Yukikaze sprinted to the Demon Lord and fully embraced him, stunning him. “H-Hey!”
“...Taking in nutrients only you can provide, Mister Fox.”
“There is no such thing!” the Demon Lord protested, even as he noticed his surroundings with amazement. Restoration efforts had still been well underway when he had last come to Rookie, but now the city looked as good as new. What’s more, it was teeming with almost as many people as the village of Rabbi. “This place is lively today. Is there some sort of event?”
Mikan puffed her chest as if she had been waiting for him to ask. “Good question. While you were wandering around who-knows-where, we made a critical discovery.”
“Oh? What is it?” the Demon Lord prompted.
“...A clit-ical discovery. Mikan is down horrendous.”
“Stay out of this!” Mikan shrieked. She reached for her waterskin and took a swig. Since the Demon Lord had paid them a gold medallion to research the dungeon, she was treating this as she would a debrief of an official quest. “Listen. We found a new level of the dungeon. A path to the 21st level.”
“I remember that 20 was the lowest. You’re telling me there’s another...?” The Demon Lord’s suspicions were confirmed—the message he’d received on his admin screen was the same one he’d read at the bottom of Bastille Dungeon.
While the Demon Lord plunged deep into thought, Mikan continued, sounding wary. “Apparently the level’s full of Noble Badgers and Foggy Crystals. Rumor spread, and now we have adventurers coming in from all over the continent. We’re in takeover mode.”
The Demon Lord raised a brow. “Takeover mode?”
In its normal state, adventurers crawled the dungeon in search of loot, like an infiltration. At times, dungeons turned the tables by sending monsters from its maw—an Invasion. “Takeover mode” was when adventurers camped out at every level of the dungeon with plenty of food and drink. Everything from weapons and armor to merchants and blacksmiths were sent inside. If there was demand for it, people even set up taverns in the depths. Unlike any dungeon, the only thing that was truly bottomless was human avarice. Takeovers happened organically when new dungeons or levels were discovered. As Mikan explained this, the Demon Lord could recall plenty of examples from Earth. People were always drawn to any hint of profit and usually ended up using similar strategies as each other to obtain that wealth. One time, a story broke in Japan about someone who stumbled across a small fortune in a bamboo shrub. Immediately, people began scouring any and all clusters of bamboo. When there was high demand for a certain product, scalpers rushed to buy them out. Even in different worlds, human behavior remained largely the same.
“Takeover. It’s well put,” the Demon Lord said.
“...You can take over my body any time, Mister Fox.”
“That’s not what I—” The Demon Lord’s objections were cut short as he saw what Mikan had handed him—a strange paper. “What is this?”
“Dunno. Whatever writing was on it, it disappeared as soon as we tried to read it,” Mikan said.
The Demon Lord read the bizarre text. In the next breath, he was tugging Mikan by her waist and Quick Traveling to level 20.
When they appeared without a sound, whispers broke out among nearby adventurers.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What was that?! How did we get into the dungeon?! What did you...?!” Mikan shrieked.
“Which way to go down, Mikan?” the Demon Lord demanded.
“Th-That way... H-Hey! At least explain what you did!”
Ignoring Mikan’s panic, the Demon Lord strode in the direction she’d indicated, the strange paper balled up in his white-knuckled fist.
“...My first teleportation with Mister Fox. So spicy,” Yukikaze breathed.
“Spicy? You mean scary!” Mikan countered.
“...It’s peak romantasy.”
“Can you shut up forever?!”
The Demon Lord took in the 20th level of the dungeon, which he could barely recognize. Countless illuminations—powered by Light Spell Stones—had been installed everywhere, lighting up the dungeon like it had a high-noon sun. Vendors filled every cell on the floor, converting them into taverns, gambling rooms, and even brothels. The entire level seemed to serve as a rest and refueling stop for adventurers about to plunge into the unknown.
The Demon Lord strode past the whispering adventurers and stood at the top of the staircase going down. As soon as he read the paper, it was like a fog had lifted from his mind to reveal a person—someone he’d spent so much time with in Japan, but couldn’t even remember their name, age, or gender.
“XX... No, Rising Star.” That had been their username. The realization struck the Demon Lord like a dagger thrust into his chest. How could I have forgotten...? Something’s not right. Rising Star and Akira Ono had been best friends, always effortlessly spending time together. Back in those days, Akira might have thought nothing more of the username than, perhaps, that it was a little cringey. But now, the title “Rising Star” carried a whole new meaning. When I looked into texts about the Fallen Angel in the Holy City’s library... the Demon Lord recalled. There were many myths and accounts about Lucifer the Fallen Angel. Some called him Satan, and others claimed that he was the ruler of all angels. It seemed like every text he opened had another moniker for Lucifer: Child of Dawn, Mythical Rebel, Lightbringer, Dawn Star, Ruler of Night, Child of Twilight...and Rising Star.
The Demon Lord’s mind—Akira’s mind—spun round and round as memories came rushing back. He uncrumpled the paper in his hand and read it again.
Dear Akira, what did you leave behind?
If “leave behind” meant forgot, Akira had too many responses. One question after another popped up in his head, leading to more and more questions without answers. Why had he been summoned to this world as the Demon Lord? Whose voice had spoken to him before he was summoned? What was the meaning of those memories of an apocalypse on Earth that he saw in flashbacks? What was the Great Light? Who was Lucifer who fought against it? What was Tartarus? Why had Maria appeared like a sudden nightmare? How could he use the powers from the game in this world?
Akira’s mind raced to find the root of these questions and realized that his memories before the summoning didn’t make sense. The Infinity Game was a worldwide MMO... But when I shut down the server, I was alone at home, not in an office. That doesn’t make sense. How accurate are those memories? Did I really shut down the servers so peacefully?
The Demon Lord glared at the stairs that plunged into darkness and snarled, “Are you there? This will be the last time you mess with my life, you piece of shit...!”
Who—what—awaited him down those steps? In the back of his mind, the Demon Lord knew. Yet, he hadn’t acknowledged it fully—he was avoiding it, subconsciously.
Just when the Demon Lord was about to take another step, darkness fell. Somehow, all of the Light Spell Stones went out at once. The sudden blackout plunged the adventurers into chaos as they shouted, scrambled for their weapons, and tried to get into formation.
Then, countless glass screens appeared in the air as if to surround the entire level of the dungeon, all littered with mocking emoticons. While the adventurers looked on in horror, this was just a reprisal for the Demon Lord.
He lit the cigarette in his mouth and smirked. “Crass and uninspired, as always.”
As if in answer, a sentence appeared on the screens: No peeking.
Revulsion coursed through the Demon Lord’s veins. It seemed like a warning—Don’t go digging in your memories—and a cruel mockery all at once. Forcing his hands to stop shaking, the Demon Lord took a slow drag. “Enough of your cheap theatrics. Show me your face!” As soon as the Demon Lord tried to descend the stairs, he was violently bounced back.
A barrier buzzed in his path, with illuminated lines of text: WARNING—KEEP OUT.
“Dammit! What the hell is this?!” The Demon Lord slugged the barrier at full force, but it didn’t budge.
In fact, letters in deep-red font, as if written by fresh blood, flew onto the screen.
Devour all, like the planet stained in red.
Rule over all, like the planet teeming with blue.
The Demon Lord felt his gut free—these messages were telling him to take control of all there was. He attempted another tackle at the barrier to no avail.
As if in derision—like a spider’s web wrapping around its prey—another message appeared on the screens.
My other half...it is not yet time for us to become one.
“I’m not your other half, you bastard!” The Demon Lord threw Sodom’s Fire before he could think about it, shattering the screen before him into a thousand pieces. In a chain reaction, the other screens began shattering after flashing a string of letters in a number of scripts—English, Arabic, Mandarin, Hangul... None of them were intelligible, so the purpose of these must have been only to mock the Demon Lord.
While the adventurers screamed and ran from the downpour of glass, the Demon Lord took his bravado and went full tilt. “Not yet time, huh? Fine. I’ll go take care of everything!” With a flourish of his coat, the Demon Lord Quick Traveled.
As soon as he disappeared, the Light Spell Stones came back on, illuminating the whole level again. Relieved, the adventurers loudly called to each other and began cleaning up the mess that was left behind.