Having destroyed the old demon territory by force, I continued my campaign of destruction thereafter.
Relying on intelligence from my spies, I traveled throughout the Republic, seizing the beast-derived potions stored at various locations one after another.
I even used spatial transfer to steal entire manufacturing facilities whole, abducting the human workers and those in charge.
While the measures might seem excessive, they also served as a diversion.
By causing such conspicuous havoc, the masterminds would be forced to divert their attention to me.
This, in turn, would make it easier for my spies to operate.
From the abducted individuals, I attempted to extract information through Luciana’s charm.
However, crucial details about the masterminds remained elusive.
According to Luciana, some of them showed traces of memory alteration.
It was a magically irreversible procedure.
The specific memories we sought had been erased and overwritten with false information.
Memory alteration is an exceedingly sophisticated art.
Moreover, to perform it without reducing the subject to a vegetable, leaving them outwardly normal—this was absolutely impossible for any ordinary mage.
Scouring the entire continent, one would likely find no one capable of it.
Even I could not alter another’s memories with that level of precision.
At such a high level, the issue becomes one of innate aptitude.
Advanced memory alteration borders on being an intrinsic ability.
It is barely systematized, and its practitioners are exceedingly rare.
Even if one knew the formula and incantation, it was not something one could employ casually.
In my entire life, I had encountered practitioners of memory manipulation only a handful of times.
They only produce incapacitating effects or temporary memory erasure at best.
A perfect technique like this is unheard of.
Even when battling magical beasts, truly exceptional incidents had become frequent lately.
Despite that, the mastermind was cunning.
They also possessed formidable power.
I knew their capability was high once the beast potion creation succeeded, but I never expected it to be this much.
(Are they truly that man's successor...?)
Doubt stirred within me once more.
To be honest, I had been almost certain.
There was no room for doubt.
Memory alteration had been that man's specialty.
Combined with skillful rhetoric and underground dealings, one could become a first-class instigator.
If this was his successor, it would be strange if they couldn't pull off the same feat.
Rather, with this much evidence piling up, it was hard to believe it was the work of someone unconnected.
The problem was that the mastermind's whereabouts remained unknown.
Storage locations for the beast potions were being discovered one after another.
However, not a single lead on their hideout had been found.
Even though I was using detection magic to search wide areas, no such presence could be found.
Extending my awareness to other nations outside the Republic yielded the same result.
Despite the complete lack of intelligence, their covert activities were advancing steadily.
It must be using some unique concealment technique to obscure its whereabouts.
It was clearly wary of being captured by me.
From the very beginning, it has employed multiple layers of measures to prevent its trail from being grasped.
To it, a direct confrontation with me seems to be something to avoid.
It fully understands that it cannot win in a fight.
It will never emerge unless it is certain it can land a killing blow.
That is precisely why I am determined to catch it off guard and flush it out.
Fortunately, we are also getting accustomed to responding.
Even if magical beasts spawn in the various cities of the Demon Lord's territory, we have so far been able to eliminate them swiftly.
We are keeping the damage to a minimum.
On the other hand, I have heard no reports of magical beast occurrences in other countries.
The damage is increasing only within the Demon Lord's territory.
The incident in the Slave Autonomous Zone was the first and last time elsewhere.
The mastermind seems to be deliberately targeting the Demon Lord's territory.
I can feel clear hostility.
It's enough to make me wonder if I've earned a deep grudge.
For now, only the border cities are being targeted, but if left unchecked, magical beasts might eventually spawn even in the Royal Capital.
Because of this situation, other nations are taking an optimistic stance.
They are hoping that someone will defeat the Demon Lord.
It may seem naive, but I can understand their sentiment.
If the threat could be removed without my country shedding blood, I would welcome it.
For now, I will continue identifying and destroying the monster drug storage sites.
Alongside that, I want to track down the mastermind.
Maintaining this situation is also tedious.
I must bring it to a resolution quickly.
On such a day, Luciana visited the audience chamber.
She wore a scowling expression.
It was the most displeased look I had ever seen on her face.
She slumped into a chair with a heavy sigh.
"Demon Lord, I bring unpleasant news."
"I figured as much. What happened?"
"The Republic has collapsed. Its citizens have turned into monsters and demons."
I froze for an instant upon hearing the report.
It took time to digest the content.
Feeling a headache begin to throb, I turned to Luciana.
"Explain in detail."
"Yes, I will walk you through it chronologically."
Luciana began stating only the facts in a detached manner.
It seemed that since this morning, starting with the capital and other major cities, people had transformed into monsters or demons.
Even in the remaining cities, the same events were reportedly happening one after another.
There were no anomalies or precursors—it was truly a sudden phenomenon. Never before had there been a disturbance of this scale. It was unlikely they had administered the drug to individuals one by one, given the numbers involved. They must have contaminated the food and drink across various cities. If the concentration of the beast-drug was carefully adjusted, it would undoubtedly be possible to have it consumed unnoticed.
However, there was one point that concerned me.
I posed the question to Luciana.
"Did the ingestion of the beast-drug actually produce demons?"
"The numbers were small, but it's confirmed that some did transform. Perhaps they were constitutionally compatible?"
The beast-drug had slightly different formulations in each region. That might have been a factor. It was, after all, a drug fundamentally designed to metamorphose the human race.
Learning that one could become a demon didn't spark much surprise.
(Maybe the beastmen were the failures?)
Considering the potential to become a demon, perhaps the true objective had been to create demons all along.
It wasn't particularly strange. Demons possessed immense power and, unlike beastmen, retained their reason. Depending on the individual, they could acquire various magical affinities and were, on the whole, superior to other races.
If a single drug could cause such a transformation, nothing could be more convenient.
In any case, one thing was certain: the Republic had fallen into the hands of demons.
There had been voices among the people recently urging submission to the Demon Lord, but those were being forcefully suppressed.
I thought they were obsessed with attacking the Demon Lord's domain, but to actually turn their own people into magical beasts or demon kin—this was an unexpected development.
It had gone beyond mere madness to become sheer lunacy.
"And on top of that, the Republic has apparently declared war on the Demon Lord's domain. The name of their representative, though..." Luciana trailed off there.
The reason for her grim expression, it seemed, lay in what came next.
After several moments of hesitation, Luciana confessed with bitter reluctance.
"Balk Wen Danion. There's no doubt it's that man."
"I see," I murmured, understanding sinking deep.
I had suspected as much, but my worst fear had been confirmed.
Balk Wen Danion.
The name Luciana uttered belonged to a man who had once served as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the previous Demon Lord's army.
He was a sorcerer said to possess power at the pinnacle of the world.