Demon King Sabnack (1)
Bariteon Trident's battle against the black monster Borhes and the others dragged on for half a day before ending in a draw. Sabnack praised the high elf warrior captain who had fought on equal footing with her loyal familiar.
After the fight concluded, Sabnack rose from her jade throne. The elves watching her had been tense ever since the Demon King—who had sat there observing everything except for a brief absence—finally stirred.
"I shall step forward myself."
The red-haired Demon King gripped the crude longsword she had been leaning on beside the throne as she declared her intent to enter the fray personally. The elf knights who witnessed this gulped dryly, their trembling hands barely managing to hold their weapons.
The Demon King, wrapped in the favor of immortality. For her to take the field herself meant death for the elves.
"There is no need for Your Highness to intervene personally. We shall handle it in your stead."
The ghost cavalryman spoke up, but Sabnack shook her head at her loyal familiar's words.
"I wish to gauge the elves' mettle myself. That man, Bariteon Trident, was truly an exceptional warrior. It is because they have so many fine warriors like him that these wretched elves have held out against our relentless assault. And so, I want to show them what the dignity of a Demon King truly entails... and that I am on a wholly different level from trash like Agares."
The ghost cavalryman bowed his head and retreated at Sabnack's continued words. The evil spirit knight stepped forward, signaling to the ghost cavalryman who had blocked her path: Let her enjoy this.
"Sound the drums."
"This is a battle where His Highness the Demon King enters the fray personally."
The undead soldiers serving as the Demon King Army's military band began beating the war drums. Green-skinned orcs inflated their chests and blew mighty blasts on their trumpets. Flag-bearers hoisted the army's banners and aligned to the flanks, clearing a path for Sabnack's advance.
"Oh, she's coming..."
"That woman's the Demon King...!"
The elf knights gripped their weapons tightly, their faces taut with tension. The ranks parted left and right. Tens of thousands of troops split apart like the Red Sea to open an attack lane for their king.
As the army divided, the Demon King came into view. The Raging Flames Demon King appeared no older than her mid-teens. There was nothing ferocious about her at first glance. Yet the elves trembled in fear.
It was the overwhelming pressure radiating from Sabnack, a battle intent that crushed them so utterly it seemed to deny them even the breath in their lungs.
"I am the Raging Flames Demon King, Sabnack. The sovereign who shall now pass judgment upon you elves."
Sabnack addressed the elf forces glaring at her, her crude scrap-iron sword dangling loosely. Her voice was not loud. But with every elf in the field focused solely on her, they all heard the Demon King's declaration of war.
"Let brave warriors step forth. Let loyal knights stand against me. You elves who inflicted upon me an indelible humiliation and primal sin—now, you shall atone for the grave transgressions of your ancestors with your lives."
With those words, Sabnack kicked off the ground and charged toward the elf ranks. She shot forward like a crimson fireball. A red shadow trailed her as she reached the vanguard of the elf army.
"Urgh, raaaah!!"
An elf knight bravely swung his sword at Sabnack in a charge. But that was all. The knight was sent flying with a massive gash from Sabnack's scrap-iron blade. The others fared no better. No elf knight could match her.
Halting her advance, even momentarily, or blocking her razor-sharp sword path was impossible. They were unilaterally ravaged, forced to carve open a bloody sea overflowing with crimson gore.
"For the Elf Kingdom!"
"Knights, strike down the High Priestess's foe!"
"Do not retreat! We are the knight order, guardians of the Liberia Elf Kingdom!"
The elf knights did not fall back. They dragged their quaking legs forward to stand before Sabnack. Even with the corpses of their fallen comrades littering the ground, they did not flee.
Sabnack placed a hand over her heart and praised their courage. But she offered no mercy. In war, a knight dying honorably against the enemy deserved acclaim—not compassion.
Thus, Sabnack resolved to grant all the elf knights blocking her path a proud and honorable death.
"Come, try to sever my head, elf knights."
Sabnack swung her crude scrap-iron sword in a massive windmill arc, smashing the elf knights apart. Severed limbs flew into the air. Crimson blood fountains erupted alongside the knights' screams, filling the battlefield.
Elf knights swarmed from all sides. Terrified of death though they were, they did not run—they confronted the Demon King. She welcomed their deaths grandly, honoring their loyalty and honor with flawless, ultimate strikes.
"Rise, black grudge. Surge, red flames. The path I tread shall be paved with blood and corpses. All deaths, come to me."
In a mere instant, Sabnack slaughtered three hundred elf knights and murmured a brief incantation. Her body was drenched in blood. But she felt no disgust—rather, satisfaction. The blood dripping from her fingertips was proof she lived on this battlefield.
Covered in the elves' blood, Sabnack let her blood-smeared scrap-iron sword hang low, anticipating the next challenger to bar her way.
"Yes, it had to be you."
Sabnack smiled. The guardian knights defending the Elf Kingdom—the twelve warrior captains of the Liberia Elf Kingdom began encircling her. Including Bariteon, who had fiercely battled the black monster Borhes, eight warrior captains in total now blocked the Demon King's path.
Nearly their full number, excluding the one holding the border with the Valua Kingdom, had been committed to this fight against the Demon King.
"Ardena Valencia."
Sabnack uttered the name of the female knight leading the warrior captains barring her way. Ardena Valencia. The high elf warrior captain who carried the lingering aura of El Seed—the one who had inflicted upon her an indelible defeat.
She was clad in armor radiating a deep green glow, armed with El Seed's sword. A famed blade adorned with blue gems—the very weapon El Seed had used to tear Sabnack's flesh to shreds.
"...I shan't dredge up old history. The reason you wield that sword must be to fell me. No battle against a Demon King would be complete without El Seed's famed blade."
Sabnack's clear glass-like eyes flashed. But those glass-like eyes began to turn red. They transformed into blazing crimson eyes like roaring flames.
This heralded the activation of the Demon King's Raging Flames authority.
The eight warrior captains swung their blades solely at the Demon King. Sabnack dodged the twin warrior captains Seira and Emily Leon's rapid thrusts, then parried Bariteon's Eternal Snow.
She evaded or countered the follow-up assaults from the other captains, scattering red slashes in retaliation.
"Bloom, karmic flames."
As she swung her scrap-iron sword through empty air, pillars of searing flame erupted. The elf warrior captains fell back momentarily. Sabnack closed in during the gap, hunting them down.
"Sing, inferno. Grant me strength, karmic flames. Burn all without remnant. Blaze, devour. Flames of raging fire."
Sabnack incessantly chanted her incantation, menacing the elf warrior captains opposing her. To claim numerical superiority against a Demon King was folly. Sabnack had never been defeated by anyone save El Seed.
That meant no one could triumph over her without El Seed's intervention.
"Hup!"
"Graaaah!"
A heavily armored warrior captain charged with a massive mace. Another wielding a bastard sword joined from the flank, both aiming to deliver a decisive blow and incapacitate the Demon King at once.
"Pathetic."
Sabnack kicked off the ground, evading the mace and bastard sword strikes. Her petite frame twisted mid-air, altering her axis. From her leaping position, she whipped her sword swiftly, sending both captains tumbling back.
Overwhelming combat prowess, judgment honed by experience, and martial refinement forged over centuries of self-imposed torment to surpass El Seed. She lacked in nothing.
She had only briefly invoked her Raging Flames authority at the start; now, she pushed the captains to their limits using swordsmanship alone.
"Ardena!"
Sabnack shouted, charging at Ardena, armored in sword and plate, her face alight with ecstasy. Ardena Valencia—the sole opponent capable of matching her, absent El Seed or the Diablo Slayer.
Thus, Sabnack held great expectations for her.
"Sabnack!"
Ardena likewise called Sabnack's name and swung her sword. She wielded her master's blade. She thrust its keen edge, batting away Sabnack's scrap-iron sword. Bariteon followed with Eternal Snow, intruding into the clash.
El Seed's aura thickened. Sabnack sensed it emanating from Ardena's sword and armor, and from the spear Bariteon gripped.
"Shut your trap, blizzard of the frozen wastes."
Bariteon unleashed Eternal Snow with full force, conjuring arctic chill. Ardena, close by, blocked the cold with energy surging from her White Lily Scale. But Sabnack, fully exposed, had no choice but to take it head-on.
She froze solid in an instant. The Demon King's body was trapped in Eternal Snow's ice.
But only for a moment—crimson flames burst from within, shattering the ice explosively.
"Not bad, Ardena. But it's not enough."
Sabnack gripped her sword hilt with both hands. She swept it horizontally in a massive arc, blasting away not just the eight warrior captains but the encircling elf troops as well.
A scorching flame storm raged. An assault with the power to evaporate moisture instantly and incinerate life utterly.
Ardena and Bariteon's slashes had somewhat diminished the storm, but it was still more than enough to sweep away the captains and soldiers in one fell swoop.
"There, that's how it's done."
Sabnack, who had unleashed the flame storm, glanced at her shoulder. A wound had opened there. Deep enough for blood to drip steadily. Despite the stinging pain, she couldn't hide her exhilaration.
They hadn't just blocked the flame storm—they'd counterattacked. Allowing Ardena's quick thrust to graze her, Sabnack laughed in delight.
"Then, try blocking this."
Sabnack raised one arm. As if pulling something down from above, she yanked with all her might. Crimson fireballs manifested.
Cannonball-sized orbs appeared in the sky above, hundreds of them, menacing the elf army. She had clearly prepared this assault while clashing swords with the elf warrior captains.
"She was readying a large-scale attack even while fighting us... surrounded by tens of thousands, yet pulling off something like this..."
Bariteon muttered. The Demon King replied.
"Tens of thousands? What of it? A Demon King is a monster that terrifies all creation by her mere existence! Did you think I'd quake before your numbers?!"
Sabnack thrust her fist forward. With that, the crimson meteor shower overhead plummeted to earth. Red rain poured down. It was like witnessing the world's end.
Watching the fiercely burning flames, Ardena gathered all the energy from her sword and armor, glaring at Sabnack and the meteors raining from the heavens.