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Gugugugu.

Very slowly, the largest Kraken on the battlefield began to move its body.

Hero Lucius attempted a charge with a special attack, and Sage Bel leaped inside the Kraken.

And then.

GoooOOO—!!

As a tremendous ultrasonic wave erupted from the Kraken, all creatures around it were pushed away.

Even Hero Lucius, who was casting the barrier of the Golden Wind, was swept away along with the barrier.

“Guh…?!”

“Lucius?!”

Rosmas and Droniel hurriedly rushed to Lucius’s side.

Fortunately, Hero Lucius was not in serious trouble, but the real issue was that the gigantic Kraken began to change its form in earnest.

GoooO.

A blue light emanated from the Kraken’s body.

If Celcius’s blue light is a clear water color, the blue seeping out from inside the Kraken was a dark, murky navy blue.

It was a shade that made one think that if Celcius fell into corruption, that would be the color produced.

That light began to shine within the Kraken’s body and released an enormous amount of magic power.

[Attention all troops of Belselphia.]

A calm yet tense voice of Celcius rang out.

[That is what we see as a gigantic Kraken, but it is actually a monster that Demon King Leviathan is controlling like a familiar from within. Think of that Kraken itself as Demon King Leviathan.]

Gugugugugu.

Before the words ended, the Kraken’s legs began to change one by one.

The wriggling skin began to transform into an angular form like scales, and sharp protrusions sprang from the suckers, turning them into something like thorns of a rose.

And at the end of each leg, heads reminiscent of serpents flickered with dark blue inner light, scanning the surroundings.

[If we were to give it a name… it would be an all-purpose mobile fortress, ‘Leviathan.’ Our victory in this battle depends on sinking that Leviathan.]

We have to take down a gigantic biological weapon over tens of meters long?

And it’s a super giant Kraken with Demon King-level magic power?

Moreover, surrounding us are also overflowing with marine monsters?

[Demon Lord will leave it to Hero Lucius.]

At Celcius’s message, all eyes turned toward Lucius.

Some looked at Lucius with unease, while others placed their faith in him, and Lucius returned to the sea, dispelling the barrier of the Holy Sword.

“I, Hero Lucius, wielding the Holy Wind Sword! I will now hunt down Leviathan!”

Thanks to the power of the Holy Sword, even without wearing a helmet, his voice rang loudly across the battlefield, despite being underwater.

“Trust me! We will achieve victory, and the Sea Demon King will fall here today! Trust me and let me, let us pave the way forward!”

Despite the hero’s request, the troops of Belselphia grumbled but gathered one by one behind the hero.

“Damn it, I have to fight alongside the hero who defeated the Demon Lord.”

“Wasn’t that 500 years ago? If there are any grievances against the hero, the Demon Lord will come by personally to punish him.”

“Yeah. That blonde brat isn’t that crazy. Right now, we need to focus on protecting our homes.”

The soldiers of Belselphia grumbled but still pointed their spears forward.

They too sensed it.

That they must not leave everything to the hero.

To be precise, they must not let the hero handle all the enemies.

“We can’t just sit back and let the hero take care of everything while we play it safe.”

Swoosh.

An imp rode alongside a sea dragon and positioned itself beside the hero.

The imp, Francis Bacon, who wielded a spear that looked like it was made from fish spine, approached the hero’s group and pointed to the battlefield.

“We will guide you to that Leviathan. Of course, you aren’t the only one tasked with taking down Leviathan, hero. No…”

Francis Bacon raised his spiked spear high.

“It’s the duty of ‘The Former Demon King’s Supply Unit’—!!”

“For Great Demon Lord Bel Phegor—!!”

With a shout, the soldiers of Belselphia surged forward all at once.

The sea dragon swam at the speed of light as the soldiers riding atop wielded their spears skillfully, stabbing and cutting through the incoming sea monsters, turning the battlefield crimson in an instant.

“…The Supply Unit, what’s that about…?”

“Goodness…”

“The Demon King’s army…?”

The three women from the Hero Party seemed shocked, but when Lucius raised his Holy Sword, they snapped back to attention and organized their weapons.

“We have to destroy that Demon King Leviathan… Leviathan from the outside.”

“Did the sage say that?”

“Yeah. I think I understand what he meant.”

Lucius pointed toward the eight heads-legs that shone with blue mana, opening his mouth towards the troops of Belselphia.

“We need to eliminate all of those. From the outside. As the Master once said, creatures like Kraken….”

“If you cut off their legs, they can regenerate, right?”

“Exactly.”

Once all the legs are severed, the remaining body would surely be handled from the inside.

“If the Master does something inside, it won’t mean a thing if we can’t clear out the ones outside.”

“What if it’s the other way around?”

“If it’s the other way around…”

Lucius grabbed the reins of the sea dragon.

“We just need to charge right into that head.”

KWA—!!!

The eight heads simultaneously started spewing breaths, and the serious battle resumed.

*

A sub-type Kraken.

A monster that can only be attacked after removing all its legs.

Strength, durability, magic power, and, among other parameters given to demons, the aspect of ‘regeneration’ stretched to its limit for this marine monster.

At the same time, my ‘former subordinate.’

“Do you like it when you steal someone else’s achievements and remodel them to your liking?”

“Yeah, I do!”

Leviathan held its head high with an incredibly brazen attitude.

“All the achievements you amassed in the Intermediate Realm! I’ll take them all away! Great Demon Lord Bel Phegor has vanished, and now it’s Great Demon Lord Leviathan who will rule the world!”

“Planning to land from the sea onto land? How ambitious. What a thief you are.”

“If there’s no owner, it becomes up for grabs!”

Leviathan pointed below.

“That Kraken of yours was delicious. I devoured all the Magic Cores, and even the leftover empty shell is still immensely powerful. Hehe.”

“…What a disgrace.”

If it weren’t for Leviathan, I could have maintained the lifespan I had lived in this deep sea for 500 years; instead, Leviathan killed it.

“Killing the Demon Lord’s pet like this.”

Its name was Kkuengkku.

A slightly unusual name, but it was cherished quite a lot in the aquarium of the Demon King’s castle.

By granting power to a baby Kraken of its species, the magical barrier protecting the magic core would not break as long as the magical nerve lines connecting its ends were not severed.

Either cut off all its legs to break the barrier, or completely devour it and then dissolve it.

Or….

“Wow, what a hassle. It was such a struggle to invade its body and swallow the Magic Stone along with the barrier. To have raised such a creature as a pet, what on earth were you doing in the Intermediate Realm?”

“…I was on the verge of conquering the world.”

To invade the body and extract the magical core from within.

It seemed Leviathan had killed and preserved the Kraken as a final resort and the means I chose to take on it.

“Then pass that spot to me!”

Leviathan swung a great sword larger than its own body toward me.

Unlike ordinary swords, this sturdier and rough great sword was powerful enough that if blocked by ordinary grappling skills, my body would be cut in half along with the shield.

“That’s your own left-behind familiar, isn’t it?!”

“No, it’s not!”

“If the owner hasn’t shown up in 500 years, then the ownership can change!”

Leviathan spewed nonsensical claims.

“You kill off the owner because they haven’t returned, and then remodel it however you see fit?”

“Hehe, if you have complaints, then resolve it with strength, right?”

Like a Demon Lord, it pointed its great sword at me with firm logic.

“Let’s settle this fairly with strength.”

“You crazy girl. You’ve been down in the sea gathering mana for at least a year to become ‘Demon King-level’ now, and you want to challenge me fairly? I’m not even a Great Sorcerer-level yet!”

“Who was it that said, ‘Form is temporary, but class is permanent’?”

It was me.

The time when I was the Great Demon Lord Belphegor, which instilled terror across the world.

The problem is that this ‘form’ I mentioned now isn’t even on the level of a Great Sorcerer or an Arc Mage.

My current amount of magic power and status barely allows me to match an upper demon—or struggling at best 3:7 against any one that might stand up.

If it were anyone else, with a similar magical level as mine standing before Leviathan, the Demon Lord?

The win rate wouldn’t even hit 1%.

Zero percent.

“The angular shark fights with all its power even when dealing with plankton. That’s the real definition of a ‘fair duel.'”

Leviathan is a predator.

Applying full strength even against the weak is her method of survival and way of life.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re weaker or not. Right now, you think you can still ‘win’ against me, which is why you came here, right?”

In other words, there’s no such thing as holding back.

That’s the same for me, too.

“The moment the Water Spirit weakened, you jumped out. Were you waiting for me?”

“No, it was coincidence. I just came here and saw you were attacking.”

“…Heh, that ‘coincidence’ certainly aligns with ‘fate.’ The moment I tried to strike with full force against the Water Spirit, you arrived here with the hero wielding the Holy Sword—it also could be referred to as ‘destiny,’ no?”

“…….”

Coincidence, could be indeed.

If the Holy Wind Sword hadn’t mentioned the Spirit Device of Ascalon, I might never have come to Belselphia.

“Considering our old connection, and the authority of the same Demon Lord, I’ll adjust my standards to your current human form. But, let’s not say we lost because we weren’t in our true forms, okay? Thanks to your Kraken, I’ve been good enough to hold my own strength even in this human form after spending quite a while in the Intermediate Realm.”

Leviathan opened its chest.

In the cleft of its chest was a blue Magic Stone, twisting its lips to flaunt the massive mana toward me.

“After I eat you, I’ll take over the Intermediate Realm and then open a Dimensional Door for all the marine beings of the Demon World to cross into the Intermediate Realm.”

“Then those creatures from the Demon World will eat all the creatures in the Intermediate Realm and die.”

“Weaklings are naturally eliminated. Survival of the fittest. Just like your Kraken was eaten by me.”

“I see.”

What a demonic, beast-like way of thinking.

“Then if I am much stronger than you?”

“Then I’ll be the one who’s eaten by you. Hehehe.”

“Oh, really?”

Since it said that itself, there’s no need to show mercy.

I’ve already had no intention of showing restraint.

“I’ll kill you and take our Kkuengkku’s mana, even the remains if I must.”

“Hah, how will you—”

“With this.”

I pulled out a red Magic Stone from within my suit.

It required a considerable effort to reach deep inside, and once pulled out, I had to roll it several times to bring it out, but fortunately, Leviathan silently watched as I retrieved it.

“I hadn’t intended to pull this out.”

The red Magic Stone sparkled beautifully even in the dark, blazing with hot flames.

“What’s that…?”

“It’s a Holy Sword.”

The Sword of the Flames.

“It’s a one-time use though.”

I had received a portion of its power back on that day for moments like these.

“Burn, Flamberge.”

 

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