“Did you think you could beat me in such a state?”
Toytzo and Slowanak broke bare-handed through the wall of flames created by Tsyon. Ignoring their hair being burnt and their face being scorched, they attacked their opponent with punches from four arms, two on each side. Tsyon deflected a blow with his left arm and blocked the next one with his right, but the third blow came in from his blind spot and caught him directly in the side of the torso.
“Guh!” He let out a cry of agony as he felt the final blow strike him in the cheek. Tsyon was sent flying backward by the impact of the hit. He got back up, reassuming his stance, and wiped away the blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.
“As you can see, our body is connected to approximately twenty demons.” A red tube protruded from the back of Toytzo and Slowanak’s head. “Using simple calculation, you can also see that I possess twenty times the magical power of a demon.”
“You’re using all of that to enhance your physical abilities? You’re crazy.”
“Our mission is already over.”
“The remainder of our lives is nothing more than a game, so we may as well enjoy ourselves.”
“Then enjoy it with just your own lives, you shitty pieces of garbage!” Tsyon wrapped his arms in flames, thrust his fists forward, and fired off a series of fireballs. Toytzo and Slowanak deflected them with their bare hands and broke through the attack, while walking forward.
“Our wounds are your friends’ wounds.” Even if Tsyon hit the enemy with a fireball and damaged their body, it regenerated immediately. And the demons behind him screamed in agony before being extinguished… This was the worst kind of equivalent exchange.
“If you, someone close to the Demon Lord, had noticed there were betrayers among you sooner, there would not have been so many victims. So they are, in a sense, your victims, too.”
“After all the sacrifices we’ve made…”
“You cannot even stop us. How pathetic.”
Toytzo and Slowanak, coming up to him, slowly raised their fist in the air, as if making a show of it.
“Heartless, cold demon. Die.”
Their fist, strengthened by magical power, was aimed straight for Tsyon’s face. Tsyon tried to block the hit with one hand. Of course, Toytzo and Slowanak were stronger than him. He wouldn’t have been able to stop it.
“You touched it.” So, before the attack landed, Tsyon made the first move. The moment Toytzo and Slowanak’s fist touched Tsyon’s hand, their body exploded violently from the inside. The space was filled with explosive flames, and the thunderous booming shattered the glass case.
Toytzo and Slowanak’s body had been completely obliterated, without even a trace remaining. However, a lump of flesh began to swell in the center of the room. Their body was regenerating. At the same time, screams could be heard from the demons who had been burned after getting caught in the blast.
“Stop, Tsyon! I…I don’t wanna die!” When a voice familiar to Tsyon carried throughout the room, Toytzo and Slowanak smiled scornfully, mocking him.
“Oh no. Your friend is dead.”
“It’s all because you didn’t listen to what we said.”
Because you tried to kill us, your comrades died. That was the kind of farce they were going for. But Tsyon met them with his own scornful smile.
“Gah, guess you didn’t do your homework, cardinals. Well, you’ve been spending all your time scrambling for power, so you haven’t been out in the field in a long time, I reckon. It’s no wonder you’ve got a poor endgame. Listen. That guy always called me ‘Tsy Tsy,’ ever since I was a little brat. There’s no way he’d mess that up. In other words, these demons no longer have any sense of self. You’re the ones making them talk, that’s all.”
They fell silent. It felt good to make a talkative piece of garbage go quiet. At this point, Tsyon had finished confirming a certain something.
I checked all the faces within my field of vision, and I only see the missing demons that Sheitoom reported. This was information gathered as part of routine surveillance carried out for public safety reasons, unrelated to the investigation of the traitors. One of the things Tsyon had found was a friend of his, who had left Selayde decades ago and gone missing in another town. The other missing demons varied in age and gender, and had disappeared from different locations.
This means they have a system for transporting those kidnapped from the demon realm to the royal kingdom. In that case, the number of demons we caught in Selayde isn’t enough. There’s still some left. Traitors among us demons.
“Lost in thought, hm? You are quite calm.” Before Tsyon knew it, Toytzo’s face was right in front of him. Tsyon swept away the fists that came for him from the left and right at the same time using his legs, which were coated in flames. The arms that got hit by Tsyon’s kick evaporated and disappeared.
“So…you’ve been holding back your firepower until now?”
“I hate to admit it, but your psychological attacks were pretty effective. That’s why I kept my firepower in check.” Now there was no longer any reason for Tsyon to hesitate in attacking. “I’m gonna bring the heat now, so don’t you let this battle get cold!”
True to his words, Tsyon engulfed himself in flames and charged toward the enemy.
Sheitoom, are you okay? Even as he fought, he found time to worry about the fight happening deep within the Demon Lord’s castle.