Chapter 1: I won

  A fortress barely holding out against the enemy forces, in which humans are barely alive exhausted from the long war. They all know they are being toyed by enemies as they could have easily been wiped out by them. As the Fortress Commander, I, Luther, would have surrendered if only it was a war between nations, if it was against humans. Demons are cunning, wretched, and cruel, they should never be trusted, they see humans as nothing but commodities, cattles, idiots, wisdom less and worthless emotional beings.

  Atleast I have friends which i can trust who would not betray me, Half Dragonian Elisa, whose magic prowesses is equivalent to a field army of high-ranking demons. Martha, who have achieved ‘Uniqueness’ in water element. Cecilia, who is known as ‘Child of Nature’, the sole heir of Nature’s Blessing, and the strategist Azazel, who is acknowledged as ‘Troublesome Foe’ by the demons. I guess this will be the last time we will be together, as we are going to die... But I will use the very last moment to select the choice which I am still hesitating.

  At that moment a mage came with a shocking report, “Sir, Three high ranking demons have been sighted at a distance, but they don’t seem to have intension to fight as there is no Commander sighted on enemy forces.”

  What? Is it a trap? Or they seriously want to talk? Maybe they have come to mock us. We are not that weak to be defeated by mere three high ranking demons, it might be possible with three Demon Prince or Princess.

  I connected the communication device to ask our strategist, “What do you think? Is it a trap? Or some Rogue demons who have come to play around?”

  Azazel replied after few seconds, “Must be Rogue demons who have come to play around. The Demon Prince would not bother hiding their identities. We will win easily.”

  I contacted Elisa, “Can you go and check the trashes? You are the best choice if it is a trap.”

  Elisa swiftly replied, “Understood.”

  Inside the core room after Elisa left, all the protection spells allowed the intruder as if they are not working. A left hand with a crimson trinket hanging on wrist grabbed the core, then a soft voice echoed in the empty room, “I win.”

  Luther’s POV:

  “!”

  After sending Elisa to deal with trashes, a blinding light covered my eyes which was so sudden for a large-scale magic. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I have been forcefully teleported, and around me were my friends... and infront of me were three demons...

  ‘What did these demons do to us? How can they forcefully summon only few selected and strongest individuals from their enemy fortress, without any knowledge of our coordinates?’

  Suddenly, demons in front of us kneeled in unison then said, “We greet our master.”

  “?” I looked around, my companions have the same confused expression on their faces as me. Already in the battle formation, we looked for their unknown master.

  Azazel who was wearing a royal blue trench coat came forward with nonchalant expression and asked, “Where are the remaining humans?”

  A demon maid said while kneeling, “They have been evacuated to the ‘Sanctuary’ safely.”

  Azazel nodded and commanded the demons as if he is their master, “One of you go check the Demon Elders movements and the other one will explain the situation to humans in the Sanctuary.”

  They replied in unison, “As you command!”

  Cecilia who was quick to understand such an absurd situation asked with fury, “Why did you betrayed us! You know better than us that even if you become a Demon’s Subordinate, those demons will backstab you!”

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  Azazel sighed and explained as if he is looking at kids, “Sigh... You got the order wrong; they are my subordinates and I did not betray you, I just choose a different route.”

  [Dragon Eyes]

  Elisa asked after she used her ability, “What do you mean by a different route?”

  Azazel replied while stroking a weird crimson trinket in his left wrist, “I choose a realistic way to save the sixty percent of human population (population before war), while your choice was to fight them and only saved around... 20 thousand humans.”

  ‘60%? What is he talking about? I watched many civilians dying with my own eyes.’

  Elisa cleverly argued, “When you joined the war only thirty percent of the human population was remaining. What nonsense is saving sixty percent?”

  Azazel replied as if he was waiting of this particular question, “You forget about the humans who were ruled by the demons. Demons have their own rules & regulations, they are also restrained by their society’s do’s and don’ts. They are easy to handle if you know about these rules, even they have their fears, emotions & desires that moves them. I simply use tactics to deal with demons as a nation, and created ‘Sanctuary’ where everyone can live peacefully without worrying about Dragons, Demons & annoying Angels.”

  I asked unable to contain my emotions, “They killed many humans, elves, and beastmens by using them as experimental resources. Which Sanctuary can stop them if they made their mind?”

  Azazel replied with a confident smile, “If they do make up their minds then an all-out war will breakout again, which they will obviously lose. They do not even know how to infiltrate the Sanctuary and demons under my command are selected based on their desires, which will disobey even the Demon Lords.”

  I took a breath of relief after hearing him.

  ‘Thank god, I still have a last choice which I can take. I didn’t even tell my comrades about it and felt guilty, but I am glad now because this traitor does not know about it.’

  I took out the last skill stone stored inside the ancient artifact [Ring of Eons].

  Azazel asked in surprised expression, “is that [Stone of Time]? I didn’t know it was stored in your ‘Ring of Eons’.”

  I asked with a dumbfounded, “H-how do you know?! Nobody should know about it?”

  Azazel said as if it’s obvious, “I simply interpreted the rune engraved in that stone. I was finding the way to the past way before the war began, but I don’t need it now. I can live happily without it.”

  I asked out of pure curiosity, “I can change the past with it and kill you? Why are you not attempting to stop me?”

  Azazel sighed and explained, “Because you don’t understand the artifact you are using. Let me explain in simplified way so, a no brainer like you can understand. If you use that, you will seize to exist in this world, your consciousness will scatter into the probability cloud which will exist in different times then it will cluster again into the time you wish to go. Even if you survive that pain and killed me, you will create a different past which will not affect the current me. In simpler terms, we both will be happy.”

  I didn’t believe the incomprehensible nonsense he said and left the final words as I break the stone, “you will regret it.”

  *Crack*

  Azazel’s POV:

  I was surprised when Luther pulled out the ‘Stone of Time’ and realized what Luther is about to do and I let him be because I wanted to collect data on how to go back to the past with Luther as my test subject. I am confident that I can create [Stone of Time] albeit, a degraded version but... Playing with Time is scary so I will never use it and I also advised Luther to not use it too but... He didn’t disappoint me.

  *Crack*

  [Versatility: Spectrum Manipulation]

  [Observation]

  After I convinced(?) Luther to use the [Stone of Time], I observed and recorded everything around him, like the ‘Flow’ of mana, spatial disturbance, and the change in his spiritual energy.

  ‘I guess my luck hasn’t abandoned me. I can create another trump card with these data! I wouldn’t forget your sacrifice, Luther. Rest in peace...’

  *Thud*

  As I expected, “I told ya.”

  After using the stone, Luther fell to the ground. Elisa and others checked the condition of Luther unable to understand the situation and asked me in scared voice while massaging their foreheads in confusion, “What did you do?”

  My demon butler also massaged his forehead probably because of annoyance then I said what was in my mind out loud, “Are you stupid? I literally just explained. Let’s go to the Sanctuary now so that you can confirm the truth yourself.”

  They all massaged their head but i ignored them and prepared to leave for my Sanctuary.

  ‘Finally, this childish game is over. Now, I can research in peace about-... Hm?’

  *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

  As I was about to leave with my comrades(?), they all defenselessly fell on the ground one after another, even my scholar demon butler fell face first on the ground beside me with his eyes rolled back.

  ‘What happened to them? Are they-... What in the...’

  As I wondered, a headache suddenly appeared with a memory of a young boy fighting me. I frowned and massaged my forehead.

  ‘These are not my original memories... hmm, I can detect subtle changes, maybe because of déjà vu? Or maybe, some synchronization of memories because Luther went back to the past?? Or is this a mental attack by someone-’

  *Thud*

  As I was wondering, I suddenly felt sleepy and fell face first then my eyes closed on it’s own and I fell asleep.