The first thing I felt was heat.
Not the pleasant warmth of a blanket in winter, nor even the suffocating heat of a summer day. It was something different, something ancient. A heat that seemed to emanate from the very air, from the ground beneath my feet, from my own existence. It was omnipresent, yet strangely it didn't bother me.
I opened my eyes.
The sky above me was a crimson red streaked with black veins, like pulsing veins in a living organism. There was no sun, yet light came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Around me stretched a desolate landscape of black rocks and rivers of what seemed to be magma, though they flowed with an unnatural slowness.
"What the hell…?" I muttered, and my voice sounded different. Deeper, with an echo that shouldn't have been there.
I instinctively brought my hands to my throat and froze. My hands… were not my hands. They were pale, with long, elegant fingers and nails that looked like barely concealed claws. The skin had an almost translucent glow, as if light passed through it.
Panic began to crawl up my spine.
I jumped to my feet—too fast, too agile—and almost lost my balance. My body felt light and heavy at the same time, as if it were made of something that wasn't entirely material but not spiritual either. It was a strange, disorienting sensation.
I looked around, searching for… what? Answers? An exit? A hidden camera to tell me this was some elaborate prank?
Then I saw them.
Creatures. Beings I could only describe as demons. Some were small, dog-sized, with twisted bodies and far too many eyes. Others were larger, bipedal, with horns and vestigial wings. They fought each other in the distance, tearing one another apart in a savage dance of violence. Their screams echoed through the air, but there was something disturbing about them—there was no fear in those sounds, only joy.
"This can't be…" I whispered, feeling my thoughts begin to fall into a pattern I didn't want to accept.
The red sky. The infernal landscape. The demons. This sensation of power running through my veins like liquid electricity.
"No, no, no, no…"
I ran, without direction, just away. My legs moved faster than they ever had, crossing the uneven terrain with a grace I had never possessed. I leapt over a fissure in the ground without even thinking, landing more than ten meters away as if it were nothing.
Eventually, I stopped at the edge of a lake. Not of water—the liquid was dark, almost black, but its surface was perfectly smooth like a mirror. I approached slowly, my heart (did I have a heart?) pounding wildly.
I knelt before the lake and looked at my reflection.
The air left my lungs.
The face staring back at me was of unnatural beauty. Perfectly symmetrical features, porcelain-pale skin, jet-black hair falling in messy strands. But it was the eyes that made me recognize him. Golden, shining, with a hint of innate cruelty in their shape.
I had seen him hundreds of times. On screens. In manga pages. In fanart.
"Noir…" I whispered the name in a choked breath.
As if responding to my recognition, a flood of information poured into my mind. Memories that weren't mine but now were. Eons of existence in this place. Battles against other demons. The endless boredom of immortality without purpose. The desire—no, the need—to find someone worthy to serve.
That last part made me physically step back from the lake.
"No…" I said out loud, louder this time. "No!"
Because I knew. I knew everything. I knew I was Noir, one of the seven Primordial Demons. I knew about Tensura, about Rimuru, about how this story was supposed to unfold. I knew that the original Noir would eventually meet Rimuru Tempest and become his most loyal servant, taking the name Diablo.
And I knew I didn't want that.
In my previous life—that life that now felt like a blurry dream—I had lived under the expectations of others. Parents who decided my career. Bosses who dictated every minute of my day. A society that told you how to live, what to want, who to be.
I had died (how had I died? I couldn't remember clearly) without truly living. Without choosing my own path.
And now, in this new world, in this impossibly powerful body, was I supposed to kneel before someone else? Devote my eternal existence to serving?
I stood up, feeling the magical energy around me respond to my emotions. The air distorted, small sparks of black power dancing around my hands.
I looked up at the crimson sky, at this world that was now mine.
"No," I declared, and my voice thundered with a power that made several nearby lesser demons flee in terror. "I will be no one's servant."