"Ahh~ how sad. No matter how much I want to play with you, time doesn't seem to be on my side."
The words that seemed playful out of context were like the whispers of the devil to the demons who heard them.
"What to do, what to do. I could tear you apart with my own hands, but I don't want to get my clothes dirty. Hmm, what if you all kill each other? Oooh, that sounds fun! Let's do that!"
The demons shook. Their bodies wouldn't move no matter how much they tried to will them to.
"Ehhh~ you don't want to? But I was getting really excited! Okay~ how about I let whoever can stay alive until the end live! The rest will die either way."
"Fuck this! I'm leaving!"
A Demon General couldn't bear the psychological torture anymore. He dropped everything he had on him and ran blindly.
He wanted to know which direction he was moving in, but it was impossible. The world was filled with an endless darkness that even the mana within his body feared.
So he ran. He ran without thinking of anything else. Perhaps due to the fact that he couldn't see in the first place, he didn't notice when his sight was taken from him.
So he continued to run. Perhaps due to the silence that had enveloped them ever since that demonic woman showed up, he didn't realize when his hearing was taken from him.
His smell left next. It was at this point when he noticed. The stench of blood that had been plaguing him until now, where did it go?
"W-what did you do to me!"
It was what he thought he said, but he couldn't hear his own voice, so he wasn't sure. No, it wasn't even that, he couldn't even feel his mouth moving.
'M-my body?'
He knew he still had his body, otherwise, there was no way he'd be able to think. But where was it? Why couldn't he feel it? Where was the ground beneath his feet? No, where were his feet in the first place?
Humans, or rather, any creature that didn't live in the sky wouldn't realize the safety they felt on the land until it was taken from them. It wasn't until they were in the sky that they'd realize the security they had taken for granted.
The Demon General felt like he was in an endless abyss. There was nothing in existence besides his mind.
And time passed. For the Demon General, it was eons. Thousands upon thousands of years spent in darkness. His mind had been corroded past the point where anything close to sanity even existed anymore.
"AHHHHHHH!"
The first thing he had heard in ages was the mad shriek coming from his own mouth. But he no longer had the capacity to care.
After all, even without his conscious urging, his hands had already pierced his chest and ripped out his own heart.
The Demon General, whose senses were slowly returned to him, belatedly realized the situation. He could even see the rest of the demons' forces only a few meters away from him.
Perhaps, he should have felt despair. Maybe that was what was intended to happen. But he couldn't force himself to do so. Those around him could clearly see the bright relieved smile on his face as his body crumpled to the floor.
"Mm! That was fun! Actually, I change my mind. Let's have all of you do the same thing as him!"
The Demon Captains, the remaining three Demon Generals, and even the mindless abominations that the woman hadn't bothered to kill off earlier were shaking in fear.
Unlike the Demon General who died, they had all witnessed it. The Demon General ran in circles like a madman. He clawed his own face until it was hardly recognizable, his arms broke due to the force with which he was hitting the ground.
In the end, he banged his head on the ground while shrieking madly. It was only then that he clawed his heart out with his own hands.
Five minutes.
That was all the time it took for everything to happen from start to finish. It only took five minutes for her to drive a Demon General insane enough to kill himself for the sake of peace.
And the instant they realized that this devil woman wanted them to experience the same thing, pandemonium broke loose.
The mindless abominations acted on instinct, ripping off pieces of each other's flesh with their teeth and claws. The Demon Captains turned to each other and began a reckless brawl.
As for the Demon Generals, they fought the hardest. They had no intention of dying here.
Inky black mana filled the space of darkness, unseen but still extremely powerful. Massive explosions rocked the air and caused hordes of abominations to crumble.
The mayhem lasted for an hour before finally coming to a close. To the woman's surprise, the final contenders were a single Demon General and ten Demon Captains.
The Demon General was oozing black blood from several gashes along his skin. His body was fraught with so many injuries that he looked like he would die with a single push.
And against him, 10 Demon Captains who didn't actually fight each other at all.
"You! You lot dare to go against me?!"
The Demon General screamed in rage.
"W-we have no choice!"
"If you want to blame someone, blame that woman!"
"T-that's right! I just want to live!"
The Demon General watched the Demon Captains ramble off any excuse they could come up with. But he could see it. Their eyes were filled with only the single-minded greed to live.
In that moment, he couldn't do anything besides laugh. Laugh at his own powerlessness that got him into such a situation.
"Hahaha…I see. Good! So this is the true nature of our race that loves to act above all! Hahahaha! She's right! She was always right! We are nothing more than scum that deserves to die!"
The Demon General's eyes were laced with madness as he spoke.
"And since it's like that, why should it only be me? Why am I the one who has to die here? Hahahaha! How about you all join me on my trip to hell!"
With no regard for his body, the Demon General shot forward at full power, rousing all the mana he had left in his body.
No, it wasn't just his mana. Even his life force was burning to grant him more power.
In an instant( he arrived in front of the group of Demon Captains. With the power difference between the two, how could they even predict his actions?
Before the Demon Captains realized what was happening, the Demon General's body began to swell. It continued to swell until it looked like his vessel could no longer hold all the energy he had gathered within.
"See you all in hell, fuckers!"
BOOOOM!
An explosion so massive it caused cracks in the surrounding darkness blasted forth, consuming the Demon Captains within. Mana raged in the environment for many minutes afterwards before the scene finally calmed down.
The woman, no, Qing Tan looked down at the scene she had caused with a bewitching smile on her face.
"Mmm~ that was even more fun than I imagined!"
She waved her hand, causing the massive dome of darkness that had enveloped the 50-kilometer radius around her to retract and enter her body.
Her body, which was floating in the air, slowly lowered to the ground. Her footsteps were light and without worries.
Her gaze turned north, to the location of the place where she would meet up with her other two companions.
"I wonder if they finished yet? Did that interesting guy show up before me? Well, I guess I'll just have to find out!"
And she skipped into the distance like a little girl who was just given her favorite treat.
