Among the evil of all evil, the highest echelon of the Evil Army—the Six Great Generals of the Evil Army—always commanded a select few close aides known as the Subordinate Kings, figures who represented their respective mythologies. At times, they served as the limbs of the Six Great Generals, carrying out their supreme commands; at other times, they stood as impervious shields to guard them. Their power firmly placed them among the mightiest beings in existence. In terms of pure combat ability, they easily eclipsed even the three lieutenant generals manifested in this world, including Forneus. These proud, paramount aides serving Anra Mainyu were the Six Great Demon Gods.
However, the Subordinate Kings were the very embodiment of the power wielded by the Six Great Generals. Because they were regarded as extensions of that supreme authority itself, they operated completely outside the standard chain of command of the Evil Army, making their deployment in actual warfare against the Heavenly Army practically nonexistent. In essence, the Subordinate Kings were a dedicated, standing vanguard designed purely to protect the Six Great Generals at the absolute pinnacle of the army.
Whenever the Six Great Demon Gods mobilized, it invariably spelled the total annihilation of Anra Mainyu's enemies. At the very least, catastrophic devastation was guaranteed. Even the Six Heavenly Gods—the strongest warriors of the Heavenly Army—would never dare march upon Anra Mainyu's fortress without taking the Six Great Demon Gods into account. That was simply the magnitude of the threat they posed.
Inflated by this supreme confidence, the three members dispatched by Anra Mainyu to eliminate the intruders—Slugman, the Fourth Pillar; Tartar S, the Fifth Pillar; and Badrag, the Sixth Pillar—judged the black-haired boy before them based on their own senses and deemed him utterly beneath their notice. To the Six Great Demon Gods, even the elite guardian soldiers defending the Mayura Evil Palace registered as nothing more than ants crawling on the roadside, so such an assumption was, in a sense, understandable.
Unfortunately for them, the force currently storming the Mayura Evil Palace was a living absurdity, an irrational monster that defied all reason. The moment they made that fatal miscalculation, their fates were sealed.
"There ain't no reason for all of us to waste our time on small fry like this. You two handle 'em."
Sprouting bat wings and wearing a mask, Badrag let out a lazy yawn, leaned back against a nearby pillar, and crossed his arms.
"Well then, well then, I guess I'll take this one for myself, sluuuuurp..."
Slugman, a monster clad in a pure white robe with the head of a slug, frantically wriggled his antenna-like appendages. Sinking through the gaps between the floor tiles, he suddenly materialized right behind the black-haired boy to stake his claim.
"I'll take care of that woman over theeeere. She doesn't look strong in the slightest, but since she took down those useless guards, she should at least help blow off some streeeess, right?"
The squat, chubby monster Tartar S waddled up to the woman clad in foreign black garments. Thrusting a colossal spiked metal club right in front of her face, she sneered with malicious intent.
"So they say. Asta, what do you want to do? I wouldn't mind taking care of all of them myself, you know?"
The black-haired boy called out to Asta, his voice bubbling with cheerful excitement as if he were merely heading out on a casual picnic.
"Mind thy own business. In fact, teaching this miserable creature the harsh cruelty of reality sounds rather entertaining."
Asta shrugged, casting a look of utter pity at her opponent while shaking her head in refusal of the boy's offer.
"What a cheeky little wench. Killing a few guards must've gone to your head, but to monsters like us, a nobody like you is—"
A thick blue vein throbbed on Tartar S's temple, but before she could finish, Asta cut her off.
"I have already had my fill of such clichéd mob death flags."
Asta raised her right palm to silence her, brushing the threat aside with complete disinterest.
"You insolent brat! It's too late to regret it noooow! I'm going to smash that pretty little face into a bloody pulp!"
Tartar S flew into a blind rage. Asta merely smirked, curling the corners of her lips as she loudly cracked her knuckles.
"Yes, magnificent! This thrilling tension of putting one's life on the line! This is true combat! This is what war is all about! After waiting so long for a serious duel, I shall hold nothing back either. Time to get serious!"
With a strangely ecstatic edge to his voice, the black-haired boy reached with his left hand toward the long glove covering his right arm.
"W-Wait! If thou dost that—!"
Completely disregarding Tartar S, Asta shouted in a frantic panic to stop him.
"Looking away from your enemy—?!"
Veins bulged across Tartar S's entire face as she raised her metal club high, preparing to bring it crashing down upon Asta's skull.
"H-Hey, wait, something's wrong!"
Badrag, who had been watching lazily from the pillar, let out a voice that cracked in alarm.
In that fleeting instant, a thick, roaring torrent of black and crimson battle aura erupted from the boy's entire body. The swirling energy coiled around him, rapidly coalescing into the silhouette of a titanic, monstrous beast.
"..."
Confronted with the utterly deranged spectacle right before his eyes, all color drained instantly from Slugman, and his body began to tremble violently.
"Good grief... It had to come to this after all, didn't it?"
As Asta let out a resigned sigh, the beast of condensed battle aura raised its maw skyward as if roaring toward the heavens. The next moment, the aura detonated, blasting outward in violent, concentric shockwaves.
"Agyaaaaaaah—!"
Just being engulfed in the shockwave of that aura was enough to drop Tartar S to her knees, her face warping in sheer horror as she shrieked hysterically.
"This is my full power! Come, let us engage in a battle that will make our very souls boil!"
Assuming a stance with his extraordinarily long blade, the black-haired boy let out a triumphant shout of pure joy.
—However...
"Y-You monsteuuuuur!"
"A monsteeeer!"
"He's a freak!"
—There was no longer a single soul present brave or foolish enough to accept his challenge.
Slugman was the first to react. The moment his scream died down, he attempted to slip into the seams between the floor tiles to escape the incomprehensible monstrosity before him.
The black-haired boy simply stamped his right foot onto the stone floor. Instantly, black and red battle aura washed over Slugman, freezing him in place with only his upper torso protruding from the ground.
Approaching the trapped demon, the boy looked down on him and began dispensing an impossible lecture.
"From the looks of it, you possess the power to traverse spatial seams. An intriguing ability, but hardly suited for actual combat. You see? Simply by pinning down the earth like this, I can easily halt your movement."
It was a blatant impossibility. That technique was Slugman's innate ability, Gap Bridging—a supernatural power that forcibly linked spatial fractures to allow seamless transit. Under normal circumstances, no amount of physical interference could ever disrupt its execution. The boy's simple stomp had contained an inexplicable, conceptual force that defied the laws of reality.
To pull off such a feat was something one could hardly imagine even their Chief God, Anra Mainyu, ever achieving.
"..."
As Slugman stared up at him in dazed terror, the black-haired boy spoke in an absolute, uncompromising tone.
"Petty parlor tricks will not work against me. Drop the act and fight me with everything you have. I told you already, didn't I? This is a duel where we wager our pride and our very souls."
"S-Save me..."
Slugman whimpered in pathetic desperation. The moment the plea reached his ears, the black-haired boy's eyes widened in genuine shock.
"Don't tell me... Is that pathetic display really your full strength?"
Leaning forward, the boy brought his face close to Slugman and narrowed one eye in sharp disbelief.
"..."
As Slugman repeatedly nodded in frantic submission, a subtle twitch ran through the boy's cheek. He slowly shifted his gaze toward Tartar S and Badrag.
"Eeeek!"
At that single glance, Tartar S let out a strangled shriek and recoiled, while Badrag's teeth chattered violently as his knees gave out beneath him.
The black-haired boy ground his molars together in raw disgust.
"Does this mean you bastards are just scum who can only prey on the weak too?"
Spitting out the words with utter contempt, he swept his long blade in a single, fluid arc.
Slugman's head slid cleanly off his shoulders and struck the floor with a wet thud.
Green blood geysered from the severed neck, showering the stone tiles in a gruesome spray. The horrific sight shattered what little composure Tartar S and Badrag had left, and with bloodcurdling screams, they bolted in blind panic.
Their unwavering loyalty was instantly overridden by raw, primal survival instincts, driving both of them to flee in direct defiance of their Chief God's orders. Watching their retreating backs, the black-haired boy unhitched the scabbard from his back and smoothly sheathed his weapon. Resting his right hand on the hilt, he spoke:
"True Kai-Style Swordsmanship: One-Sword Style, Fourth Form—Arachne."
He released the incantation. In a single breath, without even being granted the time to scream, Tartar S and Badrag were carved into four pieces, their severed remains tumbling lifelessly to the floor.
"In the end, it always comes to this, doesn't it...? If even the innermost sanctum holds nothing but small fry of this caliber, I suppose it is foolish to harbor any high expectations going forward."
Muttering softly to himself, the black-haired boy strode forward. Catching sight of her master's disappointed profile, Asta's face twisted with a fleeting pang of bitter frustration before she quietly fell into step behind him.