The 8th Demon King Asmodeus had perished. This was known to all demons and humans alike. It all happened because of a fight against the Hero called Luke. Luke was the most powerful hero in centuries just like Asmodeus was the greatest Demon King. The battle was close, and it ultimately ended in Asmodeus defeating Luke.

No one had realized at the time, but Luke had inflicted a fatal wound onto Asmodeus. Even Asmodeus himself realized he was going to die when it was already too late.

All high ranking demons could heal wounds no matter how deep they were as long as they survived the impact. They could even regenerate their limbs in just a couple of days. Asmodeus could have never imagined that Luke had developed a technique, which mitigated the regenerative abilities of demons. Luke had kept it as a secret weapon, and used the technique to stab Asmodeus in the heart just before dying himself. A normal demon would have died instantly, but Asmodeus' vitality surpassed every other demon by a long shot. Even healing his heart was no problem for Asmodeus.

After the battle, the wound that struck his heart closed and Asmodeus thought his heart had fully healed. In reality, the wound had only healed on the outside, and his pierced heart never healed. Asmodeus miraculously survived for more than a week without a heart, until finally dying. A few days prior to death, he realized he was going to die soon, but it was already too late.

Asmodeus had died. However, his soul still lived inside his lifeless body. That was until Abigor used his body to summon Cole. This caused Asmodeus' soul to move from his own body into Cole's. This was all part of his plan, however, the plan had gone horribly wrong immediately after Cole arrived.

During his last hours, Asmodeus had prepared for the summoning knowing he would die. He had expected a powerful being such as a dragon to spawn. Dragons were stubborn creatures and there was no way a dragon would obey anyone after being summoned. For this reason, Asmodeus planned to prepare a gift for the dragon. He did this by using cursed magic on his own body.

The cursed magic he used was a spell, which grants the target whatever they most desired. Asmodeus knew that most dragons wished for gold, jewelry and other expenses. This meant that if the spell was used on a dragon, it would grant the dragon a mountain of gold. The possibilities of the spell were almost endless.

Asmodeus had used a modified version of the spell on his own body. Instead of a target, the spell would be cast on whoever was summoned when his body was used as a sacrifice. After their wish was granted, they would feel indebted towards Asmodeus and listen to his requests.

This was a bold plan with a lot of risks, but the rewards were enormous. If the demons gained the power of a dragon on their side, humans wouldn't stand a chance no matter what they did.

Asmodeus was confused when Cole got summoned. He had been expecting a dragon, but instead, the summon was just a mere human. Even more shockingly, the human was incredibly strong. He had almost endless potential. If he learned magic and trained hard, he would easily be as powerful as a dragon. Now all that Asmodeus had to do was gain his trust.

Asmodeus was once again shocked. The summon was the most powerful human he had ever seen, yet his deepest desire was a house. Not a castle, not riches or even hot women. All this human wanted was a mediocre house with a garden. He didn't even seem all too interested in the house, but instead the poisonous plants growing in the backyard. Asmodeus had never been so confused in his life.

The human left after taking two plants from the garden, leaving Asmodeus furious. His plan had completely failed. It seemed like the human didn't even realize the house was planned for him. It almost looked like he was stealing from his own garden. After the human had done nothing but walking around and gotten scared by a weak guard, Asmodeus couldn't take it anymore.

Asmodeus could feel the emotions Cole was feeling, but he couldn't read Cole's thoughts. He couldn't figure out why Cole was so obsessed with the plants or why he was looking for a fire.

Doesn't he know he could burn down the entire human city if he wanted to?

My successor is way dumber than expected... Well, it can't be helped. I will have to explain what's happening and hopefully, he is willing to cooperate.

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"Calm down human! Why are you scared of those maggots?"

Cole came back to his senses when he heard a voice. He couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It almost seemed as if the voice came from inside his head.

"Who are you? Show yourself!"

Cole was confused and spoke aggressively. He was in the middle of trying to figure out what's happening only to be interrupted by an invisible person.

"I am the former Demon King Asmodeus. My soul is currently sleeping inside of you. You were summoned to inherit my position."

Demon king? Soul sleeping inside of me?

Cole confirmed his suspicions. He had died and got sent to hell.

"What do you mean your soul is sleeping inside of me? What is this place? Are we in hell?"

"You were summoned from your world onto ours. My body was used as a sacrifice causing my soul to be transferred into your body. I have been sleeping inside of you ever since you were summoned."

He has been sleeping inside of me? Does that mean he witnessed me stealing weed from the mansion? I was summoned here from my world? Are we not in hell?

"What do you mean I was summoned? Is this place not hell?"

Cole was worried that there was a witness to his crime, but more importantly, he wanted to know where he was.

"I was killed by a hero, leaving the demon race without a leader. The demons performed a ritual in order to summon a powerful being to inherit my position. In the process, you were summoned to lead my people."

Cole was once again left confused. The person inside his head was claiming to be a demon king, and that Cole was summoned to inherit his position? Cole was tired of people speaking nonsense.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"You must have the wrong person. I'm not powerful and there is no way I was summoned to be a 'demon king'. I'm not even a demon. I'm a human! How can a human lead the demons?"

"No, I'm sure you are the person summoned. You can quit acting. I know you are multiple times more talented than me. It is true that you were a human in your previous life, but during the summoning, your race changed into a demon. You are more than qualified to be the leader of my people."

Cole started to understand what was happening but even if he understood, there was no way he was going to become a Demon King. He wanted to live his life peacefully. Every day, he went to work, and afterwards smoked weed on his couch. Back on earth, Cole hated politics and there was no way he was ever going to be a leader, let alone one of the demon race. Cole still considered himself to be a human even though his appearance had changed.

"Being multiple times more talented than a weirdo doesn't really say much. In any case, I'm not going to lead your people. Could you send me back to earth and turn me back into a human while doing so please?"

"Sending you back is currently impossible. Even if we succeeded, you would still remain a demon. Will you please reconsider? My people are in disarray and will surely lose the war against humans without your help."

The Demon King sounded desperate. Cole had no intention of becoming a demon king, but he wanted to get some information from the weirdo calling himself the former demon king. Cole still hadn't had a chance to even smoke any of the stolen cannabis, since he didn't have a lighter.

"If you give me a bong and a lighter, I might reconsider. I really want to smoke this fucking weed already."

"I apologize, but I do not know what a bong or a lighter are. Could you please explain, and I'll get them for you?"

The person talking in Cole's head was talking more like a servant rather than a demon king. Cole had doubts whether or not he was indeed talking to a demon king.

I would have imagined a Demon King would act more like a dictator and not like a housemaid.

Asmodeus was the strongest demon to live in centuries. Why would he talk to a human so politely? It was because he was scared. He couldn't sense the end of Cole's potential. On top of that, he was no longer the leader of millions of demons, meaning there was no reason to act tough anymore.

He doesn't even know what a bong is. Well, I do have apples so I just need a lighter.

"Forget it, I just need a fire. Can you light a fire for me please?"

"A fire? Don't tell me you don't know how to use magic? With your magic power, you could have burned the entire human city if you wanted to. Here, let me show you."

After the Demon King finished his sentence, Cole's finger lit on fire. He screamed and frantically shook his hand until he realized the fire didn't actually hurt him.

"Holy shit! I thought you were trying to kill me. How doesn't the flame hurt me?"

"Your body is immune to fire. In fact, it is almost immortal. The only way you could ever get killed is if someone destroys all of your organs and cuts your head off in succession. Were you not aware of this? Did you perhaps develop these abilities after getting summoned?"

I'm immortal?

Cole couldn't believe what he heard. He wanted to test out if it was true but couldn't. What if he was lied to and killed himself?

Cole had played multiple online games when he was younger and gotten scammed multiple times. When he was 13 years old, he had spent over a week grinding for an item in an MMORPG, only to have it taken from him the same day he got it. Another player claimed he could duplicate any item for free, and Cole took the bait. Without thinking, he gave the unknown player the item he had just spent a week obtaining. What he received wasn't a duplicated item but instead an empty inventory slot. After getting scammed multiple times, Cole started getting really cautious and developed trust issues. He knew the phrase "If it's too good to be true, It's probably not true." better than anyone, and being immortal was definitely too good.

"May I ask, why did you decide to ignore the house I prepared for you and took those poisonous plants with you instead?"

!!!!

Cole had forgotten about having a witness to his crime only to be confronted with it.

Dammit! What will I do now that there was a witness?

Hold on, didn't he just say he prepared the house for me?

Asmodeus felt Cole's change of emotion and had a hunch on what had happened.

Don't tell me he didn't know the house was a gift I prepared for him?

"You didn't take the glasses of translation with you either. Did you perhaps not understand the sign near to the mansion?"

Cole started to get sweaty. He realized where he had fucked up. He remembered the glasses hanging from the sign near the mansion.

Were those glasses meant for translating the text on the sign?

"Wha... What did the sign say...?"

Asmodeus confirmed his suspicions. Cole didn't actually know the house was prepared for him. Asmodeus wanted to jump into molten lava to commit suicide, but he didn't have a body to do it with. Fortunately for Cole, Asmodeus couldn't control his body.

"..."

"Hey! What did the sign say?"

Asmodeus delayed the response in fear of how Cole would respond. He knew he had to answer though, and prepared himself.

"... The sign said, 'Hello Cole. I am the 8th demon king Asmodeus. I have prepared a gift for you. Follow the road and the house is yours.'"

"FUCK! WE GOTTA GO BACK THERE RIGHT NOW! THERE ARE STILL 14 PLANTS LEFT!"

The mansion in the forest was Cole's dream house. He wanted to go back there and live the rest of his life in the mansion. He felt dumb for not realizing the house was meant for him and stealing his own weed plants, but most of all he was excited. He could live inside his dream house with all the free weed he could smoke for the rest of his life.

"Wait! It is pointless to go back to the house. It was created using magic and has now disappeared."

Asmodeus lied. The mansion was still inside the forest and nobody had visited it. He read Cole's emotions and knew he would never leave the house again if he went back. Asmodeus needed him to become the leader of demons, and that wasn't possible if he never left the forest.

"God fucking dammit. Well, there goes probably more than 50 kilos of weed."

Cole's dreams were shattered but he didn't break. He knew getting his dream house for free was too good to be true and he was right.

I guess these two plants are better than nothing.

"If I can't go to the house then what the fuck should I do? I can't go to any cities since the humans call me a demon and try to kill me."

"I will send you to the capital demon city called 'Eldham' using teleportation magic. In my current form, my soul is not powerful enough to send you all the way there. You will be sent within 50 kilometres of the city, and will have to walk the rest of the way. You can survive for many months without food or water so reaching the city will be an easy task. Additionally, you will need these two items."

Two items appeared in front of Cole. One of them was the glasses he had seen hanging from the sign, and the other was a colorful ring with a strange pattern on it.

"These glasses are called 'Glasses of translation'. The glasses will translate any text into your preferred language. Additionally, when wearing them it also translates speech. You don't need to use them when talking to me, since I'm using translation magic. If you want to get rid of them you can learn to use translation magic yourself."

"The ring is called 'The Ring of disappearance'. While wearing it, the ring will hide your magic power. Your magic power is so enormous that anyone will get alarmed just by being near you. You will have to wear this ring if you want to move secretly."

"So translating glasses and a ring that hides magic or whatever the fuck. Got it."

What the hell are these names? Did he just pull them out of his ass or am I getting tricked again?

Cole roughly understood what the items did, but couldn't understand the naming sense of whoever made them.

Who the fuck calls their ring "The Ring of disappearance"?

"Using teleport magic will use up most of my energy and I will be forced to sleep for the next few years. Go to Eldham and find a person called 'Abigor'. He will guide you while I sleep."

"Alright, I'm ready. I guess a demon city is better than living in the woods."

Cole was happy that Asmodeus' soul went back to sleep. He felt uncomfortable knowing someone was watching him at all times.

There was a flash of light and Cole was teleported. Before even looking around himself, he took out his apple pipe and loaded the bowl.

"Finally! Time to smoke myself into outer space."

After days of struggling, Cole had finally obtained fire.