Gulf of Sumer, territories under demon control
In a valley covered with the blood and corpses of thousands of demons, a figure was walking while looking around. He looked middle-aged, with fair skin and red hair.
He was wearing luxurious and extremely elegant clothes, even royal in style, clothes that looked as if they had been tailored specifically for a king.
He looked exactly like a human, and if it weren't for the long antler-like horns on his forehead, anyone would have mistaken him for one.
Of course, besides the horns, his aura, reeking of blood and destruction, clearly set him apart from all humans.
The man's cold eyes fell on the corpses. No emotion could be seen on his face, completely cold. Even his eyes looked as deep as an abyss.
"Your Majesty, you didn't need to come here personally," Zalkareth said, kneeling completely on the ground a few steps away from him. His body was trembling from fear.
The demon ignored him and did not respond. A sword mark on one of the demon corpses caught his attention, and he bent down slightly to examine it.
Even though days had passed, the sword mark still contained immense power. It was extremely sharp and destructive, and more importantly, he could feel the power of Eternity within it.
"All of my children were killed here, and you ask why I came?" he finally spoke, as if hell itself had opened its mouth to speak.
His voice was rough and terrifying, completely mismatched with his appearance, a voice powerful enough to make bones and even souls tremble.
"Your Majesty, even so, your presence here could be dangerous," Zalkareth said with a tone filled with respect and fear.
The demon in front of him was none other than the Demon King himself, the strongest demon alive and one of the most powerful Demi Gods in the entire world.
An existence capable of slaughtering an entire continent on his own.
"Dangerous? To me?" The Demon King's tone changed, becoming more cruel and mocking. He stood up and walked toward Zalkareth, who was bowing on the ground.
He looked down at him, then lifted his foot and placed the sole on Zalkareth's head, grinding his head into the ground.
Zalkareth did not resist. He had no power to resist.
"Did you just say something could be dangerous to me?" the Demon King said in a humiliating tone.
"Your Majesty, that's not- not what I meant," Zalkareth said shakily. His entire soul was trembling in fear. One wrong word, and he would die here.
"Then what did you mean?"
"Those humans will definitely sense your presence. They may take this as a declaration of war."
The Demon King stopped moving his foot. After a brief pause, he lifted it off Zalkareth's head.
"Maybe this is fate. Maybe I really should slaughter those filthy humans," he muttered to himself, then turned again to look at the lifeless bodies of his children.
Even though he was known as the most ruthless existence in the world, in the end, he was still a father, and now he was staring at the corpses of his children.
"Where is Azrael's body?" Two of his children's bodies were not here, one was Wargon, and the other was Azrael, the future demon crown prince.
He already knew what had happened to Wargon, but where was the body of his eldest son?
"I don't- I don't know," fear completely overtook Zalkareth.
"Didn't I tell you to always stay by his side and protect him?" Before Zalkareth could react, the Demon King once again slammed the sole of his foot onto his head and ground it into the ground.
"Your Majesty, I told the crown prince not to return here, but he didn't listen! He wanted to obtain the legacy of Eternity and please you!" Zalkareth shouted with a trembling voice.
He had no choice but to mix truth with lies, otherwise, he truly would not leave this place alive.
"Please me?" the Demon King murmured and pulled his foot back again.
It was unclear what he was thinking. After a few moments, his aura calmed.
He waved his hand, and suddenly the surrounding space began reverting to its previous state, exactly like a film being rewound.
Then his hand stopped, and everything that had happened, the battle between a human and his children, how they were killed, the slaughter of all the demons, and even how that human managed to withstand a High Demon and revive after death, played before his eyes like a movie.
However, everything suddenly stopped and collapsed the next moment, as if something was preventing him from seeing further.
"Interference from a Demi God?" he muttered. The only existence capable of blocking his power was another Demi God.
He moved his hand again, and everything rewound once more, but this time he did not watch the scene.
[Threads of Karma]
Suddenly, a thread connected to the body of the human who had killed his children appeared. The thread extended across the Gulf.
The other end of the thread belonged to someone who shared an extremely strong karmic connection with the killer, on the level of friendship.
He was about to act. He raised his hand, and the surrounding space began to collapse. Time slowed, and it felt as if the sky itself was falling.
However, he suddenly sensed powerful auras locking onto him. He frowned, but the frown disappeared the next moment.
"You have one month to conquer the entire Gulf of Sumer and find the person at the other end of this thread for me." He handed the threads to Zalkareth.
"I will dispatch an army of ten thousand. If you fail, you will be executed publicly."
A demon army of ten thousand was enough to conquer even empires on the human continent.
And now the king wanted to send such an army just to conquer the Gulf. It was obvious that he wanted to witness a massacre.
Those were the last words he left behind before disappearing.
After he left, Zalkareth let out a breath of relief.