Konjiki no Moji Tsukai

The cards for the first round were ones that would make anyone astonished.

It was a showdown between the king of ‘Pa.s.sion’ Leowald and Marione, who was the ‘Second Seat’ in the ‘Cruel’ which the Evila boasts of.

With Aquinas not present and not including Hiiro, it ended up as a showdown between the strongest ‘Evila’ and the Beast King of the ‘Gabranth’.

As a matter of fact, it was only natural that both parties were engulfed by a nervous atmosphere.

Right now, Eveam returned to where Hiiro was.

“Marione, frankly speaking, this was truly unexpected. Do you have any chance of winning?”(Eveam)

He revealed a daring smile when asked by Eveam.

“That’s a stupid question, Your Majesty. He is the guy I’ve been waiting to fight. My resentment will only disappear when I kill him.”(Marione)

“No, killing him is……”(Eveam)

She said as such, but Marione was intently staring at Leowald, diregarding his surroundings.

“But, but~, for the King to come out at the very start….this truly is an unexpected situation.”(Shublarz)

Shublarz spoke while frowning as if she was troubled.

“Indeed, he is a quite formidable opponent, but if it’s Marione-dono he should be able to win.”(Ornoth)

Ornoth gave a slight nod.

“Hiiro, do you think Marione can win?”(Eveam)

“Don’t know”(Hiiro)

He replied without any hesitation to Eveam, who had asked him anxiously. She made a slightly gloomy expression due to his reply.

However, he couldn’t help it as he really didn’t know. He had never seen Marione fight so he couldn’t predict the outcome.

In terms of level, bluntly speaking, Marione’s was lower, but victory couldn’t  be decided by level alone.

There were also problems with magic, compatibility and even differences in fighting styles. Leowald looked like the type excelling in close-combats while Marione seemed to be good with long-distance attacks. He figured that the battle would most likely end faster due to the good balance.

But there was no doubt that it would be an interesting fight. No matter who won, it would be a battle which would fascinate everyone.

In the meantime, Marione entered the crater alone. And Leowald also seemed to have moved.

And both parties face each other at the center.

Marione while looking at the man standing in front of him, asked something.

“Hey, Beast King Leowald”(Marione)

“What is it?”(Leowald)

“I want to ask you something”(Marione)

“…”(Leowald)

“Do you know a beast man with inconsistent patterns of black and white fur on their body?”(Marione)

Leowald reacted to those words by moving his eyebrows with a twitch.

“…What are you going to do after you find out about him?”(Leowald)

“I will kill him with my own hands.”(Marione)

“…………”(Leowald)

“In truth, I had the intention of ma.s.sacring all of the ‘Gabranth’ who would protect him, but that contradicts the intention of Maou-sama. But you, the king of the country which gave birth to that kind of monster, will have to accept my blade filled with grudge!”(Marione)

Leowald spoke while watching Marione’s eyes.

“……Revenge?”

“That’s right. I will definitely kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d with these hands!”

Marione emitted bloodl.u.s.t so powerful that it seemed to shake the atmosphere. Silva, who was standing there as the referee, stiffened his body as a reflex.

“……You want to know?”(Leowald)

“Of course!”(Marione)

“Then defeat me first! Ask me that after you defeat me in battle!”(Leowald)

“Let’s do it then”(Marione)

Silva after realizing that both parties had already decided—

“Now then, the first round……Start!”

—Spoke the words indicating the start of duel.

“>” (Marione)

Numerous rocks rose to the surface from beneath and were fired towards Leowald.

“Uooooooo!”(Leowald)

Leowald destroyed the rock bullets with his bare hands.

“Kuu! What ridiculous physical strength you have! Then how about this!”

Marione loaded magic in his right hand and punched the ground.

“Get turned to dust by my demon hand! >.”

A giant hand appeared from the ground and rushed to attack Leowald. Leowald tried to destroy the hand with his fist, but failed due to the difference in strength.

“I’m gonna crush you to death!”

Leowald grimaced from the pressure of getting his fist caught in the hand of sand. Voices expressing worry for Leowald could be heard from the surroundings.

“Guooooooooo!”(Leowald)

“It’s pointless! You can’t break my devil hand that easily!”(Marione)

Just as Marione said, even after putting power in his fist, the hand didn’t even twitch and instead increased the pressure and power.

“Kuu……I’ve got no choice now!”(Leowald)

He grabbed the hilt of the greatsword that was strapped to his back and started concentrating power in it.

SFX: Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

The sword started vibrating and turned red as if it was put in a furnace.

“Uooooooooo! >!”

He swung the greatsword with all his strength and cut through the hand of sand with ease.

“Wha!?”

The section of the hand where it had been cut was molten. It was proof that Leowald’s sword had reached high temperature.

“Tsk! One more time! Ray Disruption!”

But the the hand was cut in half by Leowald once again. As Leowald swung his greatsword—

“Out of tricks, huh?”

—Marione clenched his teeth seeing that. But then he revealed a smile.

“As expected from the Beast King. Even my Devil Hand doesn’t work on you.”

He threw away the mantle he was wearing.

“I’m going to the next stage then”

His eyes became narrow and sharp, black feathers sprouted from his back and he started floating in the air.

“Let him taste the power of darkness!”

Marione raised his hands up high and numerous tridents appeared in his surroundings.

“Eclipse Trident!”

Marione swung his hand downward, aiming at Leowald. The tridents took that as a signal and rushed at him with tremendous speed.

“Mu!”

Leowald cut the tridents flying at him like rain while swinging his sword heroically. The beast men started praising Leowald as none of the attacks were working on him, but rather than being startled, Marione smiled.

Leowald frowned when he noticed the smile and in the next moment, he gulped. That was because he realized his sword had started to turn black in color.

“What……?”(Leowald)

The black colour steadily spread along his sword. Leowald dropped the sword before the black color reached the hilt as he felt danger from it. He stared at the sword falling to the ground

“Hmm, it would have been better if you hadn’t dropped your weapon.”(Marione)

Marione clicked his tongue while still floating in the air.

“……What did you do?”(Leowald)

“Kukuku, my Eclipse Trident is not any normal dark magic. Everything it touches turns black.”(Marione)

“Tuns black……you say?”(Leowald)

“My dark magic stops the time of everything it touches. Just like ice, just like death……”(Marione)

“Oh my! What a troublesome magic. So in other words, my sword is no longer usable after getting swallowed by the darkness?”

“No, you can use it. It is just that if those without the proper qualifications touches it, they will be eroded by darkness.”

While saying that, Marione landed and lifted the big sword.

“Mu……you really have great physical ability to keep swinging this heavy thing around.”

He threw it back on the ground as if he lost interest in it.

“Well then, I wonder how you intend to stop my magic now that you’ve lost your sword.”

He rose up in the sky and once again fired the Eclipse Trident.

Right now, Leowald doesn’t have a weapon to block the attack with. In that case, he would be forced to evade the attacks if he wanted to avoid being eroded like his sword.

“Don’t underestimate this Beast King!”(Leowald)

Suddenly, he punched the ground. His right hand easily sunk into the ground.

“Nuooooo!”(Leowald)

He raised his hand again while screaming. And surprisingly, cracks appeared on the ground and started to spread.

In doing so, his hand dug out the land as if it were a spoon. Using the piece of ground he had lifted up as a s.h.i.+eld, Leowald tried to defend against Marione’s attack. The tridents bore into the ground.

But Leowald thought something was weird. Although the tridents were stuck in the boulder, it did not change its color as the sword had.

He frowned while pondering about it. And, as if taken aback, he surveyed his surroundings.

He came up with a hypothesis as to why the ground was not being eroded by the darkness.

“……Looks like your so-called Darkness thing has a limit.”

Marione’s eyebrow drew an arc as if surprised. He kept silent and didn’t reply, but in truth, Leowald was right.

For the special effect of Eclipse Trident to start, it had to have a target determined- If it were to hit something other than the chosen target, the darkness wouldn’t spread.

Only one target could be designated at a time. He chose Leowald as the target, but since he blocked the tridents with the boulder, the darkness effect didn’t activate.

Before, he had targeted Leowald’s sword and it had worked as intended, but this time it did not.

Marione showed admiration because he had never thought his magic would be a.n.a.lysed so quickly.

“So they don’t call you Beast King for nothing.”(Marione)

“It’s my turn now!”(Leowald)

Leowald narrowed his eyes and suddenly the atmosphere changed.

“Let me show you! This is the secret technique of >! This is >”

SFX: Buoooo!

Tremendous amount of flames gushed out from Leowald’s hands and surrounded him. The heat produced reached Marione who was still flying in the sky.

“Just how hot is that!?” (Marione)

It was so hot that he unintentionally scowled. The flames started getting smaller while forming a whirlpool, as  if it was getting absorbed by something. From inside appeared a red colored Beast King.

“Let’s have fun!”(Leowald)

He looked up up at Marione while revealing a ferocious smile.

“It’s about time that you should get serious……>.” (Leowald)

The corners of Marione’s mouth curled up and he narrowed his eyes.

“……So you do know about it.”(Marione)

Marione landed on the ground slowly. He held his right hand towards the ground and emitted a large amount of magical power which then was absorbed into the ground.

SFX: MekiMekiBaki……(Sound of something)

Just as it seemed that cracks were forming across the ground, the ground began to flow like sand as it began to form some shape while converging onto a single point.

It gradually became bigger and transformed into a sword.

“……>”

He grabbed the hilt of the sword and swung it slowly.

SFX: Bakiiii!

All of a sudden the ground split. Seeing the ground getting cleaved apart by just a swing of his sword, even Leowald was at a loss for words.

“Taste the power of my strongest sword.”

“……So that is the partner of you, who is called the《Sword General》”

The sword was of a reddish brown color and its blade was so thin that it seemed like it would break if it was touched. But, it couldn’t be a fragile sword since it was made by compressing the earth.

Leowald understood that the sword had unbelievable offensive and defensive power despite it’s appearance.