Chapter 2049: The Demon King’s Insanity

"Sys... tem...?"

"Yes, my beloved! The System is our ally! He will guide us through this! He has given me a task, to conquer the worlds of Arcadia and Earth, and the many Realms within! To expand the Domain of Death beyond the horizon, and to turn Reality into an endless Necropolis!

And we will govern this eternal Dark Kingdom together! WITH OUR CHILDREN!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK?! I SHALL CONQUER BOTH THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND THE WORLD OF THE DEAD! I WILL GOVERN EVERYTHING! HAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

His wife’s face slowly changed as she listened. So many memories, so many words, and so many impossible things to digest and understand flooded her mind at once. Yet one realization seemed to impact her more deeply than anything else.

"You’re... not him..."

Silence fell heavily between them.

His skeletal hands trembled as he looked up at her. The bones of his fingers cracked softly in the quiet.

"...What?"

His wife spoke again, using whatever strength she still had left even as exhaustion tried to pull her back into eternal sleep. She was not fully formed yet, but she refused to stop.

"You’re not my husband..."

Silence returned, thicker and more painful than before.

The Demon King of Death was completely shocked by her words.

After finally seeing her return to something close to normal, she was... denying him?

"...W-Why would you say... that? It’s me... my love... it’s me! I am Thanatos...! I...! IT’S ME!"

"...No."

Her words were final and absolute.

She shook her head slowly, forcing more words out between fresh tears.

"My love was tender and just... he was a righteous man... he wanted nothing but peace... and he would have never... wanted to destroy all life and even death itself... My love was... a simple man with a heart of gold... My love, Thanatos... he was gentle, but he was also capable of making funny jokes. He was charismatic and talkative, yet always kind... the kindest man I have ever known... He would have never harmed even a fly..."

"..."

The Demon King fell heavily to his knees. He stared at his own reflection in a dark pool of nether and miasma that had formed on the floor.

"You’re not him..."

"I-I... I’m... not...?"

Thanatos clutched his skull-like face with both hands, scratching desperately at the bone with his claws. Chunks of bone tore free and fell onto the ground around him.

"What... do you mean it’s not me...? I am me...! IT’S ME, DEAR! I HAVE HIS MEMORIES! I LIVED AS HIM! I—"

"But you’re not him..."

He fell silent once more, the words cutting deeper than any blade.

"You’re not as kind as he was. You’re... a monster... born from his grudge... My dear... beloved... is long gone... and now I finally realize... that his death only awakened a demon... inside of him...!"

The Demon King of Death’s skull grew darker and more distorted. Sharp horns sprouted from his forehead as pure darkness completely enveloped his body. The heart within his chest glowed with violent flames of demonic power and pure void energy.

"D-Demon... you say...?"

"..."

"I... AM NOT A DEMON! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! I AM NOT A DEMON! I AM NOT A DEMON! I AM NOT A DEMON!!!"

He kept screaming like a complete madman, only growing more warped and monstrous with every word. All the powers he had stolen or borrowed from other creatures and beings surged through him at once.

His skeleton form was nothing more than a thin husk hiding the real horror that existed beneath it.

"A-Ahhh! Let go of me! Kill me!" she cried out, begging desperately. "I don’t want to live! I don’t want to be alive anymore... I want to go back to him, to my children!!!"

"How could you say that...?! How could you... after everything... you break my heart?! You’re trampling over our legacy together, our beloved and beautiful history! You’re... my dear wife! How could... how could you?! HOW COULD YOU?!"

He screamed in pure horror and despair. In his rage he tore his own skull apart, revealing a horrendous creature made of writhing darkness, twisting flesh, bleeding miasma, and countless blinking eyes.

His wife cried out in terror and tried to step back in disbelief... though she could not move. The flower that formed her body trembled violently as she struggled to free herself from him, but her efforts were useless.

"W-What is... this thing?!"

Then she finally realized exactly where she had emerged from — a horrendous tree made of living flesh and staring eyes. Its roots, covered in rows of sharp teeth, continuously consumed endless mountains of corpses.

This was, without any doubt, the most horrifying thing she had ever witnessed in her existence!

There she saw countless souls being slowly poured into her body, feeding her their agony and nightmares so that her power would grow and her form would expand even further.

"N-No... no, no, no! What is this?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!"

As the full horror of her situation sank in, she began screaming uncontrollably. Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

"W-Wait!"

He panicked the moment he saw her flower beginning to wither and fade.

"No, no! NO!!!"

He quickly shook the massive tree and injected it with his own power, desperately trying to help her recover even a little.

He gasped for nether in pure disbelief as he watched her suddenly fall into a deep, forced slumber.

"Aahhh..."

He shed more dark tears while holding onto the tree in heavy silence. Then he noticed its horrible tentacles beginning to wrap around his body, slowly drawing him closer.

Its many blinking eyes gazed into his soul with an obsessive intensity.

Something had been built into the tree from the very moment of its birth — the moment he had fed this creature pieces of his own soul and heart in order to create it.

"G-Get away from me!"

He stepped back sharply and slammed the tree away from him, breaking part of its grotesque body in the process. Thick black blood poured from the wounds.

"Don’t touch me...!"

-----