funbook-pk Chapter 567 - 567
Chapter 567 - 567
Under the night sky, a dark mist enveloped the entire royal palace.Those shrouded in the mist—whether the king or reincarnators like Yamada—quickly collapsed to the ground.
Everyone's breathing was even, their expressions eerily calm. The guards looked as serene as if they had returned to their mothers' embrace.
The palace was plunged into deathly silence.
Amidst the mist-covered palace, a pair of crimson eyes suddenly flared to life.
Those eyes were as large as lanterns, crisscrossed with blood-red veins, pupils slitted like a beast's, exuding a dense, bone-chilling demonic aura!
"Someone's still standing?"
A voice, neither male nor female, emerged from the black mist concealing those eyes.
"Ah, so it's you!"
The crimson beast-like eyes fixed on their target with keen interest.
The weight of that gaze brought immense pressure, as though one had been plunged into a swamp—enough to stop an ordinary person's heart in an instant!
Yet Eiji remained unfazed, his expression only hardening, his eyes growing more solemn.
In this palace where everyone else had fallen, he alone still stood.
"Who are you? What have you done?" Eiji demanded sharply.
"You dare question me?"
The crimson pupils abruptly narrowed, unleashing an even more overwhelming pressure.
But Eiji remained unmoved, his face like stone against the crushing aura.
"Impressive willpower. For a reincarnator, such resolve is rare."
The crimson eyes relaxed slightly, their gaze softening.
"Very well. In recognition of your unshakable spirit, I shall enlighten you—I am Asuk, one of the Seven Archdukes who command legions of demons and rule over Hell!"
Damn!
Who would have thought a mere doppelgänger would attract such a formidable enemy?
Hell, as the world diametrically opposed to the celestial realm, was ruled by seven demon archdukes—entities comparable in power to the gods of heaven!
In other words, this Asuk was an opponent on par with a deity!
"Asuk?"
Eiji murmured the name under his breath.
Asuk, Asuk... Asuk.
"Heh."
He suddenly let out a soft chuckle.
"...Do you find my name amusing, human?"
The crimson eyes narrowed sharply, a tide of malice surging forth.
"Cut the act!"
Eiji's lips curled into a sneer as he met those eyes with open mockery.
"This 'Asuk'—it's just Yasaka, isn't it?"
"..."
The crimson eyes fell silent.
Yasaka—or, in other words, Asuk.
"Now I get it. That doppelgänger earlier—no, not just him, but all of you—weren't really after the royal family. Your true target was me, wasn't it?"
The moment the name clicked, everything became clear.
"This scheme must have been brewing ever since the old Demon King left the Demon King's Castle. You planned to replace the king to pressure me or stir up some other trouble, trying to force me to abandon the throne. For this plan, you even sent a doppelgänger—a rare breed among demons..."
The old Demon King had long since left the Demon King's Castle, as evidenced by the previous Snowfield Battle. It was he who orchestrated what appeared to be an assault on the royal capital but was, in reality, a battle targeting Iris alone on the snowfield.
At that time, the royal palace's main forces had all rushed to Axel. With a bit more effort, they could have completely eliminated Iris, humanity's strongest warrior.
The original plan had been proceeding smoothly, but they couldn't account for the sudden appearance of the target himself in the royal capital.
His arrival was too abrupt, completely unexpected, and he cut through the monster hordes with ease, rescuing Iris and forcing the old Demon King to retreat empty-handed.
What made it even harder for them to stomach was how close Eiji and Iris had become. Every day, Eiji would visit the royal palace to see Iris, and she would affectionately call him "Brother Eiji" without fail.
Such close ties with the royal family risked derailing their plans, so they had no choice but to accelerate their scheme. They sent the Shapeshifter Demon ahead of schedule to trick Iris into handing over the Body-Swap Necklace.
And that's how things ended up as they were now.
"I'm surprised you know so much?"
The crimson eyes stopped their eerie display, the tone now thick with irritation.
"If you'd known just a little less, this plan wouldn't have failed!"
Everything they'd done in the royal capital, all the chaos they'd stirred up, had been aimed at dealing with Eiji.
Even he, as a Duke of Hell, had personally intervened by sending the high-ranking Shapeshifter Demon.
The plan itself was flawless—meticulously crafted and highly executable.
In essence, the combination of the Shapeshifter Demon and the Body-Swap Necklace was practically game-breaking. Almost no one could resist it unless they were forewarned.
The problem was that Eiji had already known about the Body-Swap Necklace and had learned from Iris just how dangerous the Shapeshifter Demon was. In one stroke, he had unraveled half their scheme.
That was the key to their failure.
Had he not known about the necklace, the Shapeshifter Demon would have succeeded tonight.
An unsuspecting king, after having his body swapped, would undoubtedly have been slain by the Shapeshifter Demon with a single sword stroke, and everything would have proceeded smoothly from there.
"Haha, my luck always comes through at the right moments!"
Eiji laughed heartily.
If the king had truly been swapped and started causing trouble unnoticed, Eiji would have been overwhelmed, possibly even trapped in a web of schemes, ruining his relationship with humanity.
But fortunately, his "?"-level luck was no joke.
"Good luck?"
The crimson eyes—no, the ancestor of the Yasaka clan—let out a cold laugh.
The dark mist enveloping the royal palace suddenly contracted, swirling tightly around the crimson eyes.
"If you were truly lucky, you shouldn't have shattered that crystal ball!"
In an instant, the sharp clang of steel against steel reverberated through the mist.
"Boom!"
A blur flashed before his eyes.
A shadowy figure emerged from the black fog, breaking the sound barrier in an instant as it shot toward Eiji like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Eiji's gaze sharpened, and he instinctively turned his head, narrowly dodging the shadow.
Upon closer inspection, it was a pitch-black spear. After missing its mark, it swiftly reversed course, turning its tip like a homing missile before hurtling toward him again!
At the same time, a second and third weapon materialized from the dark mist.
"I left a contingency in the body of my subordinate shapeshifter. As soon as someone destroys its core, the gates to hell will open, allowing me to wield a portion of my power in the human world!"
The Yasaka ancestor let out a bone-chilling sneer, his icy killing intent permeating the surrounding space.
"It seems I'm the one with truly good fortune!"
"Whoever you are, I will never allow the Demon King's throne to be stolen! Abandon your claim to the Demon King's seat obediently, or I'll drag you straight to hell and make you my puppet, toiling day and night in the divine war!"