Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

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Late at night, it was time to start the assault. They didn’t plan anything complicated, just splitting into two teams. The one heading for Luiza, and the one causing a distraction. The ones entering the castle through the secret passage would be Seran’s group, Irumera, Yuriga, Flame-Eye, and Poison-Needle. The other group surrounding Creet would be on hold on the opposite sides of the castle. The infiltration team, lead by Poison-Needle, would head directly for Luiza, and escape the second they had freed her. After that, they would immediately leave the demon capital to head back. It was a rather forceful attempt, but this was the most likely to succeed.

“You sure about this?” asked Seran, since Creet and the others had the riskier duty on their shoulders.

“I don’t like it one bit, but you guys are stronger than us. You should be able to handle protecting Luiza-sama better than us.”

This would be the quickest route to guarantee Luiza’s safety, and the others agreed.

“Plus, you guys are going to infiltrate the castle. I think you’re running a much bigger risk than us.”

“…Don’t you die on us, alright?”

“Of course,” Creet showed a faint smile.

“You sure we can’t get any more people like this?” Urza didn’t like this situation and asked Flame-Eye.

“If we really needed that many people, I could have gathered some more from my territory…But I wouldn’t want them to betray me.”

As a high-ranking demon, Flame-Eye had her own territory with her own subordinates, but she didn’t bring them with her.

“You just don’t have any faithful followers,” said Seran without any remorse, which left Flame-Eye aggravated for a moment, but Poison-Needle jumped in.

“Right now, we’re about to start a rebellion against the Demon Lord, remember? I don’t feel like sacrificing my subordinates on a suicide mission.”

Poison-Needle also had a good amount of subordinates, but didn’t bring them with her. Right now, they were going to go against the demon that stood at the top of all the demons in the land. Leaving aside high-ranking demons like Flame-Eye and Poison-Needle, who worked for their own benefit, people like Yuriga were a rarity.

“Apologies, but once we free the previous Demon Lord, I will go my own way again.”

Right as they were about to head out, Irumera told Seran.

“Looking for Juvars?”

“That’s right. I need to find out just why he was helping the demons’ fight for the throne and what he intends to do now. And that is my only goal of being here.”

This was the one thing she couldn’t back down from as a dragon. Seran thought of stopping her, but after they rescued Luiza, it could help divert the attention away from them.

“I’m not getting in your way. In fact, this should help you get out easier,” Irumera must have guessed Seran’s thoughts.

“…Got it. But be careful.”

Seran knew that stopping her would be impossible, so he simply agreed.

Under Yuriga’s guidance, they reached the secret passage at the back of the castle and began their infiltration. The inside of the castle was as crazy and convoluted as you’d expect, so if Seran and the others went here alone, they would have gotten lost immediately. But it was also Poison-Needle’s bees that did the heavy lifting.

“There’s a guard around here. Though it’s just goblins.”

For just a split second, they encountered a half-demon, but they didn’t want to risk causing chaos, so they evaded him.

“Why do I have to avoid a half-demon…?” Poison-Needle complained while whispering to herself.

“Stop complaining.” Flame-Eye seemed extremely calm despite the situation.

After that, they made it through the castle with ease, which felt off to Seran. The atmosphere was heavy for some reason like something bad would happen.

“Weird…”

“Yeah, it feels odd.”

Lieze answered Seran’s mumbling, and Urza had an anxious expression on her face, too. Everything worked out too well.

“That’s a good thing, no? Let’s keep going.” Flame-Eye didn’t seem too concerned.

“I told you it’s fine. I already checked that there won’t be any enemies ahead. And nothing changed over on Luiza-sama’s end,” Poison-Needle was incredibly confident, showing no worry whatsoever.

“And as long as Luiza-sama is still here, we have no other choice.”

Yuriga probably felt like something didn’t feel right, but with no enemies around, they had to keep going, even if it was a trap or something like that.

“We’re almost there.”

Matching Yuriga’s information about the castle with Poison-Needle’s real-time input quickly brought them to the hall where Luiza was being kept. She was locked up inside there, with three people standing guard. When they arrived at the hall in question, Yuriga commented in a quiet voice.

“First, we take care of those three. As fast as possible. After that, we free Luiza-sama, and…” Yuriga spoke this far only for her to jump inside the hall.

Seran and the others followed and came to a sudden halt.

“Wh-What is…?”

It was the giant hall that should had Luiza inside with the guards. They definitely didn’t go to the wrong place.

“What are you doing? Go and attack already!” Poison-Needle rushed into the hall at a bit of a delay, but the situation had changed.

“What are you talking about? Where’s the enemy? Where’s Luiza-sama?!”

“Right over there, of course,” Poison-Needle answered Yuriga’s question with a serious tone, not understanding what she was talking about as she pointed at that.

However, what was there actually wasn’t a person. It was a puppet in the shape of a person, chained to the wall. And the other three around were also just puppets.

“What the heck is this?”

Seran touched the puppet, where he felt a faint warmth from, but it wasn’t anything human.

“Poison-Needle uses scent to find the other person, but her eyes aren’t all that great. Especially when using bees. So…yeah, this was all a set-up.” Flame-Eye appeared behind Poison-Needle with a grin.

“Wha…?!”

The moment Poison-Needle heard that voice, a large hole appeared in her stomach, with Flame-Eye’s arm poking out.

“Knowing that, I just had to set up a magic item that can emit a particular smell and wait…If you’d gotten just a bit closer, you would have been able to tell. But thanks for bringing us here.”

“Gah…F-Flame-Eye, you bastard…!”

A white liquid continued to pour out of the open wound as Poison-Needle glared at Flame-Eye. She tried to summon her bees, but…

“My whole body is made of fire, remember? Your bees won’t work against me. And from this close, I can just burn them up,” she summoned a few females and burned down all the bees.

“You were always an eyesore.” Flame-Eye whispered something in Poison-Needle’s ear, as she collapsed.

Her eyes opened wide, her body convulsing one last time, and then stopped moving. Flame-Eye threw her body away and waved her hand to get rid of the liquid on her arm.

“Phew, that’s done…And with her out of the way, it’s your guys’s turn now.” Flame-Eye flashed a devious smile as she turned toward Seran and the others.

Yuriga was utterly bewildered because of this sudden revelation, but eventually screamed out loud.

“Wh-What are you doing?!”

Flame-Eye looked at her like she was met with an insect and explained.

“You still don’t understand? I set you up. I lured you in here so that you won’t be able to escape,” she said as demons stormed into the room.

Tens of demons surrounded Seran and his group.

“You betrayed us?!” Lieze glared at Flame-Eye, but she just laughed it off.

“Not exactly. I planned to lure you in here from the get-go. I was the one who came up with using Poison-Needle, too.”

“You were siding with the black-winged demon from the start. So you did meet them?”

“No? I didn’t meet them…But I did meet someone else.”

“Yes, absolutely.”

A familiar voice made Seran click his tongue.

“I had a feeling it’d be you…Targ.”

“It has been quite a while, Seran-san.”

Together with Poison-Needle’s weakened laugh appeared the aide of the black-winged demon, Targ, with his trademark creepy smile.

His small stature made it seem like he wouldn’t be a strong fighter, but his skilled technique and teleportation made it so Seran could only squeeze out a victory by sacrificing his own arm. The other demons he brought with him seemed to be on the strong side, too, probably around Yuriga’s level.

“Please let me explain. After she was shooed away at the gates, I approached her. Promising that the Demon Lord-sama would grant her wish if she made herself useful.”

Targ always loved talking, so he took it upon himself to explain.

“And of course, her sole duty was to lure you into a trap. We’ve learned from our past mistakes after you’ve spoiled our plans before, see,” Targ shook his head like he was a comedian. “And not only that, you’ve even been creating uncertainty factors within humanfolk, too, so I figured it would be best to erase you while we can.”

“And so, you set up this trap, huh? I appreciate the high evaluation on your end…And yeah, you were totally right in doing that.”

Despite the situation he was in, Seran maintained an arrogant smirk.

“And so, I was asked to get rid of an uncertainty factor within our ranks…namely, Poison-Needle,” said Flame-Eye.

“Absolutely. Her ability is truly marvelous, but as she is not swearing allegiance to our cause, I’ve been thinking about how to deal with someone as unpredictable as her…Hence, this is the result.”

“Naturally, she didn’t know a thing about that. And that’s probably how I managed to deceive all of you in one fell swoop,” Flame-Eye laughed like she found it utterly amusing.

“Needless to say, Creet and the others should have made contact with our forces, too, so I suggest not holding your breath to hope for help.”

Targ’s words made Yuriga grit her teeth with rage.

“It pains me that Kyle-san doesn’t seem to be present…But, there’s no turning back now. With him around, he might have been able to turn things around. And then, there’s another unexpected factor…” Targ looked over at Irumera with a troubled gaze. “It pains me to admit, but I have no intention of fighting with a dragon.”

“What a coincidence, I feel the same way. However, if Juvars-sama is in any way related to this incident, then I will not sit down. Tell me! What did you do to Juvars-sama?!” Irumera took a step forward as if she wanted to protect Seran and the others.

“Actually, I’ve informed Juvars-sama of your presence, but he said that ‘there is no need to meet her,’ see. Hence, would you be willing to depart from here? I’m simply listening to Juvars-sama’s orders, after all.”

“…! I cannot believe those words! Not until I meet him myself!”

“So you say…How troublesome.” Targ showed a fishy reaction, groaning in distress while overplaying it, which made everyone whimper in pain. “Then let’s do it like this. I will once again ask Juvars-sama to meet you, and I don’t mind relaying a message to him, either. So, would you mind waiting for me somewhere else…while we clean up here?”

Irumera didn’t answer that suggestion at first. As a dragon, it might be the wise choice to accept. However, abandoning Seran and the others was not. And so, she made her decision—

“I refuse. I can’t trust you, plain and simple. And if you say you will block my path to Juvars-sama…then I will carve my own!”

Considering her position, it was hard to say if this was the right decision she had made. However, she didn’t believe herself to be wrong,

“Is that? Well, I guess that’s the end of our discussion, then. I do have permission to use…forceful means to make you return to your kind. But of course, your life is guaranteed.”

The absolute strength of a dragon comes from their size, so although this hall was rather big, it didn’t offer enough space for her to use her full potential. Targ probably judged that she wouldn’t be as much of a threat in her current form.

“We can’t allow Seran-san free room to work, so I will be his opponent. Everyone else, support Flame-Eye-san and take care of those girls. Once you’re done, become my back-up.”

As Seran and his group formed a circle to protect each other’s backs, Targ gave orders and surrounded them.

“Although, please keep those two humanfolk women alive, too. They will work as wonderful hostages once Kyle-san shows up.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense! We’re not gonna sit here and let ourselves be caught!”

“You’ll regret underestimating us!”

Lieze and Urza both glared at Targ.

“If we make it through this, we’ll be one step closer to Luiza-sama!” Yuriga made up her resolve as she watched Irumera turning into her dragon form.

Of course, they weren’t about to have a final and futile struggle. They knew the situation was grim, but they weren’t going to give up. Watching this, Targ showed a change in his facial expression. It seemed like he would not let down his guard no matter how advantageous the situation may seem.

“Our girl group is really hitting it off, huh…” Seran mumbled something completely unbefitting for the situation, but nobody listened to him.

As the situation was one step from exploding, Seran continued with his nonchalant voice.

“Hey, Targ! Tell me about that demon with the two blades.”

Targ showed a surprised reaction at that.

“Oh, you’ve met? Dear me, and I told him to keep me updated.”

“You went out of your way to get him into your team, right? Considering how strong he is.”

“Why, yes. He had the potential to defeat Three-Arms-sama, after all. Right now, he is watching over Luiza-sama…although I don’t think anybody but you would attempt a rescue.”

“You sure about that? He wanted to fight me. That’s why he joined your cause, right?”

“So he told you about that, too…That said, he wants to fight the person who defeated Three-Arms-sama, no? If so, Kyle-san will do just fine. I believe he will be here in a few days, so let’s keep him on hold. And this is his punishment for not keeping in touch with us,” Targ said it like it couldn’t be helped, but Seran really didn’t like the sound of that.

“So I’m only the side piece for Kyle again?! I really wish I’d finished the job myself now!” He stomped on the ground in anger, which only bewildered Targ more.

“…How odd. I’m aware you’re trying to buy time, but why are you so fixated on that? It’s all futile at this point.”

“It’s not futile at all,” Seran answered like he was waiting for that question. “Something felt off, so I went ahead and made preparations myself.”

“What do you mean…? I didn’t hear about any of that!” Flame-Eye seemed like she was panicking a bit, but Seran just grinned.

“Honestly, I didn’t prepare much…I just forgot to tell you something.”

Flame-Eye wanted to ask what exactly he meant by that, but Seran already put one hand on the hilt of his sword and sent a wave of killing intent Targ’s way. He in return prepared himself for a possible attack, but Seran didn’t move. The second Targ’s attention was focused solely on Seran, a shadow jumped into the hall at unbelievable speeds. It headed straight for Targ from behind him and swung its sword.

“Gah?!”

A long strike struck Targ down his shoulder, but he managed to just barely avoid it becoming a lethal wound.

“Too shallow…I was hoping to end it with that.”

The tone of the shadow was mixed with disappointment but also relief that he had made it in time.

“Kyle!”

Lieze’s scream of joy reverberated within the hall.