56th attempt.

None was created equal. Life is not fair, power is not given to those that wanted it, but given to those power has chosen. Life is not fair; nothing in the world is fair, except for death. Death is equal for all; it is stronger than all of them, the fairest and the most incorrupt judge of all that exists is death.

To exceed him, I must abandon my thoughts. To defeat him I must become Death. Stronger than all the power he has within him, strike once and strike true. With a single slash, it shall all be decided. Right now, I am not the Dark Lord, I am Death.

Dark Lord concentrated his thoughts. As Kazan faded from his vision, Dark Lord knew exactly what he had to do.

With great speed and no wasted movement, he proceeded to dodge Kazan’s razor sharp hand just within centimeters by turning his body just at the right moment.

He did that intentionally, he needed to get close to Kazan.

Within a split second, he proceeded to slash Kazan.

But Kazan managed to partially dodge the slash towards his neck, but Dark Lord felt the blade connect with something. As Kazan jumped away, blood dropped towards the ground.

Something bony looking landed on the ground with a thud.

It was not Dark Lord’s blood however, it was Kazan’s. The strike intended for Kazan’s head was narrowly dodged, but not without a price.

Kazan ended up losing part of his left horn, now on his head; his left horn was two thirds the length of his right horn.

Kazan’s face distorted from shock, pain, and then anger. He looked at part of his left horn lying on the ground, bloody and severed from his head.

With a trembling hand he touched his forehead, and with a dread he discovered it was indeed true. Wet sensation of blood leaking out of the severed horn was undeniable. That was his horn on the ground.

“You bastard…” his face or more accurately his beak was changing.

Before he looked like a humanoid crow, but now his feathers, beak, wings were all fading. Within a moment, his form changed into that of a horned humanoid. He no longer had a beak, but a clean face, with full head of black hair.

The only thing that stayed the same was his horns, one bleeding without stop, while the other was the original length.

He was obviously in shock at what just happened.

Dark Lord did not know why Kazan changed in appearance. He simply did not care.

With a clear intent to kill, he punched Kazan in the face, hard, sending Kazan flying two meters away.

It seems like Kazan was weaker than before. Demons get powers from their horns, so if horns are damaged then the demon would be weakened.

Now it was the perfect chance to kill him.

Holding his dagger downwards, Dark Lord raised his dagger for the kill, intending to stab Kazan in the heart.

Kazan opened his eyes wide open, full of disbelief and horror.

So this is how I die, huh…

“THAT’S ENOUGH BOTH OF YOU!” Before the dagger touched Kazan’s body, someone appeared right in between Dark Lord and Kazan.

With a flap of gigantic red wings, Kazan and Dark Lord ended up separated from each other, with this someone standing right in between them.

This someone looked familiar, wings, face that resembled a dragon, long horns, red scales.

“This has gone far enough, Kazan, stand down.”

“But…my king…”

“This is an order.” The voice was feminine, but the appearance was very unfamiliar.

Then, after a moment of hesitation, Kazan nodded, his injured horn still bleeding.

Now the dragon-like demon turned her attention to Dark Lord.

“Dark Lord, I hope you can forgive my subordinate’s rudeness. Something like this happening is the last thing I would want.”

“And who are you supposed to be?”

“It’s me, Arin, Arin Draco. You might be unfamiliar with this form, here you go…” her form now turned back to more humanoid-like with horns on her head, she still had wings and tail of course.

“What’s up with weird appearances, Arin?”

“It is simply my true demon form, every demon can assume it.”

“I see. Then, the matter of the girl…” Dark Lord began before being interrupted by Arin.

“Of course, we will return her.” Arin said without hesitation.

“But, my king! This is ludicrous! Letting him have the witch, we will be losing our best chance at beating humanity?”

“And for the sake of beating humanity you would sacrifice your honor and kin?” Arin asked Kazan in harsh voice.

“My kin are dead. If I can save the rest of demon kind by sacrificing my honor, then I will do so without hesitation. After losing every member of my clan, I have nothing left to lose.” Kazan firmly answered; with his humanoid face it was obvious he was serious.

“Not all of them.” Arin looked in Dark Lord’s direction.

“What do you mean to say, my king?” Kazan put his hand upon his horn to stop the bleeding.

“Dark Lord is same as you, he is a Tengu; in other words he is your kin.”

Kazan’s eyes opened wide in shock, he glanced in Dark Lord’s direction. But now his eyes were not filled with anger, but confusion instead.

“There is no way he is…”

“He is, I checked his mana, and he is definitely a Tengu, just like you.”

Kazan outstretched his hand in Dark Lord’s direction before dropping it.

“I see, so that is why you did not want us to fight.”

“Yes, you are both members of the same clan, possibly the last two demons of Tengu type. It would be a tragedy if you were to kill each other.”

“I understand, I shall have no more say about the matter with the witch. I humbly beg for forgiveness.”

“Think nothing of it, Kazan. You simply did not know. I am glad I stopped this madness before it went too far.”

Then, Arin Draco turned her attention to fox Demon Lord.

“Thank you Temur for letting me borrow your mana, it made me come back to my feet much quicker.”

“Of course…my king…” Temur looked emaciated. Apparently it involved a lot of mana.

“Now then, Dark Lord, you may have your companion back.”

Dark Lord wasn’t sure whether he was dreaming but if he was he didn’t want to wake up.