Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle - Chapter 183

183 – The Tenth Stratum – The Realm of Demons and The Awakened Interceptors 16 / Slaying the Dragon-slayer

The Hero of the Cursed Sword Hervor.

The unique Hero who doesn’t use Spirit Magic as her main offensive while continuing to be placed in the higher ranks in this harsh Adventuring industry.

The 1st ranked Storm Hero, the 2nd ranked Jet-Black Hero, the 4th ranked Flame Hero, and even the 5th ranked Thunder Hero all use Spirit Magic.

But the 3rd ranked Hero of the Cursed Sword rarely uses her Spirit Magic or her Cursed Sword.

She swings her Cursed Sword at opponents she deems worthy, and if the sword breaks, she’ll bring out Spirit Magic for the first time.

It appears that the Spirit dislikes the Cursed Sword’s curse and will not lend its strength when she is equipped with it.

She wields outrageous power and absurd regeneration ability.

She loves pitting her full strength against an enemy who is also going all out, which results in flashy, easy-to-understand battles that excite the viewer.

Both Nicola, who is Berith’s true identity, and I love those kinds of fights that she has.

We know her strength well.

But right now, she is the enemy. We have to find the path to victory and cross it at all costs.

「Berith joining forces with the Chief of Staff that beat Fenix, huh? Man, I’m stoked!」

Herv is genuinely enjoying herself, but the damage definitely got through to her. Even if this is a reproduction of the real thing, her regenerative abilities are not all-powerful.

I think we can win this.

Herv, who crashed into the wall after that last attack, stared down our approaching Snow Covered Strong Arms and readied her own giant rock-covered arm.

「Berith, fly.」

Understanding my intent, she removes the Snow Covered Strong Arm from me.

The fist that is large enough to hide a person received propulsion from my Magical Energy jet streams and headed towards Herv along with Berith.

Judging the timing, I jump out from the shadows of the fists.

「Bring it…!」

A thunderous roar. The dull sound of two gigantic arms crashing.

Berith’s fist struggled for supremacy whereas mine was the only one that faltered.

With that, Herv finally realized that something was wrong.

「That’s right, you are the Chief of Staff, after all!」

It was impossible to see me and Berith at the same time.

With a minimum amount of silver on my arm, my right arm shouldn’t look like it’s being augmented by the horn.

「One of your plans? Fine! As long as I can enjoy trading blows with a Majin!」

Smiling while bearing her fangs, the Hero of the Cursed Sword looks at me as I dash towards her.

She readies her fist again.

While looking at me, she is wary of Berith’s next attack.

I slid under the fist that mowed down the entire area in front of me.

I used the jet propulsion of Magical Energy to accelerate me forward as I slid. Herv plunged her other arm into the ground to defend against my low kick.

「Ooh! That’s got some kick to it! …Whoa, whoa, holy sh-」

I inherited this horn in a non-regular fashion.

Normally, a horn would be grafted or embedded in some way onto the Majin, but not only did my master use various secret methods to mix it into a Human, but it was also crushed and ingested a bit at a time. If he hadn’t done that, it probably wouldn’t have been possible for the horn of the Demon King to be inherited by a Human child.

As a result, the shape that my horn takes is simply…strange.

In the Fenix fight, the upper right half of my body was covered in a hard, black substance, and I grew a wing.

However, it has evolved further…Is that the right word?

Right now, my right foot has been transformed by the horn.

And it can break Herv’s fist. This is what surprised her.

I break through her arm shield and break her leg with that kick.

But then Herv… With her posture broken due to the broken bone, she used the momentum of her upper body falling to throw a punch at me, who is below her. Using the arm that just had the giant rocks covering it broken, she hits me. Contact. Mounting me, she punches again. And again. She just keeps punching. The floor cracked as explosion-like punches continued to bombard my whole body. I’d be in trouble if I hadn’t deployed the horn to cover the portions of my body that were covered by clothes from my neck down.

「Hahaha! I like tough ones! It ain’t fun if it ends too fast!」

There will probably be opinions like What a shameful sight for the Demon King Army’s Chief of Staff. Who cares? In order to defeat the world’s 3rd rank, I can’t afford to care about vanity. Right now, I only have one job, which is to protect the tenth stratum.

「I’m afraid this will all end soon.」

「…Ah, Berith!」

She looks around, but can’t confirm where Berith is. I can see her very well.

「…Above?!」

Herv immediately thrust her remaining giant rock arm towards the heavens.

In a moment, there was a thunderous sound. The floor shook heavily.

Berith jumped into the air using a Silver Slope, and used Snow Covered Strong Arm to change her two arms into one big one.

A fist thicker and larger than Furcus’s armor’s arm punches the Hero of the Cursed Sword.

「Never a dull moment with you two! You planning to crush me along with the Floor Boss?!」

It is difficult to beat Herv head-on.

In that case, we’ll beat her from other angles

For example, having the Floor Boss engage her in a suicide attack, and then crushing her along with the Floor Boss while she is occupied with said Floor Boss.

All of this ends with my defeat, so I became the decoy.

We didn’t discuss or plan this beforehand, this was simply because we were Tag Tournament partners.

We both know what we are likely to do, and match each other while putting faith in it.

「The only one getting crushed is you.」

「You’re higher and heavier, but I can still…!」

「Then, how about I make her faster as well.」

I make Magical Energy jet out of the elbow part of Berith’s fist.

That’s not all. I have already applied Attack Down on her.

「Gu…rgh…」

I place my right arm on her chest and grabbed her free arm with my left.

And then, I give her a full force Defense Down. This isn’t effective against magic, but the goal is to decrease her defensive power.

Herv’s fist started to crack, and her body was sinking.

「Come, Hero of the Cursed Sword. Try and stop it.」

「…Heh, well aren’t you a gentleman. Tellin’ me to put’em up or shut up.」

The test of might didn’t last long.

Herv’s arm broke and then Berith’s continued falling. The Hero of the Cursed Sword punched again with her regular, non-rock-covered arms, and she got pushed back again until finally, her body was hit by Berith’s Snow Covered Strong Arm.

With the crushing force from the impact above, she was pushed until she was pierced by the fist that I placed on her chest.

Herv’s face was very close to mine.

Berith canceled her Snow Covered Strong Arm and stood back up with her fists at the ready.

「You think this is enough to kill me?」

「I do. Why? Because none of my subordinates are incompetent.」

Her regenerative abilities aren’t without limit. She can’t regenerate a lost arm, and she can die from all her blood being sucked out.

And when she appeared in this area, her clothes had holes made from when she was wounded in those spots. Even though all those wounds were gone by the time she showed up.

In other words, she had been receiving damage from my subordinates up until she reached the final area.

Due to her personality and battle history, I knew she would want a rematch with Haagenti and Carmilla.

I am of the firm belief that the damage received from that has exhausted her regenerative ability considerably.

In addition to that, I have considered the exhaustion from her punch-up with Berith.

I have already come to the conclusion that it is not possible for her to regenerate enough to overturn death.

I want to borrow Berith’s strength for the battle with Aerial. So, if a decoy is required, I will volunteer.

「……I see, you’re right about that.」

She smiled. Like a kid satisfied after a full day of playtime.

「It’s been fun. I’ll get ya next time.」

「You’re welcome to try.」

The Hero of the Cursed Sword body crumbled and scattered.

…It’s pretty crazy that she endured this long while my arm is pierced through her chest.

I did something similar to Furcus in the Tag Tournament, but she has Ogre blood in her.

I suppose in that regard, Herv does have dragon-slayer blood in her…

I quickly stand back up and look at Berith.

「Well done. But your work isn’t over yet.」

「…I’m sorry but…I think it is.」

Berith fell to her knees.

She vomited Magical Energy from her mouth like blood.

「Actually, I took a solid hit from her. I don’t think I can move after the recoil of that last attack.」

She got hit by Herv’s rock fist? If that’s the case then, then her insides are…

Rather, it’s amazing she was able to move until now.

「I am truly sorry.」

「Don’t be. Rest, we’ll deal with him.」

「…Yes. If it’s you, Chief of Staff, I’m sure you can.」

Berith’s body turned to Magical Energy light as if she was being disassembled.

The only remaining enemy is the Storm Hero Aerial.

The battle’s end draws near.