The Demon King's First General
Chapter 44: General’s Name

Chapter 44: General’s Name

The ground shook while the land was scorched as Zeno and Cinn fought. They didn’t give their opponents any room to breathe.

Zeno, with his scythe, deflected and cut the burning orbs of blue flames, making them explode right before he leaped upward to give Cinn a punch. His weapon changed into gauntlets while in mid-air.

His attack, packed with Jack’s Legacy created a massive crater where his punch landed. Cinn managed to evade, then she stared at the result of Zeno’s attack, and she felt a shiver down her spine.

’I would be dead if I tried to block that,’ she thought.

Then she looked at the demon, and every nerve in her body was screaming danger. She now realized how big the differences in their strengths were.

"Who really are you?" She asked while preparing a small hurricane of flame in her palm.

"Nothing special, just your normal demon seeking fun," Zeno replied, smirking.

After that, he charged in the demon fox’s direction, and the gauntlets on his hands transformed into jet-black twin daggers with a single white dot on their blades.

He let his weapon swirl on his fingers, then slashed his right dagger, aiming for Cinn’s neck. However, the woman just stepped a little backward to evade the tip of the blade before pushing the circling flame on the demon’s face.

Zeno ducked to dodge, then gave Cinn a sweep kick that caught the demon fox off-guard. She fell to the ground and rolled away to evade the scythe coming straight at her chest.

’His weapon is annoying,’ Cinn conveyed inside her mind.

She felt like she was battling several individuals with different fighting styles.

Zeno moved and chased her, and she had no choice but to deflect every strike of Zeno with her tail. She withstood the constant attack, though her tail didn’t come out unscathed. She started to bleed, and then the demon in her front smiled the next second before he caught one of her tails.

It exploded as soon as Zeno touched it, and Cinn gritted her teeth due to the damage she received.

"Do you know the weakness of your kind?" Zeno asked before he chuckled.

Then he tried to catch another one of Cinn’s tails, but the fox pulled them back as she noticed Zeno’s intention.

"Just let me caress them; your father didn’t even let me touch even one of his tails." The demon taunted Cinn before the scythe changed again.

He extended his left hand, then pulled the other to enter an aiming stance. The next second, he closed his right eye, and a jet-black bow with six white dots on its limbs and an arrow materialized in front of him. He let go of the string, and the shaft with its sharpened front was hurled to Cinn’s position.

She raised her hand, and a curtain made of blue flames acted as her shield. However, the arrow broke through the flame, and she was hit in the chest.

"My weapon is indestructible against your flame," Zeno said before he fired another shot.

But this time, Cinn learned from her mistake and stepped sideways to dodge the arrow. But as she moved to her left side. Another arrow pierced her shoulder.

"Damn it," she cried.

The first shot was just to cover the next attack, but she failed to see it.

Zeno shook his head and smiled.

"You’re still nothing compared to your father," he said.

His words brought fury to Cinn the moment she heard them. She pulled the arrows on her body, but what happened next made Zeno smile.

Cinn’s wounds started to recover at an incredible rate. Even her blown-up tail regained its form.

"Is it because of your origin that you can heal this much?" Zeno asked, astonished by what he had witnessed.

"A demon fox and a vampire hybrid—show me more," he added before he dashed towards his opponent.

Even Cinn was surprised the moment her wound regenerated. She thought that she lost all of her vampiric abilities as she embraced her newly found power, but she was wrong.

Then she stared at the approaching demon, and her slit pupils turned a crimson-red hue. She felt another surge of power at her disposal. She realized that her strength and speed had improved once more. And she took chances to block the demon’s fist covered with a gauntlet.

"I’m afraid you’re still not enough to welcome my attack head-on," Zeno stated.

But Cinn didn’t heed his warning and stood there while raising her arm to defend herself. She focused all of her strength on bracing for the impact.

However, the next second, she was sent flying to the walls of flame, and they crumbled as soon as Cinn crashed on them.

"I s-still l-lose; how can a being be this powerful?" She uttered it as she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Almost half of her body was destroyed. Her arms were blown to pieces, and her flames diminished. Her tails vanished, and she returned to her human form.

Then Zeno walked closer to her and put his scythe’s blade above her neck.

. . . . .

"You’re a disgrace to my prestige," said a man.

"I, Cinhard Beelze, forbid you to use the name Beelze. And from now on, I don’t have a daughter," he added, which brought tears to the woman kneeling a few meters away from him.

"My Lord, pardon my intrusion, but I think this punishment is too harsh for the princess," a blindfolded demon chimed in.

"Zephryx, let him be," the woman said before she stood up and looked at the man sitting on the throne. Her eyes were still filled with tears, but she summoned her courage to speak up.

"Yes, I’m a failure as an heir, but as a daughter." She paused and shook her head before continuing. "I am not."

She didn’t wait for a reply; instead, she moved a single step backward and glanced at the woman crying by the side of the man.

’Goodbye, Mother,’ she thought and forced herself to smile.

After that, she turned around, and the last thing she heard was her father’s words. No, the Demon King’s words.

"Don’t ever try to chase her, Anelia," he said, which made her wail while walking out of the palace.

Then, after she passed through the door, she heard another voice, but she didn’t know where it came from.

"You’re nothing compared to your Father," it said, and everything turned black and the place was filled with annoying laughter.

. . . . .

"No!" Cinn yelled as she woke up from her sleep. She stared at the ceiling and noticed that it was familiar.

"It’s my room, isn’t it?" she uttered. She tried to get up, but she felt her head ringing, and she was forced to lie on her bed once more.

Then a maid came in as soon as the door opened, and she hugged Cinn after she saw her looking at her.

"Mistress, you’re awake! At last!" Aichelle cried out.

"I thought you wouldn’t open your eyes," she added.

Cinn summoned her strength to embrace her maid, but she suddenly remembered what happened.

The last thing she knew, she had lost the battle against the unknown demon, and now she was back in her mansion.

"Aichelle, how long have I been passed out? How come I’m still alive?" She asked questions in an instant.

Then her maid stood up and looked at her with teary eyes.

"You’ve been knocked out for three days straight. If that demon with the scar didn’t show up, you would be dead by now, or maybe both of us," Aichelle answered.

Her maid’s revelation made her think about the festival, but her thoughts were interrupted as Aichelle moved her face closer and stared at her.

"W-what are you doing?" Cinn asked before she gently pushed her maid away from her.

"Mistress, you should take a look," Aichelle replied, then she ran to where the closet was located and got something before putting it a few inches apart from her mistress’ face.

Cinn stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was still as pretty as before, and her hair was still white, but the color of her eyes caught her attention.

It was now cyan-blue, like the woman she met at the shrine. However, it was not an exact replica of that woman’s eyes. It had the same color, but Cinn’s eyes had a red circle outline on the middle of her iris.

"Tell me what happened after I lost," she asked, then averted her eyes from the mirror and looked at Aichelle, waiting for answers.

. . . . .

Zeno looked at the woman lying in front of him while his scythe was hanging at her throat. He looked at her body, which was undergoing reconstruction.

’What a waste; she still can’t fully utilize and understand how her power works,’ he thought.

He was ready to kill her at any moment when a dagger came behind him, but he evaded it as he moved his head to the side.

"Don’t kill her, please!" Aichelle pleaded while looking at him.

She was now kneeling while tears were flowing from her eyes. She couldn’t afford to see her mistress get killed twice right before her. But Zeno ignored her, and he didn’t even look back to glance at the vampire.

After that, several demonic beings landed on the place, while lycanthropes and other creatures arrived.

’Where’s the Lord?’ They thought, dissatisfied as the flames they were looking for were not present in the place.

But they were all surprised to see that the man who killed the orc earlier was one of the figures that they found in the area. Their eyes roamed around, and they couldn’t help but gulp a mouthful of saliva as they witnessed the result of the earlier battle.

However, Zeno didn’t let himself be bothered by these people. He disregarded their presence and proceeded with what he intended to do. He started to move the scythe, and blood flowed as soon as a cut on Cinn’s neck appeared. But then, a demon with a scar on the middle of his right eye plunged down a meter away from Zeno. He looked and bowed at him before speaking while kneeling on one knee.

"I’m not in the position to question the general’s decision, but please, can you spare this woman? Have mercy, General Arthur," he said, his calm voice void of fear.

Zeno stopped and turned his head to look at the man. He didn’t expect to hear that name again. The name that brought terror to the land of Exgreia but was respected by every demon back in the day.

. . . . .