- Silas -
I flew towards the camp of Demon Lord Clayman in the distance.
There was thunder and lightning in the sky as dark clouds covered the moon.
A drop of rain fell on my face and rolled down as a teardrop.
I don't like fighting.
I always say this. And it's true.
This is the reason why I try to finish any fight in the shortest possible time and with as much efficiency as I can… so that I don't have to fight more than necessary.
But for the first time today, I wanted to rip and tear everything in front of my eyes.
And it looked like the world was agreeing with me too.
Was this world really happy with me finally acting like a Daemon?
I don't know and might never know either… but it didn't matter.
What mattered is the army in front of me and the man controlling all this.
The rain became stronger as little drops changed into a heavy downpour.
"How many monsters are there in the camp?"
'Scanning. Complete. The army has twenty six thousand six hundred and twenty six demi humans and majin detected.'
"Lock on to every magical signature in the area."
'Confirmed.'
I used my new Unique Skill: Tsunami, sensing all the water in the area, every drop of water in the air, on the ground… in the bodies of the creatures below me, everything and then used the second Unique Skill: Permafrost to freeze and control only a single drop of water inside everyone's brain. The Cerebrospinal Fluid is a liquid which protects the brain and spinal cord but that's only when it's a fluid. Once turned into ice, the very thing which protects the most important part of the body becomes its greatest enemy.
And when all this was done, the small piece of ice was changed into a needle, shredding their brains into strings.
The loud camp of monsters became quiet in an instant.
"How many are left?"
'Forty three left.'
Forty three?
That's a lot more than I had expected.
'It was analysed that these people had unique grade equipment or the Extra Skill: Ultraspeed Regeneration or large amounts of magicules to prevent the access of the host's magicules in their body. The ones around them were protected by them. Some of them have mechanical bodies.'
Doesn't matter.
It was just the first attack.
Keep collecting the souls but do not commence the Harvest Festival.
A barrier sprung up in the area, covering a big area in the middle.
I got down to the ground and was instantly confronted by four people. One looked like a human woman but was a majin. Another was a three tailed fennec fox. The third was a harpy looking majin and the final one was a delinquent looking majin.
"Bastard!" The delinquent looking Majin dashed towards me with his sword drawn but fell to the ground in the very next step. All it took was freezing and shooting an icicle through his eyes and into his head.
The harpy saw this and tried to fly away and was met with the same end.
It was the last two which made me pause a little.
The woman didn't even try to attack from the very start while the fox had put its head on the ground and I could hear its thoughts.
It was crying for help.
What's going on?
'Notice: The Majin is under a spell called the Marionette Heart. The Fox is under a spell Demonic Beast Domination Spell. Does the host want to free them?'
They were being used as puppets.
Free them.
If they try to attack me, put an icicle through their head.
'Notice: Using the Unique Skill: Masterchef to remove the Spell on their bodies. The host just needs to touch them.'
I did just that.
These two were weak.
They didn't even know when the spell was broken.
Both of them looked at their bodies in surprise and then bowed to me.
"Where is Clayman?"
"H-he is inside." The woman pointed towards a tent.
I turned and started walking towards the tent.
"Be careful, benefactor. Clayman… he has put two other Demon Lords under his control and has help. You should run away… you cannot face all of them." She tried to warn me and I could sense the urgency in her voice.
"It's fine. I will take care of it." I replied as I walked towards the said tent just as I felt a figure drop from the sky beside me.
"Leave Clayman for me. The other Demon Lords are under his control. We just need to break the control. No need to kill them all. It will only bring more trouble to Rimuru and Tempest."
"Alright." Saitama replied.
- Clayman -
"W-what is happening?" One moment, he was discussing the plans for the attack on the weakened human army and the monsters of the Jura Forest and how to deal with the one who killed Charybdis. There was no information about such a person in the entire monster nation from spies.
He still had his trump card of Milim so he wasn't afraid of anyone but to reveal her would create some problems for later so he was a bit reluctant. He had summoned her and Frey after the other side destroyed Charybdis just in case.
But he didn't expect this.
"Put up the barriers. Tear hide and look for an opportunity. Milim stay here till I call for you. Frey, come with me." He commanded as he walked out.
Outside, only a handful of people were present and two of his five fingers on the other side while two others were laying on the ground with small icicles sticking out from both their eyes.
"You two, what are you doing?"
He shouted but they just turned away and stepped back. It took him only an instant to know why? They had somehow been freed from his control.
How?
His control was unbreakable.
He even had Milim under his control.
On the other side, two people stood. A Daemon with black hair and blue eyes and a bald man who looked like an ordinary human.
"Are you Clayman?" The Daemon asked.
"YOU BASTARD! Are you the one who did this?" he roared. "How dare you? Just a mere Daemon who dares to call himself a Demon Lord and now this…" He summoned a puppet as well as attacked him with his magic puppet strings but the strings and the pupped just froze before they could even reach him.
The ice reached him and he dodged but was late to move as his arm fell off to the ground, completely frozen.
Ice crept towards him and Frey jumped to attack but was simply slapped away by him.
This was not in the information.
He was supposed to be a mere Archdaemon. How was he so strong?
"Milim! Milim, come out! Stop him for me!" He shouted, realising that they had made an error in the information collection.
Milim came out and was walking slowly so he slapped her head, making the Daemon's eyes widen. "Be quick, you fool! Hurry up and take him down!"
She jumped towards him and he saw the shock on the daemon's face. He had to pay for Footman's death.
He will suffer and beg for mercy but will die.
All his thoughts were stopped all of a sudden when the bald guy from before appeared in between and clashed with Milim, sending shockwaves throughout the area.
Each of their clashes was destroying the nearby area but in all of this, the bald guy was still keeping up with her.
"How?! That's impossible! It's Milim! One of the ancient Demon Lords! How can a normal human keep up with her? Who is he?!" Clayman roared towards the Daemon who started laughing.
Something about that laughter truly unnerved him.
He had seen many strong people and fought and lived till this day and yet that unhinged laugh of the Daemon truly frightened him to the core.
When he stopped laughing, he spoke. "I truly didn't think I could get any angrier today. Really, seeing my Shuna's dead body should have been enough for me but you must be a genius of some kind to really piss me off to this extent. First you attack Shuna and then you go after my Milim. Your death… will not be painless."
And then a wave of power came out from him, completely drowning everything in the area, making him kneel on the ground.
No.
They couldn't fight this guy.
Not without Milim.
"Say, if I kill you, the control over Milim will be broken, right?"
Clayman's eyes widened as he quickly dodged and sent out all his puppets.
Frey tried to block the attack but was barely able to hold it back with the help of Tear.
No, this can't be happening.
"Clayman run!" Tear shouted and he looked at her in shock. "Run. If your control over Milim and Frey breaks, we will be ruined! Run away, fast!"
Yes.
Yes, he needed to run.
He quickly teleported away but not without giving an order. "Milim, use your Stampede! Crush them all! KILL THEM ALL!"
He would return when everything is destroyed. Milim's attack will give Tear the cover to run away as well.
- Silas -
My attack was blocked by another one of the clowns.
She attacked me but my Skill already predicted that she was going to run away when I dodged, so… I didn't dodge at all.
I pushed my power into my Unique Skill and froze her midway, same for the other Demon Lord.
The next second, I was in front of the clown and with a few slashes of my Black Thorn, her arms were gone.
"Tell me, where is Clayman?" I asked her.
"H-he's in the border town Almec of the Puppet Nation Jistav" She spoke in a trance. When done she froze for a moment and then shouted at me. "You bastard, what did you do to me?"
I ended her shouts with a stab on her forehead as I plucked her soul out and gulped it down.
Unique Skill: Optimist gained.
These Deathmen could escape if their souls were not properly destroyed.
I felt my power rise a bit but the effect was not even close to that of Laplace.
What I did was to use Masterchef on her to make it so that she answers any question asked to her without lies.
The Demon Lord was unconscious.
Demonic Sage couldn't detect the spell on her so there was a chance that it was something quite strong.
I didn't waste my time on her and just decided to follow Clayman. Once the user is dead, all the spells break too.
"Benefactor." I looked back at the two I had freed earlier. "I know where the town is. Clayman uses that town to gather monsters and mercenaries for himself. Many of his reserve forces are stationed in Almec. I can take you there."
And she did just that.
But I did something before leaving.
"Daemon Summoning. I offer the corpses of the fallen. Come Daemon and serve me." I called.
Thousands of corpses disappeared as three Daemons appeared in front of me.
I did this to get backup in case there were other strong beings with Clayman in the new place.
"Such a bountiful offering. What do you desire, summoner?" The one in the lead asked me.
She was a woman with white hair and red eyes. Along with her were two other Daemons, one looked like a child and the other like a young guy.
"Accompany me to the battle and protect me till I become a Demon Lord."
"The ascension of a Demon Lord. How rare. We can follow you to battle to watch this wonderful spectacle." She answered as the ones behind her agreed.
A few minutes later, I stood in the sky over a town controlled by Clayman. I sent the woman, Mjurran, away because I already knew the way back.
It was a big town and I had no idea where Clayman was… this would take a lot of time and currently, I didn't have any time.
"I guess there is only one thing left. I tried to be good but you people wanted a Daemon, so… suffer me now."