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—!

shone at the sight of

demon's face changed drastically, but it

Cr…Crack!

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

"Huu."

with another powerful demon, Jin took a

to deal with such strong

easy, it was anything but easy. Nearly half of his mana was depleted, and he had

of work that

Gulp—!

a potion, his figure once again melted against the ground, and he headed

***

of the Sloth Clan was Prince Letvia. He was a demon with long pinkish hair—a

him were several demons. All of whom were Prince

found ourselves

Letvia commented, his gaze falling on a certain human boy with short blond hair and

danced around the other demons and harvested their

was, without a

almost makes me want to take

the Prince, silently licking his lips and feeling

the demons weren't exactly going all out against those

goal was to win the war, they had another

many as

This order…

His Majesty desired. He insisted that they make an effort to grow their forces even more by converting those who surrendered in

confused by the order, but

no questioning His Majesty

had tried, and the results were

gaze, and

do you suggest we do with the little human? Does

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

very beginning, one that consisted of choosing a certain target to bring over to

they did enjoy killing, they had all agreed that letting such talented individuals rot would

when they could be useful if there was a conflict

fodder or

of all the demons, he seemed to

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

sounding extremely calm. Such behavior pleased the Prince,

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

demon answered curtly, stepping forward a couple of steps and stopping right in

"Valling is it?"

scrutinized him. This was the first time seeing him, and he

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

ears. Especially lately when he heard about the situation over

demons on a daily basis, only the most

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

"Good… good…"

the Prince observed him, the more pleased he was

adequate

strength that impressed him the most; rather, it was the manner in which he

was extremely pleased to know that there was someone like

"For now…"

as he returned