Demon King

The Devil’s Lord – 2

With every step I took, every breath, I could feel myself changing. Mana of a different quality than before filled my body and altered me.

[You…touching what belongs to me!]

“Since when did it belong to you?” I stepped into the air. Just a little while ago, I thought the whole world was full of my enemies, but I was wrong. It was full of food. Or, rather, the world was a delicious meal made for me. The light that filled the world was sucked into my wide-open mouth as I slashed with my dagger. Lucifer’s magic power circulated through my newly refined body, embracing the power of Reaper and spewing out of the dagger.

[Huh!]

As the energy of death from Annihilation flooded around Lucifer, greedily devouring his light, and he stretched out his arm to block it. A stream of red blood sprang up in the air, the evidence I had finally succeeded in hurting him.

[You filthy worm…you dare hurt me?]

He seemed to realize that his ordinary light could no longer damage me. He collected all of it in his hand, forming a longsword of brilliant white light. It held enough power to wipe out an entire city with a single swing, but I wasn’t afraid of it. Now, I was completely on par with him.

[Ha!]

The two of us collided. I tried to dazzle him by creating several alter egos with Ubiquitous, but I quickly discarded that plan as his sword cut them out of the air.

[What an odd trick!]

I could feel a sense of incongruity in his words and actions. How was he actually doing right now? What was wrong about this sight? He was trying to keep a distance between us. I laughed coldly at that realization as our weapons collided violently.

[Reaper became Lv9.]

Stepping back, my body was still intact. A line of blood ran through Lucifer’s body, however. He noticed it a second later, then his face distorted with pain and anger.

[Khaakkk!]

“You’ve forgotten.”

[You…!]

Previously, when I awoke in the Black Palace, I had questioned one thing. I never used a sword in all my days as a human, never even held a knife as a weapon. Nevertheless, I had adapted quickly to using a sword. I assumed the skill was automatically attached to the body I inhabited. Perhaps that was part of it, but it wasn’t the only reason. It was because I, who had the name Baal in the past, was the number one executor in the underground.

Despite losing all those memories and becoming a goblin, I was able to handle a sword with the will engraved into my soul. As my body developed and my memories returned bit by bit, that swordsmanship had developed dramatically. It had evolved into a higher skill by mixing with other abilities. Of course, there was no one in the underground before who didn’t know I was a master of swords. Lucifer knew about it, so he was keeping me at a distance. But now he decided he couldn’t manage a ranged approach, so he narrowed the distance between us.

[This…!]

“I can’t run away.” I managed to get closer, having nowhere to run if I missed. I read his movements and his mana, spreading my own to invade his realm. I moved out of the way of his sword once more, stabbing my own blade into his body that was protected only by a light piece of cloth. Blood spurted out once more.

[Why?!]

“Is your pride preventing you from admitting to your imperfections?”

[I am complete!]

A waterfall of light emanated from him as his shout hit me. The power was weak enough to make me smile, however. It was nothing compared to the power I felt earlier. Lucifer, who had lost his position of superiority, was being shaken psychologically now.

“You’ve forgotten I’m better at close combat than you. Otherwise, you would’ve continued to fire attacks out of my reach.”

[Know your place!]

Lucifer’s sword started to swing down my head like a crack of lightning. It was undeniably fast and strong, but a bit lacking in my view, now that I had regained the name of Baal.

[Kahk!]

The sword of light collided with Annihilation with a creaking sound. It flew out of his hand, soaring into the sky. Light flashed out to protect his body, but I stretched out with my dagger and stabbed him in the chest. Lucifer’s white mana clashed head-on with my gray mana. The battle between pride and gluttony began.

“Hey, Lucifer.” I whispered, staring into his eyes at a distance so close we could kiss.

“You were the same as me, right? Don’t you remember the most important thing? Just a little while ago, you didn’t know what you were before the Great Fusion.”

[Nonsense!]

“Somehow, I figured it out when you gave up on her so easily. It fit with your pride, but it was so pathetic. If the other person doesn’t know your worth, you throw them away. This pride you have now is pathetic and weak.”

[Shut up.]

His mana rose fiercely to destroy me whole. The mana of Predation maintained itself against it, however, biting away at it.

“There was something I always wondered about. You had plenty of chances to kill me, but you didn’t. It wasn’t because you were confident, it was because you couldn’t admit you didn’t know what to do.”

[Shut up.]

“So, I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands, starting with what was right in front of me. That’s why things felt so clumsy with the Chaos Souls, no?”

[Shut up!]

“You try to act as if you knew everything, but you made mistakes. The soul monsters being killed here, the Chaos Souls running wild, the birth of the artifacts Echo and Annihilation on Earth.”

[Shut up…!]

In particular, that last mistake was fatal. They became the weapons used to kill Lucifer. If either of them hadn’t appeared, I wouldn’t have made it here myself.

“Even so, you laughed as if everything was planned, tricking yourself and your subordinates. They were tricked from the beginning. Or, perhaps they were simply scared and decided to keep their mouths shut as they laughed at you in secret.”

[I’ll kill you!]

At that moment, the world exploded. As I pulled out the power of all the demons, the battlefield had almost completely collapsed, only maintained by its connection with Lucifer. As his anger exploded out, the battlefield started to become mana to fuel him.

[I will be the brightest star in the whole universe, the creator of a new world! I don’t care about the past; I will become the owner of a world you can’t ever interfere with!]

“But.” I activated the energy of Predation. The gray energy arose like a wraith, devouring the energy around Lucifer. I didn’t like taking others’ belongings, but I didn’t mind if it belonged to him.

“Your pride has already been broken.”

[I am the strongest.]

“No.”

[You are below me!]

“That isn’t true.”

[I…I am the new world!]

His leisurely attitude began to disappear. As long as that weakness of his reared its head, his mana would be weaker than any other demon. No matter how much the battlefield supported him, it was useless.

“Stop being stupid, Lucifer. If you create a new world, do you think you can avoid the eyes from heaven?”

[What…?]

His mana stopped like a lie. The twelve pairs of wings tilted toward me in an instant.

“I certainly thought you were great at first. To make the battlefield into a new world is an amazing feat. But.” I stretched my hand holding Annihilation. It began to emit a colorless light as I poured all the power I had into it and stuck it into Lucifer’s chest. He couldn’t avoid it; he had given up all he had.

“In the end, it will just be one more world that the heavens will watch. That alone won’t be enough to beat them.”

Only

[However…]

All the light vanished. The only sound was Lucifer’s voice ringing out.

[In the end…what is heaven…?]

It was the question of one who had lost his pride and regained his original purity. He couldn’t figure anything out; he only ran forward just like I was trying to do. Relying on vague memories, putting together pieces of the puzzle, he recovered. He must’ve thought that puzzle would only be completed by killing me and creating his world. For the first time, his voice was filled with sincerity.

“The enemy of all beings. The last hurdle.”

[The same…]

“And.” As Lucifer closed his eyes, a half-smile played on my lips.

“My long-awaited meal.”