Unnoticed, the Old Demon Faction members near the border of the Moon Demon Territory quietly retreated. They had received news that the curse on the Succubus had been dispelled. At this point, there was no longer any chance of harming her.

So, following their leader’s retreat, the members of the Original Demon also withdrew from the area, continuing their infiltration of the Demon Realm.

“Well, that was a close call,” Danas said, snapping his fingers after receiving the news. His father’s failure was exactly what he wanted. Now, his father had retreated, and even the Moon Apostle, who was seemingly carrying out the mission of searching for the Succubus, but was actually monitoring his actions, had also retreated unwillingly, proving the mission’s failure.

Of course…

“Your father and that colleague of yours are definitely still suspicious of you,” the girl’s voice came from behind Danas.

Danas wasn’t fazed.

“It’s only natural to be suspected,” he said calmly, “In such an organization, expecting trust is wishful thinking.”

He knew how ruthless, cold, suspicious, and cautious his father was. If it weren’t for wanting an “insurance policy,” he wouldn’t have been born, nor would he have survived until now.

As for the Moon Apostle, that woman had always disliked him.

Therefore, Danas was prepared for this.

“Then what are you going to do next?” the girl asked, “Your Seventh Demon Lord Creation Plan is nearing completion. You don’t have much time left, do you?”

“I know,” Danas said nonchalantly, “But there’s no point in rushing. For my plan to succeed, I have to wait for my father to make his move.”

“But what if your father directly devours that almost completed true Demon Lord Larva and becomes the seventh Demon Lord himself?” the girl asked tentatively, “What will you do then?”

“Don’t worry,” Danas smiled, “I have a plan.”

“That’s good,” the girl chuckled, “I’ll wait and see.”

“You won’t be disappointed,” Danas promised, a fearless smile on his face, then he murmured, “This peace won’t last much longer, this world.”

“Indeed,” the girl said, as if imagining a certain scene, her tone joyful, “Chaos is coming. I’m looking forward to it more and more.”

“I hope we can reap all the benefits from this chaos,” Danas said, smiling expectantly, “That way, our lives won’t have been in vain.”

“Heh,” the girl chuckled, whether in agreement or disdain, then fell silent.

Danas brushed off the dust on his clothes, about to turn and leave, then paused, looking in a certain direction. There, a vortex suddenly appeared, a mysterious vortex emitting a strange light and fluctuation.

“That’s… the aura of time…?” the girl’s surprised voice reached Danas’s ears.

“The aura of time?” Danas raised an eyebrow, “Could it be…?”

Before he could finish, a figure enveloped in colorful light emerged from the time vortex.

It was a goddess who seemed to embody the passage of time, yet without any sense of age or weariness, but rather a vibrant aura.

“Which time period did I arrive at this time?” the goddess asked, her voice pleasant, like three voices overlapping, with echoes and emphasis, incredibly unique.

“As expected…” Danas’s eyes flickered.

The cloaked Magic Fighters around him reacted, about to step forward and protect him, but Danas stopped them with a raised hand.

“Huh?” The goddess noticed Danas, as if seeing a savior, and quickly flew towards him.

“Hello,” she asked, her voice echoing, “Can you tell me what time it is?”

Danas was silent for a moment, then smiled.

“Of course, beautiful lady,” he said, bowing politely and respectfully, “It’s the thousandth year of the Peace Calendar. Does this answer help you?”

The “Peace Calendar” referred to the calendar used after the war between the three races ended, the Demon King was vanquished, and the various races signed a peace treaty.

The thousandth year of the Peace Calendar meant a thousand years had passed since the beginning of the peaceful era.

“Ah!” The goddess was overjoyed, “Then has any important event happened in the Demon Realm recently?”

“Yes, my lady,” Danas said politely, still maintaining his gentle and refined demeanor, “For example, in the past week, there was a great battle between Kamina, the Poison Demon, and a mysterious Evil God, an incident where the passage to the Human Realm malfunctioned and collapsed, and even the Hero, reappeared after a thousand years, is about to marry Airi, the Dragon Demon. These are all recent hot topics.”

Hearing this, the goddess’s eyes brightened. Although a flicker of guilt appeared in her eyes when she heard about the passage collapsing, upon hearing about the Hero’s arrival, she became excited.

“Wonderful! I’ve finally returned to the correct time!” She clapped her hands joyfully, twirling in mid-air. She was truly innocent, naive, and adorable.

Compared to her, although Danas’s smile was gentlemanly, it also seemed cunning.

“Are you looking for that legendary Hero?” he asked, seemingly friendly.

“Yes!” The goddess nodded vigorously, “I’ve been looking for him for a long time, about ten years, I think?”

“Really?” Danas said, feigning surprise, “You’ve worked hard.”

“Right?” The goddess, as if finding someone to confide in, said with a sad face, “Without a reference point, I couldn’t find the correct entry point in time, so I could only travel randomly, sometimes ending up hundreds of years in the past, sometimes hundreds of years in the future. If it weren’t for the Demon Realm only existing for a thousand years, we might have even traveled back to the time before its creation.”

“The Demon King existed back then, very scary.” She patted her chest, still feeling a lingering fear, “And we wouldn’t be normal existences in that time period. If we interfered with spacetime and changed the future, then the world’s Logic would force us into the river of time, making us correct history and guide it towards the original future. If that happened, we wouldn’t know how long it would take to return.”

“…That does sound difficult,” Danas said after a moment of silence, then asked casually, “But you’ve been to the future? I’m curious, what’s the future like?”

The goddess answered without any hesitation.

“It’s completely different from now! At least, the Demon Realm hundreds of years later is completely different from the current one.”

“For example?” Danas asked, feigning curiosity.

“For example…” The goddess thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, “There are more Demon Lords?”

Danas fell silent.

Then, the goddess seemed to remember something important and said hurriedly,

“Right, I still have to find the Hero. I’ll talk to you later.”

Leaving these words, she transformed into a rainbow light and soared into the sky, flying in a certain direction.

“Wait…” Danas reacted, wanting to stop her, but she had already disappeared over the horizon.

He opened his mouth, then chuckled wryly.

“That Hero will be in the Moon Demon Territory, and you’re flying in the opposite direction, my lady.”

Just then, the girl’s voice finally echoed.

“Is that the form of the Goddess of Time when merged into one?” she asked with a chuckle, “What a childish little girl.”

“She was only born two thousand years ago. From the God Race’s perspective, she’s still a child,” Danas said nonchalantly, “However, the information she brought is quite interesting.”

“More Demon Lords… huh?” The girl also pondered these words, “I wonder what caused that?”

“What else could it be?” Danas said without hesitation, “Based on the current situation, there are only two possibilities.”

“Either our plan succeeded.”

“Or my father’s plan succeeded.”

“There’s no third possibility.”

The girl agreed with Danas’s statement.

Although they didn’t know which possibility it was, at least, there was hope.

The two, thinking this, didn’t know that at this moment, the Goddess of Time, flying through the sky of the Demon Realm, was still muttering,

“Why did that Hero create so many Demon Lords?”

“Honestly…”

Meanwhile, in a corner of the scorched earth that was once the forest at the border of the Moon Demon Territory, the still-smoldering earth suddenly shifted.

A piece of metal emerged from the charred soil, gradually growing limbs until it formed a complete human figure, the metallic sheen fading away.

“Cough…” Gorud collapsed onto the scorched earth, coughing and looking around, his face filled with lingering fear.

“Good thing I burrowed into the ground.” If he hadn’t transformed into metal and burrowed underground, he would have been incinerated like those envoys, becoming part of this scorched earth.

“That damned Succubus, wasn’t she cursed?”

Despite his fear, Gorud couldn’t help but curse. Recalling the beautiful figure he saw, her breathtaking beauty, although his heart stirred, he also felt a surge of hatred.

“As expected, those Demon Lords are all a menace.”

He let hatred consume him. Knowing the Succubus’s ability, he didn’t want to be captivated by her, using hatred to suppress his feelings.

Even though he was once one of her admirers.

“Anyway, the Succubus has recovered. The leader must have ordered everyone to retreat, right?” Gorud thought calmly.

“In that case, I should also leave this place.”

With this thought, he stood up shakily.

He didn’t notice that two figures had appeared behind him.

“Bang!” In the next second, one of the figures behind him kicked Gorud hard in the back.

“Ugh…!” Caught off guard, Gorud fell to the ground, landing hard on the scorched earth.

He quickly reacted, his magic power surging.

Unfortunately…

“[Bestowal: Imprisonment].”

With a fluctuation of magic power, Gorud’s surging magic power was suppressed, as if locked within his body.

“Wha…!?”

Gorud was shocked, and before he could react, the foot struck him again.

“Bang!” With a thud, Gorud was kicked in the abdomen, his body flipping over.

Pain surged through him, turning his groan into a scream.

Then, the foot that caused his misery stepped on his face, the sole of a shoe entering his vision.

This humiliation enraged Gorud, a top-tier Legendary expert, filling him with fury and killing intent.

Just then, a mocking voice reached his ears.

“So you survived that, I wonder if you should consider yourself lucky or unlucky.”

Through the sole of the shoe on his face, Gorud saw his attacker: a young human man, looking down at him with a playful smirk, and a breathtakingly beautiful witch, observing him thoughtfully.

Who else could it be but Shien and Shafney?

“You…!?” Gorud’s expression changed drastically.

Shien and Shafney, looking at this rugged demon man, smirked.

“Who would have thought, it’s you, the traitor,” Shafney said, recognizing Gorud, a bored look appearing on her beautiful face. This look, however, provoked Gorud.

“I’m not a traitor!” he roared, “You, groveling before the God Race and the Human Race, you are the traitors!”

“Yo, still a hothead, huh?” Shien raised an eyebrow, impressed, “Although all those Old Demon Faction guys should be like this, this is the first time I’ve actually seen one. How strange.”

“Nothing strange about it,” Shafney said, still bored, “Those who truly resent the Demon Race’s surrender are a minority. Most of the so-called Old Demon Faction are just trash using the Demon King’s will as an excuse to do things that benefit themselves.”

Even the leader of the Original Demon, it now seemed, his true goal wasn’t to create a second Demon King, but to become a complete Demon Lord himself. Parion, following that Half-Demon, also claimed to uphold the Demon King’s will and oppose surrender, but in reality, he simply wanted to climb the ranks.

Under such circumstances, pure hotheads like Gorud were rare.

“What’s this guy’s background?” Shien asked Shafney, intrigued.

“Him?” Shafney said casually, “A former executive under Kamina, but he betrayed and disappeared a thousand years ago. Now it seems he joined the Original Demon.”

“Really?” Shien blinked, then smiled and said to Gorud, “Since you were a Demon Lord executive, your position in the Original Demon shouldn’t be low, right?”

“Which Apostle are you under? Tell me.”

Shien’s casual interrogation was met with Gorud’s furious glare. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Shien, unfazed, increased the pressure on his foot.

“Aaaaaah…!” Gorud screamed in pain.

Shien’s foot was almost digging into his face, the bones cracking.

But Gorud was tough.

“Kill me!” he roared amidst his screams, “Give me a quick death! Damned Hero!” He struggled, but with his magic power suppressed, his physical strength was no match for Shien’s. Although his physique suggested he was a powerful warrior, Shien’s growth in all aspects was maximized. At level ninety-five, even his physical strength was comparable to a Limit Level warrior’s.

Gorud’s struggles were futile, and he activated his Unique Skill.

“Clang!” His face turned to steel, a sharp spike erupting.

“Screech!” The spike pierced Shien’s foot, only creating sparks.

Shien smirked.

“Such a weak attack can’t even break through my [Inner Manifestation of Heaven’s Decree], and you think you can harm me?”

Saying this, Shien stomped down hard.

“Crack!” Gorud’s steel face shattered.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah…!” His scream intensified, filled with even greater pain.

“Kill me! Kill me!” He continued to struggle and scream.

But Shien remained unmoved.

“Answer my question,” he said calmly, “I’m quite interested in your Original Demon.”

He still had many questions about this Old Demon Faction. Now, having captured a high-ranking Apostle directly under their leader, he naturally wanted to interrogate him and obtain information.

“If you tell me the location of the Original Demon’s base and their leader’s whereabouts, I might even let you go,” Shien said casually.

“Of course, don’t give me that ‘loyal to the death’ or ‘dying for my cause’ nonsense. It’s too cliché. You might not be tired of it, but the readers are.”

Shien’s tone was casual, almost playful, but the pressure on Gorud’s face increased steadily. Gorud had no doubt that if this continued, his head would be crushed. Being crushed wasn’t a problem, he wanted to die anyway. However, Shien’s method of slowly increasing the pressure and pain was infuriating.

Consumed by hatred, Gorud laughed in anger.

“You’ll never get any information about the Original Demon from me.” This wasn’t because of loyalty, but because he was stubborn and arrogant, refusing to yield to his enemies or let them achieve their goals.

“Heh,” Shien sneered, “Don’t worry, there are ways to make you talk.”

He didn’t give Gorud another chance to resist, kicking him in the neck.

“Thud!” With a muffled sound, Gorud’s head lolled to the side, and he lost consciousness.

Shafney, who had been watching, finally put down the hair she had been playing with and looked at Shien with suspicion.

“Are you really the Hero?” she asked, “Judging by your methods, I’m starting to suspect you’re a demon.”

“What?” Shien asked innocently, “Are my methods that villainous?”

“Yes,” Shafney said seriously, “Even more villainous than a villain. You’re more like a member of the Old Demon Faction.”

“That’s good,” Shien patted his chest, feigning relief, “Being a righteous Hero isn’t popular these days. To avoid being called a saint, I have to develop this style.”

“Pfft,” Shafney chuckled, “Alright, stick to this style. After all, with us backing you, no one can kill you.”

…Is she implying that I might be killed otherwise?

Shien was speechless.