1 Year Later...

I was currently hidden inside of the treeline, watching the protagonist and her family on a picnic. It has been 3 years since the protagonist was born and as far as I remember, her birthday was around 6 days ago. So yeah, that makes her 3 by now. Honestly — these past 3 years have been quite busy for me around in the Dark Lands. I've had to give my attention to a bunch of problems around in the castle and the Dark Lands themselves, attend meetings that had been proposed by the Golden Dragon Saint and even sometimes go to help with the training of my subordinates and new warriors in the army. Basically, things that would have never happened to me in my usual everyday life before.

However, even with how busy I was, I always found some free time to come by and 'visit' the protagonists family and see how she is doing. The protagonist has had so far a pretty safe and comfortable life as I've seen — her parents are doing well for themselves and she is getting lots of love and attention as well.

She was also learning things fast - at just 3 years old, she was already fully walking around and what not. Though, she still wasn't talking, which was a bummer.

But then again....

Can't expect the world from a toddler, even if that toddler is supposed to become a Legendary Hero in the future that would strike down and put an end to the Demon King of Sins Aka... me.

..Anyways — seeing the protagonist like this, an innocent and simple child was a novelty I didn't realise I'd like to have. Not because I like looking at children or something, but because it allowed me to sort of... Watch how she grew up into the person she was during the main story of the game - if that makes sense. I mean, I'm pretty sure I said this earlier, but the game puts you in the protagonists shoes around the beginning of her first year, when she is 13 and joins the Evelia Magic Academy, so you don't really get to see a lot of her life before that moment.

The most you can get are some on and off comments about the way she lived up until being accepted by the academy and allowed to study there as a student, but those aren't as definitive and boldly speaking, as interesting as seeing the whole growing up process in person. It just felt... More novel, I suppose. While I watched the family eat away at their picnic, the sound of something nearby approaching them caught my attention. I exhaled, before disappearing into a cluster of smoke, which flew above the treeline and over towards the source of the noise. Once I reached the area and looked down — through the treelines, I could spot a group of bandits, all slowly approaching the picnic sight of the family - clearly with evil intentions.

I know that I should probably let this slide and not intervene, since this would be changing the protagonists childhood and past.... But my "human" side is shouting at me to do something about this.

So, time to become a police officer on steroids and beat up these thugs. I slowly descended down towards the group of bandits as the cluster of smoke, while the group still continued to slowly move forward through the trees and bushes, approaching the family.

Bandit #1: "Hey boss, why are we sneaking up on a helpless family? They can't do anything to us."

Bandit #2: "Yeah, we outnumber them by a landslide and there is no way for them to call the guards to help them out here, so surely we're safe to just rush in slaughter them?"

Two of the 4 bandits asked another bandit, who was more buff and ragged looking then the others. The 'Boss' of the bandits looked back at them, stopping before exhaling.

Bandit Boss: "Are you really that simple minded?! That man right there is a veteran imperial mage who defended Evelia while it was being constructed. He's no joke and should not be underestimated."

The boss shut down his comrades, before scuffing and turning back around, continuing his sneaking approach towards the family. The other bandits exchanged gazes, before following slowly after their boss, trying to keep as little distance between them and him as possible. I fully descended to the ground, the smoke that I was forming back into my true body, before dissipating completely. I then scratched my chin lightly.

"A veteran imperial mage huh? I knew that the protagonists father was a military veteran, but I did not know he was a human imperial mage... That changes this situation a bit."

I thought, before placing my arms behind my back and tapping the ground lightly with my right foot. In an instant, massive, black tentacle appendages shot up from the ground and then launched themselves towards the bandits, grabbing all of them and pulling them back, leaving the bandit boss as the only one left to approach the family. Once I had pulled the 4 other bandits up close to myself, they all looked at me confused and slightly frightened.

Bandit #1: "Who the hell—"

"Avis Virtiosa."

I cut him off, introducing myself, before snapping my fingers. In an instant, the tentacles that were wrapped around the 4 bandits constricted and crushed them all in an instant, killing them instantly, before I let them go and made the tentacles return to were they had come from. I have to say, I would be a bit taken back, even shocked about having killed 4 people just now... However, that shock had already passed for me around a year ago, when I killed a group of 20 thieves in slightly cold blood. I still remember that night — their screams filled the forest we were inside of and it genuinely sounded like a horror movie scene.

Even though I was the one who was behind the killings that night, I remember not being able to sleep afterwards — simply dredging the fact that I had killed another person, let alone 20 of them.

I guess even if I am in the body of the most feared and known Tyrant Avis Virtiosa, the Demon King of Sins, I still have retained who I am at heart - a Human. Just a human — not an actual tyrant.

After I had taken out the other 4 bandits, I began to slowly follow after the main guy — the boss of the bandits. He was already basically at the family, about to jump out, before gesturing to his comrades to move into positions. However, after no action was taken from his gesture he got a bit annoyed and turned around to try and scold them.

Bandit Boss: "What are you idiots— huh..?"

He cut himself off, looking around in confusion, searching for his comrades that had suddenly disappeared from behind him. The Bandit Boss scuffed, before backing away from the familys picnic sight and began searching for his comrades, calling them out angrily.

Bandit Boss: "Where are you, you imbeciles?!"

The boss shouted lightly, trying to keep his voice as loud and as quiet as possible at the same time. I simply decided to drag him away further from the family, by making some light noise further away, catching his attention as he complained to himself and began to march on towards where I had made some noise. I smirked, as he slowly approached, basically fuming with anger and annoyment.

Bandit Boss: "What are you idiots doing—?!"

He shouted, before ripping the bushes infront of him away and then gasping when he found only the bloody clothes of his comrades on the otherside. He quickly ran out and investigated the clothing, before scuffing and shedding a sweat.

Bandit Boss: "No way... Did the Imperial Guards find us? But how is that possible...."

He stated to himself.

Meanwhile I slowly left my cover and approached him from behind, quickly hiding my appearance by using a disguise spell, which shifted my appearance to more of a ragged cloak, with chains tied around various parts of my body and a ripped, waving hood covering my head and face.

"Not even close. It was me."

I stated approaching him. The Bandit almost immediately reacted, turning around before drawing out his long sword, about to strike me, only for me to quickly use a simple Dark Magic cutting spell to slice off both of his arms, causing him to hop back and scuff, sweating lightly. I was surprised by the fact that he was able to keep his composure and continue acting calm, even with both of his arms missing. That was some balls of steel if I've ever seen before.

Bandit Boss: "Those rags... A fucking Lich? Out here? How is that even possible...."

He stated, mumbling the last sentence to himself. I didn't reply and simply slowly began to approach him, using flight magic to make myself appear to be floating, like liches usually did. Yeah, even though the Demon King of Sins, Avis Virtiosa looked like a skeleton, he was actually an Ancestor Devil or something like that. Basically his own unique species, who just happened to look like a skeleton, but wasn't actually a skeleton. That's the summary of him. The Bandit Boss, began to slowly back up, which caused me to quickly slice off his left leg in response, causing him to fall to the ground and start slight cursing to himself.

I simply approached closer to the man, before kneeling down and lifting his head up with my right hand. The Bandit Boss was beginning to cough up blood and clearly start loosing a ton of it, however I didn't really feel bad for him, just a bit... Sick. Seeing him with three limbs missing and bleed out this much, it made my stomach do spirals — even with how impractical that seems for a skeleton like me. Well — close to skeleton, not an actual skeleton.

Bandit Boss: "...What the hell do you... Want with me?"

He asked, coughing up blood part way through his question. I remained silent, simply staring into his eyes, using a special little spell that I had managed to snag from the library in the castle. It was called 'Demons Glare' and it allowed me to look deep into someones eyes and see their soul, sins and basically their entire history. It was a spell which was actually forbidden by the Interspecies Magic Defense or whatever it was named, because of its high risk factor.

That risk factor, being the possibility of accidentally petrifying or even straight up incinerating an individual you used the 'Demons Glare' on. However, that risk could actually be avoided, IF you were experienced enough. And seeing that I was in the body of THE Demon King of Sins, who had the unique trait of being able to master every single spell in this world from just having a glimpse at it, you could imagine that I had no issues whatsoever on using this spell against the Bandit Boss and facing no consequences or having any of the risks kick in. Quite handy, huh?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I continued to read off the Bandit Boss's soul for a bit, before letting him go and throwing him to the ground. I had learned what I needed from him, no more use for him. The Bandit Boss looked up at me with slight fear in his eyes as he continued to cough up blood.

"I'll end your suffering."

I stated, rising back up to my feet, before extending my right arm towards him.

"Dark Flame."

I stated, before a small magic circle appeared in the palm of my hand and immediately shot out a small black flame from it, before hitting the Bandit Boss and incinerating him in an instant, not leaving even ashes behind of his body. After I had incinerated the boss, I quickly disposed of the bloody clothing as well, to remove all evidence of any kind of murder ever happening here. Gotta say — I am glad magic does not exist in my - I suppose - 'old world'. Imagine how powerful criminals would be if they could commit their murders with magic and then get rid of all evidence. I'm afraid the whole planet would become a criminal infested mess.

I exhaled, before quickly cancelling my disguising spell and returning back to my usual appearance of the Demon King of Sins attire, before turning into a cluster of smoke again and returning to the tree lines near the familys picnic. Once I got there, I remained as hidden inside the trees as I could, concealing my aura and simply looking down at the protagonist and her family.

In the time it took me to get rid of the bandits, the protagonist and her family had packed everything up from their picnic and were preparing to leave, which was my signal to also return to the Dark Lands. Emily was probably going ape shit by now because of my absence.

I sighed, before rising fully to my feet and looking at the small, 3 year old protagonist once more. Her innocent appearance was definitely a better suited one compared to her war hungry appearence that she got during the final act of the games main story. Hopefully... Hopefully I can avoid that act, somehow, someway.

I turned around, throwing one last look at the family as they slowly began to leave, before activating one of my rings and teleporting away in an instant flash of light.

• • • • • •

- - - -

Summoned to Another World, but as the Final Boss

- - - -

• • • • • •

It was a sunny day. Rays of sunshine shot down towards the ground and there was not a single trace of clouds in the sky. Not a single trace of bad weather either. Usually, this would be called the perfect day for a walk. However, for me? This was the perfect day for something else.

Boy: "Hey, no fair!"

A boy shouted to his friends, running after them. Hey, welcome back to me observing the protagonist as they grow up. Yeah, it has been around 6 years since I woke up inside the body of Avis Virtiosa in this world. Lifes been quite peaceful for the most part actually - well, apart from me killing literally any kind of threat that tried to do ill will to the protagonist or her family. Yeah, I was still acting like a guardian angel for that little girl — kinda weird when you consider who I actually am.

Anyways — I was sitting in the treeline, watching three kids run around in a rather open field, just outside of the Kingdom of Evelia walls. Yeah, three kids who are no older than 7 were allowed to leave the kingdoms walls. Don't ask me.

The three children that I was observing right now were the Protagonist and her two friends — a boy named Kris and a girl named Karla. And yes, before you ask, those two are siblings — twins, to be more specific. In the game, they are introduced as two childhood friends of the Protagonist, with Kris being a man with a skill, but not much talent while Karla was a woman with a ton of talent, but mediocre at best skills. They served as two characters that would support the protagonist during their time in the Magic Academy when all three of them enter at the age of 13.

Kris: "Alis, Sis! Wait up!"

Kris called out to the other two, before trying to catch up to the two girls. Right — I never mentioned the name of the protagonist, did I? In-game, the protagonists name was whatever the player decided to name her, however, the default name as well as the one which was technically canon in the games main story was 'Alis' — a unique name for sure. And yeah, I also noticed how it was a bit similar to 'Avis' when I first played the game. Literally the only difference is that the V is replaced by an L. Call it laziness or not, that is kind of creative from the game creators... Or I guess in this scenario, the Protagonists parents.

I watched the three kids run off towards the forest which was just on the border of Evelia, which immediately caused me to grow a bit alarmed and hop onto my feet, before using the morphing spell and forming a pair of skeletal wings on my back, before taking off to the sky and flying after them. The forest they three were running towards was infamous for housing a LOT of monsters inside it. While I couldn't exactly show myself to the kids, since that would alarm them, as seeing the Demon King of Sins so close to the Human Kingdom of Evelia would be a red flag, I still could take care of any monsters in secret.

Sure, the disguise spell would help me remain hidden and the kids wouldn't recognise me if they saw me while the disguise spell was active, but it was a bit too risky to use it this close to the kingdom. Even though once a disguise is active, it is basically impossible to see through it, if you try to activate it while covered by a detection barrier of a Kingdom, it can alert the mages inside — which was NOT ideal for me at this point in time.

I quickly descended down into the forest, right before the kids ran in — all three of them stopping on just the edge of it. Karla and Alis looked back at Kris, who was a bit scared of going any further.

Kris: "We really shouldn't go in there... I hear from mom and dad that monsters live in there..."

Karla: "Come on Kris! It will be fine! We'll just go in for a second and immediately go out again."

Karla stated, before continuing to approach the forest, beginning to take the first steps into it. Kris still looked unsure, which made Alis also a bit skeptical about going through with this. She looked at Karla with a slightly afraid gaze.

Alis: "I'm with Kris on this one... I don't think it's a good idea to keep going..."

Karla sighed heavily in disappointment.

Karla: "Come on you guys! It will be fine! The monsters are only deeper inside the forest, we will be completely fine if we only take a look here on the border of it."

She stated, before turning around and moving more into the forest. Alis and Kris exchanged gazes, before following after Karla and also entering the forest, the two of them slightly trembling in fear of potentially getting jumped by monsters.

I quickly made my way through the tree lines, not seeing a single monster in the whole forest, which was a bit strange. In the game, this place was plagued by monsters, basically every corner had one, but right now in person... It was almost like a normal forest. This fact, while it did weird me out, also made me a bit more worried. The fact that absolutely no monsters were present whatsoever, made me mega skeptical about the situation in this forest. There was a possibility that someone had killed them all or something.

As I leapt through the trees, I eventually spotted the three kids a bit further down, quickly teleporting to them all using one of my rings. I remained in the tree lines as soon as I teleported near them, watching the three kids slowly move deeper into the forest. Even though the exit to the forest wasn't that far away, it still wasn't safe to be inside of here. Especially for defenseless kids. As they all moved deeper inside, I overheard their conversation slightly, which mainly consisted of Karla reassuring Alis and Kris that nothing will jump out on them.

The ignorance of kids... It will always make me confused on how these little guys manage to survive on a daily basis.

Then, a loud crack just nearby caught mine and all three of the kids attention. Kris immediately began to panic, while Karla simply shed a slight sweat.

Kris: "W-We really shouldn't be here..."

Alis: "Yeah...Karla, let's head home—"

Karla: "Shh! Not yet! I want to see what it was!"

Alis: "B-But Karla—!"

Karla: "It'll be fine, trust me."

The kids talked among themselves, while Karla began to slowly approach where the crack had come from. I quickly leapt forward, moving ahead of Karla and investigating what the source of the crack was. And immediately, the minute I saw what had caused it, my eyes narrowed in shock. Now it made sense as to why the forest was so empty...

There's a—

Suddenly, a giant creature pushed down trees before Karla, causing the little girl to turn around and run screaming back to Alis and Kris, who both were shaking in fear. The monster that had made that giant crack and was the reason behind the forest being basically devoid of any monsters, was none other than a Behemoth — a giant, dragon like mammoth monster that had six legs and a ground dragon build, which was covered in fur. Behemoths are known to be aggressive towards human, but they're also known to be intimidating beasts that scare away other monsters, so they're usually hunted down and killed before their pelts are used as sort of 'monster repellents'.

The Behemoth slowly approached the three trembling children, about to attack them, only for me to decide to leap in infront of the three kid and grab the beast by the two large tusks it had on its head. The kids looked at me in shock, before I quickly turned my head towards them.

"Leave, now!"

I shouted at the trio, which caused all three of them to quickly scurry together and run out of the forest, sprinting towards the kingdom. However, Alis did not run too far, before stopping and turning around, causing Karla and Kris to look at her in horror.

Kris: "A-Alis, where are you—?!"

Alis: "To help him! I might not be able to do much, but I can't leave him alone! Go, you two, go! Get help!"

Alis yelled back to her friends, before entering the forest again. Karla and Kris were hesitant to leave their friend alone, however continued to run towards the Kingdoms main gates, to warn the guards and get some help.

Meanwhile, I was still duking it out in a test of physical strength agaisnt the Behemoth. Gotta say, this thing definitely shined when it came to its physical strength alone — Even I was struggling to actually overpower it in terms of raw muscle strength. However, I still managed to push through and push the Behemoth back, before letting go of one of its tusks and pummeling it in the forehead, sending it sliding further back. The Behemoth shook its head, before roaring towards me. I simply scuffed, before activating a ring on my left hand. The ring shined golden for a moment, before the gauntlet that was forged for me to wield the Sacred Blade of Hope appeared on the hand.

I then reached into a small portal and drew out the Sacred Blade, before reaching into another portal with my other hand and pulling out the Demonic Blade of Despair.

"You endangered the life of the Protagonist. For that, I'm afraid I have to kill you."

I stated, smirking as the Behemoth roared again and charged at me. I simply took a low stance, extending the two swords to my side, before launching at the Behemoth and engulfing the Sacred Blade of Hope in golden lightning, while engulfing the Demonic Blade of Despair in black lightning. As the Behemoth approached closer, I simply slashed the two swords in an X pattern.

"Doom Breaker!"

I shouted, sending out an X shaped form made of the black and golden lightning, which flew towards the Behemoth and easily sliced it in half, before pulverising all traces of it with a small tornado made up from the golden and black lightning bolts. I then landed onto the ground, as the dust of the now killed Behemoth flew away in the gentle wind. Jesus Christ — these two swords are ridiculously powerful when used together....

Guess that's to be expected. I quickly placed the two blades back inside the portals, before unequipping the gauntlet and exhaling heavily. The Behemoth was resilient at first, but went down just as easily as every other opponent I've ever faced.

Kind of boring. My attention was then caught by a small branch breaking, which caused me to look behind me, before my eyes widened in slight horror. Alis was still here apparently — hiding slightly behind a tree trunk and trembling lightly in fear as she looked at me with shock and admiration.

....Oh shit.

• Next Time •

[ (8.) Protagonists Secret Friend. ]