A giant battleship had arrived at the territory of the Banfields.

It was the battleship that the 7thWeapons Factory had built for Liam.

At the bridge of the ship, Nias danced about ecstatically as she read the data presented on the monitor screen.

Her eyes shone as she spoke about the splendid battleship that she created.

“It’s absolutely brilliant! I want to show this to the ones that mocked me and said that it’s only possible in theory! Just look! Just look at its specs! They’re far beyond what I expected! Its energy conversion rate is insane as well. And the output! This is a battleship like no other. Ah~ I’m so talented that it’s making me nervous.”

Some soldiers watched on as Nias had her face pressed to the monitor.

They were the soldiers that Liam had assigned to pick up his battleship. Being elite soldiers, Liam had entrusted his ship to them.

The other staff members from the Weapons Factory were taken aback by Nias’s frenzied dance, but they did not cut corners when it came to their work.

“Is she not aware of what’s going on right now?”

“This just proves that talent is inversely proportional to sanity.”

“Hey, she’s rolling on the floor now. Someone should stop her.”

It was an embarrassing display.

However, her excitement was understandable as the ship’s performance well exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The only issue was that its owner was missing.

Suddenly, Nias came to a halt.

Looking at the ship’s monitor, she tilted her head.

“Oh? It’s picked up a distress signal. It’s from a distant place though. To pick up a signal that’s coming from so far away, mom’s proud of you.”

She referred to the battleship as her child and spoke like she was its mother.

The people around her didn’t know what to say anymore.

It was then that the captain stood up and shoved Nias away from the monitor.

Nias fell down with a “Fugya!” but no one bothered with her.

“This distress signal—hey, someone contact the home planet immediately and gather all our allies!”

With that command from the captain, the people in the bridge got busy.

◇

Nogo, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, had been slain.

[Gorius], the Demon Lord, was sitting on the throne that was inside its castle.

Its body was shaped like a human’s, but it was made of flickering flames, and its eyes consisted of two sharp glints of light.

Gorius had no need for food.

Instead, it loved to consume negative emotions such as malice, despair, and fear.

Having bestowed the beastmen some of its powers, Gorius was irked when it learned that they had been defeated.

“That’s beastmen for you, I guess.”

It had accepted the beastmen under its wing so that they could terrorize the humans in its stead.

However, it had planned on getting rid of them in due time.

In essence, they were just tools Gorius used to efficiently squeeze out the negative emotions of the human race.

Its remaining subordinates stepped forward, fighting over who should replace Nogo in terrorizing the humans.

“My Lord, please let me have a go at them next!”

“No, I shall go next!”

“I believe I’m fit for the job because—”

Gorius was just about fed up with all this.

(Manipulating these lowly creatures is getting tiresome real quick. Oh, if only I could dominate the world more quickly!)

Gorius had suffered under the Heroes’ might many times in the past.

However, it had managed to resurrect over the years.

Not only that, it had saved up a great amount of power.

As humans had the habit of fighting amongst themselves, Gorius had been able to silently siphon their negative emotions.

(Whatever, I’m just doing this for fun anyway. Even if a Hero appears, it’s not like they’ll be able to beat me. After all, I’ve already transcended the realm of a Demon Lord.)

Gorius didn’t have a physical body to speak of, so it was naturally immune to physical attacks.

Just as Gorius was thinking of killing off its subordinates and personally dealing with the humans, a Giant came into the audience hall while covered in blood.

“The beastmen have betrayed you, my Lord. They’ve entered the castle, and a Hero is leading them.”

The Giant then breathed its last.

The Demon Lord narrowed its eyes, forming two crescent moons.

“Ho~ so you’ve come to take my head. My, what an impatient Hero we’ve got here.”

◇

At the royal palace of the Kingdom of Aarl, Queen Enora was feeling troubled over Liam’s reckless decision to charge ahead.

The heavyweights of the kingdom were having a meeting inside the throne room.

“He just went ahead and attacked the Demon Lord’s castle!?”

“Why didn’t he consult with us beforehand!?”

To subjugate the Demon Lord, they assumed that Liam would need their help.

From the beginning, however, Liam had never once considered getting help from the Kingdom of Aarl.

After a few days of rest, he took off with the beastmen and charged into the Demon Lord’s castle.

What made things worse was that he had taken with him less than a hundred people, claiming that it would be “pointless to have so many people marching” behind him.

He hadn’t been able to secure enough food and water, so he left behind a majority of the beastmen.

Putting all that aside, Enora’s biggest concern had to do with the heads that had been delivered to them before Liam left.

The decapitated heads of the ministers and the generals that had plotted Liam’s assassination, had been sent to them by Liam’s servant, Kunai.

She had also said, “None of you are in the clear. When everything is over, you better be prepared.”.

Almost as an aside, she told them that people would be coming to the Kingdom of Aarl to assist Liam.

(Planet? She was saying a lot of things that I didn’t understand, but she seemed convinced that help would be coming.)

If people like Liam who could use mysterious magic were really coming, the kingdom would have to give them a warm reception.

Originally, they intended to build a friendly relationship by cooperating in the subjugation of the Demon Lord, but due to Liam’s independent action along with the assassinationattempt that Enora had no prior knowledge of, everything went down the drain, and things were now beyond saving.

“What shall we do?” She asked, worried. “If Liam-dono’s country makes a move to retrieve him, we’ll have to go to war.”

“There’s no precedent of this,” Citasan said. “It should be impossible.”

“But their knowledge of magic might exceed ours.”

Enora glanced at Citasan, the one responsible for the summoning magic.

“Citasan, do you think it’s possible for Liam-sama’s country to knock on our doors?”

“It’s impossible, Your Majesty. That summoning spell searches through numerous worlds to find a candidate that can defeat the Demon Lord. It’s a one-way trip, so returning is impossible. That servant of his must have been bluffing”

She was relieved to hear that, but it made her think as well.

(What a cruel magic. We can’t return them back to where they came from despite summoning them here.)

When she thought of Kanami, her heart began to hurt.

Enora certainly wasn’t qualified as a queen, but she was a kind person.

A soldier rushed in amidst the clamoring meeting.

“I-it’s an emergency! The Demon Lord’s army has appeared above us!”

News arrived that the Demon Lord’s army had invaded the kingdom while Liam was gone.

◇

—The Demon Lord’s castle.

After storming in, Liam had gotten rid of all the soldiers and officers that stood in his way.

Gorius, the Demon Lord, showed an interest in Liam’s sword after watching the battle.

“That weapon must have been made using Orichalcum.”

“You know your stuff.”

The sword that Liam usually carried around as a spare was made of Orichalcum.

Normally, it would be considered a very valuable item, but in Liam’s eyes, it was just an ordinary sword among the many others in his collection.

Gorius was convinced of its victory.

“I commend mankind for their effort. I don’t know how you guys processed it, but I’m impressed by how much you humans were able to accomplish under pressure.—The thing is, though, that thing won’t be enough to beat me.”

Liam stared intently at Gorius.

The very next moment, the backrest of the throne that Gorius was sitting on was sliced off.

It laughed when it saw Liam raise one of his eyebrows.

“Are you wondering why I’m fine? It’s because I don’t have a physical body.”

It hadn’t been able to follow Liam’s attack just now, but it didn’t matter as neither physical attacks nor magic attacks worked against Gorius.

Unless it was of considerable output, it could even withstand attacks from Holy magic.

Gorius stood up from the throne.

“How pitiful. You must have put in a lot of effort to reach such an insanely high realm of swordsmanship. Not only that, you’ve been bestowed a Orichalcum sword. The humans must have invested a lot in you, but alas, all that was for naught.”

As it walked up to Liam, its body grew in size.

The black flame took the form of a human as it stared down at Liam.

“Everything—yes, everything that you did was for naught! Do you know what I feed on?”

Liam frowned as he looked up at Gorius, perhaps annoyed by how he was being looked down on.

“Not interested.”

“Kukuku, how stubborn you are. I wonder how long you could keep that attitude of yours.”

It waved its fist with enough force to blow away a portion of the castle’s wall.

“Oh, you were able to avoid that?”

However, Liam had dodged its attack while still looking up.

Gorius was in a good mood. Hence, it decided to teach Liam about despair.

“I’ve fought Heroes multiple times before.”

“That so.”

Liam did not sound impressed, but Gorius continued on with its speech cheerfully.

“I was slain many times, but as you can see, I’ve managed to come back to life each time. That’s right—I am immortal.”

Even when Gorius revealed that it was immortal, Liam did not seem fazed at all.

Gorius assumed that he was trying to think of a plan to defeat it.

“Are you trying to come up with a plan to beat me? Sorry to tell you this, but you can’t. I can’t be killed with swords or magic, and that’s because I’m malice itself!”

“Malice!”

“Yes, malice! As long as there’s negative energy hanging around, I’ll be able to revive myself over and over again! No matter how many times you subjugate me, I’ll return stronger than ever. Be it through sword or magic, none of the attacks can reach me! Even if they do, I can just come back to life! Why do you think this is the case?—It’s because I won’t cease to exist as long as you humans are out there!”

Having finished its speech, it held its hands together and swung them down on Liam like a hammer.

A hole was created in the floor, and the castle was beginning to collapse, but Gorius wasn’t bothered by them.

It continued to swing its fists at Liam, and the latter kept retreating.

“I will not perish as long as you humans exist!”

Liam kept dodging an inch before the Demon Lord’s fists could connect with him.

Gorius landed a kick where Liam had fled to.

“I can revive as many times as I need to!”

Gorius roared at the Heavens inside the Demon Lord’s castle that was turning into a pile of rubble.

“Because I am malice itself!”

Hundreds of thousands of slashes flew towards Gorius as it laughed.

For a split second, the flames were diced.

Soon enough, however, it recovered.

“Impressive, you still haven’t given up.”

Liam hadn’t been injured.

“You were trained to defeat me, but you can’t touch me, even with your Orichalcum sword. You’ve wasted your time.”

However, there was something that was bothering Gorius.

(Why is he completely unscathed?)

Not even a scratch.

Even so, he looked angry for some reason.

“Malice? You?—How dare you look down on humans!”

Gorius was about to be left speechless by Liam’s rant.

◇

Malice my foot.

It’s being fed by the negative emotions of humans, yet it’s pretending like it’s the master of the house.

It’s true that no one on this planet could beat this guy, but!—it’s vastly underestimating the human race.

“You’ve underestimated your human masters too much.”

“—What…did you just say?”

I rest my sword on my shoulder and check the bracelet on my left arm.

“You’ve been blabbering on about how you can revive as long as there are humans on the planet, but that also means you rely on us humans to live.”

The Demon Lord becomes silent, and I look up at the night sky.

The ceiling has collapsed, so the stars are in full view.

“A tiny being like you might not understand what I’m saying, but you’re not the most evil being in this world—humans are!”

“What?”

It has probably only faced off against weak humans until now.

In other words, it doesn’t know anything.

It doesn’t know that there are other humans outside this planet.

“How can you claim to be evil when you haven’t even taken over a single planet? Compared to the number of people I’ve killed, the number you killed means nothing!”

Do you know how many people I’ve killed?

Do you know how many things I’ve destroyed?

I’ve killed so many that I’ve stopped bothering to count.

In my eyes, this Demon Lord is nothing more than a kid that’s claiming to be a general at a local playground.

Simply put, it’s just a big fish in a small pond.

“Has your kill count reached a hundred million yet?”

“—It should be in the tens of millions. To begin with, there aren’t that many people in this world.”

You’ve revived so many times, but it’s only at that level?

“Yes, there are. There are hundreds of billions of people in this world, perhaps even more, and I’m a man who has killed people in the hundreds of millions!”

Not to mention the pirates, I’ve slaughtered countless enemies that blocked my path.

Because of that, there are a lot of people that resent me.

Iam evil. I am Malice!

A Demon Lord of this tiny world has no right to call itself evil!

“Can you hear the voices of the dead? If you can, ask them about how cruel of a man I am.”

This guy looks like an apparition of some type, so it might be able to hear the whispers of the dead.

I bet it’ll be surprised when it hears all the voices of resentment.

“W-what is this!?”

The yellow lights that represent the Demon Lord’s eyes turn round, probably from the shock.

I toss my sword aside and raise my right hand towards the sky.

“A small fry like you has no right to claim that it’s evil! That right is solely reserved for the humans. Yes, someone like me! I am evil!—Ellen, my sword!”

Avid comes down from the sky like a shooting star.

The Demon Lord exclaims in surprise as Avid lands next to me, blowing away the rest of the castle.

“W-w-w-w-what is that!? WHAT IS THAT!?”

Avid towers over the Demon Lord, and from its cockpit, Ellen appears with my sword in hand.

“Master!”

Ellen then throws my most prized sword at me, and the sword’s handle lands right in my extended hand, almost as if it’s been sucked into it.

Upon grabbing the handle, I unsheathe the sword.

“Rejoice, Demon Lord. I’ll give you the honor of dying from my favorite sword. I’ll erase you so completely that you’ll never be able to revive again.”

It’s time to cut down this delusional son of a b*tch.