"<>!"

When I swung the 'Steel Iron Sword' in front of me, a bright flash of light tinged with a blue hue and dark fog was released from the tip of the blade, travelling in one straight line.

Gouging out the earth at a rapid pace, the enemy barely had time to react before his arm was fully separated from his torso. The arm looked small, as if it belonged to a village kid, as I noticed it flying in the air for a few seconds. I would have felt guilty if that was an ordinary child's arm, but as of this moment, it belonged to someone I couldn't forgive.

The skill I used just now was only learned a few minutes ago while I was sprinting towards this location as fast as I could. 

Apparently, it was one of the skills available when I purchased the <> skill tree from the 'Ruler's Tome'.

Naturally, I increased the level of <> skill tree to max without thinking.

In a swift motion, some of the dangerous-looking dark tentacles were eviscerated and dispersed into nothingness. As soon as I confirmed Marielle-san and quite strangely, the store owner I had met earlier today, Lode-san was released from their bindings, I shout towards the little black-haired boy with red eyes surrounded by dark tentacles with creepy eyes and mouths...

“….Little boy, or should I say, ‘Demon King’….Get your filthy hands off of her!”

If it was the normal me, I would have been too embarrassed to say these cliché lines, but I couldn't be bothered by that right now. I can tell that this guy was dangerous.

Even more so than the 'Dragon Knight, Zetsuen' I had fought before.

Sure, the <> skill calculated his probable power level, but there was something else. My skill <> is ringing ever so slightly now and then.

That's why, I know that I have to keep my guard up against this enemy. I can tell that my strength the more time passes would be enough to overpower him, but something...

Something was off.

I can't put my finger on it right now, but I can tell that this guy's hiding something.

Even if I was bursting with anger right now, and wanted to rush and take them both away from this place as soon as possible, to avoid being careless, it couldn't be done.

At least, not without an opening...

As I observed the 'Demon King', waiting for him to show a gap in his defense, more dark eerie tentacles suddenly shot out of the boy's shadow once more.

"...Fuhahahaha! So you're the strong human who had released that enormous power yesterday. By taking me by surprise, you managed to cut off my arm. A marvelous feat indeed. Very well, you have amused me..."

As if he was enjoying this, the decapitated arm was suddenly absorbed by one of the tentacles and in the next moment, a smaller dark tentacle grew out from the stump of his shoulder, and quickly reformed into the small boy's arm.

"Even with my <>, I cannot see the limits to your potential. Excellent, truly excellent. You have saved me time in looking for you. I applaud myself, for having such luck of making the main dish come to me instead."

He seems to have been blabbering something about dishes and such, but I wasn't listening to it much at all. Mainly because I didn't even know what he was talking about, with my severe lack of information, but mostly because I was concerned at how quickly his arm grew back to its prior state.

This, might be a tad bit troublesome to deal with.

"...Wait....those strange clothes...even if it was obscured by the darkness, I would not mistake it. You're Kyouya-dono are you not!?"

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice coming from the side. Although, there was no one here except the largely built shop owner and Marielle-san. So it must have come from the dark-skinned muscle man staring at me in surprise, Lode-san.

"......We'll talk later. Quickly, take Marielle-san to safety."

I don't answer his question, but put priority on getting them out of this place.

Discussions come after. Right now, we were in a dangerous situation.

In actuality, Marielle-san's health points were slowly dwindling down as the map skill showed her dot was blinking even faster this time. I had to hurry and get her treated.

"....U-understood."

A look of enlightenment was seen in his pupils when I looked at him, and he slowly got up and prepared to carry Marielle-san on his gigantic back.

I'm thankful he can read the situation.

But right as I thought that...

"Hey. Where do you think you're looking at?"

In a split second, I lost sight of the little black-haired 'Demon King'. No, I can tell that it was even faster than that. How experienced.

Large amounts of dark tentacles had started to move in my direction, along with the after images of the little demon whose name I don't know of. 

But.

Having only that, won't get through me.

"....Wha-what is this?"

The 'Demon King' was currently dumbfounded at how all his attacks was rendered into nil.

That's only to be expected.

<> is a skill without exception.

Each and every skill whether it would be using magic power or demonic energy, everything would be swallowed into the endless and mysterious void once invoked.

Only this time, it wasn't invoked. Because for some reason, the strange mysterious black fog that keeps seeping out of my cursed ring has somehow combined with the skill. So that when the areas covered with it are hit or targeted by a skill, it is immediately nullified.

Truly, a convenient but hard to understand phenomenon.

What happened was that the few dozens of large dark tentacles had hit the dark fog, and completely ignored it while the dark fog had scattered them into millions of particles too small to see with the naked eye. In the next moment, even the skill that the little demon used against me in tune with the tentacles, was stopped as if it was a breath of air.

Using this moment in time where he was surprised, my brain capacity which had improved many times during the night, had already used the skill <> to see the information appraisal about the current enemy.

I see, Edacitas Von Beelzebub is the little demon's name.

Yep, I was right. His current equipped title was [Demon King of Gluttony].

So this was one of the most powerful demons eh. Let's compare his level with mine.

His level was currently Lv 100.

Eh, that's strange. Why does it show 'Max Level Attained' even when it was only a hundred? That doesn't make any sense. Sure, I didn't have time to examine the previous opponents I had faced but this was really intriguing.

Wait, if Lv 100 was the normal maximum level in this world, what does that say about me?

Does this mean that I'm the strange one?

In any case, it seems there wasn't any dangerous looking skills or anything like that, since I can render them useless after all. I'm glad to know that I can finish this quickly.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

I had thought and examined many things about my first time seeing another living being's status but in actuality, only 2 and a half seconds had passed in the real world. This was all made possible by my absurd intelligence stat.

Or was it wisdom? Whatever, it doesn't matter right now.

As Edacitas remained dumbfounded still, I took the opportunity that I had been waiting for since the moment we met. An opening in his defenses.

"<>"

One of the higher-tier sword skills found in the skill tree I maxed out, was used in that opening. After it was invoked, the sword I had been carrying with my right hand, had grown lighter. It was so light, compared to before, that it was as if its weight had entirely disappeared. In its place was a shine of dull white light gleaming from the blade.

Taking one step back, and then a step forward, I twisted my body and began the activation of the skill. It seems the enemy had already noticed it but it was too late...

Letting my body give in to the controlled and refined motion of the skill, I moved around with light steps as if I was a phantom, appearing and disappearing from every direction.

Of course, in reality I was doing nothing but letting the skill do all the work.

By the time I had finished, I had estimated to have swung the sword about a hundred times before I moved forward and left Edacitas in a battered state. I noticed him invoking an emergency skill in the middle of it, which seemed to have the power to absorb the blows as energy and health, but since the sword I wielded was also covered in the mysterious black fog, as the skill made contact with it, the former was immediately canceled.

I wonder what would happen when I encounter an enemy who has the same frightening skill as I. In the future, I should probably think of countermeasures. 

After all, this skill was too broken. Even I thought so, as an avid gamer in the past.

After the dust settled, I had sheathed my sword which had almost no scratch on it due to the protection of the fog, and turned to look at the present condition of the enemy.

As I saw blue blood seeping out of his countless wounds and decapitated limbs, I felt a slight sense of relief and exhaled a tired breath of air. It's good if it ended with just this.

There was no way someone could survive every fatal organ and limb being cut into pieces.

But, as always. I immediately regretted my overconfident thoughts.

"....Don't underestimate a 'Demon King'!"

My <> skill suddenly rang bells in my head. Immediately, I turned my body to the side by reflex. After I did, I saw one eerie-looking black tentacle that looked different from all the others I had seen until now passing through the top of my shoulder.

It had almost grazed my cheek, but it seemed that I had not been touched since the fog was still active. Then, that got me thinking. Why would he throw that attack again, even if he knew that the skill would only be nullified?

Unless...

A scary thought had made its way into my thoughts as I noticed a malicious grin on Edacitas Von Beelzebub's face. No, it can't be.

When I looked towards where the larger, strange black tentacle was headed, my chest tightened. Under a large tree a few meters from my location, Lode-san and the unconscious Marielle-san were held in place by smaller tentacles which I hadn't noticed until now. Lode-san seemed to be still struggling, while Marielle-san was slowly falling into the dark abyss of death itself. 

"If I can't eat you right now, then I just have to gain those two's strength to add to mine. Now watch as your fellow humans suffer because of you!"

As I observed the rapidly dwindling health points of both Lode-san and Marielle-san, two of my first acquaintances since arriving in this world, and the large attack that the smug 'Demon King' had perfectly timed heading towards them, my world turned black.

As if time itself had slowed down, my brain had worked full-speed to reach a solution that I could be satisfied with. Even if I nullified the center of the tentacle now, the large amount of power accumulated at the tip of the tentacle would still reach.

Still, I had to come up with something. I had to save them.

As my mind worked non-stop, the chances of rescue was growing dimmer and dimmer. Even at my fastest speed, I couldn't reach the location in time to shield them from the rapidly moving attack. Hypothesis after hypothesis, plan after plan, everything formulated inside my thoughts were useless.

This can't be true. 

Am I just going to let them die?

Did I get what I deserve from being too overconfident and letting my guard down when I saw the dead appearance of the enemy? Even if the drawback of the 'Lord of the Night' skill was being too overconfident, I could not use that excuse.

Nor would I.

Something, someone.

Anything, anyone.

Is there anything I can do to save the people in front of me?

Suddenly, my head started hurting as if I was hit by a hammer repeatedly.

A distant memory, that looks really fuzzy. I can't recall it that well, but somehow I remember the feeling of loss. The feeling of losing someone important to me.

No. I am not going to let that happen this time.

As if responding to my strong feelings and will, a bright light shone from within my cursed ring. In the next moment, the fog that had scattered all around me until now had started gathering into a round oval shape. Looking closer, the bright light was coming from...

That orb.

From when my cursed ring had gotten me arrested, the orb that had been swallowed by the ring before, was currently shining like a miniature sun, and slowly being swallowed once more by the endless darkness. 

Soon enough, the gathering dark fog had floated up into the sky a meter above my head, and was slowly growing smaller and smaller...

And as if the light had purified all the other impurities before it was swallowed, most of the large dark tentacles was dispersed into nothingness. Lode-san, who was freed from his bindings, immediately moved in front of the unconscious Marielle-san and took the blast of dark energy remaining from the attack, which blasted him into a tree.

I have to help him sooner or later, but it seems he was still fine. Also, I had just noticed but it seemed that Marielle-san's health had recovered to half of its maximum when that light shone on her, so that gives me a bit more time to end this once and for all.

"Impossible. My <> was stopped in an instant?"

Again, he seemed to have his mouth agape in horror and shock, but I was just thankful for the fact that both had been saved. When I looked towards the floating oval-shaped dark fog, I noticed that instead of the previous orb, the familiar visage of an egg was in its place.

Somehow, that egg also seemed as if I had seen it before.

*Crack*