Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 3 - Chapter 42 - The Story of Tartarus and the Demon King (Patreon)

This chapter is twice as long as the regular chapters. It will also explain a hell of a lot of stuff to you all.

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                                                   Scarlet

Once we get situated in some rather luxurious chairs underneath a small canopy with a table in between us, I take a moment during the Demon King’s silence to actually examine him. The man has hair a lot more like mine than my biological father’s, and it’s more like how my hair usually is. Slightly unruly but not too unruly. Still taken care of.

Mine right now is a different matter entirely thanks to the bath combined with whatever work those maids did on it.

He also has a face just a little bit less sharp than my biological father’s, along with a generally arrogant yet also laidback attitude in his body posture. One that I can completely understand given the fact that he’s the most powerful being in the universe. There literally isn’t anything stronger than him, so what’s there to worry about? What’s there that could threaten his pride and arrogance? Or his peace, in regard to the laidback part of his attitude.

He’s wearing two pauldrons over his shoulders with multiple layers and a golden outline with black as the main color and a layer of red fur underneath, the same color as his hair. There are some golden ropes connected between the pauldrons, and he has plates of what look like a silvery black armor over his forearms. Meanwhile the rest of his armor just looks to be a layer going down from his hips past his thighs, only on the sides of his body and not on the front or back, with some clothing similar to what I’ve seen nobles in video games and tv shows wearing underneath it all.

And he’s just staring at his hands as he leans forward, his hands resting between his knees while he seems to be lost in thought.

I glance at my biological father, only to find him shaking his head at me before he focuses on his own father. So I just stay quiet and focus on him as well.

Eventually the Demon King spreads out his blood domain around us, just like the Blood Lord did before, and begins speaking in a slightly monotone voice, as if distancing himself from what he’s saying, “Unlike what many of the humans on Earth seem to believe, and even some of the demons, the System on Tartarus has been here for almost two thousand years now. And back then, when the System first initialized itself here, things were far different from now.”

My eyes widen in shock at that statement alone.

Two thousand years?!

“Tartarus was split up into several different nations, including the Holy Empire, the Grand Empire, the Arcadian Republic, and various other nations, each with their own people and their own ways of governing,” he continues, his words still sounding distant to my ears. “During that time, I was the King of a smaller kingdom known as the Blood Monarchy. And things were relatively peaceful.”

I blink before frowning. And I notice the Blood Lord doing the same.

The Blood Monarchy? The King of a smaller kingdom? Not one of the larger powers?

“That peace didn’t last long,” the Demon King says, a slightly self-mocking tone in his voice. “The Grand Empire decided to pursue world domination. And one of the very first nations they conquered was my own, showing me just how weak we were even after the System’s initialization into Tartarus.”

I can’t help but lean forward a little, interested beyond belief by this story. Something that will most likely answer all of the questions the humans of Earth had.

“They didn’t just stop with conquering us though, instead deciding to use the powers of the System in order to create human weapons,” the Demon King continues, but the Demon Lord stops him there as he asks, “Human…?”

The Demon King raises his gaze to meet his son’s before nodding and answering, “Yes, my son. Human.”

He then meets my own eyes as he continues, “The Grand Empire experimented on my entire kingdom, my wife and I included, and turned us into test subjects. Turning us into creatures no longer even considered human by the System.”

A short pause ensues as I hold my breath.

“Turned us into demons.”

Both the Demon Lord and I stare, our mouths agape.

Demons… used to be human.

Even Tar looks shocked, not to mention my biological father’s fae who had appeared out of nowhere as well.

“Our bodies all changed, the Empire turning us in groups, making some groups stronger and faster than others,” he continues, his voice sounding monotone once again. “The vast majority of the population didn’t even manage to hold onto their intelligence. Their capability to think like a human. They were turned into what are now known as spawn.”

Neither the Demon Lord nor I say a word, simply listening as the Demon King leans back. “With our help, the Grand Empire eventually managed to achieve world domination, conquering every last nation, and creating the Empire of Tartarus. But despite our assistance being the sole reason for their victory, the rest of the humans in the world hated us. They believed us to be disgusting, terrifying creatures who shouldn’t exist, and they treated us as mere slaves. Despite them being the ones who made us into what we were in the first place.”

That’s… horrible.

“I, along with all of the demons beneath me who still held their sapience, grew more and more enraged over this as the years passed. But despite this, we still held our tongue. We still obeyed. We didn’t rebel,” he says, his voice growing softer now. “And eventually things even started to look up.” He looks at my biological father. “My wife and I had you, Leon. And we were even planning on having a daughter to give you company as well.”

His gaze turns to me, a deep sorrow filling him to the brim, “But then the Emperor of the Empire of Tartarus decided to make a show of power over the demons. By killing my wife.”

My eyes widen in shock, and I notice the blood domain around us growing slightly turbulent with the Demon King’s current emotions. Emotions that I can see written all over his face.

Pain. Rage. Hatred. And sorrow.

None of which are directed at me or the Demon Lord, but instead at those who did those atrocities.

“We were never able to have a daughter, even though my wife really wanted one, more than almost anything in the world,” he continues, his voice toning down slightly. “But when I found out that my wife was pregnant when she was killed…”

Holy shit…

“I lost it.”

An eerie silence fills the blood domain for a few seconds before he slowly says, “For decades, I hunted every last human I could find. Every single one. I grew stronger and stronger, eventually turning to killing the spawn in my own kingdom’s lands just to put them out of their misery. And after nearly a century, I managed to kill the Emperor who struck down my wife.”

The Demon King’s eyes narrow and he looks up at the canopy above us. “But the Emperor was ready for that, for he set up a dead man’s spell.” He looks back down. “Two of them, in fact. One of them cursed all of demon kind to be bound by what he called the ‘seven deadly sins,’ and the other restricted the technological development of Tartarus past a certain point.”

My eyes widen in shock, and even Tar’s do as well. Although, surprisingly, my biological father doesn’t seem surprised by this part.

“And the only way to dispel these curses,” he says, his voice growing quiet as he looks me in the eyes, “is to exterminate every pure blooded human in the universe. Down to the last one.”

“Pure blooded…” I can’t help but mutter, feeling shocked by all of this information.

He nods his head and says, “Meaning you don’t count in that number, as a hybrid between a human and a demon yourself.”

“So that’s why you’re attacking Earth…” I mutter, unsure how to feel about all of this.

The man nods once more before turning to look at his son. “After that, I went on a berserk rampage, slaughtering every last human I could find. Even after the System had given me the Title Beast of the Apocalypse for slaughtering over a billion humans. I just continued. All the way till the last human on Tartarus.”

“But the curses never lifted,” my biological father mutters. And the Demon King nods at that with a sad look on his face.

“That they didn’t,” he says, a conflicted note in his voice this time. “After that, I returned to my kingdom to find it in in utter chaos, so I rebuilt the kingdom. I turned it into what it is today and even gained the Title Demon King.” He then pauses as a sad note crosses his face, his eyes moistening slightly while meeting his son’s. “And the only reason I managed to retain my sanity at all, was because of you.”

I sit in silence, absolutely sure that I shouldn’t say anything as my biological father tears up a bit. Something I never thought I would ever see, same with the Demon King tearing up.

The silence extends for a little bit before the Demon King leans forward in his seat and looks at me again, “Over the years, I ended up reaching the level cap for Class V. But no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find a sufficient catalyst to ascend to Class VI.” He pauses here, his face turning slightly dark. “Then Queen Tiamat, the creator of the System, passed away, and free reign over the System for any living being became locked. After that point, anyone who wasn’t already initialized into the System would need to contract with a fae to initialize themselves into the System, even if they didn’t stay contracted to them afterwards. A way the Queen designed to keep her own people alive after her passing.”

Wait a second, everyone had access to the System at one point? Without a contract?

The hell?

“I almost gave up in my search to become Class VI,” the Demon King moves back to the subject of ascension, only to darkly chuckle. “But right when I was about to give up, the Fractures began, opening us up to a new world.” His eyes meet mine. “To Earth. Where more humans existed, explaining clearly why the curses never lifted.”

I grimace and mutter, “So you’re trying to kill the humans on Earth to lift the curses.”

He nods before adding, “And because I despise all of humanity. It doesn’t matter if they’re on Tartarus or not. Humans will always be despicable creatures. So I feel no pity anymore for killing them. No regret. Not after all they’ve done.”

That… I’m not sure if I can really blame him, but at the same time, what he’s doing is terrible. And he’s a large part of why treatment of orphans is so terrible on Earth. Why so many people die every day.

Now, I’m not a martyr or anything. I don’t really care much about other people unless it just doesn’t inconvenience me to help them.

And I’m not going to lose sleep over someone dying near me. It happens every day. Even before the Fractures, the world was constantly at war with itself, with soldiers dying every single day. With people dying to disease all the time.

Death is just an eventuality in life. They come hand in hand.

“I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done to humanity on Earth, especially when they haven’t done anything to you,” I state while shaking my head, quickly finding a deep sadness in the Demon King’s eyes. “But I don’t take it personally either. So while I will never support you in any of your goals against humanity… from what I’m told, you didn’t even know about what was happening when I was taken to Earth and abandoned in the first place. You didn’t have a say.” I pause to glance at Tar, only to find him nodding his head, so I turn back to the Demon King to find hope in his eyes. “So, even if I will never forgive you in that, I will not hate you.” And after a brief hesitation, I add, “Grandpa.”

His eyes alight with joy at that, and I can tell he looks to be itching to hug me. But my biological father stops that as he clears his throat and says, “You didn’t finish.”

The Demon Kin- uh, Grandpa? That’ll take some getting used to. Grandpa straightens up again, wiping any moisture from his eyes as he continues, “The Fractures also represented a way for me to achieve Class VI, since I can ascend after I obtain ten Class V cores. So whatever the universe’s plot is regarding its creation of the Demonic Assaults and the Fractures, I need it to continue at least until I manage to gather all of the cores I need to ascend.”

My jaw drops open.

To ascend to Class VI.

This… is a major info bomb.

As I’m trying to parse this information, I hear my biological father slowly ask, “But what if there was another way to get rid of the curses?”

Silence fills the blood domain while both Grandpa and I turn to stare at him.

“What?” Grandpa asks, his face completely blank.

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