――It’s hard.

Merea was moving around the land dragons at an intense speed and while restraining their movements with attacks, he realized just how hard their scales actually were.

――If I don’t hit them extremely hard, it has no effect.

The land dragons had their attention on Elma and the other demon lords who were running off to the east and in the end their movements seemed rather uncertain.

It was hard to tell whether the ones who were feeling confused were the land dragons or the dragoons on their backs. 〈i〉(TLN: So they’re basically dragon riding cavalry and since I didn’t want to call them that, I went with dragoons which are essentially mounted cavalry in real life plus that sounds much cooler)〈/i〉

In any case, that reaction made Merea feel partly happy and partly dissatisfied.

――Look this way.

Of course, if it were possible he wanted to bring the land dragons down immediately.

However, if he showed even a small opening, then they might use two of the dragons as decoys and immediately go after Elma and the other demon lords. So he’s not able to find the chance to take down all three at the same time.

He couldn’t afford to let even a single one of them get away.

――Look, over here!!

At that time, Merea was waiting for a particular opportunity. He had some expectations.

When the attention of all three dragons was on Merea he would then be able to change over to an all out attack.

The moment when they give up on chasing after the other demon lords long enough to beat down the irritating fly flitting around their surroundings. The idea of using the others as a decoy would completely vanish from their minds in that kind of a situation.

In the mere moments that they stop thinking such thoughts, ――I’ll beat them down.

「He’s such an irritating guy!!」

The voice of one of the dragoons reached Merea’s ears. Although the voice was slightly distorted because the dragoon was wearing a full face helm but when he calmly listened to it, there was a clear note of irritation in that speech.

――Just a little more.

While being as irritating as possible to the utmost limit, Merea waited for the right moment.

――Come on.

A moment after he had attacked multiple times. The dragon right next to the one he had last attacked, turned its eyes towards Merea.

They no longer had their sights on the other demon lords.

――It’s finally here.

A loud roar resounded in Merea’s ears. It was a strange speed and pressure that felt like it would split apart the wind and even the space they were in. In the next instant, a reddish black log like object came flying at him. It was the land dragon’s tail.

Merea himself was in mid-air.

「Buzzing around here and there since a while back…! ――If you really want to die that much then I’ll let you die first!!」

The dragoon who was riding on the dragon to the right seemed to finally have his emotions take over his consciousness. When the land dragon heard those words, its tail immediately attacked Merea and reached a few meters away from him.

――Dodge it.

Merea moved once more.

Rather than beating his wings it felt more like he had a gust of wind push him downwards. They were movements with different intentions.

Overhead, the land dragon’s tail swung past as if it were the death god’s scythe.

However, Merea didn’t bother about that and instead he moved around looking at the other two dragons and then he noticed it.

――Right there.

He was convinced. Merea did not miss the fact that the dragoons would strike the backs of the dragons in specific ways. In the next moment, as he had thought, all three dragons turned their attention towards Merea.

Merea had been waiting for that very moment. He moved without any hesitation.

With the earlier flow, he dived and with his wings made of wind he finely adjusted his landing point even further. Unlike how he was moving earlier, like a fly flitting around without calming down, he moved straight towards one of the land dragon’s feet. At the same time,

「Technique expansion――」

Merea showed a strange stance. ――Left flank stance.

It was as if he had a sheath attached to his left side from which he was drawing a sword out. Although he wasn’t carrying any weapons but the people watching could help but visualise a sheath hanging on Merea’s left hip.

Merea momentarily stopped his movements while still in the stance of holding onto the hilt of the sword on his waist. The wings of wind disappeared from his back and the white lightning disappeared as well. However, in the next moment,

「〈The Resplendent Sword of the Water God (Seura Euras)〉」

Another change occured. Inside the right hand which was placed near his left hip, a beautiful sword which glittered blue materialised.

The blade that was modeled like a sharp blade was roughly three times Merea’s height and from within the blade you could see bubbles that emitted a beautiful light. A water sword that emitted a pale blue light.

That blade, in the next instant,

「The First Strike――」

It felt like time itself was cut with that one strike. It was a movement similar to Iai. The blue light was dancing around the surroundings and the afterimage told the trajectory of the slash.

That blue penetrated the leg of the land dragon and,

「――」

A shriek could be heard far and wide.

One leg of the land dragon was cleaved off leaving an extremely smooth stump in its wake. The humongous body, after losing one of its legs, lost its balance and tilted to one side.

However, Merea’s movements didn’t stop even then. Before the dragon’s body could fall to the ground, he had already started running at full speed towards the next dragon.

The dragoons couldn’t even understand what was going on anymore.

However, the second land dragon that Merea was heading towards seemed to understand that its brethren had somehow been wounded and the enemy who had wounded its brethren was heading its way.

That is our natural enemy.

With an animalistic instinct, the land dragon seemed to think that about Merea.

◆◆◆

While running, Merea recreated the water blade that disappeared after the previous attack. At that time, he noticed that the land dragon he was aiming at was waving its right arm and tail around as if to stop Merea from reaching its bosom.

It wanted to mow him down.

Merea dodged it with a paper thin difference in such a way that it could even be described as graceful and in the next instant,

「The Second Strike――」

He swung the blade. Merea immediately heard the dragon’s shriek.

That sound seemed to have a mixture of pain and anger mixed in but Merea moved on without caring about that. The third dragon was still remaining.

When Merea turned his gaze towards the third dragon, he noticed that both the land dragon and the dragoon seemed to somehow understand the situation and the dragon had turned away from Merea and turned towards the other demon lords and was about to rush towards them. Both when Merea rushed out and the land dragon taking a stance to jump out was at the same time.

――Like I’ll let you get away…!!

Merea realized that he would never be able to catch up to the dragon with his normal speed. As soon as he realized that, he cancelled the water blade that he had been forming and changed the technique he was using.

He clapped his hands.

Those were not movements just for show, the moment he did that, white lightning sprung up and when he had clapped a second time, wings of wind grew on his back.

Merea chose the techniques which were the fastest in all the ones that he knew and used those on himself.

◆◆◆

In but a moment, Merea had bisected the legs of two dragons and completely stopped their movements. The scales that are said to be near impossible for normal to even damage were cleanly cut through as if they were butter, by Merea’s two slashes.

Even if it was something that would only come up as a joke, even though he managed to accomplish something like that, Merea wasn’t satisfied.

However, the flow of the events clearly showed some of Merea’s weaknesses.

If someone with good intuition had seen that situation then they probably would have felt a strange discomfort in Merea’s actions.

If they had noticed the situation for what it was then they would be right in thinking, 『there’s nothing that can be done about him anymore』 but according to a 『certain man』 that was not the case.

That man was currently in a place that was far away from the current battlefield. At a place that was at least several tens of minutes away by a fast horse.

Even then, that man was definitely nearing the battlefield. As if he was being attracted by the smell of the battlefield, travelling at breakneck speeds.

――He was not yet visible.

◆◆◆

While clinging onto Elma’s back, Aiz had completely moved her 『normal vision』 outside of her own consciousness.

What entered Aiz’s brain was a bird’s eye view of the terrain that she was able to view because of the 『Devil’s Vision』.

「Right…!」

「What next?!」

「Immediately go diagonally left! Cut your way, through!」

That place was like hell.

The surroundings were filled with nothing but enemies. They had already collided with the enemies.

If Aiz had looked at her surroundings with her normal vision then she may have stiffened up completely.

That was how close the horses were running past the enemies.

The demon lords had the upper hand after the collision. Mūzeg’s cavalry corps that had prioritised speed over everything else by even using an acceleration technique, ended up with some confusion in their ranks.

Even then, Mūzeg still lived up to its name as a superpower and as if they already expected the demon lords to try to go around, they ignored the slight confusion in their ranks and attacked immediately with a large amount of bloodthirst.

The demon lords intercepted that. There were demon lords who specialized in techniques and they created a wall and pushed the advancing cavalry back.

Even though the enemies were many times in number more than themselves, the demon lords still did not budge. Although they weren’t a unified practitioners corps but the demon lords all had extremely high abilities and they created a wall that at least managed to block the first charge.

No matter how many times they blocked them, there were more waves of people attacking persistently but the demon lords were definitely moving forward.

In that place, the part that was most in danger was the vanguard. In other words, it was the position that Elma was in.

Although it couldn’t be called a battle but there were definitely Mūzeg’s cavalrymen who kept slipping through the cracks and attacking her.

If the cavalry manages to get in front of them then the demon lords have no choice but to 『cut their way through』.

The one who had to take up that role weren’t the demon lords on the sides who were putting up walls but instead the one who was the vanguard, in other words, Elma.

「――!!」

As Aiz watched the vanguard with the devil’s vision, she couldn’t help but think,

――Amazing.

She couldn’t help but feel astonished. The awesome part was the〈Sword Emperor〉Elma’s combat capabilities while on a horse.

She swung the demon sword Krishra with a tremendous speed and very precisely cut only the soldiers that needed to be cut.

Even though the opponents had a long weapon in their hands but she didn’t even bother with that and still cut her way through.

With a pressure that felt like she would even cut through the very space itself, she kept swinging the demon sword and even the spears that would come stabbing at her would have their blades shattered.

Not to mention, she even managed to make sure nothing happened to Aiz as well.

「If you don’t want to become the rust on my demon sword then get out of the way!!」

Elma raised a battle cry like some kind of a war god. It was a voice filled with coercion and encouragement. Elma could hear the loud voices of Salman or the other demon lords from behind herself.

「Just a little more…!」

Aiz confirmed that the other demon lords were still safe with the bird’s eye view of the devil. Salman was leaning his body slightly away from the horse and was hitting Mūzeg’s cavalry with fist wrapped in strange purple particles.

Marisa used acrobatic movements to slip her dagger into the gaps in the armour of Mūzeg’s cavalry.

Although she already knew that those two had abnormal power but now that she had actually seen it in action, she couldn’t help but find it breathtaking.

Although plain but another factor that really contributed to the situation were the horses. While they were swift horses, they were once 『war horses』 as well.

They did get scared when they were faced with the land dragons but it was to their credit that even in that situation they did not run away. This just went to show that they weren’t timid when it came to war.

On the contrary, they attacked the horses of Mūzeg’s cavalry with their own bodies.

As if to show that they themselves were really strong, they showed a different, slightly wild way of showing off their strength as compared to the humans who were riding on their backs.

Of course, there were horses who were wounded. However, they still did not fall.

If the horses fall, then the demon lords would die.

As if they understood that, the horses had an odd dreadful air wrapped around them that could almost be seen with the naked eye and were trying to breakthrough the enemy’s army.

「Just a little bit more…!」

While ordering Elma on the path to take, Aiz watched the enemy and predicted their movements. If they had just 10 more seconds then they would be able to make it through. That’s what she thought.

However, in the single moment that she wasn’t paying attention, as if to aim at that gap the demon lords faced a tragedy.

As the side effect of using the magic eyes of the devil affected her, due to the sense of fatigue that her eyes felt, she unconsciously blinked her eyes.

Not having blinked even once till that point was nothing but Aiz’s strong determination and willpower but as expected even her body needed her to blink at least once.

Of course, her blinking was not the direct cause of the tragedy.

However, when she used the devil’s vision once more after blinking, the tragedy spread in front of her eyes.

「Eh――?!」

What was reflected in her vision was a certain figure that was separated from their group, standing in a place surrounded by Mūzeg’s soldiers was...Salman.

In the next instant, screams resounded from the back.

「Wait! Saru!」 「Onii-chan!!」

They were the screams of the twins.

Aiz finally realized it at that time.

The twins were riding on the horse but Salman was not.

While riding on a particularly large horse, the twins who had been holding onto Salman’s back while attacking the cavalry with their techniques, were still riding on the horse but Salman himself was no longer there.

Most probably, he got down intentionally.

If he had suddenly fallen off the horse then the twins would have fallen together with him.

However, the horse that the twins were riding on didn’t have many wounds and the twins themselves had no wounds.

Most probably, that was,

――The same as Merea…!

He used himself as――bait.

◆◆◆

「――I’ve done it now. Something that’s not even like me…」

Salman was surrounded by Mūzeg’s soldiers.

With the purple particles still flowing out of both his fists, he tried his best to look like he had a lot of leeway but as expected, even Salman didn’t think that he could get out of the current situation alone.

With a lot of difficulty, thanks to his bluff like menacing attitude, he had escaped from the soldier’s spears so far.

Though the man himself found it rather strange that he was able to keep Mūzeg’s soldiers in check with just this level of menacing attitude.

「Ahh…, is it that, ――they want my 『magic fists』? Well, it’s definitely difficult to use it when the demon lord has a weapon that is part of their body. Mūzeg probably wants to take it away from me but don’t know how to do it properly」

He wasn’t sure if that was the real reason. Though when he tried saying it out loud, he could feel a sense of tension run through those soldiers. That might unexpectedly have been the right answer.

「Ahh, I’ll give you some advice. If you don’t handle it properly, the magic fists will lose their power」

Salman’s life was now like a flame in the wind.

However, he decided to bluff in such a way and somehow bide his time.

At the very least, as so many of the soldiers had come to his side, the other side should be able to get through quite easily.

――Even if I’m going to die, I’ll struggle till the very end.

Such a determination came gushing out of Salman’s body.

「――If you want my magic fists then you should get someone who’s compatible with them first」

Salman said with a sarcastic smile and shrugged his shoulders.

「Ha, if it doesn’t have power then that’s fine too, I don’t really care. It’s better than letting you get away」

While saying that, a man with a dignified appearance walked out.

The slightly distorted voice that came out of the black helm seemed to have a distinct note of ridicule in it.

However, that black armoured cavalryman pointed his spear at Salman and had a stance that did not show a single opening.

Even if he was mocking Salman, he didn’t seem to underestimate him.

While gauging the power of the man in front of him, Salman heaved a sigh.

「Is that so. ――If that’s the case then the term 『hunting』 really does suit you people. People like the three kingdoms who come over with their heads bowed saying, 『Please lend us your strength』 are still much better」

「While doing all that, they still led the demon lords to die. ――It’s no different, as long as you have them die they’re all the same」

「Nope, that’s wrong. If you only look at the result then it’s the same but when it comes to us 『demon lords』, the process itself makes a big difference. You guys on 『that side』 may not get it though」

With a fed up look, Salman shrugged his shoulders and while speaking, he realised that his own feelings were boiling up quite a bit.

As if being pushed out by those rumbling feelings, his words continued.

「Don’t think that you can justify anything and everything with just the result and rationality」

「Haa, I don’t get it, you people’s feelings that is. ――There’s no need for me to understand either. Simply because there’s no way this relationship would change」

「That’s just arrogance. There’s nothing that will never change」

Then in that case, I’ll show you that it can be changed――is something that he wanted to say. However, he couldn’t say it. Maybe because, he would probably die here.

Such a thought ended up stopping his words.

「...Haa, if it was in the past then something like this probably would never have happened. It’s become strangely round now. ...That’s right, in that case――」

Salman suddenly had the figure of a man flash through his mind. The words that he couldn’t say, that wish――something that he may actually be able to fulfill, the figure of such a man.

――A request from him till the very end huh. ...haha, sorry Merea. The load on your shoulders is probably going to get heavier.

However, as his last stubborn wish, he wanted to leave those words for the world. Since he couldn’t say that he himself would change things.

「It might not be...bad to have things changed by our lord」

As he said that Salman looked towards the sky. With so many of them in his surroundings, he couldn’t even see Merea to find out how he was doing. He couldn’t see Elma and the other demon lords and of course, he couldn’t see the twins. Then at least he didn’t want to look at the hateful soldiers of Mūzeg which is why he looked at the sky.

「Well then, die already. If his highness Serius had come on time then I wouldn’t have minded letting you live but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be coming here anytime soon」

「What’s with that, why don’t you just wait a little longer. If you wait for even a minute longer, he’ll reach」

「That’s enough of you stalling, demon lord」

「Don’t you dare call me that. Being called that by 『you people』 seriously pisses me off. The only ones allowed to call me that are other demon lords!!!」

Salman spoke in an extremely enraged tone. That was a battle cry from one who was already prepared to die.

Salman took a few steps ahead.

He walked over in front of the many spears, by himself――

――― ―― ―