Chapter I: Awakening...

Donovan let a small groan escape his lips as his eyes fluttered open. The ground was a little cold, and for some odd reason, his entire body felt like it had been ripped apart.

"Ugh, did I slip and fall?" He asked himself as he started to get up. He had remembered heading downstairs to get himself some water since he was thirsty, but after that, it had became a blur, so he wasn't exactly sure if he had fallen down the stairs.

As he got on his knees, Donovan finally noticed his surroundings and realized that he wasn't by himself, nor was he at the bottom of the stairs. He was in a stone room with candles being the light source, and people cladded in black armor and black robes.

The room was silent, and it looked like everyone was staring at him.

"Um," He started, not sure what to do in this situation or how to react. "can I uh, um..."

"It, it worked..." One of them muttered, Donovan wasn't sure who had spoken, but their mutter was loud enough for him to hear.

Soon the person revealed themselves by raising both of their arms and yelling triumphantly. "It worked! The summoning had been successful!"

Donovan frowned as the other robed people put their hands in the air, and let loose their happiness. He had no idea what was going on, or why they were cheering, but he felt like he needed some answers.

"Excuse me-" He began before abruptly pausing. He wasn't sure if it was just him imagining things, but his voice was different. He had always had a deep voice, but his voice had sounded a little deeper than usual.

Now more curious about his voice than what was going on, Donovan coughed into his right hand, and said to himself. "Hello, my name's Donovan, it's a pleasure to meet you."

The person who had first cheered had heard Donovan's greeting and quickly bowed while saying to him in an energetic tone. "Greetings Donovan, I am Lord Arzakol of House Bael, I am Lucifer's right-hand, and I ask that you save them from the Hero and his party!"

"Eh?" Came Donovan's response as he looked to the bowing hooded figure in surprise.

Feeling that this wasn't enough to convince Donovan, the now named person got on his hands and knees, and said while prostrating, "Please defend the Demon King!"

Seeing Lucifer's right hand prostrating caused both the other robed figures and the armored warriors to get on their hands and knees, and begin prostrating as well while saying the same thing Lord Arzakol had just said.

Donovan, who was rendered speechless by these declarations, wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. His father had told him that he should always try to help those in need, but hearing the words, 'defend the Demon King' and 'Lucifer.' made him very uncertain. Not to mention, he was pretty sure his father meant helping people with simple things like walking an old lady across the street, or helping someone who's stranded on the side of the road, and not defending a Demon King.

"Um, I'm sorry, but can we maybe, I don't know, take it back a few steps?" Donovan requested with traces of uncertainty in his voice. "Like can you explain how I got here, and maybe how I can get back home? I was kind of in the middle of something, and it was really important to me."

"I'm sorry, but I can not send you back." Lord Arzakol apologized while keeping his forehead pressed to the ground. "If I tried to send you back, at least at this moment, then your body would most definitely be destroyed, and there is a chance I could put you in the wrong era."

"I-I see." Donovan replied with a frown. He had wanted to believe that maybe this was a dream earlier, but since his body was in pain, and he could feel the stone cold ground, he knew it was real. Nonetheless, he was troubled by this information, and began to worry about his family.

His relationship with his parents wasn't what some would call the best, but it was still a good relationship. Now, of course, there were sometimes where he'd give them lip, and back talk them to the point where there would be screaming and yelling, but he still loved them dearly.

"Wait, he didn't say it was impossible to send me back, but I just can't go back at this moment." He realized after recalling Lord Arzakol's words.

Needing to know if this was true, Donovan said in an urgent manner. "Lord Arzakal!"

"It's Lord Arzakol." Lucifer's right hand corrected as he raised his head, a little trace of annoyance could be detected in his voice.

"Yeah, Lord Arzakol." Donovan agreed, not exactly caring that he had mispronounced the man's name. "You said that if you sent me back now, then my body would be destroyed, but does that mean there's a chance that you could possibly send me back later?"

"Yes, but there's still-" The robed figure began to explain before the doors to the chamber suddenly flung open, and a woman with a busty figure, devil wings, a tail, and horns on top of their head entered the room.

"Lord Arzakol is the," The woman said before noticing that everyone was on their hands and knees, and that there was a person in the center of the summoning circle. "oh, so it was successful."

Donovan's face had become red as a tomato upon seeing her. He had seen many beautiful girls in his life, but this person was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had long hair that was purple in color, eyes that were a fiery orange color, skin that appeared to have no blemishes, and a wonderful body. Had it not been for the wings, horns or tail, Donovan would have considered her to be an angel, no a Goddess.

"Lady Nyx, why are you here?" Lord Arzakol questioned after getting up and dusting off his robes. "I thought I had made it clear to everyone that no one is allowed to enter this room until I say so."

The woman in question paid no heed to the question, she was instead focusing on Donovan who had was practically ogling her.

Eventually, she spoke. "So, this is our Demon King's Black Knight?"

Confused by her statement, Donovan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Lord Arzakol spoke. He was a little annoyed that she ignored his question, but it's not like it mattered anymore since the summoning was successful. "Yes that's their Black Knight, but you can feel it too, right? The amount of mana that's radiating from him? It's incredible."

"It is indeed." Lady Nyx agreed with a nod of her head. "However, I don't think he understands his position or what's going on. He looks confused."

"I haven't finished explaining everything so it's understandable, but I believe he will save our glorious leader from their prophesied death." Lord Arzakol affirmed as he pulled his hood back to reveal his handsome features.

"We'll see in time, but for now he needs to come with me, our Lord Lucifer probably wants to see him." Lady Nyx declared.

"What do you mean by probably?" Lord Arzakol questioned with a small scowl. "Do they or do they not want to meet their Black Knight?"

"I don't know, they just told me to see if it was successful or not, and to report back to them." Lady Nyx answered with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I understand." Lord Arzakol replied before directing his attention to Donovan, who was still on his knees. "Donovan I'd be happy to continue our conversation at a later point in time, but for now if you could, could you follow Lady Nyx here to meet our glorious leader?"

"Uh, sure." He hesitantly answered before standing up. In reality, he didn't like the idea of meeting the Demon King, but it's not like he really had a choice in the matter. He didn't know what would happen if he refused them, and for now, they hadn't given him any reason to reject their requests.

Satisfied with his answer, Lord Arzakol smiled and said, "Great."

After being lead through what Donovan assumed to be a castle, and seeing a handful of nonhumanoid of the demon folk, Donovan arrived at what he believed to be the throne room with Lady Nyx since the two doors were incredibly large.

"If you can, try not to upset them, they're not in the bestest of moods." Lady Nyx warned with a smile after opening the door.

"Wait what?" Came his instinctive response before she grabbed him by his arm and threw him into the room, which was pitch black. "Wait! Why am I meeting someone if they're not in a good mood?"

Lady Nyx didn't even bother responding and simply closed the door on him, causing him to scowl. He could now understand why she was a demon, and promised himself to get her back on this. Unfortunately, he wasn't given a lot of time to think about how he was going to get vengeance on her, for the room soon became lit by countless braziers.

"So, you're our Black Knight." Came a sultry voice, which had made him look ahead of him and see across the room a woman that looked far more beautiful than Lady Nyx sitting on a throne.

"I-" Donovan started before she interrupted him by saying in a curt/commanding tone. "Come here."

Hesitantly, he got up off of the floor and slowly approached the horned woman. Her horns were similar to that of bull horns, but there were still some differences. She also wasn't as curvy as Lady Nyx, and had a little bit more of a slender figure than her. Another thing that was different between her and Lady Nyx was that she didn't wear a revealing attire. Instead, she wore a black dress that he could see someone of royalty wearing for some reason. Her hair color was black as night, and her eyes were a ruby red.

After Donovan reached the bottom of the throne, Lord Lucifer got up from her throne and approached him. Every step she made was full of elegance, which had made his heart beat slightly faster. She took one step down the steps before raising her left hand up. On her ring finger was a ring with a red jewel.

Donovan did nothing at first, for he knew what she wanted from him. She wanted him to kiss her hand, which was the sign of showing fealty to someone. Seeing his hesitance made her frown.

"Is there a reason why you're hesitant to kiss our hand, Black Knight?" She questioned in a stern tone that had only a tiny bit of curiosity in it.

"Yes." He answered as he gazed at her hand.

"Mind telling us why?" She asked.

"Well, it's because I don't plan on staying here for long." He answered truthfully as his gaze shifted upwards to where his head was tilted slightly, and he was staring directly into her eyes.

At this, Lord Lucifer lowered her hand stepped down the last step to where she was on his level. Once she was on his level, Donovan had realized that she was pretty tall for a woman. She wasn't as tall as him, but from what it looked like, it looked like she was only shorter than him by two inches.

She stared directly into his eyes in silence for several seconds before breaking that silence by saying, "Explain."

"I'd like to go back to my home, and because of that I don't think I should kiss your hand, since that's basically me promising to serve you, and like someone once told me, I shouldn't make a girl a promise if I know I can't keep it." Donovan explained effortlessly. He had grown up playing a game called Halo, and one of his favorites lines was something Cortana said to the Master Chief in Halo 2, and has been with him since then.

It didn't just involve girls though, it was in general, for he believed you shouldn't make a promise to someone if you can't uphold it.

"Understandable, and respectful, but tell us, do you know what happens if we die?" Lord Lucifer said in response with a nod of their head before asking him a question.

"Uh, no?" He answered with a small frown. He had just got here, and knew nothing about them.

"Unending chaos." She declared with a serious expression. "Humanity doesn't understand that if they kill us, they kill the only one who can control all of the demon folk. We are the only ones that have that power, and so far we have controlled them excellently, but humanity doesn't see it like that. They believe that we're behind the attacks of creatures that lack intelligence."

"If you control all of the demon folk, then why don't you have them not attack humans then?" Donovan replied with a confused look. He could understand what was being said, but if it was such a big deal, then couldn't she have prevented them from attacking humans in general?

"Tell us, do you think the Gods and Goddesses stop humans from coming to our lands and hunting down certain animals? Or even better do you think the human Kings and Queens do that?" She asked him in response, her expression still serious.

"No?" He answered with uncertainty. Again, he hadn't been in this world for long, so he couldn't give her an honest answer, but if she was bringing this up, then he could only assume that this was something humans did.

"Then why should we stop our people from living and hunting in their territory when they do the same thing?" Lord Lucifer questioned.

Donovan said nothing, and soon found himself agreeing with her reasoning. If the Gods, Goddesses, Kings, and Queens allowed their people to hunt down demon folk, then why should the Demon King stop her people from doing the same thing?

Seeing that he understood their reasoning, Lord Lucifer continued. "Even if we did stop them and just had the lower intelligent creatures feed on one another, which was something they did in the past, do you really think humanity would leave us alone? We are stronger than them in almost every aspect, and our land is the largest and home to many things humans consider to be valuable."

Again, Donovan was silent. He being a human could understand why humans would attack the demon folk, and that was because of fear. He believed that they were afraid of the Demon King and her people since they were stronger than humans, and feared that one day they might try wiping them out. Not to mention, he knew that humans were very greedy and would stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.

"I can understand where you're coming from, and why you're not stopping the dumber creatures from attacking humans, but why do you need me? Like, why do you specifically need me to defend you from the Hero and his companions?" He questioned after a few seconds of silently thinking.

"We didn't need you specifically. What we needed was someone from another realm." She answered honestly.

"What do you mean?" Donovan asked with confusion in his voice, and a confused expression written on his face.

"Tell us, does your body feel sore? Like your muscles had been ripped to shreds?" She asked, which had earned herself a nod from him. He didn't say anything about how he had become more broad shoulder, and a little more muscular, but he had noticed these changes during his walk with Lady Nyx. His face didn't change that much, in fact it had kind of stayed the same, but another thing he had noticed was that his hair had become black.

"That is because during your transportation to our realm your body was literally ripped apart and reformed." The Demon King explained with a firm look. "Humans who come from a different realm are blessed by the Gods and Goddesse, which makes them ten times stronger and faster than the normal human, in a way they basically become demigods."

"Wait, but why do they bless them? I could understand my body being ripped apart, and reforming I guess so that I wouldn't be deformed or something along those lines, but why do our bodies get blessed with these supposed superpowers?" Donovan asked with confusion still etched onto his face.

"That is something we can't tell you, and it's not because we don't want to tell you, but because we don't know the actual reason why." She stated in a slightly apologetic manner.

"I see, so what you're telling is me that I'm technically a hero?" Donovan asked after a while.

"Yes," She affirmed. "but you don't have to be a hero of humanity, you could our hero, the demon folk's hero and protector."

Donovan wasn't sure what to do. While he didn't think it was the best idea to get involved in all of this, a part of him was saying that this was his chance to finally be something. That this was his chance to become a legend, for he knew that he'd most likely not be remembered on Earth for anything grand, but if he agreed to become her Black Knight, then he could be remembered throughout history like the legendary Greek heroes.

However, he didn't have to be known as Donovan Rutherford The Black Knight of the Demon King, nor did he exactly want to be known as that either. He wanted something a little cooler like the names Achilles.

Seeing that he had a pondering look, Lord Lucifer said to him. "If you save us from our prophesied death, then we will do everything in our power to make sure you return to your world. We promise you that."

Hearing that sealed the deal for him.

"Very well, I will do it, I will become your Black Knight." He declared with a look of resolve.