Gonna Be a Demon King!
Chapter 89: Soulful ‘Gift’

Chapter 89: Soulful ‘Gift’

Just as the Archmage took a step forward and the demon roused his demonic energy once more, Xaren silently pulled his spare sword from his magic pouch, turned around, and hurled it at the Archmage with 5x gravity-enhanced force.

The blade tore through the air faster than the eye could follow, but the Archmage—who was mid-cast—naturally detected the incoming attack.

Instinctively, he turned towards it, and the magic circle he’d conjured to use against the demon unleashed a pressurized beam of water that struck the sword down before it could reach them.

But in that brief moment of distraction, the demon seized the opening and lunged at the Archmage.

The Archmage tried to turn back and cast another spell, but he couldn’t conjure a magic circle fast enough to block the demon’s claws, which tore cleanly across his arm, sending a spray of blood into the air.

As the man staggered, the demon pressed the advantage, delivering a brutal kick to his midsection that knocked him into the air. In that same moment, he spun and raked his demonic energy-coated claws across the Archmage’s neck.

The Archmage clutched at his throat, eyes wide in shock as blood gushed between his fingers. Before he could react further, the demon brought his claws down and drove them straight through the Archmage’s skull.

The Archmage died instantly.

Afterwards, the demon yanked his claws free, his breathing heavy, shoulders rising and falling with each breath.

He turned toward Xaren’s direction in silence for a moment, then, still clutching his injured arm, he reached into his coat and pulled out two items.

First, a vitality potion. He uncorked it with his teeth and downed half of it in one go, before pouring the rest on his wounded arm.

The second was a tightly rolled scroll-like parchment. Without a word, he tossed it toward Xaren, and as it landed at his feet, the demon finally spoke.

"You did nothing."

With that, the demon unfurled his wings and shot into the sky.

Xaren watched him disappear, then crouched and picked up the scroll. As he unrolled it, he was met with the now-familiar sight of the soul-sealing magic circle the demons used to store souls.

Reading the symbols of the circle his language comprehension skill translated, he discovered there were nearly a hundred souls trapped inside. And from the energy leaking out of it, he could tell each soul belonged to at least a level 100 existence.

Xaren raised an eyebrow, a faint grin curling at the corners of his lips as he muttered, "An unexpected haul."

Then he turned around and dashed off in the opposite direction, heading deeper into Zlego.

◇　◇　◇

Xaren dashed through the crumbling streets of the city, his figure cutting through the clouds of smoke that billowed to the skies.

Buildings groaned under the weight of collapse and the air reeked of ash and blood.

It was a scene of war and carnage that Xaren had grown all too familiar with, so much so he could barely remember the times before he ever entered a battlefield.

’I’d like to go back to my home world someday...’

This thought crossed Xaren’s mind as he lopped off a human soldier’s head, before kicking their corpse away and continuing on his merry way.

Anyone not wearing the Demon Army’s insignia, human, elf, or otherwise, was beheaded by his blade without a word.

Thinking back to the 100 souls he received from that Level 400+ demon, Xaren could already imagine how many stats he’d gain when he finally devoured them—after the battle, of course.

He turned a corner, the dull thump of his boots muffled by the explosions around him, and then he saw two figures locked in high-speed combat.

One of them he recognized instantly. Her white ponytail whipped through the air as she flashed around, her sword wrapped in a dark green aura, clashing against the white aura-coated blade of a silver-armoured human.

Xaren was quite surprised to see the armoured human knight easily keep up with her speed, his sword slicing through the air with flashes of light.

He silently watched them clashing without a word, witnessing every spark that erupted when their blades met. They both vanished and reappeared with each breath, never holding their position for more than a second.

’That guy’s getting real close. The shockwaves from their clashes show his strikes are quite strong too...’

Xaren’s gaze focused on Ilya, and his eyebrow raised as he asked himself.

’...why isn’t she using her Darkstorm skill?’

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Ilya activated the skill.

But in the split second before the wind blades could fully form—as her demonic energy compressed the air around her—the human knight suddenly sprang back with a burst of speed that left Xaren genuinely stunned.

The wind blades ripped through the space where the knight had stood a second earlier, missing him entirely.

"Damn, he’s fast," Xaren muttered.

Naturally, his voice was caught by the enhanced hearing of the two, and both fighters snapped their gazes toward him almost instantly.

The knight immediately narrowed his eyes in suspicion, while Xaren casually lifted a hand and said, "Sup, Ilya."

Walking forward with his hand still on his sword, he continued.

"You know, I met the brother of that half-giant we fought back in the Elven Forest."

Xaren spoke in a conversational tone, one that didn’t fit the battlefield they were in. As for Ilya, she only raised an eyebrow, clearly confused.

’What does that have to do with anything?’—her expression didn’t change, but her eyes practically screamed the question.

Despite noticing this, Xaren continued speaking like normal.

"Turns out the stats we would’ve gotten from his soul were Energy and Strength. Kind of obvious in hindsight—he was half-giant, half-angel, after all."

The knight, though still wary, was just as confused as Ilya was. He tightened his grip on his sword, trying to figure out if Xaren was here to help Ilya and all this talk was a means to distract him.

Meanwhile, Ilya was still looking baffled, wondering why Xaren was suddenly spouting things that had no relation to the current situation.

Then, out of nowhere, Xaren said, "Catch your breath yet?"

"...!"

His words hit Ilya like a sudden gust of wind, and her eyes widened in realization. She had been getting pushed back during the fight, and Xaren’s random interruption had bought her just enough time to catch her breath and steady herself.

The knight also realised this as well, and he muttered something under his breath while rousing his aura.

Sensing this, Xaren turned to him, meeting his gaze as he spoke.

"Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m not gonna interfere."

He obviously didn’t expect the man to believe him though. But before any more words could be said, a booming shout rang through the air.

"DIE!!!"

Xaren’s gaze snapped upward just in time to see an angel descending from above, charging directly toward Ilya.

Without even a split-second hesitation, Xaren stomped his foot on the ground, the force lifting some rocks off the ground.

Then, he infused his legs with demonic energy and kicked it, sending the rock hurtling towards the charging angel at 5x speed. It struck the angel’s head with a satisfying crash, knocking the angel off course and sending them spiralling towards the ground.

But before the angel even hit the ground, Xaren was already above them, the blade of his sword engulfed in black flames.

In the same movement, he brought his blade down, cleanly severing the angel’s head from their neck. The headless body crumpled to the ground with a dull thud, and Xaren kicked the angel’s head away like a ball, sending it tumbling across the battlefield.

Turning back to Ilya and the knight, Xaren spoke, his tone as causal as it was before.

"You guys carry on. I’ll just make sure no one interferes."

Ilya was silent for a moment, taken aback by Xaren’s sudden intervention. She glanced at the knight, who was just as confused, and then back at Xaren.

Then, without so much as a word or a gesture, Ilya vanished in a sudden gust of wind.

The knight reacted instantly, infusing his sword with an immense surge of aura as he spun around, just in time to block a vicious slash aimed at his back.

Sparks exploded from the collision of blades, and the force of the impact sent a shockwave rippling through the air around them.

Xaren, true to his word, casually gathered a pile of broken wall fragments, stacking them until they formed a makeshift seat high enough for him to sit comfortably.

He hopped onto the stack and sat down, watching the two combatants continue to battle without a word.

Even though the speed of their strikes was sometimes too fast for his eyes to properly follow, he kept his gaze locked on the fight.

And whenever an angel, human, elf, or demon wandered too close, he dealt with them without hesitation—beheading, crushing, dismembering, or knocking them away to keep the area clear.