Hell Mode: Volume 11, page 22
He turned to gaze at the frozen Daemon God’s tail, and Kyubel hastily reported back.
“I’m terribly sorry, I was just so surprised that I failed to report back in a timely manner. Ahem, as you can see, the Daemon God’s tail has been resurrected. However...”
The Demon Lord crossed his arms quietly, and Kyubel did a little twirl.
“The last Holy Beast Stone was stolen by Allen and his friends over there,” the Greater Demonic Deity muttered. “Because of them, the Daemon Lord’s tail is in a very unstable state.”
He pointed right at Allen, and the Summoner could hardly respond in time. Hey! Don’t make this about me! Allen feared that the Demon Lord would turn to him, but the crimson man kept his back turned toward Kyubel and Allen as he gazed up at the Daemon God’s tail.
“Is this part of your plan as well?” he asked. “You mentioned that the Holy Beast Stone was necessary to control the Daemon God’s tail.”
“Well, um, yes, it is necessary,” Kyubel stammered. “Ramon-Hamon screwed up.”
“No matter. It has been revived.”
The Demon Lord suddenly whirled to face Allen. He stared quietly at the Summoner with his crimson eyes, and Allen reflexively looked away. However, he felt that he needed to utilize his Intelligence, which was over 10,000, to further understand the head of the Demon Lord Army. Unless he could find out who this man was, what went through his mind, and why he had come here, the Summoner would have no chance of winning.
“Are you the Demon Lord?” he asked.
The crimson man did not answer, instead simply sizing Allen up. Allen’s party, Helmios, Ignomasu, and even the Greater Demonic Deities froze as they watched on. Silence fell over the scene, and the seconds felt like an eternity. Slowly but surely, Allen realized that something felt off. Is the Demon Lord different from what I expected? No, he’s basically exactly how I thought he’d be. Then what’s this feeling? What makes him different? Why does he feel...odd, somehow? Something’s different, I’m sure of it.
When Allen was Kenichi, he had played a myriad of games that had a Demon Lord. The character had almost always exuded dignity and spoken in a haughty tone. The Demon Lord in front of his eyes was exactly as he had envisioned, but something just did not sit right with him. In a nutshell, this Demon Lord creeped him out. The Summoner did his best to determine the cause behind that eeriness and snuck glances at the silent Demon Lord, who crossed his arms in front of him.
“Are you Allen?” the Demon Lord asked, suddenly breaking the silence.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Allen replied. “Who in the world are you?”
The Demon Lord looked puzzled for a moment. “Who? Ah, I see. You wish to know my name, do you? Hmm, well if I recall, you called yourself Allen, the Summoner of the Beginning. If so, I suppose I am Zeldias, the Demon Lord of the End.”
Wait, what? He gave me his name, just like that? Why didn’t he do this years ago? Because it wouldn’t have worked in his favor? Well, whatever the reason, I guess his name’s Zeldias. I see... Zeldias turned his back to Allen and slowly walked toward the Daemon God’s tail.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Allen hastily asked. “The Daemon God’s standing at death’s door. Or are you going to fight us, Demon Lord Zeldias?”
“I am not,” Zeldias replied. “I’m hungry.”
“Oh? So you don’t wanna throw down?”
“The hero this time is different from the ones in the past.”
The Demon Lord conversed with the Summoner as he headed for the frozen Daemon God’s tail, but he did not look back a single time.
“Huh?! I don’t know what you’re up to, but don’t think I’ll just sit back and watch!” Allen shouted. “Macris, Freeze Cannon!”
“I’m up! Freeze Cannon!” Macris boomed.
Fish S, who was floating above Allen’s head, opened his jaws wide in response to the Summoner’s command, creating a dazzling, white magic circle. A large pillar of ice shot out toward his target. The ice had been powerful enough to freeze the Daemon God’s tail, but the Demon Lord did not so much as turn to face the attack.
“Gandira!” Ardoe, the towering commander with blue skin barked. “Use your iron defense to protect the Demon Lord!”
A Greater Demonic Deity whose body had a dark gleam—presumably adamantite—stood up and stepped between the Demon Lord and Freeze Cannon.
“Full Counter!” Gandira bellowed.
CLAAANG! The tough body of the Greater Demonic Deity acted as a shield that blocked the ice blade. When the metallic clang rang out, the ice shattered.
“Huh?! Eek! H-Hey!” Cecil cried as she covered her ears.
Allen’s allies crouched down to avoid the flying shards of ice except for Dogora, Krena atop Falnemes, and Helmios, who braced themselves against it, grimacing at the unpleasant clatter. And yet, Gandira and the other Greater Demonic Deities showed no signs of following up on the initial attack.
“His power is astounding,” Ardoe muttered. “My lord, please make haste. Should this continue, I’m unsure if even we can hold him off.”
Allen’s sharp ears picked up Ardoe’s words, but the Demon Lord seemed as calm as ever, not once turning toward the Summoner.
“I’ll finish this quickly,” Zeldias replied. “Ardoe, make sure I won’t be interrupted.”
“Certainly, my lord,” Ardoe answered. “Everyone has heard the Demon Lord’s order, I trust? Our lord’s ardent wish will soon be fulfilled. Do not let a single one of these puny humans lay a finger on him!”
All the Greater Demonic Deities, barring Kyubel, Bask, and Gandira, rose to their feet at Ardoe’s command. But one struggled to stand.
“Bildiga, now’s your chance to redeem yourself. Stand up with everything you’ve got,” a Greater Demon Deity with dark wings said. She cast a healing spell upon everyone. “Evil Full Reverse.”
“Thank you, Mara,” Bildiga said.
“Heh heh, you’re a big help,” Bask added. “You’re cute and considerate.”
Bildiga’s tough exoskeleton regenerated to the point that it looked as though it had never seen battle, and Bask was fully healed as well.
“There are a lot of enemies, but let’s maintain formation and fight!” Allen said. “Huh?”
The moment Allen signaled the start of the battle against the Greater Demonic Deities, Cecil fired her spells and Sophie unleashed her spirits at Mara, while Gandira stood between them and used Full Counter. However, despite the increased number of enemies, Merus paid them no heed. He stepped toward Kyubel, whom he clearly had a grudge against.
“Persistent,” Kyubel muttered wearily.
As the Greater Demonic Deities clashed with Allen and his allies, the Demon Lord leisurely walked along without joining the fight. Meanwhile, Hero Helmios stepped in front of one of the enemies. Allen watched the battle from above with Bird E and saw that Helmios’s face was filled with unadulterated rage unlike anything he had ever seen before.
“Ardoe... My ears didn’t deceive me,” the Hero growled.
“Huh? Who the hell are you?” Ardoe asked. “Do I know you? I don’t recall being friends with a merfolk.”
During the Allen and Hero Armies’ joint training exercises, when Helmios had been in the Rank S dungeon, Merus had shared any intel regarding the Demon Lord Army with both groups. Helmios had been stunned by one of the reports he had given.
“The Supreme Commander of the Demon Lord Army is a Greater Demonic Deity by the name of Ardoe,” the Angel A had shared. “When they stole Fire Goddess Freyja’s divine vessel, that was how he introduced himself.”
“Oh? Are you the Hero Kyubel mentioned before?” Ardoe wondered aloud. “What was your name again? H... Hel... Helmi...”
Allen and everyone else had transformed into merfolk, and Ardoe realized that Helmios was actually a different species who had taken on his fishlike form to fight underwater. Ardoe, though facing the Hero, simply tilted his head to one side and placed a hand on his chin. He made no attempt to grab the greatsword slung across his back, instead merely standing there in pensive thought.
“Helmios. I told you my name back then too,” the Hero said. “Demonic Deity Ardoe... I’m surprised you’re not dead. I didn’t know there was a supreme commander of the Greater Demonic Deities.”
“Huh? Ah, yes! Now I remember!” Ardoe replied. “Yes, I apologize for what I did back then. I was simply following Kyubel’s orders. That loss was a necessary one. Hmm, so the boy from so long ago appears before me as a merfolk! No wonder I didn’t notice! Gah ha ha ha!”
“And you’re still alive. Then I ought to avenge Gatsun and my friends.”
No longer did Helmios have his usual gentle demeanor. His kindness had vanished, replaced with bloodlust—pure murderous intent. He squeezed the hilt of his orichalcum sword.
“Oh?” Ardoe grinned as he noticed the fury being directed at him. “What will you do, then?”
“I’ll kill you, of course! You’ll never breathe again! Destructive Explosion Strike!” Helmios roared. He let his feelings control his body as he rushed forth, his blade held tightly in his hand.
“I’ve never seen a weaker attack in my life!” Ardoe shouted. “Have you forgotten the power of my sword?! Inferno Blade!”
Ardoe unsheathed his greatsword, enveloped in dark flames, in one fluid movement and readied himself to face off against Helmios. CLANG! Metal clashed against metal, but it was clear that Supreme Commander Ardoe was more powerful and held the advantage. He easily parried Helmios’s attack, then used Inferno Blade in an attempt to slice Helmios in two, blade and all.
“Watch out!” Allen cried.
The Summoner had listened to their conversation and watched the battle unfold. Just in the nick of time, he managed to push Helmios out of the way of Ardoe’s attack.
“Hmph. Dodged it, I see,” Ardoe muttered as he sliced through the crystal flower at his feet, his attack reaching the palace a few hundred meters away.
Fortunately, all merfolk had long since evacuated the palace, because a loud boom rang out as the building was devastated. At the same time, the supreme commander, in a display of his relaxed demeanor, watched Allen and Helmios roll along the ground before getting back to their feet.
“Sorry. And thanks. You saved my life,” Helmios said.
“Don’t try to shoulder everything on your own, Mr. Helmios,” Allen replied. “I don’t know what happened between you two in the past, but we should fight him together!”
“You’re right. Sorry for acting by myself.”
“Don’t be. This battle’s just begun.”
Helmios slowly returned to his usual self. His Inferno Blade is just like the Hero’s Extra Skill... I wonder if Helmios got his hands on it by using Natural Gift when he saw Ardoe bust it out. Wait, the Demon Lord’s...
Allen felt like he had finally uncovered how Helmios had gotten his God Strike Extra Skill. After all, the Hero had been blessed with two Extra Skills, and the second one was Natural Gift, which allowed him to copy any skill he so much as saw. Perhaps God Strike was something he had taken from Ardoe.
When Allen dodged Ardoe’s attack, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Demon Lord move. Zeldias seemed completely indifferent to Helmios’s rage and let the Six Great Demon Gods take care of the battle as he walked along the ocean floor toward the Daemon God’s tail.
“Ahhh...” the tail groaned.
Even Mara’s healing magic had had little effect on the entity; it could only lie there limply and emit feeble groans. The Demon Lord looked up at it expressionlessly.
“A tail you may be, but you’re still a Daemon God, a former entity of the highest order within the Heavenly Realm, or so I’ve heard,” Zeldias said. “And yet, you’ve been dealt substantial damage. I suppose the new hero isn’t half bad.”
Ardoe raised his voice without attacking Helmios. “Keep fighting! The Demon Lord will soon have his wish granted!”
The Demon Lord kept his back to the supreme commander and took up a firm stance in front of the Daemon God’s tail. He leaned back slightly and puffed out his stomach. In the center of his muscular abs, just above his belly button, a horizontal red line appeared. His stomach then split open along that line to reveal countless white teeth. Zeldias bent his knees slightly and braced his hips, causing several more rows of teeth to appear in the massive, gaping maw that was ready to consume anything in its path.
“Gluttony,” Zeldias muttered.
Immediately, a whirlpool began to form around the Daemon God’s tail. Its source was the large mouth on Zeldias’s torso, open so wide that the Demon Lord’s body threatened to split in two, which had begun to greedily suck up everything in front of it. It drew in the monkfish-shaped Daemon Lord’s tail, whose body was hundreds of times larger than the Demon Lord’s.
“Aaahhh?!” the monkfish wailed.
It felt its body being drawn in and quickly stood up, bracing itself on all fours and digging its claws into the flower’s style to try to resist the whirlpool. But its efforts were in vain, and its body stretched toward the gaping mouth. Then, with a large swoosh, it was sucked into the Demon Lord’s mouth. Allen and his friends watched in utter disbelief.
“H-Hey! Did... Did you see that?!” Cecil asked in a quavering voice as she clutched her staff. “What just happened?”
Allen began to mutter to himself and tried to make sense of what he just saw. “Gluttony... The Demon Lord said ‘Gluttony.’ Maybe...”
When Allen was Kenichi, he had played several games that featured an ability to consume enemies. Because of that, he knew that it never led to anything good. Yeah, called it. And now the Demon Lord’s acting weird. He turned to the Demon Lord, who was still facing the other way, and put his high Intelligence to work. Zeldias kept his feet planted firmly in place, but as his body was no longer arched, it was clear that the mouth on his stomach had closed. He turned to face the ground, breathing so heavily that his shoulders heaved, and his crimson hair suddenly grayed at the roots, the color slowly spreading throughout the entire length of his tresses.
“Ah... I’ve gone past the limits of power!” Zeldias exclaimed. “Is that what it feels to become a Transcender? Have I...become the Supreme Demon Lord?!”
Everyone froze in silence as the battles came to a screeching halt. The Demon Lord’s quiet murmurings soon escalated into cries of joy.
“A Transcender?” Allen wondered.
Before he could ask what that was, the Demon Lord’s cape fluttered upward as though he were being punched by a thousand fists.
“Gah?!” he grunted.
“As I thought, without the Holy Beast Stone, you can’t control the Daemon God’s power as you wish,” Kyubel said while rushing to his lord’s side.
“I see... No wonder it fights within me. The pain I felt when I consumed a Demonic Deity is incomparable.”
“Perhaps it’s best if you rest for a while. Let’s return to the Demon Lord Castle, sire.”
“Yes, that’s for the best.”
Kyubel turned toward Allen. “See ya later, Allen.”
The Strategist waved his hand in front of his chest and created a magic circle large enough for all the Greater Demonic Deities. In a flash, they vanished.
“What in the world just happened?” Cecil murmured.
“Not a clue...” Allen replied.
Krena and Falnemes stood in place, staring at the spot the Demonic Deities had vanished from, and Allen turned to face Merus.
“Merus, I’m counting on you to head to the battlefield to the north,” he said. “Don’t let the monsters escape.”
“Noted. I’ll clean up any remnants,” Merus replied before disappearing.
What’s the Demon Lord’s goal? Did he just want to consume the Daemon God? And what were his ramblings about a Transcender about?
“Allen,” Krena said.
“Yeah?” Allen replied. “Pity that we couldn’t kill the Daemon God, huh?”
“I don’t feel bad about that. Fal tried to save that person and turn them back into their normal self, but that Demon Lord got in the way.”
Her face twisted in a way that Allen had never seen before. Huh? Is she angry?
“Allen, I’m gonna beat the Demon Lord,” she said.
“Huh? Oh, that’s right. We’re gonna be fighting that Demon Lord from now on.”
“I wanna get stronger and stronger, and then I’ll beat that Demon Lord. I mean, really beat him. Fal and I will avenge that person we lost.”
Uh, Miss Krena? You’re kinda scaring me. And your dear Fal went off on her own. He spotted the Goddess of Arbitration behind Krena. She slowly walked away before melting into space, leaving not a vestige of herself behind.
“Can’t the future be changed?” Falnemes murmured softly before she vanished.
These words were cryptic to Allen, and he recalled the Demon Lord’s earlier words. I feel like he said something like, “I’m gonna be a Transcender!” I’ve got a bad feeling about all this.
“So, Allen...” Krena started, prompting Allen to turn to her.
“Yeah?” the Summoner asked.
“Help me and Fal defeat the Demon Lord. You’re a Transcender too, after all.”
Pardon? I’m a what now?
“What does that mean, Krena?” Sophie asked. “Is Lord Allen a monster like the Demon Lord?”
Allen’s party members gathered around him, all of them curious.
“Yeah,” Krena said. “Fal said so when we were at the stable.”
Wait, the stable? Krena hasn’t gone back to Hardcore User Island. Maybe she experienced something when she entered Extra Mode? And seriously, what’s a Transcender?
“Th-That can’t be...” Cecil said, her face pale. “Allen can’t become the Demon Lord.”
Finally, a realization hit the Summoner. “You’re right. I think ‘Transcender’ refers to Hell Mode. I see... I think I get it now. The Demon Lord resurrected the Daemon God so that he could enter Hell Mode.”
Allen’s mind was moving a mile a minute. If people who weren’t reincarnated like I was want to enter Hell Mode, do they have to consume a piece of the Daemon God? No, not anyone can just devour a deity. And I doubt that just anyone can use the Gluttony skill. It’s probably safe to assume that it’s one of the Demon Lord’s signature skills. He did mention that he ate a Demonic Deity before. Was that the condition to enter Extra Mode?
