The narrow corridors of the cave became a trap with no exit. Over a dozen powerful, thorny roots suddenly shot up from the rocky floor, skewering the Toad-Soldiers through and through. These units, though fast in the air, had nowhere to spread their wings within the enclosed space of the cave.
Their weak defense and low HP meant they fell in droves, emitting only a short, wet croak before death.
The four-person strike team pressed forward like a destructive force of nature. Leading the way were three demonic silhouettes: the icy Lysandra, the red-haired Kala, and a bored-looking Mina.
A few steps behind them, with wide eyes and trembling ears, walked Elina, stunned by the brutality and ease with which these demonic women carved their path.
The army Korgash was so proud of, numbering over two hundred soldiers, turned out to be a pile of useless meat. Another wave of fifty toads lunged desperately toward the intruders.
Lysandra merely smiled coldly. The temperature in the cave dropped so sharply that the moisture on the walls turned to frost. In a split second, dozens of ice spears materialized around her and pierced the air with a deafening whistle, pinning the toads to the rocks.
Those few who survived were caught by Kala - her talons moved faster than the human eye could track, ripping the throats of eight monsters in a single second.
Mina bypassed the carcasses with disgust, taking care not to stain her sweet little feet with slime. "What a disgusting place..." she muttered, wrinkling her nose. "Let's just finish this; I want to go back to the castle and play with Lulu, not look at disgusting toads."
The small succubus didn't intend to waste another minute. She quickened her pace, using plant magic to tear through the remaining barriers of the hideous toad army.
In less than ten minutes from entering the cave, the nest was completely annihilated. They burst into the main chamber, standing before the altar where Korgash was trembling. The King of the Slimy Sky, seeing that his powerful army had ceased to exist, began to stammer in terror.
"Y-you... how... how dare you attack the territory of the great King of the Slimy Sky?!" he gibbered, trying to maintain a shred of dignity.
Mina didn't even feel like laughing at his grotesque title. With a wave of her hand, she summoned vines that wrapped around Korgash's arms and legs like steel cables.
The Demon King jerked, but the strength of the plants was too great - he was lifted slightly off the ground, defenseless and exposed.
Then Kala approached him. Her face bore the most terrifying, sadistic smile Elina had ever seen.
Korgash kicked his legs, and Mina's vines creaked under the pressure of his massed, though desperate, strength. His large, toad-like maw twisted into a grimace of pure hatred as he spat sticky saliva toward Kala.
"You filthy whore!" he roared, his voice echoing off the cave walls like thunder. "Do you know who I am?! I am the Lord of the Slimy Sky! My army will tear you apart! I will burn your valley and turn your altars to dust! I curse your blood, I curse your kin! Let me go, you bitch, before I gouge out those red eyes!"
Kala did not answer. She only took a deep breath, leaning over him with predatory calm. Her face was inches away from his pulsing temples.
"I really... love that look," she whispered, then slowly licked her lips, staring into his golden eyes, where hatred was just beginning to mix with the first flecks of paralyzing dread.
Suddenly, without warning, she flashed her talons. The first cut was swift - with surgical precision, she drove her claws under his sternum and began to slowly, centimeter by centimeter, trace a bloody circle.
"AAAAAARRRRGHH!" Korgash's roar turned into an inhuman howl. All the pride and arrogance evaporated in a split second, replaced by primal, animal agony. "STOP! I BEG YOU, STOP! IT BURNS! MY CHEST... MY HEART!"
Kala did not stop. With morbid fascination, she gripped a flap of skin along with the top layer of muscle.
"Wait!" Korgash began to babble, bloody foam flowing from the corners of his mouth. "I have gold! I have hidden blueprints! I'll give you everything! I can be your slave, I'll dig for you, I'll serve! Just not this... Please, mercy! I'll do anything! I BEG YOU!"
The succubus only widened her smile, then with one decisive jerk, she tore the flap of tissue away. The sound of ripping skin was wet and loud. Korgash arched so hard the vines nearly snapped, and a high, shrill sound escaped his throat, which after a moment turned into a dull, wet wheeze.
In the exposed wound, behind broken ribs, a dark, almost navy-blue heart appeared. It pulsed violently, thrashing in the chest cavity like a trapped animal, flooding the entire altar with a cascade of black blood.
"See?" Kala turned to Elina, her forearms smeared with black gore up to her elbows. "He's not cursing anymore. Now he's pleading. It's the most beautiful music you'll hear in this forest. Go on, heroine. End his suffering before I change my mind and start healing him just to begin again."
Elina stood rooted to the spot, looking at the dying monster. Thoughts she would have considered insane just a few days ago swirled in her head.
She realized that Lilith - this mysterious Demon King - was an existence far beyond the scale of her comprehension. It only took three trusted subordinates and one whim of the Monarch to erase the entire kingdom of another Demon King from the map in ten minutes.
She didn't even have to come here... Elina thought with a shiver. Lilith herself seemed almost gentle compared to these three furies standing beside her. She realized that what she had taken for torture in the ice cage was, in fact, a specific kind of "upbringing." Having someone so powerful at her back... could this be her greatest stroke of luck in this brutal world?
"What are you still waiting for?" Kala's cold, blood-dripping voice cut through the air like a whip.
"Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll do it immediately!" Elina jumped, startled from her thoughts. Her hands shook as she tightened them around the hilt of her short sword.
She approached the altar. Korgash was wheezing, and every heartbeat was accompanied by the wet sound of blood flowing from his open chest. The King of the Slimy Sky, barely able to see through the haze of pain, lifted his golden eye to her.
"Who... who are you..." he choked out, blood bubbling in his throat, making every word difficult. "Such... a weak... little rabbit... like you... cannot... control... such power..."
Elina looked down at him.
"If you must blame someone, blame yourself for offending someone you shouldn't have touched," she replied indifferently. "This is simply your own doing. Accept your fate."
Korgash froze. Looking at Elina's posture and how fearfully she glanced at Kala standing behind her, he suddenly had a terrible realization. This was not the leader. This was a slave... or a tool. Why was he attacked exactly now? Why did these beings come right after his toads stole the potatoes?
"You..." he gibbered, a powerful convulsion of agony racking his body. "Have you... been... sent... from the Valley... of Darkness?!"
"You know too much!" Kala hissed, her eyes burning red.
"We can't let this secret leak!" Lysandra added, clenching her hand into a fist, which caused the blood around Korgash's wound to instantly freeze into painful icicles.
Elina waited no longer. She took a deep breath and drove the sword with all her might straight into the exposed, navy-blue heart.
"Gueeeh..." Korgash let out one last, short sound that drowned in a torrent of black gore.
His body stiffened, then slowly went limp in the grip of the vines. As life left him, the last thing Korgash thought as a player was how infinitely stupidly he had acted. For five potatoes, he had paid the ultimate price. The heavens were not with him - they were on the side of the one who ruled the earth.
At that same moment, a blinding, golden system light flashed before Elina's eyes.
[Hero Elina has killed Demon King Korgash!]
[The Demon King's Nest has been destroyed!]
[Calculating rewards for defeating evil...]