Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re)

Third Person's POV

But anyone could tell at this point that the powerful and brutal sweeps of the huge demon were growing closer.

The demon's power was overwhelming, and the elf's fear grew more evident with each blow.

Looking at the pitiful guy, Ethan could tell that he didn't belong here as he was totally absent from his true element, as there wasn't a single sign of greenery in the Devil Abyss or the entire Central Red Wasteland.

And his opinion was reinforced when Ethan saw the occasional intermittent and fading green glow on the elf's tattooed skin pulsing weakly, as if attempting to invoke his magic spells but actually suffocating in the barren air.

Witnessing his struggle and terror, the crowd booed with cruel delight every time he managed to escape a fatal blow.

"Kill him!"

"Rip him apart!"

Their cries twisted louder and soon morphed into a unified chant that thundered across the colosseum.

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

Ethan remained calm under his cloak, and despite the slight bits of pity for the wood elf rising in his chest, he didn't move.

He wouldn't interfere as this wasn't his world, and at the same time, the elf wasn't his problem.

Throwing himself into a foreign conflict for a stranger of another race was neither wise nor necessary in his opinion, especially not when he was already being looked for by an invisible enemy.

Risking exposure to an entire bloodthirsty crowd and the powerful beings who orchestrated this macabre event for some moral sympathy would be suicide.

But then, suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.

A piercing and heavy gaze locked onto him from behind, and it was so invasive that he instinctively turned.

Slowly and cautiously, he glanced over his shoulder and peered through the shadows above the upper stands.

But what he saw made his breath hitch.

He saw a figure, and seeing her, his mouth fell slightly open in a stunned manner.

Before he could think further, a deafening cheer louder than any sound before erupted in the next second as the colosseum seemed to shake with excitement.

Ethan whipped his head around and saw crimson blood splattered across the arena's tile floor.

The poor slave wood elf's head lay severed at the edge of the arena as it finally rolled to a stop while his limp body crumpled seconds later.

The towering demon, who was obviously the winner, raised its pike high and started howling in triumph as the crowd exploded in an almost unexplainable ecstasy.

Ethan stared ahead, and his brows furrowed in slight disgust as he took in the frenzied cheers surrounding the brutal scene.

The bloodthirsty joy etched onto the faces of the spectators left him dumbfounded as he struggled to understand what was so thrilling about such savagery.

He could clearly see how their ecstatic expressions contrasted sharply with the gruesome reality before them, but to his further surprise, even women made up a fair share of the audience as well.

They were clad in dark, vibrant silks or tight leather as they clinked their glasses and laughed among themselves.

He could especially make out the vampires among them raising crystal goblets of deep crimson, undoubtedly blood, while others tore into charred meat with an appetite that was anything but subtle.

In his eyes, they seemed to desperately scream about how demonic they were, and it was evident by the scent of seared or even raw flesh, sweet wine, and something metallic filled the air.

The chaos wasn't limited to just bloodshed as in the normal seats of the stone stands, Ethan noticed couples fucking each other openly and making out shamelessly while other watched.

They were fully indifferent to the thousands of eyes around them and far more shameless than he could have ever imagined.

His gaze fell once more on the arena where the fallen wood elf's corpse was still twitching faintly, lifelessly, but somehow seemed to be resisting total stillness.

A faint ripple of almost invisible green haze of wood and plant elemental mana seeped out of its body and escaped into the air, where it quickly vanished and was assimilated by the surroundings.

The mana was almost imperceptible, like mist melting into sunlight, but Ethan caught it with his trained senses, though he was clearly shocked at such a scene which he had never witnessed before.

Looking at the body again, he could tell that it hadn't been a clean beheading, and just as he was about to think something else, the towering demon raised its massive foot and brought it down, crushing the body further with a sickening squelch.

The elf's remains splattered against the tiles, and now only a grotesque stain of shattered bones and pulp remained stuck on the reddish floor.

The crowd roared louder in response, as if their thirst for destruction had just been satisfied for the moment.

Ethan's expression darkened, and he could guess why the color of the floor was so red.

At the same time, a trace of genuine dislike formed within him for both the crowd and the brute who seemed to take joy in erasing life with such pointless cruelty while also desecrating the dead in such a manner.

But then, his thoughts shifted, and he remembered why he had been shocked just moments ago.

He turned back towards one of the tall, shadowed balconies jutting from the upper colosseum walls.

Looking at it, he could clearly tell that, unlike others, this was some sort of VIP room designed for powerful and influential people.

Guarding its entrance were two towering demons who were especially built like the huge, muscular bouncers from the shady clubs of his previous life.

And on the VIP chamber, he could see a slender figure seated comfortably on a velvet-draped chair through the misty glass that failed to stop his vision.

He reexamined the veiled woman with flowing long dark hair and holding a bronze goblet in her slender fingers as she sat idly.