The Betrayed Demon King No Longer Hides His Power
The Demon King was destined to fall by the hand of the hero chosen by betrayal. The prophecy handed down from ages past, the very outcome countless souls had longed for… was unfolding into cold reality at this very moment.
“H…Hero… How could you… how could you possibly…”
The Demon King, bleeding out and dying. Before Arcadia Armageddon, the heroes of the hero party advanced with weapons drawn. At their forefront stood a woman clad in silver armor. With her golden hair neatly tied back, blue eyes gleaming, and a radiant Holy Sword gripped in one hand, she was the legendary hero chosen by God.
Elise Nocturne.
Her face showed not a flicker of emotion as she leveled the Holy Sword—shining so brightly it stung the eyes—directly at the Demon King. It was a scene that appeared noble, the very image of a hero striving to save the world. The sight of her carrying out God’s will and severing all evil filled everyone present with a sense of reverence.
“I curse you… you filthy bitch…”
“Farewell, Demon King.”
With a voice utterly devoid of feeling, Elise spoke her parting words to the Demon King, who struggled to spit out his hatred. The Holy Sword in her grasp began to emit an even more brilliant divine light.
“Go fuck your—”
-THUD!
The Holy Sword plunged deep into the Demon King’s chest as he tried to curse her. The intense light bursting from within began to incinerate his body. Already reduced to a mangled wreck by the hero party’s assault, the Demon King’s form could endure no longer. It simply disintegrated.
The miserable end of the Demon King who had threatened the world. All that remained in the pile of ashes was the crown that had once rested upon his head.
Thus, the wicked Demon King—symbol of terror—was completely erased from existence.
The moment she confirmed it, Elise Nocturne felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion and collapsed where she stood.
“…Hah… hah… hah…”
The hero panted heavily. Her comrades, who had been watching the scene, rushed to her side.
“We did it!”
“The hero has slain the Demon King!”
“Victory for the free races! The war is finally over!”
The sight of the embodiment of evil being annihilated before divine power. The long-awaited prophecy proving that justice still lived had finally come true. Cheers of pure joy erupted from the hero party.
They smiled brightly, embracing one another in celebration. But as she watched her rejoicing comrades, Elise spoke in a cold voice.
“We must not let our guard down yet. He was the Demon King. There’s no telling what kind of vile trap he might have set before dying.”
“Ah…”
“S-Sorry… I got too excited and…”
At the hero’s words, the party quickly reined in their excitement and tensed once more. Yet the very person who had spoken those words knew the truth.
There were no such traps.
She knew that he was not the kind of man who would resort to such things.
Even though he wielded the shining Holy Sword, he had been the complete opposite of her—filthy and ugly inside. A man who, despite living in darkness, remained incredibly strong and upright. A man of honor and duty, like a perfectly tempered blade.
Even knowing that, Elise had no choice but to say those words.
Because she was the hero.
She was the one burdened with the duty of defeating the wicked Demon King to save the world.
In that unnecessary atmosphere of tension, Elise stared silently at the ashes that had once been the Demon King.
This is our fate. Something that can never be changed. A destiny decided from the very beginning…
The tale of the wicked Demon King and the hero who defeats him. It was a cliché, a classic trope, and precisely because of that, it remained incredibly popular. From ancient myths to modern stories, countless versions of this narrative existed, and in every one, the hero overcame every trial and ultimately triumphed over the Demon King.
However.
Among the stories that existed in the world, there were just as many that ended in the complete opposite of such hopeful conclusions.
A world destroyed by evil.
People who had lost all hope and crumbled.
And a hero who suffered a miserable defeat at the hands of the Demon King.
I, Han Taemin, had become one of the characters in such a story.
More precisely… I had been living the miserable life of a salaryman with neither dreams nor hope when I was suddenly possessed by the final boss of the dark fantasy game Demon Blood—a game set in an apocalyptic world that I used to play. Not as the protagonist or even a side character, but as none other than the Demon King himself, Arcadia Armageddon.
For the past several years, I had desperately struggled to change what was, from the perspective of the hero and the free races, an utterly bleak ending.
Demon Blood was a game centered around the adventures of the hero party—the strongest gathering of heroes from the free races—who sought to defeat the Demon King, a being with the power to destroy the world. But the ending was always fixed in inevitable doom. The only difference was how many members of the hero party and their allies managed to survive along the way.
The closest thing to a good ending was the hero party barely managing to lead a handful of survivors away from the ruined continent. In the worst cases, there were bad endings where every character—including the hero—died horribly at the hands of the Demon King and his demons, or suffered unspeakable humiliation. Since the game had been released as an adult title, there was no restraint whatsoever; those scenes were depicted in graphic, unflinching detail.
In the end, defeating the Demon King was essentially an impossible goal within the game. If you didn’t want to watch the characters you’d grown attached to meet gruesome fates, the real objective was to play as perfectly as possible and try to save even one more person. That was the true heart of Demon Blood.
Knowing all of this background and every possible ending, I—who had become the very Arcadia in question—had spent years trying to find a way to avoid that destruction. Using the affection I had built up as a veteran player toward the game’s characters, I devised a plan to prevent the apocalypse.
The path of peaceful coexistence between the demon race and the free races.
I possessed the overwhelming power of the Demon King, and as a veteran player, I had the skill and knowledge to reach the ending with nothing but a broken dagger. If I wanted to, swallowing the world whole would have been child’s play. Conversely, I was certain that I could also use that same power to save a world fated for destruction—specifically, to save the free races and the people within them.
My plan, which I had dubbed the Peace Project, had been progressing smoothly without major setbacks. I minimized the offensives of the demons under my command and sent my subordinates to make contact with the leaders of the racial alliance and the hero party.
Since I already knew their personalities quite well, persuading them was difficult but not impossible. Although most of them were initially suspicious of the Demon King’s sudden change in behavior, my attempts gradually began to bear fruit.
Recognizing our differences and ending this meaningless, foolish struggle. The war-weary leaders slowly began to change their minds, one by one. And so, after several years, a path toward peace finally seemed to appear between the demon race and the free races, who had been locked in opposition for so long.
During that process, I grew close to the hero party—the greatest enemy at the present time. More precisely, I built a relationship with Elise Nocturne, the protagonist of the original story and one of my favorite characters, the very person who had inspired me to take on this task.
At first, Elise had been wary of my actions, but over time that suspicion gradually softened. Since she had been a character I loved even before my possession, her change brought me deep joy. And the closer I grew to her—the leader of the hero party—the more firmly I believed that my goal of a happy ending for everyone was within reach.
Moreover, as I built trust with the hero, at some point I began to harbor deeper feelings in my heart. She had always felt special to me as the protagonist of the original work, but the more I faced her beautiful visage directly and spoke with her in reality, the stronger my emotions toward her grew.
And so, I made plans to confess my feelings to her properly once everything was over. I drew closer and closer to the peace that everyone desired.
But at this very moment.
I felt an overwhelming sense of betrayal for the first time in my life toward the woman I had loved—the one who had stabbed me in the back at the decisive moment.
Elise Nocturne.
The surprise attack I never saw coming. The Holy Sword that pierced my heart while radiating hideous golden divine power. The single strike that turned years of my utmost effort—and the results that had finally begun to show—into nothing but foam. Shaking with rage and pain, I collapsed to the floor.
The Holy Sword emitted a fierce light. What I felt was a burning heat like molten lava searing my flesh. And an overwhelming calmness so intense it made me want to vomit. That bizarre and utterly repulsive sensation was the last thing I experienced.
Without even managing a proper resistance, I met my death—just like a candle flame snuffed out by the wind.
Only then did I realize that there was a reason the world was falling apart. And as I lay rotting on this floor, I sincerely regretted my foolish attempt to carve out a new path…