A misunderstanding.
The phoenix, which throws its body into lava and is reborn as new flames, is a mythic beast.
And mythic beasts are closer to elementals than to animals.
Naturally, the corpse of a phoenix was also a kind of elemental body.
A collection of pure, blazing mana.
Not much different from an enormous elixir.
But mana was a completely different, alien power from magicum.
That was why Berze had planned to take the corpse back to the Tower. Just as the Tower contaminated stored elixirs with magicum, he intended to slowly infect and consume it.
What was the rush? No hero's blade would be pointed his way for a while anyway.
But that was Berze's miscalculation.
Fwoosh—
The moment his hand touched it, mana overflowed. The heat of blazing flames seeped into Berze's entire body.
KWAKWAKWA—
A torrent surged.
'What madness…!'
Mana forced its way in, and magicum refused to mix with mana.
The intruder pushing in, and the guardian pushing out—
The two forces bared their fangs at each other.
They clashed and tore at each other. Scratched and ripped.
The battlefield was Berze's own body. Muscles ruptured, blood vessels melted. Agonizing pain crushed his bones.
Berze strained desperately to control the two forces.
A time that felt like an eternity—yet was perhaps only the briefest instant.
Mana pushed back the magicum. It struck at the gate to his heart.
Thump. Thump—
Pitch-black blood spewed out.
The heart did not open.
All the magicum rose in revolt. The weakness from dimensional interference was no longer an issue.
The mana, driven out of the master's heart, wandered—searching for a new place to claim.
And then it settled somewhere else.
'…What?'
Berze was horrified.
He possessed two hearts.
One large, one smaller.
Both held magicum; one was the main, the other auxiliary.
But now, the uninvited guest—mana—had smashed open the second heart.
The auxiliary heart's defenses were much weaker, and under the restriction of dimensional interference, it could not withstand the tidal wave of the phoenix's power.
The heart heated violently. As if exploding, the heat spread through his entire body.
His consciousness blurred.
Through that haze, he saw the erupting volcano—and himself floating amid the blast.
Berze's body was hurled away with the volcanic explosion.
***
When he opened his eyes at the damp sensation on his cheek, Berze found himself buried in an unfamiliar mountain slope.
His clothes had all burned away—he was naked.
"…Get lost."
The deer licking his cheek startled at the killing intent and tumbled backward, then fled in a panic.
Watching its plump hindquarters disappear raised a troubling thought.
'A deer approached me? Licked my cheek?'
No matter how well he hid his power, he was a Demon Lord—an invader. A being from another dimension.
Any creature with sharpened instincts would sense the fundamental difference and keep its distance.
A moment too late, he realized his own condition. He understood what had happened to his body.
'The phoenix's corpse was absorbed on its own.'
While fighting for territory with his magicum, the mana had abandoned the first heart and settled in the second.
In the first heart, far more magicum than usual writhed unrestfully. The heart swelled, ready to burst—not a welcome sign.
All the magicum that had been driven out had gathered there. And in the second heart, which should have been empty, something massive sat heavily.
Hotter than anything. More alive than anything.
Yet strangely, the previous feeling of alien rejection was gone.
'Why?'
The mana was still as pure as ever. His body was still filled with magicum.
But despite both powers existing in the same vessel, they did not clash.
The reason revealed itself moments later.
'It locked the door.'
The uninvited guest had planted itself inside and was acting like the owner. The two foreign forces, incompatible by nature, did not—
It completely shut out any contact with the outside.
When Berze prodded the heart with magicum, it simply burned the magic away.
Stubbornness flared. Berze gripped his throbbing chest and clenched his teeth.
"You don't seem to understand whose body you're lodging in."
I am the great Demon Lord, Berze Deias.
All of his magicum surged toward the heart. It pounded on the tightly closed door without rest.
It was the same as stabbing his own heart with magicum—a form of self-harm.
But the pain meant nothing compared to his crushed pride. Pure self-loathing, for having been overpowered by the mana of a mere mythic beast, drove him to fury.
And then—
The door opened. The blazing mana that had been sleeping in the heart erupted like a waterfall.
"…?"
At the same time, the magicum ignored its master's will and crawled obediently back into its rightful home. Berze's face twisted.
But then, as the changes in his body began—
"...!"
He was horrified.
***
The magicum Berze had detonated.
And the magicum boiling up in response to Draxon's rage.
All warriors of Tarta felt both sources of magicum.
They sought out Tarta's lord to report the gravity of the situation, and the news was immediately sent to the Hero Guild.
The city was thrown into an uproar, and a report was dispatched to the capital.
It was amid this chaos that the wounded dwarven princess arrived.
"Demons and demonic beasts ambushed us. The Second Prince of Ormus fought to the very end to protect us, but he was slain by a powerful demon. I wished to bring back at least his body, but…"
As Louise finally broke into tears, the warriors of Tarta were filled with fury.
"For the prince's revenge!"
"Strike down the wicked Demon Lord!"
The entire Kingdom of Ormus trembled.
"We shall take the Demon Lord's head and soothe the prince's spirit!"
The king raged, and the ministers raged.
Countless messengers were dispatched to heroes and guilds across the continent.
Under the national conscription order, warriors gathered in droves.
Everyone knew—
This was no small incident.
Something enormous had exploded.
***
"What on earth is happening?"
Granada was living in Hotonwork. As the newly returned commander of the Red Falcon Mercenary Corps, he trained mercenaries and reviewed documents sent by the Golden Moon Trading Company.
Among the new orders from the Demon Lord were directives to purchase elf slaves and send them to the Demon Lord's Tower. The documents contained information for that task.
Places where slave markets would open, where slave merchants were active, where elves were common, and locations of upcoming auctions.
The joy of being able to save his kin coexisted with the sorrow of having to deliver them to the Demon Lord.
But Granada believed they would one day understand.
Better to fight for the Demon Lord, take revenge against humans, and earn freedom—than die miserably as slaves.
But when chaos erupted across the continent, he could no longer focus.
"Why would the Beast Demon Lord suddenly act like this?"
Demon Lords were terrifying, yes, but not unkillable beings.
They understood that fact as well. For hundreds of years, they maintained coexistence on a precarious line.
"And the Beast Demon Lord was one who kept the line fairly well…"
At least, as far as Granada knew. If he hadn't, he probably wouldn't be alive now. Like the Demon Lord of Lust—who had already lost his head long ago.
But this incident was too big to dismiss as mere rumor.
Especially since the Second Princess of Verft felt her life threatened, and nearby heroes felt overwhelming magicum.
"A high-rank demon led dozens of demons and hundreds of demonic beasts and ambushed us.
The Second Prince of Ormus fought to protect us but lost his life, and we barely escaped."
Princess Louise, who had fainted for two days and only just awakened, gave a statement filled with inconsistencies.
Why would Draxon, who had stayed quiet, suddenly kill the prince?
And why would the selfish, ambitious Second Prince of Ormus sacrifice himself for Louise? The idea was laughable.
Granada had never met Prince Max personally, but he had heard quite a few stories.
A man who gathered factions and employed every scheme to surpass his older brother and become king.
He likely wasn't the only one who doubted.
But the magicum was undeniable, and the injuries on Princess Louise and the dwarves were severe.
The enraged King of Ormus issued a mobilization order, summoning warriors and filing a request with the Hero Guild.
Heroes smelling an opportunity began gathering in Ormus.
At this point, whether Draxon had or had not done it was no longer the issue.
"Should I go as well?"
He needed to gather elves, yes—but another duty of his was to support Hillen once the expedition to the Frost Tower began.
But what now?
Would they still head to the Frost Tower?
Or would the upcoming hero expedition change direction?
Would Hillen still be the commander?
Would a new hero take his place?
Questions piled up with no answer.
At that moment, the crystal orb rang.
『Can you get in contact with the Demon Lord?』
"I haven't tried, so I don't know."
『You remain as arrogant as ever.』
"Just get to the point."
『Try to contact him. If it works, notify me. Also, the planned expedition to the Frost Tower has been canceled, but for now, simply carry out the tasks you were given.』
"Canceled?"
『It was only for show anyway. And now there's a much stronger justification—no reason to run two large operations at once.
Thanks to that, I lost the chance to command the expedition, which is a bit irritating.』
"…That's unfortunate."
Granada disliked this pretentious hero, but that part he meant sincerely. He knew the Demon Lord had high expectations.
『It's fine. There will be other opportunities. All the money I invested was covered by my backers anyway.』
The way he described the Demon Lord was insulting, but considering the hero's attitude toward Demon Lords, it wasn't surprising.
"Investment" clearly meant bribery.
Granada clicked his tongue, well aware of how the hero industry worked.
Truly—if you didn't have money, you couldn't even be a hero.
The connection ended.
"I should focus on finding the elves for now."
But he couldn't contact the Demon Lord?
He injected mana into the direct communication orb linked to Berze.
It was dead.
***
"Say something that makes sense!"
Kwaang—his fist crashed down.
The solid wooden desk lost its shape immediately.
"They're saying I killed the Second Prince? That I slaughtered them all? What about the ones I let go!?"
"…We suspect Princess Louise and the dwarves killed them all to cover up their tracks."
"That damned bitch!"
A nearby lycanthrope was struck for no reason. Its breastbone caved in as it collapsed, wheezing.
"I should've confirmed it all to the end!"
Being distracted by the intruder and failing to pay proper attention gnawed at him like a lifelong regret.
"My lord, please calm yourself."
"Losing the phoenix corpse wasn't enough—now I've been framed as the killer of the prince!"
The phoenix corpse had vanished along with the volcanic explosion.
The overflowing mana not only wiped out all the Grizzly Bears nearby, but also erased every trace of the intruder.
"If I'd just had that, things wouldn't be this catastrophically screwed!"
"Damn it."
Draxon spat curses.
In truth, the phoenix wasn't the real problem—the death of the Second Prince of Ormus was.
The dwarven princess had publicly named him as the culprit.
What would follow was obvious—a staged play, predictable as ever.
Demon Lords kidnapped princes. Demon Lords kidnapped princesses.
Heroes and kingdoms tolerated such things to an extent.
But there was one line that could never be crossed.
Killing a royal heir.
It was the reverse scale of a kingdom, and the Demon Lord of Lust, Tyrus Hindler, who once touched the First Prince of the Acan Kingdom, had disappeared for that very reason.
"The heroes will move. A hero expedition will form."
He wasn't just any prince—he was a central figure in the struggle for the first and second place in the Ormus succession.
And he was dead.
"I will not—absolutely will NOT die like Tyrus."
It wasn't guaranteed that he would die.
Objectively, Draxon was not weak. Among countless demons, he was one of the top-tier. He had graduated from the Demon Lord Officer Academy.
Though he couldn't live as freely as he had in the Demon Realm after coming to Arein, he had steadily strengthened his tower and slowly removed his dimensional restrictions.
He couldn't enjoy the ideal Demon Lord life he wanted, thanks to Arein's situation, but because he stayed low, he had sharpened his blade for this very moment.
Draxon's eyes flashed with killing intent.
"Bring me a list of the high-ranking heroes who might join this hero expedition."
"Watch the expedition closely—where they gather, how they gather, in what numbers, how they move—report EVERYTHING to me."
"And monitor the movements of Ormus and the Hero Guild."
Casey bowed silently. With Draxon's gesture, she left.
Draxon slowly pulled out a communication orb.
"Damn it… A Demon Lord reduced to such pathetic measures…"
Even so—
if there was even a sliver of hope, he had to grab it.
Grinding his teeth, he fed magicum into the orb. After a long moment—someone responded.
"Everything is a misunderstanding. I have never—absolutely NEVER—killed the Second Prince of Ormus."
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