Interlude 1 – The players, the pieces, the ones who see beyond the surfaces (NEW)

It was Red.

Red as far as the eye could see.

Except for the occasional black dots floating around midair, everything else was red.

In this seemingly infinite red, footsteps could be heard. They were calm and relaxed, like the steps of a king strolling in his castle.

As for the one who made these footsteps, he could not be described with anything other than one word; black.

Black three-piece suit, black tie, black shoes, black gloves, black hat, and a black walking stick. He looked like a rich noble from medieval times, dressed in the best quality clothes.

His face was ever-changing, as if he could not settle on a particular appearance.

One moment he looked like a young human man in his early twenties, the next he looked like a middle-aged demon who had lived millions of years. One thing was certain, and that was that all the faces he put on were undeniably the most handsome one could ever imagine.

It was unknown when it happened but at one point, the red became white.

White as far as the eye could see.

The occasionally black dots floating around midair still remained, and of course, everything else was still white.

Amid the seemingly infinite white, sat a woman. In front of her was a table with a chessboard atop it. Opposite her was another white chair, prepared for whoever she was to play with.

Of course, both the chair she sat on and the table in front of her were white.

As for her appearance, she was dressed in a white gown, white shawl, white diamonds on her neck, and white shoes on her feet.

Her facial features were also breathtakingly beautiful, with white hair and skin. Her hair was longer than average, flowing down until her waist. Unlike the man in black, her face was unchanging.

Each action she took was angelic yet bewitching at the same time.

The chessboard before her was set up, however, unlike the usual sixteen pieces a normal board had, this one had twelve.

The pieces were of two colors, white and red.

White for her and red for her opponent, the man in black who took a seat on the empty chair in front of her.

As if in response to him, the pure white chair was dyed jet black in an instant. He then raised his hands and took out the third chess piece on the eighth row. (c8)

The woman looked at the board and sighed before removing the third piece on the first row (c1).

After this strange set of actions, the man turned his gaze to the woman as he spoke.

"He has incarnated."

"I know."

"Did you have a hand in it?"

"We both know I did not."

"But you protected the one who did."

"I was simply keeping the promise we made to him."

The woman's last reply caused looks of visible annoyance to flash across the man's ever-changing face. He was about to say something but she cut him off.

"You are the one who isn't keeping our promise of non-aggression. You do not see me taking any actions against your people, I'm sure he would do the same, do not take any actions against his people."

"I care not for that promise, why should we let him reincarnate himself into such a lowly existence?!"

The man shot back in rage, however, the woman's sudden anger seemed to supersede his. She frowned as the atmosphere around her changed, her angelic expression instantly became one of demonic fury.

"Ah. Okay, so it's not that I don't care for it. It's just that I do not understand why he would do such a thing."

The man realized he had angered her with his words and calmed down before speaking. His statement seemed to cause some of her anger to subside as she smiled lightly before replying.

"It's not that you do not understand, you do, yet you refuse to accept it. Either way, it was his decision.

Just as he did not object when we started the game, we should not object when he chooses to enter the board."

Despite her words, the man still showed an unwilling expression, his ever-changing faces showed different expressions of anger, annoyance, and then, resignation.

Heaving a sigh, he looked down on the board in front of them as he spoke.

"It has been quite a while since that piece was eliminated, yet no replacements have been made."

"It was your fault, it would have lasted longer had you not intervened then."

"Should we do it over?"

"There's no point. We would just have a predetermined result."

The man in black laughed loudly before replying.

"Predetermined, huh? He would eventually return to where he belongs, I would only be accelerating the process."

Looking at him, the woman realized his seriousness as he even stopped his face from changing and stuck with one appearance.

"Let's see how far you can go without breaking the promise. On a side note, I would take action if you seem like you would succeed."

She smiled charmingly as he spoke yet the man had no reaction to this smile that would have captured the hearts of many.

"Tsk...Just say you don't want me to succeed."

After speaking, he looked down on the first piece on the eighth row on the board (a8). The woman also looked down on the first piece in the first row (a1).

The two then spoke one after the other.

"I wonder what they are planning."

"It must be fun, enough to keep me busy till you stop watching him."

"That will never happen, as far as you intend to break the promise."

"Haaaaa....."

The man only heaved a sigh at her words and said nothing more, only shaking his head n disappointment as he looked down below, past the seemingly infinite white, down to the figure of a certain eight-year-old boy watching a planet go up in flames.

◇　◇　◇

The Seer

Undisputedly one of the most powerful entities in the Hell universe, save its main entities.

He was also one of the few nobles of the Devildom who held the title of Marquis. Even among the Marquisates, The Seer was highly respected.

The reason for this was simple;

Like Apollo in Olympus, he was the one who governed over the aspect of prophecies in Hell. Prophecies, Oracles, revelations, and so forth. As far as it considers the Hell Universe, then The Seer knows about it.

When the will of the universal sea sent out the prophecy about Arthur's birth, he was the one who received it on behalf of the Hell Universe.

Today, that same seer was in the presence of the four Grand Dukes, alongside the royal family of the Devildom.

Diablo, King of the Devildom and Master of the Hell universe, propped his chin on his hand before speaking.

"So? What did you see?"

The Seer bowed to the other royal family members seated, Cattleya, Creusery, Aurora, and Inglis before replying.

"Fourteen humanoid Shadows, their gender indiscernible, each and every one of them releasing a great aura that made me feel suffocated."

Not many knew this but when The Seer received some visions, he had an out-of-body experience where he experienced the events of the vision as if he was truly there.

That was obviously the case, seeing as he was slightly trembling even while speaking.

"Each and every one of them possessed a marking. A blurred-out crest on the back of their palms, in the middle of this crest, was a number.

A roman numeral from Romersk, they numbered 'I – XII'. Two of them had the number 'X' on the backs of their palms.

The lower the number, the more power they possessed."

He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing.

"The Fourteenth had a sword drawn on the back of their palms instead of a number.

Another thing I noticed was that some had non-human features. Like the 'III' that had two wolf ears on their head and 'II' had horns on the sides of their head.

The problem, however, was what they did."

Cattleya narrowed her eyes at the seer as she asked.

"What did they do?"

"They kneeled."

"What?"

Cattleya was surprised at his answer, these mysterious figures kneeling did not sound like as much of a problem as the seer made it seem like.

"The fourteen beings all kneeled facing a single direction with their heads bowed.

Next, some sort of portal, space rift, black hole, I don't even know what to call it, but it opened up in front of them.

A fifteenth being walked out, the same blurred-out crest on the back of his palms but with the number '0'.

The power he possessed was something I could not fathom, there was just so much energy rolling off his body that I was unable to sense his realm of existence.

It was even worse than the other fourteen.

This fifteenth being looked at the fourteen kneeling on the ground, and then, at me."

All the beings listening showed expressions of shock on their faces, even the usually straight-faced Aurora. The seer continued speaking before they could voice out their confusion.

"He stared at me with glowing red eyes, the left one then turned blue temporarily before he spoke, his words sent a chill down my spine."

"What did he say?"

Diablo asked with a solemn voice and the seer took multiple deep breaths to calm himself down before replying.

"-Go back to your time, Seer.-"

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as they heard the seer's words. Whoever this fifteenth being was, they knew who the seer was and even knew he was looking into the future.

'What sort of existence...?!'

Diablo gazed at everyone present before speaking.

"Not a word of this to anyone.

The fact that he saw such a vision involuntarily means that this is related to us. Until we understand it more, we would have to be careful with this information."

Diablo then teleported out of the room the moment he was done speaking, he reappeared in a dark space with multiple screens showing different scenes from different parts of the hell universe.

He then sat on the throne in front of them and thought to himself.

'No doubt about it, it's one of them....'

He thought about the kind of being the seer saw as he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.