Huh? The Devil King? Exstrephia? What the hell is going on?

"Please, allow me to explain" the self-proclaimed Devil King said.

I glanced behind me and saw a small wooden door. That meant there was escape. I was already running calculations in my head, attempting to figure out how quickly I could make it. It was hard to gauge the distance, however, due to the thick red mist covering the ground. There was a foul stench, like what a imagined a decomposing body would smell like, floating through the chilling air.

"You are here from another world, yes?"

I gulped. I struggled to find my voice and remained silent. I could feel a deep fear welling up inside me. 

Calm down. If I don't respond, there's no telling what he'll do.

Shakily, I steadied my gaze so that I was looking right at him. Or what could be seen of him, as he was mostly obscured by the mist. I was unable to stop my lower jaw from trembling. I exhaled deeply and just about managed to stop the incessant shaking. I felt my voice come back. It was a guttural feeling deep in my chest. 'Was it you who brought me here?' Those were the words I could feel bubbling up ready to burst out. Although it was already obvious that he was behind my being here.

In fact, I already kind of knew what was going on. I always used to occasionally enjoy my otaku habits and I'd read countless stories about characters that had been teleported or reincarnated to some kind of fantasy land. Isekai, I think it was called. But of any of the light novels and manga I'd read, no protagonist had ever awakened to something like this. I would have expected, if I'd realised what was going on sooner, to end up gazing upon some beautiful goddess or entrusting king about to issue me a world-saving quest. I would've been tasked to defeat the Devil King terrorizing the world and then formed a party with a harem of attractive girls. I'd show off my unparalleled swordsmanship and magic-wielding skills backed by my knowledge of MMOs. Well, that was how those types of stories usually went anyway.

So what the hell was going on? I was waking in a hellish, murky room talking to the very Devil King, I should've been tasked to defeat. Well, I  say 'talking' but it's not like I'd actually said anything yet. My words were at the tip of my tongue now. I could even feel a tingling sensation of the words waiting to burst forth and ask my obvious question.

But...

"..."

What? I can't speak!

I thought I'd calmed myself. I thought I'd been ready to respond. But, wait. That had nothing to do with it. It was something else. Something was... off. I couldn't describe the sensation but despite my words being ready to erupt from my mouth, when I tried to say them, nothing came out. It's like I was missing something important. But what? Why couldn't I speak?

"Ah yes. You used to be a human, I presume."

Huh? What did that have to do with this?

"Well, you're a demon now. You see, they don't have vocal chords, so you're going to have to learn magic to speak. Fortunately, I've already granted you the ability to understand any language as if they were your home tongue. You should be able to speak any language once you learn how to speak in general, aswell. Plus, with the amount of power I have given you, it should be little more than child's play for you to learn the 'Magic Speak' skill. Well, I guess I can give it to you anyway."

Wait. He just dumped a load of information on me. And he said it all so casually, like it was just a natural thing! I need time to process this. 

So, I was a demon. Well, surprisingly that didn't seem all that hard to believe after everything else that had just happened. Did that mean I would lose my humanity? No, probably not. I still felt like me, after all.

I gazed down at my body. I hadn't thought to inspect my new body when I'd first arrived, I was distracted by the Devil Kinh of course. I was used to being just an astral form in the void before I was brought here, so I was happy to feel myself in any kind of body. I had made the mistake of assuming I was human because the general structure of my body felt the same. Well, I was humanoid, not doubt about that. I had onyx black hands, with slender pointing fingers at the ends of them. My body seemed to have some kind of jet black plating over it, however my abdomen was uncovered by this, revealing my gray skin. Well, I assumed it was skin, but it seemed far from it. It wasn't smooth and didn't seem to have any flesh behind it. It was hard, and unmoving. Almost like a rock. Some of it slanted down slightly, forming a shape on my stomach reminiscent of a six-pack.

It wasn't exactly well-defined and I didn't exactly have any muscles but that didn't stop a surge of happiness rise up within me. I finally had a six-pack. Although, it was kind of upsetting that I didn't get this back in my past life though. I reached my thin, pointy fingers up to my face and began to caress it lightly. I could feel a rock solid, smooth substance covering my eyes and top half of my head. It felt like the same black armor-like material covering most of my upper body. Then my fingers felt a large drop down from the smooth substance and felt something a lot rougher covering the area around my mouth up to the bottom of my nose. I knew this feeling. That was it. The same substance that was on my abdomen. The six-pack substance. 

Then I reached for my scalp.

Hmm. I don't have any hair.

I did my best to surpress an overhwelming sadness that was taking over me. The though of going bald had never seemed like a viable hair option for me. But there was another thing. A thing on top of my head.

Huh? What the hell is this?

It felt like 2 inverted spikes. They perturded upwards, before circling back in on themselves in the middle of my head. There was an unsettling amount of empty space between them. That is, any empty space at all. Then I felt something hard. It was a small orb. A gem. 

"Oh, I guess I should tell you about your new body. What you seem to be so interested in now is what we call a Luminosity Gem. There are only 7 in the world, and I am in possession of 3 of those 7. They seem pretty useless, but I though putting my purple one there would be nice to look at. I will be seeing you a lot, after all."

Great, so I'm basically a walking trophy case.

"But, it has been foretold that, 80,000 years ago, when all of these gems were in one place they sealed an ancient demon threatening to destroy our world. One day, they shall come together again to defeat this monster for good, when it is inevitably reawakened."

Well that just went from 0 to 100 real fast!

"But, I don't really buy into that stuff. I just think they look cool."

Who the hell is this Devil King? Isn't he supposed to be some sacry, ominous figure. Maybe he's more serious than he lets on.

Anyway, my inspection of my body was completed.

I breathed a colossal sigh of relief. I was still close enough to a human. Sure, I wasn't exactly like one; I'd still probably terrify and normal person from my old life, but I was human enough. I looked like the final boss from an RPG game. When the Devil King said I was a demon, I assumed the worst. I could feel that I was humanoid, but for a split second my mind floated to the idea of some abomination of a creature with 8 giant spider legs and sickly, damp scales lathering its body. Realizing I hadn't checked my legs yet I gazed down at them. As you might have guessed, they followed the same pattern as the rest of my body. Onyx black substance covering the upper part, rough gray skin covering the lower part. The black went up to about my shin, that was when it turned to gray. I had spiky, protruding feet covered in the same black surface.

Once again, I felt relief take over my body. Now, what about the other stuff the Devil King had told me when I first got here. I didn't have any vocal chords, huh? That was strange. I'd never heard of any demons or devils having that kind of anatomy before.

It is what it is, I guess. I'll have to learn that 'Magic Speak' skill he was talking about.

I could understand any language as well. I was glad to see at least one cliché from the typical fantasy stories I'd read.

"I will teach you how to use the 'Magic Speak' skill right away."

I hesitated for a second, and then nodded. I still didn't know if I could trust this guy. I mean. he did just call himself the Devil King.

"Open your mouth."

I did as he said.

Multi colored lights erupted from the silhouette I could see beyond the mist. They wrapped around me and absorbed into my body. A large chunk of lights clumped together flew rapidly into my open mouth.

"Aah," I screamed instinctively. But it didn't hurt at all. In fact, it didn't feel like anything.

"Speak."

I opened my mouth ready to enquire if he had brought me here.

"D-did you summon me here?"

I could speak! It felt exactly the same as it had back when I was human.

"So you are here from another world. But it wasn't me who summoned you here."

Huh? What did he just say?