared in the real world.
On the rooftop of the department store building where they'd been earlier.
However. Because the Black Sphere's revival interval was a fixed three seconds.
So in fact, the just-revived Horikita Suzune had genuinely witnessed the stunning scene of Chris and Ryuuen Kakeru joining forces to forcibly drive back the Darkness Devil.
When, after a bout of spatial distortion, she found herself back in reality.
The girl instinctively turned her head, trying to find a trace of Chris in the crowd, only to discover…
Not there, not there, not there!
"Where's Chris?!"
Horikita Suzune's brows knitted tightly, her face full of confusion and anxiety.
This sudden turn of events even made her subconsciously overlook the most urgent matter—summoning [Crazy Diamond] to heal everyone and reattach their arms.
However, her confusion didn't last long.
Because Ichinose Honami, who was rapidly counting heads, soon turned pale as she discovered an even more serious problem.
"It's not just Senpai…"
"Yotsuya, Nanase, Tachibana-senpai too… they're all gone!"
Hearing this, Horikita Suzune and Ichinose Honami exchanged a glance.
Could it be that the corporeal hand that had brought them out just now had left them behind during the transfer?!
Both of them thought this in unison, their hearts instantly sinking to the bottom.
But considering that not long ago, the God Sphere had just announced in the gymnasium that there would later be additional, intrusion-like "dungeon" worlds.
The two of them forcibly halted this pessimistic conjecture.
Should one say… that Yotsuya Miko and the others, who'd been chosen along with Chris, were really just too lucky?
'To actually get to be with the currently strongest, most reliable senpai…'
Ichinose Honami, looking at the empty space at her side, couldn't help but feel a pang of bitterness in her heart that even she found somewhat ill-timed.
Of course, this bitterness likewise didn't last very long.
After all, although they'd been fortunate enough to leave the Darkness Devil's territory.
Right before them, on the rooftop of this department store, there was a Santa Claus—one who had devoured a piece of the Darkness Devil's flesh and understood everything—waiting for them.
Looking at the bizarrely-shaped Santa Claus, whose lower half was entirely pieced together from countless doll heads.
Ichinose Honami took a deep breath and turned to look at Horikita Suzune.
She found that, at some point, Hayakawa Aki, Quanxi, and the others with severed arms had all gathered close to Horikita Suzune's side.
Even the several Fiends with mangled bodies, completely unable to move, had been carefully placed off to the side at this moment.
Had Kouenji used his time-stopping Stand to help carry them over?
Understanding dawned in Ichinose Honami's mind, and she immediately called out:
"Horikita-san! Please!"
Horikita Suzune nodded, without any superfluous words.
Together with the [Crazy Diamond] that materialized, she quickly reached out and touched those broken, incomplete people.
"Dora!"
As a Miracle-like pink-blue light flashed.
Whether it was Hayakawa Aki's severed arms or Quanxi, who'd been cleaved in two, all were astonishingly restored to an undamaged state in an instant!
Witnessing this heaven-defying healing power that violated all common sense.
Even the worldly, well-informed Makima couldn't help but take an interest.
She didn't interfere with the students' actions, either.
She merely walked straight up to Denji, who lay on the ground, and gently cradled his head in her arms.
Raising her hand, she let the blood on it slowly flow into his mouth.
Then Makima lifted her head and, calmly addressing the expressionless Santa Claus who fancied itself already invincible, spoke:
"Having absorbed a piece of the Darkness Devil's flesh, nullifying every attack within the darkness….
"Hello there, Santa Claus."
Santa Claus looked down at her condescendingly:
"Makima, that pitiful dream of yours ends right here."
Makima, however, paid no heed to its provocation.
She still merely lowered her head and gently tugged the pull-cord on Denji's chest.
"Denji-kun."
"You'll save me, won't you."
In response, the roar of a chainsaw resounded through the night sky.
Denji sprang up violently from the ground.
The response he gave was…
"Woof!"
——End of Chapter——
Note ①—Shark Devil · Beam: The one who came to the rescue when Denji had taken the Quanxi Fiend hostage, was ambushed by Santa Claus's disciple, and was then in turn bound by the Fiend. It possesses the special ability to swim through solid media and briefly restore its complete Shark Devil form, and it greatly idolizes the Chainsaw Devil.
Note ②—Spider Devil: Cannon fodder, serving as the expendable pawn for Makima's descent.
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