Chapter 103

Suho was a little impressed. Esil really was a noble after all.

Until now, he had thought of her as nothing more than a freeloader who hung around stuffing her face with meat. Watching her expertly command the formerly enslaved demons like a true noble was quite impressive.

“Lady Esil, I obey your command.”

Nukira, Esil’s attendant whom they had encountered when they first entered the Demon Realm, finally returned to his original form. No longer a horse pulling a cart, he began carrying out her orders.

Meanwhile, Suho summoned all the demons in the colosseum who were afflicted with Frenzied Blood Poison and removed it from them one by one.

“Ahh, the pain is disappearing...!”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

The poisoned demons had lived in constant agony as their blood boiled.

Blood was the very foundation of a demon’s existence. A shortage of it was painful in itself, and having that blood boil was a horrific condition that broke down their very being.

Yet all those symptoms vanished without a trace the moment Suho purged the poison.

“Th-thank you! Thank you so much!”

“Hahaha! It doesn’t hurt anymore! I’m saved! I’m saved!”

[Ah, hold on. You there.]

“... Yes?”

[Aren’t you one of the bastards who insulted the Young Monarch earlier?]

“Hic!”

Beru, however, had already singled out those among them who deserved to die.

He remembered every last face among the demons near Suho’s cell who had enthusiastically hurled curses and sneers at him.

The Frenzied Blood Demons Suho had treated trembled as Beru approached with a menacing air.

“I-I deserve death for what I did. I must have lost my mind for a moment back then.”

[Kieek! If you deserve death, then killing you is only natural!]

Beru had no mercy to spare. He killed them without hesitation.

Purging the Frenzied Blood Poison from the imprisoned demons had freed them from their pain, but it had also weakened them considerably.

Esil alone was proof enough. Though she had originally possessed strength on par with an S-rank hunter, a shortage of blood had reduced her to a mere B-rank.

Small and weakened though Beru was, killing the powerless Frenzied Blood Demons posed no problem. He devoured them one by one, gradually replenishing his strength.

Suho reined him in.

“Beru, don’t kill too many of them. We need them to rebuild the Demon Realm.”

[Sob... You are too merciful, Young Monarch. How can your heart be so kind...!]

“If we’re going to kill them, we should wait until they’re strong again. That way, I’ll get more experience.”

[...!]

Enlightened, Beru immediately stopped the slaughter. He could not stand in the way of Suho’s leveling up.

Just then, the old demon who had offered Suho advice in prison approached him.

“... Thank you.”

“Oh, sir.”

Suho immediately purged the poison from the old demon, whose body went limp and collapsed on the spot.

When Suho tried to help him, he waved a skeletal arm, insisting he was all right.

“Heh heh. I’m fine. It’s only because all the blood in my body had been replaced with Frenzied Blood Poison. Oh, don’t worry. I’m not dying.”

The old demon struggled to rise on his own. Then he straightened himself and bowed respectfully to Suho once more, more deeply than before.

“Thank you, truly. For saving our Demon Realm.”

His sincere gratitude was for something greater—not merely saving his life, but saving the Demon Realm.

Suho watched him quietly, then asked, “Sir, are you by any chance a demon attendant?”

“... How did you know?”

The old demon flinched, visibly taken aback.

“You give off a similar feeling to Nukira over there.”

“You have keen senses. Well, you did kill even the Tyrant King. Seeing through my identity would be nothing to you. You’re right. I once served a noble.”

“Not one from the Radir Clan, I take it.”

“I... was Vulcan’s attendant.”

“Vulcan?”

Suho’s eyes widened at the utterly unexpected answer. As though he had anticipated that reaction, the old demon gave a self-deprecating smile and nodded again.

“Yes. That very Vulcan, the Demon of Greed. For the record, Vulcan never had a son.”

“Haha.”

Suho could only laugh.

The rumor still circulating among the demons was that he was Vulcan’s secret son. How must the old demon have felt upon hearing it?

“Heh heh. Vulcan never had any sexual desire to begin with. That demon lived for nothing but food. It made Vulcan quite an easy master to serve.”

“Easy?”

“Yes. All I had to do was make sure I didn’t get eaten.”

“...”

Was this some sort of demon joke? It wasn’t funny, but it certainly kept him on edge.

“Do you know what ultimately happens to the demons in a territory once its demon noble is gone?”

“Don’t they end up like this place? Ruled by the strongest...”

“No. No matter how strong their opponent is, demons will try anything and everything to devour them.”

Apparently, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant’s case had been highly unusual.

“Then what happens?”

“Usually, they destroy themselves. They eat one another until only a single demon remains.”

“...!”

Suho saw the old demon in a new light.

“Don’t tell me you were that last survivor?”

“... No, I was simply lucky. I stayed hidden underground until everyone had destroyed themselves. Once it was all over, I crawled out and gained strength by scavenging their corpses.”

[For someone with such a grand story, you’re awfully weak.]

Beru suddenly interjected, looking the old demon up and down.

The old demon gave a feeble smile.

“Of course I am. The Tyrant King took every bit of that power from me.”

“The Frenzied Blood Tyrant?”

“Yes. In truth, I was the first host the Tyrant King parasitized. Later, upon realizing that my body was old and useless, he abandoned it without hesitation and sought out a stronger, fresher demon.”

The old demon’s story was fascinating. The Frenzied Blood Tyrant’s very first host!

Even Beru listened closely enough to question him about what had happened back then.

[Do you happen to know how that creature found its way into the Demon Realm?]

“How? Of course I remember it clearly. How could I ever forget that moment?”

A meteorite.

One day, a small meteorite had fallen into the part of the Demon Realm where the old demon lived. At the center of the spot where that fragment of a star had crashed, a little flame burned like an oil lamp.

A blue flame.

Starfire.

That was where the Demon Realm’s suffering had begun.

“At first, we thought he was just a little flame demon. No one knew he would grow into a tyrant who ruled over all the demons.”

“A meteorite...”

As Suho mulled over the old demon’s words, Beru added his own explanation.

[Young Monarch, it seems the apostles of the outer universe hid aboard meteorites and fell here.]

“They hid in meteorites?”

[Yes. Had they simply flown here, our shadow army would certainly have spotted and intercepted them.]

The shadow army currently maintained a thorough defense of every route through which the armies of the outer universe could enter this universe. But they could hardly monitor each and every one of those countless meteorites.

[Of course, a powerful enemy would be easy for us to detect. But having faced this Frenzied Blood Tyrant, I believe he was such small fry that he managed to sneak all the way here unnoticed.]

“S-small fry?”

The old demon could not help being flustered by Beru’s words. Who would dare call the terrifying Tyrant King small fry?

Yet Suho stood before him, having killed that very king with even greater power. He could hardly argue.

“Heh heh. Truly... remarkable.”

The old demon could only laugh in disbelief.

“Beru.”

[Yes, sir!]

Suho looked at Beru and asked, “What are the chances there are other apostles of the Itarim still around here?”

[I have already been extending my senses to check, but I cannot feel anything in the immediate area.]

“Hmm. I see. Then maybe we should at least visit the place where that meteorite fell.”

Suho pondered for a moment. He had finally discovered his first trace of the Itarim. Surely following this lead back to its source would turn up something.

“Sir, could you show us where the meteorite fell?”

“Of course.”

* * *

Suho arrived at the meteorite’s crash site, as directed by the old demon.

[Young Monarch, this is definitely the place. The entire area is steeped in the Itarim’s energy.]

“Hmm.”

Suho looked around. True to the account of a meteorite impact, a vast crater stretched out before him.

Beru kept twitching his antennae as he searched for nearby presences, then scurried back to Suho to report.

[Fortunately, there does not appear to be another creature like the Frenzied Blood Tyrant hiding here.]

“Then all that’s left is to check over there.”

Suho approached the center of the crater. Buried there was the “little fragment of a star” the old demon had mentioned—or, from Suho’s perspective, an enormous mass of rock.

“Looks like we’ll have to do some digging.”

Suho glanced around, confirmed that no one was there, and spoke.

“Arise.”

His shadow spread wide, and black vapor began curling upward from beneath it.

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Knight Grade

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Knight Grade

Five enormous bulls rose to their feet. Their solid, muscular bodies could not have looked more dependable.

[Moooo!]

[Mooooo!]

The Shadow Minotaurs bellowed with an utterly ferocious air. They looked ready to crush and tear apart their enemies the instant Suho gave the order.

Suho tilted his head toward the meteorite, indicating it to the fearsome magic beasts.

“What are you waiting for? Dig.”

[... Moo?]

The minotaurs crouched awkwardly and began digging with their muscular arms. Little by little, the buried meteorite’s true form emerged.

[Master! We’ve found something!]

Quay, who had unobtrusively taken charge of coordinating the minotaurs’ work, called urgently to Suho.

[Look here! There’s a hidden space!]

“... Hmm?”

A gleam of interest appeared in Suho’s eyes as he examined Quay’s discovery. An artificial opening had been cut into the side of the meteorite, which otherwise looked like an ordinary mass of rock.

‘They said he hid aboard it. Does it actually have an entrance like a spaceship?’

CRUNCH!

He forced the opening a little wider and peered inside...

[Kiek?]

Inside, a pattern wreathed in blue flames really was burning.

Beru narrowed his eyes and murmured, [It appears to be a shamanic array formed from the Itarim’s energy.]

“A shamanic array? Can you tell what kind of spell it is?”

[Hmm. It appears to be an advanced spell that increases the meteorite’s durability and expands a secret pocket dimension within...]

“Why make it sound so grand? It’s just a storage room.”

[...]