"Quick, hide! The demons are coming," Miyoko said urgently. She didn't have time to worry about the flying magic carpet that had crashed in the distant snow and turned to ash.
I figured she knew our arrival on the Demon Planet had been detected by the demons. The smartest thing to do right now was to hide and avoid their scouting parties.
Miyoko led us all rushing to a narrow crevice in a distant snowy mountain and hid inside. Then, we secretly watched the outside scene.
Not long after we hid, a group of demons riding red dragons flew in from afar. They landed right at the spot where the magic carpet had crashed.
"Even though it's burned to ash, you can still tell it's from Earth," one demon said after inspecting the wreckage.
"They must be desperate to enter the Demon World," another demon remarked, sounding surprised. They were used to attacking others, not the other way around.
"They probably turned to charcoal!" that same demon continued.
"Who knows? Maybe they escaped in mid-air. Let's report to King Demaon right away!" the one who checked first said.
The others didn't object. They mounted their red dragons and flew off. But before leaving, they circled the area for a while, checking things out, and didn't find anything unusual.
As soon as they flew away, Doraemon quickly pulled out a detector from his pocket and set it to follow the demons closely.
"The spy satellite's tracking mission is going smoothly!"
"This way, we can find out where the Demon King's lair is!"
Doraemon operated the controls, and the screen showed the satellite's map marker.
But before Doraemon could get too excited, he turned around and saw everyone shivering. That's when he remembered this was the Demon Planet's South Pole, just like Earth's—freezing cold. As humans, we couldn't handle it; we were all shaking from the chill.
"Wait a sec! I have a cream that makes you feel warmer the colder it gets!" Doraemon suddenly remembered his warming gadget.
"Doraemon, hurry up and get it out!" Suneo complained, clearly struggling with the cold.
"Alright! Abekobe Cream!" Doraemon rummaged for a bit and finally pulled out a box of cream from his pocket.
"This cream turns cold into warmth. Come on, everyone, apply it!" Doraemon distributed the Abekobe Cream to us.
After we all rubbed it on, the bone-chilling South Pole suddenly felt warm—even a bit hot.
With the cold problem solved, we had to hurry and chase after those demons. According to the spy satellite, they'd already gone far.
We put on our Take-copters and flew forward, pushing through a barrier of blizzards. Soon, we left the Demon Planet's Antarctic continent behind.
The demons lived on a continent separated from the South Pole by an ocean.
I discovered that the Demon Planet was truly bizarre. A planet surrounded by flames, yet it had a freezing South Pole. And it even had daylight without a sun—the environment inside the planet was bright somehow. In a tech world, that'd be impossible, but this was a magic world. Don't ask; it's all thanks to omnipotent magic.
"Be careful; we're almost at the continent where the demons live," Miyoko warned.
We flew over the raging sea, getting closer to the land ahead. Gradually, we lowered our altitude and finally landed on an empty beach. We'd arrived on the demons' continent.
This continent looked like it was made of karst terrain, but there wasn't a single green thing anywhere. Sharp rocks like stalactites were everywhere.
Barren—that was my first impression standing on this land. It was mind-boggling that such a desolate place could produce a race as powerful as the demons.
From what I'd experienced in previous movie plots—and even potential future ones from the original series—the demons' combat strength really ranked high, second only to fearless, pain-immune robots.
They had tons of red dragons as mounts, and the whole race had magic abilities. They'd studied magic deeply; even the humans in this magic world learned their magic from the demons. You can imagine how terrifying their power is.
The soldiers from the Dog Kingdom or the Mu Federation I'd seen before wouldn't even qualify to shine their shoes. Even the modern soldiers from the Koyakoya Planet seemed iffy against them.
The scariest part was that they weren't just strong as a race—they were super intelligent too. They'd impersonated Miyoko to trick us and get the Demon World Chronicle, proving their scheming skills.
And their ruler, King Demaon—everyone knows a flock of sheep led by a lion fights differently from a pride of lions led by a sheep. King Demaon was the undisputed lion king leading this pride.
From the start, he'd plotted against Miyoko's mother, and later seized the Demon World Chronicle—his shadow was behind it all.
To rise from the cutthroat competition among demons and earn their loyal obedience, his power was on another level compared to those old fogeys in the Mu Federation or guys like Daburanda.
Immense strength, a cold and ruthless heart, and a brilliant mind—that's the kind of power some villain protagonists in stories have.
All this made me super wary. I didn't dare deviate too much from the original plot, fearing King Demaon and his demons would surround us at any moment.
After all, don't think only the good guys can pull off a righteous beatdown—they play even dirtier.
Even though I'd been careful, before entering the Demon Planet, I'd scanned the surroundings, hoping to spot the Demon King's heart ahead of time—that red satellite orbiting the planet from the original story.
Then, I'd use the silver weapons hidden in the Demon World Chronicle to take out King Demaon early.
I didn't want to risk playing some hero-vs-demon-king game; achieving the goal was enough.
But what made my face turn grave was that I couldn't find that satellite anywhere.
King Demaon's heart was gone!
How could that be?
Something so obvious, orbiting the planet—it shouldn't be impossible to find.
Eliminating all impossibilities, only one remained: King Demaon had hidden his heart himself.
This shocked me back on the flying magic carpet.
The one weakness of this villainous big boss was gone?
How were we supposed to fight now?!