Who was that guy?
That was the question Gaevon asked himself as he ran for his life.
His golden armor, an artifact capable of absorbing 90% of damage, was fractured on two sides.
His divine lance, the one capable of always hitting its target and ignoring its durability, had been split in two with ease.
But that wasn't all he had lost.
He had always had great charisma and a silver tongue, and had managed to convince five heroes to team up with him.
However, someone had come along he couldn't convince.
A hero with a sinister appearance who summoned even more sinister weapons to annihilate his enemies.
He played with the shadows and gave them shape, breathing life into them with the purpose of killing his companions.
None of them could survive. Only he managed to escape.
But he was still a wreck.
"Shit, damn monster, how can he be so powerful!?" the boy complained as he hid behind a tree to catch his breath.
It wasn't the first time something like this had happened to Gaevon.
He still remembered his life on Earth.
He was a nobody, a waiter who worked hard under the psychological abuse of arrogant customers and bosses, for a pittance.
It was then that an idea occurred to him, a business idea.
At first it seemed like madness, something that wouldn't work.
He wanted to create an app for the unemployed, where people could request services according to their needs.
For example, they could help the elderly carry groceries, or even people with skills who had been fired could use those skills again with people who needed them.
What started as a hopeless project became a real success.
Thanks to that app Gaevon managed to earn enough money to stop living as a waiter.
More than that, his app was managing to help unemployed people who had also lost hope.
He was making the world a better place.
Until the day of the lockdown came.
A disease that struck the entire world.
A very contagious and dangerous plague, so much so that his country's government imposed a global lockdown.
Right when his app was scaling up, right when it was beginning to help hundreds of people earn a living.
The world was forcing him to stop.
The lockdown caused the vast majority of the app's clients to decide not to hire those services.
Gaevon watched his dream collapse, watched the world strip away all his hope.
"Heh, I suppose I should never get overconfident. Even when things seem to be going well, they can get worse," he said as he remembered how he had also failed as a hero.
A labyrinth separated him from his companions, and the demon king's army was able to finish off his companions one by one.
"That's good advice, I must say. Now, I'd recommend you don't move," a cold, almost unnatural voice then said.
Gaevon's whole body froze with fear, but he forced himself to react, managing to take a quick step.
However, Aku's attack was faster.
Purple sparks danced in the air as a sword was fired toward Gaevon.
The sword pierced through the air and easily through the flesh of his arm, separating it from his body.
The pain came immediately, making Gaevon let out a scream from his throat.
"KUAAAAAAARGGG!" the man screamed as he grabbed his arm and fell to the ground, clutching the wound.
Aku looked at the man with slight confusion.
"Why did you move? Didn't I warn you not to? I wanted to spare you that suffering," the demon king commented with a chilling inexpressiveness.
Gaevon didn't respond as he writhed in his own pain, letting out screams.
In what almost seemed like a merciful movement, Aku fired one of his weapons at the hero, ending his life in that instant.
"Another one. I've killed 27 heroes now. Will that be enough?" Aku wondered with curiosity as he began to walk. "Well, just in case, I won't slow my pace."
The demon king kept walking calmly. So far he hadn't found a real challenge.
Gerald had been his most powerful opponent, which was disappointing for someone like Aku.
Was Alexander exceptionally strong?
None of them had managed to reach even Alexander's shadow.
Was it bad luck? Or perhaps that's just how the trial was?
After all, the heroes taking the trial were failed heroes, heroes who had fallen short in the task of defeating the demon king.
Perhaps they were all this weak.
Aku sighed as he approached a lake.
The fresh air hit his face, making his platinum-colored hair flutter.
The demon king took a deep breath while leaning over to see his reflection.
"How curious. My appearance is different from his," the boy commented as he calmly observed the man reflected in the water.
The tranquility of the place was palpable. The air whistled softly through the tree branches while the water trembled gently.
However, suddenly something shattered that tranquility.
Something in his instincts told him.
Something that not even his [imaginary area] could perceive.
The demon king threw himself back as the air quickly crystallized, transforming into an immense tower of ice built with sharp stakes.
It was like a lethal ice sculpture that rose in a matter of seconds.
"I see someone interesting has finally shown up," the young man said as purple sparks began to dance around him.
Then someone landed on top of the ice tower with a cheerful smile on their face.
"Hahaha! You could react to that? How interesting! I wasn't wrong about you. You'll be a good workout!" the young man exclaimed in an almost childlike voice.
He was a pale-skinned young man with cyan blue hair, his eyes the same color fixed on the demon king, who fired a barrage of weapons at him.
"Let's see who really ends up being hunted," Aku responded as the weapons accelerated toward the young man.
The boy smiled as he clapped. A burst of frost was summoned and collided with the weapons, slowing them down until they fell from the sky.
"Hehehe, is that all?" the hero asked in a mocking, childlike tone.
Aku didn't flinch. Purple sparks filled the air again.
"I'll have to use different weapons," Aku murmured to himself as he pronounced the names of the weapons in his mind.
From using his subspace so much he had gained the ability to summon weapons simply by speaking their name in his mind.
Then the hero spoke.
"Nonono, from now on, summoning weapons is [Taboo]!" the boy exclaimed with a smile.
Aku's eyes opened in surprise, and in the instant the hero pronounced those words, the sparks disappeared.
The demon king had lost his connection to his subspace.