After hearing Kurei’s declaration, Via was stunned.
Who’s been paying your wages all these years, huh?
“Hiyaa!!”
Kurei raised her gigantic hammer high and leaped into the air. The unbelievably heavy weapon felt as light as a toy in her hands.
“Rock Prison!”
Via pulled out the staff she always carried, poured mana into it, and cast the spell.
The ground beneath her feet softened and morphed, shooting upward toward Kurei in midair, trying to bind and restrain her.
“Pathetic tricks!”
K!
Kurei roared. With her inhuman strength, she shattered every rock construct that tried to wrap around her.
Via hadn’t planned to just stand there and wait for death. She had used the rock spell only to buy herself a tiny window of time.
She had known from the start that this level of magic couldn’t stop Kurei. While casting Rock Prison, she was already preparing her second spell.
“Ice Chain!”
Via gathered ice-attribute mana, shaped it into a long chain of ice, and flung it outward.
The target of the ice chain, however, was not Kurei, but the chandelier hanging high on the left.
The chain wrapped around the chandelier and yanked the pink-haired girl upward, lifting her off the ground. In the same motion, she swung quickly toward the second-floor balcony while simultaneously causing Kurei’s attack to miss completely.
“She can even use it like that?”
Kurei was genuinely surprised.
This human was actually fighting her by making use of the Demon King’s Castle terrain itself?
The area near that chandelier just happened to be the second-floor balcony. Swinging to any other spot wouldn’t have gotten her up there.
“I can’t stay in open space. Kurei is Transcendent-tier. She doesn’t even need to do anything fancy; just charging straight at me would be enough to kill me.”
Via stood on the second-floor railing, looking down at the green-haired maid below.
The blood-stained maid stood amidst the darkness of the ruins. Those eyes staring up at her were chillingly cold.
If that gigantic hammer on her shoulder ever landed on Via’s body, she would turn into meat paste in less than a second.
The maid who used to look so unreliable in the past had truly become a terrifying twin-tailed monster.
I have to make full use of my knowledge of the castle’s layout to keep her at bay.
First, I need to provoke her.
“Look over here, curly-fry!” Via shouted loudly.
“C-curly… fry?!”
Kurei froze for a second when she heard that nickname.
“That’s right, I’m talking to you, green curly idiot!”
Via stuck her tongue out and pulled a ridiculous face at Kurei.
Her entire attitude was the pinnacle of mockery; she looked exactly like an arrogant brat begging to be taught a lesson.
“How dare you… insult my hair…!!”
Kurei’s body trembled slightly with rage.
She was completely furious; her face turned bright red.
Seeing this, Via smiled.
Kurei had never liked her naturally curly hair and always wanted to straighten it.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times she straightened it, the curls came back within two days.
This maid was forever doomed to have natural curls.
In truth, it wasn’t a big deal; green curly twin-tails actually looked cute to most people. But Kurei herself was extremely self-conscious about it, so it became the perfect point to tease.
If another demon had mocked her, she might have shrugged it off. But to be ridiculed about her most sensitive spot by a human? That was unforgivable.
“I’m going to kill you!!!”
Kurei swung her hammer and leaped toward the second floor.
Having predicted the attack, Via had already retreated backward, perfectly dodging the strike.
The hammer smashed the second-floor balcony to pieces. The entire platform collapsed and crashed to the ground.
“Perfect.”
Via was very satisfied that her taunting had worked.
Although anger would sharply increase Kurei’s aggression, it would also cloud the demon maid’s judgment, giving Via more openings.
She turned and ran toward the complicated network of corridors, disappearing into the hallway.
“Come out here!!”
Kurei chased after her, swinging the hammer wildly. She had no intention of going through doors properly; she simply smashed straight through walls, creating huge holes to charge inside.
This way, she could close the distance to Via much faster.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Kurei was like a runaway truck, rampaging madly through the Demon King’s Castle.
What the hell are you doing?! You’re breaking everything! Aren’t you afraid of getting your pay docked?!
Via really wanted to yell at her.
But she had no choice but to hold it in.
The performance of this human body was in a completely different league from Kurei’s.
Even though she could stall for time by using the castle’s environment, she would still be caught very soon.
“Let’s use these.”
An idea flashed through Via’s mind. She pulled out several pre-made mana bombs and gripped them tightly.
These were originally meant to be sold to Golen for gold coins.
But the situation was urgent; she had no choice but to use them now, even if it pained her.
BOOM!
The moment Kurei smashed through a room’s wall with her hammer, Via tossed a mana bomb into the corner and quickly fled.
If Kurei had been calm, she probably would have noticed it. But right now, her head was filled with nothing but thoughts of murdering Via, so she overlooked the trap completely.
In a very short time, Via planted many mana bombs all across the second floor.
When the timing felt right, she sent the activation command to every bomb.
“Detonate.”
Every room on the second floor lit up at once. In that instant, different colors of mana illuminated each space.
“Eh?”
Kurei wore a startled expression.
The next moment, she was swallowed by an enormous blast of mana. She took the full brunt of every explosion head-on. Almost half the rooms on the second floor collapsed and sank downward.
The demon maid at the very center of the explosion was buried beneath the rubble.
“Haa… haa… almost… I’m… going to die from exhaustion…”
Via was panting heavily. She felt like her legs were about to give out from running.
If she had detonated even a moment later, her head would have been sent flying.
Even after witnessing that scene, she didn’t relax in the slightest. She forced her nearly exhausted body to keep moving.
The situation still hadn’t changed.
“I need to hurry… This… this won’t buy me much time… I have to make use of it…”
Via continued climbing toward the upper levels of the Demon King’s Castle ruins. She knew perfectly well that attacks below Transcendent tier couldn’t truly harm Kurei; they could only cause her trouble.
She needed to quickly find a way to turn the tables.
DOOM!
A huge section of the floor was blasted upward. The demon maid crawled out from the rubble.
Although her sturdy body hadn’t sustained any real injury from the explosion, she was now covered head to toe in dust. Even the black stockings on her legs were torn, making her look rather disheveled.
“Damn human… I’m definitely going to flatten you into paper!”