“Mammon, seriously... He sent his men here to die without even giving them detailed intel on the enemy? Or did he never expect you to run into me?”

Rean swept his disheveled bangs back with his left hand. The exhaustion from moments ago had vanished, replaced by an easy smile.

Even with the newly awakened, rampaging Ifrit before him, he remained utterly composed. His quiet aura of authority made Reynos instinctively step back.

“Lein Christin... Were you playing me this whole time?!”

Reynos finally understood. The advantage he thought he’d held had merely been an act.

Rean had lured him into getting cocky, all so he’d reveal where he came from.

Fury clenched Reynos’s teeth.

“What else? Did you really think I’d be stupid enough to let some nameless insect like you overpower me?”

Rean suddenly vanished from Reynos’s sight.

As Reynos nervously scanned his surroundings, Ifrit prepared another breath attack.

Then something struck it with tremendous force.

Without warning, the monster was hurled far to the side. It rolled across the ground several times before finally stopping.

A monster...

Reynos knew Rean had done it.

But that ghostly speed—and the strength to send an Ifrit three men tall flying with one blow—surpassed everything he knew.

“Where are you looking?”

“I—Pfft!”

The ghostly whisper at his ear made Reynos instinctively try to answer.

In the next instant, a hammer-like fist smashed into his chest.

He crashed to the ground and skidded backward over ten meters. The deep, plowed furrow behind him showed just how heavy that blow had been.

“You dared cause trouble on Christin territory. You even attacked children. Tired of living, bastard?”

Rean rolled his neck.

He glanced at the black armor that had torn through his clothes and now lay exposed, then shook his head in self-mockery.

Demonform.

Among those of the Demon Realm were low-magic folk no different from ordinary people, various demihuman races, and high-ranking monsters with human appearances.

The rest who looked human were Demon Realm nobles like Rean.

Yet they also possessed a demonic side.

That was Demonform.

Their appearance changed depending on the degree of transformation, and their strength rose along with it.

Right now, Rean had only used his demonic power to rapidly heal the wound on his chest. He’d transformed only his hands.

This wasn’t even close to his full strength.

An enemy of this level wasn’t worth going all out against.

“Bastard...”

“Let me tell you your greatest mistake.”

Rean stared coldly at Reynos as he struggled to his feet.

He drove Laevateinn hard into the ground.

The flaming Cursed Blade instantly turned the earth ahead into molten lava. It spread toward Reynos at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“You should never have released Ifrit.”

“If this sword were still inside me, I couldn’t have recovered my magic this quickly.”

An eerie blue light shimmered around Rean.

Reynos could vaguely make out something terrifying. It seemed to be tearing into and devouring something invisible.

Rean’s night-dark eyes now glimmered with faint golden light.

His magic wasn’t merely restored.

It was overflowing.

Once Fenrir’s Fang had been removed, Rean’s restricted power of Gluttony could function normally again.

Just by consuming the magic in the air, he could rapidly recover his fighting strength.

“I’ll give you one chance. Go back and tell Mammon that if he dares—”

“Rean, watch your side!”

Olga’s shout came from behind.

Before Rean could react, she wrapped both arms tightly around his waist.

The next moment, they shot into the air.

At the same time, a massive torrent of flame swept through the spot where Rean had been standing.

If Olga hadn’t pulled him away, he would’ve taken it head-on.

His wounds could heal rapidly during Demonform, but...

Getting burned still hurt.

It really freaking hurt!

“I told you to watch your side! Why didn’t you listen? Without me, you’d be ashes by now!”

“Then why’d you save me? Weren’t you afraid of getting burned too?!”

Olga held Rean around the waist and berated him indignantly.

She said nothing about how she’d willingly risked herself, while Rean shot back without the slightest restraint.

“If you get burned to death, who am I supposed to marry?!”

“I thought about it. If all the other Demon Kings are ancient bastards, I physically can’t accept them!”

So he met her physical requirements?

“Fine. I owe you one this time. I’ll repay it.”

Rean suppressed the urge to retort and looked toward the source of the fiery torrent.

As expected, Ifrit had recovered from his punch.

It raised its head and unleashed an enraged roar. That last attack had been retaliation for the blow.

It was already such a high-ranking monster.

So why didn’t it possess even a shred of intelligence?

Monsters that knew nothing but destruction were always the biggest pain.

Whatever.

He’d deal with it first.

Rean sighed softly and aimed Laevateinn at Ifrit.

He prepared to launch the sword straight through its skull.

However, a furious, bewildered roar from below interrupted him.

“Lein Christin... Why are you associating with an angel?! And what was that about marriage?!”

Reynos had climbed to his feet.

His eyes burned as he glared at Rean and Olga in the sky.

The moment Reynos said “angel,” Rean’s face went deathly pale.

He slowly, shakily turned his head.

Sure enough, Olga’s four white wings were spread wide.

The cloak meant to hide them had crumpled into a strip between her wings, looking painfully awkward.

Olga stared at the pale-faced Rean, apparently still clueless.

She blinked blankly.

This idiot angel exposed herself! Aaaaaaargh!

Rean screamed inwardly.

Olga’s identity was an absolute secret to him.

Their political marriage—whether he accepted it or not—couldn’t be known by anyone outside Christine Demon King City.

And now, at the worst possible moment, the one person who absolutely shouldn’t know had found out.

His stomach suddenly hurt...

“No, listen. Let me explain. This whole thing goes against my personal wishes—”

“You intend to betray the entire Demon Realm?!”

Reynos stood and pointed straight at Rean’s face.

“Or has House Christin already colluded with the Celestial Realm?! You aren’t worthy of inheriting the title of Demon King!”

“Urgh...”

Rean clutched his aching stomach.

He knew this would happen.

Ordinary people of the Demon Realm carried a bone-deep hatred for the Celestial Realm.

Naturally, their first thought would be that Rean—or even all of House Christin—had colluded with them.

More importantly, Reynos’s second accusation wasn’t wrong.

Aside from Rean, the old Demon King and his consort really had struck a shady deal with the Celestial Realm.

If Rean returned to the Demon King Citadel now, he might even find the Demon Queen happily drinking tea with the Archangel.

“Just you wait!”

“I’ll report this to Lord Mammon as soon as I return!”

“Then the entire Demon Realm will learn that House Christin colluded with the Celestial Realm!”

“Even you can’t withstand the full might of the Demon Realm!”

“Then you’re not leaving!”

Rean flicked his wrist.

The giant flaming sword shot out with a sharp whoosh and plunged diagonally into the ground before the fleeing Reynos.

If Reynos hadn’t stopped in time, Laevateinn’s flames would’ve burned him alive.

“I was going to spare you and let you warn Mammon.”

“But you saw something you shouldn’t have.”

“So now, you’ll have to keep this secret forever... Hahahahahaha!”

This man absolutely could not be allowed to live!

Rean laughed like a villain—though Demon Kings might technically be villains—and made up his mind.

Reynos intended to expose this secret to the entire Demon Realm.

That left no solution but to silence him.

Permanently.

Once the Fifth Demon King learned this operation had failed, he probably wouldn’t dare cause more trouble anyway.

“Hey! Let go of me!”

“I’m going to destroy that bastard!”

“He even said I’m unworthy of becoming Demon King! Is he worthy?!”

“Stop struggling! Stay still! You’re going to make me fall too!”

Rean shouted and struggled to leap from Olga’s embrace.

Instead, she tightened her arms and carried him even higher.

“—!”

A deafening roar erupted.

At the same moment, a volcanic torrent of flame burst upward.

It stopped less than half a meter from Rean and the others.

Everything within a twenty-meter radius of Ifrit instantly became a blazing hell.

The soldiers Rean had knocked down vanished.

So did Reynos, who hadn’t escaped in time.

Only Laevateinn remained, standing alone where it had pierced the ground and quietly absorbing the flames.

Looks like I won’t need to handle him myself.

Rean shook his head.

“Looks like you owe me another favor.”

Olga watched Ifrit roaring below, then lowered her head and gave Rean a complicated look.

“Want to owe me one more? I can help you defeat Ifrit.”

“If we fight together, perhaps—”

“No need. I’m enough on my own.”

“Just stay out of my way.”

Expressionless, Rean pushed away the arms around his waist and leaped toward Ifrit.

Laevateinn seemed to answer his call.

With a sharp swoosh, it flew from the ground and returned to his hand.

At the same moment, the Six Nights emerged from the void behind Rean, crackling with black lightning.

Black light flashed.

The six swords plunged toward the ground in sequence, trailing conical wakes of vapor like falling stars.

Explosions and roaring flames followed.

Fist-sized holes were punched through Ifrit’s body.

Rean gripped the flaming Cursed Blade Laevateinn with both hands and drove it into the back of Ifrit’s skull.

The instant the blade sank into muscle, magma-hot blood erupted like a fountain and splattered across Rean’s face.

The pressure nearly forced Laevateinn from the wound.

Ifrit roared.

It howled in fury.

The flames across its body surged in a violent eruption.

Yet they couldn’t shake the man atop its head in the slightest.

Several-inch claws burst from Rean’s Demonformed hands.

He drove them deep into Ifrit’s flesh.

At the same time, Gluttony activated.

A gigantic, translucent blue dragon head appeared.

It tore away an entire mass of muscle and devoured it.

“You probably can’t understand a word I’m saying.”

“But the moment you appeared here, you became a threat to all of Christin.”

Rean leaped from Ifrit’s massive body.

He seized one of its forelegs with one hand.

The claws of his other hand pierced its flesh.

In one instant, he ripped the entire limb free, tendons and all.

Scalding blood splashed across the ground and scattered into sparks of fire.

The giant beast of flame roared madly.

But it couldn’t change the reality that Rean was tearing it apart with his bare hands.

“Anything that threatens Christin will be destroyed.”

“Demon King or monster—it makes no difference.”

“Even if it’s one of the Beasts of Sin, I’ll destroy every last one.”

Rean thrust his hand deep into Ifrit’s eye.

Scarlet flames instantly burned its eyeball and nerves into nothingness.

Behind Rean’s arm, Behemoth’s dragon head opened its jaws wide.

Then it tore the flame demon’s entire head from its body.

The flame demon sealed by the first Christin—Ifrit—finally died today, a thousand years later.