In my original form, my mood was still quite good. Long pink hair and pitch-black horns—something I rarely revealed in the Bright Faction, of course—before hearing the voices coming from behind me.
“As expected, this appearance suits Your Highness the best. Pink hair really hits the little demon’s cute spot perfectly. I really want to be stepped on and bullied hard by Your Highness.”
“You just want to see Her Highness’s panties, you pervert.”
“No need to make it so complicated. Let me secretly tell you all—the Demon King is wearing blue and white stripes today!”
“Being a Demon King yet liking cute underwear, the contrast is so adorable~”
The moment I turned my head, I immediately put on a serious expression, playing the part of the upright and majestic Holy Light believer perfectly.
Of course, there were guilty people who wanted to ease the awkwardness by changing the subject, such as Kai. “Your Highness, did you revert to your original form for something specific?”
Seeing the curious gazes around me, I realized I had never shown them my Demon King abilities before. This was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate and fix the image these guys had of me in their hearts.
“Of course, it’s to turn this place into my territory.”
I activated the long-unused Dark Erosion ability. The power known as rules silently seeped into the Mihri Ruins, eroding the area before me into territory belonging to the Demon King.
Feeling the faint oppressive force spreading around them, Satahia and the others looked somewhat surprised and began whispering.
“Is this Your Highness’s true power?”
“Your Highness looks pretty cool when she’s being serious.”
If it were any other time, hearing such praise might have made me a bit proud. However, at this moment I was in no mood for that at all.
The reason was the prompt that appeared after using Dark Erosion on the area in front of me—it required an additional 500 energy.
I knew eroding a cursed land left by an upper demon would be difficult, but wasn’t this price a bit excessive? My daily income was only a little over three hundred energy.
The burning gazes behind me and the high price in front formed a difficult choice. But clearly, if I did nothing, this cool appearance would definitely be seen as nothing more than a mascot.
Thinking about how the impression might become even more deeply ingrained afterward, I gritted my teeth and resolutely took out my “wallet.”
You get what you pay for—the system proved this saying very well.
After paying the 500 energy, the previously somewhat stagnant power of rules immediately broke through the invisible barrier and brought the 20×20 area around me under my control.
Even though it wasn’t very obvious from the outside, Satahia and the others clearly sensed the changes around them and looked quite astonished.
This action finally let everyone understand my intention. That being said, although my ability could turn this area into my territory, when choosing which monsters to use, I ran into some trouble. After all, few of the monsters under my command seemed to have any connection to strong negative emotions.
Just as I was feeling troubled, my peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of the several optional nest blueprints Alice had given me earlier.
Among the monsters listed from level 10 to 30, my eyes immediately settled on the Hateful Ghoul. Both its background story and level fit my needs perfectly.
Without any hesitation, I immediately constructed the corresponding nest. After it was completed, I spent additional energy to create over a dozen Ghoul elites.
I had already spent 500 energy earlier anyway, so spending a bit more didn’t matter.
“Then answer my summons and appear, Hateful Ghoul Elite.”
As the purely showy line fell, a strange gray creature wearing a tattered white robe instantly appeared before me.
Hateful Ghoul [Elite]: Level 20, 2000/2000.
However, as soon as this Hateful Ghoul Elite landed, it immediately rushed to my side and issued hostile sounds toward Kai and the others.
Clearly, to the low-intelligence ghouls, these Holy Light professionals were planning to harm me, their Demon King.
While sighing to myself, I made both the ghoul and Kai’s group stop. At the same time, I handed a black fragment to Satahia.
“What a good child.”
After all, it was one of my own. Even if it was a bit ugly, how could I just watch it get bullied—
So as long as I didn’t watch, it was fine.
“Little Ghoul, Mommy is sorry…”
But before I could shed a few crocodile tears, a message came from the other side.
“Your Highness, there’s movement.”
I rubbed my somewhat sleepy eyes, turned around, and saw that the Ghoul Elite that had already been killed was now enveloped in a mass of black aura and had opened its eyes once more.
And unlike before, it had truly “revived.”
Demonized Hateful Ghoul [Elite]: Level 20, 2700/2700.
It really worked!
I immediately showed an excited expression. However, to be safe, after defeating this demonized Ghoul Elite, I summoned nine more elites one by one for testing.
Unexpectedly, the success rate was surprisingly high. Including the first one, all ten Ghoul elites successfully demonized.
Although it was a shame that these artificially created demonized elites didn’t drop black fragments, it was only natural. If they really could, wouldn’t that mean I could mass-produce an entire demonized species?
Besides that, I also made a new discovery.
I originally thought these elite monsters would naturally break free from my control after demonization. I didn’t expect the Heart of Herentis to be powerful enough that even demonized monsters would still remain under my command.
Although it might not sound very useful—given the strict conditions for demonization plus the fact that demonized elites weren’t particularly difficult to handle—using this to strengthen the monsters under me didn’t seem very practical.
However, I thought of one crucial point. “If it’s a boss-level or higher demonized creature that gets killed…”
Yes. Once an elite was killed, it was considered dead, and any newly born elite from the nest would be a completely different individual. Bosses, however, were different—they could revive from the cemetery building I had constructed.
So the key was whether a boss-level monster under my command, if demonized, would still remain in its demonized form after being killed and reviving.
If it was truly possible, then the strength of the monsters under me would undoubtedly rise significantly. After all, the power increase from demonization was clearly visible from our contact over the past few days.
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