Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The Deep Sea Alligator king was able to conquer a part of the northern region and reign as one of its overlords. Its experience and power was for nothing, it immediately realised the demon was trying to target its underbelly. So even while not having any vision around its left side, it instinctively swept its tail in that direction.

SHATTER… it felt a resistance and heard something shattering and a moment later it felt a sharp stabbing pain on its underbelly.

Just before the tail that came like a tidal wave to sweep him away, Simon shattered a golden guardian stone and using the time when its tail was momentarily blocked by the barrier, to hop over it.

SKIDDD… he dashed madly towards the body of the deep Sea Alligator king and staked every bit of his energy into this last attack.

STAB… the crimson sword without any obstruction stabbed its underbelly and with that, a large amount of infernal flames was poured wildly inside it.

<strong>BOOOM… GRUHH…</strong> a dull bang and the painful roar of the Deep Sea Alligator King echoed out. Its body started releasing smoke and blood flowed out in droves from its mouth. Clearly, the beast took a significant damage from that.

He did not let this go into its head and continued to pour a great amount of mana into his sword to channel the infernal magic to burn its inside. Even if does look like the beast had taken so much damage, in actuality, it had a much larger HP pool than Simon.

Thus until he saw its HP bar go down to red, he kept his relentless attack going. At this moment, he sensed something approaching from the sky and realised that it was the Bloodthorn Demonic warhorse.

The latter after spotting him and the Deep Sea Alligator King locked in a battle, immediately hovered down to the ground and spoke in concern.

"My lord, you must hurry up. The Deep Sea Alligator King's roar was a call for help. Its subordinates that were following me, disengaged with me and are quickly rushing here".

Simon hearing what the Bloodthorn Demonic warhorse had to say, wildly poured his mana inside his sword that was plunged inside the underbelly of the Deep Sea Alligator King to thoroughly burn its insides and chip away at its health pool.

He only pulled back when he saw the latter was near the brink of death. When the Deep Sea Aligator king fell to the ground Simon climbed its face and approached its only working eye.

He drew his sword close to its iris and said in a commanding tone "So what it's gonna be Death or Submission?".

The right eye of the beast quivered in fear, its entire body was in so much pain that it did not even have the energy to muster up a resistance. Whenever it tried to move its body a little, the severe internal burns that it had suffered from the hands of the demon, made it spurt out blood.

It was defeated and by none other than the one it looked down upon.

It saw the demon climb to its face, point that sword at its eye and give their ultimatum. Two choices were laid out in front of it, either to submit and become a subordinate of the demon or die by their hand.

And seeing how ruthless the demon was, he had no doubt that the latter would really kill him.

Nevertheless, who was it? It was one of the overlords of this part of the forest and a being that had lived for more than 600 years. How could it just let itself be subordinated like that? Since it cannot defeat that demon and now even that warhorse is here it only had one choice.

Thus it tried to delay answering until its subordinates were here. once its enemies were surrounded, it use this chance to run back to its lake and hide inside.

The Deep Sea Alligator king was an amphibian monster. However, it was most powerful when inside water than on land. Even monsters stronger than it wouldn't mess with it inside water.

"W-wait… wait a minute. I don't understand one thing, why is that you want to subdue me? We do not have any past grudges or enmity nor does my territory intrudes upon yours so why?".

The Deep Sea Alligator King had lived in this part of the forest for a long time thus it knew the races that inhabited this place and the demon noble in front of it was not amongst them.

"I have already told you didn't I? I am going to claim this entire forest as my territory starting from the north".

What Simon was saying was trying to say was that conquering the north was just the start. He was going to take control of the entire ghastly winding forest by conquering the west.

The moment, the Deep Sea Alligator King realised what the demon was saying, its only remaining eye enlarged widened to the limit and it was silent for a good long while. Then it suddenly started laughing amidst its pain.

"Haaa?! What did I hear? You are going to take control of this entire forest? Are you out of your mind demon? GUHAHA… did you really think that the Ghastly Winding Forest is so easy to conquer? Haa, let me tell you something demon. Stop dreaming!!"

"There is no way you, a low-ranking demon can do it. Do you know the heights of those idiocratic words that you said just now? forget about you even if there were hundreds of you it would just be a pipe dream"

"Let me tell you this for your own good. Why do you think we are the overlord of the north and not the entire forest? That is because beings with strength incomprehensible to even us, reside there. They are the true kings of this forest, it is because of their presence that the forest remains unconquerable for thousands of years… haa… haaa".

At the end of its sentence, the deep sea alligator king puked out a mouthful of blood. Nonetheless, its eyes still obstinately glared at Simon.

The Bloodthorn demonic warhorse felt offended by its words and wanted to charge towards it but was stopped by Simon who took a deep breath. His clear crimson eyes still held their former light as they glared back at the gigantic eyes of the Deep Sea Alligator king.

"I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to buy time with your meaningless question and call your subordinates here. Be that as it may, let me clear this doubt for you. I am already aware of the strength of the seven Kings".

The eyes of the Deep Sea alligator king which had been obstinate up until now, trembled at this moment when it heard Simon mention the seven kings. It hadn't told the demon about the seven kings which must mean that the latter was aware of their existence.

The demon was aware but even then it held such lofty ideals? Was it not aware of their strengths?

As if the demon could read the inner turmoil of its mind, they leaned closer to its eyes and declared with absolute conviction.

"The strength of one of the seven kings, I have experienced it for myself. They are definitely strong, far stronger than the current me so much so that it cannot even be compared. But you know, they aren't the strongest, they aren't the peak".

"Sure the seven kings are strong but there are beings stronger than them. Compared to those guys, the so called seven kings are just frogs in a well. You might think they are undefeatable but that is not true for everyone. Defeating the seven Kings and taking control of the forest is just another stepping stone in my path to becoming stronger".

Simon tightly clenched his hands, he was telling this not only to the Deep Sea Alligator King but to himself too. In a way, this was a kind of pledge for him.

"Now that's enough stalling for time from you. So what's it gonna be?" Simon pushed his sword right in front of its eyes once again.

Unlike earlier when the Deep Sea Alligator king was being stanch and unbending, its belief was greatly shaken after it saw and heard what the demon had to say.

'Frogs in a well' he had declared the seven kings who were like unreachable existences for it, frogs who doesn't even know the vastness of the world. It was even more astonished when it heard the demon say that it had experienced the power of one of the seven kings in person.

But instead of despairing and cowering like it did when it came to the northern region after being shooed away from the west and living the life of a defeated dog here, the demon's eyes burned brilliantly like jewels whose shine refused to dissipate.

For the first time, the Deep Sea Alligator King looked at the demon for who he was and asked "Are you saying that you can defeat the seven kings?".

Simon narrowed his eyes thinking that the Deep sea Alligator king was still planning on delaying the time, but when he saw the earnest look in its eyes, he decided to answer honestly.

"Well that was the promise I made with the Ancient Titan Treant, Aldebaran. So it's not a matter if being able to do it or not rather I will do it".

"My lord…" the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse stated but stopped after seeing Simon nodding towards it.

"I know… Deep Sea Alligator King make your decision now. I will no longer tolerate any of your attempts to stall for time" right after saying that, he started channelling the last bit of his mana into the sword.