Mind Demon's Path of Domination

All the remaining A-rankers and Mark came into a conference—it was through the internet. At first, no Hunter spoke, nor did the Demon. Everyone just stared at the screen before them with varied expressions, most focused on the Red Demon in front of them.

"So, a question Demon." Bale breathed out. "You introduced yourself as Mark in the video that you published earlier. Then, I want to know what happened to Hailen?"

"Hailen..." Mark sighed.

Bale didn’t ask anymore but his face changed into a mix of confusion and hatred as he looked back into the screen—at the red-skinned demon that spoke human tongue—and remained silent.

Nobody would want to cooperate in anything with the murderer of their brothers. Even though he had shown a wish to work together earlier, now, the fact that Hailen had been murdered finally seemed to have clicked in the A-ranker’s mind.

Mark could read ’I will kill you!’ written all over Bale’s face.

He examined the others.

Reema was calmer than Bale, more cunning—she wanted to work with the Demon if it would benefit her. So were the rest of the Hunters, most were calm and indifferent, looking at it with a business-like gaze.

The Twins were beside Bale, their opinion was Bale’s opinion. Bale was their father.

X-Jerk, Yamuna, Hanmo, Wind, and Lumla were on different screens, each having a different background.

Yes, they had all left the mega-dungeon for now and the media was screaming at the failed battle against the Boss, the death of A-rankers, and a Demon’s offer of salvation forever in return for sacrificing mere animals.

"If you all had let me have that core, would all of this have ended up like this?" Lumla asked, frustration evident. Hanmo glared at her, face cold. She shut up.

Many of them were still thinking with pained hearts. So until now, Mark was amidst them in the form of Hailen? Listening to all their plans and plotting against them?

Shiver.

"Hunters," Mark said, smiling. "I don’t want any more conflicts in this world. It’s getting tiring. My own World awaits my return. It will be to your own benefit to help me cover your entire World with my Dungeon, too. Don’t you think so?"

The Hunters became silent and looked at each other.

Mark continued. "What option do you have anyway? If you don’t summon the Angels, the Mega-Dungeon will expand as it used to and cover the entire world in less than a year. Killing the Boss will be impossible now that you have less powerful people on your side and we have more.

"With my help, the dungeon’s expansion will be even faster than it used to be. And if you do summon Angels, this world will become a battlefield and you people will have no escape paths. That would be the worst choice."

Yamuna, the Mass Healer, asked, "What do we all stand to gain if we let you expand the Dungeon into covering the entire world without any resistance?"

"That’s the questions I want," Mark said, easily leading the conversation toward where he wanted to head. But he could see the disgust and distrust in their faces as they spoke to him—they didn’t trust him one bit.

What Demon had ever spoken for the good of man?

Why would they trust him?

Yuri appeared in the conference and everyone’s gazes shifted to her. She was leaning against Mark’s masculine back like a wall. She appeared calm.

Bale hissed. "The bitch!"

Yuri rubbed her nose and ignored the remark.

"Well, Mark’s proposal is simple," she said. "He just wants you all to silently watch as the mega-dungeon expands and in return, when the mega-dungeon completely devours the world, he will help you all migrate into another world. A safe world."

"Is that true? Are there many worlds out there?" The Hunters devolved into a small chat with each other and began to see this meeting way more seriously. This was indeed an option, entering another world and starting from there.

But how could they trust a Demon?

"You don’t have to trust me," Mark said, golden eyes examining each Hunter. "I am willing to sign a Contract with you Hunters. I am willing to promise that I will send all of you into another world when I completely cover this one with my Dungeon."

Bale was the one to start speaking coldly. "I am willing to work with you."

Mark was stunned. "That’s unexpected.""Killing you won’t return my brother to me. And it will endanger my own legacy, and offending you for an enmity is just not worth it." Bale spat on the ground. "It is a sickening feeling but whatever. As long as I gain something, I am willing to stay my hand against demons from today onwards. And since we are bargaining, take all humans into account. None of your demons will hurt any humans from now on. How is that?"

But I’d rather kill people with enmity against me in the bud, Mark thought for a second but then nodded thoughtfully.

"I can’t say for all the demons in the mega-dungeon. There are too many of them. But I can offer you one thing.

"No more Demons will be allowed to walk out of the Gate, I will keep my minotaur as a guard there, so any new Demon that enters will be killed upon entry.

"It should be easy for you people to protect the humans from Tier 1 Demons and below, so, I can promise that any human that survives after I conquer this entire world will have the chance of moving into another world."

The contract wouldn’t even work on him unless Reol’ran signed it. But no one was aware of her existence except himself. No matter what hard Contract terms they come up with, in the end, it wouldn’t matter against him.

"If it’s under Contract terms, we can indeed trust him," Hanmo said calmly. The rest remained silent, and then Hanmo added, "We need some time to think about it, Demon. We shall contact you."

Mark and Yuri were kicked out of the meeting.

Outside the mega-dungeon, Mark and Yuri were sitting together under a building’s shade. Both tinkering with a smartphone. With Yuri’s permission, he had planted a Dungeon Heart Seed in her on the way, and now, he could go out of Dungeons while being with her.

She was his Dungeon.

Yuri stood up and stretched, then wrapped her hand around Mark’s neck from the back.

"So, are you going to save all humans after this world becomes yours?"

Mark smiled. "Do you want me to?"

"Yes, I’d prefer to leave my world on a good note." Yuri blinked. "Is that possible?"

"Yeah, it is possible. I was not lying when I said I could send them all to a different world."

Eyes shining with curiosity, Yuri asked, "Tell me about it."

"Basically, when I truly conquer this World to its bare limits and my Dungeon is near to covering the entirety of it, the Hunter World’s Will would realize that saving this is a lost cause. Then, it would eject all of the natives of this World out into different Worlds by itself even if I don’t make any move."

Reol’ran told him that.

"The Hunter World wouldn’t want its existence to vanish entirely. It wants to leave some mark in history so that even after its story is over, some of its actions can leave behind ripples far in the future. The natives this World ejects at the end will find a new home in another world and leave this world’s legacy behind there."

"Won’t other Worlds kill the non-natives when they enter it? Hunter World Will kill all invaders, right?" Yuri asked, confused.

"That’s invaders. These are refugees of war and all World Wills accept one or two refugees when other Worlds end."

"So... what about me, will I also be ejected?" Yuri asked, looking at him with a frown.

"Do you want to be ejected?"

"No."

"Then you will come with me, don’t worry."

Yuri closed her eyes, resting her cheek against his cheek.

"So as long as the Hunters remained obedient and let you expand your dungeon, it truly is for their own good..."

"Ironically, yes. Even if they do bring Angels into the game, it is just to their detriment because that would just make the Demon World send stronger Demons here later on." Mark chuckled.

If what Reol’ran said was the truth, once he conquered this entire World, he would gain an incredibly valuable asset for his path to strength from here on out—Reol’ran had told him that it must be attained no matter what.

But to do that, he had to expand the mega-dungeon a lot more. He truly did wish the A-rankers wouldn’t cause more trouble for him, he honestly hoped. Then, everything would be a lot simpler.

Suddenly, their phone rang.

It was the Hunters.

After glancing at him, Yuri picked it up.

Hanmo said calmly, "We are all willing to cooperate under certain conditions. First of all, let one of us use our ability."

Lumla—the Hunter who no one could lie to, looked at Mark.

Mark frowned.

A-Rank Hunter Ability—Truth Pressure.

"Tell me, oh Red Demon, is letting you expand your Dungeon till it covers the entire World truly to all of our benefits?"

Mark replied frowningly, his tongue moving without his control. "Yes, indeed. If you help me do that, you are all just going to benefit. Yes, all humans would have to survive till the apocalypse ends—and some of them would have to survive inside the mega-dungeon at some point when it covers their part of the world. But surviving till then is not impossible if all Hunters work together.

"And for A-rank Hunters who could survive the apocalypse till the end easily, it is completely just beneficial to let me do my own thing. Moreover, in another World, their strength might even be more appreciated than here or they might find paths leading to more strength!"

Lumla smiled, leaning her head on her palm. "I am willing to cooperate. Ready the Contract, Wind."

All A-rankers were. Even Bale.

"We are willing to sign the deal on mutually beneficial grounds," Yamuna said. "We shall contact you after the Contract is ready but we hope it will be a cordial cooperation. If we don’t want to summon the angels, we will have to refrain from killing even the weakest Demons from now on, after all. And doing that while keeping our humans alive is quite a hard thing."

The call ended.

Mark smiled and petted Yuri’s head. To participate in a call, he had to be outside the mega-dungeon, and thus, he had tried making a Dungeon Heart Seed in her. And it did work. So she was super loyal to him.

What an adorable woman. And you seemed so indifferent at the start.

He said, "So that’s that. Now, we just have to sign the contract and expand the Dungeon. Where is Dona?"

"In the lab," Yuri said, smiling.

"Come on, let’s go and bring her to the center of the mega-dungeon. Till I conquer this world, that’s our home from now on."

"Ah, I will have no lab tools in that forest Mark. Maybe we should bring some tools with us when we pick up Dona."

"You will not have any time to use them from now on anyway."

Yuri blushed and tightened her hands around him. He took off in flight and melded into the clouds, she looked down from behind him as the world blurred around her. The scientist dipped her hand into the moist clouds, got surprised at the cool, and laughed.

She gripped Mark’s horns. "Go, go! Dona had been lonely too!"

"Yeah, it’s been a while..."

The safest place to be in at the moment was near the Minotaur and the Boss, Mark planned to bring Dona there. Nobody in this world could catch him while he was on flying, anyway. Nobody had that much flight speed after he killed Hanmo!

The current Hanmo couldn’t fly—he was some kind of imposter.

By the time he returned, the Hunters would have made a Contract, too.