Standing in a safe zone, the former city lord watched silently as the city was gradually destroyed—residents and all.
Once-bustling streets slowly transformed into an unrecognizable ruin.
He, who had betrayed his country, his city, his subordinates, and even his family and friends, now stood with a complicated expression.
Perhaps there was some regret. Perhaps a bit of guilt.
But regardless of what he was feeling, it no longer mattered.
Everything he was once supposed to protect had already been wiped out under the onslaught of the Abyssal Demons.
"Feeling sad?"
A voice laced with malice echoed beside him.
Its source was a humanoid creature with the head of a hawk, a scorpion's tail, and a human body—a High-Rank Demon.
The city lord answered coldly, "So what if I am?"
"Kekekeke~"
The hawk-headed demon chuckled and shook his head mockingly.
"Just find it funny, that's all. Weren't you the one who contacted us first?. You're the real culprit behind everything that happened here. What's there to regret now?"
He looked out toward the crumbling city, delight flickering in his eyes.
"You mortals—your suffering, your choices, your greed—I've watched them a thousand times and they never fail to entertain me. Far better than any play ever written."
"…"
The city lord didn't respond, clearly unwilling to engage further.
The demon didn't mind. He casually continued,
"As per our contract, we're offering you two options.
Option one: we'll recommend you to the organization leading the invasion of the Seven Seas Realm—the Chloroya merchant guild.
Option two: we'll recommend you to one of the Greater-Rank Demons who took part in this very operation—the one who summoned us into this world."
The reason the city lord sold out his city was simple.
He had realized that, with the gods dead, this world was just meat on someone else's butcher block.
Faced with inevitability, he traded everything he'd built over the first half of his life in hopes of securing a future.
Now, as the top beneficiary of the destruction, the hawk-headed demon—one of the three High-Rank Demons—presented him with a choice.
The city lord frowned. "One is an organization, the other an individual?"
The demon nodded, amused. "Exactly. There's no essential difference in their power or status—pick whichever you prefer."
The city lord couldn't be sure what either choice truly entailed, but he could clearly feel the malicious intent emanating from the demon.
It was obvious the demon wanted him to pick the worse option.
Or maybe... both options were traps?
Still, according to the Abyssal contract, the opportunity they offered had to be legitimate—it had to be a chance that, if properly seized, could elevate him beyond what he had before.
They weren't allowed to deliberately send him to his death. That much was guaranteed.
Given that, and lacking even the most basic information on either path, he made his decision.
"I choose the first one—the Chloroya merchant guild."
At the very least, it was a business organization.
If they had the capacity to organize full-scale planar invasions, they had to be competent and well-resourced.
He might even get a chance to travel to other planes.
As for the Greater-Rank Demon… after seeing the kind of lunatics the High-Rank ones were, he'd long stopped expecting anything from their superiors.
They were probably all mad.
Hearing his answer, the hawk-headed demon looked visibly disappointed.
"Is that so? I was really curious how you'd get along with a Greater-Rank Demon."
Seeing that disappointed expression, the city lord became certain he had made the right choice.
And indeed—he had just dodged a death sentence.
---
Half an hour later.
Rising to his feet and surveying the utterly ruined cityscape, Orsaga turned to Alison and asked:
"Still not done watching?"
By now, not a single living soul remained.
Even the pavement stones were mostly gone.
The entire area had turned into a swamp-like pool of sludge.
Various materials had melted into a viscous slurry, occasionally releasing bursts of foul-smelling fumes.
At the same time, the other local powers—who had only just received word—were finally arriving.
Rescue teams appeared on the horizon.
Not wanting to deal with them, Alison pulled her gaze back from the destruction and nodded at Orsaga.
"I've seen enough. Let's go."
Without another word, Orsaga opened a spatial gate, and the three of them stepped through at a leisurely pace.
As the gate shimmered open, the approaching rescue forces looked increasingly grim.
They attempted to disrupt the portal with their magic, trying to force it shut.
After all, how could they just let someone walk away in front of all these people?
Didn't they care about appearances?
But every attempt failed—without exception.
Which only proved that appearances meant nothing here.
To their senses, the power of the portal was solid—immovable—like the hardest stone imaginable.
They were completely outmatched.
When the portal finally closed, a middle-aged woman in armor asked with a grim expression,
"Who was that? A demon?"
An old man in mage robes beside her replied,
"I'm not entirely sure. Two of them looked like elves. The one who opened the portal with his tail… probably a demon."
There was one thing he didn't say aloud:
'Thank the gods they left.
If they hadn't...
Everyone here might already be dead.'
The moment he felt the intensity of that spatial magic, his heart sank.
He'd had the distinct feeling that he had just delivered himself to death's doorstep.
Fortunately, the demon hadn't even looked at them.
Completely ignored them.
Like an elephant brushing off a mosquito—not even worth noticing.
---
After thoroughly sweeping every corner of the city and confirming there were no survivors, one of the rescuers turned to the others.
"What now?"
After a brief discussion, they decided to use magic to bury the entire area under a massive earthen mound.
Soon, a giant hill rose where the city once stood.
Atop it, druids planted magical vegetation with purifying properties.
Without this, the sludge below—toxic and corrosive—would poison the surrounding land and render it completely infertile.
And just like that, what was once a thriving city was wiped from the map.
Events like this were happening every day lately.
The Abyssal Demons, growing restless as their time limit approached, weren't satisfied with their current gains.
They were hunting everything in sight.
The dead here were just a fraction of the total casualties.
And aside from the nearby townsfolk, in a few years…
No one would even remember what happened here.
It would become just another footnote in history.
__
T/N:
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