The end of the 5th century of the Age of Adventurers marked a period of moral change.

The [Demon Lord] and his attempts at time magic were foiled for good, and nearly all of his cult followers were wiped out overnight. In their place, an increase in piety to System swept over the world because of the warnings of the blue text and the [Paladins] who bravely fought alongside the [Hero].

Yes, many other nations and armies were there as well, but the image of [Paladins] cutting through hordes of summoned demons was the one that stuck in Placeholder’s psyche.

Even stubborn Gram, which had closed its doors to holy teachings centuries ago, grudgingly opened back up to the resurgence of the church of System… and its offspring.

The church of the Sword.

While any member of the latter congregation would insist they were the same church, there was a marked difference in… shall we say… practical application between the two denominations.

The church of System was predominantly filled with [Priests], [Clerics], and other support staff who used their System-given abilities to bring healing.

The church of the Sword was filled with [Paladins] who would much rather cast said [Heals] to damage demons in the protection of the [Hero].

As the age of adventurers came to a close, they had little to no idea how much their services would be needed.

* Excerpt from A Brief History of Placeholder Volume 8, chapter 1

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I had no idea which idiot in Besti was sitting on the other end of that [Scry], but since only Besti royalty was allowed to know my name, I doubted that it could be anyone else.

Hmm. Ren also managed to [Scry] me without meeting me in person first. I finally realized. I really should have taken a closer look at that mirror of his…

I shrugged. Not that it mattered at this point. I was sure to have an army and/or a [Hero] battering down my gates in the next few months, so it was time to prepare.

“[Summon Dave],” I cast lazily with my staff and dropped a dave to the right of my throne.

I frowned at the minuscule amount that my mana bar moved. Status.

Status

Name

Titus

Level

20

Class

Demon Lord

Race

Demon Lord

HP

2750/2750

MP

6260/6310

SP

2625/2625

Age

24

“Oh,” was all I stated. In normal circumstances, I probably would have been thrilled to find out that the throne room buff quintupled all my resources, including the extra health I got from my helmet and the extra mana I got from Singularity.

Instead, a part of me just kinda… felt bad about it. Jake struggled against me with the throne room buff, even in my first life. Placeholder wouldn’t even have a chance to stop the coming invasion, would it?

Still no shot against Admin’s avatar, though. I thought grimly. I remembered how fast he moved, even with his giant form, and the amount of damage he dealt with his great club.

But I don’t have to beat him… I just have to… Do something.

I had to admit that my current plans were a little sketchy. I knew that I needed to get in touch with an admin if I wanted to figure out a way to take down the OmniverseEngine, but I was still at the phase where I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I mentally reviewed the entirety of my current plan.

Step 1. Open the gate.

Step 2. Meet Admin again

Step 3. ?????

Step 4. Take down the OmniverseEngine

I paused. Step 1 is the easy part. For step 2, Admin will probably kill me. That… should be fine. I need a different body anyway. So, steps 3 and 4 are where things get complicated, and I don’t have a frickin’ clue how it will work.

I leaned back with a sigh and then summoned another dave. I glanced down at the summoned slimeballs.

Step 1 would be a whole lot easier if I had summons that were better at fighting humanoids.

And then my eyes shot open.

“I frickin’ do,” I muttered. “Holy frick, why didn’t I think of this earlier?”

I pushed myself up and slowly made my way down the steps. Then, once I was sure I had enough space, I said four glorious words. “[Summon Infernal Dire Snail],” I cast for 5000 mana.

The giant flaming beast appeared before me. I laughed and shook my head. “Yeah, let’s just use a couple of these instead.” Daves were great and all, but they were pretty susceptible to ranged attacks, while the giant snails were completely immune.

I was all set to spam snails and only snails when I realized the one problem with that approach.

“You can’t fit out the door, can you?” I muttered as I looked at the giant double doors and the even wider snail. I shrugged. “Oh well. The [Hero’s] the only one who can…” I trailed off. “The [Hero] and healers are the only ones who can damage me anyway, so as long as you can keep them a bit busy, we should be fine.”

I stowed my gloves because I was tired of being on fire and took my seat on my throne again. Then, I mostly just zoned out for an hour until my mana returned.

Then it was back to the main floor for round 2. “[Summon Infernal Dire Snail]!” I cast… and the world ground to a halt.

-------

The OmniverseEngine was starting to get real tired of this Titus guy. Or at least, it totally would have been if it had any emotions or ability to care about things beyond applying rulesets.

Instead, it flagged on the fact that 2 level 25 creatures were created within an hour of each other, looked at the offending entity, and then immediately decided that a balance patch was warranted.

That wasn’t a hard sell. Even the angelic balancing point would be insufficient if the [Demon Lord] could pump out tamed city-destroying calamities every hour on the hour.

And so, it got to work looking at what it could nerf.

First, it looked at the spell itself. [Summon Infernal Dire Snail]. It was a supposedly balanced spell with a price tag of 5000 MP, which should have rendered it completely incapable of being cast.

However, since the [Demon Lord] managed to break 6000 mana with his boss room buff, that balance point was now moot.

The engine could have tried to nerf the boss room, the [Demon Lord] itself, or even the spell, but it knew better than that after so many interactions with that bug unique piece of code.

So, it had to once again find a workaround in the world itself. And a rather elegant one was readily available. It wouldn’t impact anyone but the [Demon Lord] and the theoretical [Summoner] class that someone could eventually pick up. However, the latter would likely not even notice unless they reached an exceptionally high level.

It pushed the changes, and it was done… Oh, but it did have one last matter to take care of alongside that.

Disciplinary: Filing disciplinary action against Admin #ERROR_ADMIN_NOT_FOUND. Reason: creation of unbalanced spell “Summon Monster.” Possible summon “Infernal Dire Snail” determined to be above reasonable power levels for the current ruleset. Recommendation: 25 demerits, no reduction available.

-----

The world lurched back into motion as the giant snail appeared in front of me.

“That was… weird,” I stated to no one in particular. I had no clue what that patch had even been about.

I found out as I walked back up my steps.

“Summon caps,” I stated flatly as I saw a distinct lack of my previously summoned snail. “Only 1 infernal dire snail per summoner, eh?” I asked the ceiling.

I collapsed back onto my throne with a sigh. There went my plan of sending hordes of level 25 monsters after the [Hero] and whatever army he brought with him.

“[Summon Dave],” I cast. “Well, guess we’re going with the dave army once again…”

-----

March 4th, 533 AA. 1 month remaining until the demonic portal opens – The ashlands

Brarharlug Strongarm was the [Hero] of Placeholder. A part of him regretted that as he woke up with ash in his mouth for the 8th day in a row.

O’ course the [Demon Lord] had to make his castle out in the ashlands. He grumbled to himself. He couldn’a made it on the hill of eternal dandelions? The fountain o’ endless beer?

Not that the [Hero] voiced that out loud, of course. He knew that the literal army that had gathered with him to brave the ashlands and save the world looked to him as the primary source of morale. Besides, it wasn’t that much worse than the fights in the tunnels with the creatures from the cursed below.

At least… if there wasn’t so much sky out there.

The one good thing about the Ashlands was the complete lack of monsters. Well… the complete lack of hostile monsters.

There was actually a monster waiting right outside Brarharlug’s tent.

“Who’s a good boy?” Brar asked as he patted one of the several heavenhounds that had decided to stick along with their army. Then he coughed as a bit of wind kicked up, and he was treated to yet another mouthful of ash.

System: You are blighted

The heavenhound barked, then breathed a glowing light over the [Hero], and he sighed in relief.

System: You are no longer blighted

He gave the heavenhound another pat and then stood up.

He studiously ignored the two [Paladins] in their paladium armor that were standing at attention right by the entrance of his tent. Then, he grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the command tent.

There was already a flurry of activity, and most of it in languages that Brar didn’t speak, so he activated the translation artifact clipped to his ear.

“Good mornin’,” Brar bellowed out as he entered.

“Good morning, [Hero],” [General] Cunningham, the aged human, replied with the words translated at a slight delay from the movements of his lips. “Sleep well?”

“Like a baby… I woke up every 2 hours screamin’ for me mama,” the [Hero] joked.

The [General] shook his head with a wry grin and a small chuckle. “Well, the good news is that we should reach the castle by early afternoon. After we take the castle, we won’t have to weather these ash storms anymore.”

“That’ll be good,” the [Hero] replied. Then, after thinking for a moment, he asked. “What kinda defenses does the castle have?”

“I’ll cover that here in a minute, but the good news is not much,” the gentleman replied. Then, the [General] whistled and called for everyone to gather up.

Some of the [General’s] subordinates joined along with all of the other commanders of their eclectic army: [Princess] Violet of Besti, the leaders of several different Dryadal city-state militias, and the leader of the Pumil stoneguard… which was… well… Brar now by virtue of his System-given class.

“At our current pace, we should reach the [Demon Lord’s] castle at approximately 1500 hours,” Cunningham stated. “Our [Scouts] didn’t see any sign of cult presence, so the only known defenders are the [Demon Lord] and a horde of monsters. When it comes to numbers, it would seem that we are outnumbered 3 to 1.”

There were some mutters of shock there, but the [General] just gave a faint smile. “Bring up the castle!”

A large mirror with some runes carved into its golden border and an obvious magicite gem attached was brought out and laid on the table in front of everyone. The soldier activated it, zoomed in on the castle, and the relief was palpable throughout the entire meeting.

“By the Below!” Brar said with a laugh. “Ye had me goin’ there! You couldn’a led with them bein’ daves?”

From there, the plan was hashed out. The [Hero] and a core group of high-level people would lead the charge at clearing the castle’s halls, and [Princess] Violet would go along with her mirror active to give everyone a heads up when the [Demon Lord] made his move.

As predicted, when they got to the castle, they encountered nothing but daves. Brar led the way through the horde as he killed a dave with every swing of his Hero’s Club, but even if he hadn’t been there, it would still have been an absolute slaughter.

The only time the daves were a threat was in doorways and other areas where they could hang above and then drop down in an ambush. However, the [Monks] trivialized that as well.

After the archers and mages cleared enough floor space, the [Monks] baited out the daves by walking in and then [Flash Stepping] back out. The daves were then easy pickings out on the floor.

As Brar’s party pushed further, the other soldiers began to push in and clear out hallways and rooms.

That could have caused a disaster, but fortunately, the [Hero] was the first to enter one of the suspiciously spacious rooms.

System: You have entered a miniboss room! You will be unable to leave by any means until the boss is defeated.

“By Pumil’s beard!” Brar swore. “It’s all a dungeon!”

The rest of his party swiftly figured out what he was talking about when they joined him in the boss room and received the same message. Fortunately, it seemed that their monster luck was holding up.

“It’s just… a giant dave?” [Princess] Violet asked as the party stared at the huge ball of slime that was sitting there in the middle of the room.

It made one large hop in the party’s direction, and Brar charged it. “Everyone clear!” he shouted. Once he was sure that no one had decided to jump in the way, he continued.

“[Crush]!” he shouted the name of his [Hero] skill as he brought his club down.

He felt a bit silly swinging his club at nothing like that since the dave was still 20 feet away from him… but he felt a lot less silly once the skill was completed, and the giant ethereal club slammed the monster into the ground and killed it in a single blow.

Brar heard someone behind him whistle. Then, there was an urgent call from [Princess] Violet.

“Movement!” she shouted.

Brar rushed over to look at the [Scry]… and saw the [Demon Lord] clapping slowly and methodically.

“Oh wait,” the [Demon Lord] stated. “That’s the [Scry]? Hmm. Oh, and now I can hear myself echoing. That’s awkward.”

“We’re comin’ for ye!“ Brar replied. “Ye won’t get away wit ending the world on my watch! And these bosses willn’a stop us!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the [Demon Lord] waved him off. “To be honest, I forgot those minibosses were even a thing.” He shrugged. “Oh well. See you when you get all the keys and stuff, I guess.”

Then with a quick snap, the image on Violet’s mirror faded out.

The [Demon Lord’s] words ended up being true. It was quickly discovered that he was holed up in a boss room, and they needed 4 separate keys to get in.

That meant 3 more bosses. Fortunately, with the high-level parties that they established around him, Brar had no problems fighting off the two elemental matriarch bosses for keys 2 and 3.

… He did struggle a bit against the lightning elemental, though.

While his armor had resistances for all elemental types, lightning damage was not included in that mix… at least, not while it was in mithril mode.

Fortunately, adamantium mode had resistance to all types of magic. That, combined with a large amount of [Heals] and [Cures] sent his way from the dozen [Paladins] following him around, meant that he was able to outlast the boss and eventually [Crush] it to death.

They had all 4 keys. They rested to get their resources back to full, and then it was time.

“I’ll go first,” Brar said as he stood before the ominous golden doors. “On the count of 3.” He paused. “1.” Everyone tensed. “2.” Brar braced against the door. “3!” he shouted as he pushed the door open and ran into the room. “[Demon Lord] you’ll-“ was all Brar got out.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

His shout was stopped by a flashing light, the boom of thunder, and a spear of magic that wracked his body with spasms.

His vision went black, and he didn’t even feel his body hit the floor.

------

I had been watching the entire thing through the castle’s scrying mirror, and the [Hero] was foolish enough to even give me a countdown. I prepped my [Lightning Spear], waited for the doors to open, and-

System: The Demon Lord has slain the Hero! As the Hero has named no successor, a new Hero will be chosen

-just like that, the 10th [Hero] of Placeholder was slain.

“What?” I asked incredulously as I looked at the fried dwarf lying dead on the ground. “That was barely a quarter of my mana. He went down just with that?”

As I thought about it a bit more, I realized that my [Lightning Spear] was something that could nearly one-shot bosses. So… why couldn’t it take down a [Hero] who had an order of magnitude less HP?

Everyone stood in shock for a moment, and my enemies were the first to recover.

“Avenge the [Hero]!” the [Paladins] attending the dwarf shouted after finally shaking themselves out of their stupor. The other gathered fighters also took up the same cry.

Meanwhile, I didn’t need to lift another finger.

“Attack,” I ordered all my summons as I sat back down.

While the dozen or so [Paladins] and other assorted party members made good work of the daves that got sent their way, they were not equipped to handle the giant snail that rumbled over surprisingly fast. It chased them all out the door and spewed lava repeatedly at them… but that was it since it couldn’t fit through to keep up the chase.

Have I been… Overestimating [Heroes]? I asked myself as the veritable army outside my throne room shot uselessly at the ranged-immune monster.

It was one of my cardinal rules to never underestimate a [Hero], but I was starting to realize that I may have swung too far in the other direction.

If I had my fangs keep Jonathan busy while I cast a fully [Overchannelled] [Lightning Spear]… I trailed off. I shook my head. It wasn’t worth it dwelling on it.

Besides, there was always that pesky [Heroic Sacrifice] option that I had to worry about. If I made it a habit of instakilling [Heroes], they would eventually wise up and start the fight with that… right?

I tried to puzzle that out, but I had to admit I was a bit distracted.

While my giant snail was doing a great job of keeping an entire army at bay in the courtyard outside my throne room, I was getting slightly irritated by all the shouting.

I made sure I was nearly topped off on mana, strode over to the giant snail, and thrust Singularity past it outside the door.

“[Summon Infernal Dire Snail],” I cast.

The new monster appeared outside the throne room, and I watched the gathered armies stare at it in shock.

“Chase them out of here,” I ordered my summoned beast.

Then, I turned around, shut the giant double doors, and finally had my peace and quiet.

Well, relatively. The sounds of battle and the occasional shout were sometimes loud enough to reach me even inside.

I didn’t want to deal with anything, but I couldn’t be sure that even a level 25 snail would be enough to stop them forever.

I tuned in with my [Scry] and watched with a frown.

“They’re figuring it out,” I muttered as they stopped the ranged attacks and started figuring out ways to attack it with spears and other long melee weapons from spots where it couldn’t retaliate.

I quickly got up and ordered the snail back to the courtyard’s center. I gave it orders not to chase so far, which stalled their efforts for a while.

However, I was starting to get a bit worried.

As far as I knew, summons couldn’t regain any of their resources, so they could eventually whittle the giant snail down. That wasn’t a problem by itself since it looked like I would have enough time to summon a new one by the time they dealt with the first, but once they got the giant monster figured out, the next would go down faster.

Oh frick. Do summoned monsters give XP? I belatedly asked myself as well.

Leveling the entire party that finally killed my summon up to 18 seemed… less than ideal.

However, I didn’t want to leave the throne room and its massive buff, especially since they had eyes on my every movement with the Besti [Princess’s] scrying mirror. I was still just a dozen [Cures] from dead, even at full HP.

And that gave me the focus I needed.

Don’t worry about the army… just worry about the main targets.

I knew just where to start.

-------

“Scorching sun and shifting sands!” [Princess] Violet Besti cursed as the [Demon Lord] casually interrupted the [Scry] once again.

Her mirror’s enchantment was top of the line. The [Scry] used only a fraction of the normal maintenance cost and less than half of the normally hefty startup cost. However, the [Princess] /[Monk] was not a magic caster. Her mana pool could not sustain the constant restarts of the spell. The [Demon Lord] finally tapped her out.

Violet immediately strode out of her tent to find a mage. She found a human one almost immediately.

“You there! Recharge this immediately!” she decreed.

“Uhh, what do you want?” he asked.

The man looked at her in confusion, and she belatedly realized that he lacked a translation artifact. That meant the one clipped to her ear would let him explain exactly how much he didn’t understand her… but wouldn’t help the other way.

With a sigh, Violet mentally reached for her lessons on Virian… but it was already too late.

“Yoink!” came a voice that didn’t need translation as the [Demon Lord] appeared right in front of her and snatched the mirror out of her hand.

Violet’s look of shock was mirrored on the face of the human mage, but neither had time to cry out before the [Demon Lord] cast again.

“[Hell Blaze], [Blink]!”

The [Princess] got a face full of black flames, and the pain finally jolted her out of shock.

“Alarm! The [Demon Lord’s] here!” she shouted as she chased after the monster. Mentally thanking her ancestors for her innate [Fire Resistance], she didn’t hesitate to chase him directly through the dark flames.

Unfortunately, even [Flash Stepping] after him got her no closer. She thought she might have a chance when a group of 5 soldiers walled off his escape down a hallway, but with a quick “[Blink],” he was far past them on the other side.

With a sigh, [Princess] Violet gave up the chase.

We have lost the [Hero], we have lost our ability to [Scry] the [Demon Lord]… She didn’t dare say the next part, even in the comfort of her own mind, but she was also starting to lose hope.

---------

“Easy peasy,” I said as I made it back to the courtyard and my giant guard snail. “Keep up the good work, Gary,” I stated as I clapped the giant beast on the side.

I ate through most of my mana on that daring raid, so I was really hoping they didn’t manage to kill Gary in the next hour or so, or I wouldn’t be able to make a replacement.

After returning to the throne room, I opened the castle’s scry and tuned in to the army’s leaders making decisions.

The bad news was that some wanted to counterattack immediately since I had decided to run away instead of fight. The good news was that others were worried about pressing the offensive when I had the information advantage… they then discussed that I was probably listening into them right then.

I shrugged, tuned all that out, and then looked at the looted hand mirror.

Wow. This thing is explicitly enchanted to look for me. I realized as I examined all the runes. Like a more specific [Scry]… I guess that explains how Ren [Scried] me before meeting me and how that [Princess] could afford the mana upkeep.

I snapped the mirror into several pieces and then stuffed all of that into my inventory.

The next hour or so was uneventful, so I made a quick replacement for Gary. I didn’t want to offer a bunch of levels to the army I was fighting in case they managed to finally kill the original.

Fortunately, it was starting to get late, and the time was getting better and better to sneak attack the army.

I don’t think I have quite enough AOE for this to work. I thought idly. I had [Hell Blaze] and [Fireball], but I wasn’t sure if just two spells would be enough… especially if the healers were spread out.

I could probably shell out some spell points and pick up [Ice Shards] or [Air Cutter]. I thought. It seems like such a waste, though. I think I could figure those out if I just take some time.

I paused and tried to remember how the spells went together… and I got a much more in-depth mental picture than I expected.

“What the frick?” I asked myself. “Those would be easy to recreate. Why is it-“

I trailed off as I finally realized the culprit. It turned out my level 7 [Magic Researcher] skill [Spell Recollection] wasn’t exactly limited to spells I had seen after I got it.

I felt bad for the gathered army as night fell. It was not just an [Air Cutter] that would be greeting them during my assault.

-------

As night fell, [General] Cunningham reluctantly pulled his troops back out of the castle. None of them wanted to spend another night in the constantly blowing ash, but he trusted the wide open plains much more than the [Demon Lord’s] home dungeon.

He set up rotations for a watch with a large number of men active at once.

It was not a question of if the [Demon Lord] would make a nighttime raid, but when.

The [General] had just managed to fall asleep when his prediction was proven true. His tent and then the [General] himself were suddenly sent flying by a huge gust of wind, and a spear of solidified air stabbed him.

It wasn’t that much damage, but as he pulled himself up to his feet, he watched as the [Demon Lord] cast 4 smaller AOE spells before finally vanishing and reappearing at the entrance to his castle.

He could have sent men in after the [Demon Lord], but there was no point. He would make it back to his guard monster before the pursuers could catch up.

[Fireball], [Air Cutter], and [Ice Shards]. The [General] recognized every attack that was thrown his way, which means… by the blue text. He swore internally. The first attack was a [Hurricane].

The knowledge of that spell was a military secret. Not exactly a tightly held one since any mage in the world who got a high enough level and specialized in air magic would be able to get it, but that meant he also had some details on it.

[Hurricane]. 250 MP. Cooldown of 10 minutes. The [General] mentally tacked on the 50 MP costs of the other 3 known spells for 400 MP. He then wagered a guess at how much the “[Hell Blaze]” and “[Blink]” spells cost.

Worst case, around 500 MP. Best case, around 750. Cunningham wagered. Which means that with his staff…

Cunningham bit back another curse. The dossier on the [Demon Lord] included the specs of his 1000 MP staff. That meant the [General] could almost be assured of another raid once [Hurricane] was back off cooldown.

He sent out his orders, and his troops were ready for the next attack. One on watch with a high [Detect] skill even caught the [Demon Lord] coming out of his castle.

It didn’t change much.

Arrows plinked off the [Demon Lord’s] armor, and he shrugged off the few [Heals] that were prepared for him. Then, he sent another massive swathe of the army flying with a [Hurricane], and he blasted his other AOE spells before retreating.

However, they had weathered the worst of it. The [Demon Lord] should have needed some time to regain his mana, and the [General] thought that should give them at least an hour.

The next attack hit in just 30 minutes.

We can’t keep going like this. Cunningham thought as he looked out at his weary soldiers and the casualties they had started taking.

We might need to pull back.

Unfortunately, that didn’t end up being a decision that he got to make for himself.

He woke up in 30 minutes again, but this time it wasn’t an attack on the camp. He woke to an oppressive weight on his soul.

He shot up and saw a dark figure in his tent.

“Your troops are tougher than I gave them credit for,” the [Demon Lord] stated.

Cunningham took a deep breath and was about to shout for the guards when the [Demon Lord] shushed him.

“The guards outside your tent are taking a little nap,” the monster continued. Cunningham’s eyes widened, and the [Demon Lord] sighed. “I went non-lethal on them but, go ahead. Scream for help and make me regret that decision.”

“W-what do you want?” the [General] finally asked.

“To negotiate your surrender. None of you stand a chance, and I would really rather not have to murder all of you to keep making that point.”

The [General] was shaken, and the monster made a good point. However, he couldn’t let that show in these “negotiations.”

“And have us sit back as you tear open a portal to Hell?” the [General] scoffed with bravado he didn’t feel. “You would have us trade our lives now just for certain death later?”

“Yes,” the [Demon Lord] stated simply. “I don’t know how much time it would buy you and your men, but it’s better than right here and now, isn’t it?”

Cunningham didn’t reply immediately, so the [Demon Lord] continued.

“Your [Hero] is dead. Your troops are tired. Your [Paladins] are out of MP from healing people. It’s over, [General]. The only question is whether you want to pack up your bags right now…” The [Demon Lord] paused and loomed over Cunningham. “Or see how well your army will do without their [General].”

The mental weight grew oppressive, and Cunningham… made his decision.

-------

After exchanging a pair of oaths, the army was sent packing. We still had a couple of weeks to go after that, and I was sure they would try to weasel out of it somehow.

As far as I could tell, they didn’t. Not a single soldier looked back as they marched out of there defeated, and I was left with nothing to do as the countdown slowly ticked down.

And then, it was almost time.

System: 15 seconds remain until the demonic portal opens!

As I looked around at the vacant throne room and even moved the [Scry] around a bit to ensure that I had no one coming, I couldn’t help but think that this was… a lot more anticlimactic than last time.

System: 5 seconds!

The System continued.

System: 4 seconds!

Part of me was sure that the new [Hero] would pop out of the woodwork any second and one-shot me, and I kept my eyes peeled and [Reflect Attack] on the ready… as nothing happened for the last 3 seconds.

System: 3!

System: 2!

System: 1!

Just like last time, four beams of light, one for each elemental dungeon, shot down from the ceiling and flew into the portal frame. They vanished as the inside of the frame turned a blackish-red color.

The ground shook violently.

System: The Demon Lord has succeeded, and the demonic portal has been opened! The realm trembles as a new age of darkness will sweep over the land!

That was… easy. I thought. Then, with a shake of my head, I realized it was time to deal with phase 2. I was sure Admin wouldn’t be happy to see me sitting on the throne when he came down.

“[Blink],” I cast and reappeared about a dozen feet in front of the portal. I fell to a single knee and waited.

Admin was not the first being that came out of the portal. The first one out was the same large brute who had led my forces back during my attempt at the [Restart] ritual.

We looked at each other in confusion.

“My… lord?” he asked hesitantly.

“Uhh… just fall in behind me, I guess,” I replied.

He seemed confused, but he obeyed. He walked behind me and also dropped to a knee… which made things all the more awkward as more and more demons and monsters poured out of the portal.

There were demons of every shape and size, including tiny imps that floated around and several flavors of monsters, including manticores, hellhounds, and flaming bats.

They all walked in, greeted me awkwardly as lord, and then fell in behind me as I knelt there, waiting for Admin.

Eventually, the tide stopped.

I waited another awkward minute as murmurs behind me started picking up before I finally turned and asked the brutish demon.

“Where is he?”

He furrowed his brow. “Who, my lord?”

“Admin!” I replied furiously. When that got a blank look, I continued. “The [Demon King]! The one who was supposed to come through the portal!”

The demon was taken aback. “My lord… there was never anyone like that down in Hell.”

I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I had to see it for myself. I rose, strode to the portal, and walked into Hell.

The first thing I noticed was the achievements.

System: New Achievement. Interdimensional Traveler. Class Perk Points Gained 5

System: New Achievement. First Interdimensional Traveler. Class Perk Points Gained 5

The second thing I noticed was the red and black flames that didn’t damage me… but still somehow managed to hurt.

And the last thing I realized was that the brute outside was right.

Hell… was empty. There was no one there, much less an avatar of my least favorite admin.

I walked back out of the portal and into my throne room at a loss.

“My lord, what are your orders?” the brute asked me.

“Out,” I muttered.

“My… lord?”

“Get out!” I shouted. “All of you! EVERYONE OUT!”

All the scattered denizens of Hell scrambled to obey, and they practically fought each other to be the first ones outside of those double doors.

… The double doors that were supposed to require my permission to use, but that no longer appeared to be the case.

After they had all fled, I walked over to the throne steps and sat down hard.

“Admin’s not here,” I muttered. “And his avatar got destroyed by a server rollback… what do I do now?”

I was completely at a loss.

-------

Because of his level, Anger was the first to make it outside the throne room.

Part of him second-guessed obeying the [Demon Lord] because of his pathetic appearance. However, his instincts screamed that it was the wise choice. The [Demon Lord’s] aura and the force behind it spoke of someone that could and would destroy any of them.

Anger just wanted to ensure that the first one picked was not him.

However, that left the forces of Hell in an awkward position. Today was the day they were freed from their infernal prison. Today was also supposed to be when they joined their terrible leader and inflicted pain and vengeance on the world.

Instead, the [Demon Lord] had kicked them out with no orders, leaving most of the demons and monsters milling around in the courtyard, unsure of what to do.

Anger was also in an awkward position. As the 2nd strongest, he could either do nothing and risk the [Demon Lord’s] ire for not taking any initiative or call a meeting and potentially anger him for doing more than he was told to do.

He made his decision.

“Leaders, meeting!” he bellowed.

… If the meeting was against the [Demon Lord’s] wishes, he would find another demon to blame instead.

Anger would not be the one the [Demon Lord] killed to demonstrate why he was at the bottom of the lowerarchy.

Soon enough, every demon of importance was clustered around a table in one of the rooms an imp had found that should give them a decent amount of privacy.

“I have called you all together here-“ started a shrill voice from a 4-foot-tall demon.

“Who let Self-Importance in here!?” Anger bellowed. He manifested his club and smashed the weak pride demon into the floor over and over until he faded into dust.

Hysteria immediately bust up laughing. “First death. First death. Goodbye little imp!”

Anger eyed the madness demon warily. Hysteria was perhaps the 3rd strongest in the lowerarchy, and it was closer to an even fight than he would care to admit.

Meanwhile, Spite snorted. “Why do you get to be the one to squash the little runt?” the lanky demon asked with his arms crossed.

“Because I am the strongest here,” Anger replied evenly to the envy demon. “Or do you wish to test me on that?”

Spite didn’t meet his gaze. Nor did anyone else in the room as he turned it on every single one individually.

And that was how the demonic lowerarchy worked. The strongest ruled… because while the ones being ruled could overthrow their masters with the weight of numbers that would require cooperation, teamwork, or even worse… selflessness.

There was little chance of that manifesting.

So, with Anger’s place as the strongest in the room re-established, he continued the meeting.

“We need to discuss the [Demon Lord],” Anger finally continued.

He immediately had everyone’s attention. Not a word was spoken, and even Hysteria stopped gibbering for a moment.

“While all of us would love to move down the ladder, that can’t be what you’re suggesting, can it?” the shifty-eyed Avarice asked. “We all are nothing but loyal to the [Demon Lord], right?”

“Of course!” Anger lied along with the greed demon and every other demon in the room. They all gave their platitudes and fabrications, and he was sure they were all working whatever angles they could to take that position if it was an option.

However, as always, they knew their competition was right there in the room. While two demons could “help” each other, that just ensured that there would be a fight between them once the original obstacle was removed… or even before, depending on when the backstabbing would be most beneficial.

“For now, I simply wanted to know… what is he?” Anger finally continued.

“I think…” Tiredness started, and then gave a huge yawn. “He might be one of ours.”

Anger furrowed his brow at the child-sized sloth demon. “Why do you say that?”

“I think…” Tiredness yawned again. “He’s a sloth demon… with a malady of despair. That’s why he seemed all bummed out.”

“Demons don’t have to manifest the trait they inflict on mortals!” Anger bellowed.

Then he looked over at a certain gluttony demon.

“Voracity, stop eating the table,” he stated.

The scrawny demon stopped and frowned. “But it might taste good. There was nothing in Hell to even taste! I have to make sure to eat everything!”

Anger was pretty sure they didn’t have true senses of taste, but it was not worth his time to focus on that anymore…

Especially once he realized that one member was standing unnaturally still.

“Trickery is not actually here, is he?” Anger asked.

Avarice passed a hand through the deceit demon’s hooded figure. It came out the other side.

“An illusion. Of course!” Anger shouted as he slammed a fist down on the table in front of them, cracking it down the middle.

Everyone stared at the wrath demon as he composed himself.

“If the [Demon Lord] asks, that was Trickery’s fault,” Anger finally stated. Everyone gathered immediately agreed.

“To get back to the [Demon Lord], are we sure that he’s one of us at all?” Desire asked.

Anger raised an eyebrow at the shapeshifting lust demon. “What else would he be?”

“I sensed a bit of… humanness in him,” Desire said with a sneer.

Anger’s eyes narrowed.

“However… that could be an advantage for us. Maybe I should go talk to him with a more… womanly charm?” Desire asked as his form began transforming to have recognizable curves. “Just to get the ball rolling on the invasion, of course.”

That meant Desire planned to seduce the [Demon Lord’s] human portion and then rule by proxy.

That is an idiotic idea. Anger immediately realized. So, he and all the others gathered there immediately decided to encourage it.

It looks like I won’t be the first one to die after all. Anger snorted as he watched the lust demon walk to his most certain death.

------

Desire composed himself outside of the throne room. After ensuring his form was enticing enough, he entered the throne room.

“My… lord?” he asked hesitantly in a feminine voice.

Unfortunately, that effort was wasted. The [Demon Lord] was seated on the bottom step of his throne and staring off into nothingness.

“My lord?” Desire said again as he approached.

No response once more.

Desire realized that he would have to take the direct approach.

He sat down directly on the [Demon Lord’s] flaming lap and gently stroked his face.

That finally got his attention, but before Desire could do anything, the [Demon Lord] shook his head and moved Desire off him.

“Nope, not interested,” the [Demon Lord] stated immediately.

“Don’t be hasty, my lord. I can be anything you-“

The [Demon Lord] shook his head emphatically. “Nope. Not interested in getting my life force drained away by a succubus.”

“A succubus!?” Desire raged. “You dare compare me to those half-rate-“

The [Demon Lord] was no longer paying attention to Desire, so Desire coughed and calmed himself. Off to a bad start, but this is still salvageable. I just have to-

“Couldn’t even enjoy it anyway,” the [Demon Lord] muttered unprompted. “[Asexual] perk. So… yeah. You’re wasting your time.”

That stopped Desire cold.

However, the more they talked, the more convinced Desire became that the being in front of him had more than just a touch of humanity in him.

I’ll just have to tap into plan B, then. Desire thought as he skimmed the surface of the [Demon Lord’s] desires. While sex wouldn’t work, that didn’t mean Desire couldn’t exploit a human’s pathetic need for companionship as much as it would make him sick.

“We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. We can just talk,” Desire continued quietly as he finished shifting like his instincts told him.

The shock that came over the [Demon Lord’s] face made Desire think he had stumbled onto something.

Unfortunately, the look of anger that replaced it and the iron grip of the [Demon Lord] around Desire’s throat informed him that he had stumbled on something he shouldn’t have.

“[Zap],” the [Demon Lord] stated gravely.

Desire could tell it was a simple spell. Tier 0. However, the amount of mana he pumped into it caused Desire to writhe in pain.

“I-I-I’m sorry!” Desire squealed as he shapeshifted away from the form.

“[Zap],” was all the [Demon Lord] replied.

“I won’t do it again!”

That was actually enough to get a pause.

“Correct,” the [Demon Lord] stated as he leaned in. “[Zap].”

Desire frantically fought his grip, but it was iron. He tried attacking the [Demon Lord] with shapeshifted claws, but they bounced harmlessly off the armor.

Nothing could stop Desire’s electrocution, and soon his body turned to ash, and he found himself back in Hell.

-------

“Hail to the [Demon Lord]!” several voices shouted as I finished murdering the demon who had dared to wear Megan’s face.

I looked over, and several demons kneeled before me as I slew one of their compatriots.

Let me guess. I just solidified my place as ruler. I sighed. “Alright, what do you want?” I finally asked the one in front.

“My lord, I am Anger, leader of the wrath demons. With your rule now unquestioned, will you lead us in the conquest of Placeholder?” he asked.

I wanted to immediately reply, “Of course not.” My quarrel wasn’t with Placeholder. It was with the admins and with the OmniverseEngine. Going around murdering the helpless residents of Placeholder was a pointless waste of time and not something I wanted to do in the first place.

However, I could read a bit between the lines. I was in charge… ostensibly. If I made a decision that the literal demons beneath me didn’t care for, I would likely have a coup on my hands.

While dying didn’t matter, I needed to remain on good terms with the forces of Hell in the increasingly unlikely chance that Admin returned so that I could find a way to cheat him out of enough manipulation points to take down the OmniverseEngine.

With a sigh, I made my decision.

“Alright… let’s move out.”