Fate is kind of bullshit if you think about it, you work all your life to achieve a goal but in the end, it’s hopeless to go against fate.
In order to become the Demon King, I lied to, betrayed, ambushed, battled, assassinated, prosecuted, and schemed against all of my rivals and came out on top. Not once did I fail on my ascension to Demon King because I was the cunning and devious demon in the demon lands. It was only natural that I would be the most suited for the role. I was certain that my conquest of one of the human planes would be a success.
However, I was not arrogant, I knew that many times a demon invasion would fail due to unforeseen circumstances such as a human Hero slaying the demon king with some sort of immortal slaying weapon. To make sure that such a fate did not befall me I went to the royal library restricted to only the top magic users and generals in the demon army. Being the Demon King I was, of course, granted access, and immediately looked up the history of demon invasions on the human realms.
The truth I found in that book changed my outlook on everything, as it turns out I am the 39,653 Demon King which is quite a lot considering how rare my talents are. But the weird thing was that there was no record of a successful conquest nor of a Demon King ever returning from the human realm after he was finished. Those facts piqued my interest so I began to dig deeper looking into the exploits of each individual Demon King.
Reading through those documents was probably the first time that I had felt true terror in my entire life. When I was younger I was afraid of demons stronger than me but that was only natural, I did not want to die so I was afraid of a scenario of a high chance of death. I guess that this was that same feeling only amplified knowing that I had a 0% chance of survival. Which is stupid because I should be immortal.
At this point, I have read the accounts of all the 39,652 Demon Kings that have come before me and this is what I have learned.
1. The Demon King’s Crest that I received upon becoming Demon King is a one of a kind magical artifact that boosts the user's magical power by 10 times and grants immortality. It is the same one used by all previous Demon Kings and will return to the demon realm after my death
2. My invasion will begin in about 1 year when a portal to the human realm will open and all the demons will rush out and start eating the humans. Attempting to stop the invasion will cause the demons to turn against me and I will die. I do not know how they would get past my immortality, but this has happened to 21 Demon Kings in the past.
3. All previous invasions have been onto the human realm or human continent of ZaZan. The humans are split into 5 factions, the elf humans, the dwarf humans, the undead humans, the beast humans, and weirdly the human humans. They pretend to fight amongst each other in order to surprise demons when they work together.
4. Each of these factions will eventually send one of their top members to form an elite fighting force led by a Hero. This team will acquire the Hero’s Sword, the only weapon that can kill a Demon King. Then they will fight the demon army and kill the Demon King while gaining treasure and magic powers.
5. Fate is working against me, my death is inevitable.
That last one might not seem factual but looking into the records made me realize that it is not just hard to conquer the humans, it is impossible. The more of their cities you take the harder they fight to protect the other cities. The more you try to set the factions against each other the stronger their bonds become when they discover your schemes. And they will discover your schemes one way or another. Sometimes one of the elite is the detective type that will sneakily get information on all of your moves, but more often one of the higher-ranked demons will reveal their plans before they attempt to kill the Hero.
But of course, the Hero survives and the plan is now revealed and then easily foiled. It’s annoying how despite just being a regular human the Hero is functionally immortal for the duration of the invasion. The Hero can be cut apart, burnt to a crisp, vaporized, or even killed and they would still be fine. The Hero’s team is also pretty hard to kill, only 1,003 Demon King’s ever managed to kill one, only 36 managed to kill 2, and 1 killed 3. But he only managed to do that by charging up an amplified self destruct magic for 2 months.
But none of that directly means that I have no chance. It's just that it seems the Hero and his team get so lucky that it couldn't be mere coincidence. One of my predecessors was able to create an absolute destruction spell that was able to destroy the Hero’s Sword which should be one of a kind. But it so happened that a legendary smith and a legendary enchanter were born in the same generation and the Hero was able to forge a new Hero’s Sword.
But I was never one to give up, so I started to make plans, lots of plans, complicated plans, simple plans, plans that would never work, and plans that would fight against fate itself.
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So here I am one year later, looking down upon the foolish lower ranked demons waiting for the portal to open so they can wreak havoc upon the humans. If I had not visited the library one year ago I would probably feel the same as them. But those feelings are best saved for later as right now an important piece of my plans is standing right behind me.
“What the Hell is with these battle plans they make us look like weak fools who can’t even take a single city. If we fight like this it will take decades to conquer the humans when it could be done in weeks” That was Demon General Garnak, a ravager demon who is a master swordsman who has a strong bloodlust. He wants to rampage straight to the capital of the humans and win the war in a single day.
“Maybe, but I think it’s best not to underestimate humans if we play our cards wrong we may lose.” The idea that demons would lose to humans is sure to piss him off.
“LOSE, are you ins-”
“You would dare speak to me with such insolence, you will follow my orders, or you will die!” I put an angry scowl on my face so he knows I'm not messing around.
Garnak grumbles and walks away, now he thinks I’m incompetent and can’t be reasoned with.
He will betray me for sure.
Excellent
The other 3 Demon Generals are less easy to manipulate but they are also more willing to listen to my plans. When the gate opens they should all move according to my plans to a reasonable extent, I will have to deal with their schemes eventually. But it was time to start my speech.
“Attention demons, the time is at hand for our ultimate conquest of the pitiful humans, we will drain them dry of their resources and destroy their cities until we are the victors. Now open the portal and eat to your heart's content.” A large rift in the fabric of reality opened, showing a vast green plain with a bright blue sky.
It hurt my eyes, what business did it have being so bright in the human realm. Well, I had work to do. I shot towards the portal as fast as I could, I did not have wings but flight magic makes up for that fact, with the power of my magic I should be one of the fastest demons currently living. As soon as I passed through the portal I cast Fractal Teleport.
Fractal Teleport is just a normal teleport spell but it also teleports 50 sections of air in the shape of me in random directions. Not even the best spacial mages could track me down through that spell. Which would be me because I am the best spacial mage. I did not want anyone to see what I was going to do next.
I performed large-scale scrying magic to find the biggest city on the surface of the land, according to my research it should be the capital of the human humans. Next, I cast disguise to make myself look like Garnak. I then started to charge my next spell, more complicated magic took a longer time to cast. They could also require ingredients, magic circles, or chants. For this one, all I needed was to form the magic circle from memory and say its name.
“Greater Teleport: Range Boost 3x” I appeared above a large castle in the middle of the largest city I had ever seen. They had protection against teleportation, but not enough.
“Intrusive Greater Teleport: Power Maximize” I appeared in a white marble hall with large columns decorated in fabrics of red and gold. I liked the design sense, it looked good, I might regret how I’m going to tear this room apart.
I looked up and saw a man decked out in shining gold armor sitting on a throne. He must be the king, it doesn't take a king to know a king, but it can’t hurt.
“Who are you, who sent you, how did you get in here” the king got up and yelled. I was being surrounded on all sides by guards in silver armor. Their armor and weapons were enchanted quite well. Kings do have a lot of money for their guards. But the city probably had their best soldiers guarding the walls. Not many people could just appear in a room heavily protected against teleportation in a city that should be able to detect anyone that would try. These guys were probably specialized against assassins.
But I am not an assassin.
“Lifestealer Shadowbolt: Multicast 20x” Twenty spikes of pure shadow spewed out from my extended hand homing in on the nearest guards killing them instantly. I was already casting Fear and Panic Aura causing the rest of the guards to run away leaving just the king.
“I am Demon King Garnak, I sent myself, and magic of course.” The king got up and drew a giant broadsword out of a secret compartment.
“I knew this day would come it was about time for another demon invasion but why come directly here I am surely not the Hero”
“To nip the human resistance in the bud, without a king the rest of the humans will be meek and helpless, they are nothing without their leader.”
“Don’t underestimate the human race, you monster” The king jumped at me swinging his giant sword in a circle before it hit me in the neck cutting downwards through my entire torso. As the blade was about to leave my body I cast Hardened Body stopping the sword in its tracks. With my hand, I reached out and grabbed the king’s neck as my immortal body reformed.
“Dying is for non-immortals such as yourself” I debated adding an evil laugh right here but I was using Garnak’s voice right now so I didn’t know how it would sound. I kept holding him for what felt like forever but was probably only about 30 seconds, It was kind of awkward but someone had to see me kill this guy.
“Radiant Beam: Power Boost 2x”
Finally
A beam of pure light shot towards me hitting the arm I was holding the king with. It came from a crying girl who was wearing a dress of some kind. I did not know if it had a meaning but it looked fancy.
“Angela no, get out of here” The king tried to yell but could only muster a strained whisper.
“I won’t let you die father” So she’s the princess then, that should be perfect.
“It’s too late for that,” I said as I crushed the king’s throat and threw him on the ground. “You will all join him soon” At this point another round of guards were charging me and Angela was charging another spell. But I had been charging one for longer.
“Absolute Destruction: Power Boost 10x + Fortification Bypass”
The marble floors cracked around me, the columns turned to dust, and the ceiling came crashing down. The teleportation protections had failed so I was out of there in half a second. It would be reasonable to assume that no one else survived, which guarantees that someone did. I know what the magic circle for a barrier looks like so I have a pretty good idea who survived.
This is going well, Garnak is going to betray me and rampage through the continent and the humans now think that he is the Demon King so they will have to bring out the Hero’s Sword before they try to kill him. The humans were given a preemptive warning about the demon invasion allowing them to prepare. This assures that Garnak’s attacks will fail and the rest of the demons will be more than willing to start a battle of attrition that will last at least a few decades until our eventual defeat.
I also guaranteed that Angela will be a member of the Hero’s party if not the Hero herself.