That Time I Got Reencarnated as a Demon Lord (English)

Side Story - The Rise of a Lord - 01

Feeling like the energy present in my body was coming to an end, I let my body fall to the ground. I tried to resist, I still had a long way to go, but I didn't have the strength in me to keep fighting through this.

When you feel hunger in every cell of your body, how could you keep walking?

I tried to get up, but my arms could no longer apply force against the floor. My legs could no longer support my body and my eyes felt heavier every second, as if a deep sleep was claiming my conscience.

So was that it? Would that be... the death of me?

As if I would accept something like that!!!

A lot of people are behind me right now, and they're all counting on me. As the leader of my people I cannot let anything, not even death, stop me from helping my people. They are my own family, I can't just abandon them!

Stand up! Prove you can do it! You said you'd save them, didn't you?!! So you have to get up and get blessings from the forest for everyone!!!

But... even screaming those words in my mind, my body wouldn't move.

Hunger.

My hunger is greater than any strength left in me. So it seems that even though I promised everyone... I can't keep all those promises I made. This is my people's burden and I can't even carry it... I really am the worst ruler of all, am I not?

Haah~... I wonder... Will there ever be born... a savior for the Orcs...? Someone who can really save us from our suffering...?

I prayed that it would come true one day as I closed my eyes. Just for a little while... I'll rest... and then I'll keep walking...

Or so I thought.

But then...

What aura is this?!!!

An aura like I've never felt before, the aura of a true monstrosity. It wasn't like the Storm Dragon's aura, it was something quite different, but even so, I felt the power behind it.

There was no doubt, this was the aura of a monster that was on another level.

Opening my eyes, I'm not even sure where the strength I used came from, but I lifted my body a little and started to look around. That creature, if she found me I would be dead, it was a fact! Still... I just couldn't sense where the monster was coming from.

The desert heat distorted the landscape preventing me from seeing anything in the distance, so it took a while before I saw anything. Even so, little by little I saw, in the distance, there was an animal running... a big animal!

That creature must have been even taller than I was, probably three or four meters. Its coat was red and black, with the part of its neck separated by a silver mane that added to its beauty. On its head were four horns, two straight horns protruding from its forehead and two twisted horns protruding from the sides of its head, and from its mouth protruded large fangs, which looked more like swords. Its tail was covered in black scales, with what appeared to be a serpent's head on the bridge, and on its back a pair of membranous wings, which completed its body.

A beautiful creature, yet frightening at the same time. A combination of divine and infernal seemed to come together in him so perfectly that it was impossible to know what to think, even as he watched the monster rush forward at a sprint of unparalleled speed.

All I could do, seeing that creature, was to observe how magnificent it was, wishing at the same time that it didn't notice my presence.

This wish was denied in the next few seconds.