Chapter 1247 This Isn't Their Final Form
"Hehhh… So the demon lord of this world is that other me I see…" Eris mused.
Hmmm… It sounds like this isn't the first time they've experienced this before? Perhaps this was one of the alternate universes that they have been to while 'rescuing' me? That would explain why they thought of coming here.
Oh well, guess the surprise wasn't that big of a surprise after all… I thought that it might be interesting for Eris since she doesn't have some kind of evil personality within her that she had to deal with, so I made this one for her.
I'm quite sure there were 'evil' versions of me in some of the universes too, though I never really cared what 'evil' things I did. Which is kind of making me curious about it… Maybe I should go and visit some of these universes myself to see what I'm like as some evil villain?
The demon lord version of Eris scoffed, "You don't seem that surprised to see me?"
Eris shrugged, "See one evil version of me, you've seen them all. You're just another one I guess."
She furrowed her brows, "What nonsense are you speaking? As far as I know, I'm the only Demon Lord to have existed around here, aren't I?"
"Oh I wasn't talking about you, we came from another World, you see."
"Another World? Do you take me for an idiot?!"
Eris and her other selves turned to look at me.
"Erm… Not everyone is aware of the fact that there are other universes or even other Worlds for that matter. Even though she's a split personality of yours, it does not mean she knows what you know," I explained.
The four of them made noises of acknowledgement before turning back to the evil Eris.
Eris pointed her sword at her, "Well, I would ask you to surrender and come back to us… But I know you're going to reject my offer and try to kill me anyway so let's just continue."
The demon lord smirked, "Agreed."
The battle was resumed again and the two of them leapt at each other, their weapons raised to swing at one another.
Bait, Laverna and Denna also followed Eris's charge with attacks of their own while I hung back to provide them with support spells.
If this was the original version of how this World was supposed to be, our party would be evenly matched with the demon lord and the fight would be a constant back and forth.
But I've given the demon lord quite a number of extra skills and buffs that she's actually a lot stronger than Eris right now.
The only reason why Eris was able to stand her ground was due to the support from everyone else behind her and her experience from our World.
Whenever the demon lord was about to exploit an opening from Eris, a greatsword would be there to impede her and force her to retreat.
Whenever she was about to swing her sword at an exposed body part of Eris, an arrow would be shot towards the demon lord and she would need to back off.
Whenever she was about to cast a spell at Eris, another spell would be there to counter or mitigate the spell.
And whenever she actually manages to land a hit on Eris, a healing spell would be casted on her to erase any damage the demon lord might have caused.
The demon lord knew that unless she was able to overcome or deal with Eris's support, she would be the one to lose this battle even with her superior strength.
They locked blades with each other, the demon lord making sure that Eris was between herself and us to prevent us from attacking her from this angle.
She growled at Eris, "You truly are annoying, you know that? All your justice and righteous bullshit even with all that power… You really piss me off!"
The demon lord shoved Eris back and swung her sword diagonally downwards, her attack stopped at the very last moment by Eris's shield.
There was still enough force in the attack to send Eris skidding several feet back, but that also meant Denna and Laverna could resume their long range attacks on her as well.
She swung her sword to cut down the arrows and magic shot at her, which bought time for Eris to recover and shoot back a retort of her own.
"Huh? I piss you off? Aren't you the one wearing that stupidly edgy armour and trying to pretend like you're some big bad guy? You're just trying to get attention!"
The demon lord leapt at Eris again, bringing her sword down in an overhead slash which Eris blocked with her shield once again.
Evil Eris did not back off but instead, continued pushing against Eris to try and force her down on the ground.
"Attention?! Do you think I'm doing this to get attention?! All that power and you still choose to squander it by pretending to be good! Look at me! I've become stronger and even the Empress of demons! What about you? You're just wasting your potential!! Does the kingdom even care about you?!"
Eris pushed back against her evil self, "Oh really? And here I thought you became the demon lord because you got jealous that Master picked me instead of you!"
"Ha?! That guy? Who the hell cares about some washed up nobody whose only redeeming feature is his ability to heal?! Even I can do that on my own!"
Hmm? Is it just me or did the throne room get colder all of a sudden?
I thought I might have also heard the sound of a glass shattering too? But where did that come from? Was there any glass inside the throne room? Are there more demons hiding around here?
There was a yelp of surprise and I turned back to the battle to see the demon lord being flung back towards the other end of the hall.
Eris had her head hung low and I noticed Bait, Laverna and Denna were in the same position as well.
Wait, did they get hit by some kind of status ailment attack? That would be really careless of me as the group's healer to let that happen…
I was about to start casting restoration and protection spells when all four of them lifted their weapons in front of their chest as though they were saluting someone.
The equipment started to glow and I realised they were using their domain to change the 'path' of their own weapons to transform them into something else.
It only took them a few seconds to do so and when the light subsided, all of them were holding familiar looking swords in their hands.
Those were obviously the swords they had used during their time in our original World and they had now brought them to this World as well.
"I think… It's time for you to die," Eris whispered casually.
All four of them charged at the demon lord.
Huh… Guess they want to go all out in the weapon they are most familiar with…
Quick question though… Did they really just negate the anti-divinity aura the Evil Eris had with sheer will alone?