They say some people are born lucky, but I think I was born the punchline.

  Hey. I’m Carter.

  Twenty years old. Living in my parents’ basement. No car, no friends, no future.

  Oh, and I’m dying.

  Cancer’s a bitch, as they say.

  My mom told me to stay strong. That I had a lot to live for. My dad said he'd miss me, but I’m sure he won’t miss the power bill, considering I played twelve hours of video games a day. Not anymore. He smashed my PS4 during one of his “teaching moments.” So my final months were spent like a Victorian orphan. Deprived of all that was good in the world.

  But even if I lived… then what? I’ve spent who-knows-how-long with my whole life wrapped around one thing: beating cancer. If I won, what the hell would I do next?

  And it’s not like the treatments even helped anyway.

  Chemo? OK, I’m bald now.

  Immunotherapy? Pretty sure my immune system missed the memo.

  Experimental drugs from somewhere overseas? Yeah, I was the guinea pig.

  Spoiler: the guinea pig died.

  Eventually, everyone gave up. My doctors. My family. Me.

  I closed my eyes and waited to disappear. I didn’t expect an afterlife. Maybe a little peace, maybe nothing. All I knew was that something, anything, was better than lying here in this hospital bed in excruciating pain. I had already accepted my fate, I was just waiting for it to happen.

  But I didn’t fade into nothingness like I expected.

  Instead, I opened my eyes, and that’s when things got weird.

  The blue screen above my head shimmered with intensity, relaying some sort of… mission? My hospital bed was gone, replaced by a humongous room. Rather than lying down, I was sitting in a chair.

  A… throne?

  Stone pillars extended from the floor to the tall ceiling, their exteriors surrounded by intricately carved images of winged creatures. I looked down at my body, now clad in some kind of jet black armour with golden accents. A blackened fur cape hung at my shoulders, draping elegantly against my seat.

  What the fuck is happening?

  “Demon King! Your reign will end here!” A man with blonde hair, dressed in white and gold armour, suddenly spoke, holding a similarly colored sword in the air. He looked like some kind of live-action roleplayer you might see at Comic Con.

  Is that supposed to be Eldros? Who in their right mind names their child “Eldros”?

  “Who the hell are you calling a demon?” I shot back, blinking in confusion.

  The hero, surprised by my sudden outburst, shook his head before speaking. “Uh. You are a demon, after all.”

  “Says who?” I demanded.

  Eldros just stared at me blankly.

  I stared back at him, equally blank. The silence stretched uncomfortably.

  “I will not fall for your trickery, Lucivar!” he shouted, breaking the stalemate. “You’ve fooled me more than once, I will not allow it again!” He charged forward, blade in hand.

  Are you kidding me? I die once, just to come to… Heaven? Hell? And die again?!

  I moved forward, trying to stop the blade from impaling me through the chest, but my feet were larger than expected, legs were longer than they used to be.

  I tripped and fell.

  His sword sank into my flesh, digging deep into my stomach with a sickening squelch.

  It was only mildly uncomfortable.

  “Was that… supposed to kill me?” I questioned.

  Eldros stared at his sword, now firmly lodged in my body. He pulled, but it didn’t move. “I’ve never gotten this far before,” he commented in surprise.

  I don’t feel very defeated.

  We both stared at the message, silently, without moving.

  “Do you get these a lot?” I asked, gesturing at the screen.

  “What the hell has gotten into you, Lucivar?” Eldros asked incredulously.

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  “What’s gotten into you?” I said back, not really knowing why. The man let go of his blade, taking a step back. Suddenly, it began to glow. Tendrils of blue light shot from my wound, enveloping me in a swirling vortex of energy. “What are you doing?!” I yelped.

  “I don’t know! Like I said, I’ve never made it this far!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?!” I never heard his response; the weird blue screen flickered, showing a new message.

  Try again? I didn’t even get a first attempt!

  The light engulfed me, and my vision faded to black.

  Seriously? Already dead?

  But I wasn’t dead yet.

  The world around me suddenly turned red. Fire burned as far as the eye could see. Spikes jutted from the landscape around me, and a few feet in the distance, I could see a river of molten lava flowing sluggishly like blood from an open wound. The air itself shimmered with heat, thick with the scent of sulfur and scorched earth.

  Great. I died twice, and now I'm in hell.

  In the distance, a wriggling mass of flesh burst from the ground, lava erupting in its wake. It dove back down into the hellish landscape around me and disappeared.

  Just my luck.

  I paced back and forth, feeling the heat of my new world.

  It was almost homey. I could’ve seen myself hanging out here, kicking back and having a beer with Satan… or Hades… or whoever else lived down here. But I didn’t have much time to be alone with my thoughts. Another blue screen popped into existence in front of me.

  OK, I'm officially losing it.

  I looked down at my body, considerably different than when I had first come into this new world. Instead of my normal height, I was the size of a ten-year-old child. The black and gold armour that I once wore was gone, replaced by a sad, brown cloth.

  I’m half-naked. In Hell.

  I felt my body, trying to figure out which parts of me were still intact. The wound in my stomach was gone, and there wasn’t even a scar left behind to prove the last few moments had happened. My hands reached the top of my head, soft, black hair fell haphazardly against my forehead. Then, I felt two hard protrusions sprouting from my skull.

  Maybe I am a Demon. I’ll make sure to apologize to Eldros the next time I see him.

  Gathering my belongings, of which I had none, I set off into my new world. It wasn’t long before something interrupted me, however.

  “Hey, runt, were you just reborn?” a deep, booming voice called out from behind me. I turned, expecting to see some eldritch horror, reaching a claw out to slice my head clean off, but the demon behind me was even smaller than I was. He had small, bat-like wings sprouting from his back, a head of bright red hair, and two tiny black horns jutting up into the air. He floated casually, but even though he was at least four feet off the ground, his eyes were on the same level as my own.

  “Who’re you calling a runt? You’re tiny!”

  “Oh, semantics,” the tiny demon spoke, his voice way too deep for his diminished stature. “Now, answer my question, were you just born?”

  I don’t fucking know!?

  “Yes,” I replied, suppressing my internal anger.

  “Great! So was I! Well, a little bit before you, it seems, you can consider me your big brother!” The demon fluttered its wings excitedly.

  “How exactly are demons… born?”

  “What do you mean? You just experienced it!”

  “I have short-term memory loss.” I deadpanned.

  “I see,” the tiny demon considered my explanation with a hand on its chin. “Allow me to teach you.” He buzzed forward like an insect, guiding me along. I followed, happy to have a tour guide.

  “You see, when a being dies in the mortal realm, if they lived a life of good, they’ll usually end up in heaven as an angel.” He began.

  “So what, Santa's naughty list gets sent down here?”

  “Precisely!” the demon exclaimed, somehow familiar with the concept of Santa Claus. “Those who sinned or committed evil in life get reborn down here as a lesser demon or Imp, or, if they were particularly powerful, they can be reborn as a higher-tier demon.”

  “And you know all this because…?”

  “Did you not read your demon introduction booklet?!”

  What the fuck is he talking about.

  “Ah, right, short-term memory loss. You probably forgot how! Here,” he flew in front of me, holding out a hand. “Just do this and think about calling up your profile!”

  What. The. Fuck. He’s crazy.

  “What do you mean by profile? This isn’t…”

  The tiny demon grabbed my hand impatiently, bringing it up the same way he had. To my utter surprise, a blue screen shimmered into existence, relaying a list of useful information.

  I’ve reincarnated in a goddamn souls-like.

  But I could handle this. I may not have been the greatest student of all time, but video games were the one subject in school I excelled at.

  “Interesting, can you see this as well?” I asked.

  “Nope, only you can see your messages and profile.”

  “Thank you for your help, uh," I faltered, searching my memory for a name. “Demon.”

  “You can call me Kril. And you?”

  I bit back the urge to respond with Carter. I had a feeling that my real name wouldn’t blend in too well. “Lucivar.”

  “Nice to meet you, Lucivar! Shall we be friends?”

  Another blue message popped up.

  “How do I accept it?”

  “Just think it in your head!”

  I followed the Imp’s suggestion, the “accept” icon glowed with a green hue.

  [You are now friends with Kril the imp!]

  “My first friend!” The tiny demon shouted, elated at the prospect.

  “What about that booklet you were talking about?”

  “Oh yes, if you scroll through your profile, it should appear in your inbox.”

  Somehow, everything the imp said started to make perfect sense. I mentally swiped at the blue screen still hovering in front of me, and a new page showed up.

  Well, at least Hell gives you a tutorial.

  I mentally clicked on the message, imagining doing so with a controller, and the screen changed again.

  My eyes bulged.

  “Six thousand and seventy-eight pages! Who the fuck’s reading all that!?”

  “It’s a comprehensive booklet.” Kril harrumphed indignantly.

  I instinctively activated the button on the right, thinking it would take me to the next page…

  [Message deleted!]

  No confirmation message? Seriously?

  [No!]

  “Oops,” I said aloud. The Imp shot a quizzical look over at me.

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing!” I exclaimed hurriedly, cheeks reddening.

  I waited a moment.

  In the distance, a second towering mass of flesh splashed out of the river of lava. I watched its horrifying form disappear while Kril stared at me, waiting for clarification.

  “Is there a recently deleted page…?” I asked sheepishly.

  “Nope!”

  Just. My. Luck.

  Copy pasting a mini letter from Chapter 28 here for any new readers. (June 26, 2025) So if you are a binge reader, you will see this again, with a twist :)

  The Demon King’s Fate is at around rank #20 on the Comedy Genre Rising stars list, which is absolutely amazing! However, getting to the main list is still a bit away (probably around 10k views/150 followers) as such, it is incredibly helpful for readers to leave any sort of interaction with the story, such as comments, follows, reviews, (advanced reviews are “worth” more) favorites etc. If you have been enjoying the story, an honest rating, even if its not necessarily favorable does wonders for rising the ranks, and as a newbie author hoping to make something out of this, it means the world. Furthermore, reviews are how you can let other prospective readers know that this story is worth checking out (or not).