Chapter 104

“Do you know how to open this storage room, too?”

Beru promptly nodded at Suho’s question.

[An array this weak can simply be torn apart by force.]

With that, Beru flitted over to the shamanic array and slashed his claws through its blue flames.

FSSSH.

The array’s flames died down, and the space hidden beyond it cracked open.

“It’s open.”

Suho immediately readied himself for battle, holding a Vulcan’s Horn sword in each hand. There was no telling what might suddenly leap out.

Yet, rather anticlimactically, what awaited him inside was not an enemy.

Quite the opposite.

[You have acquired ‘Item: Demon Essence’.]

“Demon Essence?”

Looking puzzled, Suho picked up a fist-sized orb.

[Item: Demon Essence]

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Gem

A sealing orb containing the souls of countless demons.

Breaking it may release the demons.

While he checked the item’s information, Vulcan’s Horn hummed and vibrated in his other hand, as though regretting that it was already full.

Suho smacked his lips in disappointment as well.

“What a waste. If I’d found this sooner, upgrading Vulcan’s Horn would have been so much easier.”

With Vulcan’s quest finished, demon souls no longer had any value to Suho.

“I’ll take it to Esil and ask her about it.”

For now, he tucked the Demon Essence into his inventory.

It was not the only thing in the Itarim’s storage room.

[Young Monarch, I have found something important.]

Just then, Beru, who had been rummaging around inside, brought over something he had discovered.

[You have acquired ‘Item: Itarim’s Stone Tablet’.]

[Item: Itarim’s Stone Tablet]

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Stone Tablet

A stone tablet inscribed in the language of the Itarim.

It is imbued with a special enchantment.

Beside him, Beru volunteered his knowledge.

[I know what this enchantment does. During the war, I distinctly saw the Itarim’s forces use these to communicate with one another.]

“They communicate through stone tablets?”

[Yes. The problem is that they come in pairs, and since there is only one here...]

“Someone else must have the other one. Maybe whoever sent the Frenzied Blood Tyrant here.”

[That is highly likely.]

Suho stared hard at the Itarim’s Stone Tablet, trying to work out how to use it, but made little progress.

“If I hold on to it, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it someday. Maybe they’ll contact us first.”

He put the tablet into his inventory.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything else to get.”

It seemed the Frenzied Blood Tyrant had used the meteorite as a secret base for storing the demon souls it had collected and communicating with another apostle.

“Let’s head back.”

* * *

“Wh-where did you get this?!”

Esil was stunned the moment she saw the Demon Essence Suho handed her.

“Picked it up on the way. Is it something you need?”

“I can sense an enormous number of demon souls inside! Don’t tell me this belonged to the Frenzied Blood Tyrant?”

Suho nodded at her shrewd guess.

“Looks like it. Apparently, breaking it will release the demon souls. Do you know what happens if I let them out?”

“Exactly that—they’re released. Demons don’t die even if only their spirit forms remain. They’ll drift around nearby, possess some mindless little creature or magic beast, and be reborn as new demons.”

“Then I kill them and level up?”

“Seriously, has leveling up rotted your brain...?”

Esil sighed, shaking her head as though he were beyond help.

“Newly reborn demons are so weak they wouldn’t even help you level up. It’d be much more useful to take them in as my subjects and have them help rebuild this land.”

“Really? Then I’d better break it right now.”

CRACK.

Suho immediately broke the Demon Essence. Countless demon spirits began bursting out of it like fireworks.

WHOOOOSH!

KEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!

KIAAAAAH!

Eerie laughter rang out all around them.

The countless specters imprisoned in the Demon Essence circled Suho and Esil, radiating a sinister aura. They eyed the delectable bodies before them, drooling wickedly at the prospect of possessing them...

[Keeee...?]

But they were fairly quick on the uptake. Unfortunately for them, the nearest body belonged to Esil, a demon noble. They slowly backed away and set their sights on someone who looked easier to handle.

Suho.

After all, he was merely human.

[...]

But the moment they looked at Suho, they realized the truth. In their spirit forms, it was all the more impossible to miss.

His humanity was only a shell.

Within Suho’s shadow stretched a vast abyss, as deep as a bottomless pit.

[Eeeeeek!]

Far more horrified than they had been upon discovering Esil, the specters scrambled to flee.

If they were dragged in there, they would die!

Terror swept over them—not merely of death, but of having even their souls chewed up and devoured!

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Don’t worry about it. They’ll find some easy little creatures to possess on their own now.”

“Hmm. Is that how demons are normally born?”

“Right. Even if we die, as long as our souls remain, we can possess another body and be reborn at any time. That’s the essence of Spirit form.”

When it came down to it, Esil’s possession of Suho’s sword had been an application of that same ability.

“Demons don’t die. We’re simply reborn. But the moment we get a new body, most of our previous memories disappear, so you could say it’s the same as dying.”

Esil murmured as she watched the demon souls scatter.

“They’re probably demons who fought against the Frenzied Blood Tyrant. If it went to the trouble of sealing them away separately, their souls must have been tempting even to it. Once they gain bodies and are reborn as demons, they’ll be a great asset to us.”

That was welcome news.

* * *

After that, Esil worked to rally every demon in the land around the colosseum.

The slaves who had been mining ore for war gained their freedom overnight. But only their ruler had changed; their daily lives did not become all that different.

“I hear gods from the outer universe are invading?”

“They say the Frenzied Blood Tyrant was one of the Outer Gods’ lackeys, too.”

“I knew it wasn’t an ordinary demon.”

“So what happens to us now?”

“What else? If enemies invade, we fight back.”

“Then we’ll need weapons.”

Without anyone taking the lead, the demons began picking up their pickaxes again. They resumed mining ore of their own free will, without Demon Jailers whipping them.

They were not doing it on Esil’s orders.

Demons had never been a race that feared battle. On the contrary, they enjoyed fighting powerful opponents, and felt no regret even if their own weakness led to them being devoured instead.

That was because they believed that even if they died, they would become specters and be born anew.

Yet even to them, the Frenzied Blood Tyrant had been utterly terrifying. It was a vicious creature that burned even demon souls with its blue flames and stole their bodies wholesale.

“We can’t let another bastard like the Tyrant King torment us!”

“Heh heh heh. War! It’s war!”

“Let’s prepare for war!”

“For Radir!”

“For Esil Radir!”

A pureblood.

All it had taken was the appearance of Esil, a demon noble, for the demons to begin uniting firmly around her. That was how much the existence of a pureblood meant to them.

Watching them, Suho curiously asked Beru,

“What is it about purebloods that makes them so eager to obey? Is it what I’m thinking?”

Beru nodded.

[Indeed. Only a pureblood is qualified to become the Demon Monarch. Ultimately, they hope Esil will one day become their new Monarch. Only with a Monarch can the Demon Realm, now torn into fragments, be united into a single world again.]

When Suho had first met Esil, she had certainly been fleeing other demons. But in the end, those demons had only wanted to devour her and become demon nobles themselves.

Beyond that, they had likely intended to gain the right to become the Demon Monarch and rebuild the Demon Realm.

“This is all thanks to you, Suho.”

Esil expressed her gratitude.

“I still haven’t regained my original power. Even now, if those demons attacked me all at once, I’d be helpless to stop them from eating me. But thanks to you, none of them dare entertain the thought.”

Every demon in the colosseum had watched from beginning to end as Suho slew the Frenzied Blood Tyrant with overwhelming power.

As long as Suho stood behind Esil Radir, no demon would dare consider challenging the Radir Clan.

But peace had by no means arrived. The demons were voluntarily preparing for war precisely because they feared that another Frenzied Blood Tyrant might appear with a meteorite at any moment.

To prepare for that...

“First, I need to regain my original power.”

“With bloodstones?”

“Yes. Now that I rule this land, I’ll extract small amounts of bloodstones from the lesser demons and consume them. You could call it ‘tribute.’”

Bloodstones had many uses, but their primary purpose was to allow demon nobles to maintain their strength by continually absorbing the blood of lesser demons.

“But if I drain too much blood at once, my followers will all die, and their numbers will keep dwindling. The key is to take a little at a time, steadily. Here, like this.”

Esil spread both hands wide toward the demons who had become her followers.

Then—

WHOOOOSH!

“...!”

A little blood was drawn out of each demon’s body and gathered into a small bead.

WHOOOOSH!

The sight of dozens upon hundreds of those black beads flying toward Esil and being absorbed was truly spectacular.

“Ahh...”

Watching her take in that power with an ecstatic expression, Suho could tell that the aura emanating from her had grown a little stronger.

“See? That’s how it works. Now it’s only a matter of time before I recover my original power. But I can’t extract and consume bloodstones like this every day, so I don’t have anything else to do right now, you know?”

Though she now ruled the demons, she had already left the minor tasks to her demon attendants. Taking in the old demon who had served Vulcan as her own attendant had reduced her workload even further.

Realizing what she was getting at, Suho chuckled and held out his hand.

“Perfect. Then I’ll keep working you hard as a member of my guild for a while longer.”

“Yes, Guildmaster! You will pay me properly, won’t you? I’ll have you know I’m a noble back home, so my services don’t come cheap.”

Smiling brightly, Esil clasped his hand.

“Let’s head back now. To Earth.”