“So be it…”

A fight with this Demon Lord seemed inevitable. To them, I was an enemy that couldn’t be trusted. And if I were in their position, I would feel the same. If the roles were reversed and the Demon Lord was the Sovereign of Earth, I wouldn’t trust him in the slightest. After all, how could I trust someone who could destroy my family, kill my wives and toy with my existence if he chose to? Perhaps the only way to get the Demon Lord to trust me was to place a hex on myself, but even then, I wouldn’t go through all that trouble.

“What’s your name?” I asked while getting into my stance.

“Igni!!!” The flaming man exclaimed. “Igni, the Demon Sovereign!”

“Igni… I shall remember that name.”

Spreading my hand out wide, I felt magic power rise up my skin. No, could this power even be called magic anymore? The Universe seemed to bend to my will whenever I used this power. I wasn’t creating magic… I was creating miracles.

Space folded, and the environment around me rapidly changed. Dimensions were layered upon each other, and the skies and oceans switched places. Just by using one aspect of my power, the entire planet seemingly changed, stunning my opponent and all of the nearby Demons.

Usually, if an opponent of mine saw such a surreal scene, they would have given up instantly and begged for forgiveness. Even the staunchest of my mortal foes knew when death was quickly approaching them. However, the Demon Sovereign didn’t give up so easily.

“No, I will engrave it in your memory!!!”

Burning with the fuel of a thousand Suns, Igni exploded into flames. Orange, purple and blue tongues of embers engulfed his body like coiled serpents, and they congregated into a larger entity altogether. The Demon Sovereign, a monster already massive in his own right, was now the size of a Giant. Not just any Giant, a Fire Giant that possessed the fiery desires of Demonkind.

Anger, sorrow, agony… I could feel it all in his flames.

How many Demons had to die under his flames to create such a mesmerising sight? How many aeons had to pass for his power to grow this strong?

Unknowingly, I was captivated by my opponent. After learning the truth about the Outer Demons and the timeline, I didn’t see the Outer Demons as my mortal enemies anymore. Instead, they were just like regular humans. Struggling to survive with the cards they were given. And the more I thought about it, the more pity I felt for the Outer Demons and their Goddess.

They were played by Destiny, by the timeline that I wrote myself. They were pawns essential for my growth and valuable tools that had given me my powers.

So I could feel sympathy for them… However, I didn’t intend to indulge myself in pity.

“Dissipate.”

I pointed my finger at the flaming Demon and extinguished his flames like a flickering candle on a birthday cake. The Demon Sovereign clicked his tongue in annoyance, yet he wasn’t surprised. As if he’d been expecting this turn of events, Igni ignited himself again, but this time, I could not follow his movements.

Moving faster than my eyes could follow, the Demon Sovereign reappeared behind me with his fist millimetres away from my face. I was certain my head would fly if that fist collided with me. The force hidden within that punch surpassed that of a million volcanoes erupting simultaneously, and the flames on his knuckles emitted so much heat that my eyebrows had been burnt off.

It truly was the most destructive punch I’d ever encountered.

But…

BOOOOMMMM!!!

It wasn’t my head that flew a thousand miles away… Igni’s body was reflected back and flung thousands of miles away. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the massive Demon Sovereign, completely confused by the turn of events. The Fire Giant looked down at its fists and looked right at me, only to see an invisible mirror shatter.

“Hoh… You really are the greatest foe I’ve faced. I didn’t think you could break my first level of defence.” I praised the Demon Sovereign from the bottom of my heart.

After awakening my Vampire Aspect and learning I could control everything, I didn’t think anyone could threaten me. Yet, the Demon Sovereign could shatter my mirror barrier with one hit.

“Your praise means nothing to me,” Igni growled.

Agitated by my comments, he stretched his arms and channelled his magic into a single fireball. No, to call it a fireball would be an underestimation. Flames bubbled out from its inner core as solar flares occasionally burst through its surface. The density of the fireball warped Spacetime with it, and its external heat was strong enough to evaporate entire oceans into mist.

Igni didn’t just create a fireball; he made a newborn star with his own two hands.

“Burn!!!”

Throwing the fiery miniature Star like a baseball, the Demon Sovereign didn’t care for the destruction of his planet. All he wanted to do was melt my entire body and destroy the threat before him.

A laudable attempt, but…

“Disperse.”

I flicked my fingers, and the Star disappeared again like it didn’t exist in the first place. Igni’s flames wreathed around me like my children, slowly turning into nothing but smoke and mist.

The Demon Sovereign froze at the sight of his ultimate ability being brushed off so easily. By my calculations, that attack alone was enough to destroy entire planets and kill off any Demon Lord or Progenitor that came before me. Unfortunately, Igni wasn’t dealing with any mere opponent.

He was dealing with me.

“Have you given up yet?”

“Y-You!”

“I’ll take that as a no,” I sighed. Truthfully, I wanted the Demon Sovereign and the Demon race to willingly submit to me. But if they were going to be this stubborn, I had no other choice.

“Let’s take this battle elsewhere, shall we?”

I snapped my fingers, and instantly, our bodies were warped by Spacetime and sucked into a wormhole. The Demon Sovereign attempted to resist, but my control over Spacetime was absolute. I could move entire galaxies if I wished to, let alone a mere stubborn Demon Sovereign.

The two of us exited from the wormhole in the void of Space on a distant planet at the very edge of the Demon Realm’s solar system. Igni looked around like a confused puppy as the flames on his body turned completely blue. The flaming Giant shrunk just a little, but at the same time, I could feel his energy being condensed to preserve his life.

[Wow, so you can survive in the void of Space too? Have you Demons evolved to reach that point?]

I sent a telepathic message expressing my awe.

Cthulhu was the same way. Even without air, Demons could survive in the vacuum of Space. Humans have naturally not evolved to that point, but even Vampires couldn’t survive without turning into a meat balloon. I could survive easily since I was a Progenitor, but the same couldn’t be said about the rest of my kin.

[You… Are you treating this like a game?!]

[Game? I see, so that’s how you see it. If that’s how you feel, I can’t stop you. Let’s put it this way, I intend to use and rule the Demon Realm in the future. If we continued fighting there, we would destroy your home and all the precious resources there.]

[You bastard… You will come to regret your arrogant choice!]

Igni burst into a rage as a flame ten times hotter than the ones he had shown before exploded. As I’d expected, the Demon Sovereign was holding back as well. He didn’t wish to destroy his planet and could only use a weaker version of his power. And now that we’re millions of kilometres away from his planet… Igni was going to show everything he had.

[I am the Demon Sovereign, Igni! The Lord of Fire and Hell! And my power…]

The Demon Sovereign raised his fist up high. The fire coiled around his body soon congregated above his head and condensed into a massive sphere of intense heat. Anything that approached the ball would melt away, and the gravity of the globe was enough to pull entire planets closer in.

And when the fiery ball was at its maximum size, Igni crushed it into the palm of his hand and turned it into a singular point of gravity and fire. Condensing even more energy into his fist, the Demon Sovereign extended his fist with everything that he’d got and sent a beam of hellfire straight in my direction.

Instinctively I knew… My defences weren’t enough to get me out of that attack unscathed. Therefore, before the fire beam could hit me, I warped myself away and allowed the beam to charge straight at the planet behind me.

With the force of a supernova condensed into one single ray of pure energy, Igni melted the planet into atoms in seconds. While it was a barren wasteland with no atmosphere or chance to hold life, the planet was twice the size of Earth or the Demon Realm. Yet, Igni was strong enough to destroy it with one punch.

I interchanged my head between Igni and the remnants of the burnt planet, unable to hide my surprise and awe. And to meet my expectations, the Demon Sovereign looked back at me as his body continued to burn with a light brighter than any star in the night sky.

Proudly, he said:

[My power… Is the power of the Sun.]