The Demon Realm, a dimension whose entire size amounted to no more than a single continent of Auterica.
Unlike the harmonious surface world, the Demon Realm possessed the extreme condition of being filled with negative energy.
Was it because of the extreme environment inherent to the world itself?
The demon race, born in the Demon Realm, possessed abilities specialized for combat compared to ordinary living beings.
Not only was their basic martial strength formidable, but as long as they had magical power, they suffered no particular hindrance even without consuming food, and without having to learn anything, they instinctively acquired the combat style best suited to themselves.
It would not be an exaggeration to say they were a race born to fight.
However, perhaps as a trade-off, and fortunately for the other races of the surface, they were bound by all manner of restrictions.
To begin with, it was difficult for them to leave the space known as the Demon Realm that isolated them, and even if they did manage to get outside, having to endure a considerable loss of power was also one of those restrictions.
‘If not for that, this world would never have known an end to wars with demons. The same goes for the angel race of the Celestial Realm.’
But put another way, that meant the power of the demon race was maximized here in the Demon Realm.
And among them, how much more so would it be for the power of a demon duke, one close to the very pinnacle?
[Khuu— khuu—]
[...Damn it, you accursed mongrels...!]
That was the reason the Monstrous Wolf Duke Sifar had been able to hold out against Hella and Davidson until now.
The right head that had been covered in scales was gone, and deep wounds exposing bone marked his body here and there, yet a demon’s tenacious vitality somehow minimized any loss to his combat strength.
“...Persistent, aren’t you. So they said your physical ability alone was the best in the Demon Realm. Looks like that wasn’t entirely an empty boast?”
“Kahat!”
But even that was soon reaching its end.
His physical ability was indeed as dreadful as she had heard, but his opponents were monsters even worse than he was.
Hella, who had been slowly flapping her wings as though looking down upon the world, gazed arrogantly down at the two-headed hound below.
The cross-section of the torn-off neck wriggled ceaselessly as it regenerated in real time.
However, its speed was pitifully slow, unworthy of its reputation.
At that rate, it would probably take several days to recover completely.
‘It’s astonishing that it’s only at that level even after using “Gluttonous God” to devour the entire concept.’
It was likely possible because the essence containing his power as a demon was still intact.
Restoring such a severe injury in only a few days was impressive enough, but since the very concept of that part had been stolen by Davidson, the power lost in the process of recovery would not be small either.
‘It’d be a waste to leave it like that. That essence isn’t yours anymore. It’s all mine.’
With such brazen thoughts, Hella pulled the whip in her hand taut from side to side a few times, then licked her lips.
At the same time, Davidson drooled from all three mouths and writhed his tongues.
Of course, to the one facing them, that appearance was nothing more and nothing less than a provocation.
‘Damn it, damn it! Just where did these bastards come from? Lereie should have died on the expedition without leaving a single thing behind! Don’t tell me I’m being held back like this now of all times?’
Sifar ground his teeth savagely.
They were completely looking at him like prey just before the kill.
For him, who had ruled at the summit of the Demon Realm for a long time, it was an unbearable humiliation.
The problem was that this was now a reality looming right before his eyes.
‘No! I can’t die like this! Do you know how much hell I’ve gone through until now? And my opponent isn’t even the Demon Dragon, but some mongrel whose origin I don’t even know?!’
He had not struggled so desperately to survive for this.
He had challenged the Demon King’s throne several times despite suffering bitter defeat, and it had never been for an ending like this.
‘...Kuh, damn it!’
In the end, he made up his mind.
Even if this caused fatal damage from which recovery would be difficult, he would first escape this place.
He had admitted that trying to settle this situation without at least that much sacrifice had been excessive greed to begin with.
‘As long as I can somehow get out of here...’
By now, the news that his headquarters had been attacked would have spread throughout all of Abnormal.
There was the difference in their forces, and he also had the advantage of location. If he summoned all the high-ranking demons under his command who had been focused on the battlefield against Dark Nest, they should be able to deal with those bastards well enough.
‘To think you crawled all the way into the heart of my territory without fear! I’ll make you pay the price for that arrogance!’
It was not for nothing that each faction used its forces to seize territory.
In the Demon Realm, rank and level of martial might were directly proportional.
And yet this was an infiltration operation in which the leader had personally participated!
Considering the risk if it failed, was that not a move no different from gambling?
Rumble—!
[I’ll melt you all down!]
[Awooooo——!]
With a wolf-like roar, crimson flames surged from Sifar’s entire body.
A powerful shockwave spread out around him, and a scorching heat that seemed capable of burning even the world itself whole devoured the surroundings in an instant.
“...Ha, you still had this much strength left?”
Hella, frowning as she launched another attack, could tell.
Sifar had completely abandoned defense and was focusing every last bit of his remaining strength on that one thing.
Once all the means that had at least reduced the damage, including his magical barrier, disappeared, his massive body, which allowed the attacks to strike him undefended, rapidly became ragged.
But his opponent was the Monstrous Wolf Duke, whose physical ability alone was said to surpass even dragons.
While he endured the attacks with pure toughness, the hellfire, which expanded in scale in an instant, began to threaten the “World of Demonic Heaven” itself before long.
Fwoosh— flare!
Naturally, Hella and Davidson could not avoid the flames that wrapped around and shook the entire space.
Scarlet fire flicked its tongue and rapidly burned away the magical field that thickly surrounded Hella.
‘So now it’s all or nothing, is it? Flames that burn everything. If this lasts too long, even I’ll find it a bit burdensome.’
Was this what a duke-class demon was like after all?
Clicking her tongue lightly, she gripped her whip tightly and poured magical power into it to the fullest.
If she did not, even this highest-grade magical tool from the Demon Realm would not last long before being damaged.
Hissss— sizzle—
On the other hand, Davidson, a physical-type monster, had no choice but to endure the heat with his bare body.
Burned by the blazing flames and regenerating, over and over without end.
Even so, he kept moving his mouths, gulping down the hellfire that reached his lips, and charged at Sifar again.
[Kuh! You vicious bastard! How, even in these flames!]
[Keheok!]
In the face of that headlong offensive, the distorted head on the left eventually had its neck bitten through.
Even while spewing flames, he resisted as much as he could, but he could do nothing about the opening created by his shortage of heads.
Davidson’s appearance, pushing his jaws forward without the slightest concern even while continuously burning in the flames, was so ferocious that he called to mind the gatekeeper of hell.
But at that moment.
The distorted face whose nape was being torn and eaten by him suddenly twisted into a vicious smile.
As if even the fact that he would be attacked like this had already been expected.
[Kkeuheuheu—! Fine, then I’ll send you to hell first!]
Immediately after.
Sssss—
A red light flashed in the eyes of the snake attached to Sifar’s tail.
And the tremendous heat that had been melting the world was sucked into the snake in a single instant.
As if time had been cut out midway, all those changes took place in the blink of an eye.
“Kaha?”
Davidson’s body, which had been busily chewing and swallowing the flesh that had entered his mouth, flinched to a halt.
The situation had suddenly changed without warning.
He moved his three pairs of eyes and looked toward the place where a sun-like heat could be felt.
[Krahaha! Die!]
The snake on the tail was slowly turning to ash and crumbling from the excessive concentration of energy.
From within its mouth, the final light burst forth.
Aimed at him, who had been in the middle of enjoying his meal with his three mouths.
***
Kwaaaaaang——!
A massive shockwave erupted, and a single beam of light that illuminated the world shot up into the sky.
“Keheok! It’s hot...!”
“Fall back! Fall back!”
“Focus on defense! You’ll be swept away!”
At the same time, a hellish heat difficult for even most demons to endure spread across the entire battlefield.
The “World of Demonic Heaven” situated on one side of the battlefield collapsed, and the energy trapped within began to sweep out in all directions.
“Ugh, what is this...?”
“What happened? What about the duke?”
“Lady Hella! Is the fight over?!”
At that, the demon race members who had been fighting outside, regardless of faction, narrowed their eyes all at once and looked in that direction.
Because of the dense storm of magical power, the inside could not be properly observed, but they could not bear to do otherwise.
They were continuing such a fierce battle, but in truth, they knew it well too.
No matter what they did here, the victory or defeat of this battlefield would ultimately be decided by the result of the battle that had taken place there.
Gulp.
Amid everyone’s tension, the storm of magical power that had suddenly arisen gradually subsided.
And what was revealed there was—
Crack, creak—
[Kkeuuuugh! How in the world...!]
A single massive head vomiting blood as its neck was strangled by a long whip.
Crunch, crunch—
And another monster, skillfully moving its three heads as it enjoyed a meal over one crushed head.
“...That startled me.”
Hella, holding the whip in one hand, lightly swept back her forehead with the other.
The heat Sifar had emitted had been so vicious that even though she had not taken a direct hit, her hand, which had strong resistance to fire attacks, was damp with sweat.
“Well, it was a good attempt. You just had the wrong opponent.”
Hella briefly lifted her gaze and looked up at the sky.
Following the trajectory of the beam of light that had vanished beyond the scar cutting across the violet sky.
To think he would pretend to launch a wide-area attack to deceive her, then even use the snake on his tail as a sacrifice to fire off a sure-kill attack.
That attack, which used the hellfire that had spread throughout the space as a medium, had an activation speed nearly instantaneous despite its power.
So fast that Hella, who had been a little distance away, had not had time to respond.
Fortunately, however, Davidson... no, Harley had one means remaining that he could use at such a time.
Crunch— gulp!
On one of the three heads nervously devouring meat as if to replenish consumed calories, three green lights slowly faded.
They were the remnants of “Jewel Eye: Coercion” ×3, which, at the desperate moment when the muzzle was aimed at him, had forcibly twisted the snake’s neck and changed its direction.
‘If that had hit... Mm, I wouldn’t have died, but there would have been a considerable loss of power. I might even have ended up in the red.’
He had come all the way to the Demon Realm to work as a mercenary, so he could not very well leave after taking a loss.
Fortunately, this was an ability Harley did not use often either, so it should not matter much.
It was not even certain whether there were enemies capable of observing what happened inside the “World of Demonic Heaven,” but one never knew.
‘Tsk, I let my guard down too much because things were going smoothly. No matter how overwhelming our superiority in strength is, the opponent is still a duke-class demon who has ruled for over a thousand years in this hellish Demon Realm.’
No matter how “Jewel Eye: Coercion” had the trait of growing stronger the more energy was poured into it, there was a limit to the output that one or two could produce.
Since it had been a trump card in name and reality, the resistance of the snake that had swallowed hellfire was also far from ordinary.
But right now, he had no fewer than three heads!
Thanks to using Cerberus’s factor, his original head had been replicated as it was, and the output of the Jewel Eyes had been preserved intact. When all three were deployed at full power at once, he had been able to turn the angle toward the sky just before the beam shot from the snake’s head.
The impact had shattered the “World of Demonic Heaven” in a single blow, but at this point, that no longer mattered much.
Had that extreme sure-kill attack been allowed to land, it would have been one thing, but now that it had failed, the battle was already as good as over.
“Oh, oooh...! Uooooh!”
“Lady Hella has won! Long live Lady Hella! Long live!”
“Aaaah! The Monstrous Wolf Duke!”
“Impossible! How? Just what are they...?!”
And that was something the ones staring blankly at the situation could also clearly recognize.
The sight reflected in their eyes was exceedingly simple and clear.
The Monstrous Wolf Duke lay collapsed on the ground, having lost two of his three heads and his tail, his entire body reduced to a battered wreck.
In contrast, Hella stood spotless and unscathed, gripping his leash as though she were his owner.
And there was even a pet monster, calmly chewing away as if eating hunted prey while pinning the duke’s massive body beneath it.
In the Demon Realm, a land of survival of the fittest, talk of two against one or anything of the sort meant nothing.
Besides, that creature wasn’t even of the demon race to begin with, was it?
Taming and raising monsters was also simply a form of ability, and if one had been defeated in such a completely one-sided manner, there was no room for excuses.
‘Kuh, am I really going to fail like this again? This time too…!’
And Sifar, who had been humiliatingly subdued, could keenly sense that shift in the atmosphere.
The support that had been flowing toward him was leaving him in real time.
Toward the victor who held his leash as though she were his master.
Just as it had during the selection of the Fourteenth Demon King, and just as it had during the selection of the Fifteenth Demon King.
[…Kuh, I lost. I, Sifar, acknowledge you as king.]
In the end, he had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut and spit out those words.
To begin with, the faction called “Abnormal” was a force gathered solely around the single existence known as the Monstrous Wolf Duke Sifar.
Even if he held out until the end and died, the members of the collapsed faction would merely leave in search of a new lord.
And that target would probably be the victor standing here, who reeked strongly of the Demon King.
‘In that case, it’s better for me to lower my head first. Just as I have so many times before. It’s fine. As long as I survive, there will be any number of chances…’
But then.
“Ah, what a shame. Sorry about this, but I’ve got a prior engagement.”
[…What are you talking abou— Keheok!]
The whip coiled around his neck tightened even harder.
No, that wasn’t all.
The whip writhed as if it were alive and began sawing through his neck with its sharp thorns.
[Keuk! Wh… why! I am a duke! With my support, you’ll have help against Black Darkness and the Demon Dragon! Then you can get even closer to becoming the ‘true Demon King’…]
“I already promised I’d deal with all of you dukes first, you see. A verbal contract is still a contract, isn’t it? It hasn’t even been that long since we talked about it, so breaking it unilaterally already would be a bit…”
Hella smiled awkwardly and winked one eye.
It was a refreshing sight, hardly like someone using an immense amount of magic power and 「Annihilator」 to cut through a living neck.
“And besides—”
With true death looming right before him, Sifar began to resist fiercely.
But it was already far too late.
Davidson was there, pinning down his body with his massive bulk, but more than that, as a defeated loser already brought under control, Sifar had no means of escaping the execution of 「Demon King」 and the pressure of the 「Demonic Eye of Domination」.
“—I’m already the true Demon King.”
A cold sentence uttered as she looked down with an austere expression at him writhing like an insect.
I don’t need your help to deal with the other two.
Just shut up and obediently spit out your essence. That will be more useful.
It was a final sentence containing all those meanings.
[Ha… haha…. As expected, you…]
Puhwaak—! Kuuung!
A star that had long reigned at the summit of the Demon Realm fell to the earth.
A heavy vibration rang out, befitting the weight contained in its meaning.
Whatever thoughts Hella’s final words had stirred in him, the expression left on that monstrous face was so subtle it was impossible to describe.
Then Hella tossed that head to Davidson, who had been majestically pinning down the creature’s body like a hunting dog, and immediately extracted the Monstrous Wolf Duke’s essence.
If the essence remained in the body, then even if it took a long time, regeneration might eventually be possible. But once it was drawn out, even that faint possibility vanished.
And so.
Hwaaak—
A polyhedron that seemed to burn with red flames inside entered her hand.
A duke-class essence, equal to the magic stone of the Succubus Queen.
The waves flowing from that object, rare even in the Demon Realm, spread in all directions.
Srrrk— Thud— Thud!
At that, those surrounding the area began to kneel one by one.
From Hella’s followers, including the Dream Walker, to the underlings of Abnormal who had been fighting tooth and nail until just moments ago.
Like a single ritual—they offered worship and fear to the ruler celebrating her victory.
《Your influence as the Demon King expands. The existence of the individual becomes even clearer.》
As though praising the Demon King newly descended upon this land.