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Demon God Manifestation – Aquido
After Riemann committed suicide, Aquido left Nils, who was weeping over the body, to Kai and Roze, and went to Lucia to ask what had happened.
Lucia had been filing documents when she heard that Grey had been captured, she ignored the orders to retreat to Arkroy and immediately began looking into things.
She went directly to the castle floating above Silke where she was abducted by a demon and brought to this prison.
There she saw Grey, who had a red thread wrapped around his neck. Riemann Chardonnay forcefully fed her a monster’s egg when Grey used a barrier spell and was blown back.
Aquido and the rest had come soon after.
After Lucia finished, Sylphy massaged her eyes while sighing and then snapped her fingers.
The barrier protecting Lucia immediately shattered like glass.
“You said your name was Lucia, refrain from acting on your own,” Sylphy gently warned and patted her on the head a few times.
“Yeess” Tears began to pool out of her eyes as she nodded and ran towards Grey, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.
“Since we’ve saved Master, let’s go back to Fort Silke for now,” said Sylphy.
“Sylphy-dono, there’s a female prisoner in the room further inside.” Theo reported after having scouted this bottom-most layer. There were two doors on this floor.
The first led to the stone corridor Aquido and the others had come from. The other was located on the opposite side, it was a giant door connected to a long stone pathway inside.
“A woman?” Sylphy asked.
“A young woman with black hair.”
Sylphy knit her brows and placed a hand on her jaw in thought. “Leave her to me, you guys should prepare to leave……”
However, before she could finish, a thunderous earthquake shook the building, it gradually kept strengthening until they could no longer stand.
“This shaking……. the space itself is cracking, probably because of that……” Sylphy looked towards the room Theo had just come out of and saw a pair of eyes glinting from inside.
A thick, purple fog poured out of its gaze, and—
Tap! Tap!
Sound of footsteps came from the stone path and gradually approached the room.
“What is that!?” Aquido thought, although instinctually he already knew.
He felt an intense pressure descend upon him like his entire body was being squeezed by a giant hand. Even if he had received that abnormal power from Grey, he certainly couldn’t beat that!
Sylphy picked Grey up, snapped her fingers and calmly ordered, “Take Grey and get out of here!”
In an instant, a bluish membrane appeared just like the one when they had first raided the castle, enveloped them.
“You can’t, you just can’t. I won’t let you.” a female voice declared. The next moment, the blue membrane popped like a bubble.
“So that’s no good……” Sylphy muttered with resignation. It wasn’t funny, only Sylphy or Grey would be able to stand up against that.
Aquido asked for his next orders. “Sylphy—!” His mouth clammed up. She was so strong, but still looked horrified as she stared past the door.
“Stop spacing out! This domain is going to collapse soon. Hachi, do you have any flying spells?”
There were cracks forming on the ground, walls, and even the ceiling. And with each successive rumble, they were deepening.
“I do”
“Then take Grey down and get away from here!” Aquido commanded, handing off Grey.
“What about Sylphy-san?”
“I’ll buy some time. I’m not confident, but Master’s life is at stake here, so I’ll go all out.” Sylphy pointed her sword towards the door.
The burning pressure that accompanied the footsteps gradually increased, and then, the door opened.
“Ugh……”
The person who stepped out of the room looked like a teenager, and she had long black hair that extended down to her knees.
She had large eyes and a small stature. Aquido didn’t find her to be that strong at first glance.
However, the red haze that wrapped around her like flames, turned the stone walls, ceiling, and even the metal door into sand.
Aquido felt like he had been thrown into the same cage as a starving beast.
“……”
He frantically tried to say something, but words got caught in his throat and could only gasp.
“There seems to be some human livestock that’s worth eating.” The girl looked at them and bit her lip. “Hmm!? Something strange seems to be mixed in.”
She narrowed her crimson eyes and began inspecting Sylphy, Hachi, and Kama.
“Your vessels aren’t human, but something very similar. Inside is—Ahaha!”
Her face morphed into pure ecstasy as laughter escaped from her mouth.
She barely paid any attention to Aquido and the others as she placed her hand on her chin and continued to laugh.
“Splendid, I wonder how your body and soul will taste. First let me get a taste of the body.”
She licked her lips and moved the object in her hand to her mouth.
“Kuh!?” Sylphy kneeled down on one knee as fresh blood began bursting out.
“Mama!”
“Onee-sama!”
Little Dora and Roze ran towards Sylphy.
Rip! Crunch!
Although it looked way too small, was the arm the girl chewing on Sylphy’s?
“Deeelicious!!” the girl howled at the sky with blood all over her mouth. “Magnificent. You guys are the most—”
A blue flame stormed out from Sylphy and swallowed up the black-haired girl.
“Woah!”
The hot winds rushing towards everyone else were suddenly restrained.
Then, amidst the blue flames appeared a blue-haired girl, who seemed to be around the same age as Grey. She wore short pants and a similarly short jacket. She was showing so much skin that Aquido didn’t even know where to look and was glaring at the other girl like a hawk.
“Is that you……Sylphy-san!?”
It couldn’t have been anyone else. But her appearance, height, and build were all starkly different. She used to be a woman in her prime, but now she was a child no older than Grey.
“Can’t you tell!” the blue-haired girl spat out, seemingly in a bad mood.
“I can’t, that’s why I asked……” Aquido exclaimed. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
“That’s Mama’s original form. She wanted to look like an older sister with an attractive figure, so she created that form through an illusion” Little Dora explained.
“Why go so far?” Judo asked.
The human-eating monster continued to chew on Sylphy’s left arm. It was a maddening situation. Indeed, Kai and Roze were shaking so much that they couldn’t even stand.
Judo’s calmness probably stemmed from having lived alongside the abnormality that was Grey for so long and thus having built up a resistance towards these kinds of things.
“Ummm, so you see, Mama doesn’t like that form. It’s because—”
“Little Dora” Sylphy glared at her, who shrugged and dived back into Roze’s chest. “It’s an unfamiliar spell, but now I can go all out in this form. I’ll become an Enlightened One and draw out every last bit of my power to cut you down.”
Sylphy grit her teeth, then lowered her body and readied her sword.
The girl whispered, “What a cheerful piece of meat, your left arm was so thick with magic that it just melted in my mouth.”
“Well thank you.”
“Yep, Now let’s see. It looks like you can regenerate, so I’ll let you live as my bento.”
“I’ll return once I’ve had my fill. You guys go ahead and retreat for now,” Sylphy said, ignoring the black-haired girl. She pointed her hand at them and they were once again enveloped in a blue membrane.
“Idiot, you think I’d let my precious feast get away?” The black-haired girl casually stuck out her right hand and slowly made a grabbing gesture.
The blue membrane creaked as it distorted, but this time, it didn’t break.
“Ho, what a tenacious barrier. To think that even I can’t break it. Alright, fine. You’ve piqued my [1] interest now!!”
Her and Sylphy’s figures disappeared, and a strong wind burst out which threatened to topple everyone over.
“Get away from here and follow Master’s orders!! Only he can destroy this person!” Sylphy commanded from amidst the raging winds. The blue membrane penetrated through the ground and descended.
◇◆◇◆◇◆
Aquido and the others blasted through the ground and continued to go deeper and deeper until they finally escaped from the foreign-looking castle.
Goosebumps appeared all over as they soon fell down from the sky.
They didn’t even have time to scream as the blue membrane rapidly descended before gradually coming to a halt.
Hachi’s veins were bulging all over and he was sweating profusely, probably because he was the one who had slowed them down.
“Hurry, teleport!” Hachi shouted, his voice cracking. Judo quickly began to teleport.
The foreign-looking castle high in the skies burst into dust and was blown away.
The strong winds opened up his view.
“Mamaaaa!!” Little Dora shouted impatiently. There in the sky, Sylphy was covered in blood and her throat was tightly gripped by the black-haired girl.
[1] First time she’s referred to herself, and she uses ‘Ore’, a masculine way to refer to oneself like ‘I’.