Demon King

World War – 4

“What did you do with the dwarves?”

“I didn’t kill them, it was just a movement based magic.” There were one woman and three men, each wearing clothes with useless ornate decorations. The magic contained in their clothing wasn’t negligible, though. It was hard to tell their nationalities by appearance. No doubt, they changed when they entered the higher system.

“Are you the terrorists who hit the large companies a little while ago?” The man who seemed to be in charge spoke up. I thought about responding for a bit before concluding that a fight would occur unless I told them everything. Which meant it couldn’t be helped.

“No, brother!” Just as I tried to pull out Annihilation, my sister caught my hand.

“They haven’t done anything but ask. Killing them is wrong.”

“… You’re right, I’m sorry.” If I killed four people pointlessly, then the value of each life for me would fall. I put away my dagger and looked at the man who had gone stiff from me, drawing my weapon.

“Right. I am the terrorist.”

“Also!”

“I don’t have time to talk to you. Excuse me.”

“I can’t let you go…” I sent my party first through the portal, kicking the man who was approaching me. One of the others moved up to catch him.

“Well, damn it…”

“You.” Before stepping through the gate myself, I decided to ask them what was on my mind.

“Who’s backing you?”

“Nobody!” The man I kicked replied while summoning his magical power. His colleagues were shaking their heads like they had been waiting for this to happen. As I let out a laugh at them, only the woman made an embarrassed expression.

“Yes, I knew it.”

“Explain yourself!” I could feel his skills activating in a rush of mana. It was much more refined than Katsuragi’s, matching the title of a higher entity.

“Oh, sure…” I threw myself through the gate, taking all of the energy with Predation as I went. They just stood there, unable to reach out for me. It appeared that there were higher-level entities that had no connections to the Elakatra or the demons. Which meant my enemy wasn’t just the Elakatra. It would’ve been nice if we hadn’t met again, but unfortunately, they also possessed the power of the upper-level system. While saving the dwarves, we had to face them again and again.

“You’re really bothering me.”

“Where are you taking those dwarves? Please let us know.” Only the woman acted charmingly to me, but at least they were all aware that we didn’t need to fight, at least not yet.

“If the reason is good, we’ll help.”

“What are you talking about, Emily?!”

“It’s not like they’re bad people. They’re helping the dwarves.”

“But they’re definitely not human!”

“We’ve evolved further than humans can, they must be similar to us.” At least I had found out her name was Emily. Sighing at the useless information and glaring at them, I watched the man I kicked stomp around angrily.

“Unlike him, I am pure human! We are warriors who set out to save mankind from the crisis of the Great Fusion.”

“The war happening now looks like a crisis for humanity.”

“Humanity is responsible for that, we have no intention of stopping it. We only remove the non-human beings that have emerged from the Great Fusion.” It was a tangible goal with no time for others, or at least that was what he probably thought.

“Yes, warriors.” Confirming that the record was no longer reacting to the dwarf’s mana, I glanced at him.

“Now, there will soon be countless dungeons appearing soon. Of course, if you want to save humanity, you should get rid of them, right?”

“Dungeon? How do you know that?”

“Idiot. They appeared right after the dwarves did last time.”

“I was still in the middle of training back then…” Anxiety arose in me whether I could trust them to take care of anything, but Emily gave me a soft smile that made me decide to.

“Fate, you can’t cheat.”

“That’s why I don’t pay attention to you.”

“That’s unfair!” I drew a world map in the air with mana, pushing Mireina away from me. It wasn’t detailed, but it was enough to distinguish between countries.

“What great control.”

“I’m still not good enough.”

“Why the map?” I circled about a seventh of it and sent it over to the warriors.

“You take that area. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“The rest of it?”

“We’ll be in charge.”

“You…are you looking down on us?!”

“That’s pretty accurate.” Unlike last time, when we only saved roughly 448 dwarves, this time, we had secured over 50,000. Our casualties were much smaller, too, given that we had access to more troops and the lack of activity from the Elakatra. By a simple calculation, this would no doubt be about fifty times worse. Even at half that, the Earth would be covered in dungeons. It wouldn’t be possible for us to conquer all of that, but these ‘warriors’ could pull their weight. Moreover, I wondered how Elakatra might react to these people with nothing to do with the underground. It was worth watching.

“How do you get rid of the dungeon? Even if you kill their master, they will continue to produce monsters.”

“I’ll send one of our members with you. As you may already know, we have the ability to remove dungeons.” I called forth Solas. After I evolved into a Belkatina, he had been reborn as an undeniably cute pure white spider.

“Cute!”

“Cute!”

“Solas, please.”

“Myu.” Solas nodded seriously as if to say, ‘Leave it to me’, then jumped to sit on the head of Emily.

“Cute!”

“Myu.” I decided not to tell them that he was stronger than all of them combined. How their leader would react was obvious. But my worry was meaningless; his reaction was intense regardless.

“We haven’t said we’ll go along with you yet!”

“…It doesn’t matter if you don’t do it. I just presented you the option because you wanted to save mankind from the impact of the Great Fusion.” Emily stared straight at me.

“Is it really for mankind?”

“You be the judge.”

“You are wicked.”

“Fate, can I beat that girl?”

“Not yet.” From the outside, it seemed like she was protecting me, but there was no reason for Mireina to be jealous. I held her back from showing off her soul’s power, while Emily bit her lip while looking down at the map in hand.

“Okay, I’ll go with your plan for now.”

“Yeah?”

“There shouldn’t be any dungeons on Earth. If you can get rid of them, then I’ll use it. I’ll cover for your identity for now as well.” I could sense no lie in that upright heart, so it was truly reliable. She smiled vaguely at me from behind her comrades. Once the other members had no objections, it was simple to get them to agree. It helped that Solas was with them now.

“So, so cute! Can I keep him in the future?!”

“Shut up.”

“No!” I dismissed their nonsense and opened a gate to the underground. We had a little time left before the dungeons would pop up, and it was necessary to give everyone some rest. As my sister was about to step through after Lee Chan-yu and Katsuragi, Emily spoke to her.

“You, there.”

“Hm?” She regarded Emily with a cold gaze.

Only

“You seem a little different, but still human…why are you with such people?”

“…You said you want to save mankind. Are the humans you want to save only those who are human in appearance?” Emily was at a loss for words as my sister turned and jumped into the gate. I stepped up to it last, turning to look at those around me. They showed no sign of retorting at her words, but only bit their tongues.

“Name? I’m Fate.”

“Lane.” Their leader answered softly, and I wondered if my sister’s words had made him a little less hostile.

“Yes. Lane. See you again later.”

“…”

I smiled a little inside as I joined the rest of Rebellion through the gate.

Just like after our first meeting, they stood there looking at our backs as we left.