The battle between Beam and Demiurge lasted from dusk until dawn.
The Holy Kingdom's royal capital was now completely reduced to ruins.
The ground had been scorched black by fire, then washed into mud by the flood, and finally, by the two's bombardment, had been turned into one crater after another.
The two lay each in one of the craters, only a few hundred meters apart, with countless ravines they had carved themselves between them.
Most of Demiurge's mask was shattered. Beneath it, his signature round little glasses were also broken.
Revealing those long, narrow eyes.
Demiurge couldn't help sighing inwardly, 'So Nishikawa Makoto had such a powerful subordinate under his command.'
'Peroroncino-sama and Bukubukuchagama-sama were right. Nishikawa Makoto was truly Nazarick's greatest enemy.'
Beam lay on his back at the bottom of the crater, his chest heaving violently.
His shark face had a few new scars. One slashed diagonally from his forehead across his left eye, deep enough to see bone.
But as Beam grabbed a handful of nearby earth mixed with a little blood and stuffed it into his mouth, the wound slowly began to heal.
The granulation at the wound's edge squirmed slightly, like countless tiny insects burrowing under the skin.
Beam was equally shocked inside.
Although he hadn't read the original Overlord novel, he had heard Makoto and Yu talk about it quite a bit over the years.
In terms of pure combat ability within Nazarick, Demiurge didn't even rank in the top five.
'Damn.'
'I had the advantage of elemental affinity.'
'Yet even under those circumstances, I still couldn't defeat my opponent.'
Beam slammed his fist into the ground in frustration, splashing mud all over his face.
The two looked at each other from hundreds of meters apart.
Something seemed to ignite in the air.
Each was calculating their next move. Each was waiting for the other to show a weakness first.
Suddenly, a young boy's voice came down from the sky.
"Elemental Magic: Forest—!"
The earth shook violently.
The soil that had been scorched by fire and washed by the flood countless times suddenly split open with countless cracks.
Giant tree vines burst from the cracks, like countless pythons awakening from hibernation, writhing wildly as they surged toward Beam.
There were too many vines, coming from all directions, sealing off all of Beam's escape routes.
Before Beam could get up, he was entangled by the vines.
Barbs pierced his skin. Bright red blood seeped from the wounds, dripping down the vines.
Veins bulged one by one on Beam's forehead. He struggled desperately but was helpless.
The visual effect of this technique was strikingly similar to Hashirama's Deep Forest Emergence.
Demiurge recognized whose technique this was at a glance.
"Didn't expect you to come, Mare."
In the sky, a dragon circled and descended.
Its scales were completely different from most dragons. They had the texture of tree bark, like the bark of an ancient tree that had lived for over a thousand years.
It was Mare's subordinate and mount... the Forest Dragon.
Mare Bello Fiore jumped off the dragon's back.
He wore that signature black magic robe, holding that twisted magic staff coiled with two serpents.
"I sensed that Demiurge-sama's presence was weakening, so I came to reinforce."
He walked to Demiurge's side. With a light tap of his staff, a pale green healing light enveloped Demiurge. Demiurge's breathing steadied somewhat.
"This plan can be considered a failure."
Demiurge stood up from the ground, brushed the dirt off his suit. "As expected, roundabout methods aren't suitable for Nazarick's style."
Beam was pierced through the body by countless vines, suspended in the air.
Sharp vines passed through his shoulders, arms, thighs, and abdomen, pinning him there like a specimen hung on a wall.
"Damn it. No blood to replenish with." Beam gritted his teeth, his vertical pupils full of hatred.
Originally, with the endless blood available on the battlefield, he could have repaired his body indefinitely.
However, after countless wide-area blasts from him and Demiurge, any survivors had long since fled.
The remaining blood on the ground had either been scorched to charcoal by the high-temperature flames or washed completely clean by the towering tsunami.
Not a single drop remained.
Demiurge turned his back to Beam, preparing to leave. "Give him the final blow, Mare."
Mare nodded, walked to Beam, and gave a slight bow.
"Sorry, I'm going to kill you now."
The top of the staff glowed bright green.
The vines piercing Beam's body began to swell. Large fruits grew from the ends of the vines.
The fruits swelled visibly. The patterns on their surfaces changed from green to red.
"Plant Magic: Tree Fruit Bomb."
Beam couldn't help cursing, "Damn brat. Having such good manners when you're about to kill someone really pisses me off."
Don't let this meek, girl-like appearance fool you. That was all a disguise for the enemy.
When it came down to it, he never showed any mercy.
Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—
The tree fruit bombs exploded collectively.
Emerald light exploded from inside the fruits, blasting the forest Mare had just created into pieces.
Mare turned and walked toward Demiurge. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Demi—"
Bang!
A laser beam fell from the sky.
The beam grazed Mare's elven long ear and precisely pierced through Demiurge's forehead.
Before Mare could react, Demiurge's body fell backward, like a marionette with its strings cut, crashing straight to the ground.
With a 'bang', dust flew.
Mare was completely stunned.
A few seconds later, Mare gradually came to his senses. His neck, like a rusty gear, lifted upward bit by bit.
His pupils reflected a strange scene—
Suspended in the sky was a man. His right arm had transformed into a heavy sniper rifle barrel, the muzzle still smoking.
A vertical gun barrel on his forehead slowly rotated, like a third eye scanning the battlefield.
And in his bent left arm, he held a still-beating heart. Its surface had the texture of shark skin.
"..."
Mare's lips twitched.
Ishigami Yu, Makoto's top general, a key target of Nazarick's intelligence network.
"How the hell did you get here?" Beam's heart bared its teeth and glanced at Yu.
"I've been watching from behind the whole time."
Yu's expression was blank. "Senpai never thought you would win."
"Want to die?"
Even reduced to just a heart, Beam wouldn't give Yu any face.
And he didn't believe for a second that Makoto would say something like that.
Yu didn't answer Beam.
The next second, he suddenly raised his gun and launched a storm of bullets at Mare.
The bullets poured down like a rainstorm, so dense it seemed even the moonlight was shattered into pieces.
He wouldn't show mercy just because the opponent was a kid.
Anyone who was Makoto's enemy, be it a child, an old person, or a woman, he would attack without mercy.
What's more, having read the original work, he knew that this kid in front of him, who looked only twelve or thirteen, was over 7,000 years old.
Mare was fast, fast as a cat darting through a hail of bullets.
He dodged left and right, weaving through the ruins, each movement precise to within millimeters.
Bullets flew past his earlobes but just couldn't hit.
During his evasion, Mare suddenly remembered something. He looked back at Demiurge's corpse.
The next moment.
Bullets shot in that direction. Mare rushed over, swinging his staff, casting forest magic again.
Countless vines burrowed out of the ground, weaving together into a giant shield to block Demiurge's body.
The bullets hit the vines, sending wood chips flying.
Mare took the opportunity to dash quickly, using his thin, small body to lift Demiurge onto his shoulder.
Demiurge's body was much larger than his. His limbs dragged on the ground, leaving a long blood trail behind Mare.
Mare's eyes reddened, his voice full of suppressed anger. "Demiurge-sama... I will avenge you!"
Yu increased his firepower, directly shattering the forest barrier blocking his path and falling straight down.
Landing before Mare, Yu looked down at this little boy, panting for air, carrying a corpse twice his size on his back.
"Revenge? In your current state?" His tone carried a hint of mockery.
Mare's combat ability was ranked within Nazarick, stronger than Demiurge's.
But as the top fighter who had followed Makoto to several worlds, Yu was extremely confident in his own strength.
Unless he ran into Ainz or Nazarick's hidden monsters, he wasn't afraid of any of those level 100 NPCs.
Let alone a wounded soldier carrying a burden.
If he lost to a Mare in this state, he felt he might as well go kill himself.
Mare didn't answer. He just stared coldly at Yu.
Suddenly, he removed his white gloves.
Hidden beneath were a pair of golden gauntlets.
World-class items gifted to him by Ainz... Avarice and Generosity.
The left gauntlet, Avarice, could store magic power without limit.
The right gauntlet, Generosity, could release the stored magic power all at once.
After obtaining this item, Mare had been pouring magic power into it day after day.
No one knew how much he had stored. No one knew how much power he could unleash when he released it.