Morning. It was the day after the battle with the vampire lord Rose and the alp, the 3rd day since the start of the Demon King’s selection ceremony. Damien was getting out of bed and preparing for the day ahead of him.

“Hey, Shaitan, we should be getting a trophy for this. 5 demons in two days! What’s the record killcount for the Demon Kings in previous ceremonies?”

‘Hmmm.’ Shaitan sounded deep in thought, ‘If my memory serves me right, the most amount of kills was done by the last Demon King that had passed 10 years ago. I believe it was around 20 demons that he had slain.’

“What type of demon was he, a dragon?” Damien asked curiously.

‘I do not know. At least, I do not suspect that he was a dragon. He always made his appearances in a human’s form. The only thing I do know is that...’ Shaitan trailed off.

“What?” urged Damien.

Shaitan remained quiet. He did not mention that the last Demon King had an overwhelmingly dark and unfortunate aura that naturally drew demons to him.

‘It is nothing.’ Shaitan said after a while.

“Fine, be that way, I didn’t want to know, anyway.” Damien said childishly. He was now ready to exit his dorm when a voice stopped him.

‘This is...’ Shaitan spoke slowly. ‘We are in danger. I sense the presence of several demons around this area. There are at least 5 different types of them. I am unsure whether they are working together.’

“Every single time!” Damien shouted in frustration, “Well, at least we have a better chance of setting a new record with this, right?” he was trying to convince himself to think optimistically. It was not working. “So, how do we go about this?” he was quick to recover, maybe having gotten used to abnormal situations as of late.

‘First of all, we need to leave here.’ Shaitan said calmly.

They quickly made their way out of the dorm, and what they saw could only be described as a Hell on Earth.

Dead bodies were scattered all over, puddles of blood beneath them. Blood was scattered and splashed across the buildings and streets in broad daylight.

People were running and screaming, figures resembling humans chasing after them with a variety of different types of weapons such as knives and machetes. At a closer inspection, those humanly figures were actually wooden dolls.

‘So it finally decided to make its move. How interesting. Most demons would rather go unnoticed than to cause such a commotion.’ Shaitan said gravely.

“What the hell is this…” Damien was barely able to murmur.

‘The Marionette. A demon that controls puppets. It probably intends to cause chaos to draw out other demons, disregarding the casualties and attention it gathers from humans in the process. This is a bad matchup for me in my current state, it is also still morning, we are at a severe disadvantage. We should try to avoid a direct confrontation with it as much as possible.’

“Can we win?” Damien asked, the question excessively prolonged.

‘There is a possibility. I doubt the marionette will overcome this ceremony to become the Demon King, anyway. If it became the Demon King, it would only be… a puppet ruler.’ Shaitan chuckled at his own terrible pun.

“God dammit, Shaitan! Just stop it. Is this really the time for that?!” Damien barked at Shaitan.

Meanwhile, one of the wooden dolls that was chasing people around the area broke off their pursuit having spotted the pair, and approached them.

On the morning of the 3rd day since the beginning of the rite of the Demon King, it had made its appearance.

One of the notable demons from the 100 Greater Demon Clans that Shaitan had talked about, and a top contender for the throne of the Demon King: The Marionette.