Olsylvia Academy, East Campus, in an Inner World within the Olivia Wizard Academy’s Doyle Hunting Ground. At this point, the place had turned into an area where dark creatures ran rampant. A horde of Dark Goblins and Dark Demonic Imps sprouted up from the ground like weeds. In addition, various undead creatures such as skeletons and zombies had started to crawl out of the ground. Even some of the gargantuan-type scavenger ghosts had begun to make their appearance.
“I can’t believe that this fellow would stoop to such despicable means! He’s even created a Demon King raid! There are so many dark creatures… Eh, you guys are here too?”1
Bella was swearing quietly at the Demon King Ockham’s immoral behavior when she saw Lisha and the others walk out from behind the trees. She had been so engrossed in romancing Kriss that she had not realized that her dorm mates were lurking in the shadows nearby. Fortunately for Bella, she had not done anything improper with Kriss, otherwise she would have a hard time explaining things to everyone.
“Elder Sister Bella, let’s talk about this when we get back to the dorm. Our main priority now should be to take care of the threat that this Demon King is posing to us!”
The other three had not objected to Lisha’s suggestion and had even nodded in agreement. Seeing as they had agreed to join in, Bella decided to save her Demon King abilities for another battle. After some thought, she took out a Storage Ring and retrieved the Great Evil Slaying Sword that she had bought from the Savior Akmans. This sword may have looked unassuming and ordinary to the naked eye, but in this environment filled with darkness, it was emanating a resplendent glow.
In this raid, Bella had teammates that had different abilities and strengths. Bella and Lisha were Knights, Noreya was an assassin and an archer and Kriss was an expert swordswoman. In addition, for magical ability, they had Ariel, who was a Mage and Elaine, who was a puppet master and an alchemist. Last of all, there was the Evil Lolita. If they had a Priest on their team, it would have been perfect.
“Elder Sister Bella, can I borrow that lass, Laceman, from you? I’m afraid that it will be difficult to control the T-Rex steed while in such dark conditions.”2
“No problem, anything can be borrowed between us sisters.”
Lisha had not summoned the T-Rex steed that Bella had previously gifted her. As the T-Rex was an otherworldly creature modified by Bella and not a living being, there was a possibility that it would lose control and go on a mindless rampage in such dark conditions. It would have been a breeze if she still had her previous Golden Dragon Steed.
“Mistress Bella, these low level undead creatures will cower in fear once they detect the aura of a Demon King. You simply have to…”
“Lolita, we are not alone here. Let’s not frighten the others!”
Quietly, Bella rejected Lolita’s suggestion. Even though Kriss, Ariel, and Lisha probably knew of her identity as a Demon King, it was unclear if Elaine and Noreya had any clue. Even though Bella reckoned that the entire dorm was “dark”, revealing her secret of being a Demon King this early in the game would be unwise.
“In that case, fine! Mistress Bella, please hold on for a moment.”
Lolita crossed her arms in front of her and shut her eyes again. A black pool of water began to gather at her feet and spread swiftly across the entire area. Those on Bella’s team were not affected by the black pool of water. The black water simply diverted at their feet and gathered behind them. Those undead creatures who had surrounded them were not as lucky, they were pulled under the black water and dissolved into nothingness.
Bella was too focused on Lolita’s changes to notice her dorm mates’ current state. Those who did not sink into the black waters were basically dishonorable characters. Lolita had guessed that not a single one of Bella’s dorm mates were “good people” in the traditional sense. Otherwise, she would not have dared to reveal her original identity.
Lolita’s petite figure had sunk into the black waters and almost immediately, the surface of the pool of black water began to bubble furiously, as though something sinister was about to break out of the water. The skies that had initially been turned dark by the Demon King Ockham’s demonic powers had somehow turned even darker as Lolita continued to use her powers. From that moment on, the control over this Demon King’s domain no longer belonged to the Demon King Ockham alone.
In the Demon King’s palace, in a hidden area of the Doyle Hunting Grounds, the Demon King Ockham watched in shock as his Demonic Mirror showed him everything that was happening. When Lolita began to morph, he realized that he must have encountered a big shot in the Demonic Ways. With the immense power contained in that pool of black water, even if he was at his peak, he would still be unable to match up to Lolita.
The Demon King Ockham was tempted to admit his weakness and thought of running away with his tail between his legs. However, this area had already been locked down by Lolita’s powers. Even if he had wanted to, he had been rendered unable to send any SOS signals to any of the other Twelve Demon Kings, let alone leave the area. The only thing he could do was grit his teeth and take his chances here. Having infiltrated the Human Empires for so long, he was not content to simply give up.
Once Lolita had sunk into the water, her original identity resurfaced in no time at all as an enormous demonic being that appeared hundreds of meters long burst out of the water. It was bigger than any of the Six Abyss Demonic Kings that Bella had seen. Furthermore, it was much more terrifying as it was a dragon with a pitch black body.
This enormous dragon had nine dragon heads and each one had their own individual necks, allowing them to move freely. Every head looked different, but were all equally terrifying and ferocious. On the back of this Nine Headed Dragon was a massive pair of dragon wings. With a slight movement of the wings, a typhoon began to pick up and swept towards the woods. In mere moments, every single undead creature had been swept away.
Bella jumped in fright when she first saw the Nine Headed Dragon. She had seen many different magical beasts and demonic beings, but seeing a Devil Dragon this terrifying was definitely a first for her. Moreover, comparing the petite loli image that Lolita had previously projected and the monstrous Nine Headed Dragon, the difference was far too extreme for Bella to wrap her head around it in that moment.
Bella was not the only one who needed time to adjust; the other girls had felt the same as well. However, their reactions were already a far cry from any reaction a normal person would have. A typical human girl would have fainted in fright upon seeing such a horrifying Nine Headed Dragon. Judging by their composure, it was obvious that their human identity was merely a façade.
Bella and her team had stepped onto the back of the Nine Headed Dragon and were rising up in the air along with it. Lolita’s current form was actually a smaller version. Even Lolita herself was unsure how long her original identity would be if she were to morph into her full size. However, at this point, her current size was already sufficient.
To defeat this Demon King, Lolita honestly did not need to transform into her demonic being form. Even in her form as a young human girl, she would be able to easily crush the Demon King Ockham. However, she remembered that Bella, also known as the Sacred Demon God Samantha, had a bit of a memory loss. Thus she decided to transform into her original identity in hopes of jolting Bella’s memory about certain things.
“Eh? Why does the body of this Nine Headed Dragon have the same sticky substance as Slime… Wait a minute, Lolita, what are you doing? Stop it right now, we are on the same team…”
In an instant, the body of the Nine Headed Dragon seemed to turn into mush and Bella and the others immediately sunk into it. After absorbing the few “pilots”, Lolita’s Nine Headed Dragon’s form began its initial awakening. It was not a full awakening. In order to do so, she would have to absorb nine “co-pilots” and one “main pilot”.
A few elders had congregated at the perimeter of the Doyle Hunting Grounds; one of them was the Holy Magic Mentor Gilbert whom Bella had encountered earlier. The others were the principal of Olsylvia Academy and the deans of the five main sub-academies. The elders had been attracted here by Lolita’s evil energy. However, they were unable to detect the Demon King Ockham’s aura as he had previously used his powers to conceal it.
“There has been absolutely no attempt to hide this evil power. My goodness, what in the world has happened here?!”
“Old friend, I believe that a subspace, also known as an Inner World, has been created here. Who knows, maybe a terrifying demonic being had awakened within the Inner World. As the being’s powers are too horrifying, we are able to feel it even though we are on the other side of the barrier. How about this, let me use my artifact to check things out!”
The Dean of the Olivia Wizard Academy took out a mirror. This mirror was an Intermediate-grade divine artifact that was able to glimpse into hidden pockets of space within a particular area. Using the unique ability of this mirror, the elders saw something that not many had the opportunity to see in their entire lifetime.
Within the Inner World of the Doyle Hunting Grounds, they saw a gigantic Devil Dragon emerge from a pitch black pool of water. This dragon was hundreds of meters long, had ebony scales and seemed to be of the Dragon Race in the West. On its back, it had a massive pair of dragon wings. However, that was simply the tip of a terrifying iceberg. This dragon had nine heads which could move independently.
On five of the heads, one of them had pupils that gleamed an eerie blood red, while the remaining four appeared to be mechanical and almost incomplete, without any glowing red eyes. Other than the nine heads, many demonic beings were emerging from the pool of black water and could be found everywhere. All of those beings looked strange, as though their bodies were covered in a layer of black sludge. The only defining feature of the demonic beings was the different sizes of their blood red eyes.
A black hole had appeared above the Nine Headed Dragon and everything on the ground seemed to be sucked into the vortex to an unknown place. The chaos that ensued was apocalyptic. Suddenly, one of the nine heads turned and looked directly into the mirror. In the next instant, countless cracks appeared in the mirror. Before the elders had time to react, the mirror had shattered into pieces.
“Boss, this… what should we do? Do we need to inform the Radiant Church?!”
“Let’s wait and observe a little more. For now, this matter requires the utmost secrecy from everyone here. If this demonic being were to remain in this Inner World, it would not be much of a problem. Nevertheless, if there are any unusual movements from the Inner World, then everyone should… should make escaping their first priority!”
After much deliberation, the Principal of Olsylvia Academy had reached the difficult decision of choosing to escape. Even through the mirror, he was able to feel the destructive killer instinct of the Nine Headed Dragon. Such instincts would have only existed due to demonic beings from destroyed worlds. If comparisons were to be made, the Twelve Demon Kings from hundreds of thousands of years ago would have appeared rather uninspiring.
The various deans fell silent as they processed the decision made by the Principal of Olsylvia Academy. In times of crisis, it was disgraceful for them as leaders of the academies, to be the first to run away. However, the deans knew that they were in no position to comment as they were aware of how much the principal adored the academy. He had once said, unless the end of the world is upon them, he would not even step out of the academy. The demonic being had already posed enough danger to casually lead to destruction of apocalyptic proportions.
Bella had no idea that Lolita’s Devil Dragon form had alerted the outside world as well as the old fogeys of Olsylvia Academy. She was now within the heart of the Nine Headed Dragon, with Lolita by her side. As for the other beautiful young girls, they were nowhere to be found. Bella did not know what their current situation was either.
“Samantha… I mean Mistress Bella, welcome to the Evil Dragon Emperor, Tiffany Lolita’s Inner World. If there is anything that you do not understand, feel free to ask me!”
“Lolita… where are my clothes? It couldn’t have been ripped to shreds by your evil energy again!”
At the moment, Bella was entirely situated within a pool of crimson liquid, which practically looked like blood.
Even as Bella was seated in a pool of what appeared to be blood, but she did not feel disgusted at all. The smell wafting from the pool was not the sickeningly dry, metallic scent associated with blood. Instead, it had a slight exotic sweetness to it.
Bella’s clothes were not the only things to have mysteriously disappeared. The Great Evil Slaying Sword was also nowhere in sight. She guessed that Lolita had temporarily kept it as this place was still her heart and Bella doubted that Lolita would enjoy having a savior’s weapon within in. Lolita sat down on Bella’s right, patiently waiting for any questions she had.
On the bright side, Lolita’s clothes were also gone, which allowed Bella a chance to bask in the sight of her beautiful body. If they weren’t in such unusual circumstances, Bella would not have been able to resist teasing Lolita a little. In this area, there was a constant rhythmic echo of a heartbeat, which left Bella very tense and unable to concentrate on Lolita.
“To answer your question, no, it did not. You are now situated in my heart and now controlling the immense body of the Nine Headed Dragon. To put it in simpler terms, you can take this as the cockpit of a robot. Remember Andrea the Mechanical Creator, her world was full of such machines. Once you take a little time to think about it, you will easily understand.”
After hearing Lolita’s brief explanation, Bella finally understood what was going on. This was the heart of the Nine Headed Dragon and she was the core commander of the demonic being. From her location, she was able to control every single part of this immense dragon. This was similar to the operators of the giant mechanical suits of armor in the cartoons from a previous world, just that this time, Bella was operating a biomechanical armor in the form of a demonic being.
Lisha and the four other girls were within their individual cockpits in five different heads respectively. Their cockpits were located within the brain rather than the heart. However, it did not seem to be their first time in such a situation as they appeared to be rather familiar with what they were doing. Via the images from the eyes of each dragon head, Bella was able to clearly view everything that was going on outside.
“Why do Kriss and the others seem so familiar with this?! Lolita, do you think that they were…”
“Mistress Bella, whether or not they tell you their secret, would be dependent on your own effort in breaking down their defenses within their hearts. I shall not interfere.”
Through the transmissions from the other heads, Bella watched as the five dragon heads controlled by her dorm mates worked in tandem to attack targets on the ground. Judging by how they moved, Bella was positive that they had done this before. In that case, she should not fall behind. But, how is she going to control this Nine Headed Dragon?
While Bella was contemplating her next course of action, a device that looked like a control from a VR game materialized from the blood pool. Lolita had created this imaginary tool from the memories of past pilots. Bella held on to the device and gingerly pushed a couple of buttons. The next thing she knew, the four remaining unmanned dragon heads ejected a stream of dark matter onto a distant target.
Anything the dark matter touched melted almost instantly. Before the hiding Demon King Ockham had a chance to escape or call out for help, he was being swept away together with his palace. With just a slight push of the buttons, Bella was able to decimate everything that the Demon King Ockham had built in the past few decades. Whether he was dead or alive, no one knew.
“Lolita, this is much too fast…”
“Mistress Bella, this is nothing strange. This time, I just wanted you to recall some things from the past! A long time ago, the Nine Headed Dragon was the demonic being that was piloted by the demon gods. Back then, it was Big Sister that commandeered the heart. The other heads were occupied and controlled by you and seven other demon gods and evil gods.”
Lolita had left many words unsaid. The Nine Headed Dragon was only used when the demon gods and evil gods felt bored. Individually, each demon god had their personal version of this as their original identity. As a sacred demon god, Bella was able to transform as many as eight times. Each transformation would be able to cause as much destruction as the Nine Headed Dragon by fighting battles and destroying worlds using her original identity’s form.
That night, the Doyle Hunting Grounds had been independently demarcated as a permanent forbidden area. The principal and the deans had refused to mention anything related to what they had seen. Any entry records had also inexplicably vanished thus no one knew that Bella and her dorm mates had ever been there.