The resplendent sword in his right hand held horizontally.

The resplendent sword in his left hand held diagonally.

White lightning charged and wrapped around his back.

Although his movements felt like flowing water, they were extremely fast. An ordinary human would have lost sight of Merea by the time he took his third action.

The closer one got to it, the more violent and rampant that speed felt.

However, Serius,

「Haha! You’re fast! So this is the white lightning equip of the〈Lightning God (Celesta Barca)〉 huh!」

Managed to follow Merea’s figure without any issue.

Though, even Serius couldn’t manage to follow the movements of the body completely. However, his head alone moved around as if to follow Merea’s figure and with his left eye, managed to at least follow the white lightning tail following after Merea.

「!!」

He quickly thrust the handle of the demonic spear Kurtad towards his blind spot that Merea had swung towards from behind him.

「That’s a nice reaction!」

Merea twisted his torso and avoided that thrust and using that momentum, he swung down the sword in his other hand.

An explosive sound rang in the surroundings.

It was the sound of the resplendent sword and the demonic spear clashing.

In that moment, Serius managed to twist his body around and was able to receive Merea’s strike.

「That’s a nice weapon! Even though it’s been receiving the phenomenon interference of the demonic spear, the blade has hardly been affected at all! How exactly did the〈Water God (Seura Eurus)〉manage to create a sword of that high a density?!」

Serius raised his voice in excitement.

「You’re a noisy fellow…!」

Merea answered with a thin smile as well as threatening words. Merea, in his own way, was trying to probe Serius’ ability.

「In that case, how’s the skill of you, who is using it. ――Don’t think that you can do well in close quarter combat with just high specs…!」

Suddenly, the competing blades sprung away from each other and took some distance. Serius had parried Merea’s sword and with extremely quick movements, he tried to pierce the blade of the demonic spear into Merea’s chest.

「I don’t want to hear that from you, who is using a demonic spear…!」

Merea’s movements were graceful and minimal. Without any wasteful movements, he dodged that attack with a paper-thin difference and counterattacked.

They came close, parry or exchanged blows. The battle between the two right now could be called a competition of skill more than anything else.

They both had different plans during all this.

The clash of tactics and exchange of blows that had been going on for several seconds finally showed signs of becoming imbalanced.

Serius had managed to destroy Merea’s posture.

Merea tried to fix his posture with his extraordinary sense of balance but at that time,

「I won’t let you get away!」

Serius took a few steps in. He used his demonic spear to sweep one of the swords and held it under his foot. He then shifted away the other sword that came swinging towards him with a palm strike. He immediately jumped into his bosom.

――Got him.

Serius was convinced. He held Merea’s arm with his left hand. Although the white lightning rampaged around the inside of his hand and damaged his skin but he used all his strength to hold onto that arm and didn’t let go.

In the moment that Merea had once again had his posture ruined by having his arm pulled――Serius suddenly let go of his demonic spear and moved in to strike him with a palm strike.

That is where Serius’ plan showed up. Not with his demonic spear but with a palm strike instead.

From Serius’ palm, black particles could be seen flowing out.

「――!!」

A graze.

Merea’s excellent sense of balance ensured that his posture was not completely destroyed. Even so, he still couldn’t completely evade it and Serius’ palm strike grazed his face.

「I feel like I’ve seen those movements somewhere. Have you inherited the skills of a martial arts type demon lord?」

After getting in one blow, Serius immediately retreated and spoke those words. Alarm whistles kept going off in his head that continuing with the close quarter combat would be extremely dangerous.

――But, I touched him.

That retreat was also because he had accomplished his original plan. Just grazing him was――more than enough.

While picking up his sword, Merea used a finger to trace the line where the blow had hit him. A strange feeling passed down his cheek.

◆◆◆

Merea held a frank sense of admiration and wonder towards Serius. Definitely――

――He’s strong.

If he excluded the heroic spirits on the sacred mountain then he was probably the most skilled.

He felt like he could understand why Hasim and the other demon lords reluctantly praised Serius’ talent.

「Aren’t your movements bad? Or are you going easy on me? ――Show me your movements even more. Show me the essence of the skills that you inherited from the battle type demon lords on the sacred mountain」

「To be asked something like this by an enemy in such a situation…」

「It’s my nature. I love strong people」

――Bloody battle maniac.

While thinking that, he noticed that Serius was about to continue speaking so he purposely waited for his words. The strange feeling on his face had yet to disappear.

「Well, I’m often scolded by my father for such thoughts but, I have a fundamental desire to meet people stronger than myself. That’s why I can’t help but raise opponents up」

While those words were meant as a provocation but they also were proof that Serius considered Merea to be considerably weaker than himself.

Although Merea was also aware of that but seeing Serius who had become much more talkative the more they fight, he decided to let him continue without refuting him.

The plan that Merea had for that close combat was to make Serius talk more.

「If that’s the case, then the name of darling child of the age of war suits no one else but you. Though, rather than saying war, it might be more accurate to call you a heaven-sent child of battle itself」

「That’s true. If it’s war then the weaker the opponent, the better」

Merea was able to look at the present situation with the calmest attitude he has had so far. The 『discomfort』 he felt from Serius before they fought was the reason he could do so.

「However, you seem to be using various techniques as well huh. Even though it might seem like you’re not using anything, when I look at you with the magic eyes, I can see something glowing around you. Are those threads?」

With his magic eyes, Merea could see some fluffy threads glowing around Serius’ body. Although they were extremely thin, they seemed to shine with a peculiar magical light. When he used his magic eyes to look at the technique, he could see the glimmer of the origin of the technique.

「――So you really can see through that far huh」

During the previous battle, he could see those threads manipulating Serius’ body. It looked like he had converted his own body into a marionette with those light threads.

「〈Light Thread of the Doll King〉. A demon lord in the past created this technique that creates threads that can be used for the sake of puppetry. The essence of that doll king was in his puppetry but since that’s rather difficult to explain so I’ll omit it」

「You seem to have too much composure. To be explaining your power to the enemy in front of you」

「That’s because it’s already 『over』, You won’t show any moves better than you already showed so far」

He removed the white threads that were growing out of the five fingers of his right hand and pointed at Merea while he spoke. For some reason, his face face had a certain amount of gloom. He seemed to have a regretful expression.

「My palm strike grazed you earlier right. The right side of your face」

Serius pointed to the right side of Merea’s face. It’s the spot that Merea had been feeling a strange sensation since a while back.

「Although I would have been fine playing for a while longer but, my body reacted on its own. It’s your fault for being strong in such a half-assed way」

Serius no longer bothered to hide his disappointed expression. He even sighed audibly.

「――It just 『reached』. The power to destroy the 『core』 of your battle ability just reached the inside of your brain」

「What are you――」

For a moment, Merea wondered what he was talking about but in the next instant, he guessed it all.

Without him intending to―― The white lightning wrapped around his body, disappeared.

The white lightning that had been rampaging around his body, suddenly weakened considerably and started receding. It then finally completely disappeared.

「Just how long do you think Mūzeg’s history of fighting against demon lords is? ――There is no country that has fought more demon lords than Mūzeg. After a 『certain incident』 Mūzeg started researching ways to go against demon lords, especially the technique types. The result of that is what I just shot into you, a〈Sealing Technique〉」

Serius spoke. While he did that, Merea moved his body to understand the situation.

He took the resplendent sword of the water god and brought its blade near his face and looked at it intently. In the glittering water blade, he tried to look at his face and see what was on it.

「Black――」

Pattern. ――A technique formation.

Merea confirmed that the palm strike earlier was for this sake.

In the next instant, he unraveled the technique formation on his face with the magic eyes of the technique god.

It was a difficult and unique technique formation but, his accumulated experience let him reverse that technique.

Right when he was about to shoot it towards his own face――

「Don’t even bother. Even if you do reverse it, you won’t be able to undo the seal. Since that was something that was prepared just for 『the man who used reversal techniques』」

Merea immediately understood what Serius’ words meant.

「It’s a sealing technique that aims at hindering the 『unique origin』 of techniques that use them. Not to mention, it doesn’t hinder the technique itself but instead it hinders the processing area of the brain that works as the foundation instead. I know that your processing power that’s completely out of common sense is the reason that you’re able to use so many techniques of demon lords simultaneously. However, for someone like that, a sealing technique like this must be the most troublesome to deal with right」

I see. So this is the 『trump card』 that Mūzeg has spent a long time researching and developing. Merea understood.

The reason his white lightning disappeared on its own was because the processing area that he had been using for it had been hindered by this sealing technique.

――Unique origin huh.

Not to mention, it was a technique that could not be undone even with a reversal technique.

It was true that 『unique techniques』 that used unique origins couldn’t be reversed with a reversal technique. Although he could decipher it but invoking it would be a different matter. It was the same as Lilium’s living flames.

「To have a unique origin, you guys seem more and more like relatives of demon lords though」

「Of course, it’s not something that we were born with. It’s something that was embedded into us later. We’re slightly different from you guys who are demon lords from birth」

Rather, the very fact that they had it embedded in them later seemed much more warped but Merea didn’t pursue that point. He noticed that Serius had started speaking emotionally, so he turned his attention towards those subtle emotions instead.

It might be that he was feeling a little bit of relief from having been able to seal a portion of his abilities.

That relief was opening his mouth and bringing his personal thoughts out in the open.

「You’re the reason something like this happened right? People who are demon lords from the moment that they are born is something that should never have existed」

Merea steadily spoke. Merea wasn’t agitated.

――Your prediction was spot on, Hasim.

In Merea’s mind Hasim’s words resounded. The words that Serius would probably notice the weakness that Merea had spoken of. The words that Serius would probably aim right at that weakness.

In reality, Serius had come attacking that very weakness.

However, as far as Merea was concerned――

It was all according to plan.

「The moment someone is born into a family of a demon lord with a title, that person is already a demon lord. Those are the kinds of customs and conventions that we have created after all. ――If you want to change it, then you should change it. You’ll be able to change it if you overthrow Mūzeg you know?」

Serius was gradually mixing in an easygoing air.

The serious heat that he showed in the previous fight had already receded and he seemed to be getting tired of the present situation.

When he saw that figure, Merea felt like he saw a childlike innocence in him.

「Well, whatever. ――It’ll be problematic if you killed yourself or something. I’ll quickly seal off the processing areas of your other techniques and after making sure you can’t move, I’ll get those eyes of yours. It’s the first time that I’ve met someone who hasn’t had their complete processing area sealed in a single shot of mine but, with two or three more shots you’ll probably become empty」

Serius took a step towards Merea. At some point, he had accumulated light threads in his left hand that were thick enough that they could be seen even without the technique god’s magic eyes. That light thread passed over the ground and stretched towards Merea’s leg.

「It’s already too late once you’ve noticed it. I’ve already tied you up with the〈Light Thread of the Doll King〉」

His body had been wrapped up from the feet up. Merea looked down to check out what he had been talking about but he didn’t raised his head back up.

Merea’s body was being bound up with a considerably strengthened light thread and slowly raised his body up into the air. His body finally started floating in mid air. It looked almost like a heretic crucified in midair.

「Did you lose your will to fight?」

Serius slowly approached Merea and spoke up when he noticed that the〈Resplendent Sword of the Water God〉had disappeared from both his hands.

Even so, he continued to be cautious and approached till around three steps away.

At that point, he finally heard a voice coming from Merea.

That voice, in the next instant, unexpectedly shook Serius’ heart.

「――『Understood』. It’s not that you didn’t speak but――Instead it’s that you couldn’t speak」

With an expression like he had finally gotten the answer to a question he had been wanting to know for many years, Merea looked at Serius with eyes that were completely clear.

That figure that looked like it was carrying the entire sky on his back while being crucified in midair did not have the air of someone who had given up.

Even Serius who had been thinking that Merea not getting agitated in the current situation was just his bluff, ended up feeling an odd discomfort.

However, he wasn’t able to guess what the identity of that discomfort was, at all.

◆◆◆

Merea was finally able to find the answer for the discomfort that he felt after having fought Serius. When he looked at his face in the reflection of the water blade, he suddenly felt like the answer floated up in his mind.

――Even though he’s so vivid――he’s fragile.

It felt like looking at how he himself was a little while back.

The image that surfaced on the glittering water surface, mixed in with the bubbles and the beautiful swaying liquid, gave a strange fragility to his image.

Although he firmly believed that he didn’t have any fragility like he did in the past but seeing that unstable image, he couldn’t help but remember himself from the past.

At that time, strangely, he felt like Serius’ figure overlapped with that image.

He’s definitely strong.

He would probably the strongest living person that he had met so far.

While being able to use anti-demon lord sealing techniques, he was capable enough to decipher the unique techniques of demon lords of the past and use them.

It might just be that Merea wasn’t aware of it but it’s possible that he was capable of using many more techniques. When he was catching up to the speed of the white lightning, his eyes had technique formations in both eyes for a moment. He was probably using special magic eyes.

In any case, it was obvious that Serius was skillfully able to use the powers of a number of demon lords.

Although each technique isn’t particularly large, he managed to bring out the 『core』 of each technique and use it skillfully.

Unlike himself, Serius might have a rare 『sense for techniques』.

――Even though he should be strong and shining brightly…

For some reason he had a 『sparseness』 like he wasn’t even in that place.

The moment he noticed that, he realised why Serius had not answered his question.

『What exactly are you aiming for after victory?』

Serius dodged that question. At that moment, Merea had felt a sense of discomfort. It was still only his guess.

However, when he remembered Serius’ reaction to his leading question, he was convinced.

This man――

◆◆◆

――Isn’t aiming for anything.

◆◆◆

Serius Brad Mūzeg was simply chasing after a phenomenon called victory, nothing more than a――

「Broken beast」

You are much more of a,

「Monster」

While being crucified in midair, Merea spoke while he looked straight at Serius.