#094. The Demon King is Too Kind (1)
#094. The Demon King is Too Kind (1)
Ian confronted the skill selection window he’d glimpsed before.
━━━
[Brainwashing Ability]
[Basic – This ability can twist and manipulate the hearts of people.]
[1st Perk – No specialization selected, all enhanced]
[(2nd Perk Selection Available)]
━━━
[Brainwashing 2nd Perk]
– Absolute Command: Your brainwashing is guaranteed to succeed.
– Eternal Enslavement: Your brainwashing lasts forever.
– Legion Dominator: Your brainwashing can control entire legions, beyond individual groups.
━━━
An inevitable, absolute brainwashing.
An eternally persistent, perpetual brainwashing.
A legion-ruling brainwashing that the entire force must obey.
The first brainwashing perk he avoided for fear of side effects had ultimately returned with all enhancements in full force.
If he avoids selecting, the same result will be inevitable again.
Forcing unwanted actions, compelling eternal brainwashing, dictating the actions of entire legions.
‘Such an ability, there’s no need to become stronger. Even the reason to fear Ability Overload has vanished.’
The moment repeated brainwashing renders free control impossible through ability enhancement, brainwashing evolves into a passively activated ability, always present.
Repeated brainwashing can break any stubbornness, so absolute command is unnecessary.
If a Demon King can live forever, brainwashing can simply be refreshed periodically.
However, the vast number of monsters is more than he can manage alone.
[Legion Dominator has been selected as the 2nd Perk.]
[Your brainwashing can control entire legions, beyond individual groups.]
Unlimited brainwashing without restraints.
Thus, obtaining both the Demon King’s aeons of lifespan and unlimited brainwashing, I can prevent any monster in the world from threatening humanity.
The gamble succeeded.
The true ending is one step closer.
Though I apologize to Mom and Cecilia, if this is the only way to bring peace to the world and protect Sodom and my family’s survival, I will not be afraid.
‘I’m different from the vampires who could only realize that they were alive due to tragedy as their humanity wore away over a long time. I will never become that kind of being.’
As long as there is brainwashing, there is nothing to fear.
Even if my will falters, the brainwashing will forcefully haul me back up.
That is the true way to wield this wicked power.
A strength to fortify the self against weakening.
Self-brainwashing, that is the essence of brainwashing itself.
[You have grasped the core of brainwashing.]
I wasn’t wrong.
* * *
“Pray. Pray that your son overcomes the Demon King’s blood.”
“This is all *your* doing. Had you not inflicted that foul blood upon my son!”
“Does it ease your heart, then, to disparage and belittle your own child’s resolve? Is *that* the stance a saint’s parents should adopt when their child has vowed to sacrifice himself, eternally, for the future of humanity?”
The rebuke stung all the more, delivered so harshly by the Demon King himself.
Teresa barely managed to clutch at her wavering, agitated spirit.
Ian, her eldest, who had raised her shattered life back to its feet.
Ian wasn’t finished yet.
Though he chose to end his life as a human and become the Demon King, even now he was caught between life and death, engulfed by demonic blood and the colossal aura emanating from it.
“Whatever choice you make, I will save you from that tainted blood. I too, will fight. So… do not yield, Ian.”
“Strong. Is *this* what it means to be a mother?”
“For now, I shall extend my gratitude. Former Demon King. Thanks to you, I have been spared the ignominy of appearing pathetic before my child.”
Teresa regained her composure.
But the Demon King’s expression remained grim.
“What happens if he fails to overcome the Demon King’s blood?”
“He dies.”
“…I see.”
“But what truly terrifies is what comes *after* overcoming the Demon King’s blood.”
“Why?”
“The Demon King’s blood amplifies the most wicked power within a person, linking it to the choices they’ve made throughout their life. In my case, it was barriers that were chosen.”
“But your barriers were merely a means to protect yourself.”
“Do you truly believe it was only that?”
A terrifying surge of demonic energy, rising from the depths beneath the Demon King’s castle, made everyone flinch.
“I made profitable use of the barrier power. It is not rare for those with strength to forgo to use it for their benefit. And belatedly I have received the bill, a request for my past indulgence. The bill of use of ability.”
“A bill…?”
“It’s simple. Demonic energy is a self-destructive force. Before it breaks others, it wounds the self first. A barrier combined with such power imprisons the self first. One suffers by the very ways they allowed that power to be used.”
The Demon King detached the ‘prosthetic hand’ that moved so fluidly as if it were his own.
In that instant, Teresa understood.
The meaning of self-destructive power.
What the Demon King’s blood truly *did*.
If the barrier mage had paid the price for wielding barriers to sever others’ limbs, the price a brainwasher would pay…
“Self-brainwashing?!”
He would be attacked by the Demon King’s blood with every ability he had used.
What’s worse, the power within the Demon King’s blood overwhelmingly surpassed human will.
Resistance is futile.
Even the most noble soul can only withstand the first few blows; no one can endure the full force of a lifetime’s power turned against them.
He who had wrought evil with his own tongue.
Now consumed by the very evil he spawned.
The Demon Lord was the tragedy born of his own past.
* * *
[You have grasped the essence of brainwashing.]
[However, you have failed to realize the wretched fate that awaits all brainwashers, a fate born of overconfidence.]
“The… fate… of a brainwasher?”
[The ‘words’ of a brainwasher brainwash the one who hears them.]
[And the first being to recall and hear all the ‘words’ you have uttered is not those you have brainwashed.]
[It is the brainwasher himself.]
“!!!”
He was startled.
To think such a trap lay hidden just before the true ending.
[Hidden trigger activated.]
[You possess the Demon Lord Class.]
[The intensity of brainwashing is raised to its maximum.]
A forced self-brainwashing that allows for no resistance.
The countless commands he had unleashed thus far unspooled like the belt of an automatic weapon.
[Warning. The activation of a mental attack of maximum intensity, threatening your sanity, has been detected.]
[The Demon Lord’s blood tests your demonic nature.]
To oppress, to crush, to distort, to plunder, to betray, to destroy.
Such a cruel curse, one that would inevitably reduce a wicked brainwasher to a broken shell.
But he possessed pride.
‘I have always been prepared to pay the price for evil. I was not ignorant of the brutal nature of this ability, of its power to suppress and crush the freedom of others.’
Only the fact that the price was being exacted not by his conscience, but by the ability itself, was unexpected.
[Brainwashing initiated]
[Designated target – Ian]
[Command – Endure all the brainwashing you have unleashed.]
There was no fear.
He had long since steeled himself.
“Come on.”
All the commands dredged up by the Demon Lord’s blood.
Ian’s past began to descend upon him.
[Command – Do not hit the child]
[Command – You are a mother who cherishes children more than anyone else.]
[Command – You are a mother who cherishes children more than anyone else.]
[Command – You are a mother who cherishes children more than anyone else.]
[Command – You are a mother who cherishes children more than anyone else.]
Ma-hyeol was disconcerted.
How could he not be?
My journey as a mind-sculptor began in the crucible of countless failures.
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
A wound that ran deep.
A festering desire for vengeance, with no outlet.
This was an effort to change the wretched mother who poured it all onto her child.
Was it not only natural that it would be an uphill battle?
And so, a protracted war unfolded.
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
The demon lord’s blood confessed its bewilderment.
Unthinkable, that a Demon Lord Challenger would use mind-sculpting, the most useful ability in the world, in such a foolhardy manner.
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
A year-long stretch of time. A veritable carnival of mind-sculpting had finally reached its end.
But still, a long road stretched ahead.
I was confident I could endure my past actions, even if that mind-sculpting was to turn back on me.
[COMMAND – Ajumma is a good ajumma.]
[COMMAND – Gorgo is our proud party member.]
[COMMAND – You are a mother who loves her children more than anything.]
[COMMAND – Forget the child that causes you pain.]
[COMMAND – Remain a good child in front of mother.]
[COMMAND – Attack the humans in 10 seconds.]
[COMMAND – Complete your evolution, then come out and kill the humans.]
[COMMAND – It’s okay to cry, so long as it’s in front of me.]
[COMMAND – Give your life to protect the secrets of the Mana Cultivation Method.]
[COMMAND – Believe in and support the sincerity of my mother and I as we dedicate ourselves to this village.]
[COMMAND – I will be by your side until the pain subsides.]
[COMMAND – I want to believe. That this time, we are only dealing with a particularly large and distant slum, and that this time too, we can guide them out of the slums.]
[COMMAND – If you cannot trust anyone, then trust the heart I have that trusts in him.]
[COMMAND – You are not a monster.]
[COMMAND – It is not Cecilia-nim’s fault. I, Ian, take responsibility for everything that happens in the town of Sodom.]
[COMMAND – For the sake of the kingdom’s peace, please grant me this request.]
[Command – Unless you truly desire to kill, leave the Blood Forest.]
[Command – You and Marbas are not equals.]
[Command – Do not mistake the target you must draw your sword against.]
[Command – Even a fragment of Gretel has yet to give up and fall, so whose soul have you subjugated and destroyed?]
[Command – Whatever decision you make, choose something you won’t be ashamed of.]
[Command – You are half-human as well.]
[Command – Become the cornerstone that makes the final blow possible, not the final blow itself.]
Clearly, there was confidence.
I am a wicked hypnotist, but I have always lived prepared to pay the price for my abilities.
Until facing the entire list, I could stand tall.
Reality was different.
A chill ran down my spine.
I wouldn’t presume to say I’ve lived a life without shame under the heavens, but I thought I was more than prepared to bear all my sins.
Because even I had a past I couldn’t bear.
[Command – Attack the humans in 10 seconds.]
[Command – Complete your evolution and kill the humans.]
The Demon King’s blood chuckled darkly.
[I’ve found it. Your karma. Your weakness.]
[Self-Hypnosis]
[Command – Attack the humans in 10 seconds.]
[Self-Hypnosis]
[Command – Complete your evolution and kill the humans.]
The Demon King class ‘Evolution’.
In 10 seconds after the evolution completes, I will kill the humans.
That is undoubtedly my own doing, a karma I must be prepared to face.
Tears flowed.
It was the result of testing and confirming that anything could be fed to a monster.
It was the result of drawing a line between humans and monsters, defining the species.
This was the result of harboring murderous intent in order to face the enemies who threatened Theresa, Gorgo, and us.
A single instance of murderous intent.
The act of taking a life, due to the Demon King’s blood, would lead to a cataclysm that would kill tens of millions, perhaps even billions, of living beings.
I falter.
My heart, my will, wavers.
Because I foresee my future, one in which I would devolve into the worst kind of monster.
But it was my own words that grasped and pulled myself back to my feet.
[Command – You are not a monster.]
The Demon King’s blood writhed.
I committed a slip of the tongue.
There was an irrevocable mistake.
Even so, I still have a chance.
Because he already held the words to fight back against the words he himself had uttered.
[Self-Hypnosis]
[Command – You are not a monster.]
I will not, yield.
My past self would never allow it.
If my sins of the past drive me to the brink.
My good deeds will protect my soul.