A "Demon Lord" or “Demon King”, refers to a being from an Otherworld that threatens its existence. As shown, Demon Lords are extremely powerful and can not truly be defeated by the natives of the Otherworld, causing the need for a Hero to be summoned to counter them.
Overview[]
Demon lords are the main threat that results in the summoning of a Hero. As shown, a Demon Lord is typically a native of an Otherworld who desires the destruction and slaughter of the Otherworld and its sentient life. Generally speaking, the Demon Lord tends to rampage and ravage the world they are in before the requirement for a Hero to be summoned is met. In addition, each Demon Lord of each generation is not necessarily the same being, and there are cases where they have different triggers, and thus they do not have the memories of the previous generation's Demon Lord. Each Demon Lord in the otherworlds also have different concepts to them - for example, the Demon Lord of the Spear World has the concept of being a companion of a former Hero, while the Demon Lord of the Resurrection World is a "glitch" that gives itself slightly higher stats based on the strongest person in its world. They also don't necessarily seek the destruction of the world itself, but rather the destruction of the normal order of the world they share as a common goal, which can be considered something of a systematically frozen goal the Demon Lord has.
Heroes are the naturally counter to Demon Lord's and are summoned for the task of defeating their respective world's Demon Lord before they could succeed in destroying said world. However, even after being killed, the Demon Lord will resurrect after a century, prompting the otherworlds to summon a new warrior and start the cycle anew. Furthermore, each time the Demon Lord resurrects, it will be stronger than the last incarnation, which means that each successive generation of hero is generally stronger than the last generation. Demon Lord's themselves can only be destroyed and killed by a Hero, as it was explained in a Q&A conducted by Yongdol Gallery that Demon Lords are beings that can only be killed by a Hero, and are invincible against non-Hero methods such as being dumped in lava or attacked with advanced/modern weaponry unless the person wielding them is a Hero. Despite this, it is also stated that a strike with multiple nuclear weapons could kill some Demon Lords, though some Demon Lords will not die from it, and even several heroes like Minsu Kim and Uiho Jeong never die if hit by a nuclear weapon.
Later, upon Seongjun Lee successfully turning Minsu Kim into the Demon Lord of Earth, he effectively ended the system of Hero summoning on Earth and making the Heroes of the 21st Century the last generation of heroes. Preventing any Otherworld from summoning a Hero from Earth to combat Demon Lords, as the "World of Void", Earth, was the only world with no Demon Lords or Heroes, it made it the only world viable for Heroes to be summoned from. While this development prevented situations where corrupted heroes, such as the 9-Warriors and the Nazi affiliated heroes from WWII from wrecking havoc on Earth any longer, this has also quite likely doomed some Otherworlds to destruction once their respective Demon Lord is revived after a century.
In a Q&A in Season 1 afterword, it is confirmed that there is a high probability that the Otherworlds will collapse without a summoned Hero from Earth. However, it is also explained that there might be different variables in play if those Otherworlds instead found a way to seal their respective Demon Lords with their own strength instead of relying on a Hero to defeat them every century, showing that while impossible to kill a Demon Lord themselves, they can restrain them and stop them from destroying their worlds.
Conditions[]
As stipulated in Chapter 153, there are 3 specific conditions for an entity to be recognized as a Demon Lord/Demon King, which would then initiate and complete their transformation into one.
- The Entity in question must have vast overwhelming Power.
- The Entity in question must have twisted and incomprehensible Reasons and Goals for their actions.
- The Entity in question must have the Means that makes it possible to fulfill these twisted and incomprehensible goals.
Hero to Demon Lord[]
As analyzed by Seongjun Lee, in order for a Hero to become a Demon Lord, they must accumulate a considerable amount of negative Karma to initiate and complete their transformation. As shown, despite many of the unforgivable and horrible things that the 9-Warriors had done and Hwarang Hong even being a former Demon Lord, non of them had truly transformed into one and they still remained within the bounds of a Hero. And as shown with the lengths Seongjun had to do to slowly whittle away Minsu Kim’s mental state and render him so deeply immersed in despair, pain, and hatred towards the human race. Where he had to repeatedly push him into despair over and over again, as he accumulated more and more negative Karma, its been implied that it isn't enough for a Hero to have immense power, commit numerous unforgivable crimes or have a distorted mindset, but a Hero must truly desire the complete and utter destruction of the order of the world within the bottom of their heart.
Demon Lords[]
World of Reformation[]
World of Exorcism[]
World of Sword[]
World of Spear[]
World of Golem[]
World of Sea Dragons[]
World of Faith[]
World of Martial Arts[]
World of Return[]
World of Iron Arms[]
World of Combination[]
World of Time[]
World of Shield[]
World of Sorcery[]
World of Magic[]
World of Verdant[]
World of Glaciation[]
World of Crystal[]
World of Void[]
Possible[]
In the numerous timelines created by Seongjun Lee using his Return Ability, he tried numerous times to create Demon Lords from the other Heroes. While coming close to triggering their complete transformation, he was never able to make one due to Minsu Kim stopping him in the previous timelines before settling on turning him into the Demon Lord. An example of this is shown where Seongjun successfully triggered Mareum Yoon's transformation, but he was killed by Minsu before it could be completed.
In the current timeline, Seongjun had also notably manipulated the circumstances where Hwarang Hong had injected himself with Vampir's blood for a powerup. Resulting in him losing his body to the Demon Lord and creating a new "Hero" that combines Hwarang and Vampir's powers as a potential Demon Lord candidate. However, due to Minsu transforming prior to Hwarang/Vampir, Seongju ultimately scrapped them as he no longer had any use for them.
Otherworlds without a Demon Lord[]
World of Perfection[]
The other world where the Hero of Plagues originates from. As noted and unlike many otherworlds, this world does not have a Demon Lord to be the threat that is the typical trigger for a Hero summoning. Instead, the Hero is called forth by the collective desire of the people of the otherworld in order to return to being "imperfect" beings and have their Hero annihilate them to restart their world.
Minions[]
As revealed in Chapter 157, an intrinsic trait of Demon Lord’s is their “servants” or “minions”. These entities and individuals generally serve as the obstacles the Hero must defeat in order to make it to kill the Demon King. As demonstrated by Minsu Kim, having servants is an intrinsic part of being a Demon Lord, and Demon Lord’s either typically possess the ability to create, summon or acquire servants by default. As such, how or where these servants come from is irrelevant. It is simply normal for normal for a Demon King to have them. As shown with Minsu’s case, he automatically gained the power to spawn his own servants as he began to fight Jeongsu Park in earnest.
Minions of the Demon Lord of the Otherworld of Sword[]
The Servants of the Demon Lord of Sword
As shown in Minsu’s memories, the Demon Lord of the World of Sword had multiple subordinates under it.
- Supreme Swordsmanship - Alancorcia: One of the subordinates of the Demon Lord of Sword was a swordsman who had reached the pinnacle of one-handed swordsmanship As shown, this subordinate exhibited immense skill in the usage of “finesse”, which controlled the movement of the sword using solely the fingers in one hand. Having fought against them, Minsu learned their one handed sword style and upon losing on of his arms during his fight against Jeongsu, where he could only use one hand to wield his sword, using his memories of his fight against this servant, he quickly incorporated it into his own swordsmanship and seemingly mastered it.
Minions of the Demon Lord of the Otherworld of Exorcism[]
As a vampire, the Demon Lord of Exorcism primarily used her blood to transform and create powerful servants to fight for her. After taking over Hwarang Hong’s body and becoming the “Vampire Warrior”, Vampir retained the ability to create servant “familiars” by feeding them his blood and granting them some powers
- Werewolf: One of Vampir’s henchmen subordinates. As shown, he was likely considerably powerful, having inflicted life-threatening wounds on Hwarang before being defeated by him. He would then try to tempt Hwarang to devour his heart in order to become an inhuman being and achieve further heights of power as a prize for beating him. It's likely that Vampir shared some of her blood with him to empower him as well.
- Four Heavenly Kings: Vampir’s four strongest subordinates back in the world of Exorcism. Although unknown if all of them were vampires, Vampir had turned at least one of her subordinates into a vampire.
- Vateurasimous, The Wise: Originally a human scholar from the world of Exorcism, hungering to get the chance to get more time to learn more knowledge, he accepted Vampir’s offer to become a vampire. Granting him the same blood manipulation powers as her. He, however, created a unique variation of it by focusing blood to his brain, increasing his cerebral capabilities. Becoming an oracle, he could now make accurate predictions of humanity’s strategies, actions, casualty, and future. He was the last of Vampir’s top subordinates to fall to Hwarang thanks to this ability.
Demon Lord of the World of Void (Earth), Minsu Kim[]
Demon Lord Minsu’s Minions
As shown when Minsu Kim began to truly focus his mind and embrace his role as a Demon King, Minsu gained the ability to spawn servants of his own. As shown, Minsu’s servants take the form of his former companions as the Sword Warrior, who were all originally killed by Ivan Pushkin. As explained in chapter 157, it is part of the conceptual make up of a Demon Lord to possess servants and minions to do their bidding. As such, it is a power Minsu gained automatically when he became a proper Demon Lord. It is unknown if it is indeed them, and if this new power of Minsu was a form of necromancy, resurrection or he simply made them from his memories of them. Regardless, these servants possess all the powers, skills and abilities of his deceased teammates. As shown, these minions appear as ghoulish-undead like versions of his former companions, although Minsu himself does not perceive them as this and they appear as his still living companions in his own distorted perception.
- Martial Arts Master:
- Tiomann:
- Elf Archer:
- Fairy Dragon:
- Saintess Seria:
Trivia[]
- In the Yongdol Q&A, when asked if a Demon Lord can become mortal by abandoning their mission of destruction, just as a Hero can become a Demon Lord by accumulating karma, the author stated that it was a good idea but that they haven't thought about it deeply enough to apply it to the story.