Now I was back in Pranx, this was the harder part. If I showed up as the Demon Lord and wasn't also near the Heroes as one of them it would be suspicious. I focused my mana inside me and then split it apart.
"I am me and you are me. Together we are one." A figure began to split from my body. It looked exactly like me. Well it was because it was me. Right now my mind was split in two. I could see me staring at me from two different points of view. With a superficial nod, me and the other me split ways.
The clone me went to the Heroes.
"Hey, what took you so long?" Gary asked as I appeared.
"There was a cat," I replied innocently.
"A cat where!?" Sayuri perked up unexpectedly.
"It ran off, sorry."
She turned her head down in disappointment but quickly returned to normal. From there the clone me lead them towards the town centre. It was an open space with a single large fountain in the middle. It was also where Mr Parcel was at the moment. Our two groups neared each other, ours looking at them with disdain. That's when the sunny sky split apart as dark clouds rolled in and a roar of thunder echoed. There, above them, a figure appeared. A figure that did not belong. Floating in the air, with bright red hair, two short horns protruding upwards from his head, his body was armoured lightly with a black mantle lined with fur across his shoulders and in the centre of his chest was a golden stone. Yes, it was me in all my Demon Lord glory. This was the power of the Demon Lord's mantle and it certainly made me look the part. Not only was it almost indestructible, it created armour perfectly to size, changed my hair colour, gave me horns and most importantly was incredibly comfortable to wear. Well it also boosted my physical strength witch helped a lot as it was the one magic I couldn't use normally.
The Heroes looked up at me instantly. How could they not when such a presence of power appeared. Mr Parcel and his men froze at the sight of my magnificence and I laughed evilly. The clone me stood in front of the Heroes and spread his arms. In a panicked voice I began,
"Everyone run! That guy's the De-,"
I interrupted myself by teleporting right in front of me. My clone's face morphed to surprise and tried to use magic but I stopped myself,
"I'd like to introduce myself thank you," and with that I punted myself out of the town with an incredibly powerful kick. It was a peculiar feeling.
"You-," Carl started to yell but I put my foot down and everyone around me but Mr Parcel was sent flying to the edges of the town centre. His guards were knocked out instantly but as expected the Heroes quickly recovered.
Carl brushed off the dirt, "Who the hell are you and what did you do with Dave?" he reached into his bag and took out the dimensional chest. With a quick throw he gave everyone their weapons. I watched them with a smile.
"My name is Davarious First Born Light of the Autumn Wind, 26th Demon Lord of the High continent!" thunder and lightning roared through the sky. The Heroes flinched. "As for your friend I simply removed him from my sight. Unlike you four he could have been a bother."
There was a whimper beside me and Mr Parcel tried to run away but I snagged him with magic and brought him over. He floated in the air.
"I seem to have missed one of you," I smirked and span him around.
"Please stop!" he begged, "I have money, lots of money!"
"Money!?" I laughed harshly, "For what reason do I need money?"
"Please have mercy!"
"Mercy? Do you think you deserve that much?" I shook him up and down as his pockets opened spilling out several coins.
"No I beg you, I'll do anything," tears streamed down his disgusting face. "I'll serve you and give you everything I have!"
"Like I would let human slime like you serve me," I dropped him to the ground and he immediately tried to run but I pulled him back.
"Noooo!" he screamed, "Help me! Someone please help me!"
"I know what kind of person you are. You are the filth that deserves to be wiped from this land. The reason you humans are scum." I was laying it on pretty thick but it was kind of getting fun, "Look around you!" I commanded and purposefully moved him to see the eyes of people hiding from afar. "None of them will even try to save you. Oh I wonder just what deeds you must have done to deserve this. Not even one of them is calling for me to stop."
"That's enough!" Carl yelled as if on cue. "He may be slime but I won't let you continue."
I let out a wicked smile and dropped Mr Parcel again. This time I let him run away. That should have been enough of a scare for him. "And your name Hero?"
"Carlton Smith." Carl raised his sword valiantly. "So you know who we are?"
"Of course, to meet the ones who seek my life is but my dearest wish," I bowed mockingly.
"What do you want with us?" Alicia stared at me calculative.
"Simply to say hello," I grinned, "Don't worry I won't kill you just yet. That wouldn't serve my purposes at all. Though the one from this world, him on the other hand maybe I should go and finish off." There was an incredible burst in front of me.
"You bastard!" Alicia screamed and smashed through my outer barrier but was stopped by the next layer. Wow, maybe I had gone too far with the teasing. Hmm, where did Sayuri go?
"Rend!" the voice came from behind me and I felt another layer split apart. This time I was really surprised. I hadn't detected her presence at all. That was dangerous. Sayuri's eyes were livid and intent to cut me down. Ah, I better focus on Carl before he does something as we-,
"Burst-," Carl began to yell above me.
Burst Raid!? Just when did he learn how to do that? I had to think fast here. The Heroes had really lost the plot, my appearance may have been too much of a stimulus. If this kept going they'd destroy half the town. I clicked my fingers and an explosion of force erupted around me. The ground cracked, Sayuri was sent through a nearby window, Carl went straight up, Alicia flew into Gary who had just finished chanting a frightening spell of his own. A red ball of light came at me. Hey, hey, hey! If that spell went off here it would blow up the town centre! I reached towards the ball of light and crushed it with my own force. There was a powerful bang but the town was left unscathed… mostly. A lot of windows would need to be replaced. Man… I'd need to teach these idiots about restraint.
There was a splash as Carl finally landed into the fountain.
"Weak, so weak!" I laughed like a maniac as I floated up. "Train, grow stronger and find me!" I stared down at them as the Heroes looked back at me with weak bodies but determined eyes. "Though if I were you, I'd go check up on the other one. He might already be dead. Till we meet again." I let out one more echoed laugh and vanished as the skies cleared.
I reappeared next to my clone who had been kicked out of Pranx and into a large rock in the middle of a field. There was a big dent and cracks in the rock and my clone looked all beat up. We both nodded needlessly and I took off my mantle as the clone vanished back inside me. I took the clone's ragged appearance and shrunk my mantle and put it in my jacket pocket. My preparations were just in time as Sayuri came running from the distance.
I waved at her with a grimace of a smile.
"Dave!" she yelled and jumped straight at me checking me for wounds, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? He didn't come back did he?"
"Calm down!" I held her back, "I'm fine. He just caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to show up so soon."
"B-but he said he'd kill you," she cried in an emotional panic.
"He was probably just messing with you," I laughed sorely.
In the distance Carl and the others also came running which caused a repetition of what just happened. It took me awhile to calm them and show them I was fine.
"See no blood," I smiled. Figure that huh? It would have been awkward if there had been though. Blue liquid seeping from someone's body would scare any human. Then I became stern, "As for you four," I hit them all in the head lightly, "What were you thinking trying to do that in the middle of a town. I could feel it from here."
"Ah well….," Alicia began, "He threatened to kill you so we all kind of snapped."
"…." So I was the cause of it all…. Well really either way I caused it all haha. "Just don't go berserk again."
"We won't," they said at the same time. I sighed, why didn't I believe them?
The town centre was worse than I thought. All the nearby windows were shattered, there was a crater where I had been standing earlier and a portion of the fountain was broken leaking water everywhere. A crowd had gathered to inspect the damages and the town mayor was at the centre of it all. The people split as we neared them. They were mumbling our names and that we were the Heroes.
"Sorry for the disturbance we caused," I bowed to the mayor, "We didn't expect for the Demon Lord to appear so suddenly."
"No it is fine. We are just happy you managed to repel him," the Mayor replied with a stiff smile. The Heroes squirmed guiltily. 'Repel' was not the right word for what happened.
"As for the damages to the town. We hope this will suffice," I gave him a pouch of coins and his eyes widened at the contents. "Please use it as you will. We understand that the town is in an amount of debt already, we wouldn't want to make it any worse." Though with the scare I gave Mr Parcel, that debt should be settled soon enough.
"Thank you Heroes," he bowed and the people around us did as well.
We stayed and talked to the people for a bit before we headed back to the inn. By the time we arrived everyone already knew who we were. Their eyes stuck to us like glue. With the intent to leave as soon as possible we gathered our belongings from the rooms. Delilah accidently walked into Carl on the way out and her face became a full red flush.
"S-sorry!" she stepped away and squirmed oddly, mumbling, "To think I was able to touch a Hero's bare skin."
Carl flinched at her words but didn't say anything. Alicia and Sayuri gave him accusative glares and he quickly shook his head saying nothing happened.
As we left the inn a large crowd followed us as we headed for the road out of town. I sighed, how far would we have to walk until I could summon the cloud out of sight? At the edge of town however a familiar face met ours.
"E-excuse me Heroes," Mr Parcel called.
"Yes?" Carl replied coldly.
Mr Parcel bowed deeply, "Thank you for saving my life."
"As thanks let go of this town's debt," Gary said before Carl could, "And don't you ever do this kind of thing again."
"Of course!" he raised himself shaking a little.
Just in case I also added, "If you play around with people's lives again, who knows the Demon Lord may just come back." They were empty words but he froze.
The crowd who heard the conversation cheered in response. They were finally free from debt.
Thus we left Pranx and once we were far enough down the road, we all hopped on my cloud and continued our journey to the Klerical Kingdom. The story of the Heroes saving a town from debt and fending off the Demon Lord would spread quickly. Though the money loaner became an agent of the Demon Lord who turned out to be such scum even the Demon Lord forsook him and the Heroes in their benevolence protected him anyway, resulting in a change of heart and a happy ending for all.