Evil Lord - Enter Jaldabaoth

“Destroy the building without getting anywhere near it!”

Following her directive, the priests began casting attack magic.

The building came tumbling down bit by bit, but it was hard to imagine Jaldabaoth dying under a pile of rubble. With her enchanted armor, even Remedios wouldn’t die from something like that unless she got awfully unlucky. And besides—

Remedios eyed her clean blade.

Did he really absorb that powerful blow just by flying away? Did he use a martial art like Fortress? Or was it a special demon ability? There were lots of possibilities, but if she couldn’t figure out the answer, they were in serious trouble.

With great cracks and pops, the building was completely demolished by the area-of-effect spells. Remedios found herself having a coughing fit in the cloud of dust it kicked up.

“Hey, Remedios, why isn’t he coming out?”

“…Honored sister, do you think he could have teleported away already?”

***

“Hoh-hoh-hoh. That puts me in quite a pinch.” Jaldabaoth’s voice suddenly came to them from beneath the rubble.

“Honored sister!”

“I’m on it!”

Remedios stood in front of Calca and held her sword at the ready.

Apparently, the demon really was trapped beneath the rubble. And if he was talking to them now, it must have meant that Holy Flame was the correct attack. Surely he hadn’t been knocked out by the impact of the rubble.

“It seems I’ll have to actually start putting some effort into this fight.”

“Ohhh? You could have done that a long time ago. I’ve been waiting, so won’t you show me what you’re capable of…? Holy Lady Calca, Kelart, get back.” She instructed the pair in a lower voice.

At the same time, Remedios backed up and left a wall of angels between her and Jaldabaoth.

“Hmm. Then please take some distance. It wouldn’t be much fun if you were killed in the shock of me getting up.”

The pile of collapsed bricks and wood rose. And as the debris fell away, some sort of giant slowly stood up.

“…Jaldabaoth?” Remedios murmured in spite of herself.

The being standing before them was something altogether different from the Jaldabaoth of a few moments ago. She wondered if he had switched places with another demon. But there couldn’t be that many demons this powerful out there.

There was no doubt in her mind: This was Jaldabaoth; it was Jaldabaoth’s true form.

Wings of flame whooshed open. The tip of his long tail was also burning. Even the ends of his terrifyingly thick arms were on fire. His sinister face was rage incarnate.

***

Volume 12, Chapter 1.4