While Abel, Zyle, and Ted were having lunch, over two thousand kilometers away from Midgard in the southeast, two people—a man and a woman—were making their way across the Austra Archipelago.
Up until recently, demons ruled over humans. It was one of the few places in the world this way, and was one of the few areas that demons still ruled. After several hundreds of years, the demons had converged here and fought against the native humans, and as a result it was also one of few places in the modern world filled with powerful demons.
“So this is the Demon King’s castle? Despite being uninhabited, it’s in pretty good condition,” the woman, Ayane said.
She was a mage who’d been a part of the magecraft company Chaos Raid with Abel two hundred years ago. Though she’d been very sociable back then, the current Ayane was much more callous, and had eyes cold as ice.
“Heh. Of course. The demons here have done everything they can to preserve the Demon King’s castle. It’s a special place to them—a symbol of their past glory,” the man said.
The man’s name was Cain. Two hundred years ago, he was known as the Hero of Ash, and was lauded as the only one who was as strong as Abel out of the Great Four. Currently, Cain and Ayane were on the Austra Archipelago to explore the Demon King’s Castle that’d been sealed off for so many years.
“Master Cain, are you up to no good again?”
After many years of being by Cain’s side, Ayane could tell by his expression that he was in a very good mood. It was during these times that he began thinking up sinister designs.
“Heh heh. I can’t get anything past you, can I, Ayane? I’m thinking of undoing the seal on Zeke.”
Ayane had heard of Zeke before. He was known as the strongest of the Demon King of Twilight’s subordinates.
“Zeke was the one demon we weren’t able to defeat back then. I’m sure Mr. Abel will be overjoyed to be reunited with him,” Cain said.
“Are you sure about letting a demon fight him? I thought that’s what you wanted to do.”
Upon his release and, drunk with rage, Zeke would most likely make an immediate beeline for Abel in order to kill him. Zeke’s hatred for Abel was bottomless; Abel had been the one to seal Zeke away, after all, and after two hundred years trapped in darkness, his desire to kill Abel had only grown.
“Heh heh. I’ll be meeting Mr. Abel for the first time in a hundred years. In order to prepare our lavish reunion, don’t you think Zeke’ll make a perfect appetizer?”
Abel’s reunion with Zeke would make for the perfect opportunity to assess his strength; sending mere assassins wasn’t enough to draw out Abel’s full strength. But since Abel’s body wasn’t fully mature, Zeke might be even more than what Abel could handle—that’s how strong Zeke was.
“Understood... When should we set things in motion?” Ayane asked.
“Hm... Christmas would be a wonderful time, wouldn’t you agree?”
This took into account the decent amount of time they’d need to undo the seal on Zeke. Abel had used Obsidian Eye magecraft to seal away Zeke. As an Ashen-Eyed mage, Cain was not well-suited to deal with Obsidian Eye magecraft.
“It doesn’t matter if my compatibility with Obsidian Eye magecraft is low. There’s nobody in this world who understands how his mind works better than me.”
The telltale sign of a talented mage was their ability to use magecraft they weren’t familiar with. Though he might not have been as proficient as someone with Amber Eyes like Abel, Cain was still a mage of great talent with other types of magecrafts.
“Mr. Abel, I hope you enjoy my Christmas present to you.”
As Cain stood alone in the darkness, an innocent smile crossed his face—the same one he made centuries ago.