Demon King

[You gained 79,039 experience.]

[You received 170,000 gold.]

[Predation became Lv 3.]

[Your level has risen several times.]

[You have obtained the Pure White Envoy.]

[You have obtained a Mirror Shawl.]

Yet, once there was nothing left in front of me, I gradually returned to my senses. It left me with a gloomy feeling as I looked over the results of what had happened after I gave into my hunger.

[Soul Magic increased by 18.]

[New Magic increased by 21.]

When Marcosias’s body was no more than a drop of blood and a piece of flesh, I could barely stand to think about it. ‘Why was I able to recall her name?’ If that possibility had been with me from the beginning, why was it possible only now? It would have been nice to take out the memories inside me at will; if everything became clear. When I confronted her, I realized that she was a demon I knew, and her name came up so naturally. It brought imperfections into her existence and brought me victory.

But what was this frustration I couldn’t help but feel? I felt like a doll dancing on someone else’s stage. Unable to control the situation, just swinging on by.

‘Is there really only one Elakatra I have to fight?’ I couldn’t shake the feeling that I forgot something important, something in the gaps in my memory. ‘Does the leader of the Elakatra really exist?’

At that time, I could feel energy rising within me as if to break off those thoughts. Instinctively, I could feel that it was the energy of Elakatra, threatening my own mana. It tried to eat at me from the inside, noticing that I wasn’t an elf myself.

‘It won’t be difficult for them to figure out how someone like Marcocias died.’ She would become the trigger that would reveal me to them. Her very death would prove my survival. From now on, I would have to assume that the other side suspected my existence and was moving against me. Fortunately, that wouldn’t change much of what I was already planning to do. But at least for now, I could be convinced they didn’t know of me.

‘What is the truth? I’ve been putting off so much because there was no answer, but someday soon I’ll need to come to a conclusion.’ For now, at least, it was the time to focus on surviving. I felt the power of Predation rising within me. I could remember a time when I could only eat away at a person’s flesh, using my regeneration to turn it into my own life. I wondered if that would work with this Elakatra mana inside of me. Could I turn it into my own energy?

I thought of L, how she erased their energy the other day, and that was enough. It wasn’t just the warmth I received from her. I remembered all of the trajectories her mana followed. My Predation embraced the energy of the Elakatra inside of me, dismantling it bit by bit. Mana began to overflow from me, swirling around me to heal my wounds. I could feel my power and skills unifying.

[Belkena Spell became Lv4.]

When everything was over, and I opened my eyes, countless monsters were lined up around me.

“…I will kill all of you.” I considered why they hadn’t attacked me so far as I lifted my sword to aim at them.

[I surrender.]

“What?”

[I can’t beat you, and I don’t want to die. So, I surrender.]

It was a neat declaration of surrender, coming from the man who stood at the back of the gathered monsters. He was the largest of them, with overwhelming mana that stood out. I immediately recognized it as a parent entity. They didn’t look so different from a human on the outside, except for the twigs sprouting out where there should be ears.

“Are you the owner of this dungeon?”

[Yes.]

“How did you come out?” There were fundamental laws a dungeon had to abide by, one of which was that a boss couldn’t leave the boss room.

[The door was broken in your fight. Her energy rampaged about in here. If you hadn’t eaten it, the dungeon might have collapsed.”

“The door broke…” I repeated his words like an idiot, looking back. Indeed, the door had been shattered. Was that possible due to the energy of a demon and an elf mingling together? Given one more thing to consider, I let out a sigh.

[Is this Earth?]

“It is now, yeah.”

[Is that so? I figured as much, given the countless people coming down here to die.]

A feeling of discomfort came over me. The way this man spoke, and his choice of words, all gave me a peculiar impression.

[I don’t want to die. One death was enough.]

“I see.”

[If I can live, I’ll do anything. Better to be a demon than a spirit.]

That desperate feeling held by those who survived death. I was convinced.

“Are you a fallen?”

[I don’t know what that is.]

“Were you human?”

[…You were too?]

The monsters between us split apart like the Red Sea. He floated in the air and flew toward me.

[I can hardly believe it, given your strength. Are you really human? From Earth?]

“I was.”

[If so, how…no, never mind. You…so, you…]

“You can call me Fate. Did you also die during the Great Fusion?”

[Alright! Yes! When I opened my eyes, I was already here without anyone to talk to.]

What a powerful creature to be born as. I thought Cain was lucky among the fallen, but I hadn’t even thought someone could be born as a dungeon boss.

[There was no one. Everything here was so different from the Earth. I was trapped inside that tree, and only recently could I feel people’s spirits when they were killed. I only had these monsters, but they don’t know how I feel.]

“No, they only kill by instinct. They lack human-like intelligence.”

[True, but that doesn’t mean they should disappear. It feels wrong to condemn them- these monsters who shattered my hopes.]

I decided not to tell him that even if humans had reached him, they would’ve still tried to kill him as the boss monster.

“What is your name?”

[Yuta Katsuragi. You can call me Katsuragi.]

‘Japanese now?’

[Will you save me?]

“Alright.”

[If so, go ahead and use that sword.]

Only

I could tell he saw me as nothing but an object of fear, given how I dealt with Marcocias. Would my words make sense to him? I hesitated before opening my mouth.

“I have a suggestion.”

[If you save me, I will listen to anything.]

He was so quick to agree that I felt a bit embarrassed.

“Be my subordinate, at least it will be better than staying here.”

[Okay, captain.]

‘That answer was too quick!’ Did he hear Lee Chan-yu call me that before I sent him away? I reached out with a sigh, placing my hand on Katsuragi’s head as he flinched away. I triggered Domination, claiming this dungeon’s boss as my subordinate and this whole dungeon as part of my fortress. Katsuragi’s eyes flashed open at the intense flow of mana. It felt a bit creepy, but the mana of Jinma now resided inside of him, bringing him a new, more destructive power.

Now we had a new guild member.