Chapter 101

Something was wrong.

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant could only reel in bewilderment.

SH slash-SLASH-SLASH!

Suho had burst through the cursed mist and begun mercilessly hacking his body apart.

“H-how?!”

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant staggered with a shriek. That had been far too close. Only a last-second dodge had saved him; otherwise, the blade would have severed his neck rather than cut his shoulder.

But something else bewildered him even more.

“Why isn't the Frenzied Blood Poison working?!”

Frenzied Blood Poison—a curse that sent blood rampaging out of control.

In small doses, it amplified strength at the cost of pain. But when the Frenzied Blood Tyrant directly drove the poison berserk, as he was doing now, it was nothing short of execution by fire. The cruel curse made the blood inside its victims boil in an instant, reducing them to charcoal.

And because its medium was the blood flowing through their own bodies, it delivered an absolute, inevitable death from which there was no escape.

Then why? Why in the world?!

“How are you still unharmed?!”

No, Suho was more than unharmed. He was positively brimming with vigor.

Fending off Suho's attacks, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant roared in fury.

“Is a true demon noble really that different?!”

At those words, someone far, far away raised her eyes sharply.

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, watches the Frenzied Blood Tyrant with an affronted expression.]

“Let's see you withstand this!”

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant poured an even stronger Blood Curse onto Suho.

KABOOM!

This time, it was no mere mist. A swirling storm of blood engulfed him.

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, is assessing the quality of the curse.]

However...

[Two out of ten.]

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, spits, saying it has only spoiled her appetite.]

WHOOSH!

Once again, Suho burst through the bloodstorm unscathed and swung his twin swords.

[“Young Monarch! You must aim for the head!”]

'I saw it too!'

The creature had clearly blocked a strike aimed at his head with his shoulder. He could do that because he was wearing the demon head jailer's corpse like armor.

That meant the blazing face protruding openly above the armor had to be his weak point!

“Soar! Quay!”

WHOOOSH!

At Suho's command, Quay's spear flew back like a thunderbolt and attacked the Frenzied Blood Tyrant.

Naturally, it was aimed at his head!

“Gnh!”

Frantically parrying the erratic attacks raining down from front and rear, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant shouted to his subordinates.

“What are you jailers doing?! Get out here and deal with this—! Huh?”

His eyes went wide as he hastily glanced toward the Demon Jailers.

“Aaaaargh...!”

“H-hot...!”

An unbelievable sight unfolded before him.

In the distance, the Demon Jailers were burning alive.

“Why are they infected with Frenzied Blood Poison...?!”

“Oh, that? I shared some with them.”

“...!”

At Suho's words, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant's eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets.

All this time, Suho had been infecting the Demon Jailers with Frenzied Blood Poison whenever he passed them. He hadn't known it would lead to this, but he couldn't have asked for a more perfect outcome.

While the Frenzied Blood Tyrant was distracted, Suho was already preparing another attack.

'Beru, let me ask you something.'

[“Yes, sir!”]

'He hasn't figured out what Quay is, right?'

[“Indeed! He doesn't seem to have the slightest idea that Quay is a shadow soldier!”]

The Shadow Monarch's power was a force for annihilating everything, hidden within the eternal darkness of the abyss. Its aura of death was true terror, forcing opponents into submission merely by coming near them.

In fact, this was why other children had often been frightened of Suho when he was young. It was also why his memories and the Shadow Monarch's power had been sealed.

But now, he had learned to rein in that aura to some extent.

'Okay.'

He had worked it out.

Suho immediately looked around and shouted, “Arise!”

At that moment—

MOOOO!

MUUUUOOO!

Grotesque bellows echoed through the air.

They came from the very minotaurs Suho had killed!

Black shadows began to writhe ominously from their corpses.

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

...

But before the soldiers could fully coalesce into the shapes they had possessed in life, Suho immediately attempted Form Transformation.

“Soar!”

MOOOO!

At his command, the minotaurs' shadows gathered into rounded shapes and shot upward.

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Form Transformation—Gauntlet

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Form Transformation—Gauntlet

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Form Transformation—Gauntlet

Weaponization.

Quay had become a spear. This time, they were gauntlets.

[“MOOOO!”]

[“MUUUUOOO!”]

Five minotaur heads flew like cannonballs, their vicious horns leading the way, and slammed into the Frenzied Blood Tyrant.

BAM-BAM-BAM!

“Gaaaagh...!”

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant flew backward as though struck by a truck and crashed into a wall.

RUMBLE!

The colosseum wall collapsed onto him. In alarm, he swung his arms and forced his way up through the rubble.

But...

[“MOOOO!”]

“Wh-what...?”

Fists trailing billowing black vapor were already upon him, mercilessly battering his body.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!

The barrage came so fast it left afterimages. Under that relentless violence, the demon head jailer's body he wore as armor was brutally crushed.

“Aaargh! Wh-what in the world is this...?!”

To satisfy the Frenzied Blood Tyrant's curiosity, Suho answered confidently, his gaze utterly serious.

“Bloodstones!”

[“Huh?”]

[“Kiek?”]

He ignored Esil's and Beru's bewildered noises.

[“As if a lie like that would ever—”]

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant ground his teeth.

“Bloodstones... The power of a demon noble.”

[“H-he bought it?”]

Esil was dumbfounded.

But bloodstones were an ability unique to demon nobles in the first place. The Frenzied Blood Tyrant, who was no demon noble himself, could only accept that explanation.

[“Kihaha! As expected, our Young Monarch is brilliant! With this method, you can freely command your shadow soldiers even in front of the Itarim's apostles!”]

Beru was deeply moved.

His Monarch, Sung Jinwoo, had never summoned shadow soldiers in altered forms. He had never needed to; with all their limbs intact, they could wield weapons and fight far more easily.

But shadow soldiers were fundamentally spiritual bodies. Suho's power had developed in a direction that allowed him to freely reshape them from the forms they had possessed in life.

[“Sob! How admirable! How proud I am! If only the king could see this, how delighted he would be...!”]

Above all, there was something else to rejoice over.

[“I thought you would forever remain like a young, feeble ant larva, yet here you are, all grown up and beating an Itarim apostle on your own!”]

Tears of joy streamed down Beru's face as he watched Suho unleash his finishing attacks on the now completely exposed Frenzied Blood Tyrant.

[Using Skill: Storm Slash.]

ROOOOAR!

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!

“Aaaaargh...!”

The combined assault of Suho's storm of blades, Quay, and the minotaurs drove the Frenzied Blood Tyrant back relentlessly.

[“... But objectively speaking...”]

No matter how doting Beru might be, his assessment of a battle was always accurate.

[“Your attack power is still insufficient.”]

Though their opponent wore a demon's guise, he was still an apostle of the Itarim.

This was nowhere near enough.

“Aaaaargh! How dare a witless demon like you...!” \nCRUNCH!

Enraged beyond measure, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant rose defiantly beneath Suho's attacks.

His entire body was already in tatters, but that was only the “demon armor” he wore. The Frenzied Blood Tyrant's true power, hidden within it, still burned strong.

FWOOSH!

“...!”

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant's flames suddenly grew even hotter and turned blue.

Just like a Mist Burn!

[“Oh no!”]

Sensing what was coming, Beru shouted urgently.

[“Dodge! He's staking his life on using Starfire!”]

'Starfire?'

Suho had no idea what it was, but he immediately fell back.

FWOOSH!

The blue flames the creature unleashed pursued Suho like a living snake. He crossed his twin swords to block them.

BOOM!

Flames so powerful that they melted the shadow soldiers floating nearby engulfed Suho.

At that moment, a cracking sound came from around his neck.

[Item: Fire Spirit's Necklace resists the flames.]

[Item: Fire Spirit's Necklace has been destroyed.]

CRUMBLE.

The D-rank item he had worn since Egypt met a glorious end, burning to ashes as it protected Suho to the very last.

A chill ran down Suho's spine as he narrowly escaped disaster thanks to it.

'That was close.'

He had guarded against the attack, but Toughness, which increased physical defense, could never have blocked it on its own.

Without the Fire Spirit's Necklace, he probably would have suffered severe burns.

But that was what had happened beneath the surface.

To an outside observer, Suho appeared utterly unscathed despite taking the Frenzied Blood Tyrant's trump card head-on.

“H-how can you be perfectly fine after a direct hit from Starfire...?”

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant looked more shocked than he had at any point so far.

But there would be no second time.

Suho had no time to leisurely open the Shop window and buy another Fire Spirit's Necklace. The Frenzied Blood Tyrant roared in desperation.

“Impossible! It must have been a fluke! There is no way a lowly demon could withstand Starfire...!”

FWOOOOSH!

Blue flames far stronger than before swirled around his entire body.

[“Young Monarch! It's dangerous! Get aw—Kiek?”]

He had already dodged.

Suho, whom Beru had expected to charge straight at the enemy, had retreated well in advance.

He grinned.

“This is too scary to fight alone.”

Now, let's take stock.

He currently lacked both attack power and defense.

But wasn't this place conveniently packed with kindling to take the hits for him and fuel to raise his attack power?

Suho raised his head, turned his gaze away from the rampaging Frenzied Blood Tyrant, and looked toward the colosseum stands.

The demons there had watched everything unfold in unending astonishment.

“Wh-what...?”

“How could he...?”

“He's driving the Tyrant King back so completely...”

“Is that a true demon noble?”

“Vulcan's son, indeed...”

Anxiety and hope mingled in a shifting patchwork within their hushed murmurs.

Then Suho addressed them.

“Do you plan to just keep watching?!”

...!

His sudden shout shook the colosseum like thunder.

At once, the murmuring fell deathly silent.

[Using Buff: Battlefield Roar.]

At last, Suho was using the Emergency Quest reward he had received for defeating the Hyunmoo Guild just before entering the Demon Realm.

He continued to thunder at them.

“What is a demon?!”

“...!”

A demon.

At the weighty resonance of that word from Suho's lips, the eyes of the demons who had lived so long as the tyrant's slaves trembled.

“If you are truly demons! If you still think of yourselves as demons!”

As Suho continued, the demons swallowed hard, their faces tense.

Then, making a show of it, Suho pointed Vulcan's Horn toward the Frenzied Blood Tyrant, who was wreathed in blue flames, and shouted.

“Eat! The blood and flesh of a dying demon are right here before your eyes!”

“...!”

A stir rippled through the crowd.

The Frenzied Blood Tyrant could only be bewildered.

He could feel a sudden change in the slaves he had ruled so completely, all because of the nonsense Suho was spouting at will.

Finally, Suho flashed a triumphant smile and unleashed his fighting spirit from his entire body.

“Eat and grow stronger. Like true demons.”

With those final words—

ROOOOOAR!

Maddened roars erupted from every direction, shaking the colosseum.

[Battlefield Roar stimulates the demons' suppressed rage.]

[Battlefield Roar draws out the demons' suppressed rage.]

[Battlefield Roar ignites the demons' suppressed rage.]

...

A searing fire surged within the demons' hearts.

Their fear of the Tyrant King, who had lorded over them for so long through brutal strength, vanished. In its place blossomed an endless craving for power.

The power of that terrifying Tyrant King!

If only they could claim it for themselves!

“I-I can become the Tyrant King too!”

“I'll eat that corpse!”

“No, I will...!”

“I'm going to eat him!”

RAAAAAAH!

Pandemonium.

As one, every demon began pouring down toward the Frenzied Blood Tyrant.

Like kindling.

[“A demon...”]

Esil murmured quietly.