The battle continued to rage on.

Erebus was currently dealing with a monstrous man wielding a broadsword. He wouldn’t have been an opponent Erebus would have struggled with if it wasn’t for Erebus holding back his true strength.

The man reminded Erebus of the late Heather. In terms of ridiculous strength humans shouldn’t have, that is.

When their swords would meet, even Erebus could feel the resounding force throughout his body.

Erebus exhaled steadily and swung his sword, once again, their swords collided.

The human man wore a serious expression, yet one could not help but notice the glee in his amber eyes.

Yes, he was a warrior who enjoyed to battle. He was cut from the same cloth as Erebus.

They could give him all the money, fame, and women in the world, but nothing could ever compare to the thrill of fighting to the death! Nothing could ever create the same song in his blood as the battlefield.

The threat of death exhilarated him. He was not afraid of death, seeing as it was an inevitable end.

Soldiers surrounding the two could not help but watch their magnificent battle in complete awe. What a beautiful display in the midst of all of this chaos. Their blades only creating beams of light as they struck and parried each other at a dizzying speed.

Erebus began to press harder, unleashing some of the strength he was withholding.

The man did the same.

This brat had been holding back, too! Erebus’ eyebrows narrowed in annoyance. Could it be that this child was practically mocking him? Anger began to swell up inside of him.

Another irksome existence was underestimating him.

The man smirked at Erebus. “Boy, what is your name? It has been a long time since I faced such a worthy opponent.”

Erebus’ eye twitched.

“My name is Viktor,” the man said, speaking casually as they traded blows. “Come on now, boy! No need to be so serious.”

Viktor narrowly dodged Erebus’ stab at his abdomen. But the edge of the blade still managed to cut the light leather gear he was wearing, a small amount of blood seeped out of the wound.“Whew...”

“My name is Erebus,” he finally said after a couple more minutes of fighting. This human was skilled enough to keep up with him, so he figured he should do the honors of introducing himself as per request.

Viktor laughed. “Erebus... Eh? Eh? Isn’t that the name of the Demon Lord we’re going to subjugate? Eh? Lucky! Sweet, who would’ve thought I’d get to fight the Demon Lord in a one versus one. That’s great, truly amazing. Eh? Doesn’t this mean my life’s in even greater danger?”

Eh, eh, eh! Shut up.

Erebus found this man to be an unbearable nuisance. Maybe he would use his [Lost Magic: Void] just so that he could kill him faster.

He was getting seriously annoyed. By this man’s constant jabbering and him hopping and dodging like some type of humanoid rabbit.

The only time Erebus had gotten this annoyed was when Midrn kept hassling him to do things.

While Erebus was dealing with what he considered to be one of the world’s greatest annoyances, his subordinates were doing their job effectively. They would never slack in front of Lord Erebus.

Because the concept of being praised by him was still hanging over their heads like a stormy cloud... any second now it would come.

Yes, this was their true driving force.

Fight harder in order to receive a special praise from Lord Erebus!

Tear’s arrows made of concentrated mana sliced through armor as if it were nothing.

The demon brothers were skewering and crushing their enemies as if they were simply bugs on the ground.

Smash! A skull was caved in.

A pike pushed its way through the bodies and armor. It was slicked with crimson, giving it an even greater ominous appearance.

Vyne continued to manipulate others mentally, some were even driven to the point of committing suicide. They would slit their own necks, stab themselves through with their own weapons.

Finally, silence. The tortured souls laid to rest.

The ones who didn’t commit suicide would collapse to their knees, clutching their hair and screaming in such a pained, ragged manner. Their agony was cut off by Vyne’s sword sweeping through their bodies.

Lilian did not relent in her raising up the dead. They would fall, shudder, and rise once again.

The zombies were hungry, so very hungry. What was this emptiness they felt? It could never be filled, but they would never stop trying. To end their suffering, they would eat, eat, and eat.

They ate their previous comrades with great regret. They didn’t want to eat, but they had to. They had to keep feeding...

The look in the eyes of their former friend pained their still hearts. Please, let them out of this eternal Hell.

Time continued to pass, the numbers continued to decrease. Erebus was still in his annoying battle.

Ah, he didn’t care anymore! Anything to get away from this man’s incessant speaking.

Erebus snapped his fingers, a small flat disc appeared in front of Viktor before cleaving him cleanly in half, Viktor breathed his last breath.

His body collapsed to the ground, his organs spilling out. Viktor became another red stain.

The soldiers who had been watching the battle instead of fighting felt cheated. That was unfair. Even though they were never set in stone, every battle had a basic set of rules. Yet he had ignored them.

Viktor had been fighting honestly and Erebus used such an underhanded technique.

They charged at the dragon, fury propelling them forward.

How dare he do such a thing? How dare he!

Erebus released another disc that ripped through multitudes of bodies, blood sprayed everywhere.

This magic was a little bit different than what he normally used. Erebus’ magic had two parts. In a simple explanations, those parts were destruction and absorption.

Erebus, however, only activated the destruction sequence in his magic, so the bodies, blood, etc. were not sucked into his magic.

It was strange for him to do it in such a way. The absorption was where the real power lay. The more that he took in, his power would be increased exponentially until the maximum capacity was reached and it would not exceed that defined point.

In essence, Erebus’ power would remain stagnated if he only used the destruction sequence. He was not utilizing his power to its fullest.

Erebus continued to attack the foes in such a manner, killing dozens with each attack.

The number of the soldiers began to plummet when Erebus unleashed his incomplete magic.

Bodies were torn apart and thrown like ragdolls across the bloodied grassland.

It wasn’t as if the force sent to subjugate Erebus was too weak. If it had been any other Demon Lord, even a Demon Emperor, this number itself would have been enough to wipe them out entirely. This would have been enough to completely overwhelm them.

Combined with the fact that the 10,000 sent were all very skilled in their own right, it looked as if the humans were simply flexing their muscles.

But the gap between a Demon Emperor and a Dragon was immense. It was the same physical strength difference of a newborn child to a grown man who exercised and trained martial arts everyday.

The baby simply could not, and would never be able to, defeat that man. Dragons were the top in this world, and that fact was indisputable.

They who had once ruled would continue to rule for centuries to come.

Such is the fate of this world.

Erebus began to use the second part of his magic now, the amount that was being killed off jumped up even higher.

Screams of pain and agony filled the air.

With one pivotal decision, the entire tide and pace of the battle had changed. It had turned into one-sided slaughter.

Erebus’ magic had many different shapes and forms. Sometimes a tornado, sometimes a spinning sphere, sometimes a disc, sometimes it took the shape of an animal... the list continued.

Lives were being snatched away at an alarming rate.

Erebus and his subordinates massacred the army.

When the last head was decapitated, the zombies dropped to the ground almost instantly, the magic that was animating them ceased.

Weryn stepped out of his hiding place behind Lilian. His young eyes taking in the scene that spread out before him.

It was enough to make any normal person vomit. The air reeked of death, there was so much blood that the once green grass was gone. Only peeks of the emerald blades here and there.

Limbs were laying about, the red muscle and ivory bone revealed underneath the bloodied skin. The entrails of humans were, too, scattered around like clothing in a dirty room.

Erebus stretched out his arms, yawning loudly, the gore not bothering him in the slightest.

That had been surprisingly exhausting, though.

“I’m going to go take a nap.”