The World Is Mine For The Taking

"I... I didn’t know about this..." Beelzebub said, her eyes widening as genuine confusion and disbelief spread across her face while she stared at Satania.

Well, I guessed Satania had never bothered telling the others about the true price she had to pay every time she relied on her Necromancy.

"It’s not something that really matters anymore," Satania replied calmly. "As long as I can protect this world with the power I’ve been given, that’s enough for me. Even if I end up dying because of it, my undead army will still remain loyal to my will and continue fighting for the sake of this world. Compared to what’s waiting for us, I’d say it’s a fairly small sacrifice to make."

"Well, if that’s the way you see it," I replied with a small nod. "Even then, I don’t think that power alone is going to be enough, is it? Once everything is said and done, you won’t be able to keep creating more undead. The army you already have isn’t limitless, no matter how overwhelming it looks right now. Are you planning to keep building your forces until they cover the entire world just to fight back the invaders? Even if you somehow managed to pull that off, I still think it wouldn’t be enough in the end."

I wasn’t saying any of that because I doubted her determination or questioned her resolve.

The reason I said it was because some obstacles were simply too enormous for a single person to overcome, no matter how much strength or willpower they possessed.

Certain limits existed for a reason, and pretending they weren’t there wouldn’t magically make them disappear.

"So I’d like you to seriously think about joining forces with me," I said while keeping my eyes fixed on hers.

"You really are stubborn," Satania replied with a quiet sigh that sounded more exhausted than irritated. "Still, I suppose I’ll think about it when we actually get to that point. Right now, I still hate the thought of working together with you, considering you’re basically Lilith’s son."

"Well, I guess that’s understandable," I admitted with a helpless smile. "If I were in your position, I’d probably feel the same way."

"I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Lilith," she said honestly. "Still, you’ve continued insisting that you aren’t going to become her. Since you’ve repeated that over and over, I’m at least willing to think about your proposal."

Well, that was honestly a better answer than I had expected to receive from her.

Somehow, I had managed to get through to Satania, even if it was only by the smallest possible margin.

I genuinely hadn’t expected our conversation to end with even a tiny bit of progress.

Honestly, it still felt a little hard to believe.

"I think that’s enough for now," I said with a faint smile. "Either way, I’d like you to think about it carefully before making a final decision. At the end of the day, both of us want exactly the same thing. We both want this world to survive the coming War of Worlds."

She didn’t respond immediately after hearing those words.

Instead, she quietly lowered her gaze, looking as though she were seriously considering everything I had just told her instead of brushing it aside.

Just as she finally opened her mouth to speak again, something completely unexpected happened right in front of us.

Beelzebub suddenly began melting.

"Beelzebub?" I called out immediately.

"S... Sorry, Leon..." she said, her voice noticeably weaker than before. "The meeting place... it was attacked without any warning."

"What?! How did that even happen so suddenly?"

"Yeah..." she answered weakly. "Whoever attacked us has unbelievably destructive power. I... I don’t think I can keep these copies active much longer..."

As she finished speaking, both of the Beelzebub copies standing in front and beside me slowly lost their shape before collapsing into puddles of slime on the ground.

If she couldn’t even maintain her clones anymore, then the original Beelzebub must have suffered a tremendous amount of damage.

Someone had actually attacked the gathering place of the Seven Deadly Sins?

Just who in the world, beside me, could possibly possess enough power to pull off something that insane?

While those questions kept racing through my head one after another, an overwhelming sense of danger suddenly exploded through every instinct I had.

The feeling was so intense that my entire body reacted before my mind could even catch up with what was happening.

Every fiber of my being screamed the exact same warning over and over.

If I didn’t get outside immediately, then something bad was going to happen.

Without wasting even a single second, I immediately rushed outside as fast as I possibly could.

The instant I looked up into the sky, my entire body froze for a brief moment.

A massive nuclear missile was descending straight toward the kingdom.

My eyes quickly swept across the horizon, hoping that what I had just seen was somehow an illusion.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Multiple aircraft were flying high above us, and they were dropping nuclear missiles across the surrounding land as though they had no intention of leaving anything standing.

Well... whoever planned this clearly wasn’t interested in subtlety.

Without allowing myself another second to hesitate, I immediately activated Guardian.

An enormous barrier spread outward from my position until it completely enveloped the entire kingdom.

I honestly had no idea whether I could maintain something this massive for very long.

Even so, standing around and wondering about it wasn’t going to save anyone.

Protecting this kingdom mattered far more than worrying about my own condition.

Most of the people I cared about were still inside these walls, and that alone gave me all the reason I needed.

The moment the first nuclear missiles slammed into Guardian, countless explosions erupted across the surface of the barrier one after another.

Their overwhelming force traveled directly through Guardian and crashed into my body with terrifying pressure.

Since I had expanded Guardian over such a ridiculous distance, the amount of mana it consumed was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

"Kuh...!"

The strain was almost unbearable, and it felt as though an invisible mountain had suddenly been dropped directly onto my shoulders.

Even then, I clenched my teeth as hard as I could and continued pouring every last bit of mana I could spare into Guardian without letting up.

Never in my life had I expected something like this to happen so suddenly.

Was this the same attack that had struck the Seven Deadly Sins only moments ago?

I honestly didn’t know the answer to that question yet, but the timing made it impossible to ignore the possibility.

One thing, however, was perfectly clear inside my mind at that moment.

Whoever had planned this attack and carried it out was going to regret making this their decision.

I was going to make them pay for every single thing they had just done.