Chapter 11.1. Demon Kings Recovery (1)

  Demonic children were running around without watching where they were going.

  Suddenly, one of them bumped into Lucifer and fell to the ground.

  The child looked up just as Lucifer tilted his head down.

  A chill ran down the child’s spine the moment their eyes met.

  Lucifer then bent down.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  The child nodded.

  Lucifer helped him back onto his feet and dusted him off.

  He looked at the other children and told them to watch where they were going, or they might end up hurting themselves—or worse, someone else.

  After that, he told them to carry on playing, or whatever it was they were doing.

  As Lucifer watched the children leave, a woman approached and stopped a few meters away from him.

  Twelve soldiers stood behind her.

  Lucifer turned his attention to them, and they immediately kneeled.

  He straightened up and walked toward the woman.

  “You must be Ammit’s adviser, right?” Lucifer asked.

  “Yes, my Lord. I am Lady Ammit’s adviser. My name is Gila,” she replied.

  “What are you doing here? I don’t remember summoning you,” Lucifer said.

  “I apologize, my Lord, but when I heard that you had arrived, there was no way I could not welcome you,” Gila answered.

  “Very well. Since you’ve welcomed me, you may return. I’ll arrive at the castle soon enough,” said Lucifer.

  “My Lord, I couldn’t possibly leave you alone. I will accompany you until you reach the castle,” said Gila.

  “I rarely get a chance to walk around, and since I have time on my hands, I’d like to stroll through the kingdom for a while,” Lucifer replied.

  “My Lord, I insist that—” Gila began.

  “I wasn’t asking,” Lucifer interrupted, glaring at her with his red eyes.

  “I… I understand,” Gila said softly as she stood up and left with her guards.

  Man, I’ve become soft.

  The way I handled that child was way too caring… or was it the influence of my human parents?

  But that was thousands of years ago. I should be over that by now.

  Ah, whatever.

  I’m the Demon King. I can do whatever I want, Lucifer thought as he walked on, scratching his head.

  He wandered through the kingdom aimlessly.

  Every time he passed by its inhabitants, they kneeled at the sight of him.

  There was no one who didn’t know what their Demon King looked like.

  Eventually, he made his way to the castle.

  When he arrived, Gila was waiting for him at the front gate.

  Lucifer didn’t waste any time.

  He told her that he had seen all he wanted to see and that he was leaving.

  This time, Gila did not protest.

  She simply bowed and bid him farewell.

  Wings sprouted from Lucifer’s back.

  Like a cannonball, he shot into the sky and left Ammit’s kingdom behind.

  Let’s go check out Astarte’s kingdom, shall we, thought Lucifer.

  Astarte’s and Ammit’s kingdoms weren’t far apart, since they both shared the Southern Hemisphere of Hell.

  Lucifer soon arrived at the gates of Astarte’s kingdom.

  Just like in Ammit’s kingdom, the guards kneeled the moment they saw him and opened the gates.

  As he walked in, those who noticed him kneeled and greeted him.

  Unlike Ammit’s kingdom, Lucifer wasn’t interested in exploring much.

  He decided to walk around only a small area of the kingdom.

  Eventually, Astarte’s adviser found him.

  Just like Ammit’s adviser, she was accompanied by twelve soldiers, and they all kneeled before him.

  “My Lord, welcome to our kingdom,” said Lilith, Astarte’s adviser.

  “Mmm, I won’t be staying long,” Lucifer said.

  “I only came to check on the state of the kingdom since Astarte is not here.”

  “As you can see, My Lord, everything is in order,” Lilith replied.

  “Well, that’s good. I’ll be taking my leave,” said Lucifer.

  Wings sprouted from his back, and he flew away.

  So that was the Demon King, huh.

  He seems less powerful than I heard, Lilith thought to herself.

  Lucifer now headed toward the Wildlands, roughly a hundred miles from Astarte’s castle.

  He increased his speed and arrived quickly.

  Before landing, he searched for an area surrounded by monsters.

  He found one almost immediately.

  As he scouted the area, he saw Sabertooth slashing and tearing through monsters one after another.

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  However, Sabertooth was also taking heavy damage.

  He wasn’t facing ordinary creatures.

  He was fighting wererhinos and orcs, beings built purely for strength, with skin as hard as steel.

  There were hundreds of them as far as Lucifer could see.

  Even so, despite his injuries, Sabertooth continued to fight on.

  His claws ripped through their steel-hard skin.

  When he latched onto them with his jaws, his teeth shattered bone with ease.

  Sabertooth truly deserved the title of God of War.

  Although he was holding his own against the overwhelming numbers of orcs and wererhinos, Lucifer knew it was only a matter of time before Sabertooth was seriously injured.

  So Lucifer watched silently, waiting and planning to intervene at the crucial moment.

  A short while later, Sabertooth took even more injuries and quickly found himself surrounded.

  That was Lucifer’s cue to intervene.

  He flew straight toward Sabertooth and landed heavily among the monsters.

  Dust exploded into the air, and the force of the impact sent nearby creatures flying back.

  As the dust settled, Sabertooth, lying on the ground, slowly opened his eyes.

  “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, eh Sabertooth,” said Lucifer.

  “I guess you really do live up to your battle freak title.”

  He glanced around casually.

  “Well, anyway, just sit back and relax while I handle this.”

  A red blade made of Ki enveloped Lucifer’s hand and extended nearly a meter outward.

  With that, he leapt straight into the swarm of monsters and began slashing.

  The creatures immediately shifted their focus from Sabertooth and charged at Lucifer.

  Lucifer dodged their attacks with effortless ease.

  Each swing of his Ki blade brought down three creatures at once.

  He slashed left, cut right, and slipped past attacks in between.

  Only a short while passed before the hundreds of monsters had been reduced to a fraction of their original numbers.

  Normally, this would have been a good situation for Lucifer, but he had yet to fully recover his Ki.

  Worse, he was rapidly running out of it.

  He knew all of this, yet he kept fighting with a wide grin and a sadistic glint in his eyes.

  He was enjoying himself.

  The creatures made him look like a lone lion facing a full-grown elephant, yet he didn’t care.

  If anything, that only fueled his excitement.

  Lucifer cut their numbers down by half, but his Ki was nearly gone.

  Pouring everything he had left into one final move, he swung in a wide circular arc.

  The slash cleaved every creature near him clean in two.

  The moment it ended, the Ki blade shattered like glass.

  Lucifer dropped to one knee.

  He pushed himself back up.

  Even without a trace of Ki left in his body, he knew he could keep fighting.

  The remaining creatures closed in, step by step.

  Suddenly, a thunderous roar echoed through the wildlands.

  Out of nowhere, Sabertooth came crashing down right behind Lucifer.

  “Shall we call this even, Master?” Sabertooth said.

  “Even?” Lucifer scoffed.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. I won’t be dying anytime soon, and as for you saving me—”

  “That didn’t happen.”

  “Well then, let’s save the catching up until we finish up here. What do you say, Master?” said Sabertooth.

  “That’s a perfect plan,” Lucifer replied.

  “But let’s make it more fun.”

  “We’re both nowhere near one hundred percent right now,” Lucifer continued.

  “So let’s see who can take out the most creatures.”

  “You’re on,” Sabertooth said.

  They charged into the monsters, each heading in opposite directions.

  If any normal person were watching, they would never have guessed the two were exhausted.

  Not with the way they were tearing through every creature left standing.

  Lucifer punched straight through the so-called steel skin of the beasts.

  Even slower than before, he made dodging their attacks look like child’s play.

  Sabertooth bit, ripped, and clawed his way through the monsters.

  Fatigue wasn’t about to stop him now.

  Piles upon piles of corpses surrounded them.

  Yet one thing was certain.

  Neither of them was about to give up.

  Especially not with around fifty monsters still left standing.

  The fighting continued for quite some time.

  Both of them took heavy hits, but they dealt out far more.

  Eventually, only one creature remained.

  A wererhino.

  They looked at each other, then charged.

  Not at full speed, but at whatever strength they had left.

  Sabertooth reached the wererhino first and pounced.

  Just as he was about to tear it apart, Lucifer struck.

  Lucifer kicked the wererhino at the back of its heel.

  The beast lost balance and fell onto its back.

  Sabertooth flew straight over its head.

  His attack missed completely.

  Lucifer followed through.

  He poured all his remaining power into his right leg.

  When his kick connected with the wererhino’s head, its skull cracked.

  Its head was torn clean off its shoulders.

  Sabertooth walked toward Lucifer and collapsed from exhaustion.

  Lucifer fell backward, landing on Sabertooth’s soft fur.

  Both of them were completely covered in blood.

  “You know that you cheated, right, Master?” Sabertooth said in a tired voice.

  “Cheated? What are you talking about?” Lucifer replied, just as exhausted.

  “That last one was mine, and you stole it right under my nose,” Sabertooth said.

  “Hah. This was a battlefield, my furry friend—rules don’t apply here. And besides, even if I did steal your kill, I outsmarted you, which means I won our little bet,” Lucifer said.

  “Oh yeah… I forgot it was a bet. Damn. It’s fine—next time I’ll make sure I win,” Sabertooth muttered.

  “Hahaha! Next time you’ll be facing the full power of the Demon King. Do you really think you’d stand a chance?” Lucifer replied.

  “Of course. I’m the Demon King’s pet—if I can’t beat you, then no one can,” Sabertooth said.

  They both laughed, though it was clear they were far too exhausted to move.

  At that moment, Kane appeared high in the sky.

  Looking down, he saw hundreds upon hundreds of corpses—fallen orcs and wererhinos scattered everywhere. It was a graveyard of bodies. As he looked closer, he spotted Sabertooth lying motionless on the ground.

  Kane flew down and found Lucifer and Sabertooth laughing.

  “Umm… my lord, did you two seriously do all this?” Kane asked.

  “Oh, Kane, you finally made it. And yes, we did,” Lucifer replied, gesturing around. “As you can see, these scars didn’t earn themselves.”

  “My lord, you weren’t even fully recovered, and yet you threw yourself into such danger. You’re completely covered in claw marks,” Kane said, worry lacing his voice.

  “Relax, would you? It’s not like we died or anything,” Sabertooth replied casually, though his own body was battered.

  “You crazy battle freak, you shouldn’t even talk! You look worse than the Lord does. How the two of you survived this is beyond me. I can’t believe you’d put yourselves through something like this. I mean, fighting is great and all, but there’s a limit—especially if one of you is the King of an entire world and in four days has to lead an army into battle!” Kane said, his eyes wide with disbelief.

  “Don’t worry, Kane. I’ll be one hundred percent by the time four days pass. For you see… it’s finally complete,” Lucifer said, a dark smile forming on his lips.

  “My lord… what are you talking about?” Kane asked, confused.

  “I’ve been stuck at the peak of the Heavenly Emperor Realm for a while now, but it’s finally time to break through… and enter the Final Realm,” Lucifer said. Runes began appearing all over his body, glowing faintly at first.

  Sabertooth and Kane stared in shock as the runes spread rapidly, covering every inch of Lucifer’s body. The glow intensified, radiating outwards, and soon Lucifer was lifted into the sky. The light from the runes grew so blinding that no mortal—or even most demons—could look directly at him without being scorched by the brilliance. Of course, the undead like Kane could stare safely, but even he found the display overwhelming.

  Lucifer’s voice echoed through the Wildlands, calm yet terrifying:

  “Witness… the birth of a Final Realm being.”