Silently watching the dark red sky, Nekruis suddenly frowned. He was looking at the city when he felt a sensation of something breaking.
"Zeliker has eradicated the lock."
Zapter behind him immediately looked stunned. He knew what Nekruis meant. Sweat covered his face while he stared at Nekruis.
Nekruis let out a sigh and changed his gaze to his left arm. An old long gash was there, hidden behind his long sleeve.
He can let it disappear if he wants to but he rather has it to remind him of his hopelessness. There were also other scars all over his body.
No one other than Zapter, Alinda and his close friends know this fearless and powerful demon king would allow such things to smear his body.
And the scars were a physical and mental punishment that Nekruis wanted to keep remembering forever.
"Do you want me to stop him, Your Majesty?" Zapter asked.
"... No. Maybe this is an opportunity for him."
Reminiscing on the past, an unpleasant and anguish expression was displayed on Nekruis' face.
"Tell me, Zapter. Are we a good father?"
Zapter went silent. He was unable to answer such a question. It makes Nekruis let out a small chuckle.
"We are the worst parents ever. Our wife and children have taken our bad luck. If Alinda had never married us, maybe she and our children wouldn't have to suffer…"
"No, Your Majesty! You did everything you could to make sure they were alive! It isn't your fault either! It was the enemy!" Zapter countered immediately.
"It doesn't hide the flaw and the problem we carry."
"Your Majesty…"
Zapter didn't know how to make Nekruis feel better. He can only watch and do everything Nekruis wanted him to.
Like Nekruis had said, the fault comes from himself. He had endangered everyone he loved dearly. The enemy was wicked and smart.
They had used Nekruis' beloved wife and children to get to him. All because of the secret that Nekruis had hidden.
Zapter has been beside Nekruis since Nekruis' first war and became his loyal right-hand man. He had seen everything transpire since then.
The only thing that made him feel so terrible was he was still unable to carry all of his king's burdens or find their enemy's location.
"Zeliker…"
Zapter focussed back on Nekruis.
"Do you know how many times he died in the illusion?"
Zapter answered with silence again.
"Four thousand nine hundred and nine."
Zapter was startled after he heard the shocking number. His eyes couldn't help but widen.
"Even though you and we have never reached death, my son repeated them again and again in that illusion. For a four-year-old child, the last thing they'll become after coming out of it is only one…"
Crazy.
Zapter swallowed while answering it in his mind. He had seen it too and it made him still shudder in fear every time he remembered.
It was a big massacre created by the wild Zeliker. Two third of their servants, some guards, and even some soldiers, were killed at that time.
He had a big shock finding death everywhere. Meeting the calm Zeliker when he was killing someone pressured him more than he could imagine.
Especially the dead and threatening eyes looking at him like he was an insect, worthy to die under his feet.
After Nekruis, Alinda and another person stop Zeliker and his continuous massacre, Zapter had sleepless nights every day for a few months before he got used to it.
And…
He had to work overtime to take care of the problem that arose from the accident. Anyone spilling the accident or creating the rumour about it would be silenced by him.
With that, slowly for a few months, the accidents were no longer around. Even if there was, no one dared to talk about it anymore.
And after a few years, no one remembers such an accident, giving some relief to him in the end.
"Why is it an opportunity, Your Majesty? Aren't you worried that Your Highness Zeliker might begin another rampage?"
Zapter wished he could fly to Zeliker right away and stop him at once. He was worried for Zeliker's safety. However, he knows the person who was more concerned about Zeliker was Nekruis.
"He is an adult now. If he can overcome the past, he will be able to see the differences and learn them."
Nekruis walked to his working table and sat on it. He had been working on something when he felt like looking outside for a moment to rest his overworking mind.
But, who could have thought another problem arose from his son destroying the lock on the gate he closed with his power.
He also wondered when his son noticed such a thing. After all, the gate was hidden deep in his son's memories.
"His past may be frightening but it was his chance to become stronger than the current him. If he masters them, he would be stronger than any royal demon of this century…"
Zapter was enlightened by Nekruis' sentences. If it's true, their prince will become one of the powerful royal demons.
'But, if he failed... No! He is my son whose heart is purest among other demons and very considerate. He can overcome this trial and his past. Although remembering it again was painful…'
Nekruis closed his eyes and hoped Zeliker would manage to become stronger and not fall into another madness.
…………………………………..
'This is bad… Very bad…'
Zeliker grit his teeth while feeling his mind almost breaking apart from the most painful headache he ever had.
Adding to it was the past he couldn't remember anymore except for a few fragments of it and the darkness crawling in desperation trying to eat his consciousness.
The darkness includes resentment, the desire to kill and unfairness toward the world. Possibly, if he allowed it to control his mind and body, he would never be himself again.
He didn't want this!
But, the darkness was too strong. It had enveloped his body all over, creating pressure from the inside out.
Sometimes, he would let out a painful scream, moaning and panting while he resisted against the darkness.
And between this, he felt the dying sensation he went through in the illusion one by one.
From his third brother, Zapter, then, Larkanos, his second brother, Alinda, the guards, servants, soldiers, other demons and the last one, Nekruis.
The degree of death and its cruelty also start from the low attempt until a painful death which Zeliker most hated, the slow torture.
He couldn't imagine any other killing technique that has not been shown since he had suffered them all.
'Four thousand nine hundred and nine… No, ten…'
Zeliker counts them after seeing his first death until his young self appears in reality which he cannot perceive as an illusion again or not. He watched his young self kill everyone he met.
And finally… He saw how he stabbed his mother's heart with his hands.
He snapped out of his craze after he was kicked away harshly to the opposite wall by Nekruis and saw his furious glowing red eyes. His body was also stabbed and sealed by numerous snakelike chains.
After that, Zeliker fainted from the sensation of his broken bones and no longer remembered anything from then on. But, Alinda never came to see him, not when he was recuperating for a few months.
As for how he knew she had died was because Noqhei infiltrated his room silently and let him see an illusion of himself killing his mother.
Anguished and angry over what he believed he had done, he killed Noqhei with his bare hand when Noqhei was having fun telling him his tales.
The tales where he had created a powerful royal demon through his illusion ability and how he would be appointed as the best royal tutor of Flink after creating the future glory of the kingdom.
Seeing all this again makes Zeliker hate himself. He contemplates whether to kill himself to end these painful memories. Or…
'Should I eliminate the world first before eradicating myself too…?'
His eyes dimmed out, changing to madden like his past. But, before it fully shifted, he was stopped by a pleading voice.
"Zeliker, please come back…! Please… I beg you…!"
'This voice… Who is it…? Who is calling my name…?'
"Please, I don't want to lose you… Not again…"
Zeliker can hear the agony of the voice and the sound of sobbing along with the sentences.
"Did you… forget me…? I am… Silvert!'
Silvert's name was like a stone falling in the pool of water, disturbing the tranquillity while discarding the cloud of evil in his consciousness.
Zeliker growled. He was angry that he was almost tempted to do something he hated.
"You're just memories and the darkness locked inside of me fifteen years ago! How dare you try to control me!"
Zeliker's power from inside his body burst out, pushing the darkness covering him.
The area too was instantly covered in his aura and he controlled them to push the darkness to one place. At the same time, the suffocating memories also detached from him.
He must have been stupid. Comparing the ability he had in the past, the current him was supposedly stronger than it.
It might have been brewing and gotten bigger because it was locked but the darkness was still four-year-old him.
How can a nineteen-year-old him compare to his past four-year-old? It was ridiculous no matter what he thought.
"You surely know how weak my mentality is and took the opportunity when I was having a hard time-fighting Itsven to take over. I won't be a fool anymore!"
Zeliker needed to eliminate it once and for all but he knew it was impossible. The darkness was himself, a part of his memories he cannot eradicate.
The only thing he could do was combine the dark memories with himself. In meaning, he needed to absorb it and control his sanity.
Zeliker moved to sit in a lotus position and closed his eyes. He concentrates on his consciousness. This area after all was his consciousness.
Slowly, the trapped darkness was absorbed into his body.
'Please wait for a while, Silvert… I'll be done with this soon and meet you again. Urgh! I need to thank you too for saving me… Still, I am glad to have you around. If not, I don't know what has become of me. I won't lose myself to the past. It will be my strength for me to get stronger and help us reach the future we seek!'
Zeliker didn't know what his real body was doing outside but he hoped he did nothing too outrageous or kill anyone.
He hopes…