"Senka!" I shout out loud, rather than inside my mind. The stitched girl appears before me in her ghostly form and her expression suggests that something has happened. "Tell me what's going on in the castle!"

"I don't know... I lost contact with Asoko." She responds with an anxious expression. It's rare to see her like this, since she's usually just cynical or sassy, but it just means that the situation over there is quite dire.

"Come here." I wave Aurelia over and my face must be showing that there's no time to lose, because she's actually listening to me right away. I pull her inside my body once again and transform into Chaos Warhead mode. "Guide me." It shouldn't be far to the capital, now that I reached the Demon Continent, so I'll make my way over there quickly.

Blasting off like a rocket, I accelerate more and more, until I feel the shockwave run through me and I reach supersonic speeds once again. I doubt maou-mama is going to lose, but I have an uneasy feeling about this whole situation. Must be because Zenlith talked like the battle's already over...

The landscape changes to a wasteland like the one I saw from the window of the castle when I first woke up in this world. Then I see a massive pillar of smoke rise beyond the horizon, before the burning city comes into view - all within a minute of each other. Decelerating quickly, before I fly into a barrier that might be cast around the entire city like the one that was put up to keep maou-mama inside, I come to a stop just outside the walls.

The scenery below is hell. Piles of dead bodies, soldiers in what must have been formerly shining armors now dyed by various colors of blood, running through the streets and mindlessly chasing down and slaughtering innocent civilians. Little to no resistance is being offered by the citizens of the capital, as they can't stand against the onslaught of the armored and enchanted human forces.

Now I know why there was no actual resistance. Apparently there really is a barrier, because I can see three separate demon armies surrounding the city, banging against invisible walls that block the open gates, climbing up siege ladders only to be stopped from getting atop the battlements and some flying demons bashing their fists against thin air in impotence. They're throwing everything they have at the barrier, screaming and shouting while having to watch the slaughter before them.

And I realize that the barrier must extend far up into the sky, because the smoke is rising as if inside a gigantic invisible cylinder, unaffected by any winds and unable to escape from the confines of the city walls.

I fly as closely as I can to where the barrier seems to be, and extend a hand carefully. A little before I completely extend my arm, my fingers come upon an invisible obstacle. The dragon's magic-resistant carapace doesn't allow me to pass through it, and I punch it with all my strength. Is this it? I reached the city but I won't be able to get to maou-mama because of this? No, that can't be it.

"Spirit Spear!" I roar, putting all my mind into it. The massive lance of light that appears above me rivals in size that put out by Arcelia, the Saint of Luminosity. I know that this thing can pierce barriers, so it should be able to go through this one as well. Letting the spear loose, it passes through alright, and flies away into the distance. There's not any visible effect like cracks in glass or the sound of something shattering, so I don't know whether it worked or not.

Extending my hand towards where a hole should be, if it really worked, I find that it's still solid. The light simply passed through it without any effect, which means this barrier isn't just magic, but something put up by one of the sorcerers. And I have a pretty good idea about who might be the one who did it.

Zenlith, Lord of the Sky.

He showed an ability to manipulate air pressure in our battle earlier. He used it to press me down, although it wasn't that powerful; it's clear that he was holding back or not really concentrating on fighting against me, considering his body just dissipated as if it was a simple clone. If this is the ability to use air pressure to create a wall of air, of course light would pass through without doing anything.

Then how can I get through here? Senka said that maou-mama used all kinds of spells on it but there was no effect. While I still don't understand how a person's will translates into the physical like this, I know that the sorcerer's version of magic is actually causing physical phenomena by willing them to happen. In other words, this barrier is actually made up of particles which should follow the laws of physics.

I never paid much attention in science classes, since I didn't find it too useful, but even I know about heat expansion. If this barrier is densely packed air, then I should be able to use heat to loosen the density of the air particles and create a hole for me to slip through. And for that, I have the perfect thing that isn't actually magic, but a physical ability - the dragon's plasma breath. Really, I might sound like a broken record by now, but the dragon template was the most useful thing I ever got my hands on.

I transform my hand into a dragon's head and begin to shoot the plasma beam at the barrier. At first, it's deflected, creating a bloom of light particles that scatter everywhere; but within seconds, the breath breaks through and then passes the invisible wall unhindered. I was successful in breaching the barrier, but now I need to first see whether it instantly repairs itself when I stop, or the hole lingers for a moment.

Stopping the plasma breath, I immediately create a spike from my chest and extend it into the hole created by the beam. I get through, but before I can pull my entire body through the spike and get onto the other side, it gets cut off by the barrier closing up again almost instantly. From that I can tell two things: The barrier is most likely only an atom thick, since the spike was cut off cleanly without even a hint of anything being squashed; and that there is a delay in the self-repair function.

That just means I need to bring out a bigger gun.

I transform my chest into the maw of a dragon, using my convenient body and its immense size on the inside to replicate everything I need to make the breath work - even though from the outside there's no space for the actual throat or the organ that produces the plasma. From this maw I shoot a much larger beam than before, which punches through the invisible wall almost instantly.

From within the continuing beam, I create an extension of my body, covered in dense dragon carapace to withstand the immense heat, and push it through the opening I'm keeping open with the continuous breath, before instantly pulling my entire body into it when it reaches the other side. My form on the outside of the barrier collapses and with it the beam, but I almost instantly reform on the other side.

Without wasting any time on celebrating my success, I swoop down on the city below and the soldiers pursuing a group of demons running from them helplessly. I won't be able to help everyone and cleanse the entire city of this human filth, but I'll kill all those who are on my way toward the castle. Turning my body into a shifting mass of tentacles, I sweep across the main street like a tidal wave, passing through demons without harming them while gathering up all the human soldiers and immediately digesting them.

And while I feel bad for the bereaved survivors, I also gather all the dead demon bodies. Maybe they can take solace in the fact that they will indirectly help in taking revenge for themselves this way, as they serve as my nourishment and an increase in my mass - and therefore, my power. Leaving behind only living demons, the streets are wiped clean of everything human and dead, as I roll towards the castle.

I would soon learn that my kindness and gluttony led to the greatest regret in my life.

I take off into the sky once again to reach the floating castle. I never knew it was actually flying, since from inside it, I could only tell that it was higher up than the city surrounding it, thinking it was built on top of a hill. When I pass over the battlements, the first thing I see is a familiar figure standing atop of it.

It's Asoko, seemingly having been turned into a statue. She's standing there, looking behind herself with her mouth open in what must have been an attempt at saying something to a person behind her. Her empty eyes are glazed over by ice and I have to consider her dead. After all, Senka can't feel any will inside this frozen body before me.

"... I can't believe it." She says when she sees my other half. Neither can I. I survived the vacuum of space, where temperatures are close to absolute zero, and I didn't freeze over like this. Either, her soul was stolen alongside being frozen, or this is actually absolute zero, in which all atoms cease their motions as if being stopped in time. Is this the power of a sorcerer?

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to help her.

Then I see a massive form rise from a broken rooftop, and I know immediately who it is. Maou-mama has just released her entire mass and has become a mountain of tentacles. If she were to turn into her humanoid self, she would be many times larger than what I was able to achieve during my battle at the academy. But she's clearly not doing that, most likely to swallow all the enemies in the place she's expanding into. Looking back at Asoko one last time, I fly towards maou-mama.

What do you mean, too late, Zenlith? She's alive and kicking, and most likely beating you right now. I'll go join her and defeat those sorcerers and then we'll look for a way to bring Asoko back somehow.

A large amount of her massive tentacles on one side freeze and crumble under their own weight, while on the other side an explosion of fire burns many more to crisps. My eyes widen at the sight and I speed up from my idle flying, to come to a stop right above the broken roof, to behold the scene unfolding in the hall below.

I spot Rolan and his party, as well as Ninlil and Basarab, protected by Arcelia's shield. I see Thorvadis casting a black hole into which another portion of maou-mama's tentacles are pulled and then ripped off, before it disappears again. There's a naked woman made of lava with burning hair, and a boy with cold steam falling to the ground around him, there's a huge cloaked skeleton wielding a scythe, and there is Zenlith, floating right above the faltering figure of maou-mama, as she begins to pull herself together into a smaller shape.

I'm confused. Why are Rolan and his party here? Why is that bastard Basarab still alive? Are these inhuman looking people all sorcerers? Is maou-mama losing?

But, nothing matters right now, because maou-mama looks like she's backed into a corner. I immediately fly towards her, but when I pass over the threshold of the hall's wall, I find myself looking out towards the city behind the castle. Huh? I turn around and find that I've ended up on the other side of the broken roof. I move to enter again, but end up where I first arrived to look into the hall. This is another barrier! A teleporting one at that, which must be the work of Thorvadis. But I can't imagine the principal to have the leeway to cast this spell and also fight maou-mama at the same time.

When I look down into the hall a cloaked figure warps into existence next to maou-mama and I recognize Mithra. He seems to say something to her, but she waves him off, upon which he bows and disappears again. This barrier must be his doing then! But he was talking to her and listening to her orders... so he was a triple agent all along? Then why isn't he helping her? He's the court mage of the demon queen, he should be able to at least help her fight these overwhelming numbers! And why is he barring me from entering?

Maou-mama takes on her real form, which looks quite similar to mine, only that she has tentacle hair whereas I'm hairless in my real form. She roars at the enemies, the voice seemingly having the intended effect, just like when I showed myself in front of the slave traders. I see Gram backing away and Luna falling onto her bottom, her eyes wide open and unblinking like a deer in the headlights of a speeding car. The bard and Rolan are still standing fast, but their fear is unmistakable. Even Thorvadis is looking on in horror and has stopped casting his magic. If I had done that during our first fight at the academy, maybe it would have changed the outcome...

But it's clear that she has lost a huge amount of her mass in this battle. Her movements are slowing down and I see Zenlith holding out a hand towards her. He must be using air pressure to keep her in check, while the other sorcerers prepare to attack her as well. The flaming woman and the frozen boy both seem to be gathering their powers, and the skeleton with the scythe steps forward, most likely aiming to behead her. I know that physical attacks are pretty much useless against our kind, but if she gets pieces of herself chipped away, she'll lose more and more of her strength.

I try to go through the barrier again, but it doesn't work and I appear on the other side of the building. Can I really only watch as maou-mama is killed? I want to scream, but no sound is coming out as I stare at the battle below me without blinking, as to not miss the most minute detail.

An explosion of fire burns away at maou-mama and she sheds layer after layer of herself to withstand the heat. Then the frozen boy blasts her with freezing wind, which hardens her weakened body. The scythe of the skeleton comes down and severs her arm, from the stump of which black smoke rises up and turns into specters. His grinning jaw opens and the specter disappears into it. I see my mother trying to reform her arm, but it doesn't work; whatever he did must have been a curse that makes it so that wounds he inflicts can't heal!

I watch as maou-mama is battered and bruised, held in place and unable to retaliate, all the while racking my brain to find a way on how to get through this barrier. Senka is with me, but she's being silent, meaning that she most likely doesn't know either. I doubt Aurelia knows anything about space magic, or else she wouldn't have stayed on the moon with me all this time. I used to know space magic, but because of Basarab's memory wiping ability, I lost it. If only I could teleport inside there!

All my thoughts cease when Arcelia lowers her light barrier and Rolan steps forth. A woman wielding a sickle moon staff walks up to him and an old man with a beard even larger than Thorvadis' joins her. They speak to him, but I can't make out what they're saying. He walks forward and draws his sword, which emits a blinding light. Raising it above his head, he faces maou-mama, who is still a distance away, with the clear intention of cutting her down.

The woman points her staff at Rolan's sword, while the old man keeps a hand on her shoulder and seems to concentrate. The intensity of the light increases, to the point where it's like looking into the sun. But I keep myself from looking away, so that I witness everything that happens here. I see Rolan enter a stance, as if ready to strike, even when he's too far to reach maou-mama. Then the sword emits a beam up into the sky, dispelling the clouds above us.

It went through the barrier.

I immediately fly forward, and find that I can move through it just fine. Now I can go and-

The light comes down on maou-mama, who has changed back to the appearance I first saw her in. With her yellow eyes she looks up to me, apparently aware that I've been watching. A smile appears on her lips before she closes her eyes in peaceful resignation. What?! NO!!!

In the next moment, the world is enveloped in light.

She's not moving...

There are no visible wounds other than the missing arm, but she's not moving...

I drop to the ground next to her and look down on her face. Her eyes are closed, as if she's sleeping, but her chest doesn't heave up and down. She's a Crawling Chaos, so she doesn't need to breathe through lungs. Slowly extending a hand to touch her, I hesitate. Gathering my resolve, I continue to inch closer toward her shoulder with my trembling fingers.

However, before I can reach her, her body undergoes a transformation. From her demon appearance with the gray skin and curved horns, she turns into her true appearance. I'm expecting her to sit up and tell me that everything is alright. That it was just a ruse and that she'll finish off the enemies now.

But she isn't moving...

I touch her shoulder, and as if that was the trigger, the color of her purplish black skin changes into an ashen gray, rippling out from where my finger came in contact with her. Within moments, her whole body turns gray, and she begins to flake and crumble away. I hear my breath catch in my throat and my thoughts spiral into oblivion as I watch my mother turn to dust and get blown away on the rising wind.

There is nothing...

"So you survived." I hear a distant voice speaking, but don't really register it. My mind is still blank as I stare down at where my mother's body lay moments ago, now nothing but ashes remaining in its place. "What will you do now?"

Yes, what will I do now? I don't know.

I slowly stand up on unsteady legs, never looking away from the spot where my mother disappeared from. Barely registering in the back of my head is the fact that the sorcerers are still present, and that they will most likely try to kill me as well. But I can't really think of anything, as silence reigns supreme within my spirit; there is nothing right now, only emptiness.

"We cannot let her live. She is too dangerous." A familiar voice speaks in a frantic tone. I think it belongs to Thorvadis, who is pleading with the sorcerers he believes to be gods. "You saw how powerful her mother was."

That's right...

"Do not be afraid. We are with you." The voice of another old man speaks in a reassuring tone. He seems to be very confident in the sorcerers and himself.

"She refused me." Zenlith announces, purposefully wording it so the humans don't understand what exactly he's talking about. They can't find out that he offered me to join the ranks of sorcerers and play the game of being gods. It would shatter the humans' trust in these self-proclaimed gods and they may even rise up against them.

"Then there is nothing but death for her." A deep ephemeral voice speaks thus. That must be the skeleton, since it sounds like the voice of death itself.

Yes... this is fine.

"... kill me..." I mutter.

"I see that you have resigned to your inevitable fate. That is commendable." Death praises me, but he misheard what I said.

I finally look up, my mind as calm as a lake on a windless day. I register every single person in my surroundings. Zenlith in the sky above me, the boy of frost a distance away to the left, the woman of fire to the right, Thorvadis to the right behind her, the massive skeleton that is slowly lumbering towards me with the scythe in hand in the middle, Rolan far behind him, right next to him the woman wielding a sickle moon staff and the old man with the pure white hair and beard, behind them Luna, Gram and the bard, Arcelia and Basarab, Ninlil backed against the wall with her eyes fixed on me in fear...

Everyone is still here. Good.

"... just try and kill me." I speak up more audibly and a part of me enjoys the surprise I feel from everyone present. Especially the humans seem to be taken aback by my defiance despite the fact that I'm quite obviously outnumbered and against the most overwhelming odds imaginable.

"What are you doing?!" Senka's spirit floating beside me, visible only to me, screams in fear for my life, but I block her out mentally, causing her image to disappear.

My body changes as I take on my true form.

"Come at me." You think my mother was the final boss? You're wrong. I will show you what a final boss is meant to be like. With a voice that resembles the sound of grating shards of glass and the choir of hundreds of tormented souls, I announce towards the enemies before me. I put all my intentions behind it, my hunger for terror, my craving for murder... my wish to destroy everything and leaving only oblivion in my wake. "I will show you despair!"

"You will not." I hear a familiar muffled voice speak right beside me, but before I can turn to look at its owner, my surroundings change into a stream of light.