While the throne room battle was still going on, other battles were also occuring. The battle between Kotori, Sora, Arila, and Iosi against Harzen. From the very beginning, it was quite the uphill fight, as whatever damage they did to him, he just regenerated over and over again.
And they were starting to accumulate wounds. Kotori was casting healing spells as best as he could, but at this rate they were going to lose. The only benefit is that somehow during this entire fight, Arila did not seem to get injured, or at least that was how it looked. Even Sora got tossed around a bit, although he was the one who engaged in close combat the most, as he appeared to be faster then Arila.
So far, every Reincarnator Kotori saw was strong. But this guy, this guy was something else entirely. He was an A-Rank threat, potentially even S-Rank.
There is no way he reached this in just two weeks...and given how he looks so much older, he must have evolved in some way.
Of course, looking older, taller, or more muscular meant one had evolved. After all, Aruu had evolved multiple times, both before and after reaching Demon Lord, and his typical form was a human child. Ciel, an S-Rank adventurer, had also likely evolved past human in some way. However, there was no way a thirteen year old boy could look like him without some form of evolution.
In that case, his abilities are likely strong....
Kotori deflected his attack by casting a barrier pre-emptively. At the moment, his eyes glowed brightly, shining with a supernatural energy that seemed different then magic or some skill.
He was at this moment peering into the future, and anticipating the attacks. By doing this, they had so far been successful at holding Harzen here. And Harzen himself seemed irritated.
"Kotori! How do you feel?" Iosi asked.
"...managing...why?"
"Because I think a bit of blood is coming from your nose from whatever you are doing".
"Its probably from the strain. We just need to...we just need to hold on".
"Hold on?"
Iosi looked confused, and puzzled.
"I dont really get it, but I can see it...if we can hold on for just a few more moments, things will swing in our favor".
The others...their fight wont last forever. From what I understand, when something happens there that changes things for them, something should happen here...although, I dont actually know if its good or bad.
Still, Kotori knew they would keep existing if they played the defensive long game. And also...
"Die you fuckers!"
Harzen was getting increasingly aggressive, as he punched. Arila sidestepped the punch and cut his hand off again, but it regenerated almost instantly as he kept attacking her. Sora moved around his side, but he suddenly did a back leg sweep and got a clean hit on Sora again, who was sent flying into the wall.
That said, he unleashed his Dragons Breath on him before he was kicked away, and dealt a pretty bad blow in the process. Harzen was regenerating of course, but it still slowed him down and weakened him, giving them a bit of breathing room.
Its no wonder he sent Herra away...why he said she was incompatible for this fight... Arila thought to herself. Against such an enemy, her techniques would not be very effective. She focuses on fast strikes and tricks, and essentially either whittles them down or takes them out through their vitals. But with Harzen, his regeneration and defense, not to mention his senses are too strong.
She dodged another blow as she tried to cut off his head. He dodged that one, while counterattacking with a kick, but Arila was able to dodge it as well and slash his back a bit.
None of her techniques would be effective against this opponent...but also...
Arila's thoughts was interrupting, as a black flame shot out of Harzen's mouth and engulfed the room.
"Aqua Barrier!"
Iosi protected all he could as the black flames spewed forth.
"Why did he suddenly change techniques? He never used that before..."
"Someone strong...got removed from the battlefield it seems" Kotori muttered. Still, Harzen charged right at the two mages now, as it seemed he was actually a bit worried about something. Sora immediately intercepted, while Arila came at him from behind, the two flanking him.
"Get the fuck out of my way!"
Two strange black tentacles emerged from his back, and struck at them both.
"Consume!"
A black miasma appeared around his hands as he seemed to activate a skill.
Crap...he is going to hit us with whatever that us, and the other two got blown away!
While thinking that, Kotori deployed multiple barriers with Iosi as Harzen reached them. They shuddered, as they were already quite low on mana anyways, but they were desperate to survive and endure. That said, as he reached them, he suddenly was sent flying as a spear pierced the wall, breaking it down as its wielder came through the wall.
"Looks like I made it just in time" Ciel muttered, seeming rather proud of himself.
Harzen seemed to get up, regenerating from his wounds, as he watched Ciel with an anger...and a hunger.
"Hou...that is a rather unpleasant look you have there. Please, I am just a small and innocent little boy, dont look at me with such lustful eyes" Ciel said, his voice lacking any sort of sincerity at all as he teased Harzen. That said, he genuinely took an innocent pose with such a voice. It was enough to annoy everyone in the room, especially Harzen.
"Shut up!" he screamed as he charged, coming within centimeters of Ciel in an instant. The next instant however, his arms were cut off and his torso was pierced, as Ciel sidestepped the attack.
"Huh...I underestimated you..." Ciel muttered in a pained voice, as he suddenly vomited a bit of blood. He seemed to keep his composure even as the ground under him became red, and there was a wound on his stomach.
You have to be kidding me...did Harzen somehow keep up with Ciel's speed, at least to an extent?
And while thinking that, both of Harzen's arms regenerated. He seemed to be immortal essentially, regenerating such wounds in an instant. Kotori knew there had to be a limit, had to be something, but whatever it was, he could not see it.
In terms of combat ability, Ciel is clearly stronger then Harzen. But so long as Harzen has that infinite regeneration, even Ciel cant finish him, which means he would win eventually.
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"Well, this is at the very least, convienent for me" Ciel muttered. "Godspeed".
The next moment, Harzen was pierced into the wall by Ciel's spear, with it being dug in deep. It penetrated right through his gut, and seemed to drill in a rather nasty way. Even with his regeneration, since the spear was physically in there he could not remove it.
"Consume!"
He touched the spear with the black miasma on his hands, but nothing happened.
"Sorry, but Chopo is immune to such pointless things" Ciel said, as he lay down on his spear on his stomach, smiling as he looked at Harzen while kicking his feet in the air. "So, lets wait here till the others get here, okay?"
"Screw off. We both know that wont happen" Harzen mentioned. "Still though, I suppose the rumors were true. About your curse".
Curse?
As Kotori heard those words, he was confused. But it was Sora that spoke up.
"What the hell do you mean?"
"What I mean is, if he could do this, he could have just taken off my head, or evicerated my brain or such, or at least tried to. But he went for the gut".
"That is because even at that speed, I could see you had guarded those vital areas" Ciel muttered.
"I doubt that is your only reason...its because you are cursed, aren't you? The rumor that you are cursed to be unable to kill Otherworlders, or even deal direct harm to them?"
"I went up directly against you didn't I?"
"Only when you realized I had regenerative and pain null abilities...and even then, you are just laying there on that spear instead of doing any more damage when you had the chance".
That was when Harzen disappeared, shocking them all, as he appeared on the far side of the room.
"And also, you knew that this wasn't my real body in the first place. Its why you have not gone after certain other people right? Such as Darius? You have a curse upon your soul that prevents you from going against Otherworlders directly, not just battle but even revealing their crimes or such?"
As Harzen stepped forward, Ciel stood up onto the ground as he pulled his spear out. The two black tentacles coming out of Harzen's back seemed to grow bigger, and turned into four.
"But even in this fake body, you could not even deal a lethal blow...seems that curse is quite the nasty one".
As that was said, Harzen went back into full attack mode. Even though it was revealed the body was not his real one, that made him all the more terrifying in a sense.
But all Ciel did was smile.
"But, perhaps a lethal blow was never our goal in the first place?"
And the moment he said that, a magical pulsewave was felt resonating through the room. At that same moment, several magical wards appeared, protecting the five of them as other magical defenses attacked Harzen.
The second prince had successfully reactivated the magical defenses. The magical defenses of the Imperial Castle, when fully activated and set to Military Defense mode.
"Tsk...I guess this is it for today. See you brats all later..." Harzen muttered, as his body turned to black ash.
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"What...is this?"
Darius muttered that, as the full weight and intensity of countless defensive magics activated against him. As the system had detected his hostility towards the royal family while in military mode, he was suddenly struck by lightning, hit by lava, stabbed with countless ice shards, and repeatedly encased by stone pillars.
Well, actually those stone pillars had been Dace, who spent most of the battle supplying mana potions to Haru and the third princess, but that was besides the point.
Either way, Darius fell from that, and every bit of damage he recieved earlier and was still recieviing. He was still defending against some attacks, but it was becoming very clear that the battle was now over. Many of them still felt unease, but the Demon Army was also being erradicated or taken down, as they had ran past all the magical defenses and went right here since they were disabled.
Since it all was very sudden, they reacted in a panicked way, leaving themselves wide open and breaking their defenses. To the heroes who were at peak condition thanks to the earlier recover spells and support magic, this made them easy prey. Only the assassins seemed to slip away without anyone realizing before it was too late.
If they had started breaking them along the way, they would have gotten here slower, but they wouldn't be suffering as they were right now either.
Either way, with that done, the fight which felt as if it might never end was finally brought to an end...is what Rikuo wanted to think.
"Dark Flame Slash".
Perhaps in a final moment of desperation, Darius slashed down and tried to engulf the room with black flames as his body began to feel heavy. Gravity increased for him and him alone, as Rayheart put a sword to his neck.
"Its done, Darius".
"...oh good, and here I had been worried, only just getting here" Darius said, as he walked into the room, slashing through the weakened and under attack Demons. With everything going on, the rest of them had already been defeated, having been unable to recover from the shock.
But now the heroes were in shock. After all, this whole time they thought they were fighting Darius, but now Darius was standing there. That meant, the man they just defeated, who they had such a hard time with, was not the Demon Lord they thought.
Which begged the question, who was in the armor? Rayheart removed the helmet immediately, and everyone saw in front of them that it was Jezre.
In other words, Jezre had been the one in armor. Even though this body size was clearly different from his original one, he had black lines running across his body, a sign of rapid Demonization.
So it was from a rapid forced evolution...damnit, Darius played us.
Raevin was quite unhappy about all this, but all he could do was look. After all, from all appearances, Darius had come to their aid, and the one they were fighting was just a pawn.
Indeed, he was much weaker then Demon Lord Urten, but everyone had chalked that up to Urten being older and more experienced. In truth, Rikuo, Rayheart, Lutessa, and Raevin combined had difficulty with just some pawn that was enhanced to a great level. That said, it was obviously still a pawn.
Which begged the question...
...just how much stronger is Darius then?
Such thoughts crossed their minds.
Either way, the castle defenses were not reacting to him in a hostile way. A barrier even formed when a rather large demon, strong enough to still move and attack despite the Imperial Holy Field that went across the entire castle, tried to attack him. It was then dealt swift retribution by those defenses.
"Its surprising the defenses came up this quickly, but it looks like it was a stroke of luck for us, huh?"
Darius said that in a respectful way, bowing to the king. However, those in the room that knew the truth wanted to try and gut him right then and there. But...there was no evidence, and they could not risk a fight right now.
"Indeed it is. Well done, Darius Black" the king said, as everyone finally decided to take a breath. Lutessa then came back over from the back, and began to check on everyone's conditions.
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"You bastard...to think you would ruin our plans for something as petty as your age" Urten muttered, coughing up blood as he was missing both arms and one leg.
"Who was messing up whose plans exactly? I believe we agreed to focus on the Demon King's revival first, and pit the summoned heroes against the Demon King as well. Or something like that, honestly I dont usually pay attention to the full details of the meeting since you all usually say the same boring things time after time".
"And yet, you always seem to give your approval...and why should we have to react to things?"
Urten said that, but Aruu narrowed his eyes at the old man.
"I think what you mean to say is that you had some sort of ulterior motive...if I had to guess, you wanted to use your new pet, try to amass power somehow on yourself, and then maybe kill me, Rassle, a few others, steal our power...and then become the new Demon King, right?"
Urten was a bit shocked that Aruu said that. But it was only a bit.
"You act like I am the only one. Darius seeks the same, as do half of our members at least. Its just fossiles like you and Rassle, who dont seem to care about that".
"Its as I thought...you really are a moron. You really think Rassle just sits by and muses to himself? You think I have no ulterior goals?"
Aruu then kicked his body halfway across the empty courtyard they were in. The light was strange, an indicator of Aruu's Realm.
"You know better then that. One of the requirements of becoming a Demon Lord is selfishness after all" Aruu explained walking past him. "Selfishness. Incredible Strength or power. And of course...having exterminated thousands of sentient lives in a short period of time. And one or two other things, if I recall correctly".
Indeed. One could not become a Demon Lord without exterminating mass amounts of life. Perhaps it seemed a bit cliche, but on the other hand, if it was easy, there would be way more Demon Lords.
After all, one essentially had to kill that large amount of people within a single day. The exact amount of time was actually shorter then a day though.
"Ah yes, now I remember. Ambition. That was another requirement".
"You bastard....so then, what are you planning? You never show any ambition!"
Aruu suddenly smashed the mans head into the ground, but without killing him.
"Idiot...its not that I had none. Its that I have been waiting, waiting for so long. For that fool Taktos to make a mistake...and now, finally, he did. There are finally the right amount of pieces, and the right quality of pieces, for me to enact my own plans and goals after so long".
As Aruu said that, a rather nefarious and excited smile was on his face.
"I can finally have my fun".
And then, he stomped on the skull. The moment he did that, Urten's body turned into light and teleported away.
"Ah, I accidentally killed him...well, he has that magic active on him, so he will just regenerate in his castle. I should probably kill him properly soon though. He might be a pain in the future, but if he is ready for me it wont be that easy. Oh well...I suppose its about time I get back there. After all, I have some business to finish up".
And so like this, the Demon Army threat upon the Imperial Capital was finally brought to a close. Although, it had left an ominous feeling about what the future might bring.