Level 1 Strongest Sage 1-Chapter 21Vol. 15 - - Ultimate Clan Battle – Qualification Rounds (20/22)

"D-Danna-sama... I'm sorry..."

"Sitri? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Halt watched Sitri struggle as if she were fighting against something, worry written all over his face.

"I... No! I can't—!"

"Why resist? Just accept my power already! Use it to kill that Bakemono, Sitri!"

Sitri desperately tried to fight back.

However, the Evil God poured even more power into her.

"Ugh... Ah... Aaaahhh!!"

Her eyes turned a deep, glowing red.

"R-Run..."

She whispered those last words to Halt before her expression completely faded.

"Sitri!? Hey, what's wrong?! Sitri!!"

At that moment, Halt realized what had happened. His wife, Sitri, was now wrapped in the same dark aura as the Demon King they once fought. But he refused to believe it.

"Hahaha! I don’t know how a mere human like you knows Sitri, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing you say will change this! I, the god who rules over the darkness of this world, have given her more power than ever before!"

The Evil God’s power had fully returned—no, it was even stronger than when he had cursed Halt. He didn’t understand why, but the truth was, it was because of Halt himself.

By constantly using an immense amount of magic, Halt had been unintentionally drawing in negative energy from the surrounding world through the Evil God. That excess energy had made the Evil God stronger.

"The birth of the greatest Demon King in history... Now, go! Destroy everything!"

"........."

The Evil God gave the order, but Sitri didn’t respond. Maybe that silence was her last form of resistance. However, her body moved anyway.

The Evil God was her creator, the one who brought her into this world. She couldn’t disobey him.

"No way. This has to be a joke... Right, Sitr – "

Before Halt could finish speaking, Sitri vanished.

In the blink of an eye, she closed the distance and thrust her hand straight for Halt’s heart.

"S-Sitri...?"

Blood dripped down his clothes.

"Halt!!"

"Master! Are you okay?!"

Tina and Youko called out to him in panic.

"Sitri-san! W-what are you doing!?"

"Stop! Please, Sitri-san!!"

Luna, Mai, and Mei were frozen in shock. Luna, who often did housework together with Sitri, had tears in her eyes as she screamed.

"Hahaha! Foolish humans. No matter how powerful you think you are, you are nothing compared to my Demon King."

The Evil God laughed as he looked toward the sky.

"This ends now. Finish him, Sitri! Make sure that Bakemono is dead for good."

Sitri silently pulled her bloodstained hand from Halt’s chest and raised it again—

"That’s enough, Sitri. That must hurt, right?"

Before she could strike again, Halt gently grabbed her wrist.

"W-What?!"

The Evil God’s eyes widened. The attack of the strongest Demon King in history had been stopped so easily. Even if it wasn’t eye-catchingly showy, her strike could pierce through solid orichalcum. A mere human shouldn’t have been able to stop it.

Something else also caught the Evil God’s attention.

"You were impaled through the heart! H-How are you still standing?!"

Halt’s chest was soaked in blood.

But it wasn’t his.

Sitri’s right hand poised in a knife sharp attak—an attack that could tear through the hardest metals—had been smashed.

It was Sitri’s own blood that poured from her wounded hand.

She was the one who had taken the damage.

Halt had once endured a direct attack from the Dragon God without moving an inch. Because of the curse placed on him, his stats were permanently [Fixed]. It didn’t matter if the attack came from a god or the strongest Demon King in history—it wouldn’t affect him.

"Sorry... I couldn’t dodge in time."

Even with his magic-enhanced reflexes, even using lightning-based spells to speed up his reactions, Sitri was still faster.

"Come back, Sitri."

Halt spoke gently, believing that the real Sitri was still inside. Indeed, her consciousness that yearned for Halt was still within her. However, as long as the Evil God was there, she would see Halt as an enemy.

It was the bond between demons and the Evil God, and that was the problem.

If the Evil God perished, his creations would vanish with him. That meant Halt couldn’t attack him directly without putting Sitri in danger. Somehow, he instinctively understood this despite his intuition not working properly because his opponent was a god.

"W-Why are you hesitating?! Kill him already!!"

"Don’t listen to him. Look at me, Sitri."

"Ugh... Aahh..."

Sitri fought with everything she had.

Her heart and body were completely out of sync.

She had been forced into the role of Demon King, and the Evil God’s power was far too strong. His direct orders made it nearly impossible for her to resist.

She had reached her limit.

Her mind was starting to break.

"D-Danna-sama... I... I have... always... loved you..."

"Sitri? Sitri!!"

Tears streamed down her face.

Her heart shattered.

She was about to fully transform into the ultimate Demon King.

"Evil God-sama, that’s going too far."

From above, a pure white sword came slashing down.

It passed through nothing but empty space—yet it had definitely cut something.

There was nothing visible there.

But she had cut something.

"That girl is my son’s wife. That makes her my daughter too. And I don’t care if you’re a god—I won’t forgive anyone who makes my daughter cry."

Anna had summoned the Evil God to push Halt to his limits, but she hadn’t expected things to turn out like this. Even for one of the Four Great Gods, summoning an underling instead of facing Halt directly was unthinkable.

She was seething.

However, she didn’t want to be the one to defeat the god she had called.

"Sorry, Halt. This got out of hand. As an apology, I cut the bond between gods and their creations."

"...Thank you, Mother."

Sitri collapsed, unconscious.

Halt gently laid her on the ground. The suffering she had been in just moments ago was gone, replaced by peaceful sleep.

However, one person was still absolutely livid.

He regretted not realizing the bond between Sitri and the Evil God sooner. He should have severed it earlier. He hated himself for not dodging, for letting his wife get hurt.

And now, the god responsible for everything stood before him.

"Evil God-sama, I’m sorry."

There wasn’t a shred of sincerity in his words. If anything, he was apologizing to the Creator God —

Because he was about to erase one of the Four Great Gods from existence.

"This time, I won’t hold back."

He stepped forward, his body wrapped in immense, overwhelming, high-density mana, so powerful that the air around him was warped.