"All right, fine." Nazril's black wings flapped around in front of me as he murmured, "I guess no one in this world understands me." He removed his hands from his face and stood straight, seemingly done with his little performance to come across as pitiful. Now with his chin raised up, he exuded arrogance. "I won't expect anything from this heartless world anymore."
Agnes and I had the exact same reaction to that.
"What a joke."
«What a joke.»
Nazril flapped his wings and soared into the sky as his eyes glinted sinisterly. "I don't care anymore. I shall slaughter you all, starting with you, Divine Emissary!"
At that moment, an incredible gust of wind blew into my face.
«Ailette!»
Agnes' call warned me of the upcoming danger as the fallen angel came crashing down toward me at incredible speed through the air.
"Divine Inviolability."
As a transcendent barrier transformed into armor and wrapped around my body, I held my ground and took in Nazril's blow head-on.
Boom!
Unbelievable shock from the force vibrated throughout my body as I was helplessly thrown across the sky with him.
Wham!
The sound of an explosion erupted the moment my back came in contact with the wall of a buildingâI was pretty sure the ground shook upon impact.
"Ailette!"
"Allie!"
"Y-Your Eminence!"
Shouts of concern echoed out one after another, but I didn't have time to reassure them, for Nazril and I had crashed into the third floor of a building together. We smashed through the outer wall and created a long track in the stone floor before finally coming to a stop by the opposite wall on the far end.
"What an excellent location..." I murmured as I swiftly pulled myself up and got into position. As Divine Inviolability fully protected my physical health, I could draw Serpens from within the cloud of dust without hesitation.
Nazril instinctively snapped his head to the side to dodge the blow, then shouted with surprise, "I can't believe you survived it! I guess that's the reason you're the Divine Emissary. You're strong."
This fallen angel was too chatty. Instead of answering him, I changed the direction of the sword and attacked him again. As Nazril had discarded the cane he'd been holdingâwhich, by the way, didn't suit him at allâand ditched the hat, his new weapons were his fists, covered in half gloves.
The punches infused with intense demonic energy came at me from either side in rapid succession, but my fully activated senses read their trajectory and responded quickly. The sparks of light and demonic energy created by the exchange of attacks obscured the air around us. We exchanged around a few dozen attacks, when one of Nazril's punches missed me and smashed straight into a stone wall.
The structure shattered in an instant and fell onto him, covering him with a thick layer of rock and dust. Looking more pathetic than ever, he crumpled his nose as he muttered, "What a dirty place. Something smells horrible in here as well."
This time, I was kind enough to respond. "You have a good nose!"
He narrowed his eyes, visibly unsettled by my cheerful demeanor, but I didn't give him time to think it over.
Now! I told myself, then focused all of my aura on one specific location.
He instinctively kicked off from the ground and soared toward the ceiling with his wings pressed back. My aura blades crashed through the wall and flew inside the structure.
Boom! Wham!
Seven aura blades smashed into the place he had just been standing and created an explosion. I also left through the roof and found Nazril, who was waiting for me some distance away, smiling with his fangs showing.
"It's a pity, Divine Emissary. You probably thought that was your best chance to defeat me."
"Not at all. Things are going just as planned."
"What?" There was a stupid look on Nazril's face as he stared at me for a while. He jolted when he finally noticed the silver threads that were draped across his wings and body. "This is...!"
Seeing the shock in his eyes, I kindly explained, "You're supposed to catch birds with a net, right? That's why I installed one on the roof."
"Whatâ Argh!"
When I tugged my left hand, the Spirit King's Harp String instantly tightened.
"Ahhh!"
Nazril screamed as he was dragged until he was pinned to a pillar that was decorating the edge of the roof, his body rendered completely immobile by the wires that were wrapped around him.
"Ha! Do you really think this will be effective?!" he shouted with rage as he attempted to free himself. His wings were stronger than any other muscle in his body, so spreading them should have easily snapped something as flimsy as wires. Unfortunately for him, flapping his wings did not have the desired result.
"Wh-why?"
He exerted enough force for all of his ligaments to strain, but he couldn't break the binds. He turned the only part of his body he could move by twisting his head backward, trying to understand his sudden predicament. Nazril gasped in disbelief when he noticed the particular shape of the pillar to which he was tightly bound.
"A-a cross?!"
That it was. The structure I'd attached Nazril to was not a typical roof decoration, but the cross of Saint Agnes Church.
"Didn't I tell you that the location was excellent?"
He was so busy trying to land a blow on me that there was no way he would've noticed where we were, which is how I successfully led him to this location. The Church of Saint Agnes was equivalent in status to the Vatican for Voiceism, which meant, as a sacred location, it had the ability to suppress the power of demons.
Why wouldn't I leverage it? I have home turf advantage. Moreover, I was well-prepared in advance this time.
"You said you smelled something unpleasant, right?"
"N-No..."
"Oh, did you figure it out?" The tip of my index finger created a small flame like a lighter, which I flicked in Nazril's direction as I added, "You were right. That was the smell of holy anointing oil."
Whoosh!
The Blue Flames of Sanctity instantly erupted the moment they came in contact with the oil.
"Ahhh!"
Nazril's execution by fire had begun. Each and every step of this fight had been prepared to subjugate the demon as quickly as possible.
"I'm sorry I'm late. I was held back because I had to make a stop somewhere."
I hadn't come straight to meet everyone when I arrived at Feronsa, but stopped by the Church of Saint Agnes and covered its large, exterior cross with holy anointing oil I had sanctified myself. I didn't worry about using a generous amount on it. The oil had been a gift from Lord Confidentiality, the Bowl of Everlasting Holy Anointing Oil, and was designed to never run out.
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality murmurs that this wasn't the intended use of this oil and falls silent.â
â¬The Eye Overseeing All Chaos thinks it's unfortunate that the cross with the lily wreath went up in flames.â
I was incinerating trash as promised, yet Agnes didn't seem entirely pleased.
«Argh, this church was named after me.»
Frankly, it broke my heart to see it destroyed as well.
â¬The Executive of Creative Economy encourages you to collect more offerings.â
â¬The Architect of the Skyscraper of Suffering suggests that you add floors to the structure since you have to repair it anyway.â
"Don't be sad, Agnes. I'll fix it in no time."
«I'll take that as a promise, Ailette.»
I turned my gaze toward Nazril again and noticed him suffering in pain inside the devouring flames without the slightest chance of escaping.
"Ahhh..."
The only thing was that he wasn't very easy to kill using this traditional method, being a rank 175 demon. Looking at his squirming form now, it seemed as if he'd need to burn day and night for at least three days before the deed would be done. It was time to ask for some extra firepower.
Looking down at the ground, now cleared of the low-grade demons that had been infesting the town square before, I shouted, "Everyone! Let's attack together!"
Everyone's eyes glistened as they looked at the helpless SS-class boss.
"Yes, Your Eminence!"
"Let's go!"
"Die, demon!"
Beams of aura flew in from all directions, bombarding Nazril with unforgiving attacks.
"What a great punching bag!"
My grandfather also excitedly joined in with his fists. When Nazril was only seconds away from perishing, I stepped up to execute the final blow. I usually resorted to using Holy Purge, but today was different.
"I think I'll take this opportunity to try out a new skill."
«Oh, nice,» replied Agnes as I concentrated all of the divine power in my body.
Since I had so long been saving for a Genre-Change Voucher, I had resisted purchasing transcendent skill books at the cash shop, except for Divine Inviolability. But, thanks to Tesilid's heist on the safe in the Demon Realm, I now had plenty of wealth to purchase transcendent skills.
The skill I had selected for this occasion had elevated compatibility compared to the Divine Blaze of Cleansing, but also punished the target like the Holy Purge by eliminating defense.
"Whew..."
The surge of wind from the divine power tossed my hair in all directions as I felt a beam of light land on my head. After taking quite a while to prepare for the skill, I finally shouted the activation spell, "Open, Gate of the Pantheon."
Whoosh.
A gigantic triumphal arch made of white marble appeared in the air as the door to heaven opened.
â¬Â«System» Transcendent Skill [Gate of the Pantheon] has opened.â
An overpoweringly pure light that forced one to repent for their sins poured out from insideânothing could be seen inside the gate except for this blindingly white light because humans were in no place to capture the image of God with their mortal eyes.
"N-No!"
But, unlike the rest of us, Nazril seemed to see something beyond the arch.
"Argh!"
He thrashed desperately as if the holy light pouring over him was more frightening than the pain of being burned alive by holy flames, but it was useless. As his energy depleted, the fallen angel's body melted under the light until it vanished into nothing.
"I picked... the wrong city..."
Those were Nazril's last words.
â¬Â«System» Congratulations! Rank 175 [Nazril Wizderoon the Slave Merchant] has been defeated.â
â¬Â«System» Demonic Dominion [The Black Market of the Demon Realm] now belongs to its conqueror, [Ailette Rodeline].â
The three moons vanished from the sky, one by one, and the darkness slowly faded. When we saw sunlight appear over our heads, we knew that the night of the demons had ended.
One of the cities under siege had been saved.