Demon King Tolkai Stands Alone

Demon King Tolkai stood alone.

Arrayed before him were Duke Jonas and the more than a thousand demons who followed him. The numbers were overwhelming enough to freeze a man's blood, yet Tolkai's expression and bearing remained unhurried from first to last.

"You've a card hidden away, haven't you?"

At Jonas's words, edged with a faint tension, a smile touched Tolkai's lips.

"You must have come expecting at least that much."

"I did. Tolkai—whatever you try, whatever trick you reach for, I know full well that you cannot slip this crisis."

"Amusing. May I ask what makes you so certain?"

"Can't you see it plainly with your own eyes? Do you truly believe you can face this many alone?"

Being Demon King did not mean one stood head and shoulders above a duke. The difference was subtle—truly subtle. Demons who held a ducal title were simply of a different caliber from the rest of their kind, and that was precisely why Jonas had dared his rebellion with such confidence. He had been certain he would win.

And in truth, events had unfolded exactly as he wished. The Demon King had been left alone, and not a single demon who might have been called his ally stood at his side.

And yet…

Something about the scene unsettled Jonas. Demon King Tolkai was far too at ease.

The scouting was thorough. Within at least thirty floors, he has no reinforcements.

Nor could anyone simply teleport in. Barriers were laid throughout the Demon King's Castle, and those barriers were not something even the Demon King could casually dismantle. On that point, at least, Jonas was not greatly concerned.

Turning it over a moment longer, Jonas smiled.

The moment I take that seat is not far off.

How long he had dreamed of it. How he had hoped, and waited. With the long-awaited hour finally before his eyes, Jonas's heart began to pound.

"Attack!"

Jonas's shout rang out. Draining the Demon King's strength came first—but that did not mean Duke Jonas and the noble demons meant to stand idle. They would support and reinforce the demons who led the charge, and wear the Demon King down.

Dark Demonic Energy burst from Demon King Tolkai's hand.

KWA-KWA-KWANG!

It was the most basic attack a demon used, and a destructive one. Unleashed from the Demon King's hand, it erupted with power on an entirely different scale.

"Aaaagh!"

"P-potion!"

Any demon struck head-on by the Dark Demonic Energy died on the spot, without question. Those farther off did not escape unscathed either. Limbs were severed; in the worst cases, upper and lower bodies were half-blown apart and left hanging in tatters.

Chaos broke loose, but no one fell into panic or lost their head. Everyone had expected this much. The demons who charged the Demon King first could only serve as arrow-fodder, and they had gone knowing it—for the cause they believed in.

Even Demon King Tolkai could not fight carelessly against an elite force ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠assembled like this, and he spent his power without reserve. The Dark Demonic Energy the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demons had fired first was annihilated by the blast he released a beat later.

In the hollow instant when every face went slack, a semicircle of Dark Demonic Energy formed again in the empty air. What had appeared from nowhere was darker, and larger, than anything the Demon King had released before.

Absorption. Conversion.

The Demon King's Dark Demonic Energy had not merely erased the others' attacks. It had drunk their power in, and turned that absorbed energy back into Dark Demonic Energy of its own. That was why a still stronger mass of it had been born out of empty space.

"I-insane!"

"Dodge!"

"Take that and you're dead on the spot! Watch yourselves!"

But the Dark Demonic Energy detonated a step faster than they could react.

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!

It burst of its own accord, with no collision against any solid form, and Jonas's demons could only take it helplessly. This time the screams were comparatively few. One hundred and seventy demons lost their lives in a single instant.

Jonas's face hardened in a flash.

I knew he handled Dark Demonic Energy well, but to think he had gone past absorption—all the way to conversion…

Honestly, it was a shock. Judging by his command of Dark Demonic Energy alone, the Demon King stood two moves above Jonas himself.

This isn't the Tolkai I knew.

But the Demon King was not the only one who had grown. A hundred years of Tolkai's reign—and a hundred years was no small span, even for demons. Through that time Jonas had endured relentless effort and bone-grinding pain, and he had grown a great deal. He had also prepared a hidden weapon meant to end the Demon King's life. He had no thought of retreat whatsoever.

Demon King Tolkai, wearing a thin smile, spoke.

"Did you mean to take me with nothing but a numbers game?"

"Hardly."

Tolkai simply waited, his posture all but inviting the other side to strike first.

He means to absorb the Dark Demonic Energy again.

Any energy of a lower grade than Dark Demonic Energy would be swallowed whole—even light, fatal as it was to demonkind.

"Defensive stance, all of you! Do not release energy before the Demon King, no matter what!"

In truth, answering the absorption and conversion Tolkai had shown was no simple matter. He was not limited to using the ability only as a counter.

Tolkai released Dark Demonic Energy.

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!

The shields the demons had thrown up in haste collided with the blast. Dozens of layered barriers shattered pitifully under Tolkai's attack. The Demon King fired again.

KWA-KWANG!

"Aaaagh!"

This time the force was not so great, but the dead were not few. They had been struck while utterly undefended. Roughly forty lost their lives.

In that instant, Jonas moved. He reached Tolkai's front before the Demon King could even draw up his mana, and claws that had sprung out unnoticed aimed for Tolkai's throat.

Whoosh!

Tolkai's form vanished. The sharp claws cut only empty air, and Tolkai appeared at Jonas's back. As if he had already expected it, Jonas spun and swung claws wreathed in Dark Demonic Energy.

Skrrk!

Tolkai drew a sword and caught the claws. The Dark Demonic Energy clinging to them was drunk into the blade. Brow furrowed, Jonas retreated in haste. In raw physical ability he held the advantage, and Tolkai could not pursue.

Jonas let out a breath of relief.

He's more worn than he was a moment ago.

Absorption and conversion. As powerful as the ability was, it consumed mana in equal measure. Jonas committed the demons waiting in the rear. Seven hundred still remained—more than enough to exhaust a Demon King.

Time slipped by quickly. Around the moment their numbers fell below four hundred, Demon King Tolkai let out a rough breath.

An act?

Suspicion came first. What if he trusted that appearance and paid a still greater price for it?

I won't be taken in.

He kept his mind loose, and patient.

KWA-KWA-KWANG! KWA-KWANG!

This time Demon King Tolkai's Dark Demonic Energy failed to pierce the demons' shields. His strength had clearly fallen off from before, and the demons pressed him all the harder for it.

Another five minutes or so passed.

The time has come to finish this.

The Demon King was spent. The duke and the noble demons were entirely unharmed. A smile of triumph crossed Jonas's face as he drew a single item from his inventory.

A Mythic-grade item, no less—one he could boast was unmatched by any stronger weapon. There was, however, a limit on its uses. One, and one only. Since the day he had obtained it, he had never used it even once.

After everything I went through to get this. A shame, truly.

The attack power astonished him every time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he looked at it. Throw the spear, and that power became a full million and a half. Even for Duke Jonas, who had lived long years among the strong, it was a figure he could scarcely believe.

The Demon King was gradually hemmed in by the demons. Perhaps he no longer had the mana left for absorption and conversion; he was hard-pressed merely to block Duke Jonas's Dark Demonic Energy. They drove the momentum home.

It's nearly over.

But he was the Demon King in name, if nothing else. Tolkai resisted with everything he had, and spewed poisonous smoke in every direction. Creatures that lived in the Demon Realm possessed a baseline resistance to poison, but the smoke Tolkai released was on an entirely different level.

"Guhhhk."

"C-can't… breathe…"

Skin necrotizing was the mild case. Most of the demons coughed blood and collapsed where they stood. Tolkai himself was not unscathed. Filling the great hall of the Demon King's Castle with smoke of such extreme toxicity had clearly strained him past his limit; he dropped to one knee.

Duke Jonas and the noble demons were comparatively unharmed. Their resistance to poison stood higher than that of the others. Jonas clenched his teeth. Hundreds of elite demons had just died to that smoke, and he could hardly believe they were struggling this badly against a single Demon King. Worse, Tolkai's eyes were still alive.

Fine. I'll end it in a single stroke.

The muscles of Jonas's arm swelled.

Whoosh!

Ukria's Holy Spear flew at tremendous speed. The air shuddered, and the instant of its flight seemed to stretch, as if time itself had stopped. Demon King Tolkai could not dodge it. The spear pierced his heart.

Thuk!

Tolkai's head dropped, and he collapsed with a heavy thud. There was no sound of breath. He looked perfectly, completely dead.

The corner of Jonas's mouth lifted.

At last…!

Ukria's Holy Spear vanished entirely the moment Tolkai fell. A waste, yes—but if it meant he could seize the Demon King's seat, then so be it. It had been a single-use item anyway. There was no need to cling to its loss.

It was in the very moment Jonas savored his victory.

Wooong. Woong.

A massive vibration swept the great hall. The few demons still standing on Jonas's side staggered, and the faces of Jonas and the noble demons went rigid. It was not the vibration prickling through their bodies that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did it. After that single pulse, Demon King Tolkai was standing there—perfectly intact.

"…How?"

At the word Jonas let slip without meaning to, Tolkai answered with a sneer at the corner of his mouth.

"I told you, did I not? That I had a card hidden away."

Jonas had confirmed the breath was gone. He had confirmed the mana dispersing from a body whose soul had already vanished.

Even if he had an elixir, coming back to life would be impossible… so how?

Knowing that, he had been certain of victory. And yet the Demon King had revived, whole and unharmed. He had died—and lived again. How was such a thing possible?

"Curious, are you." Demon King Tolkai said it quietly. "How I slipped free of death."

The elite demons were already dead to the last. What remained were only a handful of nobles—and the Demon King's presence had grown stronger than before. This did not look like a mere revival. There was no chance of victory.

Duke Jonas nodded.

"How is it possible to die and live again? From what I can see, you haven't become undead, either."

Tolkai looked down at his own arm. A single pattern, drawn in thick lines. Originally, no pattern or mark of any kind had existed there.

"I obtained a new power. Something far removed from everything the Demon Realm has ever taken for common sense… a transcendent power." Tolkai grinned. "A body that grows stronger each time I die. That is the ability I obtained."

"You grow stronger every time you die?"

"Yes. From the very beginning, you were fighting a battle you could not win."

"……"

If the Demon King's words were true, the situation could not have been bleaker. Honestly, it was an absurd ability—growing stronger every time one died. And yet…

It doesn't look like empty bluster…

Even if the Demon King was lying, they no longer had the strength to kill him a second time. The faces of Jonas and the noble demons darkened.

"I should wrap this up. I've enjoyed the diversion well enough."

It was the moment Tolkai gathered his mana.

KUNG!

The door at the far end of the great hall burst open with a racket, as if someone had kicked it in. Every gaze in the hall turned that way—and where those gazes landed, three undead and a figure wrapped in a cloak were stepping inside.