Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 62: The Perfect Victory That Was Prepared

──This guy’s on a whole different level from the other Demon Kings we’ve seen.

That was my first impression of the “Demon King of Ashes.”

Unlike the “Sword Demon King,” who was just an incomplete revived body, or the “Demon King of Thorns,” who was all about multiplication ability, this one had a perfect physical form, outstanding magic, enough intelligence to even speak human language, and overall stats that were ridiculously high. You could pretty much say there wasn’t a single weak spot in his status.

And just to prove my gut feeling right, the Demon King—who should’ve had his heart pierced—flared up his flames even more.

Black flames exploded upward in a raging swirl.

It was like he’d stopped holding back on mana conservation and was now going all out—no more playing nice. Whips of fire lashed in from every direction. I swung my ink around and smacked them away.

“Getting hit directly looks pretty bad… Pinball Rebound Seal!”

“Wait, you bastard!! Don’t run awayyy!!”

Like I’m gonna wait for you.

Yelling like that, the Demon King charged, so I stepped on the “Pinball Rebound Seal” and jumped back to keep distance. But he wasn’t dumb enough to just let me get away. Using raw leg strength alone, he flew through the air and closed the gap again.

The black flames surging up had tactical-class firepower.

A single swing of his fist or kick gouged the ground.

On my side, the ink compressed by “Cthulhu’s Foolish Praise” wasn’t losing either. When I swung it, it clashed head-on with the Demon King’s fist, scattering black spray everywhere while blasting both of us backward.

But the problem was—

“Guess the Chain Crown Chainsaw isn’t getting through anymore, huh.”

“Of course not! Once I dry up something like that watery blade, it’s over!”

Along with the Demon King’s roar, the several “Chain Crown Chainsaws” I’d fired evaporated the moment they touched the black flames.

They’d pierced his heart once before, so he wasn’t letting them through again. Still… to keep flames hot enough to instantly vaporize ink the second they touch, all the time… Demon Kings really do have insane amounts of mana, huh.

Alright, how should I handle this?

If I used the massively compressed ink of “Cthulhu’s Foolish Praise,” I could probably slam a hit in before it evaporated. But that technique didn’t have any surprise factor. I had to keep the octopus shape or the power would drop—that’s just how “imitative magic” worked.

Any other attack I tried would just get burned away the instant it touched the flames covering his body.

“So this is the world’s top-tier fire magic… yeah, I’m kinda scared now.”

“Wahahahaha! Exactly! Exactly! Come now, let us burn even more rage together!!”

…Rage? I suddenly thought about the word.

His chant had a similar vibe, didn’t it? Something like “My rage, your ring of flame, revolve—” or whatever.

With an expression mixing rage and laughter, the Demon King roared.

Countless black flames swelled up and chained together, exploding over and over. While I deflected them with “Pinball Rebound Seal” and “Cthulhu’s Foolish Praise”—I thought.

Emotions are a huge factor in magic.

Magic is basically the technology of turning a caster’s thoughts and perceptions into reality. So the stronger the emotion affecting a human brain, the easier it is for magic output to skyrocket.

But on the flip side, really intense emotions can also mess up spellcasting.

Magic demands insane precision above all else. Humans have always been unstable inside, so they try to stabilize themselves with faith, chants, meditation, training—you name it. And in most cases, whatever emotion is raging in the moment is nothing but a hindrance, so a lot of mages work hard to shut their feelings off completely.

But in this guy’s case—probably not.

This “Demon King of Ashes” was angry.

But he wasn’t losing his mind to it.

In other words, this Demon King was someone who had perfect control over the violent emotion of rage.

He piled the ferocious energy of anger right onto his magic, yet no matter how furious he got, his reason kept that anger perfectly in check so it never destabilized the spell.

I get the logic, but actually pulling that off is something nobody should be able to do—it’s pure theory. Somehow this monster made it real. Maybe that’s exactly what makes the “Demon King of Ashes” such a freak, I figured.

“So that crazy firepower comes from this trick… still, what kind of life do you have to live to end up with a mind built like that?”

“Oh, that’s an old, old story! Do you really think I still remember it?!”

“You remember. You’re still pissed off right now.”

When I said that, the Demon King threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Well said! That one hurt!”

“It’s nothing special, really! Long ago I was a little oni kept as a pet by humans! My whole clan got wiped out, I was chained up in a freak show, but no matter how much I raged, the slave collar never came off!”

“…So what’d you do?”

“I decided to learn human speech and human magic! I copied my master! Ohhh, words are such a convenient thing… they even let me tell you this little memory right now!”

His swinging fist sent rubble flying from the shockwave alone. I jumped over the flaming ropes crawling along the ground to dodge.

When I casually asked, “What happened to your master?” he grinned wide and answered, “Turned into beautiful ash!”

Nice one, I thought, and ended up grinning back.

Right then, all the countless ash that had settled on the ground suddenly whipped up into the air.

“Eventually I became a king, and this rage fused with my magic. Now—behold! Oh ashes and refuse, in the name of my fury, ignite once more—!!”

The moment he chanted—

The ash that should’ve been completely burned out flared up again with black flames.

There shouldn’t have been anything left to burn—and yet the ash scorched the earth, then got lifted by the wind and danced into the sky.

“Hey hey, this is…”

“My magic’s nature is rage that refuses to die even after burning out—flames that can relight what has already been consumed! Anything once set ablaze, I can reignite as many times as I want!”

The raging ash swirled into a vortex and rushed toward me together with the Demon King.

Even when I swung my ink to brush it away—the floating ash slipped right through, and those flames never went out.

“Now scatter into ash here!!”

──Yeah, this is seriously bad.

To block these flames, I’d have no choice but to switch “Cthulhu’s Foolish Praise” to defense mode. But then the Demon King himself would be free to go wild. Getting pounded by that power, those strikes, and the black flames nonstop—even “Cthulhu’s Foolish Praise” would eventually dry up.

Alright, this is probably the right moment.

Time to wrap this up.

I’d seen enough of his magic.

And unexpectedly, I even got to hear an interesting life story. I enjoyed it plenty.

So I casually crossed my left middle finger over my ring finger.

That was the trigger for a new spell.

“God Incubation Kafka”

In that instant—

Ink sprouted from the Demon King’s face as he charged right at me.

“Bgyaaah!?”

His right cheek tore open along with the flesh, and he froze with a weird scream.

It wasn’t just “sprouting”—more accurately, countless spears burst out from inside his body and impaled him.

Pop, pop, pop, pop—

One after another the ink turned into black spears, transforming his form into something like a sea urchin.

Of course, any ink that came outside got instantly vaporized by his flames—but every time that happened, more spears welled up from inside.

“Wh-what… what is this—why—!!?”

“I let ink invade your body. Through the air—into your mouth and nose.”

“Th-the air… you say…!?”

“Yeah. ’Cause you were the one who vaporized it, right?”

While wrapping ink around my body to shield against the flaming ash, I answered like I was just confirming something.

It’s called “God Incubation Kafka.” Honestly, it’s not even that complicated once you explain it.

All I did was pre-program the ink body so that when it turned from liquid to gas—when it got volatilized—it would sneak inside an enemy’s body and wait for the signal to attack.

Naturally, slimes aren’t supposed to be volatile liquid lifeforms at room temperature.

So this spell only activates when the ink gets evaporated—meaning it’s a meta-counter made specifically to target opponents who use fire magic.

“What… what terrifying preparation…!”

“Nah, I mean… you’ve got the ‘Flame Hero’ and the ‘Demon King of Ashes,’ right? Two names screaming fire attribute. So I’ve had countermeasures ready for you guys since half a year ago.”

When I said that, the Demon King’s face twisted into a dry, dumbfounded, twitching smile—

“A complete defeat! Magnificent…!!”

—and then he exploded.

The flames swelled, then the steam from that explosion swelled even more, and the result was a massive blast from the Demon King’s own body.

A deafening roar echoed. A flash lit up the night. The ash dancing around us got swept away by the wind and vanished.

My body, wrapped in octopus-like ink, rolled and tumbled across the ashen ground from the shockwave.

While getting blown back, I looked up at the night sky and thought,

“…How about that. Guess I should still prepare for a rematch just in case.”

The guy was shrugging off a pierced heart like it was nothing. Honestly, whether he’s really dead this time is kinda suspicious.

But at least for this defense battle—I’ll call it my complete victory after six months of prep.

Now comes the cleanup.

That’s probably gonna be the real pain.