Chapter 1

"Hahaha, the summoning of the heroes succeeded!"

Screaming in excitement was an old man in white and silver robes. He looked just like a kind grandfather as he stroked the long beard that came down from his chin. He looked harmless, but I knew better from the holy aura radiating from his body and the silver and white robes, he was the type of person I disliked the most, a priest. Priests were considered the opposite of someone like me faithful, kind, and selfless. They sacrificed their lives in the name of their god or goddess in order to invoke a large spell in the hopes of killing me, a demon king.

They were also the ones who selfishly brought the heroes and declared war on us calling us demons.

I remember the first time I met heroes, it was when I was a kid, sitting outside in a log in the outskirts of a Cyclops village.

What was I doing in a cyclops village?

Was I gathering fearsome warriors with my army to attack the human kingdoms? Or perhaps surveying my lands? No? Maybe I was hunting some fierce demonic beast?

No of course not, like I said I was a kid playing hide and seek. Unlike what the humans were made to believe, demon kings didn’t just go boom and appear out nowhere. They were elected and the only requirement was strength, it didn’t matter if you were born from one of the large clans or you were a refugee living in a rundown village like me, climbing up in society was surprisingly fair.

Of course we gave the humans a different impression. Humans only saw their overwhelming might and fury. The only sightings commoners encountered with the demon king was when he would lead his army and march into the human lands pillaging what he could, then bringing back food and slaves. Pretty evil, huh.

But the only reason we had to do so was that the humans kept on expanding their kingdoms and lands. The problem was most lands already had owners so in the end they decided to invade us, since we were unorganized and split up into tribes. Every time we tried to reclaim land they would attack us sending their armies with their heroes, if you asked me they were the real demons.

Anyways I was playing with my childhood friend Tim. Tim was a great fellow he was the first friend I made after my village was attacked by the humans. His father was the village head and the strongest warrior among the cyclops in the village. He was a nice guy and loyal friend. The only thing that annoyed me was he liked to play hide and seek in the forest outside his village. As a cyclops he had terrible eyesight, common of cyclops children whose eyeball hasn’t fully developed which meant he was terrible at it. However, I thought of him like a little brother and would play with him.

Like many other times we were running around when we heard the sounds of footsteps around us. It was the sound of soldiers approaching. Wearing silver armor they approached through the shrubs. Although they hadn’t noticed us we were surrounded.

“Erin run, I fight,” said Tim while grabbing a large log on the floor, ready to fight.

“No idiot, at least try to run first,” I whispered angrily.

With a sad smile on his face he made it obvious that he wanted to stay and fight. He must have realized it would be impossible for him who was already over 4 meters tall to hide from the humans.

“No you go get help, please.”

With pleading eyes I couldn’t ignore I decided I would hurry back with reinforcements and ran towards the village. But when I reached the end of the forest I saw I was too late and the attack had already begun. I knew the grown ups would not be able to help in a short amount of time so I returned to look for Tim, hoping he managed to hide from the humans and was horrified by what I saw.

Over a dozen human corpses were littered on the ground. And near the center was my childhood friend heavily injured and bleeding on the floor as he tried to parry the attacks of the remaining soldiers. However it seemed the battle was over and they were just playing with him while a young man in expensive armor gave them orders.

Stolen novel; please report.

Naturally I couldn’t let that arrogant asshole kill my best friend. Although at the time I was quite weak physically, years of messing with my dull headed friend make me quite stealthy. So as quietly as I could I approached them. I then snuck up behind their leader and swung a short sword I had found on the floor with all the force I could cutting off his neck, sending his head rolling on the floor. The soldiers who had until now been laughing and joking happily froze in horror as their leader was decapitated.

“No, impossible!”

“Ah H-hero. . .”

I remember it like it was yesterday, there had been various cries of disbelief, but all I could think at the time was, “ Hero huh, Tim we just might get out of this alive”.

They were in disbelief that a child with light blue hair and green eyes who looked less than one meter tall had killed their hero. If they thought about it logically they should have realized that the only reason I won was because it was a sneak attack. So before they could start to think clearly I took advantage of their worship of the heroes. I spoke coldly while pandering to their deepest fears.

“I am Erin Gandharva the demon king, you, insects who have invaded my lands,  prepare for a slow and painful death.”

They looked at me confused. Then as they took in the words I had just said they looked at each other as if to see if they weren’t dreaming. But after a few seconds that they realized everything was real their faces began to pale. Finally horrified looks filled their faces as if their greatest nightmare had come to life.

“N-no wonder only the demon king could kill the hero. . .”

Another nodded his head, as if to say, “right, right”.

As they were still confused and shocked a soldier came running towards us from the clearing.

“Hey, where is the hero we need reinforcements. Most of the soldiers were defeated by a large Cyclops who seems to be the leader. Only the hero can defeat him.”

Looking at him as if he was an idiot the others came back to their senses.

“Idiot, run,” one of them screamed as they all bolted in different directions. The soldier that remained looked at me the child covered with blood. As I smiled at him he noticed the hero and his companions bodies that lay on the floor.

Trying to confirm his suspicions I smiled at him with the most sweet and innocent smile I could. Of course this terrified him and the young man was so afraid that he soiled himself and fainted on the spot.

And so ended my first of many fights against the heroes.

Eventually we both grew up, I became the demon lord and Tim became one of my trusted generals. Children were told stories about Tim the cyclops who would come and eat them if they didn’t listen to their parents or eat their vegetables. But that is a story for another time.

* * *

Seeing the priests and paladins around me I figured it was a trap set by one of the human kingdoms. I noticed I failed to manipulate the mana in the surroundings. I who was the most gifted dark mage in the world always had protection from the elements of darkness, it was both a blessing and a curse.

Yet now that darkness had abandoned me. For the first time in centuries I felt something I thought I would never feel again, happiness, excitement and a fear of the uncertain.

Just kidding I was pissed off! How dare these humans take my powers!

I tried to use my most powerful spell to destroy them, but nothing happened.

Dammit, I will get to the bottom of this !

I didn’t know what they did but I knew how to find out. Looking around I saw the perpetrators and prepared to capture one of them. Even in my weakened state I knew none of them were my match. 

 But I was doomed to be disappointed. As the words left the old man’s mouth my anger started to cool off and was replaced by confusion.

Heroes?

Summoning ?

Is this guy right in the head, I thought to myself.

But then I noticed nobody was trying to kill me. Not to brag but I was known as the most hated demon lord in human history. Unlike the past demon lords who were known for their cruelty and slaughter, I was hated for entirely different reasons.

When I was crowned I knew that no matter how much we fought back we would always be defeated. Unlike the humans who reproduced like bunnies we were much fewer in number. Another reason it didn’t matter was the kings and leaders of the humans didn’t care that much about the peasants and common people.

So Instead I hit the kings and queens where it hurt, their pockets and pride. I snuck in and stole one national treasure after another. I sent members of the incubus and succubus tribes to infiltrate the human kingdoms. Princesses, princes and even some imperial concubines suddenly started disappearing. After investigating the humans found out they had run away with their demon lovers. It was a scandal in high society. When they found out I had offered them asylum in my palace they started putting two and two together.

That was why I was confused when instead of a life threatening fight all that greeted me were a bunch of paladins and priests that kept calling me a hero. So bewildered as I was, I froze there awkwardly trying to make sense of the situation.