Demon King

Black Palace – 3

[You’ve recovered so much in such a short time. You are truly Satan.]

“Satan…” The king of all demons, reigning at the pinnacle of evil. It was a title, not a name. As it wasn’t a word for any unique being, the owner of the title could change at any time. Currently, the angels called my adversary the Devil, Satan. However, just having the title didn’t mean you were the king of demons. Only after receiving the obedience of all demons could you claim the title properly.

[You were the only one prior, and the only one now and forever.]

He responded to me as if he were reading my mind. I had no choice but to smile bitterly as a feeling of discomfort wormed its way into my stomach. I never wanted that title. Because of the past, the path I would walk in the future was already decided, and made me feel sick.

“Why are you here? You don’t appear to be the same as those traitors.”

[You put me here yourself. Because my eyes are the brightest among those who see the future.]

His eyes were closed, so I couldn’t confirm what he was saying. ‘Wait, what did he say?’

“I put you here myself?”

[Yes.]

“Brother…?” My sister spoke up anxiously, gazing at me with doubt. I realized my mistake in an instant. As far as she knew, I was born as a human and died unjustly. I hadn’t told her about my life before that.

[Are you human? No…not quite. All those who are connected to Satan would change rapidly. That can be expected from this one as well.]

“Brother, what is he talking about?”

“Si-yeon…will you leave the room first? I don’t think there will be a fight. I need to talk to this man.”

“Brother?”

“I don’t know, so there’s not much I can tell you. I’m sorry.”

“…” She looked unconvinced but left without a word. I still wasn’t relieved, however, and built a magical wall to block out any sound.

“Now, let’s talk. Why did I put you here?”

[There is no other reason. My ability to see the future intimidates the others, and there was no room for anyone but your three most loyal to enter your castle. You left me here to protect me.]

“Protect…”

[You needed me to look back on the past and move on to the future. I was willing to be bound here for that purpose, by this chain.]

The chain was similar to the one tied around the boss’s body in the 7th district and the one around the body of the monster that was now absorbed into Annihilation. However, the sealing chain had been completed by those two pieces, so this wasn’t quite the same.

[Now is the time to move on to the future. I shall be the lamp to illuminate your path.]

“…Honestly, I’m not sure.” Maybe I was terrified. I had learned so little about myself, perhaps because I didn’t want to know. I could feel my identity that formed from my years as a human being threatened. I didn’t want to lose my humanity any more than I had already. That is if I even had more to lose. But that was wrong. That was just a cowardly way of escaping. I had to accept everything and move forward. If I disappeared under the weight of the past, then that was fine. It just meant that the life I had lived so far was only worth that much.

[You were mastering the relationship between the body and the soul. You started at the core of yourself and changed everything, so it’s natural.]

The blind monster, bound in a chain, spoke so.

[You were already considering the impact on your mind when you died. You had taken into account that everything would go blank and that a will you didn’t want would control your body.]

“So…?”

[You left me here for when you were ready to accept everything again.]

“Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”

[The Black Palace is a dungeon that is only allowed to you, so it wasn’t difficult to make it happen.]

“No way. There were other humans in the 7th district…”

[Do you think so?]

Something came to my mind as I listened to him—the appearance of the true Black palace from the third floor on. No one had entered that area except for Lee Chan-yu and me. I thought I had just stopped them before they could, but what if that weren’t the case? Even if they were left alone, what if they couldn’t proceed?

[You told me things you told no one else. You conveyed to me all the knowledge that you needed to be recovered.]

“…Alright, I’ll listen.”

[In the past, Satan existed. After the Great Fusion, everything scattered when he disappeared, but there was only one huge castle underground. That was the demon’s paradise.]

“Alright.”

[The adversary you know well was the second man who claimed the title. An arrogant one who feels everything should belong to him. Your power, your lovers, everything you own.]

“He’s still coveting it.”

[He was expelled from heaven for that.]

“Are you talking about…?”

[If you are referring to the Elakatra, no. They are merely celestial inhabitants who have fallen to Earth. He cannot forget the sky, so he calls himself an angel. But, yes, they were there, so Satan’s plan went into action.]

“Plan…” A chill ran down my back; it was the moment when my concerns became real. So far, I had been judging things like my past self was the victim, but was that the case? I was called the ruler of the underground. Had I made such a decision to protect the underground on my own?

[When the Great Fusion came upon us, we realized that the anti-magic activated by heaven to erase us had been successful.]

“…” The secret of the Great Fusion was revealed so casually to me. It wasn’t a random supernatural phenomenon, but rather it had a clear purpose. To destroy the underground while merging Hater with Earth.

[It was possible to avoid extinction by creating something to respond to the underground on Earth before the Great Fusion took place.]

“…” A bitter laugh came out of me as I listened to the monster.

[That is what is now known as the Rookie’s Battlefield. The last resort to avoid the underground’s disappearance secretly prepared on Earth.]

I felt like lightning struck me. I opened my mouth, my voice trembling too much to talk. A long moment passed before I had calmed down enough to talk.

“Wasn’t the Rookie’s Battlefield…created by the elves to avoid their loss?”

[The battlefield was the result of anti-magic on a level with a miracle, built to save the underground. It was founded on the names of all demons as a sacrifice.]

All the hypotheses Rain and I had made melted away. Rain didn’t know me. I had hidden all the demons’ names to protect their existence, but there were several I met who had their names. Why weren’t they lost? That power had been used to create the Rookie’s Battlefield. Marcocias and the others had been able to regain their strength because they were connected to that battlefield.

[With the birth of the battlefield, the angels died on Earth after disconnecting with their human partners. All to connect the underground to Earth.]

“In the end, they were destined to disappear either way.”

[The demons needed to be split in half to balance their power. It wasn’t difficult, as many fallen angels in the underground wished to get their wings back. It was simple to fool them.]

“Hahaha…” The worries in my head became lighter as the feeling of guilt piled up in my heart.

[A balance needed to be obtained, and the person who stood at its peak was already established.]

“But currently…” if the Rookie’s Battlefield was the underground’s partner on Earth, then one of them should’ve disappeared in the Great Fusion. But instead, things had twisted strangely.

[There was one problem. Too much power was required to create the battlefield. In the end, the two creators of the battlefield…Satan and the arrogant one, used all their strength to create it. The arrogant one hid deep within the battlefield, and Satan was forced to hide in the human world. Preserving his power in his soul, preparing for resurrection in the event of the Great Fusion.]

“Preparing…” The word was ominous.

Only

“Tell me, how did I prepare?”

[You inhabited a human body so you could meet a partner with the same name as your nickname.]

I closed my eyes tightly.

[At the time of the fusion, you made sure that name would be known throughout Hater.]

The guild tightened around me like a chain, choking me as tears flowed down my cheeks.

[The Demon King’s name is Fate because all of Hater’s ‘fate’ would die.]

I had wondered why the farmer Fate had to die in vain.

Now I knew.