Demon Realm War (1)
“Hmm, so that’s how it turned out after all.”
After hearing her subordinate’s report, Hella slowly nodded.
“I’d expected as much… Still, now that it’s become reality, I can’t help but feel it’s a shame.”
She had prepared a grand welcoming ceremony, just in case.
Clicking her tongue in regret that the best option had fallen through, she looked at Siana beside her.
“Since that’s how things turned out, Operation Dragon Snare is canceled. Looks like we’ll have to move on to the next plan.”
“That’s unfortunate. If it had gone well, we could have wrapped things up comfortably.”
“Well, I suppose they aren’t that stupid either.”
Hella’s gaze turned to the strategy map that filled the wide table.
A complete map of the Demon Realm, with pieces of various shapes placed here and there.
Among them, her eyes narrowed as she saw two particularly large pieces standing side by side.
‘Demon Dragon Duke Krushaire…’
In truth, for someone at his level, it wouldn’t be that difficult to bypass the gate and use spatial movement.
Of course, if he did that, he would have to give up deploying large-scale forces, but that superior mobility could be applied in any number of other ways.
For example, quickly gathering the remnants of Dark Nest who had not yet completely fallen into Helheim’s grasp…
‘Hmm, should I have quietly leaked Ken’s location to him? …No, that would introduce too many variables. What a shame, what a shame.’
If everything had gone as she wished, she could have seized him by the leash in one stroke.
Letting out a deep sigh as she thought of the prey that had slipped out of the trap she had poured her heart and soul into preparing, she twirled her long hair around her finger and spoke.
“Any other contact besides that?”
“No. It seems they’re paying particular attention to security, probably because of everything they’ve suffered so far. The connection between the two forces was never that hard to uncover, since it’s so difficult to hide in the first place, but the detailed matters they discussed are a different story.”
“Well, I suppose we’ve just been unusually lucky up until now.”
“That just means everyone believes in you, Lady Hella. They know that you are the true Demon King of the Demon Realm.”
At the sight of Siana openly flattering her with a beaming smile, Hella let out a small laugh.
Well, it was only natural, now that the hegemony of the Demon Realm was slowly coming into view.
Who could have known that Dream Walker, which had been like a candle before the wind before Hella appeared, would become the greatest contributor to the election of the Demon King?
As the heir to her faction, Siana had been quietly feeling the pressure, so this achievement could only make her all the more delighted.
‘Of course, not every problem has been resolved yet.’
Leaning back against the chair, Hella once again quietly looked at the pieces on the strategy map.
The Demon Dragon Duke, whose fury had been sharpened to the extreme after being struck in the back again and again, and the Black Darkness Duke, who had realized he had been thoroughly used.
The two, who until recently had been fighting as if they would settle things with life and death, had now dramatically joined hands and were trying to oppose her. To become the true king of the Demon Realm, she first had to crush them completely.
Thump— Thump—
Feeling the fierce pulse of her heart, she slowly closed her eyes.
‘It really isn’t far off now.’
As time passed, she could feel her body connecting little by little with this world—“the Demon Realm.”
Along with the presences of the countless beings who breathed and lived within it, worshiping and following her.
This was the true authority of the Demon King.
The real power of the Demon King, who could not help but become the strongest in the Demon Realm.
《The Demon God looks down upon you.》
And so, time passed.
At last, a large-scale attack by the allied forces of the Demon Dragon and Black Darkness began against Helheim’s front, which had expanded even further.
***
An office submerged entirely in darkness.
Black Darkness Duke Pieta sank into thought, a pair of blue lights burning in his eyes.
‘Things are becoming complicated.’
The plans he had originally established had all been discarded long ago.
In the current situation, which was moving so urgently, all he could do was respond with improvisation from moment to moment.
He was someone who usually preferred schemes and stratagems over simple martial might, but in a situation like this, even such things were bound to lose much of their luster.
‘In the end, in the Demon Realm, power is supreme.’
To begin with, the shadow realm was only a viable tool because he had information on those he had been rubbing shoulders with for hundreds of years.
As he had struggled to find any opening in those formidable competitors, he had naturally come to master it.
By contrast, Hella, who had appeared from who knew where, and the organization she had built, Helheim, were nothing but a bundle of variables.
What she could do, what she could not do, where the limits of her members lay, who the one making the plans was, what values its leader held, and what disposition the organization possessed.
The unknown.
He had tried hard to plant informants in Helheim in order to overcome that, but the results had not been very satisfactory.
No matter how firm-hearted they were, once they reached a position where they could approach Hella, they ultimately became fanatics and confessed all their hidden schemes.
In the end, if it came to an intelligence war, this side had no choice but to be pushed back no matter what it did.
Just like when he had been struck in the back properly not long ago.
‘Judging by the circumstances, Hella must be behind the incident that provoked Krushaire.’
However, the Demon Dragon Duke, who had identified him as the culprit, immediately raised his entire army and launched a massive attack.
Whether it was because the secret was that significant, or because he was still half in doubt.
Even now, after they had met in person, cleared up the misunderstanding, and returned to a cooperative relationship, he still had not heard the exact cause. But there had to be some reason why Krushaire had identified him as the mastermind.
“The incident occurred right after the two of them clashed head-on. In that case…”
It meant that Helheim, even without Hella, had the ability to orchestrate an affair significant enough that the Black Darkness Duke himself had to step forward.
In the worst case—perhaps a duke-class powerhouse whose identity had not been revealed might be attached to her.
If that was true, then in effect, the competition was already as good as over.
‘…What a headache. I really should prepare an escape route in advance.’
Of course he coveted the Demon King’s throne, but it was not more important than his life.
Perhaps because of the war that had continued for hundreds of years, the situation had become overheated to the point that two duke-class beings had ultimately died.
He had not the slightest intention of becoming the third sacrifice.
***
The war that had temporarily quieted down resumed once more.
It was not an attack aimed at a single point like Hella’s, but an all-out war launched simultaneously across most of the border regions.
As if they were trying to exploit the opening in Helheim, which had become unstable while governing its interior.
Helheim had been preoccupied for some time absorbing the demons formerly under Dark Nest that had entered its sphere of influence, but with powerful enemies joining hands and invading, they could not pour all their efforts into internal administration forever.
A territory that had grown even larger, enemies that had become even stronger, and even the internal seeds of discord that remained precarious.
The reason Helheim was able to endure without collapsing was not solely because of Hella, but thanks to the many talents who firmly supported her from below.
And not long after the war resumed, a piece of good news reached Dream Walker, which had been both one of those talents and her greatest supporter—in other words, one could call them meritorious retainers.
“Congratulations, Godmother!”
“As expected of you, Godmother. Truly, how long we have waited for this day…”
“Congratulations! You’ve finally succeeded!”
While Hella had been stirring up Dark Nest’s main base, the godmother of Dream Walker, Liriana, who had been in charge of territorial defense, had finally ascended to the position of a new duke.
Excitement filled the faces of those who gathered at that great piece of auspicious news, which could drive a wedge into the current situation.
“Hohoho, it is thanks to all of you enduring so well until now. …Above all, if Lady Hella had not bestowed her grace upon me, it would have been impossible from the start.”
Looking down at her palm, she smiled bitterly.
Her proficiency was not yet high, so compared to the other duke-class demons she was still greatly lacking, but precisely because her very rank had risen, she knew better than anyone just how insufficient she had been before.
She also knew that without the “Essence of the Succubus Queen” that Hella had bestowed, it would have been impossible from the beginning for someone without talent like her to become a duke.
‘Even being able to become a marquis so late was entirely thanks to the bloodline of the Demon King and the Queen. If I hadn’t even had that…’
Even when her sister R’lyeh became the Demon King, Liriana had barely managed to reach the level of a count.
Despite being in an environment where she could receive almost unlimited support for anything needed for growth.
In truth, in the Demon Realm, even a count was a level sufficient to be called a high-ranking demon, but compared to a sister who had become none other than the Demon King, it could not help but seem greatly lacking.
Clench—
Pink demonic energy overflowed from her tightly clenched fist.
Pure demonic energy of the kind she had only been able to feel when her mother was alive.
A power just like that was now filling her very being.
‘How could I ever repay this grace?’
She had received so much that it felt overwhelming instead.
As expected, to repay even a little of this grace, the best thing she could do was aid that person in ascending to the seat of the true Demon King as soon as possible.
“Phew— Then, shall we start lightly for now?”
And so, Dream Demon Duke Liriana appeared on the front line.
And then.
“Long live the Dream Demon Duke!”
[For Helheim!]
“Uwaaaaah—!”
Not long after she took the field.
One battlefield was neatly cleared.
***
[That harlot Liriana?]
At his subordinate’s report, the Demon Dragon’s vicious face twisted even more frighteningly.
To make matters worse.
His subordinate demons were already wavering enough as it was, and now another duke-class powerhouse had been added to the enemy camp in this situation?
‘The best scenario would be for that greedy harlot to set herself against the mongrel…’
He allowed himself that hopeful prediction for a moment, but no matter how he thought about it, the possibility was not very high.
To begin with, the two of them could not be described as being in a simple relationship of sovereign and vassal.
And in the current situation, betraying Hella and going her own way was a decision no one could make unless their brain had been completely pickled in dark demonic energy.
‘Damn it, what kind of dogshit is this…’
Now there truly was no chance of victory.
Until not long ago, he had been certain that he would become the Demon King.
How had things ended up like this?
‘Again? It turns out like this again? Me, this Krushaire. Again?’
It was a future he had longed for and longed for over thousands of years, and it had finally drawn right before his eyes.
He had thought that this time, at last, he would be able to grasp it in his hands.
He had thought he would be able to openly laugh at the fate that had obstructed him at every turn!
At the rage that soared to the extreme, killing intent blazed in his three pairs of eyes.
Black flames crept out from between his sharp teeth, from his snorting nostrils, and from between the densely sprouting scales.
Taking advantage of the opening created as his once-firm composure wavered, a certain energy that had seeped into him without his knowledge while he stayed in the temple cautiously stimulated him.
So slightly that he could not even perceive it.
[Krooooooo——!]
At this point, it was certain.
The Demon God was blocking his path again!
To prevent a dragon not born of the Demon Realm from sitting on the throne of the Demon King!
He had even joined hands with the god who had lost his name in order to avoid the Demon God’s intervention as much as possible.
Now that those who had invaded the temple had ruined the grand plan he had prepared for hundreds of years, the only thing left to him was hatred boiling hot.
‘Could it be that the one who invaded the temple was…? …No, it’s certain that the harlot was only marquis-class until recently. She truly must have crossed the wall this time.’
Though twisted in temperament and quick-tempered, he was by no means a fool.
Even after he had identified the Black Darkness Duke as the mastermind and launched his attack, he had verified it several times just in case; the innocence of Liriana, as well as all known marquis-class demons, had already been confirmed.
The only opponent he could not be certain of was Black Darkness Duke Pieta, who had reached a realm similar to his own and used strange secret arts.
Though his priorities had shifted because of the sudden situation in which his main base had been raided, he still had not let go of his suspicions toward Pieta.
That gloomy skeleton, who loved plotting useless schemes, might even now be playing tricks to deceive him again.
That was why, while pretending outwardly that the misunderstanding had been resolved, he had not neglected his surveillance of Pieta even more than he had the attack on Helheim.
And the persistent gaze of the undisputed greatest black magician in the Demon Realm—
[…Ha! Hahahaha! I knew it would be like this! Kuhahahaha—!]
—finally caught sight of suspicious circumstances.
[Pieta, you dare——! You dare try to make a fool of me?!]
A suspicious contact that took place in the midst of the war raging between them.
And the unnatural movements that followed afterward only added certainty to his suspicions.
[Kuhuhu… As expected, you two bastards had joined hands from the beginning to screw me over. You were taking me for an utter fool.]
The temple attack that occurred while he was personally participating in battle, the war that resulted from his retaliation, the occupation of Dark Nest’s main base, and Pieta’s proposal of peace were all part of a well-crafted scenario.
A scenario thoroughly designed to deceive him and slip a noose around his neck.
‘…Fine. If this is how you intend to act, then I have no choice either.’
There was nowhere left to retreat.
If he lost the competition this time as well, then this time, without question, his long life would truly come to an end.
If they had realized what he had been plotting in that temple, they would never leave him alive.
[Pieta. Come see me for a moment.]
—“What is it, Demon Dragon Duke? I am busy right now. As you know as well, things have gone awry because of the Dream Demon Duke.”
[The same goes for me. It’s necessary, so make time. I’ve thought of a way to catch that mongrel for certain.]
—“Hmm?”
That was why.
At this point, he no longer cared about the Demon King’s throne or conquering the continent.
What filled his insides was nothing but blazing rage.
“Ugh, don’t tell me? What madness is this, Demon Dragon!”
[Kuhuhuhu! Kuhahahaha! Madness, you say? No, this is the answer! I should have done this long ago!]
“To offer up every last one of those who followed you as sacrifices…! Do you think you can become the Demon King after doing something like this?!”
[I do not care.]
So he simply.
Decided to destroy everything.
The demonfolk who had still been following the Demon Dragon Duke evaporated.
Using that as a foundation, even the Black Darkness Duke, who had been guarding himself rather thoroughly, fell into the Demon Dragon’s grasp.
And then.
The gate of the abyss opened in the Demon Realm.