Chapter 25: 'Truth' and Companionship.
Readying my sword, I call out to Demiurge in a challenging tone, plans unfolding in my brain at an astonishing rate.
Dabilosi: Demon. You are alone and struggling as it is against one opponent. I wonder, how would you fare against two?
Releasing Momonga's blade, Demiurge leapt back, straightened himself out, and turned partially towards me. Naturally, he could still see Momonga out of the corner of his eye. He smirks as he replies, with mockery evident in his voice
Demiurge: Surely you wouldn't be implying that a great man such as yourself would stoop so low as to interrupt a duel?
A cry of indignation sounds from nearby me as Evileye yells back at him, fuelled by intense anger.
Evileye: You've killed so many people, ruined so many lives, and yet you call for honour?!
Dabilosi: There is some small merit to what she has said Demon. It is folly to act honourably towards one who shows you none.
Momonga: If memory serves me, your forces outnumbered ours as the battle began. Where was honour then?
Demiurge: Very well then, I shall put forth another proposal. Let's see… If I concede this battle and the victory to yourself, perhaps we can both take a step back from the edge? Or rather, to be more precise, I will withdraw myself from this incident, and I hope you will cease your pursuit of myself.
Evileye: Are you kidding me!
My third sigh of the day is released as I turn towards her and raise an eyebrow. For someone as old as her, she didn't seem too clever. Yes, it looks like we could defeat him quite easily. But she failed to comprehend how much damage a battle of that magnitude would inflict upon the innocents throughout the city.
Dabilosi: No, he isn't. It's a blatant threat of violence. The two of them have been holding back, and if they were to fully let loose, the city would only be a small part of the collateral… Not to mention, it's highly unlikely a demon of Jaldabaoth's caliber would commit all his troops to the field at one time. Especially considering that this would be a suicide attack for all but his strongest. Truly, I believe that the course of action leading to the least loss of life would be to allow Jaldabaoth to leave. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that we would be able to prevent him from leaving, since that is a momentous task.
Demiurge does a graceful flourish before returning to his original position. His speech drips with disgust and sarcasm.
Demiurge: I shall take solace in the fact that at least one of my opponents has shown a modicum of intelligence. It is indeed a shame that I was unable to accomplish my objective, but there is little I can do now to change that, so I pray we do not meet again.
I chuckle a little at this, before smirking and replying with amusement.
Dabilosi: Well, that's a start at least. But as a Demon, I would've thought you would pray for far different things if at all.
It is in reality entirely against their nature to pray to anything other than the fallen angel Lucifer, and they can even receive penalties for it, but it seems like a decent topic for the moment. I shift my eyes over to the only supposed human currently around, and hope he picks up where I left off, but as I do, the building behind him begins to crack at a breathtaking pace.
Dabilosi: MOVE!
As the building gave way with a loud crash, Momonga leaps forward towards Demiurge, who leaps back himself practically in sync. Nabe lands gracefully before retreating to Momonga's side, one arm hanging limp at her side, and Entoma taps (for lack of a better word) towards Momonga in her true form with swift, fluid movements, as if entirely unharmed. However, if one looks closely, slight burn marks decorate most of her body, and she doesn't put weight on two of her eight limbs. Momonga and Nabe pull back towards myself and Evileye, making way for the arachnoid. They could have stood their ground, but given the circumstances it would be counterproductive.
As the four of us stand together facing 'the demon and his maid', I 'suddenly' frown and question Demiurge, with slight haste to begin with, ironing out quickly to become more even.
Dabilosi: I am wondering, Jaldabaoth… You have been dismissive so far of the loss of your maids. If you would be so kind as to humour me, is this due to your natural lack of care for life? Or were they merely summons to begin with, that they can be replaced after a time?
Evileye inhales a sharp breath at that, and Momonga appears to freeze for just a moment before shaking it off. Nabe raises an eyebrow and stares intently at Demiurge, and the demon himself merely cracks the biggest smile I've seen on him to date.
Demiurge: Oh there is no need to worry about THAT problem, Darnell of the angels. You will have plenty to occupy your mind with for now as it is.
[Greater Teleportation]
They disappear. I could practically feel the rage emanating from Evileye after being forced to let Demiurge go, given that he commited such atrocities. No, scratch that, I COULD feel it, due to the ability to sense negative emotions that's a passive ability for beings with extremely positive karma. I don't feel pity in the slightest for her though.
Dabilosi: I'm going to go look for survivors. Jaldabaoth is likely to have caused the demons to rampage before leaving, and so instead of minimizing the number of demons to prevent further casualties, finding people to protect is likely the most efficient method at the moment… I've always said every life is a precious gift, but for some reason highborn humans don't tend to see it that way until theirs is in danger.
---------- After my departure (Evileye POV)----------
As I slide my mask on to go find Lakyus, I can't help but think of Darnell and why he opened up to me of all people about his past.
'He's strong, stronger than anything I've ever seen, even stronger than the evil deities as I see it; But he uses that power for the people, to save as many as possible. He probably opened up to me because he could see that I was trying to do the same. He really is too selfless though, putting other people's needs before his own even with that massive burden on his shoulders. A hero… Isn't he practically the definition? He… Wait he's- I mean- Does he lo-love!-'
Thinking about things like that makes me blush heavily, and become incredibly glad that I put my mask back up. Even though I'd made up my mind not to waste any time, once I hear Momon's voice, I stop and wait to hear more, both being annoyed and hopeful that it's actually useful information he stopped me for.
Momonga: Yare yare, he really does push himself too far.
I immediately frown at this before turning back towards him, to demand that he continue. I would have thought it obvious that Darnell had been pushing himself too hard. After all, as far as we know he didn't stop his crusade against the demons for a single moment throughout the day while the rest of the adventurers convened to plan the offensive. Thinking on that further, he must have been in a state of near-exhaustion while fighting the maids- a thought which leaves me in even greater admiration of my powerful hero.
Momonga: I don't think you quite understand. He was found practically immediately after his awakening by both myself and a group of strong individuals due to the pulse the thaw gave out, and one of those was Ryker, the bombardment mage. After gathering information on his situation, he set off with no discernable course, and Ryker, being the soft-hearted man he is, followed along… Ryker told me that, after hearing that a certain organization from his time is still around, he changed- he started focusing, and got caught once with a notebook full of diagrams and writing, poring over a scroll of what appeared to be blood magic.
<>
He's scared of them, whoever they are. He's scared and he seems to be doing whatever he can to get stronger, because the rest of us will just get in his way. He tries his hardest not to worry people, but he needs people to help him keep that resolve, and he looks at you differently to the rest of us. Neither he nor I have known you for longer than the duration of this demonic incident, but I'm going to cash in on his saving your life since he would never do it. Help him until he works his way out of it and tell no-one his secrets.
…..
'No-one else can do it'
….
'He needs my help'
…
'We can save more people together'
..
''I might just be the two of us'
.
Evileye: Ok, but HOW can I help him.
Momonga: Ah… If I knew that I wouldn't be asking you.
---------- Dabilosi POV ----------
'Now to find Shalltear. Hopefully she won't be too far away, because I really don't want to dwell on this longer than I have to. I hate feeling like such an a**hole but I literally just f*cked her and left. I haven't been able to meet up with her since then either since she's been constantly on one mission or the other. Not much I can do about that now except hope for the best but… She'll probably "forgive" me because I'm a "supreme being", but that just makes me feel all the more guilty about it myself… Sh*t. Anyway I've got a "reason" to require her assistance as well, so if all goes well I simply report the results at the end and explain that it really is just an excuse, but if things go badly, I can revert to a professional approach… Which makes me an even bigger a** for just walking away from it, but at that point I can't do much else. It won't come to that anyway'
[Bloodline Purification: Evil]
I always feel incredibly satisfied and even smug when using this specific piece of magic. My wings turned pitch black as expected and my halo disappeared, but my hair also turned to a dark gray, and my pupils to crimson. A less obvious change, I began to exude a slight dark fog, only visible to those of incredibly positive alignment, and even then only if one looked very carefully. This was a change implemented by the devs to be purely cosmetic, ||Miasmic Lust||, due to my being the only person with a world enemy's class. It's description entailed eroding the inhibitions of those enveloped by it, causing them to act more freely, and encourage thoughts of sexual nature. Again, something I'm only willing to use openly around Shalltear since she has practically no inhibitions anyway and she definitely doesn't need encouragement to think sexual thoughts. My plan is to use my meeting with Shalltear to find a way to restrain the miasma so I can use this form around Nazarick. After taking out 30 people solo, the devs nerfed my character so it was just slightly broken, but I managed to keep all of the spells at original strength. Not that I would use them in the New World though. [Absolute Seduction] and [Berserk Lust], to name a couple, just don't seem like reasonable magic to cast.
'There she is. Sure, she's blonde. Sure, she's wearing a mask. Sure, she's even wearing a white dress with an entirely different style, but there is absolutely no way I could ever mistake her for anyone else. The way she carries herself is entirely unique and easily discernible. So, I just walk up behind her and-'
Dabilosi: Boo.'
Startled, the vampire whirls around and takes a really awkward battle stance- she's still in a dress- before realising it's me and lowering them. I hate that I can't see her facial expressions though.
'Is she happy to see me, conflicted, angry? No matter really. I'll find out soon enough.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Thousandragons
Thousandragons Oh, right. Should probably have mentioned that the novel just passed 50k words AND 250k views.
I'm actually astonished. I can't say anything I haven't already said at one point or other, but seriously.
Thank you.
And an extra thank you to those people who've gone the extra mile to add it to their library and/or review. I would buy you each a cookie, but I have literally no money and don't know you personally, so... Sorry 'bout that.
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