The Runic Alchemist
Chapter 721 - 721: The Land Of Demons 2

"He.. died?" The woman's voice was slightly broken.

"I am sorry for your loss. Was it your loved one?" Damian asked, feeling genuinely sorry for her.

The armored demon guards pointing their weapons at them momentarily exchanged gazes, as if unsure of what they had just heard.

"What are you?" the woman asked, her expression once again in perfect control.

"What do you people call yourselves?" Damian asked.

"Shadowborne."

That was indeed poetic and lore-accurate if nothing else.

"The divine has named me a Demon," Damian replied, not wanting to clearly say he was one of them. There were similarities, but he wasn't exactly the same. He was his own species in this world.

The guards started murmuring about how that was even possible and whatnot. Damian ignored them—focusing on the lady in front of him.

"Were you half Shadowborne before?" she asked.

"No, human. Whole human," Damian replied. "But we are getting distracted here. I have come to inform you that surrendering is the best chance for your people. I can send all of your people from here—and the ones from Malveria—to someplace in this world unreachable by anyone. The still-alive, captured three transcendent demons will not be returned, but I can convince them to let you be free with them. To guide your people in a land where you can finally leave the shadow of the Demon Lord's curse."

They all almost snarled at him at that last line. The Demon Lord he knew was both their biggest hero and villain at once. Well, at least the cult that infiltrated the Highswords and some of the transcendent demons they had just killed believed him to be their spiritual leader.

"We are not cursed!" the elegant lady said with a fierceness Damian was not expecting from her.

"I know," said Damian. "Believe me—I am maybe the only one who knows for sure. I killed the guy myself."

"The Lord of Darkness cannot be killed," the lady said in one breath. The guards at this point had been too shocked to even make a sound.

"No," Damian admitted, "but the world he was on can be destroyed. Without any living being to suck life out of with his abominable esper power—the guy died."

"How does one destroy a whole world? How can you be so sure that he is dead? The Devious Darkness has thousands of lives."

Damian was indeed sure the guy was dead. After he launched the biggest and most powerful attack of his on the planet of the pigmen and returned back to Earth, he had leveled up several times—for him at this stage, that took a lot of EXP. The confirmation that he had indeed destroyed the world—and the system had given him EXP for all the monsters dying with that attack on that planet. It was another reason why his strength had suddenly soared past what was possible for even peak-level Transcendents.

Even if the Demon Lord were somehow floating aimlessly in space and surviving—he would never be able to come back to this planet.

"Once again—can you please focus on the fact that your people are in serious danger if they do not surrender."

"We will never go to that miserable land. The ones who left stupidly with most of our ships were the ones who wanted to kill and conquer. We just want to be left in peace. Leave this island and we will forget you exist," the lady demon said.

"As long as you people know the way to reach the mainland—you will remain a threat to the Three Kingdoms. Your existence was hidden, which is why you were safe on this island till now. But all three kingdoms know about you now—they will come searching sooner or later. Even if I don't use my waygate spells," Damian tried to explain their situation in the simplest words.

"You talk like you care about us," the lady said.

She had dismissed her three spells she was holding since he had mentioned he killed the Demon Lord. This is a sample from My Virtual Library Empire. Read the rest on NovelFire.

"I don't," Damian clarified. "It's just a waste of resources."

"You want to make us slaves?"

"Even if we won't, does just saying we won't mean anything?"

"No."

"You have no other choice than to trust us, trust me," Damian said. "I am from Sanctuary. You must have heard of us. We believe in saving people—even if they are Shadowborne."

"How long do I have to decide? To convince my people..?"

"Do whatever you need to do. And to make things easier, let me help a little.." Damian said, as he opened a waygate back to Sam.

And before anyone crossed it, Damian activated his three sacrium mana cubes and created five copies of the new spell he had just learned. The wave of mana accumulated beside him, and having enough, Damian activated the first runic circle, then the second, then third, fourth, and fifth.

One by one, in under a minute, five giant golden replicas of him had been constructed, standing guard looking in all four directions. For the fifth one in the middle, Damian created an enormous air-shield throne-sized chair with a little dark element mixed in to give it a black, transparent hue.

The enormous chair was right above the massive black and gold castle. Dwarfing it in size, it looked like Damian's main copy was seated above the castle while his four guards stood ready—swords out and buried touching the ground, held by two hands.

"You are showing off again. You learned something new, huh?"

An annoying voice broke the reverie of all Shadowborne guards and their lady, staring at the enormous figures without moving—ruining the whole vibe he had going on here.

Sam stood beside him with a stupid grin on his face. Then came the Emperor and his spellsword guard. Followed by the Elf Queen and her guard cousin. In the end was Mindseer, hopping out as if she was still a young teenage girl—her appearance looked like. Damian never got a chance to ask her how that was possible.