CHAPTER 52
The area fell completely silent.
The atmosphere was one of utter speechlessness, and I felt exactly the same.
No, out of everyone here, I was probably the most shocked.

Who wouldn't be shocked if someone they knew suddenly declared they were becoming the Demon King just to claim them!
What was even more terrifying was the fact that her words actually had a realistic chance of coming true.

"...You."
"Are you serious?"
"This crazy..."

Our group, who knew exactly who Sibylius was, immediately stiffened.
Viol's face hardened, Alios looked shocked, and Ares gritted her teeth.

The only ones who hadn't grasped the situation yet were the demons seeing Sibylius for the first time.

"W-Who is she?"
"One of our kin?"
"That's an unbelievable amount of magic power, but still..."

Barely recovering their senses, the demons looked at Sibylius in bewilderment.
They didn't know who she was, but judging by the atmosphere, they recognized her as a powerful demon. Still, their reaction was one of sheer disbelief.

"To casually invoke the title of the Demon King... you must be insane."
One of the demons spoke to Sibylius. She had long brown hair and looked exceptionally strong.
"Even if you are a fellow demon, I can't overlook such lunatic ravings."

"Why are they lunatic ravings?" Sibylius asked calmly.

"It has barely been a thousand years. Don't tell me you've already forgotten Her power?"
As expected of demons. To refer to a thousand years as "barely" showed a terrifying sense of time.
The brown-haired demon approached Sibylius as if to scold her.
"I'll give you a chance to retract your words right now. I'm offering this for your own sake."

"Hmm. I don't believe I said anything impossible, so I see no need to retract it."

"I see. So you refuse to listen to reason."
As Sibylius retorted and stepped forward as if to fight, the brown-haired demon scowled.
And then.

"Disassemble."
With a single word from Sibylius, the demon was erased from this world.

"...What?"
"Where did she go?"

The demons looked around, completely baffled. They seemed to think the brown-haired demon had simply dodged and teleported somewhere else.
If I didn't have prior knowledge, I would have thought the same. But because I knew everything about the original novel and exactly what kind of monster Sibylius was, I knew the truth.
Sibylius had said "Disassemble," which meant her opponent had literally been disassembled and erased from existence.

"Is there anyone else?"
Having just completely disintegrated a person, Sibylius calmly walked among the demons and asked.
"Anyone else who objects to me becoming the Demon King?"

"What kind of bullshit have you been spouting since earlier—!"

"Instant Death."
A demon who leaped forward to grab Sibylius by the collar collapsed instantly. Since Sibylius said "Instant Death," she was undoubtedly dead.

"...What?"
"N-No way...?"

Looking at their dead comrade, the demons began to murmur in panic.
Earlier, there was no corpse, so it hadn't felt real, but now that they had a body as proof, they finally grasped the reality of the situation.
Their opponent wasn't just some blowhard.
Standing right in the middle of the Imperial Capital—which housed the Founding Emperor who had defeated the original Demon King—she was someone with the sheer power to confidently declare herself the Demon King in front of the reigning Emperor and a horde of demons.

"S-Sibylius...?"
Perhaps finally recognizing her after seeing her power, Haas stuttered Sibylius's name.
As her identity was finally revealed, the demons grew even more chaotic.

"If it's Sibylius, you mean that half-demon who plays at being a mage in the Empire?"
"The one rumored to be absurdly strong?"
"No matter how strong she is, she's just a half-breed!"
"She's not just any half-breed. I heard she's the offspring of a supreme high-ranking demon."

The demons' reactions were split in two: those who tensed up after hearing the rumors, and those who still underestimated her despite witnessing her power firsthand.

"...I have heard many rumors about you."
Haas belonged to the former group. With an ashen face, she spoke to Sibylius.
"But from what I know, I heard the Emperors actively kept you in check to prevent you from entering the capital?"

"I've decided to ignore that from now on."

"Is that so?"
Haas's eyes darted around. Whatever conclusion she drew from Sibylius's answer, she smirked.
"...It seems you've finally grown disgusted with the human world. In that case, why don't you join our side instead?"

It seemed she was trying to recruit Sibylius, banking on the fact that she was at least half-demon.

"I refuse," Sibylius's answer was absolute. "Did you not hear what I just said? I said I will become the Demon King to claim Ceres. Why would I ever side with a follower of the old Demon King?"

"Why do you want to claim Lord Ceres?"

"Because I love him."
"What?"

"Does a woman need any other reason to claim a man?"

Haas's expression crumpled. With that answer, she knew there was absolutely no way to persuade her.

"...No matter how strong she is, she's still a half-demon. Surely pureblood demons won't cower before a half-breed! Do not fear her, keep fighting!"

This was the incitement Haas ultimately chose.
She knew exactly how dangerous Sibylius was, but if she told the truth, none of them would fight.

...But so what? Did she think fighting together would actually let them win?
From the moment Sibylius stepped forward, I had completely relaxed. I didn't just know her strength from the setting; I had just felt it in person.
Yeah, thinking back on it, I was probably overreacting earlier.
If this female Sibylius's power was identical to the original male Sibylius's, there was absolutely no need for all of us to gather and buy time.

Because the original work was a romance fantasy, the characters' strengths were only vaguely described rather than detailed, but there was one absolute, concrete setting.
Sibylius was the strongest of the original male leads, and excluding conceptual beings like the Demon King or the Heavenly God, he was the absolute strongest character to physically appear in the story.
If this monster decided to use force, it was impossible for an individual to stop her. Even if it were another lead character.

In the original novel, there was a time when Alios caught Sibylius conducting biological experiments on Ceres and took Ceres away. But that wasn't because Sibylius lacked the power to fight back.
When Alios demanded to know what he was doing, Sibylius simply realized how deranged his actions were, gave up, and handed Ceres over willingly.

Now that this absolute power was completely on my side, there was no reason to fear the enemy.
I wasn't the only one who thought so. Viol and Alios dropped their combat stances.
Instead of fighting, they walked over to stand beside me. The demons they had been holding back were now free, but there was nothing to worry about.

"Disassemble. Destruction. Instant Death. Combustion. Lethal Poison. Drowning."

Every time Sibylius spoke a word, demons died in droves. They didn't even have the luxury to pay attention to us.

"Is that Sibylius's true power? It makes sense why our Temple has always kept her under strict surveillance."
"When did you get here?"

I was watching Sibylius fight when Hames suddenly appeared from behind me.
"Did you just come out of the Temple after assessing the situation?"

"No, I was already outside by the time your mother left the Temple."
She explained that she had deliberately stayed hidden, waiting to launch a surprise attack in case I was put in danger.
"But looking at that, it seems there's no need. She's an unpleasant woman, but having her as an ally is certainly reassuring."

"Are you sure about that?"

I looked at Hames dubiously.
"Didn't you hear what she just said? She declared she's going to become the Demon King to claim me."

"I don't care about the Demon King nonsense, though her wanting to claim you is another matter. It's obvious she's just using this opportunity to show off and act cool in front of you."

"How do you know that?"

"...Because I also feel the urge to do that in front of you sometimes."
Hames subtly avoided my gaze as she said that, leaving me utterly dumbfounded.

She declared she was going to become the Demon King just to show off in front of me? It might be fine for someone else, but Sibylius shouldn't be doing that.
Because she actually has the power to back it up, even her allies were terrified!

"I heard the rumors, but she's a literal monster, isn't she?" Red, who was standing near me like a bodyguard, muttered in awe.

"T-The Demon King?"
"...If she possesses that level of power, is she truly comparable to the Demon King we faced back then?"
"Since she's a mage, she looks even more terrifying."
"Stop! Do not waver!"

The Death Knights, who had actually fought the Demon King and been annihilated in the past, showed the most extreme reactions.
Niobe barely managed to calm down her subordinates, who had stopped fighting and were staring at Sibylius in sheer terror.
Sibylius was currently displaying such overwhelming power that even these masters of the sword, who had lived for a thousand years, were shaken to their core.

Before long, the demons were completely wiped out, leaving only Haas.
Haas didn't die or vanish from a single spell. She was simply reduced to a mangled, bloody mess.
Struck by the first proper offensive spell Sibylius cast, she screamed in her ruined state.

"W-What is this?!"
With a face that screamed disbelief, she looked around at the corpses of the demons scattered everywhere—at least, the ones that had managed to leave corpses behind.

"To wipe out 100 demons almost entirely on her own! No matter how strong she is, she's just a mere half-demon! To actually wield power like Her Majesty...!!"

She shrieked like a half-mad woman.

"And of all times, now! For someone like you to appear and ruin everything right now! Everything was perfectly prepared! With Lord Ceres and the Black Pain, I could have finally resurrected Her Majesty!!"

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CHAPTER 52 (continued)
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She still hadn't given up on trying to use me, mentioning my name.
"Ceres, listen carefully. You must help us! Because you are—!"
She was saying something to me, but that's when it happened.
"You want Black Pain? Then take it."
Ares, who had been waiting for an opening, stepped forward and swung Black Pain at Haas, who was already half-dead.
"Too bad. You couldn't catch it."
After ambushing Haas and killing her in one blow, she muttered coldly.
"...What were you about to say?"

I couldn't hear the rest of what Haas was going to say and could only stand there dumbfounded.