Return and Discovery (4)
Miguel LaMancha. Warrior Captain sworn to protect the elves, bearer of the hero's title bestowed by the Holy Empire and its sixty-six federated nations. And yet, he was a man who received starkly divided evaluations from his fellow elves.
"Warrior Captain Miguel LaMancha, I greet the High Priestess."
The man dropped to one knee and bowed his head. His dark gray hair, like ashes piled beneath firewood, was striking. Eyes black as iron oxide. Sharp features honed like a blade. And a sturdy build towering well over 180 centimeters. Miguel LaMancha evoked the image of a leader commanding countless lions—noble and valiant, yet radiating the dry solitude of a barren desert.
"Miguel LaMancha, I welcome your return to the homeland after concluding your long martial campaign."
"Thank you."
"As your friend, I rejoice in your homecoming. But as High Priestess, I cannot help but admonish you sternly."
"...Yes, I understand."
Miguel, facing Ileina's cold gaze, pressed his lips tight and bowed his head deeper, as if he had already steeled himself for this. He hadn't returned home for ages. He'd been locked in fierce battles on the Eastern Front, aiding the Holy Empire against the Demon King Army, but to the Liberia Elf Kingdom, voices condemning Miguel LaMancha for neglecting his homeland in crisis for foreign support ran high.
"Sabnack has already been repelled."
"Yes, I heard the news on the way here. That the Holy Empire's Diablo Slayer triumphed over Sabnack..."
"Had the Diablo Slayer not intervened, this nation would have fallen, and our kin would have met gruesome ends or suffered the shame of enslavement by demons."
"......"
Under Ileina's icy stare, Miguel fell silent, his heart heavy with unspoken regret. What excuse could he possibly offer? He had no words, even if he had ten mouths. Despite his rank as Warrior Captain and possession of a sacred relic granted by the High Priestess herself, he had failed to perceive his homeland's peril. He could be stripped of his position this instant, and he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
"But that's not the issue we must address now. We haven't the luxury to debate punishments idly."
Ileina glanced at the priests who had been clamoring for Miguel's immediate punishment, then turned to the Warrior Captain who had raced back from afar with urgent tidings.
"Warrior Captain Miguel, what does it mean that the Tyranny has awakened once more?"
The Tyranny had awakened again. Not only Ileina but the priests, who grasped the implications late, waited anxiously for Miguel's explanation.
At last, he spoke.
"Another demon has inherited the Demon Core of Tyranny in Agares's wake."
"A new Tyranny Demon King has been born?!"
One priest cried out in shock. Miguel nodded gravely at the astonished exclamation.
"The great demon who claimed the Demon Core of Tyranny is a monster from the vampire clan, known by countless names like Vampir, Carmilla, and more."
"...The bloodsucking kin. Ancient texts describe them as fiends wielding dark magic through blood curses."
"Yes, that's correct."
Blood demons. Nobles of the night. The news that the vampire clan—holders of myriad epithets—had inherited the mantle of the Tyranny Demon King was enough to plunge the entire continent into shock. It was unprecedented for a vampire to become a Demon King. Amid tribes renowned for superior combat prowess and merciless brutality, the vampires had ultimately seized the Demon Core of Tyranny.
"If a new Tyranny Demon King has risen, its ripples will reach even the Liberia Peninsula indirectly. We must excise the root before then."
Ileina declared. The "root" she meant was Sabnack, locked in a slaughterfest in Granata. She scrapped the prior plan. They would mobilize the army at once, seize Granata, and slay Sabnack. The fear was that the cornered demon might ally with the Tyranny Demon King.
"But striking Granata now might backfire—the demons who betrayed Sabnack could flock to the Demon King instead."
"Better to let them tear each other apart until their forces are spent."
The priests voiced concerns over Ileina's decision, wary of rushing in and squandering a stroke of fortune. But her resolve was ironclad. They had the Diablo Slayer and the Twelve Warrior Captains. With Miguel LaMancha's return, the Liberia Elf Kingdom boasted an unprecedentedly formidable force. Ileina brimmed with confidence that they could eradicate Sabnack and her remnants in one fell swoop.
"If it wouldn't be an imposition, might I meet the Holy Empire's Diablo Slayer?"
"That should be no trouble."
Ileina nodded at Miguel's cautious request. He was currently with the Valencia family. Officially courting Ardena Valencia, he was no doubt enjoying a blissful newlywed life at Valencia Castle.
"With Warrior Captain Ardena? Though her age is certainly..."
"Don't poke that sore spot. Ardena reacts sharply to mentions of her age."
"I'll take care."
Miguel, apparently unaware of the scandal between the Diablo Slayer and Ardena Valencia during his journey home, looked genuinely startled by Ileina's words. Though he hadn't met the Diablo Slayer yet, if Ardena had chosen him, Miguel assumed the man must be exceptional, noble in character.
* * *
After Agares met his wretched end, the domain once ruled by the Tyranny Demon King spiraled into chaos. Demons and half-demons, long oppressed by his tyranny, rose in rebellion crying for freedom. Ambitious fiends launched coups to claim the Demon Core of Tyranny, igniting a brutal power struggle.
"Agares's corpse is ours!"
"Kill them! Annihilate every bastard approaching the Demon King's castle!!"
For months on end, civil war raged within Agares's Demon King Castle. It was pandemonium. Demons blinded by the throne formed alliances or enmities among tribes, behaving no differently from selfish, cunning humans. Tens of thousands had fallen gruesomely. The castle lay in ruins beyond recognition, drowned in a sea of blood and corpses from the power grab.
"Filthy orc scum!"
"Monstrous filth daring to covet the Demon King's throne? You're barbarians unfit even to speak of it!"
As every tribe involved in the fray suffered heavy losses and lay exhausted, green-skinned monsters stormed the castle. Orcs. Grotesquely ugly, unlike the handsome demons, these beastly kin induced retching with their vile visages—green skin, yellowed fangs, bizarre features, bloated flesh. Armed with crude weapons and armor, their overwhelming numbers encircled the castle in a flash.
"Too busy clawing at each other to notice the threat right under their noses... Just like the brainless fools who've survived Agares's tyranny all this time."
A stunning black-haired beauty cackled mercilessly, savoring the demons' brutal demise. She sneered without pity. Her sharp fangs gleamed between her lips with each laugh, blending playful allure with seductive charm. Among the alluring vampires, hers was peerless—captivating yet menacing. Whenever her blood-red eyes flashed, the orcs shrank like frogs before a serpent.
"Mommy, it's all done."
"Bunch of idiots who only know greed."
"Probably aftereffects of being crushed under Tyranny's power for so long. Mutt mongrels unfit for the throne anyway."
Dark shadows erupted from the ground, revealing three beauties. They approached the vampire queen, giggling. These three daughters, calling the vampire queen "Mommy," wielded massive sickles ill-suited to their slender hands.
"It's... all... over..."
An orc captain, eyes vacant, staggered toward the vampire queen under her thrall. Not just him—tens of thousands of orcs were all puppets controlled by vampires. Led by the queen, the vampire horde manipulated vast swarms like queen ants commanding soldier ants through insidious pheromones and domination.
"We found where the Demon Core of Tyranny is."
"They say Agares, slain by the Diablo Slayer, plummeted into an unfathomable abyss."
"Of course the core's with his corpse, so it sank into the abyss. Hate that. Dark and dank places are my worst nightmare. But if Mommy asks... no choice."
The daughters chattered animatedly, giggling and bickering like tomboys, displaying vibrant facets before their queen.
"Diablo Slayer. What a blunder, leaving the Demon Core of Tyranny unclaimed. Then again, fleeing Agares's swarming minions, he had no leisure to fish a sunken corpse from the abyss."
The vampire queen mobilized all forces to salvage the Demon Core of Tyranny. She couldn't dawdle. Demons lurking in shadows, eyeing the core, marched on the castle. After months of strife, the vampires emerged victorious. The queen seized the Demon Core, unleashed Tyranny's power to puppet the encroaching demons, re-enslaved Agares's followers and millions of "freed" citizens, and proclaimed a second reign of tyranny.