[Demon Lord] Vetheris:

"Losing [Arog] and [Asogus] was a miscalculation, too bad for the heroes I've already regained them. And with this magic formation...they will be powerless on Earth."

"...h...elp..."

"Hinami Hikaru, lowly human and sister to the hero, help will not come for you as long as I exist. There will be no light, the worlds will be bathed in my darkness. It is my authority as the [Demon Lord] Vetheris. Ahahaha..."

---

Hero Party:

A motionless body laid in the pensive atmosphere, hero Rysouke Hikaru who was spacing out in his chair at school.

"Nakano-san, why did you quit being an idol?"

"I didn't quit, I'm on hiatus!"

"So...the reason?"

"Eh? Oh, well..."

Ryosuke cut in.

"No clues or leads...and Vetheris is scheming all the while we're out wasting time."

"Ryosuke..."

The air became uncomfortable, Ryosuke wasn't like this before. No, this nature of his might've just been suppressed. Anyways, the hero party has still been doing great work in regards outside of Vetheris. For example, the act of killing [Curses] wasn't wasting time, but...well...taking out Vetheris was the hero's number one priority currently. And for this, they had nothing to show in these few weeks after returning from [Orvinus].

*ding*

"Hm?"

Ryosuke shifted up from his position and pulled his phone towards him.

[Message from Hinami]

[Come to the roof now. I'm being attacked by someone claiming to be a demon lord...]

The blessed ones rose and began to immediately rush out the door.

"H-Huh!? Where are you going?"

"Just wait here Nakano-san. It's the [Demon Lord] Vetheris."

"I'll help!"

"No, bringing you might hinder us, to put it bluntly."

"That was blunt, but you saw what I could do against [Curses]. We even had decent teamwork..."

"If you take responsibility for your own life then...no you were already prepared for that. Let's go then."

"Understood."

---

"Why does that thing have my sister? Why at this school?"

Ryosuke thought until his brain scrambled. It wasn't the biggest surprise though, after all, their identities were already presumably known to Vetheris somehow. This thought ticked Ryosuke off.

When the party arrived, he saw the figure of his sister, Hinami. They climbed up numerous flights of stairs and are cutting into class with this.

"Hinami! Are you alright?"

He rushed over too carelessly. The ugly green towering snake beside her coiled and lunged at the incoming hero. With a quick dodge and minimal damage, he evaded to the side luckily. His breathing resembled haggardness as he confusedly looked at her.

"Haha...ahahahaha!!!"

"H-Hinami?"

"It's time for you to die...HEROES!"

Ryosuke's expression fell into despair. 

"Ryosuke! Hinami is probably possessed by Vetheris..."

"How the hell are we supposed to drag him out...!?"

"First, let's knock her out and do some more investigating."

"You think you can do it without hurting her?"

"It'll be hard but I'll try my best."

"Hinami...I'm sorry for burdening you...when this is all ove--"

Her cold voice pierced him.

"Haven't you realized it yet? Why you will all die today? Why you cannot defeat me?"

The usually pretty and smooth tone of Hinami turned into a passionate and venomous one. Her aura was not one of your average middle school girl anymore, she was the [Demon Lord].

"What is this...?"

The party couldn't cast [Physical Enhancement], or any spells for that matter.

"It was one of the findings in an old ruin. A magic formation that can create a barrier to seal all cast mana, much like the scales of [Asogus]. It was found pretty recently by my subordinates so I didn't find time to implement it into our last battle...lucky for you I survived to this point to use it."

"Sealing...all mana?"

"Indeed, now you heroes that can't use your mana abilities...curse your powerlessness as my beasts destroy you."

His two summoned familiars, [Arog] the spider and [Asogus] the snake responded to her command and went on standby in a combat position.

"This guy..."

"Doesn't that mean your dark magic is also sealed? How can those summoned beasts even exist in this space!?"

"To enlighten your ignorant self, they are spells cast before the barrier was set and don't need to be constantly refilled with mana. They can exist here for a time, which will be more than enough to massacre you all. They will be enough, so I don't need my own magic."

"How cocky...don't look down on us heroes!"

"Yeah!"

O Goddess, grant me the power to slay an unthinkable evil

I, Hero Ryosuke Hikaru, call upon the holy treasures bestowed with light

To protect the world and write it over,

[Heavenly Armament]

Half-plated armor and a sword radiating gold and white covered Ryosuke like a descended angel of war.

"You think I haven't thought of a way to deal with that [Ervia]'s potent blessing?"

God of Destruction, grant me the power to rule over the world

I, Demon Lord Vetheris, call upon the authority of demonkind's pinnacle

To regulate order and leave fear in my wake,

[Soul Breaking Phantasm]

"Wha--"

Ryosuke immediately staggered back from a burning headache and his posture fell apart.

"Vetheris's ability..."

[Heavenly Armament] bestowed by the Goddess Ervia and [Soul Breaking Phantasm] bestowed by the God of Destruction are similar yet different powers of the same great caliber. They are the same in the fact that they stem from these great beings bestowing a part of their will-infused mana onto a mortal being.

Ryosuke of the hero party and the [Demon Lord] Vetheris are the only ones with such a blessing. The other members of the hero party were only blessed with formations for spells, not the mana of a literal God. This is what differentiates the power so much between Ryosuke and the group. Such power of that denseness is too great, even for an all-sealing mana magic formation, so they work fine in it. These are bits of actual mana, not formations, and have the will to produce effects like a spell. This is a feat only capable by 'gods.'

[Heavenly Armament] gives Rysouke access to a set of holy treasures to slay evil with light. [Soul Breaking Phantasm], Vetheris's ability that can only be used in close range, gives Vetheris the ability to directly cause illusionary harm to the mind. In other words, a searing headache that pacifies the victim. It may be fake, but over time, the pure pain caused can turn a man insane. Vetheris often uses his 'authority' for torture.

There is a condition to this power though...in order to attack one's mind or soul...its true vessel needs to be observed. In other words, the attack is determined and commenced by the user's knowledge of the other's shape in their mind by imagining it. This is hardly a handicap though since the only counter to this would be illusion magic and not many people would even know of this weakness. If someone here was using illusion magic anyway, it would be canceled by the mana sealing barrier since it requires constant mana to run.

This phantasmal pain can only affect one person chosen by the user. It is quite restricted compared to [Heavenly Armament], but it's an undeniably fearsome power that can sentence anyone to insanity by pain. Once commenced on a person, it cannot be removed unless the user wills it or dies.

In the hero's last fight with Vetheris, this power couldn't be combated. Ryosuke managed to muster his strength and utilize [Heavenly Armament] in the last moment to take down Vetheris while sustaining [Soul Breaking Phantasm]. The battle was quick but a show of might by Ryosuke. This was only possible with the aid of mana and his comrades, but what about now?

"Arghhh..."

"What a pathetic excuse for a hero! To believe that they would be reduced to this much after sealing mana, laughable."

"Y-you won't get away with t-this! H-Hinami..."

"Hinami cannot hear you."

"HINAMI! I know you're in there...just wait for me to save you."

"Don't make empty promises, your hubris ends now...! Get them, [Arog] and [Asogus]."

The spider and snake jumped towards the group that was unarmed and unable to use mana. They were pretty much normal high schoolers now with combat experience.

"Ha!"

They avoided to the best of their ability, but wounds naturally appeared on some of them. Vetheris had set up this situation perfectly, to lure and kill the heroes once and for all...

"It w-won't end like this..."

"Hinami...please..."

"You heroes have foiled my plans over and over, I'll have you all meet your ends--h...elp me."

"H-Hinami?"

"Oni...i-chan he--annoying! To think you would put in a last bit of resistance, humans sure are idiotic."

While Ryosuke was still suffering fiery sparks thrusted into his mind continuously...

"You will die...Vetheris..."

"How exactly? Can you harm the owner of this vessel? Hahaha...You will be chased around and killed by my summons while I watch gleefully as you can't fight back. I'm sure my [Soul Breaking Phantasm] is taking a toll on you too. Why don't you surrender yourself to me and die in a sightly way fitting of a hero?"

"N-Never...arrghhh."

"Is that so? Then..."

"TAKE THIS!"

Ai came up from behind Vetheris (Hinami) with some of Fila's help and shoved a pen with [Void Point] at the end towards Hinami.

"No, Nakano-san!!!"

Ryosuke cried out as he held his unoccupied arm to his head. He did so because his sister might get hurt, and because the third beast is likely hiding behind her.

"If I don't do this, you'll all die. My body feels heavier and my spear won't manifest...but [Void Point] will work..."

"Foolish human, I applaud your ability to sneak up on me without notice. But, you will die here. Get her, [Soviath]."

[Soviath] is Vetheris's final summoned familiar. A humanoid being capable of creating simple illusions and incorporeal. It was personally created by Vetheris, a so-called artificial spirit with limited powers.

"W-What? It's all dark!?"

Of course, it was only dark from Ai's perspective but her attack with [Void Point] failed with [Soviath]'s interference. Back to the struggling hero party,

"Sh*t, what are we going to do? I can't use spells at all."

"We'll have to make this work somehow, Ryosuke is suffering as time goes on by as well."

"This is really bad...really really bad..."

(Note: Sorry haven't updated in a while had something going on :p)