Shin, the Emperor of the Sliton Empire stood in a dark place, facing him was a human-shaped shadow.

“You must become stronger,” the shadow said with a grin.

“What do you want from me again?! Please leave me already!”

“No~ I need your body or I can’t cause havoc and chaos! It’s just so enjoyable!”

“What are you talking about? We are slaughtering everyone and turn people into slaves! How is that fun?” Shin shouted at the shadow, punching through his ethereal body. It dispersed into a black mist and took the same shape behind him.

“You know nothing, you weakling! You didn’t even have dark affinity before I devoured your mind! A weakling like you shouldn’t tell me what to do,” he laughed at Shin.

“But this is my body! Get out! My friend was killed because of you!”

“Hahaha, served him well since he was useless. Let’s see which region should I corrupt now? As long as I have a body, I can slowly change people’s mindset and turn even the best person into a complete evil!” the shadow laughed like a maniac.

“No! You screwed up our Kingdom and turned it into that… that kind of place! Stop it, I beg you! What should I do to make you stop?”

“Hmm, give up your body completely! I’ll stop spreading darkness in that case. How is that?” the shadow tilted his head to the side.

“You would just turn even stronger! That’s impossible!” Shin shouted back.

“Haha, I’ll overtake your body anyway, it’s just a question of time! Once I regain my old power, I’ll definitely take revenge for my creator, Hector! They dared to betray him… all human is trash and should be killed!”

“I’m sorry for your master but please stop! I understand that they were terrible and should be killed but why are you punishing innocent people? At least use my body to kill only those people!”

“Don’t be stupid, Shin. That was my plan, to begin with. If I cause war, humans will die by the thousands and millions! The more war I cite, the more humans will die. One day, I'll make Hector's murderers fall into a war and kill them myself!”

“You are crazy!”

“Hmm? I never denied that one,” he replied with a grin.

Sweat poured down on Shin’s head, feeling more and more tired after so many years. When he put the black ring on his finger, everything was fine. It started later on that he heard strange whisperings in his ears, which always said evil things. He wanted to take off his ring at that time, but he couldn’t do it. His heart and love for that ring stopped him every time. He didn’t know that it wasn’t him who was loving the black ring so much.

As more time passed by, he started to lose control over his body, which got to the point where he couldn’t even speak. It was the darkness in the ring that took over his body and spoke through his body. It was the darkness that killed, murdered, and did anything to hurt the humans. Meanwhile, Shin had to watch everything from his own head through his own eyes. How his family was murdered, how he raped women, how he betrayed everyone.

“Then just kill me already. Even that is better than living through the things you do!”

“Don’t be stupid. Since you were so weak, I was able to overtake your body, but I’d have no chance against a real Magician. My consciousness would have been wiped out the moment a true Magician put the Eighth Ring of Calamity on their finger. If you don’t want to see what I do then just give your body to me and I’ll wipe out your consciousness. I really swear this one since you are annoying to have in my mind anyway,” the shadow said with a serious face.

“My? You say? This isn’t your body! This is my body and I won’t give you the chance to control yourself completely! At least, I can restrain you a bit! You almost stopped when that black girl shouted because I wanted you to stop, didn’t you? Ah, if only her attack hit us…” Shin sighed out of sadness.

“You are wrong… Your words did nothing, it was hers. I wanted to leave as soon as she finished talking, but her attack almost reached me in time. I must be careful of her… she didn’t feel like a human. Can she control darkness related creatures?” the shadow mumbled to himself. “Anyway, she is dangerous. I’ll have to stay far away from her and kill her if she tries to catch me. She might be able to command me…” the shadow muttered, fear clear on his face.

Sitting down in the infinite darkness, Shin asked, “Where are you going? Why are you leaving this city?”

“Of course, to train and become stronger. Your place was lacking in Mana, but if I start training and devouring monsters, I’ll be able to become stronger!”

“And what is this Devour ability of yours?” Shin asked with interest, never hearing of that kind of spell.

“Hehe, it originates from a legendary creature. My master heard tales about their ‘evil’ deeds and how they devoured Kingdoms, Planets, or even Universes before being killed. It took thousands of unions to kill them! I find them amazing. And you see, shadows are like their relatives. We too have a racial trait, called Mikro-Devour, which is much weaker than the legendary creature’s, but is still a great trait.”

“Once I killed a monster, I can use my shadow to extract their enhanced genetics, devour them, and make my body evolve into a stronger one.”

“That’s rather amazing, huh… But just like those legendary creatures, you too will fall,” Shin replied with furrowed brows, showing a provocative smile.

“Hmph, think what you want, but I’ll definitely kill those people and murder your fucking race! Trash humans!” the shadow shouted at him. Clearing his throat, he added, “To your earlier question, I’m leaving this city because they are preparing to rebel against the King. I visited this place many times before but since I had the Empire to care about, I couldn’t stay here for long.”

“Now that it’s gone, I can stay here and fight on to reach my goal!” the shadow stuck out his chest proudly.

“I think that black haired girl came from this place too, so it’s best if I… oh? Hehe, I’ll tell the King that they are trying to rebel. In the best case, he and his forces will kill that stupid girl and I’ll have one less thing to worry about.”

Shin sighed loudly upon hearing the shadow’s words. “Another crime on my bill… Just when will this finally end? Please stay alive, Miss. You seem to have some strange effects on this idiot,” he prayed to Elena, even though he didn’t even know her.

“Hmph, since you are liking her enough to pray to her, I’ll go out of my way to kill her. Suffer you trash human,” the shadow replied, turning around. He left Bethor’s city and made his way towards the capital city. He didn’t have to visit the library to find out how these two planets interacted and worked together. His creator, Hector was the one who set up the system and connected these planets.

In space, they were quite close to each other too. Most people didn’t even know that what they called ‘Moon’ was actually the Dink planet or Dunk on his original planet. “Hmm, once I’m done here, I’ll leave this low-level sector and make my way towards the powerful Kingdoms. Those shitty bastards will die!” the shadow clenched his fists and disappeared from the dark place, leaving Shin alone in his empty cage. Since he had no other choice, he looked through his own eyes and immersed himself in the scenery of the outside world.

-----

“What are you standing there for all mute?” Elena tilted her head to the side.

“A-Ah, nothing. I’m sorry, I was just a bit lost in my thoughts since Cor remembered a few things,” Dred scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. I’m not even lusting over her at the moment. I’m just so happy to see her and be near her… I definitely love her, oh shiiit, I didn’t think that I was starting to fall for her, he screamed in his mind.

“Oh? I’ll take a break old man, this is important,” Elena waved her hand and after sheathing her dagger, she walked up to Dred. “So what happened?” Her sweet scent hit Dred’s nose, filling his mind with her. He lost his mind to a point where he forgot to answer. Oh, shit, my heart is beating so rapidly, he thought with gritted teeth. Cor noticed his reaction from the corners of his eyes, so instead of waiting for Elena to realize that something was off, he got her attention.

“I didn’t remember anything at first, but after going into the hidden room, a few things came to mind.” Leaning closer, he whispered into her ear, “I was actually that Hector who created the eight rings of calamity. I definitely fought in that cave where the eighth ring was, but whether I lost my life there or somewhere else is unclear to me. I just know that I lost my strength and that what you found was a part of my legacy.”

“Huh? So you are actually the current King’s progenitor?” she whispered.

“Yes. We should ask him if he knew more about my past or how and why I died.”

“Alright, we will do that, but don’t tell him who you were,” Elena remarked.

“Of course, I told you that I left behind my past.”

Nodding her head, Elena went back to training. Turning around, Cor saw Dred’s envious eyes, which made him laugh so hard, that everyone stopped training and looked at him with strange eyes. Clearing his throat, he said, “I’m sorry. I just saw something funny.”

Shrugging their shoulders, everyone got back to what they were doing. “Man, why making that kind of face?” Cor patted Dred’s shoulder.

“Well, I just thought that it must have been nice to stay so close to her face.”

“Ya do realize that you are sleeping in one bed with her?”

At that, Dred’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper. “Shit… I definitely won’t sleep today,” he facepalmed.

“Hahaha, then tell it to her and talk it over!”

“Like hell, I’d do that on the first day. I’ll do it but a bit later.”

“Alright, but I’ll tell her if you don’t,” Cor stuck out his tongue.

“You little… but that doesn’t matter since I really wish to share my feelings with her,” he said through gritted teeth. They spent the next few days training their bodies and spells and prepared for the upcoming war. But they didn’t know that it would happen earlier than planned.