Chapter 318
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 318
Chapter Title: Altar (2)
Around sunset, Babel visited the room where Dorgo was imprisoned.
The demon guarding the entrance, Laria, recognized Babel and stood up from his chair.
“Ah, it’s fine, stay seated. I just came to see this guy’s face.”
Babel sat Laria back down and entered the prison.
Inside, Dorgo lay collapsed, bound in iron chains. It was just like looking at a real skull.
“Hmm.”
Babel squatted down in front of Dorgo. Then he pulled a small glass bottle from his pocket.
Black liquid swirled inside the glass bottle. It was fresh black magic power, just extracted.
Babel poured the black magic power onto Dorgo’s head. It was absorbed into Dorgo immediately upon contact.
A faint light flickered to life in the skull’s eye sockets. It meant Dorgo had regained consciousness.
“Dorgo, today I want to ask something a bit different. Is that okay?”
Dorgo’s head moved slowly. He laboriously lifted it to gaze up at Babel.
“It’s nothing big, just a mystery that even peering into your memories doesn’t solve.”
Babel stared steadily into Dorgo’s eyes and asked.
“Just what kind of demon were you?”
The name Dorgo was extremely famous among demons.
After all, it was Dorgo’s betrayal that had trapped the demons in Hell.
But no one actually knew what kind of demon Dorgo had been.
“It’s strange. I clearly saw you myself when I was young. Not just me—plenty of other demons did too.”
Demons neither aged nor died. Unless killed by some external force, they lived infinite lives.
That was why there were no small number of demons who had personally met Dorgo.
“But I can’t remember what race you were. Or what powers you had.”
It hadn’t been long since Babel had started feeling this unease.
After coming to the surface, working with Dorgo, reading her memories.
And then it had suddenly dawned on him: he didn’t actually know what kind of demon Dorgo was.
It wasn’t just Babel. The other demons were the same.
“The only thing I know is that you were a duke-class demon… and that’s strange too. How could one duke-class demon’s betrayal get all of demonkind thrown into Hell?”
There was only one duke-class demon left now—Babel himself—but things had been different in the past.
There had been seven Demon Kings, and beneath them, countless duke-class demons.
“The strangest part is that no one’s ever thought this was odd until now. It’s like someone cast hypnosis on us.”
Babel grabbed Dorgo’s head and lifted it. Dorgo dangled limply in his grasp.
“Dorgo, speak. Just who the hell are you?”
Dorgo’s mouth twitched. Just as something was about to spill from it.
—Your Excellency!
Along with the urgent cry, the bull-headed demon Asta burst into the prison.
“What is it?”
—We’ve found the altar!
Babel’s eyes widened at those words.
If it was true, now wasn’t the time to fuss over Dorgo.
Babel set Dorgo’s head down and shot to his feet.
“That’s very welcome news. Let’s move right away. We need to break the pact and free our kin.”
A savage smile curled across Babel’s lips.
The time had finally come to fulfill the demons’ long-held wish. Even Babel couldn’t help but feel excited.
“Your Excellency, forgive me, but there’s a problem we need to address first.”
“A problem?”
Asta hesitated at Babel’s question before speaking.
“You should see it for yourself.”
* * *
“…….”
Just as Asta said, Babel raced through the dimensional gate—and lost his words.
It was because of Demian Haksen’s figure visible beyond it.
“……So we didn’t find the altar. Demian Haksen told us about it?”
—……Yes.
Babel spoke in admiration.
“He really is insane……?”
He’d tangled with a dragon, so he had to know how important the altar was.
And yet, he was openly revealing its location to them?
“He must’ve stirred up all this chaos just to lure us in?”
—It seems that way.
Babel could only let out a hollow laugh.
“He sent us such a splendid invitation. We have to respond, don’t we?”
Babel turned to the demons arrayed behind him and declared.
“I’ll grant the demon who kills Demian Haksen the richest lands on the surface!”
The demons roared in response to Babel’s proclamation.
The demons hurled themselves through the dimensional gate all at once.
* * *
“……This is insane.”
Valhard despaired as he gazed at the flood of demons.
Not a single one was a rabble-rouser despite their numbers. They were all count-class demons, and a few were even marquis-class.
That kind of force could sweep the surface clean and then some. Pitting himself against such overwhelming power was pure madness.
“Demian Haksen! If you’re going to die, die alone—why drag me into this?!”
“Why’s a dragon like you such a coward? This is when you should charge in all bold, saying you’ll handle them yourself.”
“This isn’t the time for your lame jokes!”
Valhard bellowed. Demian’s gaze sharpened in response.
“And you keep dropping the honorifics. Should I kill you first?”
Valhard flinched at the surging killing intent. He sneaked a glance and hastily adjusted his tone.
“M-my point isn’t wrong, is it? How are the two of us supposed to fight that many monsters?”
“They do outnumber us.”
Demian Haksen remarked as he eyed the demons flying toward them.
Valhard barely restrained the urge to smack him.
“Then let’s thin their numbers a bit.”
“Do you have a plan, sir?”
“Of course. First, hand over your magic power.”
“……Pardon?”
Valhard stared at Demian Haksen in confusion. Magic power? Hand it over?
“You’re a dragon, so you must have magic power to spare. Give it all to me.”
“Have you forgotten……? I’m a dragon.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
Demian Haksen said pityingly. Valhard bristled.
“Dragon magic power is too dense and wild for humans to handle!”
It might be possible if absorbed gradually over ages of dedicated effort.
But no human could wield freshly extracted, raw dragon magic power.
“I get it, so just hand it over. We need to finish this before those bastards get any closer.”
“You don’t seem to understand.”
Demian pulled a club from his subspace. Seeing it, Valhard freaked out and yelled.
“I-I’ll give it! I’ll give it!”
Valhard immediately released his polymorph and reverted to his true dragon form. It was far easier to handle magic power in his original body.
Valhard activated his dragon heart and drew out his magic power. The surrounding temperature spiked dramatically as a result.
—I’ll send it now.
“Fine.”
Valhard felt rage flare again at the attitude, right up to the end.
‘Don’t blame me if you end up crippled!’
Valhard squeezed out as much magic power as he could and sent it to Demian Haksen.
Magic power gushed from Valhard’s true body and flowed into Demian.
* * *
‘A dragon through and through.’
Absorbing Valhard’s magic power, Demian Haksen couldn’t help but marvel at its quantity and quality.
Sure, he was treating him like a bipedal lizard, but a dragon was undeniably the strongest living creature.
‘I’ll merge it into one.’
Demian circulated the Pentad Harmony Art.
As Valhard had said, the dragon’s magic power resisted fiercely. As if it despised submitting to a mere human.
But Demian’s control was even stronger than the dragon’s resistance.
Demian’s own magic power, the spirit power from the World Tree sapling, and the dragon’s magic power formed a single circle.
Unity.
The three forces merged as one. Demian raised the club high into the sky.
The unified magic power gathered above Demian’s head. It soon condensed, taking on form.
—A human wielding dragon magic power this skillfully?
Valhard, watching from the side, muttered in shock.
As a dragon, he could tell. Demian wasn’t wasting even a drop of the magic power he’d given.
—What the hell is he planning to make?
Soon, the magic power took full shape. Valhard’s face went slack.
—A club……?
A club the size of a mountain peak floated above Demian’s head.
The first Holy Emperor, Bartoleo.
Demian had once battled the lingering will he’d left behind and acquired his techniques and insights.
The realm Bartoleo had attained as a Grandmaster was “Gigantification.”
Gigantification’s power was simple.
The larger you made an Aurablade, the harder and stronger it became.
“Then let’s try blowing them away in one hit.”
Demian swung down the club he’d raised high.
The colossal club, large enough to blot out the sky, plummeted toward the ground.
—Hey, what’s that falling?
At first, the demons couldn’t grasp the situation.
—What is that? I sense insane magic power.
—Just a blob of magic power, right?
—Then ignore it and push through!
Even after realizing, they didn’t take it seriously.
Magic power gained strength through density.
Just making something stupidly huge like that was useless.
—Kill Demian Haksen!
—Kill the dragon too!
Above all, the demons were in a fever pitch right now.
—That speed’s no joke……
—Something feels off……
But a few among them sensed that things were going south.
—We should dodge……
It was already too late.
The massive club smashed into the horde of demons.
Flying demons and ground-bound ones alike were all pulverized beneath it.
Dozens of demons were crushed at once.