Chapter 245: Absolute Monarch

Moby looked like an absolute warlord, holding the corpse in his hands tightly as he announced, a confident, overbearing look on his face gazing at the battlefield below. 

"Stand down! Your leader has been defeated! Fairly easily at that! If you don't want to join her, then stop this fight now!"

His voice rang through everyone's ears, all of them unable to believe their eyes and ears as so many things were processing in their mind, the first being of course about the identity of the corpse in his hand…

'W-what!? Is that Emilia!? Emilia is a shalker!? And she had an ability?!' 

That was all of their thoughts collectively, even HikariYami bore that same expression of bewilderment, as not even she knew that, which only made Moby's victory that much more unbelievable in her ears. 

The only person with different thoughts was Abby, the look of half wickedness and half grief on her face now no longer able to be seen as it was replaced by pure, unbridled rage, pushing the small relief in her heart from Alex's safety to the side as she roared, still pinned to the ground.

"SISTER! SISTER! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY ONLY SISTER! MY BEAUTIFUL SISTER! You monster! Give her back! Give her back right now! I need her! You mother fucker! H-how dare you! Even if it was only pretending! I can't believe I ever considered you my master! I'll fucking tear you to shreds-,"

Abby roared, squirming and screaming in place, roaring flames out of her mouth like a complete lunatic as she struggled to move let alone get out of her bindings, everyone's attention now directly on her with wide eyes, Moby's eyes seeming rather soft and disappointed looking at her state.

Her words confirmed it to them… Emilia was a shalker all along, and is the exact same corpse in Moby's hand, and seeing that there were no injuries to be seen on his face and his armour looking rather pristine, that only meant that Moby managed to take her out, one of the strongest second-year students in the entire school with relative ease… 

The reality of the situation setting in hard made sweat run down their face as Moby and his allies could not help but slowly, yet mellowly smile, as their leader pierced the darkness of the deep dark abyss with his victorious smile and absolute, unrivalled might. He was completely on another level in seemingly everything, no wonder he was chosen to be the next demon lord.

With more ease in their heart than ever before, Alex began staring blankly at the sky, hoping all will be well and that Moby could bring Abby back... His fighting did not go in vain, he managed to buy time just for things to work out, which put the first, genuinely relieved smile on his face in weeks, Jayden feeling the same way, tears of joy falling down her face as she transformed into one of her healer maids and began healing Alex's seemingly never-ending injuries and left the rest to Moby for him to take care of as she had already done her part...

"W-what… This can't be real…" Yami mumbled to herself, Hikari in her mind feeling the same way. 

Emilia was a shalker all along, the enemy… The enemy she hated and despised more than anything… 

She did not know how to feel… She knew that she could not really be trusted long ago but she chose to ally herself with her for 2 simple reasons. The first being for Hikari's sake as she and Emilia seemed to get a long rather well and seemed to be genuine friends, and the second was because she promised her a new body if she worked under her for a certain amount of time… 

More than anything, Yami loved her sister, and she felt like staying with her all the time must torment her. She wanted her to be free, unhindered by her own always negative emotions and needs. 

Yet, those hopes and dreams were now all shattered... But now, with her new knowledge, to get to those dreams, she had to ally and betray her own people by allying herself with the enemy, something that she had already been a victim of… 

Her mind was being torn in half… Was it a good thing that she died and was exposed? Or a bad thing that now it was seemingly impossible to get her sister her very own body… 

No one could tell the mental war happening in her mind, it was almost too much to bear for her as drops of sweat began falling down her seemingly blank face.

When, suddenly, her hair switched back to white, Hikari now at center stage, her look of bewilderment not concealed like her sister, kept wide open instead. 

"E-Emilia-tan W-was a shalker all along… N-no way… Sh-she lied to me… Sh-she used me… Mother… Father…" Her face seemed pale as a ghost, her voice sounding more like a helpless child than anything else as she dropped on her knees, tears falling from her face and onto the ground.

"Hikari! D-don't cry! It's how it's meant to be! It's better that we found out now than when it's too late…" 

Yami switched back over to comfort her grieving sister, the guilt welling up in her heart almost immeasurable as she hated herself for even considering that it would have been a good thing if everything went as planned, their conversation going back and forth. 

"Y-Yami-oni san… I-I'm so, so, so, sorry for yelling at you… You always knew better than me and took care of me in our darkest times... I'm stupid for trusting her more than you… Stupid... Stupid... Stupid... Stupid... So stupid... I should have trusted you more when you said that you don't like and trust Emilia… I-It was just that she was always so nice t-"

"Don't worry sister… It's not your fault... Don't cry... Please... I know you somewhat looked up to her as the mother you never had, just know that I'm always here for you and I'll never leave you… Ever… I would have killed Emilia with my own two hands if I had known this… I promise you that… She's better off dead, my plans could wait…"

Everyone was too far away to listen to HikariYami talking to each other, especially with Abby's seemingly ever-ending screams of madness echoing in the back as she could not accept the reality of her dead sister. 

Moby noticed HikariYami collapsing on the ground from his arrival, his plans seemed to be working even better than he never expected, which put a smile on his face as he jumped down from the mountain above and landed on the ground below with elegance and grace, Emilia's corpse still in his hands, the sound of cracks filling his ears knowing exactly where they came from, making him blink and bite his lips for a split second before he shook it away and walked towards HikariYami pridefully and confidently with the air of a true monarch, enduring all the pain to keep his looks, now only standing mere meters in front of her with an ominous air of dominance. 

"You know, I am a merciful man, so I'll give you an offer to spare your life. Unnecessary killing is not something I advocate, so I try to do it whenever I can," His voice and face were stern yet it still bore a certain warm, comforting charm to it as he looked down at the girl underneath him, crying her heart out, on her knees with her hand grasping her heart. 

Yami had been keeping a close eye on Moby as soon as he began approaching them, just in case he tried anything against them, despite how futile it might have been, she could not let her guard down.

She looked up to see his face, feeling odd calmness looking into his green eyes, the corpse of Emilia dragging on the ground behind him, pure hatred and contempt welling up inside her along with a hint of disgust for allying herself with her under any condition, inwardly asking for forgiveness for her grave sins that she was not sure could ever be forgiven.

The power of her enemy must be astronomical to be able to defeat her with such ease, coming out of it unscathed. She saw herself and Emilia at around the same level of strength, maybe giving herself the edge, but now seeing that she was a shalker, a race that was inherently stronger than humans, she was not sure anymore. She doubted that she could have done anywhere near the same thing that Moby did, which just about put his power in perspective.

She knew 100% that she stood absolutely no chance against him, especially with all of his friends, submitting to his demands seemed to be the only option she could do to survive…

Yet, her skepticism always got the best of her, so she asked. 

"Why are you sparing us, with your power, you could easily kill us… We already killed one of your friends, and injured all the rest… don't you want to take revenge?"

Moby's eyes looked confused, like he had no idea what they were talking about, before he looked over at the skeleton in the distance as he could not help but laugh out loud.

"Him!? Friend! Hahaha! You can't be serious right? He was only a pawn, I couldn't care less about that idiot. I was the one who ordered him to sacrifice himself if anyone actually important was going to die," 

Yami's eyes once again grew wide hearing his words as many realizations popped up in her mind, her sister's safety her top priority. 

"Well, how do I know you won't do the same with me? Throw me away like trash… huh?... Do you want to turn me into your demon spawn to use and throw me away too? I don't know what you demons even are, but I would rather die!"

Of course, Yami did not want to die, but the pain of being used and disposed of against her will and possibly betrayed without the ability to fight back was something even worse than being cut down in a fight to the death, especially for her sister, so she had to make a choice. 

"No! No! No! He was a special case. And, don't you worry, I won't turn you into my demon minion," Moby replied, his tone seeming very calm as expected of a demon overlord, yet Yami could not help but raise an eyebrow. 

"All I need you to do is imprint your blood on this paper. By doing it, you will agree to never reveal my identity as a demon or an alien, oh, and this piece of paper I am about to show you is something you can't reveal to anyone as well. If you go against this contract then you die. But, if you decline my offer, I will cut you down on the spot. Fair right?" Moby said with a smile, pulling out an ominous, mysterious paper from a deep, purple void.

Yami took her time to ponder, considering everything about Moby's offer, concluding that it seemed very fair, and the only thing she could do to survive. If he had said that she would not be able to hurt him or his family in any way by signing the contract, or something along those lines, she would have 100% declined as he would then be able to turn her into a demon without even giving her the chance to fight back. Keeping his demon secret in exchange for her and her sister's life seemed to be a fair trade, so she accepted it.

Standing up on her two feet, her heart beating faster than hits in a pro ping pong match, she wiped the tears on her face that was previously tear-filled from Hikari and spoke.

"I accept the offer, there isn't much to lose… But you better keep your end of the deal…"

"I swear it on my life," Moby nodded back, blinking in acknowledgement before he felt a gentle grip on his gauntlets that made him slightly bite his lip before looking at what it was. 

When he did, all that he could see was what seemed like a small, white hair girl, looking like a sweet, innocent child, shaking his hands gently up and down, tears running down her face.

"Ummm… Mister… Thank you so much for killing Emilia… That filthy, disgusting Shalker... It makes me so happy… I'm so, so, so, so, sorry for everything I did to you and your friends… I didn't know any better, I really do beg for your forgiveness mister demon lord... I don't know how I will ever make it up to you,"

What Moby saw was a cute innocent child on the outside but pandora's box from the inside, he couldn't help but think that she was a monster ready to eat him whole. He did not know if he was being manipulated, but an odd feeling in his stomach was telling him that she was being actually genuine. 

"It's okay… But now, will you sign this paper? We need to get back home before curfew, we can talk later about this okay?"

Moby shook her hand back with a smile, holding the contract paper in front of her.

"Ummm… Sir… Can I please call you big brother… I-I never had one before…" 

Moby inwardly raised an eyebrow, like he did not expect or understand anything of what was happening but went along with it anyways. 

"Of course, that wouldn't be a problem,"

"R-really…"

"Yeah, no worries, it's fine,"

"Th-thank you so much big brother…" 

Her voice was shy and taken back, completely contradicting his mental image of her.

"So, big brother Moby… What do you want me to do?"

"Just cut your self in some way, then imprint your blood at the bottom, my blood is already on it so it just needs your approval now,"

"Okay… I got it…" 

Hikari brought her hands up and was about to bite her thumb to draw blood from it, when, suddenly, her hair turned black, immediately doing it instead.

"It's okay, I'll do it instead,"

Yami said, putting her blood on the paper, causing it to glow the same colours as before, making it more than clear how overprotective she was of her sister.

"I'm done, I'll have to trust you on this one..."

She said, taking a deep breath, Moby nodding back at her with a stern face before storing the paper back in his inventory, Emilia's body still in his hands. 

"Curfew is in about 30 minutes, we need to head back to the dorms before anyone suspects anything, and I need to report Emilia back to the military proving that she is a shalker. Can you wait for me over there? I need to take care of one more thing before we leave…"

Moby spoke, pointing at a small hill in the distance, Yami nodding back at his words, following orders without question before Moby turned his focus towards Abby in the distance, still crying and screaming, tears running down her face. At this point, she was so far gone that he could barely even recognize her, making his own heart snap in two seeing who he once saw as his own daughter brought down to such a state… Not even defeating her "sister" was enough to break the mind control...

"GIVE ME MY SISTER BACK YOU SON OF A BITCH! THIS WAS NEVER MEANT TO HAPPEN! EVERYTHING IS RUINED! AHHH!"