Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Threatening my Former Superior!
[Strike of Destruction]
Since long ago, I’ve been told that I was one of the candidates for the position of the Demon King. And that I was the resurrection of the most sinister Demon King in history, who would bring forth absolute destruction upon the world.
In order to live up to those high expectations, I took great pains to study this magic and did my best at work. In turn, I steadily made my way through the ranks within the Demon King's army.
However, what awaited me wasn’t their praise or commendation, but rather it was never-ending abuse of power and harassment from the upper ranks. And it didn’t simply end at that, the jealousy and envy of my colleagues kept piling up as I steadily rose through the ranks, leaving them far behind. Even my subordinates seemed dissatisfied with me for receiving all the battle credits.
Whether it was day or night, I trained every single day, just so I wouldn’t fall short from their expectations, so that I could become what they hoped I would be.
It was ironic how all my efforts ended up being rewarded with scorn from all sides.
But even so,
“I’ll never forgive anyone who dares to mess with my angel, no matter who it may be—“
From now on, I shall use this power for Nasha.
I will give my everything to this kind angel who saved me without a moment of hesitation when I was just a penniless lost soul stranded on the streets.
The destruction magic that erupted from my hand effortlessly engulfed the ball of miasma on its path and kept on pushing forward.
“――This magic is…!!”
Garlock-senpai, who immediately recognized the magic even before I had unleashed it, managed to avoid the blast by twisting his body at the last moment.
“Whoaaah!! What the hell was that!?”
“Eeh….. !?”
Both Suzette and Louise, who was hot on Garlock-senpai’s trail, stopped right on their tracks and also managed to dodge the blast by a hair’s breadth.
Although I made sure they weren’t directly in the line of fire, I still felt relieved seeing that my calculations stood correct in the end.
“Louise, Suzette. I need you two to take care of Nasha and Cerberus for me.”
“What!? But I can still––“
“Louise. We are both in pretty bad shape right now. So let’s just…leave the rest up to Eric.”
Louise still wasn’t ready to let up. However, Suzette sensed something and agreed to my suggestion right away.
While two of them went around to help Nasha out, I started gathering mana on my hands yet again.
“Absence without notice, aren’t you the ballsy fella hm? Eric, I don’t know why you’re with those heroes but this is a serious dereliction of duty. Don’t think you’ll get off of this with just a one month pay cut.”
Garlock-senpai spat out as he stared directly at my face. The hood of the robe that I was wearing had come off some time ago, thus he was able to see me clearly now.
“Isn’t that the same for you senpai? Act of releasing Cerberus into the hero territory without sufficient permission, that’s a full violation of article 4 of the military law… At best, it’ll be just a pay cut but in the worst case scenario, you’ll be demoted.”
“Ahh that’s not a problem since you never saw me here. Or you want to try running your mouth against your superior? I don't really care if you're a Demon Lord candidate or not but let me remind you something. There's a number of people in upper management that’s quite dissatisfied with your attitude. A little remark here and there is all it would take to finish you off completely. Think about it… You never saw me here, right?”
Garlock had a vulgar smile on his face.
“Oh that’s right, here’s what we’re going to do. I will cancel your AWOL notice and in return, you never saw me nor did I have anything to do with those Cerberus. I guess some wild Cerberus went on a rampage in the hero territory on their own. Such a sad sight, that is.”
When I took a quick glance at the back, I saw Nasha treating the wounded Louise and Suzette a little further behind from where we stood
It seems that the distance is far enough for them to not be able to clearly hear our conversation.
“Those Cerberus…aren’t they your precious pets?”
“Yes. Well at least until a minute ago. But now, I have no need for those stupid things that would wag their tails at the heroes. They are a disgrace to the demon army. I wouldn’t give a damn about where they drop dead.”
Torn by Garlock- senpai’s cold demeanor, the two Cerberus trudged forward with their heads hung low.
[Whimper]
“... Is that so? That’s too bad.”
I gave a short whistle.
This place was quite close to the demon territory, so they would fly in with a single whistle.
The emergency messenger of the demon army–– delivery bats.
They were typically used to carry damage reports, acts of negligence or violations of military law after a battle had concluded.
I poured mana into it and infused it with the contents of my former superior― Garlock’s infringement.
“Oy! You…! What do you think you’re doing!? Don’t you know what’s happen to you if you betray me––!”
I didn't fail to notice him pointing his finger at me as he said so.
I condensed the mana that I had accumulated during our little conversation earlier and pressed my right hand on Garock’s head.
“[Destruction Magic— Whisper of Chaos] Listen here, Garlock.”
“…Mmmh!? Mmmph…!?”
One of the seven destructive magic arts that’s said to have been used by the Demon Lord of Destruction.
This is a rare type of magic that is activated after injecting mana into the desired target.
A magical art that infuses mana into words which in turn forms an undefiable command, the Power of Words*.
(T/N: This can also be interpreted as Spirit language according to raws but the term wasn’t suitable to this context.)
If the targeted opponent fails to follow the given order, this magical art would destroy them from the inside. In other words, it was an extremely absurd and unreasonable type of magic.
“You…power of the Demon Lord… it awakened already!?”
When was it that my abilities as a Demon King awoke? I wasn’t exactly sure.
I felt something change within me during those 100 days in hell but I didn’t have any energy left in me to confirm it back then.
That said, I never imagined that my former superior would be the first target to test out my newly awakened powers either––
“『Thou shall not speak of this to any soul howsoever, if mine command is not adhered by thee, thy body shall be dusted to smithereens and scatter by the wind』... and it’s done. I guess this isn’t half bad for the first time?”
(T/N: I’m not exactly sure if the old English used here is 100% correct but I felt it’s better to use a fancy way to write spirit language. Credits goes to our PR Tobi, who wrote most of it. you can blame him if it’s wrong. >.>)
With that, the mana infusion was finally over.
As soon as I withdrew my hand, Garlock feebly sprawled on to his knees.
“You… you dare raise your hand against your superior…?”
“I’m fully aware.”
“…I’ll still let this go if you undo this spell right now. Hurry up! Do it right now!”
“Well that is unfortunate. You see, this power of mine only awakened very recently. So, even though I can certainly put curses on people, I’m not quite sure how to undo them.”
Garlock’s expression turned pale in an instant.
“Either way, I had no intention of forgiving you from the moment you tried to get your hands on Nasha.”
After hearing that cold remark, his face started to twitch convulsively..
“Y-you bastard…! I-I’ll remember this!! I’ll definitely come back for revenge! Just you wai…!?”
“Go ahead, do your best. I’m going to live here from now on. And I won’t let anyone get in my way. But if someone dares to, I don’t care even if you used to be my superior—
— Mark my words, I will destroy you. Completely.”
His yellow teeth quivered incessantly as the messy stubble shook along with it.
The back of that pitiful man went further and further away from my sight as he scurried away from the land of the heroes with stumbling steps and with no Cerberus to accompany him by his side.
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