CHAPTER 43: THE DEMON GOD’S SEAL

Ard opened his eyes. He blinked and saw himself climbing a mountain staircase, breathing heavily. When he reached the summit, he saw a cliff with a huge magic circle in the center, surrounded by stones like Stonehenge. He felt his feet move on their own toward the center of the large magic circle, beneath the neatly arranged Stonehenge stones, which clearly served a purpose because runes or magic script were visible on every stone.

["Huh... where am I?" Ard’s consciousness asked internally.]

"Azroth."

Azroth turned around. He saw three knights walking toward him. Behind them, soldiers from the Orthus Empire began running up, then surrounding Azroth, who stood in front of the magic circle. Azroth glanced right and left, looking around as he drew his sword, Exgrandal, from his dimensional storage. A knight from the Orthus Empire stepped forward, removing his helmet to reveal a handsome face with a thin beard and long blonde hair.

Seeing the knight in front of him, clad in fine, shimmering armor, pointing his sword at him, Azroth gave a cynical smile.

"Wallace Casius Orthus, the new Emperor who replaced Evelina, what brings you here?" Azroth asked dismissively.

"To kill you, of course, Demon Lord Azroth. I know your plan to open the seal and unleash the Demon God Malekh," Wallace answered firmly.

"Kill me? Hahahaha... what a joke. You think you’re capable of killing me?" Azroth asked, laughing contemptuously, but he immediately glared at Wallace with a sharp gaze.

Seeing Azroth’s look, Wallace immediately flinched and stepped back slightly. Azroth strode forward toward Wallace. The intense, heated energy from his stepping foot melted the snow around him. Although Azroth’s form was already that of a horned human, fire began to emerge above his three black horns. His body grew increasingly muscular, enveloped in a black energy aura that swirled around him like a mist.

Wallace, seeing Azroth’s very angry appearance in front of him, immediately turned to look at his troops.

"Kill him! Attack!" he yelled.

The two knights next to him immediately charged forward along with hundreds of soldiers running and drawing their spears. The mages instantly attacked Azroth using their elemental magic.

"Hah! You think mere numbers are enough to defeat me? Don’t dream," Azroth yelled.

"Slam!" Azroth stamped his foot, meeting the earth elemental magic of a ground-shaking spell directed at him. Immediately, the entire area around him cracked open into a very deep chasm. Inside, a darkness with seemingly no end was visible.

"Dark Abyss," [one of the counter-magic spells if attacked with an earth element.]

Azroth raised his arm. From the cracks in the ground, hundreds of hands made of black shadow appeared, grabbing all the soldiers, mages, and the two knights, then pulling them down into the endless abyss of darkness. Wallace, seeing his soldiers instantly wiped out, immediately raised his sword toward the sky.

The heavens opened, and hundreds of angels descended, wearing golden armor, with eight wings, carrying spears, and wearing helmets that covered their entire faces.

"Hahahaha... so you brought reinforcements, alright," Azroth said, looking up.

Azroth swung Exgrandal, slashing the air. His slash became an open portal, and hundreds of demons, wearing armor, with bat wings, horns, long tails, and carrying weapons, immediately flew out and up to meet the angels descending from the sky.

"Clang," Azroth parried Wallace’s sword attack with one hand while smiling. The two closed the distance between their faces behind the clashing blades.

"You think you can win, demon, against the power of our goddess, Ophelia?" Wallace yelled.

"Hah! The useless goddess who tricked me and Esmeralda into killing the Demon God Malekh. I’ll settle the score with her one day," Azroth countered.

"Traaang!" Azroth swung his sword, sending Wallace tumbling backward. Azroth immediately turned and ran toward the magic circle and the Stonehenge behind him.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Wallace yelled, chasing Azroth.

Azroth placed his palm on one of the menhir stones that formed the Stonehenge. "Click," the stone opened, and a sword-like keyhole appeared behind it. Without a second thought, Azroth plunged the sword Exgrandal into the menhir stone.

"Rumble... rumble," the ground immediately shook, causing Wallace to lose his balance. Azroth smiled, then pulled Exgrandal back out and lifted it, then he immediately stabbing himself in the chest with Exgrandal.

"Phuah," Azroth spat up blood, but the smile did not leave his face, and he kept staring at Wallace. Then, several elves, arriving with incredible speed, came and carried Azroth away. But before leaving, Azroth managed to turn and look at Wallace.

"Evelina and I will return. I will be reborn in Fredonia, and Evelina will be reborn in Orthus. When we return... the two of us will change the order of the world by killing your goddess who has messed up this world. Mark my words," Azroth declared. "Heck," Azroth closed his eyes, and his hand immediately dropped limply.

The elves immediately jumped away, carrying Azroth and leaving Wallace alone. Suddenly, "Groan," the ground beneath the Stonehenge cracked and opened. A terrifying black giant gate emerged from the earth.

Wallace’s eyes widened, seeing the monstrous gate that looked incredibly evil and massive, enough to block the sun. "Gasp," the gate opened slightly, turning all the clouds in the sky red and horrific, as if they were in hell.

"No... no, the Seal of the Demon God Malekh is open," Wallace said, his face pale and full of terror.

"Crack," the world immediately fractured. "Hah... wait a minute," Ard’s consciousness yelled. "Craaaash," the world collapsed and shattered like broken glass.

***

"Whoaaaaaah!"

Ard suddenly woke up in his bed, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, breathing heavily, his face looking terrified. He raised his hand, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked at his hand.

"Hey, bro, what’s up? Are you dreaming again? Are you okay?" Geoffrey asked, peeking up with a worried face.

"Y-yeah, sorry, I woke you up. I’m okay," Ard replied, stammering and gasping.

"No problem, bro. Let’s go back to sleep. It’s still night," Geoffrey replied.

Geoffrey went back down. Ard turned to look at Ace, the garuda, rigidly perched on the side of his bed, seemingly observing him closely.

"I’m fine," Ard said.

"Caw," Ace replied, flapping his wings, then became rigid again and tilted his head, watching Ard, who was still gasping and now looking around to reassure himself that he was back in reality. After that, he grabbed his head with both hands and slightly massaged his hair.

"That just now... was a memory dream of my past life... I was the one who opened the Demon God’s Seal 1,000 years ago... and what does it mean that Ophelia tricked Eva and me... and were those last words of mine an actual prophecy?" Ard asked internally, confused.

Ard turned to look at the window curtain. He saw that it was still dark outside, with moonlight filtering through the gaps in the curtain. He tried to calm himself by closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, then letting it out. After that, he opened his eyes again.

"What’s really going on in this world... so who exactly our enemy are?Ophelia? Malekh? Or both of them? Just like Ainsley said this afternoon, this problem is clearly bigger than anyone in the world," Ard said internally, now slightly calmer.

Then he remembered several elves coming to carry Azroth’s corpse away from the gate. He lifted his hand and covered his face, his eyes gazing forward through the gaps between his fingers.

"Looks like I need to talk to Pyria tomorrow and ask her again. I don’t think she’s told me everything, or the real truth," Ard said internally.