"Shit! Shit! Why isn't the potion working!?"
Nork shouted to himself before collapsing against a tree on the main road.
He had no idea where his subordinates were. Perhaps many of them had been captured.
Who really knew.
None of the potions in his possession were healing the wound he received from that boy.
"Fuck, the pain gets worse if I use the potion!" He winched when he poured the liquid on his wound.
"Haa… Haa…"
'Why the fuck is this happening…. James' plan was perfect. Why did nothing work out at the end?'
His order was to wait for James' people to bring Arnold so that he could kill Arnold. But the carriage didn't arrive at the scheduled time or place.
Curious, Nork followed the path they were told to use. What was bizarre was that one of the imperial knights was laying on the ground with his head missing.
There was no sign of the other knight.
Nork tried to contact James but the call didn't go through. He took things into his own hands and mobilized all his people to attack the castle.
If that imperial knight talked then this whole plan would've failed. That was why Nork attacked the castle personally without James' permission.
Said person was attending the banquet held in the palace so it was obvious that he didn't have time to answer a call.
Everything had gone smoothly since Nork's subordinates numbered more than a hundred. But their numbers dwindled faster than he expected.
He had sent his men to infiltrate various passageways in the castle to make it easier to find the imperial force knight.
However, Nork lost communication with more and more of his men as time went on. He could remember hearing something about a beast tearing everyone to shreds, a green-haired woman who crushed people's bones with her hands alone and a butler who could make heads explode with one swing of his fists.
He heard all of these things before communication was cut. Since that was the case, Nork devised a plan to entrap the residents of the castle. He purposefully sent in a majority of his men to various checkpoints to fool them into thinking that they could force their way out.
The point was to corner them when they were at their weakest. They were bound to be exhausted after battling so many intruders.
That was what Nork naïvely thought.
Things had gone well until the heir arrived.
In all his thirty years of life, he had never seen such bizarre movements. The boy moved as if he was one with the wind. His fluid movements made it impossible to land a hit.
But Nork knew that the sword the boy wielded was an artifact he had to have. Thinking so, he tried to kill the boy and take the sword but that ended up giving him a wound that was unable to heal.
"Even though these potions are filled with divinity… Why isn't it working!?" He threw the bottles onto the ground and took off the magic items all over his body.
He was already bleeding out so the equipment was making moving around very difficult.
He could feel himself slowly losing consciousness.
"—I may have an answer to your question, human."
"Eh?"
A voice suddenly spoke to Nork. He thought at first that he was hallucinating but he saw a shadow when he opened his eyes and looked at the ground.
He slowly lifted his head as he heard the gentle, soothing voice of this man.
"Huh…?"
But his expression froze when he saw pitch black wings that were majestically behind the man's back.
He noticed another thing.
The man who was wearing a high-class black suit had two horns above his head and his skin was grey.
There was only one explanation for this.
"….A demon?"
The "demon" smiled, "Not quite. I am a Greater Demon. The highest class of my species. Referring to me as a regular demon is racist but I will let that slide since humans don't know of our customs."
Despite the majestic black wings and the intimidating horns, the man's voice was soft and gentle.
His understanding of demons were that they were ruthless killers that would attack a human upon sight. That was the case with trolls and such.
But this demon was different.
It was like it was heresy to compare him to other demons. Nork could tell just by looking at the Greater Demon that he was a force this world would not be able to handle.
"Tell me your name, human."
"…N…Nork… Sir…"
His body trembled in fear. It wasn't that he felt scared. It was more like his instincts were telling him that it was stupid to talk to this demon like he does with pretty much anyone else.
"I see. You seem to be in quite a difficult situation. You were wondering about this wound, correct?" The demon pointed at the wound that was still bleeding out.
The pavement was now painted in crimson.
Nork nodded at the demon's words.
"Hmm…" The demon crouched, his wings disappearing, "It is a rather simple answer. Wounds caused by divinity that was used offensively cannot be healed by potions of the same nature."
"Huh… I-I don't understand…"
"Aura of the gods. That is what I mean by offensive divinity. In other words, you were attacked with golden aura. You are already destined to die with such a wound that is incurable."
"…."
'So the rumours were true that the boy possessed power similar to the hero of the past.'
"C-Can you help me, oh greater demon sir?" Nork prostrated and kissed the man's shoes, "Nothing will bring this one more joy than being able to live on…"
"Hmm…"
Nork could see an amused smirk when he looked up. The demon's eyes were narrowed into slits. It was like he was looking at a toy.
"To receive the help of a Great Demon such as I, Vetis, requires a heavy price, human."
"H-Heavy price? I-I have a lot of money! And magic items! I can give it to you, sir!"
"Huhuhu…" Vetis chuckled mysteriously, "Did you know that a human's body itself is very valuable?"
"H-Huh?"
One of Vetis' nails grew in length. He poked Nork's arm and trailed his finger down.
"First is the skin. I can make any number of furniture with the skin of a grown man such as you. Next are the eyes," He held his claw in front of Nork's face, "If boiled correctly, I can make a delicious Aleatere which is a fan-favourite dish in my people's culture."
Nork didn't even want to know what the hell was inside such a strange sounding dish if human eyes were added to the mix.
"The intestines can be made into sausages for the halflings before they mature. Since their teeth are not developed yet, grounded sausages are the best choice," Vetis' face twisted evilly. His once handsome face was now similar to a creature of nightmares, "Next is my f~avourite part."
His finger poked Nork's chest.
"The heart. It is custom for us demons to give the heart of a living creature killed by ourselves to the ones we deeply hold affection for," Vetis' claw was slowly inching towards Nork's neck.
"Eek… Eek…" Nork cowered before the demon god before him. There was no way he could fight back with his injuries.
"The one I serve gave me a very important task," Vetis held up one finger, "That task was to look after Arnold von Berkley because he is of great importance."
"…!"
"The one who attacked him had now simply landed in my hands. What a wonderful day it is." Vetis stretched out his arms, "I have been watching from afar how everything unfolded. Do not misunderstand me, human. I am not watching over the boy out of goodwill. It is simple because he is a very important piece in my queen's chess board. His life is our responsibility in a way you could say."
'What is he talking about?'
Why was Arnold that important to demons? Who was this queen Vetis spoke of? Did this mean Nork's death?
Countless questions circled in Nork's head as he tried to understand everything that happened.
"Since I have already caught the criminal, there is no need to further waste my time."
"Eh? Eh?"
Nork's entire body was covered in goosebumps when he saw Vetis' entire appearance change. His body grew larger and grew fur while his head became that of a goat.
In mere seconds he was now standing at 6m, twice the size of Nork. Nork's entire body reacted to the absolute monster in front of him.
His first instinct—attack.
"Haaaah!" He grabbed one of his magic items and crushed the magic crystal. The spark caused the magic item to shoot out a yellow beam towards Vetis.
"Humph."
Vetis merely blocked Nork's attempt at attacking.
"N-No way… That was a 4th rank spell that I was saving as a trump card spell! This can't be happening!"
Second instinct—run.
Nork ignored whatever pain he was experiencing and just ran. The destination wasn't important.
Getting away from that demon god, however, was.
"Heeeelp!" Nork shouted for anyone who could save him.
He had never run away from a fight in his life. He didn't even yield to those stronger than himself.
But.
Nork knew that a single swipe of that monster's enormous claws was enough to tear him to shreds.
A loud and deep roar shook Nork's insides. He could feel the monster approach faster than he could run.
However, he dared not turn around to look.
'Eh?'
Nork suddenly couldn't feel his legs as he fell onto the ground.
"H…Huh?" He looked down.
What he saw made him scream his lungs out in terror.
His entire lower half was gone, his intestines trailing onto the ground. Strangely enough, it didn't hurt. Perhaps it was because of the situation that his body ignored whatever pain it was going through.
Thumping noises made Nork's hair stand on end.
He looked at Vetis and saw it.
Crunch—
Vetis was chewing his legs with a smirk on his goat-like face. His horizontal-slid eyes looked at Nork like a little child would look at an ant.
'Oh…goddess Melis…' Nork was never really someone who believed in the gods, 'Why…'
But at this moment he sought after them for answers, 'Why did you allow such a thing to exist within this world?'
That was his final thought before his body was skewered to pieces by the maw of the demon god.