After executing Flame Spear, I seized control of the city.
My undead thralls set about trampling the remaining survivors. Desperate counterattacks broke out in pockets across the streets, but their struggles were ultimately futile. The legion had swelled from a mere hundred to tens of thousands, bolstered by the transformed remains of the local populace.
Human ingenuity had adapted over the years; anti-undead measures had advanced significantly, allowing for potent effects with only brief incantations. Inexpensive holy-attribute magic weapons had also flooded the market. All of it was designed for a single purpose: to annihilate me, the Demon King, and my subordinates.
However, those countermeasures were far from perfect. High-tier undead possessed a natural resistance to the holy attribute, their physical forms shielded by the thick miasma they exuded. Every undead under my command possessed this resistance to some degree. Furthermore, they boasted overwhelming numbers; no matter how many were struck down, the losses were negligible. Even if one was destroyed, I merely had to purge the holy aura from the wreckage and reanimate it once more. To me, their half-baked countermeasures were nothing more than a rounding error.
The battle was decided. All that remained was to transfer my soldiers and leave the occupation in their hands. I contacted the nearest division of the Demon King’s Army via Telepathy and relocated a portion of them to the city. In exchange, I sent some of the city's new undead to the main army. With that, both forces were sufficiently reinforced.
With my business concluded, I teleported to another continent. I had more than one task on my agenda, and I had to resolve them in rapid succession.
Below me lay a small continent, home to a patchwork of small nations and two superpowers. It was a land that had long since severed ties with the outside world. The two great nations had been locked in a stalemate for years. While a cold war had persisted since I began my campaign, the fragile peace shattered when the Saviors of both nations perished in simultaneous accidents. Both sides concluded it was a conspiracy orchestrated by the other, and relations spiraled into hostility.
At this rate, a full-scale war was inevitable, and the loss of human life would be catastrophic. I could have deployed the Demon King’s Army, but the animosity between these nations ran deep; they would likely ignore the undead threat just to keep clawing at each other's throats. Thus, I concluded that a more heavy-handed solution was required.
"Well then, let us begin."
I manifested a Magic Power Sword in my hand and held the blade toward the sky. I funneled roughly a hundred times more magic power into the weapon than usual. As I stabilized the Magic Formula, which threatened to buckle under the strain, the sword expanded to an impossible scale. It eventually stretched so far that it seemed to graze the very horizon.
I flooded the blade with miasma, staining the gargantuan weapon jet black. As a finishing touch, I applied reinforcements using several types of Beast’s Abnormalities. This modified, multi-layered Magic Power Sword thrummed with overwhelming destructive potential, creaking as it emitted sparks of pale blue light. If the energy were to backflow, my own body would likely be vaporized. Simply controlling the spell was a Herculean effort.
Once the form was stabilized, I turned my gaze toward the earth. Using Sensing Magic, I carefully verified that no humans stood within the projected path of the strike. Confident that the line was clear, I swung the blade down.
A Black Aurora Slash tore through the air, cleaving the continent below from end to end. With a deafening roar, the immovable earth was ripped asunder. I immediately invoked Space Magic, sealing the raw edges of the continental shelf to prevent the land from crumbling away. Next, I manipulated the ocean currents, guiding the tides into the newly formed Rift in the Earth and forcing the two landmasses further apart.
Before long, the continent had been split in two, separated by a wide expanse of sea. By bisecting the land itself, I had physically isolated the conflict nations. Furthermore, the waters between them were now heavily contaminated with miasma—a barrier that was, by its very nature, impassable.
I may have overdone it slightly, but it was largely according to plan. This effectively ended the conflict. With the physical distance between them, the two nations could no longer wage war. There would undoubtedly be chaos on the divided continents, but once the Demon King’s Army began its coordinated invasion, they would have no time for internal bickering or political posturing.
I suppose it is time to move to the next stage...
I recalled my conversation with Gwen. The Will of the World, the power meant for a Savior, was currently stagnant. The timing remained uncertain, but it would eventually manifest. I wondered what form it would take. As it stood, I had no way to prepare a specific defense.
Trying to groom a puppet hero to act as a lightning rod was too dangerous; they would likely suffer the same rejection as the previous Saviors. Even if I attempted it now, the effect would be negligible. I was forced to be reactive, waiting for the opponent to appear before I could strike.
The hero who appears next will surely be an existence without precedent. They will inherit the collective power that countless Saviors were unable to shoulder. Given that this entity would be manifested specifically to bring about my downfall, it was bound to be an Absurd Hero.
I must remain vigilant.
I am the Absurd Evil that slaughters justice. While it is the fate of evil to eventually be purged, my mission as the current Demon King is to overturn that destiny entirely.