Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN)

17-47. Satou VS Demon God

Satou here. The phrase 'A cornered rat will bite a cat' is quite famous, but snatching victory is an entirely different matter than just snarling back. All the more against someone who just won't let their guard down--.

◇

"--While sitting?"

Despite saying something like, "obliterate your very soul into oblivion impossible to get revived", Demon God keeps sitting down in his throne, doesn't look like he'll get up anytime soon.

The Dimensional Blade and Nihilistic Blade in both his hands are hanging loose too, his Impurities-encroached body must be in bad shape still.

Looks like waiting for a chance to remove his Impurities won't be a problem--.

The moment that carefree thought crossed my mind, I got pulled to right in front Demon God.

A hollow blade is fast approaching.

--Whoa

I managed to barely dodge it somehow, almost got my head parted from my neck there.

Still, my body feels heavy.

The sense of almightiness I experienced during my death feels like a long gone dream, my body won't respond well to me.

It's so heavy I'd like to have magnet coated.

"--How did you dodge that?"

Demon God asked, seemingly finding it hard to believe.

"Now that you have been deprived of your level and skills, you shouldn't have been able to."

Ah, this sluggishness is because my level has returned to 1 huh.

I dodged more of Demon God's erratic attacks by a hair's breadth once again.

I could have easily dodged these attacks if I were in my usual state.

I need to get closer to Demon God in order to cleanse his Impurities, but he would teleport me back right in front of me every time I attempted to go around him.

These teleportations appear to come from his Dimensional Blade, not magic nor Authority.

I probably would have died twice already had Demon God not in such a bad shape.

I glanced at the Log for a second.

This would have been exactly the moment I acquired new skills usually, but the Log shows absolutely nothing.

"--"

Due that action, the Nihilistic Blade is coming at right when I can't make an evasive maneuver.

I took Divine Sword out of Storage and blocked the Nihilistic Blade.

The blade dispersed the moment it touched Divine Sword before reforming back in Demon God's hand.

I was trying to take advantage of the time one of Demon God's troublesome weapons got destroyed, but it appeared to be meaningless.

"That's..."

Demon God spoke irritatingly.

Look like not even Demon God could overlook Divine Sword.

Right at that time, Map popped up in my vision.

◇

--Red.

A swarm of red dots are rushing toward Demon God's Castle at unbelievable speed on the Map.

I reflexively turned my attention there.

"Finally noticed huh."

Demon God snickered.

"Those are the prime elites granted with my Authorities I had dispatched to the borders of Realm of Gods."

Demon God projected a huge swarm of Demons in mid air.

On top of General and Avenger types, there's a lot of battleship and ghost ship type demons as well.

All of those demons are clad in black auras, apparently they've been defiled by the impurities.

More projections got displayed.

Projections of the girls.

Showing Zena-san's group mowing down demons outside our large spaceship, and Arisa's group fighting against female type demons in a hallway.

--Don't tell me.

"Stay where you are as you watch your girls get trampled upon."

Looks like Demon God is sending those prime elite units to the girls, not me.

"--I won't let you."

"The system has been shut down. What can you, stripped off your temporary powers, hope to accomplish."

The thing I can do--.

AR readings in my view.

There it is. The one thing I can do.

"--I sure can."

I operate my Menu.

An Icon I once turned off due to its severity.

"Nonsense--"

Demon God put up a distorted smile.

A face I can't believe coming from a parallel world me.

His Impurities must be getting worse.

Zena and the girls are pointing at the sky in the projection.

It seems those prime elites have come into their view as well.

"--Now is time to begin the massacre."

"It sure is."

Demon God seemed to find my agreement perplexing, he muttered, "--What?"

"...It cannot be."

Thick purple clouds above those demons were torn apart, revealing a burning red meteor.

The amount of meteors quickly multiplies, raining down like a heavy downpour, annihilating prime elite demons. The word 'massacre' truly fits the scene here.

"Even those granted with Absolute Magic Defense, Absolute Physical Defense, and Absolute Evasion Authorities are falling prey to those meteors?"

Well yeah, I mean it's the magic that destroyed the strongest Dragon God after all.

Of course, it'd win over anything.

"How were you able to conjure magic!"

Demon God glared at me.

"--No, wrong. That is no magic. I did not sense mana from you."

I took a quick glance at the Log next to the agape Demon God.

Unfortunately, my level stays at 1.

My Log is showing units I've eliminated, and yet my exp gauge isn't moving at all, nor I get any new skill.

"You mean to tell me that's an Authority!?"

Demon God arrived at the correct conclusion.

Yes, that was not a magic, but one of the [Meteor Shower] icons given as a support bonus for new players.

"You were using Dragon God's Authority?! Are you insane?!"

Demon God is weirdly surprised.

Apparently, Meteor Shower on my magic list and Meteor Shower icon are entirely different things.

Well, it's an attack prepared by Dragon God for the sake of defeating herself after all.

"However, using up your last resort for sentimental matters shall be your undoing."

Demon God got off his throne while staggering.

"Will you retain your ego if you get killed by the God Slaying Divine Sword, I wonder?"

His hand has gotten hold of Divine Sword before I knew it.

I see that his Thief God title isn't just for show.

◇

Demon God is getting serious.

A fast approaching black slash. I dodged by ducking. Another blade coming from my blind spot. I dived in to evade it. I saw Demon God grinning, looking down on me as I rolled. A harassing slash ran after the rolling me. Demon God is making light of me. However, that derision would surely birth a chance to turn the table on him.

Oh crap.

Demon God's attacks are getting faster little by little. Several of his attacks managed to scratch my body.

I can't use Unit Arrangement. I have to save it for reversal and for escape.

I desperately keep dodging.

"How are you able to keep dodging?"

Demon God murmured while not letting up with his attacks.

Now that he mentions it, I've gotten to the point that none of his attacks manages to hit me.

My body still feels as heavy as ever, yet I've gotten used to these heaviness and sluggishness. I still couldn't get any new skill, but I gradually recalled the sensation as I frantically dodged Demon God's attacks.

"Rapid Slash <<First Slicing>>."

I dodged Demon God's attack enshrouded in dark purple light.

That's right.

This is how you dodge.

I easily dodge Demon God's attacks as they get severer.

Looks like my body remembers even without skills.

"How could you manage to dodge Authority-clad attacks?"

Demon God sounded confused, but the speed of an attack doesn't really matter so long as you know where the attack is coming.

I think he should have used a Sure Hit-type Unique Skill here.

"--Then."

Thinking that seemed to be a bad move, I couldn't move my body all of a sudden.

This sensation, it's space magic.

Demon God seemed to have lost his temper and restrained my body with space magic.

If only this was a barrier, I could have easily broken through it.

The moment that thought came to my mind, the restrain binding my body came undone.

Is the mysterious barrier-nullifying power effective on space magic too, I wonder?

"Is that your Authority!?"

This time he shot out a paralyzing spell, and I managed to undo it as well.

I don't get how it works, but hey, so long it's handy.

"--Geh."

This time he cast a wide-ranged attack.

Just when I thought, 'Oh crap', the approaching magic vanished right in front of my eyes.

"No respond from my mana? Is that another of your Authorities!?"

Demon God was surprised, but so was I.

Perhaps--I checked my Storage and confirmed Demon God's attack magic had been stowed inside.

Imagining to grab the magic when I thought, 'Oh crap', earlier was a correct decision.

I'm not confident enough to constantly pull it off though, so just having Demon God cease using magic attack is a huge relief.

Now then, time to launch a counteroffensive.

◇

"Then--."

Demon God used space magic restraint together with a slash.

--Impossible to dodge.

Concluding that, I took out another of my trump cards.

"Divine Sword, blocked?"

Demon God's jet black Divine Sword got parried by a spear of the same color I held.

Unfortunately, the current me's strength cannot hope to match Demon God's. Eating that attack head on would have sent me flying to the wall in pieces.

"What manner of spear is that?"

"--My trump card, you see."

It's a spear made from my left arm which got defiled by Impurities when I tore [Demon God's Offshoot] off Heavenly Dragon back then.

I never gave it a name, so let's just call it Black Arm Spear.

I attacked the surprised Demon God with the Black Arm Spear, but my thrust got blocked by a seemingly permanent barrier he had on.

Even though Black Arm Spear could block Divine Sword, it lacks the power to harm Demon God it seems.

I dealt with Divine Sword and Nihilistic Blade's slashes by dodging and parrying with Black Arm Spear.

Space magic and Shadow magic would also randomly assault me at times, it's quite heavy.

Even one mistake would kill me at this rate.

This is bad.

As I dodged Divine Sword and parried Nihilistic Blade, transparent purple blades--Dragon Rendering Slashes came flying at me.

Three of them at that.

"--Pierce through!"

A white dragon spear I took from Storage pierced through the three transparent blades, bore through Demon God's barrier, and headed straight toward Demon God himself without losing momentum.

'Kishi, kishi, kishi' sounds echoed, transparent purple shields stopped the Dragon Spear's advance.

Looks like that's the original Divine Dancing Armor.

I didn't think it could stop Dragon Spear made of a dragon fang that [Pierces All]. I thought it would work since it did pierce through the Divine Dancing Armor protecting Demon God's Castle, but apparently the one Demon God has on himself is even sturdier.

"Dragon spear, is it--"

Demon God glared irritatingly at a white spear I held in my hand.

"--Will it reach me?"

Looks like he's aware of Dragon Spear's weaknesses.

Unlike the Black Arm Spear, Dragon Spear is fragile. Forget Divine Sword, I don't think it can even block a blow from Nihilistic Blade or Dragon Rendering Slash.

It's exclusively for attacking.

"I will make it happen."

With Black Arm Spear as my shield, and Dragon Spear as my lance, I challenge Demon God.

I've recalled the sensations of not just Evasion but also Spearsmanship and Foresight.

However, I'm not the sole ally of time.

Demon God is slowly moving better as time passes by.

He's still moving erratically, but at the rate it's going, he's going to be back on his feet earlier than me.

--I see.

I realized something.

Impurities overflowing out of Demon God are decreasing.

Those Impurities are going straight to the Divine Sword Demon God is holding. Impurities gnawing Demon God has been getting sucked into Divine Sword during our fight, improving Demon God's condition.

Demon God stopped moving and stared at Divine Sword.

Looks like he noticed too.

"It ate excess miasma huh. For this accursed God Slaying Sword to end up saving me..."

Accursed huh.

But I wonder why isn't he using Divine Sword's <<Perish>>?

◇

--Crack.

With Black Arm Spear.

I blocked slashes from Nihilistic Blade that could damage even gods.

--Crack.

And even a downpour of Dragon Rendering Slashes that would annihilate dragons.

--Crack.

It even managed to block blows from the God Slaying Divine Sword.

However, bents and chips accumulate, eventually going over its limit.

'Bakin', Black Arm Spear broke into pieces along with that sound.

"Kukuku, Irregular. The spear protecting you is no more."

Demon God sneered.

So Divine Sword is still above it after all...

I'll eventually get pushed back at this rate.

And yet, it's far too early to run away.

By a fluke, Demon God's Impurities have been greatly reduced thanks to Divine Sword.

I could tear the remaining Impurities off Demon God if someone could just distract him for a bit.

"--How boorish."

Demon God turned his line of sight at the audience chamber's entrance.

The bulky door was blown away along with a roaring sound, a General demon fell on the ground.

『Demon God-sama, they have--』

General points at the door.

Looks like my reinforcement is here.