The soft crackling of firewood echoed faintly in the room, but Arin barely heard it. His body was still sore from the beating, wrapped in gauze, but his mind—his mind was spinning. He sat upright in the straw bed, staring at the palm of his hand.
Small. Weak. Fragile.
Something within him stirred—something that was not characteristic of such a youth as he.
A system window had suddenly appeared in front of him. He wasn't even certain if he'd dreamed it. Maybe it was still shock. A concussion. Maybe the blow to the head had produced some sort of waking dream. He'd tried to push it away, until it appeared again.
It flared red in the air around us like a wound cut into reality.
> DING!
[SYNCING COMPLETE: 100%]
[DEMON LORD SYSTEM FULLY ACTIVATED]
[INITIAL TASK: SURVIVE FOR 30 MINUTES]
[REWARD: 0.01% OF PREVIOUS LIFE POWER]
[TIME REMAINING: 29:37 / 30:00]
"What?" Arin asked, staring in astonishment. "What do you mean 'survive'—?"
Then reality crashed around him.
The candles to his left and right guttered. Walls shattered, shadows bursting out like spilled liquid. A massive jolt of black power rippled under his feet. Bed and room were gone.
Arin dove into the wasteland.
A blood-colored sky loomed overhead, churning with storm clouds. Rock boulders jutted from blackened ground. The air was thick—almost stifling—and the acrid smell of sulfur and rot filled his nose.
He stumbled back.
A snarl echoed behind him.
He turned—and froze.
A hulking beast stood no more than ten feet away, its skin a patchwork of bone and sinew. One yellow eye blinked in the center of its face. Behind it, more emerged from the fog. Ten monsters in total.
Different from each other. One is a monstrosity born from the depths of some hellish plane.
Time Remaining: 29:12 / 30:00
Arin didn't have time to think.
The first beast charged—its roar reverberated like rending steel. He dove to one side, tumbling across rocks and searing his palms. A whip-like snake with legs struck at his ankle, missing him by inches.
He ran.
He ran hard, his heart hammering against his chest across the broken desert, leaping from wreckage and vaulting pools of fire. No system regulations existed—he possessed no gun, no abilities. Just his own instinct.
The demon lord's instincts.
[26:49 / 30:00]
The second attack came from above. A winged monstrosity dove like a hawk, claws stretched forward. Arin jumped, tumbled—landed hard on his shoulder. He gasped, the pain exploding through his body.
The beast skidded past him, screeching.
It glided past him, screaming.
And before him was another, huge and gorilla-like, but covered in whip-cracking barbed tails.
He could not confront them.
Not yet.
He kept running, searching for cover in canyon walls constructed of jagged rocks. Behind him followed the animals. Strung out now, stalking, circling. He felt it. They were toying with him.
And he was out of earth.
He squeezed himself into the tight crevice and attempted to steady his breathing. Sweat dripped from his forehead, his hands trembling.
[24:03 / 30:00]
And then a whisper within him, a memory and not a voice.
"You were Zarel. You reigned over demons. You are not prey. You are not weak. Call upon it."
His breathing steadied.
He opened his hand again. He didn't know how… but he focused.
A blackfire burst on his fingertips—tiny, volatile, flickering like one dying spark.
But it was something.
He gritted his teeth, rolled out of cover, and faced the first beast that rounded the corner.
He threw the ember.
The monster's chest was struck by the flame—and did nothing whatsoever for an instant. And then the monster screamed with agony as the fire raged like an epidemic, swallowing its flesh. It staggered, flailing wildly.
Arin did not waste the chance.
He ran ahead, grabbed some rock lying there, and pushed it deep into the chest of the animal as it fell.
[Monster Slain]
[Time Remaining: 22:31 / 30:00]
"...One," Arin muttered, panting.
There was no time to rest.
There was already another creature there with jaws full of exposed needles. It attacked, hitting him hard across the side. Arin was thrown across the rocks, his ribs shrieking in pain.
He spat blood.
He hid behind a broken pillar, only just evading another blow.
Everything hurts.
Too slow. Too weak.
But then the system beeped once more.
>DING!
[POWER UNLOCKED: DEMON INSTINCT (Lv.1)]
[AGILITY Temporarily INCREASED By 10%]
His vision sharpened.
The world slowed—just slightly. But enough.
He evaded the next attack, rolled under the legs of the creature, and ascended up its back. He summoned another black ember, bigger, focused.
He struck it into the creature's head.
It blew up in a flash of black fire.
[MONSTER SLAIN]
[19:10 / 30:00]
Arin collapsed beside the smoking corpse.
He was shaking all over.
He felt it now—his old him. Not all of it. Not even CLOSE to all of it. But the anger. And the defiance. That part which refused to bend, even in hell.
The remaining monsters were furious now.
They arrived all at one time.
Three closed in. One sprayed acid darts. Another hurled frost. A third attacked him with raw force. He ran. He weaved. He screamed as acid tore at his arm, searing the flesh.
[15:22 / 30:00]
He was unable to maintain it.
Each second seemed to last an hour.
He saw one of the narrow caves and lured one of them there—the frost beast. It was stuck attempting to squeeze by. Arin struck, plunging a stalactite into its head.
[MONSTER SLAIN]
[14:45 / 30:00]
"Three… only three…"
The others were simply too strong. Too fast.
They adjusted. They collaborated.
He was twice caught—escaping only by sheer luck. On one occasion he was near being incinerated alive by the fire demon, and the next time the flying one tried to sweep him up into the air. He stabbed its wing with bone splinters, hard-crashing into the ground—but alive.
[8:32 / 30:00]
He could barely walk now.
Every breath was pain.
And yet, he crawled, bled, lived
The ground trembled. Four great beasts emerged—gigantic, armored, terrifying.
Arin raised his head, eyes red.
He smiled.
Even broken… he will not die like a dog.
[2:13 / 30:00]
The beasts charged.
And Arin didn't run.
He raised both hands, calling to the rest of his will, calling to each strand of what was left of Demon Lord Zarel. Red sky pulsated. Wind ceased.
And then the timer beeped.
>DING!
[Task Complete]
[0.01% Of PREVIOUS LIFE POWER RESTORED]
[TEMPORARY AUTHORITY GRANTED: SHADOWBIND – 10 SECONDS]
Black tendrils erupted from beneath his feet.
The monsters stopped mid-charge—frozen in place, howling, struggling.
Arin stood.
Burnt, bleeding, broken.
But standing.
"I survived," he whispered, voice like a curse.
"I. Survived."
As the world blurred and crumbled, returning to the quiet clinic, Arin collapsed into the bed, unconscious, a faint smile on his face.
His mother rushed in, shouting his name. Titus behind her. Clark too.
But none of them saw the red window that lingered above his head… or the second system notification that had appeared.
>DING!
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: DEMON SOUL IDENTIFIED]
[SEALED SKILLS PENDING UNLOCK]
[NEXT TASK BEGINS IN 7 DAYS]
To be Continued...