On the shiny marble floor, with his white hair scattered all around him, Lucifer lay staring at the ceiling.
The ceiling depicted a scene from myth: a being with wide, white wings at the top, and a being bleeding black blood at the bottom, both aiming spears, swords, and bows at each other in battle.
Lucifer knew the victor of that war: the ruler of the underworld, the master of chaos, the controller of darkness, the Demon King.
As Lucifer was pierced by the Demon King’s spear, he thought,
What if God had taken our hand? What if It had looked upon us? What if It had truly accepted us as Its children?
Yes, it was all because of God. Because It did not love me, I died, and the angels were defeated. Because of that God, who gave the world and power to that Demon King, and because of the God I revered, I ended up like this!
Black magic, which originally means ‘lost magic,’ was so dangerous that ‘God forbade it.’
Lucifer, who once called himself God’s messenger, was close to God and knew a little more about the forbidden magic. Thus, just before his last breath, he touched it.
Abandoning his dead body, he wandered the world as a spirit, constantly infusing magic, and over hundreds of years, unable to meet anyone or converse with anyone, utterly alone, Lucifer finally amassed power and was reborn.
Then, he drove God away.
The God who had been with the world since its creation disappeared, and Lucifer became the new ruler.
Immediately, he attacked the underworld.
He took the Demon King’s power, overturned the underworld, and isolated the demons.
Without the Demon King’s power, the demons were no longer the great beings who had fought him to the death. Lucifer intended to annihilate them.
But he couldn’t.
Driving away God alone had already sufficiently violated ‘the cause and effect of the world.’
If he directly killed the demons with his own hands, he would become an ‘unfit entity’ that did not conform to ‘the cause and effect of the world,’ and he would be torn apart.
So, Lucifer decided to create someone who could ‘share his power.’
That someone was Dehan.
He decided to give him trials.
He decided to let him grow through these trials.
He decided to let him learn his power as he grew.
And after learning the power, he decided to have him exterminate all the demons.
In this way, he would not violate the cause and effect. It would be a mere human dealing with the demons, not himself.
Thus, Lucifer plunged Dehan into hardship and intended for him to grow through it. The first hardship was the ‘death of his beloved.’
But then…
– [The <Reincarnation Regression> ability activates!]
The God, who was thought to have disappeared, appeared then. It reversed the time of Dehan’s ‘beloved’ and made her reborn.
Do you still have the power to turn back time? Do you think you can reclaim the world like this? How foolish!
Thus began the hide-and-seek between Lucifer and God.
Lucifer won every time.
Dehan always lost his beloved, and the soul that took on that role became increasingly exhausted.
It’s the end now.
Lucifer intended to end the hide-and-seek that had lasted nearly a hundred years.
But something unexpected happened. Dehan died.
And,
– [‘………’ has reincarnated as a ‘hidden character’ due to a change in faction!]
And then disappeared.
That cunning and deceitful bastard. To think he had endured until now just to create this situation…! I will never forget the tingling sensation I felt then for the rest of my life.
But it’s okay.
I just need to create new hardships for Dehan, and the reincarnated one can be eradicated.
There was nothing that could hinder his plan.
“If there is a problem, it’s that Demon King.”
Lucifer slowly lifted his upper body like a puppet pulled by a string. He faced the sunlight pouring in through the large window head-on. Then he slowly opened his mouth.
“Gabriel. Are you there?”
The figure, hiding behind a nearby pillar, revealed himself. He was dressed in the robes of a high priest.
“Yes, Your Holiness. I am here.”
“Your Holiness? Please, call me comfortably. It’s just the two of us.”
Gabriel was not human.
He was an angel who died in the celestial war against the demons. Believing in eternal rest after death, he was, however, summoned back because he was one of Lucifer’s subordinates.
Not that he held any grievances. After all, Lucifer was his master, the ruler of the world, and his one and only king.
“Yes, my king.”
Lucifer blinked his eyes, a pleased smile on his lips at Gabriel’s response.
“When will we be able to bring down the Daimon family?”
The Daimon family.
A place suspected to have been created by the demons who descended to the human realm.
Of course, Lucifer was already certain.
“I mean, when will we be able to exterminate those vermin-like demons? You know what I’m talking about, right?”
Gabriel bowed his head deeply.
“I will try harder.”
“No, that’s not the answer I wanted. How long will you misunderstand me like this?”
Lucifer took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.
And when he opened them again,
“Shall we summon Dehan?”
He envisioned Dehan in the north and spoke.
“Let’s make that kid grow quickly. Let’s have him accomplish everything. The Demon King, the demons, the demon realm, let’s have him eliminate them all. And then, we can kill all the humans too. Right?”
Gabriel knelt on one knee toward the excited Lucifer.
“I will follow your orders.”
“Yes, that’s right. There’s no need to spare the ungrateful humans who only mess around. Right.”
Lucifer’s lips curled into a smile. His face glowed with ecstasy, as if envisioning the imminent end of the world.
It was then.
“…Huh?”
Lucifer felt something strange and flinched, twisting his legs. Gabriel also sensed the oddity.
“My king!”
“Uh, ah…!”
Lucifer collapsed on the floor, clutching his groin.
“Those, those…! Crazy bastards!”
***
“Ah, this one worked.”
Arthur, who had crushed Lucifer’s corpse’s groin, spoke with a bright smile. The sight of the mangled corpse behind his beaming face was incongruous, but if he was happy, that was all that mattered.
“Shall we cut off one arm?”
Arthur suggested to the Demon King, Lucart, who was examining the body.
Lucart slowly closed and reopened his eyes, letting out a sigh.
“No. If we cut it off, the amount of pain he feels will decrease. Don’t cut anything.”
“You are indeed the Demon King.”
Arthur gave a thumbs-up and smiled brightly. Behind them stood Lyat, looking pale.
“It’s not… It’s disgusting just to watch…”
Lyat grimaced, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. Arthur spoke to him.
“Sir Lyat, are you feeling nauseous?”
“Shut up.”
“You dismember children so easily and dissect them, yet you’re weak to this kind of thing. It’s kind of funny.”
Arthur chuckled, averting his gaze from Lyat. It annoyed him that Lyat, who tortured and experimented on homunculus without remorse, found this situation disgusting.
Arthur gripped the hammer in his hand more tightly.
“There’s still one claw left.”
“As expected, Commander!”
Following Martin’s words, Arthur smashed another claw.
“Let’s torment him a little more and then read his memories when he’s weakened.”
Although they could read his memories now, Arthur wanted to torment him thoroughly first.
Arthur twirled the hammer with a refreshed expression, while the Demon King Lucart pretended to give serious orders for the torture beside him.
It was a scene not worth witnessing.
“It’s a good thing Shekina isn’t seeing this…”
Lyat murmured, covering his mouth with the handkerchief again.
“But where is the baby?”
Martin patted Lyat’s back and asked.
“Ow! It hurts! Stop hitting me!”
Lyat snapped irritably, shaking off Martin’s hand, briefly pondering Shekina’s whereabouts.
“Right now Shekina…”
