Dorda’s axe flashed in a single, sweeping arc.
Three demons caught in its path were decapitated instantly. Their heads sailed through the air in a morbidly graceful arc.
It was a masterfully clean strike.
The remaining demons scrambled to counterattack, but Dorda was beyond their reach. He vanished, reappearing an instant later in the center of their ranks. With every swing of his axe, he claimed more victims.
He moved with blinding speed, a fusion of lightning magic and physical enhancement. He was nearly impossible to track with the naked eye. Even I required magical assistance to fully perceive his trajectory. This was far beyond the capabilities of the demons present.
“Heads... I need heads! Give me more!”
Dorda’s voice tore through the air as he swung his weapon. With every rotation, more heads were sent flying. His efficiency was as terrifying as it was precise. He targeted only the neck, striking with surgical accuracy. Between his speed and his aim, there wasn't a single wasted motion in his slaughter.
Even with his sanity slipping, his combat prowess remained equal to the heights of his former life.
I began to move, keeping one eye on Dorda’s carnage. I signaled to Luciana as well.
“Let’s move. We'll seize the leader while they're distracted.”
“Right away~”
Amidst the chaos, the demon leader attempted to flee from the ruins. He was flanked by several subordinates. Evidently, he intended to use the others as decoys to secure his own escape.
I would not allow it.
I teleported directly into their path. Manifesting a Miasma Spear, I ran one of the subordinates through.
“Ua, ah!?”
The demon's scream was short-lived as he withered into a skeleton. The others froze at the sight. They spun on their heels to retreat, only to find Luciana blocking the way.
“You’re not going anywhere~” Luciana chirped, her hands resting on her hips. She was clearly relishing the moment, her eyes shimmering with sadistic delight.
I, however, remained impassive. “There is no escape. Submit.”
“You think we would follow such an order—”
The newly raised skeleton lunged at the subordinate who had dared to speak up. The skeleton pinned him and drove a Miasma Spear into him repeatedly. His agonized wails were quickly silenced as his flesh rotted away, leaving only bone. The second skeleton rose and turned to face its former companions.
The remaining demons realized the futility of resistance. Their faces twisted in frustration and hatred as they glared at us.
“Maou-sama, why don't we just wrap this up and bag them?”
“Fair point.” I nodded.
Submissiveness would have been preferable, but it was clearly asking too much of them. My demonstrations had only served to further antagonize them. I bound the demons with Magic Vines, restricting their movements completely and ignoring their feeble attempts to resist.
I moved the group as a whole to a location further from the ruins.
The demons sprawled on the wasteland, drained of strength by vines that leached their mana. By now, they would be unable to cast a single spell. We were far enough away to avoid any interruptions.
Satisfied, I looked down at the leader. “What was the purpose of your contact with the humans?”
“W-what are you talking about? Humans? There shouldn't be any humans in a place like this!”
He feighed ignorance out of desperation. Even now, he refused to be honest.
“......”
I placed a silent hand on one of his subordinates. Miasma flooded the demon, whose eyes rolled back as he buckled in agony. Within moments, his skin began to fester, and he transformed into a drooling, moaning ghoul.
“This is the price of your silence.”
The leader gasped, his bravado finally crumbling into terror. The others looked as if they were on the verge of fainting.
“Why did you contact them? Give me a reason.”
“Kuh...!”
He still refused to speak. He was remarkably obstinate. It wasn't as if some kind of magic was preventing him from speaking; he was keeping silent of his own volition.
I have no choice. I don't really like this kind of method, but...
I reached for the leader’s leg. I intended to perform a simple torture: advancing the process of undeadification starting from his toes, then amputating the affected parts piece by piece. The agony would be unbearable for any living creature. It would take a little time, but he would surely break before death claimed him.
Just as I prepared to begin, Luciana raised her hand. She gestured to her face with a smirk. “Wouldn't it be easier if I just used my Charm to make them talk?”
“...Please do.” I nodded.
I had completely forgotten about her Charm ability. Returning to these lands seemed to have triggered a more violent streak in my reasoning. It was entirely subconscious.
That was over ten years ago.
The Sage who once fought alongside the Hero was gone. In his place stood an immortal Demon King. If I allowed myself to become impulsive, I risked making a catastrophic error. I needed to regain my composure.
Luciana proceeded to charm the demons, turning them into mindless puppets before extracting the information we needed.
As it turned out, the demons possessed very little of substance. They didn't even know the identity of the humans they had been meeting with. They had agreed to the arrangement without knowing so much as which kingdom the humans hailed from.
The arrangement was straightforward: the humans provided food and magic tools, and in exchange, the demons gathered local resources—plants, water, and minerals—from the surrounding wasteland. A simple barter.
The demons did not know the humans' objective. The humans had appeared out of nowhere one day with the proposal. Destitute and desperate, the demons had accepted. This secret relationship had persisted for roughly four years before finally catching the attention of my spies.
Four years ago... that predated my ascension as the Demon King. I would have still been in the Valley of the Dead at the time.
If the Will of the World were behind this, the catalyst should have been my emergence onto the surface a year ago.
It had been that way with John Doe; his research only began to accelerate the moment I became the Demon King. This, however, was different. This felt more like simple, covert opportunism. Someone was conducting backroom deals with demons.
It was likely a mundane criminal enterprise unrelated to any hero's quest, but I intended to investigate nonetheless. Ignoring it now could lead to regret later. If it turned out to be nothing, I would simply consider it a minor expenditure of effort.
I felt a flicker of sympathy for the agents I would task with this, but the situation demanded thoroughness.
“Now then...”
Having gathered what I could, I bound the remaining demons further. I cocooned them in vines until they formed a sphere, effectively neutralizing them by severing all sensory input. In such a state, even suicide was an impossibility.
Next, I reached out to Grom via telepathy.
“Do you hear me?”
『Yes, yes! Loud and clear, Maou-sama!』
Grom was as boisterous as ever. I suspected he was looking after Yura at this hour; he seemed to have taken a particular interest in her welfare.
“I’m sending prisoners your way. Incarcerate them in the castle dungeons.”
『Understood! Leave everything to me!』
I severed the connection and teleported the cocoons to the Royal Capital. That concluded this phase of the operation.
They would undergo further interrogation later to ensure no secrets remained hidden from Luciana’s Charm. Once they were of no further use, I would hand them over to the Research Institute. The Director would likely weep with joy at the sight of fresh demon specimens.
I felt someone watching me. Luciana was staring, her cheeks flushed and her face wearing an entranced smile.
“Oh, Cold-blooded Maou-sama... you were so magnificent. I’m simply swooning.”
“Enough of that. We're returning to the ruins.”
“As you wish~”
With a pouting Luciana in tow, I teleported back to the ruins.
The demons back at the site had been systematically decapitated. Not a single soul had survived, nor had any escaped. It wasn't hard to imagine the one-sided slaughter that had continued in our absence.
I retrieved Dorda, who stood motionless in a sea of blood, and we returned to the Royal Capital.