ch21-ch40 · 032-ch28

Chapter 28 — Shinjuku Demon Frontline ⑤

The adventurer returned from another world — Sai.

Opposing him was Kinya, chieftain of the Majin who had brought chaos to the present world that night.

On the rooftop of a building near Shinjuku Tower, their battle began.

Sai held his blade in a low stance.

"Come on, then. Make your move."

Kinya fired several magic bullets at Sai.

But Sai's arrow-deflecting enchantment activated, sending them all flying in random directions.

"Oh-ho. Arrow-deflecting. So it exists in the present world as well."

"I got this in the other world."

"I see. After I kill you, I'll be sure to collect all your equipment."

"Hah, dream on!"

He slashed at Kinya, but the blade was stopped by his arm.

Kinya was so densely packed with magical power that blade attacks didn't seem very effective.

"Hmm. The sword is unsatisfactory."

Kinya laughed, looking relaxed.

"You won't be laughing for long."

Sai tried to slash at him repeatedly, but Kinya simply moved his arm, not even receiving a scratch.

"Heh heh, is that really 'for long'?"

"Yeah. It's for long."

Cold sweat formed on Sai's brow.

According to Hiyori, this was a mid-rank demon, but this guy was probably high-rank level.

He could feel that much power.

"Here, how about this."

Kinya produced a canine-tooth-shaped knife from the large mouth on his stomach and slashed at Sai.

Sai read the movements and dodged.

"Your movements are getting sloppy."

Suddenly, black flames shot from the large mouth on Kinya's stomach.

"Gah?!"

Crying out, Sai hastily retreated.

When he looked, part of his clothes was singed.

"What kind of firepower is that."

"Mere street performance. I hope you enjoyed it."

The black flames were likely flames summoned from Kakuriyo.

They felt hotter than magma.

"It's about time I returned the favor."

"Do you really have the leisure for that?"

Kinya channeled magic power into the canine-tooth knife in his hand.

Then it transformed from its small knife size into a blade about three feet long.

Holding it with both hands, he slashed again.

Sai was forced to focus entirely on dodging.

"Come now, is all you can do keep dodging?"

Perhaps because the location was a building rooftop, he couldn't evade very widely, and the cuts began to accumulate.

When dodging, his blade caught and scraped noisily against the rooftop.

Sai looked flustered.

"Tch...!"

Occasionally he'd try to counterattack, but Kinya no longer even bothered to dodge.

Because even if the attacks hit, they didn't damage him.

"As Rokuya said, you're a disappointment."

"Dream on!"

"But aside from that initial arrow-deflecting, you've shown no interesting tricks. A disappointment."

Then Sai suddenly grinned.

"Alright, I'll show you something interesting."

"Hmph. I no longer expect any tricks from you."

"Wrong. The preparations are complete! Anti-Demon Annihilation Magic — Holy Annihilation!"

In response to Sai's shout, a three-dimensional magic circle formed around Kinya.

"What! I-I can't move!"

"This magic is a pain to set up. I need to prepare both the magic circle at your feet and the wedges driven into space. Otherwise, I can't use it."

At some point, the blade's scratches on the rooftop had become a magic circle, binding Kinya at its center. The wedges driven into space had deployed multiple magic circles.

A flood of light overwhelmed Kinya.

His expression twisted in agony.

"You don't mean... all that dodging and slashing from before...!"

"Yup. I wasn't trying to cut you. I was driving wedges into space."

His earlier flustered expression was nowhere to be seen.

Sai wore an easygoing look.

From the very beginning, this adventurer had never intended to cut his opponent.

"You mean that expression was all for this...!"

To Kinya, Sai had appeared to be struggling.

But it had all been an act.

"That magic was created in the other world to annihilate the souls of demons. You won't return to Kakuriyo or anywhere else — your very soul will be destroyed!"

Hearing these words, Kinya correctly understood what was happening to his body.

His entire body, soul included, was being worn away. Little by little, a holy presence was eroding him, collapsing his body from within.

"Don't... don't fuck with meeeee!"

Kinya roared in fury.

Sai watched him without letting his guard down.

"That's what happens when you underestimate humans and adventurers."

"Guh... guh-guh... if that's how it is...!!"

With more than half his body gone, Kinya began his final desperate struggle.

Kinya removed his mask. A hideous face was revealed.

"DIEEEE... LET'S DIE TOGETHERRRRR!"

Kinya had none of his earlier composure. His face was filled with madness, and in a take-you-with-me spirit, he began to inflate his body. He was drawing in the surrounding mana into his body in massive quantities.

"I've dealt with demons from the other world before, but seriously, you guys always want to self-destruct at the end."

Kinya began expanding on the rooftop.

Sai jumped from that rooftop to another, putting distance between them.

"You... you th-think... run-n-ning... th-that far... heh-heh..."

Seeing Sai's retreating figure, Kinya laughed — moments from self-destruction.

He'd absorbed too much atmospheric mana for his self-destruct, losing all semblance of his original form.

He could no longer speak properly. He had become a grotesque suicide bomb.

Did he intend to reduce the entire surrounding area to ashes?

With this much magical power, he certainly could.

But.

Kinya's opponent was a veteran adventurer from another world.

A man who had experienced this level of crisis countless times.

"Fuu..."

Sai sheathed his blade and focused all his magical power.

He then activated the magic booster carved into his body — the Magical Crest.

He drew in massive amounts of atmospheric mana — mana — and began preparing for a single decisive blow.

He had to finish his preparation before his opponent did.

Magic ran wild around Sai like a storm.

He clenched his fist firmly and twisted his body deeply.

Kinya, having finished his self-destruct preparation, let out a lewd laugh.

"DIEEEEEEEE!"

"No thanks!"

Sai launched himself off the rooftop, and using that momentum, he drove his fist straight into Kinya — a split second before the self-destruct.

The force of the punch sent Kinya flying into the sky.

The demon lord, on the verge of exploding, soared into the heavens.

Even if he self-destructed there, it would affect neither the ground nor anywhere else.

"Bu-gyah... bu-gyahe... gbu-bu...!"

And then, he quite literally exploded.

Watching his end, Sai lowered his stance.

"Kahh... that was rough..."

A middle-aged adventurer's stamina naturally declined with age.

Especially this time — he'd used the Magical Crest, a magic booster he didn't normally employ.

His internal magic was completely drained.

He couldn't have won without it, but he'd probably be laid up with muscle pain and all sorts of other problems for a while.

But he couldn't afford to collapse yet.

Though he'd defeated Kinya, the ringleader of the enemy, there were still the Majin that Hiyori and Mio were fighting.

He hadn't had the leisure to check on them.

How were things now?

Sai drank a stamina potion, perking up his unsteady body, and looked toward the battlefield where Hiyori and Mio were.

Hiyori and Mio had been defeated by the tengu — Sōya.

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Thank you for reading.