Gonna Be a Demon King!
Chapter 71: Beasts of Light, Demons of Dark

Chapter 71: Beasts of Light, Demons of Dark

Lifting scattered rocks and broken trees, he hurled them backwards and one of the projectiles struck an angel beast in the head, sending it crashing into another, both of them tumbling into the wreckage of a shattered tree.

That left two still on his tail. Handling these two alone was fine so Xaren stopped running and rushed toward them instead.

The angel beasts unleashed volleys of light projectiles, but Xaren weaved between them with nimble movements, ensuring not a single one touched him. As a demon, he took at least 1.5x more damage from light magic, so Xaren didn’t even want a minor hit.

One of the remaining beasts suddenly accelerated and lashed out with its claws, but Xaren sidestepped the attack at the last second. His flaming sword drove straight through the beast’s eye, piercing its brain and bursting out through the back of its skull, killing it instantly.

The second beast attacked a moment later, but Xaren blocked its claws with a gravity shield before pulling out his sword and slashing at its forelimb. The blade cut clean through, severing the limb, and in the same motion, the tip of his sword sliced across the beast’s eyes.

Seizing the opening, Xaren pulled back his blade and drove it into the creature’s head, ending its life before dashing toward the last two.

"Flame Lance Barrage!"

He unleashed a volley of black flame spears at the fourth beast. It instinctively twisted its body, attempting to dodge to the side, but Xaren had anticipated this.

He instantly quadrupled the gravity acting upon it, the sudden weight slowing it down just enough for the fiery lances to pierce into its side. The black flames detonated on impact, blasting the beast through the air with a powerful explosion.

Xaren unfurled his wings and took to the sky, evading an attack from the fifth beast that lunged at him from the side. He then dove downward, sword arcing as he descended toward the fourth.

The beast scrambled back to its feet and swung its claws, reinforcing them with magic to block Xaren’s strike, but Xaren didn’t mind.

At point-blank range, he activated Gravity Sphere, the concentrated force collapsing the angel beast’s face before it could even react. With a final thrust, he drove his sword into its head, ensuring stayed dead.

However, the fifth beast lunged at him the moment he landed the finishing blow, so Xaren lifted the lifeless body of the fourth and spun, using it as a shield to absorb the attack.

The beast’s claw swipe released three-pronged light projectiles, tearing straight through the corpse and splitting it into pieces, white blood splattering everywhere.

Xaren let go of his sword and the corpse the moment he saw the projectiles and leapt backwards. Mid-air, he drew his spare sword and hurled it like a spear at the last beast.

The creature swung its claws, knocking the weapon aside, but Xaren had already made his next move.

He used Gravitational Repulsion on the ground beneath the beast, sending its body flying upward against its will. Without wasting a second, he dashed in, ripped his sword free from the shredded corpse of the fourth, and swung it in a powerful upward arc, slicing deep into the belly of the airborne beast.

Blood poured down, but Xaren paid it no mind. He extended his right hand and fired a flaming lance straight into the gaping wound.

The explosion tore through the angel beast’s insides, making it shriek in agony as it crashed to the ground, twitching. Wasting no time, Xaren closed the distance and drove his sword into the beast’s head, finishing it off.

Turning around, he spotted the souls of the other four angel beasts manifesting above their bodies. Coating his hand in demonic energy, he reached out and seized them, devouring each one to gain the small stat boost they provided and to replenish even the slightest bit of the energy he had expended in the fight.

The distant sounds of battle reached his ears, and he instinctively turned in that direction—not toward the sky filled with black lightning, but toward the rising cloud of dust that was much closer.

That was likely another demon locked in combat with an angel beast.

Xaren dashed toward the disturbance, and after a minute of running, he came upon another demon struggling against three angel beasts. They were in bad shape, their left arm hanging uselessly at their side, its joints completely shattered.

Without hesitation, Xaren joined the fray, selecting two of the angel beasts as targets with his Unique Skill. He launched one into the air with Repulsion while quadrupling the gravity on the second, making it collapse under its own weight.

Using the grounded beast as a platform, Xaren jumped into the air and slashed his flaming sword across the belly of the airborne one.

As he did before, he followed up by launching a flaming lance straight into the open wound, and as the lance exploded on impact, it ruptured the beast’s insides.

The injured demon did not waste the opportunity, instantly firing three rock spears into the beast’s wound.

By the time gravity pulled its body back to the ground, it was already a corpse.

Xaren landed and immediately swung his sword at the third angel beast, but it leapt back and opened its mouth, releasing a concentrated blast of pure light magic.

Having sensed the energy gathering in its mouth, Xaren had already deployed a Gravity Shield to block the attack.

This time, he noticed it clearly—more than 50% of the light bent away from his shield before even making contact.

But though he made this observation, now was not the time to analyse it. Killing the angel beast was the priority.

Xaren charged forward with his gravity shield still up. Seeing him approach, the angel beast abruptly cut off its attack and instead lunged at him, claws ready to strike.

He swung his sword, meeting the angel beast’s claws in a fierce clash that sent sparks flying.

As it attempted to pull back its forelimb for another strike, Xaren reached out with his left hand, seized its limb and brought his blade down on it, severing it before the beast could even think of struggling free.

The angel beast screamed, its mouth opening to unleash another close-range blast of energy. But, before it could, the other demon fired earth spears straight into its mouth, cutting off its attack.

As it coughed up blood, Xaren swung his sword downward, slicing through its neck and ending its life.

Turning, he saw that the other demon had already finished off the third angel beast—the one Xaren had immobilized with gravity amplification.

His gaze shifted to the demon’s arm, and he frowned, muttering,

"...I don’t think any potion I have can fix that."

The demon’s eyes widened at his words, and he practically screamed at him Xaren.

"You have potions?! Please, give me one! My pouch fell off!"

Without a word, Xaren handed over the half-empty bottle of the last potion he had used earlier to treat his own wounds.

The demon quickly drank it, sprinkling some over his other injuries while ignoring his twisted and useless arm. There was nothing he could do about it now, so he chose to endure.

"...Just what the hell happened?"

The demon muttered as he watched his cuts begin to close. Then, sensing Vollm’s demonic energy in the distance, he turned toward it and screamed.

"What the hell is going on over there?!"

"We were attacked by angels."

Xaren had no idea they had actually been attacked by a giant. The attack had been too fast for him to see, and when he regained consciousness, he was already being hunted by angel beasts.

It was only natural for him to assume that angels had been responsible for the attack.

The demon cursed angrily at the dark elves and angels, but Xaren ignored his ranting and spoke instead.

"We have to find the others. Those beasts surely aren’t the only ones."

The demon nodded, gritting his teeth against the pain of his shattered shoulder as he followed after Xaren, both of them heading toward the next sounds of battle.

As they closed in, they noticed deep gashes in the ground, as if something had sliced through the area at high speed.

Then, they saw the dismembered limbs of angel beasts strewn across the battlefield, white blood splattered everywhere.

When they finally reached the source of the carnage, they found Ilya wounded, down on one knee, using her sword as a crutch while breathing heavily.

The girl turned toward them warily, but as soon as she recognized a familiar face instead of an angel beast, the tension drained from her body, and she collapsed.

Xaren quickly rushed over, catching her before she could hit the ground. His eyes immediately locked onto the patch of red staining her side and he quickly pulled out a fresh potion.

He poured the potion over the wound and the liquid took effect instantly, stopping the bleeding. As the injury slowly began to close, he fed her the rest of the potion to heal whatever internal damage she had sustained.

From the severed heads surrounding her, Xaren deduced that Ilya had fought off five angel beasts as he did.

But unlike him, who had maintained his distance and picked them off one by one, she had taken on all five at once while nursing a wound in her stomach.

As soon as she had swallowed the potion, Ilya sat up slightly and pointed in a certain direction.

"...my... pouch."