Kwa-ang—!
“Kill them!”
“How dare those mice who’ve only been fleeing all this time show up here!”
“For Lady Hella!”
Noisy sounds poured in from every direction.
Along with them, the unique scent of the battlefield bubbled up and boiled over.
In the area engulfed in battle, struggle, resolve, madness, and more intertwined to bloom magnificent flowers of death.
Normally, Sipareu would have surrendered himself to that flow and held a frenzied party as well, but—.
[···What are you lot?]
Now, he absolutely could not.
The momentum emanating from the beings before him was no ordinary matter, so he could not afford to pay attention to anything else.
“Kahahaha—!”
Along with a scornful laugh, a grotesque quadrupedal beast bared its teeth.
A pair of tusks stretched long like a saber-toothed tiger’s, and countless densely packed teeth gleamed with a sharp light.
While a serpentine tongue wriggled in the center of it all.
‘What the hell is that?’
A height of about 3 meters, a body length of around 5 meters.
That creature—wrapped in thick muscles and carapace all over its body, not to mention its lush dark-red mane—possessed an indescribable appearance, as if all the ferocious beasts and demonic beasts in existence had been combined into one.
To the point that even as the Ghost Wolf Duke at the pinnacle of all beast-type demons, Sipareu could not get a grasp on it at all.
But it was absolutely not an opponent he could look down on just because it was much smaller than him.
Because since earlier, his instincts had been fiercely sounding alarm bells.
Even without that, anyone who saw those odd eyes overflowing with appetite and madness, and the drool dripping from its mouth, could not help but think the same.
That beast was looking at him as prey right now.
And perhaps··· if he let his guard down, he might really get devoured.
[How dare you! How dare you look at this Ghost Wolf Duke with such eyes! I’ll chew your head off whole!]
Naturally, Sipareu did not accept that meekly.
The distorted head continuously exploded with fierce anger.
But the problem was not just that grotesque creature.
[Grrr— could that one be, by any chance, the 14th Demon King?]
[No, that can’t be. That woman definitely died. Already over a thousand years ago!]
[But even if it’s still incomplete, that’s definitely a Demon King’s···.]
[Then is it a new Demon King? The 16th Demon King? Now, all of a sudden?!]
[···If that’s true, what happens to us? What the hell have we been fighting for until now···!]
A figure sitting calmly atop the grotesque beast’s back.
A woman so exceedingly slender compared not only to Sipareu, whose height neared 10 meters, but even to the grotesque creature she rode, wore a subtle smile.
Raising her head to look up at the three heads currently falling into confusion.
“Hmm~ I see. So this is a Duke-class demon?”
Along with a light snort, a beautiful, song-like voice flowed from between her red lips.
“It’s certainly impressive, but···.”
Her black-and-red heterochromatic eyes sparkled.
Hella swept a strange gaze over the giant Cerberus-like creature as if appraising it.
It did not take long for the result of that assessment to come out.
“Well, at this level, hmm··· it’s just mediocre. I suppose it wouldn’t have mattered much even if I came alone.”
From Sipareu’s standpoint, it was a ridiculous slander.
“Duke of the Ghost Dog. Are you perhaps a bit lacking compared to the other Dukes? Or maybe you were just exceptionally lucky···.”
“Kakakaka!”
“Or perhaps I’ve been overestimating the level of the Demon Realm?”
Venomous words unfitting of her enchanting beauty and lively tone poured out like carving up her opponent.
Along with grotesque laughter that seemed to sympathize with it.
There was not even a speck of consideration for the listener included in it anymore.
[······.]
[······.]
Sipareu’s heads, which had been noisily chattering among themselves, all shut their mouths at once.
The distorted head that had been fiercely acting up until then was no different.
He was, after all, one of the Dukes standing at the pinnacle of the current Demon Realm.
Would such a man fall for such cheap provocation and get worked up?
Without needing to quibble or argue—.
[I shall kill you!]
[Khooooo—!]
He just had to destroy everything he did not like!
Kwang!
Sipareu crouched his body in an instant and shot out like a spring immediately after.
At the same time, his overwhelming mass ignored all physical phenomena and tore apart everything in a straight line.
Kureureureung—!
Subordinates from both sides were caught in the aftermath, vomiting blood and bouncing away like pebbles.
They had noticed the signs when the leaders began their confrontation and had retreated far away, but before this overwhelming destruction, that distance was nowhere near enough.
As if caring not whether it was his own base, the surroundings centered on where his massive body passed became ruins in an instant.
“···What a foul temper too. If you raised something like that, no furniture would survive in the house.”
“Kahat!”
But that surprise attack failed to inflict any significant damage on its target.
The beauty and the beast had already moved out of the attack path and were grumbling.
Sipareu crouched his body again for a follow-up attack.
“As expected, it seems it needs some discipline.”
Immediately after that.
The world flipped upside down.
[···?!]
The battlefield noise coming from all directions vanished.
The scenery of the reasonably well-maintained Abnormal headquarters was erased, and barren earth stretched out widely.
An arid wasteland enveloping the surroundings in an instant.
「World of the Demon Sky」
A Demon King’s world, activated solely targeting Sipareu, was overlaid onto the Demon Realm.
And this desolate landscape with nothing in it—
was something Sipareu, who had lived a long life, had already experienced several times long ago.
[···The Forsaken Land?]
[Rreyeyeye—!]
[I knew it! You! What is your relationship with the 14th Demon King! How the hell!]
The three heads roared, and the snake head on the tail hissed repeatedly.
Powerful demonic energy erupted explosively from that massive body, causing earthquakes and storms to rage.
From the aftermath, the 「World of the Demon Sky」 began to creak gradually.
‘Sigh, running rampage without a care like a beast. What would I have done if I hadn’t laid this out in advance?’
Hella clicked her tongue lightly after pouring mana to stabilize it again.
For her, who intended to swallow Abnormal whole after disposing of the Ghost Wolf Duke, everyone was a potential subordinate without distinction between enemy and ally.
Thus, it was only natural that Sipareu, who rampaged without caring about damage to his own side, looked unpleasant to her.
“It seems you have much you want to ask?”
Hella, who had been sitting on the grotesque creature’s back, hopped down from it.
And then she patted its sturdy flank and opened her mouth.
“Then I’ll tell you if you beat my child. Everything you’re curious about.”
Along with those words, a bright smile formed.
But the vicious whip densely covered in thorns that she held in her hand was enough to make even such a bright atmosphere feel gloomy.
“Though I doubt it’s possible. My little darling is a specialist in this field, after all.”
—In hunting large monsters like you.
Hella continued in a lower voice, smirked, and struck the whip against the ground.
Swish—!
Fragments of earth scattered with a fierce splitting sound.
“I have a lot to do, so let’s finish this quickly.”
She stretched out one hand, pointed at Sipareu standing firm like Mount Tai before her, and shouted.
“Go! Davidson! Bite!”
“Kakakat—!”
At that command, not the Mercenary King Halli, who had been dispatched to the Demon Realm and had thoroughly disguised himself to hide his identity—
the ‘Gluttonous Demon Beast Davidson’ summoned by Hella roared roughly and charged forward.
Crack—! Crunch—!
Swelling its body several times in that fleeting moment.
Davidson, which had roughly matched Sipareu’s physique in an instant, opened its mouth wide.
[Come, I’ll tear you to pieces!]
[I don’t care about the Demon King or anything anymore! I’ll just eat you up right here and be done with it!]
Kwa-ang—!
And so the clash of the colossal monsters began.
***
Kugugung!
Davidson, of course, did not utter a single word and thoroughly maintained the appearance of a quadrupedal beast.
[To regenerate even after being torn by my fangs! What kind of bastard is this!]
[Kuaak! Get off! Vermin!]
“Kahahaha!”
[Grrr— it resists even my poison?]
Now that Halli had become the Mercenary King and the Fighting King, he had become quite a famous figure in Auterika, so he needed to pay careful attention to such trivial details.
No matter how he was a mercenary who would do anything for the right price, was it not impossible to openly come to the Demon Realm to help a Demon King when he was being celebrated as a hero?
‘Siana probably knows about Halli too. I don’t know where it might leak, so I must always be careful.’
Since Halli’s very existence was a mutant, disguising his identity was not very difficult if he set his mind to it.
Because it was simply a matter of replacing all the human elements he had basically maintained with the factors of numerous demonic beasts he had collected until now.
What was born that way was exactly his current appearance.
The gluttonous demon beast composed solely of non-human factors—Davidson.
‘Still, fighting while limiting my potential and sealing my skills is a bit tough after all.’
The opponent was a Duke-class demon standing at the very edge even within the Transcendence where the gap between individuals was huge, was it not?
Moreover, since they possessed the trait of growing even stronger here in the Demon Realm, it was somewhat unreasonable to overwhelm them with only physical abilities.
Shh—
Then, the snake attached to Sipareu’s tail shot like lightning and sank its venomous fangs into his body.
A deadly poison that spread throughout his body in an instant, capable of melting even souls.
Davidson’s body adapted and resisted it instantly, but it was inevitable that he paused for a very brief moment.
Kwajik! Kwaddeuk!
Sipareu’s left and right heads did not miss that brief gap and bit into his shoulders.
The carapace and muscles wrapping his exterior were pierced at once by the tremendous biting force, and blood splattered.
[Persistent bastard! I’ll tear you apart so you can’t regenerate!]
The central head with its lush mane and a scar on one eye opened its mouth wide.
As if it had prepared with considerable effort even during the fight, terrible demonic energy concentrated in its throat surged loudly.
If hit directly by that, even Davidson would have about half his body blown away.
Sswaaeak—!
The moment demonic energy was about to spew from that mouth.
A sharp tearing sound split the air.
Puhwak!
Immediately after, an enormous amount of blood gushed up like a waterfall flowing in reverse, and the savagely boiling demonic energy scattered into pieces.
[Kehhak! You bit---!]
The central head, one-third of its giant skull gone, glared upward with eyes full of rage.
Toward Hella, soaring through the air while fluttering a pair of wings.
Having suffered a blow that made one eye and even part of its brain disappear because its barrier had weakened while focusing on the attack, but as expected of a demon, it seemed unfazed by that much.
“Hmm, I never said we’d fight one-on-one, did I?”
Hella sent a playful wink at that gaze that somehow even looked aggrieved.
Shrugging her shoulders lightly as if it were no big deal.
She had deliberately called in a mercenary to finish quickly; there was no way she would just stand still until the one-on-one ended!
‘I’ve just been observing until now to gauge the situation, but···.’
Since a Duke-class demon was a first, she needed to properly grasp its strength through this opportunity.
She did not know about the Dark Abyss Duke, but the Demon Dragon Duke was definitely much stronger than that Cerberus.
‘I’ve got a rough sense of it, so this much is enough now.’
As Hella’s wings spread high in the air, gigantic magic circles rose on both sides.
Ultra-high-speed mana construction through 「Demon King」 and 「Mana Domination」.
Immediately after, along with countless flashes pouring down, a series of whip strikes too fast to be properly observed battered the giant body on the ground.
Shwishwish! Shwiek—! Kwa-ang!
[Kuaaaah!]
The mana barriers built up without rest were ruthlessly shattered by the attack, and wounds steadily accumulated.
It was not easy to dodge because Davidson was persistently clinging on.
‘This is nice? Somehow I feel like I’m getting excited.’
Of course, the whip she was using was also an item taken from Horus’s 「Golden Treasury」.
A weapon presumed to be the beloved armament of the Succubus Queen.
The whip, ignoring distance and stretching long, tore through space and left fatal wounds.
[Kkak! You cowardly bastards! As expected of that bloodline, your deeds are utterly filthy!]
“Hey, if you think about it, your side has four heads, right? And you’re saying your side still has twice as many?”
[What kind of bullshit is that…!]
“Bullshit…? You shouldn’t put yourself down like that. No matter how much you pretend to be a wolf, you can’t hide your true nature.”
[%@#@$#]
While Davidson used his massive frame to block the creature’s movements, Hella leisurely attacked as she mocked her opponent. But the destructive force produced by those attacks was by no means light.
[Grrr— The regeneration…!]
[It’s the power of the Thirteenth! That breed must have inherited that power too!]
Hella’s trait, 「Annihilator」, crushed every defensive measure the opponent had—its thick magic barrier, its life force, and more—and dragged its regenerative power down to the bottom.
Not only her whip attacks, but each and every one of her magical attacks was imbued with the power to pierce defenses and suppress regeneration.
Because of that, the regeneration of the head, which should originally have restored itself in an instant to a near-immortal degree, was still making no progress.
It was an ability more effective than anything else against high-ranking demons who possessed something on the level of 「Super Regeneration」 as a basic trait.
‘One more thing here.’
Davidson’s eyes flashed as he grappled back and forth with Sipar amid the chaos.
Then his body began to writhe violently.
Crack— crunch—!
He mimicked the opponent’s traits he had gathered during the fight.
The nature of his body changed in real time, taking only the superior factors and applying them to his flesh.
Selective evolution, taking only the opponent’s strengths.
‘As expected of a duke-class demon. I haven’t even absorbed its essence, yet it can’t be compared to those low-grade demons. Some parts are even better than a dragon’s.’
The pinnacle of that was something sprouting near both of his shoulders.
Something that jutted upward and slowly began to take shape.
Before long, it became new heads completely identical to the one in the center.
Just like the Cerberus before him.
[…Huh?!]
[…What is that…?]
[Huh? Guh? What is that? How in the world did he do that?!]
Confusion rose in the eyes of Sipar, whose attention had briefly been taken by Hella.
As a true Cerberus, he could tell the moment he saw it.
That was not merely a simple imitation of his outward appearance. It shared the exact same foundation as he did.
“Kahahahat!”
“Kakakakak!”
“Kuhakakak!”
As if mocking the flustered Sipar, all three heads burst into laughter at once.
Their mouths opened wide, packed densely with sharp teeth.
As Sipar stared at that sight, a cold streak of ill omen crawled up his spine.
‘Dangerous.’
It was instinct.
This was different from before.
It had already been threatening enough until now, but that was something even more deadly.
He had to avoid it somehow…
But now, while being attacked frantically from above and below at the same time, there was no longer any opening left for him to escape through.
[Gyaaagh! What is this! This too! Aaaagh!]
[Don’t let it bite you! That’s… Ngh!]
[Get off! Get off!!]
The 「Food God」 and 「Authority of Gluttony」, which he had kept hidden while waiting for the right moment, began to run rampant in earnest.
Before them, no defense or regeneration was of any use.
The harmony of those two abilities devoured anything that entered the mouth, whether it had a physical form or not—even if it existed only as a concept.
Through the mouths that had increased by two—to become three.
“Ah! Now it’s four against four, isn’t it?”
At that sight, Hella brought one hand to her cheek and smiled brightly.
All while continuing to swing her whip with the other hand.