The Possessed King

"Dulibard…!!"

The appearance of Dulibard, King of the Cobalt Kingdom, left me reeling with confusion.

This was the Solfmed Kingdom. The bastard who should have been working in Cobalt had no business swinging a sword at me here. The distance between this place and the Cobalt Kingdom was dozens of days at the absolute minimum. On top of that, he was a king — a man who ought to have been buried in affairs of state.

…No. It isn't completely impossible.

The Cobalt Kingdom had the Demon Association's Panteum faction and the Red Dragon Leocio. With demonic abilities or a Red Dragon's teleportation, instantaneous travel was entirely feasible.

I forced the shock down and steadied myself.

Look at it another way and this is a golden opportunity. The bastard was already a nuisance — might as well kill him while he's here.

I stomped forward and swung a blade reinforced with an Aura Blade. Dulibard did not give an inch. His own sword blazed with a crimson Aura Blade.

KWAANG.

The moment the swords met, a violent shockwave erupted. Dulibard and I were both driven backward at once.

Charna.

I closed the distance in an instant and drove my sword into a joint of his armor — a relatively weak point. Thuck. With a sickening sound, the blade punched clean through Dulibard's left elbow.

Any normal man would have screamed and jerked the arm back. Dulibard, however, swung the very arm whose elbow had been skewered and struck at me. His sword came down on my left shoulder.

CLANG.

The Stormbreaker armor held against Dulibard's blow — but the left shoulder section was left ragged and torn. One more hit to the same spot and it would be over.

I looked at Dulibard's elbow.

"No blood. That isn't your body, is it?"

"Sharp eyes. You're right — this isn't my real body. My true body is still in the royal capital."

"Magic and demonic power… yet I don't sense anything particularly special. A relic, then?"

A relic. A force every bit as mysterious as demonic power. Dulibard was King of Cobalt and a descendant of the Red Dragon Leocio — it wouldn't be strange for him to own a few curious relics.

"Correct. One of the spoils from conquering the Thetis Kingdom."

Dulibard moved the left arm I had wounded. With a soft thud, the arm — unable to withstand the motion — simply dropped off. My gaze followed it to the ground. A half-rotted corpse lay there.

"Ah. Careless of me. Moved it without thinking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and it fell off."

"So you can possess corpses…."

Dulibard charged. I parried his strikes while working to read his swordsmanship.

The verdict was clear: for the raw power he possessed, his technique was crude. Purely in terms of sword skill, he sat at the upper ranks of Aura Expert.

Meaning he didn't reach Aura Master through any legitimate path.

I had the measure of him.

"Eugene Frucus! Where is she?"

"She? Ah — Melissa? And why exactly should I tell you?"

"Melissa is mine. She is my fiancée! I will reclaim what you stole from me. She will spend the rest of her life as my property."

The helmet hid Dulibard's face, but madness poured from his voice. The man had clearly come unhinged. Not that it was any of my concern. Only one thing about him truly irritated me.

"Melissa is already mine. Her body and her mind both belong to me."

"I will kill you and bring Melissa back to my side. Everything must be set right."

"Bullshit. I told you — Melissa is mine. Some bastard who doesn't even know what her pussy tastes like has no business obsessing over her."

"……You vulgar swine!!"

Dulibard roared. My words had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enraged him. Fair enough — if I were in his position, I'd be furious too. Not only had his woman been taken, he was being mocked for it.

"Melissa's asshole is exquisite, too. Shove your cock in and the tightness is pure ecstasy. Oh, and her oral service is incredible. Lately it's like she's had some kind of enlightenment — I can barely last five minutes."

"Shut that filthy mouth!!"

Dulibard bellowed and swung his greatsword. A crushing pressure rolled out as if it would split the earth itself. Blocking it looked impossible. I used Charna and slipped backward.

It's a corpse anyway. Dragging this out only costs me. Finish it fast.

ZZZT.

Lightning flared across my body. The current raced down my legs into the earth, then tore across the ground and burrowed into Dulibard.

BOOM!

The lightning that had entered Dulibard's body exploded. His form shattered into pieces. Rotten entrails and chunks of flesh pattered down around my feet.

"Eugene Frucus…. Don't think this is the end."

Dulibard's voice rose from the helmet lying on the ground.

"All bark. Sit quietly in your capital and wait. I'll be there soon to take your head."

"Hahaha. I already told you. This is not the end."

WOOOOOOM.

The flow of the air changed.

I looked up on pure reflex. Wind gathered toward the heart of the black clouds, spinning into a colossal whirlwind.

Sensing a presence at its center, I activated the Heavenly Eye and confirmed its identity.

A purple-skinned demon hung there — torso only — commanding the wind from the eye of the storm.

"The Storm Demon, Telroz. His power is closer to a natural disaster. He'll wipe out more than half your army. Keh-heh-heh."

Dulibard's laughter grated on me. I set my foot on the helmet and put my full weight into it. Dulibard's head burst. With his voice gone, the world went quiet.

I'll have to counter with the mages.

I reached for the radio to issue orders to Starlight — only to find it dead. The shock of combat had wrecked it. I clicked my tongue and scanned the field. The battle was going our way. Floy seemed to have already beaten the commander of the Balmut Knights.

The real problem is that Telroz bastard. Even dropping lightning on him looks like a hard kill….

He was not only far away but high in the sky — closing the distance would be nearly impossible.

I was weighing whether to at least pull the Golden Rose Knights out and retreat when it happened.

A line was drawn through the swirling black clouds — and they split clean apart. The demon at the center was bisected with them and died.

The sight of the sky itself being cleaved was a spectacle of the highest order.

I watched in admiration and allowed myself a faint smile. Only one person alive could pull off something like that.

Yuria.

She had been observing in silence — and now she had stepped in.

Footsteps approached. Floy came up beside me, limping on her right leg.

"Your leg?"

"I believe the bone in my thigh is cracked. Moving is… difficult. My Lord, I request a retreat. More than half the knight order is out of commission. Selmi and Jaycee were unable to use their spatial transfer scrolls and fell in battle."

A sigh escaped me unbidden.

Selmi had been the knight with the sultry smiling eyes. Jaycee had been the one who felt more from her ass than her pussy.

"To lose them here… a pity."

"Selmi and Jaycee fought and died for you, My Lord. They fulfilled their duty as knights. They would have had no regrets to the very end."

"Their bodies?"

"Recovered."

"Good. We retreat."

Before turning back, Floy looked up at the sky.

"…She intervened. Is that the sort of thing a Grand Aura Master can do?"

"Hard to say. Yuria is no ordinary Grand Aura Master."

"Fortunate she isn't an enemy."

A dim evening.

I had filled my stomach with steak and was toying with the beautiful prisoners when a messenger from Marquess Daycurd arrived.

The envoy respectfully presented a letter from Leona Daycurd.

I read it and snorted.

The world calls Leona Daycurd brave, just, and a woman of principle… looking at this, it's all complete nonsense.

As far as I could see, Leona Daycurd was neither just nor brave. She was a cold-blooded opportunist.

Coming out with this at all means the momentum is mine.

Leona Daycurd had assumed I would accept. She knew my true objective was Cobalt, not Solfmed — and she had calculated that I would choose the option that preserved as many of my troops as possible.

If I demanded her surrender, would she accept?

Not a chance. She would never surrender until a clear winner and loser had been decided.

Of course, I had no intention of letting the war fizzle out here either.

"Sending me trash like this… arrogant. Floy. Kill the messenger and mount his head on a stake for display."

"Yes, My Lord."

SHING.

Floy drew her sword.

The messenger did not run. He did not resist. He locked his eyes on me with murderous force.

"Count Frucus. There is such a thing as karma in this world. Heaven's punishment will fall upon you one day."

"No. There isn't."

The messenger's head was severed.

Deep night.

"AAAAAARGH!"

"We're under attack!!"

The camp erupted into chaos. Leona Daycurd had assembled a detached force and launched a night raid. Soldiers and slave troops died, but I did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.

"Nothing serious. Starlight. Handle it."

"Yes. As you say, My Lord — it is nothing serious. I will handle it."

The first day had felt evenly matched. From the second day onward, the war tipped hard in favor of the Frucus army under my command. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Leona Daycurd tried every strategy she could invent to reverse the tide, but none of it was enough. Losing the Balmut Knights — an order that included an Aura Master — on the first day had been a devastating blow.

On the second day, Count Halgheris, an Archmage, was killed. I killed him myself. From that point, Leona Daycurd had no hope left.

In the early hours of the third day, Leona Daycurd attempted a retreat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— abandoning her army and fleeing with only her elite. She failed. Starlight had anticipated exactly that. Golden Rose Knights disguised as ordinary soldiers easily intercepted the fleeing Leona Daycurd.

"Starlight. Impressive. How did you know Leona Daycurd would run with only her inner circle?"

"She and I have rolled around the same battlefields together. Of course I would know that much."

A loaded remark.

Exactly my kind of style.

"That was a joke. She and I share certain similarities. That made her easy to read."

"…This is the first time I've heard you make a joke like that. Have you taken a liking to Leona Daycurd?"

Starlight thought it over for a moment, then nodded.

"It would seem so. This war was rather entertaining."

"If I told you to rub pussies with Leona Daycurd, could you do it?"

"Hmm. Not a bad idea."

"Heh heh heh. Now I'm looking forward to this."

Starlight and I headed for the large command tent. Inside were Leona and the female knights we had taken prisoner.