“...King.”

He was woken up by the sound of someone calling him.

‘Augh, my ribs.’

Those were his first thoughts once he was fully awakened. When he looked at his arm the once visible wounds had healed but the sensation of pain was left behind.

‘I’m thirsty too thirsty.’

He tried to look around him for clear water to drink but the whole pool was dyed in red making it unsuitable to drink. Just behind him was the now-dead spider which had gone cold and rigid.

A cold breeze swept the place which left him vulnerable to the cold as his robe was torn beyond repair. Now he had received a new objective. He would skin the spider and use its fur to cover himself.

After picking up the sword he started his work. However, the spider’s fur was too thick for the sword to cut through. Still, he continued skinning the fur until finally, he had obtained enough fur to cover his upper body which he did.

‘Now to figure out where I am.’

He tried to map out the entire place in his mind but each time he did so something would change. At first, he used his position as the centre and mapped out the visible area using key elements like the huge rock debris he had fallen with. He placed his sword on one of the debris on the south but after walking towards the north where there was other debris, he found his sword waiting for him there.

He tried this again by placing the sword on the west but no matter which direction he took he always found the sword at the destination he had picked. Something was subtly changing in this area but whatever it was he couldn’t sense it until now.

After noticing another presence in the area, he placed the sword on the north debris and started walking towards the east knowing the sword would be there waiting for him. Once he was near the sword, he felt the presence slowly stalking him behind.

‘Block behind.’

A voice went off in his head.

Immediately he heard the voice he grabbed the sword and swung it behind to block the oncoming attack. His attack was delivered but nobody was home to receive the attack when he suddenly felt something appear behind him.

Before he could react, he felt something warm penetrate his back. The only things he felt were the rupturing of his organs before something came out on the other side of his chest. When he looked down his chest, he saw a blood-covered hand curled into a fist. The place where the hand was emerging from was covered in blood and as his blood dyed the environment red, he felt his consciousness slipping away before finally losing his senses.

“This will be troublesome to explain.”

A woman said before removing her hand from the Demon King. She had gotten carried away when she saw he was about to discover her so she took extreme caution which resulted in nearly killing him.

“I hope he will understand.”

Those were her last words before she started dragging him by his leg.

Soon he came back to his senses and found himself lying on top of a broken wooden bed. When he looked upon himself, he saw that most of his upper body was wrapped up in bandages. As he tried to sit up, he felt a sharp pain coming from his chest that was followed by blood. The interesting thing he saw was that as the wound bled the bandage would soak up the blood and after some time the bandage would return to its original state and start the whole process again. Even though the process was magical the pain wasn’t so he returned to lying back.

What spread out in his vision while lying down was, something similar to ruins.

The stone wall surrounding him crumbled here and there.

There was no ceiling, and the overcast sky stretched out into the horizon.

Pillars that were once magnificent were broken down altogether and there were many places on the floor that looked on the verge of collapsing.

While observing the surrounding trying to understand the place a figure suddenly entered his field of view.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Good morning, Demon King Acheron.”

Her clear and dignified voice entered his ear.

The owner of the voice was a woman and when he looked at her, she had already taken a bow where she was on one knee in front of Acheron while also looking at him.

Her black hair was long magnificently thick and was only grown to shoulder length while her eyes were two different colours, the left was violet while the right was red. To him, that was a very interesting combination.

What she wore was a black dress knee-high in length with blue sleeves. Metallic armour starting from her shoulder covered both her arms essentially covering most of her arms except her hands. Her boots were also metallic and he could help wonder if those things were hard to walk with.

Beside her were two short curved swords that had something that looked like veins that glowed in a dull red colour. Everything about this woman was ominous and she looked the type to kill when provoked.

So, Acheron ignored her earlier greeting thinking he wasn’t the one being addressed.

When the woman saw Acheron wasn’t responding she repeated herself this time more clearly than the first.

“Good morning Demon King, Acheron.”

“…Ahhh, un.”

That was his reply. He didn’t know this woman who acted as if they were acquainted but considering the weapons staying beside her, he decided to play this smoothly. He had already been involved in two near-death experiences and he didn’t want to experience the third one while in his current shape.

“So, you … um are?”

“I am called Nimue, a Fallen.”

With those few words, Nimue had made herself known to Acheron while still kneeling. Suddenly a white semi-transparent paper containing information started spreading out in Acheron vision using her name as keywords.

Name: Nimue

Race: Fallen

Rank: ((SSS) Locked) / F

AFFILIATION: DISASTER CLASS EVIL

STATS:

Vitality….

“It seems your skills have been integrated into this world.”

When Nimue spoke, his concentration was diverted which caused the information to disappear from his field of view.

“Do you know how I got here?”

“I brought you here.”

“What happened before you brought me here.”

I forcefully stabbed you when I realized you had discovered my presence. It wasn’t the politest of gesture but that to my knowledge that was the fastest method to get you full cooperation.”

“…um okay. So, how long have I been asleep.”

“Four days.”

That answer came as a shock to him because he had expected her answer to be something like a few hours or one day. But four days that was too long and his stab wound wasn’t completely healed even after resting.

After organizing his thought, he shifted his position so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed while directly facing Nimue. His body was still hurting but he didn’t want to show her his weakness so he put on a brave face while selecting his next words to speak.

“I’m Nimue, a fallen who has decided to walk the same path as you. I believe there will be times where common sense and knowledge you haven’t experienced will burden you but I will act as your support from here now until eternity. This I swear.”

Nimue spoke those words as she stood up and she took Acheron’s hand that was on the bed.

“Welcome to Uriron, Demon King Acheron. No matter what path you choose I will walk with you.”

“Thank you. Please treat me well too.”

Those were the only words he could come up with as he tried to match her loyalty to him. This whole process was certainly not one expected.

“…Nimue was it?”

“Yes, Demon King.”

“Is there something like a mirror which I can use to look at myself?”

“Magic Mirror.”

After Nimue chanted that, something looking like a mirror appeared in front of Acheron.

His appearance was reflected there and a few changes had been made.

His age appeared to be in the early twenties while his body was thin with delicate features. His skin appeared overall dark just like before with black hair. His eyes had taken a significant change and now appeared red for the left and black for the right.

After examining himself he walked out of the room and went outside to inspect the vicinity.

Everything out here was worse than the inside. Behind the once magnificent castle lay in ruin. It was overrun by weeds and wild trees growing everywhere which had managed to destroy the ceiling of the castle and one could observe the overcast sky. The castle looked like it would collapse soon while huge debris of rocks littered the place. Worse than that were the dead bodies and bones that surrounded what used to be the castle walls which were all torn down.

“If I’m not mistaken this used to be the castle of the previous Demon King…”

“Yes. Around three hundred years have passed since the last one perished.”

Acheron felt his body become stiff after Nimue said the last Demon King perished. It showed that they were not immortal beings. After taking a deep breath he looked at the horizon.

“…So, that’s the case. Then we need to find some way of repairing the castle.”

“There is no budget.”

“Mmmh?”

Acheron thought he had her wrong and decided to ask her again.

“What was it none of?”

“The budget.”

Nimue closed her eyes while looking woeful and shaking her head sideways.

“Everything that was in the Demon King Castle was taken by the humans and most of it sent to the parties of the Hero and the rest was divided by the remaining kingdoms and the church. This in turn destroyed the order of the previous Demon King had created. Right now, I’m your only subordinate.”

“So, what…”

“Yes, in other words, there is completely nothing that was left behind.”

“But what about food or the clothes I should wear or where to sleep.”

“For food, I managed to find some potatoes and bitter herbs. However, I don’t know what you will wear or where we will be sleeping.”

Her reply was short and brutal which left Acheron speechless.

When processing her reply Acheron immediately ended up wanting to cry.

Uriron.

A world of magic and swords.

The place where countless Demon Kings have perished to both the gods and the Hero while the humanoid races celebrated peace.

This day in the corner of a small place called the Fardania Continent, the new Demon King, Acheron, was born.