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—!

blood sprayed all over the ground as Jin's eyes shone at the

Jin retrieved a black core, the demon's face changed drastically, but it

Cr…Crack!

into his hand, it shattered into thousands of pieces, and the demon's body dissolved into the

"Huu."

demon, Jin took a

really isn't easy to deal

was anything but easy. Nearly half of his mana was depleted,

still a lot of work that he needed to

Gulp—!

melted against the

***

was Prince Letvia. He was a demon with long pinkish hair—a trait belonging to the higher demons within the clan—and his features were extremely pleasant to the

demons. All of whom were Prince

found

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

around the other demons and harvested their core

was, without

me want to take

silently licking his lips and feeling a

exactly going

their goal was to win the

as

This order…

His Majesty desired. He insisted that they make an effort

confused

was no questioning His

tried, and the results were anything but

nothing that could escape his gaze, and all they could do was

you suggest we do with the little

his head to the side to take a look at the Prince-ranked demons that were still present. There were more than a dozen of them, and for some

beginning, one that consisted of choosing a

had all agreed that letting such talented individuals rot would be

could be useful if there

make good cannon fodder or perhaps

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

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

extremely calm. Such behavior pleased the Prince, who nodded

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

couple of steps and stopping right in front

"Valling is it?"

seeing him, and he seemed to be rather talented.

the first time he had actually seen

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

deal with so many things and demons on a

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

"Good… good…"

the more

adequate

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

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

"For now…"

over Valling for very long as he returned his gaze to stare at the battlefield