The three of them in the Old Maou faction had once gotten along splendidly, united in their desire to reclaim the throne, wipe out all opposition, and then march onward to rule the world together.
But in the span of a single night, all of those ambitions had turned to smoke.
One of them was dead, one had betrayed them, and he himself had been reduced to a stray dog.
And now, seeing that Rod dared to reject him, Shalba immediately poured all of that fury onto him.
When the day came for Katerea to found her nation, he would present this man's head as a gift.
Shalba casually raised a hand, and a mass of magical power clearly stronger than Katerea's tore through the air like a cannon shell and blasted toward Rod.
But Rod reacted just as quickly, dodging it with an easy sidestep.
Then he raised the Desert Eagle and fired several shots straight at Shalba's eyes.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several bullets soaked in holy water spun out of the muzzle, carrying heat and white smoke as they shot precisely toward Shalba's eyes.
Seeing that, Shalba sneered in utter contempt.
Using a human-made firearm against a noble Maou like him?
Should he call this human absurdly delusional, or just laugh at how thoroughly he underestimated him?
Shalba didn't even bother to dodge. He simply raised a hand and caught the bullets in his palm.
He could see their trajectory perfectly clearly. These holy water rounds, which could easily kill Middle-Class Devils, looked to him like children's toys with no threat whatsoever.
Even if he hadn't blocked them, it wouldn't have mattered. His body was constantly covered by a layer of magical shielding. Let alone bullets, even the strongest missiles among humanity's conventional weapons wouldn't be able to injure him in the slightest.
As for holy water?
He could drink that stuff like a beverage.
"Give it up. Just because you dealt with the trash outside doesn't mean you can do anything to a noble Beelzebub like me."
Shalba sneered, clearly regarding Rod as no threat at all.
He genuinely couldn't understand what Katerea had seen in this man.
"My last operation did indeed fail. I didn't account for Katerea betraying us. But that failure still gave me valuable experience. It'll be useful for future terrorist attacks, so I can accept it. Later, I'll kill that woman Katerea myself. Though that would leave me as the only one capable of leading devilkind, that's no problem."
"Because the true Beelzebub is just that great."
"Foolish human, die! Regret all you want in Hell that you didn't choose to submit to me."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shalba formed a magic circle with one hand, and a violent beam of magical power shot toward Rod.
It was unbelievably fast, vanishing almost in a flash.
The beam struck the wall of the room and blew apart the doorway, scattering the devil corpses by the entrance into pieces as smoke and dust billowed everywhere.
Meanwhile, Ophis stared at the screen that had suddenly gone dark and fell into thought.
"How boring. I thought you might entertain me a little more."
Shalba let out a cold laugh.
With his current power, he could easily crush Katerea. Even if she did have snakes, he had them too, and in greater quantity.
If he had been the one there that day, perhaps things would have ended very differently.
But in the next moment, a warning rang through his mind, and he instinctively tilted his head.
Hummm!
The shriek of split air screamed past his ear, followed immediately by a burning pain across his scalp.
The fatal strike had missed, but even so, the sword in Rod's hand still carved a bloody gash into Shalba's head.
"What is this? How are you still alive?!"
Shalba stared at the figure not far in front of him, calmly wiping his sword clean, his expression shifting wildly.
A mere human should have been reduced to ashes under that attack.
"Have you heard of the if-there's-smoke-no-one-gets-hurt rule? The smoke and dust from your attack were so thick that, according to that rule, of course I came out completely fine."
Rod said with a grin.
"How could there possibly be such a stupid thing?!"
Shalba shouted in disbelief.
"There isn't. I just lied to you."
"You damned bastard! I'll skin you alive and make a lampshade out of it!"
Realizing he'd been made a fool of again, Shalba roared and launched another attack at Rod, forming more magic circles with one hand as torrents of energy poured from them, sealing off every bit of space around Rod.
But with the sound of "Clock Up" activating, Rod's figure vanished from where he stood.
The streams of energy flying through the air suddenly looked like a movie being played in slow motion, only a little faster than bullets.
Within the realm of super-acceleration, no conventional-speed attack could even brush the edge of Rod's clothing.
There weren't no ways to counter super-acceleration, of course, but the first time someone encountered an opponent like Rod, they were almost guaranteed to get beaten senseless before they figured anything out.
Shalba's attack completely missed, leaving terrifying gouges throughout the enormous room.
Ophis looked at the snacks that had been blown away and sank into even deeper thought.
"Damn it! Slippery as a rat!"
Seeing his attack fail again, Shalba cursed aloud.
But the next instant, alarm bells exploded in his head, and a radiant defensive barrier appeared across his body out of nowhere, completely blocking the demonic sword Rod thrust toward his face.
Clang!
Bang!
With a heavy thud, Rod kicked Shalba flying by the edge of his clothing. Although the defensive barrier blocked the strike itself, it couldn't stop the sheer force behind it, sending him crashing backward through a wall and toppling furniture and decorations in the adjoining room.
"You're using Holy Light?"
Rod looked genuinely surprised as he stared at the glowing barrier surrounding Shalba.
"That's right! It's something I got in exchange from a Longinus wielder, a special device that can fire Holy Light. It can be used both offensively and defensively. I originally intended to use it on Katerea the day she founded her nation, but I didn't expect to end up using it on a human like you."
Faced with the question, Shalba answered freely, even wearing a look of contempt.
He had been caught off guard at first because of Rod's speed, but now that he had taken out a defensive item, what could Rod possibly do?
"Speed alone means nothing if you can't break through my defense!"
"To be fair, that's true."
Rod looked at the demonic sword in his hand with some disdain.
It might once have been Lancelot's weapon, and it might have an impressive name like Arondight, but no matter how you dressed it up, it was still just an ordinary demonic sword. It worked fine against minor opponents, but once he faced someone a little stronger, its power simply wasn't enough.
"To be honest, you really are a lot smarter than the other two."
In the original story, Shalba had lived for a long time.
After Katerea and Creuserey died, he kept on surviving all the way into the later stages of the plot and even managed to screw over the Hero Faction once.
"You think a few nice words now will make me forgive you?! Too late!"
Shalba grinned savagely and rushed at Rod. Since long-range attacks weren't working well, then close combat it would be.
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