'a#%$nal' lmao.
Wait, what's this? I thought vandalism means destruction, been exploring the internet for a couple of days and I saw various 'vandalism' word usage.
...Pretend it means destruction.
And one more thing, ah, yes, 'motion'. It was supposed to mean 'Moving' 'Stimulating' Etc. so just... just pretend it meant that. Apologize for the mistakes, not a native speaker here.
Chapter 10
"The Demon King."
"You know son, why our clan always contains a bunch of proud people? Always been proud of whatever we attained?"
A man with a typical healthy male's stature stated to the little boy beside him, arms crossed over chest and eyes solely focused on the forest before him. The little boy's green eyes intelligently glinted and shook his head.
The man slightly smiled, closing his eyes as gentle breezes passed by, moving the cape he wore.
"It's because since the moment we were born, 'Weak' isn't what we meant to be. We live in danger, always, and we were expected to protect. To carry, to withstand the life has to offer, to be, leaders, warriors, guardians. Your mother, supported me through it all since I met her. You know the reason why I decided to live outside the village?"
...
Obviously, he only got a confused look from the boy. The man paused briefly before continued.
"It's because I know that as a leader of my family, I couldn't depend on anyone except for myself for such a responsibility. My pride, my dignity as the head of my family. You could say that I am somewhat a 'Slave' to it."
"But why?"
"Because prideful people always put our pride first before our rationality, it was pretty nonsense for me though, me 5 years ago that's it."
"So the current Father now isn't anymore?"
As expected of his son, could already come up with something from his proclamation. He nodded in acknowledgement.
"Correct, and I tell you this so you know that being too prideful might brought you bad things. But sometimes, it was what kept you strong, what kept you to won't go astray. To keep your words, to keep your promises. We could break those things easily, but something holding us back, and what's that? It's our conscience and our dignity. There would be the time where you will follow your pride and the time where you just have to abandon it. After all, living for nearly thirty years taught me one thing, is that all problems couldn't be solved with merely emotions and conscience. Sometimes, we cannot choose according to our conscience and had to use a gift given upon us since the day we existed, the mind."
The man gave the boy a brief period to absorb all of his words, as the subject was kind of complicated for a kid like him. Surprisingly, a couple of seconds later and the boy started to tug his sleeves, asking him to continue.
He just smirked slightly.
"I wanted to request something from you."
"What it is, Father?"
"...You know, in the future, you and your little sister would undoubtedly go on a journey, whether you both be separated or not, it isn't decided yet. But can you protect your little sister? If something bad happens out there and we aren't there to do something about it, can we trust you, to protect her? No matter what happens?"
How could he trust such a kid to protect his daughter?
Observing the kid grows up for the last one and a half years, he just knew that this kid, would be something great one day.
And of course, it's because the kid is his son.
It takes a brief moment for him to think through this, the boy looks thoughtful, and when he glanced at his crawling little sister, who giggled cutely at him, he smiled softly. He glanced at his father and answered with a tone full of commitment the man had ever heard from a kid.
"Yes, I promise you, Father."
"Promise? Didn't expect that. But good."
"H-How... how could this be..."
A heroic-looking young man kneeled on the ground, a hopeless look clearly showed on his youthful face. His party, consisting of a mage, support and a tank, all too, groaning in despair as they lay on the hard, cold stone used as a floor.
The heroic youth kneels before an immeasurable existence, whose relaxing on his throne. Green eyes sharply glinted that seems covered all the infinite darkness within the space. Charcoal-black hair softly getting stroked by the wind came from the window, as a ray of light illuminating a small region of the room coming from it.
The man amusingly watched them, chin on palm and elbow on the armchair, he crossed his legs and smiled slightly. Even when the room is mostly covered in darkness, the pair of glimmering green eyes, the shifting raven hair and a slight smile on his face could still be clearly seen by them.
"I... So you knew, that we weren't even worth your time..."
Them, a group of chosen ones, the strongest of humanity, is defeated with a flick of his fingers. The sharp green lights disappeared, indicating that the man before him has closed his eyes.
"So you know from the start that we... we didn't even, we... aren't even close. You and I with my companions are like a comparison between a glass of water and a sea. N-Not, even comparable."
It wasn't appropriate to call his 'enemy' a terrifying existence, 10 levels above the word would be more precise, it's not even appropriate to call this man before him as an enemy. He felt like he already lost the will to fight, he had to face this existence?
The Demon King.
Before a hero appears within humanity, Demon King could be considered as the undefeatable being that had set his feet on the soil of the world. He was the strongest, most dominating existence in the world, unfathomable power and merciless in his marches, Demon King was pretty much a Vandalism Bringer.
Fortunately, he's been passive ever since the world existed. Adding a fact that he could control any monsters before him, it was reasonable that no one could be a match for him. So what reason he had to dominate the world? As a demon, he wanted to fight stronger opponents to satisfy his thirst for battles, and the ones before him were pretty much weaklings.
Crimson Demons? Pseudo-Angels? Demi-Gods? Empyreans? They're nothing more than ants. Apocalypses? Calamities? For the previous Demon Kings, they were just some nuisances that entertained them by their instinct to destroy everything. Seeing many races strived to kill them is pretty amusing for them.
Yep, that's how powerful The Demon Kings were.
There was a presence in the past, the power he contained was unfathomable, even far, way far more than The Demon Kings themselves. A respected person they treated like a king.
Unlike what most people thought, Demon King wasn't a crazy, deranged maniac king whose objective is to dominate the world and set it below his feet. No, no, he didn't have any reason to do so. Why would he wage pointless wars? Nothing he could gain from it! And even if he did, it would take more of his time to rule vaster land. His territory was enough for him.
Demon is greedy, tricky and deranged? Yeah they are, but this is The Demon King, the Sovereign of the race. How could a King, a Sovereign of a race consisting of millions of lives appropriate to show such lowly attitudes?
No one, absolutely no one, could match him.
Until Adventurer Card existed.
The sentiment races started their campaign to defeat The Demon King, as he was currently the 'Strongest' in the world, reason? Sentiment races, were greedy.
No matter where they were, this greediness always surface every time opportunities were presented before them. And gaining a tool such as Adventurer Card, they obviously wanted to become stronger, increasing the standard of their races! There's another factor too.
No one has found the tool's limit yet. Even The Sovereigns haven't able to attain the limit.
Well, except for a certain Devil, but anyway-
The Demon King wouldn't be passive either, hah! Do they think they were the only ones who got the card? Fools! So he started his march, waging war with all the occupants of the world. Realistically, these heroes could easily kill The Demon King because they have the Adventurer Card. The Demon King has no guide, different from the sentiment races who have the 'Travelers' as theirs.
That, if the current one was the previous one.
But they didn't know that.
He thought it would be possible that he was a chosen one to defeat this unsurpassable man before him, but the truth is? Laughable.
The man before him stood up, his black robe swayed by his movements. He took a couple of forth steps and was disclosed by the light. Surprisingly, a young-looking man appears, it could even be considered as an attractive man. Green eyes that emitted intense flashes, not too tidy raven hair, pale skin and a proportion stature.
In all, he looks like an attractive, healthy young-looking man, although somewhat pale.
"You should've trained more before you come to defeat me, Heroes. From above here, I've watched the evolution other races been through and I have to say, your race evolution is pathetic. No new inventions, ideas, and innovations. You guys stuck on your level for so long. You're lucky the trump cards you have, the-"
He knew?
"-Empyreans existed, if not, I fear your race would be exterminated."
Empyreans are undoubtedly powerful, normal human is already ridiculous by their potential, and a race a tier higher than them existed?
It wasn't an exaggeration to say they are capable of matching the ones above.
By now, the heroes, which The Demon King has called them that, have already stood up, listening to what he had to say before they die.
"So, go."
...What?
Bewildered looks directed at The Demon King,
they blinked a few times and stood still, with no reaction or even a single bit of twitch. The Demon King watched as the scene unfolded and sighed, flicking his fingers as the darkness within the room disappeared. Since they appeared here, they expected the room to be an eerie, creepy looking room, but what revealed to them is a surprisingly modest room.
Grey bricks, red carpets, and a throne made out of red mattress and wood. For a king, this room could be considered 'modest'.
"Do you wanted to know who I am?"
They dumbly nodded, slumping down to the red carpet. Their legs felt like jelly since the moment they were defeated with, again, a mere flick of his fingers. And when he revealed his physique, they strangely felt no fear, but still!
"I'm The Overlord of the Overlords."
And that was it. They froze like a bunch of statues. No uttered words, no scream, nothing.
The Overlord of the Overlords, a title given to the legendary figure that significantly surpassed the 'Future Overlords', A group made out of prodigies among prodigies. A group that could surpass the strongest magician, The Grand Magician. It's a title given to a person that could be considered as a literal God. It was a title that got famous when one of the Overlords, The Moving Fortress, screamed out "The Overlord of The Overlords!" in literal admiration. An Overlord, a person with tremendous pride, literally screamed out in admiration.
It happened when an Empyrean from the 'Future Overlords' was asked a question by the Emperor of the Brydle Empire. He asked the Empyrean "Who's the strongest one in the group?" And the Empyrean, without even a single bit of hesitation, screamed out hysterically.
"The Number One! K-01! The Absolute! My sole leader, The Overlord of The Overlords!"
Rumours spread, and just with that statement, The Overlord of The Overlords has become a ridiculous existence, a distinguished presence, a person worthy to be a leader of a group consisting of immeasurable people.
Even though no one has seen the face or the figure of such an existence, the fact that an Overlord called him a leader is enough.
The One Who Stand Above All.
Future Overlords is a group that is already positioned at the top, and there's an existence that is even above it? Insanity.
He sighed in dismay, that dimwit, she wasn't supposed to tell them such information, and her excuse?
"All shall know the greatness of you, Leader-sama!"
The 'man' smiled and with a, again, flick of his fingers, the heroes disappeared, while simultaneously cast the Memories Mitigation, a spell to make one forget certain parts of their memories. There he sat on the throne for a brief moment before standing up, walking to the window and spectating the land below him.
"Alright, 'ts time to go home."
He flew through the air and stood above the castle he built with the help of one of his friends, a maniac who trained her Earth Magic to the ridiculous degree.
With a wave of his hand, the 'castle' was gone, merged with earth. Looking below him, he nodded in satisfaction before disappeared, but unlike the castle, he disappeared, entirely gone.
Hyoizaburo's Residence(Renovated), Crimson Demon Branch Village.
"Onii-chan, could you be my teacher?"
"...What?"
When he just placed his bare feet onto the plank floor of his beloved home, a little girl similar to his other little sister appears within his sight of view. And immediately asked an odd request.
"But why?"
"Onii-chan's so cool! Cooler than any teachers or Seniors I met in Academy! They couldn't be compared to my cool Onii-chan! Please teach me!"
She even bowed! Respectful, as what his father taught him to be. Proud swelling up within his chest, he smiled and before he could answer her, two figures appeared behind his little sister.
...
His parents. Father and Mother.
'Studying' in the academy, it is actually a boarding school, so he couldn't meet his parents often. Only if it was a dire or important circumstance that he could visit them, and that was 3 years ago when the house collapsed. Of course, getting the news from one of his friends, he immediately gone to his parents without consulting the teachers first. With the help of his friends, which was the Overlords, he succeeded in repairing the house with them with the help of magic.
He got punished by his classroom teacher, and when his parents heard it, they pounded his brain until it's obedient to the academy rules. 'Unfortunately' there's nothing much going on so he couldn't visit them anymore. And even if he 'could' which was kind of baffled the teachers there, his parents would be agitated and demand him to tell them the proof he could visit them.
Since then, he was encouraged by his parents that he shouldn't leave the school until he graduated. So he could only communicate with them with the help of his little sister whose still studying within the academy currently. His parents were really traumatized by it, thinking he could possibly be expelled from the place. He wanted to tell them it wasn't possible because he 'skipped' grades and a special case but they were still anxious about it.
And since they encouraged him to stay, how could he revolt?
Tsk, he was really childish back then.
And now, he finally meets them. Two figures he respected the most, his 'foster' parents. He preferred to call them parents, as a biological child would do. Who cares about foster and shit? Familial love isn't made by blood connection, it was made by words, sincerity and actions.
How did he find out? Well- Anyway.
The couple before him is his parents, two existences that could force him to bow down.
He met a person before, a person who taught him how important parents are. They are the ones who sheltered him, gives him food and taught him the things that made him who he is. The person said even if you attain the apex position, you must bow down to your parents.
Dignity? Position? Power? If you couldn't even respect the ones who made them possible for you to attain, then what's the point of keeping them?
The best gifts someone could possibly receive?
A pair of loving and wise parents.
While millions of thoughts flashing through his head, his parents silently stride before him and stand beside his littlest sister, who looks up to them and grasp their hands.
He moves forth, and states.
"Father, Mother, Your son is back."
"Didn't you come back yesterday?"
"...Ah."
He forgot. A sheepish look appears on his face, receiving amused looks from the members of his family before him. A giggle escaped through his little sister's mouth and she screamed out.
"Let's play again, Onii-chan!"
No matter where he was, at the end of the day, this place is his home, a place where he would be back. Whether he's an Overlord, a Demon King or a God, he's fortunate he still has a place for him to come back and spend precious moments with his family.
"Yeah."
This world, this place, this family, isn't comparable to even a whole Universe. As he said before, he will protect this place by any means.
He entered the renovated house with them, a genuine smile plastered on his face. Their figures disappeared as they went deeper into the house.
did I... did I just typed ground as grown?
...