Hyaku ma no Omo

「〈Six Wings of the Wind God (Van Ester)〉」

The words Merea spoke couldn’t possibly be heard by anyone. They just mixed into the wind and disappeared.

◆◆◆

A windstorm was raging on Merea’s back. It was a wind that was slightly whitish.

That raging white wind slowly settled on Merea’s back.

The wind gathered onto his back as if it was, in itself, alive and was intently trying to settle on his back. As it settled on his back, the wind then took on the shape of〈Six Wings〉.

A torrent of mana could also be felt and the wind quickly took on it’s desired shape.

At last, the wind transformed such that, anyone looking at it would be able to tell that those are wings.

◆◆◆

–White…wings of wind.

The〈Fist Emperor〉was unexpectedly fascinated by that sight.
The enormous wings that were created on Merea’s back caused the snow, piled up on the ground, to get rolled up in the wind and wrap around his body.
From deep within his wings, a light could be seen shining through. A sparkling light that looked like diamond dust.

The moment Merea’s wings of wind were completed, his body accelerated even further.

White lightning and wings of white wind.
Thunderclap and a gale.
With both of those wrapped around himself, the man with the white hair, was as if the incarnation of the rage of Mother Nature itself.

「Oi, oi, he’s planning on accelerating even further…?」

The〈Fist Emperor〉had an overawed smile on his face when he looked at the man who was an object of awe for him.
Though his voice sounded like he was ready to give up, deep in his heart he also had a feverish feeling well up.

The six wings, rather than being used for flight, seemed to be more for propulsion instead.
Instead of flapping, it seemed like the wings of wind gave an explosive propulsion to Merea’s body.
His figure suddenly looked very blurry and Merea quickly caught up to the golden ship.
The slow motion that the〈Fist Emperor〉was experiencing stopped as soon as that happened.

「Grab on!!」

The〈Fist Emperor〉held out his hand, soon after he could feel that Merea had grabbed hold.

「Oraa!」

At long last, the〈Fist Emperor〉finally pulled Merea up onto the ship.
The aftermath of the six wings of wind that Merea had wrapped around himself raged around inside the ship.

「Uwaaa! The wind got in my eyes! My eyes!!!」
「Kyaa! Hey!! My hair became all disheveled now!!」
「Calm down now, let’s first be glad that everyone is safe」

The Demon Lords on the ship were thrown into complete chaos and ended up being rather noisy.
The golden ship had already reached a speed that was quite hard to describe.

The Mūzeg’s soldiers who were chasing after them from behind Merea were completely left behind.
Even still, the twins laughed happily while continuing to create the path of ice.
They accelerated even further.
Though they could hear the sounds of the mountain slope scraping against the bottom of the ship, however, the ship, in itself, was rather sturdy.
「The power of money is great!」 or so the〈Alchemy King〉said but the〈Fist Emperor〉ignore him.

「Oi, you okay?」

The〈Fist Emperor〉asked Merea, who he had just pulled onto the ship.
Merea rolled all the way to the end of the ship and over and above that, due to the shaking of the ship, he banged his head against the side of the hull twice or thrice.

「Ouchh…!」

Seeing him hold onto his head, looking in pain, he seemed to have a normal human’s sense of pain.
Having been shown such a monstrous combat ability, it made him seem quite far from being a normal human being but somehow that wasn’t the case.
Finally, Merea fixed his posture and while rubbing his head, he raised his hand towards the〈Fist Emperor〉as if to say that he was okay.
His face has a smile that could be both taken as a bitter smile as well as self-mockery.

「You saved me. I ended up tripping at the most crucial moment」

「You seriously scared me. Seriously sent chills down my spine. Or more like, if you had something like that then use it from the beginning」

「It would have been impossible to use it in that narrow a place. Over and above that, after seeing that many soldiers, I ended up wanting to save up on my mana since we have no idea what we would face when we get down from the mountain」

「Ahh… , yeah that’s true too. Somehow you were a little too 『that』 so I kinda ended up forgetting such obvious things. …Mana huh. Since you depend on internal mana, you need to worry about running out as well huh」

Normally, he would have thought of those things himself but in this case, until he was called out on it, he had completely forgotten about it.
As soon as he realised that fact, he noticed that he still hadn’t returned from his excitement over the battle.
He couldn’t speak what was on his mind clearly so he let it slide and while he was enduring the shaking of the ship, Merea asked him a question.

「Uhm, I still haven’t asked you what your name is have I?」

「Hm? …Oh. I’m the Demon Lord who succeeded the series of〈Fist Emperor〉. My name is Salman」

With a, 「Ah, I still haven’t told you my name huh」 sort of look on his face, the〈Fist Emperor〉replied.
Hearing his name, Merea said,

「Salman huh. That’s a cool name. I’m…」
「Merea right? I remember it」

Before he could complete his sentence,〈Fist Emperor〉Salman said. While feeling rather embarrassed, Merea lowered his head.

「…Is that so? Thanks for pulling me up onto the ship, Salman」
「No problem!」

While replying, Salman opened up his hand and faced it towards Merea.
He held it up near his face and had a posture that seemed to be waiting for something.

At first, Merea had no idea what he was supposed to do but then when a little time went by, he slowly understood and with a happy smile he clapped his hand against Salman’s.

A sharp sound resounded throughout the ship. Despite the grating sound of the golden ship moving down the slope, that noise was still heard very clearly.
The other Demon Lords inside the ship all turned their heads towards Merea and Salman and their expressions changed to that of relief.

It was a sense of relief because all 22 of them had safely made it through that ordeal.

Suddenly, one of them crawled forward, as if trying to endure the shaking of the ship and spoke up.

「In such times, men really are convenient huh. They just seem to become friends based on the mood alone」

It was the〈Flame Empress〉Lilium.
Seeing the figure of the two giving each other a high five, Lilium, who had an extremely disheveled appearance, said so with a slightly envious expression.

「You look like a red hairy monster you know」
「That’s true huh」
「….Hah?」
「Hiii」

Having suddenly realised that he was the reason for the disheveled appearance of Lilium, Merea gave a short scream looking at her dreadfulness.

「….Well whatever, I ended up being saved by you and it’s not like we’re completely out of the woods yet so I’ll pursue this later」

「So, in the end, you’re going to pursue this after all huh?」

「Of course, a woman’s hair is like her life after all」

「Whatever but the power of money isn’t enough!!!! More!! Give me more sparkling money!!!」

The excited screams of the〈Alchemy King〉Shaw resounded throughout the golden ship and erased everything that had just happened.

◆◆◆

–I’m going to…go to the outside world for the first time huh.

Everyone immediately started worrying about the shaking of the golden ship.
Even though it was a rather mysterious situation of sliding down a mountain in a ship, not a single one of them let their guards down.
During that time, Merea was thinking about various things.

–I really didn’t think that it would end up in that kind of a situation though.

The beginning was combat, which he couldn’t really accept. Though, due to that, he was able to make up his mind.
For one last time, Merea stuck his head out of the window and looked at the, barely visible, mountain top of Lidholm sacred mountain.
A raging wind was overlapping and it covered the mountain top in a hazy white mist.
However, Merea felt like he could see the shadowy figures of a hundred people standing there.
They were definitely an illusion.
Though those illusions seemed to be waving their hands to him.

–Yeah.

He ended up believing that illusion in the end.
This place was Lidholm sacred mountain.
A strange place where even dead people could do something or the other.
Just waving their hands at someone who was climbing down is hardly a hurdle for them.

–Goodbye, everyone. I’ll be back.

Merea faced towards the sky with a sentimental expression on his face, however, most of the other Demon Lords had already noticed it.
They already knew that, for Merea, this place was his home.
At first, they couldn’t believe it but, now that they saw how Merea was, they were finally able to believe it.
Also, those graves on the mountain top, probably mean a lot to him. The reaction he had when the〈White Light Cannon〉of Mūzeg shaved off some parts of the graves just served as confirmation.

Even then, Merea didn’t say anything so the others were left to guess what was going on in his head but decided to not say anything.
However, just a for a short while, they decided to stay as silent as possible. As much as possible they wanted his sentiments to soften.
While praying that, they all quietly stayed in the golden ship.

◆◆◆

The hundred heroic spirits who were stranded in this world because of their regrets.
The man who was raised by those hundred spirits, Merea Mea.
The man who should have become a hero, on that day, left on a trip with people who were known as Demon Lords.

Having been raised by those hundred heroic spirits, Merea Mea was, because of the situation on Lidholm sacred mountain, was recognized as a Demon Lord by Mūzeg.
When someone is recognized as a Demon Lord, in order to differentiate between the abilites of the other Demon Lords, they are assigned a series.
Due to the distinction between Demon Lords, as well as the the fact that it could show what type they were or what their speciality was, this kind of title system was used.

Merea Mea, on that day, was giving the title of〈Demon God〉and〈White God〉.

It was quite rare for one Demon Lord to get two titles.
There were more rare points as well.

For the titles of Demon Lords, there were, while ambiguous, ranking in terms of strength.

〈Demon〉,〈King〉,〈Emperor〉and〈God〉.

The highest rank is〈God〉while lowest rank is〈Demon〉.

Unless it’s a talk from the old age, there are hardly any who hold the title of〈God〉.
That said, in the current age, when new Demon Lords are recognized and titles attached, there are hardly any who receive the title of〈God〉.

That was because Demon Lords had stopped showing their power.

In the current world, Demon Lords were the ones being hunted.
Though it is the ranking based on strength but for the side which is hunting, it is also an indicator of the danger they would face. Having someone with the title of〈God〉was more or less unheard of nowadays.

However, in such an age, Merea was unusually assigned the title of〈God〉.

That was mainly done based on the opinions of the ones who had actually fought against Merea, the Practitioner Corps of the Mūzeg army.
The entire corps unanimously applied for Merea to have the〈God〉title.

That was how badly it had impacted them.

More than anything else, what impacted them the most was the fact that, the technique that required many of them to invoke it together, was traced in an instant and a reverse technique was immediately used, all by one, single person.

Added to that, when they thought that he was a practitioner, he turned out to be extremely strong at close quarters combat as well.

Technique offset using a reverse technique was said to be the forte of the, former hero,〈Technique God Flander Crow〉.
As someone who did something similar to that〈Technique God〉, he did not seem to be inferior to the〈Technique God〉in the old stories. However, unlike the〈Technique God〉, this man was also strong in close combat.

Since the titles showed the battle systems they followed or their specialities, using〈Technique God〉or〈War God〉seemed insufficient.
At first, they were at a loss on what to do.

The result,
With the meaning of being the embodiment of strength in all aspects, he was given the title of〈Demon God〉.

Also, the white lightning that he used as well as the white wings of wind he created. Not to mention, the fact that his hair was snow white.
His otherworldly looks were, in a sense, his greatest characteristics.
Based on all of that, a part of the people started referring to him as,〈White God〉.

◆◆◆

As such, Merea was officially called a Demon Lord by Mūzeg.

◆◆◆

In time, he would surpass the title system and be called by the unique name of〈Lord of a Hundred Demons〉.
The 「Life as a Demon Lord」 of such a man was just beginning.

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