The Strongest Demon Lord Reincarnated as a Commoner

The crossing of the chasm was a quiet, tense affair. Evelyn, using her combat expertise, determined the remaining half of the bridge was stable enough. She led the way, her back ramrod straight, her mind a fortress of forced composure. Every instinct she had screamed at her to keep her distance from the boy at the rear.

Kaia followed, her usual energetic stride replaced with a careful, almost worshipful gait. She kept glancing back at Leo, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and a burning desire for understanding.

Luna, still shaken, walked right beside Leo. While the others now kept a subconscious distance, she sought proximity. The terror she had felt from his power was eclipsed by the memory of his hand pulling her to safety. He was the most terrifying and the safest thing in this entire labyrinth, a paradox her heart was beginning to accept faster than her mind. Her shoulder brushed against his arm, and she didn't pull away. It was a small, grounding comfort.

Elara was the last to cross before Leo. She rose from her knees, her face a pale, beautiful mask of shattered pride. She refused to look at anyone, her gaze fixed on the ground in front of her. The shame of her previous arrogance was a physical weight. How could she have been so blind? She, who prided herself on her perception, had looked at a dragon and seen only a lizard. As she passed Leo, she could feel his presence like a physical force, and she involuntarily held her breath until she was several feet away.

Leo followed, the heavy pack not even affecting his balance on the narrow bridge. He watched them, a faint sense of irritation brewing within him. His gambit for a peaceful life had backfired spectacularly. He hadn't just revealed a sliver of power; he had detonated a nuke of existential dread in the middle of his team. His pathetic "illusion" excuse had been so transparently false it had only made things worse.

Now they're all going to be weird, he lamented internally.

On the other side of the chasm, a single, ornate stone door stood waiting. Luna, taking a shaky breath, confirmed it was the way. "The Core... it's right behind this door. The feeling is... sad now. And very, very weak."

Evelyn placed her hand on the door and pushed. It swung open without a sound.

The Core Chamber was nothing like they expected. It wasn't a cavern of raw energy or a lair for more monsters. It was a perfect, circular room, its walls made of a smooth, seamless black material that absorbed all light. In the exact center of the room floated a single, pulsating crystal, about the size of a human heart. It glowed with a faint, sickly purple light, the source of the instability.

But that wasn't what seized their attention.

Chained to the floor directly beneath the crystal, by bindings of the same dark, energy-leeching material as the walls, was a person.

It was a woman. She was unconscious, her head slumped forward, her long, silver-white hair pooling on the floor around her. She wore the tattered remnants of what looked like a priestess's robes. Even in her ragged state, her ethereal beauty was breathtaking. Her skin was pale, and her features were delicate and sharp, suggesting an elven or celestial heritage. The dark chains seemed to be siphoning her life force directly into the Core Crystal above, twisting its natural energy into the chaotic purple that was poisoning the Labyrinth.

"By the gods..." Evelyn breathed, her tactical mind instantly grasping the situation. "She's being used as a power source. A living battery. This is what's causing the instability."

"We have to help her!" Luna cried out, her natural empathy overriding her fear.

"Careful," Evelyn warned, her hand on her sword. "This is a trap. The moment we try to break those chains, the Labyrinth's defenses will activate."

"So what?" Kaia snarled, her protective instincts ignited. "We can't just leave her here! I'll break the chains myself!"

"And get us all killed, you fool?" Elara snapped, finding her voice at last. Her tone was still sharp, but it lacked its earlier arrogance. It was the frustration of a strategist, not a noble. "The material of those chains... it's Nullstone. It devours magic and is almost physically indestructible. We don't have the firepower to break it." She looked down, a hint of shame in her eyes. "Even my strongest spell would be swallowed without a trace."

The group was at an impasse. A moral and tactical dilemma. Saving the priestess seemed impossible, but leaving her was unthinkable.

Leo, who had been quietly observing the scene, let out his trademark sigh. He walked past them, ignoring their arguments, and approached the chained woman.

"Vance, stop!" Evelyn commanded. "It's a trap!"

Leo didn't listen. He knelt down beside the unconscious priestess. He looked at the Nullstone chains, then at the pulsating crystal above. His gaze was analytical, like a master artisan examining a poorly constructed piece of furniture.

"The design is inefficient," he murmured to himself. "The energy transfer is lossy. Very crude."

He reached out and placed a hand on one of the Nullstone shackles binding the woman's wrist.

The moment his fingers made contact, the room changed.

The sickly purple light in the Core Crystal flickered violently. The Nullstone, a material famous for its ability to devour infinite amounts of magic, began to glow a dull, angry red where Leo touched it. It was vibrating, humming as if in agony.

The Nullstone was trying to devour Leo's energy.

It was the magical equivalent of a puddle trying to swallow the ocean.

Crr-ack.

A tiny fracture appeared on the shackle.

Elara gasped. "Impossible! Nullstone can't be broken!"

The fracture spread, spiderwebbing across the shackle and up the chain. With a sound like screeching metal, the Nullstone shackle didn't just break—it distintegrated into black sand, completely overwhelmed and unmade by the sheer magnitude of the energy it had tried to consume.

Leo moved to the next shackle and repeated the process. One by one, the "indestructible" chains turned to dust under his casual touch.

The rest of the team could only watch in stunned silence. The awe from the serpent incident was now compounding into something bordering on religious terror. He wasn't just breaking the rules of their reality; he was treating them as if they were gentle suggestions, and faulty ones at that.

With the last chain gone, the priestess's body slumped forward. Leo caught her gently, cradling her in his arms. The Core Crystal above, now cut off from its power source, flickered and died, its purple light fading into a gentle, pure white. The oppressive atmosphere in the room vanished, replaced by a clean, calm stillness. The Labyrinth was stable.

He had solved an impossible, nation-level crisis in under a minute, with less effort than it took to open a stubborn jar.

He stood up, holding the unconscious woman. She was ethereally light in his arms.

And at that moment, Luna, Kaia, and Elara all looked at the scene, and each felt a distinct, powerful emotion.

For Luna, it was a wave of pure, unadulterated adoration. He was not just a protector; he was a savior. The gentle way he held the rescued priestess, the effortless way he had solved an unsolvable problem—it was the image of a true hero from the fairy tales she'd read as a child.

For Kaia, it was a profound sense of admiration that bordered on worship. Strength was everything to her, and she had just witnessed the ultimate form of it. It was a strength that didn't need to be loud or flashy. It was absolute, quiet, and decisive. He was the pinnacle of what a warrior could aspire to be, and seeing him in a moment of gentle rescue only amplified that image.

For Elara, it was a complex, painful, and deeply confusing pang of... jealousy. It was a feeling she had never experienced before. She wasn't jealous of the rescued woman. She was jealous of his ability. He had effortlessly done what her power, her lineage, and her life's training could not. And seeing him hold another woman so gently... it sparked a possessive, territorial feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn't understand and hated herself for feeling. Why did she care? Why did the sight of this commoner holding another woman bother her so intensely?

The unspoken romantic conflict had officially begun, ignited by a single act of impossible power and effortless grace.

Leo, oblivious to the emotional turmoil he was causing, looked at the unconscious woman in his arms. "Well," he said to Commander Blade, who was still trying to process what had just happened. "Mission accomplished, I suppose. Now, about that paperwork..."