Power of the Demon Lord

SHADOW

"E-even if you unleash your bloodlust now, I’ve already seen through your true strength—!"

Maximilian was practically vibrating. He was doing his best to endure the killing intent I was radiating into the atmosphere as he lunged forward. It was a sharp, direct thrust—the shortest path to my throat. Honestly, his speed was actually pretty impressive.

But...

"Wh-?!"

I caught his blade with my bare left hand.

"I shall give you one piece of advice..." I said, making sure to keep my voice low and mysterious.

"Guh, let go...!"

He tried to yank his sword back, but my hand didn't budge. It probably felt like he’d gotten his blade stuck in a mountain for all the luck he was having.

"Come at me seriously—unless you're looking for a pathetic death," I said, letting go of the blade. The sudden release of tension sent him tumbling backward into the snow.

He scrambled to his feet immediately, glaring at me with pure hatred. "Don't you dare look down on me...!"

Then, he pulled out a Red Pill and swallowed it. Ah, the classic mid-boss power-up. Very predictable.

"You've had your fun with these little stunts," Maximilian growled. "I let you play around for a bit, and now you’ve gone and gotten cocky."

His Magic Power began to swell, and his eyes were dyed a deep, bloody red.

"I'll show you—that the only one dying a pathetic death here is you!!"

And then, his figure blurred.

A split second later, he was standing right behind me.

"—An afterimage."

A supersonic slash tore through the air, striking me right in the back. Or it would have, if it could actually cut through my coat.

I started to turn around, but his body blurred again before I could even complete the movement.

"Too bad—that was an afterimage, too!"

Again, his sword lashed across my back.

"As I thought, you can't even react. But I suppose that’s only natural. I’m not like those ordinary Awakened..."

I turned around slowly, meeting his gaze. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

"I am not a 3rd—I am a 2nd."

Maximilian sneered and blurred once more.

"Slow! Too slow, Shadow!! Is this your first time facing a 2nd!?"

His voice echoed from all directions. Slashes rained down on me incessantly. He was moving so fast he was leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake, cutting at me from every conceivable angle.

"This is my true style—'Cold-hearted Kaleidoscope'!"

In the middle of the white-out blizzard, a dozen Maximilians seemed to be dancing. It was actually a pretty aesthetic sight—a literal kaleidoscope of cold steel. I just stood there and let him keep at it.

"Eventually, even an Artifact will break under this much pressure! That's when you're finished!!"

He must have swung that sword over a thousand times. It felt like it could have gone on forever. I just stood there, "helplessly" soaking up the blows. The sheer force of his strikes kicked up so much snow that the entire area was bathed in white.

Finally, the onslaught stopped.

"Huff... huff... Did I... get him?"

Maximilian stopped to catch his breath. He’d done a number on the landscape; the ground was gouged out, and the terrain was completely unrecognizable. The 'Cold-hearted Kaleidoscope' certainly had some kick to it. Most people would have been minced meat after an attack like that.

He started to sheathe his sword, looking satisfied.

"Wh-?!"

Then, a black silhouette emerged through the wall of white. As the snow settled, my figure became clear.

"No... how...?"

I was still standing there, exactly where I had been before.

Having tanked every single hit of his 'Cold-hearted Kaleidoscope,' I hadn't moved an inch. Not a single scratch on me. It was like the last few minutes hadn't even happened.

"You took all of that and you're unharmed?! Th-that’s impossible! No Artifact in existence could possibly—"

"An Artifact, is it? You seem quite interested in this coat." I spread the hem of my coat out for him to see.

"O-of course! I’m clearly stronger than you! If you didn't have that ridiculous Artifact, you'd be—"

"This isn't an Artifact," I interrupted. "It's just slime."

"Don't lie to me! Slime doesn't have that kind of durability!!"

"You're right. Ordinary slime doesn't. But what if you poured an immense amount of Magic Power into it...?"

"H-humph, impossible. Sure, slime has high Magic Power Conductivity, but it’s too hard to control. The magic circuits are completely different from a human’s."

"You've done your homework, I see. Then let me ask you... have you ever tried mixing human flesh and blood into the mix...?"

"Wh—?!"

"You blend several species of slime and incorporate your own biological matter. Then, you force Magic Power through them, fusing things that should repel each other like water and oil."

"That's insane... Mixing monster and human circuits...? That would require a level of Magic Power control that's... it's beyond human!"

"Precisely. And as far as I know, there is only one person in this world capable of such a feat. Me."

"—L-liar! No way! No human could ever do that...!"

"Can you still say that after seeing this...?"

I let my coat flutter. In the white blizzard, the black material began to expand, spreading out like massive wings. No—at this point, they were wings. They swelled into pitch-black shapes, looking for all the world like the wings of a demon.

"Th-that's... no, this can't be happening..."

Maximilian’s mind was racing. If there was a material that could change shape that freely, there was only one answer. Slime. But the implications were too much for him to handle.

"A-Abomination... You're not human! You're an Abomination!!"

His face twisted in terror as he lunged at me one last time. But his "god-speed" slash was caught effortlessly by one of my demonic wings.

"Too slow..."

"H-how...? You couldn't even react before..."

Despair finally settled into his features. By now, I had manifested four pairs of wings. They were large enough to blot out the sky as I began to hover, rising into the snowy air.

"He's... flying..."

"I'll tell you one more thing," I said, looking down at him. "My total Magic Power Amount isn't actually that much different from yours."

I flapped my massive black wings amidst the blizzard.

"However, when Magic Power is compressed, it releases with hundreds of times its original force. I simply perform that compression constantly... like this."

I began funneling my energy into my wings. My Bluish-purple Magic Power concentrated into the individual "feathers" of the slime.

"Hie... Abomination... no, you’re a Demon Lord...!"

"Total capacity is worthless. The true value lies in control. The precision with which one can compress and release... that is everything."

I must have looked like a beautiful, cruel demon up there.

"I Am Atomic Rain."

The attack poured down on Maximilian.

A rain of bluish-purple light dyed the white blizzard. The brilliance was blinding, vaporizing the snow and swallowing everything in its path.

When the light finally faded, the Detention Center was gone. In its place was nothing but a massive, empty crater.

Silence returned to the courtyard.

Then, with a single beat of my pitch-black wings, I took off into the snowy sky.