Chapter 25: The Oath of Existence
Baldr slowly looked down at his own body.
The powerful, hellishly hot demonic lava that had covered him entirely sloughed off like shed skin, revealing pristine white scales beneath.
The lava rocks, honed over countless ages until they were one with his body to rise as the Second Legion Commander of the demon realm, now peeled away like sticky residue, drifting far from him.
"This… this is all wrong."
Baldr's voice, once enough to make hordes of humans and spirits tremble in terror, now quivered with his own fear.
It had been that way ever since he was cast out of the heavenly realm and fell to the demon world long ago.
He had meticulously hidden his true form so that no one could know it.
His nature as a supreme ancient dragon of the heavens, striving only for unyielding righteousness, had incurred the wrath of the other dragons around him. In the end, ensnared by wicked slander, he was stripped of his divine status and plummeted to the demon realm.
Fortunately, the Demon King had accepted him, and for a thousand years, he had reigned as the boss of myriad demons as his subordinate.
Hiding within the blazing lava, burying his rage and shame deep in his heart, he had spent those millennia yearning only to grow stronger.
Yet now, he had been utterly stripped bare by this pathetic hero.
'Did that bastard know my true identity all along?'
The fact that he was a dragon fallen from the heavens was known only to the one seated upon the Demon King's throne.
And yet, this mere seed of a Demon King knew it?
Impossible. Unbelievable.
Baldr shook his head violently, as if to dispel the thought.
'No, that's impossible. He just used some skill on me.'
Baldr glared coldly at the hero, Kwon Mu-hyuk.
'But if, by any chance, he has figured out who I am…'
Baldr's scales bristled sharply with a rattling sound.
'I must eliminate him before he ascends to the throne.'
I knew exactly what Baldr, glaring at me, was thinking.
'If he thinks I know his secret, he'll try to kill me.'
The supreme dragon of the heavens.
A pure white avenger, cast down unjustly to the demon realm, living only to destroy the world.
Stripping away his lava armor was like touching his reverse scale—something you should never do.
Even so, I had used divine power to weaken the lava's dark properties, then triggered a clash between Baldr's own power and my dark energy to forcibly remove his armor.
'It's the only way he'll acknowledge me as the next Demon King.'
In most regressions, Baldr had come to me on his own, proclaiming me the Demon King, so there had been no need to strip his armor.
But in some loops, to claim the throne as Demon King, I had to do it.
I needed to demonstrate my authority as Demon King by re-armoring the stripped Baldr.
'Later on, if he wouldn't listen, I'd just swap out his armor.'
But those had been when my level was over 300.
Now, at a mere level 59, I'd stripped his armor.
Even combining the levels I'd gained from the cooperative battle with the knight order, eliminating the illusionist, the Red Wolf King, and others, I was only at 59.
Facing him at such a low level was uncharted territory; I had no idea if I could subdue him.
Still, I had an ace up my sleeve.
"Feeling ready for a serious talk now?"
"…What is it you want to say?"
As expected, his tone had calmed considerably. Even if it was just the calm before the storm.
"I heard you were searching for me through the Sword Tomb Church. Why? The Demon King of the demon realm hasn't perished yet."
"His Majesty the Demon King… merely sent me out of concern for what manner of being his successor might be."
"As if. The Demon King fell into a deep slumber ages ago. He wouldn't be worrying about such things."
"!"
Baldr's eyes, bristling with murderous intent moments before, shook violently.
No one knew the Demon King of the demon realm was asleep.
Not even the First Legion Commander knew.
It was the demon realm's ultimate secret, known only to the Demon King himself and Baldr.
Not something a fresh human, only just awakened as a Demon King seed, should know.
"You…! What are you?"
"My identity? If you've forgotten who I am, I'll remind you."
I drew forth my dark energy with full power.
Kugugugugu!
Resonating with the dark energy I emitted, the lava clumps scattered throughout the entire gate began converging in one spot.
They formed a massive sphere, sucking in the surrounding darkness like a typhoon.
"That can't be!"
Recognizing the black sphere's nature, Baldr couldn't hide his shock as he swallowed dryly.
"Baldr, long ago, you swore the Existence Oath - Conclave to me and pledged your loyalty."
"!!"
"Are you saying you've truly forgotten me—the one who took in an outsider shunned by the demon realm?"
"N-no, that can't be. You can't be him…."
For Baldr, the shock that I knew his contract with the Demon King would outweigh even the revelation of his true identity.
It was the unbreakable Existence Oath - Conclave, known only to the Demon King and Baldr.
When a god-level being falls to the demon realm, it was the highest contract, forged by the Demon King's authority.
Violating it meant annihilation, whether in the divine realm or demon realm—an inescapable noose.
Unlike Death Terraforming, which merely took lives without binding souls, this was different.
Only the Demon King himself could invoke this ultimate skill.
"Before I slumbered, I decreed my return. How dare you doubt and betray me?"
"……."
His silvery-white scales, which had bristled fiercely, now meekly lay flat.
Facing something beyond his comprehension, Baldr stared blankly at the black sphere I had conjured, lost in a daze.
'The Demon King's oath. It's real.'
Baldr let out a small sigh.
The technique before him unmistakably resonated with the Demon King's power.
An absolute domain, transcending reason, impossible to oppose.
"Ahh…… truly, it is you."
Baldr's body trembled as his knees slowly bent, lowering him to the ground.
The supreme destroyer, hailed as the mightiest in the demon realm.
The Demon King, dormant as if dead.
He had returned.
The demon realm. A world literally inhabited by demons and demonic races.
Looking around, there was no green or white to be seen—just black desolation, hellish with boiling lava everywhere.
In the vast heart of this demon realm stood a colossal castle, where a giant so immense it strained the eyes to take in slumbered.
The giant lying in the royal bedchamber with unfocused eyes wide open was the great king of the demon realm, the Demon King.
Alive, yet no different from dead.
The mighty, glorious Demon King, who had ruled the demon realm for eons, had fallen into eternal slumber to evade annihilation, trapped by the oath he himself had forged.
'Holding on so stubbornly, Your Majesty.'
Another giant stood silently beside him, gazing down.
Three lion heads adorned his massive back, each snarling as if alive.
His beastly, protruding maw twisted in mockery.
This was the king's bedchamber, inaccessible even to Baldr in his presence.
Only Baldr, trusted by the Demon King, could enter this thoroughly sealed and secret castle.
That was why even he, who rivaled the Demon King in overwhelming dominance, had not dared to overstep the authority of a king who both existed and did not.
Trapped for ages in the stifling prison of the demon realm, bound by the Demon King's oath like the king himself.
The rumor of a new Demon King's lamb growing in the human world had been leaked to lure Baldr away.
Thanks to that, the layered barriers were breached, allowing him to confirm his sleeping lord.
'Now admit it, my king.'
That your era is over.
That the demon realm holds no hope with you existing.
He knew Baldr, the Second Legion Commander, had exhausted every means to awaken the Demon King.
The longer the Demon King slept, the more the demon realm withered.
Lands without a master were endlessly ravaged.
'Yet I pretended not to know.'
The demon realm's destruction via the Demon King's death was also his, the First Legion Commander's, intent.
Just as the oath had bound him, he had taken revenge on the Demon King with another oath's snare.
Balpador, the First Legion Commander of the demon realm, who had descended from the heavens of his own accord. Duke Balpador.
"Now, I, Duke Balpador, shall ascend to the demon realm's throne."
With the Demon King's corpse confirmed before his eyes.
No amount of Baldr's loyalty could stop the usurpation now.
Kraaaaaah!
The giant's earth-shaking roar echoed through the Demon King's castle.
Existence Oath - Conclave (Temporary Application) has 25 seconds remaining.
The skill Conclave, which I was borrowing just to show Baldr, was nearing its end.
It was a taste of the Demon King's ultimate skill, usable only by someone not yet a full Demon King.
Limited to about a minute. As a mere sample, it allowed only the briefest use, making proper deployment difficult.
'Well, it was enough to subjugate Baldr.'
I looked down at Baldr prostrating before me.
Knowing from past loops— even at over level 300— that he only responded to this Conclave, I had rushed to acquire it from the underground dungeon of the Gaon of Light Main Temple before entering the fairy gate.
Hiding the Demon King's great skill beneath the Gaon of Light order's main temple was because it was the farthest from the Sword Tomb Church's darkness.
Many coveted the famed ultimate skill of the Demon King, and many sought to destroy it.
Amid demonic beings desperate to devour me, still just a "young lamb," to escape the oath's yoke, and greedy humans aiming to exploit me for their desires, it was the safest hiding spot.
Learning this skill now, before ascending to the Demon King's throne—as a mere "black lamb"— carried enormous risk.
I had no intention of mastering it even after joining the order, at least for a while.
But Baldr finding me earlier than expected forced my hand.
"Tch…."
Misinterpreting my bitter glance as something else, Baldr looked up anxiously and pleaded.
"O true harbinger of ruin! Punish this disloyal subordinate who failed to recognize his lord!"
"Indeed. For a while, you won't wear lava rocks."
"Y-yes… What?! My lord, that is!"
"Planning to defy me again?"
"No, my lord! All shall be as the harbinger wills."
Even obeying such a humiliating command to parade around stripped bare—he truly believed I was the Demon King's reincarnation.
'Everything was just what you yourself told me in past loops.'