I manipulated the undead in the room and sent them rushing towards Henry.
Opposite them, Henry swung the long desk about, clearing his path.
He was going to bull through their approach.
While dodging the undead approaching from both sides, he approached me with ferocious momentum.
It's a mess. But I already predicted that move.
I compressed magic in the palm of my hand, solidifying it and releasing it.
It was a primitive shockwave with no finesse.
It fired into Henry, undead and all.
“Whoa…!?”
Henry braced to withstand the shockwave.He dug the fingers of one hand into the floor to keep from being blown away.
Unlike the Wind Blades, this time it was a wide range attack.
Since he could not avoid it, even he had to defend himself.
"Fuck, that's an annoying attack…”
Henry, who cursed, was mostly unharmed.
The shockwave just now did not seem able to inflict a fatal wound on him.
But that didn’t matter to me.
I didn't believe in the slightest that this shockwave alone would bring him down.
I let out another shockwave as I saw Henry stirring.
He once again defended.
As expected, attacks of this extent can't do any damage.
I fired a third shot to corner him.
At last, Henry could no longer endure, and his knees gave way as he fell to the floor.
Even he seemed to falter under the continuous barrage of attacks.
I had no intentions of stopping the attacks there, and released more shock waves.
I fired one shockwave after another, leaving no gaps.
It wasn't just Henry, but everything around him was reeling from the collateral damage.
My undead subordinates were scattered all around as the shockwave tossed them in the air.
The rows of long desks spun and crashed into the wall.
Before I knew it, Luciana had disappeared.
She must have retreated to a safe place.
“Hah… You cheeky bastard.”
Grumbling, Henry maintained a half-kneeling posture.
He gritted his teeth and inched closer to me.
Occasionally, the shockwave knocked him back, but it never blew him away.
Without raising his body, he steadily tried to close the distance.
He had tremendous dedication, and endlessly asserted his greed for victory.
I had to recognize his strength.
I would probably have been no match for him when I was alive.
But now I was a true monster.
The new Demon Lord who surpassed all.
Even if he was a human whose strength rivaled a hero’s, there was a gap between him and me that cannot be bridged.
I increased the amount of magic power I poured into the shockwave by tenfold.
I condensed more power than ever before and unleashed it on Henry, whose movements grew dull.
“…Tch”
The explosive recoil shattered both my arms.
The rebound made everything below my wrists disappear.
A numbness that even my body of bones could feel washed over me.
The shockwave I released reached Henry in an instant.
His stance crumbled as if he'd been pushed. He tried to hold on, digging his fingers into the floor.
But the shockwave blew him away mercilessly, and he rolled on the floor.
Flying backwards, Henry crashed into the wall.
A crack ran across it, with Henry at its center.
Henry grunted as he sunk into the wall.
“Oi, oi, are you for real?”
“I’m afraid this is the truth.”
I shot another shockwave of the same power towards him.
This time everything from my elbow down exploded due to the recoil.
Henry sunk further into the wall.
I turned up the power and fired an additional shot.
Everything below my shoulders exploded without a trace.
The shockwave released with a thunderous roar, and finally caused the dining hall wall to collapse.
Naturally, Henry became collateral damage.
My arms are gone, but that’s not a problem.
I activated a small-scale barrier spell and connected it to my shoulder sockets, molding it into a cylinder.
Shaping it into a gun barrel, I aimed at Henry and fired a shockwave at him.
The barrier spell cracked and disappeared.
I immediately rebuilt a barrier of the same shape, and once again fired.
I launched many shockwaves in succession, repeatedly breaking and regenerating the cannon barrier.
The shockwaves went through the wall of the dining hall and began to destroy the room behind it as well.
I could sense Henry's position using magic.
From the information I received, he didn’t seem to be moving, and had completely retreated.
All my shockwaves were direct hits.
Amazingly, despite taking so many direct hits, Henry was not dead.
He was inhumanly sturdy.
However, that did not imply he had any hope.
It would be impossible for Henry to fight back in this state.
If he didn’t close the distance, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of his one-on-one attack skills. And if he threw something, it would be shot down by the shockwave.
My dominance was near unshakable.
After that, I continued launching shockwaves one-sidedly.
I showered him with little hesitation, knowing that my opponent would not die that easily.
With each shot, the prison crumbled, creating a line of straight holes in the walls.
And thus, at last, I tore down the last remaining wall, connecting it to the outside.
Having lost both arms, I move to the border of the outdoors using visual transfer.
I looked around and searched for Henry, who had been flung outside.
Henry was lying on the grass.
Debris was piled upon his body.
He moved sluggishly while removing the debris, then got up calmly.
Henry staggered as he patted the dust sticking to his entire body.
He stopped just on the verge of collapsing.
As he did so, a streak of blood flowed down from his forehead.
Henry wiped it with his fingers and stared at it.
After a pause, he let out a laugh.
It looked like he was really enjoying himself.
It was as if he was happy to be bleeding.
He seems to be rejoicing in this rare event.
… I really cannot comprehend.
I opened my jaw despite Henry's odd behavior.
Out of it jumped a silver snake.
It was a magical creature that possessed a dangerous nerve paralysis poison.
The snake crawled across the ground and tried to bite Henry's leg.
“Shit! That was close.”
Henry dodged the snake and stomped on it.
Spitting out blood, the snake's figure fluctuated. It transformed into a chain of the same color, coiling around Henry's leg.
In the blink of an eye, he had one leg locked in place.
“Hey, you must be kidding me!”
Glancing at the surprised Henry, I sent magic and miasma into the ground.
Countless dead tree roots tore out of the earth and attacked Henry.
He promptly smashed some of them with his fist, but it wasn’t enough, and he was gradually restrained.
Finally, unable to move, he lay face down.
“It’s a multipurpose curse. Even you won’t be able to escape this.”
“Hahaha, what a load of bullcrap. Stop it, that’s not funny.”
I walked up to Henry, who was smiling bitterly.
During our conversation, he had shredded the tree roots with his fingertips, but twice as many grew out of the ground.
Needless to say, he couldn’t break free of the restraints.
It had now become a vain struggle that could not even be called resistance.
For now, I'll turn a blind eye to the fact that he could destroy a high-grade magic spell with his bare hands.
This is the end, huh.
I looked down at Henry, who couldn't move, and judged so.
If I ignored the damage to my surroundings, something like this was possible.
Henry was a match for a thousand.
However, in the end, he was but a mere human who could not use magic.
His overwhelming physical strength and excellent combat instincts could be cornered with magic that he couldn’t handle.
However, while this method is possible in theory, it was nearly impossible in practice.
First of all, it was hard to launch a series of attacks that Henry couldn’t handle.
He could easily evade most spells, and destroy others with physical attacks.
Even if I succeeded in stalling him, if I gave him the slightest opening, he would evade and I’d face a severe counterattack.
It was a method that could only work if you had an aberrant amount of magic power like me, and the ability to use spells without chanting.
I created a translucent spear using magic and placed its sharp tip against Henry's neck.
I ask him in that state.
“I guess I won the bet, huh?”
“…Of course. I can’t match up to you. It’s my defeat.”
Henry weakly gave a strained laugh.
His fighting spirit from just before had vanished, and he made a refreshed expression.
They said he had a personality that was quick to change.
I lifted the restraining spell on him.
Now free, Henry srang up to his feet.
It looks like he still has a lot of energy to spare.
I felt like he surrendered too soon, and wondered what he was thinking.
Although I was a little curious, it would be thoughtless of me to ask.
It could simply be a mere whim.
Maybe he got tired of fighting and wanted to surrender.
No matter the reason that led him to this conclusion, there was no doubt I had won.
I told Henry again as I erased the magic spear.
“Henry Blakin. From now on, you are under my command. Do you have any objections?”
“Ah, I'm fine! I’ll be in your care, Boss!”
He responded in a friendly tone.
While doing so, he patted me on the back for some reason.
It's making my bones creak, do you really realize that?
Due to the fact that it was right after our battle, he hadn't been able to adjust his strength completely.
"To tell the truth, I'm honored to join the Demon Lord's Army. I was just getting tired of prison life and was planning to escape by the end of the year. Your timing was perfect.”
Henry spoke cheerfully while damaging my spine.
From the way he spoke, it seemed that the rumors about him being moody were true.
I'm impressed that they were able to imprison a man like this for ten years.
“I don't have any ambition, to be honest. I just said that I will take over as the Demon Lord because I thought that would make you serious about the fight. It's not that I'm not interested in being your subordinate, I just think it's for the best.”
“In other words, you just wanted to fight with me while I was being serious?”
‘I didn't expect you to become so angry though. I’m telling you, I'm really not planning to betray you or take over. I'm just a simple combat enthusiast. You can rest assured and send me off to the battlefield.”
Henry spoke unabashedly.
His actions seemed to say that these were his true thoughts and not simply excuses.
He was now completely off-kilter.
Well, it's not something that I, a Demon Lord standing against all of humanity, can censure.
He was just operating on his own set of values.
“…I see.”
I suppressed the various feelings in my heart, and I stopped at giving him a simple reply.