The Fraud Heir to The Strongest Clan

Dhein knew every living god in this world. He had been studying them all his life.

One deity, even after death, stood out from the others. She was the goddess who wanted to give sweet dreams to her people.

He nervously glanced at Shina who was equally at a loss. But judging by her expression, it seemed like she wasn't as surprised as he was.

The oracle spoke once more.

"Goddess Oneirah, Lord Dheinyrus, pity me when you fulfill your destiny."

Shina took a cautious step forward, then she put her hand on the surface of the huge cylinder glass. Her eyes was opened wide, pupils dilated in pure horror and... sorrow.

"Velhai... is that you?" she uttered, her voice trembling.

After a short silence, the oracle answered with a painfully sad tone.

"It's me."

The questions in Dhein's mind were beginning to overflow that he couldn't help but ask:

"Shina, what's going on?"

Without looking at him, she answered.

"On our wedding day, hazy memories came flooding in my mind. They were just broken fragments back then."

She looked down, her hand slightly sliding down the glass.

"And since then, I kept having the same experience randomly... sometimes as a nightmare or... a dream. They got increasingly more vivid and I was able to put the fragments together."

Shina finally looked at him with an expression of immense pain.

"Velhai used to be a beautiful angel. But for my sake, she was..."

The princess was unable to continue, her voice was beginning to break.

Interrupting the silence the oracle, or the former angel, Velhai, spoke.

"Nothing else could have been done, Oneirah. All I ask of you now is to pity me. When you fulfill your destiny, and until the end of time."

To Dhein's dismay, none of what they said cleared his confusion. Shina was the human reincarnation of the goddess of dreams, and previously, the oracle also said that his soul was keeping Oneirah safe somehow.

Only more questions popped up. The oracle spoke before Dhein could process anything. And the following words that she spoke sent shivers to his spine.

"He's here now. Angelus has arrived."

Mere seconds later, they heard footsteps coming from the dungeon outside the oracle's chamber. They were light, deliberate and carefree.

It belonged to someone who believe the place truly belonged to him.

A corrupted voice of a boy echoed through the silence.

"How convenient! To think that both of the people that I've been wanting to meet are together."

Dhein and Shina slowly turned their heads in horror. They realized that they were absolutely trapped in a dead end and that they had nowhere to escape to.

"It's like a reunion, you know?" Angelus remarked.

"This makes everything way easier."

Dhein furrowed his eyebrows and clenched his fists in nervousness. Even he could sense how deadly and dangerous the true Demon King was just based on how he talked and behaved. What made him terrifying was his unpredictability. Dhein couldn't hope to even understand how this brain of his worked.

Angelus stopped by the doorway, the lights from outside struck his back and casted sharp shadows on his face, making it harder to see what kind of face he was making. But what remained visible was his glowing red right eye that gleamed in the dimly lit dungeon.

He looked up at both Shina and Dhein before a terrifying grin stretched his lips.

"By luck, both of you are here, really."

After mustering his resolve, Dhein spoke.

"What do you want?"

The smile from Angelus' face slowly vanished as he let out a tired sigh.

"Existence is a curse," he said with serious sincerity.

"All I want is to erase that curse. Many people are being born without their consent. And because of that, they suffer from all kinds of things. Don't you agree?"

Dhein scowled.

"So what?" he said.

"Not everyone treats life as a curse. So if you want to die that bad, do it by yourself."

Angelus laughed and replied.

"It's not that simple."

He turned to the side and began pacing back and forth as he spoke.

"I am immortal. Even if I wanted to die, I literally couldn't."

He stopped and looked at Dhein.

"And that's where YOU, o great heavenly lord, comes in. Only with your true, awakened power can I finally erase my own existence."

Then, the Demon King turned to Shina.

"But in order to do that, I needed to revive our goddess first. This backstabbing, good-for-nothing oracle said that she would be able to make you do it. It turns out, she was the one holding your soul."

"So now, I know exactly what I must do."

Angelus raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

In a split second, Shina reacted and dove to Dhein, pushing the two of them out of the range of the invisible explosion.

The giant glass where the oracle was confined shattered. The strange liquid along with the eye and dead flesh gushed into the floor.

Velhai looked at Dhein and Shina one last time before the light on its giant eye faded.

Dhein looked at Angelus, horrified.

It became clear to him that the Demon King wanted to kill Shina, Oneirah's reincarnation to return Dhein's soul to his body. That was the fastest way to make Dhein do whatever the procedure was for ending Angelus' life.

The fallen angel creepily grinned at them before crawling forward at a terrifying speed.

Summoning a deadly sharp of claws, Angelus slashed at Shina, but a dark dome of mysterious energy blocked his attack.

Angelus was surprised. But before he could think, a void cannon drove into his head, and the impact sent him flying through the underground walls of the dungeon.

Not even a second later, abyssal spears nailed him into place, piercing his flesh and pinning hi into the wall.

Surprised, the Demon King looked at Dhein. The scion of divinity was the last person he expected to be able to pull this off.

Angelus muttered:

"Sorcery without incantations..."