Sabnock

Sabnock is not a demon or devil but a magic beast, the apex predator and 'lord' of the demon realm on the Sabnock Plains. Its full epithet is 'Corrosion's Wicked Lion, Sabnock'. It was born at the realm's centre to a pair of corrosion beasts, survived as the only one of the litter by devouring its siblings, and then devoured its own parents. Feeding on the realm's mana and on rival monsters, it grew to monstrous size and reigned over the plain.

It is a six-legged lion as large as a blue whale, covered in bristling blue-white fur, with a split maw and many red compound eyes. Its chief weapon is corrosive saliva: it rots grass and trees, melts swords and armour, decays flesh from within, and it can also fire it as a pressurised jet. Sabnock's fur is all but immune to fire, water, wind, earth, ice and lightning; its roar is a 'sound cannon' that bursts eardrums and sweeps away smokescreens. Withal the beast is intelligent and quickly adapts to a foe's tactics.

The disaster was set off by a foolish stunt of third prince Rodele: egged on by Marquis Aiger, he used a forbidden 'monster-luring' to wake Sabnock for glory — but was crushed, losing two retainers, and the beast advanced toward the capital, driving a stampede before it. The Magic Hunt Festival turned into the deaths of twenty-three people.

Rest sensed the colossal presence from five kilometres away and, fearing for his loved ones in the capital, rushed to intercept it. He fought almost alone (the swordsman Lubeth held off the corrosion beasts), unleashing his original spell 'Star-Eater' — a tiny 'dark star' that annihilates whatever it touches. He landed the killing blow from some four thousand metres up: with the dark star he absorbed sunlight and, in free fall, released it as a focused lance, 'Amaterasu', which pierced Sabnock through and tore the carcass in two. Thus Rest became the first in the kingdom's history to defeat the beast — and the plain that had borne the lord's name for ages was opened for development.

Sabnock's corrosive saliva drips ceaselessly from its maw, rots the living and the inert alike, melts steel, and within a body decays cells from inside. The beast can fire it under pressure like a 'water cannon'. Its fur deflects almost any elemental magic — even high-level, four-layered spells barely scorch it.

Sabnock's roar works as a sonic projectile: it bursts eardrums, scatters smokescreens and hurls foes back. Its huge paw-strikes leave craters, and its colossal tongue serves as a crushing weapon. The beast is highly intelligent: its brood learned after a few deaths to keep its distance, and Sabnock itself found a counter to each of Rest's ploys time after time. Its inner mana reserve exceeded what even Rest could hold at once.

Twenty years ago Sabnock annihilated an entire pioneer expedition and nearly reached the capital; the current knight commander, Iljas Cattleya, was then a surviving youth. Since the kingdom's founding none had been able to defeat it, and the plain itself became synonymous with the beast — hence the name Sabnock Plains.

Sabnock's death changed the kingdom's fate: the barrier to developing its richest lands fell. For the victory Rest gained the title of viscount and a fief, and his pairing with the swordsman Lubeth was hailed as the kingdom's future 'Twin Wings'. Sabnock's name is long remembered as the starting point of Rest's rise.