"[Kaiser Impact].", bowing down after that inexplicable display of command over magic, the mysterious man bowed down. When the light faded away and the shockwaves stopped, the man lifted his head u and Zana stopped covering her face.
She looked at the horrifically violent scene, holding back the urge to vomit on the spot.
"Time for my feast then.", the man waved his hand and Zana could see ethereal substances escape the corpses. They weren't nearly as voluminous as the number seen earlier, but it was still enough for her to lose count of how many were suspended.
The orbs then disappeared into thin air. The odd man licked his lips and stretched out, satsified.
"That wasn't nearly as many as I was promised.", he then turned around to face Zana. No. He wasn't looking at her, but rather, past her. He was looking at Zana's forces with a wolfish, voracious gaze. "I guess they will do."
She immediately understood what he meant. This time, fully in control of her body, she spoke, "You can't!"
"Hm?", the odd man tilted his head slightly.
"You are not allowed to touch anyone from my group, right?", with a shaky voice, Zana said.
"Hmm, forgive the misunderstanding. I simply aren't allowed to let harm befall you.", the man corrected her with a gentle smile. "I do believe I told you that I was supposed to ensure your safety alone. Anyhow, now that we've cleared up tha-"
"No! I won't let you touch a single one of them!", this time with a resolute voice, Zana inched towards the man and declared.
"What?", with a perplexed smile on his face, he asked.
"You heard me. If you want to attack even a single one of them, I will fight you.", now the two were barely a foot away from each other. From an outside perspective, Zana was the giant amongst the two. She towered greatly above him and it would give anyone the idea that she was the clear superior in this confrontation. However, to those who had fought in the war and knew their enemy's strength, Zana was the mouse staring down a tiger.
Zana hadn't forgotten her initial fear of the man, but she knew that she had to face it head on to protect her people. She gripped her staff tightly and looked at the man dead in the eye. The fog that had originally been whispering in her ear for her to run was now backing her up, ready to go down with her. She knew the others were too terrified to help her, but as long as the fog was by her side, she didn't care at all.
In a battle of magic, Zana would lose pathetically, obviously. Physical strength wise, Zana wasn't one to boast, but she was certainly stronger than a lot of her subordinates. Someone so powerful with magic was definitely physically weak, right? They had to be compensating for something, right? She could only hope. Either way, her only bet, well plea, here was that she was fast and strong enough to knock him out in one hit.
"In that case, I have no choice other than to restrain you.", saying that, his left arm evaporated into black smoke that swallowed Zana whole at a speed too fast for her to even register. Her head alone was left above the smoke to allow her to breath, but from neck to tail, her body was encapsulated in the smoke, utterly incapable of any form of movement. Grunting, she tried to move her body, but only her neck could move.
The odd man strode forward with his one hand behind back, "Please do not interrupt my meal any further."
Zana attempted at casting magic, but there was something about the smoke that completely disabled any magic she casted. As if the instructions she was laying out were being interrupted and completely shut down, rendering her paralysed in every sense of the word.
The man, with a malicious grin, licked his lips and ogled at the army. The members of the army were confused about what had just happened and still weren't certain of the man's status. Of course, not all of them had seen him stop the North, but those at the front were vaguely certain that he was the cause of that grand display of magic control just moments earlier. This man saved them without a shadow of doubt. Yet that very same man had imprisoned their tyrant and was approaching them with a malicious aura. They were confused as to what was happening.
That confusion was cleared soon enough though.
The odd man stopped in his tracks when a spear pierced through his back and came out his stomach. His grin completely disappeared and had been replaced by an unreadable expression. He turned his head a perfect 180 to look at the lizard man leader. The latter could only gulp, having no idea why he even jumped in to attack the odd man.
He wasn't the only one confused and scared, as the copper head leader immediately followed up with a slash aimed at the odd man's neck with his curved blade. A head plopped down lifelessly onto the moist ground, leaving the entire battlefield deathly silent.
No one dared to speak or move an inch during this moment. Overwhelming fear completely had a majority of them in a chokehold and they couldn't do a thing.
"Ha, ha, t-that was scary.", if he could sweat, the lizardman leader would have been covered from head to toe.
"Indeed.", the same went for the copper head leader. His voice was stoic, but his arms betrayed his true feelings. Deciding not to loiter about, the copper head leader turned around towards Zana. "Let us attempt to free her."
"Y-Yeah.", the lizard man leader dropped the body of the odd man and was about to turn around when-
"It would seem that I underestimated the quality of some of the souls here.", the odd man's voice, although barely audible, entered the ears of the leaders.
They knew from the very moment the man appeared, that it was impossible to kill him. At least, it was impossible for them. Attempting to stab a man that could wipe out an army without breaking a sweat was madness. At a very fundamental level, anyone knew that even sneaking up on such a person was far too difficult to do. No one's instincts would allow them to approach such a person, but the leaders dropped their instincts and rather acted as quickly and logically as possible.
"I won't make that mistake a second time.", as he bellowed, the leaders were immediately paralysed. Unlike before when they could at least move or think, this time they had been completely frozen, mind and body alike.
The odd man's body broke the shaft of the spear and spat out the head. It then picked up the odd man and reattached it back, making him whole.
As Zana saw all of this, her mind raced through possible ways to get out of this conundrum.
'How do I save all of them? Is this possible? Can I do something about it? Come on, granny. Give me some advice! Ugh, what would you do? Fog! Stop him!', of course, she had thought about using the fog already.
In fact, she had been calling out to the fog for a while now, but the fog wasn't approaching the man. It kept quite the distance away from him and somewhere deep in her heart, Zana felt like the fog wouldn't be able to finish him off.
The past month had honestly been a funny ride that turned the world upside down for her. She was tyrant. One of the strongest creatures in the world! So strong that people outside of Larm didn't dare to intrude upon her land! Yet, in the past few weeks, that notion had been completely shattered.
An upstart had completely wiped the floor with one of her fellow tyrants. A necromancer had rallied up a force powerful enough to cause her to quiver. That same upstart was the one to come to her rescue. The greatest of the tyrants had been killed by an unknown assailant. There was something akin to a civil war happening and she had been on the losing end. Even if she won, the chances of her remaining in a position of actual relevance was low. And now, this strange man out of nowhere had shown her just how weak she and her other tyrants truly were.
This man was so strong that even the fog refused to fight against him. The fog had been around far longer than Zana and had experienced a lot of beings, but even then, it wouldn't hesitate to choke a tyrant to the death. This man was absolutely fearful!
'Choke? Choke… choke! That's it!', a light bulb lit up in her head as a solution had been formulated.
"Stop! Do not take another step, strange man!", the man ignored her as she barked her orders at him. He held the lizard man leader's face in his left palm, applying pressure to it in order to crush his face in.
"If you don't stop, I'll make you regret it!", she threatened, but the odd man ignored everything she shouted. Clearly, he saw her as an absolutely powerless creature.
Clicking her tongue, Zana spoke once more, "I'll kill myself if you don't stop!"
The odd man stopped moving. He lifted an eyebrow, looking at her, stunned.
"That's right! I am not sure why, but it is your duty to keep me safe, right? If I kill myself here, you would have failed, isn't that right?"
Over the course of her struggle, Zana had finally realised what this man was. She hadn't personally seen one, but she could infer that this man was a devil from the way he spoke and his overwhelming control of magic.
It wasn't necessarily his mannerisms that made it obvious as it was the fact that he obsessed over keeping Zana safe and acquiring a satisfying "meal". Those two things didn't precisely narrow it down to him being a devil, but Zana was willing to bet on that.
"You know what will happen if you fail, right? I mean, you are a devil, aren't you?", at the last part, the odd man visibly flinched.
Zana was happy that her theory was proven right. To a devil, a contract was essentially the ultimate gamble. Complete the contract for a good prize. Fail the contract and receive a myriad of negative outcomes, the worst being the complete destruction of the devil.
"This is why I despise some of the life forms in this realm. You all believe you're so smart and that no one else has you beat.", with an annoyed tone, the man started to rattle. "So what? You've figured out that I'm a devil and I've been contracted to protect you. It doesn't change anything. You'll kill yourself? Go ahead! Try it! You think I haven't thought up a means of preventing you from doing that?"
Zana gulped. He had clearly anticipated her doing something like this which was why he had restrained her arms. He must have also thought about Zana biting her tongue or using some other means, meaning Zana had no way to kill herself. At least, that was what he was thinking.
Zana always had one particular means to kill herself.
"I'm sure you have countermeasures for almost anyway I could kill myself.", the man grinned when she said that. However, the grin was short lived as she continued, "Still, I doubt even you can prevent me from dying due to choking on fog."
The fog around them all packed itself densely and approached Zana's face. The devil tried sending a powerful gust of wind, but that didn't work and the fog remained inches away from her face, now as hard as rock.
"You're right. I can't stop the fog from killing you. Even I am not strong enough break something as powerful as a [Universal Law]."
Universal Law? What the hell was he talking about?
Clearly displeased, the man scowled, "I won't forget this."
The smoke that had held Zana hostage returned to the man, forming his other arm. The sudden retraction caused Zana to fall on her butt without any care. When she looked up, the devil was gone and everyone in her army remained untouched.
It was a miracle.
***
Angry, hungry and disappointed, the devil cavalier went in a haste to his summoner. He had completed the summoner's request, but wouldn't be getting his promised half of the deal. Normally, he would kill the foolish summoner and gone on a rampage in a couple of cities before returning to hell, but this summoner wasn't your average summoner.
In hell, there were seven ranks amongst the devils. In these rankings, the devil cavaliers ranked 4th in power and influence. Perfectly in the centre, yet a level so incredibly difficult to enter that it took several centuries for arch devils to evolve to such a stage. In fact, it was the second highest rank of devil that could be summoned into this realm – the highest being Devil Lord. There was even a point in time where a devil cavalier had been more than enough power to create a prominent empire in this realm.
Yet, this cavalier knew there was something completely different about this summoner. He didn't like the summoner at all and by no means took pleasure in doing this contract, but he couldn't refuse it. The contract had been imposed forcefully and no matter how hard he resisted, he couldn't refuse it.
Even to a devil, there was something ominous about this overly imposing contract that made them all want to avoid it. He wasn't too pleased about returning to this summoner, but he wanted his half of the deal so bad, that he actually chose to return. The promise of 30,000 souls was far too delicious an offer for Devil Cavalier to refuse.
The moment he arrived; he bowed down – an attitude most devils never took even with higher rank devils. It was as if his instincts instructed him to show the utmost respect to this summoner.
"Haa~ So you have returned? I can assume that you have completely wiped out the bugs then?", a childish voice asked with a condescending tone to it.
"Yes, however there weren't nearly half as many as you promised there would be.", he voiced his complaint without raising his head to take another look at the summoner.
"Hm? What? You aren't pleased with having an easier job?", annoyed, the person asked.
"… I was promised 30,000 souls for this endeavour. I only acquired 2000. I was hoping you could give me the remaining 28,000.", he took a moment to think about to phrase his request and eventually settled on being blunt.
"Only 2000? Hmph. Even the rat man's information network can fail sometimes, it seems." Contemplatively, the person responded. "Very well t-"
"Shut your mouth, Julian. We don't have any souls to feed him." Another voice cut him off. This voice was even more childish-sounding, but clearly contained more authority of the two.
The devil didn't move out of his place as the summoner's gaze bore down on him.
"Hmm, I would rather not promise you an extra 28,000 souls. Just go away.", coldly, the person simply sacked the devil from his doorsteps.
The devil could feel a metaphorical vein burst at the completely unreasonable request of the summoner, but something malevolent about the summoner kept him from simply shouting and demanding his bounty.
"May I request some other form of equal compensation?", the devil tried to approach this from a different angle. If he couldn't acquire the souls themselves, at least something of equal value was more important, no?
"No. Go away.", a complete rejection. This summoner had absolutely no interest in keeping up his half of the deal. He clearly had no fear of the devil attempting to kill for failure to uphold his end of the deal. That alone made the devil scared to ask for more, but the thought of him not getting at least compensation for his hard work was infuriating to say nonetheless.
He would become a laughing stock for this, but something told him that was far better than incurring the wrath of the summoner.
"Wait, Master Maou, I have a suggestion.", Julian, the boy dressed up as a butler said before the devil cavalier simply returned to hell. He stayed, hoping to get something out of this.
The boy whispered something into the cat-like being's ears for quite some time. After a few minutes, the summoner heaved a sigh of resignation, then glared at the devil. He sat down, but the pose he struck and the glare he gave all said: I have the high ground here.
"Ahem…", Julian cleared his throat, straightened his back up and proceeded, "The future World's Most Terrifying Demon Lord, Maou Hyakkiyago has chosen to compensate you by employing you in his service. Rejoice! You are the very first subordinate of Lord Maou!"
Julian declared proudly, but to the devil, that was horrendous news. In fact, he was quite willing to jump back into hell at this very moment and be laughed at for all of eternity. There was something instinctively repulsive about the summoner. All his cells were warning him to not follow this cat-like creature and he had full intention to listen to them.
"I apologise, but it would seem I do not require compensation after al-"
"I shall acquire a body for you so you may remain in this realm for an indefinite period of time. Till then, I shall supply you with my mana.", Julian ignored the devil's words completely.
His fate was sealed the moment Maou had summoned him.
