Chapter 100: Tama’s Decision and Sword Saint’s Power

The intense battle had been going on for a while.

「Guh… Mana exhaustion!」

Prince Julius kneeled down on his knee and pierced his greatsword into the ground to support his body. His greatsword’s luster was far weaker than it had been at the start of the battle.

On his side was Aria, who had just retreated with a back step. She panted as she adjusted her stance with Tempest Bringer.

Orthos barked at them with its jaw wide open. It was trying to eat them alive. The panting Tama invoked his 《Elemental Roar》 to prevent that.

Aria and Prince Julius used that opening to restore their mana and stamina with a potion… or that was what they were supposed to do…

『ManifEsT! 《Hell Lance》…!』

Despite being in a battle against Vulcan and the others, Cyclops had the leeway to fire a upper-tier flame spell, 《Hell Lance》, at Aria and Prince Julius.

The beasts’ cooperation was perfect. Even when fighting in two separate places, just like Tama and co, they didn’t give their opponent a chance to recover their stamina.

（Guh! If this continues…）

Prince Julius was really flustered even though he and Aria could dodge Cyclops’s attack. They had managed to land a few solid blows to their opponent, yet the beast still looked to be in its peak state, while they were out of breath.

「Tama! That’s enough!」

Aria called out to her knight (pet) with a bitter expression. Even though that small kitten fought an opponent dozens of times bigger than him, he still kept Orthos at bay with his 《Elemental Sword Tail》 and 《Elemental Howl》 even in his exhausted state.

Maybe because she saw her beloved Tama fighting bravely till the end, Aria made a beeline toward Orthos with her Tempest Bringer to distract it from Tama.

（Stop, Master! Your stamina is already…!）

Tama noticed Aria charging at Orthos, but he knew that both her mana and stamina had already hit the bottom.

（At this rate…）

Seeing Orthos’s fang approach Aria, Tama made up his mind. He raised a warcry inside, and the name of a certain skill appeared right in front of his eyes!

◆

「Well then, it’s about time, isn’t it?」

At the same time as Aria and the others’ battles, Alisha was strolling inside a certain ruin in Alfus kingdom. Thanks to her 〝Unique Movement Method?, she could cover a few weeks’ worths of distance in just a few days.

The ruin she was in had been turned into a labyrinth because of the revival of the Four Demon Dukes. Numerous corpses of powerful monsters lay scattered along her wake. She had slain all of them in one strike.

Instead of her usual maid uniform, Alisha had donned a bluish silver combat uniform that was her personal combat uniform. Her beloved pair of swords, a silver katana and a jet black katana, was strapped on her hips.

Despite the large exposure in her combat uniform, it actually made her even more charming thanks to her beauty and sacred aura.

Although no one could appreciate her beauty since the ruin was filled with nothing but monsters. Not that it mattered, since no man other than her beloved master (husband) could enter Alisha’s eyes.

That aside…

Despite her leisurely walk, the air inside of the ruin was anything but leisurely. The revival of one of the Four Demon Dukes was near.

「This presence is really familiar.」

As Alisha walked by herself, she found a big gate blocking her path. She muttered,「What’s the meaning of this?」

Alisha wondered who made such a gate. The gate was so big that opening it alone was impossible. However, Alisha nonchalantly unsheathed the katana strapped on her and diagonally sliced the gate. In the next moment…

『I-Impossible… You… YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!』

A voice that sounded like it contained both anger and bewilderment resounded from the room beyond the door. Hearing that voice, Alisha let out a daring smile and said, 「I see! No wonder the presence felt rather familiar to me. It turned out to be you, one of the Four Demon Dukes who got resurrected, 〝Levi?」.

Levi—the most appropriate description for her was a green-haired, brown-skinned beauty who liked to cross-dress as a butler. One of Demon King Mamon’s Four Demon Dukes, she was awakened right before Ragnarok, and the one who happened to subjugate her was Alisha.

Levi unintentionally let out a scream, 「HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!」, as soon as she saw Alisha’s smile. The memories of the battle with Alisha had slowly returned to her mind. At that time, Alisha had annihilated Levi in an extremely cruel and unspeakable way due to a certain reason.

「Fufufu… How do you want to be killed this time, L-E-V-I?」

『D-DON’T JOKE AROUND! I-I’M DIFFERENT FROM BEFORE! I now have Mamon-sama’s blessing. Not even you can defeat the current meeeeee!』

When Alisha asked her a question with a sweet smile on her face, Levi replied in a shrill tone as if she wanted to shake her fear.

Along with her shrill, a poisonous purple aura surrounded Levi’s body. The aura rapidly expanded, then vanished. A five-meter-long 〝Dragon? appeared in Levi’s place. Its body emanated a boundless amount of mana and an extremely heavy pressure.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

（Oh my! It seems she was speaking the truth about the Demon King’s blessing. This pressure… it’s actually equal to that of a pseudo-Demon King?）

Pseudo-Demon King―the assessment Sword Saint Alisha gave to Levi’s dragonification was terrifying. The pressure emanated by the current Levi, was in a different league compared to the undead dragon that Aria and co. had subjugated in Gladdstone.

『KUHIHIHIHI! Behold, Alisha! This is the supreme form that was granted to me by Mamon-sama’s divine protection! With this power, I can tear you from li—』

Levi, who was convinced of her victory with her new body, suddenly came to a complete stop. Because, Alisha’s figure had instantly vanished in front of her eyes. And right when Levi was about to look for Alisha, her field of vision suddenly fell to the ground.

Levi saw the world spin, as her eyes caught sight of the ceiling in one second and the ground in the next.

The last thing Levi saw before her death was her own headless neck and Alisha’s figure who sheathed her katana behind her back. Alisha looked at Levi’s head with a merciful gaze. A crimson light lit up in one of Alisha’s eyes, and she spoke.

「No matter how powerful you get, you will never catch up to my speed, Levi. Just like how you got divine protection from your demon king, I have the divine protection from my master (husband) too. Fufufu…」

Alisha had circled behind Levi with her godspeed. She had then beheaded Levi, whose power had reached the pseudo-demon king realm, in just a single slash. The enraptured expression Alisha showed when she spoke about her master (husband) was definitely that of a girl in love.

「Well then, I guess this is it for my part, and this level of an opponent shouldn’t be a big deal for Cedric-sama. The situation of Aria chan and co. is rather worrying, but they should be okay as long as they have Tama in 〝That State?. 」

Alisha dismissed her worries about Aria and co’s situation with a charming smile when she recalled a certain matter about Tama.