Chapter 223 : He Could Not Endure It
About seven hundred years ago, there was a race known as Doppelgängers.
Because they lived by parasitizing demons or monsters, they were outcasts among demonkind.
The successive Demon Emperors were wary of their parasitism and forbade it, allowing them to absorb others only after killing or defeating an opponent through a legitimate duel.
It was an order that sealed away the potential of Doppelgängers.
The more lifeforms they passed through and absorbed, the stronger they became, but if they could not even begin that process, Doppelgängers were weaker than ordinary monsters.
And there was a Doppelgänger who rebelled against that.
He swallowed countless demons, became a close aide of the reigning Demon Emperor, and in the end devoured the Demon Emperor himself.
Then he proclaimed that he himself had become the Demon Emperor.
It was the foolish stupidity of believing that only strength could represent everything.
It was true that demonkind worshiped strength.
However, the laws and standards set down by the First Demon Emperor remained in their hearts more deeply than strength itself.
* A demon who challenges the Demon Emperor must possess the tokens of more than half of the Archdukes.
* Through a legitimate duel, the victor becomes the Demon Emperor.
Whether the challenger was a monster or a low-ranking demon did not matter. Whether they had stolen them or not, possessing the Archdukes’ recognition and their tokens was what mattered all the same.
But obtaining more than half of the tokens, and the fact that the one who gained the qualification became the Demon Emperor, were absolute.
The cowardly Doppelgänger who claimed to be the Demon Emperor’s aide and devoured the sleeping Demon Emperor did not qualify.
He was nothing more than a despicable assassin. The Doppelgänger lost his life after being jointly attacked by the Archdukes, and the Archdukes tested one another’s strength to elect a new Demon Emperor.
And an extermination order was issued against the Doppelgänger race itself.
“How did you survive?”
“It feels like I’m the only one answering, but I also have quite a lot I’m curious about regarding Lord Berje. How about we answer each other’s questions?”
“Fine.”
“Since we can’t easily trust each other, how about we swear upon the great First Demon Emperor and the Standard to build that trust?”
Jason smiled. Berje smiled back.
An oath upon the Standard, even though neither of them believed in it.
It was a complete farce.
“Very well. I swear upon the great First Demon Emperor and the Standard that I, Berje Deias, will speak only the truth.”
“I swear upon the great First Demon Emperor and the Standard that I, Jason Kokemundo, will speak only the truth.”
“Is your name truly Jason Kokemundo?”
“What does that matter?”
After all, since the oath itself was meaningless from the start, a name was hardly important.
“I was fortunate. I was an orphan. I never revealed that I was a Doppelgänger to anyone, had my abilities recognized, and was admitted to the Demon King Military Academy. And then I became a Demon King and fell into Arein.”
“Fortunate, you say.”
Was that really all?
Berje felt an unease, but Jason gave no further answer.
“Then it’s my turn to ask you, Lord Berje. Despite being a Demon Dragon, why do you not faithfully follow the Standard?”
He had even insulted the Standard at the graduation ceremony, in front of everyone.
Perhaps that was where it began. If not for that, he would have treated Berje the same as any other Demon Dragon.
He had left room for the possibility that Berje might be different.
That leeway had led to the current situation.
How could one not be intrigued by a Demon Dragon who hated the Standard?
“Do I need a reason to hate the Standard? If I hate it, I just hate it.”
“···It’s not the answer I wanted, but I understand.”
“My turn. How many years ago did you come to the dimension called Arein?”
“How would you like it? Shall I tell you down to the number of days or hours?”
“The year alone will suffice.”
“Year 621.”
“This is driving me insane.”
“My turn. Why did you kill Lord Draxon Doldov?”
“Because he got in the way.”
“In the way how?”
“Questions are over.”
“That’s too much. If you keep this up, you may not get the answers you want from me either.”
Tsk. Clicking his tongue, Berje added one more line.
“I killed Draxon because he was about to report to an Archduke that I had trespassed into his territory.”
“I understand.”
“My turn. How many Demon Kings and heroes have you devoured so far?”
“That’s two questions. Please ask only one.”
“You’re difficult.”
“Isn’t that the nature of our relationship?”
“Then as Demon Kings.”
“Do you know exactly how many Demon Kings descended upon this place, Arein?”
“I don’t.”
“Forty-nine. Divide that in half, and the larger portion is the number of Demon Kings I devoured.”
“Twenty-five? You crazy bastard···!”
“My turn. Why did you go to Lord Draxon’s territory?”
“There was something to gain.”
“You won’t tell me what that is right away, will you?”
“I’m doing exactly what you’re doing.”
“I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“How many heroes have you devoured?”
“Do you count every demon or human you’ve killed so far, Lord Berje?”
He did not.
Which meant he had killed that many.
“What was it that you were trying to obtain in Lord Draxon’s territory?”
“The power possessed by a divine beast. The corpse of a divine beast.”
“You dodge again.”
“What did you do for hundreds of years?”
“I strove to become stronger. Back then, I was so fragile I felt like I could shatter at any moment.”
A Demon King who had graduated from the Demon King Military Academy was weak? It was nonsense that even a passing Hell Hound would laugh at.
“What divine beast was it?”
“A Phoenix.”
“Isn’t that the pure embodiment of fire, comparable to a dragon, that throws itself into lava? So that was how. You hid your demonic energy and blended in with humans···.”
“What is the picture you’re drawing?”
“A grand picture.”
Berje’s face twisted.
“Is there a problem?”
At the innocent expression, Berje bared his teeth and laughed.
So that was how he was going to play it.
“How did you make heroes, including Hillan, into the Demon King’s retainers?”
“Well. And the method to draw that picture?”
“You reduce fear toward the Demon King. Well then, how did you get them to accept it?”
“Armani’s Orb. And?”
“You interact with them and make them accustomed to it. How did you get them to accept Armani’s Orb so willingly?”
“I threatened them. And after making them that way?”
“I devour the upper echelons. The princesses as well?”
“The same. Are you obtaining empires that way?”
“Yes. What about Vivian?”
“As a retainer. Have you fully obtained them?”
“Yes. And Reina?”
“The same. After the empire?”
“Arkan. And the towers?”
“Using the dwarves. After that?”
“Other kingdoms. By what method?”
“Golems. Then?”
“The entire continent. Using golems on the towers?”
“No. Then why the moderate approach?”
“To obtain them. Then?”
“I attached them. What?”
“Human legions. What to where?”
“Legs to the towers. The reason?”
“Conquest of the Demon Realm.”
“······.”
“······.”
The rapid exchange of dialogue came to a halt.
Silence spread.
In the heavy stillness, even the air grew weighty.
Two pairs of eyes stared at each other.
“Kuh.”
A laugh leaking through parted lips shattered the silence.
“Kahahahahaha!”
“Puhahahaha!”
Berje roared with laughter. The resounding laughter made the air tremble. Jason laughed along with him.
“You’re saying you’ll conquer the Demon Realm using the humans of Arein?”
“You’re saying you attached golem legs to the towers?”
“You’re completely insane.”
“That’s not something you should be saying, Lord Berje. What kind of idea does it take to even make that possible?”
“And you think it’s possible?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? The Demon Realm that broke the law of survival of the strongest deserves to pay the price. Why wouldn’t it be possible? Arein is different from other dimensions.”
Having many heroes meant the dimension itself was powerful.
It meant the potential of the beings living in the dimension was immense.
It meant the dimension’s military strength was formidable.
Look.
There was a contractor of the Water Spirit King.
In other dimensions, there would be at most one or two such stars, yet here there were as many as ten.
There were over four thousand heroes.
“The power of a dimension disappears the moment one leaves it.”
“Their true inherent power doesn’t disappear. Having grown faster by gaining the power of the dimension, they’re already strong.”
“What about interference power? They may be heroes now, but the moment they invade the Demon Realm, they become invaders. That means they’ll feel the dimensional interference that the Demon King bears.”
“If one can endure interference power in a lower dimension, it’s no different in a higher one. I’ll take them all in as retainers and share the tower’s authority.”
“You think the Demon Realm will just sit back and take it?”
“Why do you think I spent hundreds of years building my strength?”
“Even so, it’ll be hard to withstand the combined assault of all the Archdukes and the Demon Emperor.”
“There’s plenty of time. Rather, now that I’ve been exposed, stronger ones will come down to kill me. But as long as they’re subject to dimensional interference, even if the Demon Emperor himself descends, I’ll win here.”
Berje could not deny it.
No matter how much of a Demon Emperor one was, descending into a lower dimension suppressed their power. Though the degree varied by demon, between the current Jason and a freshly descended Demon Emperor, Berje had no choice but to give the edge to Jason.
“One last question. Then why abandon the moderate approach?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
“No, I know. Then I’ll change the question. Didn’t you veer too far off course?”
“Since it’s come to this anyway, I decided to take a longer view.”
“A longer view?”
“Thanks to you, Lord Berje, I realized that stretching out my claws from the shadows was far too vulnerable to variables.”
“So?”
“So I decided to openly devour Arein. Foolishly using the empire to erode my own prestige was a waste of effort. I even acted out the role of a wronged Demon King who had been deceived by the empire and given the false name of the False Demon King.”
“The forces you want will be cut down significantly.”
“Didn’t I say I’d take the long view? I won’t go straight to the Demon Realm after conquering the dimension. I’ll devour those who come after me and raise humans once more.”
“I can hear Archduke Arkaine having a fit all the way from here.”
“Even if it’s conquered by the Demon Realm, the power possessed by the dimension called Arein won’t disappear. This dimension is still full of potential, and with time, new strong ones will grow. As my loyal retainers.”
Unless the Demon Realm could subjugate Jason, time was on his side. And in Berje’s eyes, the current Demon Realm could not.
Because Jason—no, the Doppelgänger wearing Jason’s skin—had already seeped far too deeply into the dimension.
“Unless it’s me.”
“You’re overflowing with confidence. As expected of a Demon Dragon. Then shall we end our exchange of questions here?”
“There’s still one left. Why did you nurture Daniel Deyrus?”
“I have nothing more I’m curious about regarding you, Lord Berje.”
“I can more or less guess.”
“Oh? May I hear it?”
“You hit a wall, didn’t you?”
“······.”
All life had limits. The potential of demonkind surpassed most lifeforms, but even demons had a wall.
Everyone struggled desperately to surpass that wall. To obtain purer demonic energy and fight life-and-death battles, they became Demon Kings and invaded dimensions.
But what if even that reached its limit?
They would seek a new path. They would struggle to overcome it somehow. They would find a special trigger. If they couldn’t find one, they would create one.
“That special hero you raised by feeding him over a dozen Demon Kings. Daniel Deyrus. Am I wrong?”
“Couldn’t he simply be my vanguard for conquering the Demon Realm?”
“If that were the case, there’d be no reason for him to call you a monster and fear you.”
Loyalty was one thing.
But no human would pledge loyalty knowing they would be devoured.
“Yet he’s still alive. If that were the goal, there’d be no reason for me to keep him alive until now.”
“I hate the Standard, but it isn’t wrong. When it comes to gathering negative emotions and demonic energy, it’s extremely correct and efficient.”
You crush humanity’s hope.
“You present to humans the hero Daniel Deyrus, who was revered almost as a god, and then you kill that hero.”
What would it feel like for their only hope to fade away?
Wouldn’t it be a devastating despair?
“Isn’t that right?”
“···Correct.”
Jason clapped.
─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─!
─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─! ─!
He clapped like a madman.
“Indeed, it seems you didn’t earn top honours by luck alone. Then do you know what I’m going to do now?”
“You’ll just let me go.”
“That’s right. As you are now, you’re insufficient.”
So.
Jason pushed up his monocle.
“Go. Go and take the elixirs I’ve prepared. Wouldn’t Berje Deias, who has devoured Daniel Deyrus, be more satisfying than Daniel Deyrus himself?”
“And if I become stronger than you?”
“In your current state, even if you cross over to the Demon Realm, it’s meaningless. I spoke of time, but no one knows whether it’ll be a hundred years or a thousand. Thanks to you. Rather than waiting out that tedious time, wouldn’t it be better to gamble a little?”
“You’ll regret this.”
Berje lifted his gaze.
“A Demon Dragon never forgets humiliation.”
“Shouldn’t you be grateful for my mercy instead? You know it yourself, don’t you? That you can’t defeat me as you are now.”
“That’s not what matters.”
“Then please don’t forget this humiliation, and come as quickly as possible.”
“Someone who endured six hundred years can’t wait a little longer?”
“Having endured six hundred years is precisely why it’s harder to endure any longer.”
“One last thing.”
“Yes, if you wish.”
“Why did you reveal everything?”
“What do you mean?”
“If the empire was already in your hands, wouldn’t it be your style to wear the emperor’s skin and bide your time?”
“Of course, that’s how it was until now. But it’s amusing for the very one who made me this way to ask.”
Jason lifted his monocle.
“But if I had to answer, it was a rational decision.”
“A rational decision?”
“The judgment that even if I revealed myself, I must not give you any more time.”
“Must not give me time···. Then you won’t be waiting quietly?”
Yes, that’s right.
“I’ll shatter the alliance as it is and march on Hilderan. And the imperial army will invade Arkan.”
Ernan Hilderan, and Lavinia Arkan.
“If you want to stop the destruction of the kingdoms of the princesses you cherish, you’d better come quickly.”
Because I—
“I’m so excited at the thought of devouring you, Lord Berje, after you kill Daniel and obtain his power, that I can’t endure it!”
Jason beamed with a broad smile.