The Hostage

“Hastur!”

Seeing Furenna ignore her and charge straight ahead, Demon King Iris finally felt a surge of panic.

Furenna showed not a trace of any intention to communicate.

Any possibility of normal dialogue was completely absent.

Therefore, Iris could only choose to retreat for now and take Furenna back later.

Iris hurriedly called for Hastur.

With a distortion of space, Hastur appeared beside Iris, bringing Ti Mo with her.

Furenna’s gaze fell upon Ti Mo.

Her amber pupils trembled violently.

The Sacred Blade that had already been drawn from its sheath, under Furenna’s precise control, changed its direction of attack.

Its sword energy slashed toward the distant mountain range.

Demon King Iris witnessed with her own eyes Furenna’s ordinary sword strike, without any magical reinforcement, crossing several kilometers in distance.

It tore open a deep spatial rift and finally struck a mountain over 2,000 meters high.

Immediately afterward, the mountain split cleanly into two halves from top to bottom amid a thunderous roar.

Sunlight spilled out from the newly formed canyon, striking Demon King Iris’s face.

Her face twitched uncontrollably.

If that sword had struck her just now, her fate would likely have been no different from that mountain.

“Demon King, I said we should follow the plan.”

“This is far too dangerous.”

Hastur also felt as if she had just passed through the gates of death.

But what she feared more was Demon King Iris meeting with misfortune.

That blow would be fatal to the Demon Clan.

“It’s fine. I’m not so easily killed.”

“Now there are more important matters to deal with…”

“Let her go.”

Iris had just finished calming the shaken Hastur when she heard the angry voice from Furenna’s direction.

“Heroine Sister!”

Ti Mo also clearly saw that the person opposite was the Heroine sister she had long missed.

She had grown from a little girl into the appearance of a young maiden.

Yet the Heroine sister looked exactly the same as she had ten years ago.

“Heroine Sister, don’t worry about me! She’s the Demon King!”

Ti Mo also understood that she was being used as a hostage to threaten Furenna.

She hurriedly told Furenna everything she knew, urging her not to worry about her safety.

Hastur’s tentacles directly covered Ti Mo’s mouth, stopping her from speaking further.

“Mmph… mmm…!”

“Let Ti Mo go.”

Even after ten years apart, Furenna recognized her at a glance.

The child before her was the little girl who used to call her Heroine Sister.

“Sorry, can’t do that, Heroine.”

Iris shrugged.

From learning about how humanity treated Heroine Furenna and her escape, to now seeing Furenna threatened by a hostage and daring not to move at all, Iris grew increasingly convinced that this generation’s Heroine was bound by some kind of restraint.

It caused her not to resist even under such treatment by humans.

Now, seeing Furenna obediently restrained due to the hostage threat, Iris roughly understood Furenna’s situation.

“Past Heroines would never give up such a golden opportunity to kill the Demon King because of a single hostage.”

“Even if that hostage was their closest companion.”

“Because killing the Demon King is the highest-level mission.”

Demon King Iris was absolutely certain of this.

But after learning about Furenna’s experiences, Iris understood that this generation’s Heroine possessed a weakness never seen in past Heroines.

“Past Heroines had little sense of belonging toward humanity.”

“Even the previous Heroine attacked the royal family and the church.”

“They were essentially killing machines created by the Goddess to oppose demons.”

Today’s plan, up until just now, had actually been a massive gamble.

But Furenna’s near-complete surrender made Demon King Iris realize she had gambled correctly.

The fate of the Demon Clan would be rewritten as a result.

This generation’s Heroine, Furenna, was a “cowardly Heroine” who would stop moving forward because of her bonds with humans.

This situation naturally stemmed from the Creator Goddess adding an excessive, nearly overflowing amount of “Moral Character” when creating Furenna.

It not only distorted Furenna’s standards of judgment regarding others harming her,

but also simultaneously granted Furenna emotions like a true living being.

It freed her from the compulsory directive of “kill demons, kill the Demon King” as the highest command.

“Demon King, as the supreme ruler of the Demon Clan, you resort to such despicable methods?”

Furenna simply could not make a move.

Even if her movement speed were faster and her magic activation quicker, she could not guarantee that Ti Mo would not be harmed.

The vitality of demons far surpassed that of humans.

This was not only reflected in lifespan, but also in sheer toughness.

At the moment she saw Hastur clearly, Furenna recalled a similar tentacled demon she had personally killed ten years ago.

He had apparently been one of the Demon Clan’s Four Heavenly Kings.

It seemed this Hastur was his descendant and successor.

Regarding that tentacled demon, Furenna remembered that besides his endlessly annoying tentacles, his vitality had been utterly absurd.

Even with Furenna going all out, relying solely on his physical body, he had endured for a full thirty seconds before being completely killed.

So Furenna understood she could not guarantee Ti Mo’s safety by killing Hastur in an instant.

Choosing Hastur to hold Ti Mo hostage was likely also part of Demon King Iris’s plan.

“Heh. We demons long ago indeed scoffed at such disgraceful methods as hostage-taking.”

“But…”

Iris sneered softly, about to say something before shaking her head and cutting herself off.

Delay could invite disaster.

She needed to deal with the threat of the Heroine.

“Enough. Heroine, you also understand the current situation.”

“Ti Mo is in our hands. You can only obediently comply, right?”

Iris resumed her enchanting smile.

But from Furenna’s perspective, that captivating face held only the smugness of a petty villain.

“If you think of using me to deal with humanity, that is absolutely impossible.”

Furenna rejected coldly.

She understood what Iris intended to do.

As long as Ti Mo remained under the Demon Clan’s control for even one day, Heroine Furenna would be forced to obey the Demon Clan’s every word… right?

“Even with this child’s life in our hands?”

Iris raised her slender brows with interest.

She sent a silent signal to Hastur to tighten the tentacles around Ti Mo’s neck slightly.

“Mmph—!”

Ti Mo’s face quickly flushed red.

Unable to breathe properly, Ti Mo gradually felt suffocation and helplessness.

Her instinct to survive made her struggle continuously, but under the tentacle restraints, she could not move at all.

“So, when faced with the dilemma of humanity’s survival, does the great Heroine still choose to sacrifice one person to ensure the survival of the others?”

Iris propped her delicate chin with her right hand, wearing a troubled expression as she questioned Furenna.

“No. I do not intend to sacrifice Ti Mo’s life.”