Chapter 213

[Shall we begin?]

Joshua nodded tersely.

Castle Peril sat at the end of an enormous plain. It was empty, despite the lazily rising sun. A small mountain of unattended bodies still littered the grass, slowly staining the ground with dark crimson blood like a morbid morning dew. The battle had ended, but the ghosts of the dead still lingered.

It was perfect for an undead.

Wait… ghost? Joshua jerked.

[Focus!] Lugia floated into the air, humming ominously, and began to spin. One turn… two turns… three turns… Finally, it stopped and began moving toward a small hill.

[King of the defeated.] Lugia slowly revolved, but it was only getting faster. [A grudge deeper than the darkness of the Spirit of Gucheon.]

“Ugh…” Joshua groaned as a very specific energy roiled and oozed out of his body. The most difficult energy to handle. “Magi…”

[I, Lugia, the spear, command thee to unleash the bitterness and torment of thy loss!] The spear froze in place in the middle of the corpse pile.

The area was bathed in a grim, threatening red light.

Then, slowly, something clawed its way out of the bodies.

“Dullahan…” It looked exactly like the Dullahans Joshua had seen before: a horrific being clad in dark armor with no head. The only difference was that this one was twice the size of the ones he was familiar with.

But it was supposed to be the same Dullahan contract…

Joshua eyed the unmoving creature while Lugia spoke.

[Didn’t I say that I needed a few more of you here to call up the spirit of the Lord of Dullahans?]

A pact… The other day, Lugia had told him that the Dullahan’s contract doesn’t require consent of any kind, unlike a Death Knight’s. However, that meant it wasn’t bound to anyone’s will—the only way to tame it was to defeat it.

This was where the problem began. Was controlling the Lord of Dullahans as simple as beating it?

“Um…”

[Give him the highest, most pure Magi—like that of one of the twenty strongest demons, at a bare minimum. Some have tried to claim it before but failed. I told you I’m here to help you with anything to do with Magi; I’m a demonic artifact, after all. But I’m a little concerned about that damned holy power all mixed up in your body.]

[We can’t worry about it now, though. Just go for it—but you know what happens if you lose, right?]

Joshua’s eyebrows twitched.

[Death. Once he realizes some idiot woke him up again, he’ll cut your head off and dangle it from his pauldron.]

Lugia seemed very casual about the frightening affair.

[Begin.]

The atmosphere abruptly shifted. Joshua could almost feel the weight of the air pressing down on his shoulders. It was as if he’d been transported to an entirely different world.

“This…”

[8th Lesser Demon Realm, Infinite Hell.]

Their surroundings slowly shifted. The early morning light was wiped away, replaced by a heavy darkness. Everything around Joshua was stained dark red as if a bloody curtain had been drawn around them.

Everything within a hundred meters was flipped upside down.

Joshua stumbled. “Wha—”

There was no ground. He thought the earth had turned pitch black—but no, it was just a bottomless pit. Bloodcurdling screams arose from it as he stared.

[The Demon god gave each of his eight servants their own space, although they really weren’t much more than henchmen. This Infinite Hell is one of them.]

A helmet decorated with an ugly, rusted crown floated out of the pit, heralded by a crescendo of wails, and hovered in the air.

[There is only room here for the Lord of Dullahans, the once-monarch of the Dullahans.]

The ominous magical force coalesced upon the Lord of Dullahans. As he reclaimed his head, red lights ignited in his eye sockets.

[To be honest, I’m intrigued. The Lord of Dullahans fed on the souls of countless men—imagine the power!] The nearly three-meter-tall undead moved for the first time, shrugging off falling debris with casual ease. [What will you do?]

Joshua’s eyes widened as the alien voice washed over him.

“The Dullahan has its own consciousness?”

[He’s one of the Demon God’s henchmen. Are you seriously asking that right now?]

“…Um.” Joshua stared forward with confused eyes.

[No… It doesn’t matter, really, because this body of mine itches to tear him apart.] The Dullahan’s comment seemed to be directed at himself. He leaped off the ground holding his weapon in one hand and his head in the other.

Joshua boggled. The undead was even faster than the Mercenary King. He sent a mixture of Aura and Magi crashing down fast enough to tear Joshua apart limb-from-limb.

Joshua grinned and adjusted his grip on Lugia. It was too late to get away, so he’d take the first attack and seize the chance to counterattack while maintaining his defense.

That’s what he thought, anyway.

The first attack landed with an explosive bang. Joshua’s holy power wasn’t as strong as it could have been, but when combined with the power of his spear, it was nothing to sneeze at. Yet the Dullahan’s strike still forced his legs to strain with exertion.

Joshua heard a strange noise coming from their interlocked weapons.

The Mercenary King’s beloved weapon, Taorin, was rejoining its broken halves together. Joshua knew it was the same weapon—that double-bladed ax was totally unique.

The possessed body of the Mercenary King began to whip his arms around. Once, twice, three times. He got faster with each revolution until it turned into a veritable whirlwind.

It wasn’t that different from what the Mercenary King had done in life… until it was. The storm hurtled straight at Joshua and crashed into the ground with a bang. The hole it left spewed hellfire, and Taorin burned with Aura Overlay—Aura on top of Aura.

It was not an attack polite enough to give its victim a chance to strike back. It had earned the Mercenary King his reputation during the once-sided massacre on the Kingdom of Hearts. It was the wrath of a killer.

[GAH! What are you doing? Do you want to die?!]

Joshua remained still, despite the rapidly changing situation.

He felt his heart race as soon as he realized that the Lord of Dullahans had a consciousness. Others might have been frightened… but Joshua felt right at home.

His body swelled with energy that roiled like lava. And when he let it out, his body changed. His skin darkened and exuded black smoke. Emerging from his head were…

[Horns?]1

The power of an angel could be determined by the size of its wings; the same could be applied to demons based on the size and shape of their horns.

Joshua stared forward with abyssal black eyes and stretched out his empty hand.2 Lugia saw the pattern on the back of his hand and trembled like it’d been struck by lightning.

[Are you kidding me? This is impossible—he’s been gone for at least a thousand years…]

The Red Moon of Devildom. There was no way Lugia could have mistaken it. This unique symbol could only be wielded by evil beings more powerful than the Demon King; it was even known as the “total control pattern.” Throughout the long history of the demon realm, there had only ever been one demon who wielded it.

The Lord of the Dullahans recognized it as well and immediately knelt in adulation to his new master.

1 TL/N: Joshua is now a horny boy confirmed ↩️

2 ED/N: We could totally change Joshua’s name to Mordecai Darkblade and it wouldn’t even be out of character. He’s like Everyone’s First D&D CharacterTM. ↩️