Beginning of an Era.

—Mc Pov—

<<Acquiring Unique Skill: Heartless One... Successful.>>

I received a new unique skill, and with this I currently have two unique skills, two extra skill, and three intrinsic skills. Along with magic, I'm quite strong—if not as strong as a primordial daemon if I use all my skills in conjunction.

Though that would require my focus on the skills at all times to use them at full capacity. If only I had something to help with that. Whatever, I'll do something about it later. But for now..

Looking at the shaking human in front of me, I unleashed my haki. The ground trembled and shook, rocks turning into fine dust under the pressure unleashed by me.

"P-please! L-leave me alive! I'll be your servant for my lifetime!" Axel fell to his knees, head touching the ground in fear as he begged for his life. Under the pressure, he quickly surrendered his will to fight, making his soul susceptible to the soul consumption of [Heartless One].

"Do not cross me. Your soul already belongs to me, and if ever I sense any signs of rebellion, you will die a gruesome death, and your bloodline will share the same fate."

I warned him of the consequences, and he nodded his head vigorously, like an obedient child. The fool just agreed with me, officially marking his descendants' souls as my property. They will be born with a small curse, which will grow as they age until they eventually become corrupted and ultimately my pawns.

"Now scram, and spread the news that a daemon named Lucifer destroyed the kingdom of Firewood to as many people as possible," I ordered my now servant, who ran away after nodding, a terrified expression on his face.

Heh, once everyone starts to fear me associating my name with 'Lucifer,' I will be named by those foolish humans themselves. I can't name myself, as it needs a source other than oneself to name a person.

A collective human fear would do just that, and I have two million souls I can use after becoming a named daemon, further empowering me to become a true demon lord, just like 'him'.

"Heh! Hehehehe"

—Very small time skip: three days later—

"That damn demon!"

A shout was heard from inside the building, which had an ancient European structure with "Mutual Aid Association" etched on its front.

This was the main organization responsible for hunters, monster hunting, and adventuring. Currently, the chief of the Mutual Aid Association was sweating buckets, gnashing his teeth as his face contorted through various expressions in the last few minutes—from anger to fear and despair.

"A demon has destroyed an entire kingdom full of people. The Kingdom of Firewood had a relatively small population of 2 million people. That means 2 million souls!" he screamed at the man standing in front of his table, frustration and helplessness seeping into every word he uttered.

He knew what it meant. This was another 'Guy Crimson' situation: a demon from the underworld acquires hundreds of thousands of souls and then evolves into a true demon lord, which would be catastrophic for the human realm. They don't need another demon lord; six of them are already too much.

With that wretched True Dragon rampaging around, destroying everything and creating chaos everywhere he goes, along with Guy Crimson sending his demon army to destroy human settlements, this was the last thing he wanted: a new demon lord. The chief slammed his fist on the table, his frustration boiling over.

"We can't let this happen," he muttered, his voice trembling with fear. "We need to mobilize every available hunter, every resource we have. We must stop this new threat before it gains more power. Summon the council immediately. We need a plan to deal with this demon, and we need it now."

The man in front of him nodded and hurried out of the room, leaving the chief to brood over the impending crisis. He knew the stakes were higher than ever. The survival of humans as a race in the world was at risk, and failure was not an option.

Every single human must be aware of this demon so that they can be careful. He took an empty parchment from his table and began writing to inform every human nation of this crisis, not knowing this action would bestow the name 'Lucifer' and engrave it into the daemon's soul.

—Location: Ice Continent—

"Master, a new piece of information has been received." A female voice called out, smooth but cold and emotionless as it was, it was enchanting.

"Hmm, tell me." A masculine voice answered, it held boredom and a little hope, for this information to be at least interesting.

"The human kingdom of Firewood was wiped off the map a few hours ago, it's been rumored that a daemon named Lucifer was the cause." Another female voice answered with an aloof tone, emotionless all the same.

Surprise flickered on the man's face, his striking red hair going past his shoulders, swaying in the cold wind, not shivering in the slightest in the face of extreme cold—the cold never bothered him anyway—his lips curled into an excited smile.

'Oh, that's interesting news indeed. Perhaps we have ourselves a new demon lord,' he thought, recalling what happened a few millennia ago, about him wiping out two kingdoms single-handedly and evolving into a true demon lord.

Now, in the present, something similar had happened, and he couldn't help but be excited to meet this daemon and evaluate him.

'If I make him a demon lord, he would be attacked by Rudra when he unleashes the angels; that would make his forces thin, hm. Or I could just kill him and make him my subordinate, but that would be just plain boring, even though it would bolster my forces.' The demon lord thought with a thoughtful look on his face.

'I should leave him alone, and once the time comes, he'll be just one more addition to the game, a powerful piece.' A smirk graced his face as he decided to leave Lucifer alone for the time being.

Though a very interesting question still remains: 'Who could possibly name a daemon like him?'

"Have him tailed, but only by the most silent daemon here, one with magic sense too," he ordered his maids, who nodded in acknowledgement of their master's wishes.

—Line break—

The summoning circle was big enough to to fit hundreds of daemons, and indeed hundred daemons came out of the circle and kneeled in front of the grey haired Arch daemon, their master.

"I've assumed the name 'Lucifer' so from here on out, you shall address me as Lucifer or just call me master just like you used to, that's your choice." I addressed the daemons in front of him, they were killed when I was rampaging the underworld, and reborn as my faithfull servants.

They undertook some of my features, like some strands of their hairs were silver grey, i don't know how, but it was of no consequence anyway, I have a hundred greater daemons and two Arch daemons under me, I had to try some more with the Arch daemons unlike the greater daemons who couldn't even see before their heads rolled.

Looking at my body, which is now permanent as I took care not to destroy the bodies of some people—by some, I mean a hundred thousand human bodies—I devoured 88,000 of them and made my own body, a sturdy body that can topple mountains with a punch.

Looking towards the right side, I saw the twelve thousand human bodies I prepared for my demon's to possess, and to make the human bodies their own, they will still retain some demonic traits like horns or claws, with wings visible, although Arch daemons can hide that easily.

"Go ahead; you guys take a thousand each, and the hundred greater daemons take a hundred each." I commanded my daemons, and just like that, they also got permenant bodies; 100 human bodies is enough for greates daemons to incarnate permanently in the central world, and a thousand minimum for arch daemons.

We're currently on the island south of the frozen continent, a small island that I am claiming as my own, as I need a place to stay in this central world, and as Guy Crimson did, I took an island for myself; it was unclaimed and was waiting to be just used, so I thought, Why the hell not?

"Alright, now that we're all set, you guys, split up into two groups of 50, and my arch daemons will take command of you under me. Now, build a castle in the center of the island, place guards all over the island, and secure the perimeters. If you guys find any sentient beings, inform your commanders; they will decide if I need to be informed."

They bowed their heads and did as ordered without a second thought, and the first 50 of them began working to build the castle for me. The others formed groups of 5 and went to do security: 5 groups—which is 25—for perimeter securing, and the other 5 for guard.

'Heh, this is only the beginning. I'll become strong enough to do whatever the fuck I want without any fear of repercussions.'