"So, you're one of those idiotic mass produced summoned heroes I've heard of?"
"Well, I was supposed to be until the demon lord suddenly passed away."
"Humans are such idiots. The process has already repeated numerous times already, yet they never learn. Another demon lord will just pop up soon after one falls anyways. Give or take, it's only about one hundred years of peace I normally give them. They could have just used the time to train you beforehand so you would be strong enough to chop him down the moment the next demon lord popped his head out of the ground. Instead, they just foolishly tossed a super rare, limited edition immortal boy toy like you down here for me to feast on. They probably thought you would be an old man by the time the next demon lord came about. They probably figured it would be a waste of taxpayers money to bring you up when you might be dead due to old age by the time the next demon lord appeared."
"Uh, I'm not a boy toy."
"Oh? You're not? Then what are you?"
"A future demon lord in the making."
"Pfft. What? You? Hahaha! You think I'll let my endless supply of food leave my side and really think I'd send you out to play the part of the next demon lord?"
"Why not?"
"You know, you may be able to regenerate endlessly, but you're way too weak. If you get caught and they realize you are immortal, they will cut you up endlessly in pursuit of the secrets to immortality. You'd face a fate far worse than being my blood bag you know. Why don't you just be a good little boy and obediently be my blood bag for eternity?"
"Are you actually just a lonely old granny who just wants some company?"
The moment the words left my mouth, I instantly regretted it when I realised she'd disappeared from in front of me. In my confusion, I slowly looked down and saw a delicate, deceptively dainty hand, stained crimson and pierced directly through my chest from behind. She casually held my heart in the palm of her hand without any hint of aversion towards the extremely graphic scene. I literally watched my heart beat before my eyes. I definitely never imagined I'd ever witness this horrific scene.
When the pain finally registered, I screamed out at the top of my lungs. Shit! It hurts so bad that I couldn't stop the tears that accumulated at the corners of my eyes. I felt like I could faint, but I was unable to when I noticed the pleasurable feeling mixed in amidst the pain. That pleasant sensation originated from my neck as the blood in my body was once again violently drained from my body.
"Who's a lonely old granny?" She only said that after she sucked me dry and parted her lips from my neck.
"You're an old granny, it's the truth. You think I'm afraid of you just because you're stronger than me? We're both immortal, bring it on you old hag!"
With my rash words as a trigger she ruthlessly clenched her hand into a fist and completely destroyed my heart right before my eyes. Shortly after my heart was turned into nothing more than dust, she pulled her hand out of my chest. I fell backwards and collapsed onto the ground before the "Immortal Object" message appeared in front of my chest again. The wound instantly closed up and my heart regenerated right away.
"Well, since we're both immortal, shall we test the limits of your immortality, my precious bottomless blood bag?"
She straddled on top of my waist, palmed my forehead and firmly pulled on my hair.
"What are you doing you crazy ol-" Pain immediately registered and my words were cut short.
She swiped her free hand across my neck and her long fingernails traced a straight line through the air with a blood like after image in its path. Her nails now dyed crimson, sliced cleanly through my neck which left behind a distinct red line. She raised my head up, separated it from my body and brought my face to eye level.
I couldn't stop the screams of agony that leaked out from the overwhelming pain. I somehow felt the pain from the detached portion of my body concurrently with the pain from my severed head. As such it was amplified severalfold, much more than any time before. This hurt like hell! Shit, she may very well be right. If I were caught by humans and this was done to me over and over, wouldn't I be better off dead? I'd definitely lose my sanity. The physical pain was far worse, more so than anything I'd ever experienced in my life.
"It hurts, doesn't it?"
"It does! So please just attach my head back to my body."
"No. This will be a lesson for you. You just casually said you wished to be a demon lord, but you don't even have the slightest idea of the weight the term demon lord holds. Especially not the weight of being an immortal demon lord who is presently nothing more than a weakling who can easily be toyed with by any random passerby."
"Let me tell you a story of a girl from the past. Better yet, I'll let you experience it first hand."
"Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a girl born into this world. She didn't know who her parents were, but she did know one thing. She was human, as far as she could tell. She lived in a peaceful orphanage where many children were abandoned after the wars waged between two empires. The first empire was a peace loving population known as the Demonic Empire, while the second empire... in simple terms they were a group of war mongers known as the Human Empire. At the time, the Demonic Empire was renowned for being the strongest empire in this world; even as an empire that strongly advocated peace, they were unmatched in overall military might."
"However, this little girl did not grow up in the peace loving Demonic Empire, she grew up in the Human Empire. Although the Human Empire was known for its devastating wars, that didn't mean there were no peaceful locations. She somehow managed to leisurely pass the days peacefully in an orphanage within the Human Empire. She even managed to make bonds with the villagers and children in the orphanage. She lived a very happy content life, eventually came of age, and one day she turned eighteen. Which should have been when a girl her age was ripe to marry."
"However, all good things will naturally come to an end. The time before she came of age was truly the happiest time she had ever known. Unfortunately. on the night she turned eighteen, there was a blood moon in the sky. It was that very same night that girl's entire world changed. The girl once thought she was a human, but in reality, she was not. She was actually a pure blood vampire who had yet to awaken to her bloodline. Unknown to the little girl of that time, she was born in the Demonic Empire; however, thanks to the schemes of the Human Empire's royalty, her parents were assassinated shortly after she was born. Her parents were the last true blood vampires in the Demonic empire. In an effort to protect their daughter, her parents sealed her bloodline and hid her away in the last place humans would ever expect, within the very borders of the Human Empire."
"You see, humans were lusting after the secret to immortality; so on one auspicious night, they infiltrated the Demonic Empire's royal palace. They assassinated her parents in an attempt to capture the infantile little girl so they could turn her into an obedient research subject to advance the human race. The strongest hero of the humans wielded a powerful one time use sword, rumored to be bestowed by the human gods, it was said that it had the power to neutralize immortality. This cursed blade allowed the hero to successfully assassinate the girl's parents. However, the little girl's parents had long seen through the Human Empire's greed and had already made arrangements for their sole daughter who possessed their bloodline to flee and live a peaceful life elsewhere. However, unfortunate as it may be, the key to undoing the seal on her bloodline just so happened to be observing the blood moon."
"More specifically, to bathe under the moonlight of the blood moon on one's coming of age, the night when one turned eighteen. The girl for certain reasons just so happened to be out on that night, deep within the forest taking a relaxing dip in the lake near the village when she grew entranced by the crimson moon that hung overhead. It was due to this unfortunate event that the once a little girl, now a woman, faced a calamity."
"When she came of age and her bloodline awoke, her eyes changed to resemble two blood moons, far from that of a normal human's eyes. It was impossible to hide it from the other villagers. When she returned to the village she grew up in, the humans who were once close to her treated her like a satanic blasphemous devil. It was like the life she lived up to that point was all a lie. She was heartlessly stoned and forced to leave the village where she grew up."
"But that was not all there was to the story that fate wrote for her. It really wasn't quite as simple as merely departing from that village. Somehow, word spread to the Human Empire that a peculiar girl had been sighted with eyes reminiscent of the blood moon. It was a trait distinct only to an immortal vampire and it easily ignited the Human Empire's lust to new levels after they had failed to locate the last descendent of the immortal bloodline for such a long time. Of course, the Human Empire easily put the pieces together and realized it was the lost immortal daughter from all those years ago. It wasn't hard for them to trace things back to the source and confirm that the girl had been sheltered in that village the entire time. This fact inevitably lead to the complete destruction of the one place the girl thought of as a home all her life."
"The Human Empire didn't take long to act and immediately moved out to enact the so called punishment for the villager's blasphemous action of raising the girl up from young. They burned the village to the ground and planted slanderous claims that they were heretics who had sheltered and raised a potential demonic lord. It was only later on that the little girl discovered the reason everyone turned cold was to drive her out so she wouldn't be caught. It was a village that, in truth, were actually on good terms with demonkind. The majority of the humans in that village owed a debt to the girl's parents, but of course there were spies of the empire planted everywhere, even in such a small remote village. After years of scouring through the Demonic Empire, they realized they couldn't eliminate the possibility that the little girl was no longer within the Demonic Empire. Thus, a large net was cast both inside and outside the Human Empire."
"One day, worse came to worst and the girl was confronted by the devious hero who killed her parents. He easily captured the girl and brought her back to the empire. That was where she learned the truth behind everything related to her past directly from the heroes mouth. He boasted about how treacherous and vile demonkin were and how he was a righteous hero who had personally slayed the demon lords. He easily handed the girl over to the Human Empire thinking his actions were just and that it was all for the betterment of the human race. What the hero didn't know was just what the innocent girl was undeservedly forced to experience after that. He turned out to be nothing more than an ignorant tool used by the empire without realizing it."
"Can you imagine what fate befell the immortal girl? Can you?!"
When she said that, I knew for certain she'd reached a very emotionally unstable state, her grip on my head gradually increased as time passed by.
She slammed her palm down and my body disintegrated into dust. The pain that coursed through my head was unbearably excruciating, but moments after, a message popped up in front of my eyes which said, "Immortal Object." I knew it was for the best to keep my mouth shut and not put up any resistance. The more of a fight I put up, the more punishment I'd be in for, and thus the longer the physical pain would be prolonged. A wise man knows when to shut his mouth and say nothing. Not only that, even if I wanted to put up any sort of struggle, her unusual blood moon eyes applied some sort of strange pressure that seemingly restricted any strength I had to go against her. I had no means to put up a resistance even if I wished to.
Shortly after the Immortal Object message appeared, my body reformed directly below my head; my body and head was, to my great relief, in one piece again.
She continued on with her story.
"Over and over again. Time after time the little girl was experimented on like a lab rat. Her limbs were continually cut and viciously ripped off; she continually screamed, begged and pleaded for mercy, but only cold indifferent eyes returned her desperate pleas. As the days passed, her hatred towards humans grew stronger and stronger."
In parallel to her story, it seemed she desired to demonstrate the pain she endured. With each overly graphic scenario she described, she ripped off one limb at a time from my body. I was crying tears of blood by this point and my voice had gone hoarse to the point I was only blowing out hot air. She even went as far to rip out my vocal cords at some point unknown to me. She tore open my guts, chopped my intestines into pieces, and disintegrated every organ within my body; all the while, she narrated her story of the various different types of torture she experienced at the hands of the countless, ruthless, cold blooded humans that experimented on her body in their maddened pursuit of the secrets to immortality.
Her face was twisted; warped with boundless rage and resentment. I felt like I suddenly understood the hardships of a stress ball. My appreciation for stress balls rose ever so slightly deep within my heart. I thought if I had the chance, I'd definitely buy one for her if they existed in this world.
"Yes, exactly like what you're experiencing right now, but her agony went on for years, maybe even decades! Who knows really? The girl had lost track of time at some point and only wished for death and revenge. She was too weak at the time to fight since she only lived the simple life of a peaceful villager her entire life. The cold merciless eyes of the people experimenting on her like she was nothing more than an animal always pierced to the depths of her soul; even now she still remembers each and every one of them to this day."
"Haha. Can you imagine? Can you?! Well, you probably don't need to imagine it since you're experiencing it first hand right now."
She showed a jeering smile towards me as though she were looking at an ant.
"During the time the girl was imprisoned like an experimental lab rat, the Human Empire rapidly increased their strength through discoveries related to their research on the girl's immortal blood. They used her immortal blood to fuel powerful magical weapons of mass destruction and they started a crusade in the name of 'slaughtering the demon lords who oppressed the human race.'"
She said her last words with so much fury, to the point her voice were reminiscent to nails scraping on a chalkboard.
"It's really the funniest damned joke I've ever heard. The so called demon lords had already secretly been dealt with by the human hero through despicable means after all."
It was like her anger was directed towards me. I felt like her rage would be able to completely shatter my soul and wipe me out of existence. I felt so tiny and insignificant in front of her wrath I couldn't utter a single word. I now somewhat understood a little of what the words demon lord meant to her.
To vent her boiling rage, her hand pierced directly through my chest a few hundred times before it recovered whereupon she momentarily paused her actions. She changed course, extended her hand towards my face and ripped my eyeballs out of its socket then squashed it before it regenerated moments later in my eye socket.
Of course all the pain left me wishing I were dead, but somehow, I couldn't find it in myself to hate her. I felt more irritated with unreasonable humans in this world than her. If this was what she personally experienced and survived through, I also felt it would be too pathetic of me to plead for forgiveness from her. I just needed to suck it up and deal with the pain until she finished venting. I'm a man right? It's just a little pain, right? If she survived through it, wouldn't I be far too pathetic if I started to beg for mercy now?
Besides that, what good would there be in coming to hate her to begin with? Who knows how long I will be trapped down here together with her? It would be best to try to find a way to at least get along in the long run.
"In the end, the Demonic Empire fell after humans exploited the girl's immortal blood. Eventually, the human hero who had grown much older eventually returned from the front lines as well. He was heavily rewarded and showered in praise for his services for slaying uncountable demons. He was also granted one wish from the emperor. He asked if he could learn of how the empire suddenly created such powerful weapons. The emperor only smiled at the hero at the time and allowed him to meet the girl once again. By this second meeting between the two, the hero and girl, the girl was now nothing more than a lifeless corpse."
"When the hero saw how the girl was dissected and saw her dead lifeless eyes, perhaps it was then, for the first time he felt something. Maybe it was the same dead lifeless eyes he had seen from the humans of the Human Empire who had suffered through countless years of unending wars led by the imperial family. It was only at that point the human hero asked the emperor a question he had never asked before in his life, 'why do we fight demons?'"
"The emperor only smiled back at the hero and casually said, 'because they are the root of all evil, they are the ones that oppress us humans.'"
"The human hero immediately asked a follow up question, 'Are they really evil? What makes them evil?'"
"'Of course they are evil, what are you thinking oh mighty hero of the human empire? They are evil because they are the root of all evil.' The emperor said it like it was the only possible answer. It was really an answer that was not an answer at all; simply said, it was the fallacy of begging the question, or in other words, circular reasoning."
"The hero took one last look at the girl before he departed with the emperor. He mumbled something under his breath when he left that he thought only he could hear. But the girl who was far superior to humans easily heard, 'who is really on the side of evil?'"
"That same night, the hero snuck in and granted the little girl freedom. He explained all that happened while she was locked up, along with the secrets behind the defeat of the Demonic Empire. In short, her empire fell due to the very blood that once protected it. Perhaps it would have been best if the hero just hid everything from the girl, but maybe it was that his guilty conscious wouldn't allow him to. He had personally brought destruction to the girl's homeland after all. The so called demons were now all slaves to be used as the Human Empire saw fit."
"The hero took her far away and left her to her own devices. He probably couldn't bear to face the girl anymore than that. The girl naturally despaired and mourned the fall of the homeland she never had the chance to know, she even wished she were never born. She wished she could die, but she couldn't as the curse known as immortality was placed upon her. She wished she could atone for her sins, but more than that, she wished to destroy everything."
"Thus the girl fought. She was left in the wilderness where only desolate beasts existed. She fought and she fought and she fought some more, until she eventually became unmatched in the short span of ten years. She became a feared existence and not a single beast in the wilderness dared to venture within a hundred miles of her. When she attained sufficient power, she returned to the wretched Human Empire and eventually brought about a calamity across the lands."
"When the girl returned, at first she thought at the very least it would now be a peaceful empire. She yearned and desired to completely crush that disgusting false peace, but rather than there being peace, there were endless civil wars occurring all across the Human Empire. The humans didn't seek peace at all, all they cared for was increasing their power and stirring up more chaos. They only thought to better their own lives and not others. They couldn't care less even for their own kind."
"Her fury and madness only crescendoed into a torrential storm and her sole purpose in life had turned towards slaughtering everything within her path. The girl judged that humans were worthless and insignificant creatures not worthy of living. Thus, she brought about a massacre within the borders of the Human Empire. When she reached the capital of the empire, the human hero surprisingly didn't intervene at first. Instead, he sat on the sideline far away and simply watched as the girl killed countless swarms of humans single handedly. By this point, the girl had become a savage blood thirsty demon that only knew how to kill and slaughter. There existed not a single shred of good or warmth within her eyes. When the girl finally took the head of the emperor and finished off the royal family, the hero finally made his move."
"The hero had a second sword he was bestowed by the so called human gods. By exchanging his life, he could seal any being he so desired once. Thus, even while he was already on his deathbed and no longer able to fight the girl head on, he successfully sealed her in a moment of carelessness when she finished off the imperial bloodline. His dying words were an apology towards the girl and her people. He admitted his wrongs and how he was blinded by the church and the empires words. When she was sealed, the girl made a deal to exchange benefits with the human kingdoms for sacrifices. This was the girl's only idea on how she could accumulate strength to break out after she was sealed."
"In the end, a large crater was left as a result of the seal. With nothing better to do, the girl, after many years of effort, built a dungeon in her spare time underneath the sealed off area through various means. Over time, humans eventually forgot about the significance of the seal and built up a kingdom on the ruins of the destroyed empire. However, humans continued to wage wars against each other. Though, thanks to the girl's efforts, many citizens of the Demonic Empire were freed and they even regrouped and formed their own smaller segregated, isolated, kingdoms. With the strongest hero out of the way, and the loss of the weapons of mass destruction, the citizens of the demonic empire were able to recover over time. Eventually, a demon lord to rule over them was necessary. So the girl raised a few demon lords and occasionally sent them to the demonic kingdom. The seal was only effective on the girl, not the beings she turned into servants."
"As for how she created such powerful demonic lords, that had to do with the bloodline passed down by the strongest hero of the old Human Empire. Till this date they have abided by the human hero's wish to atone and have followed the girl's instructions. They remained secluded from the affairs of the world and offered the strongest of each generation up to the girl to become a servant. The girl turned them into demonic beings and trained them so they would act as a provisional demonic lord to keep humans in check. By doing so, the benefit they reaped was they managed to prevent wars between humans from breaking out."
"In the end, it turned out the humans needed this foreign enemy to stay united. This was the girl's compromise to the situation she faced where she was sealed away while helpless and unable to do a thing for her people; it was the only thing she could really do. In the end, although the girl found humans to be utterly despicable, she still remembered the warmth of her time in the human village and how they tried to protect her. The girl was torn and couldn't find a way for both sides to stop fighting. So she could only give the demons a demonic lord that would protect them from the humans, while she gave an enemy for the humans to fight against and stay united."
"However, this story isn't quite finished. There was something the girl only realized after she'd been sealed for so long. This story actually had a mastermind that never entered the girl's eyes back then when she was blinded by revenge. As one might expect, the girl's anger was only ever directed towards the empire, but there was another existence that stood side by side with the empire in the background. An existence the girl should have easily noticed. In fact, it should have been among her top priorities to wipe out. Yet, why did the girl not notice them? She was a fool, just as the human hero was. They were truly two faced; they performed evil deeds when they were hidden in the dark, while they put on a righteous air on the surface in the eyes of the public when in broad daylight."
"We were all unaware chess pieces dancing on the palms of the church's hands. In the end, religion was the true root of all evil. They were the only ones who had an even deeper history in comparison to the empire. They were the ones pulling the strings behind the loyal dogs they planted and brainwashed within the imperial family. The girl was still young and naive back then and she didn't understand such complicated matters back then. With the way she was raised as a simple minded country hick out in the boonies, she only sought out what was on the surface."
"..."
When she finally finished her story I was unable to move a single muscle. I was also unsure of what to say in response to her long story after this painful torture session. Although everything was healed and my body was perfectly fine, the torment she put me through while I listened to her story left my mind in chaos. The only thing I thought of was to try and break the awkward silence, "see, you're just lonely after all, aren't you?"
Just what the hell am I saying? Well, in all honesty I didn't like the sight of the deep melancholy that had seeped into her entrancing eyes and deep down I wanted to see her smile at least once. But of course, after the last word left my mouth, all I could see was her arm that suddenly appeared between my eyes. Her hand had pierced cleanly through my skull from behind and held my brain directly in front of my eyes.
"Is it this useless brain that keeps thinking of idiotic things to say when someone is just telling a story of some random unrelated girl on a whim?"
She's a bit scary, but she's somehow cute, albeit extremely violent. Maybe this is just how immortals show affection towards each other.
While I thought of more idiotic things, my brain was squashed, fragments of crushed brain matter flew out in all directions before my body soon returned to normal.
"Tsk. You really are immortal with no way to die, aren't you?"
She seemed to be in a rather foul mood when she voiced her slight surprise. Somehow I found her reactions to be a bit cute.
"There really isn't anyone in the demonic race that carries a pure immortal bloodline like mine any longer. What am I supposed to do? Am I really left with no other choice? I'd rather not with a despicable, disposable summoned human hero though."
"Hey, is it really impossible for me to be a demon lord after all?"
"Yeah it is. I can't turn you into a demon since you're already immortal. I already tried to turn you into a servant while I drained your blood earlier, but it was no good."
"Does a demonic lord really need to be a demon to begin with? Isn't it fine if a human becomes a demonic lord?"
"You're still casually spouting nonsense about becoming a demon lord after all I put you through? Are you just an idiot? You know, you could very well be the second little girl from that story if you fall into human hands."
"Isn't it fine? Can't you just become the hero in that story and come break me out?"
"Are you really just an idiot?"
"Yeah, maybe I am. I don't like humans after all. I'd rather they all died."
"Hmm? Why do you hate them?"
"If the majority of them are as bad as you've described them to be and are like what I saw when I was first summoned, aren't they all better off dead? In my world there are countless stories about humans being oppressed by demons. Demons are also always villainized as being evil and humans are always on the side of good. It was to a point where it felt like they were trying to brainwash everyone into believing that was the only possible truth. But I don't believe in stupid stories like that. Demons can think and feel just like humans do. Humans only reject them because they look different."
"Hmm. Did you think I was going to fall for you if you spewed a few crappy lines like that?"
"It was worth a shot, wasn't it?"
"Hah. You're really just an idiot after all."
When I saw the beautiful mocking smile bloom on the face which clearly expressed nothing but utter disdain, I couldn't tear my eyes away from her for even a second. It might have just been because of the stark contrast between now and her earlier melancholic expression that only showed agony and a painful heartache that left me so captivated.
I somehow found myself completely lost in those captivating blood moon eyes that glowed with a deep crimson hue. The eyes that belonged to the so called true demon lord before me left me muddle headed, so much so, to the point that I even thought it wouldn't be so bad to be sealed here for an eternity with her. My splattered blood on the side of her face similarly gave off an utterly demonic allure in the instant she licked off the blood that had stained those petite pale white fingers of hers.