Chapter 3: Luxuria, Part 1: A Demon Lord of Lust Said, Once Upon a Time
A Demon Lord of Lust said, once upon a time,
“Even without assertive charm, you can still fulfill your desire.
If it’s just satisfying your cravings, there are no obstacles.”
Saying that, she didn’t eat what was to be eaten, and as she continued wasting away, she gently stroked my head.
Her refreshing appearance and enamoring charisma were enough to make even a female like me harbor certain feelings. She was beautiful enough to force one into depravity, and as I mused at how this was what a true devilish beauty was, I couldn’t help but feel envious of her.
Perhaps she was the only『Luxuria』 I ever had my eyes on, and I wanted her to view me as a single 『Luxuria』 as well. She was an exceedingly sweet, dark, and fleeting woman.
That Demon Lord already fell long ago, but her teachings live on within me, and I live with them as my foundations.
Lust is said to be the most difficult to satisfy among the Original Sins.
Demons don’t fall to charms so easily.
Material wealth for Greed, Honor for Pride,
Appetite for Gluttony, and Envy and Wrath are on a different Vector.
Sloth has his world complete with him alone, and he won’t even remember my name.
And as a High Level Demon, the stronger a Demon gets, the more they must pursue their thirst, and the more they are dyed by those emotions. Once they reach Demon Lord Level, all emotions besides that one are nothing more than cheap scraps of paper lying around. They barely remain.
At present, my greatest enemy is not someone like the Demon Lord of Gluttony, but the Demon Lord of my own forces.
Just how many decades, how many centuries have I sided with him? At the very least, he could remember my name.
Is it my sin for me to think that way?
I hate Deije of Greed. But I recognize his fighting prowess.
That Pride and I never thought to take the initiative and launch assaults ourselves. I may add that Leigie-sama has no such sentiments either, so for Deije, who sought powerful equipment as compensation, he continues to be a useful asset to Leigie-sama’s army.
For him, whose longings lead him directly to battle, he’s the only one to long to go on the offense in our army.
I’m merely envious of him.
Even I… have things I long for. I’ve just never pursued them directly.
It’s something that can’t be helped with the attribute I govern.
I managed to come in contact with the enemy within a few seconds.
Despite this, I’m a High Class Demon. I’m often told that I’m small, or unsociable, or that I lack any sex appeal, but that has nothing to do with battle. With the stride of a High Class Demon, I kicked the ground, and crushed the deserted land underfoot, before coming into contact with the Gluttony Legion that had been several Kilometers away.
More than a hundred of me are visible, but still, the Gluttony army a few hundred meters away shows no signs of having noticed us.
A large majority of the Luxuria Skill Tree has to do with skills that corrupt the mind.
They range from typical charm spells to creating illusions at will, and there are even ones to put others to sleep.
Even so, they aren’t favorable for use on Demons.
One of the first skills a demon gets on the basic Skill Tree is a passive that resists mental corruption. Besides Angels and Demons, other races rarely have it, but among those two, it’s quite rare to find someone without that skill.
Because of that, Luxuria Demons are looked down upon. The Luxuria Skill Tree, from the elementary to the higher levels, can be completely negated with one of the first skills of the basic tree.
In the worst cases, we’re called useless seductresses, and I’ve completely eradicated those who looked at me with such biased views. They show no interest in me when it matters, but as a joke, they try to tarnish my Pride, and incite my Wrath, even when I govern neither of those fields.
Generally, the Lust Attribute has nothing to do with that. They’re making a grave misunderstanding.
It’s not that… I’m lacking in sex appeal, and it’s not that I’m lacking in charm. My hair, and my skin, and even my clothing, I take good care of it all, and I’m trying my hardest to make my expression as bright and affectionate as possible.
The meagerness of my stature is by no means my fault. It’s because I didn’t get enough nutrition in my childhood. Once I began paying mind to it, I tried to get as much nourishment into my system as possible, but it was too late.
But I can’t go around cursing fate.
It’s fine. This isn’t my favorite phrase, but none of it really matters.
It’s not like I… want to become one who incites sexual desire from everyone, or that I want to embrace everyone.
A majority of Zebul the Devourer’s legion consists of Demons with Gluttony as their original sin.
That tree specializes in ways to attack large areas. It’s the skill tree whose attack power is second only to Wrath.
But it’s useless if it doesn’t hit.
The fact that everyone has resistance to Mental Corruption means they have little ways to deal with it once their resistance is overcome.
In particular, the Lust Skill 『Phantom Aliquot Dance』 is not just some illusionary skill.
Each and every one of my phantoms’ fields of visions are sent directly to my head.
At the head of his army, a demon finally captures sight of my flickering image and stops his feet.
The power I sense from his being is by no means low. Zebul’s army is quite powerful.
The army of Gluttony was a herd of grotesque demons. There were barely any that had complete hold of a human form. That violent animalistic nature… beastly howls echo through the desert as if to express their appetites.
The magic I sense from each and every one of them is slightly higher than those of the Rank Three army, but there’s not much of a difference. These men no longer have a future. They went against the Great Demon King Kanon, and now that they’ve taken down two Demon Lords, they’ve burned their bridge back. They won’t even be able to make it through with a narrow victory. Unless they completely overwhelm us, they wouldn’t be able to stand the confrontations with the fifteen other Demon Lords under Kanon.
From what I’ve heard, the reason the Devourer started his revolution was a shortage of food. There is little in the nature of food provisions within the Demon World. No, from the standpoint of an average Demon, there’s plenty of food going around, but the Gluttony Attribute exponentially increases the required volume. The more they eat, the more power they can obtain. Just as Lust’s power increases the more intimate interactions one has. Just as Envy’s power increases the more one longs for the possessions of others.
The Demon that noticed us activated a Gluttony Skill.
A black wave of magic expands from him in an instant and swallows me up.
I see… a Gluttony Skill. How atrocious.
The magic around my body is pierced through with fangs and torn away. The magic of the Body Strengthening abilities I was using were forcefully dissipated, converted back to pure magic, and sucked away.
This is… a skill to eat up another’s power and use it as your own.
It’s likely he didn’t know where my real body was, so he tried to target all of us altogether. The scope of his ability has a bad affinity with my Lust skills.
I already knew from the start, but this will be troublesome.
That’s why I went out first. I, one of the only three Generals of Leigie-sama’s army.
No matter how bad the affinity, no matter how unsuited I am for battle, you cannot overturn the difference in our ability.
My Lust draws his eyes, and they’re clouded for a moment. He’s underestimating me.
But he only stopped moving for a brief instant, and『Gluttony』dyes his eyes once more. These guys will even eat those of the same race. No, I don’t mean sexually, I mean it physically. That’s why I hate them. No, it’s not like I wanted to be eaten sexually or anything…
The claws extending from his fingers mercilessly come towards my face. Before any of my blood could scatter, I used my hand to gouge his throat out. First one down. Without looking back to see him hit the ground, I continued to kick at the ground.
If possible, I want to use my skills, but as long as they’re blocked by resistances, I only have hand to hand combat. But that’s more than enough.
Fangs sent forth from behind pierce through my stomach, and like that, a single one of my illusions was eaten up. The blood dancing through the empty air soon vanished.
One of my fields of vision disappeared. But something like that won’t inflict any damage on me. My direct attacks work, even on Gluttony Demons. It’s been my first physical battle in a while, but it looks alright. I can do this.
Deije is an annoying man, but he definitely has an eye for war. He has some vulgar parts, but I can’t underestimate the power that got him a commanding position in a mere 10 years.
The role given to the one who can control the five senses definitely isn’t annihilating their army.
My role is to ascertain the power of the Demon Lord. Even if no one said it, I can understand that much.
Zebul the Devourer. I’ll have to use my body to take on one of the high class Demon Lord Skills we’ve heard about and see its power. And that job is perfect for an illusion user like me. Even Deije’s Third Brigade that specializes in offense and mobility would instantly get their numbers reduced if they went up against him unprepared.
Even if you categorize him as a Lord, he should have some disparity. Attack strength, durability, dexterity, character flaws, specialized abilities. I don’t doubt that Zebul’s powerful, but there’s a need for me to determine his tendencies with my flesh.
The army’s casualties are Leigie-sama’s casualties. They must be avoided.
At that moment, Zebul’s entire army came to a halt.
My body shook. It felt as if my entire body had been pierced and eaten away.
In the center stood a shadow the size of a large hill. That’s the source of these shivers.
A presence that sips away at the body and mind and crumbles one’s pride.
I have a premonition of everything and anything scattering and being washed away.
It’s a feeling I’ve never felt before in all my years of service.
That shock made my hands stop for a moment.
This cannot be… this is…
The moment my mind had stopped working, my illusions dispersed.
But what I should be paying mind to isn’t that.
Fights between Demon Lords are struggles for territory.
Right now, the outcome of the competing forces was decided.
“Leigie-sama’s territory was eaten up…!?”
“… Oy, oy, where are you popping out from, girly…”
Deije let out an amazed voice as I materialized before him.
It’s fine. This area separated by a few Kilometers hasn’t been affected yet.
My other bodies were all destroyed and absorbed with not a trace left behind. When I turned to run, tentacle like things entangled my feet, so I flung myself into the air. At that point, black, bun-like spheres followed and released countless tentacles at me. That was the last sight I picked up from my other bodies. Without any means of resistance, the illusions went out like a light the moment they came into contact with that black shadow of mass.
What strength. I didn’t even have the leisure to deceive him.
My General Class strength won’t get through to that.
Truly a Demon that’s transcended demonity. A monster that’s reached the pinnacle of Original Sin… this is a High Level Demon Lord
I thought I had known, but it’s… way too much. I can’t even tell what skill he used. No, even if I knew, I doubt I would be able to dodge.
Our base stats are just too far apart. Our levels of longings too far detached.
One of my doubles had tried to lodge her fist into Zebul’s back. When I thought she had pierced him, the double was merely swallowed into his body whole. She tried to resist, but she was instantly digested, and my awareness of her was cut.
Even if I was trying to assess the situation, even if it was just a double, I never thought a Demon Lord would be able to kill a General so easily.
His pure violent nature let him mow down all my Illusions of Lust without paying them any mind.
He may be a newcomer, but he’s swallowed two other Demon Lords. This is the result.
“Deije, bad… He’s strong…”
“… Well, well, well, isn’t that obvious? The opponent is… a High Ranking Demon Lord. He came with full intentions to kill boss Leigie…”
Deige skillfully manipulated his six arms as he let out a sigh.
What an irritating man. But that’s exactly right.
However, Zebul’s power… is abnormal. It’s been many hundreds of years since I first breathed life, but he’s surpassed all I’ve ever seen before.
I can’t see any means of victory. That’s my impression after having crossed blades with him.
Should we retreat some and reorganize our forces?
“Should we reorganize our preparations?”
“No, no, at this rate, my army’ll be annihilated. We have no choice but to fight.”
Deije smiled as he raised the Demon Blade in his right arm overhead.
Demon Blade Celeste. A sword imbued with flames, named after the legendary fire dragon it struck down.
A gift from the Great Demon King to a Demon Lord, one of the best of swords, was being shown off gaudily.