The Demon King is Unfathomable

Chapter 15: Divine Persona?!

The room was silent.

All that could be heard were the wind and insect calls.

‘Did I mishear?’

Roan dared not let his guard down.

He inspected the detection formation and his blind spots, but he couldn’t find anything.

Just when he was wondering if he was being oversensitive, he spotted another white silhouette flashing across the mirror.

His hand jerked upward, directing his wand at the mirror, but the white silhouette was already nowhere to be seen. This brought a frown to his face.

So, he decided to fake the enemy out.

“I see you. Come out.”

Roan quickly turned around.

The voice was coming from the mirror. There was a translucent figure reflected in the previously empty mirror.

“A specter?” Roan blurted out.

‘No, this fellow is different from a specter.’

He had dealt with enough undead to discern that this fellow wasn’t undead. It would be more accurate to call the other party a soul entity.

The moving figure in the mirror puffed up in anger and exclaimed, “I am not a specter…”

“Then what are you?” Roan pressed on.

“I… also want to know…” The voice was filled with confusion.

Roan frowned. He couldn’t tell if the other party was feigning it. “What do you mean?”

The figure in the mirror fell silent.

A long time later, he replied with an uncertain voice, “I… might be your divine persona.”

‘…Divine persona?’

Roan was taken aback. He had no recollection of having anything like that.

“Wait…” The unexpected response threw Roan’s thoughts into disarray. He lowered his wand and massaged his temples. “You’re making me confused. What do you mean by divine persona? How are you related to Linte Isaac?” ??

While he had recently reaped a wave of faith, it was nowhere enough to forge a divine persona. It if was that easy to become a god, there would be Demon Gods at every turn!

His intuition told him that the ‘Machine God’ could be behind this.

“Linte Isaac?” The figure’s fleeting voice sounded confused. “What a familiar name… Can you tell me who he is?”

Looking at the figure in the mirror, Roan took a moment to construe his words before replying, “He is the final emperor of the Lyon Kingdom’s Isaac Dynasty, a man suspected to have once ascended to godhood. That’s all I know. Do you remember anything?”

The figure nodded, only to shake its head right after. “It’s blurry… I remember that he created me and placed me somewhere.”

Its tone suddenly became excited as it exclaimed, “Ah, I remember it now! It could be the demon king domain’s core!”

Roan was taken aback.

“The demon king domain’s core?”

“That’s right!” The fleeting white fog-like figure nodded as it analyzed with a cheery voice, “I am your divine persona, so when you forged a soul connection with the demon king domain’s core, I became part of the connection too. There was a body of consciousness inside the core that tried to eat me, but it was too weak so I ate it instead!”

“…”

‘A body of consciousness inside the demon king domain’s core?’

Roan remembered learning about it in the Demon King Academy’s theory lessons.

The demon king domain’s core contained a sentient mind created by a complex array of spells. It served as both the demon king’s assistant and the Demon God’s mark on the mortal world.

Through it, one could convert the faith accumulated in the core into demon entities, terraform the surrounding terrain, or expand the labyrinth.

The professors had strongly emphasized that they mustn’t resist the sentient mind when forging a soul connection with the core. They had to sincerely entrust their entirety to the Demon God.

Roan did not attempt to resist the core’s sentient mind, knowing that the Copper-tier him from a few hours ago wouldn’t have been able to oppose it anyway.

Little did he know that this fellow would consume the little helper he had received from the Demon God!

“Are you for real…” Roan panicked.

“Of course!” The fleeting figure smirked in glee. “I am your divine persona. I can’t lie to you.”

Roan nearly fainted. “That’s not what I mean! What am I supposed to do now that you have consumed that thing?!”

“Isn’t it better? You have full authority over the demon king domain now!” the fleeting figure replied jovially. “The demon king domain is now your territory instead of that whatever Demon God’s. You don’t have to worry about the Demon God finding out about the players anymore!”

‘This fellow knows about the players too.’

For the time being, Roan couldn’t grasp the significance of having ‘full authority’ over the demon king domain. Instead, he thought that it was troublesome as he would have no way of explaining this if the netherworld found out about it.

Just a few hours ago, he was still thinking of writing a complaint letter to report the previous demon king’s subordinates, but now, he should be thankful to not be reported.

Looking at the vexed Roan, the white figure indignantly muttered, “But Demon King, I would have been gobbled up if I didn’t do anything. You would be in trouble if the Demon God learns that you are carrying another god’s mark, right?”

“Look at what you’re saying… You don’t think that He won’t notice you eating His child?”

Roan didn’t know how apt the metaphor was, but that was how he viewed the situation.

“It’s possible.” The figure analyzed the situation for him. “Even gods can’t keep track of every one of their children. The core wasn’t completely unleashed when I devoured the mark too, and we are currently out of His domain. It is almost impossible for Him to notice it.”

“That would be for the best,” Roan replied with a sigh. Just then, a thought surfaced in his mind, and he exclaimed, “Wait a moment, I think I know who you are. Are you the stone monument in my mind?”

“That’s right! We have met before, though I wasn’t able to speak back then…” The figure swayed happily upon learning that Roan had finally remembered him.

“So… you were the one who issued the mission to the players?”

“Yes, that’s me!”

Roan rubbed his temples as he asked, “Why didn’t you inform me?”

The figure replied in embarrassment, “I shouldn’t have been able to speak. I didn’t think devouring that little fellow inside the core would result in me inheriting its abilities, allowing me to wander out of your mind and communicate with you like that…

“I was surprised, and I was hesitant to reveal myself too. My original function was to help you handle tasks that are beyond your function, such as managing the forum or issuing missions to the players…”

Roan scratched his head and he placed his wand back into his robe.

“…”

‘Feels strange. It’s like there is someone else living in my body! Can this fellow even be considered a person? It’s at most a stone, or a ‘divine persona’ as it self-identifies as.’

‘What’s the Calamity system up to? Does Linte Isaac intend to help me ascend to godhood? But why?’

He suddenly remembered the additional notification when the system was installed.

?Let this foolish world feel pain!?

‘Vengeance, is it?’

But Roan didn’t think it was that simple.

After some thought, he looked at the unknown fog-like entity in the mirror and slowly asked, “How should I address you?”

“I don’t know… Why don’t you give me a name?”

Its voice was filled with expectations.

“How about Yuyu?” Roan asked after careful thought.

To his surprise, the other party angrily replied, “I told you I’m not a specter!”

“Let’s go with Youyou then.”

“…Is there any difference?”

Roan didn’t expect the other party to be so difficult as to reject both his suggestions. “Tsk. That’s all I have. Why don’t you come up with something yourself?”

“I’ll go with the second one then.”

“…”

‘I guess this fellow is more of the stick than the carrot.’

Roan calmed himself down before asking the next question on his mind, “What’s your range of activity?”

Youyou spent a moment in thought before replying, “I can freely wander around the demon king domain. Other than that, I’m restricted to your vicinity, roughly from where you are to the door. Right! I can also share what I see with you—like this!”

The mirror slowly turned blurry as if a screen submerged in water. Through it, Roan saw the players in the mining shaft.

These overenergetic skeleton soldiers had already hunted down twenty slave rats who escaped from the labyrinth, causing a huge fuss in the mining shaft.

One of the players even squatted beside a slave rat’s carcass, slowly slicing its body apart as if to see how realistic this game was.

In one of the prison cells, Chris woke up before fainting right away, offering ?Faith +1? to the demon king domain’s core. A notification also popped up in Roan’s system interface.

‘I see.’

Roan should have realized in the mining shaft that it was odd how the faith absorbed by the demon king domain’s core was synced with his system. The two should have been unrelated.

“Interesting…”

Roan was getting more and more energetic looking at the mirror. Even his exhaustion dissipated in the face of his sudden surge of excitement.

‘Is this the joy of spying on others from the shadows? On this note, if this fellow can see what’s happening in the demon king domain, does that mean it can immediately sense an adventurer’s intrusion? I can even watch the show live from a safe area!’

Roan realized Youyou’s abilities were stronger than he had imagined.

‘I should bring a mirror wherever I go!’

He suddenly remembered another matter and asked, “Youyou, can you see the official site?”

“Official site? Of course I can… Waaa! The forum is bustling with life!”

The fog in the mirror transformed once more, revealing ?Calamity Online?’s official site.

It was just as Youyou had said. A commotion had broken out in the forum!