episode_0082

The Essence of the Succubus Queen.

A special artifact containing the combined power of all past Succubus Queens.

Absorbing this alone would allow one to inherit the strength of every Succubus Queen in history, becoming the ultimate Succubus Queen.

‘For example, it works like this.’

1st Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength A, Agility D, Intelligence D 2nd Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength B, Agility A, Intelligence C 3rd Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength D, Agility C, Intelligence A

…Assuming this,

The power stored in the Essence of the Succubus Queen would be [Strength A, Agility A, Intelligence A].

If the 4th Succubus Queen absorbed it?

She would gain all stats at Strength A, Agility A, Intelligence A.

Yeah.

This is broken.

An utterly game-breaking item that can turn even a worthless weakling with Strength D, Agility D, Intelligence D into an all-A-rank monster.

But.

This is purely theoretical.

‘Because the Succubus Queens are a race of nothing but mages.’

So.

The stats of past Succubus Queens likely looked something like this:

1st Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength D, Agility D, Intelligence A 2nd Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength D, Agility C, Intelligence B 3rd Succubus Queen’s Stats: Strength D, Agility D, Intelligence A

Then?

What would the result be?

The stats would come out as Strength D, Agility C, Intelligence A.

That’s right.

Not much different from any other Succubus Queen.

‘This is why Succubus Queen Vestiia is weak.’

Of course.

Vestiia isn’t incredibly weak.

She’s weaker than the other Demon Generals,

but she was strong enough to be a candidate for the position.

“That’s what’s truly terrifying.”

“?”

“Terrifying?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s so terrifying about it?”

“With just this, you could keep creating demon generals at the level of a candidate indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely?…”

“Yeah.”

When a Succubus Queen dies, the ‘Essence’ instantly teleports to another succubus.

And.

That succubus becomes the new ‘Succubus Queen.’

The strongest Succubus Queen in history.

The greatest illusionist in history.

She inherits that power and becomes the ‘Succubus Queen.’

“There was something like that?…”

“Yeah.”

“So that’s why the Demon King’s army kept coming back no matter how many we killed?!”

“Pretty much.”

Not all races inherit an ‘Essence.’

But.

The truly powerful ones do.

Many of the Demon Generals have one,

and the Demon King is no exception.

“Th-then…”

“Unless we steal the Essence like this, the Demon King is effectively immortal.”

We can kill the current Demon King,

but what about the next one?

Well.

The next Demon King would inherit the power of all past Demon Kings.

He’d be able to use the ‘Heavenly Barrier’ magic the current one employed.

Even more perfectly than before.

Then?

What would happen?

‘We might lose then.’

Right now, we have cheat-stacked Lia,

and the strongest Hero’s party in history.

But.

The next generation’s Hero’s party might be weaker than this one.

Then we’d lose.

…He added this explanation.

“No wonder… I thought it was strange how the Demon King kept getting stronger… So that’s how it worked…”

“Still… if we steal the demons’ Essences one by one like this…”

“We can completely eradicate the Demon King’s army?…”

“!!!!!!”

Serena grabbed my hand, her face filled with emotion as she shouted.

“Cain! You’re the savior of our world!!!”

“You’re that happy?”

“Of course!”

“You’ve figured out how to completely destroy the Demon King, who kept coming back no matter how many times we killed him!”

The answer was simple.

Just like how I stole the ,

we had to steal the .

Then, game over.

‘How to steal the Demon King’s Core is something I’ll have to think about…’

Well…

It’ll work out somehow.

…Thinking this, I pocketed the .

‘I’ll give this to Marianne~’

Honestly, this was my main goal.

I stole it to gift it to my favorite character, Marianne.

But.

What would happen if I said that outright?

‘Nothing good, probably.’

So I casually took it while sharing other information.

‘Will she like it?’

Judging from the info I got from the Prophecy RPG…

I could guess she’d want the …

‘But it’s just a guess, so it’s vague…’

It might not be true.

So.

I’ll bring up the Essence carefully.

‘Well…’

‘That’s a conversation for when we meet.’

I can’t see her right now.

‘Not yet.’

I’ve shattered prejudices against dark magic,

but the world isn’t yet free of bias enough to accept Marianne the Succubus.

So.

I’ll break down a little more prejudice before going to meet her.

…With that thought, I unfolded a map—

Thud!

A spatial storage bag fell from the sky.

“That’s the mission done!”

“I’m off to rescue the lovely mother-daughter heroines! Don’t contact me unless it’s urgent!”

“OK.”

“Later!”

Whoosh!

Golden Sun vanished faster than anyone.

“Phew…”

“Shall we head out too?”

“Where to?”

“To recruit our next companion.”

I showed the map as I spoke.

“Since we’re here… if we go this way… we’ll reach the Elven Forest.”

“The Elven Forest?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going from this city straight to the Elven Forest?”

“That’s the plan.”

Alice smiled slightly and said:

“Good.”

“Then let’s meet back here.”

“?”

“I’m going solo for a bit.”

“Suddenly? Why?”

“Last time, we left the mid-boss in the icy nation of untouched because we were chasing that runaway husband of mine.”

“Ah… right.”

“So! I’ll go alone, take out the mid-boss slash-slash-slash, then zoom-zoom back here!”

“Can you handle it?”

“Of course! With warp gates, it’ll be quick!”

“Ah… true.”

Lia, Sophia, and I have almost no usable warp gates.

I only have a few marked by Cain,

and Lia and Sophia, being humans who’ve never left their city, have nearly blank warp gate records.

Meanwhile,

Alice is someone who’s traveled so actively that she’s marked every warp gate.

So.

Splitting up is more efficient.

We’ll walk,

while Alice uses warp gates to swiftly take out the mid-boss and return.

Then regroup.

“Sounds good.”

“Right?”

“Can you win alone?”

“What do you think?”

“At your current level, you could probably solo your way to the Demon King’s castle.”

“Then I’ll go alone.”

Alice stood up lightly and slung her bag over her shoulder.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay.”

“No need for separate communication since we have Lady Serena, right?”

“Not really.”

Serena can see and hear through all her devotees’ senses,

so she can track Alice’s location in real time.

Alice just needs to pray once, and Gaia, the Goddess of Abundance, will write messages in sprouting plants.

That’s enough for communication.

So.

No need for communication artifacts.

“See you later!”

“Come back safe.”

Racing through warp gates, Alice arrived at the icy nation of at high speed.

‘There!’

In an instant, she spotted the mid-boss hiding in .

“What’s that?”

“Humans?”

A white orc army tinged with a faint blue glow.

Some called them yetis,

others snow orcs—

and there were quite a few of them.

‘Cain mentioned this.’

Most mid-bosses laze around early on, only becoming active in the mid-to-late stages when the Demon King awakens.

They need to impress the Demon King by then.

So leaving them be is fine,

but eliminating them early is safer.

Swish!

She swung her sword swiftly.

A razor-sharp blade of ice formed, capable of splitting everything in half.

Slash!

The ice blade cleaved through the orc horde.

Crackle!

All the orc corpses froze into pork popsicles.

“Now for the rest…”

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

She swiftly carved words into the cave wall with her sword:

[Hero’s Party. Eliminated orc horde en route.]

Bang!

She even set off a firework.

“This’ll make people come collect the loot and add another line to the Hero Party’s achievements.”

Mission complete.

“Now for…”

Reaching Marianne’s village before Cain, recruiting her to their side,

then rejoining the party as if nothing happened.

Tap-tap-tap!

She sprinted off with powerful strides.

The peaceful rural village of ‘Eden.’

Marianne, the ordinary country girl(?), hummed a tune as she looked for a restaurant.

“One steak! One meat stew! Bread! And a beer, please!”

“Coming right up!”

Thud! Thud!

The delicious steak, meat stew, bread, and beer were placed on the table.

“Aah… this looks amazing…”

In the past, she couldn’t afford such meals.

But now!

She’s rich!

‘Thanks to that ‘K’ person buying all that cheese, I’m loaded!’

She has more than enough to treat herself!

So!

Time to dig in!

“Nom!”

The moment she took a bite, waves of bliss hit her.

This…

This is living…

“After eating nothing but bland milk porridge, real food makes me feel alive…”

Ahh~

Goodbye, days of surviving on milk!

From now on, it’s a life of tearing into delicious meat and happiness~

…Thinking this, she happily finished her meal,

then went to pay—

“……?”

Tap! Tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap!

The spot where her heavy coin purse should be only echoed emptily.

“Hahahahaha!”

“Ordering without money?!”

“Hahaha… y-yeah…”

Cold sweat dripped down her back.

‘No way… Did I really lose it?…’

That was what kind of money?!

Her first big earnings after inheriting the ranch, from selling loads of cheese!

She lost that much?!

“Miss, you did have money when you ordered, right?”

“W-well…”

Thud!

“I’ll cover it.”

“Oh, thank you! Come again!”

Someone paid for her.

Uh…

No idea who…

“Thank you so much!!!”

“Mind sparing a moment?”

“Sure! I’ve got time!”

One of Marianne’s life principles as an ordinary country girl(?)!

Kindness for kindness!

Malice for malice!

So!

She repays kindness with kindness!

(End of Episode 82)