Chapter 9
The mercenary group known as the ‘Black Wolves.’
Though that was what they were called,
their mercenary work was just a cover.
The Black Wolves were a terrorist and intelligence organization.
Only the Black Wolves’ leader, deputy leader, and a handful of others knew the truth.
So the members, unaware of who their clients were, simply followed orders: ‘Infiltrate Edellia, plant the bombs, and detonate them.’
“Kahaha. The World Tree’s barrier just happened to have a gap? I really am lucky.”
Darren, leader of the Black Wolves, laughed as he downed his whiskey.
They had finally finished planting the mana bombs.
“Once we set off the bombs, we get a paid vacation? Heh.”
Dodging the damn elves,
living on nothing but combat rations all day,
and being unable to wash because their hideout was so run-down.
He remembered how he’d barely survived in the Elf Kingdom.
But all that hardship was over now!
Just as he was about to down the rest of his whiskey in one gulp—
Bang!
“Captain!! We’ve got a problem!”
“What is it, Hendrick? You barge in without knocking, and you’re the deputy captain? You trying to start something?”
“No, sir! There’s an intruder on the first floor!”
What? An intruder?
Had they sniffed them out after all?
“Elves? Shit. Guess we have to run again.”
“Not elves…… One human and one beastkin I’ve never seen before have invaded!”
“What? It’s just two people, isn’t it? Then handle them yourselves.”
“Well, the intruder’s so strong that I came to ask you for help, Captain…….”
“Huh?”
At the deputy captain’s idiotic words, Darren’s eyes turned fierce.
“Are you messing with me? I know we came with a small force, but you can’t even handle two people?”
“……”
What a pathetic bunch of idiots.
He was so ashamed they belonged to the same group.
“Fine. Let’s go see what they look like. Lead the way.”
“Yes, sir!”
And so, they went down to the first floor.
Darren could only stare in shock.
Wham! Thwack!!
“Hyaah! Hah! Hngh!”
Because some lunatic was knocking out his naked subordinates while sporting an erection.
***
Se-on was knocking the enemies out one by one, making sure they couldn’t get close to Yubel outside.
Yubel was a mage, so they were at a disadvantage in close-quarters combat.
There were only a few of them, so I should be able to handle it somehow.
“Yubel, don’t come in!!”
Whoosh——!!
Before he could even finish speaking, a claymore came hurtling toward his head.
Damn it!!!
Whoom.
Se-on tilted his head, letting it pass by a hair’s breadth.
Then he threw a left hook at the mercenary.
Crack.
“K-Khah!!!!”
With the sickening sensation of his ribs shattering, the man fell and writhed on the floor.
There was no time to watch.
“Hyaah!! Die!” “You fucking bastard!”
Spear tips stabbed at him from both sides.
Ah, [Adrenaline!]
Zing——!
He managed to use his skill just in time, and the spearheads only grazed his collar.
“W-What is this!? Gah, huh——!!”
Se-on’s straight punch struck as he exploited the opening.
He aimed for the neck to finish it quickly.
He didn’t draw his longsword, since he needed to keep the mercenaries alive for information.
The mercenaries, by contrast, were mostly armed.
But Se-on didn’t back down.
He had a companion cheering him on from behind.
“Aaaaaah!!!”
Boom!
He kicked off the floor and charged at the mercenaries.
The mercenaries were taken aback by Se-on’s sudden move.
“E-Eek!!”
Whoosh.
An ax swung wildly in a hurry.
“Huh?”
Se-on had already dodged such a clumsy attack.
Wham!
The mercenary collapsed without even being able to exhale.
Next.
Se-on looked around the room.
The mercenaries froze at the Hero’s sudden appearance.
After all, calling him a Hero didn’t make him any less terrifying.
The man before them was a monster who grew stronger every time he killed someone.
Knowing they could become his next victims, they couldn’t bring themselves to step forward.
But the mercenaries should’ve moved.
Whack! Bam! Crack!
While they were thinking that, Se-on was smashing heads left and right.
But Se-on was only human, too.
Naturally, using this incredible strength wore him down, body and mind.
Knocking people unconscious was harder than killing them.
After repeating it several times, his stamina ran out faster than he’d expected.
“Hah, hah, huff……”
This won’t do.
I need to finish this quickly!
In the end, Se-on used his skills again.
[Adrenaline]
[Undress]
[Adrenaline]
[Undress]
[Adrenaline]
[Undress]
[Adrenaline]
His body was hot.
Was it the aftereffect of using his skills?
Still, it didn’t matter.
He just had to beat them all down.
“Hyaah! Hah! Hngh!”
“M-My clothes……! You bastard, die!!”
Undress randomly stripped the mercenaries of their clothes.
The speed boosted by Adrenaline let him overwhelm his enemies.
Too slow.
KABOOM!!!!
………
……
…
“Aaaaaah!”
“Damn iiiit……”
Whack! Thud.
How long had they been fighting?
It was the first time in a while he’d fought this hard.
Was it all over?
“Kahahahaha! I came down because I heard there was an intruder, and what do I find but a lunatic! Come on! I’ll take you on.”
A lean-looking man and a burly man came down the stairs.
The atmosphere was ominous.
There were still two of them left.
Still, at least it looked like they wanted a one-on-one.
“Fine, come on, hngh!”
Se-on staggered for a moment.
What was this? His body felt a little tired……
Could it be a side effect of using his skills for too long?
“What’s wrong? Already out of stamina? You’re a real buzzkill.”
The man was already approaching with a dagger in hand.
Se-on’s reflection in the dagger seemed to warn him, ‘I’ll kill you with this.’
Ugh……. I’m tired.
I can’t think straight.
“Heh heh. It’s been a while since I killed someone, so I might not be able to control my strength.”
The specter of death drew closer.
I can’t die here.
I have to return to my original world. I have to go back and see them.
Maybe this is all a dream? If I die, will I go back to how things were?
Ah, if that’s the case……
The crushing exhaustion and fear of death together left Se-on out of his mind.
Just then.
“Hey!! Snap out of it!”
Yubel’s voice rang out.
***
Why is he taking so long to finish fighting?
Yubel was pacing outside the mercenary hideout.
Sigh. Am I really this useless?
At this rate, I might get kicked out of the Hero’s party.
To get stronger, I should probably figure out why my mana goes berserk first.
Yubel opened and closed their hands.
They bounced up and down.
Yubel checked in case there was some kind of trigger, but got nowhere.
Ugh! I want to awaken already, too!
I’m supposed to be the Demon King of Lust!
It’s not like I get stronger by doing lewd stuff, either.
Throb♡
The Demon King’s body shuddered once.
Hm?
Could it really be?
No way.
It was a sensation that didn’t seem to belong to Yubel.
The Demon King’s body and Yubel were slowly merging.
Though Yubel didn’t notice.
“Ugh. Anyway, when is that Hero coming back? Did he find some woman inside?”
For the first time in their life, Yubel felt a tremor in their lower abdomen, and for some reason, couldn’t stop thinking about the Hero.
So Yubel absentmindedly went deeper into the hideout.
Bang!
What Yubel saw was mercenaries unconscious all over the floor.
Further inside, they saw the Hero kneeling and a mercenary holding a dagger.
“Hey!! Snap out of it!”
Yubel shouted urgently.
What the hell is wrong with that guy all of a sudden?
The mercenary with the dagger turned to look at Yubel.
“Whew—— what’s that, your girlfriend? You two look like a match made in heaven.”
Crack.
“Who’re you calling his girlfriend? You wanna die?”
“No? Aw, what a shame. I like stealing other people’s women.”
Oh my God.
He’s got a fetish as disgusting as the Hero’s?
They say birds of a feather flock together.
Yubel’s aura turned fierce.
That didn’t mean Yubel got any stronger, though.
I did step forward confidently, but this situation isn’t looking good.
The only attack I can use is a mid-range one where I throw a lump of mana.
If that guy closes in with his dagger, I’m finished.
“……”
“……”
And so, Yubel and Darren
watched each other warily.
Meanwhile, Darren was in quite a bind.
Damn, I’m getting dizzy.
Should’ve had a little less to drink.
Darren was a little drunk on whiskey.
And he still didn’t know how strong Yubel was.
Yubel looked like a beastkin and had nothing in their hands, so Darren thought they might be a martial artist.
Should I give it a try?
The standoff didn’t last long.
Seeing how many openings Yubel left, Darren found his courage.
As he always did, Darren stretched his arm as far as possible, making sure his opponent focused only on the right hand holding the dagger.
That way, it’d be easier to stab them with the second dagger tucked into his left waistband.
But where was Yubel looking?
Yubel was looking behind Darren.
More precisely, at Se-on, who had come to his senses behind Darren.
“Captain!!! Behind you!!!”
“Huh? What the— Gah!!!”
Maybe because he was drunk,
Darren had forgotten about Se-on, who was in bad shape, and let his guard down.
Letting your guard down in battle could even get a Demon King killed.
Darren would have to pay the price.
Stab!
Se-on’s longsword plunged into Darren’s abdomen in an instant.
Knowing Se-on was deliberately trying to knock him out, Darren had instinctively protected his neck, but that was a painful miscalculation.
“Gaaah……! You bastard!!”
Slash!!
The sword came out of Darren’s abdomen, spraying blood like action painting.
“Fuuuuuck!!!!”
Scurry.
Having narrowly avoided a vital spot, Darren quickly staggered back.
“Hero! Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Yubel. You brought me back to my senses.”
No, but that doesn’t mean you should stab a man.
I can’t even imagine how much sense he got back.
“You little shits!!! I’ll kill you all!!”
Darren, worked up, drew both of his daggers.
Hendrick was at a loss over his captain’s injury.
Regardless, Yubel had something they wanted to ask.
“Hero, I want to try something for a second. Can you look over here?”
“Huh?”
Se-on reacted to Yubel’s voice and turned around.
“Ta-da.”
Slowly.
Yubel lifted the skirt of their dress toward Se-on.
“……”
He couldn’t see inside, but Se-on realized Yubel wasn’t wearing panties.
“What is this……”
Was Yubel offering him a little reward for all his hard work?
No.
The body Yubel possessed belonged to the Demon King of Lust.
The Demon King’s power weakened when they were away from the Demon King’s castle.
However, there was a way to gather that power separately.
It was to seduce someone.
To be precise, it was to make the other person direct their lust toward Yubel.
To want to ravish them. To torment them. To make them cry.
Such vile desires.
Yubel didn’t know they had grown weaker from being far from the Demon King’s castle, but they wondered, ‘Wouldn’t I get stronger if I seduced someone?’
So Yubel lifted their skirt a little to try it out.
The result was a resounding success.
Wow. I feel overflowing with power.
I guess the Demon King of Lust really does get stronger by seducing people……
Just lifting my skirt does this much.
Just then, a cool breeze began to blow against Yubel’s lower body.
Yubel sensed that something was strange.
Wait, was I wearing panties? I haven’t worn any since my period, have I?
……Well, it would be weird for a man to wear women’s panties.
Twitch, twitch.
“Ngh♡”
Yubel’s body shuddered as if they were enjoying it.
Huh? Why does this feel good?
Do I actually like this kind of thing?
No.
Yubel was a person with wholesome tastes. Probably.
In other words, this was a feeling the Demon King’s body had, not Yubel.
It was an unbelievably lewd body.
Whatever, forget it.
I need to focus on the fight for now.
“All right! I’ll make a colossal Mana Sphere!”
Shhhhhhh——
The mana dormant in the Demon King’s body began to surge at Yubel’s fingertips.
But that power, now one step closer to the Demon King, wasn’t just mana.
Demonic energy.
That sinister, unpleasant power was gathering at Yubel’s fingertips.
The power possessed by demons and monsters gave them an advantage over other races.
On top of that, Yubel was a Demon King—and a devil.
Devils, said to be a vastly superior version of the demon race, had an unparalleled concentration of demonic energy.
Even a little of it could corrupt the surrounding area.
Rooooar———!
The power imbued with the Demon King’s demonic energy instantly changed the atmosphere around them, and every living being there felt as if their bodies were being crushed by its overwhelming force.
It was an ability known as the ‘Demon King’s Pressure.’
“Kgh!! What is this power?!”
Darren trembled under the pressure, forgetting that he had been trying to kill the person standing before him.
He could speak only because he was a seasoned fighter.
It was only natural for lower-level beings to freeze up or faint.
“Uh, why does this keep getting bigger?”
A lump of mana (demonic energy) now rested in both Yubel’s hands.
The Mana Sphere had turned into a pitch-black Spirit Bomb.
Ugh, it’s heavy.
I should just throw it over there.
Whoosh.
Yubel threw it toward the mercenaries.
“Huh?”
With Darren’s dying gasp,
KWA-BOOOOOOM——!!!!!!
The mana exploded with a terrifying roar.
The place where Yubel threw the mana was now devoid of even a speck of dust.
No, to be precise, it was covered in residue contaminated by demonic energy.
“……”
It was as if someone had erased that spot with an eraser.
It was only a fraction of the Demon King’s true power, but it was still powerful enough to annihilate everything there.
Thanks to that, Yubel and Se-on forgot how to close their mouths.
Uh, well, this is something.
Uh, ahaha, where did the mercenaries go?
I have no idea.
Did they go to become good people?