The night came without stars.
Even the moon—full and luminous just hours before—now hid behind clouds, as though it, too, feared to witness the thoughts that plagued the most feared man alive.
Inside the chariot, silence reigned.
But not peace.
The Demon King sat alone in its darkest corner, his golden eyes open wide—unblinking. His brother had long since fallen asleep, exhausted from travel and terror both. But the King couldn't close his eyes.
He had lived fifteen years without sleep, without peace, without regret.
But tonight, he questioned everything.
"They called me a demon. I never cared. Not once. But why… why does it feel like they were right, all along?"
The Thought That Wouldn't Die
His mind dragged him through the moments again.
The Queen's calm gaze.The purity in the people's aura.The lack of hate, even in the face of his overwhelming presence.
And then… her eyes, when they saw him.Not the king.Not the monster.Just the boy.
The scarred, shattered boy.
"She looked at me as if I was human. No one… no one ever did that."
He clenched his fist.
Blood dripped anew from the reopened wound. He didn't even notice.
"For years, I believed power and fear were the only truths. That they would obey only if I made them kneel… made them break. That love was a fairy tale—propaganda."
He remembered his mother's screams.The priests' whips.The branding.The fires.
"They showed me evil… and I became it. Wasn't that justice?"
But now, a seed had been planted.
A seed named Alira.
Her path was one of equal pain, of equal rejection.But she hadn't burned the world.She had healed it.
"If I was truly just the world's reflection… then why did she become its hope?"
He bit his lip until it bled.
For the first time since his childhood—
He didn't know who he was anymore.
In the Demon Realm: The Shadow Plan
Back in the heart of the Demon Realm—his twisted, blackened kingdom—something else stirred.
The absence of their king had not gone unnoticed.
Though his rule was built on fear and blood, the people knew how to kneel.They knew how to obey.And they knew how to wait.
But the royals… the ones in gilded chains beneath the palace?
They saw a crack.
The King and Queen—his parents—were still alive.
Imprisoned in a cursed chamber beneath the throne for fifteen years.
But with the Demon King away, the high ministers and generals—those who long suppressed their true desires—dared to take action.
The seal was broken.
The former king and queen were freed, their bodies frail and eyes hollowed.
Yet the moment the iron doors fell, the old king stood—grinning.
He had never stopped planning.
"We cannot kill him," he rasped, "but we can seal him."
Ten years they had tried to kill their demon son.Ten years of failed blades and failed spells.They had suffered, yes—but also waited.
Waited for this chance.
"Contact the Ashura Dominion. The kingdom beyond the dark sea. The one even he doesn't know about."
The Ashura Dominion—a kingdom built on sealing arts, lost to common history, shrouded in myth.
Its warriors couldn't match the Demon King in strength.
But they didn't need to.
They knew how to make even gods disappear.
The Offer of Betrayal
The old king's messengers moved swiftly.
The Ashura Dominion accepted the plea.
But not to save Verdantia.
They saw opportunity.
The Demon Realm—feared and shunned—was overflowing with magical relics, cursed treasures, and ancient tomes the Demon King had hoarded over fifteen years.
If he was sealed…
There would be no one left to stop them.
They would become the new lords of ruin.
They would take everything.
The Night of False Peace
The people of Verdantia cheered.
They lit lamps.They held feasts.They toasted to freedom.
They celebrated a future built on betrayal.
But beneath the false smiles were letters being sent.Spies moving.Armies assembling in secret.
And all the while… the Demon King rode back home, still lost in thoughts he couldn't understand.
The irony was cruel.
The boy who had never known peace was about to be struck down because he spared someone else.
And in the distance, far beyond the horizon—
A sealing army was coming.
Not to fight him.
Not to kill him.
But to lock him away forever.
To bury his story…
And erase him from the world.