Chapter One: Zerads Plan

"Demon Lord! I have urgent news!" A demon spoke in a desperate tone as two spears were at his neck, only being stopped by the Demon Lord's hand in the air which meant that if the two spear wielders moved to kill him they would die before a drop of blood was spilled from this low level demon.

"What is it? I'm busy as you can see." The Demon Lord replied while fixing the cuff of his sleeves and then slicking his hair back.

The low ranking demon took a gulp before breaking the news. "The twelfth division has been confirmed to have been eliminated by the human army. And although it hasn't been confirmed, some evidence has pointed towards the fact that the Demon Lord of Water has been killed."

The two spear wielders put their spears back at their sides before moving away from the low ranking demon while bowing a little. They were afraid that if the Demon Lord lashed out they would be caught in the crossfire.

The Demon Lord of Magic creased his eyebrows in anger and hit a wall which left a crack in it, but calmed down after that. He was a magician after all, he had to keep his calm.

"Confirm the death of Diglan. NOW!" He barked out his order seeing as nobody was moving in fear of him. The low ranked demon didn't even nod before running away, while his personal guards stayed with him. "It seems we're going with plan H."

Plan H wasn't named as so because he has used all the letters before that, no if that was the case he would only be on plan D. No, it was named plan H because of what they- no, he was planning on trying.

It was a plan that no other Demon Lord would have thought of, and even with the slim chances that they did, they wouldn't dare to try it.

Even Zerad was a bit afraid of his plan. Sometimes… His genius was frightening.

But if it did work- NO! When it works, the humans wouldn't stand a chance. The survivors of the purge he would do would cower at the mention of his name, and seeing his shadow would be enough to send one of them to an early grave.

It would be written in history that Zerad, Demon Lord of Magic, had beaten the pitiful humans with no chance of them ever recovering. Zerad himself would write it in the history books, as he sat on a chair made out of the bones of the human kings and emperors, with the Elf Queen as his slave and her kin as his servants.

He could imagine it already, and as long as everything went according to plan, like it was going to, he doubted this war would even last more than a year from now.

"Follow." He ordered as he left his fantasy's and walked towards making them realities.

He pushed open the double doors of the room and walked past all the other demons in the room until he was at the head of the table where he sat down.

The room itself emitted an aura of power, the room was full of historical demon artefacts. Some previously used by other Demon Lords.

A large, narrow, barbed blade made of crystal is held by a grip wrapped in ordinary, deep orange crocodile leather. With a point as sharp as a razor this weapon will cause your enemies to leak from thousands of holes before they even know what happened. The blade has a narrow, curved crossguard, offering plenty of protection to the owner's hands and thus his or her life. The cross-guard has a jewelled miniature sword on each side.

The Demon Lord of Swords wielded that blade and now it sits in the room, waiting for someone else to use it. Although no one dares to as it is said that a spirit resides in the sword and it doesn't approve of the user it will kill them.

Feather of Dreams, it is said to collect all the nightmares in the world and when one uses it, it releases all the nightmares upon the world.

Then there were the seven most powerful artefacts in the whole world. The Seven Orbs of the Original Demon Lords.

The first seven Demon Lords were said to be the most powerful, and back then the humans that defeated them sealed a part of their souls that wouldn't leave the world of the living in fear of future Demon Lords getting their hands on it.

But that was a mistake from the humans. Because this gave the demons a way to summon back the dead Demon Lords into the world of the living.

But that wasn't Zerads plan. No, that would be too risky. The Original Seven wouldn't bow to anyone, and that included him. But he didn't need to have the Original Seven on his side. No, why have them when you can have the thing that killed them.

A Hero. That was what he was planning on summoning, that was plan H. Zerads plan was using the hero to defeat the humans.

And now it was time to tell the Demon Generals his plan.

"It's time to initiate plan H." Zerad said immediately, no point in beating around the bush. If they didn't agree with him then they were against him and he would execute them.

Of course some just tensed up at the mention of the plan, others had disturbed looks on their faces, and some of them looked confused.

"Are you serious?" One of them asked. He had black hair with a red tint to it, with a hulking body that was building with muscles. And with armour on him that barely fit with none on his arms.

"Yeah, I am." Zerad responded, no doubt in his voice and in a tone that indicated that he wouldn't be backing down from his decision.

One of the newer generals coughed into his fist before speaking. "What is plan H, Lord Zerad? If you don't mind me asking of course." He asked politely while bowing his head as a sign of respect.

Zerad sighed before speaking. "I don't why I have to explain it to you all, but… if I must then so be it. Plan H is a last resort plan of mine that my genius came up with. In this plan I would do something no other demon, or Demon Lord for that matter, has ever tried or done. That is to summon a hero."

Of course once he revealed it everyone who didn't know was immediately thrown off, some brave enough voicing reasons not to do it and some questioning his sanity.

"SHUT UP!!" Zerad screamed. "I am going through with this plan! And if you abandon your post! Or you try to stop me! You will be a traitor and if you're seen again you will be killed on sight!" He barked out as he stood up with his hands on the table, mana building around him showing a fearsome aura. "And since when do any of you get to question my sanity?! It doesn't matter if I'm insane or not, after all, as long as the humans are dead or at my feet waiting for an order then everything I'm doing will be worth it."

With that last sentence it was confirmed to everyone in the room that he definitely wasn't in the right mind. With that type of obsession with just one thing, one would have to be insane just to go that far for it.

But it didn't matter if he was sane or not, they had to follow his orders.

So the Demon Generals looked around the room to see if everyone was in agreement with the thoughts they were all thinking. And although there were a few that were bound to cause trouble in the future, for now they would follow him.

So in unison they all chanted. "We will follow, Zerad the Demon Lord of Magic, and obey. Anything he does we support! And his every enemy is our enemy as well! And one day, he will be the strongest Demon Lord and enslave the weak and pathetic humans! All hail Lord Zerad!"

Then with the chant of 'All hail Lord Zerad' booming in the room, Zerad sat back down and fully explained his plan, while that chant played back in his head, stroking his ego beyond belief. Because if he did it now it would save him trouble with his Generals in the future, he wasn't stupid enough to believe that some of them wouldn't try and over throw him in the future, it has happened before.

"Do not mistake this plan for a last minute one, I have thought it out for a while and have managed to think of a strategy that would make the hero we will summon obey me. We know heroes come from another world with no magic or monsters in it, and therefore they have a struggle at the start of adapting to the world and getting used to using skills and magic. But I have found a way to modify the spell so that it would summon someone that meets all the things we need them to have."

The newer general that asked what plan H was before asked another question. "And what do we need them to have?"

Zerad smirked before speaking cockily. "It's simple, they need a deep hatred for people, some knowledge of the supernatural whether it be superficial or not, and someone who is undoubtedly the weakest." That last statement caused all the demons to be caught off guard. "I know what you're probably thinking, why would you want a weak hero? If they are weak when we summon them, then when we give them power they would follow me without question as they would be grateful and devote themselves to me."

Although it was a bit of twisted logic, it did kinda make sense. People would naturally be grateful to people that gave them stuff, and would want to repay them in a way that was equal to what the person gave them. And if a person who had nothing, was given power, status, and people that would worship them, then they would, probably, follow the person that gave them everything.

Of course there's always that little bit of doubt. The reason there is doubt is because if the power they get goes through their head, especially in a situation like this, then the person might try and overthrow the person that gave them everything in the first place.

Although if that ever happened the demons would try and stop the hero.

"When are you doing the summoning ceremony, Lord Zerad?" A demon general asked.

Zerad smirked evilly before answering. "I just need to make a few more adjustments to the spell before I can start." He answered with absolute confidence in his voice of being able to alter the summoning spell. A spell that hadn't been altered since its creation, which meant that if it worked Zerad would go down as a legend who altered a 'perfect' spell. Although he would already go down as a legend because he was a Demon King trying to summon a hero.

"While I'm doing that all of you order our best workers to start construction of two indestructible chambers. I want mana suppressors and sound silencers built into it. I don't want the humans to feel the aura of the hero before I get to corrupt them, and I don't want any… 'excitable' demons to interrupt the process." Zerad ordered them as he left the room when he finished, the coat of his long suit flared out as he walked out.

Once he left every demon in that room also left as well going to do what he told them to, or if they didn't have a job to do we're going to lead their squad to see if they could kill some humans.

One demon general in particular looked at the Demon King's castle in distaste as he glared at it. It was a stupid plan, but also benefited him.

If the hero ever decided to go rogue and go against the Demon King, he would stand with them. And then when the battle was over and the Demon King was dead and the hero was weak… he would kill the hero and become a Demon King, the strongest Demon King.

He smirked at the plan he had just come up with, it was perfect. He would be the victor after all this was over.