CHAPTER 614: THE FALLEN KING

The inner keep was too quiet.

No banners flapped, no courtiers whispered. Only the slow drip of blood from broken stone and the low rasp of wounded men trying not to die. In the darkness, their eyes shone as Asmodeus silently observed.

"This way," Qwass said.

He limped ahead, one hand on his sword, the other pressed against the gash under his ribs that refused to clot. Even with Asmodeus’s blood knitting him back from the brink, the duke moved like a man who hadn’t slept in three days.

Everyone is exhausted...

The pair passed through a shattered arch into the main throne halls.

Memories of being summoned, the queen, the princess and meeting Alan and the others flashed through Asmodeus’s mind. Many of his classmates were dead, and now even the knights he had trained with in the first months also vanished.

It hurt to look...

The high windows shattered, with spiderwebbed cracks.

A mixture of blood, filth and bodies stained the fine marble. The pristine red carpet was now black in places where fire kissed it and discoloured where blood and bodies lay scattered atop it.

Spears lay scattered like fallen teeth, while the throne itself sat crooked with chunks torn from the backrest and arm.

Avandar?

Hair covering his face, matted and soaked with blood... Avandar sat slumped at its base, propped on cushions and a rolled cloak, breath shallow but there. Two healers with pale faces and bloody noses worked beside him with faded golden light in an attempt to heal the king.

When they saw me, their shoulders loosened as if someone had lifted weights from their backs.

"Your Majesty," Qwass said, voice rough. "He’s here."

Avandar tried to sit up. Failed. Gave me a lopsided grin instead. "Late," he rasped, eyes bright despite the blood on his lips. "But not too late."

"I knew you would come to help us... Ryuji."

Asmodeus didn’t kneel; he was now the king of demons...

He rushed up to the king, memories of the past year flowing through his mind, a tough old man who annoyed him. Yet... Avandar also impressed Ryuji, and the moment he reached the king, he knelt not as another king... but his son-in-law.

"Father-in-law!"

Avandar’s eyes widened to see the mighty demon king... to hear those words shook the man’s heart as she coughed more blood. "Y-You... who said I would give my daughters... haha.... Urgk..."

"Don’t make stupid jokes!"

After losing his mother and father... Asmodeus came to understand and appreciate family, whether blood-related or crafted through bonds.

"Just sit there and accept treatment, old man!"

The years between them pressed in at once—hunts in the high forest; the first audience when Ryuji was more lust than sense; the quiet afternoons where he pushed the limits and abused his title as hero.

Avandar and Alan were the ones who accepted and gave him the chance to try.

He huffed. "Finally. Took you long enough to use the word. My son."

Asmodeus paused; the words held a great meaning to him, but he didn’t feel bad... to hear the mothers of his lovers and now their father accepting him. He closed his eyes and placed a hand over the king’s sternum.

Heat pulsed there, wrong and thin. Mephisto’s touch hadn’t entered him, but it had brushed close. The wound below his ribs was the real threat. A deep, torn entry wound worse on exit, exactly the sort of strike you land when you know the man you’re killing.

Alan’s swordsmanship.

His chest tightened.

"Can you hold on for a little longer?" I asked.

"Huff.... give me a reason!"

"Your grandchildren will soon enter this world."

"You bastard!!! My lovely babies have been sullied!"

Qwass covered his face, avoiding laughter at the king’s powerful show of energy; meanwhile, Asmodeus started pouring his blood aura and traces of divinity into Avandar’s wounds.

I will make this old man do his duty as a grandfather!

You can’t die, old man.

Qwass shifted his weight and began to speak. "Mephisto marched north with a host of brainwashed. My Kings. Nobles, Priests, Knights... Not all of them are completely enthralled, but the number is great."

His shoulders quivered. "King Asmodeus..."

Avandar’s fingers twitched against Asmodeus’s wrist. "Save him."

The old man looked anxious, maybe thinking that Asmodeus might not accept, but he shrugged. "Why would I kill that fool? He’s got so many children to spoil rotten, I won’t let that bastard escape."

Asmodeus’s frank words caused the healers to pause.

Qwass snorted while staring at the floor.

"I will leave Vinea and Velvet here, I am sure they will help rebuild Grigor as best they can, old man."

"Thank you... Ryuji...."

"Before that, you know what I must do..."

Qwass made a noise like a dying boar. "Your Majesty—"

"Silence!" Avandar said with a ghost of a smile. "Let my son work."

Asmodeus tore his palm.

Threads of crimson blood unfurled in a slow, beautiful dance and sank into the king’s wounds.

He didn’t flood it; the hall didn’t need a demon monarch rising from the marble. However, he gave enough of his divine power, sifted and compressed into fine threads that knitted the king’s wounded organs and stitched vessels without twisting the flow of his current life.

"There..."

Asmodeus stood up with a nod.

His eyes changed from a gentle and pleasant atmosphere to a sharp and aggressive one.

He looked at Qwass, then at the knights on the floor.

"Those who wish to surpass their weakness and become stronger for the kingdom, drink this." Asmodeus took out a large box from the air, which contained hundreds of small vials of his blood.

Not enough to make them Demon Warriors, but enough to break the limits this world placed on most humans.

"Only one, otherwise they might suffer."

"I understand!" Qwass, who absorbed a huge amount of Asmodeus’s blood, understood the meaning, and thanks to his begging to remain loyal to Avandar, something between a Demon Knight and Demon Warrior.

"I will spend the night here, helping your soldiers, father-in-law."

Vinea’s cheeks flushed red each time Asmodeus called her father in such a way. Avandar, who noticed this, grumbled... his wounds rapidly closing after receiving the biggest donation of blood from his son-in-law...

After this, the young king should be able to live for at least two hundred years before he dulled.

"Leave Alan to me."

Avandar hissed as he lifted himself to sit properly on his throne; the wounds and pain remained, but looked better. "You both may go rest." The healers almost collapsed with thanks to those words, pale and exhausted.

"Let me do it again..." Asmodeus reopened his wound.

This time, he also poured more blood into Qwass... to ensure the safety of his new family.

After the third dosage, Avandar’s eyes became sharp, his breath steady.

The colour in his mouth and eyelids warmed. When Asmodeus sealed the last edge of muscle, the king’s hand found his forearm and squeezed far stronger than a minute before.

"I am stronger..." Avandar’s eyes widened. "Stronger than ever before!?"

"Sleep." Asmodeus told the king with a bitter smile. "You need to adjust, give orders and take a good rest."

"..."

Avandar didn’t argue; he just smiled at the broad back of Asmodeus. "Foolish boy, how can I repay you now?" He muttered, as Vinea and Velvet remained, Sariel, Riel and Leviathan left with Asmodeus.

"Father!"

"You lucky old geezer!"

Vinea rushed up to her father, despite being a demon who could stop her emotions from overflowing. All the death and loss vanished, and she dove into her father’s arms with a soft sob.

"I thought you might die.... that I would never see you again!"

"Foolish girl... Anne..." Avandar paused, knowing she had changed her name, but when she shook her head, he felt relieved.

"My dear husband doesn’t mind using our human names, especially with family. Dad, this wild princess has come home to greet her father."

"You’ve grown into a fine woman, you truly resemble your mother..." Avandar stroked Vinea’s cheek with his eyes wet and at peace. "Without you, and your sister, what would I do?"

The pair cried for some time, while Velvet started to collect the fallen knights using her immense physical strength and magic to gather them. Qwass followed her orders and gave each man a large dose of blood.

"It looks like a great battle will follow." Velvet looked towards the grey sky as raindrops started to fall.

"Do you think the land will be alright?"

Duke Qwas knew the horrors of the Demon Queen, but facing the threat of Mephisto left him on the brink of collapse.

The departing back of Asmodeus appeared to be that of a god to the old Duke, who felt his powerlessness in this battle.

Velvet tossed another vial into the box while looking at the doorway with a bitter smile.

"You don’t need to worry about that. Asmodeus, our husband doesn’t promise things without following up. He’ll save Alan and unify this continent."