Story of The Ancient Demon King!

Episode 77 – Recruiting is Hard Work!

“…can’t stand it. Tch. Mankind.” The [Swamp Demon] was furious.

A dark green aura overflowed from her, with an ominously lit sphere drifting around her.

“That’s a lot of bravado you dare to show in front of me.”

“Don’t disrespect the human race. And, the skills humans can wield are not to be trifled with.”

He stepped down nimbly and drew his jet-black sword.

The sword, which he swung to get rid of the soil attached to it, gleamed brilliantly due to the faint sunlight from the cloudy sky.

“…No need to hold back. Go ahead and give it everything you’ve got.”

“Kah! You’ve got a lot of swagger. But at least you’ve come this far. I’m all about swagger. I’ll test you at- Good grief…”

The silver sphere, which had been floating freely with no consideration to its weight, spun around Molly with an increase in speed.

While he was staring at it, the Demon King was suddenly… cut in half.

The left arm of Type-2 swung out and cut towards the sky from behind Crono. Still being in the midst of its frenzy, it attacked the entity on land with its still burnt body.

At the same time, the ten silver spheres aligned themselves and pushed forward in a curve.

“This is an entrance exam. We are still interviewing only- I’m sorry, let’s just leave this at that, okay?”

“…Did you just look at my hips and change your mind? Do you dare pity me?”

Crono moved around her, talking lightly, while Molly manipulated her magic with even more power.

A rampaging magical beast.

Ten spheres flying around in a brilliantly organized manner like they were a single creature.

And against them, a jet-black blade was wielded with skillful but natural elegance.

“……”

“……”

“How beautiful…”

Everyone who saw the sight was captivated by it. Even Solnada.

Crono handled the wild beast like a bullfighter, and with coordinated movements, carelessly slashed away at the spheres that attacked him.

The trajectory of the black sword, which seemed to be wielded effortlessly, was so fluid and powerful that when paired with the beast and the ten spheres, it became an artistic spectacle.

“…Yeah.”

However, the Demon Lord seemed to be somewhat unhappy and even apologetic.

“Hurry up and burn them. [Trigor’s Lightning Spear]!”

The thunderbolt struck again.

“Wow, it’s beautiful.” Crono leaked out his impression without feeling threatened by the lightning spear that got threateningly close. As he ducked and dodged, however, it shot towards him again.

“Push forward, spear!”

“Right turn!”

“What?”

The moment it touched Crono’s magic-covered right hand, the thunder spear was turned to the right.

And that spear, for some unfortunate reason, made contact with Type-2 after being maneuvered by Crono.

“—!”

The green lighting showed its prowess for the sec0nd time.

Even a powerful monster like Type-2 couldn’t immediately dodge after being submerged into the swamp.

The cracks in its collar widened, and it looked like it would shatter at any moment.

“It looks like you can’t keep up… Let’s get out of this dynamic.”

The Demon Lord snapped his magic-filled fingers at the suffering Type-2.

A wave of magical energy was released into one direction, like an explosion.

The beast, which had been having convulsions due to the lighting filled water, was flung into the congregation of trees in the swamp.

“…A magic beam or something like that might kill you. I’m a little busy, so please adjust with this for now.”

“…What did you just do?” Molly asked in a low voice. For Molly, what she had just asked was a matter of grave importance.

“What? Hmm… I just hit it with a thin wave of magic power. I didn’t think it’s something that you, who can use this kind of magic, would make a fuss about.” Crono pointed to the Ten Spheres of Kahan drifting around him.

“……”

Compared to advanced magic, what he had used was not all that powerful, it’s only advantage being that it doesn’t consume too much magic.

But still… If you manage to use it perfectly, you can save a lot of magic power.

What shocked Molly was that he used only magical energy to perform such a technique. It wasn’t possible to ignore such a technique, unlike her lighting spear.

“I don’t like it…”

“You better like it. More importantly, it’s one on one now.”

“So what?”

“So I guess there’s no longer a need to hold back.” Crono pointed at the Ten Spheres of Kahan.

“……”

“Just because you can handle a bit of my power… You’re getting carried away… but since you’re a visitor, there’s nothing we can do about it. Here.” She held up her finger, and the silver spheres struck with more complexity and agility than before.

But… it was still clear that she was not using her full strength yet.

“Hmm, I can do that. –Then here’s what I’ll do.”

The black sword that was drawn out from the ground swung nine of the spheres back to Molly.

“Koka!”

And then, he swung his sword in such a way that the final sphere hit the ground.

“Ah!”

The silver ball was launched into the ground.

Due to the Demon Lord’s power, the land sank and the water around… rose.

“Get to the top of the tree! Hurry up!”

“Don’t tell me what to do with my bones! Guh!”

“Ah!”

A wall of water had formed around the Demon Lord.

The tidal wave that was about to be created due to impact made frightening ripples that Kageha found hard to deal with.

“…Are you really a human?” Molly asked as the wall made out of water crashed down and the Demon Lord’s figure came into view.

Even though she hadn’t used her full strength yet, the boy who was showing this much power seemed to be quite different from what she was used to.

“I dunno. I guess you’ll get to know me a little better after you join us.”

He dexterously levitated the sphere at his feet and struck it back with his sword.

“Kah!”

The sphere was returned faster than the original speed it was delivered with, but Molly stopped it with the other nine spheres.

“Playing catch is fun, but I think it’s time you actually got into the spirit of things. You wanted to test me, didn’t you? You might not be able to measure me without anything to actually get me serious.”

Molly was stronger than most of the others he had met till now, and she could control a variety of magic that he had never seen before. She made Crono excited.

Therefore, he hurried Molly to show her true strength so that he could measure her ability properly.

“Show my magic?” she asked. “You will… regret this, you know?”

“I don’t think so. Your magic and my sword. There’s a lot to be gained from a serious confrontation.” Crono spoke happily as he held his sword to his face.

“A mortal man howls. At me, of all people. Then I’ll ask no more questions. Let’s see how far you can go with that little human body of yours.” The air around Molly changed.

Clearly, she recognized the being in front of her as an enemy.

Just by doing so, the pressure weighing down on the swamp increased.

“[Trigor’s Lightning Spear]!”

“!”

Crono’s sword flashed.

It was clearly different from the types of slashes he’s used in the past, but it was fitting, considering this was a more serious battle.

“Kakka! You can go beyond this too? You’re not all talk! You’ve surprised me!”

Crono kept slashing away.

He slashed at the green lightning with ferocity… and also attacked the Ten Spheres of Kahan.

“Ah! Huh!”

A speed that far surpassed Crono’s expectations.

He pushed forward an extremely dangerous weight with the residue of the lightning.

“Haha!”

“…What are you laughing at? You’re a madman after all.” The [Swamp Demon] muttered in disgust as it looked at the godlike Crono, who was wielding his sword crazily, fueled by the enjoyment he gained from proper combat.

“…Well, that’s fine. It’s the path you chose. Go crazy and die with no hope.”

Molly, who decided to act like a true opponent, used a new spell with no mercy.

“Ah! Hmm?”

Something wrapped around Crono’s left arm.

Crono turned his attention to it as quickly as he could, and saw…

“Everything’s been sucked away.”

A cursed strip of ominous characters emerged from the water…

Black magic erupted from the center of the swamp.

“Whoa! What the hell is this? What kind of magic is this? What a freak of a monster!”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!”

As if a dam had burst, his left arm overflowed with magic power, and he swatted away the spheres that had lightning surrounding them.

“Ah…”

“……”

However, both Kageha and Lilia were under tremendous pressure.

“Oh, I feel faint… I can’t even stand up anymore… My body…” Even Solnada, who was lamenting to his heart’s content, was feeling suffocated from the magical energy leaking from the cursed spell that Molly unleashed.

“Ah!”