From Another World

twenty two

"We meet at last, Shane." A shady man stood before me, he radiates this dark aura, and this must be a demon lord after all.

"W-Who are you?"

"Oh me? I'm just here from the Demon King's orders."

I knew it! I'm not sure if he's really a demon lord, but the fact that he's affiliated with the demon lord makes me think he really is a demon lord.

Dazel rises up from the rubble and clears her surroundings of the debris and says something with a pissed tone "Dominique..."

"Oh-ho, Dazel you're here? Therefore, what Lord Asmodeus said was true, you were a slave to a mere human. How pathetic!"

"Who said I was a slave, huh?! I'm no one's slave!"

"Is it true? Human?" Dominique, if that's really his name looked at me with his glowing red eyes.

"Y-Yes, Dazel's not my slave sir."

"S-S-Sir?!" he said with a flinch.

"Ugh! Here we go again." Dazel said with a pissed tone.

"Huh? What's going on here?"

"Shane... This is Dominique, a fellow demon lord."

So he is a demon lord, but what's with his reaction earlier? As the fog cleared up, Dazel stood up and turned on the lights.

I saw his face, uh... This doesn't seem right, I thought he was manlier than this. How can I put this, he's a tall man in a black tuxedo, has light skin, he kinda looks like a jester and has face paint of a diamond on the bottom of his right eye.

"Oh! You're kind of cute Shane..." He said while raising my head by the chin.

"U-Uh... Okay?"

He let's go of my chin and stands straight. "Now, let's get to business. Dazel?"

"What is it now Dominique?"

"Can you please leave us alone?"

"For what?" She looks annoyed.

"Well, I'm here to test out his abilities. Now move along so I can start."

"What if I choose to stay?"

"I cannot allow that, Dazel. As a fellow demon lord you must obey me as I was ordered by the Demon King Asmodeus, now move along..."

"I'm still suspended so I can do whatever I want."

"You dare defy me?"

"Bring it on, you clown."

"I've had it with your childish acts Dazel, you're a demon lord exclusively selected by the Demon King and this is what you act like? You were considered the strongest of all of us, we should praise you for having such immense power but your attitude is really annoying me."

"You're also annoying you clown, I don't do anything to you and you start blabbering nonsense about me. What did I do to you to make me your enemy?"

"You won't understand you child!" Domonique lunges quickly at Dazel, as Dazel dodged his attack.

Dazel sprays out acid from the palms of her hands while Dominique continues to dodge her every attack. Dominique then jumps at her but Dazel was able to dodge leading to Dominique collapsing to the floor. Dazel was catching her breath while Dominique raises up from the rubble, but his appearance changed. He turned into a beast? His body became covered in fur and his face turned into what looks like a tiger. Is he some sort of beastman?

"Dazel, who is this guy?"

"He's the King of the Jungle, Shane. He's a beastman, and he's a masochist, geez he always gives me the chills."

Dominique comes close as he scrapes off the rubble from his shoulder "King of the Jungle is really giving me goosebumps, why not change it to queen or something?" His voice changed.

He wants to be called as a Queen, and the fact that Dazel called him... or her? A masochist really doesn't put much effect on him. This guy is also giving me the chills...

"That was the name given to you by your fellow beastman right? Or should I tell them that their so called 'King' is actually not the manliest of them all?"

"H-Huh?! Please don't! I call a truce! Please just don't ruin my image to my babies..."

This guy's weird, weird in so many levels...

"Hmm, seems like I win today Dominique."

"Psh, you and your dirty tricks."

"Oh Shane, forgot to introduce him. This is Dominique Von Schweltz. A beastman and a fellow demon lord, he's what you would call... My frenemy. We're good friends but we don't really get along too well."

"Nice to meet you, Shane." He held out his hand expecting a handshake and I shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." I smiled at him. I now know two demon lords, how much more are there?

"Now can you please let me test him Dazel? I don't want to be suspended like you!"

"Is this really important? Just tell him he's really strong or something."

"He wants a detailed report about how strong this man is. That reminds me, why does the Demon King want to know how strong you are? For the past decades not a single Demon King has appointed us demon lords of testing out an individual. Are you someone special? Did you already meet the Demon King?"

Too many questions for me to handle! Oh my...

"U-Um... I've met him. But I was just delivering alcohol to his castle."

"W-Wait, you were the one that made the Demon King flee? He told us about this we laughed so hard that a mere human made him flee so badly but he then added that he was just holding back, and he didn't expect you to be much more powerful than he imagined."

"Heh? I wasn't much, I was just a normal adventurer delivering alcohol to some guy I didn't knew was the Demon King."

"How can a 'normal' adventurer pass through the venomous clouds that surrounded the castle?"

I quickly pointed at Dazel, and he instantly get what I was meaning.

"The Demon King told us that you were the one to defeat him from his prophecy, he talks about how the prophecy may lead to an end to the demon race but he's just spilling out nonsense. No mere human can wipe out the entire demon race."

"Uh, yeah..."

"But, I'm still curious what kind of powers you have hiding inside of you." As he said that he vanished, before I knew it he was behind me with his claws around my neck, I panicked a little.

What can I do to get out of this situation?