[762] Lord of Destruction (1)
Minerva, flying toward the entrance of the Ruler's Palace, glanced back at Shirone and said, "So that means I won?"
Jet had arrived first, but Shirone was already fully focused on the battle.
"I'll take command."
"Do as you please. But it won't be easy getting there."
Without answering, Shirone beat his radiant wings and flew toward the far end of the palace. Minerva landed at the entrance.
The moment she drew out the diagonally embedded Jet, a terrible venom seeped from her body.
"All right, shall we start the cleanup?"
Cutting through the poison, two‑meter‑tall, muscular demons swarmed around her.
"I'll chew you up alive!"
Even as their flesh rotted, the demons showed no fear—so the army of eight million was the strongest possible eight million.
'Honestly, I'm a little shaken.'
A hard smile settled on Minerva's lips.
The Ruler's Palace, soaked in a dictator's greed, covered one of the largest tracts of land in the world.
Ignoring the throngs on the ground, Shirone headed straight for the leader's palace.
'We have to take the commander.'
Eight million. Easy to say, but how many people can truly imagine eight million soldiers?
And the ones on the ground had combat power far above a human average.
'Maybe from the start…'
The thought struck him.
'Was this a war we could never win?'
If Satan's army numbered two billion, then if each demon killed even two humans, the entire world could be wiped out. The thought of what would have happened if Sion hadn't condensed his psychic domain was terrifying.
"What is that?"
A foul flame flickered on the sky beyond Shirone's flight path.
"Gyaa—!"
A rift opened, and a face, as if eaten away by worms, appeared in the real world.
Company leader Reno.
A demon who transports hell's army, his maw able to hold four hundred demons.
"Yahweh…!"
Shirone's face contorted at the sight of the writhing demons in that gaping mouth.
'Berserk!'
When the veil of light throbbed and tore into the mouth, the demons' screams dulled his hearing.
"Kyaaaaa!"
A view filled with blood and flesh suddenly detonated like a firework, and demons exploded outward.
Remaining forces: 7,999,231.
…it was endless.
He disintegrated four hundred demons in an instant, but none of them seemed to register the loss.
'It's sickening…'
Yahweh loves all that exists and thus transcends good and evil…
But there was no mercy for the demons.
'Ataraxia!'
A colossal halo formed, and multicolored data poured down like a storm.
Shirone, who focused the completed magic circle on the ground the instant it opened, fired his photon cannon.
Wooooooooong!
The air howled as a glare dozens of meters wide struck diagonally, gouging the earth.
"Kraaah!"
Demons far stronger than humans were thrown in all directions, but none could match Shirone's scale.
273, 398, 113, 198… the average number of demons dying each second was roughly two hundred.
By the time the flare's amplification ended, casualties exceeded two thousand, and brigade commander Sodass looked up into the sky.
"Beautiful…"
Remaining forces: 7,996,973.
"This is really going to drive me mad."
Shirone made a weary face.
He couldn't sense any real decrease; facing the crushing mass of enemy numbers made Minerva uneasy.
He glanced back toward the palace entrance, but what dominated the view was swarms of demons at different heights—some over ten meters tall.
'Can we really do this?'
As Shirone pondered, the 44th Brigade of the 7th Division, 24th Corps all looked up at once.
"There—Yahweh! Fire!"
Hairless, snub‑nosed ghouls dropped their jaws and spat foul matter like a hail of bullets.
'Eradicate the demons!'
When Yahweh's light expanded in the form of the Spirit Zone, the toxic filth turned to ash.
Minerva worried.
'Just once. Just one time.'
The limit to how many Shirones he could superpose at Yahweh's state was one hundred thousand.
'That's nowhere near enough.'
If all of them cast Angel's Punishment at once, the army's strength would finally begin to visibly weaken.
'It only has to be for a moment.'
The problem was he couldn't guarantee the safety of the body performing the quantum superposition—but Minerva couldn't hold out forever either.
"Quantum Superposition!"
One hundred thousandfold.
His head spun and Shirone's body plunged toward the ground at a terrifying speed.
All his body could do was use magic to soften the landing.
"Now!"
A hundred thousand Shirones turned into beams of light and shot skyward, kindling the avatar of an archangel.
At the same time, brigade commander Sodass grabbed Shirone's true body.
"Got you!"
Avatar Technique—Angel's Punishment.
Remaining forces: 5,668,227.
Light fell like rain across the Ruler's Palace; every demon lost their hearing.
Remaining forces: 4,340,976.
No one could measure how loud it was—only that a catastrophic shock had struck the ground.
Remaining forces: 3,365,763.
"Kraaa!"
As the cycles continued, the number of deaths per cycle dropped, but the plaza already showed a circular bald spot, like a ring of bare space.
"Ugh!"
When Sodass clamped Shirone's neck with both hands, the hundred thousand Shirones ceased their bombardment at once.
'He aimed for the gap precisely.'
They had detected the intrusion into the Spirit Zone, but their thought speed couldn't keep up.
'Strong.'
And beautiful.
His face was too pure to be called demonic, and his skin gave off a fresh scent like fruit.
"What are you doing? Keep going."
Shirone frowned.
"...What did you say?"
Sodass pressed his body fully against him, slid a hand down, and brushed Shirone's chest.
"I'll protect you, so go ahead and kill them all."
The motive seemed suspicious, but Sodass's eyes did not waver.
"Brigade commanders won't fall, and the rest will be reborn as many times as it takes."
As long as humans don't give up on the demons, that would be true.
"But they're your subordinates."
Tears streamed from Sodass's eyes.
"Truth is… I want to repent. Living as a demon is horrible. So please… give me one chance too…"
'He always talks like that.'
But Igor had said this before:
—There are repentant demons, not none at all.
"This will be the last time. If your light can purify my filthy body, maybe I—"
Sodass's pupils rolled upward.
"Ahh, so this is Yahweh's body…"
Unlike the hand that moved downward, the one tightening his grip on the throat was the one he poured force into.
'Die!'
Just as he tried to snap Shirone's neck—
"Ugh!"
Yahweh's light spread, and the hand clamping the throat turned to ash and scattered.
"Huuugh!"
Shirone had already released the quantum superposition.
"Again…."
Sodass, writhing at Shirone's voice, forced his eyes downward.
"You lied."
Who would trust a career con man?
'A demon repenting?'
Parents believe it. If a mother cries, "I won't do it again," you end up believing—even if the one pleading has twenty convictions.
'They can change—this time for real…'
That's why Shirone, tasked with erasing demons—the human children who could never truly change—felt sorrow even as he annihilated them.
"No."
Sodass looked at Shirone with desperate eyes and, with the hand turning to ash, stroked his face.
"I truly wanted to repent."
"Waaaaaah!"
Yahweh's light spread, and Sodass and every demon around him burned away.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Even while steadying his mind with the breathing method of non‑attachment, enemies kept pouring in.
"Can you handle it?"
Shirone, on his knees, turned and found Minerva already behind him.
She, too, looked exhausted; her clothes were ragged from demon claws.
As a Superqualier, her senses could treat the mind like matter, and Shirone regained his composure in an instant.
"Still holding up. How about you, Miss Minerva?"
"I—I'm managing."
This was no time for a power struggle.
"Protect me. If I activate Quantum Superposition again to wipe them out—"
"It's useless. Don't you get it yet? Yahweh's light is itself a powerful weapon against demons, but…"
Minerva leveled her pipe forward.
"That's because the demons are incorporeal. It will hurt them, but it's ultimately just a matter of time—no matter how many you kill, there's no end."
"Then you want to leave them be?"
"No."
Minerva exhaled a cloud of green smoke.
"There is a more constructive way."
Shirone, blocking the smoke, struck the surrounding enemies with Angel's Punishment.
"What are you going to do?"
Remaining forces: 3,363,305.
"I'll use a forbidden spell."
Shirone was uneasy already.
"If it's forbidden, you should obey the ban. What kind of forbidden spell can you use so casually?"
"The Interstellar Administration Bureau will take responsibility. Even if you don't believe me—if the world were you, it'd be horrifying. In return, I'll give you three wish‑veto tickets."
"Not up for negotiation."
"Is that so?"
Minerva inhaled the smoke deeply.
"Then I'll take my punishment."
Catastrophe Magic—Walking Dead.
She puffed out her cheeks, tilted her head from left to right, and exhaled; green smoke billowed like a cloud.
"For the love of God, listen to people—"
"I already did it."
At Minerva's words, Shirone finished his assessment and hurriedly scanned the area.
"Gaaaa…"
Dozens of demons who breathed the smoke stood for a moment with vacant, dilated eyes, then suddenly became feral.
But they didn't attack Minerva or the humans—they attacked the demons beside them.
"What the hell—?"
Minerva explained.
"The spell of fratricide, Walking Dead. Once infected, they feel only hatred for their kin. They lose consciousness, but unless their heads are blown off, they don't die."
"Walking Dead."
A horror recorded in history books.
"Right. And the true terror of this masterpiece is…"
Minerva's voice turned cold.
"Infection."
Number of infected: 48.
"Grrrr… Kraaah!"
A demon bitten by another demon rolled its eyes back and sank its teeth into the one beside it.
Number of infected: 127.
"Follow me. We push straight into the leader's palace."
As demons began attacking their comrades, the gaps in the open space around Minerva gradually widened.
"You idiots! Why are you biting us?"
Number of infected: 897.
Shirone watched, stunned, as the great witch walked down the widening path.
'Miracle Minerva.'
One of the Five Great Stars of the Human Security Enforcement Department—perhaps a walking disaster in her own right.
"Anyone who sides with humans is no demon!"
Number of infected: 2,483.
"Heh heh, do you think it'll be that easy?"
The higher the population density, the more potent the infection.
"Aaah! No! Kill me instead!"
The worst blaze that once drove humanity to the brink of extinction was spreading through the Ruler's Palace.
Number of infected: 6,323.