It was a place where the sky was dyed with blood red hue all year around.
It was a place where there was no night, even no sun. Only a little bit of dim red light that created somewhat creepy atmosphere in the surroundings.
This place, as if had stopped at the moment of dawn or dusk when the sun was still hidden beyond the horizon. The only exception, the sky was overwhelmingly red.
This unique place, although had very dim red light, contained many dense forests. But as everything here was beyond ordinary, the trees were also quite strange to retain their uniqueness. The trees, from leaves to the roots were completely black. And these trees were all carnivorous. Yes! CARNIVOROUS! For this reason no living animals, no matter how strong they were, never stepped into the forest under normal circumstances. So the animals usually lived in the wastelands. The carnivorous trees when did not get any living beings to eat, went back to rely on mana in the air to live. Yes, this place also contained immense amount of mana in air which helped to nurture many dangerous species that could give rise to cold sweat to the most bravest human there was, just by one glance.
This place where dangers were lurking in every corner, was not a place for the humans, but for the demons.
This was the ' DEMON REALM '.
Somewhere in this demon realm, there was a giant lake. The lake's water was crimson red. In the middle of this lake was an isolated little island. There stood peacefully a magnificent palace, constructed purely with red crystals. Although majestic, this eerily silent palace emitted a dangerously suffocating aura as if to warn the onlookers not to proceed near it.
On a particular day, this eerily silent aura was finally broken followed by a sound ' boom ' and a part of the magnificent, sturdy palace was blown away. The crystals in the damaged part of the palace was turned into dust, which flew with the slightest air like a fairly tale magic particles.
Through the large hole, left by the blast, a huge somber hall could be seen. In this hall a majestic throne was placed in the deepest part. Surrounding the throne on both sides were two rows of seats, arranged in a disciplined manner. But on that day, the rows were completely empty. On the contrary, on the huge throne sat only a six year old child, who was continuously trembling under the murderous glare of three ferocious adults, circling him.
The young man in the middle who was trying his best to hide his murderous intent asked, " Where is your father, child?"
The child who was on the verge of crying," He...he...ran away."
The three adults,"...."
Noah Anderson, the young man in middle rubbed his temples. On each side Sarah and Liam unconsciously broke a handle of the throne, they were holding. The child ultimately couldn't hold it in and began to wail loudly. Noah sighed.
He stared blankly at the calm lake through the giant hole of the palace which was the result of their forceful entrance and sighed again. Noah recalled the eighty long years they had been staying in the demon realm. Before all that, they were all ordinary humans, living peacefully on Earth. He still remembered that day when after failing twice in the first year of college as he was seeking comfort from his two good friends, they were summoned by this scoundrel demon lord in the dangerous Demon realm. Reason? The Demon smiled at them in embarrassment and said, " It was an accident". Then he gave them each a cultivation method according to their mana affinity as compensation, wished them saying ' have a good life ' and then vanished irresponsibly. Noah and his two friends hadn't recovered from the shock when they had to run for their life from the ferocious animals, from the birds, from the insect and even from the plants of the demon realm. The three then simultaneously cursed,
"Good life, my ass!!!!"
Slowly they learnt using mana. They stopped aging and retained their youth. Among them Noah found that his mana affinity was the strongest. As time flew, he became somewhat overpowered. Sarah and Liam also grew strong. At some point they realised they couldn't be called human anymore. The ferocious battles became a everyday routine but with every battle as they grew more perceptive towards battle styles, their resentment towards the demon lord slowly started to accumulate. They desperately searched for the Demon lord throughout the demon realm in order to take revenge and to seize a method for returning home.
Finally, after a lot of effort for the eighty long years, Noah and his friends managed to find the Demon lord's palace in the vast demon realm but what was the result?....The demon lord ran away....that scum actually ran away leaving his six year old son!!!
As Noah came back to present he found his good friends had already sat side by side on the rows of seats beside the huge throne and started a cursing competition on the demon lord. The child on the throne who was already crying loudly, began to cry even louder, sometimes in the middle of crying, he would deny the insults against his father.
Sarah, " Your father is worse than an insect...ha..ha..ha.."
Child," No, my father is bigger than an insect...wu..wu..."
Liam, " Your father is a blockhead.."
Child, " No..my father's head isn't blocked...wu.."
Sarah, " Your father is a poophead..."
Child, " You are wrong....wu..wu..there is no poop on my father's head..."
Noah, "......"
Noah was speechless. They were already more than hundred years old. ' How can you be so childish to bicker with a six year old child? ' Indeed the constant fighting in the demon realm might have reduced their logical reasoning.
Noah was about to turn his head away from them when suddenly his eyes caught something behind the throne. Upon observing closely he found out it was a medium sized box. He silently approached the box, while the child and his other two friends were busy bickering.
Noah opened the box and found that it contained multiple smart phones.....well smart phone like things. At this point, Liam and Sarah also noticed him. They curiously went by his side to see what was happening. The child also turned around noticing their movement. As soon as the child found the three, fiddling with the things inside the box, his seemingly innocent eyes glowed with a mischievous light, which was not at all childlike. But he soon concealed it and returned to his pitiful appearances.
" So What is this things?" Noah asked the child.
Sarah said cheerfully, " It seems like a smartphone. Does it have a camera? I haven't taken a selfie of my beautiful self for eighty years."
Liam asked, " Tell me child, does it have any games. I haven't played for ages.....ahh...if only it has some games, spending life in this damned demon realm might be a little interesting."
The child said enthusiastically, " Of course, it is indeed used for games."
Liam perked up, " Oh, really!! good! very good!! So how do you start it? I don't see any button to switch it on."
Sarah, who was a selfie maniac on earth said with grief, " Ahhh...it doesn't have a camera???"
The child said in panic, " Although.... although it doesn't have a camera the game is really fun. You can create your own avatar and the game feel very real....I have played with my brothers before.... it's really amazing..."
The child impatiently gave the three of them a smartphone like thing and told them to insert their mana in it.
Noah and his friends had spent many years without any entertainment. So this little bit of entertainment drew their attention. They inserted their mana in it without any doubt. The child by their smiled brightly but they didn't noticed it.
As soon as the screen opened they saw a outline of a human figure facing them, only the figure had no mouth, nose or eyes in it. They understood that they had to made their avatar. The three enthusiastically started to made their avatar with immense concentration. At this time the child said, " Create your avatar carefully....You can't change them later on."
There was a hint of laughter in his voice.
Noah felt something was wrong. He looked at his friends' excited faces and ignored the nagging inner voice, that was constantly warning him. He looked at the human outline in the screen. He then began to create his avatar. Noah selected the gender male, as for age he thought for sometime and decided on 16. After he looked at 'height' option he chose 175 cm, neither too tall nor too short. After he looked at the option in the corner of the screen - ' muscles '
Noah,"..."
The game was really very detailed. Even mentioning the muscles of the individual. There were three option - ' bulk ', ' moderate ', ' slender but firm '. Noah never liked those guys with bulging muscles. But while constantly fighting in this ream he gained those hateful muscles. He always wanted himself to be a handsome guy with slight muscles that was attractive to the girls, not some menacing guy with bulging muscles. So, at least in the game he chose his ideal body type - ' slender but firm '
Then when he looked at facial features he chose almond shaped eyes, long nose bridge, oval shaped face. When choosing the colour of the hair, he picked green, as he really liked those green plants of earth. But here he didn't find any trace of green in anything. Everything was either red or black. He longed for green so he also chose his eye color green. After finishing everything he found that his avatar looked more beautiful than handsome. ' Well it is just a game, there is no need to change.' Noah thought. Then he looked at the last option. It said which world did he want the game to take place? There were three option as usual, ' peaceful', ' violent' or ' hell'. Obviously he selected peaceful. He wanted to play a relaxing fun game. Under the option ' peaceful ', there were multiple words, listed below. Noah randomly selected one. After everything was finished he pressed on the confirm option and a while later he received a gift saying, ' because of choosing green hair a extra mana affinity have been unlocked, that is the wood magic. With host's current water affinity and unlimited strength, it will also be included in the new body.'
Then Noah watched as strings of words started appearing on the screen.
' Generating new body in different world.......'
' Starting..... percentage:..5.…10....20....50....…....'
Noah looked at the number but didn't thought much. He peeped towards his two friends to look at their avatars, then he was utterly dumbfounded. These two friends of his also completed their avatar creation and currently their body creation was also in progress. But...but the main fact was they both chose their opposite gender as their avatars. Liam created a gorgeous sexy girl in her early twenties and Sarah created a super handsome man in his late twenties. His mouth twitched. Noah didn't know why but he really had a bad premonition about this.
' Body generation completed.....'
' Transferring the power of host to the new body.....'
Noah again looked at his own screen. All of a sudden, to his surprise he felt that his power was gradually leaving his body. His eyes widened.
' Transferring percentage:....5...10....15.....20.....25.....'
Noah hurriedly looked at his friends only to find that their face contained the same expressions of surprise. He turned his gaze towards the child who was smiling brightly. There was not a trace of previous fear, found on his face. Noah cursed in his mind, ' Damn!!! we were fooled. '
He murderously looked at the child, " What have you done to us?"
The child laughed out loud. Slowly, in front of the three's watchful gazes, the child turned into an adult man. Noah gritted his teeth. Liam almost wanted to jump on the man to strangle him but soon slumped down on the floor as if most of his power had left his body.
Sarah said angrily, " Demon lord, you scoundrel!!! What have you done to us?"
Yes. The child was actually the Demon lord in disguise.
The Demon lord coughed as if to maintain his gentlemanly nature and said, " Hey, don't always curse at me. I really didn't do anything harmful to you. Well you see, I found out you are searching for me to obtain a method to return home. But truly I can't send you to earth again. So, as you don't like it here I thought of sending you in a different world. Look I even gifted all of you a new ability. The world you chose in the game will be your new home and the avatar you created will be your body. "
As the Demon lord said so, Liam and Sarah's face paled. They shouted out in unison, " I don't accept it.... change it"
' Transferring power completed....'
' Starting soul Transferring.......'
The demon lord, " Sorry, it is too late."
Liam and Sarah, " You...I said change it. I don't want to live a girl's ( boy's ) life..."
The demon lord guilty said," Well, can't do it, as a compensation I will give you three a communication tool each. With these, you can communicate with each other from different worlds..... I am quite considerate, right?"
Liam and Sarah shouted out loud, " I will kill you...you damn fucker!!!!"
Noah who was silently listening, "....."
His two good friends were really good at synchronisation. Why didn't he know before? Although the situation was not favourable, he really wanted to laugh as he imagined Liam as a sexy girl or Sarah as a mature handsome man...ha...ha. But he controlled it.
' transferring soul percentage:....5...20....40....60....80.....'
Slowly Noah's view began to darken until he completely lost his consciousness and sank into eternal darkness. Before losing consciousness he listened the demon lord wished them saying, " Have a good life". He also heard a string of curses from his friends, " good life, my ass!!!!"
Noah,"....."
Why did the situation seem so familiar?
' Can he really have a carefree, peaceful and normal life this time?'
This was the last thoughts as his soul left the demon realm after Eighty long years.