“M’lord, art thou alright?”

“Master, did you feel that?”

Although both Charlotte and Tempest rushed to my side in worry—understandable, given their lord had practically just collapsed into his throne—the first one to reach me was, of course, Davna, who was already in my lap. She grabbed my arm and tightly held it to her in what was likely an attempt to make me feel better, all the while sniffing me in a manner vaguely reminiscent of a dog.

I saw no particular need to stop her, since the activity also seemed half purposed to make her feel better.

“I am fine,” I said, shaking my head as I raised my hand, although my stomach did not quite agree with that statement.

I finally looked back over to the Heroes to find the mage had collapsed onto her staff and was now glaring at me, tears in her eyes, while the sword-wielder was on the ground on one knee, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand and supporting his weight with the other.

“I declare here and now that that was not my doing,” I said, making as neutral a face as I could.

That did little to make the mage feel better.

The sword-wielder muttered something I could not quite catch about a GAME function, though the mage appeared to have heard his whole sentence.

Well, it was not like I needed to hear his whole sentence to understand the situation, though.

“So GAME contacted you as well, o mighty Hero,” I said, snickering to myself. “Then surely, you realise we do not possess the leeway to fight each other.”

“What are you suggesting?” he asked, using his legendary god-slaying sword as a support to stand up straight.

I almost feel bad for the thing.

I left my thoughts of pity aside. “I am suggesting,” I said, “that this must be dealt with as swiftly as possible. I cannot profess to knowing the details, but if GAME is telling someone like you, it must be quite a serious situation.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You fixated on the wrong part, you short-fused imbecile,” I said, narrowing my eyes into a scowl. “I do not care what you are going to do, but I am going this way.”

I gestured vaguely in the direction one of the two waves of power had come from.

“M’lord, if thou intend’th t’ deal with th’ dist’rbance at th’ drak’nids' encampment,” Charlotte said, “should the four o’ us head t’wards the elv’n cap’tal?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head, “that would be reckless. We do not know the opponent, nor its abilities. I want at least one of you lot with me.”

“Pl… Please, wait a second,” the sword-wielder said, finally managing to stand up on his own strength. He shook off the hand the mage placed on his shoulder and took a step in my direction. “I didn’t really get all that, but you’re saying you’ll deal with one of the two problems, right? Then, leave the other one to us. The elven capital, you said?”

I chuckled and narrowed my eyes. “Oh, look at that. A compromise. But you will not get into the elven capital like that. You will be shot before you can get within the range of a sniping spell.”

“Then-”

“Charlotte,” I said, cutting off the Hero’s sentence before it could even take form. “Accompany them. If they act out of line, you have my permission to enact punishment and report retroactively.”

I estimated the sword-wielder to have been about seventh-grade when I last fought him, and I somehow doubted he had gained an entire grade’s worth of strength, but Charlotte now possessed a cursed weapon—to add, it was twilight out, which would greatly increase her strength. It might be a little difficult, but if things came down to it, it should have been possible for her to rough them up a little without killing them.

“As M’lord orders, so the w’rld shall be.”

She curtsied and, before I realised it, she was behind them, a sly smirk on her face.

They turned around, startled, and stared at her for far longer than necessary.

“What are you waiting for? Our ‘Demiurge’-class guest will not wait, you know. Should I add ‘stalling for time’ to the list of offenses?”

The Heroes swiftly ran off in the direction of the elven capital, and Charlotte tailed behind them.

“Then, you lot.” I lifted Davna off my lap and stood up, causing my throne to fall to pieces. “After me.”

Although the drakonid camp was well-hidden amongst the trees, it was not hard to find, what with the permanent source of some strange power that appeared to have lodged itself there.

If I had to give a brief description, it would likely include the words “basic” and “simple”. A gathering of tents, the most central of which was the largest. No drakonids were present, fortunately for them, since there was no time to negotiate with them about letting us through.

The power did not seem quite to be emanating from the encampment, but… somewhere a small ways off. This close to the source of power, it was quite overwhelming, so I could not tell where it was coming from.

Fortunately, for some reason,

Sylph was here, looking at the tents with a slight frown on her face. She did not appear to have noticed us, so I decided I had the minute it would take to play a prank on one of the two sources of my recent misery.

I raised a hand to get my companions to stop where they were, a vile smirk on my face, and, in a frankly absurd action of control possible only by reversing [Aura of the Overlord]’s intended effect, retracted all of my mana inside myself so that I leaked not a single bit.

I approached Sylph from behind, careful to walk with small movements so as not to disturb the wind more than it would naturally move, and—

“Oh my, what a surprise to see you here, Lady Sylph.”

Her shoulders jumped up, she lost her balance and fell over.

“Oh, did I startle you? My apologies.” I extended a hand in her direction, a courteous smile hiding my glee, as my entourage joined me by my side.

She flipped herself over and looked at my hand for a few seconds with a pout on her face. She did begrudgingly take it, though, and let me help her up even as she mumbled something about ‘your fault’.

“Lord Astaroth. What brings you… here?” she asked, tilting her head as she somewhat dusted herself off. “This is, the drakonids'… home? So, we should leave this, to cowtits. No?”

I felt my smile cramp as the satisfaction of my earlier prank was wearing off at breakneck pace, but I managed to keep my face as it was.

“Lady Sylph, I am sure everyone would be very happy if you acted with the world in mind. In addition, I do believe this is still quite close to the capital, so even from self-interest, I can only advise intervening…”

She paused a few seconds and then clicked her tongue, taking a reluctant step in my direction. “Fine? I’ll help you fight. But you guys’ll do mosta the work? I wanna do ‘s little as possible.”

“Urkh… Very well. Then, I would appreciate it if you could first tell me the direction—”

“Over that way,” she said, interrupting me and gesturing vaguely in a direction.

“... I see.”

A clearing, maybe a few hundred metres away from the edge of the camp.

The main attraction here was a disgusting magic circle made from fire with a drakonid dressed in suspicious robes at its centre.

This magic circle was not ‘disgusting’ in the meaning that its effect was hateful, or anything like that, no—

It made me feel sick just from looking at it. I barely managed to keep my lunch in my stomach.

Tempest and Davna were less lucky, and they were fast on the floor on all fours.

The drakonid, for as much as they were staring in our direction, did not seem cognizant of us, so I took a few minutes to crouch down and pat my companions on their backs.

Once they were feeling better, I once more directed my gaze at the magic circle, and once more almost threw up.

I took a step forwards, and took a closer look at the drakonid.

Although their robes, white decorated with gold and with strange symbols on them, certainly hid their figure and even most of their face, what little I could make out seemed distinctly masculine.

In addition, I felt like I recognised those eyes. I looked over my shoulder, but Davna did not seem to have noticed, so I decided not to pay it any mind.

“You,” I said, “can you hear me?”

The only answer was a fit of laughter that would not have felt out of place in a horror game.

“That would be a no… Tempest, analyse the magic circle.”

“Understood.” She dropped onto one knee to give the fire a brief, close look—the conclusion seemed to be ‘it’s fire’—and then took a few steps back to look at the thing from a distance again.

Unsurprisingly, she retched, but she was able to keep whatever was left in her stomach where it was.

“I can’t be entirely sure,” she said, turning to me once more, “but it seems to be running off of life force instead of mana.”

“Then he ran out of mana somewhere along the way, and he is still going? How troublesome… And its effects?”

“I… I’m sorry, Master. I don’t know.”

“You do not know?”

“It shouldn’t even be able to sustain itself. It’s just not logical. The laws of magic dictate a circle like this—built with just effective force and without any kind of support—should be falling apart as we speak.”

“And yet, here it is… Any ideas, Lady Sylph?”

“Nope.”

As unhelpful as ever, I see.

In the midst of my contemplations about how to neutralise a magic circle with an effect I could not identify, the fire before my eyes wavered as the drakonid canted his head to the side.

I barely managed to use [Protect] in time to protect Tempest from a direct hit from a tentacle made of fire.

“Fall back! And keep your distance!”

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I lowered my stance and backed away, myself, and the drakonid finally seemed to become fully aware of us, judging from the several bouts of unpleasant laughter.

“It’s you… It’s you, isn’t it?!” he said, the sound of his voice filled with the sound of warped chimes.

With swaying steps, he walked in my direction, every motion accompanied by the sound of a distorted, heavy church bell.

“Demon! You’ve… My plans! You did, you did… It’s your fault! Yourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfault!”

I was being accused of things I had no knowledge of, which was of course unpleasant, but I could not bring myself to care in the face of a magic circle that was likely to attack any moment now.

And indeed, the moment he swiped his arm to the side, a number of tentacles similar to the earlier one assaulted me.

Once more, [Protect] was a reliable ally.

I was not the only one under attack—the drakonid was lashing out at whatever he could find, including trees, Sylph and even small pebbles.

“Master…” Davna whined, hiding herself behind my cape.

“Davna. You are a Red Dragon, are you not? Do you not possess confidence in your flames?”

She canted her head to the side.

“I am asking if you think your fire will lose to that of this drakonid.”

“Of- Of course not!”

She abandoned her hiding place, spread her wings to either side and raised her tail high in the air in an attempt to look as big as possible. With a bit of willpower, her arms and legs returned to their original, scaly clawed forms, too.

Almost akin to a cat arching its back to look intimidating. Except the cat was a dragon.

“Now that is the Davna I want to see.” With a smirk, I demonised both my arms, turning them into their shadowy, clawed form. “For now… Tempest, defensive spells. Davna, see if you can burn its fire, and check your fire resistance. Navillus… Keep watch. Lady Sylph, back us up however you see fit.”

“Understood, Master.”

“Gotcha!”

“Navillus will keep watch!”

“Tch. Fine.”

Sylph’s interpretation of ‘backing us up’ seemed to be to form a pair of swords of wind and stand in front of me, essentially acting like a shield, while having several similar swords autonomously fly about and deflect a number of other attacks, protecting my Demon Generals and an assortment of randomly selected trees.

It was a little perplexing to have a goddess acting as my shield—I suspected it was laziness more than anything else that made her choose this role—but given the usual tank, Charlotte, was away, it was not unwelcome.

That said—

“Haa… Haa… Master, I’m tired…”

Between her various spells and firebreaths, Davna complained to me.

I had decided near the start of the battle that I would not question how her fire could burn the fire produced by the magic circle. It was something of another world, and that was that.

“In that case, I will need to end this soon,” I said, more to myself than anyone else, as I clicked my tongue. Sylph cut down a fire tentacle that had slipped past Davna and was headed for me, but it was still distracting. “Tempest. Two seconds of full cover.”

“Right!”

She swiftly weaved several spells together to form a tough barrier around me, and with my mind at ease, I started chanting an absurd spell once more.

Incidentally, the drakonid seemed to notice what I was doing, given he focused his attacks entirely on me. Yet Tempest’s barriers and Sylph’s swords held, and I could complete my spell at ease.

I spread my arms to the side and in front of me I built a magic circle, swiftly followed by several more in a row, as though the barrel of a gun. Five in total, they crackled and warped with perverse excitement and drank at my mana as though it were the nectar of the gods and they were waifs who had not eaten in weeks.

A draining spell, indeed, but worth its effect.

At my command, they solidified their configuration, training themselves at the drakonid.

“Dodge,” I said, in response to which Sylph moved out of the way.

Although this spell was not as powerful as Requiem, there were likely fewer who could cast it, since Requiem was a ritual that could be cast by multiple people, while this could only be cast by a single caster.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Eradication Cannon].”

Pure, overwhelming firepower.

The beam of black light disintegrated everything in its path, leaving nothing behind. Fire, trees, rocks, the drakonid’s chest—it was all gone, and his body was well split in two.

Although it was not the most powerful spell of the attribute—after all, it did nothing other than dish out pure, unadulterated devastation—if one was looking for raw strength, this was the best there was.

And despite all that, the drakonid’s robe simply grew back around his wound like it had for all the others. The gradual reddening of his robe told me in no uncertain terms that he was bleeding all over, but he just would not die.

That said, with his life force now exhausted, his spell died down…

Except the fire did not disappear, but instead joined into a single point.

I lowered my arms and noticed my body was responding a little slower than I would have liked. Considering I had cast both Eradication Cannon and Requiem in one day, in addition to copious use of [Protect], it was not a surprise that I had used up perhaps half my mana.

The small spark of flame flared up once more.

“Still more…?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Haha… Hahaha… As expected of… But I won’t lose, demon! Not with my master’s… Now, die! Die! Diediediediediediediediedie!”

His eyes, now full and well revealed as his hood was burned away by flames I did not see, were white and black at the same time, and made me feel almost as ill as the magic circle had, earlier.

In addition, his voice did not quite match the movements of his mouth.

His speech filled with sounds not of this world, he sung a song of praise.

“Rise, oh lord of those who despair!

Crush the world and remake it as to our prayer!

Bring judgment upon thy fiery wing!

And as I ask, end everything!”

The tiny spark of flame flew around him a few times, as though an affectionate, flight-capable pet, and then—

He was consumed by fire.

“Fall back!”

I grabbed Davna and Tempest by the scruffs of their necks as I jumped back, using my wings to narrowly avoid being scorched by the sudden burst of flame.

“You lot, any injuries?”

“I’m fine, Master.”

“No injuries to report.”

“Navillus is fine!”

“Mph. No problem.”

Navillus seemed to have lost half her mass, but if she said she was fine, I had no reason to doubt her. Keeping a careful eye on the mass of fire, I put Davna and Tempest on the ground.

The flames slowly took a human form, and I once more felt the urge to throw up, but I forcibly kept it down. I could not quite tell how tall it was—one moment it seemed five metres tall, the next it seemed taller than the world tree—but suffice to say, it was large. Made entirely of flame, it somehow seemed to sneer at me, from its fingertips grew more tentacles of flame and on its back rested a pair of wings.

Needless to say, I despised it for several reasons more than just the fact that looking at it made me feel ill.

Sneering and looking down on my opponents is—

My job!

With such unreasonable complaints running through my mind, I appraised the thing.

Name

Fragment of Meph██████████

Sex

Inapplicable.

Race

<>

Grade

<>

Skills

[Fire]

Fire

O burning heat, may you scorch our imperfections and return us to pure white vessels to receive your blessings. Strip us of our sins, our accomplishments, our colours and our memories and return us to the white souls we were meant to be.

Afflictions

[Otherworldly] [Incomplete]

Otherworldly

You are not from this world, and your power is not well-adjusted to this world’s rules.

Incomplete

This is only a part of your divinity. After an hour, this form will further fall into pieces. You cannot use other parts of your divinity.

While I was busy appraising it, Davna had hidden herself behind me and Tempest had raised an arm in front of her face.

Half in confusion and half in disbelief, I narrowed my eyes at this thoroughly unnatural status, and then I shook my head.

“What this is is irrelevant. The important part is that we destroy it.” I pulled Davna out from behind me, set her next to me and pushed a pair of potions from my [Storage] into her claws.

“Drink them. A stamina potion and a mana potion. And then show us your true form—show us a Red Dragon’s real strength.”

A little hesitantly, she looked at the bottles, but she soon gulped down the bitter liquids inside and responded, looking between me and the flaming… thing. “Gotcha, Master!”

Even while using [True Demon Form] on the rest of my body, I could not help but worry about Charlotte and the Heroes.