Year 2: The Scorched Remains - Prologue

For as long as he could remember, there was only one person that David had romantically been interested in.

Hailey Carman.

The two were childhood friends and saw one another through all of the highs and lows of growing up together, though even their worst days were happy memories between them.

As they grew older, David started to realise his feelings for her and hoped she’d feel the same way.

When Hailey started dreaming of becoming an actress, David got a little anxious because he was worried she’d end up kissing someone else before him. Much to his joy, Hailey lost a bet with one of her friends and, as a result, completed a dare that resulted in them both losing their first kiss together.

Even when scripts had called for her to kiss her co-stars, Hailey had always insisted that they could only pretend to kiss; there was to be no direct lip contact. One overconfident actor tried to get the jump on her, but she slapped him so hard he cried.

One time, David wrote Hailey a sonnet but, out of embarrassment, he destroyed it and never showed it to her.

Eventually, David found some small comfort in not telling her for it allowed them to stay as close as they’d always been. He never intended to try and change the status quo in their relationship until they were older.

He’d envisioned how it’d all play out in his head.

After graduating, he’d confess; then, they’d start dating, go to university and maintain a strong, long-distance relationship. Sometimes, he’d surprised her by visiting her dorm room unexpectedly and she’d do the same, and they’d always spent at least an hour talking on the phone before bed.

But, before all of that, David wanted to share their first time together.

Dozens of ideas and scenarios, locations and dates played through his mind but he could never find the right one. Ultimately, it didn’t matter to him.

As long as it was with her, it’d be special no matter where they were.

David had truly thought that.

Until he slept with Kella.

While she cried her eyes out.

Grieving for her loved ones David had killed.

Until he slept with Mania, a woman he’d had beaten for failing him.

Until he found Lilith and fell in love again.

For a time, he remembered Hailey when he lay with those women.

For a time.

It doesn’t matter anyway - I’ll never see her again.

***

Under Eris’s rules, David was not permitted to launch any attacks against the Free People’s Alliance for an entire year, nor could he take the lives of her Summoned Heroes.

If he did so, it’d result in his death and damnation to eternal torture.

Such rules aggravated him to no end, but they also provided him with plenty of time to prepare and many opportunities to strengthen his empire.

Until a year passed or the heroes successfully penetrated his defences, all David could do was prepare and wait.

That was until the Greater Goddess of Trickery Loki appeared before him, offering a deal too good to resist.

The summoning of Xi Shi had proven that Eris’s rules could be twisted, but the consequences were dire. More so, Loki had successfully evaded Eris to visit David to strike this deal.

It seemed too good to be true, but everything continued to work out perfectly for him.

Using the Ravens stationed throughout the west, David had Mímir use his traitor, Amen, to get valuable intelligence on the alliance’s plans and the heroes themselves. The attack on Rivers House tonight had only two objectives: assassinate the commander and as many other senior officers as possible and to retrieve the now exposed traitor, and any treasures he wished to bring with him.

In Amen’s case, that had been King Alexander’s daughter and the more beautiful members of her maid staff.

David did also want to see how powerful the heroes and their allies were in person too, which is why he himself tagged along.

***

“Da…vid.”

He said nothing.

With empty eyes, he looked at her.

It was a painful, agonising gaze, one that she didn’t recognise.

Hailey took a step forward, not bothering to try and stop her tears from flowing. “It’s…really…you.” She sobbed and fell onto one knee. “I though…maybe, just maybe…you’d be here, but when I saw…you weren’t, I was scared.” She cried louder and, on trembling legs, slowly stood back up. “Why? Why are you…over there? Hey, David?

“Why?!”

She screamed that last word.

No one else had spoken or moved in an entire minute.

Everyone was too stunned by what they saw and heard.

A hero who knew the Demon Emperor.

Surely, they all thought, that was impossible.

Yve, Hailey’s best friend, for one felt something yanking on her heart, threatening to rip it from her chest.

She had seen, first hand, just how badly torn up Hailey had been thinking that she’d never see her childhood love again.

She heard her story, how she’d failed him twice, how she wanted to redeem herself for that.

But…he’s the Demon Emperor. Yve looked between them and wanted to cry. Hailey…

“Please, tell me it isn’t you,” Hailey begged. “Please tell me it’s just someone who looks like you. I mean, your hair, your eyes.” She laughed pitifully as she tried to convince herself it was a lie. “You’re taller and you’ve got muscles. David never had muscles.” She laughed again. “What a cruel joke.”

…Of course, I know it’s you. Hailey wept.

From behind her, Kella stared at her back. I knew it.

Next to her, Dante was lost. How can they know one another? Unless this is some kind of trick or spell?

Duncan, standing at the front of the heroes, didn’t know what to say or think.

“Your majesty,” the spymaster whispered. “We should withdraw for now. Our objective has been completed. Amen, leave your hostage.”

“Bu-”

Xi Shi’s halberd lightly touching his shoulder made him immediately retract his chains.

“After you, Master,” Xi Shi gestured the emperor onwards.

Wordlessly, he broke his stare with Hailey, put his helmet back on and turned around.

“Say something!” Hailey’s ear-piercing scream stopped him momentarily, but the Demon Emperor did not even spare her a second glance, before marching through the portal.

“Next time, there will be no mercy,” Xi Shi assured them as the rest of the Demon Emperor’s host departed, leaving the dead and wounded members of the alliance on the ground.

“Get the wounded to the first aid tents quickly, and put a gag order on everything that has just transpired immediately!” Lord Akechi, the first to act, demanded. “Captain, get your men to sweep the grounds for any more hostiles or wounded personnel and attend to them as best you can. As for you.” Akechi turned his attention to the summoned heroes. “Go with Dante and look after the princess.”