Chapter 416
Chapter 416
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 416
Chapter Title: Demon World Great War (3)
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Thump— thump—
His heart pounded fiercely.
Feeling it, the Dragon Duke... no, the being who had once been the Dragon Duke, sank even deeper into his inner self.
Fragments of his past days, lived so fiercely, scattered and flashed through his mind.
How a mere ordinary dragon like him had ended up in the Demon World and risen to its pinnacle.
There had been countless trials and tribulations over thousands of years.
And in the end, after enduring and overcoming them all, he had finally reached this position.
With the sole determination to get revenge on those who refused to acknowledge him, forcing him to flee here.
To become the Demon King through his own power, conquer the Demon World, and then devour the continent to prove he had been right all along.
‘I wasn’t wrong.’
Of course not. The world was what was wrong, not him.
He was the strongest in the world, superior to everyone in every way.
Wasn’t it only natural for someone like him to ascend to rule the world?
Crusayer believed so.
And he was certain it would happen soon.
“Hmph— so this is where you were hiding? And in that ridiculous form, no less.”
Until that voice reached him.
Rumble—
The massive body crouched underground twisted violently.
It was an instinctive reaction before he could even register anything.
A familiar feminine voice laced with amusement.
The most hated voice, the one that had suddenly appeared and ruined all his smoothly progressing plans.
The loud heartbeat echoing in his ears faded away.
...No, it was just his imagination.
His heart was still pounding fiercely.
He was simply too focused on the intruder to properly notice it.
“Seriously, I was wondering how you kept churning out all those monsters...”
Rumble—!
Ignoring the sigh that sounded like a click of the tongue, Crusayer slowly rose to his feet.
The ground crumbled, and plumes of dirt shot high into the air.
The aftermath shook the demon-energy-filled surrounding air and triggered an earthquake, but he paid no mind to such trivial matters.
“...To think you’d turn your entire body into a gateway to the abyss.”
Hela gazed calmly up at the massive monster rising before her.
A being standing tall in the heart of the Demon World’s most barren wasteland.
But its form bore no resemblance to the one she’d clashed with before—no matter how hard she looked.
Even setting aside its body, which seemed to exceed a kilometer in length and had grown at least ten times larger—
“Hmm, up close like this, it’s pretty gross. Makes me wanna puke. Could you just lie back down?”
It was a being that embodied disgust rather than majesty.
The three pairs of wings that looked like mere decorations were crudely stitched together from shrieking humanoid monsters, and the rest of its body parts weren’t much different.
Countless eyes glared at her in unison.
‘Whoa— that’s creepy.’
Hela wrinkled her nose as she stared at the enormous creature before her.
Monsters continuously shedding from its massive body like molting fur even now, and new ones sprouting up from within to fill the gaps.
It was literally a factory endlessly producing monsters.
“Shipping them out straight from the factory to battlefields everywhere. Now that’s service...”
Though no one had asked for direct-from-the-source delivery, of course.
Hela grimaced at the sight of the monsters tearing through space and vanishing somewhere the moment they detached from Crusayer’s body.
‘No wonder they keep coming no matter how many we kill.’
Her judgment had been spot on, after all.
The fastest—and only—way to resolve this crisis was to eliminate Crusayer, the infinite monster producer.
He knew it too, which was why he’d hidden here.
“Honestly, this might be for the best.”
If the war of attrition had continued as planned, who knows how much longer it would have dragged on.
Compared to that, the current situation—where eliminating this one berserk Dragon Duke would end everything—was far cleaner, wasn’t it?
And besides...
“I’ve got a ton of stuff to do ahead, so I can’t keep getting held up by you forever, right? I’m sure you understand.”
She’d just boldly promised her subordinates she’d be right back.
And since he’d crossed the line first, she’d use every means at her disposal.
Hela shrugged lightly and winked.
[—————!]
Immediately after, the monsters clinging to Crusayer’s body roared in unison.
Along with them, the countless eyes embedded in its massive frame glared ferociously.
Toward the group now surrounding him.
It was an instinctive response to danger.
Even the monsters that had been ripping through space and vanishing stopped moving and assumed combat stances, but Hela continued nonchalantly, unperturbed.
“So— ”
She fully unleashed the power of the 「Demon King」, which grew stronger by the second.
“Quit sprinkling ashes on a perfectly good meal and just die already!”
The unified ‘World’ pierced the massive body.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ So high up that everything on the ground looked tiny.
Whoooosh—
Hesperon, hovering via boosters, gazed quietly downward.
At the pure-white monster—Crusayer—that had doubled in size due to the explosively multiplying monsters, as analyzed and displayed by 「Mechanical Eye: Kallikas」.
‘That’s not a single organism anymore; it’s a colony. I need to target the core somewhere inside... but it’s too massive to pinpoint.’
The monsters swarming like ants might seem like fodder, but each one was a formidable foe not to be underestimated.
The balance of the Demon World wouldn’t have collapsed against weaklings, after all.
And with their trait of growing stronger the more they clustered, ordinary attacks barely scratched the colony that Crusayer had become.
‘Even if they land, new ones sprout instantly to fully regenerate it.’
It wasn’t regeneration of wounds—dead individuals simply detached, and new ones took their place—so even Hela’s 「Exterminator」 regeneration suppression was useless.
Well, with enough time, she could probably handle it alone...
‘No need to take the long way around, though.’
Hesperon shrugged and slowly extended his left arm forward.
He’d come here precisely for this after the search ended, after all.
[Titan Online.]
[Barrage system activating.]
He couldn’t use the Dark Mist from the search.
It was too vast a power for him to handle, requiring a cooldown for stabilization.
‘But this’ll do just fine right now.’
The issue was that the densely packed monsters made it impossible to locate the core.
So first, he needed to thin their numbers as much as possible...
‘Nothing beats raw firepower for that!’
A targeting reticle appeared via 「Mechanical Eye: Kallikas」, with distance, wind speed, humidity, and countless other metrics flashing by.
The Dragon Heart, the Titan’s core, heated up as energy began to build.
“Ion Cannon, load.”
And it didn’t end there.
As his words finished, a massive metal structure shimmered into existence near his left shoulder.
The large cannon barrel from 「Subspace Storage」 linked with the Titan on his left arm.
Clank— whirr—!
The Dragon Heart at the center of the ultimate weapon—‘Ion Cannon’—that Howard had completed recently by mobilizing all his traits began resonating with the Titan’s circuits.
[Titan additional external armament—Ion Cannon—connected.]
[Synchronization in progress. Energy amplification starting.]
Vrrrrm—!
A weapon infused with the power of 「Technological Revolution」, coexisting submission to and defiance of Outerica’s laws—something that shouldn’t exist in this world.
Tremendous energy concentrated within, civilization-destroying destructive light leaking from the barrel.
[Modified Charged Particle Cannon charging complete.]
And finally.
“Fire!”
From the heavens to the earth.
[Firing.]
A massive pillar of light slammed down.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Rumble—!
Hesperon wasn’t the only one attacking.
A realm of death spread across the area, melting all monsters touching the ground, and a chilling storm of blood ground reinforcements into puddles the moment they arrived.
With berserk giant beasts and even breath-spewing dragons joining in, it was only natural that Crusayer’s massive body, unable to keep up with regeneration, began shrinking.
[—————!]
Of course, it didn’t sit still.
As if to prove its new abilities went beyond just spawning monsters, it countered the onslaught with various means.
Activating its six strengthened demon eyes simultaneously, warping space haphazardly, spreading abyssal corruption via monster suicide bombings.
But.
[Krkhkhkh... Using instant-death demon eyes in my presence? You must really think I’m a joke.]
“Future sight... Not just peeking at causality, huh. Definitely a pain.”
“Kahaha! That tickles! It tickles!”
[Kekruk kekruk! The air’s bad enough, why are you so persistent?!]
Its opponents were far too formidable.
Each one a tough matchup even one-on-one.
But they were combining forces for a pincer attack... and moving as one with linked minds. There was no way it could hold out.
[—————!]
Now shrunk back to its original Dragon Duke size, Crusayer bellowed in frustration.
As if demanding a fair one-on-one instead of ganging up like cowards.
Of course, Hela—who bowed to no one—didn’t bat an eye.
“What’s wrong? That’s not all you’ve got, is it? You sacrificed yourself for this?”
Infuriated by her mocking words, it glared at her ferociously.
Its eyes burned with more rage and hatred than when they’d first met, gleaming with murderous intent.
[...Fine! Even if it means abandoning my final piece, I’ll tear you apart no matter what!]
And as if its growling had been a lie, a guttural roar erupted from it.
Change occurred right after those words.
Shaaa—
As if it had been waiting, the aura emanating from him transformed.
[Hm? This is...]
The first to react was Immortal King Hans.
A power deeper than the abyss and darker than pitch black began flowing from it—something he’d sensed once before.
An ominous energy stimulating the 「Undying Heart」 in his chest.
Harley, bearer of the 「Seed of Madness」, felt it too.
————!
A gaze pierced through.
Not from Crusayer, but from beyond the body that had become an abyssal gateway.
An inscrutable gaze.
The atmosphere warped as if the world itself rejected the existence, exerting coercive force, but it was far too weak to block a properly paid-for descent.
‘...I see. Well, a guy aiming to rule the world wouldn’t have bet everything from the start.’
But that was the story until just now.
Cornered to the very end, it had finally abandoned everything.
Solely to take Hela—the culprit—with it.
And that wish aligned with ‘that existence’s’ understanding.
Shooo—
The connection solidified.
It was impossible to interfere before it completed.
As if it had always been fated.
‘This is dangerous.’
Of course, that state wouldn’t last long.
But the opponent was a supreme deity that had defied even the Main God.
Even fallen and sealed, that brief time would be enough to deal with those just starting to bloom their divinity seeds.
‘Tch, maybe we should all pull out until the time limit ends...’
As she seriously considered a way out—
Her body twitched.
‘Wait, this might actually...’
Her pair of reverse eyes moved rapidly, as if reading something in the air.
A faint smile crept onto her lips.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 「Influence as Demon King expands. The entity’s existence becomes more distinct.」 「The entity’s karma has reached the critical point.」 She felt it.
The line she had just crossed.
Proving it, messages continued pouring in.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 「Achievement unlocked! You have become the ‘Demon King,’ sovereign demon lord ruling the Demon World.」 「You ended the long-standing war and became the undisputed ruler of the Demon World. As reward, special privilege 「World Invasion」 is granted.」 「You achieved a great feat, greatly influencing the world. Karma additionally increases.」 Even while Hela was here, Helheim’s influence had been steadily expanding.
No—such a crisis actually allowed it to take root faster.
With all rival Demon King candidates eliminated, the outcome was practically set.
The demons of the Demon World just needed time to fully recognize it.
‘Maybe it was a bit short, and the Demon God front-loaded some credit.’
Given the perfect timing, that was a highly plausible guess.
But that wasn’t what mattered now.
What mattered was what she could do now that she’d officially claimed the Demon King throne.
‘Ah, now I get it. Why the Demon God stayed silent all this time.’
Now that she was the Demon King, she understood.
What the Demon God had given up for.
Why the Demon King position was so crucial in this Demon World.
‘The Demon King’s existence was both the beginning and end of Demon World rule.’
Gods couldn’t carelessly interfere in the lower realms.
Less so than the Main God, but the Demon God faced similar constraints.
Yet to check the sealed god, he’d needed active intervention and thus created a workaround.
“I am Hela, the 16th Demon King of the Demon World.”
That existence was the Demon King.
The Demon God’s messenger, delegated most administrative authority over the Demon World.
‘Though there are limits, apparently. Like the 15th, who got greedy, trolled everything, and blew it.’
The ‘World’ gathered in Hela’s hand.
Not just dominating the surroundings as before.
At her will, the entire Demon World unified into a massive sword.
Already familiar with 「Demon King」 power for so long, her control was perfect—hard to believe she’d just gained the title.
“Crusayer, disruptor of the Demon World’s order—you— ”
The target was Crusayer, whose descent hadn’t finished.
Of course, no matter how much you reserve something, you can’t buy it without payment.
“—are sentenced to execution.”
The moment the World swung.
————!
A new scar crossed the one slashing across the Demon World’s sky.