Chapter 202: Unexpected Reunion

I'm, tired. That's all I can think about. I don't really wanna do this anymore. I'm losing time every single second I sit on this throne. I want to move around but Lagrima explicitly told me to just stay. And all I've been doing for the past week is just talking to these demons trying to improve their own kingdoms. But I got some things most of it.

I grabbed and read the documents that Lagrima made and prepared himself back when he was still the Demon King. So for the information that I found, this Demon King's castle is the very middle of hell itself. It's the centerpoint of the entirety of hell. Which I don't really get since Hell is supposed to be endless? Or something? I haven't found any information of that in my previous life but this is just an interesting point to note.

This place is called Chambers of Suffering. Which is pretty weird for a name of the kingdom... Until I saw that this is the place where the souls of the people dying from the overworld get sent. If their bodies are gone from the overworld too, they get teleported here too. Burnt from the giant furnace below this castle. I went there once and I couldn't stay there for longer. The absolute horrid smell and the room painted in red... Someone told me that it wasn't there before. Those blood came from the grille-... I don't want to think about that place again.

But in the end, once their bodies here are... gone, their souls will manifest into their new bodies. The same appearance as they were in the overworld. They're here to suffer for the rest of their... consciousness.

That's why I was shocked to see them here... The Bladedge group. "Rafael, Rael, Tas, Lily, Lila..."

Rafael looked at me in confusion. "Do you know u- Eek! It's the Demon King! Let's ru-... Ah, ah. It doesn't even matter. We're already dead anyway."

I didn't even notice that I was in the Demon King form. They won't remember me in this state. I dispelled my form and reverted back to my normal self. "Would this help you remember?"

"Zieglind... Reysh?" Their faces turned from confusion to realization. "I never thought that the next time we'd meet is at this place..."

"Same. What happened?"

"Wait a minute, the form we saw earlier... you're the Demon King?"

"...Yeah." I was hesitant to tell them but nothing could be done even if they know.

All of them backed off of me. "Then that means you're the one causing the death of everything and everyone!?" They all instinctively tried to draw their weapons but they noticed that there's nothing there. They accepted their fate and stood strong. "YOU'RE THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED THERE!?"

"The hell are you talking about?"

"ZIEGLIND! TELL ME. I want you to answer truthfully. Are you... Ouroboros?"

Thousands of questions just flew by my mind. "How do you know that name!?"

"So you are him... Tell us why!?"

"You're misunderstanding something here. I might be the Demon King but I'm not Ouroboros. How do you know that name?"

"...From our boss. I don't know if you're telling the truth right now. But since we're already dead, I don't care anymore. If you're Ouroboros, he'll come for you. The Symbol of Peace. The Hero, Zeraph Nindine."

"You're with that hero?" He's a total nutjob.

They began to tell me their story.

Ever since they left me from where I first came here, they've been exploring on their own. But all of them were frustrated. At the rate of how fast the players are going. They've spent all their lives getting to that point but the players and the growth of everyone took them just several weeks to get stronger than them. So the first thing that came to their mind was to... retire.

All of them found a suitable kingdom to live in. Their names before were already famous so getting into royalty was easy for them. All of them stayed together as friends as they all lived closely. Since they were the only ones that understood each other's frustration on the ever changing world.

Then one day, out of nowhere. Players attacked. It was the Serpent Union. They began to drag families out of their own homes and capture them in their own cages and dragged them to somewhere that they didn't know. The whole kingdom was lit aflame. All they could see and hear were the wounded, screaming people asking for help.

They drew their weapons and tried to fight off the Serpent Union but in the end... They were too weak to defend it. They hated how powerful these people got in just several months of being in this world. They despised everything. How unfair something is.

They came here to just be some side characters for the main characters, in short the players, to treat them as means for getting stronger. It was an unfair, cruel reality that they had to go through.

Just as they thought they'd die from there, they said that they saw a star fall from the sky. The moment that star landed on the ground, a huge shockwave was sent throughout the entire kingdom. Those who were close to death were healed to full. To those who had inabilities, they had them back. Blindness, deaf, missing limbs anything related to illness. As long as their alive, their bodies were healed back to full.

The Serpent Union were blasted away by that blast but they still stood strong. The serpent union used their ballistas and other siege weapons to break the walls for more of their soldiers to come in. But the population of that kingdom weren't scared by them.

They only looked at the person who was the star... There... they called him the hero. Zeraph Nindine was the star itself. Landing to save the people.

With their hopes placed on Zeraph Nindine, they didn't feel any fear. But absolute happiness that a hero has come to their aid.

No matter how much the ballistas, ramming weapons, bows, arrows, swords, spears, all types of weapons... No one could get in the kingdom. Zeraph Nindine placed his blessing on their kingdom.

And like an angel who descended from this world, he drew out his sword and rushed at the enemies.

No one could touch him.

No one can block his attacks.

No one could damage him.

He's being guided by the gods above to help this world from the players coming here.

And a few minutes later, not even a trace of blood was seen from the Serpent Union's side. It was clean, purified. And their bodies didn't wither away but turned into ashes as the dust came rising to the sky.

It was a beautiful sorrow sight. To the point that even if he did know how cruel those people were, he made sure to send them to the heaven itself.

And at that point on, they could no longer blame the balance of the world crumbling. So the Bladedge party discarded their old name and tried to make better version of themselves. They began to save other villages, kingdoms from the Demons and monsters rampaging from everywhere. They finally discovered their strength. It's just that, they didn't put effort before because they were all geniuses.

But now, those effort of their are finally being recognized for everyone to see.

And then one day, the hero, Zeraph Nindine came back again. This time he was there for them. He recognized their capabilities and skills and their heroic deeds. So Zeraph Nindine tried to bring them into his own party.

They were the first friends and allies of Zeraph Nindine.

Three people also came by to join the party. Together, they were all hunting down thousands of monsters. And they were both hunting down monsters and demons raging throughout the entire world.

Zeraph Nindine said that he won't kill any players just to win the battle. He only wanted something to protect. That's why he's so insistent on becoming a hero. He said that was his goal and the purpose of his life.

He's strong because people needed him. And that's why he took the hope of all people and became the hero that people needed.

And that's the story of how they met.

"But I don't understand how you know the name Ouroboros." I responded as their story finished.

Rafael was the one talking for the team, "We were looking for him. Or... you. He's been searching for the title of the Demon King for several years now. And once we heard that there was a new Demon King, we had to be sure that you're Ouroboros. You... or him... I don't know what to call Ouroboros. But he's Zeraph's worst enemy. I saw them fought once under the night. We couldn't see anything. But all we could hear were the laughs of Ouroboros as they clashed with each other. Zeraph won. With his holy sword, Arranca, he stabbed Ouroboros in the heart. And he won... is what we thought. But he broke the laws of the living. That man... resurrected."