The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Kwakwakwakwang-!!

Immediately after slashing through the barrier and entering the Winter Wood Forest, Rotulus swung his sword with all his might due to his superhuman intuition close to precognition.

Normally, it would have been a force that could crush mountains and tear apart space with a single swing, but due to the forest’s influence, his sword strike was insignificant compared to its original power.

Nevertheless, he cut through the trees that withstood the sturdy mana of the Sage of the Winter Wood and tore up the ground frozen harder than steel.

“What’s going on?!”

‘The Hanged Man’ was startled by the sudden attack, but he drew up his energy with all his might at the chilling sensation that followed and caught his senses.

The Arcana executives instinctively realized.

If it weren’t for Rotulus’ ‘response’, no one would have survived the moment they set foot inside the barrier.

-What a pity.

As the dust and ice powder that had risen settled, the being that appeared muttered nonchalantly.

Rotulus was on guard against the being in front of him, emitting fighting spirit with all his might.

“A sanctuary, you said! Why is there a ‘demon’ here?!”

The demon Rotulus was referring to wasn’t the codename of his colleague Jeffries.

It was a being who grants the wishes of the summoner through a contract, a being who naturally wields black mana like breathing, a resident of the other world called the demon realm.

Literally a demon.

“What kind of crazy mage summons a demon as a sentinel in their own sanctuary! It’s something not even a damn black mage who should be killed on sight would do!”

At Rotulus’ anger,  Bifleod broke out in a cold sweat.

No matter how skilled a dwarf was, it was something they couldn’t do to withstand a superhuman’s murderous energy head-on.

“No, it’s just that black mages can’t do that due to their attribute…”

“Shut up! You dwarf shit-barrel!”

It was a highly racially discriminatory and humiliating insult, but Bifleod couldn’t say anything.

It was he who told them to rest assured before entering the barrier, so it was an insult he deserved to take.

“Calm down, ‘Chariot’. If infighting breaks out here, it will only benefit the enemy.”

At Jeffries’ words, Rotulus bit his beak.

It wasn’t wrong. Now that they had already entered deep into enemy territory, it was insufficient to just think about completing the mission and escaping quickly.

“From where can the key be used?”

At Rotulus’ question, ‘The Hanged Man’ answered while pulling his hood deeper.

“Now that we’ve entered the barrier, it can be used here as well.”

“It ‘can’ be used, huh.”

Just using it wasn’t enough to say they had achieved their goal.

The key creates cracks in proportion to the distance from the seal.

At this distance, could they hold her for three days at most?

The minimum objective of this mission was to bind the Sage of the Winter Wood Yekatrice to the Bastille Mountains for at least 3 years, so they had to at least get close to the center of the forest.

“We have to advance while receiving the pressure of the barrier and breaking through the demon.”

A demon’s main body cannot cross dimensions.

If there was a demon who could do something that could cross dimensions, it should be called a Demon King with divine status.

Therefore, the amount of power the demon could exert differed depending on how valuable the goods it received were.

However, its appearance with a human form except for the horns on its head and bat wings on its back, and the air felt at a glance, indicated it was of a high-ranking noble class.

The demon appraised the Arcana executives as if assessing their value.

-Hmm, a superhuman and three intruders of equivalent value. Seems like it made a losing contract.

The demon’s contract was to receive a ‘mana stone containing a vengeful spirit’ as an advance payment and eliminate ‘all’ unauthorized intruders in exchange for additionally receiving the ‘lamb’s skull’ used to summon a great demon in the past and the spirit and flesh of the intruders.

-Kuk kuk kuk, it wouldn’t be that naive woman… Whoever designed the contract is cunning.

The ‘mana stone containing a vengeful spirit’ was pure enough to summon a high-ranking noble-class demon, but it was insufficient to exert enough power to kill all the intruders.

Rather than the mana stone, if it had received the ‘lamb’s skull’, it could have drawn up enough power to kill everyone and still have some left over.

However, the contractor cunningly seemed to have no intention of easily handing over the valuable item.

The demon thought it was unfortunate but also thought the contractor was a very smart fellow.

They knew well that if they gave the demon more power than necessary, something bad would inevitably happen.

Even skilled demon summoners often fail to realize this, so the person was competent.

-Good. Still, since I can take the spirit and flesh of those I kill, I’ll have to work hard so as not to suffer a loss.

Perhaps it couldn’t kill them all.

But if it was lucky, it might not be impossible to kill them all.

The demon, who felt it had just enough power, became curious about who wrote the contract.

-Kuk kuk kuk, this will be fun.

As soon as the demon moved, Rotulus also moved.

Kwang! Kwang! Kwakwakwakwang-!

The sound of dozens of afterimages clashing in an instant and tearing the air rang out.

Every time Rotulus’ strong energy and the demon’s black mana collided, the ground was torn and trees fell.

‘The Hanged Man’ cast various support magic on Rotulus to help him overcome the barrier’s power as much as possible and move in proper condition.

At the same time, Jeffries used sorcery to suppress and control the wicked energy the demon scattered all around.

It was more threatening for the wicked power to eat away at his condition than for the support magic to not restore Rotulus’ strength.

Bifleod didn’t idle either. He smashed the black magic that occasionally flew in to target the two people supporting Rotulus with his hammer and struck iron balls engraved with holy magic to launch them.

Kang-! Kang-!

The demon had its hands full just dealing with Rotulus’ sword.

In the meantime, iron balls containing critical energy occasionally flew in, so gaps were bound to occur.

-This is really not easy.

The demon attacked Rotulus’ back with black magic arrows while simultaneously reaching out with claws made of black mana to gouge out his eyes.

However, when an iron ball imbued with holy power flew in and shattered the claws, Rotulus slashed the magic arrows behind his back with his sword without even looking and punched the demon’s face.

-This contract is really not easy!

The demon muttered that it kept losing and fell backward.

“Ugh!”

Rotulus clutched his side and greatly retreated backward.

As the demon fell backward, it had slashed his side with its claws.

It was a shallow wound slashed through the gaps in the light armor worn under his clothes, but the damage was severe.

Wicked energy directly infiltrated his body through the wound.

No matter how much Jeffries controlled the wicked energy spread all around, there was no answer if it was directly injected into the body.

-Kuk kuk kuk, getting my head smashed is not pleasant.

The demon pleasantly laughed as it restored its completely crushed face.

Then it charged at Rotulus again.

It sharpened its claws with black mana and aimed for Rotulus’ neck.

Rotulus deflected the claws with his sword.

This time, it swung its claws aiming for his heart, head, side, and right leg.

Rotulus continued to retreat and deflect against the storm-like barrage of attacks.

The wicked energy spreading from the wound on his side slowly ate away at his whole body as it spread along his blood vessels.

His colorful feathers turned black like scars.

He tried to drive it out with mana as much as possible, but he could barely endure it while blocking the rushing attacks.

In the midst of the threat to his life, he was so preoccupied with fighting that he failed to notice the demon attacking him was just a shell.

“Oh no! This is bad!”

The purpose of the demon that kept rushing Rotulus was not the parrot beastman, but the two people supporting him from behind.

The demon in front of Rotulus disappeared like a mirage and suddenly appeared in front of the three.

Bifleod, who had been protecting the two and keeping the demon in check, swung his hammer down with all his might toward the demon.

However, unlike the iron balls he had been continuously launching, the hammer wasn’t imbued with holy power.

-Kuk kuk kuk, stupid dwarf. Did the petty trick that wasn’t yours run out?

The balls containing holy power that he had been continuously launching weren’t items made by Bifleod.

The demon split in two, dodging Bifleod’s hammer while simultaneously targeting Jeffries and ‘The Hanged Man’.

Rotulus was too far away.

He couldn’t save both of them.

Bifleod had to choose who to save between the two.

The deliberation wasn’t long.

Here, he had to save Jeffries, who could aggravate the disease implanted in the body of the Sage of the Winter Wood.

Otherwise, even if they defeated the demon in front of them, they couldn’t avoid annihilation.

Once the choice was made, the dwarf’s movements were bold and fast.

The huge hammer swung to target the head of one of the split demons.

The hammer, wrapped in immense strong energy, had mana too weak for a superhuman, but at the same time, it contained strength too powerful for even a superhuman to exert.

When the hammer crushed and burst the head and entire body of the split demon, the other split demon thrust its claws into ‘The Hanged Man’s chest and took his heart.

-Hmm, sweet… No?! You bastard! It was a fake!

“Hehe…! Then, cough! Do you think I would have come to such a dangerous place with my real body?”

The demon became enraged and tore apart ‘The Hanged Man’s fake body, the doppelganger. Then it devoured the fragment of soul and mana contained in the doppelganger.

-Ah, this contract really doesn’t pay off.

The demon, having used up most of its power, sighed as if it couldn’t be helped, and a huge bundle of strong energy poured down on it from above.

Watching the demon scatter into complete dust, Rotulus became furious.

“This damn bastard, you fought with a weakened doppelganger?! No wonder it was strange since you said you knew how to use the key!”

To be precise, it was anger toward his fellow executive ‘The Hanged Man’.

Rotulus wasn’t just angry that he had hidden his skills.

Despite having magic skills proficient enough to create a doppelganger indistinguishable from the real one and operate it long-distance, he had pushed all the sacrifices onto Arisa.

And the point was that if Arisa had been here instead of the passive ‘The Hanged Man’, the battle would have been much easier.

In the first place, if they could have just dispersed the magical burden in that distorted space, all six of them would have entered the barrier.

Feeling stunned as if he had been backstabbed by someone he considered a comrade, he emitted murderous energy.

For him as a mercenary, trust was a value he cherished above all else.

“Aaaaargh!!”

Suddenly, Jeffries screamed while grabbing his right arm.

From where the sharp fragments had flown as the demon burst apart, it rapidly began to rot.

Rotulus boldly cut off his right arm before properly grasping the situation.

-Kuk kuk kuk, losing an arm for a mere soul fragment is a huge loss. It would have been better if it was a superhuman’s arm.

Suddenly, the demon’s voice was heard in a moment of carelessness, and then it felt as if it had completely disappeared from the world.

“Ugh! The damage is too great.”

If it had gone according to the original expectation, they should have entered the barrier without any incident, approached secretly, and only fought against the Sage of the Winter Wood.

However, before even facing Yekatrice, three out of six had been eliminated, and two were seriously injured.

They needed time to recover.

Around that time, an immense mana descended solemnly from the sky and heavily pressed down on the three.

They couldn’t help but tremble all over at the sensation that felt like their whole body would freeze just from the existence of the mana.

Lifting their heads that involuntarily bowed with great difficulty, a beautiful woman descended from the sky.

“The rat bastards. Who snuck in this time. Are utterly useless… Things. Like lowly bugs.”

They had no time to think it was strange to see Yekatrice opening her mouth in an awkward tone.

Unlike the words that seemed like acting, the murderous energy and pressure emanating from her that seemed to erase their existence were real.

In front of her, it was difficult to even breathe.

“Forever, ahem! St-stuffing and using as ex-experimental material… Sigh, let’s stop the ill-fitting acting.”

Brushing back her hair, Yekatrice emitted mana filled with sincere murderous intent.

“I warn you, since you dared to set foot here, it won’t be easy to leave alive and well.”

The sage who had descended upon the land of the great sage looked at them with cold eyes and raised her magic staff.

They struggled to stand up and prepared to fight.

If there was a hell, this would be it.

TN: They really couldn’t catch a break. Yuan set them up so good