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The ceiling lights of Okinawa Hospital blurred into pale halos as he lay motionless on the bed. The constant beep beside him resonated like a clock that had learned to breathe.
His favorite object in the room was a beautiful vase, slightly larger than the palm of his hand, red with pink cherry blossoms painted on it. Truly magnificent, he thought. Meanwhile, his memories began to resurface.
"Hey Okawa, come here!" said a bald man, dressed more like a scientist than a doctor.
"Come on, come, Okawa," he repeated.
"Just a moment," Okawa replied. After finishing what he was doing, he approached his companion.
"Look!"
Okawa leaned over the microscope and saw something both magnificent and terrifying: a cancer cell.
"So? What's so interesting?"
"I'll explain it to you now, Okawa. I think I have a cure for stage-four cancer!"
As he began to explain, Okawa's memories started to distort. He saw a sword fight between an armored man and twelve knights.
"This time you will die, Demon King!"
One of the twelve knights cast a spell: "Soul Hit!"
The Demon King took the full blow, fell onto his obsidian throne, and died.
"What the hell," thought Okawa, lying in his hospital bed. "It must be the cancer playing tricks on me... after all, I'm about to die..."
The memories began surfacing again for a second time.
"Dad! Look, I got a 10 out of 10 in science!" said a little girl.
"Sweetheart, I'm so proud of y—"
Again, the memories corrupted:
"From now on, I want one of the twelve heroes, along with an elite group, to come here once a month and make sure nothing happens to the Demon King."
Again! thought Okawa. "These memories feel so real and unreal at the same time!" Then he realized: it was the cancer, and he had little time left; perhaps it was his subconscious wanting to become a hero.
Biiiiiip- Okawa heard the familiar long beep.
"So it's over for me," he thought, noticing how strangely calm the moment was, like the pause after a long sentence finally ended.
Darkness folded over him and opened again. He woke sitting upright on an obsidian throne. Something was wrong: this was not his body, but someone else's. The image of the Demon King returned to his mind.
"Wha-?!" he screamed, dropping the sword he didn't even know he was holding.
He rose from the throne and turned slowly, his gaze swallowed by corridors that twisted endlessly, arches blossoming into more arches, each carved in dark stone and patient shadow.
The stained-glass windows rose to an impossible height, colors frozen in mid-autumn, casting fragmented light across corridors opening into rooms, then more rooms, as if the castle itself refused to finish a thought.
He exhaled; his voice echoed as if borrowed from the walls. "A castle? With what looks like Gothic-style design..." He watched the words fade as he continued to look around the castle.
The "Demon King" began exploring the castle. "What... it never ends?" he thought. The castle was indeed infinite.
Still distracted by the endless halls, he turned too late, his attention caught by the spiky ceiling engravings and the way the windows repeated infinitely.
He should have collided with the stone, feeling the cold finality of a wall, but instead his body slipped forward as if the castle had forgotten how to be solid.
The stone passed through him like mist, sending a shiver down his spine, and he stumbled to stop on the other side, his heart pounding in a chest that no longer felt human.
He spun around, staring at the wall with wide eyes, his voice breaking the castle's silence: "WHAT THE HELL?!" The echo answered repeatedly, while comprehension stubbornly refused to come.
He stopped, forcing himself to breathe, squinting as his thoughts scrambled to find something sensible. After a long moment, only one fragile and incredible possibility emerged, and he whispered aloud: "Maybe I can control this castle... as I wish?..."
Then it happened again. Involuntarily, he stepped forward and slipped through another wall, the stone dissolving around him as if it had never accepted its existence.
Frustration finally cut through the shock, and he growled: "COME ON, GO AWAY, STUPID WALL!" The moment the words left his mouth, the wall disintegrated into nothingness, vanishing as if erased from reality.
He froze, staring at the empty space where the wall had been, his mind locked. Shock and disbelief overwhelmed him equally. "What the hell..." he whispered, the only words his stunned mouth could still form.
He scratched the back of his neck, realizing only afterward the helmet, which he lowered with a deep sigh. Okay, so first I literally died, he thought, staring ahead as if answers could escape him. "Then what happened now?"
His mind rummaged through myths, theories, half-remembered topics, until he clicked his tongue in mild annoyance. "Reincarnation? What a hassle," he sighed, adding: "So I reincarnated as the Demon King..." It was impossible for a scientist like him to accept, but he saw no other explanation.
Then the Demon King, Okawa, returned to the throne. "How splendid." It was no ordinary throne: made of obsidian, gold, and an uncertain crimson-opaque material. The throne itself wasn't very different from ancient kings' thrones, thought Okawa, but it was still impressive.
Okawa sat on his throne. "I had seen magic in my memories," he said, and as he spoke, a blue game-like card, similar to those his daughter played with, appeared before his eyes.
Name: Aurora
Status: Demon King
Level: 1
"Wait, wait, wait," said Okawa—actually Aurora. "Level 1???"
"And... Aurora? What a strange name for a man." It bothered him a bit: reincarnating at level 1. But he ignored it and continued examining the card.
Strength: 1
Endurance: 1
Stamina: 10
Speed: 1
Magic Power: 10,000,000,000
"Wait, wait, wait!" Aurora shouted in disbelief. "10 billion magic power!?"
Aurora was stunned, jaw dropped, eyes almost popping out of his skull.
"Hmm," he recomposed himself. "Let's see the other stats."
Unlocked Magic:
Description: magics unlocked by the entity.
Basic Magic [description]
Intermediate Magic [description]
Advanced Magic [description]
Forbidden Magic [description]
...
Aurora scrolled until reaching Unique Abilities:
Description: abilities that can be acquired by multiple people.
Immunity to physical damage [description]
Immunity to existence erasure [description]
Magic resistance [description]
...
The list continued. These abilities were locked, and he had to regain them, but Aurora was already focused elsewhere.
Arts:
Description: unique abilities. Hierarchy:
Classical Arts (125)
Mythical Arts (65)
True Arts (25)
"Alright, let's see how many Aurora has."
True Art of Yog-Sothoth [description]
Mythical Art Asmodeus [description]
Basic Art Azazel [description]
In total, Aurora had three, each more powerful than the last.
But Aurora noticed something surprising: a "punishment," a curse received when becoming the Demon King. This curse gradually stripped him of his humanity.
"Damn, that's bad..." he said. Then he continued examining stats and magic until the main door swung open: one of the twelve heroes had come to check on the Demon King Aurora.
She was a beautiful girl, long blue hair, yellow eyes. She wore a knight's armor and held her helmet in her hand.
Aurora realized he had to play the part of the Demon King. He positioned himself on the throne, as if time itself belonged to him.
The golden armor reflected a cold and cruel light, sculpting his body into perfect, almost divine lines. The curved horns rose from his head, while his face remained hidden, devoid of humanity, more mask than flesh.
He crossed one leg elegantly, a gesture of fearless nonchalance. The sword, firmly held, rested on the floor like a scepter: not for combat, but a reminder that violence was always within reach. His other hand rested on the throne, wrapped in dark drapes, a sign of total and uncontested dominion.
Around him, the darkness and crimson fabrics seemed to bend to his presence. There was no anger, no haste: only absolute calm, charged with menace. He was the image of a Demon King, a silent judge, a power feared without words.
"How long?" he said, in the calmest voice in the world.
Upon seeing this image, the hero's face changed: his smile vanished, his eyes stopped shining, and his face turned completely pale.
"W-what..."