Chapter 3 B-1 : The Undead Demon Meets His Companions: The Demon King’s Kin

Teleportation magic. One of the rarest kind of magic there is, it could only be done by the scarce few one of which was the former sage Marchosias. Matthew achieved this by using a magic tablet with the teleport spell stored inside of it, they immediately arrive at Halphas’ palace. Being frank Alastor had never heard of the name Halphas, even from the Four Heavenly Kings who he killed. He was a man shrouded in mystery and he wanted to find out what his intentions were. The architecture that his palace took was of a gothic kind, with the interior being delicately decorated with all forms of art, being exotic plants to paintings to furniture one would expect a noble to kill for. He was an eccentric man by the looks of his tastes, the maids of the palace were all vampires of course and Alastor was impressed that he couldn’t see any spirits surrounding any of these maids.

Around Matthew there were spirits that haunted him but these were of the enemies he killed in his life, something that was quite common for anyone who was a warrior. The skills he had used to conceal himself were not of the ordinary kind, if he were to infiltrate the royal capital he could do it very easily. Finally they reached the guest room where all the meetings of the vampires occurred, Matthew hastily opens the door with a smile on his face.

To begin with the room itself was neatly placed on a hanging balcony which had the full view of the moon, statues of men and women dancing hand to hand were placed along the sides of the walls with different positions to make it such that one would think they would begin dancing if they were ordered to, the paintings of this room were of different scenery. Sometimes the scenery was that of beautiful meadows, and it at times it was of the bloody battlefields, one had to admire the positives and negatives of life when looking at these paintings.

A round table was set on the patio section of the room, which in itself was surrounded by Lunavil flowers said to only open up during the full moon, sitting on one of the chairs at the table was Halphas. A respectable old man with the same pale white skin as Matthew, his greyed hair was combed back and his red eyes had a certain irresistible charm to them, wearing only a black suit with a red tie holding a wine glass in one hand to which he swirls as he sees them come into the room. He stops entirely and stands up walking towards the trio before stopping only a few steps ahead of them. He bows before them like a butler would to this master.

“I welcome you, Your Majesty Alastor Steppenwolf, Great Witch Marchosias Vainglory, Venerable Dark Priestess Byleth Nightslain. It is my utmost pleasure to have you within my castle as guests please take a seat in your servant Halphas’ round table”

He said in the utmost respectable voice as they went on to sit within the chairs with Alastor seated at the top and Halphas at the bottom, Alastor with a look of determination he stares at Halphas.

“Now I need to hear it from your mouth, why were you monitoring us”

“It seems it was not enough for you to hear it from Matthew thus I shall say it in his place and more detail. The Former Demon King before he died to your hand issued a failsafe plan, allowing those who were in his presence to know about it. The Four Heavenly Kings were amongst the first to be notified of this plan and as was the royal guard which I myself was a part of.”

“So tell me what was his failsafe plan”

“The usual failsafe plan, the new Demon King shall be the betrayed. They shall harbor immense hatred towards mankind and destroy them. To be honest I knew this was going to be the result I’ve lived for a long time being the royal guard, every 300 years a new Demon King pops up and improves our culture, our national strength and make us better. “

“You’re not satisfied with the demons being content with this”

“Of course not, the humans come here and try to take our land as they will and when we counterattack they send a Hero to kill our King and we are left without a leader once more. Was I given the strength I would destroy the humans myself.”

“You have a good heart Halphas”

“Is that so Your Majesty?”

“It is. And I shall tell you right now, I am not like the other Demon Kings, I will improve the Demon Continent’s security and army structure but I am not the same as the previous Demon Kings.”

“We have a clear mission given to us by the goddess Ego Sors Aeterna.”

“A name of a goddess I have never heard before. But continue”

“We are to show the humans what a true conquest looks like, we are to show them what true hell is like”

“We three were resurrected with that intent on our souls, that is our fate and destinies”

“Oh my, it appears My Lord and his kin are just as bloodthirsty as I. “

“Now then gather everyone inside of your palace”

“For what reason Your Majesty?”

“That you’ll know after everyone is gathered together”

“As you wish”

☆

All the vampires were gathered inside of the ball room where they sat around the arranged chairs with their extravagant chairs, all of them were confused about the event that was about to take place. Halphas, their father who took care of them like a parent had called them all for an announcement, they wore luxurious clothing whilst music played. The arrangement of the music was that of violins, pianos, harps and a low trumpet it gave a serene nature to the atmosphere of the ball room. Then Halphas appeared onto the stage that was set for times like these.

“I welcome you all my children. I know it was on such short notice but it seems His Majesty has an announcement to make”

His Majesty?Wasn’t the Demon King dead?The birth of the new Demon King wasn’t anticipated any time soon, this was common amongst vampires who had a strange sense of time. To them the next Demon King would appear in the next 300 years, two years would feel like a short time indeed. But those words were immediately silenced by the young man who stepped up unto the stage. They all knew his face, after all this was the man who killed the previous Demon King however he looked different than before. He now had the same pale white skin as they with the same crimson eyes but his were dyed in complete black, for some reason he felt familiar to them at the same time he didn’t. He was the same as them, a demon who lived beyond death itself.

“Greetings to all of you, my name is Alastor Vermillion. I was once the former hero as were my allies, until we were betrayed by both god and country. For the past 2 years we spent our time in the land of the dead being tormented by the ones we had indiscriminately killed, I do not ask for your forgiveness just your cooperation. I know many of you would refuse to aid the one who killed your leader thus how about I do this?If I defeat Halphas who is of the royal guard shall you all accept me as your new king?”

There was silence amongst the crowd, the former hero had said a strange thing. He had anticipated their displeasure with him the murderer of their king becoming the new king and for that he prepared a scenario that would force them to bow to him. By defeating Halphas he would be put higher than the man who was their father.

“So this is what you wanted to do Your Majesty, what a crafty demon you have become. Very well I shall accept your challenge.”

The joyful atmosphere that frozen over into something else different as Halphas’ claws came into full view with the former hero who had no weapon simply raising his fists. One of the maids who were closest between the two was given the role of being the one who was to give the signal for them to begin fighting, she was to drop a rose down to the ground and run.

“Ready?”

“Born ready”

“Heh”

“Sta-“

Before the rose even touched the ground an assault was already done, Halphas had already moved with his claws slashing at the former hero cutting the unfortunate maid who was caught up in his attack, Alastor merely stops his attack with his fist colliding with his sharp claws that could tear through magical armor within an instant. The result was unexpected as Alastor has managed to stop the attack without so much as a drop of blood falling down to the floor. He proceeds to kick Halphas in the gut before ripping his arm off in the same line of sequence, Halphas leaps backwards with another arm regrowing within a second.

“I have high tier regeneration, I do not think I will be damaged by having my arm torn off”

“No. This was a lure to gain a weapon for myself”

“What?”

“This is the perfect weapon”

“What tomfoolery are you spouting now Your Majesty?”

Halphas immediately sprinted towards Alastor who smiles as he crushes the arm with only blood left in his hands, another swipe of his claws enters his range but then Halphas hesitates and leaps backwards as he avoids something that shocks even him.

“Impossible…..!No demon should be able to use such an ability!”

The blood has turned into a liquid weapon that Alastor could freely control, Halphas bites his lips in anger.

“I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO SHOULD HOLD SUCH A SKILL!!”

He roars as he dives in to attack Alastor who merely swipes his right arm forward with the action of a spinning blood dagger rushing towards Halphas who dodges it only to be met by a mass of blood spears that appear from the ground that was soaked with it. He creeps low before leaping forward in an action that can only be described as animalistic. Halphas finally reaches Alastor who grins even more to this, his claws have swiped near his rusted armor but then a wall of blood appears to protect him with Alastor’s arm aiming for his heart to which Halphas evades as well by going to the blind spot of the blood wall.

“Got you.”

“?!”

Alastor is seen sitting on the wall itself with a grin that can be said to be murderous as he swings a jet black scythe down on Halphas’ unguarded back. He rolls before stopping on one knee looking forward shocked at the demon in front of him, he didn’t want to admit it but it was his loss. The Demon King had chosen to spare his life.

“Worry not, I am not going to take your seat as Vampire Lord, Halphas. I am merely here to spread the word that I am still very much in my prime. I have many plans for you Halphas, I will say this again but this time to a wider audience. I have returned from the grave reborn!I am going to be the Demon King of Conquest who will crush the humans under foot and make them fear us!And all of you will truly be the nobles of the night!”

To be frank Halphas had said words to appeal to the better selves of the new leadership but what he saw was unexpected. These people who were former heroes were intent to conquering the human nations and running them to the ground, many Demon Kings and their kin had said exactly the same words but somehow when it came out of their mouths it was twice as convincing was it because of this goddess he knew nothing about?Halphas could feel it, the gears of change were about to occur and these people were the machine that was driving that change. A new era was about to begin and he who had been a royal guard for a long duration of his lifetime now had the chance to become even more greater. He grinned showing his fangs with the others doing the same, as their red eyes seemed to shine brightly in the moonlight. The rest of the vampires who were with them also noticed this and shuddered in their presence.