As I exited the portal, luscious greenery covered my view. Large trees stood tall all around and I could feel several mana pressures of magic beasts dispersed around in the dense forest that we had landed into. The mana concentration was also much more concentrated in this forest, meaning the beasts were probably powerful too. 

“We need to move; we are not safe in this forest. Malia stay close to mother. Jace pair up with Naz. Mike stay on the rear. ” I said, walking in front of the group.

“Son, you need to tell us what’s going on. Why are we running?” Mother asked, with worried eyes. Her wrinkles deepened around her eyes and she looked drained from the terrifying experience.

“I promise I’ll explain everything once we get somewhere safe. At the moment we are in the centre of this magic forest filled with hundreds of beasts. First we move and get somewhere safe, then we’ll talk.” I replied.

Everyone nodded looking at my stern face. Their eyes wandered around the forest trees in fear except for Malia. Apart from Malia and I, the others didn’t have much experience in hunting beasts or surviving in magic forests like these. 

I closed my eyes, expanding my sixth sense throughout the whole 20 Kilometre wide forest. There were hundreds of A rank and B rank Beasts and even several S rank beasts. I had to plan the safest route out of here. This forest was different to the one near the Elven City that I was in before. 

My aim was to seek help from the Elven Royal family since I had ties with Prince Landon already. The portal device  must have been corrupted as it teleported us to the Eleven Kingdom but it was to a random coordinate within it.

“Okay Let’s move.” 

I began running east after planning out a safe pathway. Our destination was towards a small elven village that was situated near the edge of this large forest. It was best we found out information first about where we were.

Glancing up at the sky, I could tell we had about several hours before the sun set. That was when things would become much more dangerous. I could definitely survive on my own, but now I had to protect 5 other individuals. Even Malia’s help was out of the question, whatever drug they used on her, it must have been extremely potent as the effects still lingered on her.

After several hours of running, I stopped by a river to take a break. We had managed to cover 30% of the journey. Fatigue was starting to show on everyone’s faces so I decided it was best we took a break, I knew they suffered a lot mentally due to the experience back at the mansion so it was best we rested for today.

“We’ll camp here for the night, it’s already starting to get dark. Jace and Mike, look for firewood and don’t go too far. Naz, Malia and Mother will set up the tents. I’ll set up some defences and look for food.” 

Jace and Mike nodded moving together into the forest, normally they would argue or complain about working together but they knew this wasn’t the time. A powerful magic beast could pounce at any moment.

Whilst they looked for firewood and the girls set up the tents from their dimension rings, I set up thick Ice walls around the tents and set up explosive mines around that would activate when anyone other than my small party stepped on it. 

‘Clones’

Two figures appeared in front of me by splitting from my body, each figure containing a ½  of my original stats. They both nodded at me before they sprinted in two different directions activating ‘Lightning Aura’ and holding Voadhailis’s Claws in their hands. I sent both my clones to do some cleaning up of our pathway for tomorrow and to clear the surrounding area of dangerous beasts. That would help me level up a couple times and also make our journey safer.

I sat down in a lotus meditation position absorbing the concentrated mana into my mana pool. The clone skill consumed a lot of mana due to the fact that mana was needed for the skill to stay continuously activated and also due to the fact that the clones would use their own skills from my arsenal. I had to expend my own MP for each of their attacks.

**

We all sat around a fire and roasted the meat that my clones had brought back. The atmosphere lightened up as the fresh smell of succulent meat raised the serious atmosphere.

“So are you going to tell us why the Royal Family is chasing us or not? I don’t want to live as a fugitive my whole life, you know.” Mike spoke, emphasising ‘Royal Family’ to show that the situation was really messed up.

I cut up some meat and passed it round before speaking.

“It’s simple, the King threatened me and in response I shook him up a little. He must have felt frightened of my presence and ordered for you all to be seized. He knew he could get to me by hurting you guys so I hurried over and here we are. There’s nothing to worry about though, I’ll make sure we live comfortable lives here in the Elven Kingdom. They will protect us.” 

“How can you just say that so casually?” Mike retorted, “We could have been killed and how can you even dare to go against the King? We’re talking about the KING here.”

“And I’m a f*cking Demon King.” The atmosphere reverberated at my words, making everyone look at me wide eyed.

“Wait what does that mean?” Naz asked, looking at me weirdly.

I took off my eyepatch revealing my Demon eye, an ancient black symbol was perfectly designed, mixing well with the red.

Mother looked uncomfortable when she looked at the demon eye whilst the others inspected it in shock. Only my mother, Jace and Malia knew, the others were oblivious to the matter.

“Y-You’re a demon. Since when? No wonder you wear an eyepatch all the time.” Mike exclaimed.

“During my training with Gramps, I met a man called Kayden Von Sinister and he bestowed me with a new bloodline, the blood of demons. This boosted my power and changed my body. What I didn’t know was that he had made me the lone successor of Demon King Lucifer. That Calamity Class threat that happened a couple months ago. That was all Lucifer’s doing.

“I was the one who cleared the final floor, not Taras. That’s why Taras let us go, I saved his life and was the actual person who cleared the dungeon. The last floor was where a wisp of Lucifer’s soul lay. I had a fight with him and won. This ended up causing me to fully awaken the Demon Blood within me and gain some of Lucifer’s powers and other things. 

“However, now that I have officially become Lucifer’s successor, I’m now dragged into the Demon Kingdom’s politics. I have to attend a heritage war and officially take the title of a Demon King.” Everyone stared at me in silence.

This was the whole and entire truth about the demon incident. I hadn’t told anyone yet apart from this one time. 

“As you all know my life is different to the average man’s. I’m a candidate, in fact I’m the Lightning Candidate.. All these events must happen in order for me to have enough strength to become the Lightning monarch. They must happen in order for me to have the power to protect the people I love…”