ALL NOVEL Chapter 209
The system is over. No, the Empire is over.
Before the Emperor’s defeat, the citizens could only kneel.
“Please, spare us!”
Or maybe that’s not all.
With people dying one by one behind them, the terrified ones began to bow their heads to the Demon Race and beg.
“Please spare our lives!”
“Hah.”
Satan, who was cutting down humans with a Demon Sword, felt elated at the sight of the humans prostrating before him.
Look at those faces filled with terror.
Look at those trembling hands.
Look at that will to survive at all costs.
“Do you want to live that badly?”
“Y-yes…!”
“Then lick it.”
Satan stepped forward.
His foot was clad in military boots, but perhaps due to the body of the Female Hero, it was rather small.
“If you lick my foot, I might consider it…”
“Lick.”
The man immediately began to lick Satan’s foot.
Not just once, but continuously with fervor and dedication.
“……This feels unpleasant.”
Swish.
The man’s neck flew off by the Demon Sword.
The flames of Gehenna instantly turned the man to ashes, and not even a drop of blood splattered around.
Thus, the man disappeared, leaving only a trace of saliva on Satan’s foot.
“Humans. How pitiful. Struggling to live. Accept death cleanly.”
“Kill me!”
Another man stepped forward.
“I am a man of the Empire! How could I turn my back on death!”
“Oh?”
Satan’s eyes gleamed at the man standing boldly.
“Are you planning to fight?”
“I won’t retreat in the face of death! Come at me, you monster!”
“You should be the one coming at me.”
Whoosh.
The man was burned alive.
With clenched fists, he turned into a skeleton, and when Satan tapped him, he crumbled into dust.
“What remains for you is nothing but death. Embrace it quietly.”
“Y-you bastard…! The soul of Emperor Jade will protect us!”
“…Jade? You’re talking about that Emperor from 500 years ago? Hahaha!”
Satan twisted in laughter as if merely thinking about it was ridiculous.
“How absurd. To think the most incompetent Emperor in the history of the Empire is considered the best. Learning false histories for 500 years and believing them to be true, it’s no wonder the Empire has become this way.”
Creak.
Satan grasped the leash.
The silver chain held the Emperor, and Satan dragged him toward the Empire’s castle.
“Emperor. You once said that the Demon God here is the Empire’s last bastion.”
“…….”
“Yes. I will make that a reality. This Empire’s Demon God will also be led by this Satan.”
Bam!
Satan plunged Gehenna into the ground.
The earth shook once more, and soon cracks began to form around where Gehenna was thrust in.
“What, what is that…?”
“The castle…is splitting apart…?!”
The Arpe Castle, boasting of 500 years of tradition and history, began to crack apart.
With great vibrations centered around the fissure, it split left and right, and soon earth from below began to rise.
“That, that’s…!”
“That is…!”
“The Demon God who lost in the blood fight with the Great Demon King 500 years ago. The Empire’s hidden secret.”
From the rising ground, there was a giant golem of dark brown hue.
It was no ordinary golem; its appearance resembled that of a Black Knight or Death Knight.
Or perhaps, it could be called a Black Dragon made of steel.
It wouldn’t be strange to say that the living beings now were created from this bizarre form that was hard to describe easily.
Truly ‘divine’.
The gigantic presence was larger than Arpe Castle and had a massive wound, scratched and pierced, on its chest.
“…Hmm?”
Satan tilted his head at the wound on the chest.
It felt ambiguous to say something, but it seemed the wound was quite recent.
“Those claw marks may be the traces left by that creature, but the body itself seems a bit odd.”
Satan posed a question to himself, but no one was there to answer it.
“Wow….”
Poof.
Satan’s soldiers admired the Demon God’s emergence while slaughtering humans.
“Demon God report!”
“No, it’s that Satan is controlling the Demon God!”
“You just die now and see in the afterlife!”
Boom, boom.
Though surprised by the Demon God’s grandeur, what mattered to the Demon King’s army was revenge and bloodshed against humans.
“The Demon God shall take care of things, let’s kill the humans!”
The Demon God was merely a firm trophy for Satan’s conquest over the Empire.
After all, that was the Empire’s disgrace that the Great Demon Lord Bel Phegor defeated 500 years ago, which history does not record.
Creak, creak.
As humans fell one by one, Satan flew with the wings of flames and bones to the chest of the Demon God.
“Here….”
With a trance-like gaze, Satan entered the torn hole and was mesmerized by the bizarrely mechanical interior.
“…Hmm.”
Is it because it’s the Demon God?
From inside, there was a scent reminiscent of a woman.
“Emperor. Have you ever ridden this?”
“…….”
The Emperor’s eyes trembled greatly.
With an expression as if witnessing something impossible, she was watching Satan.
“That, that’s….”
“It seems you have some clue. Speak. Quickly.”
“…….”
After briefly closing her eyes, the Emperor glared at Satan and shouted loudly.
“I can’t say!”
“What?”
“If I must die pathetically, then I would rather meet my death cleanly!”
“Hah.”
Satan smirked at the Emperor’s composed behavior.
“Demon King’s army, halt.”
Clank.
The entire Demon King’s army, which had been swinging weapons at the humans, stopped moving.
A few, with weapons lodged in their hearts, had also frozen in place, but Satan, undeterred, amplified his voice using magic.
“I propose a deal to the Emperor. If you tell me the secret of the Demon God, I will not kill any more citizens who are still alive.”
“!!”
The citizens of the Empire had not yet died in large numbers.
No matter how much the Demon King’s army engaged in slaughter against humans, it was a tedious task to kill each individual who had already surrendered.
“For one hour. I will let the humans escape for one hour. After that, the Demon King’s army will pursue the humans.”
But once the hunt begins, it changes the game.
Humans would run desperately to survive and for that one hour, the Demon Race could catch up over any distance created in that time.
Revenge flows in the blood of the Demon Race.
They remember vividly everything from being hunted by humans until now.
“Wooohhhhh!!!”
Thus, they cheered at Satan’s proposal.
Humans, too, without showing it, fervently prayed to the Emperor.
That mere secret of the Demon God.
What meaning does it hold if one isn’t even alive in this world, no matter how it all turns out!
“Your Majesty, please…!”
“…Everyone. I’m sorry.”
The Emperor raised her voice with determined resolve.
“Everyone, die with me!”
“Shut your nonsense!!!!”
“…….”
Despite the Emperor’s resolute shout, the screams resonating from below were far more desperate.
“Damn it, what is the use of dying!”
“Die alone if you must! You couldn’t protect us in the first place!”
“How much tax have I paid until now, and now you want us to die together?! Don’t make me laugh!”
Malicious intent pours in.
A rain of arrows directed at the Emperor began to fall.
“…….”
Trembling, tears glistened in the Emperor’s eyes.
Satan shook his head at this sight.
“It seems that the place known as the Empire deserves to perish. Watch closely. Witness the downfall of the Empire.”
“Please, no! Demon King! Please spare us! Just let us run for an hour!”
Ignoring the humans’ cries, Satan entered the belly of the Demon God.
“O mighty Demon God.”
Satan sat in the chair within the Demon God and closed his eyes.
With the Demon Sword Gehenna placed before him, Satan calmly rested his hand on the armrest and whispered.
“I know how you lost. It must have been unfair. You must be angry. So I vow.”
Clank.
Satan declared.
“I will destroy this world alongside you.”
Swish!
He thrust the Demon Sword into his own abdomen.
As if to integrate with the controls of the Demon God, Satan stabbed himself to fix his body onto the controls, vowing never to run away even if someone targeted them.
“Now awaken! O Demon God!”
Whirr.
Light burst forth from the eyes of the Dragon-like Demon God.
Vibrations started resonating throughout his body, and light began to flow out from the controls.
Whoosh.
Like washing dirt away with water, the colors of the Demon God began to shine anew.
The black body.
Dark brown lines that indicated the scales and between the scales.
And the flickering orange shadows of flames between the scales.
Flap.
The Demon God unfurled wings of orange flames from its back.
That figure truly represented ‘Demon King Satan’.
“Ah, I can feel it. The wrath of the Demon God. I can sense the resentment and malicious intent toward the Empire!”
Clank.
Satan’s body began to cover with black scales.
As Satan’s will entwined with the Demon Sword, the controls began to transform into a massive orange sphere centered around Satan’s physical body.
Whirr.
The orange sphere gleamed on the chest of the Demon God.
With that as the center, the flames of Gehenna began to burn across the entire body of the Demon God.
[Ah, behold. This is… the might of Demon King Satan.]
Now, one could no longer discern whether it was the voice of a woman or a monster.
But everyone knew it was the voice of the Demon King, a monster that even the Demon God could not resist.
“Ah, ah….”
Humanity fell into despair.
The Hero stripped of the Holy Sword, who is there in the Empire other than the Emperor?
[I suppose I should start by killing the Emperor first. To sever the Empire’s lifeline, I shall cut off the bloodline of the most incompetent Emperor Jade.]
Creak.
The Demon God’s hand reached out forward.
Even while suspended in the air, the Demon God surrounded the Emperor with the flames of Gehenna and grasped him.
[Now the Empire is finished—]
In that moment.
Whoosh—
A wind blew.
Just when he thought it was an ordinary wind, Satan instinctively recognized it was no ordinary breeze.
Everyone sensed it.
The golden wind wrapping around the Emperor was certainly no ordinary breeze.
And then.
KWA—AAN!!!
A pillar of golden light fell from the sky before the Demon God’s hand.
The golden silhouette sparkled and cradled the Emperor like a princess.
[Who are you…?]
“…….”
The young man, enveloped in a brilliant golden current, calmly opened his mouth to the Demon God.
“Hero.”