*clink* *clank–!*

The chained parade of demons continued through the rocky terrain for the next few minutes, when the cloaked men dragging us along suddenly came to a stop.

Just ahead of us, three spacious horse-drawn carriages were waiting for us, hidden behind a small dark-brown hill.

Two other cloaked men could be seen patrolling the surroundings, keeping a watchful eye out for any uninvited guests.

Soon, the small crowd of demons chained with us were separately taken to the back of the last carriage wagon, and then mercilessly shoved inside, surrounded by iron bars to seal any chance of them escaping.

Even from a distance, I was able to spot the dried bloodstains splattered on the inside of that carriage, hinting at the violent abuse their usual prisoners had to go through.

But the demons didn't have to worry about such things though. After all, no matter how weak they were right now, their bodies could endure much more abuse than a normal human ever could.

Not to mention, they had been pretty silent after I had scared them into shape a while ago, lowering their chances of getting beaten up by these people even more.

However, the treatment for Yera and me was thankfully a little different compared to the other demons.

I knew if I didn't have Yera by my side, I would've had to endure some extremely painful things just to get here without raising any suspicion – just like those unfortunate demons who had been starved and whipped regularly by the ogres.

Both of us were taken to the front of that carriage wagon and shoved inside what seemed like a cramped metal-plated cabin, before a strange disk-shaped object was forcefully strapped to the back of our necks.

"Uhk!"

As soon as the disk was attached to my neck, I immediately felt something freeze up inside my body. Something that I didn't even notice flowing through my body all this time...

When I looked towards Yera, I saw her face getting pale all of a sudden as her shoulders trembled for a moment, before a gloomy look appeared on her face.

Seeing her exaggerated reaction, even if I didn't know what these disks did to our bodies, I could take a pretty good guess right now.

'Mana-flow restrictors.'

One of the most famous products of magical engineering. When kept in close contact with someone's spinal node, it could somehow temporarily sever an individual's innate connection with their own body's mana.

In a world where every superhuman warrior and mage heavily relied on mana to display their true strength, the effect of such a magic device was utterly devastating!

Even with loads of limitations and restrictions on their usage – especially when restraining someone excessively powerful – such worries were usually irrelevant if the person was literally chained up from the neck to their ankles!

"You two better not make any funny moves..."

After throwing us inside the cabin, one of the cloaked men said that to us in a grim tone, before pointing to the cabin's metal-plated walls.

"...The walls here have spell circles engraved into them to burn everyone inside to ash if the carriage gets damaged by anything. At least you two still have a chance to live, unlike those useless dregs in the back. If you know what's good for you, don't waste it."

*Kwaangg~!*

Leaving behind that menacing piece of advice, they swiftly closed up the metal door of the cabin, leaving us once again in a dreary shroud of darkness.

Left in the darkness of the cabin, I softly mumbled a few words under my breath.

"Bring up the Quest window."

Immediately, a glowing translucent window manifested before my eyes.

-------QUEST WINDOW-------

>> Storyline Quest: The Demon King Of Vengeance!

>> Quest Description: "....Within the dark depths of the Abyss, a Devil was born. A child without a name or purpose, alone and adrift in a ruined, chaotic world. Living through a meaningless life, and not dying only because he found no reason to die.

But the day he found a reason to live, the world took it away. Liberated from his life as a beast, the child now refused to obey. Centuries of bloodshed and slaughter later, a Demon King arose from the ashes of his sorrow. The world now bowed before his might, and yet his heart stayed hollow.

The ruler of darkness doesn't need a name, only an epithet to spread words of his greatness. For the true path of a Devil is marred with scars, the siphoners of others' pain and sadness...."

✦ Your will to exact vengeance on behalf of someone else has presented you with the opportunity to tread on a Devil's true path. You can now obtain your own 'epithet' and gain power from a certain aspect of your life!

✦ Upon accepting this Quest, you will not be able to obtain another 'epithet'. All future quests will be adjusted accordingly!

>> Clear Condition: Avenge the unfortunate humans of Etheria by eliminating everyone responsible for their death and suffering!

>> Rewards: Demon Sword Unsealing, Title – 'Demon King Of Vengeance', Shop Currency+5

>> Failure Penalty: The aspect of 'Vengeance' will be forever locked away.

--------------------------------

⇒ [ Accept / Deny ]

I had delayed looking at it properly earlier, seeing that my, along with every other demon's every action was being heavily monitored by those cloaked people on our way here.

Who knew what kind of trouble I would land myself into if I made any weird gestures or something while interacting with these quest windows?

"What..."

But as I slowly read the description of that Quest, a small seed of doubt began creeping into my heart.

"...the hell is this?"

'True path of a Devil...? And whose backstory is this supposed to be?'

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I didn't believe that the previous Demon King would willingly show me his own life's backstory in this manner. But other than him, who else could influence these game windows?

'No, wait...'

Thinking about this just reminded me of another fact.

'He summoned me and gave me the power to level up and stuff by making a deal with someone else...'

I didn't know who that 'someone else' was, but after the Demon King finally left for his afterlife – if there was any for a literal Devil – I wasn't able to feel that intrusive gaze monitoring me all the time anymore.

I was pretty much certain that the previous Demon King was dead and gone, but the same couldn't be said about the being who helped him summon me to this world.

'I have to remain careful. I'm sure that someone like that wouldn't have much interest in me, but I shouldn't leave such things to luck...'

Still, this was the first time I got a Quest notification since that 'Tutorial Dungeon', and because I was already determined to do it anyway, I saw no point in hesitating about this anymore.

"Accept."

[Quest Accepted!]

But the sudden reappearance of the Quest window wasn't the only surprise waiting for me...

[Congratulations on finding your own path, O young Demon King!]

My heart suddenly skipped a beat, and I felt my eyes go wide in surprise as I heard that familiar voice beginning to speak inside my head.

[If you're listening to this, then know that your path as a Demon King begins from this point onwards. Your 'epithet' will be your lifeblood, no, it will be something even more important to you...]

Yes, there was no mistaking it...

[...So don't choose just anything as your 'epithet', and make sure it resonates with your core personality. And don't worry, this is just an old message I prepared for you beforehand.]

'Vanir!'

It was the previous Demon King's voice!

[I know how you will react to certain things, so I had to set up everything in such a roundabout way. If you want to blame something, you can always blame that pretentious personality of yours.]

Despite my bubbling anxiety, the voice didn't continue anymore after saying those words.

Just like it was mentioned in the Quest description, the cryptic words he spoke right now kept echoing in my mind.

'...What is this 'epithet'? And was that really a pre-recorded message?'

It certainly seemed to be that way. But before I could ponder on it any further...

*Ping~*

[Storyline Quest related sub-quests are now available!]

*Dringgg~*

[Sub-Quest (Storyline) Act-1: Hunt Of The Fallen!]

As the new quest panel started flashing in front of me, the usual glow of the transparent quest window vanished, replaced by one bathed in an ominous blood-red glow.

But when I read through the details of the mission, my eyes immediately narrowed.

-------QUEST MISSION-------

>> Sub-Quest (Storyline) Act-1: Hunt Of The Fallen!

>> Mission Description: Eliminate all individuals affiliated with the 'Dark Magus Society' near you. The mission will fail even if a single one of them escapes from your grasp alive.

✦ Hunted Prey: 0/12

—--------------------------------

"As expected..."

Seeing what was written in the mission description, I couldn't help but feel a massive headache coming.

"...I really hate to be right all the time."

Just as I had expected, all these cloaked people were all from 'that' infamous band of dark mages. The most annoying and persistent bunch of villains that kept bothering the player throughout the Academy arc of the original game – The Dark Magus Society.

Honestly, when I first came out of that 'Tutorial Dungeon', my first thought was to somehow get into contact with this secretive organization using the shortcut ways I knew from the game, and then wreaking havoc on the Goddess' Church with their help.

After all, what else could be my fastest ticket to the 'holy land' containing the previous Demon King's power core than those suicidal lunatics?

Anyway, the point was that these guys were the most irritating bunch of villains, as well as the most professional experts of creating large-scale chaos throughout the entire world.

Kingdom-wide mass-sacrificial rituals? Releasing fatally potent demonic miasma into heavily populated trading cities? Summoning demon beast hordes in the middle of the Great Forest?

You just name it. They could do it all!

And not only that, they could also remain hidden so skillfully that no matter how hard you tried to expose them or locate their members, you were almost guaranteed to end up with nothing.

All of this went on to prove that it wasn't for nothing that they remained standing even after the entire game scenario ended!

But no matter how lucrative their cooperation sounded to me, I couldn't immediately reach out to them, or even recklessly draw their attention towards me right now.

After all, dark mages gained all of their powers by forcefully merging their life essence with demons – elevating their affinity for the demonic element!

It was easily imaginable what would happen to me if they discovered that the literal ruler of that element was naively seeing them out without the power to overwhelmingly suppress them.

"Just me and my shitty luck..."

Now, I was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe.....the LUK stat wasn't there just for decoration and item drop rate, and actually had a real-life effect in this damned world!

Otherwise, how could I end up with enemies in every direction possible without a single sign of an honest ally?!

"Umm... Did something happen?"

While I was lost in my thoughts, Yera's voice suddenly brought me back.

"Hmm? Why do you ask?"

"...You were looking around weirdly, and then you started mumbling something silently. So I thought...that something might be wrong...?"

"I see..."

But wasn't it was pitch-black in here? And I was sure my mumbles were silent too.

Then how could she even...?

'...wait.'

"...Don't tell me, you can see everything in this darkness?"

"...Yes?"

"...okay, then please pretend like you didn't see anything. And I'm still alright."

This is why I didn't look at these Quest screens earlier!

I must have looked like an absolute idiot doing all that in the darkness, when I couldn't even see in the dark!

'...I need to be more careful from now on.'

*Rattle~!*

"Uff." "Ugh."

Suddenly, the carriage we were shoved in began to move with a shudder, causing both of us to tumble around inside for a moment.

"Huff... They've started to move."

I pulled myself up from the ground, my voice holding a hint of solemnity.

"...Do I....do I need to do anything?"

Hearing Yera's nervous tone, I turned my head in her direction and gave her a nod.

"...They will most probably unlock this door when they set up camp for the night. When that happens, no matter what happens, you have to buy me as much time as possible. Both of our lives will depend on your performance."

"Uhk... I-I understand!"

"Good. Just believe in me and do your part. Leave the rest of it to me."

"...yes."

*Sigh…*

'Maybe, this is the only kind of ally I can have in this world...'

...Allies that could be gained either through suppression or threatening.

Was it for the better, or was it for the worse? I didn't have the answer to that just yet...

The heavily shaking carriage continued on its journey beyond the dimensional gate, unimpeded.

****

Hours soon passed, and I felt my stomach rapidly churning as an unstoppable tide of acidic juice came rising up through my throat.

'No. Keep it in, damn it!'

I could tell that whatever I was experiencing probably felt even worse for the Lycan sharing the same cabin as me. After all, her ear canals were supposed to be far more sensitive compared to mine.

However, it seemed like our luck wasn't bad to the point of having to soak in our own barf, as the heavily shaking carriage soon came to a stop with a sharp screeching noise.

"Ugh... Get ready, Yera."

"Umph..."

We could only communicate in groans at the moment, as our stiff joints and churning stomachs kept protesting against us in silence.

'Damn this...I'm definitely going to enjoy what's coming next, you damned bastards!'

Before long, our metal-plated cabin door began to slowly creak open little by little.

*Kwaangg~!*