Demon Realm War (3)
Thump
— thump
—His heart pounded fiercely.
Feeling it, the Demon Dragon Duke... no, the being who had once been the Demon Dragon Duke sank ever deeper into himself.
The days he had lived so fiercely scattered through his mind like fragments, flashing past.
How he, once an ordinary dragon, had ended up coming all the way to the Demon Realm, and how he had come to stand at its peak.
Over thousands of years, there had truly been countless adversities and hardships.
And at the end of enduring and overcoming them all, he had finally managed to arrive here.
Driven by the single-minded desire to take revenge on those who had refused to acknowledge him and ultimately forced him to flee all the way to this place.
To become the Demon King by his own power, conquer the Demon Realm, and then devour the continent as well, proving that he had been right.
‘I was not wrong.’
Of course. What was wrong was not him, but this world.
He was the strongest in the world, superior to anyone in every respect.
Was it not only natural that someone like him should rise to a position where he ruled the world?
Krushire believed so.
And he was certain that it would soon come to pass.
“Hmph— I was wondering where you’d gone, and here you were hiding in a place like this? And in such a sorry state, too.”
Until that voice reached him.
Ruuumble—
The enormous body crouched beneath the earth twisted violently.
It was an instinctive reaction that came before he could even consciously register anything.
A familiar female voice, tinged with laughter.
A voice he hated more than anything, one that had appeared out of nowhere and ruined every plan that had been proceeding smoothly.
The deafening sound of his heartbeat in his ears subsided.
...No, that was just his imagination.
His heart was still pounding fiercely.
It was simply that his awareness had focused so completely on the intruder outside that he could no longer properly perceive it.
“Good grief. I was wondering how you kept spewing out so many monsters endlessly...”
Ruuuumble—!
Ignoring her sighing words, as though she were clicking her tongue, Krushire slowly raised himself up.
The earth collapsed, and clouds of dirt surged high into the air.
The surrounding air, thick with demonic energy, trembled from the aftermath and an earthquake broke out, but he paid no attention whatsoever to such trivial matters.
“...To think you’d turned your entire body into a passage to the Abyss.”
Hella quietly looked up at the enormous monster that had risen to its feet.
A being standing tall in the middle of the abandoned land, said to be the most desolate place even in the Demon Realm.
But in its appearance, there was no trace to be found of what it had looked like when they clashed once before.
Leaving aside the body that seemed more than ten times larger, its torso alone easily appearing to exceed one kilometer—
“Mm, now that I look closely, it really is a bit much. It’s so disgusting I feel like I’m going to throw up. Could you just lie back down again?”
It was a being that seemed to embody revulsion rather than dignity.
The three pairs of wings, which looked like nothing more than decorations, were roughly stitched together from shrieking humanoid monsters, and the rest of its body was not much different.
Countless eyes all glared at her at once.
‘Wow— that’s gross.’
Hella grimaced as she looked at the gigantic lifeform before her.
Even at this very moment, monsters were falling in droves from its massive body as if hairs were being plucked out, while more monsters protruded from within to fill the empty spaces.
It was, quite literally, no different from a factory endlessly producing monsters.
“Shipped out all across the country the moment they leave the factory. What incredible service...”
Of course, no one would have wanted that kind of farm-to-table delivery.
Hella frowned at the sight of monsters tearing through space and vanishing somewhere the instant they fell away from Krushire’s body.
‘No wonder there’s no end no matter how many we kill.’
As expected, her judgment had been correct.
The fastest way, and the only way, to resolve this situation was to eliminate Krushire, who was producing monsters endlessly.
He must have known that as well, which was why he had been hiding in a place like this.
“Yeah, maybe this is actually better.”
If the faction war had continued as originally planned, there was no telling how much more time it would have taken.
Compared to that, the current situation, where everything would end if they removed that one demon dragon who had completely lost his mind, was rather clean, wasn’t it?
Besides...
“I already have plenty of things to do from now on, so I can’t stay held back forever because of you alone, can I? So I trust you’ll understand.”
After all, she had just boasted to her subordinates that she would finish this quickly and return.
And since he had crossed the line first, she too would use every means available to her.
Hella lightly shrugged and winked one eye.
[—————!]
Immediately afterward, the monsters clinging to Krushire’s body all roared at once.
At the same time, the countless eyeballs embedded in that enormous body fiercely widened in unison.
Toward the group that had, at some point, surrounded him.
It was an instinctive reaction to danger.
The monsters that had been tearing through space and disappearing as soon as they fell from his body also stopped moving and began preparing for battle, but Hella paid them no mind and continued speaking calmly.
“Now then—”
Drawing up the power of the “Demon King,” which was growing stronger and stronger with time, to its fullest.
“Stop throwing ashes on a meal that’s already done, and just die already!”
A united “world” pierced through the enormous body.
***
High in the sky, at a dizzying altitude where everything on the ground looked small.
Oooooo—
Hesperon, hovering with the aid of boosters, quietly looked down below.
At the white monster—Krushire—whose bulk had doubled before he knew it due to the explosively increased number of monsters, as analyzed and displayed by “Mechanical Eye: Callicas.”
‘That thing can no longer be considered a single lifeform. It should be seen as a colony. I’ll have to aim for the core that must be somewhere inside it... But it’s so large that this is troublesome.’
They swarmed like ants and so felt like mere small fry, but in truth, every single one of those monsters was a powerful enemy that could never be taken lightly.
To begin with, the balance of the Demon Realm, which had been maintained in a tense equilibrium, would never have collapsed because of easy opponents.
On top of that, they had the characteristic of growing stronger the more they clustered together, so ordinary attacks would not even work on Krushire, who had become a colony itself.
‘And even if they do work, the newly emerging individuals restore it completely in no time.’
Because wounds were not regenerating, but rather dead individuals fell away and new individuals took their place, the regenerative suppression power of Hella’s “Annihilator” was of no real use either.
Well, even so, if she took her time and proceeded step by step, she might be able to eliminate him on her own...
‘But there’s no need to go the long way around.’
Hesperon shrugged and slowly extended his left arm forward.
After all, that was why he had come all the way here instead of immediately returning after the search was finished.
He could not use the Dark Soul he had used for the search.
It had been far too great a power for him to handle, so it needed a cooldown period for stabilization for the time being.
‘But right now, this much is enough.’
The current problem was that there were so many densely packed monsters that he could not pinpoint the location of the core.
Therefore, first, it was necessary to reduce their number as much as possible...
‘When it comes to simple firepower, this is the best!’
A targeting point appeared in “Mechanical Eye: Callicas,” and all sorts of figures such as distance, wind speed, and humidity flashed past in a complex stream.
The Dragon Heart, the core of Titan, heated up fiercely as its energy slowly began to rise.
“Ion Cannon Load.”
That was not the end.
The moment his words ended, a huge metallic structure shimmered into existence near his left shoulder.
The large gun barrel that sprang out of “Subspace Storage” combined with the Titan on his left arm.
Clank— Whirrr—!
The decisive weapon Howard had completed only recently by mobilizing every trait he possessed—the circuits of Titan connected to the Dragon Heart embedded at the center of the “Ion Cannon,” and they began to resonate with each other.
Wooooong—!
A weapon imbued with the power of “Technological Revolution,” where compliance with and disregard for the laws of Auterica coexisted; a weapon that originally could not and should not exist in this world.
As tremendous energy concentrated within it, the dawn light of destruction that could annihilate civilization seeped from the massive muzzle.
And at last.
“Fire!”
From the sky to the ground.
A gigantic pillar of light slammed down.
***
Ruuuumble—!
Hesperon was not the only one who had begun attacking.
A domain of death unfolded over the area, and all monsters touching the earth melted away at once. The moment reinforcements were supplied, a cold storm of blood ground everything into a handful of gore.
With a giant beast shrouded in madness and even a dragon spewing breath joining in as well, it was only natural that Krushire’s enormous body, unable to keep up with the rate of regeneration, began gradually shrinking.
[—————!]
Naturally, he did not simply remain still either.
As if declaring that producing monsters was not the entirety of the ability he had newly obtained, he responded to the wave of attacks by using all manner of methods.
Activating the six Magic Eyes he had possessed before, now strengthened, all at once; mixing up space in every direction; spreading the pollution of the Abyss through the monsters’ self-destruction.
However.
[Kuhuhuhu... To use the Magic Eye of Instant Death where this body stands. It seems you truly looked down on me quite a bit.]
“Future foresight... It is not merely peeking into causality. It certainly is a troublesome power.”
“Kahahahat! It tickles! It tickles!”
[Kelluk, kelluk! The air’s bad enough as it is, so why are you so persistent!]
His opponents were simply far too bad a match.
Each one of them was a formidable foe who would not be easy to face one-on-one.
Yet they were combining their strength and attacking together... and on top of that, they were beings whose minds were connected as one, moving like a single body, so there was no way he could withstand it.
[—————!]
At that, Krushire, who had at some point shrunk back down to the size of the original demon dragon, roared with bitter resentment.
As if saying they should stop ganging up on him like cowards and fight him fairly one-on-one.
Of course, Hella, who had nothing to feel guilty about, did not so much as blink.
“What’s wrong? That can’t be all, can it? Don’t tell me that’s the end? After going so far as to offer even yourself as a sacrifice?”
At those mocking words, the one who had been roaring violently glared at her savagely.
In eyes filled with even greater rage and hatred than when she had first seen him, murderous intent gleamed.
[...Very well! Since it has come to this, even if I must give up my last fragment, I will make certain to tear you to pieces!]
And then, as if all the growling he had done until now had been a lie, a furious roar burst from him like words spat through clenched teeth.
The change occurred immediately after those words were spoken.
Saaaa—
As if it had been waiting, the presence emanating from him changed completely.
[Hm? This is...]
The first to react was Hans, the Immortal King.
From him began to flow an energy he had encountered once before, deeper than the abyss and darker than pitch-black.
An ominous energy that stimulated the “Heart of Immortality” located in his chest.
Harley, who possessed the “Seed of Madness,” sensed it as well.
————!
A gaze was felt.
Not from Krushire, but from beyond that body which had become a passage to the Abyss—an incomprehensible gaze.
The atmosphere distorted as though the world itself were trying to exclude that being, exerting coercive force, but that power was far too insufficient to stop an existence descending after paying a rightful price.
‘...I see. Well, of course. There’s no way a bastard who wanted to rule the world would have offered up everything he had.’
But that had only been true until a moment ago.
The one who had been driven to the very end had finally given up everything and thrown away his all.
With only the single-minded desire to take Hella, the root cause of this matter, down with him.
And that was likely a wish that aligned with the interests of “that being” as well.
Sssss—
The connection grew more and more solid.
It was impossible to interfere before it was fully completed.
As if it had been decided that way from the beginning.
‘This is dangerous.’
Of course, that state would not last long.
But the opponent was a being who had once been a highest-ranking divinity, one who had even rebelled against the chief god.
No matter how fallen and imprisoned it might be, that brief span of time alone would be enough to deal with a few who had only just begun to bloom the seeds of divinity. ‘Tch, it might be better if all of them withdrew until the time limit ends….’ Just as she was seriously considering a secret measure to break through this situation.
Her body flinched. ‘Wait, maybe this is….’ As if reading something floating in the air, her pair of inverted eyes moved rapidly.
Soon, a faint smile formed at the corners of her lips. 《Your influence as the Demon King expands. The entity’s existence becomes even clearer.》 《The karma (業) possessed by the entity
has reached the critical point.》 She could feel it.
Just now, she had crossed some kind of line.
As if to prove it, messages began to follow one after another. 《Achievement accomplished! You have become the lord of demons who rules the Demon Realm, the “Demon King.”》 《You have ended the long-continuing war and become the undisputed sovereign of the Demon Realm. As a reward, you are granted the privilege 「World Invasion」.》 《By accomplishing an achievement, you have exerted great influence upon the world. Karma increases further.》 Even while Hela was here, Helheim’s influence had been expanding smoothly.
No, rather, it would be more accurate to say that it had settled in even faster because of this crisis.
In the first place, since all the rival Demon King candidates had fallen, the current outcome was as good as decided already.
The demons of the Demon Realm had simply needed time to properly recognize that fact. ‘Or perhaps it was still a little lacking, and the Demon God advanced it to me ahead of time.’ Considering this exquisite timing, that was also a highly plausible guess.
Of course, that was not what mattered right now.
Now that she had finally formally ascended to the position of Demon King, what mattered more was what she had become capable of doing. ‘Ah, now I understand. Why the Demon God had shown no particular reaction all this time.’ Once she became the Demon King, she could tell.
What the Demon God had given up, and for what purpose.
Why the position of Demon King had been so important in this Demon Realm. ‘The existence of the Demon King itself was the beginning and the end of ruling the Demon Realm.’ A god could not carelessly interfere in the affairs of the lower world.
Though less so than the Chief God, the Demon God was bound by the same sort of restriction.
However, feeling the need to intervene actively in the world, if only to keep the imprisoned god in check, he had created a way to circumvent those restrictions.
“I am Hela, the Sixteenth Demon King of the Demon Realm.”
That existence was none other than the Demon King.
The messenger of the Demon God, entrusted with most of the authority to manage the Demon Realm. ‘Well, it seems there are limits to that too. Like the Fifteenth, who let his greed make him troll around until he ruined everything.’ The “world” was grasped in Hela’s hand.
This was not merely dominion over the surrounding area as it had been until now.
According to her will, the entirety of this world called the Demon Realm united as one and became a colossal sword.
Having long since grown accustomed to the power of the 「Demon King」, her control was so perfect it was hard to believe she had only just obtained the qualification.
“Crushire, who has disturbed the order of the Demon Realm, I—”
Her target was Crushire, whose descent had not yet finished.
Of course, no matter how far in advance one had made a reservation, if one lacked the money to pay when the time came, one could not buy anything.
“—execute you.”
And immediately after the world was swung.————!
Crossing the scar that had cut across the sky of the Demon Realm—
a new scar was born.