Chapter 197: Long Night (2)
Evie lightly shook Lily, whom she was carrying on her back, to wake her up.
“──!”
Lily, who had fallen asleep regardless of her will through 「Sleep」, showed a startled reaction as soon as she woke up, sure enough.
Then, looking around, she seemed to immediately realize the fact that she was being carried by Evie and that she was in a different place than before she fell asleep.
“Hey, wa──”
“Lily.”
Eventually, she almost fell while hurriedly trying to get down from Evie, and I called her in a calm tone to reassure her.
“Bin, I am...!”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of leaving Ms. Lilith behind like this.”
“…!”
Lilith made the same choice as last time again.
Just like when she left Lily in Sista Village, in front of the church, and crossed the Wall alone.
Thinking that this method could protect Lily more ‘surely’, she left Lily behind alone.
Thinking that her presence would only be harmful and that she couldn't protect Lily.
Of course, maybe it was really like that back then.
But this case was different.
“Let’s go confront them together.”
Lily was no longer a newborn baby who couldn't do anything alone.
Current Lily could protect herself.
And furthermore, she could even protect her.
“Don’t make such a choice alone as you please.”
“Yes!”
So the ending, too, will be different from that time.
“Everyone, that is…”
Meanwhile, Chris, who had received the order from Lilith to evacuate us outside, seemed to ponder for a moment whether she should stop us who made such a decision, but.
“Are you planning to stop us?”
Eventually, even before I started [Persuasion], she shook her head first.
“…No.”
Although it would be an act of defying Lilith’s order.
“To me, Her Highness is more precious than Her Highness’s order.”
Even so, she had no choice but to refuse, she said.
“This way.”
***
The vast hall welcoming those who entered the castle had already become a battlefield.
『──Be mine.』
Jiiing──
The moment Lilith cast 「Charm」, the eyes of dozens of soldiers were instantly dyed with the light of charm.
At the same time, the momentum with which they were rushing to kill her just a moment ago vanished without a trace, and they blankly swayed their arms and legs having completely lost their purpose, then soon threw away the weapons in their hands on their own and just looked at Lilith.
In the meantime.
“You mere Succubus...!”
A soldier who avoided Lilith’s gaze and didn't fall for 「Charm」 quickly went behind Lilith and thrust the sword in his hand.
Swish!
Lilith, who leisurely turned her body to dodge such an ‘assassin’s’ blow as if she had expected it from the start.
“──Ugh!?”
Immediately snatched that very ‘assassin’s’ mouth with one hand, and lifted him straight up.
Then, she floated up into the air together with him.
While doing so, wings that spread wide behind Lilith’s back before anyone noticed wrapped around the ‘assassin’ as if to hide his figure.
“──, ──!?”
The ‘assassin’ started to struggle inside the wings, but it was brief.
Before long, when the wings were withdrawn again, he fell helplessly to the floor, looking like a mummy that had been completely squeezed of moisture and dried up.
「Energy Drain」.
Lilith converted the ‘assassin’s’ life force, which she had completely extracted in just a few seconds like that, into mana, and.
『──Burn the earth.』
Fwoosh!
As chanted, black pillars of fire that soared in an instant burned the earth.
“Kuaaak──!”
While doing so, she turned dozens of soldiers who were trying to approach subsequently into ashes in an instant.
The soldiers who barely managed not to get swept up were busy running away helter-skelter to avoid that 「Hellfire」.
──Boom!
At that moment, a huge Troll appeared breaking the wall and let out a roar as if such flames were not scary at all.
“──Kuoooo!!”
At the same time, it swung the large club in its hand, and with a fierce wind pressure that blew as if tearing the air with a Whoosh!, it swept away one black pillar of fire blocking its way.
However.
“──, ──!!”
Lilith merely moved two pillars of fire that were burning other places with a single light hand gesture to engulf the Troll.
Like that, the body of the huge Troll wrapped in 「Hellfire」 burned up in an instant and became ashes just like the soldiers a moment ago.
It was just a difference in time according to size.
──However, even if she was a Corps Commander of the Demon King’s army, casting high-circle magic spells with such high power consecutively was inevitably burdensome.
Furthermore, those she was facing were all elite soldiers of Alzar, who was a fellow Corps Commander.
They were basically beings with high ‘Resistance’, and therefore, to cast 「Charm」 on not just one but dozens simultaneously, she had no choice but to consume a lot of mana comparable to those pillars of fire.
“Do, don’t be scared!”
At first, the soldiers were scared by the ‘hellscape’ unfolding before their eyes and couldn't approach rashly.
“It’s just a single Succubus!”
But perhaps realizing this fact before long, they started to show signs of trying to approach while sneaking looks for an opportunity again.
“Hmph.”
At that, Lilith let out a light laugh.
“Right. I am a Succubus.”
As if they were laughable.
“So I will fight in the Succubus’s way.”
And once again, Lilith’s two eyes were dyed in a light red color.
“──! Everyone, turn your gaze!”
At this, soldiers hurriedly turned their gaze not to look at Lilith’s two eyes, or.
“Don’t let her try any tricks!”
Mages who were chanting incantations from the back with their eyes covered by blindfolds from the very beginning, raised their staffs all at once.
At the same time, several offensive magic spells were fired towards Lilith simultaneously.
However, those spells did not reach Lilith.
Lilith’s two wings wrapped in black flames covered her and blocked them all.
『──Become my sacrifice!』
And with Lilith’s incantation.
“──!”
The soldiers who had been rendered incapable of combat by 「Charm」 a moment ago and were wandering around blankly while continuing to look up at Lilith, stopped in their tracks all at once.
Then suddenly, one by one, they started walking unsteadily towards below Lilith.
At that moment.
“What are those guys, do──”
Centering on Lilith who floated in the air, a large magic circle emitted light.
The ‘charmed’ soldiers who came and stood on that magic circle on their own.
“Long live the Queen, hurrah...!”
“Hurrah...!”
Soon voluntarily walked into the 「Door of Dreams」 that suddenly appeared at the center of the glowing magic circle──beneath Lilith’s feet.
As soon as the 「Door of Dreams」, which swallowed all the ‘charmed’ soldiers like that, closed roughly with a Bang!.
The two wings protecting Lilith spread wide open again.
『O Fire of Hell──』
Another 10th Circle magic.
『──Burn the heavens!』
Simultaneously with the casting of 「Inferno Meteor」.
Fwoosh──!
A rain of meteorites burning with black flames poured down, covering the uninvited guests who dared to set foot in the Queen’s castle without permission.
Seeing the soldiers he brought being helplessly defeated like that.
“──Ha.”
Alzar twisted the corners of his mouth grotesquely.
It was clearly, a smile.
Looking at the soldiers burning painfully, he showed a smile as if it was all according to plan.
And actually, that was the plan.
Since the soldiers burning before his eyes right now were beings prepared as ‘consumables’ from the start, for him, they were just being used according to their usage.
As seen, Lilith was a ‘mage’ who cast high-power magic spells using the opponent’s life force──‘vitality’ as her mana.
No matter how excellent a mage, 10th Circle magic spells are hard to cast consecutively, but she could cast them without limit by ‘recharging’ mana at any time.
However, it only looked that way, and naturally, it wasn't really without any restrictions.
Unlike 「Energy Drain」 which extracts life force from a single entity, the consecutive casting of 「Door of Dreams」, which can drain ‘charmed’ entities all at once, was impossible even for her.
As it was a huge formula, sufficient preparation was needed for casting, and right now was a situation where there was absolutely no leisure to make that preparation.
Actually, Lilith couldn't cast that magic again after casting 「Door of Dreams」 for the first time.
Instead, she caught soldiers approaching her from time to time and replenished mana through 「Energy Drain」 one by one, but it was an amount far too insufficient to fire 10th Circle magic spells consecutively without restriction.
However, since the castle gate was broken, soldiers were constantly pouring in.
Sure enough, the power of the magic spells Lilith was casting was gradually decreasing, and it was visible that she, who was very leisurely at first, was now gradually getting exhausted.
Before she knew it, to the extent that she was eventually surrounded by soldiers while kneeling on one knee.
“No matter if you are the Queen of the Night, it seems dealing with this number alone is burdensome.”
Seeing that appearance and sensing victory, Alzar finally slowly raised his body from the chariot where he had been sitting all along.
At the same time, his huge frame that occupied the entire chariot floated lightly into the air.
“Even though I haven't even started yet.”
Alzar, who belatedly entered the castle crossing the broken gate like that, ridiculed Lilith showing a nasty smile.
“Did the few remaining Succubi all run away in that meantime?”
Despite knowing all the facts that Lilith, who didn't want to create needless sacrifices in a fight judged to have no chance of winning, had ordered her subordinates to leave the castle instead of fighting back.
“As expected of Succubi. Even though their master is suffering like this, look at them only saving their own skins... Anyway, they are a tribe that knows nothing of honor.”
Only to ridicule Lilith and her kin.
“Alzar…”
And Lilith, who similarly knew all these facts, rather ridiculed him instead of falling for that obvious provocation.
“Aren’t you embarrassed yourself? Honor, you say. The fellow who begged until his hands became feet just to sleep with that Succubus once.”
“….”
Then unlike Lilith, Alzar frowned for an instant at that provocation.
“Ah, was it feet becoming hands? I’m sorry. Because your hands and feet look indistinguishable every time I see them.”
“…Damn bitch.”
Tsk, Alzar clicked his tongue and immediately raised one hand, and.
“──!”
Exhausted Lilith couldn't dodge the huge ‘fist’ that suddenly appeared from beneath her feet.
Thwack!
That fist wrapped in black flames struck Lilith just like that, and Lilith, who was flung into the air, couldn't spread her wings and eventually fell to the floor.
“A disgrace to the demon race.”
Then Alzar approached the fallen Lilith slowly while floating in the air just like when he entered the castle.
“A dirty and vulgar bitch who mates even with human bastards and breeds if only given vitality... Not knowing her place...!”
At the same time, he moved the ‘hand’ that hit her to lift the fallen Lilith.
While doing so, he gripped her as if squeezing tight, forcing her to meet the gaze of himself floating in the air.
“Where did you hide, that dirty mongrel bitch?”