Dark Of God, Light Of Demon.

(Lord Fried, please do not lose…)

Stella watched the Demon King’s battle with a feeling akin to a prayer.

The masked Demon King draped in a black robe, and the knight in full body armor enveloped in a rainbow-colored Aura. The staggering pressure unleashed by both clashed, generating a literal wind force that raged furiously into the surroundings.

The battle between the two began.

The dark magical energy bullets fired by the Demon King and the rainbow-colored continuous strikes unleashed by the Hero collided. The atmosphere shook violently from the mere aftershocks of their attacks.

The one pressing the advantage was Rearvelt. Fried’s attacks were dealing absolutely no damage. Nay—in the first place, the magic itself was dissolving the exact instant before it could strike Rearvelt, meaning its power wasn’t reaching him at all.

What on earth is that…?

Stella’s eyes snapped wide open in astonishment.

It isn’t defense. Nullification…?!

A power derived from magic was being completely nullified. It was precisely the domain of God Himself. Faced with that, no matter how much Fried was the strongest Demon King in history, there was nothing he could do. Even with ultimate offensive power—if it could not reach the opponent, it was entirely futile.

“Aura Burst Sacred Shot • Divine Beam Bullet!”

The rainbow radiance enveloping Rearvelt’s entire body swelled explosively. That radiance transformed into countless arrows, raining down in a torrent.

“Lucifer’s Shield!”

The deployed pitch-black magical barrier was effortlessly shattered to pieces, and—

“Guh… uuuh…!”

The swarm of light arrows pierced clean through the Demon King’s body. Fresh blood erupted from his torn robe.

“Lord Fried!” Stella let out a heart-wrenching cry.

This was the first time she had ever seen the Demon King pressed back to this extent—Fried, who had overwhelmingly dominated even during the battle against the “King of Light.”

“Against a single hero, to go this far—” Stella groaned, biting her lip.

She wanted to be of use to him. Her chest felt as if it would burst from the surging impulse. Her forehead grew burning hot. The blood throughout her body boiled.

“I… want to fight for the sake of Lord Fried…!”

She wished for the power to do so. Painfully. Earnestly. She prayed to protect him, to be his strength. And then—she realized her feelings. That he was dear to her.

“So please—lend me power!” Stella screamed.

She felt a sensation as if something deep within her was being unlocked. A power that had been sealed away by her mother long ago during her childhood. Because she had lost her mother’s love, she was loathed, shunned, and sealed away. That power—

“Just this once is fine! Awaken, my power—”

The third eye open on her forehead became as scorching hot as a roaring fire.

Strong—.

I groaned internally. Assessing it objectively… in terms of simple offensive and defensive capabilities, I was likely far superior. However, Rearvelt’s strength was of an entirely different nature. In a single word, it was “Rejection.”

None of my attacks could reach him. It wasn’t defense. It wasn’t evasion. It wasn’t physical. It wasn’t magical. That rainbow-colored Aura—an enigmatic field—was completely nullifying all of my magical attacks. Perhaps this truly was the Power of God.

As things stood, no matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t land a decisive blow on Rearvelt. Nay, I couldn’t even leave a single scratch. I needed a strategy to break through his “Rejection.”

“Lord Fried!”

Hearing Stella’s voice, I turned around. Her long silver hair fluttering in the wind, the beautiful young girl in dark attire walked toward me.

What on earth is this—?!

A shiver ran through my entire body. It was a sensation completely different from facing God, or confronting a demon. An infinite chill welled up from deep within my core. That kind of sensation was blasting out from Stella.

“…It is alright, Lord Fried,” she said, wearing a gentle smile.

Across the eye open on her forehead—a crimson, glowing bird-like emblem had surfaced. It was entirely different from her usual Third Eye.

“Demon King-sama, there are ‘waves’ to his Aura.”

“Waves?”

“The vast energy cuts out for a brief fraction of a second before overflowing once more—it repeats this cycle. Highly likely, he is unable to maintain that massive amount of Aura constantly.”

“I see, meaning he has to take a ‘rest’ every now and then.”

“Most likely,” Stella nodded at my words. “The interval of the rest is irregular, but the duration of the rest is consistently 2.079012 seconds.”

“About two seconds, huh…”

I bit my lip beneath my mask. If the timing were fixed, it would be easy to aim, but trying to fire a spell packed with lethal power into a two-second window that could happen at any moment was by no means easy.

“I will see through the timing,” Stella said, looking straight at me. “I won’t let you die. Absolutely.”

“Stella…?”

Her supple hands reached out and removed my mask. Stretching upward, Stella pressed her lips firmly against mine.

“My beloved… you—”

“Stella…?!”

I stared at her, utterly dazed. With a flushed face, she stared back at me. Our gazes locked, and then—

“No matter what you attempt, evil entities cannot triumph over me!”

The rainbow aura enveloping Rearvelt’s body flared up even further. I snapped my focus back to the enemy.

“What I have acquired is the very power that God was deprived of by evil during the ancient war. Now that it has been retrieved, the Power of God shall illuminate the entire world. The heavens, the Demon Realm, the human world—absolutely everything! And then, it shall destroy everything! Everything! Everything!”

It expanded to the point of seemingly scorching the skies of the Demon Realm, dyeing the dark world in a blinding brilliance. Truly, it was the majesty of God.

But to me, that was darkness. A darkness that would annihilate my comrades—the demons. If that was the case, I would erase it from existence…!

“We will defeat him together. Lend me your strength, Stella.”

I took the mask from her hands and put it back on.

“According to your heart’s desire,” Stella smiled.

The bird emblem surfacing on the third eye of her forehead shifted its shape, as if spreading its wings wide to soar.