I Formed a Party with a Girl via an Adventurer Matching App - Chapter 58

 Those Who Rush to the Throne

"Hey, hey... you've got to be kidding me." 

"Wait, you're joking, right?"

Coincidentally. I ended up uttering the exact same sentiment as Cordelia, the very woman I hadn't been able to exchange a word with until now out of pure awkwardness.

Right in front of our eyes, adventurers with their gear torn to shreds lay collapsed on the floor. And their numbers weren't some soft, forgiving figure like one or two people.

This was the large-scale combined party of seasoned elites organized specifically to subjugate the Demon King. And yet now, every single one of them—excluding Cordelia and myself—had been utterly suppressed.

"Hmm. So this is all they amounted to."

A voice carrying a deeply instinctual revulsion, sounding like an expression of resentment leaking from the depths of hell. The one who let out that voice—which sapped your resolve just by listening to it—was the sole perpetrator who had brought about this catastrophic state of affairs.

His physical stature was almost no different from that of a human. His entire body was wrapped in a pitch-black robe, but the magical power leaking out felt like it was prickling and scorching the surface of my skin. Just facing him forced me to realize, to a sickening degree, that he was no ordinary being.

Sinister, twisted horns jutted from his head, and the darkness peeking out from the folds of his robe was so deep it felt like it would suck you in. One look was all it took to instinctively know this was the Demon King himself—he was a creature of pure anomaly.

He didn't possess a titanic frame that surpassed humanity. Nor did he have beastly physical strength, or a monstrous, horrific anatomy.

He simply, purely boasted an overwhelmingly illegal pool of magical power. By that single point alone, he stood at the absolute pinnacle of the monster army as the Demon King.

Among the adventurers who formed a grim carpet of corpses and broken bodies, the fact that Cordelia and I had escaped disaster boiled down entirely to one thing: pure luck.

---

Upon infiltrating the Demon King's castle, our subjugation party had marched straight ahead, aiming for the Demon King's chambers located at the absolute deepest depths. Stationed within the castle were monsters of considerable caliber, even if they didn't quite measure up to his direct confidants, the Four Heavenly Kings. Even so, the adventurers—supposedly battle-hardened veterans—displayed magnificent synergy despite the fact that many were meeting for the very first time, crushing the enemies as they advanced. To be honest, because we were a tiny party of two, we were treated as a surplus unit and assigned to the rearguard just to give us something to do. As a result, the opportunity to even draw our weapons never came our way.

"It's the Demon King's chamber! Keep pushing straight ahead, uohhhhh!" 

""""OHHHHHHH!""""

Eventually, our group reached the innermost depths of the Demon King's castle. There were two massive, solemn windows fitted with stained glass. And sandwiched right between them, as if to proclaim its status as the most critical room in the structure, stood a set of double doors carved with elaborate designs.

Boldly flinging the doors open, the party poured inside like a crashing wave.

"Ah, ..."

At that moment, Cordelia, who had been running alongside me at a set distance, suddenly tripped in place. It seemed there was a subtle unevenness right at the entrance of the room, and her foot had caught on it.

Even though we were currently in a state of total non-communication, it wasn't like we had officially disbanded our party. Seeing her stumble, I also came to a halt just outside the Demon King's chamber.

And then. The next instant, the group that had rushed into the room was wiped out simultaneously by a magical assault.

"E... everyone... push... gaah." 

"W-What... just happened...?" 

"Ah... agha..." 

"It hurts... I, I can't get up..."

Right around the threshold of the entrance, every single adventurer besides us was collapsed on the floor. Their bodies were completely cratered into the ground, which was still emitting creaking, groaning noises even now. Cruel, jagged cracks tore through the hard marble floor around where they lay. While a few of them barely seemed to retain consciousness, not a single soul looked capable of standing up.

" This sensation... is it gravity-manipulation magic?" 

"Looks like it."

Faced with an absolute emergency, the awkwardness that had hung over us until now was instantly blown away.

Cordelia and I drew close together to protect one another, observing the grim state of the adventurers. Without exception, every single one of them was embedded into the floor. Describing it as being forcibly flattened would be more accurate.

And past the point they had been trying to reach, at the dead center of the Demon King's chamber, stood the Demon King, keeping one hand extended in our direction. Behind him sat a massive, ostentatious throne. He had likely known we were invading, yet chose to sit there, leisurely waiting for our arrival.

The sheer entitlement was staggering. But considering he had successfully neutralized the intruders exactly as planned, the guy really was terrifyingly strong.

"Oh...?"

It seemed the Demon King had finally noticed the two of us, who had been cautiously assessing the situation from the perimeter. He lightly tilted his robe-shrouded head. While I couldn't discern his expression beyond the pitch-black darkness of his hood, he shifted his gaze toward us with an air of mild curiosity.

"To think there were those whose timing was so poor. Though, your luck is quite good."

The Demon King had cleanly recognized our existence. Slowly, he began to extend his opposite hand toward us—the one he hadn't used to pin down the other adventurers.

...You can launch a area-of-effect attack in two different directions simultaneously?!

Launching an AoE attack that blanked an entire area required a massive amount of concentration and an astronomical pool of mana compared to standard magic. To hold down more than thirty elite veterans while simultaneously dealing with us as an afterthought was, to put it bluntly, an abnormal level of power.

"...Cordelia!" 

"Right!"

I called out her name. She responded instantly.

There was no time to dilly-dally. The Demon King's gravity magic was undoubtedly going to fly our way any second now. To evade a wide-range magic attack, our only option, first and foremost, was to move from this spot.

That said, if we advanced forward, that area was already under the Demon King's complete control. We would do nothing but join our miserably defeated comrades.

If so, the only path left was... backward!

Our matching compatibility rating was currently 0.02%. While we were part of the large-scale combined party, we had been blending into the massive crowd, so it hadn't posed an issue. But now that it was just the two of us left, the story was entirely different. A compatibility rating as catastrophically low as 0.02% would be completely laid bare. Facing off against the Demon King with only a partner who shared the absolute worst possible compatibility with you was inherently impossible. Now that we had lost the bulk of our main fighting force, we had no method of survival left besides fleeing.

Which was exactly why the direction we needed to move was backward—

"Not backward! Sideways!" 

"I know!"

Cordelia barked back in response to my shout. The two of us kicked off the floor, leaping directly to our respective sides.

"Mm."

The Demon King, who had maintained an arrogant composure until now, let out a sound that carried a hint of genuine agitation for the first time. Instantly, the corridor right behind where we had been standing collapsed into the ground with a thunderous CRACK. If we had turned tail and run backward, we would have been swallowed whole by that gravity magic.

"...I see. It seems you possess a modicum of low cunning. However, even if you move sideways, that corridor is a single path that leads to a dead end. Either way, escaping is..."

Listening to the Demon King drone on as if trying to excuse his missed attack, I recovered from my sideways leap and landed, drawing my weapon for the first time. Standing directly in front of me was... the elaborately designed stained glass window built right next to the doors.

I raised my greatsword high, swinging it down with everything I had against the stained glass.

CRASHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A high-pitched, shattering roar echoed through the air, sounding as if the building itself was screaming. And, treading over the colorful shards of glass scattering beneath my feet, I finally set foot inside the Demon King's chamber.

"...Ah-ha. What are we going to do now? We've gone and entered the Demon King's room with just the two of us."

From across the room, past the groaning adventurers flattened on the floor, a voice rang out. Having leaped to the opposite side just like me, Cordelia had smashed through the other stained glass window to force her way into the chamber.

"We didn't exactly have a choice. If we went forward, we'd have gone down miserably with the rest of them. If we went backward, we'd be bait for his AoE. Even if we just stood there after leaping sideways, the Demon King would have just adjusted his stance and blasted us with another magic attack anyway." 

"So, our only option left was to go on the offensive. ...Well, I ended up acting on the exact same thought, so I guess I can't complain."

Cordelia and I... Exchanged a small, fleeting smile, like a soft exhale. Right now, that alone was more than enough.

We were a party with a 0.02% compatibility rating—the absolute worst pairing imaginable. But when an unavoidable enemy stands right before your eyes and this is the only comrade you have left...

Then even if it's a mere 0.02%, we have no choice but to believe that we are compatible, and stand our ground.

"...Mere humans, putting on such arrogant airs."

The Demon King directed a gaze filled with unmistakable hostility toward us. Well, either way, I couldn't actually tell what kind of face he was making beneath that pitch-black hood.

I raised my greatsword. Cordelia raised her one-handed sword. Each taking our stances, we surrendered ourselves to the piercing tension of the battlefield.

In all likelihood, we were going to lose. But even if we were destined to fall, we wanted to go down fighting. As people who had thrown ourselves into the life of adventurers, I wanted this to be our final act.

"Very well. I shall show you the sheer difference in our status. Come at me, insignificant humans... And then, sleep at the bottom of a sea of despair... Without even the luxury of time to dream, I shall erase your very existence from this world."

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