Chapter 127 – -126- Coming Threat (1)

The city of 400 years ago, even now, in ruins, was able to glimpse the magnificence of its heyday.

Although there are now luxuriant grasses growing here and there, the brick-paved roads are still boasting a wide width that is hard to find in many cities.

Even now, four centuries later, expensive magic stone lampposts were installed only in the center of major cities on the continent, and were installed at narrow intervals on every road in this place.

A wide carriage depot, a plaza wide enough to open your eyes, and banks visible every block you pass by, show the overflowing wealth that this city enjoyed in the past.

So many things were showing the abundance before the curse, but the most impressive among them was the castle.

The most extravagant building in the city, where all the wealth of the empire was concentrated, stood tall enough to pierce the sky.

Unlike other buildings built with bricks and stones, the castle, which actively utilized metal and glass to reinforce its strength, boasted the highest height on the entire continent to this day.

Demon King Luciferia was looking at the destroyed city from the glass garden on the top floor of this castle.

He savored the destruction of a city that was so rich and so affluent.

“Hmm, hmm…♪” She liked this place very much. Because I could see at a glance the scars left by the previous demon king on the continent.

The living quarters where the inhabitants used to live are now rotten ruins, and the library, which has passed on the wisdom of mankind for generations, has been reduced to ashes.

The knights of the academy had chosen metal armor as their coffins, and the weapons in the arsenal where the blades stood were rusty and shattered.

Addicted to demonic energy, the tendrils, which had turned black as if they were decaying, clung to the walls of the Gothic-style building, adding to the bizarre atmosphere.

She was very satisfied with the traces of destruction left by the previous demon king.

It was an arrogant city. Inferior humans tried to ‘use’ the former demon king who had been sealed without knowing the subject.

‘Ha, to obtain eternal abundance by using Magi as a power source…’

The mad arrogance of the empire to use the demon king as a living power source turned a city into a demon-tainted ruin.

She liked the ruins created by human arrogance and ignorance.

Luciferia, enjoying the scenery, sprinted out of the castle with brisk steps.

She was the one who moved into the forest next to her in an instant, making a noise like the air bursting, inconsistent with her small movements that felt cute.

This vast forest, once filled with flowers and orderly trees, has now turned into a terrifying demonic landscape covered in thick fog after 400 years.

She stared beyond the fog for a long time, as if waiting for something in a forest where she could not see an inch ahead.

Soon after, the ground she was looking at began to shake as if an earthquake had struck.

It wasn’t like an earthquake. A huge group of demons were moving.

After a fierce battle with her group of warriors, the defeated group, losing their leader, approached her.

“You’re back, my sweet children”

She looked at the monsters that had lost their captain and returned with terrible injuries with benevolence.

“I promise you, the glory will be with you when we regain the realm of demons and monsters.”

Her demons prostrated themselves in front of her, and politely spat out what was in her mouth in front of her.

What they gathered was part of the heroes.

Fingernails, hair, sometimes blood…

While picking out her hair collected by the demon beasts, she smiled as she picked out one of her hair that was a platinum shade.

“I found it… It’s wonderful, finally. I can make the last member of my family.”

“…Is this the human mage’s hair? Mother?” A soft voice came from the forest.

“Yes, it’s an important ingredient… To make my last follower.”

The doll protruding from the fog had the exact same appearance as the elf hero Laura. Although the difference was that thick horns grew on her head.

***

I am different from them.

The first demon king confronted the hero alone, and his head was cut off and died.

The demon king who descended a second time was burned by divine power and disappeared.

The demon king who descended for the third time mobilized many monsters to oppress the humans, but was subdued by the brave men who had overcome the ordeal.

The fourth demon king was strong enough to face the empire alone, but he couldn’t overcome many warriors.

The first demon lord, the next one, the one after that… I failed over and over again, but I, Luciferia, will not go through the failures they went through.

I won’t fight alone

I won’t let the warriors grow.

I, Luciferia, will deceive and use them.

I raised demonic energy from the dantian and used his hair as a medium to use [Authority].

A special power that was only allowed to the Demon King.

“Hoo…”

Through the medium of a strand of blond hair, a body resembling the owner of the head was being created.

I was using my authority to clone the heroes and make them my people.

One of the first born asked me, watching her wriggling little brother.

It’s as if I don’t understand why I’m doing such a hassle.

“I don’t understand, why do you leave the warriors alone? If it was Mother’s strength… Couldn’t you have killed the warriors as soon as they entered this land?”

She was the one coming down from the tree, cheekily asking me.

With bizarre tree-shaped horns and an expression devoid of a smile, she looked exactly like the hero Estelle.

If another demon showed me such a cheeky attitude, I would have taught her etiquette right away, but I rather liked her attitude.

It was because it felt like an indicator that could confirm that it had become [Equivalent] To the original.

“If it was my mother’s strength, I would have been able to crush them enough…”

“There was a reason to keep them alive.” I smiled benevolently and supplied demonic energy to the growing bodies of my followers.

‘In the territory of the demon king, the demon king can create the same number of troops as those who oppose him.’

Well, humans knew that. Well, considering only the four descendings of the demon lord in history, it could be considered that way.

But that was half the truth.

The power that the demon king could use in his territory was not something like creating an equal number of troops.

‘It’s the power to create an army of [Equal value]’

“The demon kings in the past believed that they could overwhelm the warriors with man-made tactics.”

It was a stupid decision. They create weak monsters that oxidize with blood on their swords, so why waste precious power?

I couldn’t understand the former demon lords who wasted their power, created half-hearted followers, and dealt with the warriors.

The results were always disastrous. The warriors who survived the ordeal were forged into sharper swords and eventually took the life of the demon king.

“It was the misunderstanding of the demon lords of the previous generation. Halfway trials only make them grow.”

Perhaps dissatisfied with the speed of my explanation, she snapped the twigs of her antlers and said,

“…It hasn’t been explained yet. As I said, if you kill them with one powerful blow, won’t it be over? Then you won’t be able to grow up, right?”

She asked with a smile.

“Oh, my child. The demon lord who believed that he could solve everything by himself has all died.”

“I’m hoping for an excellent family.”

My older sister, who was born first, spat vicious words at my child who was tilting her head with an expression of incomprehension.

“You’re really stupid. Is the hero who becomes your archetype that stupid?”

“…What?”

A pink-haired knight who emerged from the shadows looked at the short elf Mine pathetically and said.

“When is your birthday?”

“…Was it a week ago?”

“As you said, if they died right after they arrived, we wouldn’t even be born. Mother’s power only works on living opponents.”

As if I finally understood it, it was my child who let out a short sigh with an ‘ah’.

“Mother needs time to make us,” Said my friend, who snapped her armor and looked coldly at her own brother.

I explained to her with her benevolent smile.

“Even though they are weak, they are the strongest among humans… So they are perfect ingredients for using power.”

While refining the body of the newly formed kin, I explained the plan to my child.

“In order to create an excellent family like you, they had to be alive.”

The body formed by authority began to show signs of maturity.

An insolent mage who killed the first member of my family by using the spirit of the word.

It was the moment when a family resembling Bella Souders was born.

As time passed, little horns grew on her head.

The horns that grew while absorbing the demons around them showed that they were distinctly different from the original.

“That way, such an excellent family can be born.”

As soon as the body cloned by Bella Sodus is completed, the closed eyes of the attendant slowly open.

“…Ah?”

Seeing her confused yet submissive look in her eyes, I stroked her and kissed her on the forehead.

“Tell me, brother, what to do?”

The task of educating the newly born attendant was entrusted to the attendant who cloned the master of the mage tower.

“…Please come this way”

Looking at the two families who had disappeared inside the castle, I imagined the end of the warriors.

“Enjoy this trivial victory. Warriors.”

Adding experience to them is only to help them grow, so they sent moderately weak monsters.

‘To not even feel a sense of incongruity…They are pathetic and arrogant writers’

Didn’t it feel strange to them to be able to relax in a luxurious lodging in the middle of enemy lines?

“Even though I moderated my threats and deceived them… I never thought they would be vigilant to this extent…”

I clicked my tongue and congratulated myself in advance of the victory to come.

‘The price of arrogance will soon be paid’

Only after reaching the Demon Castle, the warriors will kneel before me and the overwhelming power of my family.

After that, my children, who look just like the warriors who were the hope of mankind, will annihilate all humans on the continent.

“Ordering to destroy the original hero’s hometown would be fun… Huhu”

Imagining the day when all human hopes return to despair. I smiled.

The day when the continent will be drenched in human blood is not far away.