In an era long ago, a magnificent stood on the barren lands of the demon realm, unbothered by the many conflicts surrounding it. It was as though a drop of white paint splattered on a pure black canvas, untainted by the filth around it.
A group of humans slowly walked to the castle in seriousness and with a grave expressions on their faces. The group was led by a young man with bright blonde hair. He had muscles all over his body as a white claymore hung by his back, its light seeping out the body as the nearby land slowly turned green wherever its light fell. While the light emitted by the sword looked as though the light of a saint, the crude appearance of the sword made it seem like a failed experiment at making a claymore have a lighting effect rather than a functional sword.
The group of 5 moved towards the castle as monsters avoided them, as though not wanting to get in contact with the bunch of weirdos. This was, after all, the demonic legion of the newest demon king, Effraye. He was said to be the most cautious demon king in all of history, yet humans and even his fellow demons called him The Cowardly King, paying almost no respect to his title as demon king. But the king's achievements couldn't be denied. Under his rule, the infernos hell that was his kingdom grew to a magnitude of power never seen before.
While the other demon kings were naturally powerful, they didn't have a sense of security or guard. Rushing into fights, not knowing who the enemy was, chanting large spells only to get stabbed in between casting, revealing their plans to their opponents, etc were some major flaws of these defective demon kings, leading their reign to be short and unimpressive. Perhaps that was why the reign of these kings didn't last more than 20 years or so. But it was not the same case for Effraye. His reign had lasted an impressive 70 years, with no signs of it being overthrown any time soon.
The 5 humans were in fact the hero's party of adventurers. All adventurers being the highest rank of SSSX Adamantite Diamond Level. While the team leader of this party was no doubt their most skilled and blessed member, The Hero Afrit. However, the strongest person there was the party's shield specialist.
A shield-wielding woman with an amazing fighting style and a divine weapon given to her by the dwarf god Druvua, her name was Lilia. Unlike her fellow party members, Lilia wasn't born in a wealthy family nor taught in the Great Academy of the kingdom. She was but the daughter of a farmer, pulled into a mess of bloodshed and carnage by the Hero who had noticed her skill with large heavy objects. Lilia had accompanied the team leader's training for the last 7 years and endured long periods of hardship with him. Now, amidst the long training process, her party had been in, one of the members had broken his sword.
In fact, the reason why the holy sword gave off so much light was that Lilia, who in a fit of rage attacked the mage after the mage of the group, the daughter of the principal of the academy had decided not to save two children who had been trapped in a dungeon but go forward to search for treasure instead. Lilia had swung her shield to bash the mage right there and there but Afrit had placed his claymore in front of her shield. Thinking nothing would happen, Lilia too swung her shield at full power but to her surprise, the sword broke into two halves.
The holy sword which had been broken had been shoddily put back into 2 pieces by the hero and because of that was giving off so much light. After a solid 20 minutes of walking to the demon king's castle, Afrit and his party finally arrived at the door. Why walk you ask? Well apparently, walking to an opponent's castle made them look more "heroic" than simply running to it. Afrit kicked the door down with his monstrous strength as dust flew into the castle.
"Get over here, Effraye! I, The Hero Afrit have come to slay you!"
Expecting a reply, Afrit kept quiet for a while but all that awaited him was an echoing silence and the sounds of chirping demonic cicadas. Just when he was about to shout again, a languid voice sounded from within the castle.
"Ah, you're the new Hero is it? Could you keep quiet for a while? I'm having tea that I bought from the Southern merchants you see. It's very delicious and I wouldn't like anyone ruining it."
Afrit closed his mouth and started twiddling his thumbs as he couldn't find a way to respond. But with a sudden jab from Lilia, he finally smirked as he shouted aloud.
"Have as much of that tea of yours as you can, for that shall be your last! Today you'll die by my hands. I have created especially for you, my new technique; Light Refractive Death Crystal Slash!"
poof, Suddenly a lady appeared in front of the party, as though she had just teleported. Her body seemed to be that of a girl in her early teens, with a beauty that would make even Aphrodite jealous. Her long silver hair reflected an almost dazzling light. While the beauty of the girl was captivating those who gazed upon her, it was the figure of The Demonic Beast emerging from her back that had the group mesmerized.
"Light Refractive Death Crystal Slash, is it?"
A bright halo appeared on the lady's eyes and head as millions of lines of information ran down her eyes. She disappeared just as fast as she came along with the lord of the manor and left the group with an awkward silence. This silence persisted for 5 minutes as the archer finally spoke.
"Hey aren't we going to go upstairs?"
Afrit finally got out of his daze as that hot-bloodedness of his returned and he walked up the stairs. Once he climbed up successfully, Afrit saw an interesting scene. The so-called "throne room" wasn't much of a throne room at all. The demon king was sitting on a white metal chair as the lady who previously appeared poured him milk tea on his white ceramic cups. The demon king did not look ferocious or vile as the posters made him out to be. In fact, in certain words, he could be called a refined man. With long white hair running down his shoulders, two magnificent horns sprung up from his forehead, He was wearing an untainted white shirt and casual black pants as though it was just a normal day to him.
Yet just at that moment, Afrit moved immediately, as though a battle machine whose sights were kept on a stagnant mode were activated. He pulled out his claymore as a golden hue covered his body, protecting him from all outside forces and influences. Behind him, his party brought out their weapons as well as their spells as a tense atmosphere surrounded the party. Just then, a loud voice sounded out as Effraye spoke out with a hint of annoyance.
"For satan's sake, take this fight outside. Don't ruin my tea session!"
As he spoke out the final syllable, the whole hero's party was teleported out of the castle. But not only the heroes, but the 5 generals of the demon king were also teleported out.
"Shana, Belfast, Valac, Memphis, Arit; take care of these nuisances and come back quickly."
As he sipped his tea, Effraye made some hand seals, making a bunch of seals appear on the hearts of the 5 demon generals, A blue barrier surrounded them as peace and silence surrounded Effraye again.
5 Minutes Later Afrit and his party were (once again) covered in a silenced atmosphere. In front of them were the 5 demon generals, supposed rulers of the underworlds whose powers were weaker only than the Demon King himself. Yet there they were, laying on the ground; motionless like puppets.
"So did we win…?"
Afrit spoke with an uncertain tone, looking at the supposed strongest demons of the Infernal Hells. But his uncertainty lasted for only a moment as he quickly rushed back to the demon castle, as a chilling wind blew past the fainted bodies of the demon generals.
"He ain't here!"
Diavel, the archer of the group spoke as he had arrived the fastest amongst the group. He thought he would be greeted by the demon king but all he saw was an empty room. The demon king was nowhere to be seen as the garden slowly started withering around them, eventually turning into an arid wasteland. 2 Kilometers away from the castle, Effraye was praising himself for his superior intellect of running away as soon as the fight had started.
"Heh! Those monkeys really thought that I'd fight them!"
Effraye was donning his black armor that protected his whole body. He ran quickly towards a giant gate that was right in front of the direction where he was running towards.
"The Gate of Akasha! Heh, once I'm inside the Gate, I'll be able to survive until the True Hero, He should be appearing this year but all that showed up was this fake."
His hands extended out right at the gate when a sudden light flashed. BOOM! A pure white light stabbed through Effraye's waist as he fell right in front of the barrier. The sheer force from the shot had shattered one of his horns as well, leaving merely its stump
"Fuck!"
He shouted in pain with his face being a pale white, as though his blood had been drained from his face completely. Far away, Diavel put away his pure white bow with a similarly pale face. His face had a smirk on it as he put away his bow, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. While in this corner of the forest, Diavel had shot the abdomen of the real body of Effraye, in another area, Afrit was fighting one of Effraye's clones.
"Ugh- if only the clones of those generals lasted long enough- The real idiots were busy trying to beg to come with me, what the hell is with their attachment towards me."
Effraye wasn't anticipating this to occur because he believed the clone would keep all five of them occupied. The clone was just 20% as strong as the original, yet it was still more potent than the manor's demon generals. For their protection and as part of his escape strategy, Effraye had already dispatched his generals. He forcibly sealed the White Lady, the second-strongest demon behind Effraye himself, because she was intended to serve as bait for Effraye to escape.
The Demon King had a court unlike any other, and he intended to safeguard those in it so they would be available to serve him once more in the future.
"Well whatever-," Effraye sighed.
Now that he was on the ground, he realized that the holy bolt had contaminated his demonic core. He made the decision to sacrifice all of his remaining power to flee from this conflict.
[Infinita-resuscitatio]
He cast a spell. The general clones had a seal on them, which lighted them up and brought them back to life. The archer who had shot Effraye was assaulted by those clones.
[abyssum-in-conspectu]
The second spell caused Effraye and his clone to both emit black smoke. Every atom in the black smoke began to assume a shape. They first turned into an odd, unsettling liquid, and then they began to gain shape. Each particle in the smoke had duplicated itself by pulling and stretching the strange fluid. All of those particles became another clone and summoned waves upon waves of Clones. But it was just the numbers, Each Clone was merely 1% of the original strength.
Once that was finished, Effraye moved closer to the enormous gate. However, the polluted core had caused his body to begin to petrify. His right leg was becoming increasingly stiff, making it difficult for him to move, while his left horn snapped off after getting petrified.
"I suppose I have no other alternatives. Come forth, O Kulwarashtu, The Despairing Mercy."
He held a black shining sword with a menacing aura. He drew the most powerful demonic sword that was ever created and stabbed himself. Not a centimeter apart, near to his demonic core and, tore out the core. Due to the sword's wound and the missing core, blood was dripping from his mouth and chest.
The Hero Party was kept occupied by the army of never-ending clones while Effraye broke the sword into a million pieces, combined the core and the weapon, and performed another spell upon it. Effraye recovered some of his power when the integration was finished and proceeded to advance near the gate.
He unlocked the gate and entered the enormous Hall. His demonic core had been dropped someplace within that place, and Effraye had set a spell on it to transfer any intelligent entity who would touch it to him. As he walked around the labyrinth, his entire body was petrifying until the moment when he had completely become a stone statue.