The Forest of Calamity—a place even demons wouldn’t dare tread. Demonic beasts ran rampant; vibrant Gluttony Flowers, lurking Strangler Vines, and dense clusters of Withered Bone Trees covered the landscape. Beneath the vast expanse of black soil lay nothing but corpses.

Yet, somewhere within this perilous Forest of Calamity, in an ancient, dilapidated underground palace, lived several demons.

A blob of translucent blue slime was listlessly shifting back and forth on a palace beam. Dust from the beam rained down onto the black dragon head below.

The black dragon, currently trying to pry up floor tiles, twitched its nostrils. After inhaling a large amount of dust, it couldn’t help but let out a massive sneeze.

Accompanying the dragon’s resounding sneeze, a burst of flame shot from its mouth, igniting the only bed in the palace. The demon sleeping on the bed had long blue hair. It wasn’t until his hair started to smell scorched that he woke up, eyes bleary with sleep.

“Is it time to eat? I think I smell… MY HAIR!!!”

The blue-haired demon frantically tried to save his hair and his beloved bed. Meanwhile, the guilty black dragon shifted from its dragon form back into a humanoid shape, and the slime quietly slid down from the beam, pretending it hadn’t done anything.

The power of dragon breath was not to be underestimated. The smooth, long blue hair was now ear-length, and the grand bed had become a charred, unrecognizable black mass.

The blue-haired demon turned furiously towards the culprit: “Bazel!”

The black dragon immediately pointed at the slime in the corner: “It’s Bode’s fault! He deliberately knocked the dust down, that’s why I sneezed.”

Bode the slime shot back instantly: “You were the one who breathed fire! What’s it got to do with me?”

“No, it’s your fault!”

“It’s your fault! Who told you to sleep during the day? Such a big bed, and we couldn’t even touch it. Good riddance it burned! Let’s all sleep on the floor together, haha.”

“In such a small place, you, a dragon, take up half the space! The great Dragon of Darkness? More like a fat dragon, I say.”

“And how are you any different from a slug? I heard slimes and slugs share the same ancestor.”

The three demons launched verbal attacks at each other, which quickly escalated into physical shoving, and finally, an all-out brawl.

The already dilapidated palace trembled precariously, debris raining down from everywhere.

By the time Nick the Shadow Demon entered through the only opening above, he saw nothing but ruins.

Nick paused silently for a moment, then immediately tried to exit the way he came, only to be grabbed by two hands and a blue tentacle tip pulling him back down by the legs.

Three dust-covered demons stared up at Nick with eyes like starving baby birds: “Where’s the food?”

Nick: “…Honestly, what did I do to deserve you lot? All you think about is eating! Why don’t you go find food yourselves? And this place is filthy! Don’t you know how to clean up? Yet you still have the energy to fight? If you’re so capable, go pick a fight with Demon King Eris!”

The three demons completely ignored him. If they could actually beat Eris, would they be hiding in this godforsaken place?

Nick was a Shadow Demon, pitch black all over, with two black horns atop his head. His only features were two bright white rings for eyes. Among the four of them, Nick had the weakest demonic power but the strongest concealment abilities. Furthermore, Shadow Demons had their own innate talent: they could hide within the shadows of various objects, and their own shadow could be used for storage—incredibly convenient.

Most flora and fauna in the Forest of Calamity were highly poisonous; the few non-toxic ones tasted awful. As wanted demons, the four of them had been stuck here for centuries. They had eaten everything edible in this forest to the point where even glancing at it made them want to vomit. To get proper food, they had to rely on Nick’s concealment skills to sneak into outside towns.

Taking food out from his shadow, Nick watched his three companions wolfing it down. He cleared his throat a few times and announced, “Ahem, actually, I did something major this time I went out.”

The three demons continued gobbling their food without even looking up.

Nick: “…”

“I went to the Demon King’s Palace!” Nick shouted.

That finally made his three companions raise their heads.

Bode’s round body wriggled a bit, the food he just ate visibly digesting: “Did Eris catch you?”

Lance looked suspiciously at the Shadow Demon: “You didn’t turn traitor, did you? Lure Eris here to capture us?”

Bazel was already preparing to blast Nick with a mouthful of dragon breath.

Nick managed an incredibly difficult eye-roll with his ring-like eyes: “If Eris had caught me, I’d be ashes by now. Eris has been away quelling rebellions and reinforcing the seal over the Desolate Lands. So, there aren’t many demons left in the Demon King’s Palace, and security is lax. I specifically chose this time to sneak in.”

Nick sounded a bit smug here. He had waited hundreds of years for this opportunity. In previous years, the Demon King’s Palace was heavily guarded. This was the only time even the high-ranking demons weren’t present. Of course, he had to go stir up some trouble.

Having been hunted as wanted criminals by Eris for a thousand years, they certainly held grudges. If the four of them combined weren’t hopelessly outmatched by Eris, they would have stormed the Demon King’s Palace long ago.

Bode immediately slid next to Nick, asking expectantly, “What did you do? Did you destroy the Demon King’s Palace?”

Lance: “Kill all the remaining demons in the palace?”

Bazel: “Loot all the treasures from the palace? Leave a message challenging Eris?”

Nick’s smugness vanished instantly, his mouth twitching. These guys really knew how to dream big.

“…You guys overestimate me way too much. If I were that amazing, would I still be stuck hanging out with you? I just stole something and ran for my life.”

Bode and Lance immediately turned back to their food. Only Bazel retained some interest: “Stole what? Treasure? Give me half.”

Nick knew exactly what these guys were like and couldn’t be bothered to retort. He pulled out the item he had stolen from his shadow.

A box made of Black Bone Wood.

Black Bone Wood was a material formed when the remains of powerful demonic beasts were buried in swamps for tens of thousands of years. It was incredibly hard and could gather demonic energy, making it an extremely expensive and rare material for weapons. To use such material for a mere box meant there had to be something good inside.

Lance and Bode finally showed some interest, munching on their food while circling the box.

Nick held his head high: “This thing was hidden really well, lots of guards outside, and there’s a seal on the box too. It must be a treasure Eris hid away.”

Lance was a Nightmare Demon. Although his greatest passion was sleeping, he possessed vast knowledge and was quite skilled with various magic barriers and seals. He carefully examined the golden markings on the box and finally confirmed, “The seal on it was placed by Eris, and it’s a very difficult type. You really did steal a treasure.”

Everyone wanted to know what was inside, but the seal on the box was indeed powerful. The four demons hammered and banged on it all day, nearly exhausting all their demonic power before finally breaking the seal.

Four pairs of eyes watched expectantly as the box slowly opened. Inside was… a box full of stones!

Plain, grey, round stones, utterly unremarkable. The four pairs of shining eyes instantly lost their luster.

“This is treasure?”

“Could it be that Eris knew someone would try to steal something, so he just put a box of stones here?”

“Nick, did you really steal this from the Demon King’s Palace? Or did you just pick up a box of rocks outside to mess with us?”

The most shocked was Nick himself. He had risked his life stealing this! How could it be stones? No, he refused to believe it. Maybe the treasure was inside the stones.

He quickly cut open one stone. Nothing inside.

All that effort for nothing. The three demons were physically and mentally exhausted. Not caring how dirty the floor was, they simply sprawled out on the ground.

Only Nick kept cutting stones. After splitting several more with no results, the frustrated Shadow Demon angrily picked up the box and tipped it over, sending round stones scattering and rolling across the floor.

One distinctly different, white, oval stone rolled slowly across the ground, suddenly changed direction, and headed straight for Bode the slime.

Bode’s demonic power was nearly depleted too. His spherical form slowly deflated until he eventually flattened into a pancake on the floor—though this “pancake” still had eyes and a mouth, just making his face look ridiculously larger than usual.

Then, the white stone rolled onto the slime’s body, stopping right in the center, which happened to be Bode’s forehead.

Bode jiggled his body, shaking the stone off, and cursed at Nick, “Why are you throwing trash around? It rolled right onto me…”

His voice trailed off. Feeling the stone return to his forehead yet again, he finally realized something was wrong: “What the heck?”

Lance, without his bed, found the hard, cold ground extremely uncomfortable. He glanced over and stated calmly, “That’s not a stone. Looks like a demon egg.”

“Oh, a demon egg.”

It took the slow-witted demons a full ten seconds to react: “A DEMON EGG!”

Most demons are oviparous, with cubs hatching about a month after the egg is laid. That wasn’t the point, though. The point was, why was there a demon egg here?

Bazel looked at Nick sorrowfully: “I never thought you were that kind of Shadow Demon. While we’re here suffering from cold and hunger, you’re out there sowing your wild oats, even having a kid.”

Lance chimed in: “And using this method to prank us? You’re worse than a slug, you demon.”

Bode: “Hey! Can someone get this egg off me?!”

Nick was speechless: “How could it possibly be my child? This is the box I stole from the Demon King’s Palace, with the Demon King’s seal on it! Besides, Shadow Demon eggs are black. Even a half-breed would be striped or spotted black and white, never pure white.”

Lance lazily sat up from the floor: “This egg was in a Black Bone Wood box, and the seal outside was personally set by Demon King Eris. Could this egg… be his child?”

There was a sudden silence for a few seconds, followed by explosive laughter.

Impossible!

First off, Demon King Eris only ever had one lover, and that lover died a thousand years ago. Even if he recently found another demon and had an egg, he wouldn’t possibly put his own child in a box full of stones. Plus, the timing was wrong; according to Nick’s intel, Eris had been away from the Demon King’s Palace for over a month already.

Bazel, lying on the ground staring at the mottled ceiling, suddenly said, “Maybe it’s some precious demonic beast egg. This was the Demon King’s hidden treasure, after all. Why don’t we try hatching it? It’s not like we have anything better to do here anyway.”

They had been here for a very long time. Eating, sleeping, eating again—it was incredibly boring. Before they became wanted criminals, Bazel’s favorite pastime was counting his treasures over and over, or searching for more. Now, with nothing, he could only count the patterns on the damp underground walls.

The others felt similarly. Once mighty and powerful, they were now forced to hide like insects.

Lance, seeing everyone seemingly lost in memories, sighed, “I have no objections. Hatching an egg is more meaningful than fighting out of boredom every day.”

Bode didn’t dare move, terrified the egg would break: “Can you guys please get this egg off me first?!”

The four demons agreed, but the only problem was they had absolutely no experience hatching eggs.

Bazel wasn’t sure how demonic beasts hatched eggs, but he vaguely recalled seeing other dragons incubating eggs thousands of years ago. He thought they needed to feed the egg demonic power. Demonic beast eggs and demon eggs should be roughly the same… right?

So, the four demons began channeling their own demonic power into the egg: dark grey draconic power, white nightmare power, blue corrosive power, and black shadow power—all poured in together.

The little thing was quite greedy; no matter how much power they fed it, it was never enough. So, the four demons depleted their power daily. Stuck in the underground palace, they had no use for the power anyway, might as well give it all to the egg.

More than a month passed with no sign of hatching. The four demons grew a little anxious, worried they might have somehow killed the egg.

However, the little one had progressed from occasional slight movements and rolls in the beginning to becoming increasingly active—bouncing, jumping, rolling around, constantly bumping into walls. It didn’t seem like there was a problem. They even had to secure the egg in one place to prevent the little fellow from cracking itself open by accident.

They continued hatching the egg like this, feeding it demonic power. Three months later, it still hadn’t hatched. Everyone guessed it must be a very powerful little demonic beast.

Indeed, the eggs of some powerful demonic beasts look very similar to demon eggs, and their incubation periods can be extremely long. Some demons who lose their eggs during incubation might steal eggs from others. If they can’t manage that, they might find a demonic beast egg to hatch instead, sometimes even raising the hatched beast as their own cub.

With something to do, the four demons were no longer idle. Life felt meaningful again. They spent all day hovering around the egg, and the frequency of their fights decreased.

Previously, Nick would use his innate talent to sneak into towns for food or gossip. But ever since they started incubating the egg, he hadn’t gone out once. After their stored food ran out, whoever got hungry would just go find something edible in the Forest of Calamity and hurry back, afraid of missing the moment the little one hatched.

By the fifth month, the egg still hadn’t hatched.

Bazel curled his tail around the egg: “The more demonic power it absorbs, the stronger it will be later. The four of us are all Greater Demon level. Being able to absorb this much power means this little demonic beast will definitely be strong when it grows up.”

There were quite a few demonic beasts in the Demon Realm stronger than demons; even within the Forest of Calamity, several rivaled Greater Demons in power.

Nick sat on a rock, watching the big white egg spin itself dizzy within the circle of the dragon’s tail. It wobbled drunkenly for a while before stopping. He mused aloud, “That would be great. Maybe with this little demonic beast joining us, the five of us together could defeat Demon King Eris! Then we wouldn’t have to hide anymore, we could just take the little one and move straight into the Demon King’s Palace.”

Lance had built a simple bed out of rocks and was sleeping on it. Expending so much demonic power daily meant he needed sleep to recover.

Bode’s round body wobbled back and forth, eventually rolling into the space enclosed by the dragon’s tail to snuggle up against the big white egg.

Over the past five months, the ‘demonic beast’ egg had doubled in size. Having absorbed so much power, it had become familiar with the demons’ auras. It wobbled affectionately, as if greeting Bode.

Bode the slime loved this big white egg. He snuggled against it, pressing closer and closer, and then… the eggshell cracked from the pressure.

Bode: !!!

Bazel instantly shifted back to his humanoid form: “Is it coming out?”

Nick quickly woke Lance up. The four demons crouched beside the big white egg, holding their breath, awaiting the little one’s arrival.

The cracks on the pure white shell spread wider and wider. Everyone grew increasingly excited—this was the little demonic beast they had personally hatched!

Crack! The eggshell split in two, revealing a sleeping cub.

It lay curled up, tiny hands clenched tight. A small black tail rested on its bare belly, tipped with a little black triangle. Tucked behind its shoulder blades were two small, folded black wings.

The cub was pale, tender, and very cute. Not a demonic beast, but a little demon.

The demons fell silent, like four petrified statues, their expressions frozen.