The Author's POV

[Pillar of Sloth]

SHIIING—!

Silently coming from beneath the ground, Jin appeared behind a demon, and with his daggers crossed behind the demon's neck, a head rolled on the ground.

Thump!

Thin black threads emerged from the ground, enveloping the entire head before crushing it into a pulp and revealing a black core.

After the core was uncovered, the threads eventually worked their way toward it, and wrapped all over it, shattering the core at once.

Like that, a Duke ranked demon died.

"Haa…"

After releasing a soft breath, dark threads emerged from the ground and grappled onto his legs, pulling him beneath the ground, and his figure disappeared into the ground.

Boom—!

Shortly after his figure merged with the ground, a foot stomped in the area he was in, forming a large crater.

"He's gone!"

A demon huffed, looking around with a menacing glare.

It had only been a couple of minutes since he had made his appearance, but from the moment he had appeared, the situation started to turn more chaotic.

The great advantage that they had built was slowly starting to crumble, and the other races were starting to recompose themselves

"Where has he gone!? Damn, hiding bastard!"

The demon cursed and trashed, looking everywhere for any traces of the human that had appeared from out of nowhere.

It was right when he fixed his gaze in a particular direction that he suddenly felt a chill coming down his back and a voice whispering into his ears.

"I'm not hiding anywhere."

"You—!"

Swoosh—!

He swung his claws directly behind him, but to his great dismay, he saw that his claws hit nothing. Instead, thin black threads emerged from underneath the ground and slowly grappled and latched onto his hands, halting his movement.

"This! What is this!?"

The demon tried to rid himself of the threads that were gripped onto his arms, but as he pulled, he found that they didn't budge a single inch and merely stretched a little bit.

If that wasn't bad enough, more and more threads appeared from beneath the ground, encircling his legs and wings.

No matter how much the demon tried to struggle, more and more threads emerged from the ground beneath, sealing his movements.

The process moved along rather quickly, and before the demon even realized what was happening, the dark threads had encased every part of his body, with the exception of his head, which protruded from the cocoon.

"Release me!"

The demon tried to struggle, but it was a futile effort.

Appearing behind him, Jin casually looked at him from top to bottom before bending over and stabbing at his calf.

"There it is."

Spurt—!

all over the ground as Jin's eyes shone

core, the demon's face changed drastically, but it was already too

Cr…Crack!

hand, it shattered into thousands of pieces, and the demon's body dissolved into the air. The threads that were cocooning him loosened, and

"Huu."

demon, Jin took a

to deal with

mana was depleted, and he had only killed one

still a lot of work that

Gulp—!

against the

***

was a demon with long pinkish hair—a trait belonging to the higher demons within the clan—and his features

were several demons. All of

we've found ourselves

falling on a certain human boy with short blond hair and deep green eyes

way he danced around the other demons and harvested

without a

me want to take

Prince, silently licking his lips and feeling

secret, but the demons weren't exactly

goal was to win the war,

as many as they

This order…

not something that they desired but rather something that His Majesty desired. He insisted that they make an effort to grow their

were confused by the order,

was no questioning His

and the results were anything but

escape his gaze, and all they

suggest we do with the little human? Does

Prince-ranked demons that were still present. There were more than a dozen of them, and for some time they had been standing off in the distance and watching the

playing a certain game from the very beginning, one that consisted of choosing a certain target to bring over to their

all agreed that letting such talented individuals rot would be a

could be useful if there was a conflict

cannon fodder or

all the demons, he seemed to be the one who

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

voice sounding extremely calm. Such behavior pleased the Prince, who nodded

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

stepping forward a couple of steps and stopping right in front of Prince

"Valling is it?"

him, and he seemed to be rather talented. His age

the first time he had actually seen him, he was familiar

Ka Mankut, and it had even reached his ears. Especially lately when he heard about the situation over there and how he had managed to gain an upper

to deal with so many things and demons on a

he had heard about him was a testament to how well he had done over

"Good… good…"

more the Prince observed him, the more pleased he

strength was adequate and fairly

it wasn't his strength that impressed him the most; rather,

days, and he was extremely pleased to know that there was someone like this

"For now…"

didn't linger over Valling for very long as he returned