Lumachina and Rem find themselves in the center of Batutta’s lair after confronting him on the origin of a deadly plague afflicting Zircon Tower City.
Episode 3 – “Corrupt Ritual”
Hmm.
How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord showed us the rare premise in post-modern storytelling that sometimes a villain is just a bad guy. How novel! Batutta even made fun of the expectation that he had a sad backstory that gives him “permission” to exploit people for pleasure, pain, and profit. Of course, Demon Lord Ω is still a post-modern story, so that means a pure villain doesn’t overstay his welcome as a character.
Batutta’s exit makes a nice segue into introducing the Bigger Bad Guy so that the apparent villainess can have her redemption route. I called her a cartoon villain in the last episode, but that was the switcheroo with the Head Paladin we needed to make a fun story. Fanis needs to be a good girl so she can share Diablo’s bed in the future. That’s the hard and fast rule for Demon Lord Ω.
Heh.
Batutta starts out claiming he hired the Paladin Brigade hastily to protect the clergy but gave up immediately after Lumachina told him she knew the plague in the city was a curse. Why? Because he was waiting for the sleeping drugs to take effect! What a villain! Demon Lord Ω makes him an unapologetic bad guy.
Nice. Shera is thorough with her cleaning technique. It looks like Diablo eventually became used to her boob sponge action. Suddenly Horn appears. Ha! She still has curry leftovers on her face. Diablo knows the plague in the city is a curse too, but that’s because it was a timed event in his video game. Of course, he plays it off as being the best Demon Lord from Another World and should know these things.
What’s a Head Paladin doing with bondage stands and a drug-induced orgy in an underground lair? Oh, right. He’s a bad guy doing bad guy things in Demon Lord Ω. Oh, sweet Lumachina. She’s so innocent that she doesn’t know what people having sex look like. Rem knows what they’re doing. How to explain summoning the stork to Lumachina? Do your best, Rem! Oho! Batutta didn’t have a battle maid. He had dominatrix maid! Lumachina says, “This place is filled with evil!” You know it, sister! Er, Head Priest.
Demon Lord Ω’s evil guy collects evil things to make evil curses. Batutta wants us to look at that glowing jar Dom Maid carries, but I’m more interested in her jugs. Batutta explains the shortage of holy women and men in Zircon Tower City comes from making them fall to sin to make purer evil essence for the Death Knell Disease. How long has he been doing this?
Hahaha! Batutta has no sob story for why he became evil. He’s just bad! Head Priest Lumachina has much work to do to reform her Church. Oh, man. Batutta turned into a Bond Villain. This is Demon Lord Ω, not James Bond. Why is he leaving before Lumachina succumbs to sexual torture? Uh, Dom Maid’s tongue is not normal.
Whoops! Sexy times interrupted. It’s not fair. Diablo knew exactly where to go because Batutta’s lair was where the event boss was in his video game. The orgy wasn’t in the game! Lumachina’s virgin heart is slightly purer than Diablo’s!
Okay, big fight with the big bad guy. Diablo’s disadvantage comes from his hugely destructive area of effect spells. They’ll collapse the underground lair, which he never needed to worry about in a video game before. Oh, but defeating the entire army of fodder before getting here? No worries. Diablo quickly established that Batutta was an unwitting pawn of a Fallen Demon Lord. Nice hints for the next part of the story.
It’s nice to see Diablo struggle against high-level characters. We didn’t see much of that in Demon Lord’s first season. Hearing Takuma’s internal voice is fun too. He’s learning that being a strong man is putting on a brave face when he just wants to curl up in a ball of pain. This was a nice one-on-one chess match of feints and misdirection. Takuma didn’t have much experience playing PvP duels. Hilarious. Batutta boasts about his flawless preparation and luring strong opponents into his strategies is exactly how Diablo acts all the time. Demon Lord Ω makes a nice reciprocation of making Batutta lose his left arm all the way to Diablo’s partial amputation.
Fun. Dom Maid has a dagger in her whip handle. Oh hey, Diablo has subordinates too, you know. Eek! Klem’s cursed bow is way too cursed! RIP Dom Maid. She made people die rock hard and she faced the same fate. Horn the Rogue is on the job too. Oh, you cartoon villain. Batutta faces defeat, but he’ll still release the poison into the water supply. Uh, I mean, unleash the full Death Knell Disease on the entire city. Oops. The Diablo party thought he meant collapsing the lair on top of them. How will they escape?
Suddenly, Demon Lord Ω is in Fanis’s bathroom. Time for the real Big Bad to start Fanis’s redemption arc. Varakness, a Grand General of an unnamed, recently awakened Demon Lord wants Zircon Tower City for an unstated reason. Obviously, it’s not Klem. Varakness claims his Lord wants all mortals to die. What’s the fun in that?
Uh, Fanis? Is that a blunderbuss in your towel, or are you not happy to see Varakness? Well, she can’t defeat a Grand General Fallen, so she’ll join his harem at the next full moon. Deadline! Meanwhile, what is that floating thing in the sky? Oh, it’s just how Diablo escaped the collapsing underground lair with his party. All those drug-induced orgy members? Let’s not talk about them.
Uh oh. Lumachina has the Death Knell Disease! And she can’t use her Miracles on herself? Diablo knows he has the charm that lifts the curse in his own dungeon, so that’s where Demon Lord Ω will go next.
Artist Kani Beam shows us the charm of flat justice in the end card.
How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord Ω streams on Crunchyroll and VRV.
