My Reincarnation as a Chicken

The tyrant of the North looked around the entire battlefield, scouting out the place and trying to get a read on where the Master of the West could possibly be. Originally, he had intended on hiding in the cover of his illusions then getting to the location of the master undisturbed, but the West was better than he anticipated.

For all of his illusions to be destroyed, and by someone that didn’t hold the reigns of the entire region, that was something beyond the scope of his imagination. Fortunately, that creature’s skill didn’t work on him, allowing him to create the image of overwhelming presence and ending it in one blow.

…

Of course it ended in one blow! [Pride] was the strongest amongst the sins! He possessed overwhelming power and presence. His very existence was one of absolute domination. Bow? He would never! A fight that took more than one blow? Then he was playing about! Luck? That was simply a given!

This overgrown lizard was simply another beast he ended easily. After that display, he could feel power flowing into him. The thoughts and fears of everyone empowered him.

‘I-Is he that strong?’

‘He took down that monstrous drake like it was a bug.’

‘Does that mean he could’ve ended this from the very beginning if he wanted?’

Looking around, he started to feel the impact he had on everyone. They all looked up at him, as if waiting for his next action or command. He felt like a simple gesture of his could actually determine the entire flow of this war, whether it worked in the North’s benefit or vice versa. However, none of that mattered to him. They were all insects in the first place, hence whoever won was of no importance to him.

Now, he had to return his focus to searching for Vermillion’s spawn. That wretched bloodline would be perfect for him. Exchanging his current host for that one wasn’t even a question.

“Oh boy, we have quite the mess here, huh?”, Pride’s thoughts were interrupted by a hob-goblin that still dared to move even after he just defeated their strongest asset.

A war troll standing next to the hob-goblin brought down its club to smash the hob-goblin, but its attack was parried. In fact, the war troll’s head was caved in instantly as it fell lifelessly to the ground. Everyone looked at the hob-goblin with wide-eyes. At a first glance, there was nothing special about it.

Dark green skin, dark hair on its head, about half the height of the average human and an ugly face.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d have to deal with this the moment I returned home.”, The goblin muttered as he stretched out his hand. A bright orange flame ignited before him and he grasped his hard, then swung, putting out the flames and revealing a crimson sword.

“You there, devil!”, The hob-goblin pointed his weapon at Pride. “Come down and face me like a man, or have me disgrace you in your own domain.”

As if there were no other options, the hob-goblin nonchalantly warned him. Was this creature insane?

The Pride, obeying rules imposed by others? As if.

“Hmph.”, Pride snorted at the little ugly creature. Such a threat was pointless and held zero value to him whatsoever. He wanted to return his focus to finding the master of the West as soon as possible.

Just then, he felt a great power. He looked in its direction and hidden in a mess of trees was a mansion. He surmised that that was the master’s hiding spot.

“You’ve chosen your own domain then, very well.”, finally feeling annoyed enough, Pride returned his focus to the hob-goblin.

“Do you wish to die by my hands so badly?”

“I apologise, but I have done enough dying to last a lifetime.”, as the goblin walked forward, it grew taller and its skin changed from green to deep red. Two short black horns grew out of its forehead and its eyes changed from golden to dark purple.

The goblin – devil, shed its goblin appearance and revealed its true form.

“You see, Hell wasn’t so kind during my stay.”, he held up his blade with a calm smile.

“Vermin. Being a devil doesn’t change anything. You are still weaker than I am.”, That was right. Being a devil didn’t mean he was suddenly stronger. He was still an ant.

“On the contrare-”, suddenly, Pride heard the devil’s voice at his side. From the corner of his eye, he saw the devil looking at him with a smile. “I believe my period in hell makes a world of difference in this fight.”

He brought his blade down mercilessly, cutting off one of Pride’s legs.

“Kiiiieeeeeeeekk!”

‘What? What happened? When did he? How did h- Gah!’, interrupting his thought process, the devil struck from behind, this time, cutting off Pride’s tail. The gryphon struck back in a rage, hitting the devil in the chest, but the devil disappeared almost instantly.

“Kekeke, where is all the power you showed earlier?”, the devil’s voice echoed in Pride’s heard, as if he was in some chamber.

“You… how can you keep up with me? I demand a response immediately.”, Pride roared to the emptiness that surrounded him.

“Am I supposed to be struggling to keep up with you? Isn’t it that you are so weak this isn’t much of an issue?”

“Huh?”

“I’ve fought countless devils in the pride ring. The easiest way to defeat one is to cut-off their source of power, their reputation.”

Devils of the Pride ring all had one or two skills in the Pride section of the Sin skill tree. And those skills all had a particular basis for operating. Belief.

“I had to take you from that space. Since we’re no longer in Larm, there is no one to give you power. Rather than catching up to you, it’s more like I’ve brought you down to your actual level.”

“No longer in Larm?”, For the first time, Pride noticed his surroundings. It was pitch black and he was the only one there.

“Welcome to my [War Room].”

[War Room] was a skill that created a space separate from an already existing dimension. This was originally intended to give the user a space to have secret conversations with no eavesdropping or spying of any type. The perfect place for a private discussion where the only chance of betrayal came from one of the people in there.

For this type of scenario, the [War Room] was a perfect foil to Pride.

“The devils of pride simply impose, create the imagery of them being stronger than they are. Since [Pride] is all about creating a façade of strength. You are all nothing but weak scum.”

“Excuse me?”

All around Pride, balls of hell fire appeared, barely illuminating the space.

“I mean, Pride is the weakest of all of the Primordial sins, hence you weaklings of the Pride ring.”

The balls of fire exploded upon making contact with Pride, muffling out the sounds of his cry.

“HUH!? You… You dare!?”

The devil had made one crucial mistake here. Pride wasn’t like other devils. Pride was an existence beyond devils and such rules and limitations didn’t apply to him. He had been weakened, definitely, but assuming the rules applied the same to him was stupid.

In the first place, Pride didn’t require a host to remain in this plain. He simply wanted to hide and rejuvenate himself. That was the only purpose of a host to him.

He didn’t want to do this originally, in case gods other than Themmir took notice of him, but now that he had been placed in a dimension separated from their view, he didn’t mind.

Pride had only one weakness. He was only as strong as his pride.

***

‘T-That was…’

“Shitsuke?”, Taiku’s question completed Tsuna’s thought. A moment ago, both Taiku and the tyrant of the North were here, but now both were nowhere to be found.

“There’s… no… way.”, Oki grunted in between breaths as he pulled out a spear from his stomach.

“L-Lady Hinotori did it. She brought him back like she promised.”, tears started to fill Tsuna’s eyes as she said this, feeling really relieved.

‘If that’s the case, where is Lady Hinotori herself?’, this question entered both Taiku and Oki’s minds as they sceptically looked at the ground where the hob-goblin once stood.

“Now’s not the time to get lazy.”, Yuuna flew down to knock Tsuna on the head for letting her guard down. The wight winced in pain and glared at her master.

“Yeah, you’re right.”, Oki grinned as he stood up, the heal in his stomach already starting to close up with fire.

“Let’s hurry up and finish them off, while he’s dealing with their strong one.”, Taiku now had a new fire blazing in his eyes.

“That’s not what I’m talk about. Look!”, she pointed towards the North. Beyond them even, where a mountain of darkness was moving forward.

The mountain collapsed, allowing black smoke swept across the battlefield from the behind the North. Screams could be heard from the smoke, but they eventually died out. Quickly, the smoke engulfed the North, forcing them to run for their lives in the direction of the West, who were also starting to run away, unsure what the hell that was.

“What do you think that is?”

“I don’t know. [Magic Perception] isn’t telling me anything.”

“This black smoke shan’t continue any further!”, Taiku shouted at the top of his lung, trying to enforce his will, but that didn’t slow it down in the slightest. If anything, the smoke seemed to have gotten annoyed and increased its pursuit.

“What about burning it?”, Oki asked, setting his mallet on fire and preparing to jump at it.

“Yeah, genius. Burn smoke with fire!”, Yuuna smacked his head like a tired teacher and just looked at Tsuna.

“You think you have enough power to freeze that thing in ice?”

“I doubt. I’ve used up most of my power protecting us from attacks.”

“Tch. So even that old bag’s power isn’t almighty.”

‘Who is she calling an old bag?’, Tsuna chose to ignore the voice in her head.

“A [Cerberus Storm]? Really? Two devils out of the blue?”, a man muttered as the goblin captains considered their options. Confused, they all looked at him, but none dared move as they hadn’t even sensed his presence till he spoke. “Honestly, if I knew I would be doing this much work for nothing, I really would have run back to hell with my tail tucked between my legs, immediately.”

The man, with an ugly face, heaved a depressed sigh and walked to a stop a few feet from the captains.

“Oh well, let’s hurry this up.”, With a simple wave of his arm, this one man cleared out the smoke, forcing it into a singular form. The appearance of large wolf with three heads and black fur. On the centre head, this wolf had a scar over its eye.

The three headed demon wolf snarled and shook its heads before glaring at the man.

“Tch. I didn’t expect to see a devil here.”

“Neither did I expect to see a lower-level member of the Ars Goetia.”

The wolf’s eyes widened at being called a ‘lower-level member’.

“Lower-level, eh? Are you saying you’re in the top brass of the Ars Goetia?”

Members beneath the 20th rank weren’t giving proper details of other members and hence had no idea what they looked like or what their abilities were. There was no particular reason for this. In fact, the top 20 weren’t an official group, but each and every single one of them acted in a much different manner than others.

“Oh please. I wouldn’t associate myself with that second-rate organisation even if I was begged to.”

“Second-rate, huh? Fair enough. Any devil satisfied with being in the Ars Goetia isn’t strong enough.”

“Ha, great minds do think alike.”

Both started to have a cordial conversation while stalking each other.

“What sin do you cover?”, the wolf asked.

“Pride. You?”

“Greed.”

“Oh? I’m guessing you combine [Cerberus Storm] with one of the skills to either steal the stats or skills of all the monsters you just consumed.”

“Do you use illusion magic as well?”

As they chatted amicably amongst themselves, the goblin captains couldn’t help but stare in disbelief. Both of them acted like they weren’t there at all and in a way, it felt offensive.

“What should we do?”, Yuuna looked at Taiku for a solution.

“Run… I think we should run.”, He responded, his throat sounding dry.

“They’re pretending like we don’t exist. I think we should fi-”, Yuuna smacked his head before he could finish that sentence.

“I dare you to say fight. You’ll be a roasted oni by the end of the word.”

Oki gulped, then looked at the others for support, but none of them wanted anything to do with this. In all honesty, they were tired and would really appreciate backing off for now.

“Honestly, it might have been good to know you under different circumstances. My master gave orders to interfere the moment I saw something unusual. I have deemed you and your companion as oddities.”

“Is that so? Well, in that case I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you.”

“Oho, you mean what I am about to do to you.”

Their conversation ended abruptly and both started to go at it. Their power scaring the captains off the battlefield.

***

“Tch. This… this is beyond my expectations!”, Karon roared in outrage.

He had been betrayed by the Tyrant of the North who acted before his actual time.

“That doesn’t matter. Let’s go there.”, Krull pointed in the direction of mansion, throwing aside Karon’s concerns.

“Why there?”

“Your sister… that wretch is over there. I can smell her.” With that, he flew off in the direction at insane speed. Karon followed closely behind, a different sort of thought going through his mind.

‘Father plans on killing Kala without hearing her out. I need to do something about that.’

Karon wanted to listen to Kala’s point of view. If it turned out she was a traitor, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her on the spot. If she wasn’t, he’d just punish her for causing so much trouble and hopefully she lived through it.