The demon lord's castle was among the first to receive the news from Caelum and since then it has been in an uproar. For everyone knew who went there a few days ago. The sound of a loud voice together with decorations being shattered resounded in the castle.

“Calm down Ikarus!” Maria caught a flying vase of flowers.

“He went on killing thousands of people and you tell me to calm down?” and another decoration flew on the air. This time it was a chair.

“I am sure he has his reasons!” Maria quickly dodged the chair.

“What reason pushed him to destroy a city?” the celestial shouted.

“We don’t even know for certain if it was him. For all we know, it was the undead legion who did that.” Maria conveyed. What she spoke was the truth, at least from their point of view. All they knew was Alastor went to Caelum and a few days later, the city was almost obliterated. There were also talks of giants but that wasn’t their main concern.

“Of course it was him. Why would he go there in the first place? You know he has been….different ever since that girl died! Alastor, you idiot! What have you done?” Ikarus may seem to have overreacted compared to the others in the room but that was because she was the only one with no relation with demons aside from Alastor.

“Well I call for a celebration!” Amelia joined the conversation.

“Celebration for what?” asked Noroeth.

“We just got ourselves an official demon lord. It would be weird for Alastor to not become one after this!” Amelia explained, sipping her cup of tea.

“Ohohoho! Nice! I will gather everyone!” Azureus jumped up and down continuously.

“What’s wrong with all of you? We are not talking about one or two people here. It’s thousands. Now how are we supposed to have peace between all races?” the celestial mumbled.

But instead of an answer, everyone looked at her with weird eyes before they suddenly busted out in laughter.

“Hahahaha! Nice one Ikarus! I didn’t know you have a talent for humour!” the beastman laughed out loud.

“Great! We found our comedian for the party!” clamored the slime.

“I am NOT JOKING!” screamed Ikarus, making everyone silent. This time the atmosphere in the room turned somber. Having stayed silent since the beginning, Mephisto stood up and walked up to Ikarus.

“Then we have a problem, celestial! If peace is what you are seeking then you are in the wrong place my dear!” he gave a stern look at Ikarus.

His tall figure combined with his imposing aura could strike fear into the heart of anyone and Ikarus was no exception. But still the celestial managed to find whatever was left of her courage to throw back at him.

“I won’t let you turn him into a demon lord! Just how many have been sacrificed already because of this endless war?”

“You ask the right question, celestial! How many demons were killed because of you? Remember that the Primes were the one who dealt the first strike! Do you think we are going to sit around and take it? Do you think we will just forgive each other, shake our hands and happily forever after? This isn’t some fairy tales where everything would just magically solve itself in the end!

To all of you primes, the only peace you will know is when all of you are dead.”

“Hold on just a minute, Mephisto! That’s a little too excessive don’t you think? Why are we arguing about this? Let’s just wait for Alastor to come back and then we can discuss and talk calmly….” Maria tried her best to keep the peace but it didn’t work. Mephisto had a problem with Ikarus right since the beginning when he first heard about it but he chose to remain silent as he didn’t want to displease the boy. But now he was not around and Ikarus was spouting, to his view, some dangerous idea. The celestial Ikarus also had her reasons. If she could convince Alastor to abandon the idea of becoming the next demon lord, it would at the very least avoid the war in a large scale as the demons would not have a leader. But her intentions were still, if possible, to gain a truce between the two sides and most importantly to keep Alastor out of the conflict.

“NO I will not stay here to let all of you corrupting him! I will not!!!” the celestial cried out.

“Then leave!” a voice stroke everyone in surprise. It wasn’t Mephisto. Even he would not want to send Ikarus away. Alastor would not want such a thing and this might get out of hands. Everyone turned their head toward the girl in white who was the origin of the voice.

“What…what did you say Stella?” Ikarus could not believe her ears. She personally thought they were friends after all this time together. Then why? Perhaps she heard it wrong?

“I said leave, miss Ikarus! Together with everyone in this room, I am a servant of Alastor. I live to abide to his will. If he wants to destroy the world then I shall comply without a word. But you, since the very beginning has tried to deviate him from the path he chose. You want him to follow what you might believe is the correct path.

That ‘correct path’ of yours is just a delusion you gave to him and yourself. Tell me! You don’t really care about the demons don’t you? You just want to keep the conflict at bay, to keep Alastor away from it. That sentiment may seem out of concern at first but in the end it was just a selfish desire.

We all serve Alastor. We are here to assist him in realizing what he wants, not instilling our will into his. If you can’t agree with that then I suggest you to leave miss Ikarus!” the doll coldly said. It was the first time she talked that long to someone else and it wasn’t pretty, especially for Ikarus who was shocked by her every word.

“You…all of you just want to get rid of me so no one else will be able to help Alastor!”

“Wait Ikarus… that’s not….” Maria tried to calm her down but it was too late. The shot has been fired and with it the avalanche.

“If you want to put it that way so you can feel better about yourself then go ahead!” Stella continued.

“STELLA! You are not helping!” Maria shouted at the doll.

“I merely point out the fact!”

Ikarus finally realized it, that apart from her, everyone inside this very room had a grudge against the entire world. After all they were all demons,

To the demons, the recent news of Caelum’s downfall was nothing but a long awaited retribution that finally came to the humans. And the one behind it was no other than Alastor. Whether he was directly responsible or not, it didn’t matter. All they needed to know that their leader was there and the enemies received exactly what they deserved.

The time has come to announce a new king of Ragna.

The celestial knew that no matter what she said, it would not change their mind. Her final hope was to talk to Alastor in person. At least he would listen to her right?

Ikarus went out of the room and furiously slammed the door, almost breaking it. Heading toward the castle’s entrance, a pair of transparent wings manifested on her back and Ikarus took flight.

“Ikarus wait!” Maria shouted as she ran toward the door entrance of the castle. Unknown to her and everyone else, a figure has been heading toward the demon lord's castle after arriving in Ragna. And now that person was standing right outside.

Maria opened the door and bumped into the stranger.

“Pardon me but do you know if Alastor is back?” asked the stranger.

But Maria did not even take a good look at him. She was desperate to catch up to Ikarus. However she could not fly so she needed to run. To her it was perhaps just a servant asking about their lord.

“Hell if I know! Tell me when he is back!” and then she sprinted away, leaving the stranger in awe.

The visitor wore a very old style of clothing: a white tunic that leaves one side of his chest open held together by golden pins. The body, with the appearance of a child, looked human with a unique feature: a pair of small feather white wings coming out of his short golden hair.

“What a predicament! I thought he would come back here after killing Gnome! Where am I supposed to find him now?” the stranger contemplated “Maybe I should pay a visit at home to check on my children! I am a good father after all. My love for them knows no bound. But it has been so long since I was there I don’t know where that island is supposed to be anymore.

Ah yes the first woman who came out is a celestial! Perhaps she can tell me where Avant-Heim is right now!”

The stranger grinned. From his back, eight wings poked out and with a single flap he flew on the sky with incredible speed.

For a celestial, the number of pairs of wings showed their power rank. Two wings for common celestials, four for elite guards, six for heralds and high overseers. But eight were rare. In fact only one person in history had eight wings: Merkabah, God of Celestials.

History has recorded multiples times when one of the Six Gods descended from heavens, usually to lend them their aid in an imminent catastrophe. And it was the mortals who gave Gods their title, like “Sleeping Mountain” for Gnome. However one God didn’t have a title given to him by mortals: Merkabah himself for he has never descended from heavens before, except when he was first created by Eden and when he built the flying island Avant-Heim for his descendants.

It wasn’t because he hated to be on earth with the mortals. On the contrary he loved his children so much that he wanted to stay here instead of the Heavens. Yet his duty given to him by Eden, in hope that he might never had to use it, made him unable to stay on earth. For when Merkabah appeared in front of mortals, it was to signal the end of the world.

* * *

Alastor’s POV

“Nope! Never!”

“Come on! What is the harm? It’s just a word!”

“I have never consented to this! And I never will! Stop trying to make me call you ‘mama’! You are my aunt for God’s sake!”

I was currently in a dispute with Morrigan on the subject of my lineage back at the camp.

Apparently she was my aunt as she was the younger sister of my mother Lakyus who shared the same father but with different mothers. Noroeth, or Theoron, once told me about her. While he did not know her personally, he has heard rumors in Zagon court that the queen, Morrigan’s mother, was responsible for the death of Lakyus’ mother out of jealously and in fear that Morrigan might lose her right to the throne.

The question was: was Morrigan involved in my mother’s murder? Indeed if Lakyus returned to Zagon, no doubt she would be crown as Empress so Morrigan had all the reasons in the world to kill her. Supposedly she had a way to kill Lakyus despite her being a true Hero, there was my father and many more in the castle. Even until now I had no way to explain what could possible kill my parents.

And now that woman has come to me and asked me to be her son. Why would she, to be honest? Technically speaking I was an heir to Zagon throne already as I was kin of Lakyus. So perhaps I might be a danger to her throne. Was that why she asked me to be her son? To be able to keep me close? Keeping me from doing anything that might endanger her reign?

“Tell me something!” I asked her.

“Go ahead! Ask whatever you want!” she said.

“Why are you doing this? I still can’t find any reason to trust you nor do I understand your motives.” I said.

“You mean how I might be doing this to keep a leash on you so later I could use you to expand my influence? Or how I might be behind the death of your parents and everyone else ten years ago and all this is just a charade?” Morrigan gushed out my thoughts.

“You sure jump straight to the problems. Indeed! So tell me! Why should I trust you?”

“The best thing to do is you don’t. If you never trust anyone you would not have to fear about being betrayed right? But then again, a life without being to trust anybody is an arduous one and quite frankly rather depressing?

You know, living in the world of politics, deception and backstabbing are part of every day’s life. You have to be able to keep your wits, your sanity while fending off the scumbags who are after your life. Those who are not able to keep up will be eliminated. It’s as simple as that.” She took a deep breath before continuing.

“Lakyus’ mother was one such case. It was not a surprise though. How do you expect one who was raised as a commoner since birth to be able to stand up against the queen herself? While the woman wanted nothing, the moment she bore the king’s child, her fate was sealed.”

“So you are saying that….” I said.

“Yes my mother killed that poor woman. But it wasn’t just out of jealousy. No it was more than that. Because of me an innocent woman died. Because of me, her child, my sister, found herself isolated in this den of deception and was locked up in that accursed tower for years.

So yes I am the reason for the sufferings your mother had to endure for all those years.” Morrigan confessed.

“…Was you aware of what your mother was doing?” I asked.

“Partly! I knew she was tormenting that woman all those years. But I was too naïve at that time to think that she would actually kill her. But why does that matter? I can be recreating a whole story to make me seems like an innocent bystander who knew nothing of her mother’s actions. You never know.” Morrigan forced a smile on her face. She wanted to keep her calm but I could see through it.

“I will give you the benefit of doubt. Let’s just say you were indeed blameless for what happened to my grandmother! So what? Is what you are doing right now, adopting me, some kind of redemption? Some kind of atonement for your sins? Is that what you are telling me?” I told her.

“Atonement? You think too highly of me. The reason I want you for my heir is simple.

As for why, I need an heir as soon as possible. You see, because of a certain incident, I am unable to have a child. And the noble faction in Zagon is always looking for excuses to remove me from the throne. They consider my ideals ‘dangerous’. So they decide to make me do the one thing I can’t: to pick an heir in case something happens to me. If I am unable to provide one I will be dethroned and some scumbag will take my place. And that I won’t allow it.” Morrigan spoke frankly.

“So you want to use me to prolong your reign. Then why me specifically? Why not just take a pawn that is easier to control? You may have surprised me with your trick yesterday but that won’t happen again.” She caught me off guard yesterday but now that I knew how it worked, I could counter it.

“You are a powerful individual. Sooner or later you will be among those, if not the only person, who will decide the fate of the world. But the problem lies with your lineage. Except for a very few number of people, no one knows about your existence or the relationship between Asgore and Lakyus. Can you imagine the chaos that would follow if the people finds out that the demon lord and the Hero had a child?” Morrigan explained.

“If that information is so furtive, how come you knew about it?” I asked.

“One of the people who actually was there told me. After Lakyus’ death and your disappearance from the demon lord’s castle, before each of the remaining heroes went back to their home, one of them dropped by Zagon to inform. However at that time the king has become sick so the person told me instead!”

“What? Who?” I questioned.

“The rogue Arshe”

Why would Arshe tell Morrigan about such a thing? It didn’t make sense. I had to go back to Ragna and talked to Noroeth about this. Perhaps he could shed some light on Arshe’s actions. He knew him after all. And I needed to bring Alice back anyway, now that I was finished with Caelum. Fortunately, Amelia has given me a charm that allowed me to go back to the castle when I needed to.

Just before I left, I told Morrigan about my departure. Interestingly she did not stop me and only told me to think about her offer. I still could not understand that woman. I didn’t know if she was sincere or all this was just a trick to get me on her side. I still had a lot to think about.

At time like this, I wanted to lie down on Ikarus’ laps. It helped me to think clearer. However I was worried about what I should tell her about all this….why were things so much complicated? *sigh*

* * *

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE IS GONE?” the angry shout of a boy roared in the hall of the demon castle.

“She is angry about the whole thing you did at Caelum. But when we tried to reason with her, it kind of rubbed her in the wrong way so…..” Naberius explained.

“As I have told you, the celestial’s agenda does not correspond to ours. We don’t need her here anyway!” Mephisto added.

“You may not need her but I do!” Alastor fumed.

“Be reasonable, Alastor! You can’t let one person preventing you from your destiny. You are born to become the next demon lord and as long as Ikarus is around she won’t stop until she changes you!” Amelia intervened.

“I will decide what I will become. Not fate and certainly not you!” Alastor walked away.

“I have enough of this childish talk. You have to be aware that life does not turn like the way you want it to. At one point of your life, you need to realize your duties to your kind! What would your father say if he sees you right now?” Mephisto said.

“Don’t bring him in this conversation! I have never known him anyway. Why should I care for what a dead person might think?”

“You…Fine! If you won’t listen to the voice of reason then we will do it by force! When the master has lost his way, it’s the duty of the servants to open his eyes, to guide him to the righteous path!

We, the Four royal guards, won’t let you leave this place until you realize your error!” Mephisto drew his claws.

“Eh….nope! It’s three now! Count me out!” A voice broke the rising tension. And of course it was the slime Azureus.

“What the hell are you saying, Azureus? Now it’s not the time to be joking!” Mephisto raged.

“Hey I just don’t feel like beating a kid together with three other adults! You can fire me later if you want!” Azureus said.

“Damn it! You….Fine! Amelia, Naberius, let’s go!”

With the three royal guards charging toward Alastor, Azureus turned his back to them and bounced to the back of the room before jumping on Maria’s arms, who has stayed silent since the beginning.

“Why did you do that?” asked Maria.

“What? You want me to fight him too?” the slime said.

“No of course not. But wasn’t you supposed to be one of them?”

“And I am still one of them. But this fight is pointless.” The slime spoke as he relaxed himself on her arms.

“What do you mean?” Maria inquired.

“Simply put I don’t want to die!”