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Side Story Chapter 118

“…Selim isn’t weak.”

“Huh?

“And my friend matters as much as my child,” Iceline firmly said.

Lust suddenly stiffened when the real Lilith Aphrodite woke up and started to fight back.

“Lilith, you aren’t weak either, so you can hear me, can’t you?” Iceline asked.

“…Shut up.”

“Open your eyes. Don’t get eaten by a fake.”

“Shut your damn hole!” Lust screamed. An immense amount of her demonic power filled the air, breaking cracks in the block of ice that was holding her down. Iceline focused her mana again.

“…Shit!” As Lilith’s struggles intensified, Lust was forced to turn to her last resort. After using this power, Lust would have to rest for at least several months, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that because she was going to lose the body she had struggled so much to acquire.

“Aura of Lust!” Lust shouted.

The demonic power agglomerated around Lust’s chest and then washed over the room.

“Wh-What in the world…?”

“Some sort of light struck me just now.”

“You too? I also—”

The Imperial Knights fell silent, and the paladins they’d taken prisoner clutched their chests, their faces contorted in pain.

“I-It’s demonic power! Demonic power is entering our body!”

“This concentration… is at least a Demon King’s—Gah!”

“It hurts! H-Help meeeeee!”

Demonic and divine powers were diametrically opposed to one another. While the paladins were writhing due to the violent reaction between their powers and the demonic power, the ordinary knights responded differently.

“Huff, huff…”

“I feel hot. It’s like my brain is burning.”

“What’s happening to us?”

The young knights huffed and puffed, their youthful vigor working against them. Their heads whipped around like beasts searching for their prey.

“Pull yourselves together!” Tremblin shouted using mana.

“Aaagh…!”

“Yo-Your Grace.”

“I feel like my brain’s going to explode.”

Tremblin jammed his sword into the ground and roared, “Do not get consumed by your desires! All of you are proud Imperial Knights of the Avalon Empire!”

The Imperial Knights bit lower lips and slowly managed to regain their senses.

Iceline let out a long sigh of relief. However, Lust had already distanced herself far away during the confusion.

“...Phew.” Lust panted. “I haven’t used this ability in a while, so it’s definitely not easy. That must mean that I haven’t adjusted to this body completely yet.”

“…Do you think you can run away?”

Lust smirked. “I’ve already finished my preparations, you know.”

A black hole opened behind Lust.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but this is called a dimensional portal, which is a more advanced ability than the warp gates you humans love.”

“Spatial magic? Then you must be quite familiar with this, too.”

A violent cracking from behind Lust made her eyes widen. The dimensional portal’s serene liquid surface began to shiver, betraying an external influence.

“You…?” Lust muttered in disbelief.

“The mechanisms are basically the same, so it’s perfectly possible for me to change the coordinates if I infuse my mana into it.”

Lust grunted in frustration because she had already used too much of her power for Aura of Lust, and she couldn’t run far in her state.

“…You’re quite good,” Lust said with a crooked smile. “I can see why you’ve been chosen by him, Iceline zin Rebrecca.”

“My name is Iceline Sanders.”

“Ah, is that so? Anyhow, I feel like you must be secretly delighted with your victory…” Lust trailed off and then grinned. “...but uh-oh. What should we do? It’d be absolutely frustrating to lose to a wretch like you, so I can’t let you capture me.”

Iceline blinked, obviously confused. All Lust’s escape routes were blocked, so why was she so confident?

“What makes you think I can’t use my dimensional portal?” Lust asked with a tilt of her head.

“…Wait.”

“I trust the luck I was born with.” Lust took a step back toward the portal with a wide smile.

Iceline’s brows furrowed. “Are you crazy? The coordinates have already been changed, so you might be teleported into the ground and explode before you can do anything about it, or be trapped in a dimensional rift for eternity. But you’re still going to use your warp gate?”

“What? Are you worried that something bad will happen to your friend?”

Iceline flinched.

“Hahahahaha—the look on your face! You shouldn’t have gotten on my nerves in the first place,” Lust said, taking one more step backward.

“Stop!”

“I don’t want to.”

“Don’t act tough,” Iceline quickly warned her. “Just like you said, you went through a lot of trouble to get that body.”

“It’ll be taken either way. In any case, why don’t you take care of your son now?” Lust pointed at Selim, who was writhing on the ground

“Selim…?”.

“Poor you. The son you trusted can’t even control his boiling lust, and your trustworthy knights are no better. You don’t even have that many friends, but one of them could die any minute…”

Iceline’s unleashed anger, dyed the sky dark and covered the ground with freezing cold mana. The colossal currents of mana made even Tremblin’s hand tremble slightly around the hilt of his sword.

“…Your Majesty,” Tremblin quietly said.

“I’m going to kill you.” Iceline’s neat ponytail fluttered. Before Lust could respond, her entire body started to freeze over in spite of the fact that she hadn’t made any contact with Iceline’s mana.

“Hmph… Your ability is a real nuisance. I must get rid of you the next time we meet,” Lust remarked.

“There is no next time. You’ll never be able to get out of here.”

Lust grinned. “Didn’t I tell you that this is already over?”

Seventy percent of her body was already frozen, so she resorted to an extraordinary method to escape the danger—she fell backward. Iceline’s eyes widened.

“It… wouldn’t… be… so… bad to… shatter…”

“No!” Iceline was forced to withdraw her mana that body belonged to someone else.

Lust felt the air was quickly warm and the end of her mouth curled upward.

“Soft-hearted wretch,” she spat, just before the dimensional gate swallowed her.

Iceline collapsed to the ground.

“What… have I done?”

Guilt and self-blame overwhelmed Iceline. A Demon King. No matter what the evil creature started in the future, Iceline was ultimately responsible for allowing it to happen. She might end up regretting the day over and over.

“Urghhhhhh…”

“Yo-Your Majesty, p-please help…”

The people around her were in pain, so Iceline pulled herself together, biting her lip. She may regret it in the future, but now wasn’t the time to sit still.

“Everyone who can move, bring mana stones from the warehouse! And Duke Tremblin, please send an official request for help to the Magic Tower right now!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Tremblin nodded.

There was no better power than divine power to subdue demonic power, but mana, the power of nature, was very effective in its own way. On top of that, the experts in this field were in the Magic Tower.

“…I should stay alert,” Iceline told herself again and again as she approached Selim.

* * *

In the snowy mountains, the monsters, who looked like dots from where Joshua was standing, began to roar at the sky all of a sudden.

-Hah! The monsters are responding to the Evil Sins’ powers. Hehehe.

Some of the highest-ranking demons were summoned by the demons who had settled in this land. On the other hand, many of the monsters here were attracted by the weakening Demon Spirit’s energy. Above all, there were powers in this land that would attract their attention aside from the Demon Spirit.

-I can tell that five out of the Seven Evil Sins’ powers have manifested in the people of this country. The remaining two powers must have manifested in people somewhere else on the continent, but they’ll come to this place. The Evil Sins’ powers have the tendency to attract each other.

The Demon Spirit burst into laughter inside Joshua. The Seven Evil Sins were, as the Demon Spirit had pointed out, one in the beginning,

-Hahahahaha! I assure you that this is the true beginning. When those monsters realize that I’m merely a pie in the sky, they’ll descend the mountain to find the Evil Sins’ powers and turn your land upside down. It won’t take long.

From within his icy prison, Joshua quietly looked down the mountain. Just like the Demon Spirit said, all sorts of monsters littered its slopes. There were foul, rotting ghouls; trolls, the incredibly resilient intermediate-ranking monsters; the big creatures flying in packs were wyverns; the more powerful monsters were dullahans, the true undead; and death knights could occasionally be seen in the crowd.

“Death knights…” Joshua trailed off. He already knew who had summoned those monsters since the demon that had visited Joshua with Carmen von Agnus was of similar rank.

-Hehehe, are you starting to feel nervous? You said some arrogant crap about your children not being weak, but you can’t say that anymore after seeing those monsters with your own eyes, can you?

“Not at all.”

-…What?

Joshua grinned. “Have you forgotten that I have a legion of monsters of my own?”

Joshua could sense that the Demon Spirit was caught off guard.

Joshua had made secret preparations for certain contingencies. Once certain requirements were met, his monsters would fight for this country.