Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 5

The Demon Lord’s Counterattack

Satou here. Everyone has things that are precious to them. When I was small, I had a little box decorated with colorful paper that I used to collect acorns, cicada shells, and that sort of thing in. Even if it looked like trash to an adult, at the time, they were real treasures to me.

“Under the clouds.”

“I can see the holy city, I report.”

Mia and Nana reported back from the observation window.

After the demon lord escaped, we were on our way back to the holy city to report the death of the Temple Knights’ captain.

The dimensional submarine Jules Verne emerged from the thin clouds and began to descend. There was a docking area at the edge of the holy city.

“I didn’t know Parion Province had their own airships.”

“They look pretty different from the ones from Shiga Kingdom or Saga Empire, right?”

“Tee-hee. They’re adorable, like dogu figurines.”

Arisa joined in on my and Hayato’s conversation with a ladylike affect.

The hulls, which were relics of the Flue Empire era, did indeed bear a resemblance to Jomon-era clay figurines and pottery, with sails on masts that stuck out like wings. There were four of them in total moored at the airship dock; laborers were in the midst of loading cargo onto one of the midsize ones, which had two bodies like a twin-fuselage airplane.

Following the signals from a flag-waving official, the Jules Verne pulled up to the dock, where four Temple Knights carried their captain’s body out through the lower hatch.

The black knight and the others who stayed behind would make their way back to the surface on foot, then board their own airships back to the holy capital.

Since they’d already been contacted in advance, a line of Temple Knights and priests was waiting to receive the body.

A gong-like sound rang out. It must have been the funeral bells of the city.

“Sir Hayato, welcome back.”

When Secretary Lilo arrived, we followed Hayato out of the ship.

Once everyone had disembarked, Weeyari did something with the Divine Talisman. The Jules Verne let out a high-pitched sound and produced ripples in the air like it was diving underwater, then disappeared into another dimension.

It must have been convenient not having to leave anyone to guard the ship.

“Lilo, has anything changed while we were gone?”

“…No, nothing.”

The secretary paused for just a moment before answering.

“Gotcha.” Hayato held Lilo’s gaze for a moment, then whispered in her ear as he passed. “Just let me know if it’s too much to handle alone.”

Lilo’s face turned beet red. Obviously, she was infatuated with Hayato.

“…Let’s go back to the manor and plan our next steps against the demon lord.”

“Yes, Sir Hayato.”

Lilo hurried after the hero, clutching paperwork to her chest.

The rest of us followed them to a terminal at the other end of the dock.

“…Geh. Not that snarky creep again.”

“Damn, he came all the way to the dock just to snark at us? Get a life.”

A cardinal was waiting at the terminal, clad in expensive-looking accessories and flanked by high-ranking priests.

“Be polite, you two. He’s still a cardinal of Parion Province. It would reflect poorly on Hayato if you’re too rude to him.”

Princess Mariest put Rusus and Fifi in check, then hurried over to help Hayato deal with the cardinal, who really was already snarking at him.

“The demon lord got away again? And you come strolling back here after we gave you all of those reinforcements and supplies, with only the death of our strongest knight, Captain Mohkiris, to show for your efforts…? You heroes certainly have some nerve, I must say.”

In fact, this was more like verbal abuse than just snark.

“Hmph, not our fault the guy tried to attack the demon lord from behind and got cut down in one go.”

“We tried to warn him that those scales were bad news.”

“That’s enough, you two.”

Mariest shot a sharp look at Rusus and Fifi, who reluctantly stopped grumbling.

“Agreed. It’s not right to speak ill of the dead, even if it is the truth.”

“The captain was just unlucky. All the other Temple Knights survived.”

Weeyari and Miss Ringrande made somewhat snide-sounding attempts to smooth things over. They were probably also annoyed with the cardinal for insulting Hayato.

“Hmph. You ought to discipline your little servants better.”

The cardinal glared dourly at Hayato.

“I offer my sincere condolences for the loss of Captain Mohkiris, truly,” Hayato told him seriously. “But lives are always on the line in a battle against a demon lord. Anyone who joins the fight has to be prepared to pay the ultimate price.”

“And yet not a single one of your party or those little tagalongs died?”

Are we supposed to be the “tagalongs”?

I’ll just ignore that comment since I’m well aware that we don’t look very impressive.

“We’re only safe because of Loleiya’s exceptional Holy Magic. If she’d been any slower to heal us, our lives would’ve been in danger, too. Surely you know that much already, Cardinal?”

After all, Hayato himself was severely wounded by that curse in the previous demon lord battle, as the cardinal must have been aware.

“Hmph. I’d much prefer that you hurry up and get rid of that demon lord already, instead of bragging about your own survival.”

Since he was obviously fighting a losing battle, the cardinal spat out one last insult and left.

“We can’t help it if the demon lord runs away ’cause he’s scared of Hayato.”

“Yeah, no kiddin’. It’s gonna be tough to finish him off if he keeps running away when he’s in trouble.”

In trouble?

I suppose he did teleport away right before Hayato’s special attack was about to hit, but thinking back, it didn’t seem like the demon lord was particularly trying to avoid that or anything.

If anything, the demon lord had the upper hand, and he fended off the backup from the Temple Knights easily. Why did he decide to flee at that moment?

“Still, I was shocked that the magic circles at his feet weren’t actually for running away.”

“Did he use Space Magic without a chant, perhaps?”

Hearing this exchange, Arisa contacted me via the Space Magic spell Telephone.

“Master, can I tell them that the demon lord didn’t use Space Magic to run away?”

“Sure. Is there any way you can do that without telling them about your own Space Magic, though?”

“Don’t worry, I have an idea.”

Since she seemed confident, I went ahead and gave her permission.

“Lady Mariest, might I interject for a moment?”

“What is it?”

“The demon lord didn’t flee by way of Space Magic.”

“And how d’you know that?”

“I didn’t sense the disturbance in space that happens when someone teleports with Space Magic.”

“Disturbance? You can pick up on stuff like that, little miss ‘honey’?”

Rusus and Fifi didn’t look convinced.

“No, not me. My elder sister Lulu can see even the slightest shifts in the air.”

“I see. That doesn’t surprise me.” Weeyari nodded, looking satisfied.

“Aah, the one who was hitting targets with the thunder shots. But if it’s not Space Magic, what could it be?”

“I believe it might be a Unique Skill of the demon lord’s.”

“That would explain why Break Magic can’t stop him.”

“We’ll have to come up with a whole new strategy, then.”

“We’ll have to find a way to predict when he’s about to flee, or else figure out where he’s fleeing to and cut him off. Either way, we’ll probably need help from Parion Province and Saga Empire.” After gathering opinions from his party, Hayato turned to Arisa. “Thanks, honey.”

“Predict it, huh?” Seina the scout muttered. “I wonder why that demon lord even runs away in the first place…”

“Mew?”

“You can’t tell, sir?”

Tama and Pochi tilted their heads, looking up at Seina in confusion.

“What, you mean you kiddos can tell?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mr. Demon Lord hates fightiiing?”

Tama and Pochi nodded.

“Whaaat? That can’t be right.”

“Yeah, he sure looked happy about cuttin’ the captain in half to me.”

“I heard he was attacking villages with Sandstorm Soldiers before we showed up, ya know?”

Seina, Rusus, and Fifi immediately objected.

“But Mr. Demon Lord was really scared, sir?”

“What makes you think that?” Hayato asked.

“He said stuff like ‘go away’ and ‘stay back’?”

“And when he killed Mr. Captain, he screamed ‘no more’ and ran away, sir.”

On hearing Tama’s and Pochi’s answers, the hero party all looked at each other.

“Master, did you hear any of that?”

“No, I wasn’t really listening. I assumed it was just plain howling.”

Next time we encountered it, I’d have to pay more attention.

Maybe we could even resolve things with the demon lord peacefully instead of through fighting.

A moment later, Tama and Pochi suddenly looked up at the sky.

“Meew?”

“I hear a bell far away, sir.”

Listening more closely, I could just barely make out something that sounded like an alarm bell.

“Master, look!” Lulu cried. “The cathedral’s in danger!”

I looked up in time to see the top of the great cathedral collapsing, and a cloud of black smoke rising.

“It’s the demon lord!”

Activating his Flying Shoes, Hayato raced across the sky toward the cathedral.

Checking my map, I saw the demon lord’s marker at the cathedral.

I was about to run after him without thinking when Ringrande grabbed my sleeve.

“Wait! You’ll never catch up with him on foot.”

Miss Ringrande jerked her chin at Weeyari the archer, who raised the Divine Talisman.

There was a ripple in the air like something breaking the surface of water, and the dimensional submarine Jules Verne shimmered into view.

As soon as the upper deck appeared, Rusus and Fifi jumped on board, with Miss Ringrande close behind.

Automatically following suit, I jumped up, too, and Nana and the beastfolk girls followed.

Everyone else hurried on board through the hatch.

As the Jules Verne sped up so quickly that it threatened to throw us off, I grabbed on to the handrail and used Magic Hand to support the rest of my group.

Zooming through the sky, we soon caught up with Hayato.

“Hayato!” Ringrande called out to the hero, and we quickly closed in behind him.

Hayato reached out, and Ringrande caught his arm, nearly getting dragged off by inertia before the rest of us caught her and pulled them both onto the deck.

The Jules Verne didn’t slow down, speeding straight toward the cathedral.

I tried to assess the situation by getting a bird’s-eye view of the area around the demon lord with the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance.

In a room that was littered with corpses, the demon lord was facing off with Temple Knights that were protecting the pontiff.

The demon lord reached toward the pontiff.

A blue barrier that was probably produced by the City Core was destroyed by an onslaught of attacks from three Reflective Scales, and the demon lord mowed down a Temple Knight that moved forward to stop him.

I was nearly thrown from the deck by an abrupt stop. The beastfolk girls caught me and helped me regain my balance.

Directly before us was a huge hole in the ceiling of the cathedral.

Hayato jumped in, and I followed right behind.

We reached Pontiff Zarzaris’s side in the Heavenly Room, just in the nick of time.

If only we’d gotten here a little sooner, I could have spent more time enjoying the view of the sky through the glass dome, or the mythology that was depicted on it in stained glass.

GWIIIIIBBAAAAAAAAH!

The demon lord howled.

Shadowy tentacles wrapped around his arm, stopping him from grabbing the pontiff.

Huh…that looks like the Shadow Magic spell Shadow Bind.

“Begone, demon lord!”

“This is the holy dwelling of those blessed by Goddess Parion! There is no place here for the likes of you!”

The sage and the Holy Sword–wielding Temple Knight Mezzalt rushed into the room.

Those tentacles must have been the sage’s magic.

“Well, this saves us the trouble of hunting you down.”

Hayato stepped in front of the pontiff to protect him, his Holy Shield at the ready and glowing with blue light.

He must have used his Unique Skill Immovable Shield.

Rusus and Fifi quickly moved in behind the demon lord, cutting off his escape path.

“The demon lord is level sixty-two, though I cannot see his skills. Temple Knights, protect the pontiff and let Sir Hero handle the demon lord!”

The sage brought the pontiff behind him as he gave orders to the Temple Knights around him.

“I do not need you to tell me that.”

Instead of arguing like I’d come to expect at this point, the Temple Knight Mezzalt readily moved to protect the pontiff.

With the sage and knights surrounding him, the pontiff began chanting a Holy Magic spell I’d never heard before. Judging by the swell of magic power around him, it must have been an advanced spell or even a forbidden one.

“Sir Hayato, I’ve got your back.”

I drew my fairy sword and stood close behind the hero’s shoulder. Nana and the beastfolk girls took up battle-ready positions around me, too. I’d already warned them to stick to keeping the enemy in check, not going on the offensive outright.

“Satou, be careful. This is a demon lord we’re dealing with.”

“I know my place, don’t worry. We’ll focus on supporting you.”

Hayato was in the leading role today.

DWOOOOORRRRLLLLH!

The demon lord howled again, as if trying to intimidate the hero.

A dark purple light enveloped the demon lord’s body, and more Reflective Scales appeared, slicing through the floor and furniture.

Rusus and Fifi, who’d been trying to sneak in an attack from behind, were forced to back off some distance.

Although it sort of seemed like the demon lord had done this to fend the two off, to me it was more like a child throwing a tantrum.

“He’s talking about a doll, sir.”

Pochi translated the demon lord’s words.

GIBBAAAAAAAAAHK!

Twisting around, the demon lord lashed out with his tail to try to take us all out at once.

“Fortr—”

Nana’s Fortress wasn’t going to make it in time to defend against the demon lord’s unexpectedly quick attack from such a short distance.

I used “Warp” to dodge to one side, then activated “Magic Power Armor” only around my legs and feet to kick the painful-looking segmented tail away.

The tail grazed over us close enough to flutter my hair, even slicing off the decorative tip of a helmet on one particularly tall temple soldier.

The pontiff’s advanced magic activated. It turned out to be a support spell that enhanced all of our strength and speed.

“What did the demon lord say just now?” I asked Tama and Pochi, who had flattened themselves against the floor.

“‘Gimme snack,’ I thiiink?”

“No, sir. He said, ‘Give it back,’ sir!”

So if you combine the two…“give back the doll”?

“Doll? …It can’t be!”

Looking as if he’d just realized something, the sage whirled to look at the pontiff.

The demon lord’s nail clashed against Hayato’s Holy Shield and the folded-up Fortress on Nana’s large shield.

Liza parried the tip of his tail as it swung back toward us; a Reflective Scale tried to cut her down, but Pochi and Tama blocked it with Phalanx. Arisa sneakily supported the pair with the Space Magic spell Deracinator.

As the Reflective Scales bounced off those defenses, I kicked them away head-on.

Since they didn’t break from my kick, they must have been at least as strong as Nana’s Fortress.

“Grrr?”

“A for-dimmable foe, sir.”

Even as the hero’s party and the beastfolk girls pummeled the demon lord with attacks, his claws, tail, and most of all those Reflective Scales—which really were offense and defense rolled into one—kept them from dealing any serious damage.

That was probably inevitable: It was an off-the-cuff battle without any time to prepare or cast buffs, and they had to protect the pontiff at the same time.

Lulu and Mia were attacking from the back, along with Princess Mariest and Miss Ringrande, although they, too, were struggling to break through the automatic defenses of the Reflective Scales.

“Your Grace! Did you receive a doll from someone recently, by any chance? A doll woven out of grass?”

“Ah, yes, it’s on that shelf there.”

The sage and the pontiff were discussing something behind me that I didn’t quite catch, too focused on the demon lord.

“ …”

Suddenly, the sage abandoned protecting the pontiff and started sprinting toward a cabinet on the other side of the room. I heard a faint chant as he went.

Not bothering to open it, the sage simply smashed the glass door with his fist, pulling out a doll-like object and shouting at the demon lord.

DWOOOOOOOORLLLLLLL!

The demon lord abandoned his dogged efforts at reaching the pontiff and charged toward the sage instead.

“If this is what you want, catch!”

DWOOOOOOOORLLLLLLL!

As the doll flew through the air, the demon lord leaped to grab it.

“…Shadow Jail!”

The sage activated the Shadow Magic spell he’d store.

Jet-black tentacles shot out of the demon lord’s own shadow, writhing around him and attempting to drag him down to the floor.

ISBWAAAAAAHK!

The demon lord clutched the doll to his chest almost protectively.

He made no further attempt to resist as he was dragged deeper into the shadow—then vanished.

“Did you capture him?!” Hayato cried.

“No, he got away.” The sage shook his head. “I can scarcely believe it, but he escaped just a moment before I had him completely. I suppose I should have expected no less of a demon lord…”

I opened my map and checked the demon lord’s location.

Perfect.

He was in Den of Evil Six, same as the last time he fled.

While this was only two times, it was probably still safe to assume that the demon lord could only escape to Den Six when he teleported away. I’d have to tell Hayato later so we could come up with a strategy.

“Meeeew, the shadooow?”

I closed my map and looked up to see Tama feeling around on the floor where the shadow and the demon lord had vanished.

She must have just been surprised to see a shadow moving on its own.

“Your Grace! Is the pontiff safe?!”

A group of priests came tumbling into the room.

“I am quite all right. Sorry to worry you.”

The pontiff greeted the priests calmly and thanked everyone who had protected him, with their own lives on the line.

“Your Grace, from whom did you receive that doll?”

“Sir Sage! His Grace is tired. At least wait until tomorrow to ask him questions!”

A priest who seemed to serve as a sort of chamberlain swiftly rejected the sage’s question.

“Just a moment.” The pontiff turned around, waving the chamberlain off. “Is this question of great importance, Sorijeyro?”

“I believe so. Someone may have been trying to use the demon lord to eliminate you.”

“I received that doll from a young boy after today’s healing ceremony. He certainly didn’t seem like he was hiding any ill intent.”

“Thank you, O wise pontiff. No doubt the boy was only being manipulated by someone behind the scenes.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound safe. Perhaps a case worker would be able to identify the boy. Sorijeyro, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you make sure the boy isn’t being put in danger by meddling adults?”

“Anything you wish, Your Grace.”

The sage bowed deeply to the pontiff.

Once the pontiff had left the room, the sage murmured a quiet chant and sank into a shadow, vanishing from sight. He must have used the Shadow Magic spell Shadow Portal.

No doubt he was on his way to ensure the safety of the boy.

An image of Raito flashed through my mind, though it was highly unlikely that he was the boy in question.

“Mew!”

This time, Tama patted the shadow the sage had vanished into.

Something about all this Shadow Magic seemed to have struck a chord with her.

She pressed her face against the floor, mumbling things like “I can’t go iiin?” and furrowing her brows so much that they practically touched. Considering how naturally talented she was, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tama figured out a way to sink into shadows with her Ninjutsu sooner or later.

On the way out, Hayato got caught by a high-ranking priest and pulled into some kind of conversation, so the rest of us waited in a corner of the Heavenly Room. I was more than happy to admire the impressive stained glass for as long as it took.

“Mr. Demon Lord was very, very strong, sir.”

“Regreeet?”

“Yes, I feel as if I’ve been reminded anew of my own inexperience.”

“Yes, Liza. I see now that I have become too dependent on my armor and equipment, I declare.”

The vanguard seemed to have a lot of thoughts after their close encounter with a demon lord.

Fighting on the front lines of such a dangerous battle seemed to have earned them something, too: Their experience gauges were visibly higher, even though they hadn’t actually defeated the demon lord.

“My lesser spells were getting canceled like crazy, and even the intermediate ones kept bouncing off his scales. Judging by Miss Mari’s attacks, even advanced magic was bouncing off if it was cast solo.”

“Forbidden.”

“Yeah, I think forbidden magic would be able to destroy the scales. They’re so powerful and far-reaching that I’d be worried about friendly fire, though.”

I’d already told Mia and Arisa about the forbidden spells and curses I acquired in the forbidden library at the royal castle.

“You haven’t tested them out yet anyway, right?”

“Not yet. The chants are so long that I’m not sure I could pull them off perfectly.”

“Chant failure, dangerous.”

Mia formed an X in front of her mouth with her two index fingers.

“We’ll have to master them before we fight a demon lord.”

“Mmm, training.”

Arisa and Mia nodded at each other.

“What did you think, Lulu?”

“The scales moved so quickly that it would be difficult to aim for the gaps with the Gold Thunder Fox Gun or a Fire Rod rifle. I think I might be able to manage with a laser gun, but even then, the sand barrier beneath would probably block it.”

“Think the Acceleration Gun might work?”

“Yes, if I can only learn to predict the scales’ movement patterns.”

Lulu nodded at Arisa.

Just in case, I gave her permission to use the throwaway Acceleration Gun if we wound up face-to-face with the demon lord.

I ruled out the regular Acceleration Gun in this case because it required the user to stay in place while it was firing, making it difficult to dodge dangerous attacks like the ones from the Reflective Scales.

“Satou, we’re calling it quits for today.”

Hayato came back from his conversation with one of the high-ranking Temple Knights.

“You guys must be worn out from all those battles, too, right? Get a good night’s sleep and recharge your strength.”

That was all well and good, but I had to tell him something important first.

“Sir Hayato, if you could lend me an ear for a moment…”

I told the hero a key piece of information.

“…Are you sure?”

“Yes, I saw it for myself in Den Six.”

I met Hayato’s doubtful gaze earnestly, padding the truth with help from my “Fabrication” skill.

“Got it. Then we’d better act as fast as we can.”

Thank goodness. He seemed to believe me.

“I’m real glad I asked you to help out.”

Hayato held out his fist, and I returned the gesture, bumping my knuckles against his.