Chapter 1: Blackmoon

’How cliché. I’ve read so many novels where the Hero is betrayed by his companions, but am I wrong for trusting my companions who have fought with me for nearly six decades?’

’No. I am not wrong or foolish. There’s no way I won’t trust people I’ve bled, sweated, cried, laughed, and fought with for that long.’

’What’s wrong is why they chose to betray me. Why did they choose to do this to me despite spending so many years together?’

’Where did it all go wrong?’

Six figures encircled him in the air. The man they once loved, once followed, once revered, but now fallen, and utterly alone.

He was once a friend, once a lover, once a mentor, once a king. But now... he was surrounded by all those he trusted, awaiting his end.

This man was Simon, the renowned Hero of Earth who had saved all of mankind from the demons. A man who was treated like a god on Earth, but now, his body was riddled with injuries and burns, pierced by weapons that were slowly but surely taking his life.

Simon, who was on his knees, shifted his gaze from the pool of blood around him to the six individuals he once believed to be his friends.

No.

Family.

"Why? Why would you ruin decades of friendship? We defeated the Demon King a month ago, and we were planning on entering the demon realm to wipe out every demon prince, demon princess, demon nobles, and even low-ranking demons. Why would you betray me after all we’ve gone through?"

Simon looked at his companions with a baffled and an utterly sad expression. There was not even a hint of anger on his face at the moment since what he primarily felt was sadness.

"We don’t need you anymore to defeat the demons." One of the figures said, and Simon tilted his head with a baffled expression.

"You don’t need me anymore? Did you plan to betray me a long time ago? Was our decades of friendship nothing to you?"

He looked at one of the figures who was a female. "Francesca. Was our love meaningless? Everything we told ourselves about spending our lives together? Was it all a lie?"

Francesca gave no response to Simon’s words, and she only looked at him with an emotionless expression.

Simon gave a bitter laugh when he saw that. "I guess it was."

"For what it’s worth, know that we respect you." Another individual said, and Simon scoffed with a sad smile.

"Just end my miserable life, you bunch of hypocrites."

The six figures looked at Simon in silence for a few moments, and then one of them pointed a gun at him.

"Goodbye... Master."

BANG!

A bullet tore through the head of Simon, and the Hero of Earth, the man who was mainly responsible for slaying the demon king, the man of legends, the man who was regarded as a god in the hearts of many, fell and was no more.

Laid to waste in a decrepit corner of the Earth, by the hands of those he trusted.

-----

In a land where the sky had two shades of color, red and black. Where two moons, one black and one red, hovered in the sky. Constant unstable weather was a norm in this land. When rain fell, it wasn’t water that dropped on the ground but fire. When lightning thundered, it shattered the space around it, causing fractures that most of the time healed, but sometimes did not heal. Storms were not only of wind, but of screaming souls and poisonous insects.

This land was called the Demon Realm.

And in this land, a female one horned demon gave birth to a child in a roughly made small stone house.

Wahhh Wahhh Wahhh

The demon baby cried out loud while waving his hands, and the mother looked at her child with a gaze that contained pity and exhaustion.

She took her child from the arms of her friend, then she gave a light forced smile.

"What a handsome little fellow. I’m sure you’d make a lot of money if you sold him, Lyssa."

Lyssa shot her friend a glare the moment she heard those words. "I just gave birth to him, and you’re telling me to sell my child? For what? Nothing more than ten mid-bone coins? Let me enjoy my time with my son, and never say such a thing again, Mira."

Mira raised her hands with a light smile. "Sheesh. Calm down. I was just offering a suggestion. You know as well as I do that life is hard. You struggle to feed yourself every day, so how are you going to feed another mouth?"

Lyssa looked at Mira with a scowl, and Mira shrugged with a wry smile.

"Sorry. Sorry. I’m just pitying you, that’s all. If that bastard demon cat had not forced himself on you, you would not be in this situation."

Lyssa exhaled deeply, and then she looked at her crying son whose eyes were like that of a cat despite having just a single horn like her.

’At least he looks more like me than him.’

She thought with a bit of relief.

"It is what it is, Mira. I’m not selling my son for some worthless bone coins. I’ll find a way to survive and make him grow into a powerful warrior."

Mira looked at her friend with a sad smile, and although she wanted to refute her friend’s words, she chose not to, because she knew that Lyssa also knew the truth.

For bottom rung species like them, their potential was severely limited. They were not destined for greatness, and to be born to this level of hierarchy was more of a curse than a blessing.

’At best, your son would be a guard of a tribal chief or a clan lord.’

As Mira had this thought, Lyssa looked at her with a smile. "I just realized I haven’t given him a name."

Mira blinked, and then she looked at the baby. "What name are you going to give him?"

Lyssa pointed at the black moon through the window in the room.

"Blackmoon. That’s his name." She said with a smile.

Mira’s lips twitched, and she had the urge to facepalm herself. "That’s a terrible name."

"No, it’s not." Lyssa shook her head with a defiant look.

Wahhh! Wahhh! Wahhh!

"See. Even he knows that it’s a terrible name." Mira gestured at the baby with an expression that said ’I told you so’. But Lyssa scoffed.

"How can a baby know anything? He’s just hungry." She opened her breasts and began feeding her child with a smile.

"His name is Blackmoon, and that’s final."

Mira’s lips twitched, but then she shrugged nonchalantly while looking at the baby boy with an expression of pity.

’I guess that’s your name, little one.’

Both women had smiles on their faces as they watched Blackmoon drinking milk from his mother’s breast with hunger, not knowing that the child before them was responsible for the deaths of many demons.

A legend that many demons feared.

The Hero.