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—!

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

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

Cr…Crack!

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

"Huu."

powerful demon, Jin took a

isn't easy to deal with such

easy, it was anything but easy. Nearly half of his mana was depleted, and he had only killed one of the numerous

lot of work that he needed to

Gulp—!

a potion, his figure once again melted against the ground,

***

Master of the Sloth Clan was Prince Letvia. He was a demon with long pinkish hair—a trait belonging to the higher demons within the clan—and his features

several demons. All of

like we've found ourselves a

boy with short blond hair and deep

demons and harvested their core without

without a

almost makes me want to take

the Prince, silently licking his lips and feeling

demons weren't exactly going

win the war, they

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 forces even more by converting those who surrendered

demons were confused by the order, but

was no questioning His Majesty

tried, and the

escape his gaze, and all they could do was obey his

do you suggest we do with the little human?

Prince-ranked demons that were still present. There were more

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

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

useful if there was a conflict with another

good cannon fodder or perhaps even main

particular demon. Out of all the demons, he seemed to be the one who showed some

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

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

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

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

"Valling is it?"

This was the first time seeing him, and he seemed to be rather talented. His age

actually seen him, he was familiar with

a name for himself in Ka Mankut, and it had even reached his ears. Especially lately when he heard about

and demons on a daily basis, only the most

was a testament to how

"Good… good…"

more the Prince observed him, the more

was adequate and

most; rather, it was the manner in

extremely pleased to know that there was

"For now…"

over Valling for very long as he returned his gaze