1 Prologue.

"It's done." The eerie voice echoed out of the empty but lively skeleton.

"Yours truly plotted, betrayed, ensnared and trapped." The skeletal hands gestured with liveliness in its every word. "To be blunt, this one hunted the game, cleaned the guts, cooked, made your plate, chewed a piece and gently brought it to your mouth on a spoon. All you have to do is swallow."

The worn-out brown cape draping over the skeleton's body moved aside as he presented the scene behind him with a bow of a proficient artist showing his art. A large hall with a man squirming in front of a tall throne appeared. Blood came out of the man's mouth. "D-Damnable lich, how did you escape my control!?" A gush of bloody coughs followed his question.

"As expected of the Great demon lord, you can still speak. I could've explained, but oh well, I couldn't care less."

The skeleton turned to his guests, with what looked like glee on his eye sockets. One was a young man of blonde hair and sharp green eyes, and a lean body. He held the great sword of heroes on his left hand and the one beside him was a woman called Merlin. She had beautiful blue hair streaming down her shoulders and a shining staff.

Both looked at the lich with weird and disbelieving gazes. The enterouge of elite knights and mages following their lead were silent as dead bodies.

The green fire inside the skeleton's skulls danced with hope. "Now, lady Merlin, no, sorry. Mage Merlin, no! better yet, Your excellency supreme magus Merlin. Please fulfill your end of the deal, lift this humble one's curse, I already decided on the first meal to feel in my tongue."

Merlin looked at the youth besides her and back, she opened her mouth only to close again, she raised her hand to cast magic then took it back, she repeated the motions two to three times in speechlessness. They agreed to the deal thinking the lich would fail and they'd fight a tired demon lord, they never imagined the underling would defeat the boss.

A tough hand grabbed her arm when she finally decided to cast a spell. The blonde hero's sharp eyes signaled her to wait.

"Delua. Demon Lord's great lich, your undead killed countless human lives, do you really believe you can be rewarded after that?"

The lich threw itself on the ground in the kneeling position as faithful believers do when in church. "Once this slave's curse is lifted, then whatever way mistress wants to punish, this one will accept! Be it the Candle wax or the whip!"

"M-Mistress?" Merlin voiced her confusion. The knights and mage troops behind took a silent step back, refusing to comment.

The hero stepped forward. A mocking smile emerging on his mouth. "As I thought, the lich is the true demon lord?

"What? Merlin's eyes opened wide.

"What?" The Lich's jaw clacked

"Think merlin, of all the demon Lord's vassals, 'He's the one with the least notoriety on the continent, he's also the one who approached us first. Undoubtedly, this is a trap he was laying since the beginning for us to make him human. I'm guessing he would become stronger then."

Merlin was stomped for words, the lich's rotten jaw fell on the ground.

The skeleton could see the light of understanding on the mage as if she just discovered the truth of the universe.

"No!" The skeleton started to gesticulate and point it's bony finger to the Demon lord furiously "NO! My good hero! My ancestor hero! I swear on this dickless body of mine, That handsome fellow with long black hair is the demon lord! I'm just a frea-"

After the sound of steel colliding with metal resounded, the skeleton looked down. A sword oozing with the church's blessing was lodging on his ribcage. 'The blue shine of it is so beautiful' The skeleton thought.

The hero held the grip-end of the sword with a smirk, while Merlin's staff turned lively with her chanting blessings that would make the lich weak.

"Oh, for the love of my bony ass!" The lich facepalmed

"It' your end, vile being!" Merlin screamed as a miniature sun formed behind her.

"For kingdom and glory!" Denesle, the hero, yanked out the sword from the skeletal chest and screamed, swinging it down leaving a bluish afterimage.

"Enough." spoke the Lich with a tired tone to his voice. A triangular red rune shone on its forehead. The hero and the rest froze mid-action.

The skeleton walked one step at a time with its shoulders down, an imaginary sigh escaped its skull with an eerie dark fog. As the noise of bones hitting the hard stony ground neared the coughing demon lord, the fog encompassed the hero and the rest.

"I-cough!- I might die today lich, but I'l-UGH-!" The bony arm didn't wait for the phrase to finish as it broke through the black armor and entered the demon Lord's thorax "Spare me of your cliche. This place is so scarce of spirituality, yet you people still want to play demon lord ending humanity and hero saving the land. I'm tired of it. Since the curse can't be lifted here, I'll just start over somewhere else."

With an unsettling noise, The lich pulled out his now wet and red bony arm and looked at the black marble on his fingers. The demon's eye betrayed disbelief. "H-How?"

"How do I put the Lich heart inside the demon Lord? I could explain but again, I'm out of patience."

Unwillingness and rage showed through the demon lord's eyes. But the longer he looked into the eye holes on the skull the calmer he got. The green soul fire was there, but behind it, he saw something that caused shivers.

"Y-you!? How are you not dead!?" The light faded from the demon Lord's black eyes as he spoke. But it was enough for the lich to cackle in self-amusement. He understood what disturbed the Demon Lord, but gave it no second thought. With a gentle squeeze the black marble, a Lich's lifeline, disintegrated in pieces.

The sound of steps echoed. The eyeless skull turned to the entrance of the hall; Merlin and the entourage had melted inside the black fog. But the hero was walking with half body disfigured. He walked as if learning how to do it for the first time.

"Now even mortals can see the exhaustion on your grinded and overloaded spirit, Delua. It's time you see things as they are, and assume your true place in the world." The hero's voice echoed. But it was not the hero anymore.

"I finally understood your preferences, Elios, between a beautiful woman and the handsome youth you chose the little white face to possess." The lich humorously nodded to itself despite his feet slowly disappearing into dust

The thing that possed the hero stopped and spoke: "This is the Hundreth time, Delua, your soul is weary and won't sustain much more reincarnations before dissipating."

With the entirety of the left leg gone, the lich fell down with bones scattering throughout the stony floor."I'm good, one hundred and one my just be the lucky number."

"No, there's no luck that can help you. No mortal in existence can lift a curse cast by a god. Do you understand, Delua? even if that magus woman truly had a smudge of the real ancient Merlin's blood in her, it still wouldn't do. You're being irrational. Plead forgiveness and submit yourself to the god you so sinfully rejected at once and everything you were and possessed will be returned to you with interest."

"I'm an optimist fellow." The green fire dwindled as most bone parts turned to dust, leaving only the ribcage and skull on the floor.

The thing inside the hero, seeing that, shook its head. "Then the cycle shall continue, You'll always be reincarnated with your untreated soul. Always starting at the bottom of the hierarchy. You'll also live in hunger but will never feel any taste on your mouth, There'll be intense thirstyness, but you'll be forever unable to quench it. You'll have the most lustful thoughts, but will never feel the touch of yourself or a partner."

The green fire diminished into a finger-sized blaze as the ribcage disappeared. "I just realized it. doesn't that make me the most faithful and ideal example for a handfull of religions? Why aren't those gods recruiting me already? Can't they see Mount Tai? Oh, now I kind of miss the cultivation world." The voice of the green soul fire went lower as the skull started disappearing.

"Just like fire shining the brightest before disappearing completely. What a foolish man," The hero's body fell down lifeless, after uttering its last bit of words.

Now alone, and with only the green fire left, Delua wondered as darkness enveloped him 'What'll be this time? Maybe a tree? It's been a while since I was born as a tree. Or maybe a weapon like that time as a sword? If so, a hammer might be better. Maybe a ghost. No, I did too well as a skeleton. I doubt I'll be anything else than an inanimate thing...

.....

...

....Will I be able to live again?

The last wisp of green spark dissapeared.