The Undead King And The Beast Emperor.

The Demon King’s Castle.

True to its nomenclature, it functioned as the sovereign domain of the Demon King, while simultaneously serving as a massive dread fortress hard-coded to initialize as the absolute final defensive bulwark for the Demon World in a worst-case scenario. However, initiating its grand sequence required the fulfillment of precise environmental variables and meticulous operational prep cycles.

Historically, when Lyle and I executed our joint-assault vector to liquidate Yureesha, this automated defensive architecture was never triggered. To state the unvarnished programming reality, across the entire compiled history of the Demon World, the castle’s combat configurations had only been activated a handful of times. This was an entirely predictable calculation, given that the realm was permanently insulated behind a sovereign barrier designed to completely shut out any incoming invasion vectors launched by the gods or the surface Heroes.

However, a massive invasion was scheduled to materialize in less than two months. To insulate our assets against that apocalyptic timeline, the structural maintenance of the fortress’s hidden installations had to be checked off immediately.

“Therefore, I shall proceed to run a granular, part-by-part inspection across every single system block, milord. Because this sequence relies entirely on a baseline, grueling manual labor cycle, I highly desire that your sovereign vector delegates one hundred percent of the processing to my profile,” Tsukuyomi requested, locking her posture. “Furthermore, my analytics indicate it will require a substantial block of runtime.”

“What is your estimated chronological timeline to conclude the repairs?” I queried. “The Hero’s Vanguard stands a hundred percent probability of launching a massive breach into our borders in less than two months. If possible, my strategic blueprint dictates that this mechanism verifies fully functional before they breach the perimeter.”

“A single week of runtime should be more than sufficient to finalize the parameters, milord.”

“Your operational efficiency optimizes our timeline. You are officially authorized to manage the queue. In the event that your processing requires additional manual labor support, pass the request to my office immediately.”

“Negative. My processors calculate that this labor cycle must be executed strictly by my solitary profile. Integrating mid-tier, low-stat assistants into the workspace would only inject chaotic variables and clutter my efficiency, milord.” Tsukuyomi executed a crisp bow. “Staking the unvarnished reputation of Alchemist General (Alchemist) Tsukuyomi—I shall guaranteed bring the Lord Demon King’s command to a flawless, absolute conclusion.”

Setting aside her highly atypical psychological quirks, as far as raw capability specs were concerned, her presence in our network was comprehensively reassuring.

Tilting his neck upward to audit the upper coordinates, a colossal, jagged spatial fracture sliced a perfectly straight trajectory across the expanse of the sky.

According to the intelligence logs passed down the line, our sovereign barrier safeguarding the Demon World had sustained significant structural damage during the recent culling war against the Divine Gear. Because the structural integrity of the boundary had degraded, a non-zero risk materialized that the Hero class or the immediate vassals of the gods would attempt an unannounced blitz through the rifts. To neutralize that specific variable, Regal had anchored his deployment vector to hold these coordinates as a permanent defense sentry.

Stationed at regular intervals across his perimeter was his personal cohort of elite undead thralls—every single unit a ferocious, high-tier warrior meticulously selected by his own screening arrays.

Creak… creak-creak-creak-creak…っ!

Abruptly, the spatial rift emitted a heavy, structural grinding sound as its geometry began to violently warp.

“Hostile ambush detected,” Regal muttered, his teeth clicking as he smoothly drew the sword anchored to his hip. It was an oddly configured, asymmetrical blade that resembled a loose framework of interlocked bones.

“ —Belay the offensive loop. It is strictly my own profile, Regal.“

Emerging smoothly from the far side of the spatial rift, a comprehensively massive silhouette materialized into reality. The entity’s vertical scale easily breached four meters in height. Possessing a majestic, awe-inspiring physical frame, it was a lion-kin beast-demon. Its sweeping, upturned mane violently rippled like a wall of raging fire, and its entire build was meticulously encased in a set of dazzling, pure gold full-body plate armor.

“Zegart…!” Regal’s vocal array registered a rare trace of profound surprise.

Lord Beast Emperor (Gigantoror) Zegart.

He was logged as one of the elite Seven Supreme Commanders, celebrated across the realm’s combat databases as the absolute strongest white-handed close-quarters brawler in the entire history of the Demon World.

“My scouting units executed consecutive sweeps across the surface human realms to track your coordinates, but your signature completely eluded our tracking arrays. To verify your survival parameters are intact is an excellent data point.”

“My profound apologies. My system absorbed heavy structural injury ticks during my standard campaigns against the human vermin. Consequently, I hard-coded a mandatory rest cycle, isolating my frame deep within an unmapped coordinate sector to focus exclusively on health-restoration protocols.”

“ …Have your combat specs successfully restored back to baseline parameters?“

The definitive, world-shattering against the combined Hero forces was scheduled to initialize in less than two months. Re-integrating an absolute apex brawler like Zegart back into our active roster would guaranteed provide an immense optimization spike to our defensive power index.

“Mhm. My motor functions suffer from absolute zero operational constraints. When the upcoming battle loop initializes, my own vanguard shall systematically kick the human trash out of existence.”

It was a comprehensively high-morale, reassuring declaration.

“Shifting parameters… the data feeds report that the throne has officially undergone a generational succession loop,” Zegart noted, smoothly shifting the conversation. “Auditing the new Demon King through your own processing filters—what is your definitive diagnostic assessment?”

The Undead King let out a low, clicking growl from his throat, weigh-checking the Beast Emperor’s query.

“His psychological settings harbor an undeniable trace of naive softness.”

“However—his raw power metrics are comprehensively absolute. Restricting the evaluation strictly to baseline combat capability, his vessel effortlessly outclasses any historical Demon King logged within the imperial database.”

“Hmm, my own network has harvested matching rumors,” Zegart boomed, casually tilting his massive chin. “The data reports indicate he successfully executed an absolute deletion loop against that supreme weapon of the Heavenly Army—the Divine Gear itself.”

“ …Correct.“

An absolute, terrifying engine that had presented a hundred percent probability of inflicting absolute defeat upon Regal’s own system had been systematically liquidated by the youth without him even entering a noticeable struggle loop. Armed with a power pool of that colossal magnitude, launching a sweeping culling campaign to permanently erase the entire surface human realm from the database would be an effortless administrative task.

Granted, our database currently lacked any concrete tracking logs detailing what exact classification of hostiles the gods maintained within their hidden reserves. Even assuming the Demon King’s frontline combat parameters rendered his profile comprehensively invincible in a horizontal, head-on engagement, there was a non-zero probability that the enemy would bypass a direct clash to deploy underhanded status-disruption tactics. My system cannot flatly omit the risk that they possess specialized sub-routines engineered to forcefully seal the Demon King’s mana pools, or inject a catastrophic debuff to tank his baseline attributes.

(Regardless of those variables—his tactical execution remains far too soft.)

The human vermin should simply be systematically liquidated down to absolute nothingness. The core directive dictates that we deploy an unmitigated, ruthless war of annihilation. Regal’s analytical architecture was perfectly simple.

Back during the ancient era when his profile was still logged under the human taxonomy, he had sustained a catastrophic, agonizing betrayal direct from the hands of a man he had tracked as his absolute closest friend. From that exact hour onward, the human race had been permanently categorized within his database as a thoroughly repulsive, hideous species that deserved nothing but absolute spit and deletion. Witnessing a Demon King who routinely appeared to intentionally down-scale his damage output to spare those exact vermin filled his processors with an intense, burning wave of frustration and bitter resentment.

“Your internal metrics appear to be venting a heavy trace of non-concurrence.”

“ …A minor variance, yes.“

“Suppose our network was commanded by a sovereign whose behavioral algorithms were exponentially more bellicose and war-driven? Whichever vector that scenario takes, how would your code calculate the yield?” Zegart purred, the corners of his massive jaws curling upward into a sharp, predatory smirk.

“What exact alternative is your vocal array suggesting?”

“I accept your calculation regarding his raw strength. However, your system flatly refuses to validate his defensive policies and strategic layout concerning the human and divine hostiles—stripping down your un-routed monologues, that is the definitive conclusion of your data sheet,” Zegart analyzed, his gaze cutting straight through Regal’s defenses.

“Your synthesis parameters are operating with far too much unrefined violence, Zegart. My profile—at least within our current operational timeline—formally recognizes the Lord Demon King as my absolute master.”

“Is that a verified fact?”

Zegart’s optical sensors flared with a deeply piercing, calculating sheen that looked straight into his core. Regal had permanently hard-coded an aversion to that specific optical array within his settings.

“Well, it matters not. Moving down our itinerary, I highly desire to initialize a formal audience to greet the Lord Demon King,” Zegart boomed, his smirk expanding. “And immediately following that milestone, I highly desire to run a prolonged consultation loop with your own profile. My queue is backed up with various delicate strategies that I intend to pass to your processing lines.”

“A strategy consultation?”

“I can guarantee that the finalized yield will present an exceptionally high-value return for your own parameters, Regal.”

The piercing light radiating from the Beast Emperor’s optical arrays underwent an intense, menacing escalation.