It was night. The same day as the incident with the vampire lord Rose. Luckily, everyone who was controlled by Rose had no memories of what had transpired, and with the help of Shaitan, Damien had been able to return them all back safely. He was now changing his bandages in his dorm.

“What the hell?” Damien said, looking at his chest.

The wounds on his chest have already healed.

‘It is the necklace. It seems to be a holy artifact that masks your unfortunate aura from demons and possesses healing properties.’ a familiar voice spoke into his mind.

His mother had given him the necklace. The problem was that he had no memories of her after she had given it to him.

“Shaitan, did you know my mother?” he didn’t realize it, but that was the first time he had called the Shade by name.

‘I do not. I have only followed you in recent years because that accursed necklace could not hide your unfortunate aura from one such as I. I have never seen your birth mother.’

The questions surrounding Damien had only continued to grow.

“You keep saying that I have an unfortunate aura, do you know why I have it?”

‘That is not for me to answer.’ Shaitan said plainly.

Damien knew the Shade was hiding something from him, but also realized that pressing the matter would prove to be fruitless. He shook those thoughts away, for now.

“Anyway, I still can’t believe we were able to take down Rose.”

‘We were lucky. Lucky that she was an utter fool. She was complacent thinking that I had become powerless, and too busy enjoying herself, reveling in her sadistic tendencies to take notice that you and I are separate entities. She could have fought cautiously, and used only your loved ones to kill you instead of personally coming to meet us. Her pride was the death of her.’

“Can’t you be optimistic for once? We’ve defeated 4 demons, and one of them was one of the prominent candidates to become the next Demon King from the 100 Greater Demon Clans you always talk about.” Damien said cheerfully.

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‘It is too early to celebrate. Including us, I now sense 85 demons left.’

“We should try to avoid fighting and have as much of them kill each other off first.”

‘So you are capable of producing coherent thoughts. Nevertheless, we won’t be able to avoid battle forever, and there are a few of the notable demon candidates that I am unable to defeat in a direct confrontation with my current state in this realm.’

“What do you mean by that?”

‘Do you recall the Slime and Werewolf’s battle? A werewolf would usually overpower most weaker demons when a full moon is out, however, their attributes conflicted, and it was a bad matchup for the werewolf. Within Hell, I can easily defeat a dragon in a direct confrontation, but the situation here is different. In the Mortal Realm with only my original strength, in addition to possessing only an arm, I would undoubtedly be defeated in direct combat.’

Damien noticed that Shaitan emphasized the word ‘Direct.’

“So, we just don’t have to play fairly?” Damien said with a smirk.

Shaitan made no reply, but Damien knew that he found it entertaining.

“Shaitan, let’s make an agreement.” Damien unexpectedly said with an earnest expression.

‘Agreement?’ for once, Shaitan sounded confused.

“I realized today that I can’t protect everyone in the orphanage on my own. I will definitely make you the Demon King, in exchange, I want you to promise me their safety for as long as you live.”

‘Such insolence! To make an agreement would imply that we are equals. Amusing, human. Very well, I shall accept this agreement of yours.’

On this night, an agreement was made, and a formidable pair was formed.

85 demons remain.