“So that man is the ‘Demon King Slayer,’ huh…”
Luciana stared at Henry with an unreadable expression.
There was a complicated depth to her gaze. As a former general of the Four Heavenly Kings, she likely had much on her mind regarding the title.
“Does the description fit?” I asked.
“More or less,” Luciana nodded.
Having witnessed the brief exchange of blows, she seemed forced to acknowledge the truth of it. Without exaggeration, Henry Brarkin was the small nation’s ultimate weapon.
His greatest assets were his innate physical prowess and his preternatural combat instincts. He possessed no specific special abilities, nor could he cast a single spell. Despite that, Henry boasted an extraordinary level of strength.
His fighting style was remarkably simple. He relied on his exceptional durability to weather enemy attacks and used his monstrous, well-honed strength to crush them. Even against surprise attacks, he reacted through pure intuition. He was a man who appeared to have no identifiable weaknesses.
Moody and boisterous, Henry seemed to take genuine pleasure in defying discipline. In terms of personality, he was undoubtedly a dangerous individual—one might even call him anti-social.
However, it was now clear why the Kingdom had once tried to recruit him for the hero’s party to subjugate the Demon King. If Henry had been part of that campaign, the war surely would have proceeded much more favorably for the humans.
Back then, I had been surprised to hear the news of his imprisonment. It had left such a strong impression on me that I could still recall the details clearly even now.
“Stand back. It seems he’s run out of patience.”
Noticing Henry’s muscles coil as he prepared to close the distance, I used a gust of wind to push Luciana away. Caught in the sudden gale, she went flying back, stumbling through the air to keep her balance.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!”
The moment Luciana was clear of my field of vision, I fired a volley of Wind Blades. It was a triple-shot with enhanced cutting power—sharp enough to slice through solid metal with ease.
“Oops!”
Faced with the invisible projectiles, Henry charged forward as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He dodged the blades with light, nimble movements. He was likely sensing the slight fluctuations in the air pressure; his senses were frustratingly precise.
“Hahaha! If you’re gonna kill me, you’re gonna need more than that!”
Henry closed the gap while laughing and unleashed a flying kick. I ducked to evade. Immediately after, his leg passed overhead with the force of a hurricane.
A dull crack echoed from the top of my head. His toes had grazed me, scraping against my skull. However, it wasn't enough to hinder my movements. To me, it was a negligible injury.
I channeled magic power into my hand, tightening my fingers into a spear-hand strike. I lunged across the shortest possible distance, the floor shattering under the weight of my step as I thrust forward.
“Oh-ho!”
Henry let out a delighted cry and caught my wrist, halting the strike in its tracks. His reaction speed was incredible. He had countered the move as if he had known exactly where I was aiming. Then, using my own momentum against me, he threw me across the room.
(Normal magic won't settle this, then...)
I conjured a force field in mid-air and kicked off it to propel myself back into the fray. While closing in on Henry, I fired a rapid succession of Black Fireballs laced with miasma. He crossed his arms to block the impact and retreated the moment he saw an opening. His sleeves were incinerated in an instant, but his arms remained largely unharmed.
Apparently, even those fireballs lacked sufficient power to put him down.
“...Good grief, the air's rotten. Isn't it a bit too thick in here?” Henry complained, coughing slightly.
He clearly disliked the miasma drifting through the cafeteria. However, there was no sign of him turning into an undead. He merely seemed annoyed. An ordinary person would have been reduced to a ghoul long ago.
It wasn't that my authority was malfunctioning. Most likely, the sheer vitality of his body was physically resisting the erosion of his soul. I had hoped the miasma would gradually poison his system, but his constitution was proving to be a nuisance. He was an outlier to the point that it was hard to believe he was even human.
I took a moment to calmly observe him. If I were to get serious, I could kill him. I could simply rely on my near-infinite magic power to fire off a barrage of large-scale magic capable of reshaping the terrain. If I attacked with enough force to wipe the capital off the map, even the great Henry Brarkin wouldn't survive. Such a thing was well within my current capabilities.
In the first place, Henry had no means of killing me. No matter how skilled he was at physical combat, he lacked the means to truly annihilate me. Even if he destroyed this body, I would simply resurrect using one of my subordinate undead as a medium. If I dragged this out into a war of attrition, my victory was inevitable.
However, I was beginning to find the man known as Henry Brarkin interesting. He was undoubtedly a talent too rare to waste here. Fortunately, he was extremely impulsive. Since his personality was fundamentally closer to that of a villain, I had a feeling I could convince him to join the Demon King’s Army depending on the terms.
With that in mind, I decided to make a proposal to the man as he stood on his guard.
“Henry Brarkin. Shall we make a bet?”
“...Say what?”
Henry lowered his stance, a look of genuine confusion crossing his face. My words were clearly unexpected, but I had caught his interest. He didn't attack while I was wide open, which was a promising reaction. He was at least willing to listen.
“We shall set a prize for the winner of our duel. If I win, I want you to join the Demon King’s Army. If I lose, I will grant any wish you have, within the scope of my power.”
“W-Wait, Demon King!?”
This time, it was Luciana who was shocked. She started to rush toward me, but I stopped her with a single look. This was a critical moment. I understood her concern, but I couldn't have her interfering. Luciana nodded with a solemn expression and went back to being a spectator. She had decided to trust me. If she truly thought the situation was beyond my control, she would have stopped the conversation by force.
Meanwhile, Henry was deep in thought. He was seriously considering my proposal. After a long silence, he flashed a ferocious smile.
“—If I win, hand over the Demon King's Army. My life as a prisoner is over, and I was wondering what to do with my freedom. Waging war against the entire world sounds like it could be a hell of a lot of fun.”
I stiffened. It was a reply I hadn't expected. I knew he was anti-social and impulsive, but I never expected his ambition to be this reckless. Suppressing my rising emotions, I spoke to him in a deliberate, detached tone.
“...The role of Demon King is not something that can be fulfilled with half-hearted resolve. I do not believe you are up to the task.”
“Are you saying you’ve got that kind of resolve, then?”
“Of course.”
I answered immediately. At the bottom of the Valley of the Dead, I had decided to shoulder everything. There was no one else who could take my place. It was a burden that could never be taken up lightly.
Henry stared intently at me. I couldn't tell what was going on in his head. For a man so governed by his whims, his expression remained uncharacteristically serious.
“Will you take the bet or not? Give me your answer.”
“Hmm...”
At my prompting, Henry crossed his arms and thought it over. In his eyes, a flicker of emotion appeared that was different from before. It wasn't hostility or bloodlust; it was a strange sense of familiarity.
Before I could discern its true nature, Henry gave his answer.
“I'm in. Obviously. There’s no way I’d let a development this entertaining slip through my fingers. Let’s hurry up and settle this!”
Henry spoke with pure glee, raised his fists, and laughed. Then, he sprinted toward me.