When Cole landed, he appreciated the fact that they were kind enough to make some room for him. Cole wasn"t heavy enough that he would shatter the pavement but he wasn"t a reckless idiot either. He steadied himself and started planting the seeds for his showcase.
He gave the kindest smile he could, added with the flair of him combing his hand through his silver hair, it charmed quite a few. He had a handsome face, it was something he would use when the opportunity arose.
"If I didn"t, it would be a waste."
"PAPA!"
Eva screamed out in horror as she watched her father fall from the balcony. Her tiny little heart felt like it was about to burst.
"Oh f.u.c.k."
Lucille turned to her trusted aide, seeking advice as to what she should do. She had wronged the same child twice in a row and still hasn"t made up for her first offence. If this got out, even the lowest of the low souls d.a.m.ned in Pandemonium would look at Lucille with a disappointed gaze.
The rest of the〈Demon Realm〉? They might and they might not. There was some real sc.u.m out there that weren"t even given the chance to retain humanoid forms due to how sc.u.mmy they were.
After Eva screamed out, she looked at Lucille with a bottomless gaze. Lucille gave her a lollipop to calm her down and slapped back her composed expression and announced the start of the festivities.
"Now, now. Before all of you start clawing each other"s throats out, let me formally announce the start of today"s special occasion."
The audience"s attention was pulled back to Lucille, but this would only be temporary. Cole could feel them diverting some of their senses towards him, they"ve heard their Empress"s words. If they could best the personage that had gained their monarch"s recognition, it gave them hope for a better life.
Cole could barely care for that.
"And now for the t.i.tle drop--"
And finally, the words that everyone has been waiting to hear.
"Let Pandemonium"s Pandemonia, begin."
The crowd exploded into cheers and chaos instantly bloomed in the courtyard"s battlefield. Watching this, a mocking smile crept onto Lucille"s lips.
"Have fun, you sinners."
Lucille whispered underneath her breath in a derisive tone. She moved her lounge chair a bit closer and leaned back to enjoy the show.
At first, n.o.body made the first move. Everyone wanted to be careful and n.o.body would want to be the first death or else they would just be an embarra.s.sment.
"None of you are coming? Looks like the lot of you is smarter than I expected."
No one even fell for Cole"s blatant provocation. He guessed that being the first kill really was that much of a disgrace for them.
"If you"re not going to make the first move..."
Cole took a deep breath and had Steward prepare his mask. He softly muttered out a quick chant, causing a black spear to slowly form in his hands.
"Then I will."
In an instant, the look in Cole"s eyes changed.
"GUAH!"
Cole"s spear had pierced straight through the body of a nearby Demon, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. The power b.u.t.ton in his eyes lighting up as if to signal the beginning of a monster"s awakening.
His metal black mask, seething out steam.
"Oh? Someone"s started using poison already? That was fast."
But Cole"s thoughts didn"t matter, with blood being shed, nothing was stopping the rest of the partic.i.p.ants from starting a rampage of their own. The ones nearest Cole immediately set him as their target, they were probably thinking that he was at a disadvantage
He was given the needed distance so why would he squander this chance? He had received enough time to lay his metal strings as a trap for others. Since today"s event was literally named "Pandemonia", he decided to bring everything he had.
Unexpectedly for them, metal wires emerged from the ground, they were so thin that they looked near invisible to the naked eye.
They wrapped around his foes" bodies and Cole started squeezing.
"What? Did you think this spear was just it?"
Cole asked one of the ones wriggling about on the ground. The fear in their eyes was ever-present. Before they could flap their mouths, he used〔Devour〕on their bodies, splendidly refreshing his mana reserves.
Without giving Cole even a moment to rest, a giant hand covered in shiny red rubber skin came crashing down towards, utterly crushing the pavement.
He leapt out of the way and kicked the back of a particularly st.u.r.dy fellow and used the force to hop his way over onto the giant"s arm and eventually, it"s head. To Cole, the giant just looked like one slow and dumb target just ripe for the taking.
"UUURRRWWWAAAHH!!!"
The giant let out a growl, shaking the palace with its loud voice. Cole lobbed a quick bomb from one his pockets into its mouth.
*BAM*
The giant"s head exploded and made a blood-filled fireworks-show together with the other stray shots of magic coming from the other people in the venue. Cole hopped from one person"s head to another, as if he was in some kind of anime.
He felt thankful for the fact that demons had st.u.r.dy heads and bodies.
Cole sliced and severed tens of limbs and heads with every swing of his spear. Each thrust left at least one new big hole that someone would have to worry about.
As Eva was watching her father, her heart was a mix of both excitement and fear. Sometimes she would only be able to catch a blur of his figure with his silver hair and other times, she couldn"t see him at all.
But Lucille and Clyde who were watching the same situation had a different concern in their minds.
"Isn"t he going to run out of mana this way?"
Demons had amazing physical resistance and their magical resistance was nothing to scoff at either. So usually only magic swords were the only threat to them besides another Demon.
"Clyde. Look closer."
"?"
Clyde wondered what his majesty was talking about so he squinted his eyes and found out what his majesty was talking about.
The blade of Cole"s spear looked like it was coated with small teeth, slowly chipping away at both its foes bodies and mana reserves. If you looked very closely, every single time it made contact with an enemy foe, it bit at them and swallowed them piece by piece.
"And it"d be hard to expend all of his mana anyway. Remember, Kupakululu?"
"Yes, indeed I do."
Of course, Clyde did. He was the one encharged with transporting Kupakululu from its original home where it was corroding nearly every single thing in existence, to the place deep below〈S.T.E.L.L.A〉headquarters.
If you want to know more, unfortunately, that is a story for another time.
"That was a divine being."
A pause of silence was cast over the three of them and it was as if, even if only for a moment, they were disconnected from the noisy chaos happening just below them.
"What?"
"...What?"
While not in perfect sync, Clyde and Eva both let out a word of shock, although for different reasons.
"Waht? Then Nerie lied? "
"That grotesque being? A divine deity? Now that is just strange and wrong."
Seeing their confusion, Lucille opted to explain a bit more.
"Well, a former one at least. It used to be the one that gave birth to the sea but after the other oceans in this world became polluted, it was reduced to such a sorry state."
The two of them seemed to have understood with that, but Eva didn"t quite get what being a "divine being" had to do with her father. So, Lucille explained it to Eva in easy to understand words.
"G.o.ds have a lot of magic powers so if you eat one that"s like them, you get more magic powers too!"
Lucille tried to make her sound enthusiastic, she really did try. But with the reminder that there"s a person just right below you that has the ability to weaponized anything, allowing them to kill anything no matter how contrived the way may be, it was kind of hard.
There was also the fact that such a person now had a giant mana pool that could help them materialize anything they could think of and had the knowledge to actually make it.
What"s more, direct offensive magic doesn"t work on the guy.
"G.o.ddamit."
She couldn"t help but curse under her breath and put a hand on her forehead.
"He"s really such a cheat in at least this Zone."
Lucille shuddered at her sudden realization. If the〈Collapse〉hadn"t happened, and Cole had still died somehow and transmigrated, she felt that there was a high chance he would"ve come to the〈Fantasia Zone〉.
If so, then she"d have to make sure he stayed in the〈Demon Realm〉because she didn"t want to risk their civilization rising too fast.
"Well, it is not like it matters anymore."
No longer wanting to stress herself over a problem that"s smart enough to not be one, she leaned back once again to continue watching the carnage.