Chapter 1 'A fallen Hero,

The wind blew harsher than it was in the day.

A teenager walked on the alley located right in the middle of two large apartment buildings, shadows were casted over him with the howling of the wind as his only companion. He had his hands on his pockets, each footsteps sounded out a loud and the dim lantern that was the source of light in the area vaguely showered upon him. The post flickered with moths swarming towards it. Walking at a slow pace, he suddenly stopped, jerking his head upwards revealing his face that was covered by his thick black hair. He looked around in doubt, his hand hurriedly taking his phone from his pocket.

In one final glance at his surroundings that was deprived of any life, dread filled his chest.

"Hey, this is getting weird," He murmured. ‘Why does it seem so late at night already?’ He turned on his phone and looked at the time. The time shown by the phone was eight sharp. The seconds and minutes were blank with zeros listed there and the milliseconds were also coincidentally blanks. Despite a second pass, the millisecond part was still unchanged.

"Hey hold on, hold on, are you planning to lag on me this time?" He glared at his phone which was starting to malfunction. “Please hurry and work!” He shouted as he was starting to slap the phone's back. 

“Hey what's going on?” That was until, something bright made way into the darkness. He took a few steps back as his arms covered his face. His eyes were shut close as he turned around, clearly not prepared to see the light, he rubbed his eyes before looking back at his phone.

Staring at the phone in hand, the man couldn't help but shriek, “Yikes!”. Listed in the simple gray background of the phone's lock screen, was the number three. He was horrified, not because of the time that was said to be their devil's hour, but also because the minutes and seconds have also changed into three. The phone slipped from his grip.

The teen frowned and scurried away to catch it. Pounding heavily against his chest was his fast racing heart. “No, no, don't fall on me I just bought you, you cannot be damaged!” 

Contrary to his wishes, the phone was not caught, “Oh hell no!” Instead it tumbled a few times on the cement path and defied gravity; bounced back into the air and finally landed on the ground a meter away from him.

“Shit!” He can already see the screen being broken. He also felt that life was unfair again, hence he forgot about the anomaly of his phone clock and rushed towards his phone with a grieving expression. Yet like his phone, he slipped. Someone might have thrown a can on the floor carelessly and now he has fallen. The teen struggled to rise up when he noticed something below him.

An odd circle was drawn on the floor, its carvings glowed bright. Its design was similar to a magic circle, just that, there were wings and more eyes in this one, even the star had a few more arms. ‘The hell!’ His final thoughts were that he didn't have enough time to react when the glow became more intense and his view was completely swallowed up. 

 .....

Light immediately swallowed my sight. It blinded me.It didn't take long for me to wake up. As for my surroundings, they've changed. It was all pitch white.

I was still left in a daze behind this strange occasion, I remained on my spot for a while. I stood and then sat, trying to relive my boredom that was gradually piling inside. 

I finally recalled a book I read back then, supposedly I should meet a god or a goddess that would share some information regarding my summoning. Well, that's all fiction...I guess? Bullshit, I'm literally in the same situation.

... A few hours have passed.

Everywhere was white, so it was bright. But I cannot see myself like a force is restricting me.

Moreover, something heavy was positioned in my head. I tried many times to attempt touching it and like what I've said before, I couldn't. It was very strange, like a certain additional body part was given to me. Likewise, the same goes for my back where something seems to keep me balanced.

"S...S...Severatiah....dhy...Herithe..."

A monotonic elder’s voice interrupted the silence.I turned my sight and made an attempt on finding where the sound came from. Was the confinement period finished? Thank goodness, or else I might go insane!

"S..se....severatiah!"

Hmm, what does 'Severatiah' mean?...Severe, Seven, Sacred...Uh, I don't know. Well, besides that, where did it come from?

*Ding.*

I stopped on my tracks and dazedly looked up. That sound...I was not dreaming when I heard the famous system notification sound, did I? However, instead of seeing a hologram or such that indicates the appearance of a system, I met another wave of bright light that showered into me so abruptly. It felt hot, splashing like boiled water towards me, my eyes had to squint in pain...

“I hereby summon, o' creature blessed by the Mother...Summon!”

My eyes burst open. I was stupefied as I looked at the place before me. I was no longer at the blank void. I saw four human beings. Finally,

"Sorrowful Goddess of Mercy!" 

A loud shout took me back to reality. I hurriedly looked towards the person the voice belonged to. It was an old man; he had a hair full of white, silver should I say regarding the shimmer it gave. He had a long beard, and it was braided and flung around his neck. His face was wrinkled, a bluish gem (A sapphire) resided in his forehead. His shout was undeniably loud, gathering the gaze of the other three people in the room. He waved his long white robes as he spoke, "For hundreds of years summoning heroes, this is the first time I've ever seen a demon getting summoned in here! The devils must have infested our plans or they might've planned to exchange our heroes with one of them to betray us!” He looked at me with an irked expression while he said that.

Wait....What!?

It caught my attention. Me, a demon? No way! In which part of me is a demon?!

"However, old minister, we prepared everything according to the bible, or I fret that someone might have interfered with their preparations. Call the alchemists in and do not let any of them escape.” 

To my right, a blonde female spoke aloud. Like the old man, she wore a similar robe, however a veil was placed under her nose bridge hiding her facial features. She stepped forward and brushed her hands against her braids, then pointed at the guards guarding the gates lined by streaks of gold.

"I support my sister, but I believe in you too, Senior. We have been following you around and helping, we knew that this has never happened before unless..." Beside the blonde haired female, was a girl with raspberry colored hair. She spoke right after the blondie finished.

“I absolutely have confidence it is the demon's fault!" “Or maybe the God's have sent us...”

“No, not the Gods, they are unsullied!—”

"Silence!" 

A sudden shout made a halt to the noisy conversation the three made. I looked around and saw a stern looking uncle, the others were suppressed. Unlike the three, he was wearing golden lined clothing in the form of a kimono and a golden hairpin was pinned on his dark brown hair. His eyes were blue in color, and I felt that this person shouldn't be other than a king. 

"Your majesty, the King," The three bowed down, my guess confirmed. “Your subjects apologize for making a mistake, we vow to make up.”“We understand, and there's no need to fight in front of us. What I need is for you all to bring us a hero.”

“Understood your majesty!”

The King clapped his hands together, and five busty looking knights came into the huge hall. "Imprison this hateful demon and serve him as an example for the hero, this way this savior will have knowledge on what to kill." Saying that, he looked at me and I felt shivers down my spine. He said he'll execute me, but I'm a poor foreigner brought in here and you all called me a demon! I stared helplessly as the five knights came closer. Desperately, streaks of tears fell from my eyes and into my cheeks as I hurriedly called, "Wait! Wait a moment..! I think there's some misunderstandings. I'm just a poor orphaned foreigner, and a human at that! I have no idea why you called me a demon, and, can you...you please send me back?" 

"What? Do you believe yourself to be human? Oh, please, who are you trying to fool oh demon! Can't you see the two strands of horns in your head? Also that tail of yours? What human has those." 

"What? A horn?" I asked, quite taken aback. I raised my hand and touched my forehead, and as said, I had a horn. A horn that never existed before!

"Hurry up, don't waste time on listening to his cries!" 

"Understood, your Majesty." The five knights rhythmically said. 

And I could not believe that the future of my freedom would end like this. Accused by being a demon that I never knew that was I...

 

…….

 

Sitting in the rusty prison cell, a boy with horns embraced himself. His head was hung low as his tail moved down.His hands were tied in a handcuff, engraved with white tone and a bluish gem was radiant. His eyelashes fluttered and gave a small dent on his pale cheeks, lighting the bruises that kept on bleeding. His horns were uneven, the right side was short while the other was tall and stern. Weakly giving out a few coughs, the boy buried himself further into his embrace. 

Three weeks passed by yet again, a time so slow and fleeting became a century to the young 'child'. Months flew by and it was purely the thoughts of not giving up living that made him stay until then, despite having starved for these three weeks. The boy hugged himself tighter as he frowned. Trying to make himself doze off to sleep, to save some efforts of preserving against this painful hunger, making him make a stronger endurance. 

Yuan, that was what the boy was called. A name left by his single mother, who unfortunately passed away due to terminal illness during his fourth year in highschool. Yuan proceeded with his studies until he landed up in his job. Even if he knew he had a father, he could not find any leads to that person who he had never even once seen. But he’d never want to see that person either. 

He’d already faced a lot of troubles while young but fate hasn’t let him rest even till now. He was summoned to become a hero, but Yuan was faced with contempt for becoming a demon instead. And finally after some suffering, luck finally came. When the new hero was summoned, Yuan found a loophole and managed to escape. He had grinded that cuff in his hands for a long time, and by chance, the people who cuffed him up only used a low level one, something that was purely physical and magical elements were not present. 

Before being sent to prison from way before, Yuan was tested and they found out that he was poor in mana so the thought of magical formations never really got to them as mainly, demons in this world were less intelligent than humans, however that was only a misunderstanding by the court of magicians. He was thankful that they lowered their guards.

Years after years passed. The land of Zaan was greatly affected by the increase of the mortality deaths of the heroes they summoned. Yuan once felt pity for the lives of innocent otherworldly ones similar to him but in this world where the strong become prominent is a world of death. Yuan was expressionless and had gotten used to the murders he had committed towards his former race. But his thoughts were entangled in a crazy mess. He wanted to return to the life he lived before, he wanted to escape this bloody killings and war. These thoughts vanished when he met her. The first person to melt his heart. Shen was a graceful elf, despite his bloody history, she also fell in love with him. 

She is his Queen, the goddess of demons. Like him, she was also left out by her clansmen due to her strange features. Their love story was enveloped with trials and effort, it was much longer than the journey of him carving his past adventures. 

Finally, he got her yes. The two married, and the demon world overjoyed. 

Years went by again, and Yuan achieved Godhood. Something that one used to dream about, and once again, the demon world overjoyed.There was a special celebratory bouquet to congratulate their king’s success! Yuan was happily conversing and standing on his throne near his beloved…when a magic circle similar to the one who brought him into this world suddenly appeared! Yuan found himself in a similar situation as he was in the past. His smiling face overturned into a frown, the ritual just took a millisecond it was almost impossible for him to react.

The demon's excitement died down as they exclaimed in concern. And just like that, Yuan disappeared. His wife, Shen, witnessed everything. She tried to reach out for him but she caught nothing. Desperation raging in her red and green eyes, she collapsed to the ground. The cup of wine in her hand fell to the floor and it broke into pieces, spreading the bright red wine into the fur-coated floor.

“no…No…No! You’re not leaving me again!” She cried.