The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Belial halted the surge of arcane energy from its body, then flew up to where Asley was.

That very moment, Asley’s face turned tense.

[What in the–!? Is that… a Levitation spell!?]

[HahAHAHA… tHERe IS MuCH of MAGeCrAFT aND MAGiC thaT hAve YeT tO bE DIsCovered.]

Upon seeing Belial crack an ominous grin, Asley clenched his fists.

“Hehehehe…”

“What’s so funny?”

“Fwahaha… Fwahahahaha…”

Asley started laughing.

“Have YoU beCome sO frIGHteneD OF mY power ThAt you lOst your minD?”

That was not the case, because…

“Fwahahahahahaha! Look, Shiro! LOOK! I was right! Levitation magic exists! That Devil is using it!”

Asley being Asley, he was more interested in what he was seeing than the threat he was facing.

Now he was laughing hysterically.

He could walk in the air by using an arcane energy repulsion technique, but that did not count as freely flying in the air.

His eyes were sparkling like a little boy in a toy store, causing even the Devil Belial to feel somewhat disturbed.

“…So YOu’RE JuSt a FOOl.”

Immediately as the sentence ended, Belial closed in on Asley and threw a punch — a punch so fast and powerful that a normal person would get their head blown off by now.

Asley’s eyes had been sparkling with excitement seconds before, but right when Belial’s punch had been thrown, they were instead filled with intense fighting spirit.

Belial stopped its fist right in front of Asley’s face, its eyes widening in surprise as the air around them trembled.

“…oN SEcONd tHOUGhT, yOU MIgHT NOT BE A SIMplE FoOl AftEr All.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone tells me!”

Asley and Belial proceeded to engage in a slugfest, each attack trying to one-up the last.

The ceaseless clashes shook the earth, making it seem as if the town of Sodom itself was screaming.

“You InsoLEnt LiTTLE…!”

“Whoa–!?”

Asley used his Drynium Rod to deflect Belial’s punch, then raised the end of the staff up in an arc.

Belial caught the staff’s tip with its foot, then twisted its body to get its deflected fist back into position before going for an elbow strike.

Ducking his head down to avoid the elbow, Asley then jabbed at Belial’s torso with the tip of his staff, blowing the Devil away.

“nGH…! wHy You–! kAHHhHhh!”

While sliding backward, Belial unleashed a Zenith Breath from its mouth.

Despite the blast being right in front of him, Asley showed no sign of moving away.

“yOu’Re ThroUGH!”

Belial grinned in triumph… but then Asley swiped his Drynium Rod upward.

The swipe flicked the entirety of the breath attack up into the sky.

“wHaT!?”

With Belial momentarily stunned with surprise, Asley made his next move.

His right arm was still raised up. His left hand, previously concealed behind his mantle, was now revealed… and along with it a Spell Circle.

“kUH–!”

Belial immediately took a defensive stance, grimacing in anticipation of a hit from his front.

“Rise! Invisible Fire!”

The Circle glowed, signifying the invocation of the spell formulas, but the spell itself was not seen materializing.

Belial had a guess of what was happening, however, thanks to the name of the spell — an advanced-level spell that, as its name suggested, created an invisible flame.

Even this Devil had not anticipated its opponent to use such an ineffective spell in such an important moment… but Asley had just done exactly that.

Although it was indeed invisible, the spell was effective only against monsters, and those familiar with magic would have no trouble countering it at all.

Still, Asley had indeed just used it, without a doubt.

And due to the surprising timing of its invocation, Belial had taken a defensive stance against it.

But in the end, this spell would not amount to anything — or so Belial thought as it grinned after easily dodging the Invisible Fire.

“oN tHIrD ThoUGht… YoU’Re JUsT a FOOl.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone tells me, too!”

“wHAt!?”

Considering Asley’s current skill level, the Invisible Fire spell was so simple for him to perform now.

Belial was supposed to question why Asley had chosen this spell — and in fact, there were actually two reasons for Asley trying a transparent-form attack spell just now.

First was to get Belial to think it was a surprise attack, thus prompting it to defend. Even though the spell was not all that high-level, it would still injure Belial upon a direct hit.

The second reason was that, with a transparent-form spell, he would have some breathing room to invoke it, since Belial would most likely keep its guard up until it was sure that the spell had actually been invoked.

With how little time he had had to create his Spell Circles, an advanced-level spell was the best he could bring out — which was enough to get Belial to stop and get defensive.

Delaying the invocation of the spell had enabled him to stall for some time — which was enough for Asley to finish his actual big hit.

[THiS wAS The REal oNE!?]

Seeing Belial widen its eyes in surprise, Asley revealed the palm of his left hand that had just invoked the distraction spell. Hidden just behind it was his Drynium Rod, rattling as if something was shaking it.

[WhAT speEd anD aCcURAcY! HOW DOeS hE DO THat!?]

“Rise, A-rise! Holy Lance!”

This time, the Devil could not even defend in time.

The previous surprise had been truly for the purpose of surprising… since it had enabled Asley to prepare a zenith-level large-scale magic spell.

What came next happened in an instant flash of light — the surrounding area turned bright as day, and by the time everyone realized it, there was already a hole in one of Belial’s shoulders.

And the hole was so wide that one could clearly see the Devil King’s army through it. Belial promptly put its hand over the wound.

“Ngh!? wAS ThAt a… LIGHT-eLemEntaL spEll!?”

“Well, try asking Captain Obvious about that…”

“ANd oNE thAT’S More PoWERFUl ThAn Holy World!? i’VE NEveR seEN It beFOrE…!”

“I just turned its wide-range magic formula into a pinpoint attack.”

“do yoU EVeN HAVE ANy IdeA HoW DiFfIcULT THat Is!? yOur sEnSE oF scaLe iS ToTaLLy dISTOrteD, yOu FooL…”

Asley, resting his Drynium Rod on his shoulder, proceeded to chuckle.

Seemingly irritated by that, Belial glared at Asley, a great deal of anger painted on its face.

All the while, the Devil’s arcane energy was rising rapidly — the sign of it activating Ultimate Limit. Despite that, Asley’s expression did not change one bit.

The closer Belial got to maxing out its power, the more the adventurers of Sodom trembled.

And then, Belial unleashed a tremendous surge of arcane energy…

“kAHhHhHH–“

…Or so it thought.

“Too bad. You might’ve pulled that off in a one-on-one fight, but…”

Upon being told so by Asley, Belial almost immediately realized what the former had meant.

The next voice the Devil heard, for some reason, came from behind it.

“Drop dead, Devil.”

A voice so beautiful, yet so heartlessly cold and drunk with carnage, uttering words of pure compulsory force… followed by a sword swinging down from above.

What Belial saw next were beautiful strands of bloodstained, emerald green hair.

The blade cleaved its way through Belial, utterly soundless, and it was just over just like that.

Asley pulled a wry face, witnessing this Devil meet its end unable to let out even one last scream.

[Man, I can’t tell which one is the actual Devil here…]

Asley thought to himself how monstrous, almost Devil-like Lylia had looked just now while in the process of murdering her enemy. The latter, once she landed on the ground, proceeded to rush back to Weldhun.

And as Asley looked at her go, a powerful wave of war cries reached his ears.

“”OHHHHHHHHH!!””

The adventurers were wringing out every bit of bravery they had.

Sodom’s town gate opened with a bang, and a landslide of adventurers poured out of it, each raising their weapons to the sky.

Although the ones who had chosen to remain here numbered less than a hundred, each and every one of them was strong.

And not just in the simple measure of strength — they had fighting spirit. Willpower. Bravery.

Their voices alone were enough to encourage everyone on the front-front Lines.

Seeing those adventurers go onward, Asley felt his heart burning as hot as fire.

He rested his staff on his shoulder and tapped both of his own cheeks to psyche himself up.

“All right! It’s only going to get busier from now!”

Right before his eyes was the Devil King’s army — waves of monsters as far as he could see.

At this point, the final battle was only getting started.

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