Staring at me with wide eyes, she looked like she was at a loss for words. Suddenly, she let loose a weird noise that sounded like sobbing. Opening my eyes, I found that, instead of holding her arm, she was covering her face and hunching down, crying. What the hell? I thought, by the way, the Hero's memories showed it, that the Demon Lord was a stoic and terrifying being, one to be feared and killed at all costs. However, all I see before me is a crying girl, dealing with many hardships and indecision.
"*hic* I-I don't' know *hic* What to d-do! Everything that I *hic* tries to do to make things write always *hic* fails! Why!!" She screamed, crying even louder.
"What is all that screaming going over there? Are you finally killing that disgusting thing? If so, hurry up so you can get me back to my father. I'm sure there will be punishments for you wasting my time." The bratty princess said with a glare. Previously sheathing my sword after I slammed the Demon Lord into the table, I unsheathed it so it looked like I had it out the whole time. Upon seeing the black blood on the sword, the Princess smiled and went over to me.
Head down, I slowly walked toward her as well. "Yous sure are stupid. Why would you waste your time talking to this deformation of a creature when you could have the privilege of accompanying m-!" The princess let out a surprised sigh, looking down at the sword piercing her midsection.
"Y-you, how could you! I am the princess, you know! I could have you and everyone who you care about behead-?" The princess abruptly stopped her rant as she had an out-of-body experience, literally. Hearing a plop on the ground and a spurt of blood running across my face, I opened my eyes through the blood still spraying on my face. For some reason, I did not feel a thing about taking another's life. Maybe the mentality of the Hero is wearing off on me. Eh, she was an annoying bitch anyways.
Picking up her head by the hair and hefting her body over my shoulder, I brought her over to the sniffling Demon Lord, whose name I still do not know. Hearing a thud, the woman before me wiped her eyes in shock at seeing the body of the princess in pieces.
"But why?" Was all she could say, still reeling from my decision. I was still questioning why I did it myself. Could it be that, perhaps, she was right? I do have no ties to this world, only those of money, which was promised by the other soul, or whatever was in this body. It could also be the pity I felt about her indecision, and the leadership she has to take upon herself to save her kind. I have felt that same kind of feeling. The fear of not being good enough or strong enough to stop your friends from being hurt.
Only, this is on a much, much grander scale than I could ever imagine. Where I lived, there was no kingdom, no monarchy, no king, or anything of the sort. I cannot believe the amount of stress this girl in front of me had to endure to raise the ranks to become the leader of all demons.
"I did it because I believe in you, nothing more. Now, how can we get this sacrifice thing going?" I said. Not questioning my decision, she quickly nodded and began explaining the process which I needed to follow to revive Vicious's power.
"Ok, the table that you kicked me into was what we were using before as a catalyst to control the demonic power of the sacrifices we tried before, although none of them worked enough to summon even a fragment of the true power of the original Demon Lord. However, now that you, the new catalyst, are here, we will now not need to use the sacrificial altar anymore.
"Specifically, you will need to drink the blood of a royal family member while I recite an ancient incantation spell for it to work. And believe me, nothing bad will happen to you. I think." She said, sounding a little too unsure of herself for my liking. However, I am just 18, so I can't judge someone who is most certainly older than me to be worse than I am. Anyways, I have nothing else to do, as I can't just go back to the king and say that the princess is dead, much less tell him that I killed her.
"Alright, I trust you," I said, bringing out a flask from my satchel, which Isuprising still has because in the Hero's memories I found a lot of battles. Maybe it's special. Anyways, not important. What is important is that the flask was empty, and the body was still full of blood. Looking at the woman for her approval of this method of drinking the blood, I saw her give a little nod. Unscrewing the lid of the bottle and lifting the body by the neck, ready to squeeze the princess's neck like a lemon, I gathered all my courage and started to squeeze.
Drip, drip, drip. This rhythm went on for a while, as for the specifics, I don't know. Each drop of blood that oozed out of the princess's neck was like a drop of gold, at least to the demon. Once the flask, which was about 34 ounces, was filled halfway, the demon waved her hand, and I let the body drop with a stick splat, blood stuck to the body's clothes as well as my hands.
"That should be enough to fulfill the ritual. Now, all you need to do is drink it. I'm sure it must be disgusting, but you have to push through to gain massive amounts of power." She said with a smile. Of course, I would never take her word at face value, because she thinks I eradicated her already dying species. With no other option and the fact that I would most likely get killed no matter if I escape here alive or not, I slowly and shakily raised the canteen to my lips.
It tasted disgusting, like licking an oxidized nail. Still, under the watchful eye of the demon lord, I could not refuse. Seconds later, she began casting what I assume would be the spell that she 'promised' would give me massive amounts of power. Of course, since she used the word catalyst, that would mean either my soul gets destroyed or thrown out of this body for a second time and she can control me, or I get possessed by Vicious, making the reign of the demons possible again.