Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

It was different from the usual forest they’d grown accustomed to during their journey. The majority of their view was nothing but green, but the plantation was different. As it should be, of course, since this forest was different from any they’d seen in the humanfolk territory—as they were making their way through the demon territory. The forest was thick enough to block off all sunlight, as the five prepared to camp in the wilderness. They were humans, even though humans rarely ever found their way here.

“I guess a forest in the demon territory is just that different,” said Lieze as she prepared dinner with skilled hand movement.

On the way here, she had been mostly on edge, carrying large gauntlets that contradicted her stature, but after having spent a few hours in the demon territory, she probably managed to calm down a lot more.

“The spirits are strong here. It resembles the forest of Edos, with the World tree and its dragons,” commented Urza as she helped Lieze.

As she was a spirit user, she could feel the difference in her surroundings directly on her skin.

“Still, the spirits feel a lot more unstable than they do in human forests. According to what I heard, there is a desert and some icy mountains located almost next to each other.”

“That’s just how it is, I guess. I can’t even imagine what it must be like. Then again, I never saw a desert or icy mountains with my own eyes.”

Urza and Lieze continued their conversation. On the surface, it might seem like what they mostly went through, but if one knew the circumstances and the dire situation they were in, this was the least they had to do to maintain their sanity.

“Personally, I would have preferred if you didn’t tag along just this once…” Seran used his belongings as a pillow as he rolled around, commenting on the conversation between the two girls.

At first glance, he looked lousy and uncaring, but even his own expression was a lot heavier than what one was used to from Seran. His gaze moved around sharply, clearly showing how cautious he was.

“Y-You say that, but we can’t just wait for you guys to come back.” Lieze protested to Seran’s comment, and Urza nodded along strongly.

Needless to say, Seran didn’t consider the girls weak or anything like that. He knew all too well that they were strong enough to protect themselves. But even so, he’d rather not have them tag along. Considering their goal and all.

“Sorry that I have to ask this of you…”

The female demon who had been acting as their guide so far, Yuriga, apologized with these words with a pained voice. Four days ago, she had arrived in front of Seran and Lieze in their hometown Rimarze, severely injured. If she had been just a regular human, she most likely would not have survived those wounds. Even now, her body was riddled with marks that would probably never disappear. They used the best healing magic they had at their disposal, but the effects weren’t as strong with demons. She had yet to fully recover for that reason, and normally, she should be taking it easy, but she was forcing herself to come along—for good reason, too.

“It’s not your fault, Yuriga.” Lieze panicked and tried to reassure her.

“…We’re making it to that demon town tomorrow, right? Can you fill us in again so that we’re all on the same page before we get there?” Urza inquired, and Yuriga nodded.

“Rescuing the captured Demon Lord, huh? We totally got our priorities backward,” Seran commented while listening to Yuriga’s explanation.

As Yuriga explained, their goal was to enter the Demon Territory and save the Demon Lord—or rather—now former Demon Lord Luiza.

Around a month ago, at the western border of the demon territory, furthest away from the human territory, there appeared a demon who declared themselves the Demon Lord. Hearing reports about this from her subordinate, Luiza didn’t really pay it much mind. Of course, she wasn’t particularly careless or anything like that. The demon society prioritized strength over anything, so naturally, there were those aiming to become the Demon Lord. In a way, this is how demon society worked.

If they didn’t possess the strength to back up their words, they would soon be removed from the picture, and just declaring themselves the Demon Lord would not grant them anything. Even with Luiza’s father, she didn’t automatically become the Demon Lord, she simply was the strongest in all of the demon territory. She just happened to be the daughter of the previous Demon Lord.

The quickest method to be accepted as the next Demon Lord is to strike down whoever the current one is. However, since this demon remained far to the west, self-proclaimed, and nothing more, Luiza didn’t bother. The situation only changed when this person defeated the local ruling demon. Theoretically, the orders of the Demon Lord were absolute, but Luiza couldn’t exactly rule every small end of the whole territory, so the smaller domains were handled by strong demons. It might change depending on the Demon Lord, but Luiza was the type to only make decisions for the big scale of the whole demon society. And it seemed like the local lord attempted to strike down the self-proclaimed demon lord, only to be defeated in return.

At this rate, Luiza’s own rule could suffer injuries, and so she decided to send off her servants to get rid of the demon. Yet, even they did not return. Luiza didn’t hesitate. She knew what to do next. It might just be a self-proclaimed Demon Lord, but her subordinates were still fairly strong. This meant she couldn’t just let it slide anymore. As the self-proclaimed Demon Lord still didn’t attempt to move from the western edge of the territory, Luiza felt forced to head over, but her subordinates starting with Yuriga were against that.

Many demons were against the very fact that Luiza tried to create peace between the demons and the humans, which created a lot of friction in the ranks of the demons. If Luiza were to head out now, she would put a mark on herself. And with that, they managed to convince Luiza.

“Thinking about it now, I was a fool for worrying about such a small thing. It is all so clear now why they were doing that…” Yuriga cursed herself mid-explanation.

Yuriga and her subordinates stormed the hideout of the self-proclaimed Demon Lord, only to find it empty. It was all a ruse to tear them away from Luiza.

***

At that time, Luiza stayed not at the castle used by the Demon Lord for generations, located in the center of the territory, but rather on a small island on a lake near the human territory. Especially lately, this was like her main residence. As soon as her subordinates left, Luiza picked up on an eerie presence and asked her other servants to evacuate immediately. She was used to being targeted, but her intuition said that this was different.

Considering the time she received the last report and the time it would take to move, it should normally be impossible, but Luiza was sure that this must be related to the self-proclaimed Demon Lord. She remained seated on her throne when a single individual appeared. It was a familiar appearance with a black robe, not allowing you to see their expression, but the dark wings at the back stood out the most.

“Well met, uninvited one. You didn’t have to prepare a stage like this, I would have accepted your challenge at any time,” Luiza delivered a cynical greeting, considering the demon went so far out of their way to keep Luiza isolated.

“You could at least name yourself, don’t you think?”

Even now, the black-winged demon didn’t respond. Granted, Luiza wasn’t exactly too happy about such a rude appearance, but a battle to the death didn’t need any such honors.

“Fine then, let’s get this over with.”

Luiza stood up from her throne and grabbed her staff, taking position as the absolute ruler she was. Anybody would feel tense seeing her like that. Of course, she wasn’t basking in arrogance, either. Simply, her physical abilities were unreasonably high, paired with her inability to die. So far, no demon could ever beat Luiza. Granted, the strongest demon Three-Arms could overpower her in terms of raw strength, but with her invincibility, he couldn’t do much more. And for that reason, Luiza had been the Demon Lord for three hundred years.

Even in Luiza’s eyes, the black-winged demon was an extraordinary existence, but she had no intention of losing. And the battle for the throne of the Demon Lord began—except, someone interrupted the fight.

***

Listening this far, the fifth person in Kyle’s group—strictly speaking not a person—spoke up with a grave expression.

“I’d like to ask again, but is that true? That the black-winged demon…had dragons with him?” Irumera, currently looking like a human, didn’t want to believe what she was just told.

“No doubt about it. A giant dragon appeared right as the fight between the two destroyed the castle, teaming up with the black-winged demon.” Yuriga repeated the same answer as before.

“What is going on here…”

Irumera held her head in disbelief. Not minding her, however, Yuriga continued to explain.

Luiza was then forced to fight the black-winged demon and dragon, but the course of the fight is unclear. After all, nobody managed to witness it with their own eyes. Only a few of the servants who evacuated could see the basic gist of the fight, with a mountain of fire erupting to create pillars of flames, or earthquakes shaking the ground. The battle continued for a whole day, turning the surroundings into destroyed ruins, until the fight finally ended. Even a good portion of the island had sunk to the ground of the lake. When Yuriga realized that it was all a trap, she immediately rushed back, only to be greeted by the black-winged demon riding on the dragon’s back as they carried off the unconscious Luiza.

Of course, she attempted to follow them, but the dragon seemingly grew tired of her like an annoying housefly, so it sideswiped her with a tail, bringing Yuriga to the brink of death. They then took off, disappearing into the distance. And soon after, the news of the Demon Lord Luiza’s defeat spread across the territory like wildfire.

“I…could only watch. We fell for their strategy. Because there’s no way Luiza-sama would lose otherwise!”

She was furious at herself for letting something like that happen. Of course, hearing about the battle itself, there probably wasn’t much she could do when those monsters were going at it, but that didn’t mean she could just accept the reality. Her frustration was directed at the enemy, but also herself.

Seems like she’s getting better at least.

Watching Yuriga’s reaction, Urza felt relieved. If left alone, she would have simply let that frustration build up inside. It was reckless, but this was Urza’s attempt to treat her and be considerate by letting her recount the events.

“Still…a dragon, huh? You mentioned that the dragons sided with the demons during the…what was it, Great Invasion? Could they be related?”

As Irumera was trying to organize her thoughts, Seran quietly spoke to Kyle. They still tried to keep Kyle’s past a secret from anybody not too close.

“I don’t know. The Dragon King said the dragons would not side with the demons, and yet…”

Urza remembered the words the Dragon King said at the World Tree. It didn’t sound like he was lying back then. Seran glanced over at Irumera, and her reaction seemed to be genuine. She probably wasn’t involved in this incident.

“If Zeurus has nothing to do with this, then it would be another dragon…Did they have any special characteristics?”

“If I had to think about it, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t think Irumera could compare. The force and stature of that dragon…only the Dragon King could compare to that.”

That said, Yuriga had met the dragons herself, and she didn’t feel like any of them would betray their morals.

“…Undoubtedly, this must be Juvars-sama.”

Irumera’s expression grew cloudy. Half of it was doubt, and half was a desire for it to be wrong. Juvars is one of the dragon elders who had been alive when the Divine Dragon Varlzed was still alive, paired with the Dragon King Zeurus. To Irumera, both of them were dragons she couldn’t ever hope to catch up to. That’s why she doubted her ears when she first heard Yuriga’s story. Before even believing it, it should have been impossible. But looking at Yuriga’s reaction, she most likely wasn’t lying, either.

Normally, the dragons wouldn’t side with either humans or demons. They stay in their own territory, not meddling with the outside world. And so, if Juvars was assumed to be helping demons, even more so the black-winged demon, then they had to confirm if this was true or not. That’s why she tagged along with Seran’s group after making sure that Ghrud would report back to Zeurus.

“But…why? He should have been hiding in the ice mountains of the demon territory…What is he doing…?” Irumera’s grumbling continued, and since Yuriga’s self-loathing only grew, a rather unpleasant atmosphere spread among them.

“…And so, put into a messy situation like that, you came to ask for help, correct?”

Yet, Seran didn’t seem able to read the mood whatsoever, just stating the cold and hard facts. Yuriga nodded along.

“That’s right. What matters more than anything is that Luiza-sama is still alive.”

Yuriga faintly saw Luiza breathing as she got carried away. Of course, she didn’t know what they were plotting, but they couldn’t possibly kill Luiza.

“But now that she lost the battle, the seat of the Demon Lord belongs to that black-winged demon, right? I don’t think you can just redo that.”

Seran voiced a doubt. If the black-winged demon was now reigning over the throne, they were literally out of options. However, Yuriga shook her head.

“…No, the situation isn’t all that simple. We still have an advantage.”

Yuriga managed to recover as she explained. If this was a proper fight decided by victory and defeat, Luiza would have lost her seat, but the circumstances were different. It’s not like just defeating the opponent was enough. Not to mention that a dragon got involved in the fight, too. Of course, the self-proclaimed Demon Lord could just declare his victory, but not everybody would blindly accept that which caused this current situation. Not only that, but Luiza’s close servants wouldn’t be able to serve this new ruler. However, considering the black-winged demon’s strength, paired with the help of Juvars, they couldn’t exactly go on a suicide mission to save Luiza.

Many weren’t willing to accept this new Demon Lord, but it was a stretch to expect them to try and save Luiza themselves. And so, Yuriga saw her only option in asking for help outside the demon territory—the humans she had fought side-by-side with all this time. She knew how strong they were, and after countless battles together, they had built up a certain level of trust. Of course, she still felt hesitant about asking humans for help, but her desire to save Luiza was stronger.

Yuriga might have infiltrated the human territory a few times, so she knew her way around, but Kyle and his group only managed to get into the demon territory with the help of Klaus and his business association. Even so, after learning about the town of Rimarze during an earlier conversation, Yuriga decided to bet on that chance and headed over despite her life-threatening injuries.

And most surprising of all, she seemingly won that bet. It was a shame that Kyle and Minagi weren’t around, but just running into Seran and the others was a stroke of luck to the point she might have used up all of hers for the rest of her life.

“If we save Luiza-sama and defeat that imposter, she will be able to take back the throne…So, please lend me your strength! I’ll do whatever it takes for you to help me!” Yuriga pleaded with all her life on the line, and so Lieze agreed immediately, together with Urza.

However, the one who was most cautious was surprisingly Seran.

“That sure came outta nowhere…and right when Kyle isn’t around, too.”

So he complained, but obviously, this wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just bad timing. Kyle, Minagi, and even Shildonia were still in the center of the humanfolk, talking with the rulers and high nobles of the world, cleaning up after the World Meeting. It would take him a long time to reach the western side of the human territory where Rimarze is located. Of course, they do have long-distance communication magic items, so Kyle was informed of the situation, but they could only use it a few times a day, so he wasn’t completely up to date with everything.

Kyle was rushing back as fast as he could, but he didn’t have the dragons at his disposal, nor could he rely on the [Wind Walker] magic from Urza. Asking Irumera to pick him up was impossible, too, considering one of her own was involved in this. Granted, they could have waited for Kyle to return, but at this rate, the black-winged demon would be accepted as the new demon lord. If they were going to help Luiza, it had to happen soon, and Yuriga showed no intention of waiting for Kyle to catch up.

So far, we’ve always been acting together, and yet the second we split up, this happens. Couldn’t have been worse timing.

Of course, in the future Kyle came from, Luiza had already been defeated and replaced, so he had no way of knowing about this. In reality, he had prepared everything he could simply assuming the Great Invasion would happen. However, there was only so much he could do. As a human himself, trying to make any change in the demon territory was futile. Even so, he achieved an amicable relationship with Luiza, and the best he could do was warn her about any possible danger. That said, not knowing when something would happen was what came back to bite him.

Even with his knowledge from the future, this was mostly limited to the humanfolk’s affairs, as well as the rough time when the [Great Invasion] started. He had assumed that there was still a year left until anything would begin. Naturally, this threw off his plans. And worst of all…

The opponent we’re dealing with just ain’t it…

Let alone the Ancient Dragon Juvars, there’s also the black-winged demon that they knew frighteningly little about. Even just watching him from afar that last time they met, Seran didn’t want to fight him, either. That said, what would normally be the biggest problem, namely Luiza’s safety, was something Seran didn’t worry about much. After all, she was practically immortal. Though she did say that, if you were to continuously cut her up over the course of a year, you might be able to actually kill her. Either way, Luiza was most definitely safe and sound.

Yuriga probably would have gone off for Luiza’s rescue even if she had to go alone. And then, they’d never be able to meet again, since she wouldn’t ever survive. And even Seran knew they couldn’t afford to lose a valuable ally like her. So, Kyle and his group knew what had to be done.

“Now or never.”

Imagining the situation Luiza was in, imprisoned or worse, Seran sighed. The sun had already set, as the campfire created a shadow on Seran’s face, which contradicted his determination.