The demon lord, after leaving the bath and tucking his cute little monster in, left in a remarkable fit of rage that he hadn’t experienced in quite a while. A thousand and a half years ago was the last time it was this bad.

Angrily, he went to deal with the noble who’d sent the assassin after his monster. He had tried to hold back in front of Marcel as much as he could during their time together, but now that the latter was asleep; his ocean of calm had descended into endless raging storms and shattering earthquakes of enormous magnitude. The Demon Lord… was angry!

It was so hard holding back his anger earlier, but it was all for good reason. If anything, he’d rather the little guy never saw him angry because of the latter’s apparent goal of defeating him. It would only increase the helplessness Marcel feels after he’d just began thinking that he was closer to the Demon Lord in terms of strength.

Yes, Marcel still didn’t know that he’d ‘officially’ married a monster so much more terrifying than what humans could ever imagine; a monster so powerful that his anger overturns mountains and makes the earth rumble. In a way, he was right when he said earlier that everyone was a monster in some way.

Now this noble… how dare that person make Marcel become like that? All his carefully-planned schemes, and for what?! Nothing!

While in the bath with Marcel, he saw no nosebleed, a blush or any trace of embarrassment. All the juicy stuff, he got none of it! Everything was ice and frost, darkness and sadness after recalling past events, despite none of the feelings that normally came with such traumatic events present. None of the juicy emotions or feelings he was going for on this particular day were there! Kill-switch Marcel was way too cold and calculating to care about his deliberate seduction or motives that much.

 

How dare that person ruin his plan to lure Marcel closer to himself, something he’d been planning since the last time four months ago, with yet another saucy, nosebleed-inducing sight like his heavenly body in the bath?!! Who knows how many wrenches this person has put in his ‘luring into Coaxing Wife Marcel’ schemes?! Yes, he’s still doing that in between Marcel having his own life outside. Unacceptable!

 

Haa… At least now, he has some insight into how he might possibly die by Marcel’s hands. He quickly noted that maybe this extreme side of Marcel: Kill-switch Marcel, is what does him in according to Advisor Charles’ prophecy.

With this new, valuable information he’d received, he found himself irate at a certain Grand Spirit. Why didn’t Vitalis tell him about it to better prepare for it?! Without this stupid incident, he would have never known until the day of reckoning when he finds himself very dead, arrived.

<< Hey, I did warn you that he could kill you, didn’t I? >>

Vitalis found it unfair that she was getting blamed when literally, everything she’s allowed them to discover about Marcel was pointing to a red flag from the very beginning.

 

‘Mysterious boy who finds himself in an orphanage with a scary reputation among humans a few years before discovered to possess a mysterious power that allows him to unconsciously play with reality,’ is definitely someone one wouldn’t easily mess with. Red flags were pasted all over, yet the Demon Lord still got involved with Marcel despite the death prophecy atop his head.

 

The Demon Lord was silent. She was right! It was his choice to marry Marcel, not hers.

Whew! Crisis averted!

She would have lost it if the Demon Lord blamed her for the creation of that side of Marcel. She was not aware that ‘the weapon’ would manifest itself in such a way.

<< Anything to keep him safe, I guess. >> The Great Spirit thought. Besides, the Demon Lord seems like the type to play with danger anyway, so, heh, why not?

 

Bottling up all of his anger and throwing away the key because of the terrible consequences otherwise, he went to deal with the person who sent Fabier, or rather, his servant, Fobos, after his adorable wife: Sedrah.

Well, who was Sedrah?

A nobleman with a striking appearance like his own. Carmine red hair and eyes, a remarkably tall and striking man. He’s an arrogant and prideful man who also happens to be an obsessive admirer of his. If he remembers this person’s face correctly--- oh wait, he does. This dragon had a natural humanoid appearance quite similar to his appearance. He was like the world’s attempt at creating a being similar to the outsider Demon Lord that it admired; a very inaccurate, but still, impressive creation.

This ‘Sedrah’ person, from what he remembered of when he last saw him, proposed marriage to him like he usually did and got refused by his Sun. He was a very prideful man who believed that perfection like the Demon Lord was something that should belong to him, you know, like most prideful people who also loved the Demon Lord.

Luckily for the Demon Lord, this person liked sleeping… like a lot. He was spared the torment that was being proposed to at every turn thanks to this. The last time he was pestered by that dragon was 70 years ago after which he left heartbroken with another flat-out rejection from his Sun.

Why would Sedrah even have someone come after his Marcel like this in secret? He was pretty bold to do this after all the precautions that he and Sedrah’s grandmother had taken to ensure that no one touched Marcel while he was outside.

Yes, he was indeed bold! What would you do when you woke up from a long slumber to find out that the person who stole your heart was engaged to someone who didn’t know? To make matters worse, you, Sedrah, couldn’t find any relevant information about this ‘home-wrecker’ and thus went for his ‘close friend’, Dave, who, um… is the actual ‘home-wrecker’ Marcel.

It’s fair to say that after how many losses he’d suffered at Marcel’s hands, he found it justifiable to go after Dave, Marcel’s supposed close friend, and kill him, especially after he had the guts to violate the sanctity that was the Demon Lord’s castle.

‘How dare a mere adventurer enter the Demon Lord’s castle whenever he pleases?! How dare a person of such low status and power be near my ‘star’?!! Unacceptable!!!’

His personal servant, wanting to be of use to his master, opted to find and eliminate this individual who brought his master such distress; in secret, of course. He had an inkling of an idea who Dave was for his relations with the master’s grandmother, so secret assassination, it was. He just thought that he would be eliminating someone close to the Demon Lord like before his master went to sleep, not the Sun’s actual secret wife. Fobos died, never discovering the truth.

The Demon Lord invited the arrogant and clingy dragon, requesting an audience.

Sedrah quickly and gleefully arrived, but it wasn’t like what he expected their meeting after a while to be.

When he entered the throne room, he found his ‘Sun’ covered in enflaming, pure wrath that thickened into a dense aura cloud of extreme displeasure around his ‘star’. The Demon Lord maintained his usual calm and collected expression but his fury was displayed for all in the Demon Lord’s castle to feel, except Marcel, of course.

Before Sedrah had any idea of what was happening, he was quickly stripped of most of his noble privileges for a thousand years like some kind of parent would without much explanation except that, apparently, he had done something bad.

The Demon Lord glanced at him with pure disdain as he said something that shocked Sedrah, telling him exactly what he’d done.

“Your servant’s body will be delivered to your domain very soon!” He spoke in a cold tone.

Right after the body was mentioned, Sedrah’s blood froze over.

Oh no, his secret assassination had been discovered? Well, that was fine, but, did he just hear something about a body? His servant’s body?!

After that, he quickly deduced that this punishment had to do with the Demon Lord’s partner’s friend: Dave, the target of Fobos’ assassination.

‘He failed? Impossible!!!’ He thought.

Fobos had never once failed him in getting rid of his worries for him. This job was supposed to be easy. Fobos was a top-grade S-class assassin with access to the Shadow Realm. Even if he failed, he should be able to escape unharmed.

Unfortunately for Fobos and Sedrah, his master, a certain System Administrator barred the assassin him access to the Shadow Realm for his very naughty actions.

Now Sedrah was wondering who the adventurer connected to the Demon Lord’s wife was. If he managed to somehow kill an S-class assassin like Fobos, then he’d really underestimated this person.

He was in his ‘Sun’s presence but the latter only looked at him with wrath and murderous intent. This wasn’t what he wanted at all!

Sadly, the Demon Lord ended their first meeting in a while with a few words,

“I hope all the trouble you went through was worth the outcome.” He said scornfully in his fuming state before teleporting the latter out of the throne room to the entrance of the castle.

Sedrah left the castle dejectedly as he managed to incur the wrath of his most beloved. Unfortunately, things were about to get even worse.

***

Right after he returned from the Demon Lord’s summons, a messenger arrived with another summons request. Who was it requesting his presence this time? His beloved Grandmother.

His grandmother requested his presence in that instant, preferably arriving in her palace with the messenger, if he could help it.

Sedrah did his best, complying with the unexpected summons request as best he could. He got changed and made his way to his grandmother’s Dragon Palace. 

Regrettably for Sedrah, his scorning wasn’t over by a longshot. After all, dear Grandmother also learned about what he did. Grandmother was less than pleased to hear about what a certain grandson of hers had done. No, that’s an understatement. She was livid!

Oh, I seem to have forgotten to mention something very important. Sedrah’s full name is Sedrah Hiltonclaw Dragos, and lovely Dragon Empress Alverona… is his grandmother. Hohoho, this is going to be good~

***

 

Finally making an appearance in his glorious Grandmother’s Dragon Palace, he found himself stared at with pitying gazes as he walked down the palace’s halls, heading for the throne room. He… naturally, didn’t care what was going through his fellow dragonkin’s minds, but… regarding what he’d done, he should have!

When he finally arrived at Grandmother’s throne room and entered, he found out that he was before a sizeable number of Dragon Elders; notably Dragon Kings, children of glorious Grandmother, which included his glorious father, Fire Dragon King Fulminas Seren Dragos, eldest of Alverona’s offspring.

Looking at Grandmother, he was faced with yet another immense aura cloud, this time, far greater in size than the Demon Lord’s. The former held back but Alverona…

It wasn’t just an aura cloud anymore. It was a cloud so terrible that it directly affected reality, greatly changing the entirety of Nephavion’s summer day into a murky, cloudy and, honestly, very unpleasant day. This was an entire weather phenomenon. Guardians of Seasons, you should step up your game!

***

Sunny, Guardian of Summer, flying across dimensions and doing his job: “Huh, I didn’t summon any clouds there today.”

Sunny quickly called his brothers to confirm which of them summoned the doom clouds on this should-have-been amazingly bright day in Nephavion.

Winter, Clover, Sunny (Three other Guardians of Seasons): “Not me!”

Frostbite: “Check dragon news!”

Brothers, together: “Well, someone’s in a very bad mood...”

***

 

‘Just what has gotten glorious Grandmother in such a moody state?’ Sedrah wondered cluelessly.

Unfortunately, when he locked eyes with his father and the other Dragon Kings and Queens, they all looked away with avoidant gazes as if leaving him to his fate.

‘How could he be so foolish?!’ They thought. Who in Alverona’s domain in the skies above knew not of the extreme importance of that novice hero adventurer to the Dragon Empress? At this point, it was almost general news amongst the dragon race that Alverona held immense favor towards that little adventurer boy called Dave.

Whenever they came to see their mother and empress, wanting to discuss matters but found her in the presence of that adventurer, her aura said it all.

That aura of extreme love, care and overprotectiveness for Dave exuded by their mother and empress shrouded the little adventurer and herself, seeking to wrap him whole and never let him go. That aura was deadly enough to crush any one of their low-born descendants to death in an instance. How that boy manages to survive constantly being shrouded in such a blanket of that intense pressure is a true mystery! Everyone sensible across the dragon realm knew not to touch that boy under any circumstances if they wanted to continue living, but here Sedrah was, unaware of what he’d done, clearly with a death wish on the brain.

 

‘This little nephew of ours must have grown dumb from sleeping too much.’ The noble dragon’s uncles and aunts shook their heads as they silently wished him farewell into the afterlife. If he was lucky enough, he’d be brought back in a month’s time when their mother’s anger subsided after seeing that boy a few more times. If not, then he’d better wait and reflect on his mistakes before his reincarnation.

Also, now, they looked at their brother, Fulminas, with criticizing looks, inquiring as to how his youngest son managed to become so dumb. That little thing didn’t even read the latest in dragon news and was constantly sleeping, making no contributions to dragon society like his other brothers and cousins. A father like the raging Fulminas should clearly see to it that his child experiences time in the underworld to better understand how terrifying that place is.

Yes, in that moment, Fulminas regretted most of his life choices… all because of his very, very stupid son. Ha, looks like deciding to go easy on Sedrah unlike his usual parenting style of extreme danger and resurrections because he was his most recent and a cute child, was the wrong move!

‘Notes for the future: Never create another Sedrah under any circumstances!’ He thought with a terrifying smile across his face as he exuded the aura of the fiery beast of doom that he was. His next child might not have a very easy life. Hope whomever that ends up being… is ready for hell!

 

While his father was thinking of how much of a disappointment the failure of a Dragos who stood before his grandmother with an expression of cluelessness, Sedrah still wondered why he had been summoned, further increasing the Alverona’s fury.

The empress on her throne was even more displeased when he spoke,

“To what do I owe the honor of a summons, glorious Grandmother. I hope you’ve been well!” He greeted her.

Alverona… exploded,

“Huh?! Been well?!! Do I look ‘well’ to you?!!!” Her voice echoed across the entire Dragon Palace with every word she spoke, growing louder and louder. It was like she was trying to destroy every one there in her fury. Hoh, she hadn’t even began yet!

“I’m terribly sorry for upsetting you, grandmother! Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?” He said with an embarrassed expression on his face. Why did he even mention grandmother looking well when she looked like a tsunami ready to tear down a mountain? So stupid of him!

“Cheer me up?! You really are trying to piss me off, aren’t you?! After what you’ve done, you think I can be cheered up by anything you do?!! Your very presence fills me with immense feelings of murder and pure wrath!!!” Grandmother said with an expression of disgust, cross-legged atop her throne as she looked down at him like the nasty worm she’d allowed to sully her family name. Death was the only thing this little cretin in front of her deserved, but since the Demon Lord didn’t go that far for his little stunt, she won’t either.

Because the latter left the true punishment of her kin to herself, she won’t go easy on him. It’s time for this unproductive worm that has plagued dragon society and her family for far too long to reevaluate his entire life.

“I’m very sorry, grandmother!” Sedrah apologized shivering under the intense, murderous gaze of his grandmother. He’d never seen her this mad before. Grandmother was always the type to give him whatever he wanted if he simply asked that he’d forgotten that she was the mother of his father: the one who grants him the privilege to harness all her rage, making him the monster that he is. 

“Let’s see if you deserve to be forgiven for the deplorable crime you’ve committed. Firstly, let’s address the matter of you having THE GUTS to send your little servant that I let live many years ago, after my precious baby…” Alverona displayed an unpleasantly bright smile that, when coupled with her aura cloud of eerie unpleasantness, made her terrifying and simply said, the embodiment of motherly, or rather, grandmotherly fury.

Mentioning his crime to him, Sedrah finally had an inkling of an idea why he had been summoned twice in a single day. It just had to be about that deplorable bug of a boy who lived at the cost of his precious Fobos’ life.

“But, grandmother—” He tried explaining himself.

Grandmother Alverona wasn’t in the mood to listen to whatever excuse he could come up with. She was busy feeling sorry for herself having not kept an eye on every person who came into a 50-meter radius of her baby even once, so naturally, someone had to take the blunt of her terrible mood… and this grandson was the perfect medium for that.

“Secondly, let’s discuss what gave you the courage to attempt an assassination on someone directly under the Demon Lord’s protection. What has your father been teaching you?! No, what have you, as a dragon of my direct line been doing to make yourself worthy of such a position?!! Absolutely nothing!!! You’ve been a lazy slouch who can’t do anything but bother our Supreme Guardian like some pest; enough so, that you attacked someone important to this grandmother of yours. In my opinion, you have proved yourself to be the worst Dragos child ever sired!”

Alverona’s disgust for this little child seemed immeasurable. After this, she would probably never see him for at least three millennia. She should wrap this filthy thing up rather quickly.

Sedrah was speechless as his grandmother berated him at every turn. She was right! There was nothing he could say to make the situation better, so he just keep quiet and took the consequences of his reckless actions.

“I can’t bear to look at your mug of a beautiful face any longer, so here’s your punishment!” Alverona began wrapping up this little trial she had going on before she exploded from how irate she was.

“I humbly accept!” Sedrah stood quiet with his head bowed for his final sentence. From how much displeasure he’d managed to cause his grandmother, the punishment that he deserved was death in an instant. He deserved nothing less than this and he openly acknowledged it. Really, he admitted that he had drawn the last straw with his grandmother’s patience.

“Ha, like you have any choice…” The empress said sarcastically before giving her punishment,

“For one, I strip you of all your dragon privileges as a Dragos as well as a normal dragon except Dragon Link. Read the news more from now on, stupid brat!!!”

Wait, what?! No more dragon form, teleporting whenever he felt like it, Blessing of the Dragon Empress, Draconic Magic, and all the other stuff?! How the heck will he live?!!

“Secondly, you aren’t to leave your abode for three millennia under any circumstances. I don’t want to see you or your face during that time. If you behave, I might reconsider the first punishment and give you some things back.”

“Understood, Grandmother! I will behave from now on!” Sedrah looked genuinely regretful but Alverona didn’t care about his feelings. If he wanted her to care, then he shouldn’t have touch ‘Dave’, to the public, ‘Marcel’ to her. Now, there was just that last punishment left to give.

“Lastly, I order you… to slice off that disdainful right arm that you dared use to wave at your servant as you ordered him to assassinate my person!” She stared down at him with a cold and commanding gaze. He almost felt like he could die from being penetrated by that look if he stared into Grandmother’s eyes for too long.

Wait, how did Grandmother know that she used his right hand? Also, did his Grandmother just tell him to cut of his arm?!

Yes, about how Alverona knew that Sedrah used his right hand. Well, she didn’t really do much. It’s just that, when doing her usual job with Dragon Link on the day that Fobos offered to eliminate Sedrah’s ‘worry’ that day, she noticed him beginning to move his right hand while she simultaneously watched Marcel perform his morning training drills. I tell you, everyone is stalking Marcel!

Now…

“I want you to cut it off, right now and, don’t even think of healing it until three centuries have passed. If I find out that you healed yourself or tried to, I’ll end up on the spot, wherever it is you might try to escape. That will be all the punishment I’ll be giving you because I hope that, the next time we meet, you will have become a much better brat. Understood?!” Those eyes… those eyes of extreme scrutiny and power that filled him with fear looked right into that of Sedrah’s and threatened to kill him if he even dared to resist.

“Yes, grandmother!” He said shivering. As ordered, he bit his lip and severed his right arm from his body at the shoulder, making sure to do it quickly enough that not a speck of blood fell onto the ground. After all, who knows what else Grandmother might do if he dared taint her floor with his ‘bratty’ blood.

“Also, read the news more often! I work hard on it, making sure all are informed. I hope it’ll cure your stupidity, even if it’s just a little.” Alverona made a gesture with her hand, almost pinching two of her fingers almost together, with a little space left between them to imply how little Sedrah’s intelligence was. He… was very hurt by this.

“Yes!” He said in a breaking voice, ready to cry after being bullied once again. The Dragon Kings and Queens looked with expressions of pity. But, hey, better him than them. Now they knew exactly what would happen if any of them tried anything against that sweet, pretty pancake of a boy that their empress was currently enamored with. Scapegoats to test hypotheses are always welcomed by them. Pity is all he’ll get from them.

 

Sedrah couldn’t help feeling sorry for himself,

 ‘It’s all my fault! I decided to eliminate that brat without properly investigating him. Was this why Fobos was hesitant to eliminate him, because he knew of the outcome?’ He thought under the immense gravity of glorious Grandmother’s anger. From now on, he won’t be missing the daily ‘Dragon News’ ever again, even while he sleeps. No, scratch sleeping! He was going to have to study all over again and become productive to dragon society when he came back from Grandmother’s imposed house arrest.

The final warning before she had him leave,

“Try this shit again and I’ll personally see to it that you reincarnate 40 times!” She let out a pressure so immense that it would crush the now defenseless dragon if not for the strength of his Grandmother’s blood. She protected him from herself through their bloodline.

‘How unfortunate!’ Alverona thought. She teleported him out of the Dragon Palace back to his abode for what would be the last teleportation spell he would use in a long time.

***

 

After her little trial and granting punishment to the very ‘sinful’ Sedrah, Alverona publicized the news of Sedrah’s punishment across the dragon kingdom and soon, it made its way down to the earth below.

It soon became news that Dave was Alverona’s future conquest, keeping any who dared harm him in check as not to incur the wrath of the world’s most powerful woman.

Though the Sun’s faction now knew who the insolent mysterious demon/hero was through Sedrah who had already taken his shot, that smart bastard! They, um, didn’t dare move for the meantime, especially not after what Alverona did.

All the annoying and scheming flies buzzed off for the mean time. Gaining this new name as the one who stole that dragon granny’s heart gave Marcel an extra layer of security, as nobody wanted to have everything they’d worked so hard to build over millennia and millions of years destroyed in a single night like that last time someone who tried to kill her two mates.

Knowing that Alverona liked the little guy, the smart bastards worked quickly to investigate all those behind the little guy’s back and were even more stunned, stopping in their tracks as nobody wanted to mess with those forces.

The Demon Lord was exasperated as he wondered, “Why didn’t I just do this from the very beginning?”

He still regretted some of the things he had the little guy sacrifice so he could go outside, some of which include his former appearance. He felt even more guilty about it when he learned that he could have just had Marcel’s charisma rub off on strong people and they’d protect him but hey, what’s done is done? And, that wasn’t really his fault! The scheming and elusive spirit who controlled everything was the one behind that idea anyway.

 

Anyway, Marcel’s reputation as Dave grew as many recognized him as a person with a strong backing. Those who wanted to win the favor of the Dragon Empress would try to get close to him when he returned to adventuring, only to fail miserably when the now knowledgeable-but-still-dense explorer hero failed to perceive any of their intended efforts and just treated them as mere acquaintances unlike his true friends. This event also ushered in the foundation of the ‘Dave Squad’ and ‘Dave Fan Club’ respectively; people who worshipped the new hero and gathered information about him like um, professional stalkers.

Soon, his endeavors in OniMachi would become known, as would his accomplishments in the rogue dungeon back on Tharrelan and all the other things he’s done over the years. Yes, his presence as a hero, in the eyes of the public, had slowly building up for the past few years but now, suddenly, it gained tremendous force and increased exponentially in a matter of days.

His followers grew; the number of ridiculous titles that Vitalis acknowledged became, well, ridiculous, granting him an extra layer of minor protections. Oh, did I mention that when a certain number of people recognize a title to a certain degree, it becomes officially acknowledged by Vitalis to grant its owner actual power? If not, um… oops!

Anyway, it was a good day to be ‘Marcel’ or ‘Dave’.

On this day to the public, Dave’s identity as the Demon Lord’s possible secret wife was deflected by him ‘officially’ becoming the secret wife’s friend and Alverona’s future conquest, not that he knew of any of that, of course. To him, everyone was just being nice because they half-found out what happened with assassin Fobos, not that he cared what they thought of him anyway.

Did that lessen the number of times he would be kidnapped in the future? No! He was still a hero, after all. Frequently being kidnapped is one of the things they’re well known for. The weak get kidnapped by the strong, and in this world, the heroes are almost always the kidnapped.

Marcel, during the time that Alverona handed out punishment to Sedrah, relaxed even more until he wasn’t feeling murderous anymore, even after he’d turned back to normal. This seems to be a new side effect of that form with how strong he’s become. His ‘Kill Switch’ self-defense form lingered a bit more than usual after he reverted to normal. After that, he went back to making magic items and studying magic control and spells like usual. He essentially went back to his normal life just as he said he would.

His friends were also very surprised to see that the murder hasn’t affected his spirit one bit. His aura was as pure as ever and they sighed in relief. After all, they didn’t think that they could kill someone and still maintain an aura of purity perfection like Marcel had. What people called a monster or maybe even an apathetic psychopath, they called extraordinary. Marcel was just scarily extraordinary! Find yourself friends like these!

At the end of the day, not only the Demon Lord acknowledged the dark side of Marcel, but so too did his friends.

After he fully explained what that state was, they thought,

‘Better not betray him unless I truly want to die.’ They thought, sweat droplets across their fear-stricken faces as they imagined cold, unfeeling Marcel doing the deed: the very bloody kind. What would be even worse than being killed by him is the little to no consequences their deaths would bring to the hero’s psyche. Also, Marcel killing them, especially the Elven Princess, Shrine Maiden Princess and the Beast Princess, would be like starting a war between him and their people, which equals more bloodbath and ultimately, more souls in hell.

Silva or Natsume, unlike many others, can’t be resurrected after death under no circumstances. It taints her divine soul and diminishes her to the level of her people, with heavily tainted darkness on their light-based soul. This darkness on their soul sometimes even mutates to create rare, anomalous spirit foxes like the Demonic Foxes, who hold incredible powers of darkness and are even capable of bending space as well as unspeakable evils.

If she’s the one who activates Kill-switch Marcel, then she can only come back as a later reincarnation of herself to deal with the consequences. It won’t be pretty for her, even more so after learning that little Marcy is completely unaffected by her death. This thought felt absolutely dreadful to her, and she let Marcel know all about it. Hey, the truth’s what she’s known for!

 

Meanwhile, after returning to his domain, the floating fiery island of Risa, the body of Fobos was delivered to Sedrah with everything intact, so he immediately called someone to come look at Fobos, that person being a certain molester of a doctor.

“Can you please resurrect this foolish servant of mine?” He pleaded with her desperately when Sephana arrived.

“Fine, brat! However, this will be the last time in this millennium that I do this for you. Compensation!” She opened her hand towards him, asking for the goods.

“I’ll be taking five thousand years' worth of magic now. Do you agree to this price?” She continued.

“Yes, I do. But… glorious Grandmother…” He grimaced as he clenched his fist. If not for being so stupid, he wouldn’t have lost everything.

“Grand-Aunt didn’t take your magic from you, though, you can’t access it either. You… are as defenseless as one of us direct descendants of the Dragon Progenitors can be.” Sephana still had her hand open as if asking him to grab her hand.

“I won’t be totally defenseless without it and if it succeeds, he’ll be protecting me during that duration.” Sedrah said, slight smile on his face, grabbing her hand to deliver his payment for the transaction.

“True... but remember. Every two millennia or so, you’ll need to call me again for additional maintenance on him until he fully recovers, or else, if he dies again... Ha, I’ve only been granted permission as a gate to the underworld by the king and nothing more.

“Remember that for the next time when you plan to let him do something so dangerous again. Honestly, trying to eliminate the little monster like that; what were you thinking, brat?!” She said then after, she began casting the spell to find and summon Fobos’ soul from the other side. Meanwhile, she put Fobos’ body back together and healed it fully to accommodate him once more.

After she found his soul, she summoned Fobos through herself with her power as a gate. She then dragged them back into his body. She healed the incurred damage from the underworld on them while adapting his soul and spiritual bodies back to his body from the little, scarring time they had spent apart. Her job was then done when he opened his eyes to see the day of light again.

Fobos reverted to his true human form, a dark-skinned man with nightshade black hair and a pair of dark, blue-black eyes. He was very enthralling in appearance, rivaling his master dragon in terms of appearance.

Alverona rolled her eyes when she saw life coming back to Fobos. She thought,

“Such potential, wasted on this foolish brat!”

Afterward, she opened a portal and walk right through it. Ha, how convenient it must be to be the child of Dragon King Vernes.

After Fobos returned and finally regained consciousness, he was brought to the sight of his master crying for reasons he was unaware of.

“Fobos~!” Sedrah hugged him, crying after Fobos had awoken, “... I lost and now, grandmother is angry with me, cousin Sephee called me a brat again; twice this time...” He went and rambled on and on about how bad he was feeling about losing as badly as he cried like a genuine brat to Fobos.

Despite being known as an arrogant and pompous dragon with a terrible attitude and calculating demeanor that had everything go his way thanks to his Grandmother’s favors to the general public, in truth, he was nothing but a needy brat of a dragon and a victim to the Demon Lord’s godly charms as much as everyone else. How unfortunate for him that the ‘Sun’ he decided to give up on and watch from afar as an admirer ended up being engaged to the person, ‘Marcel’, who happened to be good friends with ‘Dave’, the person he tried to eliminate. How exasperating!

Fobos, his butler since childhood and sometimes, his personal assassin, knew this very well. He comforted the loser flame dragon for days before he finally stopped crying. He had to ‘comfort’ him in many, many ways. Who else to fall back unto than his no. 2, who turned into his no. 1 since he half-gave up on touching the Sun too hot for even his hands? Despite having just returned from being punished, he still had yet to received his ‘service’ from his loyal butler and thus, he drowned himself in the welcome ‘feast’. No, both of them…

 

In the outside world where the dragon master and servant weren’t humping each other at, news continued to spread about Sedrah’s assassination attempt on a certain budding adventurer hero which had sent the Demon Lord and Alverona into a fit of rage. Now almost everyone had heard it.

Sephana, who teleported back to the castle after being at Sedrah’s, snickered as she contemplated how dumb Sedrah really was. He didn’t know that he’d been duped by her. Now more underworld employee benefits for her! Wohoo!

Five thousand years of the offspring of a Dragon King’s magic, was heavy currency in the underworld. Such potent magic… She’d definitely gain more rewards for it when she took it to there. She might even be able to buy exclusive knowledge that no one in the multiverse had.

Why was Sedrah a fool for being tricked by her? Allow me to explain!

Every living thing has a spiritual body, but there’s something else specifically tailored to spiritual beings like spirits and demons, evolved physical beings with powerful souls, etc. It’s just this advantageous spiritual body making them insusceptible to death: an Astral body.

A spiritual body is a vessel for the soul, depended on by the physical body to anchor the soul of its owner to the realm of life. All physical beings have it because without it, the underworld would be their home.

An astral body, however, is not only the vessel for the soul, but also a body in which the soul can interact with the world around them. It’s what spiritual beings like spirits, demons, and evolved physical beings who’ve evolved past their need for physical bodies possess. Bound with magic or pure energy, it can interact with physical realm as if a physical body, but unlike a spiritual body, it isn’t as fragile or doomed when it incurs heavy damage.

When damaged, the spiritual being, as in their soul, possessing the astral body is summoned to their place of origin, as in where their soul first formed; be it in the spirit, demon realm, or the underworld, if they don’t have any ties to a realm like the first two realms, that is. There, they recover, but this recovery time varies from the amount of incurred damage.

People with these bodies are the ones who can truly call themselves immortal, although Sedrah doesn’t know this, so to get back his half-demon servant, he got scammed by Sephana who wanted to teach him a lesson for what he did to Marcel, with the underworld’s price, as an excuse, of course. She got more employee benefits from sending that power to the king.

Yes, Sedrah is a dumb dragon. He paid the price for his ignorance when half his servant and lover was demonic in nature. Sometimes, he just forgets that Fobos is half Doppelgänger, a type of shadow demon adept in shapeshifting capable of replicating even the nature, aura, magic power and behavior of the individuals they copy, as well as a fire dragon.

Even with half the regular strength of a normal astral body and a strong dragon spiritual body, the only death that guy’s having is temporarily losing his memories by cutting the connection between his astral and spiritual bodies. It will just confuse them until the link is repaired. All Sephana had to do was heal his physical body, call his demon astral body from its place of origin, then his dragon spiritual body, put them back inside his body and be done with it.

That, folks… is why you should always research strange children you pick up on your way to a mysterious, ancient demonic cave as a child when you finally can. Who knows? You might be harboring a secret hybrid without realizing, though, in Sedrah’s case, he’s just… really dumb!  

 

Additional info on Sedrah's family

Dragon Empress: Alverona Xioraha Dragos - Grandmother          

Dragon Emperor: Kardia Xapheras Dragos - Grand Uncle

Fire Dragon King: Fulminas Seren Dragos - Father

Tyrant of Black and White, Dragon King: Vernes Eren Dragos - Uncle

Sephana and Claude - Cousins