The World Is Mine For The Taking

Beelzebub’s POV

I slowly opened my eyes, and the very first thing that came into view was Asmodeus lying motionless on the ground right beside me.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips before I could even stop myself from reacting.

She was covered in blood from head to toe, and the countless wounds scattered across her body were bad enough that anyone could immediately tell she had been pushed far beyond her limits.

"K-Kuh..."

A painful groan escaped my own mouth as I tried to move, only to realize that I wasn’t in much better condition than she was.

The damage I had taken was so severe that I couldn’t even maintain my humanoid form anymore. My body instinctively gave up trying to hold its shape, causing me to collapse back into my natural slime form before I slowly crawled over to Asmodeus using what little strength I still had left.

"Asmodeus..." I muttered weakly while forcing myself closer to her. "Please... don’t die on me like this."

Without wasting another second, I immediately began using my healing abilities on her injuries.

Just as I feared, her condition was critical. She had already reached the point where death was literally only a single step away from taking her. Fortunately, I managed to stabilize her just enough to keep her alive for the moment, but that was only a temporary solution.

Healing her like this wasn’t going to be enough.

She needed proper treatment.

She also needed it immediately before her condition became even worse than it already was.

While continuing to pour what little mana I had left into her body, I forced myself to look around and figure out what had happened to everyone else.

Belphegor was buried underneath a massive pile of rubble.

Several enormous chunks of broken stone had pinned her beneath them, though thankfully she didn’t appear to have lost consciousness. She was already trying to push herself free despite the obvious pain written all over her face.

Morsea and Levi seemed to be in much better condition compared to the rest of us.

From the looks of it, both of them had managed to raise barriers just before the explosion reached them. Even then, those barriers hadn’t completely protected them from the blast. Their clothes were damaged, their bodies were covered in injuries, and it was obvious they had barely managed to survive.

Lucielle had suffered even more than either of them.

One of her legs had been crushed beneath a collapsed section of the building.

Judging by what I could see, she had already cut the trapped leg off herself and was somehow managing to stand on her remaining leg without falling over.

She had probably exhausted nearly all of her mana protecting herself from that explosion, which explained why she hadn’t regenerated the missing limb yet.

"W-What... happened?" Morsea asked as she slowly forced herself onto her feet, her legs trembling so much they barely looked capable of supporting her weight.

"Something attacked us?" Levi asked while staring at the destruction around us. "B-But what kind of power could possibly cause something like this?"

"Ugh..."

A strained groan escaped Belphegor as she finally managed to crawl out from beneath the collapsed rubble with Lucielle’s help, even though Lucielle herself was still balancing on just one leg.

"Is Asmodeus going to be okay, Beelze?" Lucielle asked while looking over at me with concern clearly visible on her face.

"She’s in a very dangerous state," I answered honestly while continuing to heal Asmodeus. "She needs proper healing immediately, and I’m honestly not sure whether my abilities alone are enough. Most of my mana is already gone after I used it to protect myself from that explosion."

The words had barely finished leaving my mouth when something suddenly burst out from one of the largest piles of rubble nearby.

Broken stone exploded in every direction as though someone had punched straight through the entire pile without the slightest bit of effort.

It was Satania.

The murderous killing intent pouring out of her body was so overwhelming that the surrounding air itself almost felt heavy enough to crush someone.

She looked absolutely furious.

Calling her furious honestly didn’t even feel like enough to describe what I was seeing.

She looked like someone who was only a heartbeat away from setting the entire world on fire just to vent her anger.

Unlike the rest of us, she hadn’t suffered many visible injuries, though I could immediately tell she had burned through an incredible amount of mana protecting herself from whatever had just happened.

"I’m going to fucking... kill them!" she growled, her voice shaking with so much rage that it almost sounded like she was forcing every single word through clenched teeth.

Almost instinctively, everyone present lifted their heads and looked toward the sky.

High above us floated countless mechanical flying machines.

They continued dropping strange metallic objects toward the ground one after another without slowing down.

The instant those objects touched the ground, they exploded with terrifying force, sending fire, smoke, and debris flying in every direction.

My eyes widened the moment I realized what I was looking at.

So that was what had caused this unbelievable destruction.

What a lovely way to say hello.

"I’m going to kill them!!!!!!!"

The moment those words left Satania’s mouth, she launched herself into the sky with unbelievable force.

She shot toward the nearest flying machine faster than my eyes could comfortably follow before driving her fist straight through its metal body.

The machine exploded instantly.

Without slowing down for even a moment, she used the force of that explosion to propel herself toward another target.

Then she destroyed another.

Then another.

Then another after that.

She continued jumping from one machine to the next, tearing through their metal frames with her bare hands before punching straight through them as though they were made of paper instead of steel.

Every single machine exploded almost immediately after she destroyed it.

Those explosions were powerful enough that even Satania herself was taking damage from them.

She didn’t care in the slightest.

She ignored every blast, every wound, and every bit of pain as though none of it mattered compared to the rage driving her forward.

At that moment, she honestly looked less like a person and more like an unstoppable natural disaster that had simply decided the sky was today’s victim.

All any of us could do was watch in complete silence.

One after another, those flying machines vanished in bursts of fire, twisted metal, and smoke until, after several long moments, absolutely nothing remained overhead.

Satania had destroyed every single one of them without leaving even one behind.

Only after the battle had completely settled down did we finally notice something that made the whole situation feel even stranger than it already was.

Those mechanical flying machines...

They didn’t have any people controlling inside them at all.