On one side, the forces of light, the 'good', five Heroes. A Paladin, an Archmage, a Grand Priest, over there hiding in the shadows is a Thief and it looks like they have a Monster Tamer as well.

On the other side, the forces of chaos, the 'evil', a bunch of Demons. A Red Dragon, a Vampire Princess, a Grand Slime, an Arch-Devil, a Witch Queen... and one more person, the one lording over this bunch of normally disunited idiots. That's right, a Demon Master: me.

Now, this might seem like a situation in which you'd be cheering against me, but hear me out here. I'll explain the details later, but I'll start at the beginning for now.

Have you ever heard of a type of story called a 'parallel world story'? They're fairly common, to the point you could find countless in minutes of searching, but I'll explain just in case. In these stories, the- usually male- main character is struck down by the accident of a god and given the right to come back to life in a fantasy world with a 'cheat', or they're called to such a fantasy world on a summoner's whims, being granted great power in the process, or somesuch. In any case, in almost all of these stories, the main character ends up in a fantasy, almost game-like world with some kind of really powerful ability, and becomes a hero, saving the world from destruction and being surrounded by beauties who are into him. I meet most of these conditions- I've been taken to here from earth, I've been given an ability incomparable to the power of the native residents, and I'm surrounded by beauties- though I'm not sure they're into me- but one thing is off.

I am not a hero.

Not anymore, at least.

I once was a Hero- 'champions of justice', fighting for the Goddess of Light, Lady Luciel, using the power she's given them to defeat the 'evil' monsters and making a 'pure' world for the Luciel-worshipping 'good' humans to live in.

However, these same Heroes are dangerous to Lady Luciel- after all, once she's given them power, she can't take it back, so if they went against her, they could massacre entire cities. Her solution? Brainwashing. I won't get into details now, as I don't have time, but it's nothing ethical, to say the least.

However, some Heroes can still be saved. And so...

"Then, Heroes, tell me," I said, leaning back into my lavishly decorated throne, right hand stroking the head of the Red Dragon who was resting her body on the throne's back. "Who do you serve?" On my face, a sneer. These were a mere five Heroes against my five strongest Demons and myself, after all.

"I devote myself wholly to the sacred Goddess of Light, Lady Luciel!", the Paladin, the Grand Priest and the Monster Tamer all shouted in unison without a trace of hesitation, placing their right hands in front of their chests. Pathetic fools.

"Stop asking ridiculous questions and fight!", the Paladin followed up, pointing his sword at me. Square chin, muscular body, sharp features... the very image of a knight commander. His golden eyes shone with a strong determination- a determination to strike me down, that is. He looks like the leader of the party.

"Shut up", I said, briefly snapping my gaze in his direction. "I'm trying to be polite here, but if you take another step towards me with that wonderful holy sword of yours, I will tear you to shreds." The Paladin took a step back, overwhelmed by the sudden effect of my skill, [Dragon's Glare]. Why wouldn't he be? After all, that's a dragon's skill. After releasing this threat, I loosened my tone of voice and addressed the other two Heroes. "Then, Archmage, and that Thief over there." The Archmage tilted her head at being mentioned specifically, and the Thief let out a weird sound of surprise at being noticed. Apparently, he didn't expect to be noticed at all. "Who do you two serve? You didn't answer earlier."

"Hmph", the Thief let out. "Why would I serve anyone? The whole notion is ridiculous", he said, a fearless smile on his face. "I serve none other than myself, and myself only. What's it to you, anyway?"

"Well, uh... Lady Luciel, I guess...?", the Archmage answered, tilting her head the opposite direction. If I were still human, surely her unsure golden gaze would've stolen my heart. "But why do you want to know? You're going to try to kill us all anyway, right...?"

"Hmph", I snorted, sneer still as present as ever. "Davna, Charlotte", I said, addressing the Red Dragon mostly behind my throne and the Vampire Princess drinking tea a few metres away, "Don't kill those last two. They can be saved. Slaughter the rest. Go."

In response to my command, Charlotte, the vampiress, let out a sigh and said "As always, you have no elegance in your commands...", but even so, she placed her teacup on the table she was sitting at and got up, though reluctantly. A pair of pitch-black bat-like wings appeared on her back and her already red eyes glowed a deeper colour, and she took the ceremonial knife from her waist, holding it up to her wrist.

Davna the dragon, on the other hand, telepathically told me "Leave it to me, master!" before raising her body from behind my throne and setting her sharp gaze on the enemy party's leader, using her skill [Dragon's Glare]. When used by an actual dragon, the effect is much greater, but the Paladin was expecting it this time, causing the effect to weaken instead. Sight-type skills are fairly simple to resist if you know they're coming.

As I hadn't given them any orders, Navillus the Grand Slime, Lilith the Arch-Devil and Tempest the Witch Queen simply stood by, observing. Navillus was hanging from the ceiling, as slimes tend to, doing... well, not a whole lot, probably? Lilith was lazing around in the corner, like always, looking at the battle with a half-interested gaze. Tempest wasn't even looking, instead messing around with- I'm sorry, working on- some manner of magical device which I was already sure would eventually explode.

On the other side, the Paladin readied his sword once more, pointing it in Charlotte's direction. 'Hey, isn't a Paladin supposed to use a shield...?' Such a thought came to mind, but since he'd probably get stronger if I actually said that, I decided to leave it be. The Grand Priest readied his staff and started chanting a prayer, a large white magical formation spreading out on the floor below him- ugh, I recognise that. That's [Over Boost], a spell which boosts the magical and physical abilities of everyone he considers an ally. The Archmage readied her grimoire and she, too, started chanting, but she chanted a spell rather than a prayer-

Dangerous!

That's what my instincts told me. Meanwhile, I recognised that spell- [Grand Exorcism]. It sounds like a spell only useful against ghosts, but in reality, any Demon or Monster who gets caught up in it will be unconditionally obliterated. Luckily for us, however, its chant time was an entire minute, giving us ample time to deal with her. The Thief of the party seems to have snuck up on Davna- and with a single sweep of her tail, he was launched across the room, crashing into the wall with a loud thud. Davna is a Red Dragon, after all- a party of three Heroes is needed to subjugate one, at least. There's no way you could sneak up on one, especially one under my rule.

The Monster Tamer in the back raised his hands, calling forth his familiars-

Now!

I snapped my fingers, activating my Demon Master-only skill [Demon Master's Authority], and the moment I did so, the familiars- a Star Wolf and several Direwolves- ran towards me, ignoring the Monster Tamer's infuriated shouting, and lowered their heads to me.

"What are you-?! Why-?! You're supposed to be my monsters!", the poor Hero shouted, stomping his right foot on the ground several times. Spit was flying out of his mouth everywhere, and his golden eyes reflected pure frustration.

"What were you expecting?", I asked, leaning back calmly into my throne. "Or could it be you've forgotten? If so, then I wonder if these words will help you remember? 'Demon Master'." My sneer was only getting bigger as time went on, and my heterochromatic- one golden, the other black- eyes must've been narrowed in pleasure, like a hunter finally getting its long-awaited prey.

"Demon Mas- Shit!", he cursed. "Shit, shit, shit! You stole my monsters?!"

"That's right. 'Demon Master', the race of Demon with absolute authority over all other monsters.", I said, looking down at my fingernails. "I dislike taking away a monster's free will, so I don't use this ability much, but..." I looked up again, staring deep into his eyes, my piercing gaze presumably scaring the life out of him. "When a monster has already been robbed of its free will by a poor brainwashed puppet as you, the least I can do is make sure it's fighting on its allies' side, no?" With that, I snapped my fingers once again, and the wolves rushed towards their former master-

Meanwhile, Charlotte slit her wrist with the ceremonial knife and activated one of her skills, [Bloodworks]. She manipulated the overflowing blood from the wound as if it were still part of her body, forming a pair of swords for herself to use and several blood spears floating ominously in the air behind her. After a short while of deliberation, she decided the Hero with his sword pointed towards her was the most important target, and faced him, wings spread, in a battle-ready stance. And then, as if to decide the battle by speed of who acts first, she dashed forwards, using her wings to accelerate faster-

Davna simply raised her giant arm, holding her 'hand' ominously over the Grand Priest's head, and slammed it down-

In that instant, three battles were decided, and three lives were lost.