It will eat the dungeon, Labrys, El, Almana… And even a few countries.
No one can defeat it in this era. It will continue to melt the world until it’s finally sealed a few decades from now.
That’s the original, correct future. The way it should be, but…
“I refuse to accept that future.”
I stop after taking some distance, and face the demon king.
“Ooh?”
“Over already?”
“Weak weak.”
“Boring.”
The demon king Ultimelt laughs loudly like a kid.
Yes, as I stand now, I can’t beat it. It’s just not a good match for me.
Ultimelt can’t be damaged by physical attacks. And it would be hard to advance its time and kill it by making it decay with age, since it doesn’t age at all.
There is also pretty much no magic energy I can take in, since Ultimelt is eating magic energy around it.
And if I target it with time magic, it might learn it.
The idea of this demon king using time magic on top of it all is a nightmare.
Still, I have to win.
I have people and a time to protect.
So… I have to defeat it no matter what.
“Demon king Ultimelt… The worst demon king, but not necessarily the strongest. I know that for a fact.”
I take ‘that’ from my cloak, the syringe with the demon king cells I swiped earlier from the mage.
I inject them into my own neck without hesitating.
“I’ll show you something ‘stronger’.”
That very moment, my whole body swells like a huge bolt of lightning exploded.
“…!?”
“No!”
“Won’t let you!”
Ultimelt sounds concerned for the first time.
A wave of slime arms rushes towards me, but it’s all scattered by the lightning I’m releasing.
Everything around us is painted by the color of the lightning flashes in the blink of an eye, until…
I manage to get it under control. The ‘power’ that flowed into my body and almost ripped it apart.
I didn’t want to know where these demon king cells were just so I could retrieve them and destroy them.
I’ve broken all sorts of taboo in order to gain power, so there’s no way I wouldn’t get my hands on this.
But… Originally, I wasn’t compatible with these demon king cells.
If this era’s me were to take in these cells, he would’ve exploded instantly.
That’s why I spent time on it the first time around.
I took in demon king cells one drop at a time. Even just that much was like a deadly poison for a body that wasn’t compatible, like mine.
The first ten years were hell.
I was constantly assaulted with pain, like my body was ripping itself apart. I was always vomiting blood and shedding tears of pain.
The pain was too intense for me to sleep properly. I slept when I eventually fainted, and had nightmares every time.
But even in this state, I insisted on studying time magic and running around battlefields to become stronger.
And ten years later, I managed to control one drop of demon king cells.
I upped the dose to two drops over the next ten years, and ten years later, I went further…
I slowly took in demon king cells, until I was fully able to control them.
Before I knew it, my body stopped developing. My hair turned white, my skin had bruises that looked like black cracks, and a pattern that looked like the face of a clock appeared in my eyes.
Eventually, I was able to touch ‘time’.
I completely understood the thing we call ‘time’.
I had the power I needed to protect everything.
But… I took too long.
At that point, everything I wanted to protect was already gone.
I didn’t save anything I wanted to save.
I had the power to protect people, but they just feared me. I had become just an enemy of mankind, a monster.
Those were my hundred years.
I didn’t become the hero I wanted to be when I was younger, but it was fine.
Position, renown, wealth, none of that mattered.
If I can just save the people that are important to me… I’ll turn into whatever monster I have to.
Now let’s introduce ourselves. My name is…
The third demon king, Space-Time King Chrom Chronogate.
That’s most certainly not the name of a hero.
It’s the name of the most feared ‘calamity’ in the future.