It was a dark night in the Empire's capital. The city had gone to sleep, with only the underworld scurrying about at this time.
And yet, in this night, one part of the city was extremely active: The royal castle.
In here, servants ran around like headless chickens, carrying things to and from everywhere. Nobles discussed in private rooms, some shouting and some whispering. Several servants would lose their lives tonight, judging by the nervousness and anxiety of the nobles.
An old man sat upon a throne, several important figures surrounding him as they all talked over each other to get his attention, resulting in something that resembled an elementary school's assembly.
After a while, a figure burst through the large doors at the entrance of the room. Seeing this figure, the nobles all showed different expression, but in general, none of them were pleasant ones.
"King-sama! I finally learned that new spell you taught me! It's really cool!" A young adult in his late teens with short black hair and obviously Japanese shouted as he bowed repeatedly to the old man.
"Haha... No need to be this formal, sir Hero. I expected nothing less from a person as talented as you." The king said with a sly smile on his old face. The hero, embarrassed, turned away.
Around that moment, several young girls entered the room as well. A catgirl maid, a naive young princess, a fiery demoness, a silent elven girl with two daggers on her waist... All the stereotypes you can imagine, they were there.
Seeing all of the young ladies enter, the king smiled weakly as he stood up and clapped his hands, sending the nobles away. After that, he announced, "Very well. Let us begin the planning of the Demon Lord Assassination Operation..."
Meanwhile, in the demonic lands...
A large demon with two heads stood in front of a relatively small cave. His expression was unreadable, partly due to the two heads, but even then, each of them was perfectly neutral, not portraying any expression.
After hesitating for a bit, the two-headed demon kneeled and shouted: "This servant carries a message from His Majesty, esteemed lord!"
The moment he did so, despite being one of the demon generals, albeit more on the weaker side, the demon felt extreme chills run down his spine as several hundred eyes seemed to open all around the surroundings and stare at him.
A particularly hard shiver ran down his spine as all the eyes merged together in front of him, forming a single, huge eye. It stared at him with what he could swear was a mix of hatred and desire, but he didn't move. The demon's lord had told him much about this man, no, monster. However, out of all the things he heard, what he took to heart the most was one particular comment.
"JonBob, I cannot guarantee you will come back alive from this. That man only recognizes me and a couple other people as... I won't say friends, but at least people he won't kill. However, remember one thing: Do. Not. Show. Fear."
JonBob stared at his lord with a confused expression at this. Of course, he would never show fear to anyone, after all, wasn't he one of the demon generals? The third highest rank of demons after the princes and the king himself?
Shaking his head, JonBob's lord explained, "That man is not someone you can even look at. He is like a ravenous wolf, the moment you run away or show fear, hell, even just hesitation, he will tear you apart and swallow you. Furthermore, he has a particularly nasty habitat of torturing his victims, so please, for yourself, listen to me for once. That man is evil incarnate."
Hearing this, JonBob's heart skipped a beat. For even his lord, someone acclaimed through the world as a vile and evil tyrant who enjoyed torturing children, to call someone evil incarnate, just what kind of being did he need to talk to?
Back to the present, JonBob fought against his instincts to scream and run away and held as best as he could. Clenching his hand hard enough to draw blood, he stuttered, "H-his majesty requests o-of esteemed l-lord to, p-please come to the capital. S-someone has invaded!" BobJob had to bite both tongues in his mouths to not scream as he saw the eye explode into a mist of blood.
In the blink of an eye, all the blood came together to form something out of this world. A strange cross that had several faces appearing and disappearing on it formed.
Then, just as BobJob was about to ask something that would have gotten himself killed, a voice came out from the cross. This voice was by no means pleasant, rather, it was as if many people were speaking at once, and for some reason, the voice seemed to carry an extremely vile intent with it.
"... This is a teleportation illusion. Should Kai truly need me, he will know what to do. Now, disappear. I have... things to do."
Hearing this, JonBob didn't even hesitate a second as he backed away whilst still facing the cave, and only after he was a good hundred meters away did he turn tail and run.
As he was backing up, the cross had shrunk and entered his pockets. He was thankful he didn't have to touch whatever in the gods' name that thing was. Even if demons were generally more evil than humans, they weren't what the humans made them out to be.
Sure, they didn't mind killing, but everyone had their own limits. There were saint demons, neutral demons, even forest-loving demons. You can't judge a race by its stereotype, after all.
Compared to that abomination, JonBob truly felt like a saint. He hated this feeling, mind you. He preferred being the bad guy, as they were much cooler than those stuck-up heroes.
5 hours later, JonBob had delivered the cross to the Demon King, Kai. After thanking his liege for his 'kindness' JonBob happily took his leave and decided that it would be a good idea to get wasted after what he had witnessed.
With a tired sigh, Kai looked at the cross floating in front of him. He didn't like how that man acted whenever he wasn't directly there to calm him, but alas, he could sort of understand.
He had known that man for a long time. In fact, the only reason he was the Demon King was exactly because of that man. Despite that, he couldn't help but be disappointed in how little that man had changed since those days...
But! There were more important things to do right now. In a quiet voice, Kai whispered into the cross, "Night and Red, Roses and Thorns, Blood and Gold, Weapons and War. All shall return, all shall contribute, all will be devoured. Open the jaws of the snake."
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It was extremely cringy, so cringy in fact, that Kai furiously looked around to make sure nobody heard him. What was even more embarrassing was that he was the one to come up with these lines.
As he looked around, the cross floated into the air and released an ominous light before contorting and shifting, transforming into a mirror-like object.
Inside of it, a lonely figure curled in itself sat. His face buried between his knees and the absolute silence in that dimension causing even Kai, someone very familiar with this dimension, to take a step back.
Seeing this figure, Kai's anger and anxiety were swept away. In its place came an extreme sadness as he reached his hand out to that figure unconsciously, but stopped himself when he remembered that it was just an image-transfer device that the man called TV.
"... Yes, Kai?" The figure slowly said. His voice was much different from what JonBob heard, this time it was much clearer, but despite that, it seemed just as hateful as it was sad.
"I need your help, friend. I'm afraid that, with the Hero constantly strengthening, our armies alone will not suffice. We need you and your elites to come in."
"..." The figure didn't respond, rather, it remained silent as it raised it's head to looked directly into Kai's eyes.
Without looking away, Kai stared straight back into those two red abysses. With a small smile, he tentatively extended his hand forward...
The man in the mirror put his head back down and mumbled a small positive response. Then, the connection was cut.
Sighing, Kai watched helplessly as the mirror disappeared into nothingness. In truth, he didn't really need that man's help, but just in case, it was always good to have him around.
...
It had been a week since Kai saw that man. Now, he stood in front of his demonic army, facing the allied armies of humans, elves, dwarves, and beastkin. On his side, several powerful beastlords, werewolves and other evil races stood in formation.
At the front of the allied army stood a very not-really-imposing figure. The Hero.
Kai had seen this man several times before, even fought with him. He wasn't anything special, in fact he was quite weak-hearted and was extremely unfit to be a hero, but despite that, all the focused training the allies piled up on him plus his 'cheat' made him even stronger than Kai himself.
Infusing mana into his voice to make it as powerful as a magic attack alone, Kai roared, "Humans! Leave now, and we might just let you live!"
As the weaker allied soldiers trembled in front of the voice, a reassuring shout came from the Hero. "Never! We will win this battle in the name of justice and cute girls!"
Kai couldn't help but snort at that retort. One of the things he despised the most about humans was their womanizing attitude. Loyalty was everything to demons, even if it was sometimes questionable.
As the two armies were about to begin their clash, a giant dark cloud covered the skies, blocking out the sun. Red rain fell, burning any human it touched. It was like acid, but unlike it, this rain could not be stopped by magic.
Kai's mouth contorted into an evil smile. If everything went right, they could achieve a major victory here...
As the most powerful human and elven mages, supported by the dwarven artillery created a barrier to defend themselves with, giant red meteors began to fall from the sky and slammed into the human army, revealing several extremely powerful vampires hidden within.
Abusing the surprise of the humans, the demon army charged and slammed into the allied line, almost shattering it immediately. The vampires didn't come alone either, as they brought almost infinite cannonfold, also called slave vampires.
However, how could the allied armies fall so easily? Seeing the desperate situation, the humans unleashed their strongest card, the Hero, and his giant harem.
Like a tornado of blades and spells, the hero swept through the battle, saving all humans he could and knocking out the demons. However, he was not alone.
The Lord Hunter, the king of beastmen, descended into battle along with the Demon King and the Sir Undeath, the lord of the undead, bringing havoc into battle. Several powerful figures descended to, figures like the Elven Matriarch, the Beast King, the Fairy Princess...
As the battle intensified, the king saw the Hero himself get pinned down by both the Demon King and the Sir Undeath, whilst all his allies were dealing with the endless army of the vampires and beastmen. They were losing pretty badly, and they knew it.
In terms of raw strength, the demon army far outmatched the humans, however, the humans always had luck, terrain, strategy, and adaptability on their side. Now, being fought head-on like this, their weakness was revealed.
As the Hero battled the Sir Undeath and Demon King, just as he was about to be defeated, the women in his harem began calling in grief. "Noooo, our Hero!", "My love, don't lose!", "You can do it!"
Through the magical power of friendship and love, the Hero started glowing. Seeing this, both the Sir Undeath and the Demon King furrowed their eyebrows in confusion, but they were soon pushed back as the Hero shouted, "Limit Break!"
With renewed and improved power, the Hero instantly turned the tides of battle, sweeping away the Sir Undeath and the Demon King, rescuing his allies. Seeing the precarious situation, the Demon King grimaced, but a hint of evil was hidden beneath that smile.
With a small spell as the Hero was delivering his 'justice and love' speech, he called upon his strongest hidden card.
"... And this is why, we should not fight! We should make peace and love because..." The hero didn't get to finish his sentence as a powerful earthquake shook the earth, a red moon revealing itself under the dark clouds covering the skies.
A loud explosion noise came from that moon as a giant eye opened in it, blood seeping out from it's pupils. Compared to the red rain, this blood was thousands of times more powerful, instantly melting the barrier that had been created and ending the lives of several thousand soldiers.
From the eye, a figure slowly fell. It was a middle-aged man wearing vampiric clothing. He had white hair, an evil smile on his face and rivers of blood flowed out from nowhere around him.
Holding a chalice filled with blood, the man roared out, "Destroy them, my subjects!"
[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/613/511/170.jpg]
Along with the man's roar, several new vampires revealed descended from the skies. These vampires were all far, far more powerful than the previous ones, easily bringing havoc upon the human allies.
Despite the mage's best efforts, the corrosive blood from the giant eye kept devouring anything it touched. Sometimes, the unlucky beastman or demon who touched the blood found his whole body melting away. Cries of anguish ran through the entire battlefield as the more powerful mages fled for their lives, even paladins, the epitome of justice, were forced to flee miserably.
As this all was happening the man had not actually moved a finger. His job was over for now, and even if he was to act now, it wouldn't do much good. Remaining in the dark was a far better option.
Or at least, those were his plans. However, just as he was about to fly back inside the giant eye, a powerful force blew him away or at least tried to.
Turning around, the man found the Hero staring at him with determined eyes. He was bleeding from several spots, his clothes burned up. The man snorted but didn't act, after all, the Hero was still a useful chess piece. Getting rid of it so early was wasteful.
"I... Will not let you off!" The Hero shouted as he moved into a mediocre fighting stance. The man snorted in contempt as he a blade materialized in his hand.
"I shall end thine life shalt thy not surrender to mine power." The man roared as he launched himself forward at a speed that could match that of light itself. Without time to react, the hero received a mighty kick in the stomach followed by several punched to the face.
As the Hero fell to the ground, weak and beaten just after a single exchange, a fire was lit inside of his chest, one that would bloom into a mighty sun who shall illuminate the darkness.
"... This one is disappointed. Thy is on the ground just after a single exchange? Thou is extremely pitiful. This one shalt spare your life, but not next time..." The man said as he tried to once again enter the giant eye.
However, this time, he was not stopped by the hero. Instead, a gigantic floating pizza suddenly appeared in the sky, out of nowhere.
Casting a giant shadow upon the battlefield, everyone stopped fighting as innumerable pizzas appeared around the giant one.
"We are the Sazzip! We will avenge our fallen comrades! TO WAR MY CHILDREN! FIRE THE MOZZARELLA STICKS! SOUND THE TOMATO HORNS!"
On this day, the Sazzip faced their greatest loss ever. It was a beautiful battle, full of detailed and epic scenes someone who is working on a certain novel at 12 pm really does not feel like writing.
Everyone united to face the mighty cheesy menace and then ate together. Or each other. Same thing, really. Tomato is red, just like blood after all...