3 MONTHS LATER
The months flew by before I knew it, I had no one, I was left alone. When I awoke after coming back to life, I found myself in the torn down demon castle under a pile of rubble. Climbing out of the rubble, I found the demon king's empire had collapsed. Sprawled across the vast empire were the thousands of deceased demons and the ones that remained alive were broken and battered.
The sight wasn't beautiful, neither was it glorious, like I was told. It was sad. The sounds of children wailing covered the once great empire.
But for some reason, a wide toothy smile was spread across my face. I couldn't hold myself back. Laughter peeped out of my mouth. I couldn't help myself everything was hilarious to me. My body was acting on its own and I soon found myself screaming like a demon at the top of my lungs.
"HEHEHE.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." My mind began to be consumed with thoughts of homicidal actions. My once pure mind was filled with repulsive thoughts that would once make me disgusted. But now it only made me laugh. I laughed and laughed for hours upon hours like a madman.
Even when the laughter finally stopped my mind remained the same. Chaos. That's all I could think about.
I quickly regained my composure and looked out towards the opposite direction of the ruined demon empire. Standing atop a large stone pillar, I spotted the vast unending forest.
It was quiet and peaceful. But something was missing. There was no screaming, no crying, no violence. No chaos. It wasn't fun. I didn't like that. I looked back at the ruined demon empire, and a smirk grew on my face. My teeth began to show out and I could feel the laughter slowly come back.
I had a great idea.
After a while I came back to humanity. I stood in a large crowd with hundreds of others and watched what many would call a beautiful sight. I wore a large black robe over my head and quietly watched the scene in front of me.
A large parade for the heroes. Six people, 5 women and 1 man stood above the others. The one man, who was Leonard had a wide smile across his face as waved his hands at the common people. People shouted words of praise at him. Cheering for his courage.
"All hail the true hero!"
"He is a true hero!"
"We're so lucky to have someone like him to protect us!"
I could do nothing but smile at the situation. Despite the goddess choosing me as the hero, everyone saw Leonard as the true hero. I wanted to laugh so badly, but I held it in. "Not yet, not here. I must hold it in."
Behind him stood 5 women, their bellies were plump due to the pregnancy and like Leonard they all had wide smiles across their face. Well, all but one.
The one exception was my mother. She had black hollow eyes, pale white skin and was staring at the ground, not caring about everyone around her.
I didn't realize it, but my mask was cracking. I couldn't hold it in anymore.
I quickly pulled my long black robe over my face and violently shook my body. I tried so hard to laugh as quietly as possible, but it seemed as if some people noticed me as small audible laughter came out of my mouth.
"... Mmmm.... Pf... he... Ha... HAHA..."
"Are you okay?" A man came to me asking with a soft melancholy voice.
I immediately nodded my head reassuring him that I was fine. Realizing I was about to snap I hastily made my way from the parade. When I was finally alone. I put my hands on my mouth and tried to cover the laughter. Tears began to spill from my eyes as holding it in was nearly impossible.
However, after a couple of seconds my composure was back. I stood upright and assessed the situation. To the kingdom I was thought to be dead, everyone thought that was long gone including my family. Even if they thought I was still alive I looked like a whole new person.
My hair was different. Compared to previously golden blonde hair it was now a charcoal black. My eyes changed from a diamond blue color to a blood red shade and my muscles had gotten slightly bigger.
I felt like a new person both physically and mentally, but this was still my same old body just different.
Now that the demon lord was dead, I figured things would go back to how they used to be. Back to the same global tension that once existed between all nations of the world. I simply had to wait for someone to make the first move.
However, I had a relatively good idea of who it would be. Estrella kingdom. They were another human civilization that was constantly fighting with this kingdom, Rubo. All I had to do was wait for the fighting to return and then take advantage of the situation.
I looked once more at the parade before giving a faint smirk and then leaving.
"Much to do." I muttered.
"Very much to do."
15 YEARS LATER
In a dimly lit room sat 6 men, they wore expensively large robes that were covered in a vast Varity of gems from across the continent. They sat at a hexagon shaped table looking at one another with stern looks on their faces. They were all called together by a rough looking man with a sharp scar across his face. Nobody spoke until the rough looking man opened his mouth first.
"Evening gentlemen I called you all here today to discuss some important business regarding the recent carriage attacks. As you all know, for the past couple of months our carriages holding specific goods have been getting raided. I don't quite know who it is, but I have relatively good idea as to who is stealing our goods."
"So, then what are we doing here? We should be killing those bastards who dare rob our shit."
"Yeah. Our profits have significantly dropped. At this rate, we need to act immediately, or else we'll plummet financially."
Everyone came to a unanimous decision. They should take out the people robbing their carriage. However, opposed to what they wanted it wouldn't be so easy.
"Friends I understand what you're asking but unfortunately we can't do that. If we could I'd have already done it."
"Well why can't we?"
"Because I believe the Rubo's strongest guild, deep darkness, is attacking our caravans. If you gentlemen would please read the reports in front of you, you'll get a better idea of what's going on."
All 6 men grabbed the sheet of paper laying in front of them and began reading the information they received from one of their men.
"This isn't good." One of them said. "If what was reported is true then we're going to have to find different routes to transport the drugs into the Rubo kingdom."
"With Estrella's war against Rubo going bad for them we've got to find a quick route in general to move all our stuff, or we're fucked." Another man said, with a cloak wrapping around his body.
"This kingdom has gone to hell so we might as well call it call it as it is and move on."
All the men agreed in silence. They were an underground group that operated from the shadows spreading a parasite throughout the Estrella kingdom, slowly killing them from the inside. Just for some profit. These men didn't care for rules or ethics the only thing they cared for was insurmountable wealth and women they could enjoy like toys.
"Gentlemen if I-
"Nice place you got here." Suddenly, a voice came out from nowhere. The 6 men darted their heads toward the entrance of the dimly lit room.
Standing in front of the door was a tall man. He had short black hair that almost completely covered his eyes but peeking through the slits in his hair were dreadful red eyes that peered into the souls of others. He wore a long black robe that covered the entirety of his body. Wrapped around his fingers were metal rings that varied in color but on each of them read an unknown inscription that none of the men could read.
But what haunted them the most was the devilish smirk on his face. It was wide and crooked. For any other person a smile like that would hurt but for him he seemed to revel in the pain. Almost as if he enjoyed it.
They all stood upright in shock that someone had come into their secret hideout.
"Who the fuck are you!?" One of them shouted
"Don't worry about that. I've come here because I heard about your little predicament. I'm here to help."
"What? How do you know about that? Who told you?" One of the 6 men asked bombarding the man who walked in with questions.
"Also don't worry about that but let's just say that you better teach your men better at orientation next year."
"But please men just sit down and let's discuss our current situation at hand."
The 6 men hesitated before sitting down. They were wary of his intentions but for some odd reason they felt he had something that they would want.
The man pulled up a chair and sat in a small space in their hexagonal shaped table. Placing his hands on the dirty wooden table he began to explain why he was there.
"You men may not know me, but I know all about you. I know why you're trying to get drugs into Rubo. But don't fret because I'm here to help you all. I found the perfect solution for your problem."
"And what's that?"
"Before that we need to turn the clocks back a couple of years ago."
"Back before the demon king launched a massive war against all races, the world was at each other's throats. Every kingdom had different goals, different ways of life and more importantly believed in their own racial superiority. However, there was a big outlier among all the fighting."
"Which is Estrella and Rubo, I presume?" One man said.
"Correct friend! The Estrella kingdom was formed 200 years ago. They are a faction of humans who broke free from Rubo and formed their own kingdom."
"What's the point of this history lesson?"
"I'm getting there. But because Estrella is a broken faction of humanity, Rubo is attempting to reintegrate them into their kingdom and form one large human Kingdom."
"However, no matter how hard Rubo tries, Estrella won't give in. So, to save money and manpower the Rubo kingdom has encircled estrella. Causing the people to starve and with Estrella's armies' morality at an all-time low many of their men have surrendered. What remains of their soldiers is a measly 70,000 hungry men. They're on the verge of defeat."
"And you figure that when Estrella falls then the underworld will inevitably crash too."
"Correct again my brother! So, I'm here to help you transport all your resources to Rubo safely."
"How'll you do that? You don't look very strong?"
Everyone in the room snickered at the man. But despite them laughing at him, the man's smile didn't falter. Instead, his smile grew. It was horrifying, large and toothy. His eyes remained closed while his teeth brimmed with emotions. Suddenly, he burst into mad laughter. Tears welled up in his eyes and he held his chest almost as if he was going to die from laughter.
"HAHAHA you men are funny! Truly funny!" Those words shut them up really quickly. He wouldn't stop laughing. It creeped the men out to the point that they just looked at him, like there was something wrong with him.
"Oh man you guys are hilarious!" He wiped the tears from his face. But soon his bloody red eyes glared at them in the dark. He said one thing that made their blood run cold.
"You will want me. Trust. Me."
They all looked at the man. Fear consuming them. They didn't know whether to trust him or not.