Two months.
Two months since the bells of Aokusa had last tolled.
Now, those bells hung silent, rusted, swaying in the wind above an empty square drowned in darkness.
I stood atop the shattered remains of the old clocktower, my coat snapping in the cold breeze as I looked down at the remains of this place.
It wasn't a town anymore. It wasn't even human.
It was a hive. A wound in the earth. A kingdom of monsters—my monsters.
It hadn't happened all at once. The first few weeks had been chaos. Blood, rage, and teeth as the newly turned tore at each other, too wild, too stupid to understand the power they'd been given. I let them fight. Let them tear the weak apart while the strong rose from the wreckage.
Culling was necessary.
I still remembered the crunch of necks snapping under my hands, skulls crushed beneath my boots, the sickening gurgle of those too foolish to control their hunger. Their screams echoed long after their bodies had stopped twitching.
Pain taught them. Mercy never could.
By the end of the first month, a hierarchy had formed.
Aika, always at my side, had become my right hand—my perfect blade, second-in-command, the executioner.
Below her, I had named three lieutenants, those who had shown strength, loyalty, cunning, and an instinct for survival.
Their names were now etched into the bones of this new empire.
Riku — once a pathetic gang leader from a neighboring village, now a shapeshifting nightmare whose body could liquefy and reform at will, his quirk twisted by my blood into something terrifying.
Kasumi — a woman whose original quirk had allowed her to harden her skin. Now, after her rebirth, she was a walking fortress of jagged, blackened armor, near-indestructible, unfeeling.
Daichi — a failed farm boy, once filled with dreams, now a brute of raw muscle capable of tearing trees from the ground with his bare hands.
They were my teeth. My claws.
They ruled the lesser demons with terror, as it should be.
Rewards were simple. Brutal. Effective.
Those who pleased me were granted names—a piece of my power woven into their flesh, stabilizing their mutations, sharpening their minds. Those who failed… were recycled.
Even now, the village writhed with activity.
Nests of demons had claimed the ruined houses, burrowing into the earth, building a grotesque labyrinth beneath the surface. Tunnels and caverns spread for kilometers, hidden from the eyes of men.
The stench of rot and blood was thick in the air.
It was beautiful.
But it wasn't enough.
I needed more.
We began to spread.
At first, only to nearby villages—little hamlets tucked between forests and hills. Easy prey.
We came in the dead of night—a flood of shadows and death.
No survivors. No mercy.
The blood flowed like wine.
It was during one of these raids that I found her.
A girl. No older than fifteen, huddled in a burned-out shack, eyes wide with terror.
At first, I almost didn't bother. Another scrap of meat to devour.
But then I felt it. That flicker of power beneath her fear.
A quirk.
A weak one, perhaps, but… interesting.
She could vanish. Fade into the background like smoke. Unseen, even when standing right in front of you.
A survival trick.
But when my blood touched her veins, it changed. Twisted.
Her power exploded, no longer just cloaking her. Now, she wove a field of concealment large enough to cover an entire village.
Sight. Scent. Sound. Gone.
We tested it.
We slaughtered a town beneath her cloak—painted the streets red, tore the hearts from screaming throats—and not a soul outside the perimeter heard a thing.
Perfect.
I named her Kagami.
A soft name for a weapon sharper than any blade.
She knelt before me now, trembling slightly under my gaze, but proud.
Useful.
Alive.
For now.
I leaned against the broken clocktower, arms crossed loosely, my gaze sweeping over the darkened hive below.
Demons gathered around fires made of bone and scraps, whispering in guttural voices, bartering for flesh.
The hierarchy kept them in line. Mostly. Those who forgot their place were swiftly corrected—either by my lieutenants or by me.
My rule was iron.
Simple.
Feed. Fight. Grow stronger. Or be fed upon.
The hive itself had changed too. It was no longer just a collection of ruined houses. Now, it had become something almost alive.
Walls stitched from flesh and bone. Towers made from fused bodies, screaming faces frozen in eternal agony.
Tunnels pulsing like veins beneath the ground, alive with movement.
An abomination.
A monument to my will.
The humans hadn't noticed yet.
They still slept in their cities, fat and complacent, thinking themselves safe behind their walls and their so-called 'heroes.'
Fools.
Their Pro Heroes were nothing to me.
Just sheep, grazing in their pastures.
Soon enough, they would smell the rot creeping at the edges of their world.
And by then, it would be too late.
Aika appeared beside me, her crimson eyes gleaming in the dark.
She looked… different.
Sharper.
The months had changed her too.
Her paper blades now grew from her arms and shoulders like wings of white death, twitching eagerly at the slightest movement.
She knelt without a word, awaiting my command.
Good.
I placed a hand lightly atop her head, fingers tangled in her blood-matted hair.
A reward.
She shivered under my touch, the hunger burning thick between us.
"My kingdom grows," I murmured, almost to myself. "But it's not enough."
Aika said nothing.
She understood.
I straightened, letting the cold wind whip around me, and turned my gaze toward the horizon.
There were bigger towns further east.
Cities.
More bodies.
More blood.
I licked my lips absently, feeling the slow throb of power building inside me.
It wouldn't be long now.
Two months ago, I had been nothing but a beast, waking in the dark.
Now, I was a king.
A god, breathing new life into a rotting world.
And this was just the beginning.
I turned back to the hive and raised my voice, letting it roll like thunder across the broken stones.
"Gather the lieutenants," I commanded.
Aika vanished into the shadows without hesitation.
Below, the hive stirred.
The demons snapped to attention, the lesser ones falling to their knees, the stronger ones grinning with hunger.
They could feel it too.
Change. Blood. War.
When Riku, Kasumi, and Daichi arrived, they knelt without hesitation.
Their bodies bore the marks of my reshaping—scars, mutations, symbols burned into their skin like living brands.
Perfect.
I looked down at them, the twisted fruits of my labor, and smiled.
"A new era begins tonight," I said, my voice low and heavy with promise. "You will each take a faction. Hunt. Grow. Expand our borders. Find more vessels. Strong ones. Break them. Twist them. Feed them my blood."
Their eyes gleamed.
No hesitation. No mercy.
Just hunger.
"As you serve, you will rise," I continued, pacing slowly before them. "The worthy will be given names. Power. Dominion."
I stopped in front of them, looking each in the eye.
"And those who fail…"
I trailed off, letting the silence hang in the air.
They knew.
They had seen. They had heard the screams.
Riku bared his sharpened teeth in a savage grin.
Kasumi bowed her armored head, silently acknowledging.
Daichi pounded his chest, the force cracking the stone beneath him.
Good.
I turned and gazed once more at the blackened, pulsing hive.
My kingdom.
My beginning.
A storm was coming for this world.
And I was its heart.
I smiled—a slow, cruel thing.
"Go," I said softly.
And they scattered into the night like shadows given flesh.
The first true campaign of my empire had begun.
Somewhere beyond the hills, the lights of a sleeping city glittered on the horizon, blissfully unaware their time was running out.
Soon, the world would remember what it was to fear the dark.
And they would whisper my name in terror.
Mazoku. The Demon King.