Ch.228Disease(?)(5)

The Demon Lord of ‘Envy’, Alanomoumia, a subordinate of Leviathan, was viewing the current situation optimistically.

Honestly, anyone would have felt the same way.

And for good reason—the current situation was unfolding in an extremely advantageous direction for the mid-level demon Alanomoumia.

Practically treated as the next Legion Commander and even receiving special favor, Alanomoumia one day quite accidentally discovered an excellent source of ‘envy.’ Upon learning that the owner of this envy happened to be the legitimate heir of ‘Gluttony,’ who had made quite a name for himself in the demon realm, he began to formulate a grand plan.

A plan to recruit and completely dominate such a prominent figure as the legitimate heir of ‘Gluttony,’ thereby elevating his own position and ascending to the rank of Legion Commander-level archdemon.

Having decided what to do with the acquaintance of the ‘Gluttony’ heir, the Maggot Grand Duke, Alanomoumia gathered everything he had built up until now and took a gamble.

He poured resources into dominating the woman who had initially been nothing more than a small crack for his influence to penetrate, far from being a cultist. Then, using her as material for his carefully selected demon-plague, he infected those around her to dominate their minds as well.

And after successfully dominating these minds through such processes, Alanomoumia poured them entirely into creating a ‘bait’ and ‘trap,’ into which his target, the Maggot Grand Duke, fell exactly as planned. Witnessing this, Alanomoumia was overcome with thrilling pleasure.

The orchestrated situations that Alanomoumia had created by pouring his all into them were flowing according to plan.

Especially at the very moment when any possibility of Alanomoumia’s defeat in that space had completely vanished, and even in the situation where he had successfully lured and finally managed to meet him in private, this trend showed absolutely no signs of changing.

With complete control and authority over the space itself, there seemed to be no way to defeat him, so despite the overwhelming difference in actual power, Alanomoumia was extremely confident, but…

‘…What is that?’

Even someone like Alanomoumia, faced with the current situation, was no different from an ordinary person who couldn’t have predicted anything.

He had stripped the longsword that was the basis of resistance from the Maggot Grand Duke, who had been resisting with the power of holy water and purification. Furthermore, at the point when even the aura of holy water protecting his body had been removed, Alanomoumia was certain of victory.

All that remained was to capture the neatly disarmed Maggot Grand Duke and subjugate his mind, no matter how long it took, to ultimately lead him down the path of corruption—he was so confident that he was counting his chickens before they hatched.

However, the situation unfolded differently from Alanomoumia’s expectations.

—PACHINGGG!!

Amidst a sound similar to something emitting light echoing from all directions, the supposedly disarmed Maggot Grand Duke suddenly ‘grasped’ the air and drew a weapon.

While his subordinates muttered about what absurd situation this was, Alanomoumia, who had noticed the truth behind this seemingly foolish action, turned pale and was unable to do anything.

Because this was the result of exploiting the fact that this place could not be considered anyone’s specific mental landscape.

The foundation was certainly within Charlotte’s mental landscape, but since the prepared output was insufficient, Alanomoumia had additionally drawn in parts of the mental landscapes of those he had infected, overlaying and forcibly joining them together.

Moreover, the situation required coating the surface with a portion of the power of ‘Envy,’ making the internal space a forcibly compressed chaos that could not possibly be defined as any specific thing…

In this chaos, he had overlaid part of his own mental landscape and then drawn a ‘sword of the mind’ from there.

[“—Do you think drawing a single sword will change anything?!!”]

Thus, in an atmosphere that was already not going according to plan, when this situation completely reversed the flow, he fired ‘power’ drawn from all directions while saying words that even he could hardly believe.

Physical attacks like a giant coral trident and a harpoon formed from monster bones. The authority of a ruler that solidifies space and controls movement. Additionally, magic used by demons of ‘Envy’ poured forth in various forms.

But all of these overwhelming attacks, each like a torrent of power, disappeared without a trace upon contact with that ‘sword of the mind.’

The identity of this weapon, which could be called the ‘sword of the mind’ or ‘sword drawn from the heart,’ was the pure distillation of the warrior self within the Maggot Grand Duke, his fighting spirit and skills taking a single form.

Borrowing spatial peculiarity to appear in the material world where it normally couldn’t exist, this weapon, once grasped in the Maggot Grand Duke’s hand, could no longer be evaluated simply as a cold weapon.

Erosion of concepts and projection of self. The weapon, which was essentially swordsmanship itself refined into control and taking form, unleashed countless slashes from its non-substantial blade that existed in form but not in substance.

In other words, it was a partial execution of an overwhelming privilege normally possible only for high-rank beings, achieved in the mid-rank realm through the power of a special environment. Alanomoumia, quickly realizing that his chances of victory were not great, finally made a decision and pulled out his original plan.

[“D-Don’t move!! If you move, the subordinate you care so much about will no longer be safe!”]

It was a hostage situation—ugly but certainly a valid strategy. One of the means he had originally planned to use, taking the mind of the person in control as a hostage to stop him.

Honestly, considering the burden of such a hostage situation, there were good reasons not to include it in the main plan.

In the midst of a situation with countless variables, having to rely solely on the Maggot Grand Duke’s innate goodness was an unbearable risk for a demon who was inherently a troublemaker by nature.

‘…Is it working?’

But even in such a situation, when finally pushed to the worst-case scenario, he resorted to the hostage tactic, and seeing the Maggot Grand Duke actually stop, he couldn’t help but feel a subtle expectation.

The circuitry of happiness that automatically activates is essentially a nature possessed by all intelligent beings, so when a situation thought to be the worst improves even slightly, hope naturally creeps in, but…

“…There will be no negotiation. No compromise. Only death awaits.”

[“Ugh…!”]

Faced with a level of madness that could only be described as beyond insane, exuding a killing intent comparable to an inquisitor of heresy charging at him, Alanomoumia somehow mustered his strength to form a massive coral reef barrier—

—SEOGEK!

Simultaneously with the massive coral reef chunk, which was hardly different in size from a decent asteroid, being bisected, Alanomoumia realized that he had suffered a fatal injury, being split in half at the waist.

This level of injury was something that his fake body made of magical power could neither properly handle nor endure.

Therefore, at the moment when his death and banishment to the demon realm where his essence was located became a foregone conclusion, Alanomoumia, with a psychology similar to a gambler who had bet everything and lost or a failed cryptocurrency investor, tightly grasped the crystal—the mind of the woman whose control he had obtained.

His goal was the destruction of her mind through spiritual connection. Since returning to the demon realm would mean taking responsibility for wasting resources invested with borrowed funds, he had the shameless double-standard mindset that he absolutely could not die alone, but…

‘…Huh?’

Just as Alanomoumia was about to destroy Charlotte’s mind with such a mindset, he couldn’t hide his confusion when faced with the unprecedented situation of the connection to her mind being severed.

The unprecedented situation where even his final attempt to drag her down with him had failed. The worst situation marking the end of an affair where nothing had gone according to plan.

‘…You, damn bastard!’

Alanomoumia, who had completely forgotten what he himself had done, ended up spewing anger shamelessly, but soon after seeing the slash flying toward him, he could only worry about the catastrophe that would unfold in the demon realm…

Whether fortunate or unfortunate, there was no need for Alanomoumia to worry about such a ‘future’ anymore.

‘…Huh?’

The blade passed through Alanomoumia’s shell of a body and extended toward the soul—the essence of the demon—that existed in a deeper place.

A powerful strike extending directly toward that essence, which he had believed to be absolutely safe in his own domain in the demon realm. This naturally led the situation into a different realm and naturally went berserk…

Alanomoumia, who had been in a position similar to a mere observer until now, finally realized that he could truly die and wore an expression of terror.

But it was already too late. By the time Alanomoumia realized his desire for life, the blade was already smoothly carving through his neck…

And so, one demon-Neverborn completely vanished from the world.