The Demon Lord smiled or so it seemed from the tone of his voice.

"How astute. I am impressed. So your mind works properly; people do not realize that your skill with the blade is merely an afterthought to the mind that hides within that head of yours. I commend you, the great light of the world. You have guessed at the heart of things. I am the guardian of this world. I am the reason why this realm is not defeated in the wars of the gods who care not for men. That grants me several privileges. The foremost of all of it is quite simply the fact that in this realm, my words carry a weight that you cannot understand. For example, my poor hero, I think your right leg needs to give your left hand, some company." The right leg of the hero vanished away in the same splatter of gore. The hero grunted as he felt the pain but that passed too quickly to be considered natural. "I could kill you but then that wouldn't be fair. I must show the people who look now at the two of us that, this is the last revolution that I will allow. I might have been a little harsh but that will end now. Worry not, seeing the resolution of my wards is enough for me to realize that I might have been a little heavy-handed."

"Why go through all of this? Why let us go so far just to destroy us so completely? I would have had much joy in remaining the smith I was to be. My friends would have had much joy remaining where they were. Why would you kill her? I would have forgiven everything else but why did you have to kill her so badly?" the hero was broken now. He could no longer keep it within him. This was the sole reason for his fight. This was his reason to come so far to fight the dark lord. It was a simple yet powerful reason, the only one that he could truly use as a conviction to fight. Nothing else could have driven him so far. It was the source of his light and the guiding path for his way.

"My poor, poor hero," said the Demon Lord with pity. "You are as naïve as you were when we first met. Have you not yet realized it my dear, sweet, weak hero. She was mine. She always had been." He waved a hand and in front of the hero was the bride of the hero. She was tall and beautiful and full of light. Her face however was twisted in an expression of extreme scorn. The woman was known all over the lands as the love of the hero. Songs of romance had been sung time and time again of that love. It had been the love to be sung about for ages. It was the stuff that made the songs bearable. It was all false.

The woman simply draped herself on top of the Demon Lord, seating her body in the dark lord's lap and looked at the hero. "I know what you are thinking, my dear love. You think that I am a monstrosity that has been created with the power of the Demon Lord. That may be so but I live now like always with the will of the lord as mine will. You were a good man but then the lord's will was why I let you act as you wish. To be honest I got quite fed up from listening to you plan and whine. It was entertaining at first but it soon grew boring for me. You wanted a woman that needed protection and was weak and I was that one because you needed one and my lord wanted a man who could reach him till here. So I obliged him. My dear hero, it is time then that I left. I have new tasks to do. Tasks that will not involve you. I have to warm the bed after all. Let me go now will you, darling? It has been so long since we had time together and you have been so preoccupied with this war that we couldn't get together. Today seems like a good day to catch up, don't you think so?" it was clear from her voice that she meant every word that she said and this was no trapped soul acting out a farce. This was the voice of a woman in love and the hero simply looked pitiful. His strength was gone, his heart was no longer strong, and his descent into madness was almost assured.

"I shall come. Wait for me with pleasure, and…," said the black-clothed lord turning his eyes to see the hero. "… You won't have to wait long." The Demon Lord waved and the woman draped across his body vanished like so much thin smoke.

"I will never forgive you. I never will." The rage was almost palpable. But it was also powerless. Impotent tears ran down a face contorted with an exquisite mix of emotions that showed each flavour of despair, betrayal, madness, anger and sorrow in an ever-changing canvas. The Demon Lord almost lost himself in the ecstasy that came after seeing a spirit lose its sense of self. It was a moment that always gave him a feeling that he wasn't wasting time cultivating these mortals like this. This one was a plan that had taken only a single generation to accomplish. It felt so good that the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end due to the excitement. What could be possible with more time? The possibilities were endless.

"Hero, I will destroy everything you stood for simply because I let you build everything that you built. So, I think it is time we ended this.“ He seemed to be almost bored now.

“This has taken long enough. So my dear hero, at the end of this how do you wish to die? I think not. You will not desire death. Not one mortal does. Anyway, I tire of speech now. Begone!" the hero was there for one moment and then in the next, without any further display of magic, he was gone in a quiet explosion of blood and guts. There seemed to be only a red rash on that white throne and there was silence. The Demon Lord merely laughed lightly.  "I expected a lot more than this. I really did. People of the free world, know this. I will brook no more of your so-called heroes. I am your lord. That will be all. Right, before I forget. All the cities that helped my poor hero will burn. May the dark keep you safe from my regard!" The Demon Lord was just as relaxed as ever, then the magical screens all over the world died out. Then fire fell from the sky. The cities burned. Everyone cried.