Chapter 204

To define the Wicked Forest’s demon lord, one must first divorce him from the concept of the typical demon lord as depicted in both scientific study and fiction . He is an exception amongst exceptions and very little of what is known of demon lords can be applied to him . The most obvious sign of his deviancy can be seen in his strength . The Wicked Forest is known to the world as a territory impossible to seize; the monsters that dwell within it are so overwhelmingly powerful that they have kept any would-be conquerors at bay for over a thousand years . Those that venture outside its bounds are heralded as local calamities, harbingers of death that only the most powerful can subdue . But they are far from its most powerful . Most of the monsters that leave the forest only do so because they are driven away from their natural habitats by forces capable of crus.h.i.+ng them with ease . Even the most educated of scholars is unlikely to recognize all of the Wicked Forest’s numerous creatures on sight, for many lie far beyond the reach of academia . They remain as monsters from which no source, trustworthy or otherwise, has ever escaped an encounter . But to the demon lord, they are like fruit, ripe for the picking . He has demonstrated time and time again that it requires him little to no effort to butcher them and transform their remains into nourishment, both for his labyrinth and for its residents . Even rockbirds, creatures whom even kings seldom have the opportunity to consume, often find themselves atop his dinner table . But compared to everything else the demon lord plates, they appear almost irrelevant . The demon lord has, on occasion, professed that he is lacking in power . The supposed evidence supporting his claim is that he remains incapable of defeating many of the Wicked Forest’s most powerful creatures . His statement appears to bear some degree of fact given his propensity to flee from the creatures in question . However, it remains less accurate than true . Making a home for oneself within the forest’s boundaries is impossible for any not in possession of an incomprehensible degree of power . The belief that he lacks it likely stems from comparing himself with the Supreme Dragon, one of his closest a.s.sociates . Their relations.h.i.+p will be discussed in further detail later on in this paper . Additional evidence of his strength lies in his weapon, a long, curved, crimson sword he describes as a “katana . ” Its name is Zaien, and it is so incredibly heavy that it is impossible for any regular person to wield . Furthermore, it is not only magically enchanted, but also self-aware . Zaien is able to create an offshoot in the form of a human child that recognizes herself as a weapon and the scarlet blade as her true self . It is likely the only weapon of its kind . Only a handful of intelligent weapons exist, and none have been doc.u.mented to possess any similar functions . The presence of an ego is not the only aspect that sets Zaien apart from the average two-handed sword . Its offensive and defensive capabilities are both on par with most legendary weapons whilst simultaneously possessing all of the added benefits of sentience, such as the ability to cast magic and mastery over the art of swordplay . With their forces combined, the demon lord and Zaien are effectively unstoppable . Zaien serves to evidence more than just the demon lord’s power . It is also

a symbol of his academic ability . That is to say, Yuki is not only the weapon’s wielder, but also its creator . Despite having lived for little more than a year, the demon lord is as knowledgeable as a scholar who has spent a lifetime dedicated to the mastery of his craft . The discrepancy between his apparent but haphazard breadth of knowledge and his age appears to be a result of the difference between a demon lord’s life cycle and that of a traditional sentient organism . His circ.u.mstances support the Guardian Theory, which claims that labyrinths birth demon lords and impart them with knowledge in order to allow them to function as a defense mechanism to combat their otherwise low survival rate . The Guardian Theory has long been argued as an evolutionary adaptation labyrinths developed given their propensity to be preyed upon by monster and man alike . However, while the demon lord’s testimony appears to demonstrate that this theory is based in truth, there are still many questions to be had . The source of the labyrinth’s knowledge, for example, remains a mystery . The demon lord is not aware of the answer, and communication with the labyrinth itself is unfortunately impossible . Further investigation is required . Breadth of knowledge is not the only evidence of the demon lord’s mental capabilities . The Theory of Depravity states that demon lords are creatures that do not restrain themselves in their l.u.s.tful and violent endeavours . While most historical observations appear to support this theory, the Wicked Forest’s demon lord does not . Yuki is not without s.e.xual desires, for he has three wives . While the number may appear as a warning sign to some, it is easily justifiable by the extent of his power . It is in no way abnormal for a man of such a caliber to engage in polygamous practices given their propensity amongst the influential and wealthy . The normality of this practice is further evidenced by the manner in which he courted each of his wives . That is, none of the demon lord’s marriages stemmed from captivity . All three individuals chose to take their place by his side of their own free will . The dragon can easily overpower him, the hero is left completely unrestrained, and the warwolf has explicitly turned down several offers to be taken home . The healthy relations.h.i.+p the four of them share suffices to evidence that Yuki is no ordinary, brainless demon lord, as it is only made possible by his capacity for deep, emotional thought . The lack of an exaggerated s.e.xual appet.i.te is not the only tenet of the Theory of Depravity that Yuki fails to follow . He also violates the other, a propensity for violence, by choosing conversation over savagery even in scenarios in which he is well aware the other party wishes to see him disposed of . The combination of his emotional intelligence, his ability to reason, and his understanding of abstract concepts leads to a sense of regularity . That is, the impression the demon lord gives is much closer to that of a regular person than that of one of his kin . It is impossible for one who has encountered him on happenstance to deduce his ident.i.ty without the ability to a.n.a.lyze the quality of his magical aura . The only hint he actively presents is his belief in the freedom of liberty . But while this can certainly be interpreted as a sign of his nature as a demon lord, it is by no means logically sound, for freedom is a desire shared by many more than the select few who wish to indulge in depravity .

Given the other facets of his intelligence, it should come as no surprise that the demon lord’s expertise extends into the realm of warfare . He is not only capable of setting deadly traps that work against natural affordances, but also forging alliances . He has both contact and secret dealings with multiple foreign sovereigns . These, however, are neither his most interesting allies, nor his most powerful . Understanding the demon lord’s influence involves looking not outside his labyrinth, but rather at the individuals that reside within it . Three quarters of the labyrinth’s sixteen residents are capable of engaging in combat and warding off invaders . The most powerful individual is naturally the Supreme Dragon . This paper will not elaborate on her in any further detail . She is an interesting topic, but is deserving of no less than a report of her own . The headcount is, in and of itself, a surprise . Demon lords are known to value quant.i.ty over quality . Their will is often instated through a horde of cheap, disposable p.a.w.ns . While this approach does generally appear to function, it is by no means anywhere as viable within the Wicked Forest’s boundaries . Summoning more powerful familiars, and thereby eliminating losses entirely, is a much more efficient strategy than the opposite . The demon lord’s army consists of a slime, a fenrir, three wraiths, a dark crow, a giant blood serpent, a water spirit, and a demonic cat . Of the nine, eight have seen combat . Only the slime is incapable of it, but she remains the most interesting case study nonetheless . She began life as would any other slime, but upon evolving, she shed the circular frame shared by the other members of her species and took the form of a young girl . The change in her figure is one that would shock any studied slimologist, but it remains only second to her acquisition of the ability to speak the common tongue . Her metamorphosis perfectly ill.u.s.trates the reason for which evolution was defined, and little is known of the process or its inner workings . Like the Supreme Dragon, the slime is a topic deserving of a study of her own and will be explored in greater detail in another paper to follow, as further investigation is still required at this point in time . Discussing topics of interest naturally leads to an examination of the demon lord’s fenrir, his second most powerful ally . Like the Supreme Dragon, the fenrir is a legendary creature with few doc.u.mented sightings . It is capable of using deadly lightning magic and moving at speeds imperceptible even by the trained eye . Like the demon lord, it is capable of culling the Wicked Forest’s creatures with no visible degree of difficulty . Yuki claims that, unlike the rest of his monsters, most of which are either considered immensely powerful or entirely undoc.u.mented, the fenrir was one that was acquired through sheer coincidence . While there is little reason for him to lie about the legendary beast’s origins, they can and should be disputed as there is no evidence to support the statement, and it simply does not stand to reason that one could possibly acquire a familiar as absurd as a fenrir through the power of sheer happenstance . Whatever the case, the contribution the Fenrir makes to Yuki’s forces is undeniable . In conclusion, the Wicked Forest’s demon lord is capable of tearing through the most powerful of monsters, creating efficient and elegant strategies, and forging meaningful alliances . He is an exception amongst exceptions . Judging him with the standards established through the study of other demon lords and

thereby marking him as a target to be preyed upon is a fatal mistake to be avoided at all costs .