S-Rank Harem: I Became My Character with Extra Control Skill

Ryan stopped his steps right in the center of the immense hall, maintaining a strategic and highly prudent distance from the first stone step leading to the throne.

He did not lower his offensive guard a single millimeter. The immense and crushing physical presence of that single demon king was more than enough to paralyze any squad of ordinary heroes with pure fear.

The air around him seemed to vibrate and become denser with every breath the beast took.

”I was anxiously waiting for you, hero,” the demon king Rigal’s hoarse, deep, and guttural voice said, echoing throughout the place with a threatening resonance as his bloodshot eyes locked onto Ryan.

The immense beastman looked at him from the top of the stairs, resting his heavy chin on the back of his fur-covered hand.

”From several kilometers away I smelled the stinking scent of humans approaching my borders. And to think you had the stupid and terrible luck of deciding to attack me of all people.”

The demon king stopped his arrogant words for a long moment, staring intently at Ryan. His massive yellow eyes with slit pupils shone with infinite cruelty.

His lethal bestial transformation was completely stabilized, giving him an appearance that would freeze any mortal’s blood.

Despite sitting lazily on his gigantic stone throne, with that musculature and bone structure, he clearly seemed to be three meters tall, perhaps a little more if he were to stand up to his full extent.

”You wear no shining armor, nor do you have the submissive attitude of a lapdog of the church. You certainly are not a known hero in the records of those pathetic humans,” Rigal evaluated with a twisted smile full of sharp fangs.

”Then, by pure logical deduction, you must be the infamous and elusive Ryan. Is that not so?”

Ryan did not respond to the provocation immediately. Without entirely shifting his extreme attention and defensive posture away from the dangerous demon king in front of him, his cold green eyes quickly scanned the entire hall once more.

’Where the hell are you, Ophelia...’ Ryan thought, feeling a slight, unusual trace of worry bubbling beneath his usual facade.

Throughout the entire place, there was no trace of another demonic presence. There was only him and Rigal breathing in that tense atmosphere of death.

’Did she really die so quickly? Did she lose the combat that easily without even causing any wounds to that demon king?’

The demon king Rigal, who perfectly noticed how Ryan moved his eyes stealthily, snooping and searching through every dark corner of the place, let out a massive burst of laughter. A thick, heavy sound full of mockery that shook the hall’s pillars.

”Ha ha ha. Are you perhaps looking for this naive woman?” the demon king said, leaning forward a bit.

With an extremely lazy and arrogant movement, Rigal pulled something from under the thick dark fur fabric that covered much of his massive hairy chest.

It was a pure crystal flask. A glowing and surprisingly small artifact, so much so that the gigantic demon king held it solely with the sharp nails of his index finger and thumb, as if it were a simple useless insect trapped in a glass jar.

’That is... one of the hero’s sealing relics!’ Ryan thought with genuine and immense surprise shining in his pupils upon seeing the sacred, golden object in the monster’s dirty hands.

In the dark interior of the glowing flask, hermetically sealed with ancient gold rings and luminous runes, floated a small silhouette.

When Ryan sharpened his sight, he noticed the astonishing details immediately. Long white hair, beautiful red eyes full of powerless anger, and a pair of horns on her head. Without a doubt, that tiny, trapped prisoner figure was the powerful Queen Ophelia.

But there was something very different and strange about her current appearance inside the hero’s relic.

’It is Ophelia’s mana signature, there is no doubt about it... but, now she has a pair of bat wings on her back and a long demonic tail.’ Ryan looked at the magical bottle with pure surprise, processing the illogical visual information without saying a single word in front of his enemy.

”Even I am quite surprised by this peculiar result. Who would have imagined that, by sealing a demon inside holy magic, she would grow wings and a tail to show her true, pathetic nature, ha ha ha. What do you think that amusing phenomenon is due to, human?” the demon king asked, shamelessly swinging the flask in front of his eyes.

”As if I had any way of knowing,” Ryan finally spoke, replying in an extremely sharp, cold manner without showing panic.

’Now I understand everything,’ Ryan evaluated the critical and sudden situation in his mind, calculating his scarce options. ’If that damn beast dog had one of those high-level sacred relics hidden up his sleeve, there was nothing Ophelia could do in a combat. But, will I be able to free her if I manage to break that flask?’

After definitively confirming that Ophelia had truly lost the battle by falling into such a dirty trap, Ryan realized the magnitude of the disadvantage.

A crucial detail they never took into account in their long strategy meetings at the villa was the simple fact that the demon king Rigal could ally himself with or steal one of those valuable human relics to use against other demons.

Ophelia’s tiny mouth moved frantically inside the thick crystal. From a distance, Ryan could barely hear her small, muffled voice crashing against the magical glass, asking him with pure desperation to get out of there immediately, to escape to save his life.

”Be quiet once and for all, Ophelia,” the demon king ordered with immense annoyance, lightly tapping the crystal with his sharp nail to stun and silence the prisoner.

And then, after silencing the queen, Rigal focused his heavy, thirsty gaze directly on Ryan’s human figure.

”We finally meet in person. I must admit you have given me a lot of trouble in a very short time, you damn brat,” Rigal began to say, resting his immense weight against the hard back of his throne.

The demon king made a calculated pause, baring his massive fangs.

”Even though I had never seen your face in my life, you interfered in many of my grand plans.”