Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN)

10-48. Dog-Head Demon Lord

Satou's here. There's this word, Equivalent Exchange. Receiving thing of equal value as a compensation for another thing that's presented to you is an act that has existed since time immemorial. From ancient Japanese, there are legends about people asking for rain or abundant harvest by sending prayers and offerings to the gods. The gods in another world impart oracles about disasters, and help summoning heroes, but I wonder what do they get in return. I'm slightly interested with it.

◇

There are two things I have to ask the demon lord.

The most important thing is about the god's fragment. He said that the trigger to become a demon lord were despair and fear. Since Arisa is someone with extreme mood-swing, I'd like to know the way to get rid of the god's fragment if there's one.

--A gigantic monster with lion body and old man face comes assaulting me, I appropriately mince it with Flexible Swords.

The second one is the true identity of the one the demon lord calls as 'him'. I can roughly guess his objective, but I'd like to know his characters, techniques and tools he uses. If possible I prefer not to antagonize him, but if I don't prepare the possible countermeasures, it'll be bad if I can't protect everyone when push comes to shove.

--This time a giant made of flame and another giant made of tornado are attacking me from both sides, I use [Implosion] magic to crush them.

Next I just need to thoroughly beat this demon lord down, and try to make him vow not to put his hands on the clergymen. If he was a devil, I could make a contract so he would not break it, but I dunno about a demon lord.

If he was like the antagonists from shounen mangas, it would be easy to have our friendships sprout after the battle. If it became dangerous, I'd say it like "I'm the one that will defeat you!", and then helps would come.

--Looks like he's thought that the monsters just being strong is meaningless, he's summoning nearly 100 Crimson Scorpions on the desert now. The red points on my radar are increasing one by one.

I thought that their stingers would fly toward me since they had been summoned encircling me, but they begin firing fire balls from their scissors like a machine gun instead. Furthermore, a different wave that consisted of big scarlet scorpions appeared, the crust on their back opened like a submarine's SLBM pod, firing homing fireballs. They're like missiles.

I intercept the fireballs with [Remote Stuns] and destroy the scorpions themselves with [Condense] and [Laser]. Both hit their targets, so it's an easy fight.

Still, if he was going to recklessly summon monsters like this anyway, it'd be nice if they were some giant cows or giant pigs monsters. Please follow the example of the yellow-skinned demon who summoned whales. Ah, I don't need something like Minotaurs though.

However, the demon lord has only consumed 10% of his MP even after this many summons, what does it mean. Maybe he has stupid amount of MP like 100.0000 or something.

"Good grief, even the invincible army summoned by 『Legion』 just seem like goblins before you."

While looking weary, the demon lord glares at the pile of corpses defeated by my magic.

I was noncommittally brute-forcing through them since I was deep in thought, but it looks like he's not pleased with it.

Un, let's do this seriously.

◇

"I was thinking about something. Pardon me."

I tried being haughty to maintain his misunderstanding.

"'Pardon me' huh, another rare moment. I thought that you are someone who doesn't think anything but little girls?"

Geh, don't tell me he's a lolicon!

Come to think of it, Aze-san said to me that demon lords have never attacked the elf forest. I thought that they were scared of the elves' war forces, but the mastermind being a lolicon is way out of my expectation.

Oops, what am I getting disturbed for. I have to steer the story toward the matter regarding Arisa.

"I didn't think that you would offer quite a kind advice to the girl with violet hair from before."

"Reincarnated person isn't something unusual, but I pity the girl you are toying with."

"You can just take her fragment away if you pity her."

"You mean killing that girl? You should have already been aware that the fragment cannot be taken out once one did so much as treaded even one leg upon the god's seat."

Tsk, taking it out is impossible huh. The head miko was saying something about the godly prayer magic when I was consulting her about the geass, maybe I should ask her if that can be removed next time.

"Well then, shall we begin the second round?　Let me show you the result of allowing me to recover my magic power."

The demon lord twirls his stick and then it transforms into a 3-meter-long pole arm that looks like a glaive. Unlike the glaive that I know, the tip is a blade as big as a great sword.

I also take out a holy sword from my storage. It'd be troubling if Claiomh Solais broke, so I took out the sword with stable performance--Durandal. I had lent it to Arisa sometimes ago, but it came back when I exchanged it with an orichalcum holy sword. I've said it many times before, but this has good balance and is easy to use. Moreover, even if the blade is dulled, it'll be restored you put it in its sheath, so the maintenance is easy.

This independent holy sword isn't quite up to par to the legendary class divine holy sword, but I'm still uneasy using that to fight a demon lord.

"What are you up to? You've been using heroes' weapons for a while now, you're playing around too much. Do you think I'm not worth using your prided Dimensional Sword and Nihilistic Sword against?"

Those are some very dangerous sounding weapons. I absolutely don't want to meet mastermind-shi the demon lord is mistaking me for. Please make it 1000 years before I have to fight him. No, it's said that 1000 years is a miscalculation, so it'll be nice for it to happen after the Big Crunch.

"Then, let me show you some techniques that I want to use."

The demon lord produces seven colored light spheres around him. They feel similar to the forbidden spell that the hero's companions were going to use. I guess I should crush it with Magic Destruction before it can shoot it.

"First, the flame sword."

After thrusting his glaive onto the red sphere, the glaive's blade is melted, and one meter long flickering flame is formed on it.

I was going to block the demon lord who came attacking while moving like when Pochi used Flickering Movement with Durandal that had magic powered holy blade deployed on it, but in accordance to the Crisis Perception, I chose to avoid it instead of receiving it.

The Flexible Shield and Flexible Sword that I've used to block his blade are burning.

Shield and Swords formed from magic power are burning?

"I did have altered this blade with the concept of 『Combustion』 arranged, but to think that it burns your God Dancing Armor and Dragon Rending Sword!"

Looks like Mastermind-shi uses higher version of my Flexible Sword and Shield. I don't like it if our way of thinking are similar. He may even have completed magics that I tried to develop but stopped during the planning stage.

Oops, let's not jump to conclusion.

"For 『All Things in Creation (Library)』 unique skill that I've snatched from the Troll Demon Lord to be this wonderful, what a pleasant miscalculation."

He has snatched unique skills from other demon lords huh?

Judging from the talk about Arisa earlier, he probably snatched it from demon lords who have been killed.

Huh?　Why didn't he snatch Arisa's unique skills?

Let's try asking in a slightly provocative tone.

"Fun, borrowed things from other demon lords huh. Couldn't you also snatch it from the girl earlier?"

"I know my own vessel well you know."

While answering my question, the demon lord stabs his glaive which has lost the [Combustion] effect toward the white sphere.

Looks like the white sphere has [Annihilation] effect.

"The seven unique skills that I have now should be the limit for this body. If I am to procure more than this, the god fragments will eat my ego, degenerating me into a mad demon lord."

I see, so you can't keep as many as you want huh. However, he has seven unique skills?　The wild boar king had three, Arisa had two, and Zen spoke one, but judging from the content of the conversation, he should have at least 2-3. Even compared to me that has four, this demon lord has more by far.

I've decided to destroy all his spheres with [Explosion] magic when I block his glaive with Flexible Sword and Flexible Shield.

Stacking the Flexible Swords and Shields, I'm going to block the approaching white blade--No, it's impossible eh. The Flexible Swords and Shields disappear as soon as they get in contact with the white light. Even though they're strong enough to resist the black dragon Heiron's breath attack for a moment, it's not enough.

I let the demon lord to be the target of Explosion magic at that instant.

It seemed the demon lord had read it, he defended against the Explosion magic with the black curtain he created.

The black curtain is [Absolute Magic Defense (Anti-Magic)] in the AR's indication.

Oy, oy, won't he be invincible if he stacks it with the [Absolute Physical Defense (Anti-Physical)] from earlier. Even the Golden Wild Boar King only has 99% Physical Damage Cut, and 90% Magic Damage Cut; to be more than that like these, there's a limit even for cheat.

While expecting the demon lord not being able to use the two defense at the same time, I take out a Shotgun from my storage and shoot him. This buckshot is made with the same method as Holy Bolt; by over-filling it with magic power. I guess I should name it Holy Buckshot.

While the Holy Buckshots are being scattered away by the scaly multiple small shields that have appeared around the demon lord, they bore through the demon lord's lower half body, creating holes on it.

Apparently, the Anti-Magic and the Anti-Physical can't be used at the same time.

Even while losing the lower half of his body from the holy buckshots attack, the demon lord swings down his white light glaive toward me. I hit the substance part of the glaive with the long spear made of adamantite taken from the storage, and got out of the trouble.

Even for an adamantite spear, the part that touches the white light has splendidly disappeared.

It might be a bit dangerous if he had a technique to shoot this light. I'm glad that its effect didn't spread to the substantive part.

"Fufufu, to think that you even use such an antique thing like a gun! Truly like the whimsical you."

Fumu, Last Boss-shi is a whimsical person.

I should destroy the remaining spheres with the holy buckshot since they're troublesome.

"However, I haven't been serious you know?　I can do something like this if I use 『Legion』, 『Library』, and also 『Ruined Mind Madness (Berserker)』 together."

The desert sand turns into demons with great momentum. Did he change the sand into seedbeds of demons with Library?　The cheat is too much.

All of the giants that are made of the sand have the level of an intermediate demon class, and increased attack power by 300% added by their Berserk state. Glass-like sands are floating nearby them. It's most likely a countermeasure for my Laser.

Since it looks like it'll become troublesome if I wait for the opponents to finish their preparation, and it doesn't seem like I'll get materials from the giants made of sand, I decide to exterminate them all at once.

I move higher in the sky for a bit. The sand giants are throwing spears made from spiraling sand from the ground, but the Flexible Shield blocks the attack with no problem. One Flexible Shield disappear after taking five spears, it'll be annoying if their number increases.

In the sky, I put out sea water from the storage.

I use [Tsunami (Tidal Wave)] by using the seawater that's more than 100 school building much. Although the advanced level magic [Summon Tsunami (Summon Tidal Wave)] can be used anywhere, the intermediate one can only be used on the sea or a lake, somewhere near water source.

Some amount of the water is evaporated when it touch the hot sand, but the overwhelming mass crushes the sand giants.

Looks like they can't be defeated with just simple damage.

"Oh, as expected of The One who Rules Magic!　To make a tsunami on the desert! It's not something that I could come up with!"

I feel like I'm subtly being made a fool of.

Continuing on, I use [Freeze Water] and [Icicle Field] toward the water, freezing the water, changing the sand giants into icicle skewers and shatter it. I thought that it wouldn't be effective since they were made of sands, but it looks like they've been defeated without problem.

For the sake of the next spell, I vaporize the ice with Flame Storm.

The evaporated water forms thick cloud in the sky. Flash of lightning leaks out of the gap of the swirling dark cloud in the sky, it feels like the last battle of Tenma.

The information is about enough, but I'll ask if he's interested in changing side.

"I'll ask you again for the last time, you don't have any intention of letting the temples go?"

"There is none. Destroying the temples, killing the priests and mikos, and snatching the believers are imperative to weaken the power of the gods. I need break the devout followers and the misconception that 『Gods are the absolute good』 in order to fight gods."

I wonder if the gods here are like in the Greece and Norse gods who do affair and irrational things?

"Why do you hate the gods so?"

"What are you asking so late now. They think the people of this planet only as a field to raise their own power and climb the rank of gods. If the civilization is developed to the point that it will trouble them, they instigate internal and external problem and smash it, and then cause severe calamity to make the people wish for gods. Even if you say that I'm taking it to the extreme, isn't it natural that you want to eliminate the incompetent omnipotents?"

Trusting the demon lord's words just like that is dangerous, but there are too many signs of it.

Science and growth should have been more developed if there were heroes and reincarnated people in the past. At the very least, it's too unnatural that there is no printing even though paper is really widespread. If there's not enough airship, then people should be able to create balloons or blimps, you can make a hot air balloon fly with just a single fire magician.

However, due to a sudden intruder, my conversation with the dog-head demon lord ended there.