Upon opening her eyes, Æthelflæd found herself before an intense light, like a hole in the darkness, and from it countless corpses fell, regenerating their own bodies as they plummeted.
When they touched the ground of dark rock, it was a light landing, like a bird alighting.
And from there they walked in all directions.
Æthelflæd was in Hell, and beside her, the Demon King slept peacefully.
Blith was also nearby, standing still, watching the rain of bodies like the tranquil dew of early morning. He no longer had organized memories, he didn't remember who he was or had been, merely awaiting his return to the River of Life.
— Demon King! — tearfully, Æthelflæd embraced the enormous red body of the Demon King. — Where are we? I don't feel anyone else's aura, who are these people?
— You, foolish Human. Do you feel no fear beside me?
— None at all! — and Æthelflæd was seized by fear and dread, and as she felt her own body, she noticed she wore her former garments, yet she had no alchemy left. — My things have been stolen!
— Calm that loli heart of yours. You weren't robbed; in fact, we are dead.
— How can I be calmer with that news! — Æthelflæd grabbed the Demon King's head, which was reclining against rocks as if on a bed, and shook it.
He explained to the Alchemist about the three-day period before they would be sent definitively to the River of Life, and added:
— It's three days in the Physical Dimension. Here in Hell, time passes differently. Each day on Earth equates to about fifty years down here.
— Does that mean my friends are married with children, having sex all the time, and I'm still just a loli! — lamented Æthelflæd, still clinging to the Demon King's immense head.
— That reminds me of something. — pondered the Demon King. — This embrace, there was a time when this was all I desired. — and he laughed at himself from when he was still small, in an ephemeral memory that visited him.
— I can hug you as much as you want! — and Æthelflæd hugged him, climbing onto the Demon King's reclining body. He was so large that she could sit on his chest. — Tell me more about that time, before you were the guy on the Bone Throne, all edgy and teenage-like.
— I'm not a teenager. — retorted the Demon King irritably, then relaxed. Even though corpses kept arriving due to the massacres in the Physical Dimension, there was no danger among the dead around them, only the compression of waiting for the definitive end. — In that time, everything was war. And Level 20s were heroes who could kill whomever they wanted. They were worshipped, but not out of respect, out of fear. The world was a terrible place; there was no peace, nothing but war.
— Sounds like crap. — noted Æthelflæd.
— And it was far worse than that. A city could vanish in flames on the whim of someone having a bad morning. And there were so many accumulated grudges that you were born an enemy of some thirty different races you would never meet until the day of your death. — the Demon King laughed, but back then he had feared everyone. — I was a bit smaller than you. And if you look at my appearance, I'm not exactly a wellspring of beauty. In fact, I cause fear just by people looking too long in my direction. Some races even consider me a type of demon.
— Don't say that, you're great, and you have this body. — Æthelflæd squeezed the Legendary's chest, appreciating the sculpted musculature beneath her.
— But I wasn't like this. I looked like a skeleton, all dried up, with my ribs showing. And worse, I had even less Aura than you.
— Impossible!
— It's true, I was a slave. Selling children was common. Imagine having ten children and not being able to pay for two. Poverty was the norm. And excess was allowed only to those with high levels. I remained at Level 1 for nearly a thousand years. And I saw little change in that first millennium.
— And how did you free yourself?
— Free myself? There is nothing more comfortable than a lack of character toward oneself. When mediocrity becomes your nest. For a thousand years I was a slave. I passed from father to son, from son to grandson, from grandson to great-grandson, and beyond, rebellious and useless. When the rebellion is in the mind and not in action, the one who enslaves you legitimizes their power. Those who have power will never give it up; it falls to the enslaved to free themselves. For a long time I walked in circles, without any action outside of what I was taught. And what was I taught if not to be a slave? There are infinite ways to remain enslaved: your family, your religion, your fear, your discipline, your morality, those you love, those you hate, your dreams, and your gratitude. However, there is only one way to be free, and that is violence.
— That sounds like a very bad moral lesson, Lord Demon King!
— Morality itself was invented by those who keep you enslaved, Lady Æthelflæd. Without that violence, there is no peace, no order, and no justice. That is what I saw just before I was freed. By my own hands. I killed them all, without exception.
— You even killed the dogs and the chickens! — Æthelflæd was shocked.
— Right, except for their animals. Then I went after the politicians and killed them, and then the judges and the nobility. They were smaller kingdoms; it took me little more than six years. And the kingdom where I was born became ashes and ruins. It was around that time that I met Blith.
— Blith enters the story! — Æthelflæd celebrated and called for the Butler. — Come, Blith! Come hear your part! — Blith no longer remembered his own name and did not turn when called.
— He was an Archmage. He had been hired to kill me, but we came to an understanding, and he also had issues with that kingdom. He taught me magic, but in exchange, he gave me lessons in philosophy. And worst of all, Immortal Philosophy. They say the older a philosopher gets, the crazier their thoughts become. Imagine that among a people who only die if they are murdered. They see good in a way I never understood, but perhaps that influenced me. It was around then that I saw a central problem in my original plan.
— And what was your original plan?
— Kill all Level 20s.
— How drastic!
— But it wouldn't work. Because others would always be born. I adapted my plan using an ancient legend of the Immortals. It spoke of this Demon King, it was more of a fable about not going too deep into the forest. However, some bards were paid, and my name began to gain fame. At that time, with the magic Blith taught me, I became feared. And the obvious happened, my enemies banded together, and it was catastrophic.
— How catastrophic?
— Well, the old continents sank, and two new ones emerged. After that, I did kill all Level 20s for good, and fully assumed the name Demon King. I created the law that banished Level 20s to the Monster Continent, and I succeeded.
— Succeeded in what, exactly?
— Peace. Without the most problematic ones, those of lower levels began to organize. Cities grew, and every now and then someone would come to challenge me. Until, after a few millennia, they stopped coming, and the world without wars I had always dreamed of came into existence, but not for me. I only had Blith and his teachings. Until three lolis visited me.
Æthelflæd laughed, embarrassed.
— And who killed you? How could there be someone so strong?
— There is a limit. My fame was far greater than my powers. At Level 20, everyone is equally powerful, it's just a matter of how you use your magic. Someone extremely powerful against one spell can be useless against another. However, the image created by legends makes it seem like some are more powerful than others. Who killed me? I don't know, someone wounded, a person who had a bad life and who chose evil over good. Sooner or later it would happen. I always knew. My role was to postpone that, and I went as far as I could. The extraordinary can choose to be loved by all, feared by all, which I chose, or hated by all, which they chose. If I were younger, I would have won.
— That sounds like an excuse, like those people who say things were better in their day.
— Perhaps. — even the Demon King couldn't withstand the loli's sincerity and let out a bitter smile. — The Demon King's role is to be prepared to fight for all eternity, and for millennia I was. But I failed in the end, I didn't leave a successor. I grew comfortable, like when I was a child. Curious, isn't it? My end was no different from my beginning.
— Why are you telling me all this? — Æthelflæd didn't understand, and the Demon King used the tip of his claw to brush some of her dark hair away from the loli's eyes, he wanted to see her one last time.
— There was a time when you were the only soul in an entire world who faced me. And you have good friends, they are coming after you. Teleport. — and Æthelflæd was sent somewhere.
After some years, Blith asked:
— Why didn't the Demon King return with her loli?
— My time, Blith, and yours, are complete. Here, time is space at its beginning and its end. — and the light swallowed them both, and they became one with billions of others, and they would soon be different, in other worlds, other eras, other voices, and nebulae.