Demon Lord: Erotic Adventure in Another World

Chapter 870: Warning Shot

The silver eyes vanished the moment Asmodeus turned his head.

There was nothing there.

Only black water, screaming monsters and rain so heavy it seemed to fall upward whenever the storm twisted. For a moment, Asmodeus thought he had imagined it, his mind strained by Leviathan’s whispers, the Arbiters, Himari and that damned sense of being dragged around by something unseen.

But he knew better.

Something had been watching him.

Not with curiosity, but clean and clear hostility.

’Months... no Years...?’

The thought appeared in his mind without reason, yet Asmodeus couldn’t shake it. Since Baltimore? Since before that? Since Mephisto? Or from the moment he fell into this world and opened his eyes as a demon?

However, the two types of gaze brought him a moment of peace.

The one filled with hostility only appeared recently, over the past few years and after the Arbiters attacked Lumeria.

"Is it her?"

An obscenely beautiful woman, without emotion, flashed before his eyes: her pristine white skin, the pale exoskeletal armour crested with gold and silver, and her divine eyes.

The beautiful Arbiter who wielded the power of gravity. Ein.

"Tsk! Back off!"

A serpent over seven metres long lunged at him from the left.

Asmodeus twisted midair, his wing carving through the rain as he caught the beast by its upper jaw and tore its skull apart with a single pull. Black blood dripped down his arm, so hot it hissed into steam, scalding his skin. Yet he remained focused on the empty patch in the centre of the storm where he felt those silver eyes.

Nothing.

Only the sea.

Only the shadow below.

’Fine. Hide like a coward.’

His lips curled.

’Everyone likes hiding from me until they need something.’

Another wave of monsters surged beneath him, driven upward by Leviathan’s command. Their bodies slammed together, devouring, clawing and crushing each other in their desperate need to escape the deeper water. Yet, the moment Asmodeus’ aura touched them, their fear bent into hunger.

They came for him again and again.

And Asmodeus welcomed them.

Crimson flowers bloomed from his fingertips, scattering through the storm like beautiful little lies. Every petal that touched flesh became flame. Every flame became pain. Every scream drew more monsters toward him and farther from the fleet.

"That’s right."

Asmodeus flew backwards, letting the monsters chase his shadow.

"Ignore the ships. Look at me."

Behind him, the Lumerian fleet moved in broken lines through the storm, dragged together by the Mankchor’s scarlet light.

Nerim’s voice carried over the deck, guiding sailors through currents no normal eye could see. Brando shouted after her, turning her instructions into ugly, practical orders that even half-panicked demons could obey.

Meanwhile, the poor Imperial fleet struggled with far worse a fate.

Their pretentious golden barriers cracked on the third wave, as storm water, lightning and monsters leaked onto their hulls with each undulation of Leviathan’s pressure, which rolled beneath them as several smaller vessels collapsed under the dangerous atmosphere.

Yet they still insisted on following the Lumerian ships.

’Well, he’s different from what I thought...’

Asmodeus thought Albrecht was a foolish blond figurehead, but watching him in this situation changed his mind.

He was competent, far more than Asmodeus gave credit for.

’Don’t make me respect you, human.’

A black eel burst from the water below, then another, then twenty more, rising like spears from the sea.

Asmodeus folded his wings.

For a heartbeat, he dropped like a stone.

Then his body vanished.

He passed between the eels in a blur of bronze skin, black mantle and crimson claws. Heads split. Bodies opened. Blood rained upward with the force of his movement, painting the storm in dark strokes before the next thunderclap swallowed the sound.

He still did not use his real power.

’What’s going to happen when I am forced to kill you?’

"Hm?"

The sudden whisper of Leviathan became louder and more focused than before.

As if responding to that...

Something beneath the sea shifted with it, and the entire ocean seemed to tilt. The monster swarm suddenly changed direction, no longer chasing him in a loose spiral but compressing into a narrow, violent line.

Toward Grigor.

Toward the fleet.

Toward the path Nerim had chosen at random.

Asmodeus’ smile vanished.

’It noticed.’

Even while still trapped in a deep slumber, with just a portion of its mind awake, it managed to see through their attack and changed its attack pattern in an instant.

[Asmodeus!]

The shout of Nerim came from her soul, resonated within his mind as he felt a sudden tingle of insecurity from her depths.

[It’s okay, Levaithan has just seen through our trick... don’t lose your focus. I will buy you some time, okay?]

[W-What’re you going to do!?"

[Burn them!]

[Asmodeus, how can you burn the sea...]

[Watch me, Nerim.]

Asmodeus shot into the air, his wings snapping in rapid succession as he tore through the skies at a speed no normal man could endure.

If he held back too much, the fleet would suffer.

If he revealed too much, the Imperials would have information to use against him.

However, he tossed those thoughts out of his mind as he came to a stop, his lips curving into a smirk.

"Who cares if they see, how annoying..."

Asmodeus stared into the black water.

[I am going to remind this ugly bastard that I am not prey.]

This attack might hasten the awakening of Leviathan, but he didn’t care.

The crackle of Divine and Abyssal energy warped the atmosphere around Asmodeus as a swirl of red light gathered rapidly at the tip of his finger.

At first, it was small.

No larger than a drop of blood, as it vaporised the rain around it.

The storm itself bent away from his hand as if terrified of touching the thing he was creating. Crimson light condensed into a thin, unstable sphere, pulsing between beautiful and grotesque with every heartbeat. Divine radiance wrapped around it like a golden shell, while Abyssal darkness crawled beneath the surface like rotten veins.

Asmodeus did not fully charge it.

If he fired the full force blast, it’d cause devastating tsunamis and kill countless of his people.

Even then, the pressure from the attack made the sea below sink several metres.

[S-Sanguine Devastation!?]

This time, it was Valnea’s sudden squawk that leaked through their bond.

[You idiot! If you fire that here—]

[I know.]

[No, you don’t! You always say you know, then destroy something important!]

Asmodeus smiled.

[Then pray I aim properly.]

[Master!]

He ignored the shout and raised his finger toward the violent line of monsters now surging toward Nerim’s chosen path.

The swarm had become a wall of flesh.

Eels twisted over crabs. Serpents coiled around shell-backed beasts. Pale fish with knife teeth hurled themselves forward in endless numbers, forced by Leviathan’s command until their bodies crushed together into a single disgusting tide.

Behind them, the fleet struggled to turn.

’Don’t worry, I won’t miss.’

The red sphere at his fingertip shrank.

The smaller it became, the more the world around him screamed.

Lightning froze for an instant inside the clouds. The rain curved away from him in a perfect circle. Even Leviathan’s whisper paused, as though the thing beneath the sea had finally noticed something it did not like.

Asmodeus aimed.

"Sanguine Devastation."

A thin crimson beam shot from his finger.

For half a heartbeat, it looked unimpressive.

Then the sea split.

The beam carved through the monster wall in a straight line, cutting flesh, shell, bone and water without slowing. Every creature touched by the crimson light vanished from the centre outward, their bodies blooming into red mist before the storm could even scatter them.

The ocean spread as if terrified.

A boiling trench stretched across the battlefield, steam erupting on both sides as the beam tore through the swarm and continued toward the distant black water.

The pressure alone smashed several monsters beneath the surface, while those too close to the path convulsed and burst as their blood ignited inside their bodies.

Asmodeus twisted his wrist slightly.

The beam followed.

A clean arc.

A butcher’s cut across the sea.

The monster tide broke apart.

For the first time since Leviathan’s voice had sounded, the fleeing creatures lost their forced formation. Some were scattered as others dove deeper in panic. The ones still controlled surged forward without the numbers to overwhelm the fleet.

Behind him, every cannon on the Lumerian side fired at once.

Brando had not missed the chance.

"Now! Punch through that ugly gap!"

The fleet moved.

Nerim’s voice rose above the thunder, guiding them through the opening as the Mankchor’s scarlet light pulled the ships into a tighter formation. Even the Imperial vessels followed, their golden barriers flickering as they slipped behind Lumeria’s wake.

Asmodeus let the beam die.

The sphere at his fingertip shattered into crimson sparks, scattering across his hand like dying fireflies. His finger smoked. The skin around his knuckle had split open with blood trickling into the rain.

He tightened his fist, then released.

’Tch... still too unstable without preparation.’

Far behind him, Albrecht stood on the deck of his boarding vessel, staring upward.

Even Caelith froze upon seeing the sudden red beam of light, their eyes focused on Asmodeus in silence. The arrogant knight who loved glaring at him had lost the shape of her anger for a moment.

Asmodeus clicked his tongue.

’Well, so much for hiding everything.’

But it was fine, because he managed to save the ones he cared about, and strangely, Leviathan’s awakening didn’t suddenly increase.

A full Sanguine Devastation could wipe a mountain from the world.

What he had fired was only a restrained thread, a mere warning for the beast lurking in the depths.