Chapter 75 – Nightmare

Dodging the swinging scythe by lowering my waist, I stepped in with all of my strength.

Underneath the ragged red robe, she was wearing a revealing black dress. Fluttering with smallest of actions, that clothing, which pretty much revealed the part which must be hidden, could probably not be called a clothing anymore.

Wearing unrefined gauntlets made with some kind of a monster’s bones on both arms, she had jet black wings on the back which resembled the wings of crows. And on her head, a large goat-like horn which did not go with her beautiful face.

In this parallel world, there are many who have king in their names but only one of them held power equal to the Dragon King, Fafnir.

Demon Lord Shelfa.

Unkempt, ruffled, long, purple-silver hair and red eyes like the crimson moon. Abnormally white skin. She had dazzlingly beautiful eyes but it was all ruined by the sinister aura she spread with her enormous scythe.

Having all of it aimed right at me, I dived right in and swung Ere towards her defenseless torso.

But she dodged it with unbelievable speed, leaped behind me and swung her scythe downwards, aiming for me. Swinging that scythe which was even taller than her height with one hand like it was nothing; That appearance truly had the overpowering aura worthy of being called the Demon Lord.

Dodging that attack by tumbling on the rock-hard surface, we started crossing swords once again.

I could hear my breathing getting rough. On the other hand, Shelfa stood before me with an air of composure, looking down on me.

Souichi and Hisaki-san lept on her from behind with their holy swords. But she knocked them off with precise movements using her scythe, almost as if she had an eye on her back.

Blown away, the two struck a boulder which had moss sprouting on it. The landing seemed to have been bad; They didn’t move an inch. Either they had fainted or they were waiting for another opportunity to attack. Either way, being on this side of Shelfa, I couldn’t possibly confirm.

Inoue Koutarou – Inoue-kun was fighting to death on top of the enormous tortoise that he named Black Tortoise.

“Pathetic. So this is the heroes Astraera called from the other world?”

‘Pathetic, pathetic’ she went on. Destroying everything in her sight with a swing of her sight, she kept laughing jovially. With a swing of her sight, a part of the tortoise’s back was sliced off.

She was laughing but there wasn’t the slightest bit of cloudiness in her murderous intent. That murderous intent felt familiar somehow. It closely resembled that of Neifel. No, if there’s such a thing like density to ‘killing intent’, then that was probably lesser than this.

And so, I stood up once again, staring right at the Demon Lord as she was laughing.

She looked surprised for a moment, then she gave a broad smile and said,

“Yes, yes. That’s good, hero. Don’t break so easily.”

Her charming lips distorted like the crescent moon, and she licked those lips with her long, red, snake-like tongue. The smile of a demon one would see in a movie or a manga. A smile exactly like that, swollen up with madness.

Her abnormally white cheeks were turning a little red, not out of joy, but out of excitement. We were being driven into a corner but I tried to calm down and observe the Demon Lord.

The foothold (Black Tortoise) started shaking. Even now, the biggest, strongest retainers of the Devil G.o.d in Imnesia continent were advancing towards the royal capital. At this rate, they will reach there in half a day and trample over it.

We must defeat the Demon Lord as soon as possible and subjugate this.

I took deep breaths; Once, twice, thrice.

“Ere, let’s do this.”

“”Yes. As you wish, to your heart’s content.””

I gripped Ere with both hands and imagined mustering up all my strength.

A marrow travelled along  the jade-green body of the blade.

Absolutely not breaking, not bending, not crumbling.

The Absolute Marrow.

“—Lend me your strength. Ere… Astraera-sama.”

It shined. The magic overflowing from the jade green blade, from my body.

More.

More.

More.

More —- Shine even more!

“Did you make up your resolve?”

“I will chop off that wing of yours and knock you down from here.”

In an instant, Shelfa disappeared from my sight and swung her sight down towards me with unimaginable speed.

As I leapt to the left to dodge, it hit the Black Tortoise’s back and exploded. It had the power to destroy not only the rock hard surface, but also its sh.e.l.l.

But I had no time to even be surprised by it as she instantly sprung forward with her giant scythe, which I blocked with my sword.

As my sword and her scythe collided, for a moment, sparks scattered.

Blocking the unique shape of the scythe was difficult.

This was only a one-time only scheme. That one-time only scheme managed to surprise Shelfa just as I had imagined.

Kicking the ground so strongly as to pulverize it, I leapt in aiming for her chest. Shelfa also jumped back like she did before but I took one more step faster. I already saw how she dodged once.

And like that, I sliced with Ere.

Without feeling even the slightest of resistance, I chopped of her right hand and her crow-like wings as I had declared. Her small figure fluttered in the air.

I knocked her off. I cut her wings so she shouldn’t be able to fly anymore.

—-But immediately after, I was. .h.i.t with a magical bullet and blown away.

I dropped from the Black Tortoise’s back.

—Thump.

For a moment there, I couldn’t understand what had just happened.

As I surveyed the surroundings, I saw a familiar room and Feirona’s surprised face looking right at me.

[What are you doing……?]

And then, a voice resounded in my head. It was probably not my imagination that the voice was very astounded.

After a while, I finally grasped my current condition.

And at the same time, the door was violently knocked.

“What is it?!”

I couldn’t see who it was because of Feirona’s bed so I tried to judge by the voice.

[It’s nothing. Renji just fell from the bed while asleep.]

That seems to be my current condition.

It seems to me that the voice explaining now seemed to be pitying me more than being astounded.

“…..Ouch”

[Wake up already. Pathetic.]

Being told that, I finally stood up properly. I seemed to have fallen into quite the weird position because my neck was hurting quite a lot.

Judging from the light of the crimson moon flowing in through the window, it was nighttime. It looks like I fell off the bed at quite the weird time.

“Ah– Sorry. I was probably half-asleep.”

When I said that, Aya and Mururu, who were at the back, let out a sigh of relief.

I seemed to have surprised them a lot.

“Don’t worry about it. How do you feel? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“I seem to have hit my head. Ah, and also, my neck hurts.”

Sitting down on my bed, I ma.s.saged my left shoulder with my right hand. And as I did that, the pain immediately disappeared. It seemed to have been a temporary pain.

As I did the same to my left shoulder, the pain on my neck disappeared. In fact, the wound I received from the griffin subjugation we did a few weeks ago throbbed a little. Compared to that, this didn’t hurt much, so I decided to ignore it.

“Are you okay? Should I ma.s.sage your shoulder?”

“Ah, I am fine, I am fine. I just had a bad dream.”

After saying that to the worried Aya, I stretched a bit. It was quite bright outside even though it was night time.

When I turned to look outside the window, I noticed that it was a full moon today. It is always scarlet but tonight, it seems blood-red…. I thought I had gotten used to it but it certainly wasn’t a good night.

I also had that dream just now, making me feel something bad was going to happen.

[You weren’t really making any noise while sleeping but did you see a nightmare?]

“Ah, yea, a bit.”

“What kind of a dream?”

“I also got up due to your sudden eccentric behaviour.”

“Don’t call it eccentric. You will make me cry.”

Seriously. As I let out a sigh, Aya sat on my bed and Mururu sat on Feirona’s bed.

“…..What?”

“I am interested.”

“It was the first time Renji-san fell off from the bed. I am also a bit interested.”

Hearing their words, I once again let out a deep sigh.

I don’t really think it is that interesting of a dream.

“What about Sollunea?”

“Shall I go call her?”

“No, it’s okay.”

It’s not something I would like many people to hear.

“I saw a dream. Black Tortoise — the biggest, strongest underling of the Devil G.o.d in Imnesia continent. I was fighting with the Demon Lord on its back.”

“…. the Demon Lord.”

Mururu seemed to be pondering over what I said.

The Demon Lord Shelfa.

That name is well known in Imnesia continent. The strongest demonic race. The strongest demon. The one who rules over demons.

Lord of the demons, she who is worthy of that name.

There are many different names or t.i.tles for her but one thing is for sure.

She is abnormally strong.

Even among the 13 of us, the ones who excel in close combat, Souichi and Masaki, were easily dealt with even when they attacked at once.

I feel like Feirona and Mururu became stiff after hearing her name.

To relieve them of the stress, I lightly tapped their shoulder and said,

“It was a dream. It was a long time ago.”

“By a long time ago… you mean you actually fought with the Demon Lord?”

“Well, yea.”

Althought for me, it was nothing but a nightmare.

After that one fight, I caught Shelfa’s eye and from then on, she has challenged me to fights, picked fights with me, came attacking me and what not.

…..Really, it is such a nightmare.

As I let out yet another sigh, Aya gently stroke my back to console me. It was like comforting a kid. When I looked at Aya, she gave me a bitter smile as she knew my hardships.

“From the looks of it, it does not seem to be a happy memory.”

“I almost died a few times.”

Especially when I fell off the back of the Black Tortoise, Fafnir or Anastasia weren’t there so I really thought I would just fall to my death. Is it because of that I was falling just now… I guess that would be thinking too much into it.

“That is pretty rare, for you to see a dream with Shelfa in it.”

“Tell me about it. Ah, I so hate it. Let’s just go back to sleep.”

Aya, who had known how much I didn’t like it, didn’t say anything and stood up.

Sensing that that was the end of the conversation, Mururu also got up.

“Well then, good night.”

“Good night.”

“Ah, sorry for waking you guys up.”

Saying ‘It’s alright.’, Aya and Mururu returned to their rooms. Feirona, Eremenhilde and I were the ones left.

The room got silent at once.

“Well, let us go to sleep as well then.”

“Yep.”

[We need to wake up early tomorrow.]

“I know, I know.”

Tomorrow, we need to prepare for the voyage, and the thing I asked Kudou about…. as I lied down on the bed, I instantly felt sleepy.

I could already hear sleepy breathing from the bed next to mine.

‘That was fast’, as I thought that, I looked up at the crimson moon outside the window.

Ah, what an unpleasant moon.

Did I remember about Shelfa because of the full moon or is my intuition trying to tell me something?

Either way, Shelfa is in the Avenerma continent. It would surely be difficult to appear here on the Imnesia continent when the Devil G.o.d is not present.

Being relieved because of that thought, I closed my eyes.