In The Darkness

Venturing into the Forest, Part 3

After about 30 minutes, I reached my required destination. The lumberjacks were now taking a break, eating their lunch. I progressed further with the objective of killing another deer. I walked back to the place I had killed the red deer and retrieved my dagger from there. Afterwards, I continued travelling deeper into the forest. Phew. Thankfully no one took it while I was gone. I'm getting quite forgetful these days.

Treading further into the forest, my eye caught the sight of yet another red deer. This time, contrary to the last, I used magic. First, I enhanced my speed by using [Acceleration]. My boots now glowed blue. Then I proceeded to activate [Swift Movement] to get closer to the deer with minimal noise. The skills I had now activated were in fact, quite simple. I bet an average human could use this with roughly about 50 years of experience.

I got off my horse and zapped towards the deer. After running faster than the horse I had, a blue trail was left behind me. In about a second, I unsheathed one of my swords from my left hand and sliced off the deer's head without it noticing me. Using magic was quite simple. Now that I think about the way I killed the previous deer, I feel ashamed of myself. Previously, I was trying to perfect my aim by throwing that dagger and that itself had quite the repercussion. Since my dagger wasn't on point, the poor innocent deer had to suffer. And I, as a King, was responsible for it. To honour the animals that provide their skin to me, I shall end them quick from now on.

During this moment of immersing myself in regret, the deer's head tumbled down on the ground. I skinned yet another deer, and stuffed its parts into my handbag.

Being sentimental as a demon lord was one of my many fatal flaws. The strongest man on this planet, succumbed to the pain of emotions. I always seemed bland, and my crude behaviour supported this fake identity of mine. Nonetheless, I didn't feel emotionally hurt whenever something wrong happened. What truly grasped my mind emotionally was my quest to become perfect. I wished to kill only the wrong, and to save the innocent and the righteous, but I guess my destiny had other plans. I always wished to be the hero, and yet here, I was the great demon lord. Originally, my life controlled me, and later, my emotions did. Year after year, I slaughtered and slaughtered to no end. Anger, wrath, rage. The one sin that made me commit to many more.

I sighed after delving into my deep pit of emotions and once again, rode my horse. While riding out of the forest this time, I heard a scream. I slowed my horse that very moment. From the sound of it, I could tell it was a man that screamed. I looked towards the place from where the voice originated, and thought,

"Do I really need to save this being? What could I gain from saving him? The worst case scenario would be that my identity would be exposed. Huff...well. A life's a life. A pawn's a pawn. No matter how insignificant, it shall be of use in my future empire."

I got off my horse once more and used one of my greatest skills ever, [Meteor Rush]. With an orange aura surrounding me, I ran through the course of the forest in about a second. To some extent, you could call this move instant transportation. The only negative backlash that it had was that it required quite a lot of stamina. 

I ran the distance and observed what had happened. A pack of sabre-toothed tigers had killed a group of travelling merchants. All I could see left of them were their torn up bodies with blood splattered all across the floor. The one person alive was a slave locked in a cage. The man yelled once more in this short moment as one of the tigers pounced on his cage. I continued to use [Meteor Rush] and decapitated the sabre-toothed tigers with my bare hands. In that moment, I ripped each and every one of their heads out of their bodies. The tigers of course, couldn't respond during the period of time I ran. After covering the floor with some more blood, I stood in front of the cage that contained the human.

Sobbing and crying, the man shrivelled up in one corner of the cage. I looked towards him and spoke after breaking the metal bars of the cage, "Leave before I kill you."

As soon as the slave saw the open door, he jumped on my leg and spoke, "Please make me your slave! I'll do anything!! I can't go back to that hell!!"

Looking down at the peasant I asked, "Why do you think I would require a frail man such as yourself?"

"Sire, I was not like this before. The...the Regas family tortured me and sold me to the slave merchant, Saerin. I was once their guard, and just because I couldn't-"

I interrupted him before he could explain his saddening story, "I don't want to hear it. Nor do I care about what would happen to you. If you don't think being another person I kill is going to make you useful, LEAVE."

"Please...Please.. Save me." The man cried while holding my shoe, unwilling to leave. Initially, I was planning to cast a brainwashing spell on him, but now, looking at his condition and his stubbornness, my anger gained control of me. I was never defied over the course of 8 years, and yet this slave, this SLAVE dared to go against MY orders?! I was planning on sparing him, but now, he crossed a line he shouldn't have, he went against the orders of the demon king. At the moment, I didn't take the fact in consideration that he was unaware of my status, the only thing that circled through my mind was rage. "If that is your decision, then you shall perish."

With a simple ball of fire in my right hand, I was ready to kill the slave, and right at that moment, an adventurer made her way to the scene, riding on her horse. She yelled while tears swelled in her eyes, "Father! I finally found you."

I immediately dispersed the flame in my hand as I saw the sobbing girl. 

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1. Even though Andres is a demon king, he values life no matter how insignificant. For him, each and every being is worth saving. However, to progress in this world, bloodshed seems to be the only way. To revert the world back to its peaceful state, Andres wishes to conquer this world, and make it eternally blissful under his rule.

2. There is a reason behind Andres's mixed emotions. That reason will be explained once the time comes.