Unbroken Ties from Ancient Times
The Demon King Kim Jae-hyun had one absolute priority: revenge. Yet he was a monster who slaughtered the innocent without a shred of guilt.
The Demon King.
Though Ferdinand was a filthy, repulsive traitor who mocked the lives of commoners and held himself above the law, he had for ten years run the Habsburg Empire in a merely tolerable fashion.
While he was the true instigator of the entire disaster, he had never plotted to drench the entire continent in blood like the Demon King.
Even if his revenge was justified, Jae-hyun could not allow such madness. Despite possessing the power to slaughter his betrayers in a single breath, he deliberately launched his attacks at a glacial pace, forcing the traitor who stood at the vanguard of the Habsburg Empire to gradually crumble. Countless soldiers from across the nations had already fallen, bleeding and dying on the front lines.
And there was more.
Any souls in the territories he had conquered who refused to join his army of darkness would experience hell.
The act of fathers raping daughters, sons raping mothers, children slaying parents, and parents slaying children.
The Demon King had not personally orchestrated every atrocity, but he felt no guilt. Some locations had even been his direct orders.
Jae-hyun did not despise this world enough to ignore it, yet he clearly held no affection for it. Irene and the other Archangels had all agreed that every angel in Heaven must be stopped from halting him.
Although Gabriel had noticed that Ferdinand harbored dark ambitions toward her, she never blamed him. Humans who coveted her beauty and looked upon her unparalleled beauty as a man would inevitably feel lust and, without realizing it, harbor their own dark thoughts.
Even though she had once suffered at his hands, Ferdinand was no fool. Before the monumental battle against the Demon King’s army, he would never have acted so stupidly.
“First, I shall go search for Michael.”
Yet Gabriel, who had hesitated to remain at his side, spoke of the Grand Archangel’s sword and turned toward Heaven. Yu Ji-ho nodded in agreement.
“Very well.”
They were destined to meet one death or the other. This world was the only one capable of fulfilling his ambitions and ideals, and he would never surrender it to the Demon King.
The Holy Sword was an absolute necessity for toppling the Demon King, and Yu Ji-ho was certain Gabriel would retrieve it.
After Gabriel vanished through the gates of Heaven once more, Yu Ji-ho stared at the open portal and spoke.
“Word is that over one hundred million will arrive. Prepare everything.”
“Pardon?”
Ferdinand stared blankly, certain he had misheard. Yet his ears had been perfectly clear.
“Prepare a tent or any shelter you wish. By my imperial decree, ready enough space for one hundred million celestial beings to reside. Send the order throughout the empire. With one hundred million angels, even without the presence of priests, we will still have more than enough hands. After all, that number matches the entire population of the empire.”
At first Ferdinand’s face remained vacant, but then a bright smile bloomed across it and he bowed.
“As you command, my ancestor.”
He had already endured the humiliation of his pride crushed beneath the Demon King’s boot and had lived in shame. The prospect of one hundred million angels descending upon them filled him with genuine joy. Constructing dwellings for such a vast horde would be difficult, but he never believed the one hundred million would remain. At least five million would surely perish in the war against the army of darkness.
In this moment, Griffith felt an odd unease. The opening of the Heaven’s gate and the sheer number of one hundred million left him bewildered. Gabriel’s decision to depart without waiting for an answer after Ferdinand arrived only deepened the mystery, yet he decided to embrace the relief that the Demon King had been defeated.
Before all else, he must report to his ancestor.
“Ancestor, I believe we should deliver a report regarding the monster Dirithas that has appeared in the current war.”
Griffith had heard the same intelligence from the Emperor himself far too often. He immediately summoned the image of Dirithas.
“…Gamara?”
Yu Ji-ho muttered the name of the monster he had once known without realizing it.
‘At the time when he was still human, the Demon King was a fan of monster movies?’
* * *
“Heh heh heh heh.”
Jae-hyun laughed. The moment he shattered his barrier, he had known the ancient dragon had escaped.
Of course he had. He had been the one to cast the barrier in the first place.
“Is jamming in place?”
He confirmed that he could not read Yu Ji-ho’s surroundings properly and verified that the traitor had prepared countermeasures against any eavesdropping by Griffith and Ferdinand.
Shortly after, Jae-hyun confirmed the opening of the Heaven’s gate.
“I couldn’t be certain, but now I am.”
As the summoned hero, Yu Ji-ho possessed a trump card that even Jae-hyun could not fully decipher. That existence had held considerable power, and extracting memories from beings of that caliber was impossible for him.
Yet he believed that against the four hundred and ten million-plus army of darkness he commanded, the celestial beings must be summoned.
According to the knowledge left by previous Demon Kings, although celestial beings were individually weaker than demons, their overwhelming quantity made them their true strength.
Similarly, the knowledge revealed that the personalities of angels differed little from the common image of them.
Yet Jae-hyun paid even closer attention to the fact that the Heaven’s gate remained open to the Intermediate World. The Holy Sword could not open it, and the only route was a direct assault through the Astral Realm. The defenses were ironclad; only he and Irene’s level of strength could breach them.
Irene occupied the same secretive position as a classified weapon on both the Heaven’s side and the Intermediate World’s. She was not hidden at all. Despite the world knowing how powerful she was, her beauty was so overwhelming that even her status as the strongest living being in this age was easily forgotten.
Her transformation into a Great Archdemon remained unknown to the world.
“I never imagined there would be such an ancient connection between Heaven and this world… but I suspected something, so it hardly matters.”
“I am sorry. I have already sealed any leakage of information regarding your previous masters.”
The Holy Sword offered its apology. The sword had wanted to tell Jae-hyun that Yu Ji-ho could open the Heaven’s gate, but one of the restrictions it had chosen for itself was to never reveal information about its previous masters.
It had been an act of respect toward those previous owners, yet it now obstructed loyalty to the current master. Jae-hyun did not mind, and the sword never regretted its choice.
“It does not matter. I had already guessed as much.”
At the very beginning, the Demonic Sword could have opened the Demon World’s gate and transported him directly to the Demon Realm. Yet the Holy Sword could not open the Heaven’s gate with its own power, which made no sense.
Celestial beings would descend in infinite numbers if they rejected the Intermediate World, but demons were the ones rejected there. Bringing even ten thousand demons was difficult, and only with the presence of a Demon King could the number reach one million.
“To the eyes of the angels, I and Irene must look rather strange.”
Jae-hyun and Irene were beings no different from avengers.
In a sense, they were the ones who had been trampled and murdered.
Jae-hyun had chosen death over the path of death itself, opting instead to become the Demon King and continue his revenge. That was why he could still pursue his vengeance now.
“You dare interfere with my revenge… foolish celestial fools.”
With the Holy Sword in his right hand and the Demonic Sword in his left, Jae-hyun rose from his seat and recalled the moments he had endured. He was no longer human but the Demon King, the worst of demons and the sovereign of all demons. He could never abandon his revenge.
They might believe his revenge was unjust. After all, he had not been the one who suffered.
He would also ensure that the innocent were not dragged into this chaos.
Yet he did not consider them innocent. At first, the act of forcibly taking life had been horrifying.
Slaughtering demonic beasts, demons, and even human black mages had all been unbearable.
He had vomited up what he had eaten and wept from agony. The sensation of being forcibly dragged into war against his will was the worst.
Even then he had trained with Irene and possessed strength, yet it only made him loathe himself more.
The sight of countless lives extinguished in the blink of an eye by a single attack had terrified even himself. Without Irene, he might have truly lost his mind.
He had endured such pain and rescued this world. What he had truly desired was only to live quietly with Irene and return to Earth to reunite with his family.
Yet they had killed him, stolen Irene, and ignored the obvious fact that Irene becoming empress was absurd.
The Pope had been one such example. Though he claimed to know nothing and died with regret, he had been a coward.
He had felt the strangeness of Irene becoming empress yet never once considered the grotesque betrayal.
Even those who sensed something amiss had ignored it and turned a blind eye while speculating about Ferdinand and the traitors’ actions.
That was why he believed this world owed a debt. It had no right to expect humanity or sanity from him. He was already the Demon King, the demon and sovereign of all demons.
“Brother Jae-hyun~”
And then Irene ran toward him, smiling brightly. Jae-hyun set aside his thoughts of revenge and gazed at her.
“What is it?”
“I just missed Brother Jae-hyun.”
Speaking so casually, Irene sat upon his lap without hesitation. Jae-hyun smiled as he watched her.
She was truly his beloved wife. Even after becoming the Demon King, the reason for his existence had become Irene. She was irreplaceable.
The world that had trampled even her was now even more hateful to him.
After all, every last one of those souls had already been killed by Laylana. He had saved them, yet the price had been monstrous. His anger and hatred had already turned toward this world.
His anger and hatred were justified. Yet Jae-hyun had no intention of calling the angels’ interference justified. They claimed to protect the world, and that was just.
Therefore, things were about to become far more entertaining.
He looked forward to the sight of the traitors, who had once been filled with hope, now losing that hope, sinking into despair, and collapsing in utter frustration.
The punishments he would impose upon the arrogant ancient hero Yu Ji-ho would serve as the perfect retaliation for daring to mention stealing Irene so casually.
‘Please do not fall so miserably. Entertain me instead.’
Thinking so, Jae-hyun stroked Irene’s head. Now the farce of war had truly begun.