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

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

Cr…Crack!

dissolved into the

"Huu."

another powerful demon, Jin took a

really isn't easy to deal with such

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

lot of work that he needed to

Gulp—!

against the ground, and he headed for his next

***

long pinkish hair—a trait belonging to the higher demons

him were several demons. All

looks like we've found ourselves

certain human boy with short blond hair and

demons and harvested

without a doubt,

me want to

Prince, silently licking his lips

wasn't a secret, but the demons weren't exactly going all out

goal was to win the war, they

as they

This order…

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

of the demons were confused by the order, but

no questioning His

the results were

gaze, and all they could do was obey

we do with the little human? Does anyone want

cocked 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

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

killing, they had all agreed that letting

they could be useful if there was a

make good cannon fodder

all the demons, he seemed to be

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

voice sounding extremely calm. Such behavior pleased the Prince,

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

a couple of

"Valling is it?"

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

had actually seen him, he was familiar

when he heard about the situation over there and how he had managed to gain an

many things and demons on a

a testament to how well

"Good… good…"

more pleased he was with what he was

adequate and

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

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

"For now…"

long as he returned his gaze to stare at the battlefield