The Demon Lord Shouldn’t Be At This Much Of A Disadvantage!!

“I hate training with the Quentellias…” Inessa said with a weary sigh as she and Lylia appeared in the desolate ruins of the Demon Monarch’s castle.

“I know, but they are also the only ones who are high enough level to train you.” The blonde replied, offering the brunette a soft smile.

“But why do I even need to train? We can kill Nachty just fine.” Pointing the tip of her sword at the hulking, dark-armored being at the center of the room, she didn’t get into a combat stance to prepare to attack. Instead, she mentally navigated the display presented in her vision to the “Items” category and selected the weapon she had equipped in a fraction of a second. “Use: Photo Thrust.”

In an instant, and with speeds faster than light, Inessa crossed the room to the Corrupted being, her holy blade encased in blinding light, piercing his chest. While there was little resistance, she felt her attack hit something with more substance than air. Other than the armor, it wasn’t like piercing a creature of flesh and blood, more like a sponge saturated with a dense, viscous liquid. But it was enough to tell her she had stuck true.

“It’s hardly even worth the effort to come here.” She added, shrugging.

“Well, Maxine wasn’t wrong when she implied our Divine Artifacts greatly aid in our duty. Just remember that we are the only ones who could hope to defeat Nacht– hm?” Not disagreeing with her companion, Lylia treated the obligations that came with their positions and privileges more seriously. Though she still hadn’t focused on the armored demon or taken his presence as a serious threat, until she realized he had yet to die. “He didn’t die from that, Inessa.” She pointed out with all the urgency of watching someone not notice a pot of water boiling over.

“Hmm? Oh, wait. You’re not Nachty.” The brunette said, turning to look at him. “Oh! Lia. Is this what you mentioned before? How sometimes Demon Monarchs will change and have new personalities, memories, forms, and abilities?” She asked, looking back at the holy woman without a hint of concern.

Navigating through her own display at the speed of thought, Lylia selected a spell under her Magic category and held out a hand. “Oh, Seepu, All-Knowing Goddess, grant to me a glimpse of your Akashic Record. Search (Advanced).” Reciting the incantation at superhuman speeds, she targeted the greater demon impaled on Inessa’s sword, and the information was revealed to her.

König Geistdunkelrustung [Legendary] Race: Greater Demon Level: 20
Hit Points: 272/628 Mana: 350/555 Stamina: 157/157

“You’re right, Essa. It looks like this is a new Demon Monarch. König Geistdunkelrustung.” She said as she casually walked towards the center of the vacuous room, letting out a weary sigh. “Why do so many of you have such long and convoluted names now? Is that also part of Chrysaor’s curse? To annoy us even more?”

Turning back to look up at the armored figure’s wide, glowing eyes, confusion evident despite the lack of any other facial features, Inessa smiled meekly. “Sorry for stabbing you out of nowhere, Geisty. I thought you were Nachty.” She apologized with a slight bow and awkward smile, her freckled cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

*****

Every development of the circumstances König Geistdunkelrustung found himself in only added to the newly appointed Demon Monarch’s confusion.

He had been run through with a magic sword, yet felt no pain. A slight discomfort from the enchanted metal displacing whatever passed from internal organs his new body possessed. A tingly sensation around the edges of the wound. But nothing truly hurt.

Despite the level difference between them, neither Inessa nor Lylia looked to view him as a threat. It wasn’t that they were hiding their fear; Inessa had proved how easily she could wound him. They were genuinely more powerful and better equipped than he was.

But it was the pleasant, conversational tone Inessa addressed him with that unsettled him more than anything. Th-The people of this world must be desensitized to killing demons. But, if I can just talk to them. Taking a step back, König Geistdunkelrustung began to raise his hands and speak. “H-Hold on–”

“Use: Storm of Blades.” However, instead of giving him a chance to speak, Inessa spoke in a commanding tone.

Faster than he could blink, the new Demon Monarch was decimated and sliced into dozens of pieces. Once more, the sensation he experienced from her merciless assault wasn’t something he would classify as pain. It was, at least to his mind, disturbing to feel parts of his whole being cut away from his core, and the fear of dying drowned out all other thoughts.

S-Seriously? I’ve been killed already? He thought, seeing chunks of his body suspended in the air around him.

But, before any of the pieces could fall, they all melted into wisps of shifting shadows that flickered like lightless flames. Each plume of shadow-fire rushed back together, coalescing back into his whole, unmutilated form.

[Schattenrustung effect: Cast Reanimate, activated]
[Dark Magic Corruption: 88/100]

Text appeared in his vision as his body returned to normal, though something he couldn’t quantify felt… missing. While his body had reconstituted itself, it lacked the strength to remain standing. He fell to a knee, and his breathing came quick and short. But it wasn’t the physical state of his body that filled him with a sense of dread.

Something important had been drained from him. The force that had empowered him, his dark life force, had been consumed to fuel his revival.

H-How did I do that? König Geistdunkelrustung wondered, looking at his hand as he struggled not to collapse.

“Tch! He’s a reviver, not a form-changer. And I thought Nacht was annoying.” Lylia said, clicking her tongue as she looked down on the kneeling demon. She pointed the ornate head of her staff at him. It possessed a minimalistic design of a woman with the oval-shaped wings sprouting from the sides of her head, wrapping around her body, with her arms revealed and holding a perfect emerald sphere close to her chest. “Use: Micro.” The gemstone flashed a bright green at her command.

In an instant, the two women grew to impossible proportions, utterly dwarfing him. “Wh-What!?” Falling back as he was now staring up at two giant women who, from his perspective, were taller than skyscrapers, he looked around in panicked confusion. It was only because he saw that everything else around him, the ruins, the debris, even the two little golems hiding behind a mostly collapsed wall, had similarly grown to gigantic proportions that he registered that he was the one who shrank. “Th-This can’t be happening. This isn’t right! I-I’m supposed to be the Demon Lord, aren’t I? H-How am I so weak–?!”

His question was cut off as a massive, golden, high-heeled shoe came crashing down on him.

*****

Watching as Lylia twisted the sole of her shoe on the defenseless armored figure, Inessa’s heart tightened.

“Demon Lord? You’re little more than a bug for us to squash.” The blonde said with a dangerously gleeful edge to her voice.

Wisps of the lightless, shadowy flame seeped out from the sides of Lylia’s shoe, reforming the miniaturized Demon Monarch just in front of her toes. The panic in his glowing eyes was more desperate than confused now. There was little misunderstanding such directed, lethal intent. But before he could pick himself up and run away, the blonde had already raised her foot again and brought it crashing down on him.

“Just how many lives do you have? Just die and stay dead.” She said, repeating the process without hesitation as he revived again and again.

“U-Uh, Lia? M-Maybe we could try talking to Geisty?” Inessa finally asked after the aforementioned being had been trampled to ‘death’ several times.

Grinding her foot into the ground, Lylia glanced at her and shook her head. “Why bother? You know we have a responsibility to eliminate the Demon Monarch when they resurrect. We don’t need to talk to them. We just need to kill them.” She said, bringing her foot down on the shrunken being again to accentuate her point.

“I know, and I didn’t really question it when I became Champion when we had to come kill Nachty, but…” Trailing off as she looked at their enemy reform and stare up at them, raising his arms in a futile attempt to defend himself, Inessa couldn’t help but pity him. “Geisty is my first ‘new’ Demon Monarch. Look at him. He has no idea what’s going on or why we’re killing him. Don’t you feel bad for him?”

In the face of the heartfelt, compassionate plea, Lylia’s face remained neutrally annoyed as she raised her foot and stomped on the armored pest she had so easily incapacitated. “No. Demons, greater demons in particular, are a threat to Facide. They can’t be reasoned with.” She said flatly, though her tone wasn’t devoid of sympathy either. “You’ve seen it for yourself, Essa. Monsters can be Tamed. Lesser demons can be Purified. All demons, greater or lesser, Corrupt everything they touch. If they can’t be Purified, they are a danger.”

Her heart sinking, Inessa knew that Lylia didn’t hate Corrupted creatures blindly. During her time as Facide’s Champion, she’s had to slay the occasional monster or spontaneous demon, though most of them had been saved by their purification magic. She had only faced two greater demons other than Sturmblut Nachtkrieger. Lylia stuck one of them down without hesitation. She had reasons, logical and emotional, to fear and reject them. But those reasons were Lylia’s, not hers. But Lylia wasn’t around to strike down the second…

“I know, but Geisty hasn’t done anything yet. He doesn’t know anything about Facide, and being hated just because you came into this world knowing nothing… I’d hate myself for not at least explaining to him.” She said, crouching and looking down.

*****

[Schattenrustung effect: Cast Reanimate, activated]
[Dark Magic Corruption: 4/100]

Seeing the message inform him of his death and revival, König Geistdunkelrustung braced for the final impact that would end his new, all too short, life. Like with Inessa’s blade, getting crushed and ground into the dirt like a bug wasn’t painful. It was accompanied by the same tingling sensation, but his body seemed incapable of sending pain signals to his mind. Instead, what fueled his fear was a permanent death with the feeling of utter exhaustion in his dark soul, and the fear of the unknown.

When the final killing stomp didn’t come, though, König Geistdunkelrustung looked up at the two gigantic women as they talked amongst themselves about his fate.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t how it should be…” He said to himself as she backed away from his aggressors. He was told he would be mighty and powerful, not feeble and at the mercy of two women. “The Demon Lord shouldn’t be at this much of a disadvantage!”