Chapter: 0
???
The first thing I tasted was blood. Not the metallic taste or the warmth.
Just blood.
Too much blood.
I doubled over and vomited onto the polished floor, wet coughs tearing out of my throat hard enough to make my ribs ache. My vision spun. Something warm dripped from my nose. More blood.
"Why...?"
My left arm burned.
No...
The white flame that used to be mine danced around it, beautiful and terrifying all at once, while a faint scarlet glow hung over the room like a storm cloud waiting to burst.
My breathing became uneven.
"Why?"
I coughed again.
"Why!?"
Blood splattered across the floor.
My hand trembled.
"crap—!"
Another cough.
"Why the hell are you up there!?"
I finally forced myself to look.
And I wished I hadn't.
He was sitting on the throne.
Not standing or fighting or celebrating.
Sitting, as if he belonged there.
Gabriel.
His red Overdrive aura slowly drifted around him like mist, illuminating the throne room in waves of crimson. He sat with one leg crossed over the other, resting his head against one hand as though he had all the time in the world.
Like this wasn't a battlefield.
Like this was boring.
He lifted one finger and looked at me.
His voice was quiet.
"Why are you still talking?"
My left arm suddenly exploded with scarlet light.
My eyes widened.
"What—"
The world inverted.
CRACK!!
My face slammed into the floor so hard my horns dug into the stone.
Blood sprayed from my mouth.
I couldn't breathe, Couldn't scream, Couldn't move.
Something invisible was crushing my skull.
The pressure increased and my vision blurred.
Then I heard him speak again.
"But that's fine."
His voice remained calm.
"I'd like to see how long you can continue talking while your head is being crushed into the ground."
Blood leaked from between my teeth.
My eye twitched.
I wasn't alone.
High-ranking demons.
Dozens of them, all around the throne room.
Every one of them was forced to kneel just like me.
Some were shaking, but all of them were trapped beneath that same invisible pressure.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
"I appreciate all of you."
His voice echoed throughout the room.
"Thank you kindly for handing over your lives."
The bastard. The insane bastard.
My entire body shook. I tried to curse him; I tried to scream.
And somehow the words escaped.
"What..."
Blood dripped from my mouth.
"What did you do to him...?"
Suddenly the pressure vanished.
Before I could react, my body was ripped off the floor.
I was floating.
No, I was being held.
Invisible fingers wrapped around my throat and dragged me toward the throne until I was face-to-face with him.
His eyes weren't angry.
They weren't joyful. They weren't anything.
He just stared at me, almost curiously.
"What did you say?" he asked.
I snarled with blood running down my chin.
"What did you do to him!?"
"You bastard!"
He simply stared.
Watching. Listening.
As though measuring how many insults I could produce.
And then he interrupted me.
"Your demon lord is dead."
For a second, my mind froze.
Then... I laughed.
A small laugh. A weak laugh, a broken laugh, a sad laugh.
Gabriel tilted his head.
"What is funny?"
I smiled.
Because he really didn't understand.
"You think..."
I laughed again.
"You think you've won?"
I could see the fear in everyone.
And I still laughed.
"Human..."
My voice shook.
"Do you really think you had the slightest chance?"
His expression didn't change, so I continued.
"Kill us." I smiled. "Kill every single one of us."
My voice became quieter.
"There are stronger demons. Leagues stronger. Things beyond your imagination."
My smile widened.
"When they find you..."
I almost pitied him.
"They'll make you wish you stayed a lamb."
Gabriel simply stared.
Then—
"Huh."
That was all he said.
"Huh?"
Like he had heard that exact sentence a thousand times, like my warning wasn't special, like I was just another corpse speaking before death.
"That's unfortunate."
I blinked.
"...What?"
Gabriel leaned forward slightly.
"Maybe you're right."
His voice remained calm.
"Maybe there are stronger demons. Maybe there are monsters I can't even comprehend."
His eyes remained empty.
"Then I suppose..."
He paused.
"...I'll just have to become stronger again."
No anger or pride or excitement, just acceptance.
"Not because I need to or because I want to."
He lowered his eyes slightly.
"But because it's a thing only I'm capable of doing now..."
His voice remained quiet, almost tired.
"Human, you say... Wrong. You are mistaken."
His gaze met mine again, and somehow that calmness terrified me more than rage.
"I lost my humanity long before I took my first step into Hell."
The room became colder.
"I've been built up, broken down, torn apart, and brought back together more times than you could ever imagine."
His eyes darkened.
"And now..."
He slowly rose from the throne, and just standing up made my instincts scream.
"Just like all of you..."
His voice echoed.
"I've become a cog, a component, a tool."
Then he looked back at me.
"A killing machine. And I will continue grinding."
His scarlet aura deepened.
"Until my purpose is complete. Until I claim the final throne. Until I watch every one of you drown beneath me."
His eyes narrowed.
"And until every evil being that ever existed is destroyed..."
He smiled, not with joy, not with hatred, or even with revenge, but just certainty.
"...by the sole thing they gave birth to."
My laughter died... and for the first time since becoming a demon...
I felt fear. Real fear.
Because the thing sitting before me wasn't a human or an angel, and wasn't a demon.
But as the scarlet glow deepened around him and his eyes became colder, and his smile became emptier...
I realized something far more terrifying.
He was beginning to look scarier than us.
And somehow...
That felt like the end of it all.