A middle-aged man whose body was covered in protruding faces pushed open the grand front doors of the mansion and stepped outside.
"At last, I have finally emerged~!"
He broke into a bizarre dance. As if in response, monsters with grotesque, oversized heads crawled up from the earth one after another.
They fell into step around him, performing a flawlessly synchronized routine.
Finally. At long last, he had broken free of the mansion. The middle-aged monster, Hizumi, was one of the dense, ancient Three Great Curses spawned by the King of Curses. Ever since his creation, he had been trapped within the estate, forbidden from taking even a single step beyond its threshold. This restriction was the sole shackle placed upon the King of Curses herself. But now that she had obtained her true power, those chains had shattered completely.
"This time, I am freeeeeee~! Come, dance in a frenzyyyy~!"
He threw back his head, roaring with delight toward the heavens as he danced. His minions—the grotesque, massive-headed abominations—moved in eerie, perfect unison.
"Now then, what shall I do first~?"
His orders from the King of Curses were absolute: curse every living thing in this world to death.
"Perhaps I'll begin by placing a curse upon every single creature in this city~."
Hizumi skipped forward, and his army of bulbous-headed monsters fell into rank, skipping along behind him.
It was a nightmarish parade of skipping monstrosities. Yet right in the path of this macabre march stood a lone figure. The man was a three-faced demon. Resting a massive, two-pronged greatsword over his shoulder, he barked:
"You ain't gettin' past here. Become food for my dream!"
He bared his sharp fangs with a ferocious grin. The eyes across all three of his faces were wide, gleaming with an unnatural, bloodthirsty light.
"My, you don't seem to be human at allll~."
This was supposed to be a mortal settlement. In all likelihood, he was just a monster contracted by some human Summoner. In any case, there was no way such a creature could stand against the awakened Hizumi and his servants.
"Very well. Children, go play with him for a while~."
At Hizumi's command, the massive-headed monsters swarmed the demon all at once, spinning around him at blistering speed while continuing their twisted dance.
Watching their antics, the three-faced demon's expression soured into pure disgust.
"Dammit! This side was a dud?! Listen up, you bastards! If you're gonna mount an attack, you'd normally put your main force here on the road to the downtown district, wouldn't you?! Why the hell did you send your elites after the already-dead specters inside the mansion?! Thanks to you idiots, Zenki and Goki are gonna beat me to the punch!"
With a furious roar, he swept his blade through the air. A massive arc cleaved the space around him. In a spray of scattered entrails, the minions dancing around the three-faced demon were instantly reduced to flying chunks of flesh.
"Huh?"
Staring at the minced remains of his servants strewn across the ground, Hizumi let out a bewildered squeak. It made no sense. Their King of Curses had begun her ascent up the divine stairway. Once she finished cursing this world, she would achieve true godhood. A god was an entity transcending the very laws of reality. How could mortal creatures bound by the mundane world ever hope to resist those who walked the divine path? And yet—
"W-Why were the servants of a divine messenger like me wiped out so easilyyyy?!" he shrieked, unable to comprehend the carnage.
"Divine messenger? Hah! You actually think you're an angel with that pathetic weakness of yours?"
"M-My master has ascended the divine stairway~! Once she curses this world into oblivion, she will attain divinity and reign as a true god~! I am one of the three curses she brought into this world! How dare a vulgar, low-class monster like you call me weak?!"
Hizumi bristled with outrage at the demon's insolent tone, but the three-faced warrior merely dug into his ear with a pinky finger.
"Hah! Ascended the divine stairway? Don't make me laugh! Who gives a damn about divinity? A real fight ain't decided by useless junk like that!"
He snorted, spitting the words out in blatant mockery.
"You dare call divinity junk?! Did you just call our King's ultimate ambition 'junk'?!"
The path to godhood was virtually the King's sole desire—a monumental feat that could never be easily achieved. But once she ascended, Hizumi and her kin would wield supernatural authority as her divine heralds. Yet this lowly monster, completely ignorant of his own insignificance, dared to dismiss that supreme pinnacle as garbage. It was unforgivable!
"Yeah, it's junk. I've seen more than enough absolute monsters without a speck of divinity to make me sick of 'em."
"Absolute nonsense! Then what do you claim true strength is, hmm?!"
"Who knows? I'd like to figure that out myself."
Enough. There was no point wasting time on a lunatic. Hizumi needed to retreat and report this to the King at once.
He took a step back, only for the three-faced demon to vanish into thin air.
"Hey. Where do you think you're goin'?"
The voice came from directly behind him. Trembling, Hizumi spun around, only to find the three-faced demon looming an inch from his face.
"Eeeek!"
Hizumi collapsed backward, landing hard on his rear.
"Can't even react, huh...? You really are nothing but small fry. And I don't have the patience to waste my time babysitting garbage like you."
Muttering with utter boredom, the three-faced demon raised his greatsword overhead. Instantly, an overwhelming aura of sinister crimson magic condensed along the twin blades. The searing heat radiating from the blade caused the ground beneath them to bubble and melt, charring the skin across Hizumi's entire body.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!"
Screaming in agony, Hizumi scrambled to his feet and fled for his life. But the three-faced demon swung his sword downward in a slow, merciless arc.
"Guh...?"
Hizumi's vision split cleanly in two. A blinding flash of light engulfed the area, vaporizing his body down to the last cell until nothing of his existence remained.
Looking down coldly at the bottomless chasm carved into the earth before him, the three-faced fierce god, Asura, let out a heavy sigh.
"That didn't even count as a warm-up. Damn it, I should've stayed inside the mansion after all."
He muttered bitterly to himself, then raised his massive blade toward the sky and roared:
"Lord Kai, I swear I'll live up to your expectations!"