By the time he was done, Malcolm was huddled into a little ball, shaking like a man that had been struck by lightning. He glanced at Dalton from the corner of his eyes.

“How are you even alive?”

Dalton wasn’t sure himself. He shrugged and guessed. “Guts?”

“No, that doesn’t make sense.” Malcolm stood up, patting his legs. “Mikoto Kurogane trained you for two years, when he was supposed to train you for five.”

“That’s right.”

“See, that doesn’t make sense. Mikoto Kurogane, the ninja that killed a client for stiffing him one bronze coin? The ninja that cut off the arm of one of his sons for stealing from him? The man that killed his team when he robbed a bank, just so he could keep their shares? That bloodthirsty, gold eyed, greedy ninja gave up more money? That Mikoto Kurogane?”

Dalton just shook his head. Malcolm’s description was laughable. It was a big lie. Dalton told him the true Mikoto Kurogane. “That doesn’t sound like him at all. He’s a guy that loves strawberry shortcake. A man that likes to spy on me when I’m in the bathroom. The super pervert that liked to watch me sleep. The man that used me as a body pillow when he paralyzed me, and I could not move or feel my body for a whole night. That is Mikoto Kurogane.”

“Poppycock! I know Mikoto Kurogane! That man is as cutthroat as they come. He doesn’t like strawberry shortcake! He always believed sugar was for women! He would not be caught doing anything he thought was womanly. In fact, he was a big ole misogynist. The only explanation here is that you were trained by a pervert that called himself Mikoto Kurogane, and your overpowered strength is actually because of your status as a Demon King.”

Dalton sighed, scratching the back of his head. “I can tell you it isn’t that.”

“Prove it! Open your status menu right now!” Malcolm demanded.

He opened his menu and swiped the menu towards Malcolm. Malcolm’s eyebrow twitched when he saw it.

“I can’t ready anything.”

“Yeah, because it’s all in gibberish.”

The menu was filled with many incorrigible characters. They did not form words, and from what Dalton had seen when he looked at it, the characters came from many different languages. Malcolm threw up his hands.

“It’s obvious that it is your status as Demon King. There is no way this isn’t some sort of glitch in the system that has given you superhuman strength.”

“My training made me stronger person!” Dalton snapped back.

“Your training was getting roofied by a fake ninja!”

They fought on this subject for a while. Dalton kept on bringing up his training and the exercises he had to take in order to be this strong. Malcolm scoffed at every attempt that he made, and kept on pointing at his broken status menu.

“I could do a hundred push-ups! Anyone can do a hundred push-ups! That wouldn’t explain how you cracked a golem and killed a Lich King!”

“Those one hundred push-ups were hard!” Dalton countered. “She placed slabs of concrete on my back and made the platform I performed these pushups brittle that if I did them incorrect, I dropped in a vat of tranquilizers!”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“See! The ninja was a pervert!”

“Of course, he’s a pervert! But he made me strong!”

Their voices rose, and their argument echoed across the piles of bones, attracting the unwanted attention of the monsters. When they were overshadowed by the beast’s shadows, Dalton and Malcolm turned to see a monster horde forming a wall. Their hungry and angry eyes gleamed darkly. It made them stop midsentence.

Dalton turned to Malcolm. “We should run.”

Malcolm agreed.

And the two ran, chased by the monsters behind them.

#

Riot could not follow Dalton. He had been left behind like the wind when Riot pointed out Malcolm fighting a diamond golem. Dalton did not follow the path, he leapt over a crevice with such ease. Riot did attempt the same action. Rather, he decided to play it safe and follow the trail in hopes that he would find a bridge to cross.

He never found a bridge past the crevice. His path took him away from it. He instead found Eira calmly sitting on a throne of defeated monsters. She kicked her legs girlishly and reading her purple grimoire. When she spotted him, she closed her book.

“Ah, so you have escaped the Lich King.” She arched her head. “Where is Dalton?”

“He leapt over a crevice to save the poor man from a Diamond Golem,” Riot said.

“Oh, that’s good. So, he is alive too.” From her tone, she seemed pleasantly surprised.

“I must ask, did you defeat these cretins by yourself?” Riot looked upon the pile of monsters. He scanned them, seeing that their levels were in the seventies.

“No. I wasn’t powerful enough to fight them by myself.” She jumped off the pile. She lifted the grimoire in the air. “I simply made a deal with some of the more intelligent monsters and exp farmed.”

“What genius!” Riot exclaimed looking around. “Where is this monster you struck a deal with?”

“He is on the other side of the pile of bones, taking care of his business,” she said.

“Business?” Riot turned his head.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Did you also make deals with defeated monsters?” Riot asked.

“I did. I now have a horde of monsters to fight for me. Although, I asked them to find Malcolm and bring him back.”

“Incredible!” But then Riot realized something. “Aren’t defeated monsters…sex slaves?”

“They are.” Eira tapped the grimoire. “However, my abilities as Devil allows me to rewrite existing contracts to suit my needs. So, rather than having them be useless, I changed it so they would battle instead.”

“By the gods! What an ability!” Riot looked down at his bone axe, and gripped it tight. “I know that my abilities shall become greater as a level up, however, I cannot level up in this mountain of death.” Then an idea popped in his head. “Can I perhaps make a bargain with you, so I can also exp farm with your monsters?”

“You want to sign a contract with me?” Something dark flickered in her eyes. With a wave of her hand, a purple flame formed into a pen, and she opened her grimoire. “If you sign a contract with me, then you are contractually obligated to-”

Riot took the pen and signed the grimoire without any hesitation.

“What were you saying?”

Eira was shocked at the speed. “Do you not listen before you sign? Do you not read before you sign? I must inform you that you now owe me a favor, and you must complete this favor. If you don’t then…I will leave it to your imagination.”

Riot did imagine. He imagined himself buffer than Malcolm, and stronger than Chad. He imagined himself beating the lumberjack that took his woman away. He imagined Mecha coming to him in an embrace. He imagined-

By the time he was done, his nose was bleeding. Eira viewing him with disgust.

“Did you listen to anything I said?”

“Yeah, yeah! I will go another round Mecha!”

Eira nodded her head. “You’re an idiot. Well, whatever, I will call my monster horde back and-”

She frowned at the open page of her book. She turned to the next page. Then to the next. Her eyebrow twitched.

“That can’t be.”

“What?” Riot snapped out of his stupor, wiping his bloody nose with his sleeve. “I heard everything! What?”

“All my monsters are dead.”

#

Dalton was covered in the blood of many monsters, in the center of a new graveyard of monsters. He heaved breath, buckling forward and scanned the area in search for Malcolm. He called out to him several times, until he heard a groan.

“I’m here, under the orc.” He saw his meaty hand wave at him.

Dalton pushed the orc aside. Malcolm was covered head to toe in blood from the orc. He underwear that used to be white, was now rusty red.

“Where should we go now?” Malcolm asked.

“Over there.” Dalton pointed at the giant gate at the base of the mountain. “That’s where we’re all going. Riot and Eira should be making their way over there.”