◈ Chapter 60. Self-proclaimed Demon King (1)
I started to get a hunch.
It was when the Demon Corps Leader appeared.
“……Demon Corps Leader? What’s wrong with them?”
“They definitely have something in common.”
“Something in common?”
Sung Hyun-joon pondered, then slammed his desk.
“Ah! They’re as unpleasant as pigeons!”
“Whoa, that’s it. It’s my fault for asking.”
“Oh why, what are they, then.”
“They’re all birds.”
“……They’re birds, huh? I see.”
Frost was a gathering of rankers from around the world.
Among them, Ho-yeol was showing an overwhelming performance.
Maybe it was because they were drunk.
He thought nothing of their appearance and overlooked them.
Yoon Soo-gyeom clucked his tongue at Sung Hyun-joon, who realized this in hindsight.
“The demons got their concept from legends and tales…….”
“Yes, they certainly did.”
“Among them, there are demons related to birds.”
Yoon Soo-gyeom, who was speaking seriously, turned the monitor.
Sung Hyun-joon opened his mouth cautiously.
“……Decarabian?”
“Yes, Decarabian.”
“One of the 72 demons that use birds as minions……?!”
Sung’s eyes widened.
“Senior……. Is this a bird boss……!!”
“No, not yet.”
If that was all, I wouldn’t even be 99.9 percent sure.
Click.
Yoon immediately switched screens with his mouse.
A satellite image of Frost appeared on the monitor.
Sung Hyun-joon scratched his head.
“What’s with the satellite image, senior?”
“Take a look.”
“We checked this together the first time. We couldn’t see anything because the smoke was rising like a thick cloud. What’s this……. What?!”
A clear view of the frost.
Yoon Soo-gyeom said as if he was surprised.
“The moment the Demon Corps leaders blew the smoke away with their wings.”
“Wow. You captured that, senior?”
“Yep. Gotta pay the bills. I’m tired of this salary lupine shit.”
“……Wait, senior.”
Sung Hyun-joon, who was looking in, muttered in confusion.
A red pattern was clearly visible.
It was a star drawn with blood and corpses.
It was Oh Mangseong.
“It’s ……, surely?!
Click.
Sung Hyun-joon moved the mouse instead of Yoon Soo-gyeom.
He switched the window and the image of Decarabia reappeared.
Yoon Sugyeom nodded.
“I see. It’s a demon in the form of a five-pointed star.”
★ and ★.
He looked at the two screens and then opened his mouth.
“I can confirm this one hundred percent, senior.”
“That star pattern, drawn with blood and corpses?”
“Yes. It must be the procedure of a demon summoning ritual.”
“In that sense, I’m glad.”
“……?”
Here.
Where Yoon pointed with his mouse cursor.
I zoomed in, and strangely enough.
There were no corpses strewn about the area.
Had the demons made a mistake?
No, it wasn’t that.
Sung Hyun-joon opened his mouth in disbelief.
“Wait a minute. This way, toward …….”
“That’s right. It fits with Lee Ho-yeol’s entry route.”
“In that situation, you went forward while collecting the bodies?!”
“We won’t know until we know his intentions, but that’s probably it.”
With that speculation, I could see why so many monsters had gathered around Ho Yeol’s side.
Ho Yeol was directly interfering with the demon summoning ritual.
Yun Shugye nodded.
“We might be able to help him this time.”
If we know the identity of the Demon King.
We could prepare for him.
In that sense, information about Decarabia was important.
“I’ll look it up right away!”
I’m sure I have it saved somewhere.
After opening the search bar and searching through the files, Sung Hyun-joon spoke up.
“Senior, I found it.”
But…….
This was not a good sign.
No, more accurately, it was a bad match.
“……What? Knowledge of all plants and ‘minerals’?”
Minerals?
In the past and in the present.
Wasn’t this Ho-yeol who used to use alchemy skills that utilized stones?
Damn it.
I promised myself I’d pass along some helpful information.
“The best I could find was…….”
What a pitiful piece of information.
Sung Hyun-joon finally spoke up.
“It must be quite resistant to earth elemental magic.”
“Considering it’s a bird, the concept should be valid.”
“……But he’s still Lee Ho-yeol, right? He has a lot of other skills!”
“That’s true, but one of his main skills has been rendered useless.”
Yoon Soo-gyeom muttered in a low voice.
“As if that wasn’t enough, the opponent is a demon king.”
I couldn’t help but be concerned.
No matter how good he was.
To have one of their main skills become useless.
It was a huge penalty.
But worry and action were two different things.
Sung Hyun-joon took a deep breath and opened the messenger.
“Wow. Should I forward this to the Gaon side, senior?”
“That’s a good idea. They’re just joining up with Lee Ho-yeol.”
“…… Please. I hope you have some tricks up your sleeve.”
If it’s Lee Ho-yeol, I don’t know……!
Sung Hyun-joon hoped, but thought it was too much to ask.
Wasn’t Ho-yeol a wizard after all?
“Suddenly, bam, he’s fighting with a sword…….
Dori-dori─
Sung Hyun-joon immediately shook his head.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of his own thoughts.
“You’re so desperate, you’re imagining things. Me too.”
Say something that actually makes sense.
* https://pindangscans.com
Nam Chul-min’s briefing flowed through the speakers.
I opened my mouth.
“I see.”
The demon’s identity was Decarabia, the guy.
Of course, it was a name I hadn’t heard from the Akshan demon hunters.
The demons they usually referred to were high ranking demons…….
In other words, the highest ranking demons.
‘It’s just as well I haven’t heard of them.’
The pride of Grandfell will not be diminished by any demon.
I am not the one to take pride in it.
It’s a position that I’ll always have to struggle with……!
His expression didn’t change at all, but he was relieved.
The atmosphere around me was not good.
-It’s difficult, Mr. Ho-yeol.
Starting with Nam Chul-min, the others speak up one by one.
“So, in AAU’s opinion, skills that utilize minerals won’t work, right, bro? Naturally, they’ll also neutralize skills like summoning stone pillars and stone walls, which Ho-yeol usually uses?”
Nam Tae-min healed his injuries.
He hadn’t fully recovered his strength.
His face was filled with concern.
Leonie said bluntly.
“What, is there anything like that?”
Of course, I was unimpressed.
I’ve been eating raw with alchemy.
Alchemy wasn’t the only thing I had.
“It’s worth the effort.”
After all, I had sold several wells.
Fortunately, there was someone who knew of my efforts.
It was my swordsmanship teacher, Harkon.
“You have a good but unnecessarily worried companion, my lord.”
Harkon sounded secretly pleased.
Harkon had mistaken my true aptitude for swordsmanship.
I could understand his reaction.
But…….
“I can’t imagine your reaction.”
I looked at Kichi.
I was getting goosebumps.
Burrr-
Kichi shuddered.
Of course, he wasn’t thinking much.
No thoughts of others, no judgment.
They weren’t even his concern.
“Don’t worry.”
I said.
Yeah, because I had something else to worry about.
I looked at the flashing quest window.
[Class Quest: Slay the Demon King]
Demon King.
Their forces are growing.
The last of the demon hunters.
Tear down the throne of evil.
─Train your weakened body. (Repeat)
Investigate the northern city of Frost. (Success)
─Save the survivors. (Ongoing)
Stop the Demon Summoning Ritual. (Ongoing)
Defeat the Demon Legion Leader. (10/10)
The last Demon Corps Leader has fallen.
You have fulfilled the quest’s objective.
However, your progress in the quest did not translate into success.
The answer was simple.
“There’s still something left.
Now that all the Demon Corps Leaders had fallen.
The Demon Army was practically destroyed.
Thud-!
Harkon sheathed his sword and said.
“There’s no time to waste on the demoralized.”
Demoralized.
You don’t have to go looking for them, the other players will do their best to kill them.
For experience and contributions.
So what I had to do was simple.
“Head to the plaza.”
Frost Central Square.
The center of the Five Star City.
In other words, to get to the center of the demon summoning ritual.
The distraction was gone.
It didn’t take me long to reach Frost Square.
“……This is unbelievable.”
The center of the stars.
As many strokes as they fit together.
A mountain of bodies.
The blood was like an sea.
Harkon and the other Lionheart Knights shook their heads at the carnage.
“Gods. Rest in peace.”
Grrrr─
Nam Tae-min gritted his teeth.
Jesse pressed down on the brim of his hat.
Leonie spat out a string of expletives.
Players shouldn’t feel differently.
This was real life.
People who weren’t NPCs were dead.
It was natural to feel tragic.
Then it happened.
One of the corpses flinched.
“……aah.”
Everyone responded to that groan.
“……is a survivor!”
“Wait, is that face……?”
“Isn’t that Lord Frost?”
Yes, it was Lord Frost who was alive.
Harkon opened his mouth.
“Count Sirion……? Is that you!”
“No way, are you Lord Harkon……! No way!”
“Oh, my God.”
Count Sirion.
Thinking about it soberly, he had to wonder.
He was among those corpses.
How could he be alive and alone?
But Count Sirion had tears in his eyes.
“Your Majesty, the Empire has not turned its back on us……!”
That was enough to convince the onlookers of their doubts.
The face and voice, too.
It was the same Count Sirion they knew.
But I knew.
[Demon Slayer].
That the class quest was far from over.
───────
Natural Enemy: Increases your combat power by leaps and bounds when fighting Demons.
───────
In addition, the effects of [Natural Enemy].
From the moment I stepped into the Frost until now.
It hasn’t disappeared for a single moment.
Most importantly.
I had experience.
Enough to fool everyone around me and the world.
A succubus who played the role of the perfect backstory.
The experience of facing the demon.
Yes, that was the question I’d been asking myself since I realized it.
It was only a few years ago that I realized.
It’s only been a few years.
Demons were already a natural part of reality.
If so.
In Arcana, the home of the demons.
how many demons are hiding among the humans?
Naturally, I couldn’t answer that.
When does that mean enemy arcana matter?
Only if I kept playing Arcana.
I had a gap of more than a decade.
But one thing was certain.
That was not Count Sirion, Lord of Frost.
At the same time, the quest window flashed.
Defeat Demon King Decarabia. (In progress)
I declared in a cold voice.
“It’s so ugly that it’s hard to see.”
“……!!!”
“So much for the acting. Demon.”
It was contempt.
“You claim to be the king of an inferior race. You send your subjects out on a limb. Shouldn’t you be ashamed of yourself for hiding among men?”
As an exalted noble.
The despicable deeds of a demon are beyond reproach.
My declaration stunned my companions.
” ……A king of an inferior race, my lord, what is that?”
Even Harkon took a step back as he approached Sirion.
But the panic was not long in coming.
Decarabia, he was about to show his true colors.
“You have foolishly misunderstood, human.”
Cuddle.
Sirion’s body transformed in an instant.
It was no longer Sirion.
Sirion’s body began to crumple without ejaculation.
The creature spoke to me.
“This is not a limb. A noble sacrifice for the king.”
I quickly recognized the words.
The crumpled mass.
The lump began to suck up blood and corpses.
“I commend you. Your interruption was significant, but…”
By interruption, I mean recovering the body.
Just as I was thinking about it, demons flew in from all directions.
More precisely, they mingled with the sacrifice and were sucked into the mass.
“Sacrifices don’t always have to be human.”
Decarabia, it absorbed the demon army as a living sacrifice to make up for the lack of human sacrifices. At the same time, the growing mass began to take shape.
A five-pointed star held together by blood and flesh.
As soon as the stars dried up, the sky was covered in darkness.
The demon, Decarabia
He had been fully resurrected.
[The Demon King, Decarabia, appears].
[You have entered the living hell, ‘Frost’].
Well, so be it.
But I was unmoved.
I opened my mouth as always.
“Do not let true sacrifice be profaned.”
Sacrifice.
For pride.
To protect the Frost.
A word reserved for those who have given their lives.
“You don’t deserve it.”
Maybe it’s because I’m getting more and more immersed in the Grandfell.
If not, it’s because I really think so too.
For this moment, my mouth was silent.
The flesh on his face quivered.
“I look forward to the moment when your arrogance is brought to its knees. I can already see your magic. I am deeply sorry to say. For even rocks are but minerals. Your greatest talent is sealed away.”
……What?
My greatest talent?
I must be mistaken about something.
“Grandfell’s talent is beyond me, even I can’t measure it.
I checked my status nonchalantly.
I have plenty of magic left.
I also have enough ‘suitable magic’ as required by black magic.
I hadn’t wasted any of my stamina for sword energy.
There was no hesitation.
[The ‘Haunted Master Sword’ was chosen as the sacrifice].
[Skill, ‘Ritual of the Demon’ is activated].
[Invite Demon, ‘Ritual’].
“Shut that ugly mouth of yours.”
“?!!”
“Self-proclaimed Demon King.”
Hmph─!
Decarabia : https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Decarabia