On Alercane,

Inside a luxuriously decorated room, a bunch of humanlike creatures was standing around a huge bed with anxious expressions. Each of these creatures appeared to look very different, whether in size, height, or even bone structures.

"What are we going to do now?" one of them, a humanoid creature with a black dog head and black fur all over his body, asked worriedly. "His Majesty's injuries aren't healing at all!"

He was a member of the Bloodhound Clan, a reputable clan with a lineage that could be traced along with the first royal king of Alercane. As a child, upon the death of his parents, he was abandoned by his clan because of the color of his fur, which was considered bad luck.

His king found him and allowed him to grow up beside him. His king...

The man looked at the half-naked young man who was sleeping on the huge bed, unconscious. The young man was their king, their leader. And currently, the man's beautiful features were covered by blood, and his usually luscious black long hair was now dry and brittle.

Black moving symbols were all over his bodies, triggering an eerie feeling in the hearts of the onlookers.

These symbols pulsed ominously, and some of them would flash in red occasionally. The young man was frowning and sweating profusely, and from the way his body twitched every now and then, it was very obvious that he was in some sort of extreme pain.

"Urgh…" the young man groaned as some of the symbols flashed again, and his body jerked up slightly before falling back onto the bed.

A woman with waist-length white hair had her hand placed on the young man's chest as she continued to chant something with her eyes closed. The young man's expression softened slightly, as if whatever was hurting him was being kept at bay.

"What the f*ck did those b*stards do to him?!" a stunning female creature with sharp elf-like ears and red, long hair that reached her waist cursed as she looked at the changing expressions on the young man's face. "It's all my fault! I shouldn't have let His Majesty get out of my sight!"

Tears were rolling down her face when the young man groaned again. The young man was their newly-appointed king, and they were his personal guards. A few days ago, when they were out on an expedition to check on a nearby village, where all the villagers were reported missing overnight, they were ambushed by a group of bloodthirsty rogue Bloodhounds and Dragonblood working for the enemy kingdom, Yulagvia. Worse, they had a powerful human mage among their ranks.

Even though humans were the weakest among all species, there were some rare exceptions. Humans blessed by the elements of the world. Mage. Humans who could easily control certain elements.

It was as if gods were playing around with them. For a species that was given no strength nor magical powers… If one of them somehow was gifted with the power to control an element, this power would be a thousand times stronger than the other species who could use magic.

And this was what happened earlier.

During their ensuing fight, their king decided to leave the battle to his personal guards and went after the human mage on his own. Human mages were a rarity after the last purge, and their king had been looking for one for a long time. Hence, he wanted to capture the human mage for his own kingdom.

Their king was able to command certain elements as well, but his focus was on the capital city, whereas the human-occupied cities under his command tended to suffer because he could never reach there to help them himself. He needed someone that the humans could trust… like a mage who was from the same species.

Unfortunately, he walked into a trap set by the mage, and by the time his guards reached him, he was already unconscious and a blood curse was placed on him. And despite his personal guards scouring the area, covering a distance of 1,000 kilometers within a few hours, the mage was nowhere to be found.

It was as if… the mage disappeared off the face of the world.

"You wouldn't have known," said another humanoid creature with blond hair and a dark brown eland horn on each side of his temple. The only thing not humanoid about him was his muscular body and the fact that he was almost three meters in height.

A member of the Ungulates, a branch of the Beast Tribe, he was blessed with extraordinary strength.

So when he smashed his fist against the nearby stone wall, it created a deep hole in it, to the point that his hand came out from the other end of the wall, startling the servants who were cleaning the room next door.

"Oops…" He apologized as he pulled his hand back. When he turned around and saw the young man on the bed, he was overcome with a blind rage again. He grew up with the young man, and along with the rest in the room, he swore to protect their king, but now… He could not do anything other than to watch his master suffer in silence.

"I'm going to find that f*cking mage!" he snapped angrily and jumped out of the huge window, landing perfectly on the ground 20 meters below with nothing more than a soft thud. "Send me a signal once His Majesty is awake!" he yelled up at his friends before running off. A few meters forward, he released his brown wings, which tore out from his shirt, and flew off.

"That brute…" the white-haired lady mumbled when the man's voice distracted her. Even though her eyes were closed, she could tell what had happened. With a wave of her hand, she repaired the hole in the room. "The king wouldn't like it if he wakes up to a messy room…"

"How's he, Izzy?" the man with the dog head asked.

The white-haired lady shook her head. "I can keep the symbols from multiplying at the moment, but I can't stop it completely… and at some point, I would need to rest, and these things would multiply again then."

She had been casting her spell continuously for the last few days. Even though she was considered to be the strongest witch in the country, that did not mean that her magic was inexhaustible.

Even the others in the room could see that. Her face was significantly paler than before, and her white long dress was so drenched with sweat that it clung to her body tightly, showing off her sexy curves to everyone in the room. Even though she kept casting Cleanse to clean herself, she was sweating so much that a mere few minutes later, she would be covered in sweat again.

"F*ck! Izzy, you're bleeding!" the red-haired lady gasped when she saw the blue blood dripping out from her friend's ears. She knew that her friend was at the very limit. The members of the Blue Spirit Clan had strong healing powers, but unfortunately, their bodies tended to be weaker than the other species. "You need to stop, or you're going to die!"

"If I stop, there's no guaranteeing that the symbols wouldn't go for His Majesty's heart!" Izzy snapped. She saw how those weird black symbols were moving, and the trajectory of the symbols suggested that they were targeting the heart of their king.

In the moment that she stopped to take a rest...

"ARGH!" the young man yelled out in pain when half of the symbols lit up without warning, and his eyes opened, showing his eyes that were completely blood red at the moment.

"I'm sorry!" Izzy cried out as she placed both hands on the young man's chest to stop the symbols from advancing. She was alarmed when she saw that in just a split second, the symbols had reached another inch higher.

As the king's healer, this was her job. Even if it wasn't her job… She shook her head. No matter what, she was adamant to save him, even if she had to sacrifice her life to do so.

"How about we kill His Majesty?"

The two women turned to look at the man with the dog head, who had just suggested a ridiculous suggestion.

The man had a grave expression on his face as he explained, "If those symbols are going for His Majesty's heart, then if we can create a fake death situation, those symbols would stop, right? We will stop his heart until we can figure out a way to get rid of those symbols."

The two women thought about it. Their king could be resurrected a number of times after his death. The problem was, they needed a kin to sacrifice half of his blood and strength to the king. It was the curse and blessing of the royal lineage. Unfortunately, their king was the only child, and he had no other family members who were currently nearby.

"Stolas, we need to contact Duke Dragmaxes, if we are going to kill His Majesty. He's the closest in line to His Majesty," said the red-haired woman hopefully. She placed a hand on the young man's hand, which was so hot that she nearly pulled her hand back in reflex.

"He's also the next in line, Annais," Izzy pointed out with a sad expression. She looked at the young man on the bed and mumbled, "That man would never help his nephew…"

"Either way, we have to try," Stolas said with a solemn expression. "If Ox couldn't find the mage in time, His Majesty would definitely die for real! At least this way, we can keep him for a longer period of time until we find someone that could help. And if Duke Dragmaxes refused to help…" Stolas' eyes, which were previously black, turned red as his voice deepened. "I'd kidnap one—no!—I'll kidnap all of his children and sacrifice them all to the king!"

The blood sacrifice did not require a willing participant, so as long as they found someone who shared the same bloodline as their king, that person would do. The only problem was that, the more diluted the bloodline, the weaker they were, and the more people they would need to sacrifice to wake their king up.

"Lucifer…" Izzy mumbled as she looked at the young man with whom she spent most of her childhood with. "You're the Daemon King… You must live through this, and you must lead us to a better future."