“This transformation is even more intense than with the two bosses before.”
I tossed aside the branch I had been using—nominally to draw circles and curse my own kid, but really just to pass the time—and turned around.
My mouth opened slightly as I looked at the Dark Bat Leader not far away, which had already taken on a completely different appearance.
Its form was now sharper and more streamlined than before, with even more menacing claws and fangs.
Dark red patterns covered its originally pitch-black body, giving it a strangely eerie vibe.
Its previously emerald-green pupils were now completely drowned in crimson, as if plunged into frenzied madness.
Wait… plunged into madness?
I quickly realized the problem and immediately shouted to the others on the other side, “Be careful! I can’t control Little Black anymore!”
The moment my words fell, the demonized Dark Bat Leader had already launched an attack on Kai and the others—a fierce black claw strike.
The suddenness left no time to react.
Fortunately, thanks to the combat instincts honed through years of training at the monastery, Kai instinctively raised her shield and activated Shield Wall, forcefully blocking the Dark Bat Leader’s surprise assault for everyone else.
But Kai herself wasn’t doing well either; losing nearly half her health was proof enough.
The others reacted at once.
Bemira and Daisy took over Kai’s position and assumed defensive stances, while Him hurriedly cast a healing spell on Kai and Bilis prepared her divine arts nearby.
“Demon King, is this some kind of training exercise?” Satahia frantically applied a damage-boosting effect on herself.
“I’m not that bored. For some reason Little Black suddenly isn’t under my control anymore.”
I rolled my eyes and, while speaking, activated my Dark Word Mage disguise and started throwing out various debuff skills.
According to the pattern we had observed earlier, demonized monsters should still remain under my command.
So why did something go wrong specifically with Little Black?
But now clearly wasn’t the time to think about that.
“This is getting troublesome.”
I frowned as I watched the frenzied Dark Bat Leader.
Little Black’s base strength wasn’t weak to begin with—as a level 15 boss—and with the added effects of demonization he had become even stronger.
Kai and the others, whose strength was already weakened by the negative effects of the Mihri Ruins, naturally found it very difficult to hold him back.
Before Satahia could finish her sentence I cut her off. “It’s fine. I’ve got this. Later the Demon King can just—”
“No.”
“Why not? You even reverted to your original form earlier.”
A lord-tier monster would definitely cause too much trouble.
Previously, when I had possessed Lilina who was only sovereign-tier, it had already caused such a huge incident and attracted countless players.
If a lord-tier boss descended there would surely be major notifications.
The trouble then wouldn’t be small at all.
Sometimes being too weak was actually a good thing.
Like when I reverted to my original form earlier—nothing happened at all…
So if it really became unmanageable I could always lure over a few elite guild raid teams, sneak in among them, and snatch the final kill.
However, just as I was about to tell Kai and the others to retreat temporarily, a system prompt suddenly appeared before me.
The Radiant Chapter senses a powerful demonic aura and seems to be slowly awakening.
I was stunned for a moment before immediately reacting.
After completing the first three quests, three lines of mysterious text had already appeared on the Radiant Chapter.
At this moment the fourth line was slowly emerging, its gilded patterns shining brilliantly.
“Kai, hold on a little longer.”
I quickly took out a tattered sheepskin scroll from my inventory and called out to Kai’s group.
Fortunately Kai and the others weren’t so fragile, and the text didn’t take too long to fully appear.
The moment the final mysterious character was etched into place, a dazzling radiance suddenly burst forth from the sheepskin scroll, swallowing the Dark Bat Leader who had been fiercely battling Kai’s group.
There was no struggle, no sound.
When the light finally faded moments later, not a single trace of the monster remained.
Instant kill.
“What just happened?”
“I have no idea.”
“Was that done by Her Highness?”
The shocking scene left the monastery squad staring at each other in astonishment, all turning surprised looks toward me.
Satahia, on the other hand, looked like she had seen a ghost and immediately backed up several steps.
Unbeknownst to them, I as the person involved was even more surprised.
“Isn’t this ability a bit too broken?”
My mouth hung open unconsciously.
I quickly switched back to my Demon King form, opened the Heart of Herentis, and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the Dark Bat Leader was still in the cemetery’s revival list.
But then I suddenly thought of something and nearly believed Little Black had been erased from existence.
It was a shame that the demonized state was gone though.
Had it been purged by the Radiant Chapter?
Switching back to my Dark Word Mage class, I looked at the sheepskin scroll that was still faintly glowing in my hand and roughly understood the situation.
The previous scene was probably what they called a plot kill.
After all, asking players to deal with a demonized boss monster was way too difficult.
If it truly had to be done legitimately, it would probably require several hundred people working together.
That would be unfair to most players, so the designers chose not to make it any more difficult.
Now that I understood this, I could accept it… like hell I could.
Weren’t the earlier parts difficult enough already?
I kicked the nearby skeleton head and grumbled angrily.
Only after kicking it did I realize something was wrong.
Facing the strange looks from the monastery squad, I hurriedly explained, “Uh, I… I was just a little frustrated. I didn’t mean to desecrate anything…”
But before I could finish I was interrupted.
“That’s so nice. I want to be stepped on by Your Highness too…”
“Just be jealous. Only I have experienced Her Highness’s gentle trampling, from those small, adorable young feet~”
“Don’t describe your dreams in such detail. If you’re going to be detailed, please be sure to add white stockings to the setting.”
“White stockings cult? Clearly black stockings suit Your Highness better.”
“Your Highness, ignore them. I like Your Highness no matter what you wear… ah no, I like Your Highness wearing anything.”
“You bunch of color-brained loli lovers should just follow these skeletons into the ground and rest in peace already!”
But regardless, all the quests for the Radiant Chapter had finally been successfully completed.
Looking at the “Trial of the Radiant Chapter” marked as completed in the quest log, and thinking about another matter, my already decent mood became even better.
“Speaking of which, it’s almost afternoon. The chamber of commerce side of the plan is about to wrap up too.”