Chapter 1 - Prologue.

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Prologue.

There are seven monarchs.

They were those with such immense power that no one could even come close. They used their power to rule the demon world and were revered as gods. But not all seven were equal. One of them was different. He was a mutant.

Fourth Lord, Perrnern.

He was weak. Compared to the other six monarchs, he was so weak that they doubted whether he had the same pure blood.

──The strong control of the monarchs.

───The power that causes natural disasters.

────The amazing physical ability to be demonized.

─────The enormous magic reserves.

All of that was absent from him. All he possessed was a fragile human body.

He was just an ancient being with noble blood and magic power.

The monarchs are the rulers and tyrants who reign over all beings in the demon world.

No one could replace them. No one could even challenge them.

However, because of his weakness, Perrnern was prey.

Numerous high-ranking demons constantly challenged him, wanting to devour him and take his place. However, no matter how weak, a monarch is a monarch. Unlike other monarchs, he had a special power called < Magic>. With it, he could utilize the elements and thus imitate the powers of the others. None of the others could understand how his power worked.

However, despite his understanding and knowledge, he constantly ran into his limits because he didn’t have enough magical power.

Because of that, the unfamiliar concept of <death>, that other monarchs never even dreamed of, came to him.

He had already suffered an impossible crisis.

Had it not been for another monarch’s help, he would have been eaten early, and another demon might have taken the place of the fourth monarch. He survived and fell into misery.

To survive, and to increase his Magic, he had to eat the heart of the devil. He would have to rip it out of its chest and consume it. For hundreds of years, he had survived.

But he was nothing.

The other monarchs became more and more influential as time passed, and they ruled the area. But he had nothing. All he did was wander from place to place.

Despite all his wandering, he seemed not to be moving forward at all. Already, the chasm between him and his brothers had grown far too wide.

He felt a serious crisis coming. Maybe he was feeling lonely.

You can’t do this.

It could be loneliness. It would be foolish to keep following the same path. He had to stay on top of this. First of all, he had to find other ways to increase his magical power. He wasn’t strong enough, yet, to defeat the devil.

After years of worrying, countless hours of research, he finally managed it.

Amplification. He was Using magical power arrangements and spells in a new way that others could not imitate.

Subsequently, he began to manufacture armaments to replace his fragile body. The concept of nothingness was new. It was the beginning. There was no concept of armor and weapons at all. However, to protect his fragile body, he made armor by peeling the skin off demons. He plucked and sharpened their claws to make weapons.

He was talented.

Numerous high-ranking demons who challenged him became his research material.

They made great armor, weapons, and trinkets. He created the language of Magic and engraved it into his items.

That’s how his hands shaped the first <Artifact>. It became an opportunity for the weakest monarch to be transformed into a powerful being, like the other monarchs.

At first, of course, it was crude. Other monarchs and demons laughed at Perrnern for doing useless things. First off, the devil wasn’t an opponent that could be killed without repercussions. His weapon was useless for the moment.

But as time went on, his efforts and talents combined to create something incredible.

In response to Perrnern’s Magic, he was attacked numerous times, and never was the attacker’s strength a match for Perrnern’s weapons.

The best thing was that he now had more Magic at his disposal. He could now use the skills that he used to cast once or twice before being exhausted at his leisure. He split the earth with a single gesture, created a gigantic pillar of Fire out of nothing, and froze it in the blink of an eye. At his command, the sky opened and struck his enemies with powerful lightning.

He could do whatever he wanted. He became omnipotent.

He was no longer prey. Rumors spread that many high-ranking demons challenged him, and he ate their hearts. Those who couldn’t be deterred by the rumors and still doubted his strength came to regret that. He tore the hearts from their chests while they were still beating.

Later, like other monarchs, he ruled over some of the vast lands of the demon world. He laid claim to the islands floating in the sky so that no one could get to him.

On one of the islands, he built a castle.

For a long time, he lived there and killed all those invading his castle. He was no longer the weakest of the monarchs. He was no longer an opponent one could afford to underestimate.

Still, he predicts that death will be coming for him one day in the far future.

Although his body was visibly weakening over the years, he didn’t want to accept death’s inevitability and tried to find a way out of it. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time he’d avoided death. There was always a way out.

‘But if death ultimately cannot be avoided – What do I do?’

He asked himself slowly. It was exhausting to ponder over that question, he decided. He would still have a lot of time to find an answer. Maybe one would come along by chance. In the meantime, there were still many high-ranking demons whose bodies he could put to much better use than they ever could. What would happen if he made a weapon out of his own heart? Could he become the ruler who reigns over all the demons?

The power of the high ranking demon’s hearts is enough to create a powerful object, but to become the Lord of all Demons, he would need a stronger heart.

He pulls his heart out himself and cuts it into twenty-four pieces.

He put the pieces in glass tubes and thought about what to create for a long time. Finally, he had completed twenty-four weapons.

When the twenty-four armaments were completed, he attacked his enemies. The weapons’ effectiveness exceeded his expectations, and they became a treasure that even the other monarchs would covet.

However, even after creating these tremendous treasures and defeating his enemies, he was still empty inside.

They were interesting items to distract him for a while, but death would still be waiting for him in the end.

When the heart, the source of the Magic, was cut up, death drew closer. Perrnern would have to give his position up at some point. He had no successor, though. He searched for a long time.

If you can’t find someone you like, you have to choose someone who is qualified.

After contemplating it for a while, he decided to find a successor using his twenty-four armaments.

After all, he didn’t have to choose someone in the demon world.

He went crazy as he scoured the middle ground between the demon and celestial worlds.

The land, which also served as a passage between the two worlds, was where humans, and several other races who looked similar to them, lived.

He released all twenty-four armaments into the middle ground.

On that day, twenty-four meteorites fell from the sky in the middle world.

Perrnern’s arbitrary and spontaneous actions skewed countless fates. He also decided a new fate for the entire continent:

“Hear me, you pathetic beings. The things that fell into your world are weapons I made by carving out my heart. The number of fragments containing my power, the power of the fourth lord, is twenty-four.”

“He who collects them all will inherit my power, regardless of race or existence. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a demon, an angel, or a human. Gather.”

“Anyone who wants to sit on the left of the fourth lord of the demon world, become the most powerful being, after me, will collect all the fragments.”

“Once you have collected all the fragments you will be reborn and everything will be yours.”

This is how the hunt for the twenty-four hearts began.

────────When twenty-four meteorites fell from the sky.