Demon Lord: Erotic Adventure in Another World

Chapter 869: The Best Bait for a fish monster is a Demon Emperor?!

There was a significant reason he offered to serve as bait: first, he was itching to fight; second, he didn’t wish to show the Imperials his full combat ability and risk them reporting it to their Emperor.

’If he’s so strong with a seal, I cannot allow them to gain too much information on me.’

He trusted Brando, Valena and Nerim to control the situation and regroup with Velvet, Vinea and Levia before the main clash.

"This is merely the appetiser. Right, Leviathan?"

It started annoying him that the name he’d brought from the previous world was also used for such a disgusting beast.

’Maybe I shouldn’t have called Levia such a foul thing...’

He regretted not studying until later.

The storm pressed down around him as if the sky itself wanted to crush his wings.

"What shitty weather..."

Asmodeus hovered above the black water, his mantle snapping violently behind him while the fleet struggled in the distance.

’Counting on you, Brando.’

Brando’s command ship remained fixed in place, scarlet light from the single Mankchor spreading beneath it like a stubborn wound refusing to close. Soon, the various ships from Lumaria started to shimmer as they shifted towards the Mankchor, as if it were some tractor beam.

The rest of the vessels groaned against the current.

They were not sinking yet.

But the Imperial fleet suffered great damage from the lashing waves.

’Once the ships are bound together, they will move to Grigor’s eastern coast... I should get a move on then.’

’Brando.’

His thought travelled through the demonic crest carved into the flagship.

’Keep the fleet angled toward Grigor. Don’t fight the current directly. Ride the edge of it.’

A heartbeat later, Brando’s reply came through the ship’s array, rough and full of curses.

’You make it sound easy, brother! The damn sea’s trying to drag my balls into the abyss!’

’Then hold them tighter.’

’Hah! That’s your advice?’

’For now.’

Asmodeus smiled, then looked down.

It was rare for him to use his telepathy to speak with men, but for people like Simon, Alan, Brando and Paul, he ignored the strange icky feeling afterwards.

[Serena]

[Y-Yes, my love?]

[I am heading into battle. Make sure you protect Baltimore from any chaotic waves.]

[Y-You!? How are you so reckless... I could join you—]

[No, you won’t! There will be a moment I need you, Serena... please be patient! I cannot expose you to other men and danger so recklessly!]

The monsters circling beneath him were no longer fleeing blindly. Their bodies twisted through the water in a wide spiral, forced together by the pressure rising from below. Every crab, eel, serpent and nightmare thing thrashed like livestock trapped before slaughter.

’So it had mind-controlling abilities?’

Well, that didn’t matter to Asmodeus; their reckless movements and lack of self-preservation were a great boon to him.

Asmodeus lifted his hand, flapping his wings rapidly.

He did not use his time domain or any of his higher-level spells.

He did not draw the kind of power that would make Albrecht’s eyes shine with greed and terror.

Instead, he released only raw demonic mana.

A crude, heavy and violent torrent of power was only allowed to a Demon Emperor such as him.

The sheer amount of aura that leaked from his palm caused the surrounding sea to bubble and boil around him.

Beautiful crimson flames of blood formed beautiful flowers atop his palm.

The petals scattered, dancing through the wind as if impervious to the raging storm, each one dropping towards the countless creatures aiming to devour Asmodeus.

’They remind me of Asmodea...’

Those little crimson flowers looked soft, delicate and strangely beautiful, much like the woman who had once watched his magic with bright eyes and a dangerous smile.

When she said he wasn’t cursed, and she would accept all his darkness...

His life changed forever.

A sickly woman who abandoned everything, including her name, for him.

Alas, the moment the petals touched the sea monsters, that beauty vanished and became a cruel fire that bloomed in crimson roses across their scales and shells.

The circling swarm changed at once.

Countless heads, eyeless faces and snapping jaws tilted toward the sky. Their fear of the thing below mixed with pain, rage and hunger, twisting them into a single violent tide.

’It’s working.’

Asmodeus curved his fingers.

More petals scattered from his palm, drifting gently through the storm before bursting against the water in small, bloody flames. Each impact sent another cluster of monsters into a frenzy, dragging the spiral away from the fleet and toward him.

Behind him, cannons continued to roar.

The Lumerian ships began shifting, riding the narrow path opened by his provocation.

Brando understood quickly enough, barking orders so loudly his voice almost challenged the thunder itself.

’That’s it. Follow me.’

A cluster of black eels burst from the surface, their bodies slick with oily water and their mouths opening wide enough to swallow a man whole.

Asmodeus flapped his wings with a single snap.

Instead of rising higher, he dropped.

The storm swallowed his silhouette for a heartbeat before he descended straight toward them, his claws spreading as the first eel lunged for his throat.

Several eels burst from the surface, jaws open wide, their black bodies twisting toward him. Asmodeus dropped from the air, spinning once as his claws tore through the first three. Their bodies split apart, spraying hot blood into the rain before the next wave leapt after him.

He let them.

’Come on.’

His wings fluttered above the surface, like an enticing butterfly near a spider’s web.

He shot backwards while dragging his aura across the surface like bait dipped in blood.

The monsters followed.

All of them wanted the Asmodeus buffet.

The nearest swarm changed direction, abandoning the Lumerian ships and surging toward the dark figure cutting across the storm. Cannons roared behind him as Brando understood the opening at once, blasting apart the creatures that broke from the pack and tried to return toward the fleet.

[Nerim]

[Asmodeus?!]

Her voice entered his mind quickly, sharper than usual.

[How is the current? Are you able to get away?]

As a siren and mermaid, she could read the ocean better than any sailor, her scales able to sense dangers. At the same time, her natural disposition allowed her to manipulate the waters ever so slightly.

[The current path isn’t safe. Should I guide Brando towards the west and ensure he can reach Grigor? But... if I do that, you will be left...]

[Do not worry, Nerim. Who is your husband?]

[Alright! D-Don’t get hurt...]

A moment later, her voice rang across the command ship, no longer playful or jealous, but clear with the strange resonance of siren blood.

Asmodeus glanced back long enough to see sailors react before they realised why. Rudders shifted. Sails turned. The first line of ships angled slightly east, avoiding the strongest pull of the unnatural current.

His eyes softened for half a breath.

’Good girl.’

A sharp heat answered through another bond.

[Don’t praise the fish while I’m listening. Even I could do something that impressive if you let me transform! Hmph!]

Valena.

Asmodeus cut through a serpent’s skull with his heel, using the falling corpse as a foothold before launching himself higher.

[You should be focusing on not losing control.]

[I am calm.]

[Your thoughts are so hot they might burn me alive...]

[Hmph! Don’t play with me... I just want you to be careful...]

He almost laughed as the sea opened below him as if to welcome him.

Only a brief parting between waves, a crack of darkness stretching farther than any ship. In that split second, Asmodeus saw something move beneath the swarm.

One slow, distant curve of flesh or scale buried deep under the water, vast enough that the monsters above it looked like insects fleeing a collapsing nest.

The whisper returned.

Kneel.

Sink.

Obey.

Asmodeus’s smile vanished.

The command crushed around his skull harder than before, testing the edges of his will, searching for a crack through instinct instead of thought.

His wings faltered for an instant, but that was all the monsters needed.

A shell-backed creature burst from the water beneath him, humanlike arms reaching from its sides, its mouth opening across its belly in a wet, jagged smile.

Asmodeus looked down at it.

"Ugly bastard."

He dropped straight onto its back.

The impact cracked its shell and drove the creature under the surface. Black water swallowed him for an instant, cold pressure wrapping around his body from every side.

The whisper grew louder beneath the sea.

Kneel.

Asmodeus opened his eyes underwater.

Gold and crimson light burned through the dark.

"No."

His fist punched down.

The creature beneath him exploded.

A column of blood and shattered shell erupted from the surface as Asmodeus shot back into the storm, dragging half the swarm after him. His chest rose and fell once, not from exhaustion but from annoyance.

The monster turned out to be a larger version of the strange creatures from Baltimore; it seemed they couldn’t maintain sentience without that woman.

Asmodeus tore through another eel with a sweep of his claws, scattering black blood across the rain.

’Himari.’

At first, he thought she might be a hindrance, so he didn’t seek to bring her aboard; instead, he used her powers to help improve the coastal city.

His eyes narrowed as he rose above the storm again.

The timing was too ugly to ignore.

Baltimore.

Himari.

Leviathan.

Creatures that lost themselves without a guiding will.

’This isn’t some fucking trial created by that bastard above, is it...?’

Asmodeus remembered how it felt when he first met Mephisto and almost died, guided by Serena and always feeling an invisible hand steering events in certain ways. He even wondered if he had truly escaped that fate.

"Well, I’ll know if those bastards appear again..."

On the constant lookout for the Arbiters, Asmodeus couldn’t focus on the current battle.

Oblivious to a pair of silver eyes that had been watching him for months.