Maou no Hajimekata

Volume 2 - CH 21.5

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Chapter 21: Let’s Bring Down an Almighty God, Part 5

「And this.. is the end.」

The Sun God declared, crushing the image he created out of thin air in the palm of his hand. As a result, all the territories dominated by Aur disappeared, returning back to the Sun Gods control.

「Hm?」

But his expression soon became distorted when something that should not have happened actually happened. Now that the ice created by Aur and his men disappeared, there shouldn’t be any place on the continent that remained beyond the Sun God’s control. And yet, no matter how hard he looked and scanned, Aur was nowhere to be found.

「Have you hid yourself in the sea, or perhaps relied on the help of the Goddess of Fortune again?」

In any case, Aur should not be able to put up any kind of resistance anymore. He has cut out all of his supply routes and successfully separated him from his Dungeons. All that remains now is to devour al of the lesser Gods that might still think they have a chance against him.

This time, he will make sure to control everything.

「Wow, it’s completely dark in here!」

Lilu exclaimed loudly as they entered the area. You might think that it was not such ac big deal, but it wasn’t like that at all. Demons are creatures born of darkness, so naturally they have the ability to see in the dark and yet Lilu claimed that she wasn’t able to see a thing. In other words, it wasn’t any normal darkness.

「Who art thou?」

Suddenly an incredibly hoarse voice echoed from within the darkness. It sounded like it belonged to a woman who was thousands of years old.

「My name is Demon Lord Aur. I have come to meet you, just like you wished.」

Even though they were standing right next to each other and she heard his words clearly, in this darkness Lilu felt as if Aur was far away from her.

「Volcano Goddess Iwanagahime. Will you lend me your hand in saving your little sister, Sakuyahime?」

「Sakuya, you say?」

Somehow, the atmosphere around the voice from the darkness has changed.

「The relationship between the two of you interests me not. If thou hast made her your woman, then so be it. However..」

At first it sounded withered and emotionless, only to become filled with burning rage at the very next moment.

「Why should I do anything for her?! True, she might be my sister, but I feel nothing but hatred towards her! And yet thou hast the audacity to come to my dwelling and ask me to help you save her?! Ha! Don’t make me laugh!」

「I will marry you.」

However, Aur’s words worked like a torrent of water spilt on a raging fire, reducing it a flickering specks of flames.

「What hast thou said just now?」

Instead of rage, the tone of her voice expressed only disbelief now.

「I said I will marry you. I the Demon Lord Aur, who made your sister Sakuya one of his concubines!」

「Ha, haha.. hahahahahahahahaha! Did thou really thou could fool me? You really thought of taking me as your bride? Even though you already have Sakuya as your mistress? Compared to her beautiful appearance, I am nothing short of hideous. I had many a potential suitors before and they have all turned their tails and ran away as soon as they saw me. Hahahahaha!」

In response to Iwanaga’s words, Aur takes out a small bag from his robes and presents its contents to her.

「I had a feeling you might say that so I have prepared a gift as a sign of my serious intentions. Here.」

「This is!」

It was one of the five items Aur prepared as an offering to Marina. It was the golden branch made by Gnome and the Doverg craftsman, the 「Branch of Perpetual Youth」.

「Golden branch, jade-colored leaves and pearl-like fruits.. a tree branch made out of precious jewels?! D-Do you really think I’m going to be impressed by such an.. impressive gift?」

「I think you will. Also, you seem to be misunderstanding something. It is true that Sakuya’s beauty is outstanding, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t rival her. You’re not inferior to her in any manner.」

That was an obvious lie, but Aur didn’t even bat an eye when he was saying it.

「Now please, show yourself to me, Iwanaga.」

「..Very well, I shall reveal my true form to you. Do your best not to avert your eyes.」

Iwanaga, the Goddess of Rocks answers with a voice that sounds both like a screech of an old woman and the most beautiful of bells.

「I will not avert my gaze. Please, believe in me.」

Then, the surrounding darkness grows thinner and the scenery around them becomes visible. It was a small stone chamber build in the basement of Sakuya’s volcano.

And its resident stood directly in front of Aur.

Certainly, she was the direct opposite of her sister, Sakuya. Instead of dark crimson wavy hair hers were black and straight, reaching all the way to her shoulders, covering her eyes and most of her face. Her chest was almost completely flat, and most importantly..

Even though Sakuya, who was said to live for fourteen thousand years was her little sister, Iwanaga herself looked like a five or maybe six-years old girl.

「Just as I thought.」

Aur kneels so that their lines of sight could match and he smiles as he scoop the hair covering Iwanaga’s eyes to the sides.

「And you thought you’re not as beautiful as Sakuya.. how big of a fool can you really be?」

Surely no man could have lusted after Iwanaga, but that was only because she looked like a child too young to be perceived as a sexual object. But aside from that, there was nothing hideous about her appearance. Actually, she was more cute than beautiful. Now if only she looked ten years or so older, she might have really been considered to be a bona fide beauty.

「B-But I haven’t grown at all throughout my whole life! I’ve always been this small!」

If Sakuya symbolizes flower-like growth and prosperity, then it would be best to say that Iwanaga was solid and unchanging, just like a rock. That could be why her child-like appearance never changed.

From the day they were born, Sakuya must have been the one who always got all the attention and admiration while none of tha went to Iwanaga. That’s why she hated Sakuya with her whole being. However, as beautiful as Sakuya was, she was not ideal by any means. Her own beauty essentially made her too unapproachable for any normal human, which resulted in her not knowing the taste of a man until she met Aur.

「You have nothing to worry about. For as you can see..」

Aur said, grabbing Lilu’s chest. The appearance of the Succubus is not always the same. They are that kind of a creature that can shape itself in accordance to their partner’s desires. And just like that, Lilu’s breasts which were like huge watermelons were now shrinking, her thigs that could crush a man’s skull were not as thick anymore and her buttocks were not as plump anymore. Lilu was now similar to Iwanaga in a lot of ways.

「I am.. a Lolicon.」

At that moment Aur could swear that he heard Logan, the four-armed demon raised his hands in protest as he vomited rivers of blood.

「Achoo!」

Mari sneezed as she ran outside the volcano. She was still wrapped in Eldav’s protective flames, but apparently it was not working on the fluctuations of the temperature she was experiencing as she went back to the cold snowy field from the scorching-hot volcano.

「Uhm, let’s see, it should be around here somewhere..」

She was now at the foot of the mountain searching for a certain item Aur asked her to find, but no matter how hard she looked she couldn’t find anything like that.

「Geee...」

On the contrary, what she found was a demon with many creepy looking eyes that approached her from the shade of the frozen trees.

「I found you.」

To add to the creepiness of the monster, he was speaking with the Sun God’s voice, belonging to neither man nor a woman.

「A barrier? How sly of you.」

Listening to the demon who pointed at her, Mari realized that she would have been dead if it was not for Eldav’s protective flame which protected her from being immediately detected by the enemy. But now that it has come to this..

「Hiyaaaaaaa!」

She had to defend herself.

「Ghaaaaauuurrr!」

As she ducked sideways, the ground she was standing on was split open, followed by an all-cutting slash which was reminiscent of Yunis’ techniques. If he can use the abilities of all the people he has control over without having to possess them directly, then there was only one option for her to do. She had to run.

「Next one won’t miss.」

What happened next shocked Mari to no end. Out of the demon’s widely opened mouth.. came Yunis. So he was possessing her after all!

「Huh? So that would mean..」

An idea has popped inside Mari’s head. She jumps forward and crawls into the nearby hole in the ground.

「Tch. Very well, you’re only delaying the inevitable.」

With a snap of his fingers, the Sun god makes lava burst from the side of the volcano and flow all the way into the hole Mari crawled into. He confirmed with his power that it was a dead end that had no side passages. If he blocks it in such a way, Mari will have nowhere left to run, quite possibly killing her on the spot, ending her streak of good luck. And by the off chance the lava won’t kill her, the rocks that will collapse doe to magma should ultimately do the trick.

「...」

Somehow, the Sun God felt strange about this situation.

「A dead end?」

Why would there be such a thing at the foot of an active volcano? Of course, there are countless natural volcanic caves in the mountains, but this was outside the volcano. Moreover, taking a closer look, the area around the hole was clearly made out of bricks.

What does that even mean? This should have no bearing on the fact that her fate of being killed by the magma should have been sealed. As a reminder, she shouldn’t be able to escape if unless she used Metastasis again and he made sure to account for such a possibility. So why wasn’t she burned alive yet?

And then an explosion occurred.

The hole Mari was hiding in was blown to bits and at the same time Mari herself soared high into the sky. That was something that the Sun God wasn’t able to predict at all, so it made him just stare at the fate-defying sight in front of him.

While still being in the air, Mari spun around and landed right in front of him in a graceful manner.

But she was no longer the same little girl tha crawled into a hole.

「Ultimate Mari-chan..」

That brat.. no, she can no longer be called a brat.

「.... has arrived! A visual upgrade is all you needed!」

She declared, looking as if she was turned back to her five-year old self.