Chapter 93
Akion Enerysis.
Among the Catholics of this world, his presence was truly extraordinary.
“Amen….”
He had developed the holy light sword known by the mistaken name of a flashlight,
then improved it and even provided a monster-incinerating device called the Holy Light Irradiation Device,
and ever since the oracle, he had even gone around with the Heavenly Lord's mark on his hand,
Now he had bestowed a new drink called a Black Holy Relic, strengthening the bond between the clergy and the Heavenly Lord?
“Saint Akion should be canonized.”
“Indeed! Of course!”
Even if they merely stood there with their mouths hanging open, he poured several bowls of Heavenly Lord euphoria down their throats???
How could anyone not love this??
That was why a new joke had recently arisen in the Papal See.
“Not believing in Saint Akion is the same as doubting the Heavenly Lord!!”
It was a joke that anyone who doubted Akion was a heretic.
“Heh heh, even so, we must not place Saint Akion on the same level as the Heavenly Lord.”
Of course, rational-minded clerics would scold them for deifying an individual, but it was still a joke,
“Wouldn't he be something like the Heavenly Lord's apostle??”
“That actually makes sense!!!”
The problem was that even they had drowned in Akion's Heavenly Lord high.
Why bother maintaining one's rationality?
Akion had (indirectly) proven the existence of the Heavenly Lord,
and even created espresso─holy blood that could grant them the power to carry out the Heavenly Lord's will and strengthen their bond with Him??
- Slosh~!
“Heh heh, the Saintess even gave us Black Holy Relics…! She is so generous.”
“And she even had it concentrated?! Just drinking espresso made our bond with the Heavenly Lord intense, so what could this concentrated coffee…!”
Thus, those who treated the magi-engineering devices Akion had made as half-relics
had even signed a supply contract for espresso with Ariba, the owner of the academy café.
Thanks to that, they had also received concentrated espresso to use as a strengthening potion for this demon-subjugation operation.
- Clank, clank!!
“Heh heh…!!”
“I want to drink it right now, but… Ngh…!”
They were all desperate to drink the concentrated coffee immediately and experience the existence of the Heavenly Lord.
“Control yourselves. You are forbidden from drinking the concentrated coffee until we fight that powerful demon.”
However, as the saint had said, the demon they were going to capture this time was no easy opponent.
According to the emergency intelligence that had arrived at the Imperial Castle and the Papal See several days ago, a viscounty in the east had been annihilated.
The holy knights who had noticed the anomaly at a nearby branch and set out in response were horrified to find the entire, fairly large viscounty covered in black-magic mana.
“Store up your strength until then.”
“Yes, sir!!!”
According to the intelligence the saint had received, there were no surviving humans.
Men and women, young and old alike, had been sucked dry and withered away,
“That damned lust demon….”
and every one of those whose lives had been drained away had died with their inverted eyes rolled back and enormous smiles on their faces.
“Everyone, stay sharp!!”
“Do not lower your guard!”
According to the Papal See's old records, the one responsible for lust among the Trees of Clifford,
the succubus Lilith,
or one of her direct subordinates was undoubtedly behind it.
* * *
The world cultivated by the Heavenly Lord was, to be honest, a honey-pot hunting ground.
“Haaah….”
At least from an outsider's perspective.
Moving back and forth across the boundary of the other side that touched this dimension,
stealing away and feasting on the souls so well cultivated by the Heavenly Lord was more profitable than one might expect.
The beings of the outer dimensions were always coveting what the Heavenly Lord had cultivated.
“Ack, gah, haaah, hah….”
“You lasted quite a while.”
Having sucked everything out of the viscount's last knight, the lust demon Lilith
She threw the knight, who would soon become a corpse, to the floor.
- Thump, thump!
The black mages watching from beside her
banged their heads against the floor and paid homage to the great lust demon.
“Report.”
“O great king and queen of lust!”
Sometimes as the Incubus King.
Sometimes as the Succubus Queen.
Lilith was a great demon who freely changed genders and exploited the souls and affections of everyone, regardless of age or sex.
Sensing that the situation in the capital had recently become ominous, the Black Star Cult and the other demon-worshiping factions had joined forces and…
“We have received intelligence that a holy knight order belonging to the Papal See has set out from the capital!!”
“How large is it?”
The great demon of lust among the Trees of Clifford,
Lilith, had been summoned.
“We could not learn the exact details, but we estimate that it has enough forces to wipe out an entire marquisate!”
“A marquisate….”
Of course, it had been an incomplete summoning, so only part of her true body had crossed over to this side,
but thanks to absorbing every last person in the bountiful viscounty, roughly twenty percent of her had crossed over.
The problem was that “wipe out” included not only the population of the marquisate, but also its knights, mages, and soldiers.
Whether small or large… it meant that a force was coming that could defeat even a marquis who staked his entire territory on the fight.
“Triple the guards… no, increase them fivefold. Set up magical traps around the area to make it difficult for them to enter, and fortify the territory's surroundings.”
Besides, if they were moving so secretly that it was impossible to estimate their numbers, they were usually a small force.
In that case, they would probably attempt a concentrated breakthrough at a single point,
so as the defender, Lilith would benefit from blocking their entry and forcing them to disperse their forces.
“Lastly, establish a decoy route. Let them deceive themselves and walk straight into the trap. Heh heh….”
“Yes, my lady!!!”
Although they were on the defensive, they needed to minimize their own casualties.
The Black Star Cult might have been inhuman, but manpower was still a resource to them.
Lilith had to guarantee their survival as payment for summoning her.
*
That was why Lilith waited for the small subjugation force after making thorough preparations….
- Crackle!
“Hmm, have they arrived?”
Several days later, she sensed holy power on a hill at one side of the viscounty.
An enormous amount of holy power, at that.
“Prepare yourselves!!”
“Third Squad, wait at the walls as planned!”
The Black Star Cult's black mages deployed their forces according to Lilith's orders.
No matter how much of a veteran the Papal See's force was, they would be forced to suffer casualties.
“With that level of holy power and that appearance, could he be a saint?”
They had already assumed that the small force would include a monster of saintly rank.
And just as she had expected, a small holy knight order, including a saint she knew well, stood atop the hill.
“Pfft, what is he drinking?”
The saint drank something from the canteen at his waist, and not long afterward,
- Kuaaaaaa!!!
“A pillar of light has appeared!”
“Just as anticipated.”
The saint had drawn out the pillar of light Lilith had heard about when she was in the demon dimension.
Lilith knew very well how powerful that thing was,
“Activate it.”
“Yes, sir!! Offer up the sacrifices!!!”
- Vroooom!!
In preparation for that, they activated a gigantic barrier created by offering up the hearts of a thousand residents of the viscounty.
A gigantic black barrier formed around them.
“Hahahaha!! With this, even that powerful strike will be useless!!”
“Hmph.”
It was an ultra-powerful, wide-area barrier spell created over several days by combining Lilith's magical knowledge, one cardinal-level member of the Black Star Cult,
and several high-ranking black mages who had racked their brains.
- Kwooooo!
- Kwaaang!!
“Uwaaaagh?!”
With a thousand hearts combined with the knowledge of some of the greatest geniuses in black magic, its defensive performance was certainly impressive.
“It is intact!”
“Hahahaha!! You cowardly saint, do you think only you have a great being on your side!!! We have Lady Lilith!!!”
It had even endured the attack called 0.1 Excalibur, which had incinerated 6.66 million demons in a single stroke.
It would never collapse unless it was struck a dozen or more times like that.
The problem was…
“But… why hasn't that disappeared yet?”
- Kwaaang!!!
The consecutive sword strikes of that 0.1 Excalibur had begun to rain down.
Lilith had clearly heard that it could not be used consecutively, though.
“Is that… so?”
- Kwaaang!!!
- Kwoooaang!!!!
Three times, four times, six times, eight times.
- Crack….
The pillar of light continued to strike down without pause.
And the strongest defensive black magic had begun to crack.
- Crack, craaack!
Lilith's and the black mages' faces stiffened.
They wondered if it was really going to break.
- Rumble….
“H-ha ha! Of course it would!”
“Phew….”
Fortunately for them, the pillar of light from the 0.1 Excalibur faded away.
If it had taken one more hit, the barrier would certainly have shattered.
“Quickly, offer more sacrifices to Lady Lilith─!”
- Rat-a-tat-tat…!!
“Hmm?”
“What is that sound…?”
Perhaps it was unwilling to give them even a moment to relax.
“For the Jesus─!!!!”
“What is that now?”
Veteran holy knights wreathed in radiance were charging toward them.
“Ha, haha! Have they gone mad because it would not break?!”
“Hahahah! They are nothing special, servants of the Heavenly Lord!”
The lower-ranking black mages cheered, thinking it was merely a final act of desperation,
- Trickle….
but the higher-ranking black mages with their superior detection abilities,
and Lilith, realized how terrifying it was.
“Run….”
“What?”
A holy wave far beyond anything a human─a veteran cleric, no less─could possess!
Every one of them was radiating holy power on the level of a saint!!
“Run!!!”
Despite Lilith's cry,
- Kwaaaanng!!
- Crash!!!
“Uwahahahahaha!!!”
“Hallelu-jah──!!!!!!!”
those ferocious agents of the Heavenly Lord smashed through the strongest defensive spell they had spent several sleepless nights constructing.
Accompanied by a strangely intense smell of bitterness.
“How can that possibly make senseeeee!!!”
They had simply charged straight in while clad in overwhelming holy power.
“L-Lady Lilith! What are we supposed to do now─ Lady Lilith?”
And perhaps this was behavior befitting the temporary leader of those black mages.
“S-She is going over there?!”
“Lady Lilith?!”
“Are you… are you abandoning us?!!”
“Shut up, I need to survive first!!!”
She abandoned them and began running away at full speed.
Only twenty percent of her true body had crossed over, so how could she possibly win against opponents like those?!
Besides, if she were purged here, her rank might fall, so running away was the best option.
“Damn it!! That treacherous bitch Lilith─ Kraaagh!!!”
“In the name of the Holy Mother, the Saintess, and the Holy Spirit!! Aaaameeeeen!!!”
“Die! Die and prove your purityyyyy!!!”
Thus, the Black Star Cult's forces, which had intended to burn down an entire viscounty and rise again,
were thoroughly torn apart, with Lilith's betrayal piled on top of everything else.
*
So what happened to Lilith?
“Grrk, let go of me!!”
With only twenty percent of her true body crossed over, she could not shake off the saint.
Bound and subdued by ropes imbued with holy power, she soon changed tactics and began seducing the holy knights.
“Y-yeah. You have all built up a lot, haven't you? You must be suffering terribly because of the chastity that that Heavenly Lord bitch forces on you….”
“How should we torture this one?”
“Hey! Are you listening to me?”
It did not work at all.
They were focused solely on figuring out how to extract information from a great demon who had crossed over at twenty percent strength.
“Should we torture her with holy power?”
“Would that alone make her talk? I hear she refused to open her mouth even during the Great War over five hundred years ago, when half of her crossed over.”
As Lilith watched their expressions,
she happened to make eye contact with the saint who had been standing quietly.
“R-Ray, Ray! It has been so long! Have you been well since then─.”
“I thought about it carefully….”
“Hey!! I said listen to me!!”
But the saint had no interest in Lilith's circumstances.
After much thought, he took the leather canteen hanging from his waist.
“I think we should feed her this, connect her to the Heavenly Lord, and let Him judge her personally.”
“Eek.”
And he was spouting something that sounded utterly nonsensical to Lilith.
How exalted could a god be? There was no way feeding her some water from that thing could connect her to the Heavenly Lord!
“H-ha ha! Is it holy water or something? Do you think feeding me that will hurt me at all?!”
“The black mages were crisped by the Heavenly Lord's direct divine punishment.”
“Huh.”
Apparently, it worked?
Lilith was dumbfounded, but when she saw the smiles of the clerics surrounding her grow wicked…
“N-no…! Don't! I said don't do it!!”
she finally realized they were serious.
“Kihihit…! To think a great demon is afraid!! How delightful!!!”
“Kyahahah! Accept it gratefully, great demon!”
“But are we feeding it through her mouth? That seems too merciful.”
One by one, they grabbed Lilith's limbs or jaw and tried to force it down her somehow,
“Doesn't the nose also lead to the throat?”
“Aha!”
“Y-you lunatics are going to waterboard me through my nose─ Glub, glub!!”
“Now, hold your nose here.”
The clerics pushed the strange canteen against her nose with gentle smiles.
To a third party, Lilith might have looked like the victim,
but she was a vicious great demon who had killed every person in the viscounty.
“You should repent as well and find the light. Understand?”
“When you are reborn, do not be reborn as something like a demon. At least come back as a beast!”
“Guuuugh!!!”
- Glug!
A situation in which even waterboarding through the nose could be considered merciful.
And from Lilith's perspective, she had not been able to cross over completely and thus needed to take deep breaths….
- Glug, glug!
- Shiver!!
“Guuuugh─!!”
It was the beginning of an excruciatingly painful time.