Calamity Upon This World

Demons were a malevolent race whose instinct revolved around bringing chaos and relishing in sadistic joy at the cost of their victims.

But aside from their messed-up mentality, the more notable thing was their fear-inducing strength.

Demons in the past could quite easily be called the strongest race in the world of Astressa, excluding dragons, who don't interfere in wordly affairs and prefer to keep to themselves.

Not only did demons exceed every race in quality but also in quantity, with demons having the highest population excluding humans.

Their personality, paired with their strength and numbers, was the reason they declared war on the entire world and forced the entire world to ally against them.

The worst part is that they still almost won, if not for the interference of Zephyr back then.

And even Zephyr couldn't kill the entire race, so instead he just sealed them in a different dimension after killing the demon king.

One might wonder that since they've just been sealed in a different world, isn't there a chance they might one day return?

But that's highly unlikely considering their number paired with their natural greed and personality.

The most likely outcome is that they will all just fight for resources and end up killing each other in the process.

And thus, Zephyr was able to cause the mass extinction of an entire race without needing to kill millions, if not billions, of demons.

However, even Zephyr couldn't fully seal billions of demons, which allowed a few thousand of them to slip past and avoid getting sealed.

Multiple churches and different groups had launched hunts for these stray demons in the past to purge the world of them, which led to the majority of stray demons having died by now, and with the passage of thousands of years by now, no demon should have even been alive.

And yet here one was, defying all odds.

**

Round grey horns adorned its head as the demon smiled at William, who was lying on the floor.

"Greetings, adventurer," he said in a voice that irritated the brain.

'Zephyr, what the fuck?' William screamed inside his mind.

'I thought you already got rid of demons, so why is there one standing in front of me? '

Despite William asking for answers, there was no response.

It just didn't make sense out of every possible scenario; he could have never predicted this.

Demons were supposed to have been a dead race forgotten to the sands of time, according to what he had learned and the thing those church of Mana fanatics proclaimed.

So how was there still an alive demon?

And the worst part is that demons can't reproduce normally and need very special conditions to create offspring.

Conditions that shouldn't be possible in either of the two worlds, which implies that the demon in front of him was fucking 6,000 years ago.

While William was thinking this, it seems the demon didn't take kindly to being ignored like this, so he released his pressure.

A chilly black pressure fell on the whole of Zunesha village, causing many to pass out.

And as for the one closest to the pressure?

He was coughing on the ground and having trouble breathing before he lifted his gaze, catching sight of the entity responsible for his current state.

The demon withdrew his pressure as he smiled.

"Well, well, look at who decided to finally pay attention to little old me." He spoke in a mocking tone, making fun of William, who was having trouble staying conscious.

William felt rage building inside him at being made fun of like this, but he could do nothing yet, so he continued to listen.

"Well, since I have your attention now, how about we get down to business?"

"My name is Viscount Kaust, and as you may have guessed, I'm what you humans refer to as a demon."

"I'm quite strong, as you've just witnessed, and I could end you anytime I want, so I wouldn't suggest you try and fight me; well, it's not like you could do that anyways  even if you wanted to judging  by your condition."

He said that, chuckling a little as he mentioned the last part.

"So you see, I've been observing you ever since you entered this tiny village, and I can confidentially say that you have potential, and it would be a shame for you to get killed here, so how about instead signing a contract with me?"

"Tell me more about it" William replied, hoping to stall for time as he did his best to sneakily consume a life bomb and heal himself.

"Marvellous"

"So all I need you to do for me is to sign this little contract with me."

Kaust held out his hand towards William, and from it, black smoke poured out and it moved towards him before stopping in front of him and forming a floating purple sheet of paper.

"What's this?" William asked, confused.

"It's a demonic contract."

"You can think of it as a demon equivalent of what you humans call a mana contract."

'I've never heard that before,' he thought before asking.

"Yeah, I can see that, but what are the terms?"

"In simple terms for your tiny brain to understand, you'll offer 10 human lives to me every month and occasionally listen to my commands when I give any."

"However, on the plus side, you won't die today and even become able to use an energy superior to mana called miasma."

"So are you interested, human boy?"

"So you're basically asking me to become your slave?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that." Kaust chuckled as he said that he seemed to be enjoying his dilemma.

William seemed to be in deep thought, as if contemplating the offer, and before long he stood up, surprisingly, his leg having regrown.

While Kaust was distracted, William used that opportunity to heal himself by consuming a life bomb.

He raised his hand towards Kaust, almost like he was about to shake his outstretched hand to sign the contract.

But before it could do that, his hand rotated, and he formed a fist with his middle finger raised, as he said.

"Nah, fuck that."

Almost like waiting for his words, his shadow expanded, and from it emerged his servants and soldiers, jumping at the demon who was threatening their master.