Meanwhile, in a suspiciously dark alley, the Demon Lord stood patiently, waiting for a certain person.

From the perspective of someone looking at him from afar, you'd see that the Ascender's face brightened when a hooded individual came to him and started to talk to him about something. As they were talking, Alan's face gradually became darker...

He continued to talk to the hooded individual with a serious look on his face, his expression becoming more arrogant. He seemed to make the man an offer nobody could ever refuse. However, the result was still the shaking of the hooded man's head.

Earth's most notorious demonic swordsman didn't lose his cool though. Sure, he looked at the hooded figure with intense killing intent, but even after doing so, he held back his desires and let him live.

The hooded figure didn't show any gratitude for being spared and rudely walked off without giving him a second look. The Demon Lord didn't seem in his right mind after. He ignored what he'd normally consider as insolence and went back to his Cult.

Alan opened the door to the Sanctuary and went to his room, different from the one with his throne.

There are times the Demon Lord loved attention and praise, while on other occasions he just wanted to be left alone. It mostly depended on his mood when and what things would happen.

"You're going to make me die resentful..." What he just spoke would be surprising to those of Gaia.

Just as emotions could bleed into Mana or Qi, so did the emotions one had before death. This in turn could lead to the corruption of the atmosphere and the creations of ethereal Demons called 'Jinn'.

Earth was a place where 'Resentment Energy' was abundant, unlike the clean air of Gaia...

When Alan first came here, the only desire he had was to rise to the top of the world and attain immortality, therefore cementing his name into history and making all the diligence he had towards martial arts be rewarded, which was kinda normal.

Everyone who has ascended to Gaia before him also felt the same thing.

They expected a harsh environment in the Divine Realm like how the Xianxia META would lead them to believe, but were immediately put off by the sheer friendliness of those living in this magical world…

It made him and quite a few others before him lose their drive.

How could they persist in this environment...?

There existed currency on Gaia, but nobody was a staunch believer of capitalism.

If you were injured accidentally, a Holy Sanctuary would heal you up for free.

If you were hungry, a Farmer would let you have some fruits.

If you wanted to sleep, a regular Innkeeper would let you stay the night until you can pay them back.

Even Alan and his subordinates were slowly mellowed out by this world's people.

The dissonance between reality and the Xianxia META was clear, but that didn't there wasn't some resentment in this Ideal Utopia created by Gaia. It was just that the 'Resentment' was all focused in one place rather being spread out carelessly.

Just like how King's truly DID have the 'Divine Right to Rule Humanity', there was a source of where everyone's resentment could flow to should they experience hardship in their lives. This was the so-called 'Evil God' that was similar to the Holy God.

Each Attribute had an 'Imperial' which was given a significant role Gaia. The Time Imperial was to rule humanity, the Blood Imperial was to rule over Vampires, and the Holy and Evil Imperials were to maintain the balance of this world's morality.

The Holy Imperial wasn't a man, but an entity formed from faith. It was imaginary and real all at the same time, and so was the Evil Imperial. The two 'Gods' being in conflict gave people clear hearts and unwavering beliefs in their morales.

Praying to the Holy God truly did bless people and bring about miracles, and many atrocities truly had the bloody hands of the Evil God to thank for them occurring.

This clear line between black and white also put Ascenders off.

It made them feel conflicted…

Coming from a morally grey world where no one was truly in the 'right', most Martial Artists who came to this world felt cynical if this Evil God really was as bad as people said.

After all, the more someone is written off as evil, the more nuance is hid from neglecting the finer details, which all eventually leads to misunderstandings to happen.

To verify these claims, Alan and his followers went to the largest Temple of the Luminous Religion, in the region of Gaia where a Mystic Race specifically devoted to the Holy God stayed, called the Great Holy Lightning Temple.

There, he met the woman who was known as the High Priestess of Purified Lightning and slowly adapted to this world...

This was in the early years after ascending when Alex was still a snot-nosed baby still being taken care of by the Undead of the Dead Lands. He had slowly come to be relaxed in this 'Higher Realm'.

The Great Holy Lightning Temple handled by the Deva Race was practically the biggest 'Security Organisation' on the planet, and he infiltrated such a sacred place despite knowing that most of the techniques he practiced were all aligned as 'Evil'.

At first, he went there to sabotage them and scheme his way into becoming a high-ranking member of the Lightning Temple.

The 'Deva Pope' and 'Lightning Imperial', who foresaw punishments to those who dared break promises. The matter using his name was the position the future Demon Lord monopolised.

As long as he had the opportunity, he was going to kill the Lightning Imperial and take the Pope's position.

He even went as far as to seducing the High Priestess of Purified Lightning to get closer to his goals. A scheming man like him had planned everything out and was ready to go for the kill!

Who knew that his plans would go awry after he fell in love...? To think, that woman he thought of as a pawn would end up becoming someone precious to him over time... It was to the point that he kept on delaying the Pope's assassination everyday.

He got married to her, and had almost given up on his desire for power after experiencing the mundane happinesses of being in love. He couldn't bring himself to betray the woman he loved...!

She was so sensitive, so thoughtful, so pure that it hurt him, to the point he started to regret how their relationship had began. If only he hadn't arrived there with evil intentions, perhaps then she would still be alive today instead of resting eternally...

He remembered that day when his alignment and connections to 'Demons' were found out, as well as the look on his newlywed wife's face after she realised that he intended to betray her from the beginning.

His heart felt like it was being sliced by blades as he remembered their last argument; the feeling endless torment was still clear to this day.

That memory where he had tried to explain that not everything was a lie. He told her how much he loved her, how much he'd changed, how much he would sacrifice, all just to be with her alone.

Alan told her she was an exception...

That his wife was special.

But she didn't believe him.

The relationship based off of toxic lies fell apart as soon as his secret was revealed to the world, and she suffered the feeling of betrayal worse than anything she had ever felt before.

Truly, this tragedy stung her heart greatly.

She should have noticed...! She should have noticed that he was aligned with the Evil God!

The High Priestess then came to demonise Alan much more than he had expected. He failed to take into account that residents of this world lacked any understanding of the 'grey area' of morality.

Either you were on the moustache-twirling level of wickedness as a follower of the Evil God or innocent like a believer of the Holy God. There was no grey area since atheism and 'not believing in Gods' was unfathomable to Gaia residents.

The Holy God and Evil God were so clearly real... to the point that it was crazy to be 'atheist' on Gaia.

When people spoke of 'the Devil', they meant the Evil God, when people spoke of a virtuous 'God' who heard their prayers, they referred to the Holy God.

Both who were clearly real despite even devout believers never getting the chance to meet them.

After becoming aware of Alan's identity, she naturally believed that Alan had been tricking her for the sake of selling her off to the Evil God.

That once familiar face of his that was begging her for understanding became like that of a true Demon in her eyes. The only thing the High Priestess could think of was that she had become tainted, and that the Holy God was testing her.

Her devotion to God became a craze at that moment as she detonated her Life Energy to try and kill Alan... She screamed and condemned her husband, even going as far as to commit suicide by using up all her energy in that burst of power.

Alan survived, but his heart died along with her. His greatest regret being that he hadn't approached with genuine intentions, and instead went as far as to lie to her in every single interaction they had.

This caused him to laugh in insanity as he left the Great Holy Lightning Temple and rejoined his subordinates that had been tasked with forming an organisation for him until he returned from the most dangerous region for 'evils' like them.

It was as Arthur and Alex were having their 'First Adventure' did his subordinates form small-scale murderous Cult he could make use of, and it was a month before their Hero's Journey ended did he integrate himself as the new 'Lord' of the Cult.

Returning back to the present, a dirty smile formed on his face as his hand traced the glass coffin.

He would look handsome if weren't for this look he would sometimes make when they were alone...

"Don't worry. I'll make this whole world similarly resentful~" He laughed without a trace of that previous sorrow. When a good man loses the woman he loves, perhaps he'd feel reluctant to take it out on Gaia... but was Alan a 'good man'?

No, he had always been a horrible jerk...! But even a man as bad as him could genuinely fall in love...

His plans had already been set in motion, and had already been taken in affect. The Grand Hero could do whatever he wants, but there was so way of stopping a man who had nothing to lose anymore.

Perhaps even his little brother wouldn't be able to recognise the current him after so long...

No, if Alex could still remember 'that incident' in their youth that his mother had solved... then perhaps he'd be able to recognise the psychotic yet oddly calm look in Alan's eyes at this moment.

Did fate punish him for being 'evil'?

Hah... What gave it the right to do that?

Did Gaia think that he'd fall into misery after losing the only woman he had ever loved?

Even going as far as making it impossible for her to ever be resurrected?

The Necromancer he met up with previously in that dark alleyway as well as his mother, who he had met at the Great Holy Lightning Temple, all told him the same thing: That she was now an empty shell...

The woman he loved couldn't be brought back in any shape or form, but he didn't change his ways.

No, he'd never change his ways! He'd become the purest forms of evil just to spite whatever weaver of fate that caused him to feel such regret... He decided to revel in his 'evil' than reject it...!

If he could bring her back, then...

Alan wiped that smile off his face as turned around abruptly, he couldn't let his emotion waver.

He would do what must be done for the sake of stealing the seat of the Evil God, all for the sake of spiting the world. Since he was feeling like crap, he would make everyone else feel the same as him...!

This was the madness that infected him. He was no longer rationally thinking about a bright future.

All he wanted to do was plunge Gaia into chaos.

Going back to Alex's mansion, the now healed up brawny youth opened his eyes to see someone he didn't expect. The memory of the events that happened not too long ago were clear in his head.

"You woke up fast." The scholarly freak, who was on the verge of death previously, was currently cutting an apple as if to give his dear friend some get-well-soon food to eat. This made the brawny youth's mind boggle and his jaw drop a little.

'Wait, why am I the one in bed!?' He clearly remembered Alex the one being on the verge of death... The fool then turned his head to see some shorty standing there on the other side of the bed.

"Say 'hi', this is the Second Prince of the Ruling Kingdom. You know, Drake's younger brother." Alex spoke while hiding his amusement. This made the influential shortie flinch as Alex was too honest.

Vhalen's face looked like this: (°□°)

His mouth gaped open for a few second before he closed it with a sigh, then shook his head in panic.

'Is introducing me as just a Healer too hard for you to do?!' The handsome youth was flustered...!

Arthur wanted to flip the table like this:

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

"What the fu-"

"Manners." Alex give him a glance.

"What the fudge nuggets! You let the brother of 'that guy' come?!" The injured patient, who was now totally fine after being healed up by Holy Mana, asked accusingly, all while growling at him.

The brawny youth's condition was great thanks to the scholarly freak and Vhalen praying for him.

Alex knew that his childhood friend still hadn't got over what happened back then. The powerlessness he felt that day must have been one of the reasons that fuelled today's explosion of Wrath Mana.

"It was thanks to him that I survived."

"Eh...?" He looked a little dazed like this: ( º _ º)

"I used 'Revival Heal' on him. After all, I'm a great and skilled Healer." Vhalen clarified what he meant.

The kind of Spell Slots a person could have were never able to go out of the freedom and restrictions a Gaia Human's 'Class'. The handsome shorty quickly used up his only Spell to save him.

Arthur froze, before reversing his attitude like this:

┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

"Ahem, what I meant to say was... Err..." Now the brawny youth felt awkward. He also realised this Second Prince even went as far as to check on his condition when he was knocked out cold.

Though Alex didn't give him time to think up a good apology, grabbing his good friend's shoulder.

"B-b-bro?" He stuttered after seeing the face of his scholarly friend... that was smiling like a tiger!

"We need a good talk."

"Ummm..."

"You'll listen to what I have to say, right?"

"Yes, yes...! Wait, why are you raising your fist?"

"Did you think I was just going to talk?"

"Spare me!"

Vhalen used this opportunity to leave. The sound of Arthur being pummelled could be heard behind him. He sighed, knowing that he'd probably have to go back and heal him up one they were done...

Truthfully, he was a little jealous of their genuine friendship, and the way they could be totally honest with each other... which was completely unlike the 'friends' he made in his own social life.

Those guys would keep a certain distance from him because of his identity. Though he shook these thoughts away and went to see how the masked girl was faring after being a little burnt to save him.

Perhaps a normal flame would be able to be healed easily by his Medical Skills, but the burn on Fear's hand became pretty hard to heal due to the potency of Arthur's Wrath Attribute. That's why he went to her room to continue treating her wound.

Like this, the time before the the countdown of ten days ended... What would they face tomorrow?

Only Samuel knew that answer...