Journey to Become the Zenith

The Day the Demon Emperor Chose to Die

I sat upon the obsidian throne, bored.

Ruler of a silent world.

Not the peaceful kind of silence.

The dead kind.

The kind that rots the soul.

The sort that takes root deep inside when dreams lie dead behind you.

Far beneath my feet spread the Grand Abyss Hall, hollowed out of black stone and ancient bones. Mountains could not match the girth of its towering columns, each holding up a roof painted with star patterns. Long ago, shouts filled this space - kings arguing, vows sworn in anger, lives weighed like coins on a scale.

Each breath I took bounced off the walls, filling the silence where sound once lived.

Freed from every chain I’d once known.

At journey’s close stood I, known as Anos Superbia, sovereign of demons supreme.

Not geographically.

Existentially.

I had done what no ruler in history had achieved.

I united demon clans that had butchered each other for ten thousand years.

I crushed the endless tide of human heroes.

I broke the holy kingdoms.

I bent the Beast-Kin war tribes beneath my banner.

I forced the proud Elven Kingdom to kneel and turned their sacred tree into my vessel.

I shattered the Vampire Courts and made their immortal king swear loyalty in his own blood.

I bound the Spirit Realms with ancient contracts.

I hunted the dragons from the skies and turned their corpses into palace pillars.

Every race resisted.

Every race fell.

This world now had only one ruler.

Me.

And that was the problem.

I was unbeatable.

And in doing so, I had killed the only thing that ever made me feel alive.

Battle.

For a thousand years, war had been my heartbeat. Every wound, every near-death struggle had sharpened me. But now?

There was no one left who could even wound me.

Not even my own children.

Dozens of sons and daughters born from centuries of queens, generals, and political marriages—monsters by any standard. Yet when they stood before me, I felt only disappointment.

They feared me.

They revered me.

They could not challenge me.

A king without rivals is already dead.

Immortality had become a cage.

Victory had become rot.

I lifted a goblet of crimson wine—ceremonial, offered for my three-thousand-year reign. A vintage pressed from spirit-fruit and phoenix marrow. My eldest son had presented it himself.

”What is a king,” I murmured to the empty hall, ”when there is no world left to challenge him?”

I drank.

The flavor was sharp. Bitter.

Wrong.

A heartbeat later, my vision blurred.

My fingers loosened.

...Strange.

I, who could drink dragon poison like water, felt my body grow heavy.

Interesting.

This was no ordinary toxin.

My limbs sank as if filled with stone.

My connection to mana... was being severed.

Footsteps echoed across the throne room.

Slow.

Confident.

I smiled faintly.

So it has finally come.

A tall young man stepped into the brazier light. Silver-black hair. Abyssal red eyes.

My blood.

My eldest son.

Kael.

Behind him stood a circle of robed archmages, staffs glowing with binding sigils.

Kael bowed politely.

”Good evening, Father. You seem unwell.”

His smile was light.

Too light.

Relief hid behind it like a crack in glass.

I chuckled as numbness spread through my veins.

”Kael... you’ve finally grown a spine.”

A deep laugh rose from my chest.

”So you chose poison over steel?”

Kael met my gaze without flinching.

”The wine contained a relic compound extracted from the World Tree’s root. It does not weaken the body. It severs a demon’s soul from the mana sea itself.”

Elegant.

Cruel.

Brilliant.

I laughed loudly.

”Hahaha... excellent. Truly excellent. I was beginning to think my bloodline had gone soft.”

He frowned. ”You’re not angry?”

”Angry?” I leaned forward on the armrest. ”No. Relieved.”

He froze.

”For centuries I have ruled a world with no future,” I said quietly. ”A king who cannot fall becomes a god. And a god becomes a disease. I have outlived my era.”

My eyes burned with long-buried hunger.

”But I will not die in a bed.”

I rose slowly, leaning on my sword.

”How disappointing. I trained you better than this.”

His jaw tightened. ”You trained me too well. I know I cannot defeat you fairly.”

Good.

At least he understood reality.

I spread my arms and laughed again.

”Hahahaha... at last. A blade aimed at my throat again.”

Even stripped of mana, my body was still forged by ten thousand wars.

I drew my greatsword from its throne mount.

Steel sang through the hall.

Kael’s eyes widened.

”So you still intend to fight.”

I only laughed.

He frowned. ”You’re smiling.”

”Of course I am. I have waited centuries for this moment.”

”Waited?”

I stepped down from the throne.

”You think I grew careless?” I said softly. ”No, Kael. I grew tired.”

The hall trembled beneath my footsteps.

”A demon lord must die by betrayal or battle. Anything else is an insult.”

As I walked, my gaze lifted to the vast ceiling carved with stars.

In the privacy of my own mind, memories stirred.

Another life.

A dying city.

A small apartment.

A worthless man running from police sirens.

Earth.

No one here knew.

No one ever would.

I had conquered this world for the same reason I once stole in that other life.

To feel alive.

A ruler without challenge is a corpse sitting upright.

I raised my sword.

”I do not want a throne without war. I do not want eternity without struggle.”

I lunged.

The floor shattered beneath my step.

”Come. Kill me properly.”

For the first time in his life, Kael hesitated.

”I sealed your mana, but your body is still monstrous. I brought magi for a reason.”

”Coward.”

I surged forward.

CLANG!

Kael barely raised his blade in time. The shockwave hurled him across the marble. He slid, boots carving trenches, blood spilling from his mouth.

The archmages panicked.

Chains of light.

Gravitational spears.

Void-binding circles.

Without mana, every spell struck fully.

My flesh tore.

Bones cracked.

Still, I advanced.

I crushed one mage’s skull with my bare hand.

Impaled another through the chest.

Magic kept coming.

Layer after layer.

Until—

A spear of condensed gravity pierced my chest and pinned me to the throne.

My legs failed.

I sank to one knee.

Breathing hard.

Blood soaking the obsidian.

So this is how it ends.

Kael approached slowly, trembling.

”Even like this... you’re still a monster.”

I coughed blood and laughed.

”Good. If I were easy to kill, you would not be worthy to replace me.”

He raised a black crystal dagger.

The Heart-Sunderer.

A relic that destroys a demon’s core directly.

So this was his true plan.

Not a battlefield execution.

A king’s assassination.

He hesitated.

For a moment, he looked like a son again.

I met his gaze and smiled warmly.

”Do it. Prove you are not my shadow, but my heir. My firstborn. My son.”

His jaw clenched.

The dagger plunged into my heart.

Agony exploded through my soul.

My demon core fractured.

The world dimmed.

Yet I smiled wider than ever.

Excellent.

At last.

The strongest Demon Lord did not fade quietly into history.

I died standing, pierced through the heart by my own blood.

And for the first time in centuries—

I felt alive again.

My vision darkened.

Kael knelt before me, voice breaking.

”You were the greatest emperor in history.”

I smiled bloodily.

”No. I was a challenger.”

Darkness closed in.

My last thought was not regret.

It was excitement.

So this is death again.

I whispered into the void:

”Good... now let’s see where I wake up next.”

The Supreme Demon Emperor, ruler of all races, conqueror of worlds—

Died smiling.

Still hungry for war.