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—!

as Jin's eyes shone at the sight of a particular object

core, the demon's face changed drastically, but it

Cr…Crack!

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

"Huu."

dealt with another powerful demon, Jin took

isn't easy to deal

easy. Nearly half of his mana was depleted, and he

was still a lot of work that he needed

Gulp—!

against the ground, and he headed for his next

***

demon with long pinkish hair—a trait belonging

him were several demons. All of

we've found

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

demons and harvested their core

was, without a

makes me want to

silently licking his

secret, but the demons weren't exactly going all

goal was to win the war, they

many as

This order…

desired. He insisted that they

confused by the

was no questioning His Majesty in

tried, and the results were anything

could escape his gaze, and all

you suggest we do with the little human? Does anyone

present. There

certain game from the very beginning, one that consisted of choosing a certain target to

killing, they had all agreed that

they could be useful if there

cannon fodder or perhaps

on a particular demon. Out of all the demons, he

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

voice sounding extremely calm. Such

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

stepping forward a couple of steps and stopping right in

"Valling is it?"

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

first time he had actually seen him, he was familiar

for himself in Ka Mankut, and it had even reached his ears. Especially lately when he heard about the situation over there

many things and demons on a daily basis, only the most important topics would make it

him was a testament to how well he had done

"Good… good…"

him, the more

strength was adequate

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

calmness was rare to see these days, and he was extremely

"For now…"

didn't linger over Valling for very long as