chapter 176
EP9. ■■
Laplace caressed the dead Dragon King’s body. Then, the Dragon King’s flesh turned into a handful of sand, and only the bones recorded the magnificent appearance of his life.
Laplace smiled broadly.
“Is this really the Dragon King? It’s amazing how valuable he is as a sacrifice.”
Then, Laplace touched the Dragon King’s remaining bones. At the same time, the Dragon King’s bones began to melt away.
It was offered as a sacrifice to the god.
“Since the Dark Priest disappeared from this place, it is quite troublesome for the Demon King to conduct the ritual himself. Well, if you think about it, it is only natural. If he had any intention, he would have targeted the Dark Priest first.”
Laplace grumbled once or twice like that. Since there was not even a proper dark priest, he wasted this ‘opportunity’ by having the Demon God himself give revelations to humans. The fact that the ones who carried out the ritual to bring down the Demon King were mere humans was one of the things he did not like.
Perhaps because they were insignificant humans, the sacrifices they collected were all equally unskillful. The creatures that were valuable as sacrifices were creatures that contained a lot of black magic. That was why things like fairies had almost no value as sacrifices. In any case, it was difficult to see that there was a lot of black magic in the human body. From the Demon King’s standards, they all seemed like substandard sacrifices.
“The things offered as sacrifices to the gods must have been so trivial… Of course, there was one that wasn’t bad.”
The essence of the World Tree was something that could be given a passing grade from Laplace’s perspective. It was the essence of the sacred tree that the gods themselves had created and offered as a sacrifice, so should it only be at that level that it could be said to be acceptable as a sacrifice offered directly to the gods?
With that in mind, Laplace offered all of his sacrifices to the Demon God. The Dragon Kings also inevitably had black magic stored up in their bodies, and that amount was enough for the Demon God to tear apart the dimensional rift.
“Okay… come.”
As the size of the soul crossing the world increased, the size of the dimensional gap had to increase as well. Even the boundaries of the worlds had a strong tendency to want to be repaired, so they were quickly filled in after just a short period of time. In other words, the demons who would kill and summon the Dragon King had already been decided.
“Kaledar.”
A summoning circle was drawn, and a kneeling black knight appeared.
“The highest-ranking member of Oman, Kaledar, has arrived here.”
“Yes. From now on, we must take up the role that the Wrathful Factions were unable to fulfill. That means we must take the lead.”
There was a hint of impatience in Laplace’s appearance as he got straight to the point. Caledar asked with a hardened face.
“What on earth did the Clan of Wrath do? Why were they summoned after so much time had passed in the underworld, after everyone who knew about Middle-earth had died, and why did we have to take the lead?”
“He is a warrior.”
“When you say warrior… are you talking about the ‘system’ created by the gods? Are you saying that it actually worked?”
“Funny enough, that’s how it is. Here, whenever the Demon Lord of Wrath stirs, a warrior whose identity we couldn’t even be sure of appears, and it seems like the warrior defeats the Demon Lord of Wrath. After several generations of this, we’ve all forgotten the traditions of the past. It’s truly pathetic.”
“Hmm… Then doesn’t that mean that it could affect what we’re doing now? That doesn’t sound like a very good thing… .”
“No, they say the warrior has already disappeared. They say the holy sword has been destroyed. In that case, there shouldn’t be any variables.”
“The Holy Sword is destroyed? It is clearly indestructible… Ah, that is it.”
“Yes, we were too greedy… It’s fortunate for us. In any case, we have to take the lead among our clans in the absence of other clans. In other words, we have to collect sacrifices.”
“Collecting sacrifices… But what method do you think is best for collecting sacrifices? I think that is the first question we should think about.”
“Have you forgotten what I summoned you for?”
With that, Kaledar nodded and said.
“They’re dragons. I don’t know much about dragons since they’re only recorded, but what were they like?”
“Hmm, he was strong enough. As for the Dragon King, he seemed to be of the same level as you, or even higher. In many ways, it wasn’t bad to enjoy. Of course, he was lacking in many ways to call himself the guardian of Middle-earth and act like a troublemaker in front of me.”
“Considering the power of the King, there is nothing that can stand against him. By the way, the Dragon King’s level is quite high. I wonder what the level of the dragons under his command is.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be bad to have fun. Oh… right. Now that I think about it, I have some very interesting news to tell you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The appearance of the Wrathful Demons here was very pitiful. They had been defeated by humans, had forgotten their traditions, and had no fighting spirit to show for it… However, there was one Demon of the highest level who was still alive.”
“Are you saying that with the highest level?”
“Yes. Although he didn’t show the fighting spirit of a demon of rage, his power was real. I think it would be fun to see who was better than you.”
“Hmm, is that all? It seems that the demons of the Middle-earth are surprisingly strong.”
“Even though it has only produced pitiful results to begin with, it has consistently produced Demon Kings. Even if the Demon God were to hold a coronation, don’t you know that only a certain level of Demons would be able to do that?”
“That too… I see. Well, if that’s true… it’s really tempting.”
“First of all, we must summon the other clans. Let’s go, Kaledar.”
The Arrogant Demon King and the highest-level demons began to set out to hunt the dragons.
Some time passed. Laplace went to find the dragon’s nest to hunt another dragon. And at the same time, countless dragons filled the sky.
“Hmm, you think you can stop me, lizards? Really?”
The dragons didn’t even answer, but all breathed at the Demon King.
And all of those attacks were blocked by one knight’s shield.
“Well done, Kaledar.”
After saying that, Laplace ran into the middle of the dragons.
“There’s not even a Dragon King. If you really thought you could stop me on your own, you’re in for a disappointment.”
The dragons panicked and began to launch attacks indiscriminately. However, no matter how haphazardly they launched their attacks, their power was not something that could be easily described.
The Demon King of Arrogance watched all of those attacks quietly. Then, he spoke softly.
“…How pathetic.”
With every touch of his hand, the dragons’ attacks subsided so helplessly.
“I already saw it.”
The dragons instinctively realized the difference between themselves and the demon king before their eyes.
[Kuaaah!]
Dragons are not creatures that interfere with the affairs of the world. They only protect life within their own territory, and they do not do much more than that, nor do they want to do anything else. In the first place, they are not even protecting this world with good intentions.
All that was left to them was their vanity and pride as the guardians of Middle-earth. And, that was why the dragons could not possibly tolerate the Demon King who had touched their pride.
The problem was that the Dragon Kings were reluctant to leave their domains. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Dragon Kings’ sanctuaries were the most crucial places for protecting the world.
Because of that, the dragons came to think that they could defeat the Demon King without the Dragon King… and their arrogance was thoroughly trampled by the Demon King of Arrogance.
“Your thoughts, your attacks, and even the future you will face… I have already seen it all. I will make you regret daring to commit the sin of arrogance in front of the Demon King of Arrogance.”
As the Demon King and his knights moved, the number of dragon corpses increased. Laplace watched the whole scene with boredom.
“You look bored again today.”
“It’s just something I’ve already seen. How can it be fun to repeat it and make it a reality? And, it doesn’t matter anyway, right?”
The Demon King of Arrogance snapped his fingers.
Again, countless dragon bones were offered as burnt offerings to the god.
At the same time, the air split apart. One by one, countless demons began to poke their heads out.
Laplace smiled slightly.