Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

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A few moments before this explosive roar, Layla, Lieze, as well as the others, stood behind the wall of wind, their expressions riddled with tension.

“It pains me to admit, but the Golems have all been destroyed. I at least hope it helped thin out their numbers a bit…” said Gou with a defeated tone as he evacuated, too.

“The wall is going to break down soon!” said Urza while controlling the high-ranking wind spirit, pearls of sweat forming on her forehead.

“Hmph, I wasn’t intending on holding back, but they never stop. They must be ready to die,” Souga answered with a dull voice as he imagined how this battle would proceed.

“What are you on about? This is where the fun starts,” Layla maintained her invincible smile despite the gravity of the situation.

Even though they weren’t related, she was the exact same as Seran in that regard. The other soldiers around them must have realized that something was amiss, slowly moving away from the castle walls as they all looked terrified.

“Now then… Still everything going according to plan, huh?”

“Yup, no issues here.”

Not even caring about the air around them, Urza and Lieze just looked up at the sky. Shortly after, the wall of wind disappeared, as thousands of demons were freed from their imprisonment—only for a gigantic roar to shake Rimarze to its core. Both humans and demons forgot they were in the middle of a battle and just looked up at the sky. What they saw first thing was the existence that stood at the zenith of all life—a dragon. As its roar shook the souls of those who heard it, a shadow jumped down from its back. A fall from such height would be certain death for most, but on the way down, this shadow then turned into a ball of fire and spewed flames in every direction.

“Everyone, gather up!”

In a hurry, Urza summoned the water spirit Undyne to protect the others from the fire, as the demons were washed away by this wave of fire.

If I hadn’t known beforehand, I wouldn’t have made it in time…

Urza sighed in relief, as the ball of fire landed inside the flames, descending on the ground.

Still, that was too early! And too much power!

Lieze wanted to throw complaints at the silhouette who instigated this attack, but she just grit her teeth instead. Most of the humanfolk soldiers were protected by Urza’s water spirit, but some still suffered injuries. That said, this couldn’t be compared to the demons, as many of them even died right on the spot.

“Just when I think I finally get a chance, it’s these small fries? How boring,” said the demon with one burning eye as she kicked away at the remains of a demon.

“Wh-Why are you here, Flame-Eye?!”

One demon survived the assault, albeit losing one arm in the process, as he howled at the female demon. Still, she just showed him a faint smile.

“Can you keep it down, you howling loser? Either shut up and be killed or try to resist and be killed. You choose.”

Another voice could be heard from another direction, but the last part could barely be heard because of the loud buzzing that accompanied it.

“Eeek! P-Poison-Needle?!”

Another demon realized who this voice belonged to and tried to shake off the bees stuck to him, but he quickly was covered by them. Just a few moments ago, Souga’s poison was barely strong enough to weaken them, yet after the demon’s body had been covered by bees for only a moment, it stopped moving. What was left behind was a demon who had died with an expression of terror and pain.

“Y-You bastards! Siding with the humans… Have you forgotten your pride as demons?!”

The demons still alive cursed Flame-Eye and Poison-Needle, accusing them of betrayal, but they remained calm.

“Oh? Trying to slaughter the weak is what you call pride? Pretty cheap pride you got there.”

“Honestly, I’m shocked you made it out here to the humanfolk territory if you’re this weak.”

Several other people jumped down from the dragon’s back, glaring at the demons under Targ’s command. Poison-Needle looked over at Lieze and the others, waving her hand, but Flame-Eye stabbed her elbow into her side. The other human soldiers thought something was off since the demons fought each other, but they couldn’t possibly comprehend what was going on. Hence, Flame-Eye reluctantly took this duty upon herself.

“…You humans, we serve the Demon Lord Luiza and are here to save you. I’m not telling you to believe us or fight alongside us, but just don’t get in our way,” she said with a cold tone as she rushed off to fight more of her fellow brethren.

***

“A…a dragon?! Lady Flame-Eye and Lady Poison-Needle?! Impossible! How are they here? And why are they siding with you?!” Targ was utterly bewildered at the situation going on outside.

Why would a dragon and those demons be here? Seran observed Targ’s confusion, wondering if it was genuine or just played. At the very least, it was something he could have considered since Luiza did side with Kyle. And although Targ thought she might lend them some strength, he instinctively denied that it would be on such a level. And even more than that, humanfolk would never possibly accept them. The wall between the two factions was supposed to be too great.

“And this is your limit.”

A voice rang out from behind Targ, eerily close on top of that. He had been cautious of Seran this whole time, and although there was confusion going on outside, having someone sneak up to Targ should normally be unthinkable. But when he turned around, he immediately attacked with his trademark attack—which surprised Targ himself more than anything. With how the battle was going, and when he heard that distinct voice, the terror of death got the better of him. His hand entered the other person’s chest, which would normally leave a fatal injury whether it was human or demon, and Targ was sure of it. However, the person he was dealing with had already surpassed the realm of life of death.

“Luiza…sama…”

She shouldn’t even be here. It was unthinkable. And yet, he was greeted with none other than the Demon Lord Luiza.

“Beautifully done. If not for me, you would have absolutely killed your opponent.”

Before Targ could even react, Luiza grabbed him with both her arms, showing a warm smile. Seran then closed in from behind, letting Targ know that this was the worst possible situation. Now that it was two versus one, he already had lost all chance to win, and especially while his movement was sealed like this. And so, Targ took one more step toward Luiza. The reason she still remained the Demon Lord was because of her immortality. You could hurt her as much as you tried, the only thing able to hurt her was the black sword in Seran’s hands, the Holy Sword Rand. The wound Luiza suffered on her right leg still had yet to heal after being stabbed by that very sword. And with him this close, any attack from Seran would also injure Luiza in the process. Surely he wouldn’t risk harming the Demon Lord. Now Targ would just have to cut down his own arm and escape—or so he thought.

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, a sword was stabbed right through his chest, peeking out from his stomach. Before he could even feel the pain, he was just bewildered. Seran had stabbed him with his sword without remorse. As a result, it was rammed even into Luiza.

“That…can’t be…”

The three of them were basically layered on top of each other when Seran pulled out his sword. Targ collapsed to the ground, and so did Luiza—Except, she didn’t. She just kept standing like nothing happened.

“Seal Targ’s movement and then get struck down myself…I thought it was ludicrous when I first heard it, but it worked out perfectly,” Luiza said like this all happened according to plan.

Meanwhile, Targ looked up at her, left in utter shock that her wound had already healed.

“So you really didn’t realize? This one’s a fake. Had Gazas made it for me,” Seran looked at the black sword in his hand, saying like it was nothing crazy. “Actually, that’s not right. It’s the best possible weapon created by an individual currently alive, and it was solely to strike you down with the help of Luiza. We went pretty far to make this happen, see.”

“Do you think…hearing that would make me happy?” Targ said while coughing up blood.

He seemed accepting of his fate, understanding that he couldn’t be saved. In that case, he wanted to use his final moments to clear up his doubts.

“I have to say, I find it rather foolish that you would help humanfolk. No matter what you do, they will never accept you.”

“Yeah, I understand that, and I didn’t intend to fight with them. I just arrived here to fight my own battle, inadvertently saving them from their peril. How they interpret it is up to them.”

“…”

Targ didn’t respond and instead looked over at Seran. Confirming his expression, Targ furrowed his brow.

“Why…do you look so dissatisfied?”

“Well, I gave up on trying to win and just planned how to kill you. I’m not going to be that guy…but I still find it regrettable.”

Although winning and killing might sound identical to some, Seran had a clear difference in mind.

“I can’t believe you would look at me with such regret after practically killing me in the first place.”

“Oh yeah, Targ. You said that it would be boring to serve me, which I understand…but I don’t like you staying with the black-winged one. Why did you decide to serve him?” Luiza asked, probably curious.

“Yeah, you were totally unwilling to tell me earlier, but come on, it’s your final few moments.”

“Well…I think it was mostly on a whim, but I couldn’t leave them be. I felt bad for them,” said Targ like he couldn’t change this fate.

However, this only deepened Seran’s doubts, especially after hearing Targ’s impressions of the black-winged one.

“What are you talking about? Who is that guy anyway?”

Kyle was also curious about this, so Seran was hoping to get something out of Targ, but to no avail. Targ had already reached his limit.

“Um…I’m about to draw my final breath here, so could you just see me off instead of interrogating me?”

“Right, true. My bad.”

“Apologies.”

Both Seran and Luiza politely apologized.

“I swear, being killed by you people…I guess this is karma…”

Targ then became quieter, his expression seemed relaxed. Seran watched Targ during his final moments and then sighed when he realized it was all over. Of course, he had his own complaints, but he managed to finish his job, so it was fine. Luiza watched him with a smile.

“Well, erm, thanks for saving my bacon. I appreciate it.”

Realizing that Luiza was looking, Seran awkwardly cleared his throat and changed the topic.

“…It was nothing much. And you’ve done more than enough for me.”

Seran did look away from the smile Luiza showed, but she still saw a great value in being all the way over here in humanfolk territory.

“Things seemed to have calmed down outside, too. Flame-Eye and Poison-Needle will have surely taken care of that.”

“But it still took a lot to make it happen, right? Targ was correct in what he said.”

“Of course, I’m not expecting anything in return. However, it probably helped to form some kind of connection between our races, so that’s plenty. And I did want to see a human town myself at least once.”

It was one of her wishes, and so Luiza arrived before Flame-Eye to go sightseeing. Of course, with Seran showing her around. Of course, Seran was supposed to be part of the advancing army, so he had to hide his identity, but it was still plenty of fun.

“Well, yeah…But you even offered to help here in my battle with Targ, so I’d like to thank you personally, too.”

“I-I see…Well, then I guess I have no other choice but to think of something.”

“Y-Yeah…But only if I can actually do it, yeah?”

With their awkward relationship still in full bloom, right as they were slowly getting closer, a rushed voice interrupted their time together.

“Seran! What’s going on here?!”

It was a familiar voice to Seran, and someone he would rather not have run into here. Meanwhile, Luiza glared in the direction the voice came from since it ruined the mood. Layla came rushing over and saw Targ’s body, which allowed her to sigh a breath of relief.

“Oh, you’re done already? Hm? You’re in tatters. What a lousy fight it must have been.”

“Don’t say that, the guy was incredibly strong.”

Layla didn’t even know how strong Targ was, yet she showed no sign of worry for Seran’s injuries. As you would expect, this only worsened Luiza’s impression of her. Yet Seran accepted this like it was nothing, and the expression he showed Layla was something she’d never seen on him. And that gentle smile, one you would direct at your family, made her feel jealous. Of course, she had no way of knowing that Layla immediately understood those injuries to not be life-threatening.

“Who the hell are you?”

And of course, this kind of spiky encounter could not have been avoided. As a result, and considering Layla’s personality, she didn’t take kindly to that, even if she was dealing with the Demon Lord.

“Don’t you know it’s proper manners to introduce yourself first before you ask for other people’s names? Well, I’ll hear you out,” Layla moved closer without restraint, and Luiza kept her stern gaze.

As a result, they were glaring at each other from up close.

“R-Right. She’s Luiza. I told you about her, right? And she’s Layla. My mother, in some way or another,” Seran acted as a mediator, wondering how this had happened.

“Oh, you are…” Luiza did hear a few things about Layla herself.

Since she was part of Seran’s family, she knew she would have to behave, but she also couldn’t swallow what she didn’t like. Meanwhile, Layla might have seen through the attitude Luiza had toward Seran, not stepping back.

“Your mother…Still, I don’t think it’s quite right to come running and act like that without knowing the situation.”

“I’m his mother, I can say what I want.”

“Oh…? But I was told you weren’t even there for him much when he was younger. Aren’t you just using it as an excuse when you see it convenient?”

“Strangers shouldn’t meddle with other people’s families. If you’re a stranger, that is. And I know more about him than you.”

Neither of them was willing to back down, making it seem like another battle to the death would ensue soon.

“…Huh? What’s going on here?” Seran muttered, but the situation in front of him didn’t change.

All he knew was that this situation did not help him at all. His instincts were telling him to escape right now, but he knew that leaving them behind here would be even more trouble.

“Ah, well, um…I don’t think this is the time or place?”

Seran felt even more motivated than during his battle against Targ and went to fight for his life a second time that day.