The Demon God watched from the very beginning, from the moment the new Demon King, Reinhild, was born five hundred years ago.
He was born with the greatest power among all Demon Kings in history.
The Demon God was impressed.
To the Demon God, a Demon King was a vessel that would hold the power of the Supreme God for him to absorb. Nothing more, nothing less.
In that sense, Reinhild was a better vessel than any Demon King the Demon God had seen.
This Demon King would steep the world in fear and etch the terror of demons deep into human minds.
Then, when the day came that the Demon King breathed his last at the Hero’s hand, an amount of power equal to the magic in that body would fall into the Demon God’s hands.
‘The Hero has not yet been born, so the wait will be long.’
Even at most, this wait would not reach a hundred years.
For a god, that length of time was by no means long.
The Demon God intended to wait at his leisure.
That was, until a clever idea came to him.
‘If the Hero has not yet been born… does that not mean this vessel still has a chance to grow stronger?’
The limits of the Demon King’s and the Hero’s power are set to match each other.
That meant that until the Hero was born, there was effectively no limit set.
‘What if this vessel came to possess even greater power than now?’
Greed arose.
If he cultivated that power until the Hero was born, the portion that would fall to him would be greater too.
If he could absorb all of the High God’s power contained in the vessel, he could become much stronger.
What if he absorbed all the power the Demon King would hold for the Supreme God, then used that power to twist off the Supreme God’s neck?
“Not a bad idea.”
He could not let such a good opportunity slip away.
The Demon God seized his chance, borrowed the appearance of a demon, and hid himself in the Demon King’s castle.
Yet there was something he overlooked, since this was his first time manifesting.
Here, he could not fully wield the power of a god.
The Demon God had planned to seize the Demon King and forcibly stuff divine power into him, but he would have to revise his plan.
If he breathed godly force into the vessel without perfect control of the miasma, the vessel would surely be ruined.
He would have to take time and plant miasma into the heart little by little.
To do that, he could not help but remain by the Demon King’s side for a long time.
‘How troublesome.’
If he stayed by the Demon King’s side too long, his identity might be exposed.
If the High God learned that he had laid hands on the Demon King, he would pay a heavy price.
‘Should I stop?’
He considered simply being satisfied with the current state and returning, but greed won.
If he went back now, he would never have another chance to descend to the human realm.
‘The chance to surpass the Supreme God would vanish too.’
In the end, to achieve what he desired, the Demon God decided to hide his identity and remain by the Demon King’s side, pretending to be an ordinary demon.
While secretly infusing miasma in such a way that even the Demon King would not notice.
The Demon God introduced himself as the butler and approached Reinhild.
Newly born and knowing nothing, Reinhild did not doubt the butler’s existence.
Declaring that, as butler, he must manage everything about the Demon King, the Demon God began to control Reinhild.
“Until the Hero appears, you must not leave the Demon King’s castle.”
At that single sentence, Reinhild was confined to a room with no exit.
“The only ones who may enter this room are you, Reinhild the Demon King, myself who serves at your side, and the Hero.”
He also forbade other demons from entering the Demon King’s room so that he would not pick up useless knowledge.
Reinhild was utterly isolated.
Lonely and desolate, Reinhild had only the butler to speak with.
Every day, the butler whispered to Reinhild.
The Demon King is born for the sake of the Demon God.
The Demon God’s word is absolute, and you must follow the rules he made.
The Demon King must fight the Hero until the very moment of his death.
Even if the Demon King dies, he must die by the Hero’s hand.
Reinhild might complain, but he did not try to go against those words.
If he did and the butler left, he would become truly alone.
Once Reinhild began to regard the Demon God as his butler and obey him, the plan went smoothly.
The Demon God made Reinhild drink his miasma constantly.
Unlike the Supreme God, he gave no courtesy of tempering it by placing power in a sword as a gift or neutralizing the miasma.
“This does not taste very good.”
Every time he saw the sticky black liquid, Reinhild grumbled that he did not want to drink it.
He said it tasted bad, but in truth he likely hated the pain in his chest.
Even if he was the Demon King, he was still merely a demon, and there was no way he could take in divine power unscathed.
Forcing miasma beyond what the heart could accept to expand the magic reservoir would make the heart feel as if it were being torn.
Whenever he drank the black liquid, Reinhild groaned all day.
But that was no concern of the Demon God’s.
The Demon God forcibly amplified his magic so that Reinhild would not die.
Reinhild had been born strong, then perfected by the Demon God’s hand, the finest prey.
Perhaps because he had raised this one with his own care, he looked far more appetizing than the Demon Kings before him.
The Demon God expected that Reinhild would die as soon as possible so he could collect the corpse.
The day the Hero was born, the Demon God rejoiced as much as Reinhild.
Come now, let the Hero’s sword pierce that heart.
The day the Demon King breathed his last would be the day he returned to the divine realm.
The Demon God never doubted that everything would be over quickly.
‘And yet you ruin all of it, bewitched by some Hero?’
Waiting only for the Demon King’s death, the Demon God could not contain his fury when Reinhild slipped from his grasp.
Vessel or not, he wanted to drag Reinhild before him and make him thrash forever in agony.
‘Now that it has come to this, I will absorb that power no matter what.’
Unwilling to waste the effort he had poured in, the Demon God did not return to the divine realm but waited for Reinhild’s seal to be undone.
Then, seizing the chance, he succeeded in abducting Reinhild.
‘Even if it is cracked, a vessel does not simply go to waste.’
If he forcibly pieced back together Reinhild’s magic circuits, which had become useless after he lost his power, he could regain at least some of the original strength.
He only had to blow miasma into him temporarily.
He had not wanted to resort to brainwashing magic, since he did not want to ruin fresh prey. But in any case, during the process of forcibly planting miasma, it would be hard to keep one’s sanity, so he cast brainwashing magic as well.
Thanks to Reinhild’s disposition to accept everything the butler said as truth, the brainwashing worked all the more powerfully.
Reinhild forgot about a mere human Hero and acted in accordance with his supposed role.
That held only until he broke free of the brainwashing by his own strength and regained his wits.
‘A mere Demon King escapes a god’s power!’
The Demon God was enraged, yet he also felt admiration.
His power had weakened upon descending to the human realm, but it was still magic cast directly by the Demon God.
Its potency could not possibly have been low.
That Reinhild broke free of the brainwashing on his own was unexpected.
‘Did the High God’s power blend in and interfere with mine?’
Just as the High God’s power to erase Reinhild’s memories of Xion had failed to take hold properly because Reinhild carried the Demon God’s miasma, the divine power dwelling in Reinhild’s body must have interfered with the opposing force.
It was interesting, but even if he cracked the skull open, he would not be able to confirm it, so he decided to set it aside.
Breaking the brainwashing was praiseworthy, but he was still just a vessel.
There was nothing a Demon King could do while in the Demon God’s palm.
“…Gk, hhh…”
Having realized the butler’s true identity, Reinhild writhed in pain.
With eyes filled with emotions like anger and resentment, Reinhild glared at the Demon God.
The Demon God snorted as he looked at him.
Such emotions merely gave ecstasy to those who carried miasma.
Could he, a Demon King, really be ignorant of that fact? Or had he been tainted by consorting with a mere human?
Either way, it displeased him that what he would devour had become ruined to this degree.
“Before I piece the vessel back together, perhaps I should purify that filthy body.”
The Demon God’s voice, cold enough to freeze the room, fell by his ear.
It was far more chilling than the butler’s voice Reinhild remembered.
Though he had not respected Reinhild, the butler had treated him with a certain degree of regard. Now he was looking down on Reinhild with open contempt.
The Demon God reached his hand toward Reinhild.
He intended to rip out the divine power lodged in Reinhild’s heart and fill the inside with miasma.
“Huuk.”
Choked by the terrible killing intent pouring from the Demon God, Reinhild’s breath caught.
He had to run.
That thought filled his head, but again his body froze and would not obey.
“…Xi… on.”
All he could manage was to part his lips and speak Xion’s name.
Even if he were to die, he could not die like this.
He did not want to die before meeting Xion.
“I have to… meet Xion…”
“Are you seeking the former Hero?”
When the Demon God mentioned Xion, Reinhild lifted his head.
A body that had not budged no matter how much he strained now moved a touch more easily.
It was not that strength suddenly overflowed in his body to resist the Demon God. The Demon God had merely withdrawn the immense miasma that had been pressing on his shoulders.
The Demon God, who wanted to savor Reinhild’s suffering up close, “allowed” him to move freely.
There is nothing more delightful than watching another’s pain.
“It is unfortunate, but it will be hard to meet him while alive, Demon King.”
At those words, Reinhild twisted his face and writhed.
The more Reinhild squirmed, the deeper the Demon God’s smile grew.
“Do not be ridiculous… I will surely… alive… I will…”
“Even if you get out of here alive, you will not meet him.”
“What do you mean…?”
“He is already dead.”
Thump.
The sound of his heart dropping echoed in Reinhild’s ear.
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