Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 3

by Kurone Kanzaki

  “How stupid...”

  As a firebrand, she had always been cold towards humans. She wanted no part in this sort of rescue mission that didn’t gain her anything. Her mantra was that, if anyone wanted to live, they had to survive on their own.

  “But a Hydra, huh...?”

  Even Olgan couldn’t help but wonder how that monster, which should have never appeared in the Bastille Dungeon, was here. Many of the monsters in the horde were species that didn’t belong here, either.

  “Hey, Mynk...”

  She tried to warn her partner to be careful, but Mynk was deep into the throes of combat, where her voice couldn’t reach her.

  “That idiot... Doesn’t she remember what happened just the other day?”

  Olgan recalled the attack they had found themselves in in Holylight. Considering that a high-ranking devil appearing by the Holy Castle was also something that never should have happened, she wanted her partner to stay vigilant.

  “The dark salamander that slumbers in my right hand... Lend me your strength, just once, here and now!”

  Oblivious to Olgan’s concerns, Mynk kept up the merriment. When one of the continent’s best adventurers said stuff like that, it was never disregarded as cringe. To those listening, it sounded like she was going to bring all of those things to life.

  “D-Dark salamander!?”

  “What the hell is that!?”

  “It’s sealed in her right hand!”

  “Damn! I don’t know what that is, but damn!”

  Hearing the uproar below her, Olgan let out a long sigh, gazing up at the moon floating in the night sky. She couldn’t deal with it anymore. But even she couldn’t remain uninterested at what appeared next.

  Suddenly, as if from out of thin air, a couple was standing on the top of the clocktower, the tallest structure in town. Backlit by the moon, they appeared nothing less than supernatural. While Olgan felt a strong sense of death from the woman, the man exuded the same many times more. The air about him was that of an emperor; one that ruled the underworld, if such a place existed.

  “What is that...?” Just as Olgan growled, the man pulled the woman close by her waist and leapt high into the air. In an instant, a thunderous explosion went off... resulting in the ground shaking below them, and the town being covered in a dust cloud. By the time the wind had blown the dust away, the nebulous horde of monsters was no more. Every single one of them had been blown to bits.

  The Battle in the Air

  “Seems it’s worse than I thought.”

  “They’re great in numbers, at least.”

  Standing atop the highest structure in town, the pitch-black Demon Lord and his witch observed the city below them. From various sources, black smoke and painful screams filled the air. While Yu was completely composed, the scene seemed especially disastrous to the Demon Lord, who had walked these streets in peace just the day before. Not only were monsters ransacking the city, some humans had turned to rioting and looting. Some broke into stores to steal products and cash, and some carried off arms full of herbs and plants. It reminded the Demon Lord of riots he had seen on TV that took place in the slums of foreign nations. Directly below them, there was a man about to rape a woman, holding a sword up to her neck.

  (Scum...)

  “A display of raw humanity, isn’t it, Mister Secretary?”

  “...Disgusting.”

  “What?”

  The Demon Lord threw Sodom’s Fire without another word, sniping off the head of the man below him. The man’s body stood still for a moment, as if it had to process what had just happened. Then, apparently noticing the lack of a head on its shoulders, the corpse fell to the ground. The Demon Lord lit a cigarette as he savored the sight. Noticing Yu staring at him, he gave her a little grin.

  “We must always be the ones to shape this world. Let us put these ignorant fools back in their place.”

  Yu’s eyes shone bright as she snuck her arms forward, as if to say: ‘Ooooh, Mister Secretary! That line was electrifying!’ The Demon Lord was on course to be ensnared in Yu’s embrace, but the monster invasion didn’t give them the time. Countless Fire-Breathing Birds and Tin Men were marching towards the central plaza.

  “Hm. We’re a little out of range from here.”

  “Ah...!”

  Pulling Yu close to him by her waist, the Demon Lord leapt. Now, the plaza was directly below them. The monsters were gathering there, and seemed ready to disperse back out into all corners of the town. The Demon Lord gestured towards them with his chin.

  “Blow ’em up, Yu.”

  “Y-Yes, sir!”

  Yu’s expression escaped her trance and a maliciously large grenade appeared in her hand. With the help of her Equipped Skills, the attack would become devastating. Her First Skill, Explosive Expertise, triggered as she threw the grenade into the air, boosting its damage output by 15 to 25. Then her Second Skill, To Pieces, split the grenade into dozens. Then came her Third Skill, Chain Explosions, to pile on an additional 30 to 40 damage. The thunderous sound of the hail of grenades caused the fighting adventurers and the fleeing residents from all around the town to turn towards its source. There, they could see the Demon Lord enjoying a smoke, and a striking beauty in a white coat backlit by the moon.

  (Hm... My advisors’ Equipped Skills trigger without a problem either.)

  Satisfied, the Demon Lord pulled Yu’s head close to his. He was happy that his advisor, whose every detail he had designed to a tee, was able to unleash her full potential. Not to mention the excitement from seeing a skill of his own creation demonstrate such incredible power.

  “A-Are you satisfied... Mister Secretary...?”

  “Mm. Wonderful job, Yu. That was a work of art. You can’t beat the feeling of chaining off all of your Equipped Skills.”

  Seeing the witch cackle, the crowd muttered. Who else but the Demon Lord could have a stunning beauty by his side as he gazed down upon hundreds of corpses? The Trinary, who had been watching them from afar, immediately knew that the figure in the sky was the infamous Demon Lord. Given the catastrophic and inexplicable explosion along with his pitch-black silhouette, he could be none other than the polar opposite of the White Light.

  “That’s the Demon Lord Sir Weeb has spoken of...?”

  “That is what I would imagine the legendary rebel to look like.”

  “Stand back. Await Sir Weeb’s decision.”

  Mikan and Yukikaze, too, were staring at the pitch-black Demon Lord and the witch beside him. The moonlit silhouettes cackling on the roof was quite the sight to behold, and this scene evoked a variety of emotions in different people.

  “What’s with him? Trying to look cool with a chick by his side.”

  “...I don’t care how many lovers he has. As long as you’re not one of them.”

  “I am not interested in him!”

  “...Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

  “Just drop it, already.”

  While they carried on as usual, Mynk had just experienced the biggest shock of her life.

  “It can’t be...”

  Mynk could immediately tell that the silhouette indeed belonged to the infamous Demon Lord. Who else could it have been? As a high-ranking priestess, she felt like all of the world’s malice and hatred concentrated in that single form. His completely unbothered demeanor in the face of this disaster seemed to belong to none other than the one that opposed the Great Light and ruled the night in times of old.

  “How could this...”

  Mynk had habitually been spewing some cringe-worthy lines about darkness this and evil that, but now she was facing a true embodiment of darkness. One could have only imagined her shock. Having lost the strength in her legs, she crumpled to the ground.

  Weeb, too, turned to the Demon Lord from the sea of monster corpses he was standing in. What had only been a sense of presence and voice was now complete, with a defined silhouette.

  “So even your subordinates...”

  Weeb shook at
the disastrous sight of the plaza. He didn’t know what had happened, but all of the monsters were blown to bits in an instant. If that attack was something they could fire off repeatedly, Weeb was sure that even an army wouldn’t stand a chance against just the pair of them.

  “Nice to see you again, Hero.”

  With his hands still in his coat pockets, the Demon Lord jumped from the roof and landed before Weeb. Now that he could see the Demon Lord up close, his presence seemed even more intimidating than before. The witch also jumped down, returning to the Demon Lord’s side. Weeb felt like his very life force was being ground down from just being in the Demon Lord’s proximity. He couldn’t help his hands tightening around his weapons.

  “No need to clench your shoulders like that. We’ll take care of the big one back there. You tend to the monsters around here.”

  “...That’s a boss-level monster that disables even Chain Attacks. Many lives are on the line. Do you have a plan?”

  At Weeb’s question, the witch squinted her eyes, but the Demon Lord plopped a hand on her head and she immediately calmed down.

  “Disables Chains, huh...? Interesting.”

  “Aren’t you the king of monsters? Why do you side with the people?”

  “That’s a strange assumption. Monsters are just what I feed off of.”

  This was the Demon Lord’s unadulterated answer, but it came across laden with subtext to Weeb. Without leaving him enough time to decipher the meaning of it, the Demon Lord and the Witch walked right past him. They didn’t even seem to be fazed by the ferocious Hydra they were walking right up to.

  “Mister Secretary, what is that half-baked snake...?”

  “Hm... That thing is much less intimidating than the variety of chimeras we unleashed into the arenas. While our JUG is filled up, let’s clear out the dungeon, too.”

  The Hydra crooked its necks from the entrance of the dungeon to look at the pair of them. It was a giant, snake-like monster with nine heads. This boss-level monster normally appeared in the Six Dungeon Waterfalls, and had no right being anywhere near this low-level dungeon. Its hardened scales negated Chain Attacks, which made it a formidable foe, even against seasoned adventurers and knights.

  “I’ll show him my Chain...”

  The Demon Lord threw Sodom’s Fire. When it struck the body of the Hydra, it screamed out in agony. Even without triggering any Combat skills, the Demon Lord’s vanilla attack was nearly fatal. This is when a normal Chain Attack would have triggered, but since the Demon Lord’s Skill Level was over 500, the attack elevated to an Expert Chain Attack, skyrocketing the attack to 25 damage. With the addition of 5 damage from his Combat Skill Mad Rush, the damage totaled 30, three times that of a normal Chain Attack. Thanks to Break Through, another Combat Skill of his, the attack pushed through any skill or technique that prevented Chain Attacks. In short, it was impossible for anyone to defend from this assault. A shockwave sparked from the blade that was piercing the Hydra, launching its gigantic body into the air; a successful Expert Chain Attack. To finish it off, the Burning effect of Sodom’s Fire caused a roaring flame to engulf the Hydra in an instant. A seamless combo. In the game, the Demon Lord used to combo into Equipped Skills or element-less skills. Once he got his first attack in, it was extremely difficult to escape his grasp.

  “Ha ha ha ha!”

  The Demon Lord laughed, full of elation. Bright red mist emanated from his body, enveloping him. The red mist continuously shapeshifted, becoming a screaming face, a skeleton skull, and then a hellscape that seemed to taint one’s soul just from looking at it.

  —Combat Skill: Limit Breaker!

  —Special Ability: Dictator of Law!

  The Demon Lord’s abilities electrified the hellish mist.

  “You insect... Grovel on the ground where you belong! Final Judgment!”

  The Demon Lord swung his right hand as if to declare an order, and the insidious red mist turned to thousands of skulls, tearing into the Hydra with nightmarish screams. In an instant, the Hydra evaporated into black dust, and the thousands of skulls proceeded to roll down into the Bastille Dungeon like a flood. The red skulls, hungering for prey, immediately permeated the dungeon all the way down to the lowest level, 20. The incredible momentum shook the entire town, everyone falling on their rear. It wasn’t a group attack, but an AOE. The already powerful move was boosted by so much damage that every monster in the dungeon was massacred in one fell swoop. Even the main aggressor of this counter-invasion, Big Eye, pathetically evaporated with the masses.

  All that was left in the dungeon was deafening silence. Anyone who witnessed the hellish attack felt like their souls were blown away with it. But the pair in the eye of the storm had seen things like this many times before, so they thought nothing of it. This was just one of the attacks fired off in the arenas day and night, creating many dramatic upsets over the years.

  “That should take care of any monsters in the back.”

  “Incredible, Mister Secretary.”

  Yu smiled with blushed cheeks, and the Demon Lord nodded, satisfied. Then, he immediately tightened his expression before sending a Communication to Yukikaze.

  Yukikaze, do you copy?

  ...You were so hot, Mister Fox. My snow is melting all over.

  Whatever. Something’s not right. I’m going straight into the dungeon. Keep taking care of the leftovers on the streets.

  ...Okay.

  Yukikaze’s tone had a touch of disappointment in it, but she must have decided that she would have only gotten in the Demon Lord’s way if she had joined him. Nonetheless, she complied.

  I’ve learned a lot from you two during this trip. After things clean up here, you should visit the village of Rabbi. You’ll always be welcome.

  ...I’ll be there. No matter what.

  The Demon Lord concluded the Communication, and turned to the dungeon. Weeb called to his back.

  “Are you going to start a rebellion... again?”

  The Demon Lord raised his brow at the word ‘again,’ but decided he couldn’t act without reverence while Yu was there. After a short pause, he answered:

  “I have always been on the side of system and order... Any rebellion is made by those who oppose me.”

  He answered this question as the Demon Lord of the Empire, so as to prevent Yu from suspecting anything, but Weeb was aghast. The rebel told in ancient legends did not consider himself a rebel at all. He considered everyone else, and perhaps even the Great Light, to be a rebel. This was more than seeing things from another perspective. Weeb felt like the ancient myths and theories were all crumbling down around him.

  “Until we meet again, Hero.”

  Weeb could only stand there and idly watch as the pair walked into the dungeon.

  * * *

  You Unlocked Some New Information!

  Final Judgment

  A massive AOE attack in the game, activated when the player’s JUG (a value that increases or decreases with each bout of combat) reaches 100. Its base damage is 30, but its damage output is drastically boosted the higher the enemies’ levels are relative to the user: a bonus of 8 damage for each level in difference. If the enemy is 10 levels higher than the user, it deals a whopping additional 80 damage. In the game, this move became more and more devastating to take the more a player power-leveled. A relatively weak player could take out powerful players in a single blow. Akira Ono had implemented numerous gimmicks like this one, preventing anyone from winning solely from power-leveling.

  Combat Skill: Limit Breaker

  Doubles the initial damage of Final Judgment from 30 to 60 damage.

  Special Ability: Dictator of Law

  A unique ability of the Demon Lord. An additional 40 damage to Final Judgment. His advisors have a similar ability called Defender of Law that provides 20 bonus damage instead.

  Facing the Unknown

  The Demon Lord and his witch continued down the long stairs of the dungeon. Of course, there wasn’t another soul to be fo
und, and no other sound to be heard, as if the Demon Lord’s attack had silenced the entire dungeon.

  “This is the dungeon you spoke of, Mister Secretary?”

  “Mm. It’s much quieter now.”

  Unlike before, the town was in much more of a ruckus. Still, there were not many monsters left out there, and it would be easy enough for Weeb and the Trinary to clean up. While the Demon Lord was unaware, the two S-rank adventurers were out there, too. Barring any more boss-level monsters like the Hydra, Yukikaze and Mikan would not have any problems taking care of themselves, either.

  “Mister Secretary, it’s dark and spooky in here...”

  “I guess so.”

  Yu wrapped her arm around the Demon Lord’s with an obvious ‘I’m so scared’ expression. Tahara would have pointed out that she was the scariest thing in the dungeon at this time.

  “It’s like a haunted maze, especially because of the lights.”

  “M-Mm...”

  Yu subtly pressed her shapely breasts into the Demon Lord’s arms, her cheeks blushing. Tahara would have called her hospital the real haunted maze. The Demon Lord cleared his throat and decided to jump down some levels via Quick Travel.

  “Excuse me, Mister Secretary... Why don’t we check one level at a time? We may find something. We should take our time and explore each floor together.”

  “N-Not that I don’t want to, but we’re in a bit of a hurry. Let’s go.”

  “Oh, Mister Secretary...!”

  Brushing aside Yu’s pleading eyes, the Demon Lord grabbed her and forcibly jumped to level 15, where he had seen the prison cells last time. Now, even Yu’s interest was piqued by the bizarre sight. She inspected the space, left and right.

  “It’s a very old... well, primitive, jail.”

  “Yu, what do you think... was kept captive, here?”

  “My first thought would be a human. Most likely an adult-sized specimen.”