Notes from the Demon King, page 123:

Six is a significant number in this world.

Six true Gods,

Six kingdoms,

Six members to a full party,

Six sacred swords,

The Six eyed seer,

The six sages of storms,

Six secrets Never to be spoken, and many more examples.

And that's not even getting to the things that are multiples of six, like the twelve days solstice or the 72 minds that make up omniscient collective.

But by far the most important six is the ‘six calamities.’

All things come with the cost, and these are the price of magic. Each calamity is a potentially world ending event, each one worse than the last, that, if survived, unlocks a new law of magic. A new facet of the power that governs this world is put into the hands of mortals whether for good or ill.

Yes all power has a price…

I should have remembered that.

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Chapter three

Hailey -

The party, again feeling like the decision was made for them, followed the Demon King outside.

The demon, who was still munching knives as if they were candy bars, waved when he caught sight of them, beckoning them over.

“I’m so sorry about that inconvenience.” He said gesturing dismissively at the guild hall “let's try this again shall we,” he cleared his throat “eherm, Hello, I’m your new instructor and I will be teaching you how to cultivate mana as well as otherwise helping you to improve your general lethality in preparation for you to kill the Demon King, and as you've probably guessed by now-”

“Y-your the Demon King…!” Hailey blurted unable to contain herself any longer

.

“Bingo! I’m going to be training you to kill me! Isn’t that absolutely poetic.” The Demon King said with a chuckle.

The students just remained silent, seeing that his comment wasn't getting the reaction he expected the Demon King coughed and continued on,

“Uh, but it’s not going to be easy. Even Captain Cornmeal’s men couldn't manage to take me down” he said gesturing behind them to the knight, whom Hailey only then realized had followed them out.

“My name is Conmael! Not...cornmeal.” The Captain growled “and I don't See how you can expect these no-trials to, not only become fith-trial mages in only five years but also, somehow have the necessary power to do what even an army of equally strong men and women couldn’t.”

“Cornmen, cornmeal, same difference, and I expect much more from these five than lousy fith-trials,” the Demon King said his ever present smile turning slightly dangerous, “You’re right that its unlikely, and in all honesty I don't even think it's possible to progress that fast. But trust me when I say Mages I’ve trained from scratch will have so much more of a chance of success than you that it’s immeasurable”

The knight bristled at that but didn't bother attacking, Hailey could see that he felt it was pointless from his expression.

Ali cut in “You forgot to consider our opinion in this” she glared at the Demon King “why would we go with you?”

Captain Conmael frowned "I told you that you can't say n-”

“And that was fine when you were in control but this doesn’t seem to be your show. You're just the messenger, right? I'm talking to him.” she said pointing fiercely to the Demon King “Why should I listen to anything you say?”

“Other than the fact that I could annihilate you with a thought?” The demon asked genuinely, the question causing even Ali to finch. The Demon King paused seeming to reconsider his response “Look, I'm not the kind of person who would force anyone into anything, without good cause at least.” he added the last bit after looking at the knight “If you really don't want my training I won't make you, but you need to at least give it a try before you knock it. So here's the deal, give me today and if you aren't happy with the results you can go back to your lives. If you are, give me six more months and I guarantee you'll be Second-trail mages by the end. Just think of the benefits. Even if you quit after the first 6 months, that will be six months you spent learning to cultivate and growing in power. You won't be no-trials anymore, and with work and a bit of help you’ll be able to progress further even without me. And that's not even including the benefits if you stay on and actually manage to kill me. Not only will you be remembered as heroes for the rest of... well, forever, but I’m sure you’ve all experienced gaining mana from killing a magical creature. Can you imagine how much power my body contains, killing me would be enough to boost every single one of you up to the highest stages of cultivation, theoretically.” He smiled “How’s that for a reason?”

“And please,” Captain Conmael added, his voice once again in its somber tone, “This is the only hope that the world has… This is the only chance we get. For the sake of everyone on the planet, please.” He begged “If you don't kill him, billions of people will die. Is that a good enough reason for you?”

“Decent” Ali answered.

“It actually doesn’t sound that bad, the training…” Kenn said skeptically “what's the catch?”

“Yeah,” Giel noted looking at the Demon King “what’s in it for you, why would you want to train people to murder you?”

“This totally feels like some sort of weird trap, but if he wanted us dead wouldn't it be easier to just turn us to dust or whatever right now?” Sandra Said, her face thoughtful, but Hailey could see the excitement in her eyes that the prospect of this situation brought.

“I-I say we take it...” Hailey said, her voice way squeakier than she would like. As they all turned to look at her she wanted to bury herself in the ground, but with a thumbs up from Sandy she went on anyway “Sandra is r-right, if either of them wanted us dead they could j-just, like, step on us. Why not benefit while we can, at least today. If we think it’s a scam we quit, that’s it....” she expected them to dismiss her comments out of hand, although her friends had never done that to her, but they all nodded.

“Okay” said Kenn speaking for the entire party, “we have a deal”

The Demon King grinned so wide, that his face literally tore, his jaws unhinging and the flesh of his cheeks ripping to reveal a mouth not unlike a xenomorph’s, a prehensile tongue lapped out to lick the demon’s forhead before his face returned to normal,

“Wonderful, I’m happy to work with you all. But before we get started, let me give you a tip for the future. Lesson one, don't make decisions based on the fact that something won’t kill you. This is the world where there are fates much worse than death.” he turned and began tromping away, “Come’n now kids. Let’s get this party started. Oh, and Cornbread you can go now. I have no further need for you”

“Wait one second.” Captain Conmael said digging through his satchel for something, “tank, healer, come here.”

Sharing a glance, Kenn and Hailey walked over to the man, who turned to Hailey first.

“Support is just as important a role as fighting, remember that. This should make the job just a bit easier” he said handing her a bag, that when Hailey opened it, she found empty. Not empty as in having nothing in it, empty as in it was like she was looking int the depths of space as she stared into its vast sea of nothing.

“It’s an inventory construct,” the captain explained “a bag of holding specifically. Be sure not to lose it until you learn to absorb mana and bind to you but once you do, it should be handy for carrying all the potions and other things that you support types need” next he turned to Kenn

Pulling his sword of his belt he nodded at the warrior, handing Kenn the blade scabbard first,

“Take this. If you manage to kill him, use this blade. A personal request.”

Kenn grunted in assent, his eyes alight with wonder as he drew the sword from its sheath. It was a beautiful blade, straight and about an arm’s length long, with runes forged into it’s edge, a tell-tell sign it was enchanted. The perfection was only marred by the scar that traced across the blades center. It looked like a crack that had been forged backed together, like the blade had been broken once, then repaired.

“End his life with the blade he broke,” Captain Conmael said, with the cadence of a command.

Hailey watched Kenn’s eyes harden with resolve as he placed the blade back in the scabbard

The knight looked at first Hailey then Kenn “Look out for each other” he told them both “your role’s shore up each other’s weak spots.” with that he nodded and began walking away.

The entire interaction made Hailey’s face grow hot with embarrassment. Being acknowledged directly by such a powerful person like that made her want to run screaming. She didn't, but she wanted to.

The Demon King chuckled “what a guy, right.” he began walking away again “now for real this time, let's go. We have a lot to do if I’m going to convince you that my tutelage is worthwhile by the end of the day.”

The group obediently followed behind, wondering what they had just agreed to.

As they hiked back into town the Demon Kings body and face seemed to shift, his horns seemed to shrink into his head until they were just nubs, his hair growing to cover the protrusions. His eyes changed until they were a much more human, dark-brown irises with the whites actually being white, they still lacked pupils, but the dark color made that hard to notice unless you were looking for it.

His tail seemed to shrivel to nothing and his hands popped and cracked, extending until they had a normal amount of fingers and then changing to the consistency and color of flesh,

Suddenly, the Demon King looked like any normal person you may meet on the street.

After the initial confusion of the sight, Hailey just kind of excepted it as just something the Demon King could do, Giel apparently felt the same way, as he ran up to the Demon to strike up a conversation,

“You never answered my question” The beast-kin said.

“Hm, Is that so?” the creature responded, “and what question would that be?”

Giel did his best to look the Demon King in the eyes, “What’s in it for you? Teaching us to kill you. What do you gain?”

The Demon paused taken a back by the question, "I guess… I guess that’s not something for you to worry about” he said patting the young man on the head “Just know that I fully intend to help you reach your fullest potential as long as you’re willing to work.” He frowned looking of as if he were talking to someone else “No, I can't tell them. What would be the fun in that?”

Giel looked back at the group and shrugged, the rest mimicked the gesture.

Fully trusting the Demon King was obviously out of the question. Their plan to benefit from his help while they could was still in play, but they’d have to be careful just in case the demon had one of those ‘fates worse than death’ he had mentioned planned for them.

Not that they could stop him if he tried, but being wary couldn't hurt in Hailey’s mind.

The Party followed the Demon King until they were outside the town, they walked some more only stopping whey they came to a clearing in the woods.

The Demon King. Now back to his previous form, waved his arms wide as if presenting something grand,

“This will be your training ground for the rest of the day!” He said sounding smug "I cleared the area myself so there should be no obstructions to impede you” he said proudly.

“So?” Ali said nonplussed.

“uh-I… Let’s just get started.” The Demon King said deflated “We should be able to speak freely here so let me answer the question that has been on all your mind since Captain Cornball showed up to recruit you.”

“What question?” Kenn asked

“There have been several” Sandra added

Hailey nodded along with her friends.

“The question of why I chose you. Why your group specifically? What makes you stand out?”

“Oh yeah, that is one of the things I was wondering” Sandra agreed

“Well my young friends, let me answer your question with a question.” he paused, obviously for dramatic effect “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”

The students were shocked, it had been years since any of them had heard that question.

Even with her shyness Hailey had to venture a guess.

“SpongeBob SquarePants?”

“What!? No. Who’s tha- Im kidding, of course is SpongeBob SquarePants!”

“How do you know about SpongeBob!?”

The Demon King chuckled again “The same way you do” he said with a sly smile “I’m from earth, or at least my soul is.”

The students were once again shocked into silence.

Ali speaking up after a few seconds.

“Even if you are from earth, you're over a hundred years old! How do you know about SpongeBob? It still doesn't make sense.”

“536 years old to be exact,” His face flicked to annoyance for a second as if some had said something “Oh come on, let me downplay my age a little!” Then he turned back to Ali “As for how I know, that's simple. Time dilation. This world doesn't exist in the same universe as earth, so you’ll find time flows a bit differently, specifically time moves much much faster here. The centuries I’ve lived, based on conversations I've had with the rare Earthing, have only been a few months back hometown, your sixteen to eighteen years have only been minutes or maybe even seconds due to outside factors like gravity wells and other events that cause time to move abnormally.”

They were once more shocked, all with one question on their minds.

“Does that mean we can go home…?” Sandra asked, hope filling her voice.

The Demon King looked pained but answered anyway, “No…, did you ever see ‘into the spiderverse?’”

When the students each nodded he continued “remember how the other spiders couldn't stay in Miles’ universe because their matter and rules shouldn't exist there? It’s kind of the same thing. You may have memories of your past life, but you are of this world. You could theoretically visit, but you would quickly begin to break down as your body is deprived of things like mana and the other laws of this universe to support it, this is doubly true of those of you who are not human.”

“Just visiting would be fine though…” Sandra said, Hailey’s heart broke for the girl as hers visibly began to sink.

“Even visiting isn't a real possibility. Time dilation would keep portals from being able to be opened even if someone of enough power tried, unless the universes are somehow synced.” Before anymore could be said he continued “But enough bad news, the point is we share a common origin. It’ll be nice to share the last five years of your life with someone from home, huh? Now you can make all the pop culture references you want without anyone looking at you like you're craz-.”

He stopped when he saw the looks of horror directed his way from all the adventurers’ faces. Except, Hailey noted, Ali, who just looked annoyed.

“L-last five years!? I thought you were going to teach us, so we could kill you!?” Giel shouted.

"I said I’d try but do you see what I have to work with” he said gesturing to the group as a whole, "I had to act all confident about you guys around cornhead but, come on. Even my talent has limits. No, I’m not being mean to them I’m being honest”

Ali bristled at that, “You ever even seen us do anything yet!”

"I don't need to.” He paused “What? Okay… But, apparently, you’re right, how can I make judgment on you without seeing what you can do first.” The Demon King said clasping his hand “So let’s start today’s lesson of with an evaluation,”

He disappeared displacing the air with a pop. Now the Demon King stood in the center of the field his grin stretching across his face and his arms wide, “Lets begin your first murder attempt. On your marks! Get set! KILL ME!!!!”

The students were initially surprised at the sudden challenge, but readied themselves anyway.

It was time to show this guy what they could do.