Chapter 61
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: 59. Elf Ruins - Kill the Demon King
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The day after I taught the elf queen some hands-on practical education, I spread my wings and left the elf kingdom.
I had to keep my promise. First up, I'd take out the Demon King.
No matter how I thought about it, the empire couldn't invade the elves on their own. The Demon King's power must have been immense. I didn't know this world's lore well, but according to what the elves told me, that was the case.
Once the Demon King was out of the picture, the imperial forces would probably hesitate quite a bit.
The Four Heavenly Kings were total pushovers, so the Demon King couldn't be much stronger than me at best.
Should I go straight for the Demon King's head, or clear out the monsters first?
Hmm. Hunting down the Demon King sounded like a hassle. I'd start with the monsters. He'd probably show up himself if he didn't want to watch his soldiers get slaughtered.
"Those must be the bastards, judging by that swarm."
Flying for a while, I spotted a black wave crashing against one of the elf fortresses.
The elves inside were firing off spells and such, but it was like hurling eggs at a boulder.
They couldn't beat sheer numbers.
Lately, I'd been indulging in some pure, raw power plays.
No, even though it was described as insanely strong, everything I'd used so far was basically just basic elemental magic.
"Guess I need to sweep those guys out with brute force in one go."
I pointed my sword at the black wave writhing below like cockroaches. Then I gathered mana at the tip.
The purple mana at the blade's edge gradually turned into white flame, forming a small sphere.
Hmm, but there's a problem.
It needs a technique name. I wanted to try something cooler.
"Technique name... yeah. Annihilation White Flame Orb."
I dropped my middle-schooler-fueled Annihilation White Flame Orb right into the heart of the black sea.
KABOOOOOOM!
In an instant, a mushroom cloud erupted.
It was different from an atomic bomb's cloud.
I'd launched it, but for some reason, the cloud floating in the sky was actually a pillar of white fire upon closer inspection.
That pillar melted the ground completely.
"See? Easy, right?"
Muttering to myself without aiming at anyone specific, I glanced at the fortress.
I wondered what the elves' reaction would be.
"The heavens... the heavens have blessed us!"
An old elf who looked like the commander was groveling dramatically.
Nah, if you weren't elf pussy, I wouldn't give a damn.
Well, maybe the female elf soldiers are a little tempting?
Even so, I only go for S-rank. I hated these mass-produced elf soldiers who all looked so similar.
"Anyway, should I drop a few more on the other spots?"
All the elves had to do was smack the empire in the back of the head with golems.
I was talking casually, but the elves had taken massive losses this time.
The fortresses got wiped out, killing most of them.
Elves were civilians one moment and soldiers the next at a moment's notice, so they couldn't avoid heavy casualties.
Even the lucky survivors would just get corrupted by the Demon King into doll-like dark elves.
"Annihilation White Flame Orb."
BOOM!
"White Flame Orb."
BOOM!
"WFO."
I poured it on until I was sick of it. Even this was me holding back to avoid friendly fire on the elves. If I went all out, I could wipe the empire and everything else, team kills be damned. But why hasn't that Demon King bastard shown up yet?
Just as I was getting bored and leisurely riding the wind, some bony fucker planted itself in front of me.
"How dare you crumble my legions! Who the hell are you, bitch?!"
A ragged skeleton floating in the air. A useless prick I'd seen in the library once.
It got one-shot by me and mocked Rachel afterward.
Come to think of it, that guy knew back then. That Rachel was just a record. That's why she couldn't leave the library.
So it taunted her like that. Even if I'd known, if Rachel had just told me, I could've found a way to pull her out.
"Oh? The indomitable lich or whatever, huh."
"Kuhaha! I'm immortal. Now that I'm here, you can't win! I'll kill you, turn you into an undead, and offer you to the Demon King!"
It got wrecked by me before and still hadn't learned. Or maybe the timeline was off? Whatever, time to squash it quick. I had zero interest in a skeleton that wasn't even female.
"After using that ultimate spell so many times, you must be tapped out."
"Does that empty skull of yours have a brain? How do you figure I've run out of mana just because I used that spell a few times?"
That's all it took?
"What?"
"Oh, sorry. Of course your skull's empty."
I shouldn't have expected a brain in a skeleton.
"In life, I was a renowned scholar!"
"And now you're brainless. You bony fuck."
What the hell was even inside that skull? Nothing.
"GRAAAAH! Die!"
"Yeah, drop dead."
WHOOSH!
Burning nicely again this time.
"Did I not say? I was a renowned scholar. I'll seize your body and serve the Demon King!"
A guy who'd died once and was dying again talking about serving the Demon King. Big dreams.
Suddenly, as its body evaporated, the lich turned into a swirling blue mist? Water balloon? Some weird slime thing flying at me.
"Huh, is that its soul or something? Lich's unique ability?"
But you usually do that shit without announcing it.
Not that it'd work on me anyway. And I couldn't let that bonehead have its fun.
I grabbed the incoming blue mist in my hand.
What to do with this?
"Hm?"
There was a dead elf on the ground. Pretty face. Gave me a fun idea.
I shoved this filthy blue soul into the elf's corpse.
"Kuhaha! Finally, a young bitch's fresh body! Huh?"
Good thing it spoke too soon. It stared at me with its new eyes, then looked down at its body.
"You psycho. Well, it is a young one. But how rotten is your soul that a perfectly fine elf body turns straight into a dark elf?"
But this was different from Reina's dark elf form.
Reina's was pale purple skin. This one had coppery skin? Like Geum Tae-yang's complexion.
It was a normal pale-skinned elf corpse just moments ago. Wait, can souls even revive corpses like that?
"Y-you put me in an elf's corpse?! H-how?!"
I just shoved it in.
"Told you, right? Your head's empty. You didn't even gauge who I was and fucked around, so you got wrecked."
Well, it's not incomprehensible.
From the Demon King's army perspective, the world's strongest is the Demon King. They would've heard if someone like me existed. I'm from another world, after all. No way they'd know. I was just bad luck for them.
"W-what are you gonna do with me?!"
What to do? Teach it to pick the right side.
"Simple. Slap some demon shackles on you and drag you around."
I bound it with magic chains. Since I'd already soul-inserted it once, pulling it out again would be tough.
"Watch with your own eyes. Your precious Demon King army getting smashed."
After that, I showed it a few more army annihilations.
Before long, nine-tenths of the Demon King's forces advancing from the north of the elf kingdom were wiped out.
The lich in its dark elf body had eyes bulging out. Now it knew who it'd messed with.
Just the fact it couldn't break the magic chains said it all.
"S-still, this is too much! Most of them were just demon soldiers following orders!"
"Those soldiers killed elves, didn't they? Ah, honestly, I wouldn't care if you wiped out the elves completely."
"Then why?!"
"Eh, the elf queen said she'd be my woman."
That simple.
"What?!"
"In short, that's it. I'm massacring you lot to get the elf queen. Yeah. Turns out I'm the type with thorough after-service? Stuff like this is possible."
I roughly calculated the demons' advance routes and figured their territory was to the north.
They were charging in with sheer numbers, so it was predictable.
I had the elves' map too; just gauging distances was enough.
This time, I'd use a bigger white flame orb. One or two should tidy things up nicely.
"Hey, isn't the Demon King's castle up north somewhere?"
"Y-yeah?"
"You're a lich, so you can see dying souls, right? With skills to possess other bodies, you must be that good."
"Of course! I am the eternal lich who commands souls!"
Not the time to boast.
"Heh. Then watch closely? The world's top villain, Yong-yong, will toss a super cute ball for you?"
"That's not a ball—don't tell me!"
"Yup, that one."
I hurled a compressed white flame orb toward the far north.
It flew fast and landed right in the Demon King's castle at the continent's northern edge.
KUOOOOOOM!
A white fire pillar shot up from the Demon King's domain in the north. The heavens and earth shook.
The pillar spread across the entire domain, like divine judgment raining down.
Of course, that wasn't my problem.
Whatever, I'd done what I promised the elf pussy.
"Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions! How dare a human in disguise!"
Were the demon souls wailing?
"Didn't you ignore the elves dying not long ago? Hypocrites. Simple reason you're dying: elf pussy."
Plus, if you think about it, isn't this one of author Yoo Eun-ha's worlds?
Just an event world with half-assed settings. Their deaths are none of my business.
I'm on humanity's side this time, but here I'm with the elves. With the monsters crushed, the empire's in a tight spot now.
"For one woman. You crazy bitch!"
Hearing I'd committed this massacre just to score a body, the lich's copper skin paled to blue.
It must think I'm no ordinary madwoman.
Honestly, even I'm surprised. Who the hell massacres people just to get laid?
"Anyway, you're perfect as a slave for Reina. Be grateful I'm sparing you."
"You bitch! Are you the one who killed our Demon King's subjects?!"
Oh, isn't that the Abyss Knight? The library guys are showing up in order.
"Ah, anyone I've already killed once, scram."
RUMBLE!
Burned up and died instantly. Same as in the library.
"H-heeek."
The copper-skinned elf's body trembled violently.
And this bitch. Piss streaming down her legs.
"Hey, you never pissed as a skeleton. Hilarious sight? Get it now? What you need to do is lick my soles and beg for mercy."
"Th-the Demon King will come and end this!"
This bitch still doesn't get it.
Just like Kim Seung-jun with his Black God Cult loyalty?
No, he at least had a time before he was brainwashed.
"You think that guy can use something like that?"
I pointed at the still-raging white fire pillar in the distance.
"......"
See? Can't answer means the answer's clear.
It knows the reality now. The war's flipped completely. Its master can't beat the killer in front of it.
But it won't admit it easily.
Obviously. Its beliefs, faith, loyalty—all crumbling in an instant.
"Nah, if he could, the elves would've been gone already. Maybe even crushed the allied empire. Right?"
Why ally with the empire if it had that power?
I laughed openly, and the copper elf ground its teeth.
And then. A cocky little brat appeared before me.
"Was it you who killed my precious subjects?"
"Who the hell are you?"
I had a hunch, but disappointment hit.
A pretty boy? I expected at least a loli demon king. Cloak and all, total middle-school syndrome...
Why the fuck does this kid have the same hair color as me?
Suddenly, blood rushed to my head. My skull throbbed, limbs shaking.
Face aside, it must be ancient inside.
"I am the Demon King. Absolute ruler of this Lotus Continent! How dare you kill my subjects on my land! You'll pay with your life!"
Fine by me. I was pissed about sharing hair color with this chuuni anyway.
But first, something I was really curious about.
"Before we fight, tell me this. Why are you trying to kill the elves?"
Just killing it here felt unsatisfying without knowing.
I had to hear why Reina's ancestors were wiped out by the Demon King.
"Just avenging my predecessor and following the natural order!"
"Natural order?"
"This world is mine! And you—why slaughter my subjects?"
That's your question?
"Ah, that plot's getting stale. Fine, you asked, so I'll answer."
I started pitying this white-haired boy.
Why'd author Yoo Eun-ha add this setting?
To shock me? Now that the novel's real, this Demon King is too.
Demon Kings are usually villains.
So killing one's fine. It's the elf destroyer anyway.
Maybe elf pussy was just an excuse for slaughter.
Either way, I'm Azi Dahaka's reincarnation. Can't escape that nature.
Suddenly, I felt my mouth stretching into a tearing grin.
"Just for fun."
"So fast!"
Closing in on the Demon King's ear in a flash, I ripped its throat out like twisting a chicken neck, for no one in particular.
CRACK!
The Demon King's head hit the ground.
The lich froze at the anticlimactic scene.
This sensation—it's been ages. The thrill of taking lives just for kicks. My body shivered so hard I wanted to strip and make this chocolate elf bitch serve me right now.
"Haaaaah~ So good♥"
Warm blood fountained from the Demon King's neck onto my upturned face, dripping down my body to the ground.
"Y-you mad bitch. Y-you killed the D-Demon King! Gahk!?"
"Kneel, bitch."
Demon King's a demon king, but this lich-elf needed training as Reina's slave first.