Demon Contract

Roy's roar was in Demon Language, a language that directly affected the soul and allowed demons to communicate with people from any world.

However, the shock Demon Language inflicted upon the soul was more than fragile Human Souls could bear. After Roy's roar, the humans present instantly went blank, swaying unsteadily on their feet. A few even began bleeding from the nose, and it took them quite a while to come to their senses.

The effect was excellent. Although the people present looked at Roy with even greater terror after coming to their senses, no one dared make another sound. The scene immediately fell silent.

However, among the crowd, a somewhat bloated fat man gathered his courage and stepped forward twice before dropping to his knees before Roy. In an excited yet fawning tone, he said, "Great Satan Great Demon King, it was I, your servant Lucius, who summoned you! Thank you for heeding my prayer and descending into the human world!"

At that moment, Roy had been sensing a strange force acting upon his body after arriving in this world. How should he put it? It felt as though it was rejecting him... He had been wondering what was happening when Lucius's words left him completely stunned.

The hell is this Satan Great Demon King crap! Since when was that my name??

But Roy quickly realized what had happened. These people had probably only learned the bare basics of the Demon Summoning Art before presumptuously trying to summon a demon. They knew nothing about the Abyss Demon World. The only demon name they likely knew was Satan, so they had called out Satan's name during the summoning.

Unfortunately, they had no idea that with their pitiful magical power, they could never summon a true Great Demon King. The Magic Array had merely connected to the Upper Abyss where Roy was. Even if Roy had not answered their summons, only another Lower Demon could have appeared.

Of course, Lucius's form of address was not entirely wrong, because Satan could also be used as a general term for all demons. In essence, there was no Great Demon King named Satan in the Abyss Demon World. Even if there really were such a Great Demon King, with so many summoners calling his name, he would never have enough time to answer them all...

Roy had no need to correct such a mistake. He merely asked irritably, "What did you summon me for?"

Lucius immediately raised his head upon hearing that. With a fanatical expression, he said to Roy, "My Lord! Please grant me power, grant me Eternal Life, and let me become the ruler of this world! In return, we shall worship you as our lord forever!"

Not only Lucius, but all the Black Cloaks around him also prostrated themselves on the ground and knelt in worship before Roy.

Yet Roy was dumbfounded. Did Lucius have some kind of misunderstanding about demons? Listen to his demands: power, Eternal Life, becoming the ruler of the world!?

And the price he intended to pay was merely acknowledging Roy as his lord?

Holy shit, even demons would want a deal that good! How could I possibly give you that?

On his very first summoning, Roy's worldview had been refreshed once again. Never mind that Roy was merely a Lower Demon now—even if a true Great Demon King had come, he would probably have been shocked by Lucius's Greed.

What Roy did not know was that this was also the fault of his current "looks." After being strengthened by the T-Virus and modified by the system, Roy's body was now filled with a Sense of Power. His taut, powerful muscles, savage claws and fangs, and enormous Demon Wings perfectly matched Lucius and the others' image of a Great Demon King. Since they knew so little about demons, they had vastly overestimated Roy's strength and assumed he was omnipotent, which was why they made such an outrageous request.

But strangely, once Lucius voiced his request, Roy found that a... contract had appeared before him! A Demon Contract!

The Demon Contract was a parchment scroll that gleamed with a pitch-black radiance. Roy sensed the same power within it as the Abyss Gate, perhaps something formed as a result of his crossing between worlds. A pact had already been written upon the scroll in Demonic Text. Even Roy could clearly understand its meaning. The contract stated that if he could strike a deal with Lucius, the one who had made the wish, then Roy could ignore the World Power's rejection and remain in this world until the deal was completed. Otherwise, he would continue to be driven out by the World Power.

World Power? Contract Power? What fascinating things! Who had created rules like these?

Roy was not particularly surprised. He had already been reborn as a demon, so he could accept even stranger things.

But that did not mean he would sign a contract just to remain in this world, because the contract Lucius wanted was simply too outrageous! He had only ever heard of demons tempting humans into signing contracts. The contract had to be made according to his own terms.

So Roy's eyes shifted, and he suddenly began to laugh.

As a demon, his laughter naturally sounded eerie. Just as Lucius and the others found it horrifying, Roy finally spoke. "Eternal Life? Even gods can fall. What makes you think you can hope for Eternal Life? Even if it could be done, do you know what price you would have to pay?"

"W-what price?" Lucius stared blankly at Roy.

"Offer me One Hundred Million Souls, and I will grant you Eternal Life!" Roy demanded exorbitantly.

Lucius sucked in a sharp breath and said in stunned disbelief, "T-that's impossible! How could that ever be done?!"

"A deal has always been fair!" Roy sneered. "And Eternal Life costs this much! Otherwise, what did you think that filthy, Greed-filled soul of yours could buy?"

Seeing Lucius's devastated expression, Roy suddenly changed his tone. "Of course, there is another way. For every One Hundred Souls you give me, I will grant you One Hundred Years of Lifespan!"

Lucius immediately perked up at those words. Roy's demand for One Hundred Million Souls had terrified him, but when he suddenly heard that the number had dropped to one hundred, he immediately developed the illusion that perhaps he could manage it!

Roy did not care whether it was an illusion or not. He continued to coax him. "What do you think? With this method, you can first gain One Hundred Years of Lifespan, then use those one hundred years to slowly Accumulate Souls and complete the deal with me. If one hundred years is not enough, then take two hundred, three hundred. Once you have enough souls, you can make a deal with me and obtain Eternal Life!"

"Fine, we'll do it this way!" Lucius excitedly sprang to his feet.

"Are you sure you want to trade this way?" Roy asked.

"I'm sure. We'll trade this way!" Lucius nodded without hesitation.

Lucius's mind was now entirely occupied by those One Hundred Years of Lifespan. For a human, one hundred years was already an extremely long time. But he failed to notice that Roy had successfully guided him into changing his wish from "grant Eternal Life" to "trade for Lifespan"! These two phrases carried completely different meanings in a Demon Contract!

For Roy, the difficulty of fulfilling those two wishes was entirely different as well. He could not even achieve Eternal Life himself, so how could he grant it to Lucius? Lifespan, on the other hand, was something Roy had some way of handling. At worst, he could make another vial of T-Virus... a stripped-down version, of course. When the time came, one injection for Lucius would fulfill the contract.

After all, zombies could live for a very long time too...

Was it humanity's Greed that was to blame, or a demon's cunning? Even Roy himself could no longer tell...