With crumbling pain in his entire body, Allit sat up in his coffin.
(That... Dragon...)
An entity as powerful as a high-rank devil often imbued a piece of themselves into a conduit when descending to the human realm. This time, it turned out to be a brilliant decision. He had never expected to fight before the barriers laid out by the Wise Angel, much less to encounter a Dragonborn...
(Was it all planned from the start...?)
Allit shuddered to consider the possibility. Losing a shard of himself made him less powerful already, and he was further weakened by the Wise Angel’s barriers before the Dragonborn had shown up. It was as if a hunter was trying to trap a boar or deer.
(Dragon... You will pay for humiliating me like that...!)
Rage overcame him as he recalled how he, the noble Duke of Darkness, was backed into a corner like a lowly beast. Raising his still aching body, Allit stood up in his coffin. At that moment, the door to the room flew open as a beautiful girl in a French maid outfit appeared.
“Master, you’re all right!”
“Hmph...”
With only a glance, Allit left the room without a word. The girl followed quietly.
“I-I... was so worried. You didn’t seem like yourself, Master...”
“Who gave you permission to speak?”
Allit spat out, before finally turning to face the girl. As always, she looked distorted... in a beautiful way. Parts of her limbs, and even a portion of her face, were crystallized. The girl had been cursed by the Still Angel, and was now destined to end up as a salt crystal. Finding her appearance amusing, Allit had given her his blood to make her into his familiar, almost as if to pick up a one-of-a-kind souvenir. As a vampire, Allit drank her blood when he felt like it, and gave her some of his magic energy from time to time in order to prevent the curse from progressing. Not out of mercy, only because he wanted to toy with her distorted existence for as long as possible.
“A-Are you... hurt... My Lord...?”
“Why don’t you worry about yourself?”
Allit nearly cackled at the girl’s question. The only reason she still resembled a human being was because he had made her his familiar and had been giving her such powerful magic. Yet she was the one worried about him?
(An amusing toy, as always...)
Allit, true to his title of the Duke of Darkness, ceaselessly hungered for war and blood. While he seldom smiled, a genuine one occasionally crept up on him when in the presence of this distorted girl.
“Alli! Come out and play!”
Hearing another voice, that smile never formed. The voice of the only being who visited this forest, where even the dim-witted Hellbeasts never approached.
“Haven’t you heard of a doorbell? Click. What’s up?”
“Leave. I don’t remember inviting you.”
They both reacted with annoyance.
“You’re cold. As ice. You’re willing to sacrifice our love?”
“Begone.”
While Allit’s reaction was as cold as could be, the visitor didn’t seem bothered. Wearing a black cap and an all-black, fairytale-esque outfit, the boy held a giant scythe in his hand.
“How was the Human Realm? You hadn’t been there in a while, right? Did you kill a bunch?”
Allit walked past him without a word. Entertained, the boy that resembled Death kept bombarding the devil with questions.
“Looks like you lost. Who’s down there who could beat you, Alli?”
“Ooh, did an Angel come back to life? It wasn’t a human, was it?”
“If it was, you’re so not cool Alli, I can’t be your friend anymore. You’d be all alone, Alli.”
Allit, still without a word, walked down the flight of stairs. It seemed like he didn’t even want to acknowledge the boy’s existence, let alone the barrage of questions.
“Y-You’re disrespecting Master...!”
While Allit had committed to non-response, the girl seemed offended. Pleased by her reaction, the boy gleefully continued.
“Wow, you’re still alive? For real? Why don’t you just turn to salt, already? I could go for a glass of salty dog. Hey, you mind dying right now, actually?”
With a brimming smile, the Death-like existence raised his scythe. At this rate, he looked like he was going to decapitate her all while wearing the same innocent smile on his face.
“Are you trying to be killed, Kail...?”
“Woah, chill. Don’t take it seriously. Woosh, Alli. Woosh. That’s why you don’t have any friends other than me. Why don’t you try ruling some land?”
Kail shook his head, without any sense of remorse. This boy, too, was a high-rank devil, and was extremely powerful. There were also Grand Devils in Hellion territory, but the difference between a high-rank and a Grand didn’t come down to mere combat strength, but whether or not they ruled over land. Building a castle, gathering minions, and ruling over a territory... Those were the conditions to earn the title of Grand Devil.
They had been at war with Animania for a long time, but time and time again the dragon had intervened and left them severely damaged. Now, they spent their time fighting for power within Hellion territory.
“Land? Since when are you into stupid things like...”
“Come on. Everyone’s playing the game. I don’t get what’s so fun about it, though.”
Both Allit and Kail had enough strength to be a Grand Devil, but were thoroughly uninterested in minions or land, and lived free-spirited lives. In Hellion territory, they were both seen as ‘those weirdos.’
“I don’t want to play that game. Let’s go kill whoever beat you up, Alli.”
“As if. The dice were in his favor this time.”
“It was just a piece of you, I guess. But this is a no-excuse zone.”
Pointing his finger at Allit like a teacher to a student, Kail huffed. The strength of their shard entirely depended on the conduit, so Kail wasn’t too surprised by Allit’s defeat. Sometimes, a ridiculously strong human was born into this world. Especially those who wielded any Ooparts, fragments of ancient times, were extremely dangerous to devils. In that sense, Kail had a guess as to who defeated Allit.
“Hey, Alli. I bet I can guess who.”
Kail giggled, like a mischievous child figuring out a magic trick. There were only a handful of characters out there who could take on Allit, albeit just his shard.
“I can tell, Alli. One of the Holy Heroes right? But which one...? The one with the box? Or the one with the flames? Hm?”
“...A Dragonborn...”
Hearing this, Kail’s expression tightened for the first time. Did he hear that right? It sounded like a word that should have never come up in this conversation.
“Y-You’re kidding, Alli... H-Hey, this one was pretty funny, for once.”
“Laugh while you can...”
Leaving Kail, whose smile was gone, Allit left his manor. He wasn’t laughing, either. The man wearing the silver dragon had crushed Allit with terrifying strength. In straight combat, nonetheless.
(I will kill that Dragonborn myself... And drink every last drop of his blood!)
—While Allit swore to avenge his defeat...
Some of the northern nations gained word of the incident.
“A Demon Lord and Dragonborn have appeared in Holylight...?”
Shaking her long blue hair, the woman read that strange sentence. Normally, she would have burst out laughing at such a report, but the spy she had sent to Holylight was one of the best. Not someone who would send in a fairytale-like report.
(That can’t literally be true...)
Why would such things appear in Holylight in the first place? She presumed that they were things that couldn’t be described otherwise.
“Once we gather some intel... I’ll send the little one a report.”
Waving an eccentric fan, the woman headed to an extravagant palace. The clash in the Holy City was casting unexpected ripples...
Firebrand
s
——Ortemis, a high-class inn in Holylight.
A sister establishment to Artemis, the high-class bar patronized by nobles and select tycoons. This inn was also out of the commoners’ league, both in atmosphere and price.
At the front counter, a pair of adventurers were checking out. They were Mynk and Olgan, the Star Players. In spite of their job titles, these two traveled light... But only because of their special carry-bag. While Mynk’s weapon was a One-of-a-Kind, this bag was another rare item, found in the Bastille Dungeon up north. The more Magic the holder had, the more the bag could fit. In this world, that was pretty broken.
By the way, new items that are dug out of dungeons and the like were, naturally, unnamed. Normally, the discoverer would name them, but recently, some fame-hungry tycoons or collectors had been sponsoring adventurers to go search for never-before-seen items. Of course, the sponsor would name the item when it was found. Some gave it their own name, some came up with well-thought-out names, and others chose to name them something easy to remember. It all depended. When someone from the Northern Nations named an item, it wasn’t a problem. When someone from Holylight, notorious for their horrible sense of naming things, gave a name to an item, the result was almost always atrocious. The following is a list of some of these atrocities.
Body Feel Better (Green liquid — heals 1 HP)
Refresho (Blue liquid — occasionally heals Stamina)
Pocus Hocus (Red liquid — makes the user energetic)
The Melancholy of Kon (Yellow liquid — makes the user drowsy)
Something Brown (Nutritious dirt)
Pop-out Mushroom (Occasionally boosts male vitality)
I’ll Swallow (White liquid — heals 3 Stamina — named by Yukikaze)
These names were so bad that even starving adventurers wouldn’t partake in quests to discover new items if they were sponsored by anyone from Holylight.
Olgan was the one who found this particular bag, and was tasked with naming it. One second after finding it, the bag was named Mr. Packmule. Mynk had suggested My Coalescing Space of Darkness, but it was difficult to say which name was stupider. Olgan gave Mr. Packmule a light pat. Perhaps she had some attachment to the item she named.
“Let’s go, Mynk. Best not to stick around in a country like this one.”
“...I may not look it, but I’m severely injured here.”
“It’s your own fault for sticking your nose into a stupid situation.”
“You’ve had a stick up your butt since yesterday...”
Even after receiving some healing spells, Mynk wasn’t at full strength. Olgan normally wasn’t this harsh, either. Something was bothering her, and Mynk had a guess as to what it was. That was precisely why she decided to bring it up.
“Wasn’t it incredible? The Dragonborn yesterday?”
“Dragonborn. What a joke...”
Olgan reacted like a dog to a bell. Seeing this, Mynk internally sighed with knowing acceptance.
“Alright. That was just a human. Got it? Not a drop of dragon’s blood in him.”
As a mixed-blood herself, Olgan could very easily detect the smell of these things. Zero, according to her assessment, was just a human. No more and no less.
“Then what was that incredible power. .?”
“How should I know? Ask him yourself.”
Olgan grew more irritated by the second. The Dragonborn wasn't the sole cause of her frustrations, but only one contributing factor in how Olgan found herself in unfortunate circumstances. After watching him save that girl (who must have been a Firebrand like her), Olgan felt uncontrollable rage and disgust. Years ago, Olgan was in an even more tragic predicament than Tron was, but no one had swept in to save her. That’s why she worked relentlessly hard in order to defend herself, and had finally earned the coveted title of a Star Player. She was irritated by someone who just waited to be rescued with a slack jaw, and irritated by the idiot who saved such a fool with a brimming smile. Everything was pissing Olgan off. The next time she saw him, Olgan thought (rather seriously) that she just might impulsively kill the man.
“Not like I jived with the guy, anyway. I know it’s rude to say about someone who saved my life.”
“Hm. I’m surprised. I would have pegged you to be quite fond of him.”
“He’s just not my type. I need a man with some void, or a deep darkness about him.”
“Then marry a devil. How about Carnival?”
“Stop it! With that bouncing-off-the-walls sparkle boy!? Not even funny!”
Reveling in the peculiar topic of conversation, the pair left the inn. They were headed north. The land had been at war for a long while, which in turn provided a certain kind of vitality. There were countless dungeons and ruins, too.
——The Holy Castle library.
“Hmm... Don’t really get it. Definitely medieval, or fantasy, I guess.”
The Demon Lord still had some unanswered questions as he sat in the library, which he had entered with permission. There were countless tomes there, so he had been flipping through the books that seemed to mention the Angels, as picked out by the librarian.
“But the pictures that come up every now and again are gorgeous! ...Which would be all I’d need if I was looking for children’s books...”
As the Demon Lord sat on a chair, Aku was sitting on his lap, looking at some books herself. The scene looked just like a father reading his daughter a story.
“The thing is... Were the Angels always around? Or were they created somehow? More importantly, why did they vanish? The devils they oppose are still kicking.”
“I’ve... never thought about that.”
The books had mentioned the opposition between the Angels and demons. How the Wise Angel sealed away Greole, the King of Devils, and how the Wise Angel vanished from using up its powers right then and there. How the Still Angel aided in the sealing, and how the Still Angel had also vanished. How even deities like the Grand Angel and Average Angel vanished one after another.
“No mentions of the Ember Angel whatsoever. Maybe it went to the corner store for a pack of cigarettes and never came back. ”
“I-I don’t think so! I believe that the Ember Angel is watching over us... from somewhere...”
While the Demon Lord’s guess was outlandish, Aku didn’t seem entirely confident in her faith. Who could have blamed her? No one alive had ever seen the Ember Angel. At this point, it was just a vague existence only mentioned in some literature.
“Everyone knows its name, but no one’s ever seen it. It’s basically a cryptid.”
“Cryptid...?”
“Creatures that people think exist, but have never proven that they do. It means they might as well have never existed at all.” The Demon Lord declared this with his usual black-and-white attitude. This man (Akira Ono, at least) had no interest in religion, and completely rejected the concept of spirits or ghosts. One of his more spiritual friends had once jokingly told him not to bother. Any ghost would stay away from him, anyway.
(And now there’s the Great Light, Lucifer the Fallen Angel, and the Goddess of Destiny...?)
The Great Light had apparently led many of the angels, and Lucifer had opposed them and ended up being banished from Heaven. The Goddess of Destiny just sounded tacky. Akira Ono’s mind automatically refused to believe in any of these.
(It’s like a melting pot of a bunch of western mythology. This is ridiculous...)
Defying the existence of gods, deities, angels, and ghosts straightaway was fitting for a Demon Lord. For a long time now, this man only held faith in the world he had created.
“Well, there’s no rush. Let’s come back here whenever we’ve got some more time to kill.”
“Okay! I’d love to read more books, too!”
Seeing Aku’s reaction, the Demon Lord couldn’t help but pat her on the head. Aku seemed pleased.
“Oh, Master Demon Lord... Can we read one last book?”
“Hm? The Great Adventu
re of Spot the Destroyer Dog...? What is this?”
While its title made no sense, it was also worn down, cover to cover. The librarian must have brought it in by mistake. It had nothing to do with their research, but the Demon Lord realized it sounded like just the story to read to a child.
The book was about a dog named Spot, who couldn’t help but chew on everything until it broke, being chased out of the village and becoming an adventurer, exploring a dungeon.
“How does a dog become an adventurer...? What kind of story is this?”
“But look how cute the doggie is.”
As they flipped the pages, they read through Spot going deeper and deeper into the dungeon, destroying every weapon and armor of the adventurers around him along the way. ‘What an annoying dog...’ the Demon Lord mumbled, but Aku seemed thoroughly entertained. Spot kept himself busy in the book, as he defeated monsters at the bottom of the dungeon, and saved a female dog from a slime.
Damn you filthy, sticky substance... Take this! Woof!
Slilililime...
The Demon Lord lost his grip on the book, and it fell to the floor.
“What is this book!? Who in the world is its target audience!?”
“B-But wasn’t that kind of cute? Slilililime...”
“Do slimes in this world talk? Do they!?”
“I-I don’t...! I’ve never seen any...”
Gathering all his mental strength, the Demon Lord continued through the book. Spot had finally made it to the deepest part of the dungeon, where he found many weapons, armor, and magical items. He took those back to the village, where he became everyone’s favorite dog... The End.
“What the... A children’s book usually has some kind of moral to the story.”
The Demon Lord mumbled, but the part where the dog found weapons and magical items in the dungeon lingered in his mind. While it was a plot point in a children’s book, he had to check.
“Excuse me, librarian. According to this book, there are various weapons and armor found in dungeons. Is that true to life?”
“Y-Yes, sir... I hear that, sometimes, items from ancient times are found in them.”
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 2 Page 3