"Aura! Cut your throat!"
Awakening from the nightmare with a start, feeling an itch on her neck, Aura subconsciously touched her own neck. Good, it was fine.
Heart aching, she took out the Scales of Obedience. The originally exquisite and lustrous scale beam now bore a hideous scratch. Recalling the day she encountered the Hero's Party, the scales were knocked down. She had hurriedly dodged the Hero's fatal strike and fled, scrambling and crawling while clutching the scales. Her vast army had also been purified and annihilated by that disgusting White-haired Elf and Green-haired Priest.
Aura wasn't afraid; Aura was executing a strategic relocation. Compared to those kin who rushed forward desperately trying to take the Hero's head only to become heads under the Hero's sword, she, who retreated at the critical moment while overlooking the battlefield from the rear, surely possessed wisdom second only to the Demon King among the Demon Race. She never fought battles she couldn't win.
Thinking of this, her original fear turned into anger.
A dignified member of the Seven Sages of Destruction, a Great Demon over five hundred years old, possessing the absolute Magic of Obedience, leading an army of tens of thousands—yet she was driven to the deep rear by lowly human Heroes as if they were walking on flat ground.
Especially that short, flat-chested, white-haired, stone-faced hag elf. She actually managed to stall her army; it was truly a burning humiliation! If she met her again, she would definitely challenge her one-on-one and use the Magic of Obedience to turn her into her slave!
Inside the narrow and gloomy cave, Aura felt that her mana had fully recovered. The arrogance unique to a Great Demon returned. She brushed her purple hair with one hand, ready to use the Magic of Obedience to capture new slaves. She was going to make a comeback.
A strange wind suddenly blew inside the cave. Aura, who had just stood up, shivered. Without guards by her side, she felt a bit insecure.
"Eh? There seems to be something inside?"
Glancing at the Scales of Obedience in her hand, driven by curiosity, Aura mustered her courage and walked deeper into the cave.
She was a five-hundred-year-old Great Demon; there was nothing to be afraid of. Even if there was danger, she believed she could escape immediately.
This cave seemed to connect to the underground. At first, it was extremely narrow, allowing only one person to pass.
As she walked downwards, the passage gradually opened up. The surrounding stone walls appeared to be man-made; although very crude, they supported the entire passage.
"Eek!" Gravel fell on Aura's head, causing her to cry out in surprise. Her voice echoed within the cave.
"Glowing Magic."
Aura cast illumination magic on the Scales of Obedience. The scales emitted a strong light, illuminating the passage.
"Strange. To think there would be traces of living creatures in this dump."
Looking at the surrounding stone walls and the carbonized remains of torches, Aura grew somewhat excited. Could there be Dwarves living down here? These guys with overdeveloped limbs and simple minds generally had low mana. With one hit of her Magic of Obedience, they would all obediently become her slaves.
Descending with the posture of a Great Demon to trample these alien races hiding underground—just thinking about it made her a bit high.
Reaching the very bottom of the cave, it was somewhat contrary to Aura's expectations. Within the vast underground space, there was actually only a mural and a corpse leaning against it.
The mural depicted twisting stick figures, and in the center, a line of words was carved in the language of the Demon Race:
Want to become human...
"Hah? What kind of idiot would actually want to become that sort of lowly, weak, short-lived species?!"
Aura was a bit angry. She had trekked all the way down here with great difficulty, yet she didn't find the treasures or slaves she imagined. What awaited her was actually such a boring thing.
She drew the longsword she carried with her, intending to destroy this childish mural.
Then, she sensed a faint sound of breathing coming from that "corpse," along with a trace of weak mana.
Aura looked down with a haughty attitude at this kin who was paralyzed on the ground, half-dead.
It was a Demon girl who appeared young and stark naked. The twin horns symbolizing the Demon Race were broken. Her limbs and body were covered in chaotic suture lines, and her skin presented a corpse-like pallor. Long silver-white hair hung down, covering one eye, while the other eye was tightly closed. If she hadn't used mana perception to detect mana even weaker than a human's, Aura would have unhesitatingly believed this was just a corpse.
"What the hell? How can there be such a weak Demon, look at this half-dead state, truly a small fry~"
Aura held up the glowing Scales of Obedience, sizing up the kin before her. The face was quite cute, but the beautiful large horns that marked a Demon were lost, leaving only broken roots. Her stature looked a notch shorter than herself. Hmm, about the same as that short White-haired Elf.
Aura suddenly had an idea. Although she preferred driving lowly humans as slaves, having lost her entire army, she urgently needed a servant to wait on her. The Demon girl before her seemed to be the perfect candidate.
Just in case, Aura carefully probed the other party's mana again. She poked the corpse-like Demon girl; there was no reaction at all.
"Heh heh heh, no mistake about it. Her mana is weaker than a human's. Seeing her unconscious state, she probably won't resist either. It's in the bag!"
While praising her own wisdom in her heart, Aura activated her unique Magic of Obedience.
Her own massive black soul and the tiny, transparent gray soul were placed on the two trays.
"So small."
Mocking the other party's incredibly frail soul and mana, her own mana and soul were truly pleasing to the eye.
Just at the final moment when the verdict was about to be sealed.
"Nng... Mmh..."
Boundless mana and vitality suddenly appeared on that Demon girl's body! The tilting of the scales paused! The gray soul suddenly expanded and twisted!
"Hahaha, you are mine—Are you kidding me?!"
Aura's pupils began to constrict. Oppression. As a five-hundred-year-old Great Demon and one of the Seven Sages of Destruction, she actually felt a sense of oppression. It was as if that damned Hero was swinging his sword at her neck, or like that time she knelt in submission before the Demon King.
"Impossible! What on earth are you?! I am a Great Demon over five hundred years old! On what basis do you suddenly raise the stakes?!"
Aura screamed hysterically. Her mana perception clearly had no issues, so why? This Demon, who had almost no mana and whose body was completely dilapidated, actually changed in an instant!
The gray soul had already surpassed Aura's soul and was still expanding. The scales flipped and tilted instantly. The gold chains on the trays were trembling, somewhat unable to bear the weight of this soul!
The Demon girl opened her eyes! Contrasting with the gray pupil was a golden vertical slit pupil obscured by white hair. She lazily stood up.
Like an ancient behemoth revitalized from a muddled twilight years.
Aura only heard the girl cough once, and then say in a hoarse voice:
"Before you is a Great Demon who has lived from the Mythical Era to the present!"
"Hah?..."
Amidst the wash of mana, Aura stopped thinking.
___
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