Entropy's Servant

Chapter 1 - I am the Demon Master

On one side, the forces of light, the 'good', five Heroes. A Paladin, an Archmage, a Grand Priest, over there hiding in the shadows is a Thief and it looks like they have a Monster Tamer as well.

On the other side, the forces of chaos, the 'evil', a bunch of Demons. A Red Dragon, a Vampire Princess, a Grand Slime, an Arch-Devil, a Witch Queen... and one more person, the one lording over this bunch of normally disunited idiots. That's right, a Demon Master: me.

Now, this might seem like a situation in which you'd be cheering against me, but hear me out here. I'll explain the details later, but I'll start at the beginning for now.

Have you ever heard of a type of story called a 'parallel world story'? They're fairly common, to the point you could find countless in minutes of searching, but I'll explain just in case. In these stories, the- usually male- main character is struck down by the accident of a god and given the right to come back to life in a fantasy world with a 'cheat', or they're called to such a fantasy world on a summoner's whims, being granted great power in the process, or somesuch. In any case, in almost all of these stories, the main character ends up in a fantasy, almost game-like world with some kind of really powerful ability, and becomes a hero, saving the world from destruction and being surrounded by beauties who are into him. I meet most of these conditions- I've been taken to here from earth, I've been given an ability incomparable to the power of the native residents, and I'm surrounded by beauties- though I'm not sure they're into me- but one thing is off.

I am not a hero.

Not anymore, at least.

I once was a Hero- 'champions of justice', fighting for the Goddess of Light, Lady Luciel, using the power she's given them to defeat the 'evil' monsters and making a 'pure' world for the Luciel-worshipping 'good' humans to live in.

However, these same Heroes are dangerous to Lady Luciel- after all, once she's given them power, she can't take it back, so if they went against her, they could massacre entire cities. Her solution? Brainwashing. I won't get into details now, as I don't have time, but it's nothing ethical, to say the least.

However, some Heroes can still be saved. And so...

"Then, Heroes, tell me," I said, leaning back into my lavishly decorated throne, right hand stroking the head of the Red Dragon who was resting her body on the throne's back. "Who do you serve?" On my face, a sneer. These were a mere five Heroes against my five strongest Demons and myself, after all.

"I devote myself wholly to the sacred Goddess of Light, Lady Luciel!", the Paladin, the Grand Priest and the Monster Tamer all shouted in unison without a trace of hesitation, placing their right hands in front of their chests. Pathetic fools.

"Stop asking ridiculous questions and fight!", the Paladin followed up, pointing his sword at me. Square chin, muscular body, sharp features... the very image of a knight commander. His golden eyes shone with a strong determination- a determination to strike me down, that is. He looks like the leader of the party.

"Shut up", I said, briefly snapping my gaze in his direction. "I'm trying to be polite here, but if you take another step towards me with that wonderful holy sword of yours, I will tear you to shreds." The Paladin took a step back, overwhelmed by the sudden effect of my skill, [Dragon's Glare]. Why wouldn't he be? After all, that's a dragon's skill. After releasing this threat, I loosened my tone of voice and addressed the other two Heroes. "Then, Archmage, and that Thief over there." The Archmage tilted her head at being mentioned specifically, and the Thief let out a weird sound of surprise at being noticed. Apparently, he didn't expect to be noticed at all. "Who do you two serve? You didn't answer earlier."