Chapter 111
111. The Demon King Appears
Demons act exactly as you'd expect from the way they look.
Since they look like devils, what they do isn't much different from what actual devils do, and their attitude changes from moment to moment depending on the amount of power someone has.
Well, I suppose they're somewhat different from actual devils. Anyway, every demon is like that.
I already knew these guys were planning to betray me. I'd heard them whispering among themselves.
They'd said all sorts of cruel things, laughing as they talked about tearing apart the arrogant human bastard's limbs and whatnot. Did they think I couldn't hear them?
They had used mental transmission to communicate, just like the High Elf King on Floor 9 had done.
Since mental transmission wasn't something one could eavesdrop on just by listening, they had been talking freely.
As it happened, I could eavesdrop on mental transmissions.
The main monsters on Floor 12 had been a kind of hive organism, something like the Zerg from StarCraft.
They had communicated with one another using telepathy. While fighting tangled up with them, I'd once managed to tune into their frequency.
That was probably because [Mana Dominion] let me respond sensitively to any activity involving mana.
Drawing on that experience, I'd learned to secretly eavesdrop on telepathy and mental transmissions by matching their mana wavelengths—about a month ago.
I hadn't expected to be able to put to immediate use a technique I'd only learned roughly because it seemed like it might come in handy.
“I’ll return to you the pain you inflicted on me, exactly as it was!”
With that demon's declaration, countless spells filled the space before my eyes.
Ordinary magic can't affect my body at all, but these clearly weren't ordinary spells. They'd definitely powered up tremendously.
I knocked aside the foremost rock projectile with my sword. The rock shot exploded the instant it struck the blade, scattering fragments.
Every fragment contained a considerable amount of mana. It was enough to wound my body.
I had expected this much. I held my shield out in front and advanced with [Iron Wall] wrapped around me.
It wasn't just one demon who had fired all this magic. All the demons here had attacked me simultaneously.
What that meant was that, since it wasn't a coordinated attack, it had plenty of openings. For example, like this.
-Ting!
I infused my shield with mana and bounced one rock fragment along a specific path. Several spells collided with one another.
My greatest specialty was still throwing. This wasn't technically throwing, but when it came to projectiles, anything was my area of expertise.
The spells whose trajectories had become tangled after being deflected by the rock projectile collided with one another and exploded wildly.
Some even flew off toward other demons. Very few spells actually struck me.
As expected, once you break through a barrage, the rest is easy.
I'd suffered wounds here and there, but after breaking through the barrage with my body once, they were all full of openings.
Have you grown arrogant again now that you've regained your strength?
Did they think they could incapacitate me with a mere barrage of magic like that? They weren't even funny.
Every one of these bastards had gone down after taking only one or two hits from me, so why did they think they knew all my cards?
Had they thought that if they could penetrate my defenses and deal damage, a weak human would go down easily?
Well, I suppose it made sense. They'd all been overwhelmed in an instant, so they hadn't even gotten to see [Super Regeneration] yet.
“This kind of thing will heal if you just spit on it, you idiots!”
I leaped into the demons and swung my sword like a madman.
**
The yellow demon charged at me with all seven horns extended and two axes wrapped in magic.
Now that recovering its Essence of Power had improved both its physical and magical abilities, its momentum was completely different from before.
I pulled two axes from my inventory just like it had, wrapped them in [Lightning Charge], and charged to meet it.
-Crunch!
Its axe sank into my shoulder. In return, I buried my axe in its shoulder as well.
-Crunch!
The axe in its other hand came down and struck my collarbone. I swung my axe too, burying it in its side.
The yellow demon and I hacked at each other's bodies with our axes as though we'd agreed to it beforehand.
-Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Naturally, trading blows like this with a demon whose body and mana both surpassed a human's was sheer madness.
Even if we struck each other with axes equally, it was only natural that the human, inferior in basic build and specs, would suffer far greater damage.
But my defense and combat endurance blatantly defied that obvious logic. Axes flew madly.
-Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The longer the exchange continued, the faster my axe became and the slower its grew. The number of wounds began to diverge.
And the depth of the wounds had been different from the start. My axe was biting into its body more accurately and deeply.
After dozens of axe blows exchanged over the course of only a few seconds, it was the yellow demon who fell.
-Thud.
I brought the axe, wrapped at maximum output in [Lightning Charge] and [Conduction], down on the crown of the kneeling yellow demon's head.
-Kra-koom!
The lightning-like blow split the demon's head open and roasted it golden brown at the same time.
More than half of the high-ranking and Demon King-level demons who had arrived here with me were already down. Of course, there were still more demons left.
But perhaps frightened by the fact that they couldn't stand against me even after reclaiming their Essences, the remaining ones were only sending timid magic attacks to keep me in check.
They looked no different from elementary school kids timidly throwing rocks at a vicious dog.
The problem was that the dog had no leash. I immediately charged toward the outer ranks and began cutting them down.
A few more fell, and a few remained. Then they no longer even showed signs of trying to throw rocks.
“Damn it all, get out of my way!”
In the midst of this, one high-ranking demon seemed unable to take it anymore and tried to push past the others and flee.
Oh, no, you don't, you bastard.
I could overlook their arrogance and their underestimating me. But I couldn't tolerate them swallowing the Essences and running off.
[Swiftness]
[All-Out]
I used the two buffs to raise my Agility stat, then swiftly snatched the fleeing demon by the back of the neck.
Then I slammed its face into the wall and dragged it halfway around the room.
-Krrrrrraaaak!
The demon, who had suddenly ground its face against the wall, struggled and attacked me, but I simply ignored it.
I took out a new weapon from my inventory. It was one of the unique weapons I'd obtained as a reward from the World Boss raid.
[Blood-Drinking Spiral Sword]
A red greatsword with a blade twisted like a braided pastry. The sword's base options were decent, but it also had a unique activation effect.
When its active option was used, all the twisted sections of the blade transformed into cutting edges and began to spin.
I drove the Spiral Sword into the belly of the demon that had dared to attempt an escape and activated its special option.
-Whiiiiirrr……Grrrrraaaak!
The Spiral Sword, now a gigantic drill, churned wildly inside the demon's belly, grinding up its organs.
Apart from a choked ‘Urrgh,’ the demon couldn't make a proper sound; it convulsed all four limbs until a filthy hole opened in its abdomen.
After all that talk about tearing my limbs apart and skewering me, they sure looked terrified.
“You shouldn't try to run off alone and leave your revolutionary comrades behind, you bastard.”
You don't have the option of fleeing. If you stop cowering and come at me, I can make it easy for you.
Once I set an example in that regard, the demons trembled violently, then suddenly dropped to their knees.
“Y-you are the new Demon King! W-we swear our loyalty!”
Well, well, look at these bastards.
I told you to come at me—when did I tell you to surrender? And why were they calling a human the Demon King? It doesn't feel ba-
[Achievement Unlocked: Ruler of the Demon Realm]
-d, actually. I might as well be the Demon King.
**
Well, that's what I said, but where would I have the time to actually play Demon King?
I forced even those who had declared surrender into a fight, killed them all, and went so far as to take their Essences of Power and destroy them.
It turned out that if I simply slit open their bellies, I could pull the Essences back out after they had swallowed and absorbed them. Unfortunately, I didn't seem able to absorb them myself.
Thus, I completed the quest after fulfilling every condition except the one involving a single demon, and even unlocked an unintended achievement.
As a reward, I gained a large amount of experience, leveled up once, and obtained a new skill, [Dark Spirit's Blessing].
Skills in the Spirit's Blessing series were all solid, reliable workhorse skills, so I could call the result a satisfying one.
But the main event was only beginning. Rotuang, the Demon King-level demon I'd deliberately left alive, was still around.
“I wish Rotuang would hurry up already.”
I was tired of pretending not to notice Rotuang hiding by himself under Stealth. I deliberately left the area and went hunting other mid-ranking demons.
I killed all hundred-plus demons who had stormed the Demon King's castle with us, and also put down a few of the demons who had already been stationed in the castle.
None of them were particularly impressive, so even though I fought slowly, it didn't take all that long.
[Achievement Unlocked: Demon Slayer]
And another achievement was unlocked along the way. The reward merely raised my Intelligence stat a little.
After slowly checking and organizing the rewards I'd obtained this time, I returned to the room where the Essences of Power had been stored.
Rotuang seemed to have nearly finished preparing. Specifically, Rotuang was preparing to possess the Gray Demon King's body.
“Hehehe… With this, you're finished too, you arrogant human bastard!”
You have no idea how happy I was when I heard this plan while eavesdropping on their mind transmissions.
If there was no Gray Demon King, then I simply had to turn someone else into the Gray Demon King.
I could get a look at possession magic while I was at it, and also fight an enemy far beyond the level of Floor 14.
If it weren't for something this significant, I never would have taken out my cheese pork cutlet lunchbox to eat.
[The strongest Demon King in the history of the Demon Realm shall be resurrected here once more.]
[All heads held high shall end up in the Gray Demon King's grasp.]
[All living beings throughout the Demon Realm, bow humbly before your master.]
[HIDDEN BOSS - Half Demon King]