The Demon King Gets Pissed
Word had it that Annus, the Demon King of Death, was approaching from the east alongside the high demons under her command, while Otiliv, the Demon King of Life, was advancing from the west with hers.
Naturally, my party and I set out toward the east to intercept Annus. Yet, despite tracking the vicious, suffocating demonic energy that had been billowing across the horizon, we suddenly couldn't sense their presence anywhere.
"Hm...?"
No, it wasn't just their presence. Even the demonic energy that had made my skin prickle had vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
"...Rubias."
—Ah, yes. They've concealed themselves thoroughly. One of the high demons must specialize in stealth. Most likely deployed a Soul Gear.
Her snout, poking out from a seam in the Silk of Atonement bound around my left arm, curled into an amused sneer. The protruding eye beside it narrowed into a sly slit.
"...Is that so?"
Just as expected, the two Demon Kings hadn't come for an all-out war. Sabotage was their real objective.
There was no telling what sort of havoc they intended to wreak by dragging high demons all the way out here... but given the Demon King of Death's background, tastes, and twisted personality, it wasn't hard to guess.
She likely intended to torment me and everyone around me in every way imaginable, relishing our reactions until we cursed the very concept of life and sank into absolute despair.
"Got a way around it, Rubias?"
—Naturally. It's fairly elaborate, but utterly pointless before one who governs time and space.
In the next heartbeat, a bizarre, alien phenomenon swept across the barren Wasteland, not even bothering to mask its colossal presence. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say she tore away the outer skin of the world itself.
Rrrrriiiip!
"What...!?"
"Heeeh~? Don't tell me... Rubias~?"
As though a veil had been ripped away—or the flip side of reality had been laid bare for all to see—a bizarre troupe emerged into the open. Most prominent among them was a high demon whose crocodile-like jaws hung agape in sheer shock, and beside it, a snow-skinned beauty boasting vibrant pink hair, pink eyebrows, and a wildly flamboyant, skimpy outfit.
"...!"
That overwhelmingly pink, gyaru-style woman was none other than the Demon King of Death, Annus.
“Commence battle! The pink-haired one is the Demon King! Five high demons in total—no intel on their abilities! Muriel, Rebecca, Tsarkhella, Cacciola, prioritize gouging out the Demon King’s heart and brain for the grimoire’s sacrifice! We only get one shot at this! Cecilia, Arpe, buff everyone! Nemeth, Wendy, Latipi, keep the high demons suppressed!”
The command transmitted through mental voice struck their minds like a bolt of lightning. Relaying tactical orders via telepathic transmission was far more efficient in a split-second crisis like this, conveying several times more detail at speeds mouth and tongue could never match.
"Hup...!"
"Haaah!"
Muriel, Rebecca, Tsarkhella, and Cacciola unleashed their Aura Blades and surged toward the Demon King in unison, while Latipi, Nemeth, and Wendy bombarded the surrounding high demons to pin them down.
"Heeeh~?"
Even in the face of an onslaught fierce enough to shake the heavens and earth, the Demon King, Annus, merely smirked, wearing an utterly playful smile.
"You're laughing?"
Catching sight of her smirk, I bared my teeth in a grin of my own and triggered the Absolute Ring of Taunt.
"...Huh?"
"Mgh!?"
"What the—my body...!?"
A crimson light, thin as thread yet broad as a canopy, soaked into the Demon King and her high demons in a fraction of an instant, instantly wiping away their smug confidence and freezing their expressions solid.
Fwhoooosh!
In the very next instant, a barrage of lethal, multifaceted attacks converged on me. Demonic-energy-infused venom, thrusts bordering on conceptual authority, unspeakable curses, crushing mental assaults... Naturally, the deadliest among them was Annus's Authority of Death.
Death. A pitch-black mist that evoked nothing but the cold end of existence surged directly at me.
"Whew...!"
Without missing a beat, I slipped through it using the Ring of Absolute Evasion, then unleashed the Absolute Counter Ring to send it all right back.
KABOOOOM!
Reflected with precisely twice the original destructive power, the redirected strikes tore through the vitals of the high demons and the Demon King alike.
"Gaaaargh...!?"
"Cough...!"
"How...!"
Compounded by the relentless storm of Aura Blades from our Masters, the high demons collapsed into critical condition in an instant, while the Demon King had her brain and heart torn out raw. It all unfolded in the blink of an eye.
"Heeeh~? Fun~"
Yet Annus simply curled the corners of her mouth once more, smiling with effortless ease.
...It was an eerie, grotesque sight. Unlike Rubias, Annus's regeneration was harrowing, horrific, and repulsive. Flesh and organs seemed to convulse violently as if fighting against their own restoration, scattering blood and chunks of meat in every direction. The sheer violence of the wounds stitching themselves together was so rough and crude that it brought to mind searing flesh with hot irons or binding wounds with coarse rope.
Naturally, regenerating like that couldn't possibly restore her to her original pristine state; in seconds, she turned into a ghastly chimera of patchwork flesh and hastily stitched gore.
"Hm? Ahaha... Oops, was that a little gross~?"
With a flick of her hand, she returned to the form we had first seen, but that didn't mean the gruesome spectacle burned into my retinas faded away so easily. Worse yet, noticing my expression, she broke into a cruel, sadistic smile.
"...For a pink-haired freak, she looks a lot more like a proper Demon King than you do."
"What~?"
—I cannot let that remark slide. I am a Demon King possessing qualifications and might second to none. You only say such things because of how I behave before you, Kang Han-gil, but I am...
"Ahahaha! What is that~? Rubias! Did you really bestow that much of a blessing on a human~? Look at you, glued to his left arm and chattering away—it's hilarious~!"
—...Annus. Still as flippant as ever, I see.
"And you're still putting on airs for no reason~? Tee-hee! But hey~? What was that stunt you pulled just now~?"
—Whatever do you mean?
"You're playing dumb~? You got in my way~! Are you picking a fight with me~?"
—All bluster for such a coward... Come at me anytime you please.
Even as a blood-soaked melee between our Masters and the high demons raged all around us, the two Demon Kings bickered with such casual familiarity that the tension drained right out of the air.
"Shut up for a second, Rubias."
—...Very well.
"Aha? Ahaha-ha!? What's this~? Too funny~ You're actually obeying a human~? The haughty, prideful Rubias, completely whipped by a mere mortal man! Never would've imagined it in my wildest dreams~!"
Watching her cackle as if it were the funniest joke in the world, I stole a sideways glance toward Weller. Brow furrowed deeply in concentration, Weller was busy feeding the heart and brain freshly ripped from Annus into the Grimoire of Blasphemy.
Looks like it's going to take some time. In the game, a single click was all it took... but oh well, I had anticipated this much of a hiccup.
"Hey there~ mortal~! Just how on earth did you manage to tame Rubias~?"
"...Want to know? For someone who's about to die, you sure are nosy."
"Heeeh~? What's that~? Underestimating me, are you~? Fufufu. Humans always do that~ They look at my appearance~ or listen to how I talk~ and assume I'm weak~ It's genuinely adorable~"
Her eyes curved into radiant crescents as she subtly bared her teeth, letting her terrifying presence bleed out.
"So~? Aren't you going to tell me how you captured Rubias~? Because if not~ I might just get a tiny bit upset~"
"Terrifying."
Whether it was the arrogance of an overwhelming powerhouse, Annus's signature gloomy ennui, or simply morbid curiosity about me, she didn't seem eager to pounce right away. Since the Grimoire of Blasphemy needed time to prep... rattling her cage wouldn't hurt. In short: stalling. Ironically enough, running my mouth was an area where I had vastly more confidence than straight combat.
"Demon King of Death. Annus."
"Hm~? Why call my name~? Oh, wait, that's a little strange~ Aren't you tossing around my title and name far too casually~? No mere human should know that~ Did Rubias spill the beans~?"
"I know your horrifying dread. And I know your pitiful, aching thirst."
"Heeeh~?"
Looking into her tilting head, I unhooked the liquor bottle strapped to my waist and chugged it down. Fortunately, it was far more potent than whatever swill I'd been drinking before, sending a rapid rush of intoxication straight to my head. The blissful numbness of my brain marinating in alcohol made my heart pound, my vision blurring and swaying in a dizzy dance, while an intoxicating rush of euphoria drifted up like a rose-tinted cloud.
"Phew... Hahaha! You pathetic thing! You wretched, filthy wretch! A disgusting scavenger crouching at rock bottom, collecting the final gasps of every living soul! I know how desperately you covet radiant life! I know how you envy and resent the blissful ignorance of mortals—those who live blind to the shadow of death looming behind every breath!"
"...Heeeh~?..."
I chuckled theatrically like a court jester, flinging my arms wide and bellowing at the top of my lungs. Annus kept her amused smile, unable to peel her eyes away, clearly intrigued.
"Ah! How dazzling is a life that blooms like a flower from the soil of ignorance! How brilliantly death shines when it blazes like a sudden flare! It is a hymn of life that a squalid Demon King—shackled by the curse of omniscience, permitted to exist solely by gorging on demise—can never comprehend, can never truly embrace!"
"..."
"All you ever desired was that life! All you ever wanted was that ignorance! And so, across countless eons, you mimicked them time and time again, burying yourself within their societies! But alas! The end awaiting this pitiful, foolish Demon King was always ruin and estrangement—a fate that mirrored the very death you embody!"
"Did Rubias... really tell you all of that~? There's no way she did, though~ That... that's crossing the line, isn't it~?"
As the laughter gradually bled out of Annus's voice, a heavy, ominous authority descended around her. The absolute force that guided all living things to their demise—ruling over the conceptual domain of death itself—refused to permit even a shred of life upon the earth. The desolate ground blackened, letting out dry, crumbling death rattles underfoot.
Paying it no mind, I sneered with everything I had, modulating my voice between a jaunty melody and the dark whisper of a shared secret.
"A hope forever out of reach. A radiant life you could never feel... And so, you became what you are. You had no choice! Grotesquely shattering brilliance and radiance, treating life as something cheap and trivial, trampling upon it in violent convulsions—yet unable to look away, mocking and scorning it while deceiving yourself! An existence lower than vermin, buried alive in emptiness and futility!"
"...Could you stop, please~? It's really grating on my ears~ I think I'm starting to get angry~"
"Sighs and shrieks that none can hear echo inside you! The truth you tried so desperately to look away from is tightening its noose around your throat! You know it deep down, don't you?"
"I told you... to shut, the fuck, up... didn't I? I'm speaking. Me, the Demon King! Why are you ignoring me? Why?"
"That not once, in all your existence, have you ever truly been alive."
"...Grrrrind!"
Annus ground her teeth together with a bone-chilling screech, sparks practically flying from her jaw.
"...Oh."
Looks like she's properly pissed off.