~~In the Royal Capital same time as Ryuji's execution ~~

"Your Highness."

The brusque voice of a castle guard echoes inside the huge chamber of the castle. Designed in a royal ancient style, the chamber was mostly made of pure marble that is further supported by towering pillars with some uncommon writings on it.

A man with orange hair and blue eyes is sitting at the center of the chamber in a majestic-looking chair. Also, a golden crown lies on his head.

He is the current king of the Human Empire under the name of Josiah Arquenus VII. He took a sip of the tea on his right hand then look at the direction where the said guard is.

"Speak" he replied to the castle guard that is kneeling on the ground.

"A report just came in Your Highness, it is from Commander Cazius, he stated that he has just successfully captured a demon general that raided the Aldebaran last night." The guard said without any unneeded motions.

Upon hearing the words the king narrowed his eyes and not too long after that he lets out a sigh as if he knew what will happen.

"And where is he? He should be on his way here by now am I right?" The king asked.

"Lord Cazius also said in the report that it is impossible to bring the general here so he will hold an execution this high noon."

The tea on the king's hand nearly splattered to the ground out of his surprise. His eyebrows meet each other and said. "That bastard, going on without my orders again."

"Perhaps do you wish to send our avian knights to stop him?"

"No, no need, besides they have their hands full of the dark lord in the northern lands. Just let him handle that general for now…"

“Regarding on that matter about the highlands, your Highness.”

“Continue.”

After hearing the king’s permission, the castle guard continued on the other hand Josiah just sit there while holding his tea. “Our forces along with the summoned hero is doing well in the north, they successfully retaken the nearby town and is still sweeping the remaining forces of the dark lord.”

Josiah took another sip of his tea and after a while he asked another question. “Any news about the dark lords’ whereabouts?”

“No Your Highness, according to the hero's report this morning they haven't found the dark lord yet. Also, she left the northern plains and head to Aldebaran.”

“What?! All by herself?! Why?” Josiah’s tone rise.

“A battalion accompanied her sire and uhh, about the said captive in Lord Cazius’s report Your Highness.”

“Wait, don’t you mean...?” The king remembered something familiar but he was interrupted by a shouting voice of a girl coming from outside the huge doors of the chamber.

“Josiah! Josiahhhh!”

The king lets out a sigh.

“Let her in.”

The huge door gave a creaking sound when the stationed guards began to open it. When the door opened completely it revealed a female elf.

“Jo-Si...ah” Words escape out of the mouth of the female elf bit by bit as she catches her breath.

“Can you show some respect. I am the king now you know?”

“Right. Sorry, my king.” The knight onlookers on the exit showed no interest at all even though the elf showed a clear disrespectful behavior towards the King.

It is because this elf that has silky cyan hair in ponytail was one of the king’s trusted friends. She is wearing the kingdoms’ sage uniform over her noticeably voluptuous figure.

Not too long ago when Josiah was still on the fields hunting down monsters she was one of his party members. Her name was Aries Crestfall, formerly ranked as Mythril and widely known as the Elemental Sage but now she’s just one of the sorcerers working inside the royal castle maintaining the protection of the castle itself.

“And what's the rush all about?” the king’s tone delivered some traces disappointment.

“I’ve no— we have sensed a tremendous magic power coming from south! Probably in Aldebaran seconds ago!”

“...The Darklord?”

“I can't say for sure until we've confirmed it. Besides it is almost impossible for the dark lord to go straight from north to south undetected.” The sage explained.

“Maybe... it is just from a demon general right? We don't have to be so uptight about it...right?”

“General? Not possible my King. We are a couple of day away from Aldebaran. And In my 800 years of life, I never experienced a magic surge this great before and I am sure that it is not from any demon general!”

Josiah recalled the report moments ago which clearly contradicts his thoughts so he just decided to agree to the elf. “You have a point…”

“…But the demon lord's magic power last sensed a week ago so maybe. Maybe, the demon lord was the one who casted this crazy spell in Aldebaran.” Aries silently said in an unsure manner.

“Is that so? Oh then, let's assume that's just the demon lord no need to get uptight over hypotheticals...—then the king remembered the unfinished report that was interrupted earlier—“Oh yeah, Who was the captive again?” he said while gazing at the guard kneeling on the ground.

“Uh, your highness... It was a young boy in the name of Ryuji Shin—”

“…No way” Upon hearing the castle guard Aries can’t help but to cover her mouth showing her unease feeling.

A sound of glass that meets the ground that violently breaks into pieces echoed in the whole chamber. Both eyes shot opened Josiah forced words to come out of his mouth. “...call, call in the representatives of each alliance. Now! Tell them we need to have an urgent gathering!—the onlookers that heard his voice hurried out the chamber, Josiah slammed the hand rest of the chair with his fist—“It has begun! Why...why does it have to be now? The hero… She is not ready yet!”

“I’ll arrange an airship. We need to follow her Josiah” Aries suggested.

“Yes, as soon as possible. We can’t let that demon see her.”

As soon as Aries heard the kings’ word she wasted no time and disappeared to the exit of the chamber.

Josiah hold onto his forehead while looking down and sweats began to moist in his face that is wearing a very uncomfortable face alone in the chamber.

~~~Aldebaran~~~

As the dark clouds covered the whole fortress, the pressure inside of it began to get heavier and heavier.

“Haha See? That! that demon is what you're saying the hero? Ohhh. You all are out of your—” Cazius said while staring at the transformed state of Ryuji but he was unable to finish is words for some reason.

“Silence!” was all Ryuji said with his furious tone that completely cuts the commanders words.

In the rules of Ryuji’s magic, the counter offensive he needs to parry the target first before he could execute the secondary effect but as Cazius recalled he didn’t attacked Ryuji nor he was parried by him.

“Blll ahhhhh!.” The commander said but only unformed sounds came out.

Ryuji slowly approached the general on the side of the execution platform. The sound of his demon toes can be heard in the central plaza and no one dares to speak or just because they just can’t. The red haired boy who was now at least feet taller that the commander began to hold Cazius hair and pull it upward so that their gazes meets.

Upon looking at the eyes of the demon Cazius didn’t feel anything aside from fear. To him those eyes of pure evil will deliver him to the deepest part of the void and consume every of his consciousness. But he mustered his remaining strength and does his best to speak with his bleeding tongue he executed his orders. “Mages! NOW!!”

All of the terrified soldiers and adventurers in the central plaza who heard his command began pulling out some strange small stone or rather a gem out of their pockets and bags.

Ryuji noticed the gems. [A gem?! It all looked like Bel Zeria’s gem from earlier. But hers was 10 times bigger]

When the mages pulled out their gems one by one they started a chant. They are like whispering to Ryuji’s enhanced ears. But soon after he realized that it was not because their voice was weak it is because the language they are using is something he is not aware of. Ryuji turned his gaze back to Cazius which was smiling ferociously at him that time. The general looked like a wolf grinning its teeth to its unfortunate prey.

He put down the general and tried to stop the mages using his enhanced spell Counter Offensive. [Seriously, what are they chanting?! And wait those mages are still under the effects of my Counter Offensive so how?]. Not a minute passed after he realized that the eyes of the casting mages began shinning bright red and in an instance they all faced at the Demon Hero.

In that moment a strong gravitational force pulled his whole body downward. The ground around him breaks and the force made his one knee on the ground. Ryuji’s wrath lit up once again, not because of the mysterious magic being casted on him but because of the eyes of the casters that were shedding blood. Before him Cazius stand and look at him with a very annoying smile.

He didn’t noticed that his party were cornered that time by the gem-enhanced soldiers of Cazius. It is because of his pure rage directed at Cazius that the voice of his comrades calling for his name didn’t reach him.

“What a pitiful creature you are Ryuji…”

“…”

Cazius looked down on him and with his poisonous voice he said. “You were summoned here by those demon generals using the stolen hero summoning spell but because they were stopped in the process by our dear hero, your powers are incomplete and because of their absence during your early days here you thought you are the summoned hero.”

“…” Ryuji does nothing and just listened to Cazius. Besides the gravitational force is still active.

Cazius continued. “You? A summoned hero? The one who will stop this chaos? —the army general whispered at his ears— you can’t even save your own lover, comrades and your own self, you’ll never be the hero of this story Ryuji Shinozaki…” after a short pause Cazius continued. “Out of your own foolishness, you killed dozens of demons, hundreds of your ally. But don’t worry little boy that’s the very reason I am here standing before you, I… I shall end your existence here because! There can only be one hero and demon lord throughout the story and I vowed to my dead brothers, sisters and parents who were killed mercilessly by those damned creatures that I will send each and every one on you to hell. WHATEVER IT TAKES!”

Cazius pulled out a gem of his own from his pocket and immediately break it into his hand. Then the same mages that casted the gravitational magic to the boy began screaming. It was not their physical body that is screaming it was their souls who were forcibly being ripped out of their body along with all of their bloods into the gem that Cazius was holding.

Bloods splattered to the ground and began flowing at single direction towards Cazius. One by one the mages starts to fall to the ground. And slowly the bloods that were going to Cazius began forming some kind of a solid armor.

Despite in the middle of a chaos Ryuji realized that no matter how many dead people he witness or no matter how those people were killed he don’t feel anything. Even a bit of pity or vengeance was gone. And because of that he is convince that he’s really a demon. One thing he know for sure.

“I will now begin your true execution Ryuji.” Cazius snap his finger.

Then the soldier bring him the unconscious little elf from his party. The elf that supported him in the night of terror. The little sorcerer who respected him as a leader.

Cazius grow something like blade out of his hand that is covered by the bloods of the mages.

“And to finish this forbidden magic, a blood of a pure high elf is needed”

Cazius raised his blade in attempt to cut the thin arm of the elf.

“…Cazius…” but then the general was interrupted by a low-pitched voice.

The general faced the boy who was suffering from a gravitational pull earlier. The boy looked up at him and began standing up. The gravity magic was so strong that even the rocks around the boy break into pieces but the boy was able to move just fine. Cold-sweats run down on the general’s face.

“I’m sorry… but the one who should not exist in this world… is YOU!”

Ryuji said while staring at the general with his pitch-black eyes.