The Hero Quit, So I Became the Demon Lord Instead
Chapter 0: The Day The Hero Quit
The sky was ablaze with an overwhelming riot of color an inferno of brilliant reds and deep golds that both enchanted and terrified... This was not merely an eloquent metaphor; the heavens were genuinely engulfed in flames, casting a surreal glow upon the landscape, transforming the capital of Aurelia into a hellish panorama of destruction. As I stood before the grand cathedral once a hallowed sanctuary filled with the echoes of blessings and fervent prayers it felt as if the very fibers of our civilization were unraveling before my eyes In that moment, the cathedral, a towering edifice of faith and hope, loomed over the smoldering ruins of what had been; it reflected our collective despair, a symbol of everything we had lost...
Ash fell around me like delicate snowflakes, drifting silently from the sky above soft, yet damningly heavy. Each flake possessed its own history, a tangible record of our sins and failures a grim reminder of the treachery that had laid waste to our souls from within. The air was thick with the acrid scent of smoke, a suffocating cloud of remorse that settled over the land, mingling with the echoes of lost dreams, the cries of the forsaken, and the unfulfilled promises of a brighter tomorrow.
With a profound and unbearable... heaviness in my heart, I plunged my sword deep into the once-pristine marble floor of the cathedral. The blade, once gleaming with divine favor and a symbol of hope for many, now dripped with a dark crimson stain mingling with the blood... of celestial beings
I had vowed to protect while standing in the name of righteousness Each drop pooled at my feet, representing the hollow promises of transcendent glory that had long since turned to ashes. The weight of my actions settled upon my shoulders like a crushing burden far heavier than the sword itself, as it bore the memories of lives taken and choices irrevocably made...
"Why… why did you stop, Hero?" came the voice that shattered the silence, a fragile sound like glass breaking.
"Because I finally realized," I whispered, my voice barely rising above the chaotic crackling of the flames that surrounded me, "that... I was never the hero of this story..."
The truth hung in the air, heavier... than the smoke that swirled around us bitter and stinging like a thousand tiny daggers...
Before me stood the Pope the embodiment of divine authority trembling, his hands outstretched in a desperate plea... or a salvation that had long ago abandoned him. His once-pristine white robes, symbols of purity and virtue, now clung to his frail frame, drenched in the warm blood of countless innocents a harrowing testament to a narrative constructed upon layers of deception and lies...
For years, the tales spun through the kingdom told me that I fought for peace, that each thrust of my blade brought us closer to harmony and understanding, that demons were heartless monsters savage horrors meant to be eradicated without question or hesitation...
They sang praises of the Light that so-called harbinger of justice, elevating me to a pedestal I never truly deserved...
Yet, no one ever warned me of how blinding that radiant light could be. How its brilliance concealed the... insidious shadows lurking beneath the surface. By the time I uncovered the terrible truth, redemption had already slipped beyond my grasp, leaving me stranded in a barren wasteland of despair...
The Demon Lord I had vanquished with such unyielding conviction… She was no monster. She was human an embodiment of pain and resilience, the last of her kind, merely defending the only sanctuary she had ever known. In my blind, righteous fury, I had become the very instrument of her obliteration...
"You saved humanity," they had proclaimed with unrestrained adoration.
"You'll be remembered forever," they promised, weaving a legend to immortalize my name.
But when I implored for peace the kind of peace that comes from understanding and forgiveness I was met with nothing more than an echoing silence.
When I succumbed to despair... and begged for mercy, I was bound tighter with chains of expectation and obligation...
And when I dared to question them, to voice my doubts and fears… they spat upon my hesitation. "A hero does not question," they insisted. "A hero obeys."
So, I turned away from the very ideals that had shaped my destiny...
"The hero they built became the monster... they needed," I proclaimed resolutely, my voice resonating with conviction amidst the chaos.
That fateful day, beneath the furious crimson sky, I cast aside my title the gilded shackle they called honor, a mere facade hiding the rot of betrayal abandoned...
my divine blade, a weapon stained by my misguided zeal, and walked into the burning horizon, toward the once-demon-ruled land a land that I now understood had been unjustly maligned by false gods and their half-truths...
The soldiers who bore witness as I strode past wore expressions painted with both fear... and awe, their faces a mixture of wonder and disbelief The church's bells clang painfully, screaming my name traitor, heretic, forsaken... The weight of those names was a burden I no longer feared to bear.
But amidst the chaos... surrounding me, something ancient and primal stirred.
A whisper emerged from beneath the ashes, a voice that was not divine but resonated with eternity.
"If the gods have abandoned you… will you take their throne instead?"
It was not temptation that lured me into this abyss but a painful truth... A revelation that shattered the carefully crafted illusions I once held dear...
That night, the Hero of Aurelia perished buried... beneath an avalanche of his own hard-earned revelations. From his ashes, something entirely new arose a man stripped of light, faith, and fear a being reborn in the fire of his convictions...
"Very well," I proclaimed to the void, my heart thundering with both dread and clarity at what lay before me.
"If justice belongs to mortals alone…then I shall become the terror they deserve..."
When dawn finally broke, the world emerged into an unsettling...new era not one characterized by salvation, but rather one of inevitable reckoning. The hero had fallen, and in his stead, the Demon Lord rose...
To be continued...