Malgeth, a high-ranking devil and wielder of Ashfire, was one of the oldest beings across both worlds.
He'd seen enough to crown himself a god—alongside four others.
It wasn't his first ritual summons.
But it was the first time he could stay.
The underworld was boring.
Years there bored him enough to play god—with friends equally desperate to escape.
Now, so close to his goal, he felt something foreign—excitement.
But he wouldn't let it ruin everything.
'That one's dangerous. The summoner's decent, but manageable. I'll kill the weak links—make him break.'
Humans were always swayed by emotion—or so Malgeth believed. So he sent multiple attacks at Julius while dashing towards the person who was a bit away from the group.
Julius expected him to target Noel—and hesitated. This led to his delayed reaction and focus on defence, unable to prevent Malgeth from approaching Akeru— a grave blunder that would make him lose one of the top talents of his kingdom.
At least, that's how the script was supposed to go.
"Ultimate Magic: Odin's Inevitability."
Malgeth froze—his instincts screamed danger.
He instinctively knew that not moving would lead to an inevitable result.
Death.
Blue lightning materialised in front of Akeru, rushing at Malgeth, with speed close to the speed of light.
Malgeth had already moved his heart a few inches right as he felt something penetrate him.
Malgeth jumped back. 'Too close.'
Disgrace crawled in—he crushed it.
He can't afford such a distraction at this moment.
However, it proved to be a difficult task.
He, a high-ranking devil, almost died due to a boy who couldn't even be one-hundredth of his age.
It was simply ridiculous.
But reality didn't care.
Seeing a massive hole in his own torso, the indifferent look in the boy's eyes, along with the contrary mocking smile the boy held, he realised one thing.
'The boy is as dangerous as that man.'
Malgeth, despite not having expertise in lightning, could understand what the boy did.
He imbued a component in his spell that allowed the spell to make any matter conducive to lightning it touches.
It was such a spell that once fired, it would automatically affect the nearby area, such that no mana zone or setting up the environment was needed.
'I know the trick now. It won't work again.' Malgeth instantly see through the weakness of that technique.
The spell might be impossible to block for the first time due to its speed. However, if you already know about the spell, preparing defences makes it useless.
That was what Malgeth was doing.
Malgeth blinked as he saw Akeru's mocking smirk change into a smile of pity.
This, for some reason, made Malgeth extremely angry.
"WHY YOU?" He snapped.
It took Malgeth a second to realise that his anger was not his, but rather something artificial.
That moment was enough for his fate to be sealed.
He turned his head back and saw a multi-coloured array, 5 different colours of mana converging to form an arrow in front of it.
'The summoner had such a trick up his sleeve.'
The arrow was now heading towards him at a speed impossible to dodge.
'I will live.' He moved his heart, knowing that the arrow would miss it.
The moment the arrow made contact with him, he felt excruciating pain.
Pain that he couldn't feel this could exist.
A soul-wrenching scream left his mouth. He felt as if an eternity was passing due to the pain.
He was supposed to be a king, a ruler, so why?
Why was that ruler now a slave to pain?
What was this feeling?
Malgeth spent an unknown amount of time drowning in his thoughts.
"Ultimate Magic: Malgeth's Death."
That was the last thing Malgeth heard before returning to his maker.
WHOOSH
The sound of the wind could only be heard in the area.
Nobody opened their mouth about what they had witnessed.
Or more like, a lack of witnessing.
"Huh? Where did the devil go?" Finral, opened his eyes, breaking the silence.
"Idiot... He is dead." Langris said while not breaking his gaze from Noel.
"Three seconds? It's already over? I didn't even feel you guys fighting. No wonder Captains are so revered, amazing." Finral was amazed at the fact that Grand Magic Knights were so strong.
'Was that the time when Yami-san and Akeru fought an unserious battle? They must be holding back to not to damage the surroundings.' An idea sprouted in Finral's mind.
Though Finral had a star-struck expression, the people he admired were far from his jolly, like mood.
His words felt mocking to them.
What speed?
They barely perceived the attacks headed towards them and didn't even see Akeru and Noel's attacks.
"You didn't even keep your eyes open, how can you even see the battle?" Langris said almost in a mutter, feeling second-hand embarrassment.
"Hahaha ahaha ahaaha haha hahaa" Noel's calm facade broke, as he laughed freely.
Nobody moved as they saw him laughing like a maniac for the next minute.
At some point, tears started flowing from his eyes, yet he continued laughing.
"I hope you don't hate me for this, but to avenge you, this had to be done. Just one more thing to do before I join you." Noel muttered as he took a deep breath.
His gaze shifted to Akeru, the latter having a frown, stared back.
"It's quite amazing that just in 10 days, you grew so much, or was that a one-time thing? I dunno what it was, but it was awesome. If you use that spell on me, I would definitely die." Noel's tone changed to a casual one, quite different from how Akeru had previously interacted with him.
Noel then pointed his finger at Julius, who was expressionlessly staring at him.
"Initially, I was expecting him to distract Malgeth while I fired that spell, yet unexpectedly, you made the job so much easier. I thought that multiple people present here will die if not all of them before such an opening comes.
Isn't that a happy ending for everyone?" A mocking smile appeared on Noel's face, as if he remembered an internal joke.
Akeru's instincts, which had been blaring since he learned about Leon in Ashspire, told him that whatever it was, it was related to Noel's smile.
"How about I cut you down first?"
"Aren't you a loudmouth?"
Yami and Jack were ready to attack him.
"Leave it. It's pointless." Akeru said without looking at the two.
Before they could retort, Akeru beat them to it.
"He is already dying."
"Oh, so you knew? Since when?" Noel asked with a surprised tone.
"Just moments ago, before I released my attack."
"That early? Damn." Noel didn't expect Akeru to read his intentions even before he released his spell.
"Lucky that you are not my opponent. It would have been annoying to kill you, seeing how troublesome you are now."
Akeru only stared at him.
CRACK.
A cracking sound came from Noel's body.
"Oh, it seems that my time is almost over." Cracks appeared on Noel's body.
His hand went to his bag, making everyone tense as they expected a suicidal move.
Noel threw a book towards Akeru, the latter catching it.
He had already seen the book's composition and found nothing wrong.
"That should answer all the questions that you have regarding me." A hesitating look appeared on Noel's face before he sighed.
"I don't know whether it would be useful to you, but these are some of the advancements I made due to your memories." He threw another book to Akeru.
"Though I don't expect you to forgive me, especially after what I have done, I... I hope you try to create a world where people don't have to go through what Leon experienced."
CRACK
Multiple cracks appeared on Noel's body, followed by his various parts disintegrating.
He smiled, teasingly.
"You wouldn't want more crazies like me running loose due to the world's negligence, would you?"
Noel's whole body disintegrated into ash.
His grimoire fell on the ground.
"His grimoire?"
"It's a 5-leaf, it won't get destroyed after the caster has died."
"Wh—"
BOOOM
A boom erupted from the grimoire, destroying it.
"Didn't want anyone else getting powers like his. Smart.." Rill looked around, deciding whether it was the right time to start painting.
"So, are we done?" Finral asked.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Every captain's communicator started beeping.
Julius answered. A hologram flickered—Marx, grim-faced, appeared on the other side.
"What happened?" Julius immediately asked.
"Sir!" Marx bit his lips, wondering how he would tell the news to Julius.
"Say it, Mushroom-head! You are making us tense for no reason." Yami yelled at him.
Marx took a deep breath and then said in a robotic voice.
"One minute ago, 20 per cent of Clover Kingdom's population… gone."
***
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