Chapter 79: A Detour

Chapter 79: A Detour My eyes drifted to the forge deep within my domain, a place that now felt more like home than my own throne. My B-Rank Alchemy was one of my greatest assets, a force multiplier that allowed me to equip my elite troops with gear that other Demon Kings could only dream of. But maintaining and upgrading the equipment for an entire empire was becoming a full-time job. "I need a Dwarf," I declared. Pixia, who had been running probability analyses on the northern Demon Kings, zipped over. "A Dwarf Demon King, my Lord? An excellent choice! Their innate racial bonuses to Alchemy and Creation would make them a peerless quartermaster and siege engineer! A Dwarf King could manage our entire military-industrial complex, freeing you up for more high-level strategic endeavors!" "Exactly," I said, pleased that she understood. "A Dwarf would be the ultimate support character for my build. He could manage the forges, design new weapons, and build our defenses, while I focus on the important things, like brooding menacingly and coming up with cool names for my swords." I turned to Isabelle, my commander and now my chief of intelligence. "Find me one. Scour the hero forums, the dark web, whatever back-alley information networks you have access to. Find me rumors of a Dwarf Demon King. I will offer him a generous surrender package. A corner office, a brand-new forge, and an unlimited supply of high-quality ores. It’s a better deal than he’ll get from the heroes." Isabelle nodded, a faint, wry smile on her lips. "I will see what I can find, my Lord. The hero forums are surprisingly informative. They complain about everything. ’This dungeon’s traps are unfair.’ ’That Demon King’s minions have bad breath.’ ’This Dwarf King’s golems are too sturdy.’ It’s a goldmine of tactical intelligence." She and Chloe departed to begin their information gathering, leaving me with Pixia and my own thoughts. The idea of recruiting specialists, of headhunting other Demon Kings to fill specific roles in my organization, was a thrilling one. I was no longer just a conqueror; I was a CEO, building the ultimate demonic corporation. Two days later, Isabelle returned. "My Lord," she began, her tone professional, but with an undercurrent of something else... amusement? "I have found no credible reports of a Dwarf Demon King in this prefecture. However, I have found something... stranger." She pulled up a series of forum posts on the main holographic display. They were from a variety of low-level hero parties, all describing a single, bizarre dungeon in the Udon-nada District, a small coastal territory to the north. "The reports are conflicting," Isabelle explained. "Some parties describe a classic demonic dungeon, filled with imps and minor devils, ruled by a Demon King who cackles a lot and makes long, boring speeches about eternal damnation. Others describe the same location as a dark, shadowy forest filled with incredibly powerful ogres that move with unnatural silence." I stared at the screen. "Two completely different dungeon themes in the same location? That’s not possible. The System is all about themes. A Demon King can’t just change his entire aesthetic on a whim. That would be a cosmetic microtransaction, and so far, the universe hasn’t tried to sell me one of those. Yet." "My analysis suggests a 99.8% probability of a single domain with two distinct power sources," Pixia chimed in, her wings buzzing with intellectual fervor. "It is a statistical anomaly, but the only logical conclusion is that this domain is ruled by two Demon Kings operating in tandem." "Two Demon Kings, one Domain," I murmured, intrigued. "A partnership. That’s rare. Most of us are too paranoid and power-hungry to share a throne. I wonder what their story is." Isabelle brought up another file, this one compiled from more reliable, high-level hero scout reports. "We’ve identified the two rulers, my Lord. The first is an elderly Devil-type Demon King named Yori. He seems to be the primary administrator, but his personal combat power is estimated to be low. The second... the second is the source of the conflicting reports." She displayed a single, blurry image, a screenshot from a hero’s helmet-cam, taken moments before the camera went dark. It showed a figure, tall and powerfully built like an Ogre, but wreathed in shadows that seemed to cling to it like a living cloak. "The heroes call her ’Umbra’," Isabelle said, her voice grim. "She is an Ogre-type, but she moves with the stealth of an assassin. She can manipulate shadows, creating clones and teleporting through darkness. She is responsible for wiping out every hero party that has made it past the first floor. We have no clear data on her rank, but it is high. Very high." I stared at the blurry image of the Shadow Ogre. A cold, familiar feeling began to stir in my gut. A feeling of pure, unadulterated gamer jealousy. "A unique subordinate," I whispered, the pieces clicking into place. "A Shadow Ogre with stealth abilities? That’s not a standard unit. That’s a gacha pull. A one-in-a-million, SSS-rank prize from the Random Creation lottery." I thought back to my own pathetic attempt at the gacha, where I had spent a fortune in CP to get a single, common, C-Rank Ogre. And this old man, this Yori, had pulled a legendary, game-breaking unit on his first try. "The universe is unfair," I declared, my voice filled with a profound sense of injustice. "Some people have all the luck. He’s not a strategist. He’s not a warrior. He’s just a gacha addict with a god-tier lucky streak!" The desire for a Dwarf quartermaster was forgotten, replaced by a new, all-consuming obsession. I had to see this monster for myself. I had to know how this old man had managed to pull off the luckiest roll in history. "Change of plans," I announced, a dangerous, greedy light in my eyes. "Isabelle, prepare the Wrecking Crew. We’re not going to Noto just yet. We’re making a little detour. I was going to pay a visit to this Yori. And I was going to see his prize. And then, I was going to take it. After all, what’s a little corporate raiding between Demon Kings?