Dark Nest (1)
A battlefield where異形 corpses lay strewn everywhere.
Whoooong—
A single cold gust of wind brushed past them as if caressing them, then swept by the vicious-looking demons panting after the war had just ended and soared high into the sky.
“…Tch. I thought there might be a chance.”
High in the air, where that wind had gone.
A beautiful woman hovered in a position from which she could look down over the entire battlefield at a glance, the winds rushing in from every direction coiled in her grasp as she frowned in dissatisfaction.
“He really got away. I suppose it was too much to end it here after all.”
Her yellow-stained demonic eyes returned to normal, and the wind that had been wrapped around her gradually died away.
Just in case, she had even used the elemental dominion of the “Seven-Colored Mystic Eyes” to sweep the entire area, but no matter how thoroughly she searched, she found no particular trace.
‘Well, I suppose it’s only natural, considering he was once called the strongest in the Demon Realm, at least in name.’
Clicking her tongue in regret, Hela lightly cracked her neck.
The Demon Dragon Duke, her opponent, was a powerhouse whose strength could never be ignored, making it impossible to end the war with this single battle.
Most of all, rather than clashing head-on with her, he had constantly tried to return to his stronghold whenever he found an opening, and she had been too busy obstructing him to fight properly.
‘Still, this much can be called a result beyond what I originally anticipated.’
She had bought more than enough time, which had been her initial objective.
All of this had been possible thanks to the “Seven-Colored Mystic Eyes” she had obtained from the Demon Dragon Duke.
Whenever he tried to pull some trick, she had been able to respond swiftly with the “Mystic Eye of Foresight.”
‘Of course, he has the same Mystic Eye, so he ended up escaping like this. Still, even if he goes back now, there won’t be anything he can do, will there?’
It was far too late for him to do anything now.
Thinking over what she had gained from the successful mission, Hela let out a soft chuckle.
[Lady Hela! The first inspection has been completed. We are currently assessing detailed damage by unit and sorting the surrendered enemy forces!]
Just then, a massive balrog flapped its wings and flew over, beginning the postwar report.
It was a bothersome process, but as Hela was the commander-in-chief of the current army, it was a necessary one.
“…As expected, is it because the Demon Dragon Duke personally stepped forward? The battle wasn’t even that long, yet the damage is the greatest we’ve suffered so far.”
[In truth, this much is on the better side. It is all thanks to Lady Hela paying attention separately even while fighting. And since a considerable number of enemy troops surrendered after the Demon Dragon Duke withdrew, we should be able to make up for this loss of manpower quickly.]
Tovares, a marquis-class demon, went on to give various reports as though he had somehow grasped everything in the brief time since the battle ended.
He had once belonged to Dark Nest before defecting to Helheim, and now he oversaw the army Hela commanded. At his report, she merely nodded.
[From the moment we swallowed the entirety of Oterel’s territory, the central gateway of Dark Nest, the initiative passed completely to us. Now, depending on where we move first, their defensive strategy will be shaken as well, so they will likely be racking their brains over it for some time.]
That was precisely why Hela, who only knew how to fight and knew nothing of strategy or tactics in war, had entrusted command of the troops to him.
Having been one of the enemy’s high-ranking commanders until recently, he understood their current situation and response system inside and out.
He was also a capable individual with experience leading troops on the front line when Dark Nest annexed the Fighting Demon Duke’s Burning Inferno.
“Hmm. So from now on, we can one-sidedly force the flow of the war in the direction we want?”
[That is correct. This place is a strategic point worthy of that. I can hardly understand why the Demon Dragon Duke, who came all the way here himself, withdrew so easily.]
‘He probably had no choice. That side must have been more important than a single battlefield like this.’
At Tovares’s words, Hela gave a faint laugh and glanced at him.
A considerable portion of the reason she had been able to come this far smoothly lay with him, who had moved the troops under her command as if they were his own limbs.
She did not know why, despite being a balrog, he had sided with the Demon Dragon Duke and struck down the Fighting Demon Duke, a fellow balrog…
But she did not care in the slightest about such personal circumstances.
Since she had decided to swallow the entire Demon Realm anyway, the only thing required of those who entered her service was ability.
‘Well, there’s no law saying members of the same clan must all get along. Especially not in this Demon Realm, where struggle and betrayal are everyday occurrences.’
The factions that formed the main currents of the Demon Realm’s political landscape were merely military cliques that gathered according to their own interests, based on the ability and disposition of their leaders.
In that sense, Dream Walker, where the succubus-type demon race had tightly united, could rather be called a special case.
The enthronement of Leraie, the 14th Demon King, and the oppression that followed after her death must have had an influence there.
‘Liriana, who’s leading Dream Walker and handling the defense, won’t collapse quickly either. Then next is…’
Helheim’s front line was not limited to this one place.
Now that they had grown into a faction indisputably counted among the top three even in the Demon Realm, the territory they had to protect had inevitably increased just as much.
On top of that, they also had to remain wary of Demoniac, with whom they were in a temporary cooperative relationship.
In this Demon Realm, even if one complained about being stabbed in the back, the only thing that came back was ridicule.
‘Of course, I won’t need to pay attention to that side for the time being. I hope they like my gift.’
With a meaningful smile spreading across her face, Hela quietly looked up at the sky.
As always, the sky was dyed violet, with a great sword scar crossing through its center, and the Milky Way shining from within it.
As she blankly admired that beautiful scenery, her heart settled calmly.
“…Then let’s move on to the next stage. Now, while our dear ally is actively helping us, is the perfect opportunity.”
Having even forced the Demon Dragon Duke, the enemy leader, to withdraw, their morale was soaring to the heavens.
And so, the army led by Hela, the lord of Helheim, began to move once more.
***
Dark Nest’s stronghold.
“Your Grace! Are you all right?”
“To think you would return so suddenly…”
The subordinates, flustered by the sudden return of the Demon Dragon Duke who had gone out to the battlefield, crowded around him.
It was only natural, given that the ruler they had believed to be the strongest had returned in a state no different from defeat.
“Get lost! You stupid fools!”
But that only poured oil on the flames of his rage.
Even if the existence of that underground ritual chamber had been hidden and no abnormalities could be detected from the outside, if these fools had only guarded the stronghold properly, none of this would have happened in the first place!
With a ferocious aura that could be felt even in his human form, he drove back those who had swarmed around him and hurried toward the basement where the secret ritual chamber was located.
In the process, he tore apart the viscount-class bull-headed demon gatekeeper with his bare hands, and the sight he encountered there was… even more serious than he had expected.
Because of the thorough security, the scene of the incident had been left exactly as it was at the time, untouched.
With a hardened face, the Demon Dragon Duke slowly walked toward its center.
“Sodian…”
The only traces of her left in the underground workshop, which had been completely smashed into ruins, were a few tiny scraps of wood.
But that alone was enough to infer what had happened here.
The culprit who had murdered Sodian had cleanly looted not only her remains, but also the objects inside the workshop.
His face twisting like a malevolent fiend, he headed deeper inside.
The place where Karakul, the Fighting Demon Duke he had gone to such effort to capture alive, had been restrained.
All that remained there as well was the blood scattered across the floor.
Likewise, not only the restraints, but even the large torture frame and the equipment used in the ritual had all been meticulously ripped out and taken away wholesale.
Grit—
Grinding his teeth savagely, he strode forward.
Toward the place where the door was set into the pillar at the rear.
He had already guessed enough of the situation, but he needed to confirm it clearly with his own eyes.
‘Ken, that bastard dares…!’
His insides boiled.
How much painstaking effort had he poured into this place’s security?
And yet things had come to this. His mind was being bleached white with rage.
‘This isn’t something that bastard could have done alone. He must have had an accomplice.’
It was the same from the very first gate, defeating Sodian.
She was a marquis-class demon, a rank directly beneath his own.
And within her own workshop, where she had been thoroughly prepared, she was a powerhouse whom none of the same rank could easily approach!
That thought became even more certain the moment he entered the temple.
[Kraaaaaaaah—!]
The Demon Dragon’s roar, filled with rage, resounded thunderously through the corridors of the enormous temple.
As if space itself had become unstable, the interior, which normally would not have budged, shook in all directions as though an earthquake had struck. But right now, the Demon Dragon Duke did not have even the slightest leisure to care about that.
[How dare you! How dare you, how dare you, how dare you! I’ll kill you! I will kill you without fail—!]
He merely unleashed the blazing rage of one who seemed ready to tear the culprit to pieces at any moment.
Now that things had reached this point, narrowing down the suspect behind it was not that difficult.
Even assuming they could receive Ken’s help to enter the ritual chamber, there were not many in this Demon Realm capable of causing something like this!
Still, just in case, after searching every corner of the temple, one decisive piece of evidence fell into his hands.
A small scrap of cloth torn from somewhere.
But with his extremely sensitive senses, he could tell for certain whose energy clung to it.
“Khehehe… Yes, I did wonder, but it really was you after all.”
At the evidence that turned his 99 percent certainty into 100 percent, an ominous laugh leaked out.
Ordinarily, he would have doubted even such evidence once more, but when there was only one suspect to begin with, the story was bound to change.
Someone who had the ability to slaughter Sodian, a marquis-class demon fully prepared in her own workshop; to break the ritual installed in the temple and spirit away the sacrifices; and even to cleanly steal the aggregate of the 15th Demon King that had been imprisoned underground…
[Pietaaaa—! How dare you—!]
Who else could it be but the Dark Abyss Duke, Pieta?
This was not something that could be done by a few marquis-class demons conspiring together.
And since the other suspect, Hela, the leader of Helheim, had been locked in a fierce battle with him at the time, only one remained.
‘I don’t know how he managed to sneak all the way in here, but…!’
If it was that living corpse who used secret arts unlike ordinary black magic, it would not be strange if he had pulled some trick unknown to him.
Above all, wasn’t there such blatant evidence left behind?
“Fine, so you want to do this? No wonder you’ve been especially quiet lately. You were scheming something like this behind the scenes. It seems you plotted this together with that mongrel…”
A black flame bloomed in an instant, and the small scrap of cloth in his grasp turned to ash and scattered.
At the same time, the last of his patience shattered into pieces.
[Kwooooooo—! I’ll tear you apart and kill you!]
The temple shook once more beneath the sound of his roar as he vomited out his fury again.
But he did not know.
——!
From the moment he had entered, the temple had been continuously sending a signal, as if trying to tell him something.
Yet he failed to notice that signal to the very end, and before long, he stormed out of the temple with rough steps.
To restart the war at once.
———!
At that, the temple sent out another powerful signal as if throwing a tantrum, but in truth, there was nothing to be done.
The Demon Dragon Duke here was merely a single tenant.
And there was no longer a single apostle left to hear its signal.
***
Demoniac’s stronghold.
A being whose pitch-black robe trailed long across the floor and whose head was covered by a goat skull—the Dark Abyss Duke, Pieta—had blue ghost flames blooming within his eye sockets.
“Truly impressive. To think a newly risen force could go this far.”
Seated on his throne, he muttered quietly as he looked over the war map, where his subordinates were moving in real time.
His gaze turned toward the mark of Helheim, which was sweeping across the battlefield with irresistible momentum.
“It was a good thing I prepared in advance after all.”
A voice tinged with laughter flowed from the goat skull.
Demoniac had already finished every preparation and was merely waiting for an opportunity to strike Helheim from behind at any time.
Even if Dark Nest might be larger in scale at present, it was only natural to keep Helheim in check when it was obvious they would soon grow into an even greater threat.
Was that not proven sufficiently by the current situation alone?
‘Perhaps they may have already surpassed Dark Nest.’
Because of that, Demoniac had recently been responding as passively as possible even on the battlefield.
While Helheim, with its aggressive movements, and Dark Nest, which had no choice but to focus on them, repeatedly clashed, he would preserve his strength and then descend upon both at once the moment they were exhausted.
For that purpose, he was also steadily carrying out schemes to worsen the relationship between those two forces and gnaw away at both of them.
“Hehehe, war is not fought with strength alone.”
The Dark Abyss Duke, who preferred devising cunning schemes to all-out war, mocked the foolish actions of his rivals.
The more those two fought, the more advantageous it became for him alone.
“Your Grace! Your Grace!”
Just as he was feeling satisfied by himself.
One of his adjutants, pale as death, hurriedly ran into the situation room.
At a glance, it was clear that something far from ordinary had happened.
Feeling an inexplicable sense of foreboding, Pieta distorted the light flowing from his eye sockets and turned to look at him.
He resolved that if the man had caused such a fuss over nothing, he would not let it slide.
And very fortunately for the adjutant.
The unfortunate event of being punished by the Dark Abyss Duke did not occur.
Because the situation was several times more serious than he had expected.
“It’s an all-out war! Dark Nest’s entire army is gathering at the front against our forces! And the Demon Dragon Duke as well…!”
“…What?”
It was the moment Demoniac, who had been slyly waiting only for an opportunity, was forcibly seized by the collar and dragged up to the surface.