On a sunny Monday morning in September, Dave Dalin, an average guy, was going to school. He was wearing a very formal suit. He had short straight black hair and yellowish-green eyes. He was also very slim and seemed relatively tired, and every now and then, he closed his eyes for a bit longer periods.

"Ah... the first day of school again, I hate it. I am so tired... I shouldn't have read for so long. I think it was 2 am when I stopped reading. But it was so good; my last few hours without having to think about anything, especially about school. How long will I be left alone, I wonder. Two hours maybe? That might be a miracle. I can't wait to go back to being bullied again, especially by her... "

Thought Dave to himself as we took a deep sight as he stopped by a red light and looked around. It was early in the morning, so no cars were on the road.

"Oh, this system. No cars, but I still have to wait 75 seconds before being able to cross this damn road. It would be great if today was the first day of the summer holiday..."

Mumbled Dave as he crossed his arms and started tapping on his elbow with his finger. And after about a minute, he could cross the road but couldn't walk for too long because he got another red light.

"Are you kidding me? This should not be red this soon! My luck again! The first day of school, and every time I want to cross the road, I get a red light, great!"

Said Dave, and now he started to get frustrated. After three more red lights, he finally reached a long bridge and started crossing it.

"Great, now I just have to cross this bridge. A portion of it goes over a busy road and the rest over water; because whoever designed this school had to choose an island for it. At least it has a great view."

Thought Dave as he was walking. Dave looked at his watch; then, he decided to stop and looked down at the passing cars.

"I wish I was already finished with my studies, and I could be free, or at least freer."

Said Dave as he leaned onto the metal fence of the bridge. As he was looking ahead of him, he felt like time slowed down around him. He could hear the birds twittering. However, this calm stat didn't last for very long because he heard a shout.

"Daly! Did you miss me? I hope you did! Here let me show what I have learned during my summer holiday!"

"It's not Daly; it's Dave."

Said Dave angrily and was about to turn around, but suddenly he felt a powerful wind coming towards him. The wind was so strong that the next thing he saw was him being above the road. The wind was strong enough to lift him higher than he was initially, and he could see that the fence was slightly bent where the wind hit it. In the next second, Dave started falling.

"Oh no! Daly!"

Shouted someone, but it was too late. Dave was almost instantly hit by a car before he could have landed on the road. The driver instantly put on the brakes and lost control of the car. As for Dave, He was sent to the side of the road, which was solid concrete; he hit it so hard it slightly cracked behind him. Dave was layin on the ground and vomited blood and could say one thing.

"****..."

Dave closed his eyes, but he could hear as the cars stopped and that their door suddenly opened. He could hear loud steps, but then everything went silent, and he found himself floating in darkness.

"So this is it... I died... great job me! I managed to die three days before my 20th birthday! At least I will no longer need to worry about going to school, being bullied, and being forced to study things which I will probably never use. "

Commented Dave as he was still floating in nothingness; however, suddenly, he heard another voice.

"Please...wake up"

"What the"

"We..."

"What is this voice? I can't recognise it!"

"My lord!"

"Alright, I think this is for someone else; I am sure I am just hearing things now!"

"WAKE UP, MY LORD, PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU!! YOU CAN'T DIE YET!"

Dave closed his eyes and thought to himself.

"What is going on... Are they bringing me back from the dead? Also, I am starting to feel a strange pain in my arm and stomach. I think they are... putting me together, maybe? Does that mean I will just open my eyes and... "

Before Dave finished his monologue, he opened his eyes and found himself laying on the floor in some sort of cave. Next to him stood a man and a woman.

"...wake up in a hospital... it seems I was wrong. WHAT THE **** IS THIS?!"

After he finished his line of thoughts, he tried to look around and noticed the man and the woman who were hugging each other. The woman was crying, and the man was gently patting her back.

"HEY, what the hell is going on?!"

Shouted Dave, and upon hearing his voice, both the man and the woman jumped up and quickly looked at him. Dave tried to stand up while looking at them, but something prevented him from standing up. After trying to stand up, he felt a surge of pain coming from his stomach and his left arm.

Dave looked at his hand and noticed a dagger in his arm, which pinned him to the ground. The dagger had a golden cross, its handle was very shiny, and at the bottom of it had a large red gem. The whole weapon was emitting some sort of pulsating golden aura. Where the dagger was touching the ground, golden vain-like objects were attached to the blade. Dave quickly looked at his stomach; a very similar but larger weapon was planted into his stomach.

"What is the meaning of this? You want me to die or what? What did I do to deserve this?"

Shouted Dave in his anger and pain. After a short pause, he reached out to grab the blade in his arm, but before he could reach it, the woman grabbed his free arm and pulled it back slightly.

"Sire... please do not do that..."

Said the woman as she was sobbing and was pulling Dave's hand, but he overpowered her and grabbed the knife.

"Why, you want me to bleed out?"

Questioned the woman Dave and then he took a deep breath, and with a swift pull, he pulled the knife from his arm. The glow of the blade faded after it was pulled from Dave's arm, and he threw it away. The woman stepped back and was shocked and started shaking. The man kneeled, slightly lowered his head and stated.

"It seems our lord is more incredible than I could have imagined; managing to surpass our weakness with such ease, you are truly amazing!"

However, Dave did listen to him; he was focused on pulling the other knife out while gritting his teeth. After Dave managed to pull the knife, it lost its glow just like the one before, and after that, he turned to face the man and the woman.

"What do you want from me? How did I get here? Also, why was I stabbed?!"

Asked Dave as he looked at his wounds, and much to his surprise, his hand was already fully healed, and his stomach was healing quickly.

"My lord! Y-you can't remember?!"

Asked the woman as she kneeled just like the man next to him, and she started staring at the ground.

"I don't know who you are referring to as lord, but I am sure that is not me! I should be dead; instead, I woke up here... "

Said Dave as he stood up and dusted himself. He noticed that he was wearing some sort of torn shorts and nothing else. Then he looked at the other two. They were also wearing torn clothes, and both of them seemed quite seriously injured, yet they were kneeling in front of Dave. They had another thing in common, and taht was some sort of collar. These accessories had the same goldish glow and had a red gem on their backside.

"Sire, what are you talking about? You are the demon lord; why would anyone not refer to you as lord?"

After hearing the girl's reply, Dave instantly answered

"Demon lord?!"

Then dave continued thinking about what he had just heard.

"So this is another world... good thing I have read a lot of novels where the main character transmigrated to another world but... AS THE FUCKING HERO... I am supposed to be a demon lord?! Me, someone who barely even did any sort of physical things. I need to stay calm; I am sure that if I have to be the demon lord, I will have a few powerful followers so I can avoid fighting. But should they want to go against me, I will be fucked! No, that won't do; I must avoid being the demon lord, no matter what... I am so weak and pathetic! It's ridiculous!! "

He would have continued thinking; however, the woman suddenly interrupted him by looking up at him and speaking up.

"Sire, is everything alright? You seem troubled!"

"Of course, I am troubled. First, I don't know what is going on. Second, I had a fucking hole in my stomach a few minutes ago; how could I be not worried about that. Also, why are you two kneeling?"

Replied Dave with slight anger and annoyance in his voice and then decided to sit down on the floor of the cave.

"My lord, we are kneeling because we were not allowed to stand up yet. We are to kneel until we are allowed to stand up; this is how you instructed us. We are your loyal servants, after all!"

"Oh, I see, but as I said before, I am not the demon lord; please stand up!"

"Thank you, sire, but you are mistaken; you have just lost your memories. Also, although the three of us all lost most of our power, it seems you have attained something new. Forgive my language, my lord... that ***** will pay dearly for betraying you!"

"Lost my memories and my powers? Attaining powers? No-no-no; I am sure you are mistaken; I do believe I am just an ordinary person."

"Sire, allow me to prove that you are indeed our lord. You see, the daggers you casually removed were no ordinary daggers. They were weapons created purely against demons. Demons' wouldn't be able to use them, and since we lost our powers, a weapon of this calibre would easily kill us just by touching it. Also, the speed of your regeneration is spectacular, considering you are a demon and have been impaled by a blessed weapon... If you don't mind, would you tell me what you felt when you touched those daggers? Even if you managed to attain some sort of resistance, I am sure it was fairly painful, sire!"

"Wow, slow down! It is a lot to take in. As for your inquiry, if you are telling the truth, then these were no blessed weapons. I felt absolutely nothing out of the ordinary other than the pain caused by the injury in my other arm and my stomach. Also, what the hell are we even doing here?"

"Sire, you are much greater than I thought; I apologise for underestimating your resistance. As for our goal... I don't really know; you only said that we would find something in this cave, something of interest."

Dave suddenly stood up while the woman was talking and walked over to the two daggers, picked them up, and looked at their design, mainly at their gem. Then, by the time the woman finished talking, Dave walked over to the man and the woman and looked at their collars. And spoke up.

"Then, if my guess is correct, your collars are also one of these blessed items, correct?"

"Yes, sire."

After hearing the girl's reply, Dave took a deep breath and grabbed the collar around the woman's neck.

"Sire...I...I"

Before she could have finished speaking, the gem of her collar cracked, and it fell as Dave let go of it; he then walked over to the man and repeated the process.

"Sire, you managed to undo our restriction...no, it was more like you absorbed the power of the item, and after it was drained, it was destroyed. Can I ask how you did it?"

"I don't really know, I just felt that it tried to do something, so I just resisted it. Or something like that, I don't even know."

"This binding's purpose is to drain the wearer's power to render them completely useless... it seems you technically did the same thing to it!"

"I don't know, and I don't care about it. Also, your friend doesn't seem to like to speak much."

"Oh yes, I understand. Also, yes, his voice is not really pleasant, so he decided not to talk unless he must."

Dave sighed, and he walked over to the wall of the cave and looked back at the two demons who had already stood up and were looking at him, awaiting his next order.

"So let's test your theory. You said that I am the demon lord, that means I should be quite strong, right? Then if I punch the wall with all my might, it would sustain some damage instead of shattering my fist."

"Sire, I don't know whether it would be a good idea to do that in a weakened state, but I do know you are strong; even in your current state, you could kill us with little effort if you wanted to."

Dave clenched his fist and was about to turn around. However, the moment he moved, he found himself floating in darkness again.

"So all of this was a simple illusion before death? Although it was so fucking real! I knew I wasn't so lucky. Why would that person be me even if someone was called to another world? I am a loser who does nothing all day! The things I am good at are all useless!"

Shouted Dave angrily, but in a few seconds, he found himself in a familiar area. He was on the same bridge where he fell off; however, the place this time was blurry and much darker. As Dave looked around, he noticed that although everything was darker, the sun was glowing red and also, some sort of purple mist was covering everything around him. He could barely see for a dozen meters around him. As he looked at himself, he was wearing the clothes he was wearing before he fell down.

"What the hell is going on?! Is this hell where I will continuously reexperience my death or what?!"

Shouted Dave as he furiously looked around once again. Behind him, a figure walked through the mist, and as Dave turned around, he realised that the newcomer was no other than himself. The person looked exactly like him, but the only difference he noticed was that the person had purple eyes.

"Wait, what?! I should have yellowish-green eyes, as far as I know!"

Thought Dave to himself as he was watching himself walk past him. Dave noticed that the further his copy got from him, the slower time seemed to go by. Dave stopped by the fence of the bridge and looked around just as Dave did. Since it was much slower than it should be, Dave decided to walk next to himself and put his hand on his shoulders. Much to his surprise, he was able to grab and feel his other self; however, no reaction came from the copy. Soon a figure walked from the same direction Dave's purple-eyed self came from. The person had the characteristics of a human being. However, they were fully black, wore no cloth and seemed to consist of some sort of cloudy matter.

The being extended their left hand, and the fence next to the purple-eyed Dave cracked and bent outwards. Then came a sudden burst of wind. The wind had absolutely no effect on Dave; however, the version of him in this world was influenced by it and was first pushed to the bent fence; then, he was lifted up and pushed away from the bridge. Dave witnessed all of it in slow motion and, in a fury, rushed to the being who had their hand extended still. Dave punched the being; however, his hand phased through the body of the being.

"WHAT THE ****?! I am clearly going insane! I don't care anymore!"

Dave punched the being once again, but this attempt yielded the same results, so he took a deep breath in and walked to the opposite side of the bridge. Once he was there, he gave a deep sigh once again and started running forward. Dave jumped across the cloudy being, over the fence and into the cloud under the bridge. The moment he jumped, he closed his eyes and shouted.

"Geronimo!"

Dave was prepared to be either hit by a slowed car or land without accidents and to either die or just feel immense pain and be injured; however, the moment he landed, he felt no pain at all. He opened his eyes, and he landed on the top of a very slowly moving car. He quickly jumped off and looked around. He noticed the falling version of him and the car that was going to hit him. Although the purple version of Dave was still far from being him, the real Dave rushed over to him. Dave jumped up and tried to push the slowly falling Dave; however, he couldn't even move him.

"What have I sinned to be forced to rewatch my death in slow motion?! WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE AND DISAPPEAR WITHOUT PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PAIN?!"

Screamed Dave at the top of his lungs, tears filled his eyes, but he jumped back up again and again. He tried his very best to push his other self and avoid the inevitable. He jumped up many times, and then after some time, the purple-eyed version of him was low enough for him to read without jumping. But it was all to no avail. The car and the slowed Dave collided, and suddenly everything's speed went back to its original. Dave was stunned for a second and fell; an incoming car phased through him. Dave stood up,  rubbed his eyes walked over to the side of the road where his purple-eyed version was laying covered in blood. As Dave looked at the bloody corpse, he fell to his knees and felt dizzy and vomited.

"WHY?!"

Cried Dave while his tears and his slaver mixed on his face. Dave cleaned his mouth, pushed himself up and stumbled over to the corpse. He looked down at the pool of blood and at the body and then was about to walk away; however, suddenly, something grabbed his hand. He quickly looked back to see what it was. His hand was being held by the corps; its hand was painted red, and its skin was impaled by its bone. After witnessing this, Dave was frozen in place; he wasn't even able to speak or shout. He just stood there and stared at the corpse, which was slowly pushing itself up. The corps sat up and looked at Dave and spoke up.

"We need to talk... Dave!"

As the corps finished talking, the surrounding mist completely vanished, and the sun's colour went back to normal. Every car in the arena vanished, and also, the corps stood up.

"You are quite a unique person, Dave!"

Continued the corps, but its voice changed. Previously its voice was identical to Dave's, but this time it was much deeper. The corps stood up and looked directly into the shocked Dave's eye and let go of his hand. After letting go, Dave looked down at the ground and then back at the head of the formal corpse, and every injury vanished from its body.

"It seems you don't really understand what is going on... I can understand to be honest... Well, I think I should start from the beginning and slowly build things up for you to understand, Dave."

Said the purple-eyed Dave as he grabbed the shoulder of the real Dave and slightly smiled. However, Dave was still shocked and only managed to take a step back as he stared at his copy.

"My real name is Drozon-On Norn Inho. I know for you it sounds quite strange, but we have different names compared to your world. Just call me Doni; I think that is quite easy for you to remember, yes?"

Said Doni, and he snapped his fingers, and a table and two chairs appeared next to them on the now empty road. The furniture was made of purple mist and seemed quite durable as Doni sat down and didn't collapse beneath him. Doni waved, inviting Dave to sit down. At first, he hesitated but gave in and sat down.

"I can see that you are still quite reluctant. Let's ease up your mood a bit. Tell me, Dave, where do you think you are now?"

Asked Doni as he leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms.

"This might be some sort of test. He is probably testing me. He will probably decide how to go forward after my reply. Hah, great... is it some sort of personalised torture?!"

Thought Dave, and he started smiling and slightly sweating. Then he spoke up.

"Where? Great question. I would say we are in my mind because I have felt no pain in this scenario! Everything felt like an illusion, except for you. You, on the other hand, feel too real."

"It seems the lucky one is quite clever. Great, it makes my job much easier. Yes, you are right, partly; everything you see is nothing more than a mere mirage, except, of course, me. I am you as you are me. But before you ask, you have been chosen out of many people. Let's just say you will have another shot at life, well, two to be more precise, but the first will be quite different."

Replied  Doni quickly and smiled. Dave closed his eyes for a few seconds and then stared into Doni's eyes. And  asked

"What do you mean, have another two shots at life?"

"Just as it sounds. But first, allow me to congratulate and welcome my successor and the lucky winner, a new demon lord, Dave Dalin. "

Said Doni with a wide smile. Dave, on the other hand, was shocked and stood up.

"W-what did you say?!"