“I reject both!”
Faced with a death sentence, Luna mustered all her dignity and yelled in defiance. The opponent was one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars who served the overlord. Furthermore, he was the merciless, ruthless incarnate of the devil.
Aigokeros of the Goat.
However, Luna was still one of the Seven Luminaries that the demons took pride in, and she strangely had the Moon attribute like Aigokeros. Because they had the same attribute, they understood each other’s weaknesses. She was one of the few who could resist Aigokeros’ mental interference, so she was in a better situation than the other Seven Luminaries would be.
“Hah!”
She condensed mana to create a black sword and jumped to slash down from above. Aigokeros neither dodged nor defended against it. He took the attack with his arms folded. The result was that he remained unharmed. The attacking sword dissipated instead, while Aigokeros did not have a single wound on his body. He did not use any special magic. The inability to harm him was simply due to the hopeless difference in their statuses. That was all.
“How slow. How fragile. How weak.”
Aigokeros spewed words of contempt and sent her flying by flicking his middle finger. It was basically a forehead flick. With that alone, Luna was blown away, sc.r.a.ping the floor for more than one hundred meters before stopping. In pursuit, Aigokeros vanished into the floor and emerged from Luna’s shadow. No, he did not simply emerge. His body had grown significantly larger. His head reached the ceiling of the first floor of Blutgang, while Luna immediately avoided the arm that reached out to attack.
“En—Enlargement by condensing mana!?”
“Oh. You can figure it out to that extent.”
This was not Aigokeros’ true form. It was a clone created by condensing mana, essentially a type of magic. Arcane magic fundamentally converted mana into a phenomenon. Metal-attribute magic could even create ores. This was basically the same. It was a self created by Aigokeros out of mana. Although it would disappear like an illusion when the magic ended, it currently existed as a real body.
“Monster…!”
This was the Twelve Heavenly Stars! This was a resident of Helheim!
Painfully realizing the overwhelming difference between her opponent and herself, Luna immediately chose to avoid a direct confrontation. Luna jumped to increase the distance between them, while Aigokeros glanced at her emotionlessly.
“Capture.”
Black tentacles grew from the enlarged body of Aigokeros. These were no ordinary tentacles. These were mutated tentacles that ended with teeth. With a strange unbearable sound, a repulsive putrid smell, and a psychologically revolving sense, the tentacles surged towards Luna.
If Aigokeros attacked without reservation and consideration for his surroundings, there would be no way for Luna to avoid the attack. Luna would be captured easily by sacrificing the lives of nearby residents and damaging the buildings. However, Aigokeros was ordered by his master to not cause collateral damage, so the movement of the tentacles slowed due to the narrow area and dense housing. Ironically, the streets of Blutgang protected Luna, who came to destroy Blutgang.
But even so, Luna was not dominating the fight. In the first place, her attacks could not get through her opponent’s defenses. If she went on the offensive, she would be enclosed and captured.
Should she retreat…? The moment of weakness raised such thoughts and slowly corroded her heart. She was no match for this devil. Luna was not so foolish as to not realize this. She also knew about the fate of the idiot (Mars) who charged recklessly without noticing such things.
But…
No, if I retreat here, I will be throwing mud at “that person’s” face! In addition, our incompetence would bring shame to him!
But Luna chose not to retreat.
There were reasons for this decision. Recently, the Seven Luminaries were being too disgraceful. Firstly, Mars failed to invade Svalinn and lost Aries. Libra disappeared along with a large portion of the treasure she was guarding in the tomb. Jupiter died at Gjallarhorn, while Aigokeros defected from the demons. And finally, the resurrection of Ruphas Mafahl was confirmed.
It was evident that the Twelve Heavenly Stars were regrouping under Ruphas. Although she did not know how many stars have been recovered, it was still a very bad situation. Furthermore, the other demons had been saying, “The Seven Luminaries are not such a big deal after all.” The morale of their subordinates was falling. If that was all there was to it, it would be fine. She did not mind herself being despised. However, their blunders would become the blunder of the person who formed the Seven Luminaries. This was unbearable to Luna.
I…We are not weak!
The group called Seven Luminaries was a simple a.s.sembly of individuals. They were the temporary commanders formed to raise the falling morale of demons who lost their elites two hundred years ago. To make it sound good, it could be said that they were chosen for their abilities. However, because the demons had deteriorated so much, they were merely papier-mâché.
Originally, it was unthinkable for a mere Level 300 to become a commander. In fact, they would not even qualify to serve as aides to the commanders. After all, there were many Level 1000 demons two hundred years ago.
The strength of a demon was decided at birth. The strong would be strong, the weak would be weak, and the average simply remained average…There was no way to either raise or lower the level which was specified at birth. Among demons whose roles were fixed at birth, the life of Luna at Level 300 was never bright. If she encountered Ruphas Mafahl or her subordinates, she would not survive, therefore she did her best to avoid them. Despised by the high-level demons, she survived, while they died.
She did not want to die. She just wanted to stay alive. The instinct to attack the humanoids did not matter. She only wished to stay alive.
And so she continued to survive this way, rising to the top of the demons before she realized it. Luna did not become stronger. She automatically rose to the top because all the stronger demons died. Originally, this was not a stage for her. But since all the actors were dead, seven replacements were quickly found as emergency. This was the sh.e.l.l known as Seven Luminaries, and Luna just happened to be one of them.
For the first time in her life, she sat in the position of the strong. She was aware that she was an inexperienced actor, yet she did not want to get off. She was tired of being looked down upon, being despised, and disgracefully running away. Because she had reasons to stay in her position, she desperately tried to make herself appear strong. She dressed and talked like a man in order to hide her weakness.
But ultimately, a disguise was merely a disguise. A mask was still a mask. Every time she encountered someone stronger, she realized how insignificant and weak she was.
“Don’t force yourself to be strong. You are a woman.”
Thus that person, who was born strong, advised Luna. Destined from birth to be strong, he was born around the same time as Luna and was her childhood playmate.
Terra, the son of the Demon King. He was the master that they served and the person who created the Seven Luminaries.
“Do not look down on me, Terra-sama! I’m one of the Seven Luminaries!”
“Don’t be conceited. The Seven Luminaries were chosen as temporary commanders because there was n.o.body else. It does not mean that you people are strong.”
“……!”
“Therefore, do not push yourself. Do things that are within your means. Do not overdo it. Just keep to covert operations and disturbances.”
She longed for it since she was a child. His strength was something a weakling like herself could never reach. She could only watch his back. She knew she was not a suitable match for him and was once severely reprimanded for it. Even so, she still wanted to stay by his side.
She wanted him to acknowledge her, even if n.o.body else did.
She wanted him to talk to her. She wanted him to turn around to look at her.
She wanted him to look back and think that she was useful.
This was the real hope of the girl named Luna, who hid it beneath her pretense of strength.
♋
“Targets, locked. Commencing attack.”
Libra held her sniper rifle and fired at the demons flying inside Blutgang. The sure-hit, sure-kill rounds burst the heads of demons like watermelons, piling up the pitiful corpses on the ground. It was done simply and accurately. Emotionlessly, the slaughter doll continued to clear away the demons according to her master’s order.
In contrast to Libra who was cleaning up quietly, Aries was jumping acrobatically around within the city. Using the houses as platforms, he jumped and incinerated the demons with his hands. Rising without losing momentum, he used the ceiling as a platform and jumped back towards the ground. He destroyed the demons that he pa.s.sed by, then immediately jumped back up again after landing.
Even the fleeing enemies who lost the will to fight were not spared. He grabbed the nearest demon, incinerated it, and threw it at the fleeing mob. The other demons were thus ignited and became charred in an instant. However, the flames did not damage the houses. Aries snapped his fingers and the flames were extinguished.
“Aries, some have escaped to the other floors. We are going after them.”
“Understood.”
Libra and Aries ran up the stairs and quickly reached the next floor. This was unlike their behaviors in Gjallarhorn where they destroyed the surroundings. If Merak saw this, he would surely be angry and thought, “If you can keep the surroundings safe, you should have done so in Gjallarhorn!”
“I found them.”
Her rifle spewed fire and killed an enemy in one hit a long distance away. If she used The Right Scale, it would have penetrated the walls of Blutgang. It was the same with Brachium. With such densely-packed buildings, area attacks would affect the surroundings no matter how limited they were. However, besides her built-in weapons, Libra could also use other weapons according to the needs of the situation. At least, such demons could not escape from her ranged attacks.
“Did we happen to get the easiest position this time?”
“No. Considering the amount of work we had to do, Aigokeros who only has to finish off one small fry would have it much easier.”
“That’s true.”
Aries jumped off the ground and exploded five demons in front of him. He kicked off the wall and returned next to Libra in the blink of an eye.
“By the way, Libra. What do you think of the current Ruphas-sama? I feel that she is more gentle than before.”
“I conclude that compared to the past, she has been empathizing with her enemies. But she is still our master who holds our loyalties.”
Using her light blade, Libra slashed the demon who charged at her out of desperation. He was then incinerated by Aries’ fists. Furthermore, the flaming bullets from her rifle finished off the fleeing enemies. There was no need to look through the scope because Libra’s eyes were themselves the most precise scope.
“This is something I heard from Mizar-sama. Originally, master was not a ruthless person. In regards to this, you should be more informed than me, but…I speculate that the ruthlessness and brutality of master were acquired out of necessity. She was originally a gentle person. I do not know master before she became ruthless, but I think the current master is more natural.”
“Indeed…The old Ruphas-sama was very stern, but she was not merciless. Otherwise, I would have been killed the first time I met her.”
Aries and Libra chatted as they cleaned up the demons. Once the current floor was cleared, they moved on to the next floor. With that repet.i.tion, the number of demons within Blutgang rapidly declined.
“But that’s why I’ve been thinking. Is it really good for Ruphas-sama to regain her memories? Perhaps, it is better for her to be happy without those memories.”
“You don’t want her to regain her memories?”
“No way. Even if it is just a bit, Ruphas-sama still forgot the times she spent with all of us. I couldn’t possibly bear it. But compared to this, I do not want Ruphas-sama to be miserable.”
Chase and shoot. Chase and crush. Their arms and legs did not stop while they were conversing. They dutifully executed their master’s order until the number of demons was reduced to a single digit.
“Either way, the one who holds the key is probably her…Dina-sama. Her behavior is too unnatural.”
“Eh? Really?”
“…Did you not notice? No, this might be one of those thought-manipulation skills.”
Libra told Aries as she destroyed the last demon. She could say for certain precisely because as a golem, she was immune to mental interferences.
“I speculate that some of you…no, in the worst case scenario, everyone including you is affected by Dina-sama’s thought manipulation or memory control. We must be cautious of that person…no, that woman.”