Chapter 1

Inside a castle that had every sense of elegance destroyed stood three beings. The first being a human man fitted entirely in armor except for a helmet. The man had brown hair and golden eyes that shined with determination.

Standing next to the man was a tall woman with shiny blonde hair, pointy ears, and eyes hidden behind a blindfold. She was wearing a tettered light-blue dress that went down far enough to cover her knees.

Finally, there was a very short man who wielded a war hammer equipped entirely with armor.

"It's over!" The man pointed his sword toward a being sitting on a destroyed throne, "Your armies are scattered, your kingdom is destroyed, and you out of magic."

The being on the throne was tattered with wounds all over its body. Purple blood continued to flow out of the being onto its black shell-like skin, yet it showed no sign of distress.

"When I was born I was nothing more than a bug, yet look at me now." The being rubbed cracked horns which took the shape of a crown, "If my parents had any thoughts, they might just be proud of me."

"The hell are you on about?" Shouted the short man.

"Just thinking back on life, isn't that something you do when you're about to die? Honestly, just because you're murderers doesn't mean you have to be rude."

"Murderers? You sit there and call us murderers as if you were free of sin." Responded the woman.

"Sin is just a word used by churches to guilt the naive into giving money. And though I'm not a saint, none of you are any better. You killed thousands of my kind just to get to me."

"Your kind was, is a threat to all the races and needed to be dealt with," The woman replied.

"We were surviving! And if you really want a threat, look at what you caused 600 years ago." A thud was heard next to the being on the throne, "I guess my time is up. I would continue entertaining your naivety, but sadly there's nothing more I wish to say to any of you."

"Good." The man walked toward the being and pointed his sword at its neck, "This is your end Demon Lord."

"I may die, but another will follow."

"They'll suffer the same fate as you." The man plunged his sword into the being as they began to disappear into purple light.

A pack of wolves walked through a snowy tundra, the cold wind howling as if to protest their efforts. Looking closer one could see that out of the fifteen wolves in the pack, almost all of them were heavily injured, most of them struggling to continue forward, but something kept them going.

In the middle of the pack a wolf pup could be found, its fur as white as the snow it was walking through, with hints of light blue, similar to the pack around it. Though uninjured, the pup was struggling to keep up with the pack and was beginning to stop.

The more the pup moved, the weaker its will got, and the more it slowed down until it stopped entirely. A wolf behind the pup, seeing this, nudged the pup in an attempt to get it moving again. Even with the wolf's attempts, the pup didn't move again causing the wolf to give up.

The silver eyes of the pup looked dull as it was close to death. The pup's eyes slowly closed, threatening to never open again, but they remained open. Though they were no more than slits at this point the pup's eyes refused to close. Then, its eyes shot open, revealing a glint in its eyes that showed newfound will.

The pup blinked a few times before looking at the pack that was leaving it behind. It rushed forward, barely being carried by its tired legs. The pup barked, attempting to get the attention of the pack ahead of it. Lucky for it, the pack slowed down enough for it to find its way to the middle again.

The pup looked back at the wolf that had nudged it with a thought able to cross its mind.

'Thanks, mom'

The pup couldn't talk, or at least there were no words it could speak, but the meaning seemed to still make it to the wolf as it licked the pup's head before nudging it forward again.

'Was it always this cold? Where are we headed to anyway?'

The pup questioned everything while walking, maybe it was hoping for an answer, but even though it received nothing, it continued with the no set goal in mind.

The pack continued to move more a few more hours until they reached a cave made entirely of ice. The pack walked into the cave and were greeted by a fire that burned brightly, even through the cold.

Once all of the wolves had entered the cave, the wolf that had lead the pack walked to the entrance of the cave and let out a howl.

'What is she doing?'

The wolf continued to howl causing the ground to begin to shake. This continued for a few more seconds until a wall of ice appeared from the ground, covering the entrance of the cave.

'She can move the ice?'

The pup stared at the ice wall, wondering how such a feat was possible, but had their thoughts interrupted by a voice from deeper within the cave.

"Took you long enough, I've been starving. Bring me your offering." The voice commanded.

None of the wolves made any moves, they just stood there staring at the source of the voice.

"What? No offering? That's fine, but I'm still hungry." The creature that was sitting near the campfire stood up and walked toward the pack.

The creature looked like a human, standing over seven feet tall, but was covered in white fur. The creature also had one horn elk-like horn potruding from the right side of its head.

'A one horn!'

The creature walked closer to the wolves before stopping to inspect them.

"You are all injured and there is nothing to eat. You lot won't survive to hunt again, so I will give you some use before you die the dogs death you were given."

After the creature finished talking all of the wolves began growling and took up a offensive stance against the creature.

'Why are they scared?'

"Don't make this harder for me." Saying this the creature streched one of its hands after which a blue light appeared in front of it taking the form of a circle. The creature then plunged their hand into the circle, before slowing pulling it out to reveal a war hammer made of ice that was as tall as the creature itself.

Without saying anything else the creature swung the hammer, hitting a few of the wolves in one swing. Some of them were lucky enough to be thrown into the wall, leaving them with some broken bones. One of the wolves though was csmashed into the wall, leaving behind a red paste.

Taking this opportunity, the remaining wolves lunged toward the creature attempting to bite and claw it, though it was ineffective, with the creature choosing to jump back and swing its hand forward, causing spikes of ice to appear under some of the wolves, impaling them.

'Mom, what's happening?' The pup cried out inside of its mind.

The creature continued to massacre the wolves, though it didn't matter to any of them. The wolves continued to throw themselves at the creature even when there was no hope in survival.

Soon, all of the wolves had been killed, with only the creature left standing, huffing from the fight it had just finished. It chose to sit down and catch its breath, not noticing the pup near the entrance of the cave.

'Mom, get up mom.' The pup begged, nudging the dead body that lay in front of him.

The creature, still oblivous to the pup behind it, grabbed one of the wolves, before biting into it, chewing through the bone.

"Ah, finally, something to eat." They creature roared in ecstasy, not noticing the pup sneaking up behind it.

Once it got close enough, the wolf pup lunged at the creature, biting its leg, attempting to sink its teeth in. Sadly, the pup was unable to cause any damage since its fangs hadn't fully grown in yet.

Noticing some pressure on its leg, the creature looked down at the pup.

"Oh, I didn't think these dogs had a pup." The creature swatted the pup away, causing it to hit a wall, "I'm suprised you didn't die on the way here." The creature went back to eating, giving the pup no second thought.

The pup struggled up, still glaring at the creature who was happily devouring its family.

'I don't care if you're a one horn, I'll kill you myself.'

The pup stumbled towards the creature ready to bite it again, though it knew it was useless. The pup walked up to the creature, ready to bite it once more, but this time, it howled, imitating the howl of the wolf that sealed the cave off.

As if the spirits of the wolves had come together to help the pup fight against the creature, the pup lunged toward the creature, attempting to bite it. This time though, ice formed around the pups head, forming a wolf's head.

Ignoring the ice on its head, the pup bit down on the creature, this time drawing blood and getting a genuine reaction from it.

"You mutt, how dare you." The creature raised its hand ready to smash the pup, but stopped, "You used an incantation while just a pup?"

The creature put its hand down and looked at the pup, before pulling the pup off of its leg.

"The Demon Lord just died and you show some potential. You know what, I'll make you the next Demon Lord." The creature held the pup up and smiled.

"I guess you'll need a name too. Wendel? No, Fendel. No, that's bad too. I got it, Forcian. I like that one, and since I found you, you'll share my last name, Tartarus. From now on your name is Forcian Tartarus, the soon to be 5th Demon Lord."

Hearing the creature talk, the Forican calmed down and looked at the creature with interest.

'Forcian. Demon Lord.' Forcian continued to look at the creature, giving what it just learned some thought.

"I like the look in your eyes, but more important matters. If you want to live long enough to be Demon Lord, you need to eat, so dig in before it's all gone."

Forcian looked around at all of the dead wolves, not wanting to eat any of them, but watching the creature eat, they walked to the nearest wolf and started eating.