Hell Mode: Volume 4, page 26
“Oh? You killed Neftira in one blow, I see.”
When Rehzel’s form reappeared from the flames, not only was he unharmed, but even his equipment did not look so much as singed.
Seriously? That dealt zero damage to him?
Noticing his companions faltering at the sight, Allen shouted, “Krena, Dogora! You can do this, but make sure not to take any of his attacks head-on!”
“Okay!”
“Noted!”
Krena and Dogora gripped their weapons tighter, shored up their resolve, and charged in. Rehzel raised a hand languidly.
“Oof!”
“Gah!”
Rehzel’s fist collided with Krena’s greatsword with such force that the girl was sent flying. The same thing happened to Dogora pretty much simultaneously.
“Keel, prioritize Dogora when healing!”
“Yep, I know!”
Allen was standing in the center of the party’s formation, with Krena and Dogora out front, and Keel, Cecil, and Sophie in the back line. Allen kept a close eye on the front two’s HP, using Stone C’s Ability and Awakened Ability—and quickly making replacements whenever needed through Quick Summoning—to ensure that they stayed alive. Krena and Dogora had already been buffed with Fish B’s Ability and Awakened Ability, so the damage they were taking should have been reduced by sixty percent. However, Rehzel’s attacks were so powerful that the two were still at risk of dying from a single badly placed blow, and these blows came hard and fast with the Demonic Deity not even breaking a sweat.
He still hasn’t gotten serious, looks like. We’ve gotta finish this fight before he uses his Extra Skill.
The party had struggled to deal with Glaster’s Extra Skill, and he had only been an archdemon. Allen could easily imagine his party getting annihilated should the Demonic Deity activate his. Naturally, he wanted to end the fight as soon as possible.
“Krena, use your Extra Skill!”
“Okay!”
The moment Krena replied, her body was enveloped in a heat haze.
“Oh? You’re opening your Extra Gate?”
The expression on Rehzel’s face did not change in the slightest despite seeing Krena’s transformation. In fact, he even chose to close in on her.
The instant Rehzel turned toward Krena, Allen reached out to Volmaar a kilometer away using Bird F’s Awakened Skill. “All right, your turn, Volmaar. Please use your Extra Skill now.”
From a distance behind the temple ruins, Volmaar drew his bow with all the strength he had. The moment he activated his Extra Skill, Arrow of Light, a heat haze sprang up around him as well, and his arrow started to glow brightly. The next instant, the loosed arrow weaved its way through the gaps in the rubble before it struck Rehzel’s back exactly where his heart was located, making him freeze up for a split second.
Krena closed in during this brief window and brought her greatsword down on Rehzel’s neck, putting her entire weight into the attack while her stats were still buffed by Limit Break.
Her attack landed directly on the defenseless part of his neck! Did that do it?!
“I...see. You’re every bit the child you appear, it seems. You fail to understand the difference in our power.”
Krena’s greatsword had failed to draw a drop of blood from the Demonic Deity’s neck, much less slice through it. Before, Krena’s Extra Skill had enabled her to breeze through the dungeons in Academy City and the war with the Demon Lord Army, but here, it had turned out to be entirely ineffective against Rehzel. An overwhelming sense of despair assaulted the No-life Gamers.
“Krena! Don’t stop! Keep attacking!”
“Okay!”
Allen’s shout cut through the sense of powerlessness in Krena’s chest, prompting her to continue hacking away at the same spot. Unfortunately, this still did not seem to leave any sort of significant injury.
Ugh, I knew we’d have a hard time based on what Helmios said, but I didn’t expect the difference between our Endurance and Attack to be this big.
In this world, damage was calculated based on the Attack stat of the attacking party and the Endurance stat of the receiving party, with the following factors also affecting the overall equation:
The attacker’s weapon’s Attack value is added to their own stat value and then calculated with any modifiers such as Extra Skills.
The defender’s armor’s Endurance value is added to their own stat value and then calculated with any modifiers such as physical damage resistances.
Blows that land on vital points have a higher chance of becoming Critical Hits.
Ironically, Krena’s Limit Break only made it all the more painfully obvious just how great the difference between Rehzel’s and the Gamers’ stats truly was. The girl continued battering him with her attacks while darting in and out of range, but the more time passed, the more frustrated she grew. Limit Break could only be used once per day, and the timer on its duration was running out. Krena kept trying to use her other skills as the overwhelming power gap fueled her desperation.
In spite of all of Krena’s best efforts, however, Rehzel was brushing off her frenzied attacks with his bare hands like they were mere mosquito bites. His cool composure seemed at complete odds with Krena’s swift movements and crazed swings of her weapon.
“I-I can’t do it...” Eventually, the heat haze around Krena dissipated, leaving her out of breath with nothing to show for it. Her Extra Skill had timed out.
“Looks like your Extra Gate has closed,” Rehzel noted. “A Sword Lord you may be, but you merely stand before the Gate. That is the limit of your power.”
Allen perked up. “She’s...standing before the Gate?”
“That’s right. Those who open the Gate and cross its threshold become Liberated. Those like yourself.”
I see, so the term “Liberated” means being liberated from certain limits using the analogy of passing through a door. Wait, does that mean that Extra Skills...
It felt like a puzzle piece had fallen into place in Allen’s mind. This world had three modes: Normal Mode, Extra Mode, and Hell Mode. At the same time, there were also special skills usable in Normal Mode called Extra Skills. Up until this fight with Demonic Deity Rehzel, there were two questions that Allen had been wrestling with. One was why “Extra” was used for both a difficulty mode and a type of skill. The other was why he personally had no Extra Skills. Now, he thought he had answers to both.
Extra Skills essentially allowed those in Normal Mode to borrow the power of Extra Mode for a limited amount of time. This was the act of “opening the Extra Gate” that Rehzel had referred to. Allen, being in Hell Mode, was permanently on the other side of this “Gate” and was thus freely able to use powers far beyond the scope of Normal Mode. In his case, this likely corresponded to his Quick Summoning and Deputize skills, both of which he had obtained automatically upon leveling up and had no cooldown times. There was no need to classify these skills under a separate category.
“Allen, he’s way too strong! What’re we gonna do?!” Cecil cried, jolting Allen from his thoughts. She had been spamming her spells nonstop since the start of the fight and was starting to feel like their plan of action was just not working.
“Mm, he’s stronger than I’d expected,” Allen replied calmly. “We should retreat.”
Rehzel smirked. “Have you run out of your oh-so-clever strategies? But it’s too late. None of you are getting out of here alive!”
His response prompted Allen to also smirk in turn, though he kept it to himself. Good, he’s completely letting his guard down against us.
Suddenly, a Beast B crashed down through the ceiling of the crumbling temple. The cerberus’s three jaws, all lined with vicious-looking teeth, closed in on the Demonic Deity’s back.
“GRRRRR!”
“Hmph! If you think you can get behind me again, think twice!”
Just before Cerby’s bite could land, Rehzel swatted the Summon away with a single hand, reducing it to bubbles of light.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you small fry come at me—”
Rehzel was turning to Allen to say something, only to suddenly realize that standing on the other side of the fading glow of bubbles was a blue-haired young man equipped with armor and a sword that, based on its golden glow, was clearly orichalcum.
Hero Helmios had been hiding behind the three-headed dog’s back. Caught off guard for the first time, Rehzel became visibly flustered.
“Wha— Aren’t you Helmios?! Why are you here?!”
“That’s right, I’m Helmios. And you’re dead.” Helmios activated his Extra Skill at point blank range. “God Strike!”
“Urgh!”
Helmios’s golden sword ran through Rehzel’s chest, penetrating his armor and protruding out the other side. Using the momentum from his thrust, Helmios slammed Rehzel into the ground, using so much force that the stone pavement shattered beneath him, sending fissures radiating from out the point of impact like ripples and leaving the Demonic Deity half-buried. Silence filled the air.
That destructive power of his is as impressive as ever. Krena couldn’t even leave a scratch on Rehzel and yet Helmios finished him off in one blow.
“Th-That’s incredible...” Krena’s eyes sparkled with admiration.
Helmios slowly pulled his sword out of Rehzel’s body and gave it a swing to flick off the purple blood from its blade. “Looks like your strategy went perfectly. Nice one, Allen.”
“Thanks, you too. We couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”
When Allen had realized that there was no way for his party members to defeat Demonic Deity Rehzel on their own, he decided to rely on Helmios’s God Strike. However, there was a problem: as with most other Extra Skills, God Strike had a cooldown of a full day. Therefore, Helmios’s one blow absolutely had to count, the only way to guarantee that it would land was to force Rehzel to lower his guard and open himself up. To this end, the most crucial part of the day’s strategy had lain in ensuring that no one knew of the Hero’s presence in Fortenia. Allen had secretly brought him over from the Central Continent with only a select few in Rohzenheim and Giamut in the know.
Up until this point in the battle, everything Allen had done was to give Rehzel the impression that the No-life Gamers were mere children getting full of themselves after successfully repelling the monsters attacking Tiamo and Castle Lapolka—that they were ignorant of the outside world, having prepared various strategies that would ultimately prove useless, and were completely unaware of the fact that coming here was a suicide mission. Volmaar and Krena activating their Extra Skills and Cecil’s spamming magical nukes were all part of this ruse. Then, at the precise moment those children finally understood the gravity of their situation and fell into despair...that was when Helmios would strike.
Helmios sheathed his orichalcum sword. “Boy, using your entire party as a decoy was definitely thinking outside the box. And your party actually managed to keep up. You really do have wonderful companions.”
Allen lowered his head. “Thank you.”
While it may have been true that Allen could have carried out this strategy all by himself, the presence of his companions had no doubt improved their chance of success. The point had been to make Rehzel lower his guard once he saw his opponents realize how outmatched they were and fall into despair—which meant the more opponents, the more pronounced this effect. Allen now looked into the faces of each and every one of his party members, internally thanking them for deciding to join him despite knowing the danger Allen would be putting them in.
However, it was still too early to celebrate.
Seriously, how tough is he?
Allen had been keeping an eye on his grimoire this whole time, but no new line had appeared in the log on the cover.
“Helmios, let’s finish this.”
“Finish wh— Oh? Is he not dead yet?”
Just as Helmios was about to redraw his sword, a familiar voice spoke out from behind him. “Hmm, just when did you bring the Hero here? I see now that you did properly prepare for this fight. Thanks to that, I lost one of my three hearts.”
“What?! He’s still alive!” Cecil cried out with astonishment.
Rehzel, who had been stabbed in the chest, slowly rose to his feet. Even Allen was surprised, as he had thought he only needed to deliver the finishing blow. He and his companions hurriedly raised their weapons in a fluster.
“What’s the matter? Are you not going to attack? Very well, then pay attention. I am a man who threw away everything I had to obtain power! I am a man who became a Liberated to take back the World Tree!”
The Demonic Deity’s body burst through his armor as it expanded rapidly. His feet grew thick and large like those of a carnivorous dinosaur, and reptilian wings sprouted from his back. Two pairs of arms grew out of his shoulders and flanks to give him a total of six arms. By the time his face stopped morphing, no trace of him ever having been an elf remained—he now looked every inch a monster, radiating malice from head to toe and invoking dread in anyone ill-fated enough to behold him.
“Oh, wow, this...this isn’t good.” Helmios suddenly hefted his sword and charged toward Rehzel, shouting back, “I’ll hold him off! You guys run away!”
“Hmph! Big talk for a mere Hero! If you can’t cross through the Gate, you’re nothing against me!”
The Demonic Deity’s three right hands slammed into Helmios, sending him flying so far he shot past Cecil and Keel. He crashed into a wall, which then collapsed on top of him with a thunderous roar. Helmios did not stir after that.
“I’m not letting any of you get away!” Rehzel roared.
Allen promptly used a Blessing of Heaven to top Helmios’s HP back up, then looked Rehzel straight in the eye. “If you’re Liberated, do you not have Extra Skills anymore?”
“So your current attitude is your true self. You were deceiving me.”
“To be fair, we were deceiving each other. You played dead earlier on too, remember?”
“Hmph! All that matters is winning. Isn’t that right?”
After taking Helmios’s God Strike, Rehzel had remained lying on the ground, planning to attack Allen’s group when they least expected it. And he stopped doing it when I mentioned finishing him off.
“Not a very good look for someone who’s lived thousands of years to fall for some kids’ scheme only to try to deceive them back, is it? Or did you stop developing mentally when you turned into a Demonic Deity?” Allen tried to provoke Rehzel while also checking Helmios’s condition behind him.
“If that is your attempt to buy time, there’s no point. All your schemes are useless. Now, die.”
The Demonic Deity had realized what Allen was doing, but let him be. Helmios, now fully recovered thanks to the Blessing of Heaven, returned to the front line.
“Sorry about that just then. Everyone, let’s go!”
“Okay!” Krena’s morale showed no signs of faltering despite witnessing Helmios get sent flying only moments prior.
“All of your struggles are meaningless! Now, taste the same despair my people did!” Rehzel howled.
Helmios’s shout served as the signal for the fight to resume. Krena and Dogora joined the Hero up front; however, the power gap between them and Rehzel had only grown more pronounced since the Demonic Deity’s transformation. At this point, Rehzel did not even bother to protect himself from their attacks. Whenever their weapons landed on him, they merely made a high-pitched metallic ring and left no visible damage.
Oof, this isn’t good. I’m having Stone Cs use Substitute like crazy but they can’t keep up.
Stone Cs’ Ability enabled it to take on the damage on behalf of a companion. As soon as he would Summon a new one, however, it would immediately break down into bubbles of light. For what it was worth, Rehzel was reacting to Helmios’s attacks at least, but he looked the very picture of composure while doing so.
Ah crap, we’re seriously out of our depth. God Strike’s the only thing we had that works on a Demonic Deity. And Rehzel’s gotten serious now. Escaping is gonna be a feat in and of itself.
“Sophie!”
“Yes, Lord Allen?”
“Sorry, but can you buy us some time with Grand Spirit Materialization?”
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before their group wiped. In order to prevent this from happening, Allen wanted Sophie to use her Extra Skill. The idea was to use a grand spirit, which would have significantly higher HP than one of Allen’s Deputized Rank B Summons, to serve as a shield while the rest of the party fled.
“Um, I’ve actually been trying to do so for the past while, but I’m not getting any sort of response!”
“What?!”
“I-I’m so sorry! This is the first time something like this has ever happened!”
What a time for the grand spirits to be AWOL. C’mon out already!
As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.
“Okay. Just keep trying, okay?”
“O-Of course!”
Even as Allen was having this conversation with Sophie, the situation continued to worsen. The front line—where Krena, Dogora, and Helmios were desperately parrying each and every one of Rehzel’s devastating attacks—was on the verge of collapsing.
“Mirror, block it!”
Suddenly, General Mirror appeared right in front of the Demonic Deity.
“I’ve heard about this from Neftira. This one can reflect attacks, right?” Rehzel asked before sidestepping the mithril armor and driving a punch straight into Allen’s abdomen. The blow sent him flying, his body hitting the ground with a few bounces, spewing blood.
This whole time, Allen had been waiting for Rehzel to unleash a big magical attack. However, the Demonic Deity seemed determined to do otherwise, leading Allen to suspect that he already knew about Stone B’s Awakened Ability and was being wary of it.
