“Lucas…?”
The deity’s voice said it quietly, setting in a grim mood for the situation.
“I’m sorry, goddess.” Lucas, the person the deity was holding up weakly apologized. “It seems… we lost, huh.”
“Fuu~” Upon hearing what Lucas said, the demon lord breathed a sigh of relief, “wow, this really took quite a bit of effort”, it remarked at how this fight went, “despite being the deity of this world, you and your comrades together… lost to me…”
Then, the demon lord wondered, “you don’t have any more hidden cards to play…? Like, say, restoration magic? You don’t have any more mana, do you?” It sought confirmation.
With respect to experiences and what had happened, the demon lord had grown to be cautious and careful.
With the defeat of the deity, a being thought by many to be all-powerful and unparalleled, the demon lord could only think of invincibility and omnipotence as a myth.
The demon lord had wondered why the demonic continent wasn’t just wiped out by the deity, and accordingly so, an attempt to destroy the capital city of some humanoid country was made.
Fortunately for the humanoids, it was quickly thwarted with the power of the deity. That wasn’t a surprise, but in the passing days, there was no retaliation from the deity against the demonic continent.
With that, the demon lord had concocted an idea, theorized, that the so-called deity still had to abide by a specific trait of magical energy, or mana.
When the demon lord had first stepped outside the demonic continent, entering humanoid lands, the demon lord experienced the inability to control the ambient mana, the type of mana that was more abundant and was more present throughout reality than personal mana, mana that was generated by and controlled for one’s self.
“(… Such a thing applies to the deity as well.)”
Mana obeyed who had the influence, be it through familiarity by one’s birth or time spent. Although, it was still possible to hijack another’s control, by being more powerful, but familiarity was apparently the most determining factor over one’s right of control over mana.
By way of examination, the demon lord concluded for the topic of ambient mana, that it was rather whimsical in terms of loyalty and obedience. At most, the deity and the demon lord were the ones visibly at the top of priority in their respective sides.
Learning from history, wherein time plays a role in determining ambient mana’s allegiance, the demon lord learned that the magical territory, volume or area of magic that was for demons to control had slowly shrank over time, converted to be amiable to the deity.
With the demon lord’s succession of its title via some sort of ceremony, just the demon lord being alive apparently put the shrinking of demonic magical territory to naught, at the expense of its personal mana being constantly drained, a dent in how much power it naturally generates for itself at a time.
Thus evidently, “(even for this deity, it has not reached omnipotence, huh)”, the demon lord thought: truly unparalled power was yet to be achieved, and it was only a thought for now.
Both sides had fought a war of attrition. The demons holding the advantage with sheer numbers, and with reckless abandon, coupled with them being the ones attacking.
When it happened, it was quite the surprise for the demon lord. At some point in time, the humanoids somehow convinced their deity to organize a group of warriors they call heroes to eliminate the head of the demon attacks, the demon lord. What more, the deity even went with the group.
To go into territory where the ambient mana was not for them, the demon lord had thought of it as an act that would just be a blunder… and such did the case become.
The deity gave power to some individuals, but it wasn’t enough.
The mana they stored within their body eventually ran out, and the demon lord won. It had to spend quite a bit of effort and time to defeat those with physical constructs, though.
If the deity was completely human, it would be fitting for it to be shedding some tears for Lucas who was slowly losing his grip on life.
“I hope you have better lives in your next…”
The deity could only offer these words to these departing souls.
“Welp, this is the end, I suppose.” The demon lord concluded.
The deity’s physical body was then forced to disintregate, as its spirit was booted out.
“Failure. Please… stay alive… for years to come.”
That message, fading words managed to reach the oracles of the deity.
