𝐈𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤: 𝐋𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤
“. . . . . .The presence of Asgard has vanished. I didn’t make it in time.”
ㅤ
In a place not far from the Celestial Mountains, a female demon with grotesque wings grimaced.
The two among the Four Heavenly Kings that she had been instructed to bring back by the Demon King.
Both had been defeated and killed.
A headache was the least of her worries.
ㅤ
“Seriously, what terrible luck. If only I hadn’t run into this guy, maybe I could have made it in time.”
“Ugh?!”
ㅤ
In what seemed like an act of spite, the woman kicked a man lying before her, whose arms and legs she had severed.
This man had attacked her as she was flying at full speed towards the Celestial Mountains.
He was strong enough to keep up with her supersonic speed, and so persistent that she couldn’t easily shake him off.
Eventually, she decided it was quicker to defeat him rather than try to evade him, and although it wasn’t a difficult battle, it did waste some time.
All that time, only to find out that Asgard had fallen. It was utterly frustrating.
She felt like giving him a good kick just to let off steam.
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“Asgard. . . . . .”
ㅤ
The woman pondered about her fallen comrades.
Asgard, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Earth, was a demon who was quite rare in that he had almost no emotions.
His peculiar nature was the result of both his constitution and circumstances.
In the Demon Realm, a barren land where survival depended on killing and consuming others, Asgard could subsist by merely absorbing the Earth’s energy.
Moreover, he was a variant of golems and gargoyles, creatures of soil, and thus felt no pain.
Without pain, there was no fear of injury or even death.
No urgency to live, and no fear of dying.
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What remains in a being living in the Demon Realm, when you take away both the desire for life and the fear of death?
The answer is 『nothing remains』.
The Demon Realm is a world caught up in the struggle for survival.
No, it’s a world where survival is the only concern.
Almost no one has the luxury to think of anything beyond how to survive another day; such is the hellish reality of the Demon Realm.
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In a world where killing and consuming others is the only activity, Asgard was excluded even from that sole occupation, having nothing to do, not knowing what he should do, and as a result, doing nothing.
No one nurtured his heart.
All he could do was instinctively seek objects emitting the Earth’s energy that sustained him.
But even that was an unnecessary trinket if the Earth itself was there, so he couldn’t be overly attached to it.
Despite finding no significance, meaning, or attachment in his own life, he had an abundance of strength due to the energy he had absorbed from the Earth over the years.
Such an empty monster was Asgard.
ㅤ
Such a sad existence.
No, it’s not just Asgard.
Dragburn, who only found worth in fighting, Vampneel, who could only look down on others due to pride in his vampire lineage, and the other demons who had nothing but twisted hearts due to their desperate struggle for life—they are all equally sad.
What’s tragic is that none of them have any other way to live.
That’s why the Demon King is. . . . . .
ㅤ
“. . . . . .No, let’s stop. Now’s not the time for sentimentality.”
ㅤ
What we should focus on now is the future.
It’s a critical situation where three out of the Four Heavenly Kings have been defeated.
We must search for a way to turn the tables from here.
ㅤ
“Should we launch a surprise attack on the heroes now? . . . . . .No, all the heroes are still in good shape. Furthermore, they don’t seem to be overly fatigued. Even if I were to charge in alone, I could probably kill one or two of them, but ultimately, the chances of me being killed are higher. . . . . .I’m the last piece capable of defeating the heroes aside from the Demon King. My life is not to be gambled with carelessly.”
ㅤ
In conclusion, the plan to attack the heroes now is dismissed.
She bitterly regrets the reality that if only Asgard and Vampneel had worn down the heroes a bit more.
She never thought the Four Heavenly Kings would fail to produce results and disband like this, especially after what happened with Dragburn.
They were never weak to begin with.
If handled correctly, the Four Heavenly Kings alone could have been more than enough to defeat the heroes.
So why did it end up like this?
ㅤ
“. . . . . .It’s clear. It’s because they didn’t follow the Demon King’s orders. And because I couldn’t fully control them.”
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The woman wears a self-mocking smile.
The order from the Demon King was that after the heroes appeared, all Four Heavenly Kings were to unite and fight them.
Until then, to ensure that none of the Four Heavenly Kings were missing, and to prevent leaking information to the enemy, they were even forbidden from entering the battlefield.
The inability to fully suppress information because Dragburn and others were running rampant, shouting their names, didn’t mean the decision was wrong.
In fact, according to information acquired from long-serving demons like Rova, the previous Demon King’s Army was destroyed in just a few years due to indiscriminately deploying its upper echelons into battle, thereby falling into traps and being counteracted by humans.
ㅤ
The only survivors other than the fleeing Rova were the previous Demon King, a vampire with exceptional vitality among demons.
The truth is, the previous Demon King roamed and rampaged alone, targeting places with weak defenses, converting humans there into disposable pawns with his vampire abilities, and somehow continued the battle.
ㅤ
That was nothing more than desperate flailing.
The fight was only to delay the inevitable loss, failing to meet the victory conditions as the Demon King’s Army.
Even the era of the previous Demon King, considered the worst time for humanity, turned out to be just that in retrospect.
Well, from what she’s heard, the previous Demon King had a personality that was the sum of Dragburn and Vampneel divided by two, so he might have been satisfied just being able to fight and look down on the humans he ruled over.
Incidentally, it is also true that the efforts of the previous Demon King have saved the current Demon King’s Army, so she has no intention of complaining.
However, she had no intention of carelessly moving the Four Heavenly Kings and following the same path as the previous Demon King’s Army.
ㅤ
The previous Demon King was indeed a remarkable demon, but not a great leader.
Well, in the first place, the idea of organizing demons and using them systematically is an almost impossible task.
Demons are inherently self-centered.
It’s only natural given that there’s no room for consideration of others when you’re struggling to survive in the Demon Realm.
ㅤ
The Demon King can show overwhelming power and forcibly make them obey.
However, what forms through that approach is a fragile connection that can easily break, not real unity.
Both the Demon King and she have been working hard to maintain this fragile connection.
Still, as one would expect, if one link starts to unravel, the rest follow in a chain reaction, leading to the current situation.
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“The initial catalyst was Dragburn’s rampage. . . . . .No, it was the series of incidents where demons were defeated all over the place.”
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By holding back the Four Heavenly Kings and leading the front lines with reasonably smart demons, higher-ranking dragons, and mature monsters, they applied pressure and focused their strength. In the meantime, demons were dispatched to villages and towns where the defenses had weakened to whittle down humanity.
Reports had been coming in for years that those who were assigned to this mission had been sequentially defeated.
She suspected that Dragburn probably heard about this information upon waking up from his sulk and couldn’t hold back any longer.
ㅤ
She strongly wishes that Dragburn had held back just a bit more, but the successive defeats of the demons are also a major issue.
The essence of that strategy was to consistently target places the enemy couldn’t defend and to minimize their own losses while continually inflicting damage on the enemy.
Because they only targeted low-priority defensive areas, significant victories were rare, but the risk of strong demons getting defeated was also low.
It was a low-risk, low-return strategy.
ㅤ
What was needed for that strategy was not the power to defeat strong enemies, but the cowardice to run away immediately when faced with them.
Therefore, they chose and dispatched guys with personalities like Vampneel, who would gladly torment the weak and run from the strong. For some reason, however, all of them were killed without running away.
The answer to this mystery is still unknown.
Even if they had encountered an extremely strong enemy or fallen into a human trap, they should have been able to escape before direct combat began by making various judgments, like sending the monsters they were leading first.
Because it was too mysterious, she personally calls the person responsible for this the 『Mysterious Hero』.
ㅤ
Then, due to the catalyst brought about by the Mysterious Hero, Dragburn went on a rampage and was defeated by the heroes.
Furthermore, Vampneel, who reported this, acted hastily and involved Asgard, and he too was defeated by the heroes.
The Four Heavenly Kings were destroyed in the worst-case scenario of being defeated individually.
ㅤ
From that point on, the tide of the battle has been completely turned in their favor.
Until then, the Demon Army were supposed to have the advantage.
They had been carefully expanding their advantage, albeit little by little.
Yet, something happened that overturned the flow.
The Mysterious Hero might have been just a catalyst, but the ripples that spread from that catalyst have been incredibly huge, completely changing the game board.
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━━In that case, the only option is to overturn the tide once again.
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Turning the tides at this point, when everything has already been decided, won’t be easy.
However, there’s no choice but to do it.
All for the revered Demon King.
For the new world the Demon King aims to create.
“I would give my life for the victory of the Demon King.”
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The woman reaffirms her resolve and starts to think about what she can do to begin with.
She must do anything and everything that’s possible.
Without hesitating to use even lowly tactics like those of Vampneel, because humans can’t be defeated otherwise.
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“Grr. . . . . .Ugh. . . . . .You’ve got to be kidding me. . . . . .To make a fool out of me, the greatest. . . . . .You wretched woman. . . . . .Unforgivable. . . . . .I’ll kill and ravish you!”
ㅤ
At that moment, she once again sees the man, writhing in agony while muttering resentments.
Just from his lines, one could hardly believe he’s one of the Holy Warriors, protectors of mankind; his vile nature is apparent.
The way he’s raging, not for the world or for others but for his own trivial pride and desires, even felt somewhat demonic.
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If that’s the case, he might be useful.
Even if he’s disposable, with his level of strength, he could temporarily fill the gap left by the Four Heavenly Kings.
ㅤ
“Hey you, don’t you want to be strong?”
“Huh?!”
ㅤ
And so, the last loyal subject remaining in the Demon King’s Army begins to prepare.
For the impending decisive battle.
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