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Side Story Chapter 121

“You’re here…!”

“Focus,” Theta instructed. “I’m going to help you.”

Iceline flashed a rare, radiant smile.

“What’s with the goofy smile?” Theta grumbled. “…Where is that arrogant, pathetic husband of yours?”

“What do you mean, ‘pathetic’? He’s better than anyone else in the world.”

“…Gosh, you stand up for your husband even in a time like this?” Theta shook his head in disbelief before starting up his circle. The Master of the Magic Tower’s tremendous mana instantaneously dominated the field. “Change its property… I never thought I would take part in this kind of madness. Marcus, you’re there, yes?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

The voice was coming from ground level. Iceline turned to look and was startled to find a muscular old man standing on top of a outcrop of earth higher than the castle walls.

“Marcus, you’re here too…!”

“Long time no see, Iceline.” Marcus smiled gently.

“Marcus, you focus too! Say hi later! Iceline, explain the situation to him.” Theta gestured at Iceline.

“…A witch with an Evil Sin’s authority showed up in this country. She was quite proficient in manipulating people’s minds and caused this situation using her demonic power.”

“Mind manipulation… That’s why even the knights are lying unconscious—so the wicked power reached their brains?”

“Yes, I succeeded in trapping the demonic power inside the field, but that doesn’t solve the root of the problem.” Iceline shook her head.

“I understand. So we have to eradicate this demonic power…” Theta trailed off, eyeing the demonic power skeptically. It wasn’t difficult to eliminate the demonic power within the field—the problem was that the power was already inside these people, tormenting them. Demonic power was poisonous to humans, so once they were poisoned, treating them was impossible without a special cure.

“Hey, baby prince.” Theta looked at Kireua.

Kireua jumped in surprise. “Me?”

“Yeah, you—wait, are you offended because I talk too arrogantly to the great prince of the Avalon Empire?”

“N-No, you’re Her Majesty’s friend, so feel free to speak casually.”

“I like your straightforwardness. In any case, I feel like you have a solution for this. Am I right?”

Kireua found himself surprised once again.

“Why do you think that…?” he cautiously asked.

“Well, I can feel at least two powers inside you that are as strong as the wicked demonic power in the field.”

“Mmmm…” Kireua grunted.

Iceline’s eyes widened in surprise. “Excuse me? Kireua has demonic power?”

“Huh? Was it a secret?”

“It’s the first I’ve heard about this.”

“Huh… You’ve got one messed up family. Well, I guess nothing good can happen if the fact that the Second Prince of Avalon possesses demonic power becomes known. Avalon has a history, after all. Anyhow, let’s finish talking about this later.” Theta raised his finger and pointed. “To conclude, it’s impossible to eradicate all the demonic power in the field because some of that is inside these people already.”

“We still have to try. We can’t give up on all these people.”

“Let me finish—it may be possible to transfer all of this power into one place through the right medium.”

“What medium?” Iceline asked.

“I think the prince next to you will be able to explain this better than I can.”

Iceline gave Kireua a wide-eyed look. The prince gave her an awkward smile for a moment before stepping forward.

If you two can gather the demonic power into one place, I can take care of it,” Kireua confidently said. He’d already done it in western Avalon. Coal had eaten all the demonic power inside the people too—but of course, the situation was a little different from back then since Kireua now had another Evil Sin’s power named “Gluttony”. Judging from how Coal and the power of Gluttony continued to fight inside Kireua, it was easy to deduce that the two powers could go out of control if they were let loose.

‘Stop fighting and just open your mouths,’ Kireua chastised. ‘Looks like you’ll get your food.’

The two powers stopped fighting right away.

-Really? We’re really going to be fed, Kireua?

-Hehe! Hehehehehe!

‘The three best mages in the Human Realm are here, so trust me and stay still. If you guys keep fighting, you won’t get anything,’ Kireua warned them.

-…Okay.

-…He.

After sorting out the situation, Kireua opened his eyes. “I’m ready.”

“Alright, here we go. Iceline, focus on changing the field’s property to anti-demonic power. I’ll stop it from escaping and gather it into one spot,” Theta instructed.

Iceline bit her lip and nodded. “Leave it to me.”

“Marcus! Please make preparations to stop any possible side-effects from spreading because even I don’t have the slightest idea what kind of shenanigans this wicked power will cause.”

Marcus got to work without answering. The ground around them rose into towering walls that shrouded them in a thick shadow except for a gap at the top of the dome.

“Perfect.” Theta grinned. Since Iceline was quite fatigued, he thrust his arm out without delay, his palm opened. “Now, come.”

The air audibly vibrated with tension, the pitch-black demonic power filling the field undulating.

-Kieeeeeeeeeeeh!

A high-pitched scream ripped out of nowhere. Before long, black clouds of smoke floated overhead, and before their astonished eyes, suddenly coalesced into a definite form.

“…I guess it’s no ordinary demonic power,” Theta mumbled.

Kireua was even more surprised. The moment this all happened, the two Evil Sins’ powers inside Kireua began to frantically run wild.

-One of us!

-Hehehehehe!

‘What? One of you two?’ Kireua frowned.

-That’s the same as us! It’s not ordinary food!

-Keeeeeeee!

‘It’s like you? Are you telling me that that is the power of Lust?’ Kireua eyed the mass of demonic power, appalled. He thought that the power of Lust had run away—he saw Lust squeezing through the dimensional portal at the last possible moment. But if the power trapped in the field with them was the power of Lust…

‘…What in the world was that?’ Kireua wondered.

However, now wasn’t the time to get sidetracked, so Kireua gathered himself as the wave of demonic power surged.

“Get ready!” Theta twirled his hand, sending the enormous mass of demonic power flying toward Kireua.

“Okay!” Kireua spread his arms wide and then embraced it.

He heard a loud Gulp!, and then lost consciousness.

*

At the edge of the cliff on the snowy mountain peak…

“What… in the world…? Lust collapsed onto her knees in front of the ice boulder, trembling.

Meeting Joshua wasn’t the end of the surprises. Despite the fact that she wasn’t using her abilities, she felt sluggish and powerless. Worse, she was losing control over her body.

“…Agh! Get back inside, you damned wretch. This is mine. She’s already mine!” Lust screamed.

-I guess Lilith is fighting back hard. I guess I can give her a little hand, then.

Joshua quietly closed his eyes inside the ice boulder. It wasn’t impossible to help Lillith if her body was this close. In fact, this was why the demon that had visited this place with Carmen couldn’t get any closer to Joshua. If someone that wasn’t a human but possessed demonic power came close to the ice boulder Joshua was in…

“Wh-What are you doing?” Lust stammered.

-Thank you for voluntarily coming all the way out here. It’s actually been bothering me.

-You stupid bitch! Who do you think you are to come here? Get lost right now!

“This energy… Wait, the Demon Spirit?” Lust mumbled in disbelief.

-I repeatedly told the demons to never come near this boulder unless they’d acquired more than three Evil Sin powers at the very least!

“I didn’t come here by choi—Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Lust suddenly screamed and tore out fistfuls of her hair.

The change had already started. Joshua was the one and only person on the continent who had both demonic and divine powers, so he was capable of freely converting demonic power into divine power and vice versa—light and darkness were basically one.

-This is for the better. She’s the daughter of a cardinal and a woman they call a saint, so an Evil Sin’s power really didn’t suit her.

“What… are you doing to me…!” Lust screamed.

-I’m going to convert all the demonic power in your body into divine power. Then you, the demonic ego, won’t be able to survive.

“What… the hell. There’s no way that’s possible…”

-There’s something that my fellow humans often say when they look at me.

“…What?”

-The Martial God is someone who makes the impossible possible.

Joshua grinned. For some reason, he couldn’t feel a single trace of her Root of All Evil, which was the core of an Evil Sin’s power. With the biggest obstacle out of the way, converting the demonic power wasn’t a big problem.

“Why can’t I use my power of All Evil? Wait, did you…!” Lust\'s eyes widened as she realized what had happened to her. It must have been when Lust had passed through the dimensional portal. If Iceline had not only tweaked the gate’s coordinates but also stopped a certain kind of power from passing through the gate…

“Iceline zin Rebreccaaaaaaaaaa!” Lust howled, her voice dripping with loathing for the woman who seemed to cause every single one of her problems.

-Haha, Iceline did that? I knew I didn’t have to worry about her.

Joshua’s smile grew and he sped up his conversion of Lust’s demonic power.

“N… o… Not like this…”

Before Lust could finish speaking, she collapsed into the snowy ground.