LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 70
Chapter 70: Let’s Go Find a New Friend 3 (Revelation)
Demons.
Demons, huh…
Were the northern friends Sohi mentioned demons?
Does that mean all the native forces that Earnest Rail and Dawn have been attacking so far were also demons?
I took a deep breath.
“Haa…”
【Internal energy reserve: 100%】
It felt like coming back home.
Though it wasn’t truly my home, by the years I’d lived, I’d spent the longest time in the Demon Realm.
Here, however, it was brimming with everything I wanted, from demonic energy to mana.
Even by just breathing, the energy I lacked coursed through my entire body, circulating to the tips of my fingers and toes.
At this moment, I felt like I could cast a simple spell without any trouble.
‘But demons, huh…’
Demons.
Simply put, they are entities of magic that take on human form.
In my first life, I was human, but in my second life, I was the Demon King, standing at the apex of these demons.
There’s no way I’d mistake them.
“Why on earth are demons here…?”
Of course, there are no demons on Earth, and there shouldn’t be.
The people living in Ark coexist with numerous other races besides humans, but they all fall under the category of organic lifeforms.
The various branches of these organic lifeforms are the results of humanity modifying and experimenting on themselves to survive calamities and extreme climates.
Elves, with their extraordinary adaptability to nature, cyborgs, and mechanical lifeforms capable of living in extreme environments, along with other organic races, evolved or modified themselves purely to survive.
While it’s understandable for them to coexist with humans in Ark, demons are a different story altogether.
Demons are fundamentally not normal lifeforms.
Their bodies are composed entirely of mana and are profoundly influenced by thoughts, beliefs, and convictions.
The influence is so significant that it can alter their physical form, sprout wings, or produce bizarre phenomena that leap beyond the ordinary evolutionary processes of living creatures.
It’s common for entirely new forms of species to suddenly appear among them.
Though they reproduce among themselves and eat to live, when they die, not even their corpses remain, turning into mana dust.
Such beings cannot be categorized alongside humans.
Demons are sometimes referred to as “manifestations of ideological realization.”
“Woohoo! Teacher, is this a secret base?!”
“This is amazing!”
“Let’s burn it down!”
“Let’s play hide and seek!”
“Now, now, no burning. Hide and seek can wait for later.”
The children seemed thrilled, as if they’d discovered a new wonderland.
However, that excitement didn’t last long.
-Rustle!
A faint presence stirred beyond the forest and ruins.
The undead girls, usually sensitive to their surroundings, seemed oblivious, too busy chattering, while the dolls stood silently, awaiting my commands.
The presences drawing near radiated a sharp hostility.
No, it wasn’t mere hostility.
It was a clear killing intent.
【Detected aggressive mana fluctuations.】
【Combat system activated.】
【Multiple hostile demon entities identified.】
【Human, please respond…】
Offensive magic.
Binding magic.
Cursing magic.
The magical knowledge etched into my soul allowed me to quickly decipher the spells those demons were preparing to hurl at us.
Though it could be threatening…
‘They’re all just low-level spells.’
For demons, the rule of thumb is to intercept intruders with the highest-level magic, eliminating them in a single strike.
Surrounded by low-level magic that even demon children could use, I felt no sense of crisis—only pity.
Could it be that demons had deteriorated this much?
‘Didn’t the dolls say they were tasked with exterminating native forces? If the demons are this weak, it makes sense.’
The doll is equipped with an Anti-Magic Barrier.
It nullifies intermediate-level magic entirely, and even advanced magic is halved in power.
Additionally, if dolls containing all sorts of combat weapons face off against demons who can barely cast low-level spells, they could annihilate them with ease.
‘I see why Earnest Rail and Dawn allied. Without the Anti-Magic Barrier, fighting demons would be tricky, at least from a human standpoint.’
Demons, apart from their magic, are composed of mana in their very bodies.
Even without learning martial arts, they hold overwhelming advantages in hand-to-hand combat and ambush tactics against humans.
Though Mega Corp’s full-time employees possess exceptional combat abilities, fighting demons still leads to inevitable casualties, which is why Dawn and Earnest Rail initially formed an alliance.
Well, Earnest Rail did betray Dawn once he felt the tide of battle turned in his favor, though.
【Human, what will you do? Will you intercept them?】
“No, I’ll handle it.”
“Huh? Teacher, the air feels strange.”
“Indeed.”
“Shall we enter Combat Mode?”
One of the Immortal Legion girls seemed to sense the unusual atmosphere and drew a sword from her arms, but there would be no need to wield it.
I motioned for the dolls and the girls to stand back, then opened my mouth in the direction where mana fluctuated most intensely.
[I am not your enemy.]
[…!]
In this world, I had never thought I would utter such words in the language of demons.
I could sense the shock from those in hiding as they realized I was speaking in the demonic tongue.
[I’ll say it again. I am not your enemy. So, stop casting those spells.]
[…]
And then presences began to reveal themselves from the darkness.
Those with horns emerged.
As a symbol of demons, their horns represented concentrated mana, but these individuals had relatively small ones.
‘The demons from my days as the Demon King had horns that were at least 20 to 30 cm long…’
Back then, demons were in their prime.
They recklessly sought to destroy the world, killing both humans and beasts as they pleased.
I vaguely remembered suppressing and controlling them quite firmly.
Now, however, these demons had horns around 5 cm in length.
Horns were a symbol of power.
Shorter horns indicated significantly diminished strength, but even aside from that, these demons didn’t look well.
Their faces showed fatigue, exhaustion, and helplessness, and their clothing appeared quite old and worn.
“‘Native Forces’ identified.”
“Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate.”
At the sight of the demons, the dolls’ eyes spun with activation.
Steam immediately began to vent from their bodies as they entered Combat Mode, and the Anti-Magic Barriers were about to activate when I raised my hand to stop them.
“Hold it. They are not enemies.”
“Executive Director authority confirmed.”
“They are not enemies.”
“Adjusting hostility risk level for targeted entities.”
The Executive Director’s authority was absolute.
If Theresa hadn’t been unable to hack the authority I held, either the demons or the dolls would have perished.
[It’s safe now. You can come out.]
The demons, who had flinched at the sight of the dolls, hesitated but cautiously revealed themselves as they noticed the dolls halting at my gesture.
A tall man who appeared to be their leader stepped forward and met my gaze.
“You’re the first outsider to speak our language.”
The demon spoke in human language.
However, his horn was broken.
Originally, it seemed his horn might have been over 30 cm long, but now it was fractured, leaving only traces of its former glory.
“What’s this? You can also speak Ark’s common tongue?”
“To survive, we had to learn. At the very least, learning their language helps us understand their strategies and when they plan to attack us.”
The fact that these arrogant demons had learned the human language was astonishing.
In the days when I was the Demon King, demons looked down on and scorned humans, questioning why the strong should learn the knowledge and culture of the weak.
But now, it was obvious that their entire race had declined and weakened.
“A human speaking the language of my kin… no, wait, you’re not even human. Who are you?”
“Hmm.”
I fell into thought for a moment.
What should I say?
“If I were to speak in your terms, I’d be a golem. A golem with self-awareness, intelligence, inherent combat capabilities, and self-repair functions.”
“I see. Then did your master send you?”
“No. I don’t have a master.”
“I see… then your master must already be dead. The one who created you must have sent you to help us.”
“No…”
The demon seemed to have reached its own conclusion.
I wanted to correct them, but demons were far more rigid in their thinking than humans, making communication difficult.
Despite resembling humans, one couldn’t expect them to communicate in a similar way.
They had an incredibly strong tendency to interpret everything however they pleased.
When starting a conversation, they would begin with, “Why? How? I can’t understand,” and as the discussion extended, it would suddenly veer into their race’s origins, history, and culture.
To persuade them using human standards would take at least five hours, so skipping complicated debates was much better for one’s peace of mind.
“Follow me. With reinforcements like this, we might finally catch a break.”
“No, ha… fine, let’s go with that.”
The demons’ disposition hadn’t changed, whether in their previous arrogance or in their current state, where they faced the fate of being hunted by humans.
Regardless, just the fact that I used the demon language seemed enough to alleviate their wariness, and they turned their backs, calmly asking us to follow.
“…Theresa, let me ask you something.”
【Go ahead, Human.】
For some reason, Theresa’s voice sounded sharper than usual.
“This place. Is it Earth?”
【No.】
“…….”
I had expected this.
【This is the place you once ruled.】
When I first arrived in this world, I thought it was Earth, where countless Gates had opened, and like in various stories, Awakeners had suddenly appeared, and a massive Ark had been created.
Of course, the place was so drastically different from the Earth I knew that I briefly thought, “This might not be Earth.”
But it was laughable.
In my second life, I had certainly died.
As the Demon King… I had been killed by someone whose identity I couldn’t even remember.
Having been reborn, I assumed I’d been born into a new world.
【This is the world where you lived as the Demon King.】
It was the world where I had lived as the Demon King, a place filled with lingering attachments and stubbornness.
“Well, this is… unexpected.”
My second life.
Nothing had ended.
It had simply continued, unbroken, from the past until now.
It wasn’t a third life.
I was still the golem living my second life.