Nero looked at the woman. She was lying pale on the floor,

"You are a demon!" she said in a trembling voice.

Nero nodded and waved his hand. Darkness began to spread over the entire torso of the old man. Nero closed his fist and the shadows squeezed.

The man screamed as the pressure increased and his ribs began to crack. Then his skin began to burst open. He began to spit blood continuously and his eyes popped out of their sockets.

Shortly after, his organs burst. Dying with pain, His torso was crushed.

The woman began to cry bitterly,

"Don't, don't. Why are you crying? That was a downright kind death, as opposed to being burned alive, wasn't it?" declared Nero encouragingly, but despite his efforts, the woman only sobbed even harder.

"Well, whatever," Nero sighed, his expression turning colder.

He wasn't enjoying it anymore. He jumped out of the house.

He raised his hand, and a huge wave of pure darkness burst upon the house, tearing it down.

Nero turned around to the next house. This time he didn't even go inside, he just did the same thing. He started walking down the street. He killed every person he saw, tore down every house, and destroyed all the fields.

It took him almost seven days to destroy the entire village. He became more and more skilled with his magic. It was good training.

The power gave him satisfaction. Killing itself had long ceased to be fun for him, it even began to bore him. It was always the same, someone saw him, screamed, and then died.

Nevertheless, he continued. He did it not only for himself but also for his sister and mother.

They deserved it. Maybe not all of them, but that didn't matter. As mentioned before, they were simply born in the wrong generation.

Nero was calm in his mind and analyzed his status. The only significant event was probably the chamber of the Inquisition, where he and his sister were imprisoned.

He went through it and destroyed it from the inside out. He flayed the guards and priests who were in it.

After seven days, his revenge finally ended. He stood in front of a completely destroyed village, the only house left standing was that of the old man who had helped him back then. Unfortunately, he no longer knew his name.

"Well, then, I've finally finished that, too. Now it's the rest of the world's turn. Hmmm...?"

Nero turned and looked into the distance. There he recognized something he had never noticed before. On a small lonely mountain, stood a tower rising into the air.

But that was not the strange part. Something about the tower was strange, it seemed to literally call to him. Interested, Nero walked towards it, which was a journey of a whole day. Nero was pleased.

For the first time, in a decade, he could go wherever he wanted. Without shackles or restrictions. It was an incredible feeling.

When he arrived at the, he realized that the door below was tightly sealed with chains. Nero raised his hand and hurled a small crescent of darkness at the door and the chains popped open.

-This was unnatural.-

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Nero had only hit one of the dozens of chain links, yet they all popped open. Even the one he hit wasn't cut, it just snapped open the lock and the chain it was holding together popped apart.

Nero stepped into the tower and looked up. Something drew him in like a magnet attracts iron.

Nero went to the top. He felt his hands tingling. It felt like something wanted to burst out of it.

The further he climbed the spiral staircase of the tower, the stronger this urge became. When he finally reached the top, the feeling was almost unbearable.

But Nero saw nothing. There wasn't even a window or anything, no light fell into the tower. With a quick wave of his hand, he wanted to tear a hole in the wall and let some sunlight stream in, but the darkness disobeyed him.

Suddenly it tore apart and a red light filled the entire room, blinding Nero. Nero squeezed his eyes tightly shut and enveloped himself in darkness. Fortunately, the shadows now obeyed him again. After some time, Nero opened his eyes- Slowly, he let the darkness fade until there was only a faint screen. Nero's eyes shrank as he realized he was no longer in the tower.

He was in a whole new place. He turned in a circle and saw a crack in the room. Behind it was an opening to the pitch-black room he came from.

After a short time, the crack disappeared for good, but Nero knew he could open it again at any time. At the same time, he felt the urge to look around this bizarre place.

Unfortunately, he didn't know which direction to go first, so he just decided to go north of the crack.

He just started walking.

He walked for almost an hour but encountered absolutely nothing. Nothing seemed to exist in this place. Only the red sky shone above him and below him was a stony dusty ground. Then finally, something appeared in the distance. At first, Nero could not recognize it, but after some time it became clearer and clearer.

More and more Nero could see the absurd dimensions of the object. To describe it was easy: a cocoon. It was gigantic, like a huge mountain. It was oval-shaped and red, with thousands of holes running through it. Nero couldn't tell what this object was made of because he didn't recognize the red material, but it reminded him of silk. Nero stopped at a safe distance.

Until he knew exactly what the object in front of him was, he would not get too close to it.

Suddenly he saw figures jumping out of some of the holes, coming at him with enormous speed. Nero cursed, turned around, and ran.

No matter what these things were, they were clearly faster than normal humans. This could not be natural.

Nero was careful. He used the shadows and formed them into a large spiral, which he launched at the rapidly approaching shadows. The thing in front raised its hand.

The darkness burst open and disappeared. Nero's pupils shrank. Now he was sure that these creatures posed a tremendous danger to him. He was less afraid of death since he had already paid his debts.

But under no circumstances did he intend to be captured by anyone again.

-Damn it, I was too careless. I was blinded by my success. Such a careless mistake. Idiot! -

He ran as fast as he could, but the portal was still far away. So he could not lose the spot, he build a little tower of stones right next to it.

Unfortunately, it was not even in sight yet.

"Wait, my Duce!" called a voice from behind him. Nero didn't dare to stop and kept running,

"My Duce! We mean no harm, please stop!" the voice was rough and the language had an ancient dialect.

Nero could barely understand it. Above all, he didn't know what the word "Duce" meant, but he was sure he didn't want to know.

Nero was desperate. Again and again, he threw darkness behind him, but he felt his magic slowly beginning to weaken. The first cracks had already formed on his fingertips.

The voices of his pursuers grew louder and louder and Nero knew he would not make it in time,

-Well, if fleeing is not possible, then there is only one other option: fighting. -

Nero turned around, resolutely to fight to the death, but then froze in stupefaction.

His three pursuers did not attack him, but knelt on the ground with their heads bowed. Nero frowned but did not let his guard down. Shadows coiled around his body like snakes and crawled toward the three beings, ready to strike at any moment,

"Who are you?" asked Nero, cautiously pulling back some more distance.

The three people stood up and only now did Nero realize that they were not humans at all.

The middle one indeed had a resemblance to a normal human being.

He, Nero assumed that it was a he, was tall and had yellow glowing eyes. His skin was unnaturally white, and two horns decorated his head. The creature on the left had the same white skin tone, but he looked much older than the middle one. Nero realized that it had no hands, only claws with six long talons.

The one on the right was in stark contrast to the other two. It had gray-black skin, was muscular, and had an angular face. The creature in the middle opened its mouth, revealing sharp teeth as it began to speak,

"Greetings my Duce, my name is Xersies, and this is Ramor and Shire. We have been waiting for your arrival for a long time."

A thought popped into Nero's head: demons