Volume 1 Chapter 29: The Unexpected Culprit and Nearing the End of the Chaotic Battle
Translator: The Light
While Lisha was fighting for her life, Bella and the other members of her party were too busy fighting in the Land of Night to know what was going on in the outside world. There was definitely something wrong with this [Fierce Dragon], if this was in an MMORPG, its level rating would no longer be SS+, but a question mark.
This SS+ cla.s.s monster was not only able to fight off the combined attacks of four demon kings and three existences on the level of demon G.o.ds, it was also able to occasionally strike back. This was something that had probably never been seen before.
Bella, Dolores, and Eleanor, were maneuvering in the air around the [Fierce Dragon] at high speeds with wings manifested from their own energy, attacking the monster with a dark sphere of energy whenever they could. When the spheres of energy hit the [Fierce Dragon] they immediate created a strong explosion.
This was the basic ability of all demon kings, 《Dark Pulse 》, an AOE ability with a effective range that scaled off the power of the demon king.
The [Fierce Dragon] had taken dozens of these dark spheres and still remained unscathed. This was simply too abnormal, even a G.o.d-tier monster shouldn’t be able to be unscathed after taking so many hits from 《Dark Pulse 》.
Kriss didn’t have her own demon king wings, but she was able to walk freely in the air. Each time she attacked, she would suddenly appear somewhere near the [Fierce Dragon], probably using spatial magic and cut at the monster with one of her swords. Even her swift and precise attacks, however, weren’t able to break the [Fierce Dragon]’s defences.
The [Fierce Dragon] would occasionally open its gaping mouth and spit giant b.a.l.l.s of fire towards Bella and the others, who got out of the way as soon as possible, not wanting to get hit. The fireb.a.l.l.s didn’t seem to be made of fire at all, they seemed to be made of several different elements combined into one.
While the demon kings were drawing the aggression of the [Fierce Dragon], the G.o.d level lolis behind them weren’t relaxing either; Mia was reading from a black tome and chanting, sending wave after wave of hexes and curses at the [Fierce Dragon], if it was any other monster they would have been disintegrated already, but this [Fierce Dragon] didn’t seem to be affected at all.
Angel was moved her hands around in exaggerated motion, trying to use 《Soul Induction》to draw out the monster’s soul, however the soul of the [Fierce Dragon] seemed like it was stuck to its body with superglue and refused to leave.
Seeing Mia and Angel hard at work with sweat dripping down their heads, Noesha was also at a loss, she knew that if she didn’t hurry up and find a solution to the problem at hand, these two lolis were going to forcefully summon their true forms, it would be hard to control the situation at hand.
Back at the front of the fighting, demon king Bella and the others were unable to find an opportunity to use more damaging abilities as the [Fierce Dragon] was moving too fast. The situation right now wasn’t the best for Bella’s party.
At this moment, one of the [Fierce Dragon]’s fireb.a.l.l.s. .h.i.t the ground not far from Noesha, who finally discovered the problem after seeing the different coloured elements in the explosion. Only Creators were able to control all the elements and combine them into one, this [Fierce Dragon] of unknown origins was currently using the omni-elemental magic that only Creators should have been able to use.
This dimension’s Creator should have already... Noesha was confident in her memory, while the Creator had fled that battle a millenia ago, grievously wounded, Noesha’s boss had told her that there was no need to pursue him, as there was someone already ready to finish him off, someone that wasn’t any weaker than Noesha’s boss.
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In a castle at the centre of the Dark Dimension, 【Dark Creator】 Mystica was flipping through the yuri doujin that Noesha had bribed her with previously, lost in the content of the pages. The surface of the mirror in the room s.h.i.+mmered, the image of Bella and the others fighting the [Fierce Dragon] appeared on its surface, as if it was being live streamed to Mystica’s screen.
“We’re in big trouble, Mystica, help us!”
“I’ve already told you,Noesha, us Creators can’t just...”
“Mystica, do you want to see the second volume of that manga? If you want to, you know what to do...”
“This...I have principles...”
“I also have the other volumes, there’s a total of 10 in that series, are you sure that you don’t want to read them~?”
Seeing Noesha with a wide grin on the other side of the mirror, Mystica was at a loss, she would never have allowed herself to fall into the endless pit that was manga if she knew that it was going to be used against her like this. But it was true that she really wanted to see the other volumes of the booklet she held in her hands.
“I’ll stop messing with you, just look at that monster’s attacks and you’ll know why we need your help.”
Through the screen’s high definition video, Mystica was able to see the omni-elemental magic contained within the attacks of the [Fierce Dragon], her expression immediately stiffened. Mystica remained silent for a while before speaking, as if she had just made a decisive decision.
“Noesha, this... can your communication magic add a connection to another dimension? I can give you the approximate coordinates of the other dimension.”
“Sure I can, what dimension do you want to connect to? The Bethia’s 26th or Andrea’s 33rd?”
“None of those, can you connect me with the 6th dimension? I want to talk with the 6th dimension’s 【Extradimensional Creator】Stephanie Alfreia, and discuss this matter.”
“Don’t close this connection later Noesha, if Alfreia agrees she’ll help us connect with the 3rd dimension, this matter has to be discussed with the leader of the female Creators, 【Light Creator】Anastasia Vianne.
“I’ve been to Alfreia’s 6th dimension before while I was wandering around, but I haven’t seen her in person, her abilities are too similar to mine, makes it rather troublesome to look for her. I haven’t dared to travel to Vianne’s 3rd dimension, it didn’t give me to most welcoming feeling.”
“Where has all your intellect from earlier gone, Noesha? Remember what you’re trying to bribe me with? Just get a couple more copies of those. Alfreia and Vianne haven’t this kind of fun stuff before, you can probably get them hooked too, then discussion will be easier.”
Mystica had some personal reasons for doing this, she wanted to drag both Alfreia and Vianne into this deep pit with her, especially Vianne, who had been Mystica’s long time rival. Mystica planned to give Vianne the first volume of the manga and then using the subsequent volumes to mess around with her.
___
In the strip of land that connected the Coristel and Priestly continents, the only thing that remained of the beastmen elites was the large amount of bits and pieces that littered the ground, just a few moments ago they had been a mighty force that numbered 100,000 strong. A giant bird-human hybrid was flapping its wings high up in the air, rapidly disappearing into the distance, countless flying-type evil beings in tow.
【Skeletal Dragon Sovereign】 Brant was leading its subordinates in a cleanup of the scene, the rapidly shrinking figure in the sky still struck fear into Brant’s bones each time Brant looked. This void monarch was quite gruesome, too much for even Brant, as a dark suzerain, to accept. Brant was glad that it was an ally and not an enemy, he wasn’t sure how many blows he could trade with the void monarch before sharing the same fate as the beastmen scattered all over the field.
【Scourge of the Skies】 Grisbane cruised through the skies, its height of 12 metres made it quite noticeable. Grisbane had 4 thick and muscular arms that each held a terrifying looking weapon, which along with the many metal chains hanging off and around its body made Grisbane all the more fearsome to onlookers.
Grisbane scanned the sea line, looking at the large fleet that was being forced back by the artillery on the beach, unable to get close enough to deploy their large number of infantry. In the waters below the fleet, a giant shadow was hiding in the depths. Countless ma.s.sive tentacles extended from the shadow and were attacking the fleet, dragging many of the wooden s.h.i.+ps into the depths, there was also a large number of water-type evil beings around the shadow that were also attacking the fleet.
The expeditionary force of one of the four great demon empires, the Mephyr Empire, had taken over half their number in casualties. After crossing the sea they had first been hit by a salvo of cannonfire from the beach from an unknown enemy, before being attacked by mysterious evil beings in the water below, sinking large numbers of their s.h.i.+ps.
“Prince Derek, we haven’t received any signal from the beastmen, they’re probably all dead.” The first prince of the Mephyr Empire, Mephys Derek, frowned as he listened to his subordinate’s report. His s.h.i.+p was at the rear of the fleet and had not yet been attacked by the cannons or mysterious evil beings.
From the area where the beastmen forces were, a thick mist of blood had risen high up into the sky, even visible from this distance. Derek wasn’t blind, it would have been hard for him to not have seen such a noticeable mist.
After the blood-red mist dissipated, a giant and terrifying shadow along with countless shadows that were only relatively smaller took to the air and flew off into the distance. Derek was able to infer that the beastmen allies were finished.
This was quite an unlucky expedition, Derek was furious, right now he wanted to return and cut up the diviner who had said that there were good omens for this expedition. They had planned the entire thing through before even setting sail, making plans to launch an attack at the same time as the beastmen, they had even colluded with the Church of Light’s Salo faction to obtain a map of the humans’ defensive arrangements.
Even with all the preparation, they had been decimated without even setting a foot on the Coristel continent. If it wasn’t for his sister, Margaret Aknes, that was still looking for any signs of the ancient demon kings, Derek would have turned the fleet around and retreated back to the Mephyr Empire long ago.
“This seems to be the wishes of the upper-existences... Pa.s.s on my order, the entire fleet is to turn s.h.i.+p and return to the Mephyr Empire!”
“Derek-dono, princess Aknes has yet to return, if we retreat like this...”
“Even if she were to return, our father has arranged to marry her off to secure benefits with another empire. It might be better for her if we were to leave her here, just spread the news that Aknes had already fallen.”
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High up in the skies, Grisbane glanced at the ongoing fighting upon the water before choosing not to interfere. The void monarch in the sea was quite evidently enjoying itself and didn’t require any aid from Grisbane.
“That old squid,【Disaster of the Seas】 Krakent, hasn’t changed at all. What a shameful display, hiding in the dark and beating down on his opponents. Wait, I need to get to where Bella-sama is immediately, I can’t let anything happen to her!” Grisbane and the other void monarchs had a blood contract with Bella, if she was to die they would all go with her. However, if Bella remained alive, they would be able to revive no matter how much damage they took, even if the only thing left of them was a puddle of blood.
“Eh? Why are Yulysses and Gresham still haven’t finished off their opponents yet? It seems that they can’t do anything without my a.s.sistance. I might as well.”
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Back near the Laerte line, both Yulysses and Gresham saw Grisbane flying towards them in the distance, it was quite hard not to see such a large target flying towards them.
“Hey Gresham, hurry up and help me catch that female dragon knight. That stupid bird Grisbane is here, if we don’t capture that knight now there won’t be anything left to capture after the stupid bird annihilates all the humans with an AOE ability. This female can’t die, she’s important to Bella-sama.”
After hearing Yulysses’ message through the void beings’{1} special channel, Gresham didn’t hesitate and charged towards the other battlefield with a ear splitting roar. The human soldiers who were in its way were crushed to a pulp, quite a gruesome way to go.
Against the two void monarchs who had suddenly gone all out, the human forces who were already at a large disadvantage completely crumbled, those who fled like headless chickens broke apart the formations of those who remained, causing the human forces to completely lose all ability to fight back. After seeing the direction that the battle was going, Lisha’s Anti-Demon knights pulled back as well, not wanting to take more losses than necessary as they knew they could no longer win.
However, Gresham and Yulysses showed no sign of mercy as they charged straight into the ranks of the Anti-Demon knights and continued their b.l.o.o.d.y business, heading straight towards Lisha who was still mounted atop the [Gold Dragon]. Lisha threw as many magic attacks as she could, but she was still unable to break through the scarily high defenses of Yulysses and Gresham.
What added salt to injury was that three of the legendary heroes who had fought alongside her, 【Berserker】 Barthes,【Hand of Resurrection】 Wulfe, and【Grand Enchanter】 Hayden, had fled using the teleportation scrolls that she had given them before the battle. She had given the entire party’s teleportation scrolls to Hayden as he would be generally safer, being a cla.s.s that fought more from the safety of the back.
She hadn’t expect Hayden to take Wulfe and Barthes and flee, leaving her and Lola here alone. This was the first taste of betrayal that Lisha had ever experienced, Hayden hadn’t even looked her way before he had fled. The handsome young man who had promised to protect her and stand by her for the rest of their lives had abandoned her without so much as a goodbye.
“Lisha, run!”
“Lola, you...!”
While Lisha had frozen in shock, Yulysses had taken advantage of this and got into range, spraying its web at where Lisha was. Countless strands of webbing covered the skies and flew in Lisha’s direction, while Gresham had dragged her mount, the [Gold Dragon], down to the ground, leaving it incapacitated and unable to help its master.
In this perilous moment, the only hero who stayed behind, 【Shadow Thorn】 Lola, dashed to Lisha’s side and pushed her off the falling [Gold Dragon], the female a.s.sa.s.sin then took Lisha’s place and was caught in the bondage of Yulysses’ web. When Lisha was about to go to her aid, Grisbane launched its attack from the skies.
The dozens of thick metal chains extended from Grisbane’s body and shot into the ground, before shooting many smaller and thinner chains in all directions. The human soldiers who came into contact with the chains were perforated and torn apart, it didn’t take long for a new mist of blood to rise over the Laerte line.
After this, the human forces followed in the footsteps of the beastmen and demons, becoming the 3rd party to ‘withdraw’ from the chaotic battle. The remaining human and demons were no longer of any concern, the only thing that the Dark Sanctuary’s forces needed to keep an eye on were the two unidentified evil powers hidden in the forest.
“Are you trying to kill your own allies, Grisbane!? You almost hit one of my legs you d.a.m.n bird!”
“I wouldn’t have needed to do anything if you two sluggish bugs weren’t so incompetent. Anyways, Gresham, don’t your legs grow back in like a day after they break?”
Yulysses looked from the sidelines at the two arguing void monarchs, choosing not to involve itself, those two probably wouldn’t actually start fighting anyways, and even if they did they wouldn’t be able to kill each other. Yulysses looked down at the silk net in its hands, where Lola was still struggling, it was all this d.a.m.n girl’s fault. If anything had happened to Bella-sama’s sister, Yulysses and Gresham wouldn’t be able to escape responsibility.
A few droplets of a sticky fluid caught Yulysses attention, after studying them for a while, a s.h.i.+ver went up Yulysses spine, these were the avatars of the void monarch, Skryme. It wondered why that sticky pervert appeared here.
Of the six void monarchs under Bella’s control, the only one which didn’t fear Skryme was the half snake【Eye of Petrification】Medusyr, while Skryme was a gelatinous evil being that looked like the low level slime, Skryme’s terror factor was one light years ahead of any slime. As for why Skryme was terrifying, it wasn’t anything that Yulysses could describe in words.
It seems that Lisha had been taken away by Skryme, it was fortunate that she was Bella-sama’s sister, for if it was anyone else there probably wouldn’t be anything left of them. Yulysses returned her gaze to the female a.s.sa.s.sin in its hands and decided to let Bella-sama make the decision on what to do with her, she was one of Lisha’s companions after all.
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Back in the Land of Night, Bella’s party which had been engaged in bitter fighting finally received their long-awaited reinforcements. After Noesha opened her spatial door, three lolis walked out of it, Bella recognized only her teacher, 【Dark Creator】 Mystica, her super long jet-black horsetail was instantly recognizable.
Beside Mystica was a slightly taller loli with pink twintails that were just barely off the floor, her pink eyes looking around curiously. She was wearing clothes that seemed to be of Bella’s design, but Bella didn’t remember ever meeting this particular loli.
Behind the two of them was a golden haired loli that was taller them both, her violet eyes and wavy long hair gave off quite a radiant beauty. Among all the lolis that Bella had seen, this one was definitely the prettiest. The aura she gave off was the complete opposite of Mystica’s, while Mystica gave over a feel of darkness, this loli radiated with light and even more surprising was that her light wasn’t affected at all by the Land of Night.
All Bella saw was the pink haired loli move her finger a few times in the direction of the [Fierce Dragon] and the monster that had been completely immune to magics finally went quiet. Quickly after, a small orb of light materialized on the right hand of the golden haired loli and she casually lobbed it in the direction of the [Fierce Dragon] which was blown to smithereens after it came into contact with the small ball of light.
In the split second that the [Fierce Dragon] was being blown to pieces, a blurry humanoid figure exited from the head of the [Fierce Dragon] seeming to be trying to escape. The golden haired loli suddenly appeared in front of the shadow, her small hand firmly grasping the shadow’s neck, denying it the ability to escape.
“You’re pus.h.i.+ng me to far Vianne! You sealed my dimension and now you’re interfering with my matters here!?”
“You broke the rules of the Creators, interfering unnecessarily in another dimension. It seems like I need to teach you another lesson before you finally realize what you’ve done wrong!”
“It’s not like I’m the only one who has chosen to interfere here, and.. Stop it Vianne, you d.a.m.n...I..will...”
The shadow wasn’t able to finish its cursing before its existence was destroyed by the golden haired loli, after making sure that the shadow was truly gone, she suddenly appeared beside Bella and handed her a strange orb, which seemed to be something that she had taken from the dark figure.
“Nee-sama, let me introduce you, this nee-san is the 3rd dimension’s 【Light Creator】Anastasia Vianne and beside Mystica is the 6th dimension’s 【Extradimensional Creator】Stephanie Alfreia, both of them are here to help us.” Noesha finally caught up and quickly introduced the two unknown lolis to Bella.
After, Alfreia came and gave a simple explanation of the course of events. Bella was able to learn the ident.i.ty of the mysterious figure, an unfortunate miscreant that was the 4th dimension’s creator who had his dimension sealed off by Vianne long ago because he had wanted to start a interdimensional war.
“This...o...b..is called ‘Treasure of the Dragons’ it has the ability to mutate pseudo-dragon. A part of that guy possessed this...o...b..and he then infiltrated this dimension, probably planning to create an army of monsters like the [Fierce Dragon] you girls were just fighting, before launching a takeover of this dimension. I’ll give this to you now.”
“Isn’t this a Creator’s stuff? Is it really okay to give me this, I can’t use it and it would be the end of me if that guy comes back and looks for trouble.”
“Aren’t you also... you’re able to use it too, as for that scoundrel, I doubt he would come back and seek trouble with you.”
Seeing the restless Bella, Vianne who had remained silent this entire time finally opened her mouth, giving Bella a confirmation. Bella felt like this loli didn’t really like speaking, as it had been Alfreia doing all the talking and explaining this entire time.
This ‘Treasure of the Dragons’ was quite a treasure indeed, when Bella was holding it she was able to hear the sound of countless different dragons. According to Alfreia, this...o...b..was able to create a Dragon Sanctuary that wasn’t any smaller in scale than Bella’s Dark Sanctuary.
“The two of you are leaving already? You don’t have to go so soon, I haven’t even thanked the two of you properly yet!”
“Didn’t you want to know where my manga was from, Vianne? Well here we are, are you sure you want to leave right now?”
Mystica helped Bella in convincing Vianne and Alfreia to stay for a little while longer, Bella also didn’t want to miss this chance to get affiliated with such powerful existences. Noesha had already told her secretly that Vianne was currently the strongest Creator, as well as the leader of the female Creators. Also, she noticed that even though Vianne was the 【Light Creator】, she didn’t seem to show any hostilities towards the demon kings and G.o.ds here right now.
“Please don’t be in such a hurry to leave, there’s another strange place in this forest that seems to have connections to the Creator faction. Help a friend to the end wouldn’t you? After this you can ask for any kind of gift and I’ll try my hardest to obtain them for you.”
Bella still remembered the strange cave in the Unnamed Forest’s central region, and although she wasn’t sure if that cave had any relation but there were three Creators with her right now, Bella was one to take all the advantages that she was given, and this was the right time to do so.
Alfreia and Vianne were currently wearing the gothic lolita dresses that Noesha had gifted them, all designed by Bella of course. It was good that they liked the clothes enough to wear them, this meant that Bella would also be able to ‘bribe’ these two loli creator G.o.ds.
Right as they left the Land of Night, a red shadow swiftly flew into the distance. This was the demon world princess that hadn’t shown her face for a while, as Hadias had constantly been searching for a chance to escape. All the other girls here were much more powerful than her, it would be too late to escape if she didn’t run now and went back to the Dark Sanctuary with them.
“d.a.m.n it, that girl got away! I wanted to interro... er, ask her for information about the demon world!”
“Nee-sama, don’t worry, she probably hasn’t gotten very far. Someone will probably deliver her back to us soon!”
A curious expression crept onto Noesha’s face as she looked at the direction in which Hadias had flown, she had sensed that something strange had appeared there.
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Hadias hadn’t flown far before flying over a strange cl.u.s.ter of trees. The trees here were all covered in a sticky substance of various colours. Just as Hadias wanted to fly away, the demonic wings on her back suddenly grew much heavier, as if something had stuck them together, forcing her into free fall.
“Another prey has fallen into my trap, heheh, Bella-sama will definitely reward me after this. It’s a shame that Bella-sama is a female, she would like my gift much more if she was a man.”
Deep in the forest, a sticky figure looked at the fallen Hadias from behind a tree. While this figure seemed rather humanoid, it was just the disguise that it used to trick people.
Its true ident.i.ty was the void monarch Skryme{2}, the first one to have reached this area after receiving the order from the two lolis back at the Dark Sanctuary, however, it was unable to find Bella and the others because they had entered the Land of Night, and could only hang around the area where it had last sensed them.
—TL NOTES—
{1} Idk how to describe it either, kind of like telepathy but only within void beings
{2} p.r.o.nounced kind of like slime, because well..it was basically called sklime in raws and it’s basically a super slime lol