Chapter Text
Inside a dark forest, he walks alone. He was back in his dream. Everything was familiar and yet new to him because it ceased to become a dream the moment he stopped breathing. He was eager to escape the pain he felt, the mundane unexciting life that he lead, and the futile life he tried to live.
He stepped into the water and with each step his vision of the past cleared.
He was once again at peace. This peace and emptiness was an old feeling. He felt eternal and vast and timeless in the dark forest that was himself. He was this forest and he was a king. A demon king that ruled since the nights were called night and before magic was harnessed and even before the humans thrived in the Land.
The water reached his knees and he could feel his ability to move lessen as he waded through the black water.
As time passed by as fast as seeing mountains rise above the flat earth, as fast as you see the oceans dry up and become a basin of sand, as fast as the wind sculpt rocks into valleys; he watched curiously. These humans evolved from being weak and simple creatures into something more complicated.
He must admit that he liked to test these humans sometimes. He liked to offer them sins to lead them astray from their very busy path. They never stop working. Very similar to how you would like to take care of your very own ant colony and yet want to flood them with water and watch the ants drown in misery and fight hard for their lives. But he has stopped this curious hobby after a few times when what he thought was a little meddling caused numerous wars and deaths for all.
He felt a chill up his spine as the cold water reached his waist and slowly up to his neck.
Battles were fought, lives have been paid, the war was supposedly over and he was ready to return to the darkness. He was ready to once again watch deserts become lush green forests and to see the mountains erupt and become flatland once again. Heck, maybe this time he will just sleep for a millennia and skip all of that.
Somewhere in between those times he would let some humans see him from time to time. He was bored, okay. Many of them were knights off to collect his head or commoners asking for some self-serving wish. Often times he casts them away. Sometimes he would grant their silly wish if he feels like it.
Now he was submerged and it was pulling him down deeper into its calm cold depths.
Ah, but then one night, as it was always night in his realm, this curious creature came. He was a valiant knight wearing regalia of the heavens. Proud and brave, he was different from the regular humans he observed before. This one was special. A mix of the heavens was in his blood giving him great strength and a future of divine providence. He was favored by the fates. Is he even human? Maybe this one will entertain him before he chooses to sleep again.
He was drowning. He looks up and sees a speck of light from above. It was seeking him out.
He allowed this human to spar with him. With every strike, this human uses his divine sword to try and kill him. This human’s divine magic was coating the sword red. It was very beautiful. It felt hot like a blazing fire that could light up the night sky.
At one point in the battle that lasted for days, the human was able to hit him and his black hood fell and revealed his face.
Breathing heavily, the human paused and said, “After years of training, I finally get to see the face of the evil demon king that plagued our land!”
Normally, the demon king would not engage in small talk with ants. This time was different. This boy prompted a response form him. Can you blame him for wanting to engage in conversation with someone interesting given that his hobby was to watch centuries pass by in the darkness?
“Your land? If I remember correctly we were here first. I distinctly remember when you humans arrived here. I was watching,” he honestly answered.
“… You have killed thousands of our people. Murdered us and took what you wanted. You demons are beasts!”
“I partly agree. Some demons are beasts. Dragons are beasts. Orcs are… a cross of a humanoid beast. Ah but then back to the point. Isn’t killing and taking what you humans do to nature? You cut the living trees in your way, you take from nature what you please without regard, and you kill animals so you can eat them. You have done everything we did and yet here you are. What makes us so different from your kind? ”
“I… we… I did not expect you to answer. I have been fighting you for days. Just die already.” His voice was faltering.
“I can’t answer? Am I just to… how do you humans want it, bare my neck and let you kill me? To be honest I do not think that will kill me for I am not of flesh. I am curious myself what would happen if I were to let you behead me.”
The knight showed confusion on his young face. “Then why are you even fighting me?”
“Because you are here and I really don’t have much to do. You’re interesting.”
The knight paused yet again and lowered his sword. “My goal is to end the fight among humans and demons. I was tasked to vanquish the demon king so your reign of terror will end, however, it seems that defeating you will not achieve my goal.”
The demon king was intrigued. “Even I don’t know how to kill me but I figured someone like you would be able to with your holy magic sword. What are you even? I smell divinity from you. “ He went around the knight, observing him intently.
“That is none of your concern, demon. ”
“You’re not completely human. You’re something else like a mix of two things at once. As if you’re both a fruit and a vegetable at the same time. Ah but in the end it doesn’t matter.”
There was a long pause form the knight trying to decipher if there was something mentally wrong with this demon king. He clearly lost all interest in trying to killing him. He does not even think this is the demon king that was terrorizing the land. He sheathed his sword and said, “I will be leaving now.”
This time, it was the demon king’s time to pause. He headed towards the door to block the exit. “Wait. Where are you going? Aren’t you going to kill me? I will let you behead me this time. I promise not to evade. Let’s see what will happen. C’mon. Or I can summon my dragon and we can see who will win in a fight? Though I really don’t want you to hurt him. He’s a glutton but very loyal. “
“No thanks. I have no intention to be a part of your suicide attempt or meet your pets.”
“Maybe we should start over again. I shouldn’t have made you realize you’re planning to kill me for the same reason your kind did to others. I have to confess I did send a pack of hungry wolves to a mining village because they were dumping their waste in the river and poisoned the water. ”
The knight sighed. “I lost interest because you don’t look like a terrible demon king. I came to kill the wrong person. You even look younger than I am. I don’t think you are responsible for all of the deaths we blamed you for. So yeah. Bye.” The knight went around the demon king, heading towards the door.
“So you judge me because of my appearance? But I can change my appearance. I can become any gender or age or look like any creature. What if I did kill all of those people? This part of you is definitely human. Humans are irrational. They are ruled by feelings.”
“No. You’re the irrational one. You are so… so unattached in this world and yet ruled by whims. You’re irrational and yet you are not human nor mortal so your logic is faulty.”
“And you know this because you were once immortal and now you are not. Ah, you must be a Fallen.”
“Being a human is much better.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s so short you feel everything.”
“Tell me more. If you stay and talk, maybe we can work on something so you can achieve your goal for peace.”
And from that first encounter the demon king made his first friend, a friend that he truly liked a lot. This would be the beginning of how the Kansiols rose into fame as the family who made the Land safe for humans. He supposedly ‘defeated’ the demon king and ‘forced’ him to agree to the peace treaty between humans and demons. What the historians did not know about was how this Kansiol just tagged along the demon king’s idea.
For the first time, the demon king was not interested in slumbering away for centuries or watching mountains turn over. He was interested to talk to this human with holy mana. He could talk to this human with a fiery temper like the blazing sun for a millenia if given a chance. The demon king would always invite this new friend to his forest. Always welcoming him, giving him priority over all the others who vied for his attention. This made many of his subordinates jealous of the human but none could retaliate for they know they would suffer the demon king's wrath.
As the demon king who likes to tempt, he would always ask this knight (who then became a king) if he wants to gain his immortality back. If he does, then he would grant it. It was not immortality afforded to him by the heavens like what he had before but it was immortality nonetheless. This way, they could keep on talking more.
The knight always declined. As seasons change, he saw this human change appearance from the young knight who said they were almost of same age to an old man with many aches and pains. The demon king even started to change his appearance to match the knight’s but the knight said he did not like it. He prefers to see the same youthful face he fought so many years ago. A reminder of what he could have had if he were not a mere mortal he would say. The demon king always thought he was referring to youth itself. Rather, he did not know that the knight was referring to him.
The knight’s kingdom flourished as years went by. Finally, when the time came for the knight to die, all his descendants were present, however only one man was allowed to enter his room and see him. Even at the knight’s deathbed, the demon king asked if he wants immortality. The knight still declined.
“You keep asking me that. Perhaps it’s my turn to ask you. If you had a chance, would you lose your immortality and become human with me? Instead of only hearing and watching stories about us, you can experience it all for yourself... to feel what I feel.”
Before the demon king could answer, the sickly knight coughed heavily and smiled. He said that there is no need to answer the question now. It was not needed and they will see each other again in a different lifetime. One where they can continue the fight they started and see if he could beat his dragon. Maybe in a different lifetime when he could simply stay by his side without having to worry about the duties of a king or what others thought about who he should love. Perhaps in a lifetime when the demon king could feel what he feels for him and will be able to respond to those feelings. Until then he will be waiting.
The demon king paused. He doesn’t understand what the knight was talking about. It must be a human thing.
The inevitable happened and the knight died and yet the truce and the Kansiol kingdom continued on. The demon king went back to his darkness in his forest like he usually does. It was time to sleep yet again. This time, he did not want to wake up to watch the landscape change. He was no longer curious about the humans. He does not like to watch the sea turn into a desert or to watch stars form and die. There was no point in being awake. No point in any of it.
He saw the light becoming smaller as he sank deeper down the darkness.
There was really only one thing that was keeping him from sinking further down. It was the light that seems to twinkle closer despite him sinking. As if it was following him down as he sinks.
This gave him hope. He tried to swim up and reach for it despite not knowing if he was truly moving. The light seem to twinkle faster and until finally, he saw a piece of red thread floating in the water. He reached for it and then tugged hard.
He immediately felt a very warm and comforting mana coming from the thread. It was hot like a blazing fire that could light up this dark sea he was sinking in. This mana was the knight’s. The thread attached itself on his hands and he felt himself being pulled up from the dark depths of the water.
He sat up gasping for air.
That first gulp of fresh air after what seems to be years of drowning felt intense and so good. He felt the air enter his lungs, his heart pounding heavily and his eyes shot open. The first thing he saw was the knight bleeding from a stab wound on his chest. He then saw the knight smile at him tenderly. The knight then lost strength as the blood continued to flow down his wound. He leaned on his side beside him. He knows the knight will surely die if this goes on.
“So you found out how to die and lose your immortality afterall. Too bad I will be going first again,” the magician whispered as he closed his eyes.
The sight of this brought back emotions that he did not know how to express back then. He remembers the demon king's memories. Back in the knight’s deathbed, he did not know what to feel or what to say.
Now he knows. It was pain. It was fear. It was despair knowing that he will be lonely again. Tears fell down his eyes as he held the magician close to him. All the strong emotions he had when he first saw the magician were all the emotions he was unable to express when he was the demon king. He remembers being in the market in the city By The Sea. He first saw the magician standing across the street and from that moment he knew that that person was someone important to him. He just did not know how or why but he felt the intensity of it that he carried over despite losing memories of his past. It was as if it was imprinted in his soul, a knot tied by the Fates.
The demon king was the immortal embodiment of the night turned sentient. He was the forest in the darkness that humans feared. He was a part of nature. He was neither good nor bad as you cannot attribute natural disasters as evil despite causing casualties. His temptations were allures the darkness held for humans to venture into the unknown. Many creatures and beasts follow him as their king for only under the darkness can they reside and only under the guise of it could they be safe.
At the same time he was also Rood, a human who has lived as a mortal for seventeen years. Despite the hardships he has encountered, he gained newfound gratitude for the experiences he had. As a human, he was able to eat, breathe, smell, and feel all the things he was unable to before. All of the things he could only watch from afar he was able to experience now.
Right now, he felt very determined. He will not to let this man die in front of him again without telling him how he feels. All the feelings he did not know how to express or label will be addressed and he will not wait another reincarnation cycle to tell him this!
He was human and yet he was still the demon king.
Black clouds covered the sky of the Crishean kingdom. It holds the darkness that no light could penetrate. It was true darkness. Within the center of this rising storm was Rood, and he was about to wake up.
“[Awaken] Blow. “