“Do you mean what you say, Arin?” Dark Lord’s eyes were staring at her suspiciously. There had to be more to it than this.

“Indeed. However, in the future, we shall ask you for a favor, at that time it would be convenient if you did not refuse. That is my sole condition.” She extended her right hand.

“In other words, I will be owing you a favor, huh. I hope it is not something unreasonable like what the three clowns behind you came up with.”

“Worry not, I will not make you do something so senseless.” She looked at her three Demon Lords with a sharp gaze. All three of them shuddered. She is talking about us! “I will ask for your future cooperation in a single endeavor, it will be within your capacity to accomplish.”

It wa not a fair trade, that much was certain.

But the rules are dictated by the ones who hold the power, and at the moment, Dark Lord was not in any position to make demands.

Even Arian's rescue was a result of hostage situation.

And that crow demon even intended to double cross him from the start.

There was simply no easy way out. Even if he did manage to beat Kazan, there was no way he could defeat the rest.

On the other hand, if he made a contract with Arin, she would be obligated to keep her promise, lest risk losing her life.

The situation was most unfair, that much Dark Lord knew for a fact.

But unless he agreed, they will not be able to get out of here alive.

The worst case scenario would be for him to be stuck in an infinite loop with no way out.

Besides, after that one favor is granted, there was nothing preventing Dark Lord from devising a plan to destroy them all.

Dark Lord made a mental note to put Kazan as the first of the many he was going to purge.

But right now, he was too weak.

To accomplish his objective, he must compromise and have patience.

It was not that he liked his lack of options, but he just saw no other way of getting out of the time loop.

“I see, in that case…” Dark Lord extended his own hand.

In a moment they shook their hands.

“Do you promise to aid me in my time of need in the near future?”

“I promise.”

“Then the contract between as equals, Master-Master contract has now been created. I look forward to working with you in the future, Dark Lord.”

Their hands now separated.

“Now then, Dark Lord. There is a parting gift I would like to bestow upon you…a reward of sorts for saving my life.” She approached the Dark Lord faster than his eyes could perceive and put her hand upon his forehead. “Level 7 spell: Seal Break!”

For a second, sound of chains shattering was audible.

Dark Lord felt an undeniable sensation of pain coursing through his forehead, his vision in his right eye started to go blurry.

“Ahh! What did you do to me, you…?” Dark Lord was about to raise his weapon against her before she calmly told him.

“Please calm down, the pain should have subsided by now. Please take a look.” With a wave of her arm, she produced a mirror out of nowhere and held it up to Dark Lord’s face.

What he saw in the mirror made Dark Lord gasp in surprise.

In the middle of his forehead was a horn, not a large horn, it was quite small about 3 inches long and diameter of 1 inch. But it was a horn nevertheless. But even more curious was his right eye, unlike his red left eye, his right eye retained the original brown color, but now the right eye was glowing with eerie white light.

“What have you done to me, Demon King?”

“I simply broke the seal that concealed your horn within your forehead. It was a strong seal; it seems it was on placed on you a long time ago for some unknown reason. It was preventing you from accessing your demonic potential, so I removed the seal. However I did not expect you do develop the demon eyes as well, albeit only in one eye. Also, I did not expect you to be single horned.”

“I don’t know if I should ask this, but is there something wrong with having a single horn?” Dark Lord asked.

“Well, sometimes when demons are born in a litter of more than one, twins, triplets, quadruplets, the blood is split evenly between the newborns, so sometimes each one only has one horn, though there are cases of both twins of having two horns, but having one horn is a phenomenon that happens only to those born together with another.” Arin Draco explained.

“Is that true? Do you have a sibling, Dark Lord?” Kazan unexpectedly asked, but now he seemed genuinely concerned.

“Not as far as I know.” Dark Lord tersely replied.

“I see.” Dark Lord shook his head; Kazan seemed disappointed for some reason.

“So that was your parting gift, Demon King?” Dark Lord asked in a serious tone.

“That was just a bonus.” She put her hand underneath his chin, and when he was least expecting it, she locked her lips with his.

“Your Majesty!!!” all three Demon Lords cried out and Camilla was looking at the scene with his hand on his mouth.

What just happened?! All three of them had no idea why the esteemed Demon King would do such a thing.

Their lips were joined together for at least ten seconds before they separated.

Arin Draco smiled.

“Once again, thank you, Dark Lord, for saving my life.”

Dark Lord quickly regained his composure.

So it was just a kiss, huh, I thought she was going to attack me, I almost went for the kill…

“As promised…Kazan, free her.” Arin Draco commanded the Demon Lord.

“Your wish is my command.” A large crystal containing Sariu appeared out of the ground next to Kazan. With a snap of his fingers, the crystal shattered into tiny pieces, the person on the inside almost fell limply before being caught by Kazan.

“Is she…” Dark Lord began.

“She is alive. Just in a magically induced sleep, she will wake up within less than an hour.” Kazan placed her on the ground; her sleeping face was calm as though she was in the embrace of death. Then he proceeded to pick up the piece of his severed horn.

Dark Lord approached Sariu’s body and with delicate gesture he shifted her hair to take a look at her face. It was obvious those two were close.

“Dark Lord…” Kazan did not seem angry for some reason, Dark Lord expected him to be enraged considering Dark Lord just cut off part of one of his horns. With a sigh, he stood up and joined his comrades.

Now all four of them stood together.

“Dark Lord, we will need your aid in the future, please make sure not to forget that.” Arin Draco stated.

She now turned her attention to Camilla who ended up shuddering all over as Arin looked at her.

“Camilla Kumis, if you would like, you can come with us, we can use a help of a member of Kumis clan of snake demons.”

Camilla looked at Arin Draco with downcast expression, almost bowing on the spot, it was obvious Camilla was scared of them.

“I am afraid I must refuse, my fate lies with my master.”

“I understand. Please look after him, Camilla.” Arin smiled. “And Dark Lord, until we meet again.”

“Demon kind owes you a big thank you.” Temur Tang bowed.

“I hope we can keep working together.” Rahat Ras stated with a serious expression.

And lastly, Kazan looked in Dark Lord’s direction, and unexpectedly, he smiled.

“Farewell, my kin demon.”

With a flash, all four of them were gone, leaving Dark Lord, Camilla, and unconscious Sariu alone.

* * *

“My king, the reason you stopped him from finishing me off, it was not simply because we were from the same clan, right?”

“No, it was partially that, but may I ask you, did you see the look within his eyes? The eyes that reflected nothing but death.”

“Indeed I have.” Kazan looked at the piece of his horn in his hand. “The killing intent I felt from him was unimaginable, if you had not intervened, I would have perished. For a moment, it was as though he abandoned all his weaknesses, it was almost as if he was the Reaper himself. I know it sounds ridiculous, but something about him makes me scared. I am sorry for being too weak.”

“Don’t worry about it. I feel the same way. When he came to rescue me, I was emaciated, out of mana, and unable to move. I could not even fight much less stand up on my feet. But what do you know; everywhere I looked was filled with corpses. All of the knights that were guarding me were killed by him. At the moment I first laid eyes on him, I could tell, he was the one who caused that massacre, the aura of murder; his killing intent was indeed fearsome, I never met anyone quite like it. I was quite surprised he was your relative, Kazan.”

“Yes, I can’t quite believe it. And to think I dared to raise my hand against him….I feel ashamed of my actions.”

“Next time don’t act so impulsively.” Rahat Ras remarked.

“Understood.” Kazan unexpectedly humbly bowed his head.

“There was also another reason your majesty let this Dark Lord fellow keep the witch, isn’t there?” Temur asked.

“I just simply thought having someone like him as enemy would be too terrifying. We already have humanity, led by Knight of Light to deal with. Having someone as strong as Dark Lord be our enemy would be disastrous. Just look at Kazan, if I was just a second too late, Dark Lord would surely have killed him. He is strong, of that there no doubt.”

“Yes, he is. As expected of my kin demon.” Kazan smiled.

“Oya, you seem not angry with him cutting off your horn, Kazan, what is up with that?” Rahat curiously asked.

“I may have lost a horn, but knowing I still have a living kin is a far greater gain than any loss.” It was obvious Kazan was happy at least one other member of his clan was alive, after all, he spent a long time thinking he was the last Tengu type demon left, seeing another one like himself was reassuring to say the least.

“He is too dangerous to have as an enemy, it is a far better choice to have him as an ally, or at the very least gain a favor with him. With someone like him, it is best to have him on our side. We may not have a witch, but we have something greater- a favor from someone who can make the impossible come true. Think of it like that; then the witch is a low price to pay.”

“Agreed.” All three Demon Lords had to agree, Dark Lord was one terrifying guy. A witch could have given one of them a way to enter a city, but it seems their king believes that Dark Lord can aid them in much bigger scale in the future.