21: Chapter 20: Sin Archbishop, Definitely a Sin Archbishop!
21: Chapter 20: Sin Archbishop, Definitely a Sin Archbishop!
Chapter 20: Sin Archbishop, Definitely a Sin Archbishop!
A single fist struck downward, carrying a howling gale with it.
Diavolo’s gaze flickered slightly.
Immediately after.
Rem’s head.
In an instant, it burst wide open!
In a flash, flesh and blood splattered, brain matter scattering everywhere.
The corpse, left with less than half a head, slowly fell to the ground.
After eliminating Rem, Diavolo instantly backpedaled to pull distance, guarding against any potential countermeasures.
“Rem!!!” Ram stared over in absolute disbelief, her eyes turning blood-red in an instant.
She halted her relentless attacks, stumbling forward with trembling hands reaching toward that body left with only a fraction of a skull.
Rem was truly dead.
The moment her fingertips touched that warm, sticky flesh of her blood sister, her entire body shuddered violently.
She snapped her head around, her eyes locked dead on Diavolo.
That appearance— She looked as if she wanted to devour his flesh and drink his blood.
“You bastard!
You Witch Cultist!
I will kill you!” She screamed hysterically.
A light seemed to burst forth from the severed horn on her head as countless wind blades condensed in mid-air, pouring down toward Diavolo like a frenzy.
Had it not been for her horn being broken—greatly diminishing her strength as an Oni—this single burst might have flipped the entire mansion upside down.
Yet what about Diavolo?
He didn’t react to Ram’s fury in the slightest; he had seen far too many people like her.
Right now.
He stood with knees slightly bent, quietly watching Rem’s corpse to see if any anomaly would occur.
Not only that, but out of the corner of his eye, he kept a constant tab on Roswaal to guard against a sudden ambush, while his Stand, King Crimson, kept a watchful eye on the continuous barrage of wind blades in the air.
Gradually, a faint trace of surprise rose in Diavolo’s heart.
Rem’s corpse remained entirely unchanged throughout.
Could it be…
this brat just died like that?
No resurrection, no hidden tricks?
At that moment, the sky full of wind blades was already right before his eyes.
“Boss, watch out!” Subaru called out another warning, though he wasn’t particularly worried.
He had already noticed something was off.
Every single time, he would briefly zone out, the scene would suddenly shift, and the opponent would be taken care of.
Just like before.
Is this Boss’s true strength?
Hearing Subaru’s warning, Diavolo’s mind moved.
“MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!!…” King Crimson unleashed a lightning-fast rush of strikes in an instant, shattering every single wind blade directly into pieces.
He had already noticed.
This attack only looked flashy on the surface; it wasn’t much stronger than before and remained entirely within Diavolo’s control.
After all, the “Authority King Crimson” was enhanced—a fact Diavolo had felt long ago.
The most prominent change was its attack range: originally a mere E rank, it was now roughly a C rank, giving it a ten-meter striking distance.
Furthermore, its continuous combat duration had increased, allowing King Crimson to execute rapid barrages now.
This was something unimaginable in the past.
And this scene caused Ram in the distance to freeze completely, her face filled with sheer shock.
In her eyes, all those guaranteed-kill wind blades mysteriously crumbled to pieces the second they drew near Diavolo, even though the opponent hadn’t moved an inch.
This phenomenon, bizarre to the absolute extreme, dragged Ram back from the brink of pure rage in an instant.
She snapped to a realization— The person before her was no ordinary Witch Cultist at all; he harbored a terrifyingly unnatural ability.
A Sin Archbishop.
He was definitely a Sin Archbishop!
Most importantly, an Oni’s horn was the core organ for mana absorption, storage, and circulation—equivalent to a built-in mana engine.
Having lost her horn, Ram was completely incapable of maintaining high-intensity, prolonged combat.
“Lord Roswaal!” She hurriedly called out for Roswaal’s aid, wanting even more to inform him of the crucial intelligence gathered during the fight.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
King Crimson’s “time erasure” had already been activated.
『King Crimson!』 Following the trajectory of destiny established by her previous movements, even if Ram wanted to say something, Roswaal would no longer hear it.
Not to mention, the current Roswaal wasn’t interested in Diavolo’s ability in the slightest.
The instant time resumed its flow.
“BANG—!” Without a single surprise.
Ram’s entire body flew backward like a kite with its string cut.
She slammed heavily onto the ground, her aura instantly collapsing as she lay breathlessly on the verge of death.
And the reason Roswaal hadn’t stepped in to assist in the first place was that he was stunned.
Even now, he remained shocked, his eyes filled with sheer disbelief.
Because Diavolo’s attack methods reminded him of the Devil of Melancholy.
Back when the Devil of Melancholy crushed him, the attacks had arrived just like this—silent, soundless, striking out of thin air.
That long-buried shadow suddenly seized his thoughts, causing a moment of distraction that made him completely miss the opportunity to cast defensive magic or shield Ram.
Turning back to see that Rem showed no signs of resurrection nor had any unusual backup plans triggered, Diavolo finally put his mind entirely at ease.
“So you were truly this fragile.
I thought that possessing magic meant your physical endurance would be high as well—turns out it was just an exception?
Ah, no, that woman didn’t seem to use magic; is it a class-specific ability belonging to warrior assassins or the like?
Or perhaps…” He muttered softly under his breath, his previous estimations entirely overturned.
His upper garment had been stripped off at some point, tossed carelessly onto the ground, exposing Subaru’s toned muscle build.
“You bastard!” Ram dragged her broken body, struggling to climb up.
Her eyes were bloodshot to the point of tearing, brimming with sky-high hatred.
Yet fury…
What use was it?
Diavolo took step after step forward.
Seeing this, Ram poured out everything she had to launch wind magic, but with the aid of King Crimson, every attack automatically crumbled and failed the second it drew near him.
All her methods were completely useless.
“How…
how can this be?!” “Heh.” Diavolo let out a disdainful cold snort.
Had it not been for his accuracy dropping slightly during that “time erasure” due to the influence of Ram’s original trajectory, that blow just now would have killed Ram outright.
Without hesitation, King Crimson threw a single punch.
Pfft—!
“Ugh, ah…” Ram suffered another catastrophic blow.
Without powerful healing magic, death was absolute.
And here, right now, there was naturally none to be found.
“Re…
Rem…” Gradually, Ram’s vision began to fade.
In her final moments, she murmured her younger sister’s name with weak yet stubborn persistence.
Before her words could fully fall, her body collapsed completely onto the ground.
Ram.
Dead.
At this moment, only one person remained.
The master of the mansion, Roswaal.
That man remained standing in the exact same spot throughout, seemingly not caring about the deaths of his two maids in the slightest.
Nor had he attempted to attack, which left Diavolo quite surprised.
Due to the distance being too far, Diavolo activated “time erasure” once more in the very next breath to close the gap, stepping toward the opponent one stride after another.
Only when he walked within a ten-meter range did Diavolo come to a halt, and time resumed its flow accordingly.
Because King Crimson had already arrived right in front of the man.
And it could finish him off at any moment.
“Is this what you wanted to see?
Margrave Roswaal, you seem completely unconcerned about the deaths of your maids.
Do you hold some sort of trump card?
Moreover, you seem to know a great deal of things—what, exactly, is your plan?” —