The court mage of Malatas was strolling by herself in the palace in the middle of the night. It has been a few days since the series of mysterious events that plunged the world into chaos took place without any answer. However Astrea was not worried one bit about how it happened in the first place. She was already aware that it was the God of Celestials who was responsible and now he was dead so there was no need for worrying anymore. She knew because she kept a close eye on her dear father, like his shadow she was aware of everything he did.

On her side, things were proceeding quite smoothly. Both the king Aldol and the priestess of the moon Cynthia were on her side, although each has their own reason for doing so. But it did not matter, for Odium would use them for her own goal. To her, that was how the world worked.

She could the presence of someone following her. She recognized this person. It was her brother after all.

“Sinforma…I did not expect to see you here! Where have you been all these time?” asked Odium. Ever since what happened at Caelum, she has lost contact with him. Now suddenly he returned to her without warning. His behaviour was odd.

“I have been among the deads for quite a while. Speaking to them, sharing our emotions together….It changed me, sister!”

What Sinforma said was weird to Odium. Just what was he doing?

“What are you babbling about?” said the girl to nothingness.

“I come to bid farewell!” spoke the formless body.

“Farewell? What do you mean?”

“I have found a new purpose, a new calling. And I shall follow it.” Said Sinforma.

“What about Father? You are going to just abandon him? Have YOU forgotten about him?” raged Odium.

“…I am sorry but they too need me…”

“Who? Who needs you more than father?”

“The millions of lives that were lost. They wander aimlessly. And they need a leader, someone who will guide them.

I am sorry, sister! But I have to do this!”

“…..Traitor…you are just like everybody else. Get out of my sight! NOW!”

“….” Once again Odium found herself alone in the night. She did not expect this. Not her own brother. In her mind, she was trying to figure about what could make Sinforma behave that way. Together with Kaiser, they were born with a single purpose: to serve their father. How could something change one of their own that way? In the end, her own family betrayed her expectation.

No…she still had her Father. If she could succeed what she was doing here, then he would be proud of her. With that she found her resolve again. Her brother may have been a disappointment but she would not, not to Alastor. For he was all she had.

Arriving at her destination, Astrea knocked on the door.

“Who is this?” a voice asked.

“It’s just me, your Majesty!” she replied.

“You may enter!”

Opening the door, Astrea immediately shut it. She could not allow anyone to see what was happening the king’s chamber. Aldol was currently sitting on a young woman’s body lying on the bed with a bloody knife on his hand. Blood was dripping out of her open throat, dyeing the bed sheet with a crimson stain.

“Can you stop doing that? This is the fifth time this week already! If you want to kill someone, just take one from outside the castle! It’s a pain to get rid of the body each time and every servant disappeared will raise even more suspicion.” Astrea sighed.

“What? I made sure that I have her consent in this. When I asked her to come to my chamber, she agreed instantly. Look at how happy she is!” Aldol made a smile on the dead elf’s face. The body was still warm. The woman just drew her last breath a few minutes ago, without even understanding why she died. Well there wasn’t anything to understand. Aldol wanted someone to kill and she was unlucky to be nearby. He did not have anything against her. He didn’t even know her and even after he killed her, the young king still didn’t know the name of the person he just killed. To him this was simply a game, a small stress relief after a long day of court.

“…I will have to ask Cynthia to take care of this again. Or can I use her corpse for something down at the lab….? Hum hum” Astrea thought to herself “Never mind that, how do you feel? Anything strange after the transposition? Weird visions? Feeling weak? Headache? Anything at all?” the mage bombarded the king with questions. She still did not fully understand the effect of that surgery on a normal person, one that has not been …correctly chosen.

Aldol touched his chest with his hand. A black crystal was embedded in it, the result of Odium’s experiment. All demon lords in the past until today shared one similar feature: they all had a black crystal planted on their chests. A unique characteristic that no demon nor primes had it. So what was its purpose? Surely not just a physical trait to distinguish demon lord from normal demons.

The God Magnus was known as the one who created the soul of every living being in this world. It was safe to assume that he was also the one who made these crystals and planted them on the one he would choose as the demon lord. Or it could be that the process was random, not controlled by Magnus directly and the one chosen would have a crystal manifested itself on their chest. Whatever the case, this crystal was the key behind the mystery of the demon lord.

The Abyss was a place where all souls of past demon lords converged. It acted as a container to sustain the existence of the demon lord’ souls. In theory, it was not a place for the living. So how did the current demon lord could make contact with the others? Odium theorized that it was thanks to this crystal. It served as a direct connection as a way of communication with the Abyss, a bridge that linked the realm of reality and the Abyss, between the living and the dead. No living being was meant to cross over into that place, which explained why not even Alastor or Odium could stay there for long. But going there without a mean to get back would also mean certain death. The forceful awakening upon staying in the Abyss was probably a mechanism installed by Magnus to make sure that no demon lord could die there by mistake.

The question was how to establish a link to the Abyss, essentially how to create that crystal. Well Odium thought since it was a realm of the death, although reserved for specified people like demon lords, it would react to something similar: a massive number of deaths at the same time. With the help from Aldol, Odium would kidnap people from across the realm and turned them into sacrifices. It was unsure how many she killed before she finally succeeded in creating one but the one implanted in Aldol required a sacrifice of a thousand lives. Of course they didn’t just take elves, not all in one location anyway. Ten over here, a dozen over there with some additional beastmans that lived close to the borders, etc. Essentially people that no one would miss. Not to mention the ones that were used to test the implantation. So far only two survived: one of them was Aldol. The other one….was special. That was not to say that Aldol wasn’t.

But Odium was not that satisfied with her recent success. The crystal she created was only a prototype, barely able to contain the power of one demon lord. Alastor has made at least nine pacts with nine different demon lords and that did not seem to be the limit yet. The reason Alastor did not make any more pact was unknown but that could be left for later. Perhaps more sacrifice was needed, much more than a thousand. However, Odium did not do that for Aldol in fear that he would not be able to handle that much power and therefore might die as a result.

Just wait a minute…Odium was worried that Aldol might die because of her experiment. Such a weird thing you might think. The one who poisoned the entire royal family along with their kingdom. The one who killed so many just for a test. That same person was actually worrying about someone else other than her father. Perhaps because they shared the same mind, the same ideal: that everyone else was basically crap or tool to them. A strange kind of friendship? Comradery? Respect? Or love of the twisted kind? Who knew?

“You are going to see Cynthia? I thought you came to speak to me.” Said Aldol.

“Ah yes…my apologies. I completely forgot about it… *sigh* ”

“Something wrong?” Aldol stopped cleaning his knife. To him, Astrea was someone meticulous, scheming and logical. It was unlike her to seem so neglectful and forgetful like that.

“No…nothing. Let’s just focus on the main matter.” The girl changed the subject. She did not want to think about her brother right now.

“….If you say so. I am listening!” the young king knew something was amiss but knowing Astrea’s personality, she would not say a word unless she was the one who took on the initiative. So Aldol decided to let it slide.

“I need more ingredients more the next phase of my experiment, if you know what I mean.” The mage said.

“I see. How much would be enough? A thousand like last time? Five thousands?”

“A little more than that…How about a one hundred thousands?” Astrea grinned.

“And what are you going to do with that many?” the king asked. He knew what Astrea was implying when speaking about ingredients. He has visited her lab a few times. Strangely, despite the gory atmosphere the place had, Aldol was not even slightly creeped out. On the contrary, the young king loved to watch her work. The sounds they made, the blood that dripped from their corpses, it was like an orchestra to his ears.

Aldol could only have this opportunity to satisfy his insatiable urges ever since Astrea took power. Plus she was an interesting individual from his point of view. He was curious of her motivations. Unlike him, she wasn’t to type to kill just because she could. She killed when it would benefit her in some way. And she was always so secretive, never talk about her past even once. A complete mystery to Aldol and that was what made her so interesting. What reason could push such a woman to do things so evil no words could describe?

“Something quite stimulating. Ha ha! I can assure that you will have plenty of occasions to play.” Astrea said.

“Hum I would appreciate if you just tell me what you are planning. But this is fine by me. I trust you will prepare much more interesting games for me. So how do you suggest we accomplish that number?” asked Aldol.

“I suppose taking all that from Malatas would raise some questions. How about a war with the beastmans? If one or two battalions disappear, we can always blame the enemies. And if a village of the enemies is gone, no one would complain right?”

“Don’t we need an excuse for that? As much as I would like to go to war, the council won’t let us go that easily. I may be king but that decision can’t be passed if the majority of the council won’t agree with me.” The elf king explained.

“That can be easily taken care of. I just need your word for it so I can proceed.”

“You really think of everything don’t you? Sometimes I wonder why do you even need me? Why not just kill me or make me a puppet or something similar? Won’t it be much easier to control the court?” Aldol confessed.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Do you really want to know?” 

“Actually yes! I am curious!” smiled Aldol.

“I would have if you were boring like your sister. But you are not like the rest. An odd one with a deviant mind and you don’t bother to hide behind lies. That’s something I appreciate.”

“I will take that as a compliment then. Hehe!”

* * *

In the underground of Ragna, two giant spiders were currently digging a tunnel. The one forward made the hole and the one behind pushed the dirt back to create a path.

The Queen has given an order to expand the underground tunnel to the whole of Ragna, instead of just the southern border. The purpose was to have a large underground network that connected to everywhere in the demon continent, allowing fast intelligence delivery as well as sending troops for surprise attacks as well as reinforcement.

However they had a problem. As one of them was continuing to dig, he stumbled upon something.

“Hey, why did you stop?” Seeing that his brother has not moved, the spider behind asked.

“I can’t continue. There is some kind of rock or wall ahead.” The spider answered.

“Wall? Did we arrive at the demon lord’s castle already? Wow we are fast.”

“Nah can’t be. We have only started two days ago. Technically the castle should still be a few hundreds miles of us. And we are at fifty miles in the underground. Who the hell would build a wall here?”

“Try spitting some acid on it. That should do the job.”

“I tried but it didn’t work. The acid didn’t even react to it. And this thing is hard as hell. Almost broke my arm trying to hit it.”

“Step back. Let me try this!”

The spider stepped forward and knocked on the strange wall. The wall itself was stainless and the surface was so smooth and silvery it could serve as a mirror if there was any light down here.

“That’s it? You think just knocking on it and asking it gently it would just magically open for us?”

“Shut up idiot! This thing is hollow inside. I can hear some echo when I knock on it. But damn it is hard. Let’s just go around it!”

…..

“How far have we been going?”

“I don’t know. Three days perhaps?”

“Fucking hell. How big is this thing?”

* * *

Inside a cave in Oros, the dragon lord Celdora and Kaiser were having a conversation. Little Syralth was currently training outside but it was an excuse for Kaiser to have a serious talk with the girl’s father.

“I see that you have been busy with the….how do I say this…recruitments.” Said Celdora as he looked at the dragons gathering outside the cave. There was a least a hundred of them, all tamed by Kaiser.

The taming itself was not anything special. They fought and the loser had to abide to the will of the winner. It has been long since anyone dared challenge the dragons in a combat of strength so many were curious when they learnt of this new self-proclaimed king. They sought out the one who has been seeking them until they stumbled on this cave. Of course some were not happy about the result and tried to retaliate back, only to be killed by Kaiser’s legion. Among the rest, some stayed in fear of being killed, some simply by curiosity. Who was this person who came out of nowhere, who seemed to be close to dragon lord Celdora and who was able to dispel that storm they saw a few days ago.

“It’s tiring but something necessary.” Kaiser responded. “But that’s not why I ask you to come here. I want to talk to you about this.” Kaiser put a metallic crown on the table. An old looking crown that didn’t seem so special, even unimpressive in certain extents. But somehow it emitted a powerful aura, a dreadful one.

“I thought I lost that thing when those humans came. So you were the one who took it.” Celdora changed his tone to a more serious one. “Are you also one of them? Those who seek this crown? Why?”

“I want to ask you the same thing. What is this crown and why does it mention Alastor on it?” said Kaiser.

“Alastor? How do you know that name?” Celdora abruptly stood up, almost shoving off the table.

“He is my father. And his name was written right on this crown.” Kaiser held the crown and showed the line that appeared on it.

“To my son Alastor: May you use the crown to shape the world to your will”

“How? It wasn’t there when I took it. And what do you mean by Alastor being your father? That’s impossible. He is just a kid.” Celdora said in disbelief. He has held onto this object for ten years and he was sure that there was no such inscription on it.

“That’s not important. I won’t ask you to believe me but I am really his son and what I am doing is all for him. Now tell me about this! You own me that much!” Kaiser raised his voice.

“….Fine. I will let you have the benefit of doubt and assume that you are telling me the truth. And you did save my family so I believe that you are not a bad person. Very well I will tell you about the crown. If you are his son you must have known a bit about the events at the demon lord’s castle, the day when his parents died.”

“Yes I do know something about it but the truth was never really uncovered was it?” Kaiser questioned.

“Yeah unfortunately we did not find a clue about the killer nor how they even died. Among the deads, two people were missing: Morgan, one of the maid sent by the Church to serve us and Ingrid. We all knew Ingrid was a gentle woman so we suspected Morgan at first but in the end we could not find any way for her to be able to kill both Asgore and Lakyus, not to mention the rest of the people at the castle including Izago and Theoron….”

“That I already knew. What I want is information on this crown and why is my father’s name on it?” Kaiser pressed the issue.

“A few days after what happened, me and Arshe received a letter from the Artificer to come meet him at his home. It was quite a surprise as we have never met the man before, just hearing legends about him, how he lived for centuries creating strange artefacts. At that time, the Artificer was an ally of the demons and resided in the north at Ragna.

Yet when we got there, the old man was on his dying bed, being taken care of by a doll in the form of a young girl in white. He seemed to have gone senile, even hallucinating. When we asked him why he wanted to meet us, he just stared at us and cried while repeating the phrase: ‘I am sorry!’

His expression was filled with regret, as if he did something terribly wrong and there was nothing he could do to fix it. He was in so much pain, both physically and mentally, to the point it made him delirious.

Despite no matter how we tried to talk to him, he didn’t give us any answer. Both Arshe and me had no experience in healing magic so we went back to the demons to bring a healer. However when we actually got back, he was already dead. The doll was next to him, motionless as if her life ended with her master.

Mephisto decided to bring the doll back to the vault as she could be valuable and organized a funeral for the old master. As for me and Arshe, we wanted to know the reason why he called us and why he said something like that so we searched his archives and found two things: a crown and a sceptre. Without knowing what to do with it and at the time they were the only things that seemed valuable, we made a decision to take them with us: me the crown and Arshe the sceptre.

Over the years, I tried to figure out what was the purpose of this crown. If it was something made by the Artificer, then it can’t be just any normal object. I eventually gave up and put it away.

To think that it has something to do with that boy Alastor….”

“So you know nothing about it too….Perhaps I should give this to my father. Maybe he will know what to do with it. The crown did react to me as I am created by Alastor so it could have mistaken me for him. It’s possible that this crown is specially made to be used only by him.” Kaiser explained.

“Could be. Take it! I don’t have any use for it anyway.” Celdora gave the crown to Kaiser.

“I thank you for your generosity. I am sure that this will be put into good use. Still to think that someone was capable of killing both Asgore and Lakyus….it’s just unimaginable”

“To be honest I have one suspect. The problem is I don’t know the identity of this person.” the dragon lord said.

“What do you mean?”

“Before me and Arshe go on our expedition with the demon royal guards, the day that Alastor was born, I saw Theoron outside the castle, which was weird since he was the most excited about the baby. When I asked him why, he told me that Asgore was expecting a visitor and has asked the sage to take that person in when they arrived.

Yet we went come back, that visitor was nowhere to be found. It’s possible that that person was the one who committed the murders. If only Theoron was still alive…”

“….but he is….”