Chapter 55

The Demon King was born to ordinary demons. A mixed-blood child of beast-type lineage, he came into the world in a small village on the outskirts of demon territory.

But there was nothing ordinary about him.

The moment he was born, he opened his eyes wide, stood up, and rose to his feet—his golden hair fluttering in the windless room.

“This child... is going to be something else.”

That’s what his parents said. They could feel it. From the very instant he arrived, the newborn radiated an overwhelming, malevolent pressure. An instinctive fear gripped them—the kind one feels in the presence of a predator.

As demons, they were sensitive to power. Even when it came from their own child, their instincts couldn’t be silenced.

“Terrifying… utterly terrifying.”

And so, afraid they would one day be devoured by this innocent monster, they left him on the roadside and fled.

---

The Demon King grew up alone. But even without parents, survival was never a problem.

He was a natural-born predator.

When he got hungry, he simply crushed the nearest creature and ate it. Even beasts ten times his size posed no threat.

“Tasty.”

With frail infant arms, he snapped jaws, broke necks, and devoured dripping, dark-red flesh. And so, the child grew.

He was, quite literally, a natural disaster. Any demon unlucky enough to live nearby became his meal.

An overwhelmingly dominant being from birth.

If one had to describe him in a single phrase, it would be: a Rex-class among demons.

Demons are, by nature, far tougher than humans. And among them, a "Rex" is something rare—an apex predator born to rule the rest.

“So weak…”

When he punched, the sound barrier shattered. When he kicked, it stirred tornadoes. When he exhaled, trees snapped like twigs.

What a fragile world. What a pitifully weak world.

And yet—

“But it’s fun.”

He treated this fragile world like a toy, tearing through it for his own amusement. Eventually, rumors of him reached even the ruling class of the demon realm.

“A rogue demon’s wrecking my territory? Fine. I’ll go kill him myself.”

By the time he was a boy, seasoned warriors began hunting him down.

At first, he struggled. He had no training, no technique. Some came with strange weapons. Some attacked from the skies. Others used magic to reduce entire hills to craters.

But to him, it was thrilling.

“Amazing. I wanna fight more. Way more.”

He didn’t fear those who came to kill him—he welcomed them. He crushed them, devoured them, and waited eagerly for the next challenger.

“Haha! I don’t even have to move—dinner comes to me!”

And so his youth passed. Each battle made him stronger.

But that bliss didn’t last forever.

“Demon King-sama.”

“We surrender to you.”

On the day every tribe across demon territory bowed before him—

“…Huh? Then… who’s the next enemy?”

“There is no one left who would dare challenge you, Demon King-sama.”

“…What?”

The joy drained from his life.

“…Then who am I supposed to fight?”

He sat alone on his throne, head in his hands. No one came to challenge him anymore. He no longer needed to fight to survive.

Killing enemies who didn’t fight back was boring. He wanted foes who’d stake everything in battle. That was the only thing that ever made him feel alive.

“Can I… not fight anymore?”

No enemy remained.

He had reached the top. The "Rex" of demonkind, ruling alone from a peak where no rivals existed. Unlike past Rexes, he had no companions to grow with—only silence.

“Now that demon territory is unified, should we not invade the human lands?”

Just as despair began to settle in, a hairy demon approached.

“Human lands?”

“Yes. Let us finally destroy the humans—our old enemies. With your strength, it will be easy.”

“Oh! Let’s do it!”

The Demon King jumped at the chance. If there were no enemies inside, he would simply look outside. It felt like a revelation.

He led his newly unified army straight into human territory.

But the war wasn’t what he’d hoped for.

“Now is the time for patience.”

The generals refused to let him fight.

“Please wait just a little longer, until the conditions are perfect. We will prepare the ultimate stage for you.”

Burned by defeats in the past, the demons no longer cared for honor in battle. They wanted victory—and nothing else. So they kept the Demon King far from the front lines.

He was their King, after all. Not a front-line soldier.

“My turn… still not yet?”

“Just a little longer, my lord. Soon, the royal capital will be in our grasp.”

Frustrated, the Demon King obeyed. But the question gnawed at him: why use tactics at all, when humans were so fragile?

Still, they promised he’d have his chance. Just a little more.

So he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until the report came: the Demon Sword King had fallen.

Someone strong enough to defeat one of the mightiest demons under his command?

The Demon King snapped.

“I can’t take it anymore! Let me fight already!!”

He stormed out of his chambers, headed straight for the fortress where the Demon Sword King had fallen.

His subordinates scrambled to follow, panic in their eyes.

But the Demon King had no sense of strategy. No one knew where he’d actually gone.

Had he charged straight into the royal capital? Was he at the fortress? Or had he just run off in some completely wrong direction?

The top brass of the Demon Army could only clutch their heads in horror.

---

“So this is the fortress where the guy who defeated the Demon Sword King is holed up.”

The Demon Lord, though he’d gotten a bit lost on the way, finally arrived at his destination—a worn-down fortress built by the humans, nestled northeast of the royal capital.

“This is going to be fun. Maybe someone even tougher than the Demon Sword King? My blood’s boiling. I can’t wait.”

Then, he sensed it—an immense presence of magic within the fortress. Not just ordinary magic, but the kind that could only come from a top-tier human mage. Even among a race known for their magical prowess, this one was something special.

“Oh? So this is the one who beat the Demon Sword King? Well, whatever.”

He didn’t know exactly how strong the mage was, but there was no way they could be a match for him.

Now then, it’s been a while. Time for some combat.

As a greeting, the Demon Lord erased the grand, towering fortress with the sheer pressure of his punch.

The humans reacted quickly.

The moment he raised his fist, a massive magic barrier expanded to cover nearly half the fortress. Because of that, only about half of it ended up being blown away by the impact.

“Oho. Not bad at all.”

The Demon Lord grinned. Yes, he could feel it—an enemy worth fighting, something he hadn’t felt in ages.

He readied his fists, full of anticipation, and began striding toward the center of the magical barrier. His eyes gleamed with a savage light, eager to crush the yet-unseen foe.

“────!!”

Then he saw her—an awfully young girl, holding up a staff and shouting something.

“H-Huh!?”

The next moment, a torrent of lightning came crashing down upon him. The sky turned pitch black with thunderclouds, and lightning rained down on him in an unrelenting cascade.

This was magic. Real, human magic—vicious and devastating.

It was nothing like the half-baked “mock magic” the demons had dabbled in. This had true power, speed, and scale.

“Incredible!”

The Demon Lord reflexively raised both arms to block the direct hits. Electric shocks surged through his body, crackling violently. Heat scorched his skin, and smoke began to rise from him.

It was the first time in ages he had felt pain.

“Whoa, whoa! If I leave this alone, I’m gonna get killed. I need to finish this quickly!”

The carefree look vanished from his face as he shifted into a serious combat stance. That tension—the mortal kind, the exchange of life and death—was something he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Without even realizing it, he found himself grinning.

“Time to dive in────”

He pushed his boundless leg strength to the limit and launched himself toward the petite mage who was casting spells.

Her barrier looked tough, but if he hit it hard enough, he could smash through it. The Demon Lord had absolute confidence in his fists.

To him, the strongest attack in existence… was his punch. He truly believed that.

“────I’ll crush you!!”

And he was right.

No magic in this world, no sword strike from any warrior, could ever compare to the power of his fists.

Kiinnn—a piercing, high-pitched ring echoed through the world.

A violent shockwave ripped through the area, forming a massive crater around the fortress. The earth, rocks, even colossal trees were flung away like debris in a raging flood.

It was surreal. His casual “greeting” punch had carved a perfect circle out of the land, annihilating everything except for the area protected by Clarise’s barrier.

And it didn’t end there.

“Wha—!? My barrier!?”

Clarise’s barrier, struck directly, warped violently. It emitted a shrill, ear-splitting screech before shattering into countless fragments.

This wasn’t something that could be brushed off.

This was something utterly overwhelming.

Clarise had gone to great lengths to craft her own defensive magic—the Barrier of Love—pouring all her knowledge into it, combining techniques like dimensional isolation and spatial severance to block any physical attack imaginable.

In theory, breaking this barrier through brute force alone should have been impossible.

And yet, the Demon Lord had shattered it with nothing but a punch—obliterating the barrier of one of the world’s greatest mages through sheer, overwhelming might.

It was such a ridiculous feat that even Clarise herself had screamed, “What kind of nonsense is this!?”

“That was fun, mage! It’s been ages since I actually felt the threat of death!”

Clarise let out a worn-out gasp, while the Demon Lord raised his fist once more.

“Now then—farewell, worthy foe!!”

With that, he launched a clean, straight punch directly at the young mage.

────Whoosh. A sudden gust of wind blew through.

“…Huh?”

Where the Demon King had swung his arm, everything had been obliterated—only a barren wasteland remained.

Had that mage been blown away as well? Humans were said to be fragile creatures, but to think not even a bone would remain from a single strike...

“There was… no impact…”

No, something was off.

The Demon King had definitely swung his fist. As a result, the earth before him had been completely wiped out.

Normally, this would mean the enemy was reduced to minced flesh—utterly annihilated.

But still… no matter how fragile humans may be, the lack of any resistance was unnatural.

“Shinrabanshou Akashic Record!!”

────In that very instant, a storm of iron stakes rained down from behind the Demon King.

“Huh? Behind me?”

The scorching skin, already seared by lightning, was pierced again and again with a sickening sound as the iron stakes drove into him.

The Demon King turned in shock—and there she was. The mage. Still alive. Surrounded by soldiers and protected by a magical barrier once more.

When had she circled around to his rear? No—there was no way.

“When did you—?! You little—!”

“My stakes have penetrated your outer shell. Now then, even one as sturdy as you—what happens when the lightning seeps into your insides?”

“Ghh!”

And again, a surge of thunder crashed down upon the Demon King’s entire body.

“Gyaaaaaaahhhh!!”

The pain and convulsions this time were on an entirely different level—far worse than before.

He was going to die. No matter how tough his body was, if high-voltage current kept flowing directly through his insides, he wouldn’t survive.

Desperately trying to yank out the iron stakes embedded in his back, he left himself open—only to be hit by another barrage of attack magic.

Trying to charge the mage would somehow result in his blows missing, and she’d end up behind him again.

It was like a magic trick. Normally, the Demon King would never lose track of an opponent’s movement.

Which meant… he shouldn’t have been caught from behind.

“No… that’s not it.”

And finally—

The Demon King grasped the truth of the situation.

“Don’t tell me—my attacks are missing their mark!?”

It was something he’d never experienced before. And it was deeply unsettling.

But that had to be it. The fist that was supposed to hit the mage struck only empty ground. The little girl standing there now, still casting her spells without pause, hadn’t moved at all.

There was no other explanation.

“What the hell did you do, mage!?”

Was this also magic? Was this how the humans fought?

Staring wide-eyed at this bizarre technique, the Demon King screamed.

And behind him—

────stood a swordswoman with red eyes, her presence light as the wind.