Next Life – Chapter 101

Marius pondered how to proceed, evading Decarabia’s spinning attack with a Warp.

Decarabia was an opponent whose prolonged battles would only put Marius at a disadvantage.

Moreover, it was tough enough to withstand one or two blows.

In a sense, it might be the most troublesome type of enemy.

When Acid Breath was reflected by Reflection, Decarabia unleashed its spinning attack again.

It seemed there were only three attack patterns, including Life Drain.

Perhaps because it was originally a Slime, but having risen to Demon Lord status, each attack was not to be underestimated.

Still, it was an opponent that could be managed by focusing solely on defense and evasion.

As for Vayuta Forest and its surrounding areas, Marius had no choice but to give them up.

(Do I have to use a Forbidden Spell?)

There were still several First-Class spells Marius hadn’t used against Decarabia, but the problem was that Decarabia was beginning to develop resistance to Marius’s Magic Power itself.

He had to consider the possibility that using them recklessly would eventually make them unable to deal damage.

Truly a Demon Lord.

The strongest Forbidden Spell was Annihilation, but there were other offensive Forbidden Spells as well.

A single strike might not be enough to defeat it, but he could unleash several powerful spells and then finish it off with First-Class spells.

If even that didn’t work… he stopped himself as he began to think.

He decided to think about it after defeating it.

“Hahaha! Have you figured out how to defeat me!”

Decarabia said as if it had seen through Marius’s thoughts and launched into a spinning attack.

It was simple, but it was a series of attacks that required constant concentration to avoid, draining not only Magic Power, which could be recovered with skills, but also willpower.

Marius teleported into the air.

He wryly thought that he couldn’t laugh at Decarabia for being predictable.

“Again?”

Marius unleashed a spell faster than Decarabia’s targeted attack.

“By the stars that journey the heavens, don your judgment! Become my hammer and smite him! [Star Rain]”

Now, several entities, each about a size smaller than Decarabia and resembling small stars, appeared and rained down on Decarabia’s location.

Star Rain, the strongest earth magic, as its name suggested, was a Special-class spell that rained down small meteors.

“Is that all you’ve got!”

Decarabia attempted to counter with a breath attack, but the meteors descending from the sky, shaking the very ground, were not just one or two.

If they had fallen in a straight line, it might have been manageable, but the meteors fell in curves from the front, back, left, and right.

The continuous barrage of attacks accumulated damage on Decarabia while steadily eroding the ground.

“You… you bastard! [Exharatio] [Congelatio]”

Decarabia attempted to intercept with the First-Class spells he had learned from Marius.

While it was impressive that he managed to negate two meteors, he ended up taking the brunt of the ones that weren’t neutralized.

Decarabia gave up on intercepting and focused on defense and recovery.

He believed that by enduring with the Learning skill, he could turn the tables.

He didn’t know the true terror of Star Rain because it was a spell he had never seen before.

The terror of Star Rain lay not in its physical destructive power but in its ability to sustain attacks.

As long as the caster didn’t stop casting the spell, or their Magic Power didn’t run out, they could continue to fire it.

Decarabia, while taking multiple hits, harbored a quiet hope that the damage from individual strikes would decrease, and attempted to counterattack again.

He transferred to Marius’s side using Warp, but upon seeing this, Marius

“[Homing]”

cast a support spell that granted homing capabilities.

The small meteors that had been descending to the ground reversed course and attacked Decarabia from behind.

If that were all, it would have been manageable, but several small meteors appeared between Marius and Decarabia, striking Decarabia’s body.

Bombarded in mid-air, Decarabia was shot down to the ground without even a chance to attack.

This was an unbelievable turn of events for Decarabia.

Even if the true strength of Star Rain lay in its sustainability, a Special-class spell like the one said to be a Forbidden Spell couldn’t be cast infinitely, and the moment it stopped would be the chance to counterattack.

Yet, the small meteors showed no sign of stopping.

A sense of impatience began to creep into Decarabia’s mind.

A large crater was formed, burying his massive body deep into the ground, invisible from the surface, yet the rain of meteors showed no sign of stopping.

Decarabia had a weakness: while the Learning skill was active, he couldn’t use any spells or skills.

He hadn’t been able to use them even when he tried to counterattack twice, and he had taken damage because of it.

He had even been forced to temporarily interrupt Learning to recover.

Furthermore, while Learning’s damage reduction effect was acquired relatively quickly, it took a very long time to gain immunity to damage.

And the power of Marius’s magical attacks would take a very long time to reach the point of damage immunity.

That was why he had intentionally revealed information to incite caution and encourage cautious action…

(Did… did he know…?)

It seemed his plan had backfired.

Of course, Marius knew.

He knew that Learning couldn’t acquire Special-class spells.

Of course, there were differences from the game, so he couldn’t let his guard down.

However, continuously casting a single spell wouldn’t pose much of a problem, even if resistance developed.

If it didn’t take long for resistance to build up against his Magic Power itself, Decarabia would have counterattacked long ago.

With Marius’s reduced Magic Power consumption and Magic Power recovery effects, it was possible to cast almost infinitely.

That is, setting aside fatigue.

“[Refrain]”

He cast this spell once and drank a recovery potion.

A large, deep hole had opened in the ground, and Marius’s objective was gradually being achieved.

Marius’s true objective was to create a deep hole.

He had already shown the pattern of luring his opponent into an aerial battle with a Forbidden Spell.

Against a Demon Lord, doing so twice wouldn’t work.

So, he had come up with the somewhat simple idea of attacking from below next.

Of course, since he was using a Forbidden Spell, dealing damage was also a goal, but that was secondary.

Using the scrying magic Telescope, he confirmed that Decarabia had been buried deep underground.

When he stopped casting for a moment, a loud noise was heard, and water erupted from the ground.

It seemed he had hit an underground water vein.

“Damn it.”

Marius clicked his tongue involuntarily.

Even from a barren wasteland, this was an opponent who could recover with Life Drain.

He had no choice but to accept that his overkill had turned into the worst possible move.

(There’s no other way.)

Preparing himself for a full recovery, Marius steadily lowered his altitude.

Then he noticed that the force of the water spewing out was not abating at all.

Why wasn’t it using Life Drain?

Or was it using it, and this was the extent of its force, or could it recover even without using it if it were water?

It was a Demon Lord, so he couldn’t afford to be careless.

Marius descended cautiously.

Then he noticed something like steam.

(Hmm? Steam? Hot water, not just water?)

The steam rising from underground brought a name to mind.

He recalled hearing that there were Magic Items in Filat for digging.

(Could it be… a hot spring?)

He thought that was absurd.

To hit a hot spring, one would have to dig quite deep… then he remembered he was in another world and decided not to dwell on it.

What bothered him more was Decarabia’s continued absence.

Perhaps it was accumulating power to counter Marius.

Even though it was secondary, he had hit it with a considerable number of meteors, so it would have developed some resistance.

If it were to power up further, it would be quite troublesome.

Marius waited for Decarabia to emerge, remaining focused.

He couldn’t discount the possibility of a surprise attack.

After what felt like five, then ten minutes, its prolonged silence began to feel unnatural.

He wondered if water was its weakness and it was incapacitated, but he continued to be cautious as he approached the hot spring.

Even when he was close enough for a surprise attack, nothing happened.

Using Detection, he confirmed Decarabia’s presence near the boiling water.

Detection had a drawback of not being able to detect plants, but it was unparalleled in detecting animals.

In other words, Decarabia was alive.

So why didn’t it come out?

When Marius went to the location where Detection had indicated Decarabia, he found a slime, less than half the size of Marius’s shoe, convulsing in a clearly near-death state.

It seemed water really was its weakness.

Marius, taken aback by the unexpected turn of events, crushed the slime.

“Guh!”

Decarabia’s scream was heard, and a small orb remained.

Upon confirmation, it was the Demon Lord’s Soul.

With the destruction of the Demon Lord Decarabia, another material for the Demon-destroying Weapon series had been collected, and Marius tilted his head.

The materials for the Demon-destroying Weapons should be extremely difficult to collect due to their strength.

(Oh well.)

Giving up, convinced he wouldn’t find the answer even if he thought about it, he quickly collected it.

Then he looked around and was satisfied with the minimal damage.

Considering he had been continuously casting Star Rain for a significant amount of time, creating numerous craters across an area the size of a forest could be considered minor damage.

“Is it over?”

When Marius looked back, Asteria had returned without him noticing.

“Yeah. I never expected it to be brought to the brink of death by hot water…”

He muttered in confusion, having thought it was an unprecedentedly formidable enemy, only for it to meet an unexpected end.

To Marius’s remark, Asteria

“Slimes are weak to hot water, didn’t you know? Although, as a Demon Lord, I doubt it would have been defeated by that alone unless it was severely damaged. History tells us that several nations were destroyed by Decarabia.”

explained.

Marius, hearing for the first time that a Slime’s weakness was such a thing, decided to change the subject quickly.

“By the way, why were you alone? Were you planning to die?”

Asteria nodded in response to Marius’s question.

“Yes. If I died, Hordia would be consumed by revenge, and other nations would be able to cast aside their grievances. It could have been an opportunity for humanity to unite.”

Asteria remained utterly composed, which infuriated Marius.

She seemed to be completely self-contained.

“Do you think it would really go that smoothly? Our King doesn’t seem interested in such things.”

He intended to find fault, but it wasn’t entirely baseless.

King Bernhard III of Filat had many flaws, but he was certainly devoid of ambition to recklessly strengthen his kingdom’s interests or expand its territory.

Otherwise, he would likely have adopted an aggressive diplomatic strategy based on Marius’s existence or participated in the invasion of Hordia.

This was one of the reasons Marius hadn’t fled Filat.

Sensing Marius’s feelings from his use of the phrase “our King,” Asteria revealed a certain fact.

“Indeed. I intended for the Wyverns to deal with it, but you interfered.”

She said something staggering with the casualness of discussing the weather, and Marius couldn’t immediately comprehend it.

After a few seconds, he finally understood.

“Wait, were you the mastermind?”

His voice lowered unintentionally.

To Marius, Asteria offered her usual smile.

“Heh, everything goes awry when you get involved. Originally, Hordia was supposed to conquer the continent, and then fight the Higher Demons. Of course, the Demon Lords would be crushed before they could revive.”

It wasn’t something he could dismiss as a pipe dream.

At the very least, Hordia undoubtedly possessed the power to unify the continent.

Thinking that far, he suddenly felt a sense of dissonance.

She had said that her intention in trying to kill the King of Filat was for humanity to unite after her death, but she also said that Hordia would unify the continent if Marius hadn’t intervened.

Wasn’t this a contradiction?

Asteria, when questioned about this, replied without any hint of remorse.

“What, you couldn’t be fooled?”

When Marius and she had both harbored serious murderous intent, Asteria, with a smile, continued.

“Truthfully, I was betting on your kindness of heart. The three nations would be on the verge of collapse due to severe defeats, and Hordia would lose its king. I wondered if you could truly pretend not to know.”

Marius thought it would be difficult.

He felt nothing for foolish rulers, but he would sympathize with the people who had such foolish leaders.

“You probably didn’t want any reward, did you? So, in its place, you would have wished for the people of the western lands to live without major incident, wouldn’t you?”

Marius couldn’t deny it.

Honestly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead, but if he had faced the reality, could he have made a different decision?

Asteria seemed to see through everything as usual.

“Although, I don’t think the situation will lead to you feeling sympathy immediately.”

Marius felt like saying something to Asteria’s meaningful utterance.

“But still, there’s no guarantee that things would go according to your plan. Isn’t that irresponsible?”

He attempted a desperate counterargument, and she grinned.

As she raised her right hand, Asteria emerged from her shadow.

At least, that was the only way to describe the scene that unfolded before Marius.

“A double? A doppelganger or a mimic?”

There was no other explanation.

Did she intend to feign death using a body double?

“I tend to be rather pessimistic.”

Marius thought Asteria, who was laughing mischievously, ought to be seriously reprimanded by someone.

He also thought it wasn’t his role to do so.

“[Attach]”

Marius designated Mireille and teleported, along with Asteria.

At their destination, Annette was being harshly reprimanded by people with tears in her eyes.

“Hm?”

“Hm?”

First was Asteria, then Mireille, Isabella, and Vanessa.

And then other people also noticed.

“Your Majesty!”

The people were first surprised, then their anger reignited, and they yelled.

Their respect for the master-servant relationship seemed to have flown out the window.

Asteria looked genuinely uncomfortable.

“Are you out of your mind to stay behind by yourself!”

“What would happen to this country if something happened to Your Majesty!”

Asteria raised her right hand to silence those who were clamoring.

“It’s only because I had a chance of success. I am alive and have returned, am I not?”

She boasted with her usual audacious and defiant attitude.

Her utterly confident demeanor almost convinced the people, but one person was an exception.

“That’s a lie. When… when Your Majesty lies, you open your eyes for a moment! You just opened them!”

Isabella, Asteria’s only true friend, said.

She called her by her affectionate name, knew her lord and best friend’s quirk when she lied or tried to deceive, and saw that she had just done so.

“You’re trying to deceive us! You’re trying to deceive us because you’re ashamed!”

Asteria, who had been exposed, panicked and, unusually for her, broke into a cold sweat.

Having Isabella with her was extremely problematic.

Normally, others would reprimand Isabella for her tone toward the queen, but this time, no one showed any sign of doing so and instead glared at Asteria.

Asteria unconsciously sought help and glanced at Marius.

Sensing her emotions even without mind-reading magic, Marius smiled sarcastically.

“Please receive plenty of scolding and reflect thoroughly, Your Majesty Asteria.”

After delivering his cutting remarks, he bowed and returned to Filat using teleportation magic.

Immediately after, angry shouts echoed.