The Demon King's First General
Chapter 47: Man Behind The Mask

Chapter 47: Man Behind The Mask

A few moments ago, on the outskirts of the Herish Kingdom, a purple flame traversed the vicinity in a flash. The townspeople who noticed the strange phenomenon recognized what it really was upon seeing its color.

"Damn magician, I’ll burn you to ashes once I get back there," cried a voice that echoed in the air.

. . . . .

"E-eldest brother?" Lexel murmured.

Teardrops wet her cheeks as she saw the face of the man standing on the stage.

"Father! My brother has returned," she said while she directed her gaze to the man beside her.

Her eyes were still filled with tears, yet her expression showed joy. However, the king didn’t respond to his daughter’s words; instead, he stared at the man with the floating grimoire.

Meanwhile, the crowd was stunned upon realizing that the other contender had a resemblance to their prince, Lex. The color of his hair and eyes couldn’t deny the fact that the two participants were blood related.

"It’s the first prince!" Yelled a man.

His shout confirmed the suspicion of the audience; even the host blinked a few times while staring at the two people on the stage.

’Rish? Herish?’ Grazielle thought. ’Is that where his registered name came from?’

Like the other people, she was confused. First of all, she didn’t know how the first prince looked; she just heard about him through gossip and the stories of her comrades.

And now, a person whose face was an exact copy of their second prince was present right before her eyes.

"I-I think w-we have something to witness here, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t know what’s going on, but Rish’s mask had been pulled out of him and his face was revealed," she stated, stuttering.

"And his looks were identical to our very own prince; is he the man we all thought?" She paused before looking to the palace’s balcony.

"Or was it an illusion created by his magic to fool his opponent?" She added after reverting her eyes to the stage.

"Who are you?" Lex asked without any emotion on his face.

But upon seeing that his opponent had no intention to answer, he charged at him with his blade.

"How dare you imitate that face and show it up to me?" He yelled.

He was frustrated, clearly because of the man before him. The brother he considered useless was now a magician worthy of being his opponent.

’It can’t be; he’s just fooling me! There’s no way that moron can grow like this in terms of magic,’ he thought after he tried to pierce his sword into the man who looked exactly like him.

However, Rish didn’t evade; he moved his hand sideward, and the grimoire in his front flipped its pages. Then a barrier of wind appeared, protecting him from the prince’s attack.

"This is cheating!" Lex yelled as his weapon was blocked.

He slashed the barrier with his might, and countless waves of red energy flew out from his sword, yet the strong wind deflected all of his attacks.

"You! How can you use so many types of elements?" he cried, asking.

Rish smirked as he heard the prince’s question.

"You’re not the only one who’s blessed," he replied, then he looked to where the king was standing and gave him a grin.

"I’m not that weak child that you can abandon whenever you want!" He uttered in silence.

Then he flipped the grimoire with his hand, and three magic circles inside a magic circle appeared above the arena. It was large enough to cover the whole castle, and the sky turned dim as dark clouds gathered in the air.

. . . . .

"This magic is beyond my expectations!" Seth murmured from his seat while looking at the circle lines above them.

’Is he planning to kill everyone here?’ He thought.

Then he was about to cast a spell to teleport the people to somewhere safe when another magic circle appeared. This time, it was beneath them, and a gust of wind acted like a shield for the audience.

"He really is something, casting offensive magic while protecting everyone from his own spell," he commented while smiling.

"I really need to invite him into the magic tower," he blurted while focusing his eyes above the raging energy, which would plunge down anytime soon.

. . . . .

"Unleash thy wrath! Shattering dragons!" Rish said. His voice was not that strong, yet it was loud enough to be heard in the whole arena.

Then creatures made of lightning flew out from the clouds; they had long bodies like snakes and were enormous enough to circle around the castle. They were covered by flickering bolts of lightning. They had no claws, hands, feet, or even wings, unlike the usual dragons they knew.

"W-what k-kind of sorcery is this?" Lex asked, his face unable to hide his amazement.

"Just because I don’t have any intention of learning the sword, you consider me a failure," Rish said out of nowhere.

Then he raised his hand and pointed his forefinger at Lex. Afterward, three dragons moved in the prince’s direction with unbelievable speed. They crashed the stage, and Rish leaped backward before he floated in the air to protect himself from his own attack.

Several seconds later, one of the dragons let out an imposing cry, and yellow lightning flashed and struck the shattered debris.

The scene happened so fast that no one was able to react, even the grand mage failed to cast his spell on time to save the second prince from the burst of lightning.

. . . . .

"No! Lex!" The king shouted as soon as he saw the dragons go down to attack his son. He was about to jump on the balcony when heavy bolts of lightning rained down on the area, preventing him from going near the stage.

At the same time, Lexel was still crying with a single thought on her mind.

’W-why are my brothers killing each other, Father?" She asked, wailing.

"That’s not your brother! I don’t have a son who uses magic!" The king replied.

Then he looked to where his knights were lining up and shouted. "Arrest that criminal who killed-"

"The battle is not yet over, your Highness, please believe in your son’s capabilities," Butler Gil said.

He didn’t have time to finish his order when his confidant chimed in.

"What do you mean?" The king knitted his brows, confused by his butler’s words.

But the man didn’t reply; instead, he looked at the broken arena and waited for the smoke to subside. The lightning dragons vanished as soon as the dark clouds disappeared, leaving a gigantic pile of dust and ashes.

"Here he comes," he said upon seeing a red tint of energy swirling on the field.

Then Lex came out, charging at his opponent, who was levitating in the air.

"I-is t-that my son?" The king asked while staring at the silhouette hovering in the air.

"He is indeed your son, your Highness," Butler Gil replied while smiling.

Then he glanced at the king before looking back at Lex, whose appearance now resembled that of a demon.

"I thought it would take a while for him to awaken; I must thank the eldest prince for waking him up," the butler added.

His words brought curiosity to the king’s ears while Lexel was still crying, looking at his two brothers fighting in mid-air.

"Are you still not getting it, your Highness?" Gil stated before he put his hand on his temple and shook his head.

"For a king to be dumb like you, this reason is enough for those guys to target this place," he added after he looked at the confused king.

"What are you saying? Is it you who did that to my son?" The king asked, his voice filled with anger.

He walked closer to his confidant and pulled him by his tie.

"Tell me, Gil! Tell me!" He exclaimed, claiming answers.

But then, the skin of his butler changed all of a sudden to a dark color, his eyes turned something yellowish, and his ears grew longer.

The king’s eyes widened upon seeing the man’s appearance, and he immediately let go of his tie.

’A dark elf?’ He thought.

"Thank you for not choosing violence, your Highness," the elf said while fixing his clothes. Then he pulled something out of his pocket and placed it on his left eye.

"Now, that’s more comfortable," he added before directing his eyes to the person before him.

"W-who are you? What have you done to Gil? W-where is he?" The king asked after he pulled his daughter behind him.

"I think you should be more concerned about your safety than him, but to ease your query, I need your butler alive to imitate him; however, now that I have already revealed myself, he had no use for me then," he said while raising his arm before opening his hand bit by bit.

Then a black butterfly crawled out of his fingers and flew in a specific direction.

"Hmnn, you guys should be running at this moment, shouldn’t you?" He asked, and a pair of black twin blades appeared on both of his hands.

. . . . .

Panic enveloped the arena, and some of the people started to flee as they saw their prince turn into some sort of demon. His blue hair turned red, and his eyes became crimson.

Then a small black horn protruded from the center of his forehead. His skin tone changed to a pale red color, while his right hand, which was holding the sword, had red lines all the way to the center of his chest.

"Blood! I need your blood!" Lex uttered as he slashed from the left.

The magician pulled back his body to dodge his opponent’s attack, and his grimoire emitted white light and pushed the prince away.

But Lex ignored this and dashed towards his target once again. He lifted his sword above his head and struck it at his front with all of his strength.

Rish didn’t move from his position and faced the attack head-on. He conjured the same barrier of wind from earlier to block the strike. However, the moment the blade landed on it, it whistled, and the barrier was shred into nothingness. In that split second, the magician moved his hand, and the grimoire flipped once more. Then a magic circle appeared on his palm that was facing the right direction, and a burst of wind appeared before propelling him sideways, making him dodge the blade.

But the moment he turned his eyes to look at his opponent, he was surprised that he was not in his previous position. Then he felt a heavy energy coming straight to him, and the first thing he saw when he directed his gaze above was his brother’s demonic face smiling behind the blade moving towards his head.

. . . . .