Never in his life did Eric think it would be this fantastic and convenient to have his attack. Circles of icicles with massive blizzards rained down on the ground before the entrance of the palace.

'Defeat the enemies and head in', Eric's quests gave him so much trouble. Couldn't there just be a teleport function? Couldn't his attack just be fucking dimensional teleportation? Ah yes, let him go back to earth where everyone was mourning his fucking death. Great, Eric had nowhere to go. Not back to earth and not here in the Demon World.

Eric sighed. He quickly dealt with the approaching enemies as if he was a veteran reborn for it the third time and so OP that he yawned while, with the flick of his fingers, without even looking at his opponents, sent them flying away.

Then the bloody trail led him through a side entrance of the palace that looked like the overlord cliche ancient palace of the world. Intricate, interwoven with wood and a lascivious scent and decorated with golden lamps that gave off a warm feeling which was actually just a decoy.

And then when Eric finally got into the underground place that was hidden by plenty of nerve-wracking and unnecessary mechanisms and trials, a glimpse of an ancient path opened up in front of Eric, he would have very much liked to stay ignorant of.

This underground place was a stark contrast to the surface above. It was everything cold and alien while above it seemed comfortable and warm- a false allure and sense of security to pretend the Lord was a good person.

Although Eric made it seem incredibly easy to get to this underground place that was just one large tomb, it was actually well-hidden and if those who didn't know of it, no matter how hard they searched their entire lives, they would have never even gotten to hear of its existence.

What Eric got was a major cheat code, because here, in this lonely hall, was the tomb of the first Demon Lord.

Why? Eric had no idea. The grave only told him that here the first Demon Lord was buried and of course, like any good game, what did it tell Eric to do?

Find the damn mechanism to trigger the grave. Again, why? Because this stupid game thought Eric had a damn death wish!

But what could Eric do? In front of the game, he was but only a mere slave, a mortal to the almighty omniscient being the real identity of the system was.

This grand hall that was the tomb was actually quite gigantic. From the ceiling to the ground was a distance of at least 30 metres and on the ceiling hung red lanterns again in a sheer amount of craziness, that resembled cherry blossom picking the sky apart.

Then Eric's gaze fell back onto the grave. A beautiful altar out of white marble raked above, the ground with a lacquer black coffin overdrawn with red leaves that shone brightly the closer Eric got to it.

To be very honest, Eric didn't want to get any closer to that ominous thing. Why the hell was it shining so much? With each step towards it, Eric felt his heart almost ripping itself out of his chest to slap his brain into some sense of not going any further!

There was something obviously wrong with the game, constantly trying to lure him into danger. In the first place, what use was it for Eric to trigger the damn mechanism?

Was he going to get out of here like that? Would the old rotten corpse of the first Demon Lord magically resurrect, take pity on Eric and help him get the fuck out of here?

Yeah, definitely not! But there Eric was, his hips touching this cursed coffin whose leaves were now pooping blood red. Stop with the red! We get it- Red light District- red! Don't put something so ominous in here, for goodness sake.

"Tell me, oh gracious Lord of the poopiest dumps of all time, am I supposed to open this coffin? Listen here, you can't just disturb the dead. Nor am I smart enough to open the lid of this coffin! Look!"

To prove his point to the air, Eric put his chicken arms into action and-

"Oh..." cursed the hell out of this whole troll shit!

"I see, so I can..." he actually opened the damn lid! It wasn't because he was strong or the lid light, it was because the game mocked his life away. It suddenly gave him a buff and voila Eric only had to say simsalabim- cough- sesame open!

And it fucking did! 

Now that the lid fell to the ground, Eric's arms trembled while his eyes were rolled to the ceiling afraid to look at whatever was lying in the coffin, obviously staring at him. Eric was doomed. He knew it the second he was born! He wasn't meant to live! Oh, he got it!

His existence was a mistake! Fuck, are you happy now? A crooked fate that I had to admit is one of the worst realisations in the world? Are you happy to see me at my lowest? Are you fuckin-

WOOSH! Good... Goodbye cruel world.

Before Eric knew it, he involuntarily looked into the coffin so his soul left his body to perish. It wasn't because the content of the coffin was so gratifying that Eric was scared to death, but it was because Eric was the biggest wimp of all wimps out there so... he scared himself.

His legs went weak and he almost dropped to the ground when from the pure, endless darkness of the coffin, a mass of blackness came out, formed two long arms to catch Eric in time just to, well, everyone should know judging by Eric's luck, dragged him right into the coffin to be swallowed into its stomach.

This time Eric really became a stone statue and his desperation shattered his hard-boiled outer layer. Eric's will to live slowly crumbled until it turned to dust. Ah, fuck it, lemme just die, I don't even care anymore. This time, really, adieu cruel world, you did nothing but play shitty jokes on me! 

While Eric was falling endlessly through the darkness where he couldn't even see himself, he still felt a massive blob of mass touching him. He closed his eyes and sighed.

His trousers... were already soaked wet. What a disgrace. Luckily, no one was here to witness another shameful act of Eric's. Hasn't he already embarrassed himself enough today?

The journey felt like an eternity to the point that Eric even lost the feeling of falling. Instead, a tranquil melody accompanied him, interwoven with nostalgia, pain and above all hopelessness, so deep that it was engraved into every crack of Eric's soul.

Yes, the more Eric listened to this melody, the more he felt his soul shattering, solely because it told a tale of sombre darkness that no one who listened to it would not want to burn all of their emotions to just get rid of this vibrant pain and despair in their hearts.

It was torture. And this made Eric get a very bad feeling as tears uncontrollably poured from the corner of his eyes, as he clenched his chest, fingernails digging deep into his skin until blood drew, to have physical pain mask the intensity of the stings he felt emotionally.

Just what the fuck was this? What in the world did the game have in store for Eric next? Ask and you shall receive.

In front of Eric, in this darkness, golden letters were beautifully drawn in the air: 

'The lost tale of the first Demon Lord- Prologue.'

Then as the letters slowly faded away, the next two words appeared:

'New task.'

Until finally, only one word remained:

'Survive.'

This was there. And when Eric saw this, he didn't curse or died from anger, he could only continue to sob. Just what was this? Survive? But for some reason, Eric didn't think this next chapter of this game was anything brutal like the slasherman, but what did survive mean then?

Would death lie in wait at every corner, every opportunity given? Eric just didn't know and he didn't think about it anymore, as he finally hit the hard ground.

Fresh grass around him, the bright blue sky facing him and ... endless petals of cherry blossom swirling around him, until some landed on his face. The only word Eric could describe this scene with was-

Breathtaking.

--------

Hey guys, honestly I think I won't be continuing this story anymore, it's been so dragged out and although we are already at half, I feel like this is longer than necessary....Maybe one day I will find the passion again to continue this but for now, I won't. Maybe I also will be just updating what I had in mind for the rest of this story as a chapter, so you're not left hanging.