Chapter 7 I'm wondering what happened as I look in the display in front of me. The sister told me to be the demon lord but what are these? Underlings when I have not asked for them? The world sure is amazing when things suddenly appear out of nothing. I don’t know what happened and since they appeared I guess that’s it. I turn the crystal off and place it back in the bag. I have a long night to digest what the treant has been telling me all day. It was already my eight day and I seemed overwhelmed with the volume of things I am ignorant about. Who knew that demon lords is like a cancer in this world? Look at that… I lay on my makeshift bed and look at the stars above me. They are like jewels in the sky and no one will be able to take them away. I wonder if someday I will find something precious which no one would be able to take away. I dream of possessing such things since I regained freedom in this world. This world is very beautiful indeed but there is something lacking in my life in here. I have purpose but that does not make my life fulfilling at all. I had lived the life of the bad guys and there is no bright future ahead of it. I accepted the task in my desperation back then but now that I think about it, I was very foolish. I don’t mind the life of solitude but the life of being alone until I perish seems a bit sad. It is more miserable since I am made to be eternal and I know that the future won’t make me feel the same way as I do now. Time can be a happy and cruel thing at the same time. I wonder if there is a day where I will hate my decision in accepting the role. I raise my hand as if I am trying to grab the one of the brightest star in front of me. It feels like they are so close yet impossible to reach them. Will I feel this same feeling in the future? Will satisfaction be always just an idea in my life same as those stars in the sky? Worries start to enter my mind one by one. I know that they are far in the future but I can’t help myself. I want a life where every day will bring me something I will find satisfaction with. I hope someday I will have such treasures. “For now, let’s treasure our sleep.” I said as I close my eyes trying to rest my tired mind. “I wonder how that little head of the treant has so many knowledge…” Then suddenly a single root rose from my side and smacks my head harshly. “I am just wondering!” The night closed peacefully like that. Aside from the smack though and when morning came, lessons once again started. As usual, the treant was merciless on hammering me both knowledge and its branch. This old folk is violent despite the calm and peaceful aura he is giving off. Why should I tolerate something if they are being a nuisance? Why should I let them go and be the bigger man? The heck does that mean? Why do I even need connections as the treant said so? He talked about the previous demon lords and how they came into power. After deliberations, they are a bunch of losers. They have the choice to reject but decided to consider the well-being of others compared to theirs. In the end they gave up their life for something which does not benefit them at all while the rest of the world despises them. The treant talked about their how noble their characters are despite being on the opposite camps. None of it so far is making any sense to me. Why does the world needs to always favor the many? How about the lesser side? Will they always make the sacrifice for the many? That is truly absurd if you ask me. The many should do their part and make their life better themselves and not use the lesser to build a better life. If I am a demon lord, I would send meteors on their empire and let them fend off themselves. They are adults and they are responsible for their own well-being. Wait... I am a demon lord. Maybe I should do that? The former demon lords were losers but they were the bigger person I guess? I hope my metaphor is becoming better. Anyway, those masses should make the difference themselves and not the lesser do all the work. They should become significant and not only few who put effort and do something significant. The lesson was intense in a way since I kept on throwing answers based on my judgement. I lived and relied on my judgement so far and I can only choose the most logical way. They are answers which kept myself alive and I am finding things that I can’t understand so confusing. I know that creatures were made to be social and needed to have links to other creatures to survive. Still I don’t understand why we have to pay something in return. I spent most time of my life caged in the research laboratory. That maybe is the reason I am finding things that is common outside to be difficult. Sometimes I argue with the treant and he will just smile bitterly at me. I sometimes feels that he pities my existence. I know that I lack knowledge but is it to the extent that people around me will feel pity? In the end I accepted what he told me but I still debated on it inside my mind. Like how the treant is staying in this forest as a guardian and he can’t move at all during those times. I find it unconvincing why he does that for those that he has no relation with. The elves can move fine on their own. They have their own system and hierarchy. The treant was basically a different race to the elves yet he was willing to stand in front of the demon lord’s armies. He was willing to share his life for the lives that has not even been born. I understand a bit when he talks about the future and what not but I don’t understand why he was willing to disappear for a future he might not even enjoy. I don’t understand why I am the pitiful one. “All in all you need to adapt with the circumstance. The humans in your world are not the same humans in this world. You are treating all grass the same when they are different. This is Mirth, not xxxx.” “I know grasses have different class but in the end they were all the same grass. How can they be different when they share common characteristics? I sometimes look into the human lands and I find them like the ones I know. They enslave, they kill, they take and they use other humans too. How are they different?” The treant is silent for a bit and he is having a cramped expression. His face is like he ate something bitter but he can’t spit it out. “Listen young fellow” he stretched his arms and pulled me closer to his side to sit. “Humanity is truly bitter. Consider how you are taken advantage in the past and the ones being taken advantage of now. Are you sure that you want to condemn them of the same ruling because of their race? “How about the newly born children; the unborn child and the ones forced to do against their will? Are you saying they are also guilty of the same crime as slavery, theft and murder?” He got me thinking and somehow I can understand his point but what if there is no humanity? There will be nothing to think about then so I don’t understand why I should tolerate them. If there are no variables then there would be no problems. Why do they want to face problems so much when they can solve it before it even becomes a problem? I don’t understand this part the most. The world is law of the jungle and I understand that very well but what am I supposed to do about it? Fight for the weak? I would tire myself to death then and I would not even accomplish it. It will only bring heartache and I don’t want to experience it. I saw how emotions destroy someone. Emotions are the scariest variable in the world. “You are looking at things in a bystander view.” The treant created a cup from his roots and the same violet liquid fills it the next moment. He offered it to me and I gratefully accepted it. “You are part of the same circle of life. What you do affects others and what others do affect you the same time. Even if you are an island back then, you will not be able to live like one in this world.” “Life is meant to be painted with various shades of color.” I remember the cool sister telling me to paint my life with various shades of color. I don’t understand how I am going to do that back then and I still don’t. Though when I listen to the treant say it, I somehow get the same vibe. Like it was something meant to be something aside from the meaning of the words. Why does it hurt when I don’t understand? Why does life made to be so complicated. All I did was to survive and get revenge. In this life since I don’t have to revenge and survive, what am I suppose to lead? I want a life and I have one but I don’t feel free at all. The absence of the chains did not free me at all. “You have a lot of time in you and you will slowly learn more things in life. It is not a matter of who survives who but who is more satisfied with their life.” The treant seem like a sage again. He seems like an old man in his deathbed trying to tell his story of his life. “Stop speaking like you are so old. Your branches are still green.” I chuckled and emptied the cup in my hand. “That is why you are still ignorant little one. Life is full of uncertainty. You or I can disappear at any moment and you are not able to do anything about it.” He said in an amused tone and stroke his imaginary beard. I wonder who is he trying to imitate. “That is why I chose things where I will live to see another day. Everyone can but most don’t choose to do so.” “You know, some things can be said but their meaning comes light and some things can only be understood through experience. If I tell you that your way of thinking is wrong then you will only ignore it. You can reason out but when life itself teaches you, then you will see what things are waiting to be explored.” “That was deep and I don’t understand anything.” Seriously why everything that comes out of his mouth is so deep? I can understand the words itself but I feel like he means something else. It is making me frustrated that I can’t understand. “In time little one.” He pats my shoulder twice before he started to twist and return into a tree. “In time little one.” I stayed under his shade for the rest of the day and contemplated about the things he told me. Some of it I considered to be just hypothesis since I won’t be able to prove it anytime soon. Some of it I could not accept and when the time comes I will certainly not choose the same way he would. I am contemplating when a huge eye in the sky slowly opens and directly looks at me. I don’t recognize the spell as it looked different from the spell eye in the sky. It has larger scope and seem more stable. It is a bit overpowering and giving off a dangerous vibe. Now what? Far away from Drake, the demons started to reorganize themselves. They started to build their communities and build civilization. All came from different prisons and was lucky enough to escape the cells holding them in captivity. For now, they are starting to show their own individuality. Some built their stronghold while some stayed solitary and roam the land doing as they please. But some of them also dream of becoming the rulers of the world. They failed in their respective worlds but they are confident that they will succeed in this world. The first they did was to take territories and cut the resistance. After that, they started to build power and authority. They faced some major obstacles but when they teamed up together, they managed to slay the minions of the so called demon lord of this world. “The great Malqir must rule this world” A demon with seven raven wings on his back was sitting on top of a throne. He was an escapee from the planar prison too and he was one of the most fearful being in the prison. “We must eradicate this so called demon lord. Only I am fit to be called demon lord.” He gathered mana in his hand and cast a spell only native to where he came from and a view was in front of him. A figure of a man with red hair and slender frame came into his view. Malqir looked at the so called demon lord of this world and he felt underwhelmed. He was expecting to see a fearsome creature like the one he battled a few days ago but this one looks so feeble and weak. The only striking feature of the being in front of him were the deep and crimson eyes. “This is the one they call the most fearsome being in this world?” He was feeling disappointed somehow. He was expecting an epic fight with the demon lord to cement his position in power in this world. Now he only feel that it is a waste of time. “Be gone” his hand starts to glow black and it formed into a form of a long javelin. He threw it in the display and his vision started to dim due to the distortion of magic. He sighed in disappointment before the dust settled down and his vision saw the man grabbed the javelin in bare hands. He was shocked for a bit before a grin plastered in his face. “You are not totally disappointing huh?” The demon lord Drake was a bit confused on what is happening but he understands one thing. Something is threatening his existence. He felt his blood boil once again and a different urge than to survive started to claw his mind. His mind cleared off the difficult things the treant gave him. The only thing in his mind is to eliminate the threat. Malqir is preparing another spell when he felt his body tense up. He feels like an invisible hand is holding his body in place. His face paled and for the second time in his life, his body shivered in fear. The only person that made him shudder in fear was the warden. His body started to constrict and he went all out to shook off whatever it is that is holding him back. Then suddenly, a slender hand appeared in a tiny crack in front of him. The hand is so tiny compared to his build of nearly four meters with ample substance to back up his height. Nonetheless, his body shivered more as the hand drew closer and closer to him. Malqir is now regretting his decision and his arrogance. He knew that he was not the most powerful of the demons in the prison but he was definitely one of the best. He does not know if those other fearful beings managed to escape but he never imagined that this tiny world would have one of such existence. Malqir tried to cast magic that was inborn to his race. He tried to petrify the hand but all it did was slow it down. Somehow it turned into something petrified before becoming normal again. In the end, the hand was now in front of his face. He looked back at the display and he can see that the so called demon lord has ripped a crack in space. His left hand and is now starting to shove the javelin earlier back to his face. He was horrified to see when the crack expanded and the javelin came face to face with him. Malqir only felt a slight jolt of pain before his consciousness started to fade back into the nothingness. He felt like he was back into the planar prison again. Forever to be kept this time without any hope for freedom again and he felt bitter. He regretted not enjoying the freedom he accidentally gained and instead he followed a dream of a fool. Malqir, one of the hundred lords of the Pit fell just like that. The demons beneath him starts to scatter after they saw the horrifying scene. Their superior skewered into his own throne for attempting to kill the demon lord is enough to strike fear. They all started to scream and run away due to fear. In this day the subordinates of Malqir discovered that they have not escaped the prison at all. They were thrown into a massive set of jaws of death. Soon the word of it started to spread and demons started to have various reactions with the death of Malqir. Whiliemn’s forest I was a bit surprised when an eye opened up in the sky and then a level thirteen intensity of magic I don’t recognize appeared. It tried to skewer me without any word. I retaliated and managed to discover that it was the doings of the new comers. So they are starting to target me too? “I’ll play your games….” I smiled at the thought. “Though I won’t play nice…” Call of the ancient! Dragon’s call! Emperor’s rally! Beacon! I cast all the high-tier summoning magic spell I have. Creatures of varying sizes and colors appeared before me. There is the dragon like creatures once again. There are the humanoid but faceless creatures. Lastly, the huge and beastlike creatures. “Eliminate other demons…” I shouted and I was replied with various roars of affirmation. “None shall remain alive.” With that the creatures flew away and some of them just disappeared like thin air. “Let’s see what happens when you cross me.”