"Now, I know many of you are wondering what I'm doing here... and very few of you may have already figured it out" Kaito said, looking at the four surrounding him.
"But first, let me introduce myself.
My name is Lucifer, not the one you know, don't worry. In fact, I'm not even from this world. I'm a demon from another world, but besides being a demon, I'm also a Lord.
Now, I think most of you should have already figured out my objective from that, but just in case, I'll say it explicitly.
I am Lucifer, I bear the name of the king of demons, and I came here from another world to become exactly that.
Any questions?"
"..."
"..."
"Damn you!"
"You think we'll let you?!"
"The moment I break free, you'll die!"
"You won't leave here alive today!"
"I'll kill you!"
"Lord Sirzechs will save us!"
"The Maou will take care of you!"
As expected from the demonic race, after only a second of surprise and confusion, they started shouting angrily and threatening him.
Kaito could only sigh helplessly. He knew it wouldn't be that easy.
"Well, I knew there would be quite a bit of resistance, so that's why I decided to follow the rules of your world.
The strongest rules!" Kaito declared proudly.
"I'll free the four Maou and make them fight. Once they are defeated, they'll understand that I'm stronger and submit. What do you think?" Kaito asked as if he were offering a simple second option on a school exam instead of the hope of an entire race.
"Fine!"
"Do it!"
"We'll show you the power of the demonic race!"
As expected, everyone confidently agreed, but before Kaito could rejoice, Ajuka started asking questions.
"Wait. If you can stop us like this, what's the point of fighting? There's no way to win" Ajuka questioned.
"Don't worry, they won't fight me. They'll fight one of my strongest subordinates" Kaito said.
Most expected him to open another portal and bring someone else from outside, however, that never happened.
On the ground, where Rias's peerage was visible to everyone, a discreet white-haired girl jumped to where Kaito was, creating a huge crater beneath her.
When she arrived beside Kaito, her body transformed, growing until it reached the curvaceous body of an adult while her nekomata features became visible to everyone.
"Sirzechs, please keep a better eye on your sister" Ajuka sighed when he saw who he was referring to as his subordinate.
Sirzechs did not respond to his words. He looked directly at Koneko for several seconds before looking at Kaito.
"How much does Rias have to do with you?" He asked, worried about his younger sister.
"Not much" Kaito answered honestly. "Rias discovered me by accident a few days ago, so I had to convince her to do this.
I convinced Koneko to side with me a long time ago without your sister knowing"
Sirzechs nodded naturally without revealing his true inner agitation, however, he was already analyzing every detail of his words until a memory surfaced in his mind. The face of a Lord that Rias allowed to stay with them and who was close to a member of her peerage.
'So it's him' he thought, convinced. 'I should have insisted more that time'
"Low-class Maou? Although it's impressive that she hid that kind of power for so long, isn't she too weak to be one of your strongest subordinates? The difference between her and you seems too great" Ajuka questioned in the meantime.
Kaito simply shrugged.
"Come on, I might have fooled most of them, but not you four" he admitted with disdain at their terrible performance. "She's actually stronger than me"
None of them responded, although that was an answer in itself.
"And you want to defeat us with a low-class Maou? Doesn't seem like a good idea"
"Sure?"
Instead of Kaito answering, Koneko spoke. She raised her left hand, materializing a long red gauntlet that covered her left arm almost up to the elbow.
"Aju, please stop talking" Serafall said almost pleadingly when she saw how Ajuka seemed to make everything worse every time he spoke.
"Boost"
While they were talking, Koneko used her first boost.
"Wait, we haven't decided yet" Sirzechs said, seeing what Koneko was doing.
"She's not fighting" Kaito shrugged, not caring.
"So that's what we're doing, huh?" Falbium muttered, looking at the others and urging them to make a decision. "The longer we take, the more powerful she'll become"
"Boost" Koneko replied in affirmation.
"A Super Maou is around 50 times a normal Maou. If she reaches 6 Boosts, she'll be at my level. We need to decide quickly" Sirzechs said.
"Is there any need to think about it? If we said no, what would our fate be?" Serafall asked.
"Then I'd do it by force. If I release you and make Koneko attack you, you'll defend yourselves anyway, right? And once you're defeated, it'll have the same effect as if all of you had accepted from the beginning"
Although the question was not directed at him, but rather was a discussion between the Maou, Kaito gave them the answer anyway.
"Damn, he's right"
"Stop arguing and accept" Falbium said.
"Boost"
"Fine, we acc..."
"By the way, one last thing" Kaito interrupted them without letting them accept, much to the displeasure of the four. "In my world, we know the future of this world. Everything will be destroyed and everyone will die in around a hundred years at most.
The only way to save yourselves is to submit to me... or to any other Lord, but personally, I recommend myself. I'm the most powerful"
"Don't listen to what he's saying. They're psychological tactics both to make us waste time and to distract us" Ajuka said.
"Boost."
"No" Sirzechs immediately disagreed. "Don't forget that Rias agreed to bring him here. And Rias wouldn't do that without a reason"
"Whatever, we'll interrogate him once we defeat him"
Kaito watched them argue, somewhat amused. Honestly, given that they could only move their mouths and eyes while talking, they looked quite funny.
"Kaito" Koneko softly called him by the ear as she did so, before pointing at Serafall. "About her..." she asked hesitantly.
"You can treat her like the rest" Kaito replied.
"But... I'd feel bad"
"Then just make sure she becomes unconscious quickly so she doesn't get too badly beaten"
"Boost. I see" Koneko nodded in understanding. "I'll apologize to her later"
"We accept! Quickly, unfreeze us and let's begin" Serafall finally said from below. With so many Boosts from Koneko, they didn't have much time left before she reached the level of Super Maou, the level above a Maou at which Sirzechs and Ajuka actually were.
Kaito snapped his fingers and they both immediately regained their movement. They didn't even wait a second before acting.
The auras of the four instantly increased as they appeared around Koneko, completely ignoring Kaito.
And while Kaito disappeared from the place, heading toward the box where the Maou had previously been to watch the spectacle, Koneko also moved. Barely managing to dodge Sirzechs and Ajuka's attacks, she created several clones around herself that attacked at full speed.
However, to the disappointment of the four, only two of them were real, and they focused on Falbium and Serafall, the weakest ones there. The clones grabbed both by the back of their necks and slammed their faces into the ground with force, leaving both unconscious immediately.
Ajuka and Sirzechs looked at the ground and sighed.
"I'm sorry, but they would have been burdens. This way... it's easier to unleash myself"
As Sirzechs's body quickly became surrounded by destructive energy with crackling black lightning, hundreds of green magic circles appeared around Ajuka, analyzing the entire fight as if it were a mathematical equation for which he needed a quick answer.
"Boost" Koneko said as she watched this.
They transform and she uses that moment for another Boost, perfectly fair.
But although she was already a little stronger than the two of them at this moment due to the accumulation of Boosts, a Super Maou is someone whose strength has not only reached an absolutely absurd level, but whose control over their own abilities allows them to defeat even beings stronger than themselves.
A powerful black aura spread across the entire battlefield, leaving the three conscious ones inside. A power so powerful and widespread that its effect was to slowly destroy the enemy's magic, basically a weakening aura that grew stronger the longer you remained inside it.
Koneko looked around and smiled nostalgically before protecting all her internal channels with Yoki.
"You loved using that thing" Koneko said before bending her legs, preparing to jump. She quickly appeared behind Sirzechs and kicked him directly in the back of the neck, pushing him several meters.
"She's protecting every part of the mana inside her body with multiple self-repairing layers. When your magic manages to destroy one and finishes destroying the next, the first one has already repaired itself. Since your magic is intelligent, it goes back to the previous layer to destroy it, entering a loop that keeps the destruction on the outside without damaging her" Ajuka explained. "She's taking advantage of the slow effectiveness of the area destruction effect. Can you fix it?"
"Maybe if I didn't have to defend myself!" Sirzechs shouted, crossing his arms over his chest to block Koneko's attack.
'Good' Ajuka thought. He quickly understood how Koneko's defense worked and created a countermeasure.
Once Koneko began to weaken, Sirzechs moved away and created several enormous spheres of destruction that followed Koneko as if they had a mind of their own.
Using the time this gave him, Sirzechs also covered himself in destructive energy, basically an armor that would make any physical attack against his body counterproductive, damaging the attacker.
But Koneko was not a novice either. Dodging the spheres of destruction while attacking Sirzechs was not difficult for someone who had lived through a worldwide apocalypse where anything could kill you.
Even so, upon realizing what was protecting Sirzechs, she quickly retreated and stopped trying to approach him, fleeing instead.
"Hey, don't let her buy time!" Ajuka reminded him.
"I know! How about you do something?" Sirzechs shouted.
While Sirzechs began pursuing Koneko this time, the spheres around them transformed and divided into countless spears that accelerated, surpassing the cat girl's speed.
And although Koneko managed to dodge them all, the escape route was protected by Sirzechs.
To Sirzechs's surprise, Koneko showed no fear and instead smiled before attacking him with a fist covered in Yoki once again.
Sirzechs tried to catch the fist only to realize that the Yoki completely disintegrated the moment he touched it. Koneko had no reason for her confidence.
'They fooled me' he realized.
But it was already too late. Koneko had already dodged him during his distraction and was moving away from the area.
'Damn, my destruction power is useless if it can't touch her' Sirzechs thought, becoming increasingly annoyed by Koneko's fighting style.
Meanwhile, Ajuka was thinking almost the same thing.
'Damn, there's nothing to analyze. It's a brute physical combat style. There's no magic to control'
At that moment, they both looked at each other and noticed the understanding in the other's eyes. They realized that this battle had never been random. Koneko was a perfect counter to both of them, and one that seemed to know all their methods and know how to counter them for some reason.
The already dire situation became even worse when they saw Koneko finally stop running and turn toward both of them.
"Boost" she said with a smile.
Twenty seconds had passed since the game of cat and mouse began, and the roles had just changed.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)