Volume 5 Chapter 1 (1/2)

~???'s point of view~

”This is surprising. Truly surprising.”

He, one of the great and ancient Demon Lords, pleasantly said so after hearing the report of his subordinate monster.

He was the type of Demon Lord to utilize human beings.

By making use of a certain religion, he had amassed and fed on human emotions.

His dungeon was the smallest country in the world and also the head temple of the Rigdold Faith which was the world's most practiced religion.

Many zealous believers would visit and gather in his dungeon everyday believing it was a holy site. The emotions of these believers were of an awfully powerful quality. Furthermore, by waging large-scale wars disguised as holy wars, they could gather even more humans.

”Why are you so pleased? The war with [Creation] was an utter failure. The plan was to use the humans to nip a problem in the bud but with this defeat, hasn't it only made [Creation] even stronger?”

A human soldier who participated in the war with the [Creation] Demon Lord candidly protested so to the Demon Lord that was his master.

”Hmm, I don't think I ever said anything about nipping a problem in the bud. What I said was about ascertaining the might of [Creation].”

The Demon Lord then drank from the glass he held in his hand.

What he drank was a first-class alcohol. Since offerings were made to him as that religion's god, all that he owned was exclusively of the highest quality.

”Master, just what are you thinking?”

”I'll answer but before that, how about peeling off that skin? Isn't it awkward?”

Upon hearing those words, the soldier opened his mouth wide. After doing so, a black shadow then came out. Except for being a black shadow, it was almost featureless.

Meanwhile, all that remained of the soldier's body was his skin.

That monster was a Doppel Eater.

It had the ability to enter the bodies of humans and act as them.

Because they wore not only a human's skin but even their soul, they were able to deceive detecting abilities, no matter how powerful, that they were not monsters.

As vital members of this ancient Demon Lord's surveillance unit, many Doppel Eaters were made to participate in the war.

Originally, they hid themselves within Avalon but ever since [Creation] Demon Lord Procell had made R'lyeh Diva, a monster who could read emotions and that had far too sharp a wit, the Doppel Eaters were afraid that hiding for a longer period time would only lead to them being revealed and thus decided to withdraw.

”Is this good enough?”

”Yeah. Then, to answer you, what I intended for from the start was to test him out. If he was crushed with only this much, he wasn't worth the bother of even killing. If he did survive though, I wanted him to become strong enough for when he joins our side. And so, I have forced on him the necessary conditions for him to awaken as a Demon Lord. ………in short, no matter how it went, it was a success. We've seen [Creation]'s playing hand, haven't we?”

By accomplishing certain fixed conditions, Demon Lords could awaken.

The Demon Lords that knew of these conditions could be counted with one hand. It was an absolute secret not taught to even the children they looked after.

”Master, why would you do that?”

”It's because that one's a lot like me, no? He had the idea to have a city for a dungeon. Both of us were also able to awaken without being consumed by the darkness it brings despite our greenness. I don't know of any other Demon Lord like that besides us.”

The Doppel Eater was surprised to see his master laugh so happily, a sight it hadn't seen in more than a hundred years.

”Now then, shall we proceed to the final test to gauge not his might but his caliber as a Demon Lord? To know whether he has completely become cold-hearted or not. If he has gotten conceited by his new-found power and does something unseemly, it will show that we have no need for him.”

”Wait, are you suggesting on doing that?”

The Doppel Eater gasped.

It felt anticipation and anxiety to its master's overly brazen and dangerous behavior.

”I have been preparing for this past several decades and now is the time to act. Almost. Oh how it annoyed me that the others disregarded me and yet praised those three to be the strongest Demon Lords. [Beast], [Time], and [Dragon], soon, your generation and the problems you've caused us will be made to vanish. I'll start with the weakest of you three. Now, will he be a proper Demon Lord and be able to discard his parent or will he be a fool that doesn't know his place and wage war against an old Demon Lord, only to end up being crushed? Which one shall he be?”

Behind him appeared his strongest monsters and the successfully mass-produced heroes.

It was said that the Demon Lords at the top were [Beast], [Time], and [Dragon] but for the Doppel Eater, he couldn't ever imagine his master to be too far behind those three.

◇

~Back to Procell's point of view~

I had reached the bread factory underground. I went here to meet with Wight about the important task I had entrusted to him.

There, as always, the Skeletons were industriously making bread. As the population of Avalon had increased, so too did their workload.

”Oh, it's you, my lord. Thank you for us gracing again with your presence.”

The moment he saw me, Wight gleefully rushed to my direction. When he was near, he gracefully bowed.

”It's about the task I gave to you.”

”Does it concern the corpses of the human beings?”

”Exactly that. Have you checked which can become part of our fighting force?”

In the recent war, the neighboring city had hero-class soldiers fighting for them. In monster terms, they would be the powerful beings known as A ranks.

We had killed those heroes and obtained their corpses. Afterwards, I had commanded Wight to repurpose them.

”Then, to report. Of the hero-class corpses we have recovered, I have succeeded in using [Enhanced Resurrection] on 16 of them. On top of being on par with an average A rank monster, they also possessed an abundance of special abilities. They will be quite reliable. Plus, even if they are on the weaker side of A rank, with my power to strengthen them, they will be able to perform as an above average A rank monster.”

”Ohh, that's good to hear.”

I was delighted by Wight's report.

Wight had an ability called [Enhanced Resurrection]. It could only be used once for each target but in exchange for its limited use, it would revive the targets, turn them into undead, and make them stronger than when they were alive.

The reinforced hero-class adventurers who would become his subordinates were a great addition to our war potential.

”However, I'm sorry to report that 14 of the hero-class corpses were too badly damaged to be used for [Enhanced Resurrection].”

”There's no helping it. I did instruct Aura to prioritize their annihilation.”

Regardless of how easy it was for us, the enemies still had hero-class soldiers. I ordered her to think only of killing the enemies until we could gain the definite advantage.

”How about the non-hero corpses?”

In this war, we had faced more than 3000 soldiers and we had killed the majority of that number.

I expected there to be a mountain of corpses where at least a few sustained only light damage.

”I have only been able to resurrect four so far since my [Enhanced Resurrection] has a limit of 20 targets per day. The weaker ones have been identified by R'lyeh Diva-dono and then sent to a storehouse where they could be frozen for preservation purposes. I expect to finish the task little by little every day.”

”That's promising. Among those corpses are soldiers that can be turned into B and C rank monsters. With all of your status boosting abilities, they'll be a fine boost to our war potential. Keep at it.”

”As you will.”

Wight said so as he did another elegant bow.