Chiho who was startled for not seeing Maou anywhere started fearing that the worst might have happened and he was buried under the rubble… but then she saw Emilia's similarly fearful expression while muttering to herself and couldn't help but think 'Is Yuki-kun also here?' so she decided to calm herself down to the best of her capabilities and asked Emilia "Are you okay?"
Emilia finding a normal girl trying to comfort her couldn't help but feel that she let herself down acting like this in this situation 'What am I doing? I'm sure that guy can take care of himself, he won't die from an earthquake!' She convinced herself before she put on a calm appearance and turned to Chiho "I'm fine, don't worry, I'm sure Maou is also fine, although many people would rejoice if he died here…"
When she said this, Emilia had a complicated look on her face before she followed by saying " So you can stop worrying about him, but believe me, it's still better if you distance yourself from him… he's really not what you think"
Chiho remained silent, not knowing what to respond when she said that plenty of people would actually want Maou dead…
Realizing this, Emilia knelt down beside Chiho and said with a smile "By the way, I'm Emi Yusa, and there's nothing between me and Maou as you were thinking…"
Chiho shot her a suspicious look… but then she remembered her muttering Yuki's name and responded "I'm Chiho Sasaki, I will believe you… for now. Sorry for the earlier misunderstanding"
Emilia smiled at her and said ""Of course you can believe me, I can't even stand that guy, not to mention be in a relation with him… anyway, I can tell you clearly like him huh…"
Chiho suddenly blushed and replied in embarrassment "W-What are you talking about?"
Emilia was still worried about Yuki so she didn't want to keep wasting too much time here so she said "We will talk about this later when we leave this place. Anyways, you should sleep for now'
"Huh wha-" Before Chiho could say anything, Emilia's finger started shining with a gentle blue light as she touched her forehead casting a simple sleep spell on her and she caught her before she fell and laid her down gently...
Then Emilia surveyed the area before she said "You are around right? I put Chiho-chan to sleep"
Hearing what she said, Maou finally stood up from the rubble with his clothes in tatters and started looking at the destruction all around him and the miserable state the people were in "Ah what a pain…"
"Y-You, When did you recover?" asked Emilia surprised by Maou who recovered his magic and his body went back to his original appearance when he was the demon king which consisted of a three-meter-tall well-built body with a muscular torso, thick neck, and toned arms and legs. But now he also has distinctive demonic features consisting of two curved yellow horns that extended from the sides of his head, one of them broken, and large furry goat-like legs ending in thick hooves.
And right now, his blood-red eyes were shining with an ominous light as he replied coldly "How would I know?" before he turned around and said "I'm going to fix this situation, take care of Chi-chan"
Emilia was shocked 'Why would he use his power to help others? Should I muster the rest of the holy power I have and kill him?' Emilia was about to attack him, but then she remembered that she still has to save Yuki and this would help him too… and as this was happening, the two of them were unaware that the sleeping Chiho started to wake up and caught a glimpse of Maou in his demonic form…
Meanwhile, a few meters away from Maou who was trying to save everyone using the magic he just collected. The idiot Ashiya actually got knocked out by the falling rubble and has yet to wake up.
And on the shop where Yuki was laying surrounded by a vortex of mana that kept the rubble away from him, he finally opened his eyes and found that he was surrounded by rubble from all sides…
"What happened?" muttered Yuki as he tried to recall what happened "It seems I couldn't dodge the rubble and ended up hit by it… but why do I only feel a slight ache on my back and nothing more?"
Yuki couldn't understand what was going on and he didn't find any traces of Lucifer or Olba around him so he guessed that they might have teleported away after they caused this mess…
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"Let's see if there are any changes in the system…" muttered Yuki before he said 'Status' in his head and a panel opened in front of him
[Name: Yuki Chibana (Robin Peterson)]
[Strength: 1.1 (1.4)]
[Speed: 0.7 (0.9)]
[Vitality: 0.5 ( 1)]
[Soul: 2.5]
[Free attribute points: 0]
[Magic: 10]
[Mana: 100]
[Skills: Dark shield (1/10)+]
[Skill points :1]
[Talents: Drawing]
[Description: You are starting to be acceptable… for a human]
'Huh? how did I awaken magic and mana? Don't tell me…' Yuki quickly said 'Quest' in his head and a panel appeared in front of him showing his current quests which were only the impossible chain quest he was doing and the first task was indicating the following…
[Quest task 1: Collecting evidence (Completed) (Reward claimed]]
'I knew it, the reward was claimed… this is how I awakened my magic… but how? I was unconscious?' Yuki was really puzzled by this so he ended up asking his stupid system 'hey bastard, how did I awaken my magic?'
And surprisingly, the system actually responded to him as a panel appeared in front of him with a loading circle inside of it… but just as his hopes were up, the circle disappeared and what replaced it was a good old middle finger…
Gnashing his teeth Yuki couldn't hold his anger as he punched the panel but his fist simply went through it "this fucker…" muttered Yuki before he saton a lotus position and started meditating to calm himself and he quickly achieved ascension and with a warm and gentle smile said "Come on, we shouldn't hold grudges, can you tell me what happened when I was unconscious?"
A panel appeared in front of him again and started loading again, and buddha Yuki started preparing every insult in the dictionary if the system responds to him with another middle finger, but surprisingly it responded with a text
[The answer is behind you]
'Behind me?' Yuki was curious so he turned innocently to look behind him but all he found out were two system panels with two hands in them both with one glorious middle finger up and he couldn't help but stare speechless at how the system fucked with him…
"Just what kind of system is this?" Yuki really felt like crying and as if it felt his pain, an ancient voice suddenly resounded in his head "I accepted the reward in your place, Yuki, you also got a magic core as an additional reward… you will understand once you check the description of the magic and mana attributes"
Hearing the familiar voice, Yuki's eyes suddenly grew teary as he responded in his head 'So it's you Karma… I don't know if I should say thank you for saving my life or fuck you for ruining it by this system… either way… WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU ALL THIS TIME!'
'G-good luck young man' Karma quickly made a run for it not wanting to involve itself with this emotional and slightly disturbed man…
"Tch, I scared it away, next time I should be more gentle, gentle" Yuki smiled warmly, or so he thought as his smile could only be perceived as pure creepiness and evil…
"It said I should check the description of the attributes huh? but right now I need to leave this place first… hopefully Maou will act as in the original plot" said Yuki, unaware that he was talking to himself like a crazy person…
And as he expected, not long after, he 'felt' a strong wave of magic enveloping the whole area… "Is this magic? I can feel it now? This is amazing, I won't get sneak attacked by it again…" Yuki was really delighted by the thought that he now can see if certain demons are about to blast him with their magic at any moment…
Then, he noticed that this strong wave of magic started rearranging the damage the earthquake caused to open a path to the outside world, and at the same time, it started healing the injured people and putting them to sleep so that they don't notice the miraculous changes that were happening to their bodies and terrain around them…
Yuki too felt the same thing, and he almost fell asleep but he suddenly felt something pulsating inside his stomach and interrupted the sleeping effect of this magic… However, it didn't stop the healing effect and Yuki's aching back started recovering, and soon after, the ache completely disappeared.
However, he noticed that his vitality didn't change 'It seems, healing the kind of damage that is so profound such as weakening of the organs and immune system isn't the same as healing broken bones or normal injuries…' thought Yuki feeling that it was a pity that this spell from Maou didn't heal him.
And soon after, the rubble around him started clearing and he caught a glimpse of Maou's gigantic stature on the ruined coffee shop, and at the same time, Maou and Emilia also noticed him bringing a relieved expression on Emilia's face as she quickly called for him "Yuki! Are you okay" not noticing that he was supposed to be asleep from Maou's spell…
But what escaped the innocent hero's mind didn't escape from this demon lord as his blood-red terrifying eyes locked with the abyssal dark green eyes of Yuki as they eerily stared at each other before they broke contact at the same time understanding that they are going to have a talk later…
Yuki started approaching them and said with a concerned look as he looked at Emilia's forehead which had a small scar on it " Emi, you got injured? Are you okay?"
Seeing how he was worried about her made Emilia feel happy "I'm fine, this is nothing" Then she noticed Maou carrying Chiho and started walking through the underground mall while clearing the rubble along the way to open a path. And as he was doing so, Emilia's emotions grew more and more complicated especially when she saw the people being healed 'Why's the demon lord saving people…? What's going on?'
The hero's reality was getting flipped upside down, and this will only continue when she finds out that she got betrayed by the same people she used to fight along with… her own comrade in war!