The Birth of a Demon Lord (2)
Demon Lord.
A title signifying a king of demons, a chieftain of fiends, or a sovereign of the infernal realm. It was a familiar trope woven through internet message boards, video games, fantasy novels, and pop subculture—yet to me, it felt entirely alien.
And reasonably so. Under what circumstances would anyone encounter the term 'Demon Lord' in ordinary daily life?
Novels and games were diversions I had left behind before the Gate Cataclysm tore the world apart. And once civil infrastructure was restored to some functioning degree, the concept of leisure ceased to exist for me.
Fantasy novels? Our reality—where monstrous abominations spilled endlessly from spatial ruptures—was far harsher and more absurd than any made-up fantasy. Where would I have ever found the luxury or peace of mind to seek out fiction?
For reasons like these, the phrase 'Demon Lord' was a completely foreign visitor knocking at my door.
And that was hardly the only thing stoking my bewilderment.
What in the world is a 'gallery'?
Having something resembling a status screen materialize out of thin air was jarring enough, but seeing an incomprehensible string of words like 'Demon Lord' and 'Gallery' laid out before me left me wondering if I was awake or trapped in a hallucination.
"It's not an illusion..."
There was no fluctuation in the surrounding mana currents, my mind was crystal clear, and this was certainly not a projection manufactured by optical camouflage or sensory equipment.
Crossing off possibilities one by one through process of elimination left only a single conclusion: the floating text before my eyes—'Welcome to the Demon Lord Gallery'—was a tangible reality forged by an unknown power.
"Haha..."
A dry, hollow laugh slipped past my lips.
So the Gates were not the end? Was there an outside entity lurking beyond the veil—one that even I, proud of being hailed as humanity's strongest, could not sense in the slightest?
Whoever was responsible for conjuring this absurd window, existing beyond my perception meant they existed beyond my comprehension. And an unknown entity was no different from an active threat—a being capable of becoming an enemy of mankind at a moment's whim.
Moreover, the title 'Demon Lord' could hardly be considered benevolent.
If there was any silver lining, it was that the phrasing read like an invitation, suggesting an attitude closer to welcoming curiosity than outright hostility.
"What...?"
As I exhaled a quiet sigh and absentmindedly brushed my fingers against the floating script, an unbelievable sight unspooled across my vision.
Chief Manager: Ban-gal-juk
How on earth was I supposed to describe this?
Filling the corner of my vision was an interface both intimately familiar and profoundly bizarre. It looked almost identical to the online message boards I had seen in my early childhood.
"What is this garbage...?"
To be precise, it resembled an anonymous web forum from the early twenty-first century—a format that was already considered an archaic relic when I was a boy. Those text-heavy forums had long since been buried by the advent of full-dive VR and virtual reality networks, yet here one was, glowing softly before my eyes as if daring me to tap it.
Before I realized it, my hand had moved on instinct, reaching out toward the floating window.
Though I hesitated for a second at the retro layout, the controls came back to me quickly enough. I began clicking around, determined to figure out what this self-styled 'Demon Lord Gallery' was actually about.
Naturally, the first thread I opened was the one on the front page boasting the highest comment count.
So I scattered Surveillance Eyes across the whole kingdom to keep tabs on the Hero, right? But the dude couldn't find a single party member even after months, so I figured, sweet, this generation's Hero is a complete scrub~ But then out of nowhere he announced he was gonna subjugate the Demon Lord all by his lonesome.
I told my Four Heavenly Kings to just go deal with him, but before I knew what hit me, the Hero was standing right in front of the Demon Castle gates, holy shit...
He blitzed all the way to my front door wearing zero armor and holding a literal tree branch. Am I fucked or what?
My head spun reading the thread.
Between the post and the comment section, the only terms I could comprehend with certainty were 'Hero' and 'Demon Lord.' Piecing together the context with my limited frame of reference, the sole takeaway was that the original poster was having a full-blown mental breakdown.
"...Are Demon Lords always like this?"
Pushing that uncomfortable skepticism to the back of my mind, I clicked into another thread on the board.
Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date? Why am I the only one who can't get a date?
If you're dating someone, can't you just keep your fucking mouth shut and do it in private? Do you really have to go around broadcasting it to every corner of the universe? Fuck, if you're gonna show off that bad, why don't you just livestream yourself having sex for everyone to watch, fuuuck!
I pray the Hero bisects the bastard in the thread below this one!
"......"
What on earth had I just laid eyes on?
Ah, madness. My eternal companion.
A brand of lunacy so rancid and unhinged that it bled right through the dimensional barriers and oozed off the screen, leaving me lightheaded.
No. Surely not.
Even among Demon Lords, there has to be at least one or two sane individuals.
Clinging to that faint, entirely pointless sliver of hope, I scrolled further down the page. When I spotted a post with a relatively innocent-looking title, I tapped on it—
Only to be greeted by the exact same brand of delirium.
This is my first time killing a Hero, could you congratulate me? The moment I saw the Hero's party approaching, I dragged out all Four Heavenly Kings and my entire elite vanguard right to the dungeon entrance and wiped them instantly. Seriously, the Hero party couldn't do a single thing before getting erased haha.
.
.
.
.
Couldn't do a single thing, could you, Mr. Hero? Super pissed off, aren't you? Who gives a crap about growth arcs or awakenings when you get ambushed by the final boss at level one? Can't even catch your breath, right? Mad, bro?
So what if you're mad? Whatcha gonna do about it? Cry about it to your TV, cry to your fridge, cry to your shiny AMOLED LED TV~
"Haha..."
These... were Demon Lords?
To think that transcendent entities possessing the might to span dimensions and construct a cross-realm network spent their days doing this. The sheer absurdity left me speechless.
How could I find anything even remotely sensible on this godforsaken board?
Aren't there any rules, announcements, or moderator notices?
Dragging the scroll bar all the way back to the top, I finally discovered what I had been searching for: an official announcement authored by 'Ban-gal-juk,' the Chief Manager of the Demon Lord Gallery.
A shelter and public square of the Demon Lords, by the Demon Lords, for the Demon Lords. Below are the rules and guidelines to ensure orderly community engagement on the Demon Lord Gallery.
1. Do not engage in baseless witch-hunts or targeted callouts.
2. Do not form exclusive cliques or assert senior authority based on your Pandemonium class year.
3. Casual duels and forum flame wars are permitted, but taking conflicts outside the designated Arena will result in a permanent gallery ban.
3-1. Invading other dimensions for unsanctioned real-world combat is strictly prohibited.
3-2. Kidnapping other Demon Lords, affiliated personnel, or living beings across dimensions to force combat is strictly prohibited.
3-3. Merging dimensions together to force combat is strictly prohibited.
3-4. Simply put: if you engage in combat through any means other than the official Arena, you're all dead meat, you bastards.
4. Do not bring anyone into the gallery who does not meet the qualifications of a Demon Lord.
5. Do not disclose information regarding this gallery to any entity that is not an acknowledged Demon Lord, an origin of Pandemonium, or an origin of Hell.
6. Except under extraordinary circumstances or by express authorization of the Chief Manager (Judak) and Sub-Managers (Padak), the Dimension Travel Ban remains in full effect.
"Oh..."
Perhaps because I had just waded through a mire of unadulterated lunacy, seeing a public notice penned in a firm, reasonable tone felt surprisingly refreshing. It gave off the impression of a functional community that retained at least a shred of human decency and social order.
Of course, given that every participant here was presumed to be a world-ending Demon Lord, discussing morality and rules was richly ironic.
Even so, as I skimmed through the rules, one particular clause caught my eye.
The qualifications of a Demon Lord, huh...
I recalled that when this bizarre interface first forced itself onto my vision, one of the prompts had clearly stated: [Qualifications Verified].
Deducing from that chain of information pointed to a single conclusion: I had satisfied some unknown criteria to obtain the status of a Demon Lord, and that qualification had granted me admission into this exclusive forum reserved for world-enders.
No matter how many times I ran the calculations through Accelerated Thought, no other explanation held water.
"Ha..."
Me, a Demon Lord.
From a traitor to mankind, to a genocidal monster, and now I had gone and earned the illustrious title of 'Demon Lord.' How marvelous.
Then again, considering how many lives I had extinguished with my own two hands, perhaps it was only fitting.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I scrolled through the board with complicated feelings. In the dead of night, where silence bled into an oppressive chill, the Demon Lord Gallery served as a surprisingly engaging distraction.
How many hours slipped away?
Immersing myself in threads that displayed the exact same foolishness, pettiness, and absurdity as any mortal forum—despite their authors bearing the grand mantle of 'Demon Lord'—made the hours blur by in an instant.
Dawn arrived. Beyond the jagged horizon, the morning sun began its ascent.
A blood-red sun rising against a desaturated canvas of collapsed skylines, shattered concrete, and skeletal ruins. It was a bleak panorama I had stared at until I was sick of it over the past twenty years.
"...Time to get to work."
I couldn't lounge around forever; a mountain of tasks awaited my attention.
Just as I was about to close the Demon Lord Gallery—which had offered a brief sanctuary of entertainment through the long night—and stand up...
Was it because I had tasted communication for the first time in an eternity? Or was it because I caught a lingering whiff of mortal humanity from these so-called Demon Lords?
Despite resolving hours ago to remain a quiet observer, an overwhelming impulse to speak welled up within my chest.
I wanted to connect. I wanted to talk to someone. Anyone. I was curious about these beings who called themselves Demon Lords, and I wanted to question them. I wanted to ask what this gallery truly was, and why I had been brought here.
In the end, I could not resist that urge.
Pandemonium Time Log: 902.642.123.
In the quiet tranquility of the Demon Lord Gallery, a new thread appeared.
Title says it all.
A post whose body was shorter than its title.
Under ordinary circumstances, such a low-effort submission would have been flagged as spam, deleted by a moderator, or swiftly ignored. Even in an anonymous community stripped of pleasantries and decorum, an unspoken baseline of etiquette still applied.
Naturally, no one bothered to leave a comment, and the post seemed destined to sink into obscurity beneath newer threads.
That is, until another user singled it out with a callout post.
What's the deal with the IP of the guy asking 'How did everyone become a Demon Lord?' At first I was just gonna skip it as low-effort trash, but why does his Dimensional Log start with 111?
Into the calm, stagnant boredom of the Demon Lord Gallery, a piece of irresistible bait had just been cast.