“Cough! Cough! Guh… urgh…”
Judah coughed up water and struggled to rise to his feet.
Thanks to the defensive spell that barely activated when he was swept away by the waves, he somehow managed to survive.
But it was only survival in the literal sense.
The backlash from the shattered barrier had left his entire body battered and broken.
“Damn it… Why am I in this state…”
A few of his ribs were broken, and one of his arms was torn and hanging in shreds from the injuries.
At least his legs weren’t seriously hurt—that was the only relief.
However, regardless of barely surviving, Judah knew very well that he couldn’t stay here for long.
‘I… I have to get out of here quickly…’
Screams echoed from all directions.
The desperate cries of Imperial soldiers dying in real time struck his ears like a relentless storm.
If he hesitated here and got killed by a stray blade, that would truly be a meaningless death.
Determined to escape no matter what, Judah forced his staggering body to move and tried to draw out mana again.
At that moment…
“A witch of the Empire, huh. And quite a strong one, too.”
A cold voice rang in his ears.
Feeling as if all the blood drained from his body, Judah instinctively turned around.
Standing there was a demon.
The moment he saw her, radiating mana filled with ominous power, despair began to spread across Judah’s face.
“Perfect timing. I’ve been feeling uneasy lately… But someone like you should make a fitting gift for him, don’t you think?”
With those words, the demon drew a curved saber reminiscent of a whip.
She was at least demon lord-class—far beyond what he could handle in his current condition.
In the end, Judah had only one choice in this situation.
– Flash!
“Huh!”
A sudden burst of light exploded from Judah’s body.
Containing a trace of holy power, the light momentarily blinded the demon.
For a split second, the demon lord flinched.
And a moment later—
when her vision returned to normal—
“…Heh… Is this a game of hide and seek?”
With a cold smile, the demon lord began to slowly move forward.
Flantsu.
Though unseen by the eye, she could clearly sense the presence of her “prey” and followed it at a steady pace.
She thought she might as well enjoy this short little game of chase.
‘I expected it… but to see it truly fall apart this horribly…’
I didn’t show it outwardly, but honestly, the moment Professor Mari completely turned against them, I considered this war as good as won.
Professor Mari knew the inner workings of the Imperial Army inside and out.
Especially when it came to Barus, the supreme commander of this war—she already had him completely figured out.
He had some skill, sure, but without his family name, he never would’ve reached that position.
Particularly, he had a very strong sense of pride and a stubborn streak—once he made a decision, he would never go back on it.
Knowing her enemy’s mindset with perfect clarity, she crafted a strategy tailored to him.
Since their objective was obviously Belin Castle, where the Demon Lord resides, she opened the path leading there wide open.
And to make sure they wouldn’t think of veering off to other routes, she kept sending skirmishers to continuously agitate their nerves—more precisely, to gnaw away at General Barus’s patience.
Eventually, he would push forward without looking elsewhere, aiming to end the war quickly at the heart of it all—Belin Castle.
And just as expected, General Barus charged all the way here at top speed, without pillaging any surrounding regions.
And toward the exhausted army that had marched such a long distance without rest—
Professor Mari unleashed the spell she had prepared.
The magic itself was a simple rain spell.
But when amplified by the overwhelming power of both the Great Witch and the Demon Lord, the resulting rain turned into a flood.
Even the terrain worked in her favor—it was a wide basin.
In the end, General Barus’s forces, caught right in it, suffered devastating losses.
And now, before my eyes, our allies were utterly crushing the broken Imperial Army.
The once-proud military force of the Leaf Empire was collapsing rapidly.
Ten thousand elite troops were being utterly massacred by demon forces that numbered only a bit more than half of them.
At this rate, victory was clearly inevitable.
However, separate from all that, my attention wasn’t on the crumbling Imperial Army.
It was focused elsewhere.
Two figures clashed on one side of the battlefield.
Elsewhere, the Imperial Army was being slaughtered without mercy, but in that one place, resistance still endured.
Professor Mari.
And the Hero, Irushil.
In the original story, she was a playable character, but now that I had become the Demon King, she was undeniably an “enemy” in my eyes.
Watching the hero—someone who had once been Mari’s disciple—I couldn’t help but feel conflicted in many ways.
‘A battle between teacher and student…’
Irushil was now an enemy who had to be defeated.
And the same applied to me.
It’s not that I held no affection for her from the original story.
But honestly, 90% of the reason I played the game was because of Professor Mari.
After all that, Irushil only grieved briefly when Mari died, then completely erased her from her thoughts.
To be honest, I felt resentment toward her—as if she had abandoned her teacher.
Of course, strictly speaking, that was the fault of the game’s developers, who erased Mari’s existence altogether.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel bitter.
So if Professor Mari were to kill Irushil in a one-sided beatdown, I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.
But even so, Professor Mari declared that she would personally deal with the Hero.
Despite my warnings about how dangerous it could be,
she refused to back down and insisted on facing the Hero herself.
I couldn’t fully understand her motives.
So for now, I kept my eyes on that side of the battlefield, just in case.
Ready to intervene immediately should anything go wrong.
The Hero Irushil hated demons.
Even if it was the Empire that had abandoned her teacher, it was the demons who had ultimately caused her death.
And so, she vowed to kill them.
All of them.
Especially their leaders—the Demon Lords.
But things weren’t going the way she had imagined.
–Crackle!!
The holy power of the sacred sword clashed against mana.
At a glance, it looked like a fierce battle between two equally matched champions.
But as time went on, the Hero couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of frustration.
It wasn’t just because the rest of the battlefield outside this place was rapidly collapsing.
What made her feel so anxious was the powerful opponent right before her.
The Demon King, Moder.
–Whoosh!
“Tch!”
The sacred sword burned with holy power.
It was a weapon with enough light to incinerate evil beings on contact.
Ordinary demons couldn’t even stand near it, let alone face it in battle.
However, the demon standing before her now.
No… the Demon King—
was calmly withstanding its power without flinching in the slightest.
“Haaaah!”
–Crack!!
The Demon King effortlessly blocked her slashing blow.
That sacred sword, which had forced countless demons to their knees with just a single clash, now seemed powerless in front of him.
It couldn’t be explained by the fact that he was a Demon King alone.
Even Kesar had shown signs of weakness in the face of holy power.
But this one—this man—seemed entirely unaffected, even exuding a hint of composure.
“You… What the hell did you do? How can a demon… stand against a sacred sword like this?”
Her voice was laced with both confusion and fury.
But the Demon King didn’t answer.
Instead, he swung his staff.
A sharp, sudden strike slashed toward her.
Irushil quickly deflected it with her sacred sword.
But then.
“Ugh!”
Following the deflected arc, the staff twisted and spun toward her side.
It moved like a spear with a blade attached to the end, sweeping in with deadly precision.
Irushil rolled to the ground just in time, startled by the unexpected assault.
“…Not bad.”
She dusted herself off, wearing a stiff smile.
Honestly, she had assumed that someone wielding a staff would be a spellcaster.
But this unexpected level of close combat skill left her deeply unsettled.
And on top of that, the fact that her sacred sword wasn’t working properly—
That was something she had never anticipated.
Suppressing her growing panic, Irushil raised her sword again and prepared to strike.
But just then……
“H–Hero!!”
“! Wh-What…”
A familiar voice called out from the side.
Irushil instinctively turned her head toward the voice, and her expression froze instantly.
Cecilia, the cleric of the Hero’s party.
She had somehow been captured by the demons, and now a blade was pressed against the back of her neck.
The moment Irushil saw her, confusion and panic surged across her face.
Then.
“! N-No…!”
–Thud!!!
In that fleeting instant, the Demon King rushed in and struck her.
Her hand, the one wielding the sacred sword, was severed cleanly.
Overwhelmed by the searing, unbearable pain, Irushil collapsed to the ground.
The Hero had been defeated by the Demon King.
That moment shattered the last line of defense holding the Imperial forces together.
“Th-The Hero?”
“H-How could this happen… How could someone like her…”
“I-It’s over… W-We’re all going to die…”
With despair gripping their hearts, the Imperial soldiers began to fall one by one at the hands of the demons.
At the center of it all, the Demon King stood over Irushil, his staff pointed at her neck, and spoke in a quiet voice.
“This is your defeat. Surrender peacefully. I have no desire to kill you.”
“Just kill me…”
“You don’t know anything, Irushil. About what demons truly are… And what kind of people humans can be. Cut your ties with them—and come with me.”
“You coward… I’ll curse you even in death! Just kill me already!”
Irushil refused the offer to surrender without hesitation.
Staring down at her, the Demon King spoke in a calm tone.
“So… you didn’t speak truthfully about Mari at the Magic Tower, did you? If you’d known what humans are truly capable of…”
“I told the truth! You demons… you monsters… You killed my teacher—my mother!”
It may have been a scheme by the Empire, but in the end, it was the demons who had delivered the fatal blow.
The Hero screamed in fury, her words laced with grief and rage.
In response, the Demon King quietly spoke.
“No.”
And then, removing the mask from his face.
“I am your mother.”