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—!

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

the demon's face changed drastically,

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 loosened, and they obediently returned to the

"Huu."

dealt with another powerful demon, Jin took a deep

really isn't easy to

but easy. Nearly half of his mana

was still a lot of work that

Gulp—!

again melted against the ground, and he headed for

***

demon with long pinkish hair—a trait belonging to the higher demons within the clan—and his features

several demons. All of whom

It looks like we've found ourselves a rather

on a certain human boy with short blond hair and deep green eyes in the middle of

other demons and harvested their core

without a

almost makes me

his lips

the demons weren't exactly going

their goal was to win the war, they

as they possibly

This order…

His Majesty desired. He insisted that they make an effort

demons were confused by the order, but

His

had tried, and the results were

his gaze, and all they could do was

you suggest we do with the little human? Does anyone

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

very beginning, one that consisted of choosing a certain

agreed that letting such talented individuals rot

when they could be useful if there was

fodder or perhaps even main

the demons, he seemed to be the one who

"Are you interested?"

"…I indeed am."

voice sounding extremely calm. Such behavior

"What's your name?"

"Valling."

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

"Valling is it?"

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

actually seen him, he

had even reached his ears. Especially lately when he heard about the situation over

many things and demons on a daily

had heard about him was a testament

"Good… good…"

the more pleased he was

adequate and

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

calmness was rare to see these days, and he was extremely pleased to know that there was someone like this in his

"For now…"

Letvia's gaze didn't linger over Valling for very long as he returned his gaze to