Whoooosh.
Allen opened his eyes in the pouring rain.
Hundreds of corpses.
Allen looked over those gruesomely slain bodies, one by one.
“Ah…….”
A small sigh escaped his lips.
Was he the only one who survived?
The moment he realized that, something like a scream boiled up inside him.
But before he could spit it out, he saw demons swarming in from far off like a pack of dogs.
As he watched them, the words came out on their own.
“Sick and tired of these demon bastards.”
Allen hated demons.
That was what he had answered, too, when someone asked why he had joined the Deathsworn.
Of course, here, that was not a particularly special reason.
“Who around here doesn't hate demons?”
“So why do you hate them?”
Here, hating demons was a given, so they had asked for a more fundamental reason.
“I lost both my family and my master to those things.”
“Revenge for family and friends?”
“Same reason as everyone, then.”
There had been no qualification screening to begin with. The Deathsworn were desperate for even one more hand and took anyone, as long as they had the skill.
Demons.
Appearing on the continent 22 years ago, they had begun slaughtering humans without any purpose.
They possessed strength far exceeding the human average, and above all, they were pure evil, devoid of humanity.
Empires, kingdoms, and many renowned noble houses alike.
All had crumbled at their hands.
It had taken only ten years for four continents to turn into the Demon Realm.
The surviving humans were split in two.
Fight the demons and die, or submit beneath them and become demonkin (魔人).
The Deathsworn were the former.
‘Still…….’
Allen rose from where he was.
No hope of victory remained. Even so, Allen did not give up.
After all, driving a blade into the enemy wasn't the only form of revenge.
A black swarm of demons had closed in.
Even after surrounding Allen, they did not immediately pounce.
As if they were waiting for something.
“Looking for this, I take it?”
Allen opened his hand to reveal what was inside.
A fingernail-sized black orb, glowing gloomily in his palm.
A livid blue gleam flashed in the eyes of the demons who saw it.
And at the very moment a few of them were about to move.
“Don't come any closer.”
Allen growled, closing his open hand again.
“If even one of you comes near, I'll smash this.”
At once, the charging demons stopped dead.
They obeyed so well that some had even frozen in the exact pose of their charge.
They hadn't merely stopped their feet; they didn't so much as twitch a finger.
‘It's working.’
For the first time, a threat had worked on demons.
The creatures that no hostage or offer had ever swayed were responding properly to this orb alone.
He had no idea what this thing was, or why they were after it.
All Allen and his comrades in the Deathsworn had figured out was one thing.
That the demons were searching desperately for something here.
The Deathsworn had staked their lives to obtain this mysterious orb. In other words, this was the price of their lives. He could never use it carelessly.
Opening his hand again, Allen grinned.
“Never thought I'd live to see you bat bastards be this obedient. This must be a really important thing to you.”
“It is as you say.”
Allen looked at the demon who had answered him.
It was a familiar face.
A demon that no member of the Deathsworn could fail to recognize.
‘Valtein.’
He was a high-ranking demon who held the rank of Archduke even among demons. One of the Ten Great Demons, the tier directly below the Demon King.
To think a big shot like that was here too.
“That is something we have been desperately searching for. Something we have wandered long, very long, in search of. Will you not return it?”
“Just because you're desperate for it, I'm supposed to give it back?”
“Because it is utterly useless to you humans. That is why I make this request.”
“……A request?”
Allen's face twisted subtly.
The demons acting so docile, and a high-ranking demon of all things making a request. Neither made any sense by Allen's understanding of the world.
“The more you act like this, the more curious I get. What on earth is this, that you'd go this far?”
“That, I cannot tell you. But if you have any other request, just name it.”
“A request? Sure, I love requests.”
A sneer formed on Allen's lips.
He looked around at the corpses of the Deathsworn surrounding him.
“Bring these people back to life.”
Valtein could not answer that he would.
“Not just these people. My father, my brother, my master. Every last one of them you killed.”
“That is impossible.”
“Why?! You slaughtered so damn many, so bring back even one!”
Allen roared and clenched the orb as if to crush it. Valtein flinched in alarm and spoke in a fluster.
“Wait! Just wait, calm down. Very well, let us do this.”
“Do what?”
Valtein let out a deep breath and said,
“Hand that over, and we will withdraw.”
“Now you're offering to let me live? Forget it. I came here to die anyway.”
“There is a misunderstanding. That is not what I meant.”
“Then what?”
“I mean that we demons will take only that and return to the Demon Realm.”
“……?”
What did he just hear?
Return? Just like that?
Seeing the question on Allen's face, Valtein said again,
“Do not overthink it. It is exactly as you understood. We will take only that and return to the Demon Realm.”
“Why… why on earth……?”
“Why else? Because that is the very reason we came here in the first place. Did you think we came all this way because we wanted this filthy land?”
Allen didn't believe it.
He knew all too well that demons were cunning liars. They had a talent for blending truth and lies like a sweet liquor.
Truth and lies.
The claim that they would leave once they had the orb could not possibly be true.
If either part was true, it would be the part about the demons having crossed over because of this orb.
“Cut the bullshit.”
Allen clenched the orb in his hand as if to crush it.
Once again, Valtein and the other demons jolted in alarm.
Seeing that, Allen gave a hollow laugh.
“All of it… was over this little thing? Seriously, just this?”
Judging by their reactions alone, the claim that the demons had crossed over to find the orb seemed true. That was how important it was to them.
What on earth is this thing?
He had thought the lives of the Deathsworn were held within this tiny orb, but he was wrong.
Within this orb dwelt the ruin of the continent.
Did Valtein think there was no telling what a shaken Allen might do?
Valtein's voice grew urgent.
“It is the truth. Once we have that, we will leave cleanly. Believe me.”
“……I'll think about it if you agree to a different condition.”
“A different condition?”
“Kill yourself. Right now.”
Allen mimed slitting his throat at Valtein.
“If this thing is more precious than your life, you can do that much, right?”
“Look, that is…….”
“Why? You had no trouble butchering everyone else, but your own life's too precious? Scared now that it's your turn to die?”
“I will accept any other condition. Just think it over a little more-.”
THUD.
That was when it happened.
A colossal presence, felt all of a sudden.
The demons parted to the left and right as it moved.
The demons knelt and bowed their heads toward someone, as if in worship.
Allen's eyes widened.
The beautiful man approaching captivated the eye more than any demon Allen had met until now.
Even Valtein, one of the Ten Great Demons who had seemed like he would never kneel, knelt and bowed his head.
“I greet you, Lord Demon King.”
The Demon King.
The sovereign of all things demonic, the being who reigned from the heavens above every devil.
And.
The sworn enemy of his family and his master.
Many Transcendents had lost their lives failing to overcome that being. Perhaps humanity had lost because there was no one who surpassed the Demon King.
It was the first time Allen had faced the Demon King in person like this.
After all, he did not move personally for anything ordinary.
Swish.
The Demon King placed a hand on Valtein's head.
The next moment, something astonishing happened.
CRUNCH!
Valtein's head, crushed like a watermelon.
Who could have imagined that the head of one of the Ten Great Demons would burst so easily?
Allen watched with a look of disbelief.
The Demon King spread open his bloodied hand to show it. It was as if he were asking whether that was enough now.
Their docile behavior had made Allen forget for a moment.
Just what lunatics demons were.
And what stood before him was the devil at the very peak of those demons.
Gripped by extreme tension, Allen chewed on the flesh inside his mouth and said,
“No. That's not enough. What I demanded was his suicide, not just his life.”
“…….”
“Or maybe you'll kill yourself in his place? I don't know what this thing is, but for the Demon King's life, I'd gladly-.”
“Allen Vishken.”
Allen's mockery stopped.
It was because his own name had come from the Demon King's mouth.
No, it wasn't just his name.
“The youngest son of Axion Vishken and disciple of Cyron. An ill-fated child born bearing the ‘Manaless Curse’, unable to hold mana. One who nonetheless reached a high realm through physical training alone.”
“You… know me?”
The Demon King took a step closer.
He paid no heed to Allen's warning that no one was to come near.
“Yes. I know you. Your father and your master as well. They were both strong. Had it not been for the Manaless Curse, you too might have reached the same realm as they did, but neither the curse nor time was on your side.”
The Demon King, a being who had felt like a natural disaster, knew him.
Just as he said, Allen was an insignificant being. A half-baked swordsman with a body that could neither sense nor hold mana.
A human that a being as mighty as the Demon King had no reason to know.
Yet there was only one reason the Demon King would know him.
‘It wasn't some natural disaster.’
The appearance of the demons 22 years ago had been far too sudden.
They had appeared out of nowhere and swallowed the continent in an instant.
They killed every human in sight indiscriminately. Low-ranking demons and high-ranking demons like Valtein alike. Naturally, Allen had assumed the Demon King was the same.
But he wasn't.
They had seen through everything about humanity.
It was not a natural disaster that had blown in like a storm, but an invasion carefully prepared and planned.
“Since when did you-.”
He had meant to ask since when they had been planning it, but.
“……?”
Belatedly, Allen felt that something was missing from his arm.
An arm, tumbling end over end toward the Demon King.
The moment he realized it was his own arm, blood gushed from the severed stump.
SPLUUURT!
“Aaaaaargh!”
“You are remarkable. No human bearing the Manaless Curse could ever reach the realm you have.”
He hadn't even seen it.
Because he was exhausted? No. Even if his body had been in perfect condition, nothing would have changed.
Rather than marvel at the Demon King's power, Allen reproached himself for their mistake.
‘We had it completely wrong.’
Perhaps their defeat hadn't been due to a difference in strength. From the very start, it was humans who had underestimated the demons.
The Demon King picked up the arm that had rolled to him.
His tranquil eyes visibly trembled.
It seemed the one who had wanted the orb all along was the Demon King himself.
Heh heh, heh heh heh heh.
Just then, Allen, clutching his severed arm, laughed like a lunatic.
“You like that so much?”
At Allen's question, the Demon King's expression turned cold. His instincts warned him of a strange foreboding.
And the next moment, his gaze rippled like a lake into which a stone had dropped.
Grin.
“Ta-da.”
Allen raised his head and grinned, the orb wedged between his molars.
The Demon King hastily checked the orb that had come into his hand.
The orb Allen had been holding in his hand was a decoy.
“That's the Hilton Kingdom's famous coffee candy. It's my gift to you, so go ahead and stuff your face.”
CRUNCH!
Gulp.
He bit down on the orb and swallowed it in one go.
“Thanks for the meal.”
SHNK-SHNK-SHNK—!
At the same time, an agonizing pain tore through his entire body.
Countless demons lunged at once and hacked his body to pieces. His lungs and throat must have been pierced too, because not even a scream came out.
In his final moment, Allen laughed. The Demon King's contorted face was reflected in his eyes.
Making that face contort, just once.
That was the limit of what he could achieve by giving his life.
‘If we ever meet again…….’
His consciousness gradually faded.
The moment he reached death, the entire world turned white.
‘Next time, I'll definitely…….’
***
SMACK!
His cheek stung. It felt like someone was roughly shaking him awake from a sweet sleep.
Allen thought,
Am I still alive and being tortured by the demons?
Well, after how I mocked them, there's no way they'd have killed me so easily.
Then came a voice.
“Get up, you bastard!”
Snap!
At the loud shout, Allen's eyes snapped open.
His darkened vision returned in an instant.
Before him, a man with a bushy beard was cackling as he looked his way.
One look at his raised hand made it clear.
The stinging he still felt in his cheek was the work of that palm, as big as a cauldron lid.
“Finally awake, huh.”
“You slept half the damn day from one little hit?”
“Lucky he's not dead. The deputy chief hit him way too hard.”
“Judging by his clothes, looks like some noble milord. Are we making a big score today?”
Dozens of men were drinking and smoking tobacco all around. Their cackling laughter was full of glee.
Allen quickly scanned his surroundings.
Inside a sealed building.
It seemed he had been captured by these men, who looked like bandits, for both his arms were bound with rope.
‘This is…….’
As he groped through very old memories to grasp the situation, Allen's eyes gleamed.
‘The day of my first mission?’