Everyone knew throughout the entire world that the end is coming.
It was proven more by a prophecy made by a dying prophet. He said;
"Beware and be afraid. The world has finally reached its closing chapter of life. The person everyone feared the most shall come and they – will bring the ending of the world. Do not trust the peacefulness of the world now, it is only the beginning of the destruction of the world."
The prophet died after those words left his mouth and the prophecy of the deceased prophet, spread throughout the entire world. The prophecy received different reactions from the people. Half was afraid. Some were denying this prophecy as the truth. The rest were in-between of these beliefs. But deep inside-
They knew that the world will not continue to exist forever.
They knew who the prophet was talking about, it was the DEMON LORD.
They knew from the start that the world will end once the Demon Lord appeared through their lands, so for centuries, they restlessly tried summoning people from the world, training those who had talents, and hiring adventurers in their armies.
But all their preparations were buried in vain when the thing they feared about suddenly appeared and it was not just Demon Lord, but a DEMON LORDS – three Demon Lord immerged out of nowhere and began terrorizing the whole world – claiming it as if it was just a plaything in their own eyes.
The appearance of the three Demon Lords shaken the entire world and the world was consumed by the darkness held inside the DEMON REALM – A place ruled by the Demon Lords along side with their loyal and respective commanders.
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Five centuries have passed since the appearance of the three Demon Lords and they brought pain and suffering to all species. They treated anyone as pest, and they looked down on anyone that they considered as weak – mainly humans.
In the demon realm, the skies around are burned.
Volcanic plains split like cracked glass, vomiting rivers of flames and ash. Magic clashed in the air like gods waging war – void met, flame shallowed wind, shadow tore through holiness, In the center of this apocalyptic battlefield stood three colossal figures, monarchs of ruin made flesh.
There they were.
The creatures feared by all. The three demons who conquered the world with their power.
The Demon Lords.
AURELIA, the Flame Tyrant, wreathed in living fire that turned the air itself to ash.
GIDEON, the Void Scholar, silent and shrouded in spiralling anti-magic that bent space around him.
DARIUS, the Beast Emperor, a savage titan crowned in lightning, blood trailing from his claws, and the grin of entertainment never leave his face.
"How wonderfully it is to see you all trying so hard to defeat us." Aurelia smirked, her golden eyes shinned brightly upon casting another spell.
Opposite them, a group of humans with a shattered hope still trying to cling to life.
The HERO PARTY – what remained of it – stood with broken weapons and blood-soaked armour. Their eyes were dull with pain but bright with defiance. Their leader's sword was snapped in half. Their cleric had no miracles left. Their tank bled out silently in the dirt.
"End of the line," Darius grinned, eyes flashing beneath his golden mane, "You fought well… for maggots, though, I much preferred if you die in my hands instead!"
He stepped forward, claws cracking the scorched earth.
But Gideon raised a hand, stopping him. "No."
"Save your breath, Darius." Gideon muttered, raising a hand to halt time magi arcing towards them. "They won't hear it much more longer so this time, those insects are mine to hunt."
Darius glanced sideways, annoyed. "You wanna drag this out?"
"No," Gideon said calmly, eyes glinting like blades behind his silver fringe. "I want them dead. Now. Efficiently. You charging in like a rabid dog only risks unnecessary spell overlap."
Darius scoffed. "Spell overlap? Please. You're just sore I killed more of them than you."
"Because you interrupted my ritual disintegration."
"You were taking too long."
"It was precise."
"It was boring."
Aurelia let out a long sigh and twirled her molten spear. "Are you two seriously arguing about who gets to kill them?"
"Yes," they both said in unison.
She rolled her eyes.
Aurelia stepped forward, the molten rock beneath her feet cracking like eggshells. She spun her spear lazily, golden eyes alight with predatory joy. "Are we still pretending they're a challenge?"
From across the charred battlefield, a scream cut through the chaos.
"We're not done yet!"
It came from Liana, the Hero Mage. Her robes were torn, face streaked with blood and grief. She held the limp body of Sir Roland—shield-bearer, friend, fool—whose final act had been to take a spear meant for her.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she stood, shaking.
"We'll end this!" she cried, forcing magic into her veins that her body couldn't bear. The ground beneath her cracked as runes began to form—a spell beyond her capacity, stitched together from desperation and half-remembered legends.
Gideon narrowed his eyes. "She's going to cast something reckless."
"Let her," Aurelia spat. "We'll snuff it out like the rest."
Liana's hands trembled as she pulled mana from the world, drawing on ancient words buried in forbidden tomes.
Aurelia tilted her head. "…That's not battle magic."
"She's out of mana," Gideon added flatly. "It's a bluff."
"Then let her try," Aurelia said with a shrug. "She's finished either way."
Darius took a step forward, thunder sparking beneath his feet.
"Where are you going?" Aurelia asked.
"To finish it."
Gideon sighed. "She's no threat. Let the spell collapse. It's already unstable."
"Exactly. So why wait?" Darius cracked his knuckles, a savage grin on his face. "No dramatic speeches. No more tears. She dies screaming. That's how Heroes should go out."
Aurelia narrowed her eyes. "Darius—stand down."
But Darius didn't hear her.
Or didn't care.
He leapt forward, claws bared, tearing across the scorched battlefield with terrifying speed.
Liana didn't move. She couldn't. Her eyes were locked on the glowing runes beneath her, veins of mana crawling up her arms like burning vines.
The spell activated.
Aurelia's smile vanished. "Wait—"
Gideon's face went cold. "Darius, stop!"
But it was too late.
The ground screamed.
The sky convulsed.
Darius was a hair's breadth away from Liana when the spell detonated—not with fire or force, but absence.
Everything vanished.
The battlefield cracked, then folded inward like a page being turned by a god.
Time shattered.
Space unravelled.
Light bled from every direction, then imploded.
Aurelia felt her body pulled in six directions at once. Her flames vanished. Her magic was silent. Even her thoughts broke into scattered pieces.
Darius was mid-roar when his voice dissolved.
Gideon reached for a counterspell—but the concept of spellcasting no longer existed.
And then—
Silence.
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On the between realm there was nothing at first, then, a breath can be heard from this endless darkness, and it was not taken, but rather it was given.
Somewhere in the black, Aurelia floated. Not in space, nor sea. Just… absence. Her thoughts came in sparks. Incomplete. Distant.
'Gideon? Darius?' She tried to call out their names but there was no answer. She cannot hear anything in this world, not even her own voice. Her body had no weight. No heat. No flame. Only a heartbeat pulsing like an echo.
'…Who am I?' She remembered rage. Fire. A spear whistling through a hero's armour. The way molten earth responded to her call. Then, she remembered—
A scream. A girl's scream. Then light. After that, everything else was smoke and glass.
In the void beside her, another spark ignited.
Gideon drifted through the darkness like a falling star that never landed. Fractured pieces of him whispered—calculations, battle plans, names of spells, the weight of an empire lost. Logic tried to reassert itself. But time didn't work here.
Nothing had ever happened. And yet everything had.
'I failed.' That thought persisted in his mind. It felt unwelcome and sharp.
His pride, his power, his cold control—all scattered into vapor. For a moment, he reached for the familiar rhythm of his magic but there was nothing.
For him this is not death—It's forgetting.
Elsewhere still, a storm rumbled.
Darius did not drift in this state unlike Gideon and Aurelia. He resisted the feelings that the void tried to make him feel. He snarled at the dark, fists clenched around nothing, memories gnashing against the walls of oblivion. He didn't know who he was—just that he was angry.
Angry at the girl. Angry at the spell. Angry at the thought of defeat. Angry at the idea of surrender.
"I'll kill her again," he growled—but the words never left his lips. He couldn't remember what voice sounded like. Or what killing meant. Just that he wanted to.
And then—light bloomed again.
It was not pure. Not holy. Not forgiving.
It was jagged and cruel. A crack in the void. A tear in the nothing. And through that tear—Colour. A breath of wind. The scent of damp grass. The cry of birds. And the sun. Not the twin suns of the Demon Realm. But a gentle, golden one.
And from the shadows of memory, three monsters—still unbroken, still gods beneath their skin—began to fall back into the world.
—————————
The first thing Aurelia felt was cold.
Not the heat of magma beneath her boots. Not the sweet burn of flame flickering in her blood. Just cold.
And grass.
Her fingers twitched against it.
She gasped, lungs stuttering to life. Air. Fresh. Sharp. Clean. She rolled onto her side, coughing as her hands scraped against grass and dirt. It wasn't brimstone or smoke she inhaled—but pine, dew, and sunlight. Her head pounded, and she struggled to rise.
'Where…?'
The sky was blue. Not blood red.
There was no sulfur, no screams, and no sight of Gideon, Darius, and the Hero Parties Either.
She pushed herself upright, limbs trembling—not from fatigue, but unfamiliarity. Her arms were too long. Her skin was pale. Too soft. She looked down—and froze.
Small hands with no claws, no scales, and no sparks crackling beneath the skin.
"What…?"
She scrambled upright, nearly toppling over. Her balance was off. Her stance wrong.
She darted to the edge of a nearby creek. The surface rippled, then stilled—revealing a face that was hers, yet wasn't.
Golden eyes blinked back with long crimson hair fell past unfamiliar shoulders and she had no horns, no tail, and no flaming crown.
Just a girl. A human girl who looks like she is sixteen or maybe even younger.
"I—I don't…" She backed away from her reflection, breathing uneven. "This isn't—this isn't right." Her voice trembled and she had not heard it tremble in centuries.
Something snapped in the forest behind her. She spun on instinct, arms raised to summon fire—and nothing happened. No heat. No magic. Not even a flicker.
"What is this place?!"
Elsewhere in the forest, Gideon stirred. His awakening was quieter, slower, but filled with a sharper dread. The first thing he noticed was the absence from his powers, he noticed that there was no pull of gravity around his core, no whispers of spatial rifts, and no sense of the void responding to his will.
He opened his eyes and he saw leaves rustled above him and a patch of filtered sunlight danced across his chest. He sat up slowly, eyes scanning the forest. Immediately, inconsistencies flooded in. His vision was clear. Too clear. His height was lower. His body was smaller. Limbs gangly and untrained. His power was gone.
He clenched his hand, trying to call out to his powers but there was no gravitational distortion answered and no shadows curled lovingly around his wrist.
"This isn't possible," he whispered, his voice cracked mid-sentence. Higher. Younger.
He turned and found a moss-covered pool nearby. One glance at his reflection nearly stilled his breath.
Silver hair and olden eyes that felt familiar… but not at the same time. He looked human. Worse—he looked like a child.
His eyes narrowed. "…What kind of spell transmutes soul and form?"
He heard a shout not far off—a voice. Familiar. Furious.
'Aurelia?' He stood, cautious, and he knew something was not right. And if the red-haired brat was here too, then—
He should find them quickly before they get separated more by the person who trapped them here.
Darius however did not wake up gently. He exploded into motion—snarling, twisting, lurching upright like an animal born mid-war.
"RAAARGH—!" His fist punched clean through a tree and the tree shattered, but the explosion he expected did not come which made him froze, panting.
After that punch, his knuckles were scraped, his bones are sore, and the feedback was—he become mortal.
"What the hell?" Darius muttered under his breath while he looked down at himself and he had no steel skin, no blood-etched tattoos glowing with fury, no horns, and no armour. Just a lean, tanned torso. A human appearance, young, and bare-chested.
"…The hell is this body?" he growled, voice cracking with adolescent pitch. "Am I dreaming? Did I die? DID THAT STUPID MAGE KILL ME?! I THOUGHT I CRACK THAT SKULL OF HER ALREADY!!"
He stomped forward, unaware of where he was going—just that he needed answers, or a monster to punch. The forest shook as he charged through it, until— He heard voices.
He heard them and there were two of them. He broke through the underbrush, eyes blazing with confidence and arrogance.
Meanwhile, Aurelia heard branches snapped nearby so she quickly spun, and she was ready to attack the first person who came close to her.
After a few minutes, another figure emerged, eyes cold and unreadable. He was a human with silver hair and golden eyes that shined brightly from the sunlight.
It was Gideon, but Aurelia didn't recognize him, neither does Gideon recognized Aurelia.
"Identify yourself," she snapped, taking a defensive stance.
Gideon's own eyes narrowed. "You speak a Demon language."
"Of course I do. What are you doing here, peasant?"
"…Peasant?" Gideon stepped forward slowly. "You seem awfully confident for someone lost in the woods. What are you?"
"None of your concern," Aurelia hissed. "But if you think to threaten me, I'll incinerate you."
"Please, I am happy to see you try.... If you can even lay a hand on me."
A wave of invisible pressure collided between them. Two human teens, glaring like gods ready to burn the world over a misunderstood insult.
And then—
Another presence.
A golden-haired teen crashed through the foliage, bare-chested, eyes wild and savage. Darius.
Aurelia's eyes narrowed. "We'll figure this out later. We clear the infestation now."
Gideon's fists clenched. "Target the cores. Disrupt their channels manually. Go for the joints if you're disarming."
They moved as one.
No powers.
No weapons.
No mercy.
Still Demon Lords.
Still demons at heart.
Still very, very angry.
But no one recognized him either.
"More humans?" Darius growled. "Good. Maybe one of you can tell me what the hell this place is!"
He stepped forward. Gideon turned.
Gideon was already in a defensive stance, eyes flashing as he saw Darius barrelling toward them, shirtless and furious.
"Stay back," Gideon warned, summoning nothing but tension.
Darius blinked, he chuckled at his words as if his words are nothing but a joke to him. "Make me." Darius grinned.
Aurelia raised her hand, trying to summon a fire lance—nothing came. "What?!"
Darius didn't wait. He lunged, fist pulled back. Gideon met him with a conjured barrier of dark light—but even without his magic, Darius cracked it with brute force. The forest shook.
Gideon raised a shaky barrier of will, and even without power, Darius's punch cracked it—just from force alone.
Aurelia dove forward, trying to kick both of them away—then froze mid-air.
Then it happened.
"YOU DARE RAISE YOUR HAND AGAINST A DEMON LORD?!" Gideon yelled, his voiced was loud and commanding.
Aurelia and Darius paused when they heard this.
Aurelia stared. "What… did you just say?"
Darius blinked. "Wait a minute…"
Gideon's brows furrowed.
"…Aurelia?"
"…Gideon?"
"…Darius?"
The three stepped back, eyes wide, scanning one another with new recognition.
A shared silence followed.
Then Aurelia whispered, almost in disbelief: "Why are we human?"
"I thought I crushed that mage's skull," Darius muttered.
"She cast something," Gideon said slowly. "A broken spell. A banishment attempt. It didn't kill us…"
"…It displaced us."
"Across worlds?"
"Possibly. Our bodies are altered. Our power is gone."
A moment of breathless, eerie quiet.
Until—
ROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR.
The forest trembled.
A Gate tore open in the distance—not magical, but primal. A rupture in the fabric of space. Through it poured monsters—dozens, maybe more.
Not demons. Not creatures of their old realm.
These were unnatural abominations—long, sinewy limbs; glowing central cores; faces like skulls split with too many eyes and no mouths. Tendrils writhing where spines should be. Bone armour made of their victims.
And they were hungry.
They skittered like spiders, some large as bears, others darting like shadows. They were Monsters but the three of them had no powers and no weapons at the moment.
Darius cracked his knuckles. "Don't care if I'm in a human body.....I still got these... So please die horribly you insects..." Darius grinned with excitement and a small laugh can be heard from him.
Aurelia's eyes narrowed. "We'll figure this out later. We clear the infestation now."
Gideon's fists clenched. "Target the cores. Disrupt their channels manually. Go for the joints if you're disarming."
They moved as one.
No powers.
No weapons.
No mercy.
Still Demon Lords.
Still demons at heart.
Still very, very angry.