Chapter 9:Adaptation [1]

"What...the was that..?"

Throwing my hands out desperately and making sure I could actually control my own body, I stared at the dead hero's corpse in front of me.

Ever since I had looked into my reflection on the cross, I hadn't been able to control my own body.

It had been as if I was in the third person.

My entire body had been surrounded by a light-blue hue, and I had been able to fly around and phase through things like a spirit.

I had been watching someone else control my own body and fight the hero and his army from above.

During the entire fight, I had been floating around while desperately trying to reclaim control over my body.

Even though I knew that if I took back control, I would likely die to the hero...I still wanted it.

However, nothing had worked.

I had watched "myself" murder over three hundred people.

Although I hadn't done any of the actual killing, my hands started to shiver as I stared at the blood covering my hands.

Rubbing my bloody hands across my face, I sighed and muttered.

"I see why the demon king didn't use this ability..."

The "Devil's Transformation" lineage ability...didn't transform you into a devil on the outside.

It made you a Devil on the inside.

Having someone else take your body...and being able to do nothing about it was not a pleasant experience, no matter how strong it let you be.

But...I wasn't in any position to complain. 

After all, if that...thing hadn't taken control over my body, I wouldn't be standing here right now.

It was me or them...

After repeating that phrase countless times in my mind, I finally managed to get my body to stop trembling and took a step forward.

Not daring to look at the massive cross, I descended the staircase, halting as I reached the halfway mark down.

When I had been observing "my" fight with the hero, I had noticed something peculiar.

The devil that had possessed my body kept glancing at a specific step on the staircase throughout the entire fight.

When the obsidian sword had been lost, the devil controlling my body immediately glanced at the middle step of the staircase as if wanting something in there.

This was the demon king's palace, right..? There had to be a vault or treasury to store valuables somewhere.

And, of course, a devil would know where it was.

Looking straight down at the royal red carpet and avoiding the hundreds of bodies laid out in front of me, I arrived at the step in question.

As I ducked downward and looked for any switches or signs of tampering, a sudden thought occurred to me.

"The devil who possessed me...hated darkness, right?"

Perhaps the way into the vault was...color, then?

Laying out my palm, which was painted blood-red, I pushed the back of the step forward, hoping that it would swing up and open; however, nothing happened.

The carpet was already red...maybe I needed a different color?

As I stood back up, my right arm started to twitch uncontrollably, forcing me to grab it with my left hand.

Then, I felt it.

A weird feeling rushed through my head... a feeling of exhilaration and pure glee.

The world is ours.

A circus made specifically for our entertainment.

A playground we can only play in.

My right arm...it wanted to stab, hit, attack...and kill.

The devil that had possessed me...it hadn't fully left.

Perhaps as payment for his use, it had left a fragment of itself inside me.

Releasing my left hand, I let my right hand roam free, watching it surge forward at the middle step.

At this moment, I was simply letting my right arm be used... I could take back control of it at any time.

Surging down at the carpet on the step, my right hand began desperately rubbing against it, trying to break through with its fingernails.

"Alright. That's enough."

As I gave my brain the order to halt my right arm, its trembling suddenly halted, and it obediently followed my commands, staying in place.

Taking a deep breath in, I turned around to face the corpses behind me and simply glanced around for a moment.

This was something I couldn't be afraid of anymore.

In this world, I was now...the demon king.

Warfare, blood, and killing were inevitable.

If I couldn't even handle the sight of some dead bodies, then my death was all but ensured.

Although my mind was steeled and ready to overcome its fear, my body was the opposite.

Instantly, a feeling of repulsion coursed through my body, and my mouth opened, threatening to let vomit out.

"Baby steps..."

Walking a couple of steps downward to a nearby corpse, I looked to the right while attempting to lean down and grab the soldier's sword.

After a couple of moments of awkwardly grabbing things, I finally stood back up as I felt the cold metal hilt of a sword brush against my palm.

A lot of things had happened within my first hour in this world.

Some good...but mostly bad.

However, now was not the time to dwell and feel bad myself.

Maybe tonight, I would let it all out when I collapsed on a bed, but at least, for right now, I had to worry about actually making it to "tonight."

Surrounded by these dead bodies, I knew I was next if I didn't do something.

Gripping the sword so that its tip was directly facing the ground, I ascended back to the middle step before plunging it downward at the red carpet.

As the light-red tip of the sword collided with the red carpet on the step, I felt the ground tremble below me.

My demon blood wasn't on the sword...a simple and normal human's was.

Perhaps...it was a rite of passage.

Within seconds, the concrete step under me was no longer there.

Instead, there was a huge step-sized hole that led into a void of darkness right below me.

Instantly, I began to descend as there was nothing tangible to hold me up anymore.

Falling down, I dropped my sword and closed my eyes, sighing in relief as the wind rushed against my face and pushed back my hair.