93 – Both of Them Strong

[This god…damn…this is so damn hard!!]

The demon lord of envy, Leviathan, screamed.

It was the price for focusing her power to temporarily interfere with Asmodeus’s authority.

Each demon lord boasted unique traits, but Asmodeus’s power of time stop was, even after seeing it again, an unbelievable ability.

And it was just being used by a mere human, yet interference was this difficult.

If the user was Asmodeus himself in his prime, rather than Amael, interference wouldn’t have been this easy.

[Holding on…is hard!! Are you doing it?]

Leviathan’s scream was met with annoyed roars from Belphegor and Satan.

[Not yet! Hold on! If we lose this now, everything is over!!]

The three demon lords combined their power to detect the only entity moving within the frozen time.

And in that state, they were forcibly interfering and prying open the frozen time, creating a space for their followers to enter.

While Leviathan interfered with the time stop, Satan’s followers began to move.

[My followers are entering! Hold on, Leviathan!]

At Satan’s words, Leviathan looked at Belphegor.

[Belphegor! What about you?]

[Don’t rush me, Leviathan. The instant the Saint distances himself from Belial, my followers will enter.]

“Damn it, hurry up!!… I, I can’t hold on any longer!!”

Asmodeus’s power had become unimaginably stronger.

Even drawing only a fraction of Asmodeus’s power, just enough not to overwhelm a mortal, a fierce resistance was tearing him apart.

“Just hang in there. It won’t be long. It’s just one human, right? You can’t possibly overcome a hundred of Satan’s followers.”

Belphegor declared with unwavering confidence.

She rubbed her hands together, staring intently at the one place in the human realm where time still flowed.

“That’s right. Amael. You can’t fight while carrying someone you need to protect. Can you?”

Amael gently set Kania down.

And stepped forward.

Just a little further.

Just a little more distance was needed.

“Yes. Now, that’s enough!…”

And in that instant, when Amael was far enough away from Kania.

Amael vanished from Belphegor’s sight.

Satan’s eyes widened.

“My… Chosen?”

An unbelievable scene unfolded before them.

Lust.

Surely the Chosen of Lust couldn’t be physically strong.

Even during the Celestial War, Asmodeus hadn’t relied on brute force in head-on battles, preferring to use time stops to strike from behind.

But.

What was this spectacle playing out before their eyes?

Wasn’t Amael crushing one of Satan’s Chosen, initiating the battle with a brutal act?

“W-what is this? Why is this happening? Belphegor!!”

While Leviathan was interfering with the time stop, preventing it from being used.

Satan was supposed to restrain Amael, giving Belphegor an opportunity to kidnap Kania, who carried Belial’s divine essence.

That was the fundamental plan.

But the core of their strategy was crumbling completely.

Amael was far too strong.

There was no choice.

[Belphegor! Hurry! Recover Bellia first!!]

[I know!]

Originally, they were meant to be deployed when Amael was exhausted or subdued. But with no other choice, Belphegor frantically had to throw his followers into the fray.

[Bellia! Capture Bellia! Now!!]

*

[Concentrate! Amael!! I said concentrate!!]

I can feel Kon’s voice screaming inside my head.

Steam was still pouring out of my body in a frenzy.

Absolute hypnosis-accelerated thought, body modification, and a sense of touch increased 3000-fold were allowing my body, terrifyingly powerful and sensitive, to perceive reality with astonishing clarity.

Everything seems slow.

The sight of the remaining two knights, drawing their swords in horror after seeing one of their comrades crushed beyond recognition.

The others aiming rifles and light machine guns at me.

The mages raising their staves, preparing to cast spells.

All of it looks slow.

My heart is pounding.

Pounding at an absurdly fast rate.

I feel like it’s about to burst, but Kon is constantly performing meticulous body modifications on me in real time, far beyond my own capabilities, controlling my body’s state, so I can endure it.

I took a deep breath.

Immediately after feeling my lungs fill with an immense amount of air.

I started to move.

A Warhammer, seemingly forged from a pocket of frozen time, swings at another one of the remaining two knights.

The terrifying thing is that he reacted to my speed.

The knight managed to raise his sword to defend, but unfortunately, that was all he could do.

With a splintering crash, the sword shattered, and the knight, fused to his armor, was crushed and sent flying into the distance.

One knight remains.

Now I just have to deal with him.

My intention was to eliminate the most dangerous opponents first.

[Amael!! Slowly!! Don’t move so fast that I can’t control you!! The body modification can’t keep up with your actions!!]

I hear Kon’s scream, but I can’t stop.

I’m sorry, Kon.

If I don’t deal with this now, the opportunity might be gone forever.

I’ll be better off later if I take care of these b*stards.

With that thought, I was about to charge the last remaining knight when,

suddenly, my movements froze.

Looking closer, something was gripping my wrists and ankles.

Clammy, crimson hands rose from the floor, seizing my body.

I could see the six black mages, frantically chanting with their staves raised.

“What are you doing?! Fire!”

And as if waiting for this moment, the followers aimed their guns at me.

A sound like roasting beans filled the air as dozens of bullets hammered into me.

Most bounced harmlessly off the time-stop armor, but a few found gaps.

A throbbing sensation, a searing feeling like a drill boring into my side, flared and then vanished.

[Healed it!! Amael!]

“Thanks, Kon.”

[Is there even a chance here? Tell me there is!]

I don’t know.

Whether there’s a chance or not.

More precisely, I wish there wasn’t.

I wish the three demon lords, driven to the brink by constant interference with their plans, would seize my soul, tear it apart, and let me die.

It’s three against one, so even Asmodeus couldn’t do anything about it. Right?

While I was being riddled with those bullets, the last remaining knight, his blade wreathed in a crimson aura, charged towards me, swinging his sword.

With reflexes amplified three thousand times, I easily parried his attacks, but my limbs felt terribly heavy.

Now I see, these crimson hands gripping my limbs must be some kind of debuff.

I wouldn’t be able to last if I kept fighting like this.

“Kon!”

[I know what you want! We’re doing that attack?]

“Please!”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the warhammer in my right hand writhed, shifting its form.

And finally, as it transformed into a long javelin, I gripped the spear tightly.

With incredible speed, I swung the spear at the knight charging towards me, knocking him away, and then I immediately turned, leveling the spear at the followers and black mages aiming at me.

“Ready to send it?”

[ANY TIME YOU ARE!!]

No sooner had Kohn spoken than I hurled the javelin with every ounce of strength I possessed.

Soaring through the void with unimaginable speed, the javelin abruptly shattered mid-flight, transforming into hundreds of tiny flechettes.

And those flechettes rained down across a vast area.

The result of Kohn’s meticulous control and my brute force was nothing short of terrifying.

“Gah!”

“Ugh!”

Whatever flimsy body armor they’d bothered to wear was rendered useless. The absolute power ripped right through.

In an instant, most of the dozens of followers were riddled with holes and collapsed.

The black mages, too, were frantically casting defensive spells, unable to maintain the binding they had on me.

Predictably, the crimson hands that had been gripping me dissolved.

[Alright! Amael! Now!…….Son of a…! Watch OUT!]

Before the words had even left his mouth, a bloodcurdling *whoosh* echoed as the knight charged at me.

I was unarmed.

I used the gauntlet portion of the time-stop armor that encased my arm to block the incoming longsword.

When the blade collided with the time-frozen space, a shockwave like the explosion of a cannon erupted.

My ears went momentarily numb, then returned to normal, a clear sign Kohn had taken care of something.

Several blows were exchanged.

As we fought, a chilling realization crept in.

My reflexes were heightened threefold.

My musculoskeletal system reinforced to an almost absurd degree.

Anyone would call me a superhuman, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Yet, the figure before me, fighting me as an equal, what the hell was *it*?

I parried the knight’s strikes, seeking an opening, flailing my enhanced limbs, but lacking proper combat training, landing a decisive hit proved difficult.

“Kohn! I need a weapon!”

[Making one NOW!!]

The area-wide time-stop lifted, and near my right hand, another weapon materialized.

This time, it was a sword.

A long, thick greatsword, similar to the one the knight wielded.

Deflecting the knight’s strike, I grasped the greatsword Kohn had created and swung it.

Though their forms were similar, their lengths about the same, my blade ultimately proved far superior.

The moment the two swords met, a crisp shearing sound echoed as the knight’s greatsword was cleaved clean through.

[Hahaha!! I made the edge wicked sharp!! This is time stop, baby!!]

That’s.

He’s quite the supporter.

“This is the end!”

I raised my sword high.

And then, brought it down fiercely upon the knight.

He hastily retreated, narrowly escaping the reach of my blade.

However.

[Just gotta extend the length!]

In that instant, the blade of my greatsword abruptly lengthened, nullifying the knight’s escape.

A chilling sensation ran up my arm as the knight was cleaved vertically in two, collapsing into a heap.

Good.

The three most difficult ones were dealt with.

Now, all that remained was to handle the few remaining petty followers and the six black mages.

[Let’s finish off the rest quickly… Amael!! Kanya!]

At Con’s shout, I quickly turned my gaze toward Kanya.

Men cloaked in black.

Unmistakably the same garb worn by the man who had plunged the dagger into Kanya’s heart.

My eyes widened.

“Ka!…”

I desperately tried to rush to Kanya, but crimson hands erupted from the ground, once again seizing my body.

And that wasn’t all.

“Hold him!!”

While three black mages held me down, the remaining three frantically began unleashing magic upon me.

“Shield!!”

[Leave it to me!!]

Kon transformed the longsword in my hand into a shield, positioning it directly in front.

The shield moved automatically, deflecting all the incoming spells, one after another.

“Spear throw! Once more!”

The spear is thrust into my hand.

My heart hammers in my chest.

If Kania is recaptured, all is lost.

I desperately tried to fling the spear again, but the surviving black mages and their followers weren’t about to fall for the same trick twice.

They scattered in all directions, spreading out.

First, the black mage.

I grit my teeth, raising my arm to throw the spear in haste.

Then,

[Ah, Amael!! Kania!]

Kon’s scream ripped through the air, followed by a sharp gunshot from behind.

Towards Kania.

No. It cannot be.

Kania.

I whipped my head around toward Kania in an instant, and then.

[………Kania’s gone mad?]

I witnessed a scene utterly contrary to my fears.

A pistol was clutched in Kania’s hand.

And with it, she was…

Drilling bullets into the skulls of the sloth’s followers with a skill that was both precise and unnervingly clean.