<A/N: I’m making a bit of a retcon here. Changing [Demon Light Maniption] to [Devil Light Maniption]! Sorry for the sudden change.>


    ‘[Devil Light Maniption]?’


    ‘Oooh, yeah. I forgot this skill could do that.’


    Akira knew something about this skill I presumed was useless and hadn’t told me? The nerve!


    ‘Do what?’


    ‘D-Devil light. It h-has something t-to do with the t-transformation of [Hell]’s physical environment.’


    ‘Eh? Akkun too? But what’s that supposed to mean?’


    ‘Basically, it changes anything it touches into something from hell.’


    ‘… HUH?!’


    ‘No time to exin any further! Just shoot a massive beam!’


    ‘But! Gaah!’


    I gave up on those two ever exining it to me properly now. I activated the skill, causing several ck rays to shoot out of my finger-tips in all directions randomly.


    It hit one of the robed men’s arms, making him scream out in pain. His arm turned ck and was grossly disfigured as well as surprisingly tinier.


    He grunted in pain and faded out of the room. It would seem his astral projection was forcefully cut out. I could feel the tense emotions from the others the moment they saw one of their members disappear.


    “You aren’t a mere beast, but a foul devil?”


    In front of me, the old man who was in direct contact with the light waspletely unfazed by it. Rather, his muscles were bulging even more and water around him fizzled.


    “A devil in the house of the Goddess? How filthy!”


    Just as he roared, his fist came down hard, but I managed to barely avoid his attack, the pressure from the waves hit my face with no mercy, even causing some damage.


    [You have lost 30 health points]


    I tried to retreat, but the old man moved his finger, forcing my head to bow down to him.


    ‘Eh? D-Did he just manipte my body with his finger?’


    ‘A puppet master maybe?’


    <<[Strings of Will]>>


    ‘Strings of will? What’s that?’


    <<A skill that forces a creature with a weaker will to follow themands of the user.>>


    ‘Weaker will?’


    <<Yes. If the user has a higher will than you, you will not be able to resist their control.>>


    The agent bluntly told me that I had a weaker will than this old man. From the sides, I felt two needles prate my abdomen. Two different assassins hade in an attempt to kill me with no mercy.


    [You have lost 210 health points]


    [You have lost 190 health points]


    [You have been afflicted with [Bleeding]]


    [You will lose 10 health points per second]


    Strangely enough, that wasn’t even my problem.


    “All enemies of the goddess shall be eliminated.”


    “Foul devil. Hurry up and die.”


    Both of them said to my side. But they weren’t my focus. I simply red at the old man who was looking down on me with a condescending gaze, as if I was about to be a mere afterthought.


    ‘You shitty bastard! ME? Weaker will than yours!? Bullshit! I didn’t survive in this world just to be told I have weaker will than yours.’


    I tried to move my limbs, but they didn’t respond to me.


    From behind I was stabbed with [Ice needles], [Water Spears] and [Poison Darts]. Magic spells from the spell casters from behind.


    Fortunately, the first two attacks were nullified, leaving only the poison dart to cause some actual damage.


    [You have lost 120 health points]


    [You have sessfully resisted the poison]


    Still, not my concern. I kept trying to move my limbs under the force of the old man’s control. There was no way in hell I was going to let him win me in a battle of will. Sure, I was naturally not confident, but there was no way in hell I was going to allow someone to insult my will to find Minerva again.


    [You have lost 50 health points]


    [You have lost 70 health points]


    At my side, both of the assassins drilled their needles in deeper. The old man was quietly observing me. I expected some sort of remark from him.


    A huge force hit my body, like 5 sumo mmers were lying on top of my body. The more I tried to resist his control, the heavier it got. This man was practically a mountain. But I wasn’t going to give up.


    A bit more then I could go. While I was struggling, I noticed that beneath me, arge white magic circle was forming up.


    There were still eleven people present. Apart from these three, the two casting the anti-magic area and the one keeping [Wall of Magic] running, the other five were simply chanting from afar with their arms folded, meaning they all together were casting it.


    ‘O-oi… No way.’


    Akkun spoke out from within while I struggled against the force.


    ‘W-We need to get out of here!’


    ‘Eh? Why? We’re kind of busy now!’


    Akira reminded Akkun of our current predicament.


    [You have lost 10 health points]


    [You have lost 30 health points]


    [You have lost 20 health points]


    I felt blood dripping out my shut mouth.


    ‘T-That doesn’t matter now! If they’re doing what it looks like, we’re dead!’


    ‘What? Rendering us immobile while attack from all sides? Yeah, we kind of noticed.’


    ‘Not that you idiot! Can’t you sense the Holy element from the magic circle?’


    ‘Uh, yeah. So?’<novelnext></novelnext>


    ‘They’re trying to exorcise us!’


    ‘Could you two shut up!? You’re not helping me out here!’


    ‘We’re going to die!’


    ‘Ah!’


    The two up in my head werepletely useless now. Maybe this was why I couldn’t beat the old man in a battle of will. I was quite literally separated at this point.


    Maybe, if we came together…


    ‘You two! Help me break free, then we handle the magic circle. There’s no time to argue with my decision, just do it! [Slime Body]!’


    The needles just passed right through my body and I shot them back at the two. The needles somehow caused damage to both of them, making them scream out in pain.


    I then focused all my attention on breaking free of the guild leader’s control. He widened his eye in shock, but his body waspletely unfazed.


    Still, a single second of shock was proof that I could do this. If even a tiny sliver of disbelief entered, his will could be shattered. Unlike myself right now, I had no doubt that I would win this match.


    ‘There it is!’


    Us three minds came together to fight against this seemingly unmovable mountain.


    ‘Uwaa! This is tough!’


    ‘Shut up or I’ll kill you! Just power through!’


    ‘Y-Yes!’


    We tried pushing against the force, but the magic circle beneath us was only getting brighter and brighter.


    ‘Gaah! This old man is too hard.’


    While going, I noticed that even more of his veins snaked out. Both hands were now in front of me, with him trying to keep me in ce.


    Why he didn’t punch me? Simply because I had made him assume I couldn’t feel pain with my nonchnt way of handling the stabbing. Shitty bastards.


    His skin was starting to turn to steaming red. Out of nowhere, this mountain was suddenly looking bigger.


    ‘O-oi! We really can’t do this!’


    ‘NO! Keep going! If we can’t push, we do what chickens do best!’


    ‘Eh? What’s that?’


    ‘We peck! Aaaaagghhhh!’


    ‘Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora!’


    I kept pushing and pecking against the mountain. Without hesitation, we drilled a hole through the mountain to breakthrough. In that single second where we managed to break free of his old, I gathered all the mana I could muster.


    ‘[Devil Light Maniption]! Burst!’


    From below, a white beam of light came for me as did the darkness from my attack explode from within me. It was an intense battle of literal white versus ck.


    ____________________


    SUNALLA POV


    Suna was surprised to see the running assassin beheaded out of nowhere. Even worse was theughing old man who had witnessed this.


    Slowly, he stood up and drank from his bottle.


    “Hehehekyaya! Wouldn’t you agree, your highness?’


    The old man weaklyughed and looked at the princess. Suna reflexively moved in front of the princess and readied herself for battle. Strangely, she felt the princess’s gentle touch on her shoulder.


    The overwhelminglyrge princess floated past her, towards the old man. Normally, Suna would argue with the princess’ actions, but the princess had a very terrifying expression on her face.


    A subtle grin with crazy, obsessive, death-defying eyes. Suna had seen that look on her one-too-many times. Whenever the princess was scheming or liked a certain development, she’d see it on her face.


    The very first time she saw it, she was still a guppy and the princess was a mere child. That day was known as Massacre of the 4th Generation. Next, the Discovery of the Genius of the Fourth, then the sudden Downfall of the Cold Genius. The most recent, was when the princess found out about the death of General Sundale.


    Every single one of these instances, the princess had a hand in the matter or found it to be profitable to her. Of course, such a thing was not pleasing to Suna, but the princess had another face. One that spelt absolute doom for any who it was meant for.


    So, to avoid such a fate, Suna had ignored every single one of the princess’ moves. She would obey quietly, even if her father’s death brought pleasure to the princess.


    Right now, her smile with the old man suggested she had a hand in this.


    Originally, Suna presumed it was her brother trying to take her out, but the more she thought about it, the princess would know of such a thing happening before anyone.


    A sudden dread fell on Suna once again. This, her assassination, Hinotori disappearing, it was all part of her ploy. But to what end? For merely the throne?


    “Indeed, Gate Keeper. Now, shall we?”


    “When you told me that eleven years ago, I thought of you as a fool. Now here you are, fulfilling that promise. I expect, I shall receive my reward as well?”


    “Of course. Of course. Shall we see how things are?”


    The old man swam past Suna who was still thinking about everything, trying to understand the princess’ motives. What drove her into doing all that she did and being the sort of person that she currently was.


    “Yes. Let’s hurry before that beast you sent wipes out your personal army.”


    ‘Personal army?!’


    Suna’s mind was blown. The princess was trying to get herself a personal army? What would she need that for? Sure, she had a no one she could really trust, but were she to ascend the throne, there was no one in Antis who would dare to betray her.


    “Are you ok? We need to get going.”


    Yokino tapped on Suna’s shoulder, bringing her back to reality. She shook her head and went after the princess like a guard dog.


    Yokino shrugged and followed afterwards, where they all entered through the portal.


    On the other side, what they saw was shocking. Several lined-up mermen, beaten to near death. There was a part of the area that was thick ck, with no indication of it lightening up anytime soon. Several shadowy demons roamed about and a portion of the once-beautiful temple had been broken down. Of course, they had no way of knowing how beautiful it once was.


    From the temple, something came out.


    “Haha, it’s like witnessing the seconding of the Sea Devil Makrov. You really outdid yourself with this subordinate this time, princess.”


    The old man blurted out and Suna’s mind started performing cartwheels, trying to process what he just said.


    The Seconding of that fiend? If the thing there was such a being, they were in for a lot of trouble. They only won against Makrov because of the Human Hero, Hiro Tatsumakist five years. If something on that level was there with them, they had no chance of fighting it.


    While Suna was steeling herself for an epic fight, she suddenly heard something else.


    “SUBORDINATE?!”


    <A/N: Sorry for thete post, was busy! Alright, 2 day streak secured!>