Valoria's throne room was a cathedral of gold and marble.
Sunlight spilled through stained glass depicting holy battles long forgotten, painting the polished floor in hues of crimson and rose. Nobles lined the walls—frozen, trembling, unsure whether to kneel or flee. Guards clutched spears so tightly their knuckles turned white.
Yet the throne was calm.
King Erevos, ruler of Valoria, sat crossed-legged upon his fractured crystal throne—calmly finishing his tea.
His eyes slowly lifted to meet the Demon King.
A smile curved at the edge of his lips—elegant, amused, condescending.
"You enter my palace without invitation."
The Demon King stepped closer, aura settling over the room like a suffocating blanket.
"You sent people into my realm without permission."
Azrael and Keith flanked him—death and sleepiness side by side.
A guard tried to speak.
"Y-Your Majesty—should we—"
Crack.
He collapsed to his knees as gravity multiplied tenfold.
Azrael hadn't moved.
He simply tilted his head—mana pressure doing the rest.
"He wasn't talking to you," Azrael murmured.
Keith yawned.
"This place really is boring. No wonder the humans are oppressed."
Erevos finally stood.
The air warped.
Power rolled off of him—not demonic, not human.
Something other.
Divine and destructive.
Beautiful and horrifying.
Even the stained glass trembled.
"You dare threaten Valoria, Demon King?"
The Demon King didn't blink.
"I dare answer violence with violence."
He pointed his flaming sword toward the throne.
"Your spies attacked someone under my protection."
Erevos's elegant smile sharpened.
"And?"
A throne room full of nobles choked on panic.
Keith exhaled, rubbing the back of his head.
"...He really said and. We're gonna die."
The Demon King continued as if unfazed.
"You crossed into the Demon Realm. You hunted where you do not belong. You put your hands on something that is mine."
His voice deepened—cold, planetary.
"So I've come to return the favor."
Flames burst along the blade.
The world shook.
✦ The King of Valoria responds
Erevos descended the steps.
Slowly.
Elegantly.
Each movement carried the weight of centuries.
He walked until he reached the foot of his throne, gaze unwavering.
"If you wished revenge, Demon King… you should have brought someone more dangerous."
Azrael's fingers twitched toward his sword.
Keith stopped yawning.
The Demon King's lips curved—slow and dangerous.
"I did."
Erevos raised a brow.
"Really? I only see a sleepy child—"
The torches snuffed out.
Every flame vanished.
Shadows bled into the throne room.
A fourth presence appeared in the room without opening a door, without breaking space, without a single ripple of mana.
It simply was.
Unannounced.
Unfelt.
And suddenly there.
A voice drifted out from the darkness.
Soft.
Amused.
Ancient.
"Long time, Erevos."
Erevos's composure cracked.
Just a flicker—but the nobles saw it.
Fear.
Azrael smirked under his blindfold.
Keith crossed his arms, suddenly very awake.
The Demon King chuckled.
"You remember him, don't you?"
The shadow stepped forward.
Only a vague silhouette at first…
…and then the torchlight flared, revealing nothing except the outline of an impossibility.
A figure whose mana felt like erasure.
A presence Erevos had not felt since the Divine War.
Erevos took a step back.
"You… You can't be—"
The Demon King's expression sharpened into a predator's grin.
"Oh, he absolutely is."
The newcomer smiled lazily, voice quiet but filled with lethal warmth.
"Miss me?"
The room breaks.
Valoria's guards collapse.
Nobles faint.
Even the statues crack.
Erevos clenched his fist, forcing his fear into anger.
"This is war."
The Demon King stepped forward, flame roaring off his sword.
"No."
He pointed the burning edge at Erevos.
"This is payback."
✦ Revelation of Betrayal
Throne Room of Valoria
The flames of the Demon King's blade cast violent shadows across the cracked marble.
Erevos stood rigid, shoulders tense, but face unchanged — dignified, composed.
Only his eyes betrayed him.
They were locked not on the Demon King…
…but on the shadow standing behind him.
The figure stepped forward, and the temperature dropped.
Feathers — black as an eclipse — drifted from the air.
They shimmered with a violet sheen, each one pulsing like a severed heartbeat.
When he finally appeared under the fractured stained glass light, his presence swallowed the room whole.
Something that had once been angelic
Tall.
Impossibly tall.
White hair cascading like silver fire.
Eyes like a dead star collapsing inward.
Shapes unfolded behind him — not wings as they once were, but fractured silhouettes of something that had forgotten how to be divine.
They were weapons.
Corrupted.
Broken.
Beautiful.
His voice was quiet, yet it echoed through the bones of every person present.
"Hello again, Erevos."
Erevos's mask of composure finally cracked.
"...You."
The Newcomer smiled faintly — not warm, not kind — but with the kind of smile a wolf gives a recently trapped prey.
"Long time."
Azrael leaned closer to Keith and whispered:
"You feel that?"
Keith nodded once, eyes wide open for the first time.
"That's not a demon. That's something worse."
The Demon King folded his arms.
"I thought it was only fair to bring someone you used to know."
The newcomer took another step.
Light warped around him like gravity refusing to let go.
"We fought beside you in a war the world pretends never happened."
"We offered power. Guidance. Immortality."
"And you repaid us by stabbing us in the back."
Erevos's jaw clenched.
The nobles in the room looked confused — betrayed by their own king and too terrified to speak.
The angel tilted his head faintly, voice growing quieter.
"You used us to become what you are now."
"Djannjin."
The word hit the air like a drop of ink in water.
Erevos flinched.
Only for a second — but it happened.
Keith blinked, confused.
"Djan… what?"
Azrael didn't answer. He already knew.
The Demon King gave a humorless smile.
"Ask your king. It was his bargain."
The Truth the Human Realm Never Heard
The newcomer continued:
"You betrayed the Demon King first."
The nobles gasped.
"Then you betrayed us — the Fallen — after striking a deal to gain our power."
"Power to extend your mortal life."
"Power to rewrite your destiny."
"Power to become more than human."
He leaned forward slightly, his wings expanding like a void about to devour light.
"We gave you something you were never meant to survive."
"And you fused with it."
A single feather hit the floor.
The marble hissed — behaving as if it had forgotten it was ever meant to exist.
Keith instinctively took a step back.
"Holy— That feather… the floor didn't break. It just stopped being there."
Azrael whispered under his breath:
"That isn't destruction… and I don't know how to stop it."
The newcomer's smile vanished.
"You wanted immortality, and the power of gods…"
His wings unfurled — six burning shadows.
"So you killed the ones who made it possible."
Erevos finally snapped.
"Enough."
His voice trembled — not with anger.
With fear.
"You should not exist."
The newcomer whispered:
"Neither should you."
Three forces meet
The Demon King lifted his blazing greatsword.
Azrael drew his blade.
Keith cracked his neck, bored again, flames licking out of his armor.
The newcomer's wings stretched behind him — each feather ready to erase matter itself.
Erevos stood alone on the throne platform, cloak fluttering, face darkened by shadows.
"So… this is what the Demon Realm sends?"
The Demon King's eyes narrowed.
"We sent consequences."
"You brought this upon yourself."
The newcomer pointed at Erevos — judgment sealed.
"And now, King of Valoria…"
"I have come to collect what you owe."
The entire throne room shook.
Glass shattered.
Wards cracked.
A single black feather hit the floor — and annihilated everything within a two-meter radius.
The battle had not begun.
But Valoria would never be the same.
✦ The Price of Restraint
Valoria — Throne Room
The world stood on the edge of collapse.
The newcomer's back buzzed with annihilating power, shimmering like miniature black suns.
Azrael's aura sharpened into threads of shadow, each one capable of slicing space.
Keith yawned, resting his sword on his shoulder like a broom.
Erevos slowly rose from his throne, his expression calm, his voice velvet.
"So this is how Zerathos chooses to greet me."
The Demon King's burning gaze pinned him.
"No. This is how I choose to warn you."
Azrael blinked.
Keith scratched his cheek.
"Uh… we ARE here to destroy him, right?"
The Demon King didn't even look at him.
"No."
Keith lowered his sword.
"…Then why am I here?"
Azrael sighed, massaging his temple.
"Support. You're here… for support."
Keith nodded slowly.
"Right. Morale officer."
The Demon King stepped forward, cloak dragging across the shattered marble.
"Killing Erevos would be easy."
He said it the way one comments on the weather.
Azrael's grip tightened on his sword.
The newcomer's expression didn't change — absolute agreement.
Keith held up a hand enthusiastically.
"I volunteer to kill him, I'm bored."
The Demon King ignored him.
"But killing him creates chaos in the Human Realm."
His voice dropped lower — colder.
"The Holy Kingdom would move.
The Holy Emperor would be forced to act.
And the ones they keep hidden would answer."
A beat.
Even Erevos's eyes narrowed at the implication.
"We are not prepared for that war."
The Demon King turned away from the throne, letting the gravity of his words settle.
"Not until a certain someone brings unity to the Demon Realm again."
Azrael stilled.
Keith looked around.
"…Who's he talking about?"
Azrael elbowed him.
"Stop talking."
But something flickered in the Demon King's expression — pride hidden behind fury.
He wasn't talking about himself.
Not one person in Valoria realized it…
… but the future of the world already rested in demon hands.
✦ Divine Artifact — Memento Mori
The newcomer stepped forward and reached into the rifted space behind him.
Reality trembled.
He withdrew a black scythe handle, no blade attached — yet the room shook as if a hurricane had formed.
Chains of white and obsidian wrapped around it, sealing the weapon like a prison.
The moment it appeared, every flame, torch, and magic crystal extinguished.
Keith choked on his own spit.
"What— why is Death's stick in here!?"
Azrael took an involuntary step back.
"That's not a stick."
The Demon King's eyes narrowed.
"Is that—?"
The newcomer nodded slowly.
"The relic you requested."
He placed it gently into the Demon King's hand.
Memento Mori — Sealed Relic
A key the gods chose not to destroy.
Something they bound instead of understanding.
Erevos's façade finally cracked.
"You wouldn't."
The Demon King smirked.
"I don't need to kill you."
He held the black relic up to the light, the air growing razor-cold.
"I only need to remind your kingdom how fragile it is."
✦ Invocation
The Demon King whispered the activation phrase.
Not in demon tongue.
Not in mortal language.
But in a language no mortal should ever hear — one even gods hesitate to use.
"⟨ Memento… Mori ⟩."
The chains exploded.
Darkness poured out.
Not shadow — not mana — not magic.
Absence.
Something crawled into existence behind the Demon King.
A towering skeletal giant wrapped in drifting black cloth.
Hollow eyes burning with pale, dying starlight.
The scythe formed in its hand, blade appearing from nothing.
Valoria screamed.
The nobles fell to their knees.
The castle walls cracked.
Every soul in the kingdom felt death watching them.
Keith blinked.
"Okay. That is DEFINITELY a big nope."
Azrael folded his arms, unimpressed.
"This shouldn't exist."
The Final Shape tilted its massive skull at Erevos.
It began walking forward.
Every step warped reality beneath it.
Stone didn't break.
It simply failed to remain.
✦ Erevos reacts
Erevos bared his teeth, aura flashing violently.
For the first time, his voice cracked — real fear breaking through.
"You would summon THAT here?"
The Demon King shrugged, casual.
"Collateral damage."
"You nearly killed someone precious to me."
The Final Shape raised its scythe.
SHHHHHHHKKKK—
A single swing would cleave Valoria off the map.
Erevos roared:
"STOP!"
The Final Shape did nothing.
The Demon King whispered:
"Suffer."