Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Satou here. There’s a phrase called “equivalent exchange.” It’s an ancient concept where you receive a reward equal in value to what you offer. In Japanese mythology, the old gods brought rain and bountiful harvests in exchange for prayers and offerings. The gods of this other world send divine oracles to warn of disasters and assist with hero summoning, but I wonder what they receive in return. It’s something I’m a bit curious about.

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There are two main things I need to question the Demon King about.

The most important is the “fragment of a god.” That guy claimed that strong emotions like despair and fear trigger demonization. Since Arisa is someone with intense manic-depressive episodes, if there’s any way to remove the fragment of a god, I want to find out how.

—When a huge monster with the body of a lion and the face of an old man summoned by the Demon King attacked, I just slashed it up and disposed of it with my Flexible Sword.

The second is the identity of the being he mentioned. I have a rough idea, but I want to know what kind of personality it has and what techniques or tools it uses. Ideally, I don’t want to turn it into an enemy, but I need to prepare as much as possible so that I can protect everyone if things get serious.

—This time, giants made of fire and tornadoes attacked from both sides, so I crushed them with the “Implosion” spell.

After beating them to a pulp, maybe I can try to make him promise not to lay a hand on the Clerics. With demons, there’s usually an oath they can’t break—but I wonder how it works with the Demon King.

It’d be so much easier if, like villain characters in shonen manga, we developed some kind of friendship after the battle. Then when things got dangerous, he’d come to help saying something like, “I’m the one who’s going to defeat you!”

—Maybe thinking single strong monsters don’t matter much, he summoned about a hundred crimson scorpions in the desert. The red dots kept multiplying on the radar.

They surrounded me, so I expected poison stingers, but they started firing flame orbs like machine-gun bullets from their pincers. Then a slightly larger vermilion scorpion appeared, and its carapace on its back opened like a submarine’s SLBM launcher, shooting guided fireballs. They looked just like missiles.

I intercepted the fire orbs with “Remote Stun Bullets” and took out the scorpions themselves using a combination of “Condensation” and “Laser.” Both hit without fail, making it easy.

Still, if he’s going to summon things so casually, a giant cow or giant pig monster would be nice. I wish he’d take a leaf out of the yellow-skinned demon race’s book, who once summoned a whale—that was stylish. Oh, but summoning a minotaur? No thanks.

But how is it that after summoning so many, his MP consumption is only ten percent? Does he have something ridiculous like 100,000 MP?

“Really, even an invincible army summoned by ‘Legion Summoning’ is like goblins before you, isn’t it?”

The Demon King scowled and glared at the mountain of corpses my magic had created.

He didn’t seem pleased that I’d just overpowered him with brute force while lost in thought.

Alright, I’ll take this seriously.

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“I was just lost in thought for a bit. Forgive me.”

I tried sounding a bit arrogant to maintain his misunderstanding.

“Forgive you? How unusual. I thought you didn’t care what anyone thought except little girls?”

What?! Could he be a lolicon?!

Come to think of it, Ms. Aze said that the Demon King never attacked the Elf Forest. I assumed he feared the elves’ power, but it turns out the mastermind figure is a lolicon? That’s way beyond any expectation.

Whoa, I can’t get distracted. I need to steer the conversation back to Arisa.

“I was surprised at how earnestly you were advising that purple-haired girl earlier.”

“Reincarnators are common enough, but I pity a girl who’s toyed with by you.”

“If you pity her, then take out the fragment.”