In the field of agitation and deception, Caron's accomplishments were nothing short of astonishing.
From the imperial capital to the Holy Kingdom and beyond, the number of victims who had fallen prey to his silver tongue couldn't be counted. Even humans and other races had once been swayed by his words. And now, with the power of a Demon King added to that tongue, he began to toy with the minds of the demons before him.
"You're nothing more than abandoned orphans," Caron declared, his voice cutting through the chaos. "But I'll gladly take you in. Come with me. You've all heard the rumors, haven't you? If you follow me, I'll spare your lives. Yes, your lives will be safe."
Whoosh.
A low hum spread across the battlefield.
Countless demons found themselves captivated, unable to resist the lure of Caron's promise. Terrified by the Void Walkers, they clung to the sweet words and the hand Caron extended. Lesser demons, especially those beneath the rank of count, had no strength to resist such honeyed words.
"Now then," Caron said smoothly, "Repeat after me: The Demon King of Havoc is a bastard."
Normally, demons swore eternal loyalty to their chosen king, so long as that king still lived. But Caron unleashed his power with brazen confidence.
It was the very same technique he'd first displayed in the Southern Great Forest. It was Rabies. Now that his strength had grown, the ability had evolved. The Rabies spread through Pluto's darkness, seeping into every corner like a plague. It bent not just bodies, but minds.
Caron's madness began to consume the demons at a frightening pace.
Some high-ranking nobles, still clinging to their sanity, released waves of dark mana in a desperate attempt to restore order.
"Do not be deceived!" one roared. "The Demon King of Havoc has not—urk!"
Slash!
Caron severed the speaker's head with a casual sweep of Guillotine and spat on the ground.
"Why do you keep ruining such a pleasant mood," he said coldly.
Even surrounded by enemies on all sides, Caron's composure never faltered. He carried himself with the very air of a Demon King, one who reigned above all demons, transcendent and untouchable.
The very image that the Demon King himself had once described was now being made manifest through Caron.
"Now then," Caron said, his voice a blade of command, "Make your choice."
Blood soaked into Guillotine, and the sinister aura on the blade writhed more violently. The Void Walkers' horrific power mingled with Caron's own killing intent, crushing the demons' spirits.
High-ranking nobles fell with humiliating ease, and none dared to resist. Caron's mana carried the indolence of Sloth, dulling their minds, while the merciless edge of Slaughter drove straight into their weakened hearts.
At last, the result was clear.
"W–We accept you," a demon stuttered.
"Demon King of Liberation, save us!" cried another.
The majority of demons surrendered, bowing their heads to him. The Demon King of Havoc had abandoned the battlefield—leaving only one Demon King present. Caron, the Demon King of Liberation.
He gazed down at his new vassals with a satisfied smile, murmuring, "I've always found it thrilling to steal what someone else raised."
"Naturally," Guillotine whispered dryly in his mind. "You've never had a shred of conscience."
"Why should I? If my enemies are lowering their heads to me of their own accord, that's the greatest strategy of all. Guillotine, make sure you learn respect for your owner," Caron said.
Not only the demons, but even a large number of demonic monsters, fell under Caron's sway. Especially the massive ones—creatures such as minotaurs, sturdy enough to withstand multiple attacks from the Void Walkers. With such demonic monsters now under his control, Caron's options had widened considerably.
It was an opportunity to achieve something without effort.
Caron looked up slightly, gazing at the three Void Walkers that stalked the battlefield. In Desertus, just one of them had been overwhelming. But now things were different.
Back then, he had only reached 8-Star. Now he stood at 9-Star, and on top of that, he had absorbed the powers of two Demon Kings.
"The place is also perfect," he said softly.
And indeed, the battlefield overflowed with dark mana. Spilled from the corpses of fallen demons and demonic monsters, it seeped thickly into the air, and that mana flowed ceaselessly into Caron's ocean.
The vast amount of mana he'd squandered earlier on wide-range techniques was already restored. It was all thanks to the World Tree's dew and the surrounding dark mana.
Caron drew in a deep breath, then exhaled as he unfurled his mana. His condition was sharper than ever. In truth, the excessive drain from earlier had become a blessing in disguise. His core and channels had been pushed into a state of awakening, and now channeling mana felt as natural as breathing.
"It's been a long time since I've felt like this," he said.
Exhilaration was the only word that could describe it. This was a heady rush that made him feel as if he could do anything.
"They're coming," Guillotine warned.
The Void Walkers' target was unmistakably Caron.
Until moments ago, the monsters had been mindlessly destroying everything in sight. Now their colossal bodies swiveled toward Caron, unleashing enormous spheres of warped energy. Space itself twisted around them.
But Caron didn't flinch. He raised his sword and swung.
There were no elaborate techniques, nor clever finesse. This was just a single, brutal strikes, crammed full of mana. But that alone was enough.
A crescent arc of dark blue sword light flared from his blade.
Shhhhk!
The strike cleaved straight through the sphere as if it were nothing. The orb split in two, quivered grotesquely, and then...
Screeeeeeech!
With a shriek that clawed at the soul, it exploded.
Black flames surged outward, racing hungrily toward Caron. But he didn't even blink. He simply watched. The flames were never meant for him.
Kwaaaaaaang!
Kwaaaaang!
The demons bound to him hurled themselves into the blaze.
Some threw their bodies forward to shield him. Others raised dark magic with every shred of strength they had left.
Boooooom!
Even the demonic monsters didn't sit idle. Minotaurs and other hulking creatures charged headlong at the Void Walkers in a frenzy.
"That's it," Caron said with a satisfied smile, already readying his next attack.
Defense was what demons and demonic monsters were for. He had mountains of zealots eager to throw away their lives for him.
The Rabies had already infected most of the demons, twisting them into raving fanatics.
"For liberation, offer your lives!" they shouted. "We shall be saved!"
It was madness—pure madness. Just moments ago they had sought Caron's death. Now they bled themselves dry to protect him.
Gripping his blade, Caron laughed aloud and shouted, "That's it, my meat shie—no, my loyal vassals! Sacrifice yourselves to atone for your sins!"
He no longer needed honeyed words. To demons, a Demon King was nothing less than a god.
Caron kept feeding them into the Void Walkers' attacks, all the while narrowing his gaze at their throats. Every time the demonic monsters attacked, he glimpsed crystalline jewels glinting along the Void Walkers' necks.
That was the very weakness Shiker had once taught him.
With demons and demonic monsters tearing themselves apart to open the way, nothing could possibly stop him.
Bzzzzzt!
Mana flared around Caron, sparking wildly as it devoured the space nearby.
"Shall we finish this now?" he muttered.
"Don't drag it out trying to look impressive and just kill them already. Owner, I'm getting tired," Guillotine grumbled.
"Yeah, yeah, stop whining," Caron shot back.
Moments later...
Kwaaaaaang!
Caron's mana lanced upward, piercing through the ashen sky.
***
It took only ten minutes for the monsters that had terrified the expeditionary force and the demons alike to fall.
The three Void Walkers slumped to the ground, their cores pierced through. Around them lay an ocean of dust—dust that, not long ago, had been demons and demonic monsters. Proof, if nothing else, of the Void Walkers' terrifying might.
But that was as far as it went.
Driven mad by Caron's frenzy, the demons had fought with desperate ferocity, and in the end the Void Walkers had been brought down.
"Demons really do fight well," Caron murmured, recalling their' reckless charges with a hint of admiration.
They were worthy of being called war machines. Humans or other races would have crumbled under such terror, but the demons had fought until their last breath, driving their weapons into the Void Walkers'' bodies even as they were crushed.
"If the expedition had clashed with them head-on... Even they would have bled badly," Caron said.
"Seems the Demon King of Havoc trained his dogs well," Guillotine muttered.
"I'll agree to that," Caron replied with a faint grin, then strode toward the fallen Void Walkers and stretched out a hand. Slowly, he began to draw in their power.
Whoosh.
The power of Void flowed up his arm, and at once, strange voices rang in his head.
"We will guide you."
"To the place where all stories began, and where all stories will end."
With Void's power came alien memories. They were visions of the Realm of Void, as if showing him a road he was destined to walk.
"We have waited for a long time."
"It is a desire ancient beyond measure."
"By your hand, it shall be fulfilled."
Though the voices were many, Caron knew at once that this was the will of the Demon King of Void. And even through memory alone, the sheer dread made his skin crawl.
"I will wait for you. And here is a gift from me to you. It is a fragment of the memory you have forgotten."
Then the voices ceased.
As the last words faded, the corpses of the Void Walkers dissolved into dust, leaving behind only dark violet crystals where they had lain.
A low groan slipped from Caron's lips. His head throbbed, his thoughts tangled. Unknown memories surged like waves, leaving his mind a mess. For the briefest moment, he saw an illusion...
It was a gray sky where a lone man was surrounded by demons. A sword of dark blue light was in his hands as he screamed, cutting them down in a frenzy.
But the vision faded quickly.
"Owner, my memories..." Guillotine's voice tugged him back to reality.
This was no time to drown in visions. The Void Walkers were gone, but the battle wasn't. The tide of war had merely shifted for a moment, pulled aside by their presence.
The memories of Rael Leston could wait.
Later , Caron thought, shaking his head to scatter the lingering fragments.
When he lifted his gaze, the demons who had resisted his frenzy—the high nobles of Havoc—had gathered. They had shaken off his madness and now surrounded him, eyes full of malice.
Caron chuckled, his eyes gleaming as he asked, "So, you've all come to kill me, is that it?"
The Demon King of Havoc had been stronger than most of the Demon Kings, and naturally, his nobles were formidable as well. If they were vassals of Sloth or Lust, they would have collapsed long ago. But these ones clearly meant to fight to the bitter end.
Still, demons were demons.
"Toying with you would be fun," Caron said lightly, "but... I think we'll call it here for today."
He smirked and lifted his gaze to the sky. Before descending, he'd sent a signal through the communicator. By now, the reinforcements should have arrived.
Finishing off Havoc's remnants here and now wasn't a bad option. But truthfully, Caron was tired.
Whooosh.
Mana welled out of him again, seeping into the demons who had already fallen under his control.
"From now on," Caron commanded, "kill each other."
The moment the words left his lips...
Craaaack!
The demons bound to him turned at once, tearing into their former comrades without hesitation.
The nobles tried desperately to reassert control, but their strength was far too little against Caron's will.
"Liberator!" one demon cried.
"Grant us vengeance against the one who abandoned us!" another added.
It was chaos—absolute chaos.
Friend and foe dissolved into a war where only killing intent remained.
Caron watched the pandemonium unfold with a satisfied smile. Then, with a light kick, he sprang into the air.
And in that instant...
Skrreeeee!
"...What am I, your personal carriage?" someone quipped.
A griffon swooped down like a thunderbolt, catching him in its talons.
Caron glanced up, raising a thumb with a grin, then said, "Perfect timing."
"Why didn't you ask your Guardian Dragon for help instead," Queen Kynda Reynolds complained, her face full of irritation.
"Lady Gratia is drained after using her breath," Caron explained smoothly.
The Pirate Queen gave him a look of sheer annoyance before tugging the reins, turning the griffon toward the allied forces. She asked, "There's chaos everywhere. Is this your handiwork?"
Caron answered with a grin. He had already seized victory. The moment the Demon King of Havoc abandoned the field, his side's fate had been sealed.
Surveying the shattered fortress below, Caron let his smile deepen.
"Shall we bring this battle to a close?" he said.
The time had come for the final act.