I am Sitri.

A demon under the direct control of the Evil God.

The 12th in our hierarchy.

I am almost as powerful as Guzion, the 11th rank demon who infiltrated the Holy City of Sanctum.

My ranking is 12th, but I am the most powerful among the existing demons.

That’s because I was supposed to be the

next demon king.

I received powerful protection from Evil God-sama because of this, and that also made me more powerful than Guzion now. Of course, stronger than the other demons aside from him.

My power is already at par with the other generations of demon kings, but I am not yet reigning as one in the human’s world.

As for the reason, it’s because the Evil God stopped me.

The stock of negative energy under the Evil God was still plenty enough, so there was no reason to hastily install me as the demon king.

That’s why I

was

waiting.

It’s been a century since the Demon King Velt had been defeated by the heroes.

And now it’s my turn.

It’s finally my debut as the demon king!

— was what I thought, but I was also stopped back then.

Apparently, Evil God-sama had been bothered with the existence of heroes.

Demon King Velt had been previously ranked 13th among the demons. He might be lower than me by one rank, but there was not that much of a difference in our power.

Velt also received the protection of Evil God-sama, nevertheless, the heroes that the Creator God teleported into this world slayed him in an instant.

The very existence of those heroes was a cheat in itself.

They already possessed the power to easily annihilate the high-ranking monsters, and the speed of their leveling was quite something.

Those guys already obtained the power to slaughter us demons in a blink of an eye.

Up to now, a hero would definitely appear within a few years — the longest duration would be ten — of the demon king’s reign in this world.

The instant he arrived, the demise of the demon king would be set in stone.

So, what to do?

The demon king would desperately assault the entire world with terror and dread in order to scrape up all the negative energy they could get.

Everything was for the sake of Evil God-sama.

The demon who became the demon king would definitely perish by the hero’s hand, but the negative energy they managed to accumulate before that happened would become nourishment for the maintenance of the Evil God’s existence. It would also become the source that would provide for the next demon king.

Evil God-sama did not assume that we demons would be defeated.

He would scheme and train us in strategies that would counter the heroes.

However, the heroes were ‘cheats’.

No matter what he did, they would use their overwhelming Status and gibberish skills to blast it off.

Each of us had the potential to become the next demon king, so we understood that. We already gave up.

‘We can’t win against the heroes’ —

like that.

However, for the sake of Evil God-sama who went through great pains in consideration for us, we did all we could to the best of our abilities and ingenuity to spread fear and despair among the world of the people.

Demon King Velt used numbers to compete.

He created multitudes of monsters and scattered them throughout the world. Even if they were weak on their own, their sheer number was impressive.

I thought it was a good idea.

No matter how strong the hero was, he wouldn’t be able to stop the stampedes that occurred throughout the entire world all at the same time.

Velt was defeated by the hero.

In order to send monsters throughout the world, he wasn’t able to surround himself with powerful subordinates, and I believed that played a huge role.

He was already prepared.

Rather than that, the problem was that the hero

that wasn’t really a hero

almost annihilated all the monsters that he sent to the world.

Two heroes had arrived during Velt’s time.

Up to that point, the number of heroes sent to the world had always been one.

The existence of the holy knight and saintess that accompanied the hero was also an eyesore, but as far as I know, this was the first time that two heroes came.

The true hero’s strength was overwhelming.

He leveled up at a tremendous speed, so there was no mistake about it, he was as regular as a hero can be.

The one who crushed Velt’s plan was a guy called Guardian Hero.

This guy’s leveling was a lot slower than the normal hero, so I thought that perhaps he was a substitute hero.

That Guardian Hero flew through the world at top speed and continued stopping the stampedes.

That Tina Harrivel, the Half Elf woman with the Guardian Hero, had also been a nuisance.

Even Tina, said to be descended from the hero, was also endowed with power that normally should be considered unbelievable.

As a result, although enough mana had been accumulated to raise the next generation of demon king — in short, me — but Evil God-sama didn’t have any leeway.

That Evil God-sama then hatched a new plan, and that is to reincarnate the hero.

I didn’t understand it at first, but Evil God-sama explained it, so realization dawned on me.

Way before I reign as the demon king, he would reincarnate a person from another world to be the hero, but not without casting a curse on his soul first.

It was a magnificent idea.

If the soul was cursed, then no matter what kind of curse it was, he would never be able to get stronger.

Moreover, it’s the curse of Evil God-sama, the world’s most powerful incarnation of malice.

It would be a spectacular curse, no doubt about it.

That reincarnated hero surely had died by now.

He received Evil God-sama’s curse, after all.

Evil God-sama expended a huge amount of mana in order to use the power necessary to teleport the hero, so he was resting right now.

Once he woke up, he would instate me as the demon king, and I would reign in this world. I planned to spread fear and despair as much as I could.

It would take a while before a new hero appeared.

Evil God-sama said that “I consumed a lot of the Divine Realm’s energy”.

I would probably have a hundred years or so enjoying supremacy!

It made me truly excited.

I could imagine the contorted face of the Creator God as he stood there unable to summon another hero while I trampled on his beloved world.

I would finally become Evil God-sama’s strength.

— That’s what I thought.

Before that Bakemono appeared before me, that is.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep