The basement of Leon's castle had become a factory of bodies.
Not crude shells.
Not lifeless dolls.
Bodies.
Real ones.
Each vessel stood suspended upright inside circles of dark magic, arranged in long rows that stretched almost from one end of the chamber to the other. Some looked fully complete. Others were still being layered together. Bone, flesh, nerves, organs, skin, each one formed through Loki's impossible process with the same horrifying precision.
Rain stood to one side of a half-finished vessel, arms folded, eyes narrowed in concentration.
She had stopped asking how he did it three hours ago.
At this point she was simply trying to keep up.
"…There."
Rain stepped back from the body in front of her and looked toward Loki.
"The outer skin is stabilized."
Loki didn't look up immediately.
He was standing in the center of the room, one hand raised toward seven different bodies at once, each held in place by overlapping circles of gravity control and shaping magic.
"Good," he said. "Move on to the sensory links."
Rain clicked her tongue.
"You say that like it's simple."
"It is simple."
"No, it isn't."
Loki smirked faintly but kept working.
Across the room, Rimuru stood frozen in front of a worktable, staring at the body he had just helped complete.
Even after hours of assisting, he still hadn't gotten used to it.
This was insane.
Actually insane.
'How did my life become this?'
'One minute I'm a slime trying to survive in a cave, and the next I'm helping a Demon Lord manufacture an army in a basement.'
He looked down at the body in front of him.
It looked human.
It breathed.
Its fingers twitched occasionally as autonomous functions stabilized.
Rimuru swallowed.
'No, this is definitely villain-side content.'
Loki finished with the seven bodies in front of him and lowered his hand.
At once the circles faded.
The vessels remained standing.
Stable.
Complete.
That made two hundred and one.
Loki looked over the room.
Rows of bodies.
Perfectly arranged.
Finished.
And he smiled.
"…Beautiful."
Rain followed his gaze.
Then exhaled through her nose.
"I'll admit it."
She brushed a strand of hair behind one ear.
"This was art."
Rimuru turned toward them.
"Are we…"
He looked around once more.
"…done?"
Loki nodded.
"Yes."
Rain tilted her head.
"Then what now?"
Loki was quiet for a moment.
Not because he didn't know.
Because the answer had only just finished becoming obvious to him.
He was a Demon Lord now.
A true one.
He had power.
He had prospective subordinates.
He had an elder sister already preparing to descend with her own domain's demons.
And he was still—
Still living in Guy's orbit.
Still using Leon's castle.
Still operating like some wandering catastrophe with no proper seat of his own.
That was ridiculous.
Loki folded his arms.
"If I'm going to start an army…"
He looked at the rows of bodies.
"…then naturally I need a kingdom."
Rain blinked.
Rimuru blinked.
Loki continued.
"Actually, no."
He corrected himself.
"I don't need to start one."
His smile deepened.
"I'll just usurp one."
Rimuru's eyes widened.
'No.'
'No, no, no.'
Rain, to her credit, looked more intrigued than alarmed.
"Do you already have one in mind?"
Loki nodded.
"Yes."
Then he looked at Rimuru.
"We're leaving."
Rimuru's body stiffened.
"…Where?"
Loki answered casually.
"To take over a country."
Rimuru swallowed so hard it almost hurt.
'He says these things like he's suggesting a walk.'
'Why is every plan with him an international incident?'
Outwardly, he managed a weak smile.
"Right."
Rain looked between them.
"You're taking the slime?"
Loki nodded.
"He's my subordinate."
Rimuru wanted to object to the way that was always said with such ownership.
Instead he kept his mouth shut.
Because survival.
Loki raised one hand.
A black circle formed beneath his feet.
Then another under Rimuru.
Rain frowned.
"I'm not coming?"
"Not this time."
Rain clicked her tongue.
"That's rude."
Loki grinned.
"I'll bring back a kingdom. That should make up for it."
And before either Rain or Rimuru could say anything else, the circles activated.
---
The throne room of King Tedron Coleus had not recovered from the last time Loki visited.
The walls had been repaired.
The floor had been polished.
The throne had been restored.
But the atmosphere of the room still carried the memory of fear.
King Tedron himself stood near the foot of the throne when the circles opened.
He saw them instantly.
And his face paled at once.
Loki stepped out first.
Rimuru followed a half-second later and immediately took in the room.
Large.
Decorated.
Royal.
And filled with the kind of tension that made him want to quietly vanish.
At the far side of the room stood King Tedron.
Beside him stood two demons.
Not ordinary monsters.
Not even ordinary greater demons.
Archdemons.
Karl and Gustav.
Even Rimuru, with his inexperience, could tell they were dangerous.
Tedron, however, looked only at Loki.
His smile came out far too fast.
"Lord Loki."
His voice was careful.
Measured.
Oily in the way only frightened kings could manage.
"What an unexpected visit."
He took a cautious step forward.
"What can I do for you?"
Rimuru glanced at him.
'He is terrified.'
That much was obvious.
But Karl and Gustav didn't seem to understand why.
They looked between Tedron and Loki with faint confusion, though neither was foolish enough to speak over the king.
Not yet.
Loki looked around the throne room slowly.
Then he looked back at Tedron.
"I'm here to take your throne."
Silence.
Tedron's smile faltered.
Then tried desperately to return.
"…I'm sorry?"
Loki stepped forward.
"One of two things is happening today."
He raised one finger.
"You surrender the nation to me."
Then a second.
"Or I take it anyway."
Tedron's throat bobbed visibly.
Behind him, Karl finally frowned.
He looked at Gustav.
Then at Loki.
Then back at the king.
Still, he said nothing.
Tedron tried again.
"Lord Loki, surely—"
"There is no 'surely.'"
Loki's voice remained almost cheerful.
"That's the deal."
Tedron's hands trembled slightly.
"My kingdom—"
"Is mine now."
At that, Gustav finally lost patience.
He took one step forward.
His eyes narrowed.
"Who do you think you are?"
Rimuru froze.
'Why would you say that?'
'No, seriously, why would you say that?'
Karl moved beside Gustav, equally displeased now.
"There are limits to arrogance."
Loki looked at them.
Then smiled.
"Oh?"
He tilted his head.
"The little puppets finally speak."
Gustav's eyes sharpened.
"What did you say?"
Loki's grin widened.
"I said…"
He looked between the two of them.
"…you're Violet's little puppets."
That did it.
The room's atmosphere snapped.
Both Archdemons surged forward at once, demonic power flaring around them in killing waves. The pressure alone would have crushed normal soldiers.
Rimuru nearly panicked on instinct.
'This is bad!'
'No wait, maybe this is good?'
'No, no, this is definitely still bad!'
Loki didn't move.
At least—
Not at first.
Then his hand shifted.
Ragnir appeared.
It didn't form slowly.
It just became there, massive and black and absolute in his grip.
The sight of it alone changed the room.
Gustav and Karl were already in motion.
Too late to stop.
Too late to reconsider.
Loki lifted the hammer.
And brought it down once.
That was all.
One swing.
One impact.
One sound.
KRAAAAAA-BOOOOOOM.
Lightning exploded from Ragnir.
Not a bolt.
Not a blast.
A sea.
A catastrophic surge of black lightning that erupted outward from the hammer head and consumed the entire throne room in an instant. It tore through the walls, split the windows, and shot upward into the sky above the capital.
The entire kingdom saw it.
Citizens in the streets stopped and stared.
Guards on the walls flinched backward.
Servants dropped trays.
Children pointed toward the castle as the sky above it flashed with impossible light.
"What was that?!"
"Lightning?"
"No, that came from the palace!"
"Is the king under attack?!"
Across the city, panic spread.
Because no one had ever seen lightning like that.
It wasn't natural.
Back inside the throne room, the light faded.
Smoke rolled through the air.
The walls were cracked.
The ceiling blackened.
Stone still hissed with residual current.
And where Gustav and Karl had been—
There was nothing.
No ash.
No remains.
They had been destroyed so completely that even rebirth had been denied to them.
Gone.
Utterly.
Rimuru stared.
His entire mind blanked.
'…What?'
King Tedron looked even worse.
He had gone utterly pale.
His knees looked ready to fail him at any second.
Because he understood exactly what he had just witnessed.
Those two Archdemons—
The demons he had once seen as terrifying assets—
Had been erased in a single strike.
Not beaten.
Not wounded.
Not banished.
Erased.
Loki rested Ragnir against one shoulder and looked at Tedron calmly.
The throne room crackled softly around him.
Rimuru and the king remained where they were.
Stunned.
Silent.
Terrified.
And in that moment, both of them understood the same thing.
The throne of Coleus no longer belonged to King Tedron.
---
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