Rune found himself in a room that had grey walls and a single window. A door made of wood was on the other side of the room as him and there was a seat and a table. A person dressed in black sat in one of the seats and was playing around with a deck of cards.

They looked up at Rune and he could see that they wore a mask that looked like a face, but it had rhombus shaped eyes and a mouth that had fangs. The mouth was curved in a smile that went across their entire face. They wore a black scarf with a red design going through it that looked like a dragon.

“You must be Rune. I was told by the king to guide you around and act as your overseer.”

When they talked, their voice was muffled and small and the mouth opened and closed when they did so. The eyes in the mask had a red glow that left a trail behind it when it moved.

They started to get up and Rune found that they were shorter than him by around half a foot. Their body was slender and clad in black leather armor with chainmail underneath. On their waist, there was a scabbard that was made of metal and moon light glinted off.

When Rune teleported, it was around morning time and the sun was starting to rise. Now, the two moons were high in the sky as he had traveled to the opposite side of the world. Rune could see out the window that the moons were starting to rise now and shadows covered the land.

“This country is backwards. They usually work during the night and sleep during the day. They seem to dislike humans and elves, but are fine with dwarves and beast people. Come on, I will show you where exactly we are.”

They motioned for Rune to follow them and he did so. The door creaked open and closed as they passed through and the next room had maps covering the walls. There was a round table in the middle of the room which had a large map of the world with knives sticking out of it. The knives pierced multiple areas within the Demon Country.

“Here.”

The person had walked over to a wall and was now pointing to a map that looked like it covered a rather large area. They carefully unpinned the map and set it down over the world map on the table.

“This is where we are. On this world map, the seven knives are in the area where the seven demon king candidates lie.”

The person first pointed at the smaller map that they took down, then at the world map. It seemed that the map they brought down was an enhanced version of the town they and two demon lord candidates were.

“There are always seven demon lord candidates chosen by Beelzebub, Satan, Leviathan, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Mammon, and Lucifer. They are the embodiments of the seven deadly sins as Archdemons. They choose Majin and grant them power and the Majin transform into something that looks more like their patron.

Currently, Asmodeus and Mammon are in the same city as us. Fortunately, none of the demon lord candidates are allied with anyone else. They are Greed, Mammon, and Lust, Asmodeus.”

The person turned to look underneath the table and crouched. When they came back up, Rune could see that they were carrying a box.

“I have prepared some silver weaponry for the battles. They cannot be harmed by regular weapons and only by magical or silvered weapons.”

“What!? Only the most elite blacksmiths can forge those weapons. Them and dwarves are the only ones that can craft such weapons and dwarves don’t deal with other humanoids and there are only five elite blacksmiths in the human country! If you have those you can most definitely harm the demon lord candidates!”

The person’s voice was quite shrill when they voiced their surprise and quickly covered their mouth. The person regained their posture and straightened their back after suddenly leaning in towards him. They coughed to clear their throat and started to take out the silver weapons and the sheaths.

The person put the two daggers on their belt and fastened them tightly. Satisfied, they started to speak to Rune again.

“We will head out now. I assume that you are ready, correct?”

“Is it not obvious? We are to go to either the Mammon or Asmodeus candidates and kill them or, at least, gain some information regarding them. Right now, we are about one mile from where Asmodeus’s territory starts. We will kill him first.”

“You can call me Hecate.”

The two of them moved out of the building and Rune looked around at his surroundings once again. They were in an alleyway where there was only one exit. The two moons were still coming up and he saw Majin walking through the streets.

“There it is. Asmodeus is in that castle.”

Hecate was pointing at a huge, looming building in the distance. It seemed to be made out of white bricks and was at least ten stories tall. There were multiple balconies built around the castle from the fifth story to the tenth.

Around the castle, there were smaller towers spread out around them. Majin moved around the base of the castle and towers on the ground floor. They all wore metal armor and carried short swords and shields at their sides. Several of them had pets or creatures next to them and carried staffs.

They had many different creatures among them. There were several fat creatures with two arms, four legs, and a large mouth dividing its body in half, they were Maw Demons. There were four wolf-like beings that had spikes on their backs and a stinger on their tails. They looked diseased and also had glowing red eyes, they were Shoosuvas. Lastly, there were six large humanoids with maroon skin with grey chests and legs. They had spikes growing out of all their limbs and backs and also had two large horns growing from each side of their heads, they were Tanarukk carrying large cleavers and axes.

“We had better watch out for those Warlocks. They seem to have summoned some high level fiends to aid them in guarding. The regular Majin guard should be defeated easily.”

Hecate pointed down from where they were. Currently, they sat on a rooftop outside of the almost barren ground and were looking down on the defenses. Hecate was tracking a guard with their finger and they moved down towards them.

They lingered in the shadows and Hecate pulled out two chakrams. They were about to throw them when Hecate noticed that the Majin they were aiming at was now missing.

Rune was holding a lifeless Majin in his arms. It seemed that his neck was limp and Rune dropped his corpse in some bushes. He tossed it away like one would trash and he moved on. Hecate was at a loss for words and was watching him for a while before regaining their senses. They moved up next to him as he tossed another body aside.

After some time later, Hecate decided that it would be a good idea to talk to Rune before he murdered more Majin. He was going through them faster than a person could go through one cigarette.

“I know that I said that we should only deal with the guards, but I meant as little as possible. It would be best to avoid too many casualties…”

Hecate sighed quietly through their scarf as Rune discarded yet another Majin from his grasp and moved on to the next one. It seemed like he was aiming to kill all the guards on the ground before working his way up the building. To Rune, he seemed like he was an assassin from a game he had played in his previous life.

At some point, Rune was edging his way up to a Majin Warlock and Hecate was shaking their head furiously. They didn’t want to mess around with the being who had one Tanarukk next to them.

Rune steadily moved closer to the Tanarukk and Warlock. He started to cast a wind spell he had gained, [Quiet], and went right behind the Tanarukk.

As he was moving right behind it, it seemed to sniff the air and started to turn around. Rune was much faster and stuck his hand into its chest. Using his skill, [Frozen Touch], he froze all its blood and it stopped moving. Rune removed his hand and quickly snapped the neck of the Warlock that was starting to turn around.

The Tanarukk started to fall, but Rune dropped its body into his storage as it did so. Then he removed the staff and an amulet from the dead Warlock and cast it aside like he did with the rest.

Rune turned towards Hecate and saw that they was shivering in fear. He moved towards them and Hecate took a step back.

“What are you really!? Are you really just a human?! Are you an imposter?!”

Hecate was pointing a finger in his direction while accusing him. It seemed that they were shaking so much was their scarf was coming loose.

Hecate was still shaking and the scarf moved out from around their neck and fell. As they tried to catch the scarf, Gecate made an unusually girlish “Aaah” that was still quiet. Their voice wasn’t blocked by the scarf and Rune confirmed his suspicions.

“...Fine. I am a Wood Elf ranger who is a freelance merc.”

After thirty minutes, Rune was throwing a Shoosuva corpse into his storage. He was trying to store all the demonic fiends and devils into his storage so that he can use them. He already found the many uses of devils and even their dead bodies sold for hefty prices.

Hecate looked around at the now barren area. It wasn’t possible to see them, but there were well over fifty Majin corpses. Their pale skin and horns were covered by the leaves and their equipment was either scavenged or broken down and left as junk.

Rune had tried to let out as little blood as possible using his freezing and neck snapping methods, but there were a couple splotches of blood on the sides of the towers. One tower even had blood dripping from its highest platform. Up there was a Majin that was mashed into the floorboards by yours truly.

“Seriously, what are you? Are you a demi-human? I wouldn’t believe it if you are a human or an elf. Well, maybe if you were a dark elf, but dark elves usually wear robes, cloaks, or light armor. Your strength is that of a rest Dragonborn, but a Dragonborn’s head wouldn’t fit inside that helm. Tell me. Just what are you?”

Hecate was still trying to get the answer out of him. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t even squeeze out a name of a race from him. He just waved her off or answered with a shrug.

As usual, Rune only thought of his foes as materials to make items and sources of experience points. Hecate just sighed at this point and followed his lead. It seemed that the Succubus, Hela Cania, knew where most of the candidates were and how to get to them.

It seemed like she spent a lot of time with Mephistopheles’s, Archdevil of one plain of the Nine Hells, subordinates. She had been watching over the demon candidates to determine if they were a threat to the devils. She only knew of Asmodeus, Satan, Lucifer, Mammon, and Belphegor whereabouts.

Leviathan was apparently hiding out in an underwater lair and Hela couldn’t see that far into it with her resources. However, Leviathan usually only tried to take over the Demon Country and some merfolk.

Rune walked up the stairs and stood in front of the large double doors that everyone apparently liked in Arborea. It had an intricate design of pentagrams around the door in the frames. Rune took a closer look at the pentagrams since one can never be too sure about them and he walked in.

Hecate followed him as they found themselves on a navy blue rug. They could see several pillars and a staircase in front of them that separated in a snake like path. Both sides ended at the second floor and there was a large chandelier above it. Several pedestals held a couple jars with green liquid. In the murky fluid, they could see eyes and brains and other small organs.

Hecate seemed like she was about to throw up, but Rune just walked up the stairs. Suddenly, a hatch opened above Rune and a cage fell. It hit the floor around Rune except it was in pieces and fell everywhere. Rune had already cut it using a magical wind strike to separate the cage into small shards.

“A-ah…yes...”

Hecate timidly followed behind him thinking that he would handle all the traps. Rune pummeled several log traps where logs were swinging towards him, he demolished multiple traps where the walls started to close in, and he annihilated a couple hundred Majin. He just decapitated every guard that crossed him and their heads flew wonderfully through the air and blood splattered on the walls nearby.

Their free rolling heads planted fear into the race more powerful than humans in almost all aspects. Several that he came across tried to run, but Rune was too fast for them.

He rushed at them and they could see the glint in his blood red eyes as he decapitated each and every one of them. In his path, there were bodies and heads strewn around the halls as the two of them went up towards the tenth floor.

He kept up this pace up to the tenth floor while Hecate was just trying not to vomit out her breakfast. If there were stories about this event in the future, it would likely depict a demon in armor murdering over a hundred Majin while dragging along a young girl against her will.

When they reached the stairs up to the tenth floor, Rune checked his stats. He now had 136 Endurance, 108 Mobility, and 124 Strength. He had been absorbing bones and armor and found that he had to absorb a large amount of good bones just to increase one of his three ability scores by 1. He had amassed over 150 corpses and had a couple thousand bones. He was also level 17 and was basically much more powerful than the rest of his classmates.

He walked up the stairs while Hecate was holding her stomach and was leaning on the wall. He could hear retching from her direction. Then she wobbled up to Rune while wiping away some dribble.

“I can’t, hmrph, believe you killed so many…”

She was still on the verge of throwing up and had removed her mask already to do so. Her hair was a golden blond color and was tied in a small, braided bun. Her eyes were a light green and had tears around them. Her face was that of a young teenager and had a cute face despite the retching from before.

Rune walked up the stairs and pushed open the door. He looked to see a large open space void of walls and had pillars. There was a large open area where four Majin sat at a huge, oval table. Another being sat at the head of the table. Instead of white skin, the demon had crimson skin. horns like a goat, and had crimson eyes.

The demon carried a large staff that was five feet long and the demon, himself, was at least 13 ft tall. It had open robes with a large, red ruby inside of its chest. It took a look at Rune and grinned in a demonic crescent moon shaped smile.