Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 67 – Interlude

A ruined city near an expansive forest…

“We lost what?!”

Slam!

His fist smashed down onto the rough, chipped stone of the throne that looked to have been ripped from the side of a mountain.

A palpable black and green energy emanated from the entity sitting on the throne.

The entity leaned forward and clenched one of its mighty hands. Its body was easily three meters tall, and, while it could have passed as a human in figure if it had been scaled down, its skin was swelling with power.

Black and green veins within the being’s skin crisscrossed like spiderwebs beneath the surface, and visible energy leaked from swelling scar lines across its bare chest and arms.

Bony protrusions poked out from underneath its skull and face, stretching the skin. Dark eyes glowed with malice in the dark throne room, lit only by scattered, fading lightstones over the floors.

The gem embedded within the center of the demon lord’s chest glowed with a deep, purple energy, the skin around it reddened and swollen.

Other than the demon lord and his visitor, the throne room was empty. The demon lord was far stronger than any of his would-be guards, after all.

The being kneeling before the throne flinched away.

“W-we lost the Relic. Recent reports also indicate the southern dragon has passed away.”

“What the hell is going on for you to fail in human cities, of all things?!”

The smaller demon, only the size of an average orc, stuttered out a reply.

“W-we’re not failing, other plans are going awr—”

Crack!

The throne was suddenly empty, the demon lord arriving in front of the smaller demon and lifting him by the throat before the other demon could even realize what was going on.

“Keugh!”

He scrabbled ineffectually at the demon lord’s hand around his throat, his claws ineffectually sliding off the stone-like skin.

“Did I mishear you? It sounded like you were disagreeing with me.”

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“Aggk—”

The smaller demon tried to force out a reply, unable to breathe or speak with the demon lord’s hand crushing his throat.

The demon lord narrowed his eyes, seeming to contemplate how much trouble it would be if he crushed the life out of the other demon then and there, before he released him and slowly walked back to his throne.

“Haaah…”

The other demon fell to the ground in a heap and took in deep, gasping breaths.

“No excuses. Explain,” the demon lord’s voice rumbled through the throne room.

“A-ah… Y-yes… The incidents in the southern human realms…”

The smaller demon dragged himself back into a kneeling position and lowered his head.

“The… the city of Karfana—”

“I’m aware. We were going to initiate our first expanding dungeon there, we shared our power with the lord of the city, went through the effort of having an agent infiltrate the Association, and everything should have gone smoothly from the sleep spell. Have you done your job?”

“Y-yes… A report from our agent in the city… A novice Awakener unlike any we’ve ever seen…”

“What does that mean?” the demon lord leaned forward, interested in his subordinate’s words. “Is he stronger than anyone we’ve seen?”

“N-no… It’s not that—”

“Then what makes him different? How could a single novice Awakener overturn all of the effort we went through? Was he particularly smart, perhaps? Did he uncover our plan?”

“It appears that he merely reacted, my lord…”

“So if he isn’t stronger than any other or particularly intelligent, what, then, enabled him to defeat the lord of the city as a new Awakener?”

“He had help from a renowned adventurer, the Skybreaker…”

“You aren’t answering my question.”

“He has a second system.”

“…”

Silence fell over the throne room, the subordinate’s raspy breathing and the demon lord’s steady, deep breaths intertwined through the air.

The demonic energy suffusing the air waned, the demon lord’s rage abating somewhat.

The demon lord raised one clawed hand and scratched his chin in thought.

“A second system, you say?”

“We aren’t too sure of the details, but it saved him from the sleep effect and enabled him to gain the upper hand on the city lord.”

“Interesting…”

“It’s also believed that the same individual may have been involved in both Relic incidents.”

“You think a novice Awakener managed to stop us three separate times in the course of a couple of weeks, and probably killed the dragon as well?”

“…Yes.”

“HAHAHAHA!”

Rather than anger, the demon lord’s booming laughter filled the throne room.

“A novice Awakener killing a dragon? That must be some second system he has.”

Just as suddenly as the laughter started, it stopped.

The heavy atmosphere from before returned.

“Regardless of how amusing it may be, ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The demon lord didn’t need to elaborate any further. The smaller demon hadn’t been the demon lord’s aide for long and likely wouldn’t be his last. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a position that could be refused.

“You may leave.”

The aide bowed his head even lower at the demon lord’s words before pushing himself up into a standing position, head still bowed, and turning to shuffle quickly through the throne room’s gaping doors.

After the rusted iron doors creaked shut behind him, the aide let out a long, labored breath, rubbing his neck and remembering the demon lord’s iron-like grip around his throat.

The demons standing on either side of the doorway stood at full attention, unmoving.

It had been a long time since the demon lord had taught his guards to stand at a proper watch, and everyone knew they were replaceable at a moment’s notice.

Despite its appearance, the demon lord’s ‘crumbling’ castle was anything but.

The aide hurried through the bare hallways that were scarcely lit by dying lightstones. It was a bit strange that the demon lord insisted on only lighting his castle with fading lightstones, but extracting the mana from a regular lightstone until it started fading wasn’t too difficult a task, and it was the job of a few unfortunate demons to go around the castle ensuring it was properly lit, but not too lit.

As much as being an aide to the demon lord was a job with an early retirement plan, it at least did provide some benefits.

The aide stopped before a heavy wooden door in one of the castle’s many hallways and fumbled with his item bag for a few moments before producing a key and slotting it into the archaic wooden lock.

Creeaaak.

He pushed the door open.

The aide glanced around briefly before hurrying into the room and shutting the door behind him.

“Haaah…”

Finally, he was able to relax.

Whereas most demons had to make do with sleeping under the night stars or fighting over the ruined houses in the rest of the city, those serving directly under the demon lord were at least afforded a room within the castle.

As inviting as the aide found the bed, from which the soft sheets seemed to be calling him across the room, he first focused on and approached the communication orb on the little desk he had in the corner.

Not much more than a marble ball just large enough to palm in his hand that rested on an enchanted, pronged metal stand, the aide rested a hand on the ball and focused his mana into it, willing it to contact a separate orb somewhere else in the world.

He waited.

And waited…

And waited……

There was no answer, and the demon gulped, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

‘It’s not like him to ignore my call…’

He knew it was probably just pointless worry born from the fact that so many of their plans in the region had gone wrong recently.

After all, there was no way their camp would be discovered, and even if it was, who would be able to stop them with anything short of a small army?

Still, the aide couldn’t help but have a bad feeling. If things went wrong again, the demon lord would have his head.

‘Shit…’

The aide shook his head and licked his cracked lips, glancing one more time at the ball before throwing himself into the bed and deciding it was a problem he could leave for the morning. Maybe the forward camp leader was just busy.

***

The demon lord watched his aide leave and sat back against his throne, scratching idly at the gem embedded within his chest.

‘An Awakener with two systems…’

Rather than being worried, the demon lord imagined how fun it would be to fight such a being when they reached full strength—not to mention how delicious their life essence might taste.

As much as he didn’t want anyone interfering in their carefully laid plans, there was a part of him that regretted not being able to go out and consume the Awakener for himself.

There was a part of him that longed to fight the two-system Awakener when he reached full power, to watch the hope fade from the Awakener’s face.

“Haaah…”

It wouldn’t be that hard to find another aide, after all…