Rise of the Demon King: Luke Hellwalker's Revenge

Chapter 7: Going Back

"You what?" the angel shrieked.

He sighed. She didn't have to scream. He was surprised too, but she didn't need to scream like a banshee. At this rate, his ears were going to go. It was really tempting for him to just kill her and put them both out of their misery.

"How is that possible? Wouldn't there be a contradiction?" he asked.

[Yes, it causes a paradox. So how do you think the paradox is resolved?]

Luke had to think about it before saying, "If there are two demon kings for the same position at any one time, I would assume that one of them would have to die."

[That's correct. Which of the demon kings do you think will disappear?]

"The fact that you were the demon king I fought means you survived," he said. "How?"

[The demon's system prioritizes their survival of demons; therefore, it will pick the demon king it believes is the better option. While I was just a newborn, the previous demon king had already used his ability to turn back time and had lost to me already.]

"So, it decided to get rid of the old demon king," he finished.

"That's why the demon king suddenly died," demanded Judith. They focused their attention on her. "We couldn't figure out where he had disappeared to during the battle. There were no traces of him no matter how hard we looked. Then out of the blue, a new demon king had taken his place without us knowing. We thought that a rival demon had killed the weakened demon. To think it was the previous hero."

[Well, it was a risky choice to make, but I didn't have a choice. Unlike with you, the previous demon king appeared before me right after his death. A hit was put on my head immediately. I didn't even have time to recover from my injuries before I was running for my life. In a desperate attempt to survive, I wished to go back before I killed the previous demon king, hoping I could stop being the demon king. You can see the results yourself.]

That had definitely been quite a risk for him to take, but if put in the same situation, Luke wasn't sure if he would have made a different choice. If everyone suddenly came after him without giving him time to breathe, he might have not had a choice except to make the same decision.

There was one good thing about this. It meant he could go back as far as he wanted. He could jump back to the beginning and raise his own forces before the angels realized what happened.

[I don't see any problems with your decision. Just remember one thing. If you do go back that far, there will be massive changes. A lot of your knowledge would probably become useless.]

"You're not upset that I'm going to kill you," he said.

[I lost. The defeated don't have a right to complain. When you go back, the system will give me the memories of these past four years so I can help you.]

"Will that happen to me too?" he asked. "I mean will I end up being part of the system when I die."

[Only until the demon king after you dies. If you don't want to end up like me, don't die.]

He snorted. The demon king made it sound so simple. Well, there was no way he was going to let himself get killed until he at least got his revenge. He would never forgive himself if he couldn't accomplish that much.

"How do we do this then?" he asked.

[Do you wish to return to the past?]

[All you have to do is say yes and then say how far you wish to go.]

"What will happen to her?" he asked, pointing his thumb at the angel.

Said angel flinched, and her eyes darted between them. Now that he mentioned it, she worried about what would happen to her. No one knew exactly how the time jumps worked. Did it cause the whole world to revert back, or did it create a new timeline?

She hoped it was the latter because it would mean she would be free of the demon king. On the other hand, if it was the former, she would probably still be his slave since the previous demon king said things adjusted for the new demon king.

[Anything you did to her that involved the system will be carried over in the past. That means when you return, she'll still be your slave. Whether or not she regains her memories is up for debate.]

"No, I refuse to accept him," she said as lunged at him.

Before she even got close to him, chain like marks appeared all over her body, and she collapsed to the ground screaming. She clawed at the marks as they watched calmly from the sidelines.

When it first happened right after he had made her into his slave, he had been shocked and a bit horrified. Seeing her suffering kick started his dislike for the system. It was one thing if he had purposely wanted to hurt her for all the things she put him through. It was another to inflict pain on her without meaning to.

He wasn't a sadist like the angels. He only hurt people he thought deserved it or if he had to. If hurting someone was needed for him to accomplish his goal, he would do it, but depending on the situation, he wouldn't always like it.

At least the demon king had explained why she was in pain. Since she was a slave, she wasn't allowed to do anything to harm or kill her master. The moment she did the marks would appear, inflicting pain onto her until she gave up trying.

"Just give up," he said. "You don't get a choice. This is what you get for messing with me." Choosing to ignore her, he looked back to the system message. "Yes, I would like to return to when I was first summoned four years ago."

[Returning to four years ago...]