Chapter 1

The Demon King and The Slumbering Princess

“De....mon King.” A weak and miserable voice called out to me from the darkness. I slowly open my eyes to see the entire world around me covered in flames.

“W-What?” Unable to wrap my head around what was happening, all I could do was stare at the blazing fire in front of me.

Wake up

“This is all your fault.” A charred body crawls from out the flame. “You monster, you killed everyone.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t have a choice.”

“You’re a bad omen. Everywhere you go, everything you touch falls into ruin. It’s all your fault.” More bodies crawl out the flame. Every single one of them was chanting the same thing.

“All your fault. All your fault. All your fault. Wake up. All your fault. All your fault. All your fault. Wake up!”

I once again open my eyes, to see a beautiful woman with bright blue eyes filling my vision.

“Ah!” The girl lets out a squeak and quickly back steps away from me. Everything about the woman in front of me was annoyingly perfect. Her long golden hair that seems to glow when the sun shines on it, her pure white gown and her equally white skin that is void of blemish or any flaw that you see on a normal human being, but then again, she isn’t human, so none of this is surprising. “You’re finally awake.” She said while giving me a warm smile.

“Yea…why the hell are you here, Athena?”

“Hm?” Athena tilts her head like I asked a weird question. “Isn’t it obvious? I came to check on my little brother.”

“I’m not your….” I quickly close my mouth before I could say anything else. For some reason, Athena thinks that being of the same race means we're related.

“Anyway, aren’t you happy I’m here? It sounded like you had a bad dream.”

“Sounded? How much did you hear?” I didn’t give my plans, away did I? My heart started to beat faster as I waited for Athena response.

“You didn’t say much; you were just apologizing to something or someone.”

“I see.” Thank goodness, my plans haven’t been ruin. If Athena weren't here I would’ve sunk into my chair and let out a huge sigh of relief.

“So, who were you apologizing to? It must’ve been someone special since I never seen you apologize before.”

“Who knows, I already forgot.”

“Is that so?” Athena gives me wry smile. “Well whenever you feel like talking, I’ll be here to listen to you.”

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“I rather you were not here at all.”

“Isn’t it nice out today?” Athena looks out the throne room window ignoring what I just said.

“Yea, I guess so.” Realizing she doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. I decide to ignore her and enjoy the view.

The entire kingdom of Eden could be seen from the throne room. Well, at least what’s left of it. I remember seeing this place in its prime. I remember the streets being filled activity and the buildings standing tall. Now it's just a ghost town, and the buildings that are still standing are broken and cover with plants.

How long have I been here? No, more importantly, is my plan even going to work?

I shake my head to rid myself of the doubts forming in my mind.

Now is not the time to doubt myself. I sacrifice too much to quit now.

“You know, I’ve been thinking….” Athena pause and look at me.

“thinking about what? How to annoy me more?”

“No, I was thinking about talking with the others about letting you go.”

“Don’t bother; no one wants me to leave this place.”

“That’s not true!” Athena quickly covers her mouth as if that would somehow take away her sudden outburst. “I mean, I’m proud of you. You stayed here and didn’t hurt anyone for a thousand years. I think you deserve to be free.”

It’s starting to feel like Athena is treating me like a kid that’s been grounded. Then again, since she thinks all of us Entities are related, she probably sees me as a child or something.

“Athena, I appreciate your kindness, but you’re the only person in the world that wants me to be free. I’m sure Atlas still wants to strangle me for killing him, Venus finds me repulsive, and Loki, actually Loki probably be happy to see me free, but that’s only because he would find it hilarious to see Atlas strangle me.”

“…At least you got two votes.”

“More like one in half, no one takes Loki seriously.”

“I guess that’s true,” Athena said quietly, casting her eyes downward

“Listen, Athena, even if you did somehow manage to convince the other Entities to let me go, the rest of world wouldn’t accept me. There’ll be mass panic in the streets if people saw me walking around without a care in the world.”

“But you’re different now! I’m sure if people see you now they would….”

“Shh.” I raise my hand and gently push Athena out my way so that I could see outside. In the distance, I could see four humans cautiously making their way through the ruins.

Adventurers? This makes it the third time this week. Why the hell are humans so interested in this dead kingdom?

“Are you going to kill them?”

“Of course not. You guys would be on my ass again if broke my promise and killed someone. By the way, isn’t it time for you to go? I’m sure by now the others are starting to wonder where you went.”

“Yea, probably….” Athena’s voice trails off as she stares at the approaching group.

“Don’t worry; I’m just going to scare them off like I did every other curious soul that came here.”

“Thank you. I’m sure the rest of the world will change their opinion about you, once they see how much you change.” Sunlight passes right through Athena’s bright smile as she became transparent.

Finally, she’s leaving.

“By the way…”

I guess not.

“I’m still going to talk with others, so don’t break your promise ok?” Athena narrow her eyes at me like I’m a kid she caught lying.

“Don’t worry; I won’t.” Giving her an assuring nod, Athena finally allows her body to disappear completely.

“Finally, she’s gone.” I take a deep breath and look at the group again. A man with long blonde hair was looking right at me, well at the window I’m staring out of. I’m sure he can’t see me from that distance. I don’t know why but it feels like these guys came here looking for a fight. Well if that’s what they want, I’ll gladly give them one, but right now, I got something more important to deal with.

I take a quick look around the room, before pushing the throne out the way to reveal a trap door.

I should thank the previous king. If he didn’t create all these trap doors around his castle, I’m sure Athena or someone else would’ve discovered my plan a long time ago.

I take one last look around before jumping into the hidden room.

A crack in the ceiling allows a ray of light to fall into the center of the hidden room, and in the middle of the room is a ghostly pale girl resting peacefully on her throne. Well, it looks like she’s sleeping, but really she’s… It doesn’t matter because she’ll be waking up soon.

“Sorry, did I keep you waiting, Anna?”