CH 349

The child’s adolescence had been unfortunate. The Swallow Empire had once been called the country of barbarians, and the Ciba Tribe was made up of the lowest-class citizens in the Empire. That was where the child was born.

His story was cliche: one day, another tribe invaded the Ciba Tribe, utterly ruining them. The person who the child had called mother was raped by the invaders in front of the child, and they chopped off his father’s limbs and fed him to the dogs. Then the invaders turned to the blood-soaked child. His fate was sealed… until his savior suddenly appeared.

His savior had exterminated the invaders and then introduced himself as the best black mage on the continent; then, he gave the child one more opportunity. The child remembered what the mage had said vividly.

“Kekeke, you look quite talented. At this rate, you’re going to die soon, so do you want to test our fate?”

His savior had suggested that the child sign a contract with a demon, and the child had accepted. That had happened dozens of years ago. The child climbed from the lowest social class and had grown up to become someone who might as well be the emperor of the Swallow Empire.

He called himself Lucifer.

“Kekeke….”

As a matter of fact, “Lucifer” wasn’t a well-regarded name in the human realm; the name belonged to the fallen angel, banished by his fellow angels. That Lucifer gradually earned the trust of the Demon Spirit, allowing him to become a grand duke—in other words, Lucifer was the name of the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm.

“Kekeke.”

The man who had made a contract with such a figure was the Grand Duke of the Swallow Empire, the man known as the Crimson Sky.

Lucifer stopped laughing and ran his red tongue over his lip, eyeing the man who stood opposite to him in the blood-red sky.

“Seriously, it has truly been a long time since I became this serious about a battle,” he said to Joshua. “Do you know the name ‘Lucifer’?”

-Master! That man’s power…

‘It’s okay,’ Joshua reassured the sender of the telepathic message.

“I know,” he curtly answered Lucifer.

“Oh?” Lucifer’s eyes gleamed. “You know the name?”

“He’s the only being that is considered a traitor by both angels and demons,” Joshua calmly replied. “He was an idiot who only looked straight ahead, and didn’t even think about looking behind to see who was coming for him…”

After listening to Joshua for a moment, Lucifer frowned.

“…It looks like you know a thing or two about legends, but what you know is different from the truth.”

“What’s different?” Joshua quietly asked.

“It was the hypocritic angels who betrayed everyone, not the fallen angel Lucifer.” The man’s frown deepened as if it had happened to him personally. “Angels betrayed Lucifer after he protected their home. He was catastrophically strong, so no matter how many angels pounced at him, he was capable of reducing them into pulp. Michael, the one they called the strongest warrior among the angels, woke up in surprise when he heard the name ‘Lucifer’.”

Lucifer grew furious, his voice swelling.

“That was why Michael betrayed Lucifer first, even though Lucifer considered Michael his friend. Michael clipped the wings of his savior and then threw him into the abyssal depths of the Demon Realm.”

The story sounded familiar to Joshua. Yes, it was like his life…

“Lucifer had enough power to stop it from happening, but he didn’t bother. He thought it was his fault in the first place.” Lucifer looked up at the sky for a moment, then turned his head to look at Joshua. “That was how Lucifer was banished to the Demon Realm. While he was lost in despair, the first person to offer consolation was… none other than the Demon Spirit.”

That made Joshua tremble faintly, but Lucifer paid no mind.

“The Demon Spirit wanted him. Although Lucifer lost his power after his wings were clipped, the Demon Spirit was certain that he’d recover his power—and the Demon Spirit was right. Lucifer was born as an angel, but it turned out he also had demon blood.” Lucifer smiled slyly. “It was the birth of a monster that had never before been seen in the long history of angels and demons. Lucifer was the fallen angel with both angel wings and demon horns and combat prowess formidable enough to make even the gods in the heavens fear! In the end, even the Demon Spirit became scared of him.

“When the angels heard the news, they became nervous about what they had done. They practically reorganized the Angel Realm—the very place Lucifer had protected—and launched a surprise invasion upon the Demon Realm. However, the Demon Spirit was happy because it was a chance to take care of his problem without getting his hands dirty, but …” Lucifer trailed off for a moment, his eyes turning cold. “they all failed to realize that Lucifer was far stronger than they had expected. With his newly gained power, he slew every single one of the people who attacked him. Three of the Four Great Angels flew at him together, but they faced a devastating defeat. Uriel and Raphael sustained critical injuries, and Gabriel was forced into a humiliating retreat.”

Lucifer looked Joshua in the eyes.

“The last angel was Michael, that son of a bitch. Angels and demons stopped fighting to watch the fight between Michael and Lucifer, and the Demon and Angel Spirits weren’t exceptions. But…” Lucifer’s face crumpled. “Lucifer was betrayed again. The moment he was about to stab Michael’s heart with his sword and take his revenge for making him fall to the Demon Realm…!”

Lucifer released a storm of menacing energy.

“Lucifer… was stabbed in the back by Lugia, who transformed into the Demon Spirit’s spear. The Demon Spirit laughed at Lucifer as he was slowly dying and mocked the hypocrisy of the angels. Hearing the Demon Spirit’s mockery, Lucifer fell once again, but he didn’t end up in the Demon Realm or the Angel Realm. It was here, the Human Realm, where he landed… inside none other than me.”

When Lucifer finally finished speaking, the sky behind him began to distort with a ground-shaking roar. It took the form of a man with angel wings that filled the sky, yet had horns and red skin like a demon…

“…I’ll show you the power of the one and only catastrophe of all the realms, not your incomplete necromancy!” Lucifer shouted.

Joshua finally broke his silence:

“Most of your story is wrong, but there are two big errors that we need to go over.”

Lucifer stopped moving and frowned.

“…What?”

“First of all, the Lucifer you were talking about doesn’t use a sword.” Joshua pointed at the figure behind Lucifer. Just like Joshua said, when the figure finished his transformation, he was holding a sword of light as tall as him.

“Nonsense…” Lucifer shook his head.

“Besides, I know the identity of the man standing behind you.”

“His identity?” Lucifer asked. He couldn’t ignore those words.

“His name is…” Joshua looked at the figure for a moment. “Azazel.”

Lucifer’s eyes widened.

Azazel was another fallen angel and the Duke of the Demon Realm. In addition to that, he was the one person who respected Lucifer most, so he continuously tried to become Lucifer.

But there was no way Lucifer didn’t know about that.

“…Kekeke, I was wondering what nonsense you were talking about.” Lucifer shrugged off those thoughts with a wicked smile. “Enough chitchatting. Die now.”

Lucifer moved his hand to grab the sword hanging on his waist, believing for certain that he would be able to kill Joshua with a single strike.

“I’ll show you why I’m called ‘One Strike, One Kill’.”

Lucifer slowly drew his sword. The gloomy red blade rumbled…

A red lightning bolt struck Joshua.

The people looked up at the sky not knowing know what had happened. The only sign that Lucifer had already launched an attack with his sword was the clang of metal.

“Kekeke…” Lucifer smiled.

Just as he had expected, he slew Joshua too easily. It was understandable because Lucifer had already been as fast as sound, but after he summoned Azazel, he moved like light. Once he’d become that fast, no one in his entire life had been able to deflect his attacks… until today.

Lucifer saw a red spark and felt his hands go numb due to the recoil. His eyes popped wide open.

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“…Unbelievable…” His jaw dropped when he saw Joshua casually stretching his neck as if nothing happened, although Lucifer should have slain him.

“I swear I could feel my sword cut something…” Lucifer blankly murmured.

The unbelievable sight rendered Lucifer speechless.

“Just like I told you before… there are two main reasons why I’m certain the man behind you is Azazel,” Joshua said.

The man flinched in surprise and raised his head.

“First of all, he despises the sword since it’s Michael’s favorite weapon, so from the start, Azael’s main weapon has been a spear. Secondly…” Joshua trailed off with a bitter smile. “The real Lucifer is somewhere else.”

“…What?”

Lucifer didn’t get to ask anything else. With a grand hum, unlike anything Lucifer had ever heard, Joshua produced a pitch-black spear.

“…Magic Spear Arts Level 8, Final Origin: Battle Ghost Spear,” Joshua murmured.

“Magi-Magic Spear Arts…?” Lucifer gradually became petrified.

When Joshua mentioned the Magic Spear Arts, the man behind Lucifer frantically howled.

Joshua slowly swung his spear, the creeping point of his weapon creating a round form. With his aura, Joshua drew a moon and used his spear to impale it. The man behind Lucifer was well aware of this technique: it belonged to the shining darkness who had fallen to the Human Realm after the darkness had been pierced by the Demon Spirit’s spear. His name was…

“Lucifer…?”