Shlen Canyon (7)

* * *

Since detecting that, Deireize hadn’t relaxed her guard for even a single second.

‘I can feel the Demon King’s Mana.’

She wasn’t just some small fry; as a Demon who had received the title of Great Demon, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize it.

To a Demon, the Demon King held a meaning far beyond that of a mere ruler. It was a fear and loyalty ingrained in their very species. They instinctively recognized the being they were meant to serve. Although he had been defeated by the Hero and fallen into an eternal slumber, the power held within the two words ‘Demon King’ had never changed since the birth of the Demon King.

Even if it was just a thought, even if she knew it was a withered fragment of malice, any Demon who witnessed it would quickly have to lower their head.

Deireize realized with chilling clarity that her life depended on the girl before her.

‘Damn it.’

Could an entire race be bound by absolute power? Deireize regretted being a Demon, if only occasionally.

But there were more races like that than one might think. The Mother Tree, the World Tree, which the Elves worshipped. From the moment they saw the light of the world, they lived their entire lives subservient to the World Tree.

And, though it went without saying, there were humans. They reaped and then sowed again. Humans, guaranteed death by the God of Humanity, might fear death, but they didn’t see it as the end.

Demon King.

World Tree.

God of Humanity.

If there was one thing they had in common, it was that they always put forward an agent. The Elven Knights of Kardrasil, the Executors of the Holy See. And the Demon King, and all the malice that arose from this land.

Unusually, the Demon King had manifested in physical form to wage war, but he never left Pandemonium, just as the World Tree never left Kardrasil.

But had there ever been anyone chosen by the Demon King? No. But there had been many attempts. Not just by Demons, but even by other races. However, as many attempts as there had been, that many lives had disappeared. Because they couldn’t endure it.

If only they could control that power…

If only they could withstand it.

They could use the Demon King’s authority.

‘I can’t… gauge the size of the vessel.’

That was why the girl before her was both terrifying and enchanting.

Deireize, having received Mana from the girl, felt several times stronger than before. A heart boiling like lava… She felt like she could spew a fire that could burn even the soul.

But the power received in exchange for subservience twisted Deireize’s body. It was like hammering metal in a recklessly raging furnace.

The anger was refined.

She could now direct her anger. However, it would remain dormant until its master pointed the way.

“Put your hand in here. Now.”

Her new master commanded. Deireize looked at the girl’s left eye with greedy eyes. Black Mana swirled and fell like a black hole. If she put her hand in there, Deireize’s body would collapse and be destroyed.

But a Demon’s greed knew no bounds, like a moth throwing itself into the fire.

Gulp. She swallowed. As Yujin commanded, Deireize reached out a trembling hand.

-Jjibeub….

First, from the fingers.

“Aheut….”

Yujin made a lewd expression and convulsed at the violent hand movements that grazed the eyeball. The scratches and stone fragments left by removing the Holy Iron, mixed with the thick black Mana, gave her a strange sensation.

“Not bad, is it? Keep, haeu. Doing it.”

Deireize was greatly flustered by the different reaction than she had imagined, but soon gritted her teeth at the surge of power.

“――Heoeuk.”

It surged in. The power of the dead surged in through her fingers. Deireize felt death at the size of the power she couldn’t handle.

“Ah, heut… If I put it in just a little more…”

Regardless, Yujin twisted her body and drooled. Making a degenerate and filthy face. Touching the part connected to the brain with her finger gave her a jolt of pleasure.

But Deireize’s body was on the verge of collapse, and had reached an uncontrollable state. Black lines spread like spiderwebs covered Deireize’s entire body, and began to crack along the lines.

• Jjeojeojeok…

The sound of life collapsing.

At that sound, Yujin stopped climaxing and turned her eyes.

“Stop.”

• Pusyuk!

She took out her finger with a voice that had lost its excitement. Yujin tilted her head, watching Deireize’s body collapse in real time.

“Not even ten seconds….”

She thought about leaving her to die like this, but reminded herself that she needed to keep her alive for the sake of the experiment.

“I’ve never reconstructed a collapsing body before, but….”

She drew up Mana.

* * *

The Demon’s body collapsed. Muscles were not visible in the cross-section of Deireize, which had been split along the lines. Black energy-Mana-was visible between the torn skin, like cracked wooden floorboards.

‘This is a first.’

Did the Demon King’s Mana act fatally even on other Demons? I thought of this as an extension of the experiment and gathered Mana.

‘I need to neutralize it.’

First, I cut off the endlessly flowing Mana.

The collapse of her body stopped when there was no more Mana being absorbed, but it was already after it had collapsed to a fatal level.

‘Reconstruction.’

But if she was still breathing, anything was possible. I flicked my finger to fix Deireize’s body, temporarily separated her head, and continued her life.

Just like with Sophia, reconstructing a Demon’s body was incredibly difficult. It was like attaching flesh without a blueprint of the body.

‘Still, the second time is easier.’

I don’t fail if I have a theory.

The problem was that I could only create shapes that resembled me. As Sophia had done, I could add some variations, but the framework was the same. And that was more comfortable for me. The feeling of me tormenting myself was… a little special.

‘All I have to do is attach the head….’

It was also the first time I was assembling a body while it was still a Demon. I had broken Sophia’s horns and even twisted the Mana structure in her body to create a complete human, but the horns were still alive and well.

‘Well… adaptation is up to her.’

If I could only grasp the flow of Mana, I could attach her head to a tree or a rock, or anything else. The sense of alienation and confusion that came from the changed body… Who cares? I have no intention of showing much mercy to a Demon.

‘She’s still breathing.’

Attaching Deireize’s head, which had been quite tall, to my body drastically reduced her height, but my body’s proportions were excessively perfect. Changing one head didn’t change much.

Deireize was also as beautiful as me. Her head was also small, so it didn’t look unnatural.

• Tuk.

Finally, I gave her a little electrical stimulation.

“Haeuk, heuk…?!”

Deireize opened her eyes.

“Keoheu, heo, heok. M-My body, my body… Eora?”

“Your body collapsed after absorbing so little. But I’ve widened the passage through which Mana flows, so you’ll be able to absorb more.”

“―Passage?”

One of the good things about making it based on my body was that this body had the ideal ‘passage’ that every magician wanted. To put it simply, it meant that the fuel efficiency was good.

“Then get up now. You have to absorb the rest, right?”

*

Deireize adapted faster than I thought, and eventually even her soul submitted. She didn’t have much attachment to her changed body. As much as she lived with the alias of Wrath, she had an obsession with power, and for the same reason, she seemed to be fine with anything as long as she had power.

She was greatly satisfied with the dozens of times stronger power and efficiency.

‘The Mana was the same, though.’

Even if I shared Mana, the total amount remained the same. Mana only existed as much as I could withstand, and it gradually gnawed at my body whenever my mind became unstable. Of course, the opposite was also true. When I pulled myself together, it showed a slight retreat.

The Holy Iron…

I didn’t put it back in.

It was because I realized that it ultimately depended on my mindset. When my mind became unstable, it went on a rampage regardless of suppression, just like when I crushed Prukaise’s face.

Still, it wasn’t like there were no gains at all.

‘How to control it has become more important.’

The more I handled Mana, the more it became assimilated and familiar. It was a fact I discovered while reconstructing Deireize’s body.

The Mana, which surged violently the more I resisted it, paradoxically calmed down the moment I accepted it.

‘Either be eaten, or eat it.’

It was still the same tightrope walk. It was also shitty that I had to accept it in the end.

‘…I’ll have to give up my daily life.’

I was most worried about whether I would be able to be with Shuriel. I could give up everything else. But, but…

“….”

I became depressed. I needed to stop thinking like this, even for Shuriel’s sake.

‘He said he’d come to pick me up.’

Definitely.

He said he’d come to pick me up, so I would believe and wait. It didn’t matter if it was a few days or a few years. I just had to not be eaten until he came back.

While I was blankly spacing out at the top, Deireize went down and slaughtered the Demons. A Demon killing Demons. It was only possible now because she was no different from my slave, but Deireize herself seemed to be enjoying it. In the first place, they had no sense of kinship with each other.

• Peolleok.

“―I’m back.”

But today, I gave her a slightly special order.

“How’s the situation?”

Become my eyes and look at the land of the Demons.

I had countless thoughts about going down myself, but if I absorbed the poison of Pandemonium without the Holy Iron, I could be completely corrupted.

“Raum and the Executor clashed. That means we’re reaching the end. Heu. What an idiot… He followed Amon’s tail around―”

“Just tell me the conclusion.”

Raum, the Demon of Illusion. The Demon that Deireize mentioned. He seemed to be a Demon who was on par with or stronger than herself, a fairly strong Demon, but… I wasn’t interested in that kind of thing.

“…The Executor won.”

A victory report.

“How?”

The process of victory.

“Overwhelmingly.”

Only then.

I closed my eyes with a satisfied face.

When this time came, I would close my eyes and listen to Deireize’s story. Then, I would imagine him in action. The trajectory of the sword, the order of stepping on the ground, the breathing, the blinking….

I engraved everything about him in my head.

Deireize continued the story until I was satisfied. As I requested, she conveyed everything without missing a single trivial detail.

“Would he like it if I sent a letter through you?”

“Even if you ask me that…”

“No, never mind. He’d despise me for using a Demon. I can’t do that. Deireize. If Shuriel ever finds out, kill yourself.”

“…I understand.”

“Then, quickly. Go back quickly. Don’t miss a single breath and tell me.”

But when the story ended…

I was engulfed in endless anxiety.

This stalking was all I could do. I didn’t know what I would hear if even this was discovered.

―Go down.

A hallucination that I occasionally heard.

―Go down and meet him.

Every time that happened, I would answer, “Fuck off.” Eat shit. I swore and endured and endured.

The story.

Until Deireize told me a new story.