Suspicious Invitation -1
Suspicious Invitation -1
-Take thiiiisssss!!!!
The Red-haired Woman confronts the Demon King with a Slash.
Gah!
Thud.
The Demon King, struck by the Hero's Slash, is sent flying backward.
Blood leaking from its mouth is proof that even that single attack was plenty lethal.
Cough...
"Demon King-nim!"
The Demon King, who had sought to rule the world.
But before the Hero Party, that dream was crumbling.
Even the Demon King's minions couldn't put up a fight against the Hero Party and were being pushed back.
"The Hero Party is too strong..."
Spitting blood, the Demon King flashed a bitter smile at the Hero Party.
These beauties with their resolute wills looked like they could kill it at any moment.
"But I came prepared for this—I've got a hidden ace!"
At that instant, enormous mana began gathering around them.
Even the blood it had spilled was used up like consumable fuel, forming a Magic Circle.
"Behold! My ultimate summoning spell...!!!"
That massive mana was sucked into the Magic Circle.
"Behold! The worst creature with the greatest potential...!"
As the dust cleared, the so-called worst creature that emerged was...
Ddu... Dda...?
"......?"
The entire Hero Party shifted from serious expressions to puzzled ones.
It was just one teensy tentacle creature, after all.
No, a Slime maybe.
Either way, it was way too small.
If you had to compare, it was barely bigger than a pebble you could grab and chuck.
The Demon King had hyped it up so grandly and burned through that much mana.
It had to be strong, right? But it looked so weak.
...Even if it was meant to lower their guard, this was overkill on the weak side.
"Um, Demon King-nim? Did you say it has the greatest potential?"
"Yeah! Behold this tremendous abomination...!"
"......"
At those words, the Demon King's minion rubbed its eyes, wondering if it had seen wrong, and looked again.
Tteuda...
But nope, still just a tentacle that looked more useless than a pebble of the same size.
"......"
"Potential..."
Suddenly pissed off, the Demon King's minion started hurling abuse at the Demon King.
"Hey, you idiot! We're in a fight right now—what good is some high-potential creature you're gonna have to raise later!!!?"
"Ah... you're right."
Only then did it seem like the Demon King had realized something.
That it had totally screwed up.
Cursing itself for following this dumbass Demon King.
Potential meant growth possibility.
...Not strong right now.
"We need something to fight now, not some monster you're gonna raise like a pet!? You moron!!!"
The Mage, in this awkward situation, tried firing an explosion spell at the tentacle.
Ddu... Dda...?
"...Yup."
Boom.
Tteuda...
The tentacle let out a final squeak and shattered, pieces flying everywhere.
And so, the tentacle monster the Demon King had poured its all into creating died in one hit from the Mage's explosion spell.
Just like its dying words implied, it was a small, weak tentacle monster that went pop in midair from a tiny spell.
The Demon King watched the whole thing as the tentacle it had summoned with its full power shattered right in front of its eyes.
Even the Demon King sounded dumbfounded.
"...It's over already?"
"Ugh, that bi—"
Anyway, with that, the Hero Party gloriously defeated the Demon King.
The Hero Party disbanded.
It had been nearly a year since the Hero Party defeated the Demon King...
Tteudda......
Ddudda...?
The tentacle the Demon King had summoned hadn't died.
To be precise, it had been shattered into tiny pieces, but it hadn't died.
The main body, shoved into a corner of the ruined Demon King's Royal Castle like a tiny pebble.
Tteu......
But it was so finely fragmented that barely any intelligence remained.
But that was the Main Body.
"Is this it?"
And before that Main Body appeared something in human form.
But on closer look, it wasn't human—it was a tentacle mimicking human shape.
To be exact, it was one of the tentacle fragments that had scattered when the original burst.
In a word, a Clone.
"Finally found it, I think... uh... Main Body?"
"Tteu......"
The other fragment (Clone), which had grown even more than the Main Body, tried talking to it.
But the Main Body, still in its tiny-shard state, couldn't speak properly yet.
No proper reaction even when poked.
"Sigh..."
In the end, it took extreme measures.
It tore off part of itself and force-fed it to the Main Body.
"Tteok?"
Suddenly absorbing a tentacle lump several times bigger than its original shards, the Main Body's form began to change.
The tiny tentacle, which had barely moved, clearly transformed after absorbing the contents.
[Wh-what... is this...?]
The Clone spoke to the Main Body, whose language system wasn't fully built yet.
"Try speaking with your mouth, Main Body."
"Uh, ah~"
Then, absorbing the knowledge contained in the tentacle, it started coming to its senses, its eerie voice shifting.
Gradually, the creepy voice transformed into something closer to human vocalization.
"Huh? What the heck happened?"
"Seems like we got hit with a massive attack right after being summoned."
"Attacked?"
"Yeah."
Now able to think, the Main Body pondered.
And the Clone added an explanation for the thinking Main Body.
"Looks like when we shatter into pieces, one becomes the Main Body and the rest are Clones."
"And those pieces can act independently at first."
"Ah~ Got it!"
Having a human explain in front of the tentacle made for a weird scene.
"I somehow rolled into a library as a fragment."
No need to guess what happened to that library.
...Obviously.
"Absorbing the knowledge inside gave me this high intelligence."
"Then why didn't I...?"
"The Royal Castle's been ruins since, so not much flow of stuff around."
Then, before long, the tentacle spat something out from inside.
It pulled out a book labeled Monster Encyclopedia and read it.
"Clones can absorb surroundings since they're not the Main Body, but the Main Body has to maintain its original form."
"...Talking all fancy."
"Absorb some more of my tentacles."
And so it topped up the donation from the Clone.
After eating the Clone's tentacle, the Main Body's intelligence rose a bit more.
"Perfectly understood."
"So, shall we go find the other pieces?"
"Yeah!"
Up to this point, this tentacle duo had no idea.
That they would become the new enemy surpassing the Demon King for a fresh Hero Party.
A year had passed since the former Hero Party swore never to wield their power against any nation.
The Hero Party had returned to their daily lives, and among them, the Hero received a letter.
"A letter from the duchy?"
"Monsters spotted in a small kingdom?"
The polite request from the duchy seemed to say some seriously troublesome monsters had invaded the small Kingdom.
"Didn't all the monsters weaken when the Demon King died?"
"I remember it that way, but there might still be some that can't forget the Demon King's era."
The Knight, visiting for fun, shrugged at the Hero.
"Anyway, that's why I stopped by on my way!"
"Yeah, if you need backup, just ask."
With a send-off from the Knight in comfy lightweight armor, the red-haired Hero set off for the small Kingdom.
"Yeah yeah, the Hero's coming, huh?"
"Yes."
Keuhehehe...
At those words, the King stroked his beard.
The King, grinning wickedly, seemed to have a more core hidden plan beyond the surface request.
"A mere commoner with excessive power... Using it is only natural, no?"
"Of course, Your Majesty."
"So, are the preparations going well?"
"Yes."
Then it guided him a bit further into the room.
"Look here. With this treasure from the Demon World that seals mana, it's possible."
"So the Hero won't be able to use her full power?"
"Yes."
The retainer continued.
"But I hear the Hero has a tough blessing that doesn't break easily under torture... You've got countermeasures for that too, right?"
"Of course."
Then it showed another treasure from the Demon World.
"This slows down time. More precisely, it massively stretches out perceived time."
It could turn a week into a year.
"Time is on our side."
"So, the plan to break her?"
"Found something good in the Demon World for that too."
Then it showed a creepy-shaped tentacle.
A tentacle grown fat on malice.
"We'll tame her with this."
"Oh? So I can enjoy that Hero later too?"
"Of course."
Is that tentacle safe?
Not just for the Hero, but do the people of this small Kingdom even know what this tentacle really is?
...Probably not.
Unbeknownst to itself, the Demon King had died leaving behind this terrifying creature.