Chapter 23: Demon Lord
Author: Geraint
"Demonic Manifestation!"
Blood burst out under Seir's feet, rushing around the forest ground.
Noctis froze in place, seeing the stream of blood flowing beneath him.
"What is this?"
His companion Sera was nervous and started breathing heavily.
"This is bad, Noctis! That demon is on Demon Lord level!"
"What?!" Noctis was shocked.
"His ability... There's no mistake. He is the Scarlet Prince Seir—the one feared by our predecessors. He already killed many inquisitors like us."
The entire forest area was wrapped in flesh, including the trees and plants, then secreted a blood mist which obscured visibility. The sky turned dim red, making the surroundings eerie.
They had already lost sight of Seir as he faded into the red mist.
"Don't underestimate me, Demon!" Noctis panicked as he randomly swung his sword-whip around. "Sera, tell me where he is!"
"I don't know..." Sera was trembling and anxious while trying to locate Seir's position.
"What did you just say?"
"I can't detect him since his demonic power is separated from his body! The whole forest is covered with his demonic power, so searching for him is futile. He's undetectable right now!" Sera explained.
"Damn it! Come out, you demon bastard!"
Noctis kept swinging when his right arm was suddenly cut off.
"Huh?"
His cheek was slashed by something, then he noticed several black threads set up around him.
Sera immediately cast a barrier for the two of them, but it was shattered by an invisible force from out of nowhere.
"Kyaaah!"
"Sera, do something!" Noctis complained.
"I can't!"
Before they noticed, they were already surrounded by mutant undead monsters with deformed human faces on their bodies, screaming for help.
Sera turned pale as she was dragged by the mutant monsters from behind and torn apart by their ferocious mouths.
"GAAAAAHH! HELP ME!"
Her loud scream ended quickly as they feasted on her body.
Noctis watched in horror as his companion was eaten alive in front of him.
"No... This can't be happening."
Her head rolled in front of him, covered in blood.
"Noctis... help me..." the head mumbled, crying.
"AAAHHH!" Noctis screamed.
A large mutant undead beast noticed him and bit off his head whole, then ripped it away.
Seir appeared, emerging from the red fog.
"That's enough. Spit it out."
The large mutant beast spat out Noctis's head onto the ground.
"If you think death is enough, you two are wrong."
"Huh?" Sera's head was still conscious. "What's going on? Why am I still alive?"
"What is this?" Noctis was shocked that he was alive despite being just a head.
Seir squatted and smiled at them conceitedly.
"This is inside my manifestation realm. No one is allowed to die without my permission."
"JUST KILL US ALREADY!" Noctis screamed, and the two started to panic.
"You see, I never wanted to be born as a demon, but unfortunately, you can't choose your parents. Well... who wants to be born into an evil race? Every kid's dream is to become a hero when they grow up. I'm a demon, so I'm automatically an evil being in everyone's eyes. That's what I thought and succumbed to—what fate wanted me to be. But after arriving in that world..." Seir showed a warm smile on his face. "Everything changed, and I realized I was wrong. I found a warm place where they accepted me for who I am—the very thing I had been searching for as a kid."
Seir stood up, stretching his arms.
"I wasn't planning to return to this world, but you guys ruined it. I will make sure those who summoned us back here regret their actions. After I became a big brother to Fuyumi, I didn't want to be a bad influence on her, so I tried to start a no-killing policy. But that would be impossible for me because of my nature. How could I kill someone without killing them? After a few years of brainstorming, I found inspiration that answered all my questions when we visited a shrine. You two will be the first to witness my new power, amplified by the throne of the true Demon King."
He opened his palm, creating a small black sphere made from his demonic power gathered from the atmosphere, then dropped it onto the fleshy ground.
"Repent... Eight Great Prisons."
The whole place blazed up as the two decapitated heads started burning, and they screamed in pain together.
"WAAAH!"
Seir walked away and left them suffering.
Around him were the people he killed when he was summoned back to this world, together with some Japanese people. All of them were screaming loudly while burning, and some of them were being ripped apart and eaten alive by mutated undead.
"Enma-sama! Enma-sama! Please forgive me! I swear I won't do it again! I thought this place wasn't real!"
A Japanese man cried while tied to an eerie tree, with several pointy black rods stabbed through his body.
Seir glanced at him, looking confused.
"Who are you again? Also, my name is Seir, not Enma."
"I don't want to be here anymore. I'm begging you, please!"
"Sorry, I don't have a list of those who comes here, so tell me your name and the crime you committed," Seir requested.
"That woman killed herself! Why is it my fault? I'm just doing my job to earn a living! I don't deserve to be in this place!" the man complained.
"Oh, I remember now. You're that paparazzi who has been following Yuuka around and stalking her when she was still an idol. I heard all about your bad reputation. You already destroyed new famous celebrities' careers and drove them to commit suicide—one of them even died. You tried to do the same with Yuuka, but too bad for you, I was protecting her after all." Seir smiled at him.
"This isn't fair..."
"Just consider yourself unlucky for picking the wrong target."
With a grin on his face, Seir snapped his fingers and the man was swallowed by flames.
"WAH! WAAAAH!"
After watching him scream, Seir turned around and walked away, fading into the blood mist.
The whole hellish place was actually inside the red abyss underneath the pool of blood. The reflection closed down with Seir emerging out, and the pool of blood returned beneath his feet.
Only traces of the battle remained in the forest before he used his manifestation. On the ground was the segmented sword-whip used by Noctis, and he picked it up before throwing it into his dimensional storage. He also found Leon's Sacred Relic and did the same.
"It's already noon. I should return quickly."
He levitated in the air, then flew off back to their camp.
--------------
Meanwhile, at the camp.
"KYAAAH!"
"Run! It's a monster!"
All of them were horrified by the arrival of the undead mutated hound and ran for their lives.
"Everyone, calm down!"
Naamah quickly arrived at the scene to check what was happening until she recognized the undead beast.
"Isn't that one of Seir-sama's summoned undead creatures? What is it doing here? Also, it's bigger than the last time I saw it."
A slit opened under the undead hound's belly and several people came out.
"Ugh! This sucks."
Hannya was covered in slime together with the others who emerged from the stomach.
"Hannya! Hecate! What happened?" Naamah approached them.
"We're fine. You should be looking after those people. They are important to Boss." Hannya pointed at Mia and the others who were unconscious.
"Mom?"
Yuuka saw her mother and immediately ran to check on her.
"Mom!"
Ayaka did the same when she saw her mother, Himiko.
After dropping them all, the undead hound immediately left and ran back to Seir.
Kaho was shocked when she found her little sister among them.
"Nao!" She ran and took her into her arms.
"We'll leave them to you, Naamah. I want to take a bath right now." Hannya left to clean herself off.
"Same here." Hecate followed with a smile.
Naamah sighed.
"Please bring them to the tent and clean them up. Seir-sama and I will check on them later after he returns."
Half an hour later
Seir finally returned and immediately went to check on his mother.
Inside the clamping tent, Yuuka and Ayaka were watching over their mothers, waiting for them to wake up. Seir entered and found them with worried looks on their faces.
"Onii-sama..."
Both of them were teary-eyed.
"Don't worry, Mom and Himiko-san are fine. They're just sleeping."
On the other side, Kaho was crying, looking very worried for her little sister. She felt so bad for her innocent sibling being summoned to this cruel world—she must have seen a lot of horrible things.
Seir went to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
"She's okay, Kaho-san. She'll wake up soon."
Yuuka and Ayaka thought that Seir was taking advantage of the situation—which wasn't true at all—since he did it unconsciously because they were close friends.
"Why did she get summoned here too? They're so cruel!"
"There's nothing to worry about. She's safe now."
Naamah entered the tent.
"Seir-sama, the wagons have arrived to fetch us out of here."
"We're busy here, so ask Hiroto to tell everyone to hurry and pack up their things. We're leaving this place quickly."
"Him?"
Naamah doubted the capability of that guy.
"He'll be fine. Just go."
Seir responded in a laid-back tone, confident in that boy.
"Alright."
Naamah left the tent.
She went to Hiroto and told him what Seir asked him to do.
"Seriously? He wants me to lead the group in this situation? Is he even aware that there's tension between the boys and girls right now? He has Yuuka-tan, Mizuno-senpai, and Nishiyama-san, who all have influence to make the girls listen to him, while I never even had a girlfriend in my life. The boys might hear me out, but the girls right now hate us guys because of what happened with the other group. They don't trust us at all and only see us as perverted animals."
Naamah frowned at his complaints and became annoyed.
"Why do I care about that, human? Are you scared of talking to girls? What a spineless coward." She was full of disappointment.
"Who would even want a guy who can't even talk properly to a girl? You dare call yourself a man?"
"Hey."
Those words cut him deeply, and he couldn't retort since the girl in front of him was a demon working for Seir. He didn't want to risk his life just to talk back.
"What? You are talking to a girl right now. What's the difference? Is it because I'm not human?"
Naamah reminded him that she was also a girl.
"No..."
Hiroto denied it since he didn't have prejudice against demons.
"I don't know how things work in your country, but this world is different. Forget what you know and adapt to the new things here. If those girls continue being like that, they're gonna regret it soon once we arrive in Orith."
"Huh?" Hiroto was confused.
"Anyway, come with me. We'll check the wagons first."
Naamah left, while Hiroto was dazed for a moment before following after her.
They arrived at the meeting spot to see a line of wagons parked near the forest.
"Huh?"
Hiroto was confused about why there were no horses attached to the wagons.
If this was another world, there should have been animals harnessed to them, but all he saw were several large wagons completely empty.
After checking each wagon, there were seven of them—enough to accommodate all his classmates and others.
"Stay here, human. The coachmen may return soon. I'll talk with the teacher."
Naamah walked back to the camp, leaving Hiroto alone with the wagons.
After several minutes of waiting, Hiroto grew very bored when a girl with shoulder-length pale white hair shyly approached him from behind.
"Uhmm..."
She had light green eyes and pointy elf ears, wearing a short green dress covered by a hooded cloak.
His eyes widened in surprise. Such a cute girl—and an elf.
"Eh. Hello there..."
He started to get nervous.
The elf girl froze when she realized the boy she had approached was human, judging from his appearance. The same cruel humans who had invaded her country and destroyed her home.
"A human? What is a human doing here? Oh, no! I'm gonna get eaten too!" She started to cry.
Hiroto panicked at her reaction.
"Wait! I'm not going to do that!"
"Liar! You humans killed my parents and kidnapped my sisters!"
Hiroto remembered his conversation with Seir about the Empire invading the Elven Kingdom. He quickly came up with something to ease her fear.
"Wait! There's a misunderstanding! I'm not actually from this world!"
"Huh?"
The elf girl stopped crying and glanced at him.
"I came from another world called Earth. That's right—I'm an outlander!"
"Really?"
She finally calmed down.
"Yeah! We might look like those bad humans, but I'm different from them."
Hiroto sounded desperate to convince her.
"I'm glad then... I thought I was going to die."
The elf girl smiled in relief and wiped her tears with her fingers.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Outlander, for suspecting you as a human."
"It's okay. We just look like them."
Hiroto also felt relieved that he had managed to convince her, and he sighed. Suddenly, the elf girl reached for his face and curiously touched his cheek.
"Now that I look closely... you're much neater compared to them."
Hiroto turned beet red, captivated by her bright smile. His heart pounded, feeling the warmth of her hand against his cheek.
The elf girl realized she had been touching his face for too long and thought it might make him uncomfortable. She quickly pulled back.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Outlander. I did it without thinking. Did I make you uncomfortable?"
"No, it's okay!"
Hiroto was flustered, shaking his head too much in denial.
The elf girl giggled at his reaction.
"My name is Fina. What about you, Mr. Outlander?"
"Please, call me Hiroto."
She tried her best to pronounce his name.
"Hiro-to?"
"Yeah. You got it right, Fina-chan."
He was happy hearing her say his name.
"Hiroto!"
"Yes, Fina-chan."
"Hiroto!"
"Fina-chan!"
Both of them smiled at each other.
They didn't notice Naamah and Seir had arrived and were watching their romantic scene.
Naamah trembled.
"So, this is... youth. Ugh..."
The loveless succubus fainted in Seir's arms.
"NAAMAH!" Seir dramatically screamed, then grinned at the two of them. "You two are horrible—having romantic moments in front of Naamah. It's like slapping her and saying she's single."
"Hey! That's not our intention!" Hiroto retorted in embarrassment.
"Jokes aside, everyone will be arriving soon. Where are the ones pulling the wagons?"
"They went to the nearby river to clean themselves a bit," Fina replied, glancing to the side. A group of beastwomen walked toward them—half-naked, chests completely exposed, laughing together. All of them had horse ears and tails. They were the ones pulling the wagons instead of actual horses.
Hiroto was shocked to see so many enormous chests, but Fina immediately covered his eyes with her hands.
"Don't look!"
Seir chuckled at their reaction—until he realized Yuuka and the other girls were already behind him.
"Where are you looking, idiot onii-sama!" —Yuuka
"You shouldn't look!" —Ayaka
"Why are they naked?!" —Riko
"Tell them to hurry and cover up!" —Kaho
The four girls shoved their hands over Seir's eyes, covering his entire face.
"Huh?"
They suddenly noticed another girl among them.
"This is fun," said Marah, the tomato-eating vampire and one of the Disaster Witches. She was the imposter among them.
"Hey, wake up!"
Hannya shook Naamah, then slapped her face several times.
"Wake up, Naamah!"
Naamah was still unconscious.
"I guess I don't have any choice but to do that."
When her consciousness finally returned, she saw Hannya's face getting closer as she tried to kiss her.
"What are you doing?!"
She grabbed her face and stopped her from nearly defiling her lips.
"You just wouldn't wake up."
"Then get away from me! I'm awake now."
The horse beastwomen went to their designated places, with four of them on each wagon.
When the guys arrived carrying the unconscious patients, they were all fascinated to see them.
Leon's party, with their hands tied together, along with Wilton, were being pulled by Lilith as if they were slaves.
"Hiroto, come with me!"
After explaining everything to the horse beastwomen of all wagons, Fina assertively grabbed Hiroto's hand and pulled him to the front.
His classmates noticed the romantic atmosphere between the two of them as Fina invited him to sit with her at the driver's seat.
The guys intensely glared at him, which made him shiver to his spine.
"That traitor! We just looked away and he already found a girlfriend? It makes me envious!"
"Yeah, that's unforgivable!"
"The girls are treating us like filth while he's being lovey-dovey with some cute elf girl. What a bad day."
"Yeah, my girlfriend broke up with me after what happened with the other group."
"I guess we'll be forever single if girls hate us."
They all sighed and grew displeased with what was happening, until one of them looked at a horse girl. Their eyes met, and she blushed and smiled at him.
He slowly drifted away from his friends and approached the horse girl.
Noticing her surprised gaze, the boy became very nervous, and it was clearly visible on his face.
"W-Will... y-you join me for a cup of tea?!"
He stuttered as he bowed his head and lifted his hands.
"Pfffft!"
The horse girl chuckled, unable to contain her laughter.
"What is that? Are you inviting me for a dance? I'm just a commoner."
She misunderstood his intention.
"No, I just want... to talk with you," he responded, fidgeting with his fingers.
"Ah, I see... Sorry if I misinterpreted it. Fina actually told us that you guys are from another world. Things must be different there, unlike the barbaric humans here. I'm curious to know more about your world, so sure."
She agreed with his request and smiled at him.
"Really?"
"Yup, but only during our break. We still have to bring you guys to Orith."
"Yes!"
"By the way, my name is Emma, from the horse tribe."
The horse girl introduced herself, and he immediately responded.
"Kenzo! That's my name!"
He held her hand, but she didn't mind and just blushed a little.
"Sure, Kenzo. We can talk later."
The boy was very happy that a girl finally accepted his strange invitation.
When he returned to his friends with a gleeful smile, he suddenly got grabbed by the collar and lifted up—yet that didn't change his expression.
"You bastard!"
His friends cried blood tears after watching him.
"I'm so envious!"
Enma was talking with her fellow horse girl, blushing with embarrassment during their conversation.
The group of girls walking together noticed it.
They saw Kenzo waving at the horse girl, then spotted Hiroto having a sweet conversation with an elf girl as if they were already dating.
This made the girls furious with how quickly things were progressing.
"Those girls are too easy."
"Yeah, those guys are no good, but they accepted them easily."
"They're gonna regret it soon. Those girls have no taste. Well, they aren't humans anyway."
"Never mind. Those guys aren't even popular."
"If I'm going to choose someone, I want it to be a tall, rich, and handsome guy—unlike those guys who can only think with their crotch."
Kanna, the girl with red twin-tailed hair, was interested in the handsome blonde hero named Leon. She approached him, but his companions immediately noticed her intention and blocked her from getting closer.
The three girls synchronized, glaring at her with full killing intent.
"Eh?" She got intimidated by them.
"Talking with him is forbidden. Please go away. This is my final warning!" —Elaris
"I won't let you near my brother." —Elise
"If you don't listen, I'll put a curse on you!" —Silica
Kanna trembled and slowly backed away.
"What's wrong with these girls? I just wanted to talk with him."
Leon stepped forward to speak to her, but his companions interrupted.
"Sure. What do you—"
"Shut up!"
The three confronted her.
"If you want a man, go look somewhere else," the elf girl Elaris pointed at her.
"We are already competing for the first position." —Elise
"The three of us are already enough. There's no room for you!" —Silica
"Hey, girls! Calm down. We can talk about this."
Leon tried to calm things down.
"Shut up!"
He couldn't talk back to them.
Kanna realized that Leon was already dating girls, and they were competing to be the first wife.
There was really no room for her.
She returned back to her group of friends when Naamah suddenly appeared next to them out of nowhere.
"Waaah!"
"Naamah-san?"
"Let me tell you girls as a warning. This world is ravaged by war, where many young men die—including on the demon side. This caused the gender ratio between men and women to skew greatly. Right now, there are roughly 33 men for every 100 women. Upon reaching the age of 18, the chance of you getting a partner is lower than 10%."
She revealed her situation to them.
All the girls went pale.
On this day, the girls received a grim reminder.
(To be continued.)