VOLUME 14: CHAPTER 18

VOLUME 14: CHAPTER 18

[Demon Realm]

While the humans were enjoying their temporary peace, the Demon Realm was in utter chaos.

Although the majority of the casualties were lesser demons, the number of demons that had perish during the battle between the Demon Lord Barkuvara and the Fire Elemental Lord Candela numbered more than thirty million.

The battle not only obliterated the demon capital, it also took the lives of the Lord of the Wraiths and the new Lord of the Sky Demons who assisted the Immortal Demon in battle.

Now, out of the seven major tribes in the Demon Realm, only three remained with a leader.

The Lord of the Red Tower, Elrenar.

The Lord of Parasitic Demons, Plagas.

And the newly appointed Lord of the Sea Demons, Cetus.

The first two didn’t join the battle and instead watched everything from a safe distance. The Lord of the Sea Demons, on the other hand, was in the deepest parts of the ocean when the fight broke out.

There were still several dozen minor tribes in the Demon Realm remaining, but the majority of them didn’t involve themselves with politics and power struggles.

“E-Elrenar! W-What should we do?!”

Plagas was so terrified of the enraged Fire Elemental Lord Candela that he ran all the way to the Red Tower, leaving behind tens of thousands of parasitic demons in the capital to die.

“Who the fuck provoked Candela?!”

Before leaving the demon capital, they had witnessed the initial clash between the Demon Lord Barkuvara and the Fire Elemental Lord.

It was a fight beyond their wildest imaginations.

For the first time, they learned the reason why those two creatures were revered and feared in the Demon Realm.

They had witnessed with their own eyes how the Immortal Demon created rifts and tore through space, and how the Fire Elemental Lord summoned the primordial fire and literally melted everything around it.

The two were so absurdly strong that Plagas’ instinct screamed at him to run as far away as possible. His instinct told him that if he stayed nearby, even a random spell deflected during the battle would kill him in an instant.

The mere fact that only he and Elrenar had survived proved that Plagas’ instinct was right.

Before those two behemoths, the Lord of the Red Tower and the Lord of Parasitic Demons were mere ants.

“Arghhh! I’m so pissed when I think of it! Elrenar, does it make sense?! It’s an unspoken rule to never mess with the ruler of the Volcanic Region! Who’s the bastard that killed those stupid imps Candela had been protecting for hundreds of years! If I find them, I swear, I will parasitize them and turn only half of their body into a nest! I’ll make them experience the worst pain imaginable!”

Elrenar ignored the rants of the Lord of Parasitic Demons. He sat on his throne and monitored the aftermath of the battle using a massive vision stone.

Everything had been progressing as planned.

Although the deaths of the Lord of Wraiths and the Lord of Sky Demons weren’t expected, they weren’t important in the grand scheme of things.

What mattered most was the fact that the Immortal Demon and Candela had fought each other.

‘This is my first time witnessing the primordial fire myself. I can’t believe something like that is possible with mere fire elemental magic.’

The primordial fire ignored any and all sort of defenses. It melted anything it touched, including defensive spells, mana, and even miasma.

Even the fire giants under the direct command of the Demon Lord Barkuvara were melted by the black fire despite their high fire resistance.

‘And Barkuvara… even in an unstable state, he’s that powerful, huh?’

Elrenar shuddered when he remembered how Barkuvara tore through the sky itself with a single wave of his arm. With a flick of his fingers, massive fissures formed on the ground. With a single attack, the nearby mountain was literally split in half.

If the Immortal Demon was already this powerful despite his unstable state, then how strong were the Arzomos leaders for them to be capable of sealing the prime Barkuvara for over a thousand years?

Elrenar couldn’t stop himself from laughing when he thought of this.

He could already envision what would happen once he assimilated with the head of the Arzomos elder!

He would become strong beyond imagination! Definitely!

“Hahahaha!”

“Hieeek! What’s wrong with you?!”

Plagas jumped in fright when Elrenar suddenly laughed.

“Lord Plagas,” said Elrenar.

Normally, Elrenar didn’t bother addressing Plagas with his title. Plagas had long lost the respect of his fellow tribe leaders after he ran away from the Human Realm. Noticing the change in Elrenar’s tone, Plagas became wary.

“E-Elrenar?”

Elrenar rose from his throne. The heads on his shoulders smiled at the same time. “You’ve ordered some of your nests to hide deep underground before you escaped, no?”

Plagas felt that something was amiss, but he nodded regardless. “Yes. What of it?”

“Can you check how many nests have survived that battle?”

As the Lord of Parasitic Demons, it was a skill inherent to Plagas. He could pinpoint the exact locations of the parasitic demons nearby, and he could roughly guess the locations of those located from afar.

“The Red Tower is a bit far, but it should be possible to check if the nests survived.”

Plagas closed his eyes. Like an antenna, the tentacles on his back stiffened and rose.

After some time, Plagas spoke, “Out of fifteen nests, only one survived.”

The nests had dug several hundred meters deep underground, but it seemed even that wasn’t enough for them to survive the primordial fire.

“Just one? Well, that should be enough. The nest is capable of giving birth to parasitic demons, no?”

“W-Why are you asking me that?”

Elrenar turned around and gazed at the vision crystal.

“I want you to do me a favor, oh great Lord of the Parasitic Demons.”

“…A favor?”

“Order the surviving nest to give birth to numerous parasitic demons. I want you to retrieve any remnant flesh from the Fire Elemental Lord and the Immortal Demon.”

“Huh? Have you gone insane? If they found out—!”

Plagas stopped midway through his speech when he saw the sinister light within Elrenar’s eyes.

Now that he’d thought of it, the Lord of the Red Tower never once complained about the catastrophic event that had befallen the demon capital. On the contrary, he seemed pleased for some reason that the Demon Lord Barkuvara and the Immortal Demon had fought each other.

…Could it be?

Although realization started dawning on him, Plagas’ survival instincts told him not to let it show on his face. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to leave the Red Tower alive.

‘These bastards from the Red Tower!’

Plagas decided to willingly follow Elrenar’s command. Of course, he should pretend to be against it at first, lest it became too obvious that he knew that Elrenar orchestrated everything.

“How… How could I do something so blasphemous to the Demon Lord Barkuvara!”

The malicious glint within Elrenar’s eyes vanished.

Elrenar smiled softly, “Blasphemous? No, no. We’re just retrieving their flesh that had fallen off battle. What’s wrong with that? Rest assured that the Red Tower will study their flesh thoroughly. We’ll use our findings to help strengthen the Demon Lord Barkuvara and help him recover from his injuries.”

Hearing those words, Plagas’ speculations further solidified.

He may be a coward, but he wasn’t stupid.

There was no doubt that Elrenar was the one behind the massacre of the fire imps of the Volcanic Region.

But why did he orchestrate something so terrifying?

Why did he go as far as provoke the ruler of the Volcanic Region?

Surely, it wasn’t just to obtain the flesh of those two powerful creatures, right?

Plagas pretended to be oblivious of the Lord of the Red Tower’s plans. “B-But if the Immortal Demon finds out!”

“No, no, Lord Plagas,” said Elrenar. “You saw it, didn’t you? The Fire Elemental Lord Candela was too powerful. Even the Absolute One wouldn’t have come out unscathed in that battle.”

Currently, the whereabouts of the Immortal Demon was unknown.

Did Barkuvara survive the battle? Or did he perish from the primordial fire?

No one knew since no other demons aside from Plagas and Elrenar had survived to tell the tales of the battle.

Through the vision crystal, the only thing certain right now was that the Fire Elemental Lord Candela was still alive.  

It had lost two of its tentacles and one of its arms in that fight. A massive cut ran through its body, which would have severed its torso if the attack had been a tad bit stronger. Although these injuries would heal with the passage of time, they were so severe it would probably take a significant number of years for the Fire Elemental Lord to fully recover.

“The Immortal Demon wouldn’t know,” said Elrenar. “So just do what I’m requesting of you, Lord Plagas.”

Plagas nervously gulped. “…Y-You are right.”

Plagas deemed that this should be enough to prevent Elrenar from suspecting that he knew something.

The Lord of Parasitic Demons began connecting with the nest that had survived the battle in the demon capital.

‘My beloved nest. Heed my command! Give birth! Proliferate! Obtain for me the flesh of the Fire Elemental Lord and the Immortal Demon!’

Plagas felt the nest shriek upon receiving its master’s commands.

Through his orders, the nest began giving birth to over a hundred parasitic demons. Although giving birth to thousands of parasitic demons wasn’t feasible due to the lack of food within the area, the current parasitic demons should be enough to search for the remnant flesh of Barkuvara and Candela.

“Muuka,” said Elrenar.

“Yes, Lord,” replied the old tormentor.

“Manipulate the vision crystal. Assist the great Lord of Parasitic Demons so he can retrieve the flesh for us.”

“Understood.”

The vision crystal was an artifact created by Chief Researcher Muuka. In the entire Demon Realm, only the Red Tower had it. An artifact that allowed the Red Tower to observe things from a safe distance.

Still, the artifact wasn’t perfect.

Due to the distance, the vision crystal consumed significant amounts of mana with each use. Moreover, mana fluctuations – such as those produced during Barkuvara and Candela’s clash –interfered with the vision crystal’s transmission.  This was the reason why they didn’t see the entire battle despite it lasting a couple of days.

Although they saw the injured Candela leaving for the Volcanic Region, they couldn’t be certain who among the two had emerged victorious.

After several days of searching through the rubble, the parasitic demons finally found the arm of Fire Elemental Lord. Nearby were also the tentacles of Candela that the Demon Lord Barkuvara had cut off.

“HAHAHAHA! PERFECT!”

Elrenar couldn’t suppress his excitement when he saw everything through the vision crystal.

They wanted to retrieve even just a finger, but they were given not just an arm, but also two tentacles!

If not for his fear of running directly into the Demon Lord Barkuvara, the Lord of the Red Tower would have gone there himself to retrieve the flesh of Candela.

“HAHAHA! CANDELA’S FLESH! I HAVE IT! FINALLY!”

Plagas shuddered when he heard the Lord of the Red Tower’s laugh. It was filled with greed, ambition, and madness, something he no longer bothered to hide.

“Congratulations, Lord,” said Muuka.

Even the Chief Researcher no longer bothered pretending that they weren’t somewhat involved in this matter. After confirming the existence of Candela’s flesh in what used to be the demon capital, the two openly showed their desire to obtain it no matter what.

“PLAGAS! OBTAIN IT FOR US, QUICK!”

Plagas reluctantly nodded.

For the first time, the Lord of Parasitic Demons felt that coming to the Red Tower to take refuge was the worst decision he could have taken.

Plagas’ instinct was the one that had saved him when he was chased by the human magician in the Human Realm. It was his instinct that had saved him when Candela and Barkuvara fought each other.

And now, that same instinct was telling him that something terrible would befall this realm if he handed Candela’s flesh to the Lord of the Red Tower.

“Lord Plagas,” said Muuka. “I believe you heard my master’s request?”

Seeing through the vision crystal that the parasitic demons haven’t moved, Muuka reminded Plagas of his task.

“Y-Yes. I know.”

Plagas nervously gulped. He ordered the parasitic demons to retrieve the dismembered body parts of Candela and deliver them all the way to the Red Tower.

‘Hm? What… That is….’

While the parasitic demons started carrying away the flesh of Candela, the only surviving nest notified Plagas that it had found a horn which seemed to belong to the Demon Lord Barkuvara.

The horn still contained massive amounts of lifeforce and mana according to the nest, and giving it to the Lord of the Red Tower should greatly aid him in his research.

Plagas’ heart started pounding when he heard this report from the parasitic nest.

Surely, the Lord of the Red Tower would jump around in joy if Plagas told him this.

But…

…Would that be the correct decision?

Plagas pondered over the matter for a long time.

 ‘My beloved nest, discreetly take the horn and bury it as deep as you can underground.’

In the end, Plagas trusted his instinct once again. His instinct told him that something far more terrifying than this battle would occur if even the horn was given to Elrenar.

Whatever the Red Tower was planning, Plagas felt that it wouldn’t do him any good if they obtained both the flesh of Candela and the horn of Barkuvara.

Under his commands, the nest discreetly dug as deep as it could and buried the horn underground. The parasitic demons, on the other hand, moved as one and started transporting Candela’s flesh to the Red Tower.

Several days later, Elrenar finally got his hands on Candela’s flesh. After verifying through the vision crystal that Barkuvara wasn’t nearby, the Lord of the Red Tower sent thousands of tormentors to search the demon capital and find any body parts belonging to the Demon Lord Barkuvara.

And…

…On the same day the tormentors departed the Red Tower, Plagas left the territory and hid himself – to a place he believed even the vision crystal wouldn’t find.