The inside of the city was hell.
The city we had all built together was engulfed in flames, with the corpses of monsters strewn along the roadside. Among them were many who had warmly greeted me just hours before.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!"
I had been naive. No, far too naive. Our enemy was Demon King Aldebaran, reputed to be the most cruel of the Four Great Demon Kings. He was never an opponent to take lightly. I should have seen this coming.
From down the street, three demons were dancing with razor-sharp movements, rapidly chanting bizarre lyrics at a sickening speed.
"Can't hold back the urge! Stomach rumbling like a surge! Even pork will do just fine! Even half-raw, it stokes this appetite of mine!"
One of them swayed his body in an unnervingly fluid motion, tearing into the object in his right hand with his teeth.
"Ain't you eating way too much? You'll get indigestion, dude!"
The second chimed in with a contrasting dance, ripping into the meat held in his left hand.
"Don't you worry! Our iron stomachs are no joke! That's the gourmet Demon King Army folk!"
Catching sight of what the man in the center—who had slicked-back red hair and oddly goggling eyes—was gnawing on with both hands, my thoughts ground to a halt.
Then, the realization set in: it was the severed head of the middle-aged orc tribe butcher woman. A gut-wrenching fury dyed my vision crimson.
"You pieces of shit!"
I lunged forward to close the distance to the demon with the slicked-back red hair, drew the Magic Sword Flame from my hip, and thrust it toward the space between his brows with everything I had.
"Totally useless! What a shame!"
He caught Flame effortlessly with his bare hand, blade and all.
"Crap—"
A chill shot down my spine. I let go of Flame's hilt and tried to leap backward, but his right hand clamped around my throat with ease.
"Come on, time to eat! Down the hatch!"
The mouth of the red-haired man split wide open, morphing into the grotesque maw of a fish.
(This won't work!)
Even channeling the image of my sword master, I couldn't keep up with his movements in the slightest. I couldn't hold anything back. Unless I tapped into the strongest being I knew, I wouldn't even stand a chance.
However, using that power would leave me unconscious and paralyzed for days. What if I still couldn't win?
"Ngh!"
With the monstrous fish-like face bearing down on me, I steeled my resolve and invoked Mimicry, picturing that plain-looking, black-haired boy who embodied absolute strength. Perhaps because this was my third time doing so, the transformation took hold with astonishing speed.
I kicked upward into his head, shearing clean through his right arm in the process. With just that single strike, his upper torso blew apart, scattering viscera into the air.
Without giving one of the flanking demons even a moment to react, I drove a full-powered fist into its face, obliterating its head. Its headless corpse spun violently through the air and smashed into a building behind it, reducing the structure to rubble.
As the last one tried to scramble away, I fired a Flame Bullet at it. The instant it hit, I pressed my right palm flush against its chest and unleashed a barrage of full-powered Flame Bullets point-blank. The demon's body swelled like an overinflated balloon and burst.
Now that I had played my trump card, every second counted.
I had already obtained intel on the enemy's appearance from captured demons. The man with the slicked-back red hair from just now was Relado, one of Aldebaran's close aides. Between his bizarrely goggling eyes and distinctive navy-blue uniform, there was little doubt.
That meant Demon King Aldebaran and another aide, Dahrma, had to be nearby. Before my power ran out, I had to slaughter those two at the very least.
Determined to eliminate Demon King Aldebaran and Demon Dahrma, I retrieved Flame from the ground and kicked off into the burning city.