I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution

Chapter 236: 236. Abyssal Holy War – Clash (2)

Episode 236. Abyssal Holy War – Clash (2)

Paimon gnawed on his lip.

"What in the world is that."

The succubi had been banished from the dream by the Saintess's power.

The powerful divine protection that instantly covered the million-strong army was beyond what the demon race had expected, but he could accept it, having received intelligence that the Saintess had used a Divine Power Amplification Crystal in the war on the continent.

It was a shame that the succubi's intervention was blocked, but he figured that wouldn't be enough to instantly restore the already shaken morale.

But, now.

Paimon's brilliant mind could not accept the sight unfolding before his eyes.

A deafening roar covered the plains.

The fervor that had died down and was nowhere to be found just yesterday—no, just this morning—was flaring up again in an instant.The humans, who looked as if they might flee at any moment, were now burning with fighting spirit and preparing for battle.

"L-Lord Paimon."

Stolas's panicked voice reached him, but Paimon's gaze remained fixed on the humans' Saintess.

Erisliste Lilianne De Francia.

An incomplete royal born of a courtesan, a princess who had fled and been forgotten.

A person who should have never ascended to the throne.

A woman who should have been even less tolerable in Francia, where the kingdom had burned down and collapsed in the revolution.

A Saintess?

Paimon laughed coldly.

If she had paraded around as a Saintess in revolutionary Francia with that kind of social status, her end would have been nothing but a meaningless death.

The only reason such a woman could come to this island now and instantly rally these inferior scum, who were prone to division and only cared for their own well-being, was...

Paimon's blazing gaze turned to the human riding toward him.

Pierre de Lafayette.

He had found the Saintess that not even Abyss Corporation could locate, captured Halphas to gain the recognition of the Holy Theocracy, and raised her to be Queen in the revolutionary Republic that had destroyed the kingdom.

He knew the man's course of action. But the causality made no sense.

How was such a thing possible?

How did he save a Saintess who should have died long ago and make her a queen?

And how did he shatter all of Paimon's expectations on this island?

Paimon watched as Pierre, who had galloped closer, nocked an arrow to his bow.

The arrow soon flew, and Paimon lazily snatched it from the air as it fell in a parabola.

As if his job was done, Pierre turned his horse and began to leisurely ride back.

Paimon irritably unfurled the paper wrapped around the arrow.

"Th-That is..."

Hearing Stolas's voice, Paimon laughed out loud.

"Haha, hahaha..."

The item shot over, tied to the arrow, was the treaty document.

The peace negotiation proposal from Abyss Corporation that Stolas had delivered.

A very concise reply was scrawled on the treaty.

-Go to hell.

Paimon could no longer laugh cheerfully.

"Wh-what will you do, Lord Paimo— Gack!"

Stolas couldn't even finish his sentence before Paimon's hand seized his throat, and he choked.

"W-wait, just a moment, my words...!"

"You must atone for the sin of failing this important negotiation."

Crack-

With a gruesome sound, the demon's body, its neck broken, slowly collapsed.

Even so, Paimon's mood did not improve in the slightest.

"Haha, hahaha..."

He had thought there wouldn't be any variables.

This time, he had sworn not to be careless.

He had mobilized every method at his disposal to corner Pierre de Lafayette.

He pressured him by mobilizing every drone he could operate, and even all the succubi mobilized from Gremory through Baal.

He had poured out every card in his hand.

He had believed it was a situation where failure was impossible.

And so, he had finally bared his fangs at Baal.

It was the moment he had waited for for so many long years, only for it to be so absurdly twisted here by those insignificant beings, by mere inferior creatures.

One million drones.

It was a terrifying military power, but maintaining and moving them required an amount of mana that was difficult to even imagine.

Even though he had practically swept up every human and demi-human from the New Continent, maintaining those who had already become drones was not something that could be managed with the remaining humans or demi-humans.

The ones supplying the drones' mana now were mostly of the demon race, a race that boasted a level of mana far different from that of humans or demi-humans.

He was maintaining that large army with those who had been purged after rebelling against Baal's rule.

But even their mana wasn't infinite. If the war of attrition with the Central Continent dragged on here, the supply would likely stop from mana depletion faster than all the drones could be destroyed.

If he lost that many drones or their mana was depleted, he might achieve victory only to be purged, unable to stand against Baal.

"Hah. To come all this way."

After giving me a taste of a sense of liberation, of a pleasure that felt like it would pickle my brain.

It's being snatched away again just like that?

Paimon's eyes flashed as he turned his gaze, glaring at the back of Pierre de Lafayette, who was returning to the Allied Forces' camp.

The instigator of this entire situation.

The one who had slowly twisted the plans of Abyss Corporation, and had finally shaken the board itself.

A human who had prepared for the Industrial Revolution before it even happened, something that should have been impossible.

The one who overcame an overwhelming disadvantage to win a civil war.

The one who joined hands with the Republic that rose from its hatred of nobles.

The one who led the battle against the Sage to victory and acclaimed a Saintess Queen in the revolutionary Republic.

The one who shook the Empire, led Iberica to victory, and in the end, even defeated Krafte.

And as if that weren't enough, he united those he had fought as enemies to lead an expedition against Abyss Corporation.

Abyss Corporation had always been reacting to the situations caused by Pierre de Lafayette.

No, it had thought it was reacting.

It had always prepared, thinking that this time it could bring him down, but it had only repeated its own collapse.

In reality, it had merely been scrambling to respond to the changes brought about by Pierre de Lafayette.

Even Paimon himself, who had thought he was using Pierre de Lafayette to induce a crack and collapse within Abyss Corporation.

"Ah, what is this feeling?"

Jealousy toward the being who had effortlessly achieved what he couldn't over so many long years.

Love for the being who had granted him the opportunity for liberation he had so craved.

And finally, toward the being who had shattered the very opportunity Paimon had waited so long for, right before his eyes—

Seething hatred.

"Haha, hahaha! Ahahahaha!"

Paimon burst into maniacal laughter.

That thing is human, but not human.

An anomaly so great it verges on absurdity, as if twisting causality itself.

Pierre de Lafayette is not a being weak enough to be lovingly coveted and his suffering savored.

Finally, finally, he understood.

He was not just someone excellent for a human, or surprising for a human.

A threat, great enough to shatter even the freedom Paimon had so craved.

Only now, at last, had Pierre de Lafayette become Paimon's enemy.

"I should have done this much, much sooner."

That monstrous being, that absurd existence.

He should never have dared to look down on him and leave him be.

Before he became what he is now, back when he was, at best, a human who merely stood out.

Long ago, he should have rendered his body incapable of doing anything, and...

"I should have possessed him completely."

Paimon, his eyes overflowing with love-hate, reached out his hand, grasping at the distant figure of Pierre de Lafayette.

It's not too late, even now.

He is only leading an army of inferior races that has already made countless sacrifices, one that can only maintain its unity by relying on the Saintess Queen in the lands of Abyss Corporation.

"Pierre, de, Lafayette."

As if that were the signal, Paimon's one remaining horn flashed, activating the design.

Soon, mana transmitted from distant Pandemonium flowed through the design etched into Paimon's horn, bringing with it a thrill.

Power that no human or demon, no...

an overwhelming power that not even the Hero of the Demon Race could dare to covet.

An elation that felt as if it would pickle his very soul coursed through his body, and a pain that felt like it would burn his brain shook his mind.

Within that waterfall of sensations, endlessly disparate yet endlessly connected, Paimon shivered and moved his arms.

In response, innumerable puppets raised their bodies.

"I will kill every last one of the subordinates you hold so dear."

Step-

The soulless dolls stepped forward.

"I will cut off your limbs, and tear out your tongue."

Step-

Responding to Paimon's killing intent, they advanced.

"I will tear apart everything you love, piece by piece, right before your eyes."

Paimon declared, his words filled with an obsession bordering on a curse.

"My hateful love."

*

The capital of Abyss Corporation, Pandemonium.

Underground, at the Abyss Corporation Headquarters.

The 'Nest' sector.

Step-

Step-

Footsteps echoed through the dark corridor, which was shrouded in a chilling silence.

Baal, wearing twin swords on his back and the Demon King's Crown, walked down the empty corridor.

Countless coffins lined both sides of the corridor he passed through, but Baal didn't spare them a single glance.

After walking for a long time, Baal finally found the being he considered valuable.

A succubus with long, flowing blonde hair, dressed in a nun's habit.

Gremory was on the sofa, hugging her knees with both arms, her head bowed.

Step-

Step-

The only sound in the immensely vast space came to a halt.

The Hero of the Demon Race opened his mouth.

"Gremory."

The half-demon slowly raised her head and looked up at him with hazy golden eyes.

"...Baal."

Slowly, the hazy golden eyes came into focus.

Baal quietly watched to see what kind of light would dwell in those eyes.

All the while, Gremory also met Baal's gaze, but she could read nothing in his eyeless face.

"The peace negotiations have failed."

"...I see."

Gremory replied slowly.

She knew that the succubi's consciousnesses had been simultaneously banished by Divine Power.

Gremory wasn't watching the field, but she had guessed that Pierre de Lafayette's young Saintess had done something.

No, a young Saintess?

That was hardly a fitting title for a Saintess who was likely now more powerful than her.

Gremory thought so and let out a small laugh.

"They have chosen war."

Hearing Baal's words, Gremory briefly thought of Pierre de Lafayette.

She had tried to think of her knight first, but it hadn't worked well.

"...I see. That's good news for you."

But not for Paimon.

Do the Allied Forces have a chance of winning?

It would be difficult.

They had always accomplished things thought to be difficult, but Gremory, knowing what Paimon had prepared and the extent of Baal's power, was extremely skeptical.

In the first place, if they are defeated here, it's the end for Abyss Corporation.

So they could not be defeated.

But for some reason, Gremory couldn't tell what result she was hoping for.

Gremory gazed at Baal's lifeless face, which still had no eyes.

What was it about that face that had made her harbor hope and place her expectations in him?

If, back then...

If she had refused to return to Abyss Corporation after her role as the Saintess was over.

"Until the moment my life ends, no, even after, I will pledge my loyalty to you for all eternity, Lady Saintess."

If she had remained with her knight, and with those who followed her.

What would have happened then?

Gremory soon shook her head with a self-mocking laugh.

She remembered how even the friends she'd been close with since childhood, the neighbors who had treated her kindly, had changed.

Her end would have been to be burned by the Holy Theocracy, who had caught wind of her identity.

"Did you come all this way personally just to tell me that? The succubus children you took were beaten by the Saintess and are in a near-death state anyway, and a half-demon who can only use Divine Power has nothing left to offer you."

Gremory looked into Baal's eyes and deliberately added, slowly.

"Demon King."

Baal looked down at Gremory for a moment, then slightly furrowed his brow.

"Well, I wonder why."

Gremory didn't hide her baffled expression.

Baal gazed down at Gremory silently, then turned his back and walked away with the same thudding footsteps as when he arrived.

Without realizing it, Gremory shot up from her seat.

"Baal!"

The call was almost impulsive, but Baal stopped walking.

Gremory, placing a faint hope in Baal's attitude, asked.

"...Weren't you fighting for them?"

Baal turned his gaze in the direction Gremory's finger was pointing.

His lifeless, eyeless gaze fell upon the countless beings inside the test tubes.

The demons, submerged in happy illusions for all time, slowly dying as their mana was extracted.

Those who had once revered Baal as the Hero of the Demon Race and fought against the Demon King, but who had then raised a rebellion against Baal and were caught up in the Great Purge.

But the answer that came from Baal's lips was utterly dry.

"We are at war now, Gremory. This isn't the time for Zen dialogues, it's time to fight."

After a moment of silence, Gremory slowly bowed to Baal.

"Please be victorious, Demon King."

"There's no need to pray for the obvious, Saintess."

Baal replied as he turned his back once more and disappeared down the silent corridor.