Chapter 998: The Demon King

"Who are you? Are you with this young man?" the Demon King asked while slowly stepping back in preparation for an attack.

If the man in front of him could save someone from him while not even being present in the room, then he was certainly someone to be worried about.

"Don't fear, I'm not here to kill you," Ning said as he walked into the throne room. He looked around at the room void of any flourishes and sighed. He stepped next to the young man who was hurt and placed his hand on the young man's chest.

"Get up!"

Instantly, the young man's left arm returned back to him and all the blood he had lost had returned as well. The mana and magicules he had lost had not returned, but just the rest alone was enough to surprise him.

'Who is this man? And why is he so strong?' he thought.

Ning looked at the young man with a confused look. "This isn't a place where humans can be. Why are you here?" he asked.

"I... I'm doing a dungeon clear," the young man said.

"A dungeon?" Ning asked. "You know this is not a dungeon right?"

"I know," the young man said. "But that was what I came here for."

"I see," Ning said. "Well as long as you know."

He turned away from the young man and looked at the demon king from head to toe and couldn't help but shake his head in a sigh.

"Who are you? Why are you in my palace?" the Demon King demanded.

Ning chuckled at the question. "Don't be so on guard. I'm going to tell you everything anyway," he said.

The Demon King did not do as he said at all. In fact, he got even more worried and used some spells to improve his defense.

Ning couldn't help but sigh. "Well, I should've expected this much," he said. "Although, it's truly a shame that you were born into such a world. To be a demon, to be this cruel and callous, that was not what I had expected of you."

"Who... who are you?" the Demon King asked with a hesitating voice.

"It's fine, you don't know me. You lost all your memories after your reincarnation after all," Ning said. "But I'm here now, so everything will be all right, Hyesi."

The Demon King couldn't help but frown. "Who is... Hyesi?" he asked.

"You are," Ning said. "Or you were, in your past life. You were my disciple, my friend, my brother. Here, it will be much faster if you have your memories back."

Ning disappeared from where he was and arrived in front of the Demon King before placing his palm on his head.

The Demon King tried to move back, but the moment he was touched, a massive amount of information was sent into his brain, overloading it for a second.

The Demon King fell to the ground, surprising the young man. He couldn't believe how easily the Demon King was defeated.

However, the Demon King stirred and got back up. He looked at Ning again, but this time around, his eyes had softened a lot and was even a little moist.

"Inikaka?"

Ning couldn't help but tear up when he heard that. "Welcome back, Hyesi."

"Inikaka! You came," Hyesi said with tears dripping from his eyes.

"Of course," Ning said. "I made a promise to my friend after all."

Hyesi couldn't stop himself from jumping onto Ning in a hug. Ning couldn't help but hug back as well.

After a few seconds, which felt like a long while, Hyesi let go of Ning and looked at the bird on his shoulder. "Night, you're here too!" he said.

"Hello, brother Hyesi," Night spoke. He was feeling strange as well. It was a mixture of happiness and surprise that he wasn't expecting to feel today. "Master didn't tell me where we were going, so it is a pleasant surprise to see that we were coming here for you."

"I see," Hyesi said. He grinned a demonic smile, which he couldn't just get rid of now that he had got his previous memories.

"To think you would end up becoming a Demon King, I expected many things, but never this," Ning said. "What do you even do around here? Does the Constellation make you work a lot?"

"The what?" Hyesi asked.

"The constellation? You don't know? Never mind then," Ning said. "Now, I know you don't have any family here, but are you willing to leave or not? Your previous family is back home waiting for you."

"I..." Hyesi, the Demon King thought for a bit. "I would love to return, Inikaka. Someone else can take my position here anyway. The realm appoints a Demon King whenever one is absent."

"Great," Ning said. "We should leave then."

He turned around and the young man appeared in front of him. "What do you want?" Ning asked.

"The Demon King's forces are encroaching on my world. Please make him stop them, sir," the young man said.

"Oh!" Ning turned to look at the Demon King. "You should stop them."

Hyesi shook his head. "It's not up to me," he said. "The realm orders them to move. I am only the mouth they use to receive the orders. I cannot make them stop as that is not the command."

"Fine, then I'll just kill them," Ning said.

"NO!" Hyesi shouted. "Some of them are my friends and brothers I have found in this world, Inikaka. You cannot kill them."

"Please kill them if you can, sir. Or else my world will be destroyed by these savages. We have no chance at survival at all," the young man said.

"Ughh..." Ning couldn't help but frown. Should he listen to reason? Or to his long-time friend? He couldn't decide whether he should let it be or go and kill the demons that were on their way to destroy Pantheon.

"Screw it!" Ning said. "I will go with a different approach where both of you win."