The Heavenly-Demon Grand War

"Captain?"

"What are you doing here?"

"What about you, Captain?! Why are you here?!"

Anyone with eyes could tell this was a secret passage. There was a reason the word "secret" was attached to it in the first place.

"Haha! I discovered this passage a long time ago!"

The Captain kept his usual hearty tone, but dropped his voice to a whisper so the enemy wouldn't overhear.

"The Demon King's Castle rearranges its interior every time — but strangely enough, this passage alone never changes. That's why I take this route every single time!"

Apparently the Captain had gotten so fed up with the castle's maze-like reshuffling that he'd gone and found himself a secret shortcut. Something about it felt off, but if the Captain said so, what was Do-ha supposed to do?

"But how did you get in? The entrance to this passage should be on the right-hand side, where fighters with stats in the nine hundreds are duking it out every year — and the exit opens right in front of the Demon King's throne."

"Ugh—?!"

Lee Do-ha had only gotten into this passage through a cheap trick. In game terms, he'd basically clipped through the map. But the locations of the entrance and exit made it clear this was no ordinary corridor.

"So if we just keep going this way…"

"The Demon King comes out!"

"…Captain, are you heading this way to take down the Demon King?"

"Haha! Unfortunately, I can't defeat the Demon King myself! The rules forbid it!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"The rules?"

"Hahaha! Think of me as more of a helper! That's why I don't even show up in the final renown rankings!"

…Something had felt strange about him all along, but Do-ha never imagined he was actually a helper.

"Then why are you telling me this now?"

"Haha! Because I want to know how you got in here!"

"Huh?"

"…This is a space only helpers are allowed to enter. How did you get in?"

The Captain's always-booming manner hardened like stone. He frowned and fixed Do-ha with a hard stare. Until a moment ago the passage had been pitch-dark and Do-ha could only make out the Captain's silhouette — yet now a sharp light seemed to burn in the Captain's eyes.

"Answer carefully. What kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠trick did you use?"

"Ah — I, uh, well…"

Shit. I'm screwed. What do I do?

He'd known it was a secret passage, but he never thought it was an "Only Staff" zone. Back on Earth, the mere sight of a "Authorized Personnel Only" sign used to make his curiosity explode — but he never imagined he'd actually wander into a restricted area like this, and not even on Earth, but in Brispry.

What do I do? What do I do? Whaddoido? Whaddoidoo? Wait… doo?

He racked his brain so hard trying to escape the situation that it started to short-circuit.

"…"

"…"

The passage was already dark, and now that the fighting outside seemed to have ended, silence settled in as well. The tension was so thick Do-ha felt cold sweat about to break out.

"…?"

Hold on. This isn't even my fault to begin with.

"Captain! I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding!"

"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?"

"I came in through a hole that was already open in the wall!"

"A hole? Don't lie to me. I didn't find a single hole on my way here."

Thunk—

Do-ha groped along the passage wall, found the spot he'd come through, and gave it a push. A tile roughly the size of his torso toppled over like a falling domino.

Boom—!

The tile hit the floor with a sound that echoed in every direction, and just as Do-ha had claimed, a hole large enough for a person to slip through easily revealed itself — connecting the interior of the Demon King's Castle to the secret passage.

"See? I came in through here. So I didn't break any rules, and there's no grounds to punish me for anything!"

Even with Do-ha's innocence laid bare, the Captain kept staring at him in silence. At last he opened his mouth.

"…..Kh."

"Kh?"

"Khahahaha! You don't need to make excuses! There was never any such position as 'helper' in the Cheonma-daejeon to begin with!"

"…Excuse me?!"

Then what the hell was that whole atmosphere just now?! And why did I even have to explain myself in the first place?!

"It was a joke! Just a joke!"

"A joke?! I nearly choked to death over here!"

"Hahaha! Can't a man pull one little prank between friends? Wahahaha!!"

"I'd like to end that 'friendship' right this second, thanks."

"Little brother! Don't be so hard on me! Hahaha!"

"Since when am I your little brother? Get lost."

"Don't tell me you're sulking! Haha! A man can't afford to be that petty!"

In this day and age, that kind of talk could get a man in serious trouble…

"Whatever. So you're heading to the Demon King right now?"

"That's right. Thought I'd go take a look at this year's Demon King! Coming along?"

"…Sure, why not."

Do-ha had been wanting to see Daysmon one more time anyway.

"We've found the Demon King!!"

"You have done well to reach this place, heroes. You defeated my subordinates and arrived here — impressive. But I am nothing like my underlings! You will never defeat me!!"

"…Aren't you getting a little too into character?"

At long last the heroes the world had been waiting for arrived in the audience chamber of the Demon King's Castle. The Demon King launched into the monologue he'd prepared without so much as a pause — until one of the heroes cut in with a snide remark. Daysmon, who had been one hundred percent locked into Demon King mode, clicked his tongue and scolded the man.

"Come on now~. Work with me a little, would you?"

"Oh, sorry about that. This guy's got no sense for this kind of thing."

"Hah. Fine, fine. It's a precious event that only comes around once every ten years — might as well enjoy yourselves while you're at it."

"Haha, of course. Ahem… All right, from the top! We will defeat you and shatter your ambition to rule the world, Demon King!"

"Keh-keh-keh. You poor fools, led astray by a band of hypocrites. I shall take pity on you and at least send you off without pain."

"Bring it on!"

Shiiing—!

Ziiing—

As the tension peaked, the sword-wielding heroes drew their blades from their scabbards with a ringing of steel, the mages focused mana into their staves, and thousands more heroes of every kind raised their weapons toward the Demon King.

Thousands of fighters with stats of at least six hundred apiece were locking onto him — and the Demon King only snorted and sneered at the hero candidates.

"I hear the previous Demon King went down easily. That one only reached the threshold of divinity in raw strength. But I am different! Every single one of my stats is nine hundred ninety-nine!! I am nothing like the last Demon King!"

"W-what?!"

"Is he for real…"

Nine hundred ninety-nine.

The final threshold that beings of the middle realm reached just before becoming gods — and the minimum requirement to become the Demon King.

To serve as the Demon King of the Cheonma-daejeon, at least one of your stats had to hit 999. After all, a Demon King who was vastly weaker than the gods would make a poor fit for the lore of someone ambitious enough to conquer Brispry, a world crawling with deities.

But putting an actual god into an event designed to raise the churches' public profiles would defeat the whole purpose — so every hero candidate, every member of the Demon King's army, and the Demon King himself were capped at a maximum of 999 in any given stat.

In other words: compared to the previous Demon King, who had been casually wiped out by a single stronger hero candidate, the current Demon King was the most powerful being participating in the entire event.

And the closer one got to the "Species Wall" of one thousand, the harder it became to raise a stat even by one point. With every single stat at 999, Daysmon was overwhelmingly stronger than the hero candidates — most of whom topped out in the low nine hundreds at best — and you didn't even need to fight him to know it.

"Frightened by a few words, are you?! Hahaha! And you call yourselves hero candidates! How laughable! Hahaha!! Haha… Die."

Shrrraaak—

From the Demon King's outstretched hand, some unknown metal sprayed forth in liquid form. The metal soon shaped itself into a magic circle.

"That's—!"

"The March of Destruction! Cover your ears, everyone!!"

BWAAAM—!!!! BWABABABAM—!!!

Aside from a handful of mages whose knowledge of magic was top-tier, no one recognized the circle. Most of the heroes failed to cover their ears in time despite the warning — and more than ninety percent of them took the full force of the March of Destruction head-on.

"Ghk…!"

"Gwaaaargh!!"

Musical notes summoned from the March of Destruction circle slipped through the ears of heroes who had been a fraction of a second too slow, seeping into their eardrums. Those marked by the notes erupted in fountains of blood from their ear canals, then their eyes, noses, and mouths.

"Y-you said you'd send us off without pain…!"

"…Ah."

Honestly, that line had just been something he'd prepared to sound cool. He'd completely forgotten about it.

"…Guidance of the Afterlife."

Sssaaah—

Averting his eyes from the writhing heroes, the Demon King summoned a black smoke. Those it touched shuddered once, then dropped their heads with a soft thunk — dead on the spot.

"F-from now on, I'll really send you off without pain!"

"…"

The heroes stared at Daysmon with the expression of people who'd just bitten into something foul, having realized he'd forgotten his own line. Looking equally awkward about the whole thing, Daysmon started flinging attacks at random just to change the subject.

"Argh! A sneak attack?! That's cheap!"

"Die! Khahahaha!"

"…?"

And just then, Lee Do-ha — who had only just stepped out of the secret passage's exit behind the Demon King's throne — saw a Daysmon very different from their first meeting and went completely blank.

"Khahahaha! All of you, die! Di…?"

There was no way Daysmon, with all stats at 999, would miss the presence of someone whose average stats sat around 210. Following the sensation, he turned around — and wore the exact same blank expression.

"You are…?"

"Hahaha… Hello?"

"…What are you doing coming out of there?"

Whoosh—!

The heroes spotted the Demon King distracted by Do-ha and seized the chance, leaping in from behind for a surprise attack. But just as with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Do-ha, Daysmon had already sensed their approach. He solidified the liquid metal from before and drove it straight through their bodies.

Thuk—!

"Ghk!"

"Argh!"

"Kh… How did you sense me? I'm an assassin…!"

The heroes had anticipated that Daysmon would read their presence, so they'd slipped an assassin in to hide his aura and strike from the blind spot. In truth, the Demon King had only been pretending to look at Do-ha's face — while watching the reflections in Do-ha's dark eyes and waiting for exactly this opportunity.

More than anything, the assassin's fatal mistake was pouring every ounce of focus into suppressing his presence and never deploying a proper stealth technique to hide his form.

"This is absurd! Thousands of powerful fighters, cut down this easily…!"

"This is the difference in class. A stat of 999 is still, numerically, a nine-hundred-range number. But never forget — the gap between 900 and 999 is greater than the gap between 1 and 900."

Of course, that only held true under the condition that no one had consumed any elixirs. Before Nectar, a single point of stats and 999 points of stats stood as equals.

Thuk—!

Having finally brought down every hero who had reached the audience chamber through the proper route, the Demon King turned his gaze on Do-ha and the Captain.

"You are surprising enough in your own right… but I never expected to find you here."

As expected of him, perhaps. Daysmon clearly knew the Captain well.

"Hahaha! Of course you know! Every participant already knows I enter the Cheonma-daejeon every single time — there's no way you wouldn't!!"

"And yet, strangely, the Captain has never once been sighted inside the Demon King's Castle. More precisely — never in this audience chamber."

"There's a reason for that! Haha!"

"Still, I must say I'm surprised. To think I'd end up fighting you. I thought I'd already won this thing… but I might actually lose, might I?"

Staring the Captain down, the Demon King drew up his power with a tension far sharper than anything he'd shown against the thousands of heroes, and finished settling into full combat readiness.

"But a situation like this isn't so bad either! Come! Let us—!"

"I forfeit."

"—begin!! …Excuse me??"

The Demon King's aura deflated like a punctured balloon, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the kind that would make a sad little psssh if you listened hard enough.

"What did you just…"

"I said I forfeit."

"Why… why would you?!"

If the Demon King won the Cheonma-daejeon, every one of his stats rose by one. It was the staged moment of apotheosis — the Demon King who had defeated the Heavenly Church ascending to godhood, in keeping with the lore of conquering the world.

If the Captain truly forfeited, Daysmon would become a god right then and there. Unable to contain his competitive fire, he couldn't help but challenge the man's words.

"I'm a helper, you see. I can't fight you. Hahaha! What a shame!"

"Kh…!"

A helper position?! Even the high priests of the Demon Church who organized the Cheonma-daejeon had never heard of such a role. Daysmon's grip tightened on the sword in his hand.

Sssk—

On the off chance, Daysmon looked at Do-ha — but unlike the Captain, Do-ha truly had neither power nor position of any kind. He shook his head vigorously and declared his own forfeit as well.

At that, Daysmon finally managed to rein in the boiling aura, let out a long breath, and proclaimed the Demon Church's victory.

"The victor of the 312th Cheonma-daejeon is the Demon King's Army!!! From this day forward, the world is freed from the hands of filthy hypocrites — and ruled by our Demon Church!"

"Rule the world" was just the flavor text — in practice, it simply meant a set of special benefits. But the influx of new believers drawn by those benefits was the true purpose of both the Heavenly Church and the Demon Church.

Until a week ago, the Heavenly Church — winners of the previous Cheonma-daejeon — had enjoyed those benefits and pulled in throngs of followers. Now it was the Demon Church's turn.

"For the next ten years, this world belongs to the Demon Church!!"

Fwaaaash—!!

As the reward for winning the Cheonma-daejeon, every one of Daysmon's stats rose by one. All of them now satisfied the divine threshold of one thousand — and he erupted in a brilliant light as he evolved into a god. Across the world, Demon Church believers in every direction howled their triumph.

"WAAAAAAH!!"

"Captain — so what's your real identity, then?"

Whether the Heavenly Church won or the Demon Church won, the thing Lee Do-ha was most curious about right now was this. He put the question to the Captain directly.

But the Captain only laughed his usual hearty laugh and dodged it.

"Hahaha! Didn't I already tell you you'd find out someday!"

"Then at least tell me your name."

"Hahaha! If fate allows it, we'll meet again! And even if fate doesn't — we'll definitely meet at the next Cheonma-daejeon! I hope you'll have grown a little by then! Wahahaha!!"

Without so much as a glance back, the Captain waved goodbye and vanished into the distance in an instant.

"Hey — so what is your name?"

In the end, Lee Do-ha never learned the Captain's name.

"Welcome home."

"Haha! I'm back!"

"Why do you look so pleased with yourself?"

"Ah — after talking like that for a whole week, I almost let it become a habit."

Around this time every ten years, Chang-shin would disappear for a week doing who-knew-what — and always came home looking oddly cheerful. Seiji smiled softly as she took his outer coat.

"What's for dinner tonight?"

"Braised short ribs."

"Braised short ribs — perfect~! Hahaha!"