The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

pt busy by the Holy Warriors, Lucifer sustained more and more shallow cut injuries.

 

[The Hero’s attacks are damaging my body…! H-how am I unable to dodge them!?]

 

Unable to come up with an answer, Lucifer hopped away yet again, and glared at the Holy Warriors with his bloodshot eyes.

 

“Why you humans… Now playtime is over!”

“We never were playing around, though.”

“I wanted to get the kill before you go all out, you know~~ I guess that wasn’t meant to be.”

 

The Devil King was bringing out his full power… in other words, the thing that had been brought into this world when the Elves made the contract with the Devilkin.

 

“Transient Blades: Count 10!”

 

Magecraft in its most original form, courtesy of Devil King Lucifer.

Swords made of masses of darkness appeared from Craft Circles and flew toward Giorno.

Due to their extraordinary speed, Giorno was unable to dodge them.

 

“HAAAHHH!”

 

Giorno, full of shallow wounds, knocked down the dark swords while avoiding fatal hits on him.

In the meantime, Lylia rushed at Lucifer, starting the close combat again.

 

“Hmph! Your thoughts are easily discernible! Your attacks will not hit me!”

 

Lucifer was right; Lylia’s attacks failed to land on him.

 

“Purging Inferno!”

 

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Flames burst up from below Lylia, stopping her attacks.

 

“Transient Blades: Count 10!”

“–!? Ngh–!! “

 

Then Lucifer conjured countless dark blades to attack Lylia, just as he had done to Giorno.

And at the same time, the magecraft attacks toward Giorno ended.

Giorno still kept his grin despite his blood flowing onto the ground.

 

“What are you smiling at?”

“Hahaha… W-well, you seem to be… forgetting someone, eh?”

“What…”

“KAAAHHHHHH!!”

 

Suddenly, a Zenith Breath came at the Devil King from behind.

 

“Nwoh–! Of course, the dog…!”

 

Pochi had understood what she needed to do from observing Giorno and Lylia’s patterns.

Pochi’s wild nature meant it was difficult for her movements to match up with the two others — and for them to to keep track of her.

With both sides understanding that, Pochi’s role ended up taking a hit-and-run support-like role among the party.

With Pochi’s first move, she disappeared completely from Lucifer’s sight.
Her speed was commendable, even by Giorno’s standards.

And although her attacks did not deal much damage, they were enough to stall for time.

Giorno, bloody and struggling to move, took this chance to destroy the Craft Circles attacking Lylia.

 

“Thanks!”

“You can thank Pochi for that!”

 

Giorno’s swift reaction meant that Lylia sustained only minor injuries.

 

“Ngh–! KAAAHHHHHH!!”

 

The Devil King deflected Pochi’s breath attack with an energy-enhanced roundhouse kick.

Showing no surprise to that, Pochi disappeared from Lucifer’s sights yet again.

 

“You’re not getting away!”

“Don’t forget me!”

 

Giorno and Lylia rushed at Lucifer, allowing him no room.

 

“Shit! I’m not about to lose to you bastards now, damn it!”

 

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Lucifer’s tone suddenly turned rough.

 

“NOW you’re talking like a Devil! That’s more like it!”

 

And because of that change, Lylia was quite sure that the Devil King was starting to have a hard time.

 

“Dark Constriction!”

“Gah–! A boundary!”

“Leave it to me!”

 

Giorno got his leg caught by the lightning-like energy nets, but was promptly bailed out by Pochi…

 

“Lightning Call!”

“What the–!”

 

And Lylia barely managed to avoid them, only getting some edges of her clothes torn by them in the process.

 

“Thanks, Pochi!”

“My name is Shiro! Huh? …Wait…”

“Damn you, clever dog…!”

“Ah, did you hear that, Lylia!? The Devil King just praised me!”

 

At this time, Pochi was playing a key role in the party of Holy Warriors.

Despite her joking around, she did not stop fighting seriously, disappearing from the enemy’s sights once again.

Lylia stood up and faced Lucifer head-on, while Giorno kept his movements at a careful pace due to his injuries.

 

“So from the fight so far, I’ve noticed…”

“His weak point… is the torso.”

“I knew you’d get it too, Lylia!”

“That’s why he had that hard shell of darkness around him.
And he’s been more actively avoiding taking hits with his torso.
It’d make sense if he just wanted to avoid fatal attacks, but–“

“–But that would make TOO much sense.
Looks like it’s true — his resurrection isn’t quite complete yet.”

“Well, Nothing new here.
All we need to do is…!”

“Buy Asley some time…!”

 

　◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

 

While Giorno, Lylia, and Pochi were fighting hard to buy him time, Asley was running countless high-speed calculations in his head.

 

[There are two main ways to stop arcane energy releases.
One is to deplete the target’s energy pool… but Lucifer’s got even more than me, naturally.
Even if I use Magic Point Reduction, we’ll be wiped out before all of Lucifer’s energy is gone.
I have no choice but to use the other way…!]

 

Asley stuck his Drynium Rod in the ground and started drawing Circles, his fingers swiftly running along and his eyes starting to shine.

 

[I’ll seal his arcane energy flow…!]