“What’s the meaning of this!?”, Hiro shouted, “I’ve had enough of your-”

Suddenly Hiro found that even though he was opening his mouth words simply wouldn’t come out. Hiro glared at the Demon King and pointed his finger at him demanding he unsilence him this very instance.

However, the Demon King merely raised his finger to his lips motioning the Hiro to be quiet, “Ssssh, the show’s about to start.”

The Demon King snapped his finger one more time and the two of them began floating as a black box slowly formed around them. The box flew into the air and allowed the two of them to look down and easily see the whole throne room.

The doors to the throne room opened and a man concealed in a black robe slowly walked forwards. This figure was quite tall, at the very least far taller than the small escort of knights following closely behind him.

Though unlike most escorts whose main purpose was to protect their client these Knights geared from head to toe in golden armor had their swords and spears drawn. And while these Knights weren't pointing their weapons towards the man in the black cloak, they were clearly on high alert and ready to strike at a moments notice.

Hiro looked around the throne room once more and noticed that several familiar faces all of whom were several powerful and prominent figures within the Holy Empire.

Standing beside the Emperor, for example, was a familiar white-haired Elf clad in a purple robe, Albis the Royal Mage, and an old man casually leaning against the wall drinking out of a flask with an abnormally long sword in between his legs.

Also in front of the black cloaked man stood twelve of the thirteen Knight Captains who would later lead the Crusade into the Underworld standing parallel to each other on either side of a red carpet in two orderly rows.

The throne room was also filled with a number of other guards. To the left there was naturally the Royal Guard, completely outfitted to the brim with magical armor and the some of the best weapons the Empire could offer. While to the left was the Holy Chivalric Order, a group of Knights under the Holy Church in charge of protecting the pope and other important figures in the Church.

The black cloaked man walked to the center of the room before kneeling, “Excuse me, your Highness, if I’ve been rude it’s been far too long since I’ve been in the presence of one so awe-inspiring and powerful as you, your highness.”

The Emperor gave a cold snort as he said, “Enough with the pleasantries Demon, what have you come here for.”

The Demon removed his hood revealing the kneeling figure of Demon King standing beside Hiro. Hiro turned to the Demon King, before glancing down at the identical demon below. The Demon King noticed his glance, and said,

“This is about forty years before our fateful battle, so about 51 years ago in total. This is a reconstruction of the scene based off of my memories."

The two looked back down at the younger Demon King, though he didn’t appear physically different from the one right next to Hiro, and continued watching. The Demon King below laughed,

“Well, I suppose I don't have much of a choice in the matter so I'll be frank. You know you Humans need to stop leaving your unsolved problems for the later generations. Unlike you, our races are rather long living so these problems are quite worrying."

One of the Knight Captains gave the Demon King a cold snort in response as he released a wave of mana, however, this wave mysteriously disappeared as it approached the Demon King.

"You see about a month ago Walpurgis Night descended upon the Underworld and the next Demon King was finally chosen. In all likelihood, those Divine Artifacts of yours should start reacting and you'll be able to raise your new toy for a few decades. But considering what happened with the 8th Hero, just how many more times can you repeat this cycle I wonder."

“And?”, Albis stepped forward, “Even if the odds aren't in our favor what other choice do we have then to fight? If the Empire were to be defeated in battle... if the Hero should lose, then all that awaits this world is nothing but death and destruction."

“But if you were to continue this cycle, with the Hero and Demon King growing stronger and stronger each time. Then by the tenth or eleventh Hero, you fools might not even have a world to save! Though I'm sure more than anyone else here you're aware of that...Immortal."

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Albis clenched his fist, but as he was about to say something the Emperor raised his hand motioning him to stand back. The Emperor stood up and walked off his throne and down the stairs.

“Truth Seeker, may I assume you have a proposal to make then?”

The Demon King raised his head, “Naturally your majesty. My proposal is nothing major, it's merely the proposal I made to your father, and your father's father, and his father's father. A simple compromise.”

“Oh?”

Albis shouted from the back of the room, “Only a madman would accept such an offer from a Demon like you! And do you have any guarantee that your plan will work!?”

The Emperor glanced back at Albis causing Albis to step back a bit, before turning back around. He looked down at the Demon King and asked, “Let me hear this proposal of yours.”

The Demon King laughed, “Well it’s quite simple your majesty, in exchange for helping you Humans rid yourselves of the Demon King, you will help the Demon race regain a foothold back in the continent.”

“Ho, I see," The Emperor caressed his chin, "But how exactly will you get rid of the Demon King that not even we have been able to get rid of for over a millennium?”

“Well you see your Majesty, your ancestors wished to seal the Demon King’s curse or eliminate it entirely. But the only way to truly rid the world of the curse is to fulfill its desire, which naturally is impossible for you as doing so would lead to the destruction of your Empire. So instead of sealing it or destroying it, we merely need to relocate it?”

The Emperor turned to Albis, and asked, “Albis is such a thing possible?”

Albis nodded, “It is indeed possible, but my lord even if we were to gather all the mana from several dragon veins and relocate the Demon King into the stars it would only at most delay the inevitable…”

“But instead of relocating the Demon King’s curse into the stars, what if we were to shatter time and space for an instance and transfer the curse from our world to another.”

“That would still merely delay the curse! The Demon King’s curse would eventually find its way through the void between worlds until eventually returning! This would at most buy us a few decades!”

The Demon King smiled, “But what if we sent the Hero with it as well.”

Albis clenched his fists and suddenly the temperature of the room began to increase drastically, “You would forsake an entire world’s population!?”

“It’s our world or theirs!”, the Demon King shouted, “Or would you rather our world crashes and burns for the mistake of your forefathers?”

“We would betray our Empire’s greatest Hero! The First Hero had willing sacrificed himself knowing full well what would become of him and the later Heroes. For our Empire he toiled away for hundreds of years, to simply cast him away is nothing but the greatest act of betrayal!”

“You’d rather save one man, no a weapon, over billions of lives you could be saving!?”

“We may be saving billions of lives, but we’d doom trillions more!”

Albis raised his hand and suddenly what appeared to be a miniature sun appeared in the middle of the throne room. However as it began to grow, it was suddenly cut in half as the drunk man beside Albis disappeared before reappearing on the other side of the room holding the abnormally long sword in one hand and a flask in the other.

“Albis, you get riled up too easily. It’s not good for your health.”

The Demon King looked up at the vanishing sun, and exclaimed, “Impressive! As expected of the Sword Saint that assisted the 7th Hero in slaying the Demon King!”

The old man took a swig from his flask, “Oh please, I’m nothing but a drunk old man.”

The Emperor shook his head, before asking the Demon King, “Tell me this at the very least Truth Seeker, how do you intend to execute this plan of yours. It’s not easy sending someone to a different dimension let alone a curse.”

The Demon King laughed, “Naturally I’ve prepared a means. Though my plan still requires that we can defeat this iteration of the Demon King so I suggest you hurry and look for the Hero. I can assist you with that.”

“How?”

“Well naturally because,” a thick black mist suddenly shot out of the Demon King’s skin causing the twelve Knight captains to draw their weapons as well as the Royal Guard, “I’m the Demon King.”