“M’lord, a… situation appears t’ have occ’red.” Charlotte’s face distorted into a delicate expression as she hesitated and sought for the right words to use, and she didn’t seem to like the idea of meeting my eyes.

“What is it? Speak.” I waved my right hand in a half-dismissive, half-acknowledging gesture as I folded my left behind my back and turned to the map, keeping her in my peripheral vision.

“Acc’rding to the d’lineations from my subalterns, the wielder of Claiomh Solais has joined with the Saint, the Barrier Hero, and a fourth. The fourth appears t’ be a skilled White Mage, with some prowess in the el’mental arts, as well…”

“I see. And what is this group of four doing, then?”

“They appear t’ be going to an unknown dest’nation. I am having sev’ral Vampires tail them, is that accept’ble? They appear t’ be chatting ‘mongst themselves about some mann’r of Devil…”

“Ah, yes, that is fine. About a Devil, is it? One moment.”

I turned my gaze to the night sky, filled with sparkling stars, and borrowed the [Telepathy] skill off of one of my demons.

“Lilith?”

«Geh! Ya surprised me, Master… ‘Sup?»

“Don’t you “ ‘sup” me. Lilith, did you get spotted by any Heroes, perchance?”

«Wha- Uhm… I, uh… might’ve, maybe, gotten found. Just a little bit.» Her stammering and stumbling excuse for a sentence was accompanied by a meekening tone, and even though she wasn’t around, I could easily call to my mind’s eye the figure of Lilith, frozen in mid-air, trembling as she tried to meet my gaze.

“In other words, you got spotted. Well, due to that, the enemy’s most important pieces have all gathered together, so in a way, it is quite practical… But still, I do hope you won’t let this happen again, yes?” The pressure in my voice, by the end, was such that, from the corner of my eye, I spotted Charlotte flinch, even though I wasn’t speaking a word to her. I couldn’t help but gleefully imagine the look on Lilith’s face.

«Y, yes, Master! You got it, leave it to me, I’ll be more careful in the future!» She seemed to have dropped her speech patterns somewhere.

“Good.” I cut the connection, turned back to Charlotte and gestured towards the map. “Then, where is this group of Heroes headed?”

“That would be… right… yonder,” she said, struggling to point on the map towards a location a fair distance north of the village. For a moment, I almost considered lifting her to help out.

Of course, I banished that thought the moment it appeared.

I nodded and once more used [Telepathy], this time forming a connection with all five of my trusted aides. “You lot,” I said, “we are moving.”

In a clearing in the Borm Forest, darkness stacked upon darkness as commanded by its master to form a throne, rippling with this master’s every movement. Nearby him were a few of his closest cohorts—that is, on one of the armrests sat the young orphan dragon of fire, her arms around his neck, and on the other sat the tribeless devil, lazing against the throne’s backrest. The darkness’s master, himself, eyes of ebony and gold, sat in a relaxed posture, his legs crossed and one hand on the dragon’s head.

Also in the area were the rest of those cohorts—that is, the heiress to the vampire crown plagued by loneliness and the research-mad queen of witches had hidden themselves in the shadows of the trees using their magic, and the various globs of goo spread around the area, together, comprised the greatest slime to have seen the face of the world.

Each of these was at least powerful enough to be called a “final boss”-class monster, being seventh grade or higher, and yet here were six.

“Well, this is where she was spotted, but-”

His party members seemed rather surprised that Yxon stopped in the middle of a sentence.

“Is something the matter, my child?” Guriel asked, her never-changing smile still firmly stuck to her face.

“Ah, well,” Yxon said, “everyone, have a feel of the mana around here.”

Although only two members of the party could be called mages, every Hero had at least some experience with magic, so probing into the direct vicinity’s mana was no problem for the four of them, elite as they were.

“This feeling…” Reynald said, shivering to himself. “This isn’t the mana of one or two monsters.”

Ebstrea nodded in agreement. “If there was a monster out there that could produce this kind of mana on its own, it’d probably be eighth grade, at least… Such a thing couldn’t exist, right?”

Her nervous glancing revealed clear as day she hadn’t convinced herself—and indeed, the mana they felt, in actuality, came from only one monster.

“Couldn’t be,” Reynald said, shaking his head. “The adventurers told us, right? The strongest monster the guild’s ever found was a seventh grade Grand Slime.”

“Whatever the case,” Yxon said, “there is no choice for us but to march on and beat that boss!”

His forward charge as good as forced the rest to follow him, unwilling though they may have been.

From the moment I had felt them approach, I had started paying attention to the group of four Heroes—their coordination, their party dynamics, their roles, the like. I figured out with relative ease that the Barrier Hero had taken upon him the role of party leader, and that even the Saint was obeying his words. The moment the four of them became visible—really, the moment I became visible to them—I narrowed my eyes and took on a mocking smile as I addressed them.

“It is a true pleasure to meet you, Heroes,” I said, snickering as I laced my voice with mana. The latter appeared to cause the poor, poor mage girl to shudder.

“Careful, you three,” the Barrier Hero said, taking a step forward. “I doubt anyone but me could take a hit from it.” His conclusion was not wrong, and neither was his decision to cast [Light-Attribute Magic: Golden Magic Guard].

“Relax,” the wielder of Claiomh Solais said, “I have the god-sword. I could easily block an attack or two.” This conclusion, too, was not wrong.

I felt a rather strong aura of bloodlust from my side, and promptly looked over—to find that Lilith, in an unusual strong display of emotion, was grinding her teeth together and balling her fists, her eyes directed at the Barrier Hero and the Saint. As we had expected, this was Guriel, the Saint of Holy Blessings.

“I couldn’t help but… overhear your earlier conversation,” I lied, “and it’s sparked a question in me. If you could tell there were more than two of us… Why didn’t you go back to get reinforcements, exactly?”

“As if I’ll let the sweet loot from a hidden boss get snatched away by someone else,” the Barrier Hero replied, shaking his head behind his transparent-golden magically-erected shield. “ ‘Sides, this is the sidequest I started, a few years ago. That means the reward is mine, too, capiche?”

I blinked, a little surprised, as I looked at him. “ ‘Capiche’?” I asked after a moment of silence, “What are you, a gang member from the ‘40s?”

“Wai- wha… How do you even…?”

The human mage had apparently had enough of this subject, because she cleared her throat and started speaking. “Uhm… Mister, uh… Would calling you ‘demon king’ be appropriate?”

I shook my head. “Soon, but not yet. ‘Demon Lord’.” I could sense Charlotte was getting agitated in her shadows, so I kept talking. “In addition, I will allow you to address me directly.”

“You little-!” the wielder of Claiomh Solais said, attempting to rush in my direction. The mage held him back.

“Uhm, then, mister Demon Lord… Would you mind telling us your goal? I can tell you are a great personage, so I can’t fathom why you would-”

“Cease your insincere flattery, or I’ll have your head.” I shook my head. “You want to know why I helped the Goblins, is it… Although it is not quite what you asked, I shall tell you my goals at large.”

I could tell Lilith was having trouble holding herself back, so I decided to hurry myself along a little.

“There are several… in order of importance, they are defeating Lady Luciel, world peace, becoming a deity, and currently, play-” I interrupted myself with a cough, “testing Claiomh Solais’s power.”

“In other words, there is no choice but for us to be enemies?”

“That is what it would become, yes.”

The Barrier Hero looked at me, an incredulous look on his face. “Did you say ‘world peace’? Even though you look like that?” He gestured towards my outfit—and really, it’s not like I didn’t see his point.

I chuckled. “Well… I will have my peace, and I will have others be at peace with each other, whether they like it or not.”

“Ain’t that just world domination, then?”

“Well, that is also a way of looking at it, I suppose.”

I cleared my throat and gestured around. “Anyway,” I said, “I permit you lot to show yourselves.” In tune with my words, the shadows behind the Heroes, which hid Charlotte and Tempest, pulled away, revealing the two of them to the night sky.

“Wha- There’s more?!” the Barrier Hero said, drawing his sword.

“Oh my, oh my,” Guriel said, raising a hand to her cheek—her smile, bright as the sun, did not fade.

“Shit! There’re so many of them!” the wielder of Claiomh Solais said, taking a step towards the mage. With an inhuman flexibility, he unsheathed the sword on his back.

“This could be bad,” the mage muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

“Now, now,” I said, “I am not unreasonable.” I let out the vile smile in my heart, and it played across my face. “Lilith here-” I gestured in her direction for emphasis, “has a personal grudge with one of you, and I want to play with… I want to test Claiomh Solais’s power. Everyone here knows that if we turned this into a no-holds-barred fight, we would likely suffer heavy losses, and you would surely all die. Thus, I propose we-”

Before I could finish my sentence, the Barrier Hero drove his sword through my chest and out my back, soiling my black uniform with the dark colour of blood and exposing a rather glaring flaw in the Magic Guard spell series—that is, they disappeared when the caster performed a melee attack. “That’s what you get for monologuing!”

I blinked, looked down at the sword, back at him. “Given, it’s the thought that counts, and believe me, I appreciate the sentiment…” I gripped his hand in mine, effectively pinning him in place. “But does this gift come with a receipt?”

He tried to re-cast [Light-Attribute Magic: Golden Magic Guard], but the spell fizzled out, useless.

With a squeeze, I broke his hand, prompting him to release the sword. I tossed him backwards—his landing looked rather painful, not that I cared—and extracted the sword, which I tossed behind my back and behind my throne.

Davna followed it with her eyes.

“I mean, really now,” I said, “this is an earnest attempt by me to cut you a deal, you know? A deal which could leave you with a sliver of a chance for victory. Yet you provide my maids with laundry and sewing work.”

The Barrier Hero crawled backwards, his eyes trembling in terror as he looked between the already-healed wound in my chest, the approximate location of his sword and his broken hand.

Guriel rushed over to him and, quick as the wind, cast [Greater Heal] on his hand. I briefly considered what a waste it was to use such a high-level healing spell on a mere broken hand. “Are you alright, my child?” Guriel asked the Hero, still smiling as ever.

“Wha… What a monster… I wasn’t even able to recast my barrier.”

Of course, that was the effect of the [Magic-draining Touch] skill I borrowed off of a Succubus.

I looked to my side and found Lilith was glaring ever-so-slightly less, but not to the point where she could be considered “calm” by any means.

“Yxon, leave that guy to me,” the wielder of the god-sword said, “you deal with the devil.” He turned to me. “That was what…?”

I nodded. “Indeed, that was what I was going to propose in the first place.” I shook my head as I chuckled to myself, and borrowed and used [Telepathy] on all five of my Demon Generals.

«Lilith, as you are right now, I trust you can handle Yxon. The Saint would be tough, but on her own, she is hardly a threat. The rest of you lot, stand by.»

I tenderly removed Davna’s arms from my neck and stood up, taking a few steps away. After using [True Demon Form] on my full body, I once more addressed the god-sword’s wielder. “To say you will deal with me… your confidence sickens me. I shall show you your place.”

“That wasn’t your full strength…” He grimaced as he drew back a little, but soon stepped forwards once more, eyes blazing with power, as he took a slash with his golden-coloured blade.

I kicked off the ground and leapt backwards, lowering my body to the ground with one claw on the ground and the other lifted slightly off of it—in a way, almost a beastly stance.

Given the way I planned to fight him, Purple Magic Guard wouldn’t be very useful, so I didn’t waste my time casting it.

He came at me once more, but I dodged to the side and took a slash at his left leg, which he blocked with a forced twist of his upper body.

“Not bad, not bad,” I said, “but how long can you keep this up, I wonder?”

Despite my words, I was internally rather impressed at his blade’s hardness—after all, my claws could almost cut through Black Silver, which was in turn almost as hard as Adamantite.

I ignored the rebound of his block using nothing but my overwhelming physical strength—though I was magic-specialised, a Demon Lord’s physical abilities were nothing to laugh at, either—and with a swift movement, I moved around him to his now undefended other side.

Once more, I slashed at his leg, and once more, he twisted to block me.

“The human body can only take so much stress.”

With this simple set of only two movements, the Hero was slowly regressing into a more and more forced posture.

“What’s the matter, god-sword? Surely you cannot let your dear, valuable wielder die in a place like this.” Even while I talked, I kept up my assault.

“Hng… Who are you talking to…?! I’m right here!”

Despite the wielder’s words, the sword seemed to make the decision to speak up. «Certainly, it would be a problem to lose the user here.»

Its voice was deep, and almost robotic, and I immediately knew who it belonged to.

“Ah, so you have decided to speak, Claiomh Solais. What will you do? There is not much time left, you know. His body will not last.”

«You are right.» It turned its attention to its wielder—that’s what it felt like, anyway, it was a voice projected from a sword. «User! I’m going to take control of your body, I can’t just let you die here.»

“You… You can talk?” The wielder’s face reflected nothing but utter disbelief as he stared at his sword even as he used it to block my claws.

«Soul erosion… ten percent. Not bad, user. You have a strong soul.»

“Soul… soul erosion?” he asked, confusion written all over his face.

«Forcing control of remaining soul… complete. Estimated time until forced override will start eroding soul… ten minutes. Damn, I can’t beat you in ten minutes.»

I couldn’t help but laugh. By this point, I’d stopped attacking. “You couldn’t defeat me if you had all the time in the world. But really, now. Lady Luciel’s only managed to take control of ten percent of him?”

«I’m as surprised as you are, opponent. You seem honourable enough, so certainly, you will give me five minutes to get accustomed to the user’s body, yes?»

“Well, I wonder.” I decided I could do with a little break, and looked over to see how Lilith was doing.

The whites of her eyes had gone red, and she blasted spell after spell at the Barrier Hero, without regard for the most basic of spell synergies, let alone the attributes of the various defensive spells he was casting. The Saint and the mage were not acting at all—Guriel still had that sickening, bright smile on her face, and the mage glanced between Lilith and I, apparently unsure of who to attack.

A rather disappointing possibility appeared in the back of my mind, so I used [Appraisal] on Lilith.

Name

Lilith Bral’goch

Sex

Female

Race

Berserker Devil (Base: Arch-Devil)

Grade

6 (Grand) (Was 7 (High))

Skills

Devil

[Fiendish Speed] [Hell Magic] [Devil Magic] [Devil Ritualism] [Limitless Mana Pool]

Fiendish Speed

Passive: certain species of Devil could very well be said to be embodiments of magic itself. As such, they can use any spell they know without so much as chanting.

Hell Magic

You may use magic exclusive to high-ranking devils dealing with the fundamentals of magic itself, such as mana manipulation and arcana attacks.

Devil Magic

You may use magic exclusive to devils dealing with things such as the other party’s mental state and their mobility.

Devil Ritualism

You may use various elaborate magical rituals known and useable only by certain devils.

Limitless Mana Pool

Passive: as devils can get their mana directly from Gehenna, they can continue casting spells for a practically infinite amount of time, assuming they maintain concentration. You may not feed yourself off of this mana.

Other

[Darkness-Attribute Magic (Offensive)] [Fire-Attribute Magic (Offensive)] [Water-Attribute Magic (Offensive)] [Earth-Attribute Magic (Offensive)] [Wind-Attribute Magic (Offensive)] [No-Attribute Magic]

Darkness-Attribute Magic (Offensive)

You may use various darkness-attribute spells that are geared towards attack.

Fire-Attribute Magic (Offensive)

You may use various fire-attribute spells that are geared towards attack.

Water-Attribute Magic (Offensive)

You may use various water-attribute spells that are geared towards attack.

Earth-Attribute Magic (Offensive)

You may use various earth-attribute spells that are geared towards attack.

Wind-Attribute Magic (Offensive)

You may use various wind-attribute spells that are geared towards attack.

No-Attribute Magic

You may use various spells that are not bound to any particular attribute. You may use these spells without chanting.

I couldn’t restrain a sigh. “Hmph. Lilith, I am disappointed in you. Is this the extent of your resolve?!”

I got no response.

«Leave Lilith t’ me, M’lord,» Charlotte said—it seemed I had forgotten to cut [Telepathy]’s connection, and Davna’s presence had maintained it. «Ere her, thou shouldst focus thy attention on th’ god-sword.»

Her words caused me to snap my attention back to the wielder, bringing before my eyes a sword approaching at a rapid pace-

“[Protect],” I said almost reflexively, but the sword cut through the barrier as if it weren’t even there and cut deep into my arm, knocking me to the ground.

I grasped my left arm, a deep pain I shouldn’t have been able to feel singeing the cut. “What was that about honour,” I cursed with a voice that wouldn’t come out.

There, in a dark, pitch-black place, there was a young, purple-skinned girl. Around and around she looked, but she saw nothing.

“Daddy? Mommy?”

There was no response.

Frantically, she ran, but there was no one and nowhere to run to, apart from more nothing.

She knew that she, the shaman, was supposed to be strong, but she could not help but feel terribly, terribly weak.

In that dark place with nothing and no one, she cried and cried until there were no tears left.