Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Return of the Demon King

Olivia had quickly brought out her bow and readied an arrow. The moment the white castle brimming with dark energies had made its way through the clouds and into vision, everyone panicked.

The guards returned all the weapons they had confiscated in their checks of newcomers because it was obvious they needed help from anyone who could.

It looked like impossible odds, there were perhaps 1000 vampires flying without a care in the sky.

Olivia was not going to run, even if she wanted to. Part of her certainly wanted to, she didn’t know these people and she had just gained her freedom. However, that was also exactly why she couldn’t run away. One of the constant arguments she had with the society she was born into was not to help other races, especially ones with no alignment to the forests.

Elves barely tolerated their variants and disobedience was punished with pressure.

Elven forests had paths that were created to avoid conflict, paths for people to easily travel past and never have any odds of finding the elven settlements. Once in a while though, someone will get lost.

To stray from the path meant to not be a hunter but a poacher. To be an invader rather than a traveller. Sometimes though people just get lost, they might see something and chase after it or enter drunk in the night or make a mistake.

There was next to no mercy for them. Even for children, for fools and the curious.

She watched as time after time, over many years, of people who would get lost in the bewildering magic of the forest and they would slowly suffer death by dehydration.

She had been punished when she was young for helping a child. She had been punished a second time for ending the suffering a man by blade rather than let him die in pain.

The two scars under her bandanna, on both cheeks, began to throb with a light rage.

Finally, she was now free to save anyone she could. Years of inaction would end today.

She trembled ever so slightly despite her disciplined upbringing. For an elf to waver while wielding her bow was almost unimaginable. She had then realised her breath had become ragged and sweat had begun to fall from her brow from merely witnessing the scene of the army above and the rampaging crowd of innocents below.

She began to second think her decision to fight against impossible odds. Bravery and heroism could be left for another day. She could just leave now and pretend she didn’t see anything.

Pretend that she never saw the suffering in the eyes of the innocent. That she didn’t hear their cries for help. That she didn’t see them die, their life slowly draining away from their bodies.

“Krhkkkk…!” Her face contorted into one of pure self-hate and pained frustration.

How could she run now?

Yet, try as she might she couldn’t find the courage to even fire an arrow or the nerve to leave.

Then something rose from the ground below and into the sky, a single figure soared to face the army of blood, face to face without fear despite staring down legions of mystical undead.

“T-that’s the Demon Khan Zelo! The Saviour of Shadow! He’s going to kick their asses!”

A little white and black-haired boy with cat ears and a tail pointed towards the single warrior who stood between the horde of death and the helpless below with sparkling eyes and an excited voice.

By his side was a woman who looked completely human, with long blonde hair and green eyes, dressed in a puffy white dress. She looked towards the man too, as if following the length of the child’s finger until her eyes fell onto the hero of shadow.

Hope ignited into her eyes. “That’s… he took down a Terror all by himself! I’m sure he can save us! Go! You can do it!” A small group of people who had just come from Mega, from the very city Corai had saved the other day recognised his alter ego.

Olivia’s eyes fell onto the dark-skinned privateer of the heavens. He did look dashing enough to be a hero. She doubted that he could have slain a Terror by himself but if all these people saw it then they must be some truth to their words. The vampires stopped in their tracks.

They had not expected to be challenged and so boldly by a single man.

Only a fool or the truly brave would dare to face such insurmountable odds.

“I am the Demon Khan, Saviour of Shadow Zelo! Take another step and you will face me as your enemy! This city is under my protection! Only death awaits you if you dare to test my temper! Yet, do so! I am eager to taste the fear of your despicable kind!”

A voice like a god of thunder, cracking the skies and piercing straight to the heart and burning every nerve, a static shock that made every hair stand on end.

Olivia was entranced by the hero who had the courage to stand and face such odds without fear. To say such a ridiculous boast without shame because they had the power and confidence to not fear criticism. Something she had been missing her whole life.

The voice to shout your heart’s desire. She found herself smiling and her heart beginning to burn up with the crowd who dared to believe.

A womanly voice of equal power and magnitude then echoed out of the castle in response.

“How interesting! I was getting bored with a bunch of easy wins! There’s no thrill to the game without some competition. Hollow victories bored me ever so easily. Do try to entertain me.

“A clown should at least be able to do that much… though if you can back up your claims then I will crush you with everything I have.”

Playful, wise and taunting all at once.

“Oh, f**k. Why does intimidating never work? Aw, s**t. Here we go again.”

Corai cursed as usual when confronted with conflict. It had only been a day and a half since he slew the Terror and a few hours since he killed the elves. He hadn’t really slept between these encounters, more of briefly rested at best and at worst was unconscious and bleeding out.

His every nerve felt like they were on the verge of snapping, freezing and burning the moment they took any stress. His mana would probably hold out though just barely.

His health though… he probably couldn’t take more than two hits like this.

His lack of defensive stats meant he usually felt extreme pain but could take a ridiculous amount of punishment before he’d actually be in danger of dying but right now that wasn’t a luxury he could afford. Well, he had already prepared his opening trap but that was about all he had time to do considering the sudden attack.

“Very well! If you’d have me as an opponent, I will gladly oblige!”

The Demon Khan Zelo bowed like a butler to his adversaries.

“If you survive, that is.” He snapped his fingers and two roars of raw mana could be heard from the direction of the castle. Everyone looked towards the citadel of white.

Two more Zelos were present, each with a giant orb of fiery death on their index fingers.

“Double Supernova!” They were thrown and began to sandwich the hive of bloodsuckers!

“W-what! N-no! H-How did you sneak up on me!? This is unacceptableeeeeee!”

The vampire leader within screeched in confusion but then quickly fell silent as the spells did… nothing at all.

That moment of complete distraction from the entire mass of enemy forces was all he needed.

“Supreme Spell: Doom!” His eyes locked onto every vampire he could see and he cast the curse that would steal their lives. They were likely a few vampires and their leader left inside the castle but even so, Corai knew he had to eliminate what he could.

With some luck, they should flee after they lose more than half of their forces.

His right arm was filled once again with countless magical ink timers and he weakly smiled at the familiar feeling of having to beat the clock.

The army of soaring pale phantoms turned to their enemy, realising what spell he had just subjected them to. They were filled with shock. He had just doomed most of their army as if it was the easiest thing in the world, logic dictated that they should have come at him with everything they had as quickly as possible but they were still processing the magnitude of the feat that had just been undertaken against them.

The Saviour of Shadow began to cackle with a voice brimming with the glory of victory.

“If there’s a thousand of you, then I guess we should make it fair and you should face a thousand of me! It’s showtime!” Zelo snapped his fingers and he multiplied until his numbers were equal to the forces challenging him. The vampires hesitated, were they facing a being that could replicate like this and fight them all without any drawbacks? What were they up against?

 Then an arrow zoomed through the sky and pierced the heart of a single nosferatu like vampire. It stared at its puncture wound for a second before crashing to the ground below.

Ole the priest was coating Olivia’s arrows in holy water and blessing them with every swift chant he had ever learnt. The elf woman fitted another arrow to her bowstring and took aim.

The hero before her was the real deal. That’s what she thought. It was odd how she had encountered two master illusionists in one day but the difference between the two was like night and day. The first had been cowardly and foolish with an annoying laugh.

The one before her now though? He was heroic, handsome, strong and oozed the beauty of knowing their place in the world. Of shooting for the stars no matter what anyone else said.

Also the former was without a doubt dead in her mind while the latter was very much alive, every word and action he performed was as radiant as the sun itself to her.

Her heart began to pound as she assisted her newfound hero. Letting loose arrows of maidenly blossoming love. She had guessed she had found her type of hero.