Chapter 108
108. The Strongest of the Southern Demon Realm
Just as the human world is divided into many countries, the Demon Realm was apparently divided rather than unified in the past.
There was the Outer Demon Realm, a barren region where even demons struggled to survive, and the Inner Demon Realm, where most demons lived.
The Inner Demon Realm was then divided once more into east, west, south, and north, with a Demon King ruling over each region.
The Eastern Demon Realm had the Eastern Demon King, and the Western Demon Realm had the Western Demon King. Four Demon Kings opposed one another while maintaining a balance throughout the Demon Realm.
There was only one qualification for sitting on the Demon King's throne: the power to crush the other demons beneath you.
The Demon King of each region was its strongest being, and any Demon King who ceased to be the strongest had to be removed from the throne by another powerful demon.
Through countless challenges, Demon Kings were replaced dozens of times in cycles of decline and resurgence dictated by the law of strength.
Among the many rulers who took turns occupying those thrones, the most conspicuous were the demons who possessed a ‘Primary Color.’
Every demon was born with a unique color of mana, and those with the purest colors were given the title of Primary Color.
The Primary-Color Demons held onto the Demon King's thrones longer than any other Demon Kings in history.
Those who could seize the throne from a Primary-Color Demon were usually another bearer of a Primary Color—in other words, one of that demon's blood relatives.
By the time each Demon King had passed the twentieth generation, all four Demon Kings of the east, west, south, and north were Primary-Color Demons.
And so—by the time hundreds of years had passed after the belief that being born with a Primary Color was the very qualification for becoming a Demon King had taken root among the demons…
A demon who emerged from the Outer Demon Realm, said to be too barren for anyone to live in, began defeating the Demon Kings of each region one after another.
As if the color of his mana had nothing to do with determining his strength, the light of this demon's mana was gray.
Even viewed in the best possible light, it was an ambiguous gray that could hardly be called a Primary Color—the color of dust piled in the corner of a warehouse, or paint mixed together carelessly.
The Gray Demon defeated every Primary-Color Demon King considered the strongest, then single-handedly unified the Demon Realm that had been divided into east, west, south, and north.
The first Unified Demon King, and the strongest Demon King in history.
The first thing the Gray Demon King did was uproot the Primary-Color Demons who had wielded tremendous influence throughout the Demon Realm.
Using an unknown magic, the Demon King extracted the Essence of Power from the color-bearing demons, placed restrictions on them, and made them his servants.
After having the unknown Essence of Power stolen from them, the Primary-Color Demons were no longer as strong as they had once been.
A few former Demon Kings were able to retain their strength even after losing their essence, but the Gray Demon King did not leave them alone.
Once again, he subdued the former Demon Kings through sheer force and demoted them to mere gatekeepers.
That was why a mere gatekeeper was stronger than the Demon Count who served as the boss of Floor 14.
Then why was the boss of Floor 14 a Demon Count weaker than a gatekeeper, rather than a Demon King? Where was the Gray Demon King, anyway?
“What, is that it?”
I muttered to myself after confirming that the scroll had stopped. The last line of the post read, ‘To be continued.’
Good grief, that was one hell of a cliffhanger. If he wrote a drama or a novel, he could make a fortune.
Grumbling, I searched for the next installment. But no matter how many times I searched by the author's name, the next part never appeared.
“This fucking bastard.”
This bastard was even worse than that demon—he had crapped out only the first installment and run off!
**
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for a second installment that would never appear.
The author of this post was merely one of the challengers who had dug into Floor 14's background, not exactly a creative writer.
There were other challengers who had investigated Floor 14's background, and by searching through their posts and comments, I quickly learned what came next.
The Gray Demon King, who had stolen the Essence of Power from the Primary-Color Demons and was overwhelmingly stronger than the gatekeeper, the strongest monster on Floor 14.
Apparently, the Demon King had fallen for some reason and disappeared from Floor 14.
But the reason was quite absurd. The background of Floor 14 was connected to the background of another floor.
Floor 48 was set in a world where magitech had developed to an extreme degree, and the boss there was the Gray Demon King—or rather, his soul.
A summoning ritual performed by a cultist who appeared in one of the quests on Floor 48 had succeeded, summoning the Demon King's soul.
In other words, the Demon King had fallen because only his soul had been summoned to another world, leaving behind nothing but his body.
“Wow, you've got to be kidding me.”
The reason the gatekeeper was weak compared to its amount of mana was that its Essence of Power had been extracted, and the one who had extracted it was the Gray Demon King.
Then the Gray Demon King must have been far stronger than the gatekeeper, which had not lost its Essence of Power—in other words, far stronger than a demon capable of fully utilizing its tremendous mana.
Given how much power had been piled into his setting, I had hoped I might be able to encounter the Gray Demon King as a hidden boss.
What, his soul had been summoned to another world? All that remained was an empty shell of a body?
There were several keywords that caught my interest, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed.
It didn't look like I would be able to grow much through combat on this floor.
**
The straightforward method for clearing the third and final gateway was solving a puzzle made of enormous blocks.
The solution was laid out in detail on the community, but as always, I had no intention of doing anything so tedious.
“Stop. To pass through this place, you must show me your wisdom.”
“Yeah, yeah. I'm ignorant, so I'll get through in my own way.”
“Those without wisdom cannot pass through here. Turn back.”
I pulled a massive hammer from my inventory and smashed the huge block the green demon had thrust at me.
-Boom!
As the shattered pieces of the block came pattering down, the green demon immediately assumed a combat stance.
The first red demon I encountered had been a close-range type focused on physical combat, while the blue demon I saw next had been a long-range type that bombarded me with magic.
Perhaps they had been arranged so that none of their specialties overlapped, because the green demon, which spread two pairs of wings, used speed as its primary weapon.
-Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
It spread its wings and flew in circles around me at high speed. Even the shockwaves generated in its wake were no joke.
In terms of speed, it was about as fast as the Floor 13 boss before its gimmick was solved. That was incredibly fast for its floor.
The difference from the Floor 13 boss was that this one wasn't running—it was flying outright.
Its movements in flight also appeared extremely free, without any particular restrictions, making it a terrible matchup for a close-range warrior like me.
I could somehow deal with long-range attacks, but unless I possessed the ability to fly, there was no proper way to respond to aerial combat.
“But what are you going to do flying around like that?”
However, this green demon was merely flying around in circles, showing absolutely no sign of trying to attack.
Although aerial combat was a weakness of mine, that only applied when the opponent could attack me unilaterally from the air.
In other words, that only worked if it possessed both flight and some means of ranged attack. This guy didn't seem to have the latter.
“I'll tear your throat out!”
At that moment, the green demon shouted and abruptly increased its speed. Was it seriously planning to ram me at that speed?
But if it was going to attack like that, shouldn't it at least avoid telegraphing the timing by saying something about tearing out my throat?
“What an idiot.”
I immediately activated my skills, timing them perfectly.
[Iron Wall]
[All-Out]
-KABOOM!
The green demon's body, which had slammed into me at full speed, burst apart, scattering chunks of flesh.
If you were going to ram someone with your body, you should have known which of you was tougher.
“Kheugh… That's impossible. How…!”
The green demon, reduced to the state of an egg smashed against a rock, trembled. It seemed to still be barely alive.
Soon, with a crunch, horns sprouted from its forehead. There were six horns this time as well, the same number as the blue demon's.
It seemed the red demon I had encountered first was the strongest one after all. That guy had also been a one-hit kill.
“Impressive. To think you'd make me, Rotuang, the twenty-sixth Demon King of the Southern Demon Realm, bring out my horns!”
As you could see, I still hadn't done anything. That bastard had come charging into me on his own and nearly died.
Having brought out his horns, he began moving even faster, as if this was where the real fight began.
His durability had probably increased too, and now that he had already learned his lesson once, he wouldn't foolishly try to ram me again.
But the moment he decided to compete with me in speed, he was already doomed.
I had already caught the Floor 13 boss through nothing but a sprint. And I had another way to become even faster.
[Swiftness]
I used the [Swiftness] skill to increase my movement speed for an instant, then got behind the green demon in a single burst.
I grabbed the back of its neck and slammed its face into the ground.
-Boom!
With its limbs planted in the ground like root vegetables, I cracked them one after another.
As I said, I had already given up on expecting anything from this fight, but I couldn't simply overlook the keyword of soul summoning.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing, a former Demon King reduced to this embarrassing state?”
I made an offer the subdued green demon couldn't refuse.
“Hey, how does it feel to get beaten by a human? You want to get that Essence of Power or whatever back, don't you?”
You, let's start a revolution together.