My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 10 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16 — Looks Like I Have to Be the Demon Lord After All

Faisel was apparently a Demon Lord. “Apparently,” because she didn’t really feel that way herself.

The current Demon Lord was supposed to be Tesla, but the adults who tended to her insisted that she was the rightful Demon Lord. Tesla was the daughter of the previous Demon Lord. As such, Faisel figured it made sense that she had inherited the title, but not everyone accepted her.

Faisel possessed an incredible level of magical potential. Never mind Tesla—she far surpassed even the previous Demon Lord. Among demonkind, might made right. Faisel had been taught that the strongest person became the Demon Lord.

Being only eight years old, she didn’t really understand the situation too well. At this point, Tesla was certainly stronger than her, so she thought it was fine to let Tesla be the Demon Lord. When Faisel grew stronger, she could then think about switching places. But the adults around her didn’t seem to agree. They were plotting to set up Faisel as the Demon Lord immediately.

Faisel didn’t really care who the Demon Lord was. She wanted everyone to get along, not squabble over petty titles. She didn’t mind that Tesla was the Demon Lord and had no aspirations of taking on the role herself. She just wanted to go home, but instead she had been locked up in this tower for a long time.

She didn’t feel that was an appropriate way to treat a Demon Lord, but it was for her own protection. There were an unusually large number of people trying to assassinate her. Both those who supported the current Demon Lord and those who sought to topple her saw Faisel as a threat. But spending every day locked away, barred from meeting almost anyone, made life boring.

Looking down from the top of the tower, she could see a lively city under Tesla’s rule beneath her, making her wonder why she was locked up there. Faisel was the daughter of a blacksmith. For their kingdom, constantly in a state of war, the demand for arms was robust, giving her family a certain measure of influence. She had lived wanting for nothing.

Then the three demon generals had come, the leaders directly under the Demon Lord. They had taken Faisel away. Hierarchical relations were absolute in demonic society, so buying a child off her parents wasn’t an especially tall order.

Now that she had been placed in this situation, she didn’t have much to do. She had been given plenty of toys and books but had grown tired of them quickly. Playing by yourself was just dull.

Things had remained the same for half a year after she had been brought there. Then suddenly, people stopped coming. The three demon generals pretended to be loyal to Tesla while working in the shadows to topple her, but they had stopped visiting Faisel. Things outside seemed to become hectic, and soon after, food stopped being delivered to her. That made things extremely dangerous.

She wasn’t too worried, though. All she thought was that things had gotten awfully quiet. Though she enjoyed the food, she didn’t need it to survive. She would get hungry but could just put the hunger out of her mind and be done with it.

She didn’t think it was all that strange until a week had passed without eating or drinking anything. Demons were more resilient than humans, but only to an extent. So Faisel decided to try going outside.

She first tried the door, but it was locked. She hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but when she began to jiggle the doorknob, the whole door fell out of the frame. It was surprisingly fragile.

Outside the room was a staircase. The spiral descended to another door, which opened with only a little effort despite its lock. She had broken the lock by doing so, but this was an emergency, so she had no choice. Outside that door was a hallway. She recalled the time she had been brought to the tower, which was part of a larger mansion.

“I need to find someone...”

Walking down the hallway, she opened a nearby door and peered inside. Someone was lying on the floor inside. They didn’t respond to Faisel’s touch. They felt cold, and it looked like they had started to rot.

“What happened?” She checked the other rooms, but they were all the same. A number of people were dead in each of them. She obviously had no experience with autopsies, but it seemed like some time had passed since they’d died. There didn’t seem to be anyone left alive in the mansion, so for the first time in a long time, she stepped outside.

There, she found more bodies. People had collapsed all over the streets, clearly dead at a glance.

“I guess I’ll go home, then!”

There was no one who could get upset with her now. She was free to go wherever she wanted. Heading through the high class residential district into the shopping district, she noticed that people seemed different. Everyone else had been dead without any sign of injuries. Here, the bodies were all clearly wounded. Many buildings were damaged, and the bodies were armed. There were more than just horned demons lying in the streets.

It seemed humans had attacked. Worried about her family, she headed to the workshop district. Things were the same there. Humans and demons lay everywhere, signs of fighting all around them.

With a bit of difficulty, she made it over the bodies and to her own home. Both the first floor workshop and the second floor residence were empty. She had to assume they had been evacuated. But Faisel had no idea where to go next.

“Maybe there’s someone alive somewhere.”

She thought over her options. Humans and demons were mortal enemies. In general, demons were stronger, but the fact that the humans had made it to the center of their territory meant they had a significant amount of fighting strength as well. So what was their objective? They were likely after the Demon Lord.

With that thought in mind, Faisel headed to the Demon Lord’s castle. Normally, one had to conquer the castle to win the fight, so she imagined the humans had gone there. The castle was at the north end of the city. As she headed there, she finally came across some living people walking around outside it.

“What? There’s a girl!”

“She has horns! She’s a demon!”

Human soldiers were standing around the castle. Faisel hesitated. Humans were enemies, so she shouldn’t get any closer. But they were likely the only ones who knew what had happened in the city.

Before she could decide what to do, an arrow came flying. It struck her in the shoulder, sending her tumbling backwards.

“Kill the demons!”

“Don’t let up! Finish her off!”

A rain of arrows descended on her, accompanied by bolts of fire, ice, and lightning. She thought it was a pretty mean way to treat a young girl, but she then remembered that humans and demons had to kill each other on sight.

“Oh, that’s right. I need to kill them.”

Faisel stood back up under the hail of arrows and magic. The first attack had taken her by surprise and knocked her over, but now that she knew they were coming she could bear the attacks fairly well. She was getting filled with so many arrows that she was starting to look like a hedgehog, but pulling each of them out one at a time was too much work, so she started walking towards the humans as she did.

“The barrier won’t hold!”

“Dammit! Is she the one giving off the miasma throughout the city?!”

As Faisel approached the castle, something around the structure burst. That must have been the barrier the humans were talking about.

She moved to attack but never got the chance. The humans suddenly started screaming in pain, dropping to the ground and eventually falling silent.

“Oh, okay. Maybe everyone around the tower died because of me?” As she thought that, she realized a power was flowing out from her body. “I don’t really get it, but they took the castle, didn’t they?”

In that case, she needed to take it back. Pulling the arrows out of her body one at a time, she made her way into the castle.

◇ ◇ ◇

The machine known as the Hedgehog in this world had scattered into pieces and fled. In order to maximize the possibility of escape, it had split itself into the smallest pieces possible and fled in every direction. It was likely that it wouldn’t be able to retrieve all of its parts after doing that, but it didn’t care. In truth, reconstructing its core processor only required about a third of the material that made up its whole body. Its combat prowess would be severely hampered, but there was no other way to achieve its objective.

It began to think. It had found the goddess it was looking for, but it couldn’t match the goddess’s guardian. It couldn’t beat her at full strength, so how would it do anything in this situation? If it couldn’t win now, it needed to find another way.

It quickly gave up on retrieving its lost parts. It would take too much time, and even if it succeeded at finding all of them, it still wouldn’t be able to win. Instead, it began plans to strengthen itself. It began calculating what resources it would need in order to obtain power that exceeded the goddess’s and her offspring’s. Of course, there was no guarantee it could obtain everything it needed, so it would need to modify its plan based on what it could get its hands on.

It activated its sensors at maximum strength. Until now it had used them only to search for traces of the goddess, but this was different. It didn’t care what it found; it just wanted anything that could help it become stronger.

Its sensors picked up an enormous power. It didn’t know what that power was; it knew only that it had suddenly appeared.

It made a beeline straight for it.

◇ ◇ ◇

Faisel crossed over the moat, wrenched open the gate, and made her way into the castle. Most of the soldiers died as she approached. She wasn’t doing anything in particular to them. It seemed to be a side effect of her natural aura. If she tried, she could probably suppress it, but she made no effort to. There were only humans here, so there was no point in sparing them.

“I’ve never been to the castle before, and I don’t know where the humans are hiding. Okay, I’ll just release some more power!”

When humans came into contact with the mysterious aura she exuded, they died. If she intentionally strengthened it and spread it throughout the castle, she wouldn’t have to hunt down each of the humans individually.

“Haaaaaah!”

She didn’t really know how to do it, so she just flexed her whole body. When her arms started shaking from the strain, she felt like the power flowing out of her got a little stronger. It definitely looked like the aura around her had grown more forceful.

She then noticed there was a place her power wasn’t reaching. There was likely something there, so she headed towards it.

Her search led her to a storage room. Supplies had been piled inside, and she could feel an unpleasant presence coming from the doorway. It seemed to be some kind of barrier, preventing her aura from entering.

There were four people inside: a man with a sword, a woman with a staff, a woman with a bow, and a woman in priest’s robes. It reminded her of the parties of heroes she had heard rumors about. The Demon Lords had a history of selecting four particularly powerful humans and tormenting them as a group.

“Did the heroes beat the Demon Lord?” If so, that would explain the situation in the city. The Demon Lord’s army had lost to the heroes. “Then what should I do? If the three demon generals are dead, I’m just a blacksmith’s daughter again.”

With no backing, there was no way Faisel could claim the title of Demon Lord. But if she was just the daughter of a blacksmith, she didn’t really feel like it was her place to take revenge for the Demon Lord.

“Rimlette, the barrier’s gonna hold, right?!”

“It doesn’t look like it. I might have to shrink it to only protect myself.”

“Why?!” the swordsman yelled at the mage.

“You’re a hero! Do something about it yourself. I’m not that good at barriers.”

“Then...Anne! You’re a priest; shouldn’t you be able to make some kind of barrier?!”

“Uhh, I’m only here because High Priest Mimir is gone.”

The humans seemed to be getting frantic and were acting pretty silly. They didn’t seem all that strong, so Faisel thought she might be able to beat them.

She decided to take revenge after all. Perhaps she would lose in the end, but she didn’t really mind. It was more concerning that everyone she knew had died and she alone was left alive.

She stepped into the storage room, and the barrier protecting it burst, letting Faisel’s aura flood in. The woman with the bow and the priest immediately collapsed. The mage’s body was wrapped in some kind of light, which was likely protecting her. The swordsman’s white armor seemed to be able to defend against her aura as well.

“What the hell?! The Demon Lord is dead! Wasn’t this supposed to be easy?!”

“Yes, it was. With the three demon generals dead, this was our best chance.”

“Umm, can I ask a question?” Faisel called out to the mage.

“What?”

“Are the Demon Lord and the three demon generals all dead?”

“Uh...yes. Demon Lord Tesla, Demon General Oryphes, and Demon General Exia are dead. High Priest Mimir was apparently a demon general, but she’s missing.” For some reason, the mage answered honestly. Maybe she was just trying to buy time.

“Looks like I have to be the Demon Lord after all.” Judging from her short walk through the city, it didn’t seem like there were any survivors. If she was the last one alive, she would have to be the leader.

Faisel made up her mind, but it was the last thing she ever thought. The wall beside her suddenly burst as something punched through it and into her head.

◇ ◇ ◇

It was looking for power. Power it didn’t possess. Power that could defeat the offspring of a god. Soaring over the ocean, it ran in a straight line, ignoring any trivial obstacles like buildings in its path.

Reaching the source of that power, it immediately buried its arm blade in her skull. Luckily, she was just a being with latent power. She didn’t know how to efficiently use it, only letting it leak out into the air around her. Though it reduced its combat ability significantly, penetrating her exterior and entering her body was no difficulty. She had no way of defending herself.

It burrowed into her head through the hole it had opened up, taking control of her body. Fusing with her flesh, it began to modify her to best bring out her latent power. Then it fused with her brain, searching her memories for any knowledge of how to become even stronger.

It had found a new power. The power of the strongest Demon Lord in history.

◇ ◇ ◇

Rimlette watched the scene in front of her dumbly. She couldn’t follow what had happened.

The most terrifying Demon Lord ever had appeared in front of them in the form of a young girl, easily destroying the barrier she had set up, but then the wall beside her had exploded and she had collapsed.

Her fallen body began convulsing violently. Rimlette prayed that she would die, but it seemed no one heard her prayers, as after a time the girl jerked back to her feet. Meeting the girl’s gaze, the ominous light in her eyes almost made Rimlette faint.

Demon Lord Tesla was nothing compared to this. She understood in an instant that this was the true Demon Lord and immediately fell into despair.

If that was all that had happened, she would have had no problem understanding. She had witnessed the advent of the greatest Demon Lord in history, and humanity no longer had a chance. There was nothing left to do but despair, but Rimlette could at least accept that fact as it was. However, what happened next sent her mind reeling all over again.

“UEG Crash!”

Someone came down through the ceiling, striking the demon girl directly. It was another young girl. Wearing a white robe, she had trampled over the Demon Lord. The more she thought about it, the more unnatural this whole situation seemed to Rimlette. The demon girl’s head had been pulverized, crushed into a fine paste. While that might have been possible if the other girl had fallen on her with that much force, the ground beneath her wasn’t so much as scratched.

“Good! A swift victory! Ah, do not think I can only win with a surprise attack like this! That thing was only a machine, so it would not give me any sort of interesting reaction. In short, such a thing had no right to stand before me!”

“Uh, so, you mean it’s dead?” Rimlette blurted.

“Precisely. I have thoroughly destroyed its core. With no backup, it will never move again!”

The violently toxic miasma that had been emitting from the demon girl had stopped. Even if she was still alive, she wasn’t a threat anymore.

“Uhh...thank you?” Unsure of what to do, Rimlette finally settled on giving her thanks.

“Oh-ho, I thought you would be totally lost in this situation, but to think you still have the presence of mind to offer thanks. Very well! I shall end your life myself. Normally, I would leave someone as pathetic as you to my subordinates, but us meeting like this must be some sort of fate. Accept this gift with gratitude!”

“Umm, what are you talking about?” Rimlette couldn’t follow what the girl was saying.

“I am the Ultimate Extermination God, the UEG. I have come to exterminate all intelligent life in this world. Naturally, that means you must die as well.”

“Huh?”

The UEG had found a sword at some point. She had nowhere on her she could hide something so large, yet it looked like it had just appeared in her hand.

“Why not attempt to offer some resistance? It is rare for me to spend my precious time on weaklings like you. So go ahead and struggle!”

“Like hell! Don’t think you can get away with anything you want just ’cause you’re a kid!” Apparently not understanding the situation, the swordsman brought his sword up and pointed it at the girl. She replied by swinging her own sword, and the hero dropped to the ground, split evenly in two. The holy armor he had been wearing hadn’t so much as slowed the UEG down.

Rimlette dropped her staff. She completely lost the will to fight back.