As the steam cleared up, Dark Lord could see that Kazan was not exactly in the best shape.

The right side of his body was covered in burn marks.

Burn marks coated his body in strange flame-like patterns.

It was almost as if he barely managed to avoid a blast to his head.

“Where did you get that scar?”

“Oh? Worried about me? How kind of you. Ha ha…”

Seeing Dark Lord’s icy gaze, Kazan immediately stopped laughing with a gulp.

He knew by now that if he made his brother angry enough, he might just snap and kill him on the spot.

Kazan considered it a miracle that Dark Lord did not kill him already.

Knowing his personality, Kazan was sure that without Arin protecting him, Dark Lord would have no qualms about erasing him from existence.

‘Back when I first met him, I did not exactly make the best first impression. I mean, I couldn’t have known he was my brother. If I did know, I wouldn’t have been so rash….’

On one hand, he was glad he had at least one relative remaining. But on the other hand, knowing this relative hated his guts was rather unnerving.

‘It’s my fault he hates me. I know’

Kazan did all he could to make Dark Lord not see him as a threat but as a family instead.

But considering the circumstances of how they met and the confrontation that followed, they had a rather rough start.

‘Still, he is not attacking me. I guess little by little, he is warming up to me’

Kazan smiled at the thought.

In truth, the only reason Dark Lord did not try to attack Kazan again after choking him was because he was too tired.

Battle against Knight of Night took a huge toll on his body.

Unlike a complete undead, he did not have limitless stamina and the over usage of his undead powers took a lot out of him.

Since he could not produce his own mana, he had to recover by stealing mana of the people around him, slowly recharging in the process.

Draining mana of the living may have taken care of his right side, but his left side was still that of an ordinary mortal.

He still needed to relax and unwind.

And now, one of the biggest causes of stress in his life, Kazan Karatengu, showed up.

First Knight of Night then Kazan Karatengu…who is next?

Perhaps the Red Dragons he met so long ago during one of his loops will show up out of nowhere and plague him to the end of the earth?

“We ended up encountering a hero, the Dragon Rider”

“A Dragon Rider? Do tell.”

Dark Lord never heard of someone riding dragons, but he did read of Dragon Riders. But finding out that there is someone who is capable of such a feat was intriguing.

“Gladly. You see, brother, my king had us split into groups of two to cover larger grounds. Rahat and I ended up paired together. While we were rescuing demons, we ended up running into the Dragon Rider.”

“She had five lesser dragons under her control. I managed to slice the head off of one of those beasties, but then I was forced to flee. Frankly, I almost ended up being a cooked chicken! Ha ha ha…”

“But compared to Rahat, this is nothing. He ended up hit directly through his back and lost consciousness. I managed to fly us both to safety. It’s a miracle he is still alive. He should be fine in a month or two, but until then….yeah.”

“So the Dragon Rider is after you guys now, huh”

“Well, sort of. Apparently we just ended up getting in her way. From what I managed to overhear, she is after one of their own. A former hero”

Kazan and Dark Lord locked eyes.

It was obvious to Kazan that now he had Dark Lord’s undivided attention.

“Afterwards, I managed to find out quite a bit of information about this fellow. The defector is a Summoned Hero, Knight of Eon, blessed by the Tempus, the Secondary Goddess of Time.”

“Summoned hero? What do you mean?”

Seeing Dark Lord’s confused expression, Kazan proceeded to explain.

“Brother, you are aware that this world of Alem is not the only world in existence, right?”

“Of course”

Dark Lord read enough books inside the Shinigami’s library to know that this world was one of the many worlds within the universe.

This world, Alem, was ruled by Primary Gods.

Dark Lord presumed that other worlds had their own gods.

“Apparently this poor fellow was summoned by the fifth princess. But shortly afterwards, they accused him of conspiring with demons. They tried to capture him, but he fled. Now he is on the run.”

“And when exactly did this happen?”

“Less than a month ago. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it had not reached your ears, brother. Only few people know what happened. They are trying to keep this under wraps, as to not ruin the reputation of the Holy Order.”

“I mean, after the fiasco with the Holy Maiden retrieval, the Holy Order is in a rather sorry shape. Gotta hand it to you, brother… taking out three heroes in one fell swoop, that’s impressive!”

“Kazan, how exactly did you obtain this information?”

“One of my crows saw it”

A single crow flew down and landed on Kazan’s shoulder.

“Pretty neat, right? They can go to places where I cannot. With my magic, I can see and hear through them. But sadly, they have next to no fighting ability. And more often than not, they end up dying after flying into a tree. A tree! How ridiculous is that!”

“A hero gone rogue….Very Interesting” Dark Lord muttered with a smile. Maybe talking to this oversized crow was not such a waste of time after all.