Chapter 10: I Can’t Afford to Lose

Blazing light filled the world.

The Demon Sword Celeste.

A blade imbued with the element of fire.

Its rank as a weapon is SSS. It is said to have incinerated not only dragons, but even higher angels—beings that should have been its worst match. A treasured blade, enshrined for many years in the Demon King’s vault, now once more flooded the present world with its power.

The use of a high-ranking demon sword is not limited to that of a mere blade.

"Ki ki ki, as expected, what incredible magic power…"

With a shrill laugh, Deji unleashed the sword’s power.

A demon sword meant for a Demon King’s hand. Even a general-class would normally be crushed under its weight. Yet Deji, without issue, directed the swirling torrent of power—so vast that even calling it “immense” was insulting—toward the enemy army. That alone proved his gigantic body was no mere bluff.

Detestable man…

A dragon of flame, born from the sword, overtook the charging Third Army with ease and licked at the enemy forces several kilometers away.

In that instant, a black light burst forth from the Army of Gluttony.

『Wave of Hunger』

The skill that defines Gluttony itself.

The wave and the demon sword’s flames collided.

Magic that devoured everything clashed against fire so vast it felt endless. With Celeste’s aid, Deji’s power matched Zebul’s blow for blow.

Deji licked his thick lips with irritation.

"Even with Celeste’s power, still only even, huh… As expected of the Demon King… I want that power for myself."

At its root, Original Sin is nothing but desire.

I want gold, I want things, I want to eat delicious food, I want sex, I don’t want to work, I want to look down on others and make them kneel.

And ultimately, Deji’s desire and my own converge at the same point—jealousy of others.

In the end, to take is the essence of a demon. To consume more of limited resources than others—that is all that matters.

Deji pressed down the blazing sword, rampaging with radiant light, with his four arms. Yet his expression was still a vicious grin, drunk on his own violent power.

His arms glowed red as they burned, but there was no sign of his grip faltering.

"Ki ki ki, as expected, ranged attacks are all we can use. Get too close and we’ll be eaten directly. Against Gluttony, the matchup’s a little bad…"

"…But I can’t afford to lose."

"Naturally. If two general-class lose here, we won’t just face the Demon King… Hardo will have our heads before that."

My hand touched the sword Deji held.

The heat was so vast it burned not just the body, but even the soul.

By skill, friendly fire—so-called “ally damage”—was nullified. Even so, the sheer pressure seared me to the core, and I felt a pang of jealousy.

Deji’s arm demon, Liber, spoke with a grim face.

"Hmm… Gluttony’s skill, 『Wave of Hunger』, devours all power. Deji, finish this quickly or Celeste’s magic will be eaten away."

"I know, ki ki ki. Stalemate… stalemate, huh? What a joke. Sure, Celeste’s magic is overwhelming. But this isn’t nearly enough to satisfy my desire! Once we take down their Demon King, victory is ours!"

The advancing army froze before the surging flames. Even if they suffered no damage, they lacked the courage to leap into fire.

No, the battle itself had already become a one-on-one between the Demon King and Celeste. One step forward meant certain death at the hands of the Demon King. The aura of Gluttony Graa’s hunger was that suffocating. And so were his subordinates.

"Ki ki ki, but I’m still one step short. Can’t quite finish it. Guess I’ll have to use the puppet…"

Deji glanced back at the skeletal puppet made of silver bones.

"…There’s no need. I’ll do it."

Deji blinked at me, dumbfounded. Strange? Was it strange for me, Luxeria of Lust, to say such a thing?

Yes, the matchup is poor. I admit that. But I can’t afford to sit idle. I can’t let Deji take all the credit.

I closed my eyes and emptied my strength. From the soul core, the heart of a demon, I forced out magic. Fire against fire. I wished for hellfire that would consume everything—even hunger itself—and erase it from this world.

And then, I manifested a “sword.”

"…You’ve got to be kidding me…"

"This is no joke."

I raised the sword in my right hand high.

A single beautiful blade, wreathed in fire. Its flames, born from nearly all of my magic, were slightly inferior to Celeste’s, but rivaled even that of a Demon King.

If Deji alone couldn’t push through, then I would add to it.

The greedy demon’s face twisted.

"That too… is Luxeria’s skill!? Impossible… what did you do!?"

"Bear witness to the power of Luxeria, Demon of Lust."

And I swung my sword.

Power raged, dyeing the world red. Heat surged through my entire arm.

Demon swords always have a price. Celeste’s price must be feedback to its wielder!

Hellfire that burned even the soul swallowed my arm, becoming a dragon of flame that joined Deji’s.

Agony like my body was being torn apart. Fire churned my mind.

But Deji, suffering equal if not greater pain, looked unbothered. I had no right to complain.

I too… am a commander. I lead Lord Lazy’s army.

My arm burned under radiant light, releasing a foul stench. Blisters swelled instantly on pale skin, only to vanish just as quickly, leaving behind ugly burns.

I clenched my teeth against the pain and kept my gaze fixed ahead.

My flame dragon intertwined with Deji’s, glowing so brightly that I could not open my eyes.

At that moment, the flames overwhelmed the Demon King’s wave. Slowly, steadily, the tide of fire pressed back the Demon King’s army.

"…Don’t know what you did, but not bad. Ki ki ki, but I still—"

Deji grinned hideously, his four eyes shining with eerie brilliance.

"—I still desire more power!"

The moment he said it, the flames and magic swelled explosively.

This… is the Greed skill!?

For a brief instant, the black wave was pushed back by the mingled fire. But then Deji’s skill gave it such density, such force, that it surged forward again.

The crimson wave engulfed the Gluttony Army, erupting outward for thousands of li in all directions.

The whirl of light became countless arrows, reaching even here from several kilometers away.

A solid impact.

"Ki ki ki, this is Celeste’s power… So the tale that it was forged to oppose the heavenly light that burned away the Demon King is no mere rumor."

Deji’s voice trembled with excitement.

A terrifying force. A dangerous weapon. And worse still—the Greed skill drew out even more of its overwhelming might, more than enough to crush the Demon King’s power outright.

Lord Lazy… this toy is far too dangerous to be entrusted to Deji.

The light birthed a scorching wind across the demon realm’s wasteland, whipping my hair into the air.

But in the next instant, Deji’s grin vanished.

"Oi oi… you’ve got to be kidding me…"

"…Impossible. Any ordinary Demon King should have been unable to withstand that…"

Liber’s shocked gaze turned to the distant wasteland—distance meaningless now.

A black mass writhed. The armies that had encircled it were gone without a trace.

With that much heat, they must have been obliterated down to their very souls.

The mass shook violently, then contracted.

The elite of the Third Army, who had closed within mere hundreds of meters, stirred uneasily.

The air changed.

Not just around Zebul—this place, kilometers away, where I now stood.

From a clear black, to a clinging, swamp-like darkness.

Deji noticed it too, his voice stunned.

"…Lord Lazy… lost…!?"

The overwriting of 『Chaos Domain: Abyss Zone』.

Proof that our army’s domain had been consumed and replaced by the enemy’s. I could feel the strength leaving my body, the abundant magic draining away.

The closer one stands to the Demon King who invokes it, the stronger the Abyss Zone becomes.

Thus, it isn’t impossible for a lower-ranked Demon King’s domain to overcome a higher-ranked one.

But Lord Lazy’s zone had never once been broken. Until now. No matter how fierce the battlefield.

"…You’ve got to be joking. A Demon King who can survive divine fire? That’s L-class…"

"…Deji, can you use that skill again?"

"You kidding me? It didn’t work even within the boss’s zone. No way it’ll work inside the enemy’s."

Deji’s eyes darted nervously across the field.

And he was right. Abyss Zone empowered its wielder’s forces—by no small measure.

"How much of the zone has been eaten!? Liber!"

"…A great deal! It’s beyond the scope of my ability!"

I could feel the presence of the enemy.

A slimy aura of hunger.

Only one Demon King remained? No other shadows. But that was no comfort at all.

The black mass condensed, gradually shifting shape.

From an amorphous slime—to humanoid form.

"Zebul Gracos… insatiable hunger… the Gluttonous King who devours all…"

I could see it.

A beast of darkness that invaded the world, cracking, breaking, and consuming.

The humanoid figure was smaller than expected. Smaller than me, perhaps. Compared to the towering Deji, over two meters tall, it was four heads shorter.

Where had all that volume gone?

The cloak of darkness rippled, sucking in light as if from a hole.

Even from kilometers away, the pressure felt close enough to touch.

Something I had never sensed during the march. Not until he drew near.

"Ki ki ki, now this is interesting… he’s devouring the boss’s zone at a ridiculous rate…"

Deji still had the composure to laugh? His courage was terrifying.

His massive pectorals swelled, and a thunderous roar shook the air.

"Troops! What the hell are you dawdling for!? The enemy is but one Demon King! Charge!"

The air quivered and rang.

At Deji’s roar, the halted Third Army burst forward in a mad rush.

Their momentum was like a tsunami—undaunted by the sight of the Demon King’s power, even with their zone shattered.

"Girl, you’ve got strength, sure, but no guts. You’re thinking too much. But for us common soldiers, giving up on the battlefield means death. Ki ki ki, you’re not strong enough to just lie down and sleep through the fight, are you?"

"…You’re right."

But at this rate, annihilation was inevitable.
Deji’s words were on target, but at the same time it was as if he were ordering his men to their deaths.
Even for the Third Army, ordinary demons couldn’t buy even a few seconds against this enemy. I knew that better than anyone, having already fought him myself.

From beneath the cloak, a tentacle shot out, mercilessly skewering the foremost demon.
There wasn’t even time for a scream; in an instant, the body was painted black and swallowed whole.
Yet the demon king’s size didn’t increase in the slightest.

How are we supposed to fight something like this…!?

Countless tentacles dripping with slime whipped outward, launched from its body.
The pressure tore away the hood that had hidden its face.

"That thing… it’s a woman!? She looks about the same age as you, lass."

Dark green hair, nearly black, and eyes of the same shade. And yet those eyes weren’t even looking at the army before her.
Appearance meant nothing to demons.
No—rather, the more unassuming the appearance, the greater the danger. That too could be wielded as a weapon.

Zebul had the face of someone who seemed the last to embody Gluttony.
With vague, unfocused eyes, she surveyed the demons before her.

Perhaps it was the advantage of numbers, but a spear struck from Zebul’s blind spot—if a demon king even had such a thing.
It pierced the cloak, only to be swallowed whole. The wielder escaped by releasing it in time and retreating from the flailing tentacles, but without his weapon he was helpless.

Another demon used the opening to unleash a storm of fiery orbs.
But those too were swallowed, and silence was all that remained.

Zebul licked her lips.

"…That’s cheating. Since when did Gluttony have a skill like that?"

Liber’s expression paled, but his reply was level.

"That’s a mid-tier Gluttony skill. The Bottomless Stomach that devours anything and everything. …Normally it’s not supposed to indiscriminately swallow other people’s attacks, though."

"A difference in mastery, huh? Kihihihi… so that’s what it means to be a Transcendent. Don’t tell me Celeste got swallowed by that too?"

"That’s impossible… or at least I want to believe it is. If even a mid-tier skill can nullify her, then who knows what would happen if Zebul used a high-tier one…"

The demon king’s gaze swept across the battlefield, her face betraying not a flicker of emotion.
Deji twisted his lips into a grimace, reluctantly picking up his swords.
Not just one—four demon swords. Carrying even a single one was enough to mark a demon as high-ranking, yet even with such armament, I couldn’t imagine a one-in-a-million chance of victory.

"Tch, she just looked at me…"

"Thinking of running?"

"Don’t be stupid. You can’t run from a demon king. Kihihihi… steel yourself, Liber Aigens. Remember the Black-White War? Compared to that—this is nothing. She’s just one enemy."

Liber let out a long sigh at Deji’s words.

"…Good grief, so be it. I already died once anyway. Deji, not even envy stirs in me at your resolve."

"Kihihihi, still so serious. I’m just a little more greedy than most, that’s all."

…No choice. I had to steel myself as well.
With the false demon sword summoned earlier, my mana was nearly gone. At best I could still use basic skills.
Close combat wasn’t Lust’s domain, but I drew the knife at my belt.
Even if it was far inferior to Celeste, the blade Lord Lazy had granted me was still a demon sword. It might buy a fleeting moment.

"You can still run, lass. You’re nearly out of mana, aren’t you?"

"Run? Don’t be ridiculous."

How could I—how could someone saved by Lord Lazy—turn tail and flee while my master was in danger?
Even Deji, a mere mercenary, wasn’t running despite this hopeless situation.

Deji blinked in surprise, as if seeing something unexpected.

"Hmph… but a dagger won’t cut it. Can you handle a sword?"

"…Well enough."

"Kihihihi, then fine. Take one of mine. You can pay me back with that little knife of yours. If you survive, that is."

Pay him back?
Even with death hanging over us, he still had the gall to demand terms. I couldn’t help but laugh.

"Fufu… in this situation, you’re still making deals? Your greed is something else."

"Kihihihi, you’ve got to seize what you can while you can. This world’s overflowing with things I want."

"And your life isn’t the most important of them?"

"Of course it is. Which is why I plan to claim that too."

The sword he handed me was wreathed in frost.
Inferior to Celeste, yes, but still far too precious a weapon for any common general to hold.

I tested its balance with a few swings. Good—it would serve.

Glaring at the demon king who cut down trained soldiers as if they were paper, Deji declared:

"Kihihihi, I don’t plan on dying here."

"Neither do I."

Yes. Defeat wasn’t an option. I still had too many regrets to leave behind.