The origin of the demon king Semar

"You mean, he was sealed by the artifacts he created himself?" William asked.

"Correct. After Demon King Semar was sealed, the artifacts he created became subservient to another demon king," Randiman replied.

"Excuse me, I've prepared transportation to the royal capital," Pandi informed them.

"Oh, sorry if we forgot," William and Dion apologized, bowing politely.

"No, no need to apologize," Pandi replied, feeling awkward.

Dion and William ceased their discussion. They knew this wasn’t the right time to talk further. Even if the discussion was beneficial, continuing it now would be considered rude.

Pandi led them to a location.A river.

William and the allied forces realized something: the vehicle prepared for them was more advanced than anything the Aryapanggulu Kingdom possessed. It looked like a collection of chairs connected by a giant umbrella—seemingly mundane, strange, with no clear function. But when observed through a temporal vector lens, the vehicle didn’t need to move physically. It simply spun once to cover a distance that would normally take eight weeks with Aryapanggulu's technology.

"More advanced than our kingdom’s technology," Arjuna said, eyes gleaming with awe.

Arjuna had forgotten something—he still hadn’t returned to his human form. He remained in his battle form: the upper body of a human and the lower body of an eagle. Sudirja hadn’t expected this—they had completely forgotten to relax.

"Arjuna," Sudirja called out.

"What is it, Your Grace?" Arjuna responded.

"Your form," Sudirja reminded him.

"What about it?" Arjuna asked.

Unlike Arjuna, William realized the situation. He looked at Arjuna’s form—it was still in battle mode: eagle legs, wings, and yet, Arjuna still had both arms.

"Look at yourself, dude!" William snapped.

Arjuna looked down. He saw his eagle legs, wings—and both human arms.

"Oh crap, I forgot!" Arjuna exclaimed.

A magic circle formed beneath his feet.His body returned to human form.Then, they boarded the vehicle.

Afterward, it spun.

Meanwhile, when Pandi saw Arjuna’s transformation, he finally realized Arjuna’s race was human. At first, Pandi thought Arjuna was one of the demon races—specifically, a hornless demon. This assumption came from overhearing William’s earlier discussion with Sudirja, where it was mentioned that some researchers were demons from the Jagrapati Kingdom.

"I thought you were a demon just now," Pandi said while eyeing Arjuna’s figure to confirm.

"Oh, that’s just my combat form," Arjuna replied.

"By the way, during your conversation earlier, did I hear the names Glasar and Demon King Semar?" Pandi asked.

"Yes," Arga replied.

"You—William, right? The one I gave the sword to—you’re a Shadow Exister, aren’t you?" Pandi looked toward William.

"Yes," William confirmed.

"Glasar is Demon King Semar’s brother," Pandi continued.

"So Glasar is a core that would give birth to a demon?" William asked.

"Yes, that’s true. Demon King Semar was born from one experiment, and our fifteenth king was involved in it," Pandi explained.

"Isn’t environmental destruction required for a demon to be born?" William asked.

"My father told me that Demon King Semar is 300 years younger than him. When Semar’s core formed, this planet burned, along with the 13 fragthesises it affected," Randiman added.

"But didn’t Arga say Demon King Semar annihilated Glasar, which was 80 light-years away, without going into space?" William asked again.

"That’s true. My father sacrificed many Antasen knights to launch Glasar into space. It took one million years," Randiman affirmed.

"One million years!? How many knights did your father sacrifice!?" William asked in disbelief.

"Twelve million for every hadron-height lifted from its previous position," Randiman replied.

William was shocked—twelve million knights. That number wasn’t small. He questioned the reasoning of Randiman’s father.

"Your father was a dictator, huh!?" William quipped.

Randiman’s anger flared—he wanted to kill William. But he knew better than to let his emotions control him.

"My father’s decision was still logical—better to sacrifice others to save everyone than to fail by trying alone," Randiman replied coldly, glaring at William.

"Couldn’t magic be used?" William asked.

"Did you forget how magic works in this world? Magic comes from materialis particles of the aftulc type interacting with other materialis particles. You know Glasar eradicates anything that comes into contact with its emitted energy, right?" Randiman clarified.

"Our fifteenth king once told us that before banishing Glasar, Demon King Semar gave it a name and Manna," Pandi added.

"So the core became a demon king?" William asked.

"Yes, that’s correct," Pandi confirmed.

"But wasn’t Glasar annihilated?" William asked again.

"If he hadn’t named it and given it Manna, yes—it would’ve disappeared. But once it’s given Manna and a name, it’s a different story," Pandi replied.

"But my father said Glasar vanished?" Randiman asked.

"For powerful demons that skip the necessary evolution process—wait, in the Shadow Exister world, is there a word similar to ‘required evolution’?" Pandi looked toward William.

"Metamorphosis," Dion answered.

"For strong demons that don’t undergo metamorphosis, their birth cores are extremely destructive. Once the core becomes a demon (or a ‘Mereks’), the resulting disaster from their birth core vanishes," Pandi explained.

"So the core didn’t vanish—it became a demon?" Arga confirmed.

"Correct," Pandi answered.

"Then will the demon come to this planet for revenge?" Arga asked nervously.

"No, because before Demon King Semar fired the energy to strike the core, he waved and smiled," Pandi said calmly.

"Then what name did Demon King Semar give to Glasar?" Randiman asked.

"Bagong," Pandi replied.

After the tenth spin, the vehicle stopped.A massive gate stood before them—more advanced than any architecture from their original fragthesis of their kingdoms was. The gate was made of metal, glowing between blue and gold.

"I don’t know what metal that is," Randiman said, staring at the gate curiously.

"Temporal vector lens says it’s mithril," Arjuna said, his eyes gazing into something unseen by others.

"You’re right, Arjuna," Arga added.

"I thought mithril didn’t look like this," Prince Dein observed.

"That’s because this is Domerite—an exotic type of mithril we managed to synthesize," Pandi replied.

"When it comes to energy transmutation, the Gavian race is way ahead of everyone else," Randiman praised.

They had arrived at the royal capital of the Gavian nation.They disembarked, preparing to enter.

"Mr. Pandi, please pay for entrance," one of the gate guards reminded him.

"Here," Pandi handed over a card.