Doldar’s axe flashed.
Three demonkin who were in line with the axe’s trajectory were immediately decapitated.
Their freshly reaped heads danced beautifully in the air.
It was a splendid, unstoppable strike
The demonkin tried to fight back, but they were no match for Doldar.
Doldar seemingly disappeared for a moment before reappearing at the next, amd rushing into the midst of the demonkin.
He swung his axe and struck more victims.
His high speed movements were a result from the simultaneous application of thunder magic and physical reinforcement magic.
It made him harder to perceive simply through sight.
Even I needed to use magic to perceive his movement.It wasn’t something that those demonkin there could handle.
“Neck, your neck! Give me more necks!”
Doldar roared as he wielded his axe.
The heads of the demonkin flew each time he swung it.
The level of his skill was terrifying.
His axe swung and only their necks were cut.
Even when he was moving at high speed, there were wasted movements in his killing method.
He has lost half of his sense of reason, but his combat technique was still as amazing as it had been in his prime.
I gazed at Doldar who was busy slaughtering.
I called out to Luciana.
“I’m going. Use this chance to capture that demonkin.”
“Okay, okay.”
That demonkin had tried to escape from the ruin in the midst of the turmoil.
He had brought along people who were seemingly his subordinates.
Apparently, he had intended to use the other demonkin as decoys to escape from this place.
Of course, there was no chance that I would let that take place.
I transferred myself towards the direction they were heading towards to block them from absconding.
I created a spear of miasma, and pierced one of his subordinates with it.
“Ua, a?!”
The screaming subordinate quickly transformed into a skeleton.
The demonkin who witnessed that stopped in their tracks.
They tried to turn back, but Luciana stood there.
“I won’t let you escape.”
Luciana put her hand on her hips as she gleefully said so.
She seemed to be enjoying this situation.
Her eyes were filled with pleasure.
On the other hand, I told the demonkin.
“There’s nowhere to escape to. Give up.”
“Do you think we’ll obey such an ord—“
The subordinate who had tried to bravely argue, was attacked by the skeleton.
He was mounted by the skeleton and recklessly stabbed with a spear of miasma.
At first, he was in agony, but soon he turned into a skeleton as well.
He then got up and immediately turned to fight the other demonkin.
The rest of the demonkin, who quickly realized that they would be unable to resist, made frustrated expressions.
They glared at me and Luciana with eyes filled with hatred.
“Demon Lord-sama, why don’t we just capture them already?”
“You’re right.”
I nodded at Luciana’s suggestion.
It would have been better if they had quietly obeyed me, but I doubted that would happen.
Even as I put on a show by killing some subordinates, that only made them more angry.
I restrained the demonkin using magic ivy.
I restricted their movements so I wouldn’t have to worry about them retaliating.
Then we all moved together.
Our destination was a spot slightly away from the ruin.
We forced the demonkin to lay down on the wasteland.
The ivy restraining them had the property of magic power absorption.
Soon, they would be unable to use any magic.
Nothing would get in our way in this place.
As I came to that assessment, I looked down at the demonkin.
“What is your purpose in contacting humans?”
“Wha, what are you talking about… humans, you say? There’s no way humans can be in a place like this.”
The demonkin who just spoke pretended to be confused.
It seemed he still couldn’t be honest even thought things had already escalated to this point.
“…”
I silently touched one of the subordinates.
Miasma flowed into them; the subordinate's eyes turned white and they fainted in agony.
Eventually, his skin became inflamed and he transformed into a ghoul.
He started groaning while saliva dripped from his mouth.
“This is what will happen if you try to hide things.”
“…gh"
That demonkin gasped.
As expected, he was terrified.
The others there seemed to be on the verge of fainting.
“Why did you make contact with humans? Tell me the reason.”
“Kuh…!”
Even as I asked him again, he still wouldn’t talk.
He was surprisingly stubborn.
It wasn’t like he was being silenced due to some sort of magic.
He was choosing to remain silent of his own volition.
It can’t be helped. I don’t really like using this method, but…
I touched that demonkin’s leg.
What I planned to do from that point on was simply torture.
He would gradually turn into an undead from the tips of his toes, and that part would be cut off.
That suffering was fatal to living things.
It might take some effort, but he would surely open his mouth before he died.
Just as I was about to execute my plan, Luciana suddenly raised her hand beside me.
She pointed at her face and said.
“Should I just charm him and make him talk?”
“…Please do.”
I just nodded quietly.
Luciana was still here and she had the ability to charm people.
I had completely forgotten about that.
Perhaps my thoughts had turned violent ever since I'd visited that fated place.
It was completely unconscious on my part.
That was already more than a decade ago.
There was no longer the Sage who fought alongside the Hero here.
There was only the Immortal Demon Lord here.
Impulsive actions could eventually lead to fatal mistakes.
I needed to switch my mindset.
After that, Luciana charmed the demonkin, broke their spirits, and asked them for information.
As it turned out, the demonkin didn’t have much information to provide.
It seemed they had no information on the identities of the humans who they'd come into contact with.
The demonkin had contacted said people despite not knowing their affiliation.
The interaction between both sides wasn’t that complicated.
In exchange for the human side providing them with food and magic tools, these demonkin were to collect and hand over plants, water, ores, and other resources that grew in this area.
It was just a simple trade.
The demonkin also didn’t know the purpose of the humans.
They just suddenly came one day and offered an exchange.
Since the demonkin had always wanted to improve their poor lives here, they accepted the other party’s proposal.
They had begun this exchange four years ago.
Since then, they had faithfully maintained this secret relationship.
It was only recently that the spy had managed to catch traces of such activity.
Since it was four years ago, it preceded the period before my reign as the Demon Lord.
I was still inside the Valley of the Dead back then.
If it is related to the World’s Will, then it's probably the period a year before I emerged from there.
It was like that time with John Doe.
His research had accelerated during the same period when I had become the Demon Lord.
However, that wasn’t the case this time.
It was closer to furtive scheming.
There were humans out there who had made secret agreements with the demonkin.
Perhaps their goal was something other than the Demon Lord’s subjugation.
Even so, I would still look into the details.
If I arbitrarily judged it as something unrelated and left it alone, I might end up regretting it later.
If there really was nothing, it would just end up as mere fruitless actions.
I felt bad for the subordinate who would have to investigate it, but I needed to ask them to look into it nonetheless.
“Well then…”
Once I got all the information from the demonkin, I detained all of them.
I wrapped them inside the ivy and made it spherical in shape.
I incapacitated them and robbed their five senses.
Once it reached this point, even suicide would be impossible to achieve.
Then I connected to Grom through telepathy.
“Can you hear me?”
“Ye, yes! I can hear you loud and clear!”
Grom was as energetic as usual.
Considering the period of time, perhaps he was taking care of Yuura at this time?
I had the impression that he cared for her the most among all of us.
“I’ll be transferring prisoners there. Confine them in the basement of the castle.”
“Roger that! Please leave it to me.”
I ended the telepathic conversation after hearing Grom’s reply.
I transferred the demonkin inside the ivy to the castle in the capital.
That was one task done.
They would be tortured later.
There was a need to confirm whether they'd withheld any information when they had been under the influence of Luciana's charm.
Once they finished their role, I could just provide them to the laboratory.
Since it would be a precious sample of the demonkin, the director would probably be pleased to the point of tears.
At that time, I suddenly felt a gaze on me.
Luciana was staring at me.
Her cheeks were flushed and she had an enchanting smile on her face.
“The ruthless Demon Lord-sama is really cool. I will fall for you even more.”
“I don’t care about that. Let’s go back to the ruin.”
“Okaay~”
I transferred to the ruin with Luciana, who seemed to be a little dissatisfied.
All the demonkin inside the ruin had been decapitated.
None of them had survived, and no one had managed to escape.
Even after we went had left, Doldar's rampage had continued.
It was a scene that I could easily imagine.
After collecting Doldar, who had been standing in a the sea of blood, we returned to the capital.