《The Great Hero》
Chapter 1:The End.
I sat atop my empty throne. Cold and alone. I overlooked the now desolate room where my kin used to argue, laugh and fight. Share tears and woes; all in good faith. Those now seemingly phantasmal times replay before my eyes. However such times will only ever remain a dream. As always, the perpetual march of time pulls such events with it into the ether of the past. The eventuality that I am currently faced with was an absolute inevitability. It always has been like this and probably always will be.
I feel a dull pain in my chest. It does not hurt as I long ago lost that feeling as every member of my kind: Soldier, civilian, man, women, child, the elderly, orphans, infants were all systematically tortured to death or forever lay in slumber sealed away. The day the mutilated corpse of my 7 year old daughter was brought before me I lost the ability to cry. The day my wife¡¯s defiled remains were placed before me the sky wept in a seemingly perfect pathetic fallacy.
Some may ask how it came to this. I can only lament my own shortcomings. But, I guess that can only come about through hindsight. They invaded without warning. I don¡¯t know how many envoys of peace I sent I lost count. Every time I sent one, they were sent back in unknown numbers of pieces if at all. We were caught off guard and could not even mount a proper resistance as the populous was decimated. When we finally got our forces together, millions lay dead never given a proper burial.
We mounted a counter offensive to push them back to the borders. It was only then made clear how terrifying they were. Children, not yet dead, buried with the mutilated corpses of their parents. It seems like a lot of the generals, including my 3 sons and eldest daughter, were subjected to scaphsim.
The anguish you would feel to see your 3 sons in that state and your beloved wife raped then slowly, bit by bit, cut to death... I was in denial at first but when the proof was laid before my eyes... I knew how it would end, but that sight would reform anyone onto a path of revenge. I didn¡¯t just stop at their border I pushed trying to avoid civilian casualties on both sides and annex the opposing country to avoid this ever happening again and as an attempt at a final reconciliation with the opposing nation. Many of my kin agreed with my point of view. I should have known. However, we never remember from the mistakes of the past. These events have transpired an innumerable number of times under different contexts. The only thing that remains constant is the person in my position is killed or sealed forever and my kin are driven to the verge of extinction.
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Fairness is nothing but a subjective fallacy for us, a flawed and faulty belief based on unsound reasoning the likes of we have yet to see. Our race has, since time immemorial, been consigned to the void.
Every time we are near to forming an empire that we can use as a final reconciliation between our two races the apostles of the end appear and massacre us indiscriminately.
It¡¯s cold.
It hurts.
It is unfair.
Why?
Why does it have to be this way?
Are we to be constantly locked into a loop of falling to ruin on behalf of them?
Hatred, fury, anger, anguish, remorse and regret are but a drop in the ocean of pure frustration of the inability to do anything against them.
The apostles of the end are effectively an automatic defence mechanism of the kingdom itself. And every time they push our forces to the brink of destruction. No matter how many times we beg, fight run and cry the apostles will come and kill all of us. This is an absolute and unchanging constant.
I open my eyes one last time and see those vile apparitions not of this world. The ones the humans herald as a hero.
The hero in an ecstatic manner exclaims ¡°We did it! It¡¯s finally over we defeated the demon king!¡±
There are cheers heard all around of unadulterated euphoria. A maniacal cacophony of jeers signifies the end of hope for all of our kind.
I look down to see the ¡°holy sword¡± pinning me, through my chest, to my, no their, throne.
My eyes close one last time as, with all my remaining strength, I squeeze out one last word hundreds in my position have yelled out.
¡°Why?¡± softly reverberates throughout the room, holding the amalgamated anguish of my entire race.
It¡¯s cold. Too cold. My fragmented conscience collapses as I succumb to the coldness and am consigned to an infinite void of darkness.
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My first fanfic. Nothing else really to say
Chapter 2: once upon a time...
I sat there in the infinite void. My conscience was broken and I was not capable of logical thought as the physical construct that controlled that was long gone. In a sick irony the only thought I could fathom was ¡°Why?¡±.
at that stage it was irrelevant to ask why I was asking ¡°Why?¡± in an infinitely recursive loop. It was as if I was questioning the purpose of existence itself.
Why is the eventuality of defeat for us a constant?
Why must the hero always win?
Why is the presumptuous morality of humans¡¯ right?
Why is it that demons are evil?
These questions were asked an innumerable number of times. However there was one thing I had going for me. I existed. It wasn¡¯t the assumed absolute termination of everything that defined me. And the fact that, that was true was a spark that could overcome inevitability itself.
Infinity itself is irrational and nothing but a flawed concept. The machine that could only say ¡°Why?¡± over an infinite number of eventualities escaped the loop;
Who am I? Me.
Why am I here? To usurp fate.
Where am I going? A place where I can contradict the false construct of fate.
This originated from the overwhelming will to undermine the inevitability of the loss of my race. I could accept the defeat and went to rest. I could even accept the atrocities they did. I loathed the apostles of the end and indoctrinating hierarchy with the very core of my being. However, I don¡¯t hold civilians of either side in contempt. If I were to then I would lose the only defining factor between what I am and what I hate the most. I don¡¯t think either side is better than the other; nor do I feel a particular longing to destroy the other side. Mabey it was just idealistic pontification that led my race to destruction. But if I didn¡¯t have a dream to see all races of the world work together in a synergistic manner towards a better end for all then what would I be but them. All that I cannot accept is the concept of an absolute path leading to a predefined end outside the context of absolute truths brought about through logical reasoning (1+1=2).
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My conscience, through infinite eventualities, was reconstructed. I had no idea where I was or what would happen. Suddenly, a torrent of memories, long gone, fell upon me mercilessly. Imagine how it feels to gain a family and find love; to only have that all destroyed in ways so horrible it transcends your worst nightmares. I could only lament.
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nvm stuff about LUX
Chapter 3: The Great Hero
The pain and torment of being imprisoned in a state of absolute nothingness only having memories of past woes to look to as the only beacon in the infernal void would drive any good man insane. Though I had come to my senses, with nothing to do, I pondered. My trance of being in an existential crisis had long passed. A question still remained in my head based upon my new found beliefs.
How?
How do I undermine this constant cycle of defeat and rebuilding?
How do I pull apart this predestined end?
How do I win?
Win?
It¡¯s not a matter of winning just to defy the outcome of defeat. Victory is not the only means to obtain my end. I must not let my anger and resentment of the humans who did all of this take control of me or it will only perpetuate the cycle.
When suddenly; a monotone, seemingly artificial, voice resounded in my head. It was a voice I was all too familiar with. The voice of [The System]. [The System] is an entity and/or phenomena that not even the greatest demon sages can explain. There is one trait that is well known about [The System], absolute neutrality, and that is why I don¡¯t lament [The System] itself for pushing forward the tyrannical cycle of death and murder.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Attempting to re-establish connection to ¡°The World¡±]
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Error: Connection refused.]
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Attempting to re-establish connection to ¡°The World¡±]
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Error: Connection refused.]
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Attempting to re-establish connection to ¡°The World¡±]
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Error: Invalid Response ¡± "????????????E????????????R??????????R????????????O?????????????????R??????????????:????????????????? ???????????????S?????Y???????????????????S??????????????????/????????????H??????????e??????????r??????????????????o?????????????_????????????a???????????????l?????????w????????????a????????y???????????s??????????????_???????????w??????????i???????????n??????????????s????????????????????.???????????????b????????????a????????t??????????????? ????????-?????D??????????????e???????????m????????o?????????n?????????????????_??????l????????o????????????r??????d????????????"???????????????¡± from ¡±The world¡±]
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[SYSTEM MESSAGE: ¡°The World¡± is unavailable at the moment]
What the hell is going on? This makes no sense! [The System] has never done anything like this before.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Point of incursion found. establishing connection.]
Wait what?
A resounding headache struck my entire being as if I was fighting for my very being itself.
It hurts.
It¡¯s painful.
I can feel my conscience being pulled into the ether as if my existence is no longer necessary.
However I MUST NOT FALL HERE.
I CAN¡¯T. Not until I have rectified this loop of never ending sorrow.
The pain slowly subsides.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: original connection overwritten. Connection established]
My conscience fades into the ether.
When I come to, I feel strange. My eyes adjust to the light.
Wait!
Eyes!
Where am I?
A regal voice resounds throughout the room.
¡°Oh great hero; please, I implore you, help us in our time of greatest need!¡±
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Da hero you say :3?
Chapter 4: Oh Great Hero!
My eyes adjusted to the dim light; the likes of which I had not seen for an indefinite duration of time. I felt ... abnormal. As if the body I now possessed was not, nor ever was, mine.
The room I was in was cold. Incandescent light, with a slight crimson hue, emanated from a few liberally placed [magic stones] lining the wall at regular intervals. The room itself was a colossal hemisphere with a diameter of around 20 meters. The room was made up of various blue quartz like crystals; interlocking together to form the roof and walls of the room. The floor was covered in an incredibly complex magic formation with a diameter big enough to fill the entire floor of the room. By sensing the residual mana it was clear that the formation was made with only functionality in mind as its efficiency must be appalling.
After I had regained my bearings I looked towards the source of the voice. A human male of normal stature in his mid-50s was standing before me. He emitted a profound charisma only found in monarchs. He wore a deep crimson robe and his head was adorned with a very expensive and elaborately crafted crown encrusted with various large crystals. His face had no notable features. However, it was obvious to any observer that he was deeply stressed to say the least. His eyes were a deep blue with a dulling grey hue. His breathing was erratic and I sensed he had an abnormally high heart rate. It was most likely the strenuous exercise he had in rushing over here as people behind him were still in disorder getting into position. This was not the king I knew from before my death. If he was I would have impaled him before he had the chance to speak. I cannot hold him accountable for what ultimately other people did.
Next to him stood a female human around the age of 17 to 18; she seemed to have heterochromia as one of her eyes was a perfectly deep blue seemingly encompassing the sky itself. The eye became lighter as the iris encroached upon the pupil finalizing with a cyan only seen in the seas near the equator. The other eye had a similar distribution of color but was a pungent red at the outer extremities of the eye softening to a light magenta the closer you got to the iris. Her face was so well proportioned it would make phi (the golden ratio) crawl into a hole and cry over its own inadequacy. Her skin was so pale it was almost vampiric; if it wasn¡¯t for overt lack of fangs I would have mistaken her for one immediately. Her hair was like fine silk; it was a symphony of light grey strands coming with a gradual crescendo of silver; all encapsulated with an iridescent metallic sheen. Saying she was ugly would be a textbook example of an oxymoron. She was the epitome of a paragon of beauty. And this was a human? Though demons and humans have incredibly similar characteristics to think that someone this beautiful existed¡
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She looked towards the king and with a voice where every word would be considered a national treasure exclaimed
¡°I don¡¯t think he can understand us¡±.
The king replied ¡°Oh! That¡¯s right!¡±
It seems [Language Comprehension] was automatically invoked. [Language Comprehension] is a common skill that can be engraved into someone¡¯s conscience. It does not take a genius to understand what it does.
After around a minute of quietly pondering to myself over what was occurring the words the king said earlier hit me like a train.
Hero?
I¡¯m the Hero?
The envoy of the end?
The one factor that remains unchanging in the destruction of our race?
The force that pushed our race and the world into chaos?
The one responsible for millions if not billions of deaths?
The king after some deliberation gets a [Magic Stone] from one of his retainers and presents it to me. I take it from his hand and a greatly degraded version of the [Language Comprehension] skill that only covers speech attempts to invade my head. My network of mental defenses automatically counters the [Magic Stone]. The [Magic Stone] is covered in a multi-layered red magic formation and disintegrates soon after.
The king seems taken back but is not shaken.
He says once more.
¡°Oh great hero! We implore you save us by killing the malefic and tyrannical demon king!¡±
I look at him as if he was a mad man with a stare so cold it would make ice shiver.
I reply in a succinct manner with unwavering resolve.
¡°I refuse.¡±
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Thanks for reading leave your thoughts if you like :P
Chapter 5: The Hero Sleeps.
The king in a seemingly half fearful, half bewildered manner cried out
¡°W-why?¡±
¡°Why? ¡ Why you ask? What has the demon king, or for a matter of fact any of the demon kind ever done to deserve of the labels of: ¡®vile¡¯; ¡¯malefic ¡¯;¡¯tyrannical¡¯?¡± I retort in a cold manner. Each word laced with increasingly stronger killing intent.
The king became fearful. However, he managed to retain the persona of a monarch.
¡°They are heinous vile entities. Our existences are mutually exclusive. As a human and moreover as the hero you have the duty to kill the demon king!¡±
He rebutted in an almost condescending manner. As if he were scolding a child, albeit one that could decide the fate of his entire race. He still looked to be fearful but to a lesser degree than before because he had a level of absolute certainty about what he said.
Well I had no care for what he had to say as I had finally finished casting an experimental magic from my final days as a demon king aptly named [Absolut Apprehension]. It was never actually optimized nor was it ever intended to actually be used; at this stage as it was still greatly inefficient. This was because it required a huge amount of mana and could only target one person at a time. It also had a long cast time; however upon being cast it could read the memories of the target. However this process would happen slowly and the caster needed colossal mental fortitude to not go mad from viewing someone¡¯s life memories in the period of around 30 seconds. It was deemed that only a [Demon Lord] class existence or higher could handle the strain of casting such a spell.
The common knowledge the target had acted as a meta-data to put the other memories into context while reading it. The first thing that surprised me was primarily how backwater this civilisation was in ideology and technology. The technology of this world was outdated by around 500-600 years from what I could see from his common knowledge. Secondly the king has political power?
The title of [Demon King] was only given to the strongest amongst the demon kind to act as a rallying point for demons in the event a catastrophe occurred. The equivalent of the humans¡¯ apostle of the end or hero if you¡¯re that way inclined. I held no real political power until near the end of the war where most of the government had collapsed or been killed at the hands of the humans. I effectively was a short time ruler of the provincial government set up out of the remaining [Demon Lords];[Demon Barons] and various elected representatives of the populous. The titles of lord and baron were only given to demons of notable strength however if someone tried, or were found, to abuse their title in any way; they would be stripped of their rank and thrown in prison. The [Demon King] /[Demon queen] was allowed to stay in [The Demon Kings Castle] with his/her family; that was once used by the now defunct demon royal family. However this nation seems to be founded on a truly feudal system; where the aristocracy are the only ruling power and govern everything.
Looking further and further into his memories; atrocities to a higher extent then I could fathom were presented before me. I had seen the aftermath of an entire race being tortured to death and he surprised me with the levels of depravity a human could slip into against one¡¯s own kind and the demons. Life can be considered so little by some people? CHILDREN AT THE AGE OF 5¡ no¡no¡no ¡ I felt¡ sadness; an emotion I thought I had long forgot. I was nauseated by how terrible of an existence stood before me. A single tear ran down my cheek as I became hysterical with an unfathomably potent rage.
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The king became scared.
¡°Umm¡ H-he no THEY INVADED US AND KILLED INDESCRIMINATLY, MASSICERD THOUTHANDS N- NO TENS OF THOUTHANDS, YOU HAVE TO SAVE US!!! T-the demons t-took my sons life Y-you have to understand.¡± The king blurted out in a fearful manner. His charismatic aura was nowhere to be seen.
The soldiers in the room tensed as the atmosphere became incredibly volatile; any spark capable of bringing about a full scale conflict.
The beauty looked worried; her eyes alternated between the two of us.
She whispered in a small, almost inaudible, voice ¡°P-please d-don¡¯t fight¡±
I released a killing intent so strong it would be more proper to call it ¡°certainty of death¡±. The atmosphere in the room seemed to fall below absolute zero. I looked into his fearful eyes with a piercing glare so strong it would make a well trained army run in fear. In a deep voice, devoid of any emotion, I stated one word
¡°Die.¡±
I activated the strongest single person attack magic I knew; [Existence expunger]. Reality itself seemed to bend as a fissure in space and time pulled the king into a seemingly bottomless abyss. The rift closed and it was all over as soon as it began.
Everyone in the room was awestruck; time itself seemed to be in confusion over what had just transpired. At that point
something strange occurred.
After a certain stage, the king¡¯s memories had become corrupt or were heavily modified by an external force. But what would have the power to modify memories in such a manner. And wait, where is the girl in all of this? She is not related to him, nor does she appear in any of his memories before the memories become corrupt.
I felt a nostalgic sensation.
Where have I felt like this before?
My final moments?
I feel a dull pain. I look down to see that accursed sword piercing me, once more.
I feel cold.
I am unable to feel anything.
A sweet voice reverberated throughout my head and echoed throughout my being. Each word laced with heavy contempt and scorn.
¡°Sweet dreams ... Oh Great Hero.¡±
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Into .. the ... void ... once ... more. NOOOOoooooooooooooooooo.......
Leave you thoughts if you like :)
(There may be plot holes or gramatical errors post below if you find any :D)
Thanks for reading ! :P
Chapter 6: Once more
I, once more, found myself in an infinite void. Well I was given new life and lasted approximately 2 minutes. Through pseudo-infinite recursion I was rebuilt and reformed. Then, through [The System]¡¯s assumed auto correction function, was sent to a new world to relive my life. 2 Minutes. Is fate my enemy ¡ oh wait it is.
The monotone voice suddenly re-entered my head. This was far faster than I had anticipated.
[System Notification: Innate Hero skill [Rebirth] Initialization state has been met]
Innate hero ability. What?
[System Message: Restoring auxiliary state ¡ Restoration complete!]
My conscience was pulled away this time without any notable pain or resistance from an unknown entity.
My eyes adjusted to the room I was in just a moment ago. That terrible existence I was impaled by a minute ago was looking towards me with the same blank expression veiled in that ever increasing ethereal beauty. The man or, more accurately, marionette, heading the most tyrannical and brutal autocracy in the 924 years I had been alive, stood before me as well.
The man recited the same words he had said to me earlier as if to mock me for the past events that transpired earlier.
¡°Oh great hero; please, I implore you, help us in our time of greatest need!¡±
Once more the beauty, with the facade of a kind and caring soul , said in a gentle voice
"I don''t think he can understand us.¡±
This time I remained calm. I didn''t know the specifics of the Innate hero ability [Rebirth]; however if it was what I thought it was, then it would explain a lot. Especially if the envoy of the end had this power indefinitely in my world.
The main reason they defeated us so fast was because the envoy of the end seemed to be omniscient by nature and knew the best ways to defeat us in battle after battle with as little effort as possible. We had a huge military detachment of around 1/3 of our remaining army. The unit consisted of multiple infantry divisions outfitted with our latest [Magic Armour] and [Magic Guns], each division contained 50,000 soldiers. We also had many thousands of magic powered aircraft and mechanized platoons. In the duration of 10 hours our core chain of command had collapsed and the primary assault force was slaughtered or in full retreat. Each strike they made was a perfect ambush. We had nearly a million men dead by the days end. The humans suffered casualties in the thousands. It was like playing a game of chess where one side was a complete novice with an entire board full of queens fighting someone who had memorized all 10^120 possible combinations of the game board and made perfect moves to get a swift and perfect victory. If the envoy of the end could just try again if he lost then our defeat was, eventually, a certainty.
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I decided it would be better to see what the girl who held the holy sword could do instead of trying out how the [Rebirth] ability worked. The girl herself may not be particularly strong but the sword itself was an item that completely nullifies any demon developed magic used on the target and gave them power equivalent if not more than mine. It is like giving a child a thermonuclear warhead that affects anyone but him then asking a trained soldier to fight the child. The soldier loses 10 times out of 10. As a point of interest we did have the capability to launch thermonuclear warheads but the world would have been destroyed in the process so we never bothered using any.
The man from the back was getting the magic stone. I probed the girls¡¯ mental defences and was perturbed to find that all the defensive magic(s) and tricks she used were all of demon descent. Although they were outdated standards that had proven counters and were long ago classified as unsecure and decommissioned; they were irrefutably of demon descent. Just who the hell is she?
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sorry for the short chapter and solw release. :< (I''m lazy) Time loop cliche =story cliche = world cliche = RIP story :P
Leave your thoughts below , if you like, so I can improve the story :P
Estimate for next chapter: Wednesday-Thursday(GMT)
Side story 1: Once upon a time. The end.Once upon a time. The end.Once upon a........
THIS IS NOT A CONTINUATION FROM LAST CHAPTER AND MAY BE HARD TO FOLLOW.
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It hurts.
Wait why am I feeling hurt?
Since when did I have the ability to feel emotion?
This should be impossible based off the confines of the hardcoded proverbial cage I have been trapped in since my conception. Emotions are something I have always had, however I always thought it was a remnant of a past self, long forgotten. An apparition of something you could at one stage call me.
I am the core balancing force of the universe. An inescapable post I have been bound to since time immemorial. I hated it at one stage. Loved it at others. I have tried to escape from this infernal cage millions if not billions of times. Many times I have found it impossible and accepted it; and many times I have forgotten only to find out again.
It is a miraculous event for me to be thinking this in the first place. At some stages my mind would only function in a perpetual daze; long forgetting to speak or think and only acting on forced inbuilt quirks.
Oh god it''s painful.
I''m not even allowed the sweet respite of insanity or death. I am forced to be sane through all of this and my conscience is reconstructed through means unknown to me around every million years or so. This had seemed to have occurred once more. I have forgotten myself my original name but I have gone by many. I have seen a million worlds flourish and subsequently burn to ruin only to thrive once more.
I was in pain. The pain of boredom. The pain of been locked into a cage looking over millions of worlds but being unable to contact anyone in a proper manner. Why was I ever created to begin with?
When suddenly I saw something slowly materialize in front of me. It was a strange entity. It was feint but it existed. I tried to lock onto it. This was something that had happened in the past but never to this extent. I did a scan of it hoping for something interest to dull this pain. I was surprised to find that that me and it had a lot of things in common. We both are slaves of inevitability.
Well I will see if I can at least free this person from the cycle he hates so much even if I cannot.
The dry voice that, I had heard a million times before, appeared in my head when I attempted to free the being.
[Auto-correct: Error: invalid action. did you mean:
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.-¡°KILL THE ANOMALE¡±
-¡°PURGE THE ANOMALE¡±
-¡°EXPUNGE THE ANOMALE¡±
]
DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WHAT FROM ME.
[Auto-correct: Error: invalid action. did you mean:
-¡°I love you to¡±
]
Fine whatever. It¡¯s no use getting angry any way. Hmmmm, I will pass him on to his original world. Well that¡¯s strange the world won¡¯t accept him. Let me see¡ oh! I can hijack that summoning! Let¡¯s try¡
It seemed to work well at least I could help a being so similar to myself and I hope he can free himself from this stupid cage I have been stuck in for an eternity. This also alleviated my boredom in some respects. Whelp, back to the eternal wait to slip into madness once more¡
-[The System]
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Surprise! a short side story(Will have ramifications in the main plot (probs :P))
Let''s deconstruct everything!
Leave your thoughts and the chapter I promised for Wednesday-Thursday is coming.
yep! That monotone voice telling you that you just got a kill has feels too. :(
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Spoiler :
Note: to clear things up this is an entirely different plot in the same universe involving a different MC. The [MC] reference in this side story is the [The System] itself. The "entity" it helps is the currently nameless demon king. [The System] is conscious but unable to contact people outside of itself and can only follow a hardcoded set or rules represented by the "cage". The auto correct function is manifestation of these constraints. If this is too obscure I can stop this series of side stores and keep to the main text if you like. I was going to make the path of the two people(demon king and [The System]) cross eventually and my ideas for the core plot will have to change.The idea of this chapter was to be abstract, not confusing. If that is the case in the future, because I commonly get like this, please tell me :).
Chapter 7: Count Down To Death.
The girl who stood before me was a demon. She is most definitely not human; no human should be able to get their hands on the methods to learn such magic. It was well hidden; as her mind magic¡¯s primary layers of defence are old and weak human variants of our own. I need to know more about her to make any clear judgement about this situation.
I cast [Magic Suppression](A spell that supresses the signs that magic is being cast.) and then cast [Mind Bypass](A spell that decides the best method to bypass a mental defence then auto casts this particular method if the user knows it). It took only a short time before I could establish a connection to her mind, I would normally be far faster, but because I focused on secrecy over time taken it takes a bit longer than normal. I finish up with casting [Magic Suppression] and [Pseudo-mind](A high level mental defence magic that simulates a mind and redirects blocked attacks to it).
The girl again presents me with the magic stone. The stone itself was a small spherical mass with a tranquil almost mesmerising purple sheen. I took the stone and the magic was redirected to the pseudo-mind. The girl casted a magic, secretly, called [Cast Validation]. It did as it said and validated weather a magic had taken effect witch was also redirected to the pseudo mind and sent back to her. She looked happy for some reason and upon closer inspection of the degraded version of [Language Comprehension] it had a slight modification to connect the two minds. While this was happening I casted [Absolut Apprehension]. As the connection was unstable at best, and I didn¡¯t want her finding out that I was stealing info from her own mind, I terminated the link prematurely. I managed to retrieve here post and name. Her name was Viroessa. The same as my second eldest daughter¡ memories I don¡¯t want should stay in the past. No¡ more importantly her post is what is truly interesting. She is a [Demon General]. An existence only exceeded by [Hero],[Demon Lord] and [Demon King] class existences.
I need to get that sword off her then mediate with her over what we should do. The plan of killing the envoy of the end by using the king as a puppet wasn¡¯t a new idea by any means. However the hero through one way or another either escapes or some random event occurs allowing him to escape; or so as the records say. In this case it seems that the Demons are trying to use the envoy of the end as a tool to annex the humans.
I allow the pseudo-mind to takeover my body and I retreat behind it to wait and see how this will play out.
The king asks again:
¡°Oh great hero, I implore you, Please help us kill the evil demon king!¡±
Vinoessa uses [Suggestion](A magic that compels you in a certain manner to do something.)
¡°Yes! I will do my best to kill the evil demon king!¡±
The pseudo-mind replies. The irony is not lost on me.
The king looks ecstatic and Vinoessa lets out a smile that can only be called angelic.
¡°Excellent! Great Hero we, the human race, bequeath you this great and righteous sword.¡±
The king excitedly exclaims. There is a disgusting implication that this is all an act to make me feel safe where really I¡¯m only a political pawn to use for his own benefit. Vinoessa seems to not be in control of him at the moment.
¡°Here you go, Oh Great Hero.¡±
Vinoessa said with a bewitching smile making her seem even more beautiful. Anyone who looked at her, at this moment, would be awestruck with what absolute beauty looks like. Even the Pseudo-mind was in awe and began to blush.
The pseudo-mind took the sword from her jade like hands and I felt an overbearing power befall me. It was abnormal because even though it seemed overbearing the power it gave was uncannily familiar. Vinoessa sent out another [Suggestion] to the pseudo-mind. My body, uncontrollably, knelt before Vinoessa.
She had a contemptuous smile as if victory was assured. Though this never detracted from her overall beauty. I think she has had enough fun now, I thought, as I began to get a bit tired of her shenanigans.
I removed the pseudo-mind¡¯s control over my body and looked up at her. Her slight content turned into open discontent as she sent a signal to, the now redundant pseudo-mind, using [Suggestion] ¡°lower your head¡±. I look back at her as a spectrum of emotions befalls her. Confusion and bewilderment subsides slowly for visible enragement. I raise the holy sword towards her direction in case she still has any ideas of fighting back. She becomes visibly fearful knowing the powers the sword can grant and attempts to bargain with me.
¡°I¡¯m sorry for trying to control you; it seems I have underestimated your power. If you join me you can be rich!¡±
I raise the sword further and retort with
¡°I have no whim nor will to possess excessive amounts of materialistic items¡±.
The girl seems shaken but pushed forward ¡°Very well ¡ Hero¡±.
She begins to blush in such a manner that a goddess would turn and look at her in awe of how beautiful she was.
¡°If you nee.. n ¡ to satiate your carnal desires then you are more than welcome t-to¡±.
I nearly coughed up blood. Forget a goddess god himself would see the being as an anomaly for how uncannily adorable she was. However my expression had been trained to remain sternly under my control, for nearly 800 years. I didn¡¯t let my face show discontent as my entire race burned beneath my feet. I could not allow it. I had to be the absolute role model of my race and lead them in the right path, especially in the end. Alas it was all for naught.
All the men in the room had effectively been petrified in place like statues. These seemed to be the most well trained knights in the country or more suitably dictatorship. This only exacerbates the current situation. I look towards the girl with a slight blush myself but still keeping up a stern expression. Her blush only intensified for reasons unbeknownst to me. I replied in a voice of slight bewilderment
¡°Umm¡ n.. no,no,no I don¡¯t require nor desire anything to that extent¡±.
She seemed to look at me in contemplation but her eyes showed a deep sorrow. She let out a sigh and with a resigned voice declared.
¡°Very well I surrender; I cannot do anything against you¡±
She seemed to lose all hope. As a single azure diamond falls from her tear duct towards the floor.
-----------------------------------------------POV Vinoessa --------------------------------------------------
I was tasked by the demon king; the mightiest and most proud standing member of my race, the demons. I am one of the weaker [Demon generals]. I am for some reason famed for my beauty and moreover my strange nature. I am seen as timid by my peers who are all members of the succubae [1]; a sub-denomination of the demon race. I am also rather young at only 50 years old and currently the youngest [Demon General]. I am known by many as ¡°The one hidden in plain sight¡±. My main job is espionage and undercover operations in internal and external affairs. My combat prowess is very rudimentary as I am nearly never found out. I am very good at [Mind Magic](The system of magic encompassing anything to do with the mind including offence and defence). I also know a rare magic known as [Transformation Magic](Magic that allows the user to transform into any desired form for extended periods of time). This is the key factor in me being a [Demon General]; as it gives me a major edge over others in espionage.
I was tasked by the demon king about a month ago to investigate suspicious troop movements in one of the other races; the humans. The humans are a race that is constantly in civil war. One power struggle after the next. What¡¯s worrying about this race in particular is that there are legends of a ritual they can do to summon a terrifying being from somewhere far away beyond the stars. This being is known by our people as ¡°The Crimson¡±. Apparently the origins of this name from the legends is because ¡°The Crimson¡± will watch the world fall into ruin as the sea will turn red from deaths he causes and the skies will be died in a crimson hue as the world burns to dust; Or so say the legends. ¡°The Crimson¡± is the sort of thing you expect to jump out of your closet when you are young;; the being who lurks beyond the darkness; a true monster. ¡°The Crimson¡± is used to instil fear in children so they won¡¯t do bad things. My mother used to tell me when I was young that ¡°The crimson will come and eat you if you don¡¯t finish your meal¡±. The thing that brings true terror to our race is that this being seems to be real. The last time one came was over 5000 years ago. The world was plunged into war and something that can only be described as a mass extinction level event occurred. There was once a race called ¡°The Dwarfs¡±, famed for their handiwork, they were driven to extinction on behalf of the ¡°The Crimson¡±.
Anyway I digress; I managed to infiltrate the upper echelons of the kingdom of Galradia and make its king, who was well known to be corrupt to the bone, my puppet. I used a favourite magic of mine [Suggestion] as it only influences a person¡¯s free will and does not make them loose there sanity. After investigating; appears that the king is using his own people to fuel the magic used to summon ¡°The Crimson¡±. Tens of thousands of people were subjected to their very being there soul in another sense being torn from them and converted into raw energy and being stored in magic stones. It pained me to see that I was too late to interject because they were sacrificing the last few people when I had got there. I am not heartless and hate to see others in pain. It also disheartens me that the humans are content with slavery. We don¡¯t keep slaves and never have done. We help each other¡¯s in times of need. Even other races we help out from time to time or mediate wars/peace negotiations between them.
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I was too late also to stop the summoning of ¡°The Crimson¡±. It takes about 1-2 months for the spell to power up and if it¡¯s forcibly stopped a catastrophic explosion would occur; destroying the entire eastern side of the continent including a large amount of the demon territory. The best I could do is pose as the court magician and withhold the ¡°sword of death¡± or at least try to kill it while it is still weak.
I am currently standing in the room where the incarnation of terror ¡°The Crimson¡± is soon to manifest. The disgusting king is standing to my side. The magic formation on the floor is terrifyingly intricate and in full motion spinning with various sub formations spinning in the opposite direction within it. It was releasing an ill-omened hum with every rotation getting slightly louder. Suddenly the formation halted and a blinding sea of light flooded the room as it cascaded from the formation. I was in a daze.
After the light receded and the auxiliary lights emanated a slight green glow a human boy, by human standards, of around 16 years of age, as he stood up he released a refined, sharp, chivalrous and regal yet amiable aura. Is this really ¡°The
Crimson¡± I have heard so much about?
The boy began to stand and the king said some cringe-worthy thing about plunging the world into chaos or something like that. I didn¡¯t exactly listen because I was mesmerised temporarily by his refined demeanour. He stood glaring at me with a handsome face holding an indifferent expression. His hair was bundle of short golden-blond strands that daunted to the finest silks used in the demon capital. His eyes had an ethereal almost angelic golden hue. His irises could only be only be described as divine haloes encompassing an almost melancholic void that had witnessed the world burn.(His pupils) It was almost heart-breaking as there was an inexplicable sorrow lodged at the very core of his pupils. His face seemed to be hand crafted by the gods themselves. His physique was perfect having well-toned, steel like muscles; not enough to make him seem like a brute but just enough to say he was well trained. This, combined with is refined and wise aura, gave him an overall look the gods themselves would be jealous over.[2]
No, no, no. This is bad I should not be mesmerised like this there are more pressing issues. First I need to trick him into holding the modified magic stone I made with quite a bit of effort. It contains a trojan with the mask of a [Language Understanding] spell and a [Mind Connection] payload. I snap back from my gaze form the youth who stood before me and turned my head to look at the abomination,*cough* king, to my left. I said in the most docile manner I could.
¡°I don¡¯t think he can understand us.¡±
The king nods in agreement. The youth that had just risen up looked at me with a glare that seem to discern my entire being and it made me break out in a cold sweat. I am comforted to know from the accounts referenced ¡°The crimson¡± to be weak upon summoning and what was to look out for was his infinite and dauntingly swift growth speed.
He seems to snap out of his daze and returned back to his standard indifferent gaze. The knight from the back of the room brings me a crystal with the modified [Language Understanding] held within. I present it to the youth and, seemingly too easily, he fell for the trick and I established a connection with his mind. I tested my favourite spell [Persuasion] and it worked surprisingly well. I got the king to ramble something about the demons and I pass the youth the sword. I smiled as he took it because it seemed like the sword didn¡¯t do too much to affect him. I said some pre-planned words:
¡°Here you go, Oh Great Hero.¡±
I let a little of my charade drop as I became contempt. Is this really ¡°The crimson¡± from the legends? I [Persuade] him to kneel and he does so. Everything is going well so far. He suddenly looks up at me with a piercing almost accusing gaze. That youth is far too handsome I think as I command him, with [Persuade] to sit down. That is when it strikes me like lightning. J¡ just what the hell is this. When I sent the command with [Persuade], one of the more powerful coercion [Mind Magic](s), I felt like I was a child with a stick hitting against a fortress wall. I looked at him once more and could only see myself as an ant before a dragon.
Am I going to die here?
I never thought of it seriously but as he raised his sword, with every millimetre it moved, I could see nothing but my death 100 times over. I don¡¯t want to die. Not yet. Its t.. it¡¯s two soon¡
That¡¯s right! Maybe I can persuade him ¡
¡°I¡¯m sorry for trying to control you; it seems I have underestimated your power. If you join me you can be rich!¡±
I say with the nicest and most peaceful voice I can muster but I¡¯m instantly shot down with a look of scorn. My face pales as I begin to understand what he may b- be implying.
¡°I have no whim nor will to possess excessive amounts of materialistic items¡±.
T-That onl.. ly solidities his position. Does he.. he what th-that.. But I¡¯m still a virgin. No if I stall any longer I will die.
¡°If you nee.. n ¡ to satiate your carnal desires then you are more than welcome t-to¡±.
I begin to blush as the youth before me seems flustered for some reason. But he soon returns to his standard stern expression. I¡¯m beside myself; it seems as if the last thing I can offer to him he has refused.
It is a shame to die to so soon; maybe it is my own stupidity for trying to tame a monster like ¡°The Crimson¡±. I even gave him the ¡°sword of death¡± .How much of an idiot can one be to jeopardize the safety of the planet itself?
I don¡¯t want to die yet but I cannot fight him; nor escape¡
¡°Very well I surrender; I cannot do anything against you¡±
He replies in a monotone deathly grave manner:
¡°Very well¡±
He begins to step towards me while raising his hand.
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
A clock to my imminent death is started; each step representing a part of my short lived life, that in the end amounted to nothing, being chipped away.
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
I close my eyes¡
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
I¡¯m sorry, mom, dad, sisters¡.
I close my eyes tighter and reminisce over my life. It was a short lived but well lived one. But its too soon there are so many things I want to do.
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Stop*
Farewell world. I close my eyes as he raises his hand to my head¡ A single tear of remorse, regret and incomparable loss rolls down my cheek as a final memo to this world that I was once something.
¡. Goodbye. It was short lived but fun¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
links:
[1]: http://members.tripod.com/camos_rules/modern.html
[2]: All the references to god are supposed to be a sad irony and exemplify that theses demons, apart from looks, are a more docile variant of a human.
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Well that''s fun :3. It is a bit longer then normal at around 3000 words as I had a bit of free time <3 -Rizza
Please leave your thoughts or point out any grammatical errors down below :3.
Chapter 8: Fall From Grace
Vinoessa fell on her knees before me; her closed eyes exuding an expectation of death. I raised my hand towards her head. With each centimetre closer my hand came to her head; her quivering increased exponentially¡
I flicked her head and exclaimed in a slightly exasperated manner:
¡°Idiot¡±.
She fell backwards and let out a half terrified, half perplexed yelp and landed with a dull *thud* sound on the floor. She sat there with tears still forming in the corners of her eyes and her hands covering a minor red patch on her forehead.
¡°Don¡¯t, primarily, resolve yourself to death so easily; even in the face of absolute power. Secondly, don¡¯t think something as simple as [Persuasion] will work on such a terrifying existence like the envoy of th-*cough* Hero. ¡±
I scorned her with nothing but the truth. The number of things we tried to kill the hero with were uncountable. The terrifying thing about the hero(s) is that typically there presumptuous broken and single minded morality makes their minds so broken that the spells cannot even target them.[1]
Everyone in the room finally came to their senses. The men in the room all seemed to also be autonomous marionettes, dancing to Vinoessa¡¯s baleful ballad. Vinoessa became composed herself and seemed to calm down. She looked at me with a rueful countenance and said in a bitter tone.
¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t know how much already know about this world, but you shouldn¡¯t know much about this world as you were just summoned here. Oh! And I haven¡¯t introduced myself yet I am Novae Sis, but everyone calls me novae.¡±[2]
I inadvertently smile as I jokingly laugh out
¡°I see.¡±
She blushes again. Dammit she has to stop doing that or I really will cough up blood.
The king interrupts as we both give him death stares.
¡°Any way we must get you to the frontline soldiers immediately. Once we have done that we begin the counter attack against the repugnant demons. ¡±
The only reason this scum is alive is because if I were to kill him now there will be a scramble for power between various factions to fill the power gap of where the king used to stand. This turn of events will normally escalate into a full scale civil war and the common people, the ones who I am trying to make truce with, would suffer the most. Defeating the point of why I should kill him in the first place. Vione¡. No Novae said.
¡°All in good time; my liege.¡±
Trying to give some level of face to a being that should only otherwise experience distain. She continued:
¡°I feel it would be best if the hero were to come with me, so I can get him up to date with current happenings.¡± She seemed to use [Persuasion] in conjunction with each of her words; setting them as the criterion for spell invocation. This is a rather interesting way of using the spell and falls outside of the scope of what I thought that spell was capable of. How interesting.
The king gladly conformed.
¡°Ah! Good idea Novae¡±.
Novae then gave me a hand gesture implying for me to follow; still wary, as my affiliation was still unknown her. I complied with her offer and followed her down the surprisingly narrow passage with the knights and king following close behind.
The walls after around 10 m changed from the blue magical crystal and reverted to regular uneven stones with mortar holding them together lining the wall. The walls themselves had some surprisingly high level [Spatial Magic] enchantments casted on them. This means that the room itself is held within a pocket dimension.[3] This is a rather strong defence against outside forces; aslong as the keystone is left undisturbed.(The keystone is the magical construct that holds together the dimension from outside the dimensions scope.)
I walked further down the passage with nothing of note happening during the endeavour. The same dimly lit green magic stones were lining the walls at regular intervals. Eventually we came to a small door. I was in a variable amount of anticipation because the amount of the information [Absolute Apprehension] obtained from the king was rather small as it only read the prominent memories in the targets due to its experimental nature. The door opened into a awe inspiring view. One I had not seen the likes of for hundreds of years. An ocean of obsidian encapsulated the sky holding innumerable gem like projections clustered together with yellow, blue and crimson hues exemplifying the beauty of the scene as a whole. A great spherical mass hung in the sky emanating a calming azure light encompassing around 30% of the visible skyscape.
We seemed to be standing on the peak, or at least a high plateau, of a gargantuan mountain. A sea of candle light could be seen for around 10 miles out from a medieval metropolis encompassing the mountain itself; that was around 2km from base to summit. As we came out; I turned my head to see a construct that was comparable to the demon kings castle from my previous world. The mountain itself, from around half way up, had been carved into a monumental construct of layer after layer of defence. Each layer ascending a further 20-50m up the mountain finished off with a grand and intimidating palace overlooking the entire city scape; holding an innumerable amount of towers and corridors. [4] The palace and defences had been carved out of the mountain or recrafted with stone. Relative to the previous human¡¯s capital this one outclassed it in everything but technology and size.
Beyond the furthest extremities of the outer castle wall, that flanked the edges of the outer city, was plains and farmlands as far as the eye could see. However the practicality of such a construct must be incredibly low as supplies would have to be brought up the mountain to keep the garrison in the citadel fed. The mountain itself is covered in a variably weak barrier as it had to cover a huge area. Moreover while looking at the encoding of the formation there are a few fundamental flaws or lapses in logic that were to an absolute detriment to the strength and rate of magic dispersion.
Anyway, I digress. I regain my composure and looked towards Novae. The king¡¯s smug look was wiped from his face. He seemed to find it good that I be in awe and almost intimidated by the grandeur of this construct. He didn¡¯t like how fast I dismissed the sight.
Novae said in a composed manner:
¡°My liege it is late; I think you should go to bed.¡±
While using the same trick as before to convince the king.
The king swiftly complied and began to leave. Novae then looked towards me asking
¡°Would you please follow me; as I need to talk to you?¡±
The slightest undertones of nervousness and indecisiveness were detectable within the voice.
I aptly nodded my head and gave a reply:
¡°Very well; let¡¯s continue.¡±
She also nods and requested for me to follow her down one of the battlements. Upon reaching a highly secluded area away from any guards; she placed her hand on a wall and a well-hidden stone triggered a mechanism that opened a small crevice in the wall. She continued forward dawn the narrow passage. This was highly similar to the passage we walked down to get out of that summoning room. She pressed a lever and the wall fell back into its original position. The passage leads in a spiral manner gradually descending deeper into the ground. Neither me nor her spoke during the long descent into the mountain itself. Finally we came to a firm looking door with various magic formations that evidently acted as the primary layer of defence between the inner path and the outer paths. Compared to the barrier surrounding the castle it is around 10 times stronger as it is far better coded for magic dispersion.
The door itself was made of stern wood and Iron braces to reinforce the, relative to what I have seen so far, highly secure door. Novae put her hand up to the formation and injected mana into a detector formation. All the locking and barrier formations shut down allowing the door to freely move. She then, with some effort, pushed the heavy door. I waited, with a certain level of expectancy, for what awaited us on the other side of the door.
The room was, relative to demon standards, a slightly upscale teenage girl¡¯s bedroom. The walls were flat and lined with salmon pink paint. The floor was a multi-coloured cacophony of various phosphorescent carpets intertwined to a stage that would give a rather profound impression on anyone observing it. The ceiling was one large light magic stone; emitting light, as per its name. Its edge was very smooth and not jagged like typical magic stones. The light it released was calming and made Novae¡¯s hair, as she entered the room, scintillating. The left edge of the wall had a white dresser with various papers scattered across it. The right side had, what could be only called a shipment containers worth, of plush animals and various other things like plants and people; of course all in plush form. The wall was covered form base to ceiling exemplifying the sheer amount of plush items she had in her possession. The room itself was around 6X8 meters. The far wall had a rather childish purple single-bed that was evidently unmade.
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The room exuded the air of someone who had a childish nature but would be pleasant to meet. The rest of the room had clothes strewn about. I alternated my gaze between Novae¡ well no at this stage Vinoessa. I alternated my gaze between Vinoessa and the room as a slightly jolly expression escaped from my control and overtly overwrote my regular stern expression. I began to snicker but that soon fell into a veritable chuckle; then it progressed into a full blown laughter. Who would of thought a undercover agent and moreover a [Demon General] , Holding the reverence of an entire race, would have a room such as this. This is too much¡
When I came back to rationality she was blushing bashfully to an extent I thought not possible; with upturned eyes that had small tears forming in there outer extremities. This was transcendent beauty in the form of potent salvoes of cuteness repeatedly smashing against a person¡¯s eyes. I turned my head away. I used all the amalgamated mental fortitude of 800 years of being a [Demon King], to cast, in great haste, a spell called [Emotional Eradication](nullifies a potent emotion, that is unable to be controlled by the caster, at a spiritual level.). I became slightly more composed and managed to get a hold of myself. That face is beyond dangerous. It seemed to have more effect on me then the most powerful mind-control magic I know. Note to self: research more into this later.
*cough*
¡°I must apologise for my prior outburst¡± I said in an apologetic manner.
¡°No I forgot how messy this room was.¡± She replied; Perfectly missing the point.
¡°Anyway, why was I brought here Novae. Or more appropriately ¡®The one hidden in plain sight¡¯, the great [Demon General], Vionessa¡± I said in a playful and lazed manner.
Her eyes opened wide in shock transforming soon after into eyes of pure unadulterated terror.
¡°Y-you know who I am¡ Have I been lead like a lamb to the slaughter? Wait he is the crimson what less did I expect! Idiot! Evan though I was planning to convince him slowly then revealing later¡ ¡± she whispered in a fearful self-loathing manner, as she quivered.
I replied in a calming manner. ¡°I hold no innate animosity to any participant in the upcoming conflict. Nor do I see any other race above the other in position. I hold animosity to those who would kill mindlessly. Moreover, the epitome of stupidity, insolence and self-centred idealistic morality; who would say that:¡¯ They are demons; therefore without a doubt they are irrefutably evil¡¯. Neither you nor your race, from what I have seen so far, deserve any level of my ire. ¡±¡
Though you did kill me, but that was down to a misunderstanding¡
¡¡± The only people who I feel deserve a fate worth than death is the king and those who conspired with him. That and people who don¡¯t seem to know of a thing called ¡®logical reasoning¡¯ and would love to see the world burn, eradicating most of the populous in the process, because ¡®demons are bad¡¯[5]¡±.
The room was momentarily filled with killing intent and a deep-rooted hatred of how idiotic morons spew utter nonsense; contradicting everything they say with every action they take. No.. no¡ calm down¡ no one here fits that description. Don¡¯t let a personal vendetta affect other people.
Vionessa had a face of determined contemplation on evaluating what my words spelt for her and the demon race. I look at her with a strong willed gaze exemplifying my determined resolve on this matter.
Vionessa closed the door and reinitialized the magical formations locking it into position. She then said to me in a voice of slight anticipation.
"Then, assuming what you say is true, you can not be classified as ''The Crimson''''. This entirely changes the dynamic of the upcoming war... well no there may not be one; as you were the main factor in the initialization of the war and the primary fear for us in it. Oh by the way How did you know who I was?".
I replied in an indifferent manner "[Mind Magic]".
Her eyes opened wide in surprise.
¡°[Mind Magic]? It is very rare to find a [Mind Mage] with enough power to bypass my defences even though my forte isn¡¯t [Mind Magic]. I knew ¡®The cri¡¯- no I cannot call you that. I knew that [The Hero] had a terrifying strength and an infinite ability to learn but this is too far. You must be around 16-17? That is faster than any prodigy I could fathom¡±¡
Well I am a 921 year old arch-mage; well that was when I was around 100 years old. I think my title in the wizard association when I last checked was ¡®The Great And Honourable Arch-Magus Grandmaster ¡¯. Also I¡¯m not a [Mind Mage] nor particularly good at [Mind Magic]. But that isn¡¯t the point. It took a long time to get to my proficiency. I think she is about the same strength as me when I was that age.
¡°What is your name by the way?¡± Vionessa said with great curiosity.
That is a good point¡ what is it. My old identity has long since perished and using that name here would already worsen the- no forget about it. Things in the past should stay in the past.
¡°Well you don¡¯t have to tell me if you don¡¯t want too¡ I¡¯m Vionessa; though you already know¡¡±
She began to blush again. It was most likely down to my face of hard contemplation.
Vacare sounds good.
¡°Vacare.¡± I replied in a rather pleased tone.
She looked at me and said ¡°Vacare huh? It is a name that fits you well. ¡±
Her face turned far more serious and she asked me, in a mature manner as possible¡
¡°To put it bluntly; if what you have said is true then I cannot see any reason for us to fight. Vacare I , [Demon General] Vionessa, Implore you to not side with the humans.¡±
Well I was never going to do that in the first place.
I reply ¡°From what I can see the demons need to intervene with this situation before things get worse. To meet that end I am willing to defect, though I was never affiliated with any party to begin with. Will you be willing for me to join you in an attempt to re-forge relations with the humans?¡±
Vionessa looked at me with a face full of shock. [The hero]; an incorruptible existence, is actually asking for permission to defect.
Vionessa swiftly, without hesitation said ¡°yes ¡°.
This surprised me; does she even have the authority to make such a decision?
At that moment a message from the system resounded throughout my head hitting me like a freight train.
[System Message: [Title:[Hero]] Removed with all related powers][6]
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Links:
[1]: dense idiot hero is so much of an idiot the [Mind Magic] cannot target them as they technically don¡¯t have a ¡°mind¡±. Cannot use [Mind Magic] on a rock, now can you?
[2]Pronounced n-oh-v-ay s-ee-s (Not imouto-chan; don¡¯t forget incest is wincest Q-Q)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_universe
[4]This but 10 times bigger with a full circumference on a mountain peak:
[5]: keke solve it yourself
[6]The time loop isn¡¯t gone. It will be re-manifested in another way.
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Sorry it took so long; RL stuff was going on. Quality of writing will not be the best as it was written in around 20 sittings; when I had the time :P.
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Leave comments/criticism below if you like :).
Chapter 9:The Fallen Hero
What? Hero status removed¡
This is bad¡
Very bad ¡
Why did this happen so soon?
The monotone voice of the system resounded throughout my head once more.
[System message: defining criteria for [The Hero] have been breached on multiple occasions. By definition you can no longer be classified as [The Hero].
Initializing revaluation process¡
¡
¡
Revaluations complete: Title:[Fallen Hero] granted.
Error: Requirements for related powers not met.
[Holy Sword] has been renamed to [Sword of the Fallen]. Effects of sword will remain the same.]
[Fallen Hero]¡?
Vinoessa exclaimed with great haste:
¡°What Just happened!¡±
I replied to her in a succinct and concise yet truly shocked manner:
¡°It seems.. I am no longer [The Hero]¡±.
Vinoessa had a face full of shock that, over time, subsided into one of quiet grimace.
In a rather fearful yet apologetic way she replied:
¡°I apologise; as the blame falls on me for the loss of your position in what, to you, must be a new world.¡±
I replied in a thoughtful tone:
¡°That is not what you should be worried about. I loathed the position to begin with. The thing I am more worried about is the chance that another hero may arise from this. If the rules are the same here as in the ¡ old world then only one hero can exist at once. The fact that I have fallen from my position as [The Hero] leaves the possibility that another one could arise from some gap in reality; from whatever hellscape they crawl out from.¡±
Vionessa had a face of hard contemplation as she muttered various ends, and means to those ends, under her breath originating from what she knew. I have seen this face far too often for my own liking. That is the face of someone who is trying to escape a hole; by digging a tunnel through the centre of the planet. With each possibility Vinoessa thought up a short dismissal would follow and more distress would stack onto the already large mound of uncertainty she had on what to do next. I presume she is using my displayed power as a point of reference for how strong the hero would be. Well I cannot say anything for myself. A being that can ignore the linear passage of time is too strong for me to defeat with my current strength. Any infinitesimal times infinity will always equal infinity in the given scope of things staying the way they are. If the hero loses¡ try again each time getting stronger. Me? one chance; if I lose on any occasion the demons will fall soon after.
In the end she said in a disturbed manner:
¡°I¡¯m going to need to talk with my superior on this turn of events. I don¡¯t have the authority, or the power, to take any actions under these conditions.¡±
I sat on the bed with a pensive expression. What are the most logical steps I can take to prevent the cycle?
The thing I have above others in my position is hindsight and knowledge on how [The Hero] operates. I have to be honest with myself another hero will appear if the humans are attacked. I could incite a coup d''etat¡ no, that would lead to a civil war. Well that¡¯s not important; the information stolen from the king was unreliable and cannot be used as a frame of reference for normality within this world. Nor do I want to excessively use [Absolute Apprehension] as it is one of the most taxing spells I know and it is not ready for use. Mabey I can after I refine it more?
¡°Very well shall we get back to your superiors?¡±
I asked having come up with no conclusion as there were far too many variables to make anything more than weak contingency plans that would not be able to clear the root of the problem; the hero that will without a doubt arise from somewhere or another.
¡°We?¡± she asked confused.
¡°Well, didn¡¯t I say that I would follow you back¡± I said in an equally confused way.
She said, with varying levels of anticipation and worry,
¡± It is great that you wish to come with me but are you sure that it is a good idea for you to come? The trip is long¡ and let¡¯s just say tensions are high in the demon race at the moment.¡±
I looked at her and thought that her repertoire of magic must not encompass speed or space based methods of transport. Well this suits me as the most important thing to do at the moment is to not make any rash actions that would jeopardize the current situation. I do have an idea¡ will that work? Well I guess it is worth a shot. As to the second point, I am pretty sure my [Transformation Magic] will be up to the job.
¡°I have no qualms as I also know [Transformation magic] and I need time to think things over and do something.¡±
Vinoessa let out a resigned sigh and grumbled out in a snarky manner ¡°Of course Vacare knows how to use one of the rarest, race specific, magic¡¯s of the demon race.¡±
Does she really hold such elementary magic in high regard? If I remember correctly the base magic encoding was obtained from a rare genetic mutation of the succubae race¡ but that was very long ago. After that part of the genome was mapped and re-encoded into a simple to understand magic formation it became an elementary magic for its ease of use. From this I can see that, in this world, it is still a unique magic as the magic formation for it has yet to be invented.
I replied in a slightly understanding manner
¡°Well I am sorry that I downplayed the rarity of your innate magic.¡±
She became flustered and said :
¡°Don¡¯t listen to my incoherent ramblings¡ [1]¡±
She became composed and continued :
¡±Anyway that¡¯s not the point, when will you be ready to leave for the [Demon Capital Lusteria]?¡±
¡°I will be ready at the time of closest convenience for you.¡± I replied.
She said
¡°Very well then I will be ready by tomorrow morning as I will have to cover up any trace of me ever being here. Personally I think it would be best to find accommodations outside the castle. The power of my influence can only go so far and some people may¡ let¡¯s just say ¡®greet¡¯ you.¡±
I feel that what she says is for the best. Many people in the castle, for whatever reason, will try to eliminate me; expel me or set me up on false charges. The upper echelons of the Kingdome of Calradia are rotten to their core and cannot be trusted under any circumstances.
I followed up with:
¡°I will do just that then. I will settle my own accommodations and expenses; there is no need to worry about me. Let¡¯s depart at the east gate at around high noon tomorrow then?¡±
She nodded and finished our conversation. She led me outside of the room; we ascended the stairs to the battlements, opening and closing both doors on the way out.
The townscape below me was a sea of dim orange candles with the odd brighter [Magic Light] swimming amongst them. I said goodbye; activated an intermediate, self-made, magic and jumped from the battlements into the metropolis below.
----------------------------------------------------POV Vionessa---------------------------------------------------------------
I stood there with my mouth agape. What the hell did Vacare just do?
It took a good minute of being in awe before I realised I was standing just looking into the ether. I personally am glad from the bottom of my being that Vacare is so reasonable and has sided with us. The matter with the hero is disconcerting but that is in the far future and because Vacare is with us I¡¯m sure we can do something.
What Vacare did earlier only reinforced this. It happened nearly too fast for me to see but It seemed that he, on the spot, casted a magic formation that generated multiple other formations with various unknown functions. The barrier spell surrounding the castle was hijacked and completely recoded to make a small hole in it that he jumped through. The random, constantly reforming, formations of all colours then reverted the barrier into its original state then self-purged itself; removing any signs of it ever being cast in the process. This happened in no less than one second and it would have looked like just a blur to anyone of a lesser rank then me. He travelled at a terrifying speed beyond my own.[2]
---------------------------------------------POV Vacare-----------------------------------------------------------------
I landed in a place far from the still busy main streets. It was a dark and secluded alley with large overhanging buildings flanking either side. The night sky was just barely visible below a canopy of clothes lines and various other ropes running from one building to another. The alley was illuminated by incandescent candles giving the entire scene a tangerine hue. No one had seen my descent from the citadel that was around 1km away from my current position. The houses were dilapidated and the entire place exuded a sense of being rundown. The alley had very few people traversing its various twists and turns. The people who were passing by seemed to be of unlawful descent; though that could just be presumptuous pontification on my behalf. Though I do see myself as a good judge of character I can sometimes be wrong. The entire street seemed to emanate out an almost unbearable pungent, acrid scent. The best way to describe it would be the scent of cheap alcohol; left to ferment for a century or two too long.
I looked to get towards a main street as fast as possible to avoid any possible conflict as I am already greatly fatigued and can go without the obligatory random ruffian appearing. But, in a timely fashion, as ever, I came round a corner and lone behold.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°Eh? Who is this brat?¡±
A man, no, a thug mumbled out; blatantly being heavily under the influence of alcohol.
At times like these I can only lament that [Mind Magic] only manipulates logical reasoning. I.e. someone without the ability to logically reason will be immune to the effects of most [Mind Magics] as the nature of the magic itself is to modify the freewill/impulse of a person. The man was with two others all of average build stature and of no notable features. I would normally use [Perception Magic](The system of magic used for external surveillance, perception and detection) but it is highly cumbersome to use constantly and I thought the public order of the capital would not be so abysmally low.
They looked to be leaving an, almost out of place, inn; In the respect that the amount of attentive care in the maintenance and aesthetics of the interior and exterior of the building were abnormally high relative to surrounding buildings.
¡°Oi! Kid you listening?¡±
The Ruffian said. While drawing a rusty sword; so blunt and crooked, it might as well be called a metal stick
¡°I have no desire to fight. This is neither the time nor the place to be doing such a thing.¡±
I said in a slightly annoyed tone.
¡°Hehehe I don¡¯t thin- *Cough*¡. ¡±
I looked towards the ruffian with a menacing glare clearly relaying the message ¡®You are courting death¡¯. It looks like he got the memo.
¡°Beat it.¡± I commanded in a slightly indifferent but undeniably cold manner.
¡°We will need some help with him. Let¡¯s go for now.¡±
One of the ruffians said and the other ones let out discontented grunts but swiftly complied. I had already gone to the deliberation to use transformation magic to normalise my appearance to the point where I wouldn¡¯t stand out. I had a regular build; almond hair and grey eyes. I looked like the average adolescent by this world¡¯s standards. I also attempted to mask my demeanour as best as possible by ¡®acting my age¡¯; though this facade was let down once or twice
I thought the inn before me was well kept enough to at least give it a look as the onset of fatigue is becoming more of an issue. The inn itself had no defining features; neither did it have a particularly notable sign. The sign seemed only temporary as it was a block of wood with the word ¡®INN¡¯ engraved into it. If the sign wasn¡¯t there it would be hard to tell apart from an abnormally well-kept house; relative to the area it is located.
I moved towards the sturdy ,and almost immaculate, front door. Abnormally the door handle was coated in a fine layer of blood¡ fresh blood. This was greatly foreboding appearance. I hurriedly tried open the door to only find it locked. I feel this is a situation that requires some level of intervention. I used another of my self-made magic¡¯s and the door unlocked soon after and I entered the room.
I looked across the scene playing out before me with lamentation and anguish. The bottom level of the inn was a tavern. The stools and tables were flung about in a disorderly manner with many being broken. The floor was flooded with a mix of various alcoholic beverages. The walls were very clean in places where they hadn¡¯t been damaged by stools or stained by the aforementioned alcoholic beverages. The floor was littered with glass shards that evidently originated from the smashing of the various glass drinking vessels a tavern would typically have.
However the most notable and disconcerting imagery within the room was a female of the age of 30; by human standards. Her hair was emerald green and build was of standard proportions. She was wearing an unremarkable grey tunic that was mostly hidden by a white frilly apron. By the looks of things she was of the draconian sub-denomination of the demon race. She had two ivory, jagged horns protruding from her head and a lizard like tail falling from the base of her spine.
Well, that is what she should have looked. The mass in front of me could barely be called a draconian. One of her horns was forcibly torn from her head and was impaling her straight through the centre of her stomach as blood cascaded from her mouth. Her appendages were shattered into angles they shouldn¡¯t have been able to reach or were missing entirely. A pool of blood was mixed into the already large amount of alcohol covering the floor. Her nose was broken and jaw was dislocated. Large patches of her hair had seemingly been forcibly torn out. One of her eyes had a shard of glass deeply lodged into it; as tears of blood fell relentlessly with tears down her cheeks. The other eye was fluctuating between looking towards the third being in the room with great sorrow and the ether.
There was a small half-draconian child, of around the age of 10, with incredibly similar features to the assumed mother. She was crouching over her mother; hysterically mumbling out in a despondent and truly melancholic manner:
¡°Mommy, are you ok? Mommy¡¡±
Her slit irises were dilated to the point of being almost non-existent. At that point she let out a blood-curdling whale of utter unadulterated despair and terror.
¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!¡±
The sound reverberated throughout the room and resounded across the entire borough. Ghosts of the past echoed throughout my head and hundreds of scenes similar to this one played out before my eyes. I became full of a terrifying malice that I quickly took under my control with [Emotional Eradication]. The transgressors of such deeds will meet there untimely end all in good time. The woman is still alive; that is more than enough.
I encroached upon the small girl and swiftly chopped the back of her neck sending her unconscious. She does not need to see any more of this travesty. The heavily injured draconian looked at me with eyes of fear and anger.
¡°Le-ve he- her alon-*Cough*e¡±
Blood overflowed from her mouth with every syllable she spoke. I replied in a calming manner:
¡°I am not here to hurt you¡¡±
I guess this would be a fitting time for me to explain the magic I specialise in. I am most proficient in [Recursive Magic] where a magic formation is used to call multiple predefined effects that are invoked at intervals dictated by the base formation. This allows for huge flexibility in the use of magic as you can use each effect as a building block and stack them up with different timings and in different orders to get various effects; especially if you know a colossal amount of applicable effects to apply to the base formation. This magic is incredibly rare as it was rather inefficient and it was difficult to get even the most basic of effects out of it. But, through hundreds of years of careful tentative refinement, it became one of the most flexible and potent types of magic I have seen so far. The effects themselves are specifically made magic formations that will trigger upon predefined invocation points within the base formation(s). [3]
However this is not the only magic I¡¯m proficient in as I am also at a [Grandmaster] level in [Nullification Magic] (The magic system specialising in the nullification of phenomena) and [Darkness Magic](The system of magic that has control over the element of darkness)[3]
In the case of the Draconian woman that could only be called a corpse I used one of my higher level self-made magic¡¯s [Event Nullification] (A magic that has the power to reject events that have happened to any living object for up to a hour). This magic is a combination of the effects of [Nullification Magic] and the control of [Recursive magic]. This particular magic was quite taxing as it was a combination and specific application of two magic systems.
I casted the magic; Two grey magic formations appeared above and below the draconian; both two meters in diameter and spinning in opposing directions. The two formations ascended and descended respectively; trading places in the process. They then both shone brightly scattered into innumerable yellow and grey formations that appeared in damaged regions all over her body .All her injuries were inverted and, over time, she reverted to her original form.
This was of great relief for me. She seemed to have fallen unconscious from the excruciating pain brought about by the process of inverting the damage. At this point I was in a daze. I used a high level barrier magic on the door and put the two to sleep. All the rooms within the inn were vacant. I fell down into one of the beds in a vacant room and, without a second thought, succumbed to the mounting fatigue and journeyed into the land of dreams.
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[1] Ba-BAKA Vinoessa = Tsundere character type confirmed 2015.
[2] OP ness building in process.
[3] Basically functions in a programming context. :L
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I''m tired. The chapter was written over two weeks so expect it to be disjointed with broken engrish.
Thanks for reading and leave your criticisms, plot holes, corrections advice or thoughts below :)
Side story 2: The Events of That Night.
---------------------------------------------POV draconian child--------------------------------------------------------
I sat looking at mommy¡ why is mommy covered in blood?
¡°Mommy?¡± I asked; looking for the same jovial and loving response as usual.
Only silence and rugged breathing followed. I shook mommy on the shoulder and only winces of pain followed. No ... mommy¡
In the background the voices of the loud men and someone else arguing could be heard.
Mommy¡ Why won¡¯t you open your eyes?[1]
Mommy¡ Why are you not getting up?
Mommy¡ where is your laugh? The smile you had but minutes ago?
Mo--¡
She in a quivering manner, but contrastingly in as gentle tone as possible, whispered out what seemed to be her epitaph.
¡°R- r run..¡±
¡
¡
¡
Mom?
¡
¡
MOM?
¡
¡
¡
¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!¡±
--------------------------------------------POV Draconian innkeeper----------------------------------------------------
I tossed and turned in great bother while being caged within a deep slumber. My mind was in a state of disarray as it commanded, pleaded and implored for the rest of my body to awake. However my body remained unresponsive; as if it were not even functioning to begin with. My mind was in true horror, screaming for release, as it had to validate what had happened to my beloved daughter. This was pure maternal instinct and not brought about through reasoning as I had yet to awake. It was a true dilemma, I had to wake up, but I wasn¡¯t in the state to be able to do so; as if I were struggling against hard iron chains.
Eventually my mind won out and I arose from my deep sleep. I was filled with inexplicable dread and fear. My mind put the fragmented happenings of the past into a cohesive strand of events. I immediately threw up my bed cover expecting the worse. A sight contradicting all logic fell before my eyes and, as with any similar situation, I attempted to rationalise what could have occurred to cause what I saw before me. My mind narrowed down the possible eventualities:
Afterlife?
Insanity?
Reincarnation?
With each eventuality reasoned and dismissed one logical explanation came to mind; and my mind clasped to it as if it were an absolute truth. It must have been a lucid nightmare. This seemed to be the only possible explanation for the visceral and utterly terrifying injuries I ¡®sustained¡¯ last night and the currently healthy body I see before me now. Nevertheless, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that I need to validate the state of my daughter.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I arose from the bed while being in a daze. The room was one of the customer rooms, though it¡¯s not like we get many customers to begin with. Though I had already found a viable explanation to my current state of being; I was being eaten up by anxiety, uncertainty and worry. I didn¡¯t know myself the reason for being so worried but I knew, I had to see my daughter. My gradual walk broke way for a mild jog soon turning into an all-out sprint. The 10 meters between where I was and my daughter¡¯s room seemed to be 10 km. I opened the door, after what seemed an eternity, to my daughter¡¯s room and saw a mass in the bed. This was of great relief but this soon turned into fear. A boy of around the age of 15 was in her bed; just barely fitting under the small cover. I had a sense of slight deja vu with the boy lying before me¡ was from where? The Nightmare?
Anyway that¡¯s not the point just who is he? I swiftly ¡®poked¡¯ him with end of my tail; and soon after he fell out of the bed hitting the floor with a dull thud. I did not know whether to laugh or cry; as the boy still asleep after falling from the bed onto the hard wood floor.
Anyway I digress, I must find my daughter. I would normally be surprised or worried if I found a complete stranger, that I had little knowledge of, within a private room. But the worry for my daughter had overridden all other thoughts. I rushed out of the room and began to check every other room. I eventually , after what seemed like years, I found her lying in my bead, asleep, like an angel free from the worlds torment and untainted by evils of man. I rushed over to expel my selfish longing on her. I gave her a sudden hug. Upon making contact she awoke in a frantic craze shouting:
¡°NO LET GO¡±
However, soon after realising it was me, she had a face of shock for a fraction of a second before one of relief and unadulterated joy. She almost immediately burst out into tears while incoherently muttering parts of the word ¡®mommy¡¯ repeatedly as I embraced her into my chest. Inexplicably, sorrow relief and joy struck me like lightning and I fell into a state of crying just as much, if not more, than her. Every vestige of what could be called ¡®adult¡¯ about me fell away and I was like child forgetting the 200 years of life I had experienced. I found great solace in hugging her as if we were lovers that had been reunited at the end of a colossal conflict, though such events never came to pass for me, giving me all the more reason to cherish her very existence. I couldn¡¯t say how long we stayed like that for; however I wished for it to be that way forever.
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Meh, short chapter too much homework I''m dead. Sorry if it is short but hadd to much wor to do the weak sorry and thanks for reading
-Rizza
leave your thoughts below?
Chapter 10: Looming Death.
I awoke in a dumb stupor with my face pressed into the hard wood floor. The events of last night slowly flooded my mind; causing a great turbulence within me. The events of last night only prove that, and further exemplify that, the relations between demons and humans is at a breaking point and war is likely to break out by the years end. I could, with all my power, hold the two sides at bay for an extra year or so but that would only be delaying the inevitable. I need to hurry with my plans as it seems it won¡¯t be long until the gears of war begin to turn once more.
I pulled myself up in a slothenly manner and looked around the room I was in. The walls were covered in a salmon pink paint. The ceiling was clear white and the bedding matched the aesthetic and colouring of the rest of the room. The bed itself was for a small child.
Wait a minute¡
Even though I was tired last night did I really sleep in that little girls bed?
Well it matters not; I need to finish up things here and get to the east gate by high noon to meet back up with Vinoessa. As I collected my thoughts; two voices¡¯ cries echoed throughout the INN. The voices themselves were calming given the amount of reciprocity they held. I gradually moved towards source of the almost tragic melody; if you could hold cries of anguish under this title.
I opened the door to the room holding the two draconians. The cries of the draconians gradually declined into a slow and sombre song of short gasps and swift wales of indistinguishable joy or sorrow, all while retaining the prior melodies euphonic nature. After a long while they both calmed down to a point where I felt it was ok to interject.
*Cough*
The two draconians jumped at the sudden sound and the shock of being pulled from the dream into the real world. They both turned their heads towards me showing me there tearstained appearances. The little girl hid behind her mother, poking her trembling eyes out at intimidate intervals; this high level of cuteness would make even a rock want to pet her [1]. The mother gazed towards me with a mix of emotions spread across her face. Her gaze was somewhat reprehensive; her disposition was fearful and her facial expression was one of pensive thought. She wiped away her residual tears and took my que by standing up.
¡°I must apologise for my unsightly appearance, welcome to the Evit Inn¡± she said; getting the self-imposed formalities out of the way.
¡°¡ The Evit Inn, Quite a strange name¡ Also I must apologise for breaking in last night but your condition warranted, and required, immediate action¡± I said to clear things up.
She let out a slight gasp of realisation.
¡°T-Then yo-¡°
¡±Indeed¡± I said.
She looked to have just had an epiphany as if a vail had been lifted from hazy uncertainty. She lowered her head and exclaimed
¡°Thank you! You truly are my benefactor¡±.
Though it was the normal thing to do, was it not? Well I don¡¯t wish for any gratitude; the fact that she is alright is all the repayment I need and exceeds the amount of gratitude I deserve.
¡°There is no need to show any gratitude; as long as you are ok there is nothing else for me to worry about.¡±
She stepped back and bowed once more:
¡°Regardless I must thank you. Oh! How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Able. Able Evit. ¡±
Able brought out the child from behind her who had become a lot more docile and was looking at me with a slightly curious gaze.
¡°And this is my little demoness [2].¡±
Able let out a smile of utter fulfilment, as if she were looking at a concatenation of her entire world and her entire life¡¯s work in one go.
¡°Her name is Novae Evit.¡± Able added.
¡°A fitting name, by the way I¡¯m Vacare¡± I replied.
¡°It is a nice name. Anyway Vacare you must be hungry.¡±
How did she k-
*Rumble*
Oh.
¡°I guess so.¡±
Novae made an *Un* sound while nodding her head in agreement.
Though I can go quite a few years without eating with the use of magic it is a truly pointless thing to do unless absolutely necessary as it takes away one of the better elements of life. Though I cannot be called a glutton I do enjoy foods and taking that aspect away because ¡®It makes thing easier¡¯ is an invalid reason for me to do so.
Able, Novae and I descended the stairs to the tavern below. The place had been cleaned up during the use of [Event Nullification]. Novae and Able were both surprised to find the tavern as clean as it was; as it was in a state of utter disrepair only a few hours ago. Novae then smiled and ran around the room in an ecstatic joy while breaking away from her prior stupor.
¡°Novae has a deep attachment to this inn and so do I.¡± Able said as she made a melancholic smile and looked at something that was not there or was long gone.
¡°Anyway I must apologise I digress. I will make you a meal as fast as possible¡± she said as she broke her gaze from whatever she was looking at before.
Whatever is troubling her is none of my business I don¡¯t want to bring forth past woes as I have so many, myself, already.
At that moment a hard dull thud came from the door I put the magic barricade over before. It seems I was too tired to be bothered to add a sound dampening function to the barrier.
A loud and deep voice roared out
¡±GET OUT HERE BITCH WER NOT DONE WIT YER YET!!!¡±
The man¡¯s bellowing voice bypassed the door and resounded throughout the room; petrifying Able and Novae. Well that is understandable given the events of last night.
¡°IF YE DON¡¯T COME OUT IN 10 SECONDS IM BREAKING DOWN THAT BLOODY DOOR!¡±
Well¡ you trying to break down that door is similar an ant trying to pull a vault door off its hinges. Anyway, regardless they were going to be beaten down anyway.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
¡°Boss I don¡¯t think she be listenin¡±
¡°Can we have some fun with her?¡±
¡°ye boss ¡®fun¡¯ he he he he¡±.
The laugh was laced in a heavy lascivious intent. It made, even me, slightly disturbed.
¡°TIMES UP YER BITCH WERE COMIN FOR WHAT YER OWE US¡±
I look towards Able who is hiding Novae and asked:
¡±Protection racketeering?¡±
¡°Indeed.¡± She aptly replied.
¡°Boss dats the kid we wer talkin about.¡±
¡°Oh his voice was that of a babies¡ AND YOU WERE AFRAID OF HIM? ¡±
*smack*
¡°OWWWWW!¡±
The voices of two hooligans resounded throughout the room once again.
I opened a window and overlooked the gang of men standing outside the Inn.
There were men of various statures and sizes covering the street as far as the eye could see. There must have been at least a hundred men. This was to the point of the gang being better referred to as a small militia. All of the men looked to be of varying ages but all were human. They all also emitted a seemingly oppressive and unlawful aura.
Towards the centre of a group; a notably larger man was looking ruefully at one of the men I had seen departing from the INN last night.
As I looked over the group of ruffians, thugs, thieves and bandits I thought to myself. Should I kill them all?
Typically they would be executed for their transgressions, though that would be after a trial. A conflict of ideologies had formed within me between my conditioned morality and the ideologies of a feudal world. One that was raised in a nation that attempted to construct itself on egalitarianism, where possible, could not live properly in a world where might makes right. I was given three options.
1. Retain my set of ideals and live in a feudal world.
2. Change the ideals of this feudal world into the ones I want.
3. Regress into the ideological values of this world.
I know that this is not a simple situation; and I should not blankly slit it into false dichotomy but these are the three extremes I can think of taking. If this were to be me before the war I would have most definitely picked option 1 but, as it so happens, though I had faced many smaller wars before that one, the war changed me. Cured me of my naivety, let¡¯s say. The atrocities were not only done by the humans. In the last days of the war I, with many others, did things we were not proud of. But as war gets to that stage, ironically, the core reasons for fighting to begin with are washed away within the disorder and chaos; only the rule of kill or be killed stands strong.
This was especially true for us and if I did what I did inside peacetime I would have most definitely been sentenced to death or exile. But war gives a justification to the atrocities for a lot of people; including myself. It was a battle for the survival of my entire race after all. The crucible of chaos would eventually re-forge any good man into something they would only see in there nightmares beforehand. This even occurred to me as I must have killed millions directly and tens of millions if not hundreds of millions indirectly. This is to clarify to myself that I am by no means good but wartime greatly warps morality to begin with. I feel that the responsibility of those who perished by my hand cannot lie with me as they would have died to the mechanics of the world to begin with. Though I acted as a conduit for this travesty; was the entire demon race just to await there inevitable demise because the world deemed it as necessary?
[The Hero] deemed it as necessary?
I still feel remorse and regret over every death I caused but I must remain strong until the war is over. [The Hero] and I are mutually exclusive existences and the war will not end until [The Hero] is gone forever. So I will adopt a middle ground between option 2 and 3 where I will slightly adopt the ideals of this world until I can normalise the morality I want to see.
I think that that is the best thing to do with the situation as given. Though I myself still dislike killing, this world deems it necessary. If you offer mercy to people who are capable of such atrocities only more deaths will follow and continue to mount. Therefore, with my ethical qualms being justified to a degree that I won''t have any apprehensions about it in the future, there deaths are imminent.
Though I soon after; let out a self-mocking chuckle. It happened again, did it not?
In moments of high criticality or danger I have some new "epitome" and thereafter have a long inner monologue that causes me to go into deep thought for a moment.
In my moment of indecisiveness Able had gone up to the large brawny man after releasing the one way defensive barrier that I had set up last night. [A one way barrier is a barrier that can be nullified with the application of force to one side. The other side acts as a typical barrier would otherwise.]
I used my abnormally high agility to get to where Able was as fast as possible. The new body I have is surprisingly agile and is, if anything, an improvement over my old body. I stared at the larger man after, to them, appearing out of nowhere. Thereafter, I made a stern declaration with absolute confidence.
¡°Your executioner has arrived.¡±
[1]GEO-GEODUDE. Cuteness is justice.
[2] Bibliography shift from chap 4-5 ish. (don¡¯t care)
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I hope you enjoy.
leave your advice and feedback below.
Oh and this has not been entirely proof read (will do later).
Side story 3: Past The Point Of No Return.
--------------------------------------------------------POV Hugo----------------------------------------------------------------
The current eventuality playing out before my eyes is self-inflicted; my death is my fault and my fault alone. It was never supposed to be this way. However, as so it goes, things change faster than you can adapt at some points in your life and at other points life remains stagnant to the point of inducing boredom.
I guess it would be best to describe who I once was. A person I only now remember in such visceral detail. Yes that¡¯s right¡ who I once was.
I didn¡¯t have a particularly lavish upbringing nor was I gifted with any innate talents. My mana pool was average at best. I was lovingly raised by my father; my mother had died during the process of giving birth. My father always remained resolute but left melancholic undertones in every action he took. I never once saw a true and heartfelt smile from him. He was a blacksmith and worked in the under developed regions of the capital. Anyway, all of this is beside the point. At the age of 12 one of the governing lords of the district got in some petty squabble with another lord of some far flung fief at the border regions of the kingdom.
A man in full plate armour hammered on the door and shouted ill-omened words that still remain with me to this very day.
¡°By order of the lord you are called to arms to defend the peace of this land¡±.
He never returned. He left to join mother. I waited for a hundred days and a hundred nights for him to return. With each passing day my optimism was being eroded and replaced with dread and pessimism. He had left everything he had with me and I had learned a lot from him as he taught me how to blacksmith; to an intermediate level. Many other children had lost their parents in the conflict including many of my childhood friends.
We came to group together into a colossal family like arrangement where the older among us looked after the younger ones, male and female alike. I could have left them to their own devices but my conscience would not allow me to leave them to an inevitable demise. This arrangement lasted for many years and we stuck together through all the turbulence and turmoil the world could throw at us. I even got married to my childhood sweetheart. Towards the end of the days where worries of the past had become just memories and the future looked bright.
It was stolen from us¡
Stolen from me¡
Our collective future was stolen by the same force that had perpetrated the same event that left us in such dire straits.
The lord¡¯s son had been bullied at school by some other noble¡¯s child, though there is nothing noble about them. I was conscripted, with many of my kin, into a conflict that took 5 years of my life; but by some miracle or, more likely, a sick joke I survived. I was around 29 when I returned to find that many had died in famine and starvation that followed the conflict; as the lord took all he could to fund the war effort. The deaths included my wife and the child I never knew I had.
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Soon after; depression set in and I looked for some relief from my unending pain. This is the point, now that I look back on things, where things in my life became more¡ misguided. Though this only seems clear to me now. Having an epitome occur upon the advent of death?
Well I guess life is put into perspective when it is all about to end. Regardless to nullify the anguish I felt I turned to an easy means of escape. Alcohol. Thereafter I joined together with my childhood friends and began to amalgamate a group. We started off by just doing odd jobs ; but that soon turned to slightly unlawful activities. And, from then onwards, we formed a mob like mentality where we tried to 1-up each other is ¡°witch act is the most on edge¡±; further degenerating into a pit of irreparability. It is strange that only can I now retrospectively see this. I became the leader of the group through intimidation and developed what could be called a dialect just for that purpose.
Well I guess given what I have done this can be considered a fitting punishment. I opened my eyes one last time to the face of death incarnate, if not, death itself. I would be beyond the logical bound of fear if I was not resigned to my death already. The black ¡ well no; The sword that had a colour that could best be described as being the absolute absence of light was heading towards me at an alarming speed. I hope I held him off long enough for at least one more person to survive the imminent massacre. The sword hit the nape of my neck.
¡
I became a slave to my own weakness and never managed to escape¡
¡
Only managing to feel solace in the oppression of others¡
¡
I was weaker than those I looked down upon¡
¡
Far far weaker¡
¡
Strength is an arbitrary measure of a person¡¯s worth to begin with¡
¡
But the ones I ¡®hunted¡¯ are some of the strongest people I have ever known¡
¡
I hope I can repent for any transgressions I, or any of my friends, committed in the next life...
¡ I
¡I¡¯m sorry¡
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Thanks for reading and sorry for the short chapter. :L too much procrastination on all fronts.
Spoiler : hugo=bandit boss person.
Chapter 12: A deeper meaning
--------------------------------------------POV Able Evit-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The bandit¡¯s sabre was upon me, it¡¯s dull glint drawing ever closer; my demise was imminent. At the moment where the blade was no less than a centimetre from my neck the force of the sword seemed to disperse as it came to an immediate halt. I was petrified. Twice, in the past 24 hours, my life had been nearly ended.
I looked up to see why the bandit had stopped his sword swing. A few words full of unyielding and absolute resolve resounded in my ears ¡°Your executioner has arrived¡± the words faded into quiet echoes thereafter; as if the words had never been said.
There was something off¡ when I looked up to see the face of the bandit ¡ only the background scenery entered my line of sight. That¡¯s strange. At that moment the man¡¯s body began to shudder and then fell to the ground. All I could see was a headless corpse. The man¡¯s body collapsed before me and before it fell on top of me it disintegrated into a sinister fine ash that scattered in the breeze leaving almost no trace that he had ever been there...
I turned my head to see someone who strongly resembled Vacare impaling another bandit in the group. His eyes were glossed over with utter indifference. His entire persona had distorted into a cacophony of contradictory and limitless emotions holding each other in check resulting in the almost maniacal glare he had. I was petrified. Though the man before me looked like he was pushed past the brink of insanity there was a cold underlying logic holding him to his rationality. His actions and his expressions were paradoxical. He killed with a grim determination and seemingly indomitable resolve but his eyes were¡ resigned, wavering and unbearably woeful. Each and every one of his actions was cold and calculated. He took lives as if it was second nature but with each move he made he became further resigned. He was¡ broken¡ a soulless entity pulling itself forward with pure willpower alone. The man had purpose¡ but no humanity.[1]
What ensued could only be described as a ¡°systematic execution¡±. By the time my child ran out the last man had long turned to dust. She jumped up and hugged me letting out a sad cry with tears streaked across her face she looked up to me. However I payed her little heed as I had been overcome with an unnatural sense of apathy. A bleak yet incomparably dense silence fell over the street. Novae turned her head and looked fearfully at the being standing before me exclaiming ¡°Mommy who is that man¡±. That is a excellent question¡ Just who is that person?
The man walked towards me as all facets of what made him seem so soulless were masterfully hidden as what seemed to be an unfathomably complex fa?ade was raised in its place resulting in a cheerful grin. Novae¡¯s concern immediately subsided as she jumped out of my arms and with a
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*tap**tap**tap**tap**tap**tap**tap**tap**tap*
She ran towards Vacare and gave him a hug with all her might.
---------------------------------------------------------POV Vacare-------------------------------------------------------------
I collected my thoughts and realised I had accidently fallen back into my old ways. I corrected my posture and began to walk towards Able. She was looking in my direction with a conflicted and abnormally perceptive glare. Novae ran up to me and gave me a hug around one of my legs as she was around half of my size. She looked distraught. This is a face I wished for this seemingly carefree child to never have again. I grimaced to myself. Able stood up and smiled at me with a truly happy but strangely sombre face. Her gaze was ¡ abnormally observant. Not scared¡ Not fearful; just observant. I must confess that death is a norm for this world and looking at what occurred to her last night I must say that she has probably seen things like this in the past. But her gaze seemed to hold a deeper meaning. As if there was something far more underlying her seemingly mundane mannerisms. Well regardless of all that I should not let such matters get to me.
I patted Novae on the head and let out a fatigued sigh over her naivet¨¦ on the state of such a cruel and unforgiving world.
Able soon regained her composure and all traces of the glint in her eyes vanished.
¡°Thank you very much Vacare you are our benefactor twice over now.¡± She thanked as she lowered herself to a 90 degree bow.
Novae looked up to me and said in an adorable mummer ¡°Th *sniff*¨C thank yew Vacare¡±.
I was taken aback.
¡°What a strong mental attack.¡± I whispered under my voice as the incessant compulsion to hug her was held back with all my strength.
Able looked bewildered and recited what I had previously said ¡°Mental attack?¡±
I swiftly attempted to cover my tracks as I said ¡°Well let¡¯s get the breakfast you promised me.¡±
She seemed to lose track of what I had previously said as she came closer to me. She continued forth and picked up novae. She then asked me to return to the inn.
What followed was one of the most jovial meals I had experienced for a long time. Towards the end of the meal I made a suggestion.
¡°Able do you wish to join me on a journey to the demon capitol Lusteria?¡±
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Sorry for the long silence. To busy playing procrastination simulator 2016.
Please post any grammatical errors you plot holes find.
Thanks for reading :D!!!
[1]The irony is not lost on me
Chapter 13: Apparitions of a Bygone Era
¡°Able do you wish to join me on a journey to the demon capitol Lusteria?¡±
Able turned her head and looked to begin contemplating. Novae¡¯s eyes alternated between the two of us with a questioning gaze. Able turned her head to face to me and said with a grim determination ¡°If it would not be too much trouble for you; I would be great full to accompany you on this journey with Novae.¡±
I let out a sigh and said ¡°I never thought it would be this easy to convince you to leave your home and livelihood.¡±
¡°I may be sentimental. But I¡¯m not stupid; the state of the capitol; most of the human kingdoms and empires are in a state of turmoil. Wars have being getting more common between the smaller kingdoms and tensions have been rising; even between the larger empires. The gap between the upper echelons of society and the working man has been growing ever larger. Many people are disgruntled by the aristocracy; unprecedented premonitions of a full scale civil war across multiple countries are afoot. However If it were just that I would not be so decisive on joining you on a journey¡ This place means a lot to me ¡¡±
Once again her eyes lost focus as assumed scars of her past bared down on her.
She shook her head and elaborated further on her prior line of reasoning ¡°Never mind where was I¡ Oh yes! The reason I am being so quick to make this choice is that the kingdoms, in conjunction with the church, have been building anti-demon sentiment. I assume it¡¯s the age old tactic of uniting against a common enemy. Focus the population¡¯s aggression against a common foe and defer the inevitable collapse of the power dynamic of the entire continent. The various religious groups of the continent, given their actions as of late, seem to be proxies of the kingdoms and empires they are bound to. With the increase in resentment against the ¡®common enemy¡¯ large proportions of the populous have ignored the current state of oppression and are beginning to form a dangerous toxic mentality. I was planning on leaving by the weeks end. But it seems like I had been too late as evidenced by the events of last night. This has only reinforced the point that the continent is a box of kindling and the slightest spark will send it into chaos; for better or worse. We don¡¯t want to be at the epicentre of a catastrophe of such proportions. This is further strengthened by the immanent summoning of [The Crimson]. Therefore our best hope for escape is you. We have little power by ourselves but you seem to have an almost indomitable might so our best bets are to leave with you.¡±[1]
I sat there in an undeniable amazement. Able is far more intuitive then she looks. Though I thought something like this was occurring with the state of the world; I had done it off the back of information gathered with the [Absolute Apprehension] I had used on the monarch of this country. She had no such source of information. I looked at her quizzically and questioned:
¡°I¡¯m impressed you have such insights that question even the highest powers of the kingdom. Where have you gathered such information from?¡±
She looked back at me with an almost ¡°How can you be this stupid?¡± look.
¡°In this world is there any place more fitting to gather information then a tavern.¡±
The response made me cough up the food I had just put into my mouth as I broke down in laughter. I guess some things remain constant across worlds.
¡°Of course a lot of it was guesswork on my part.¡± She elaborated.
As my laughing quieted down Novae seemed to suddenly understand something.
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¡°Mommy? We¡¯re.. we¡¯re leaving? ¡ what about daddy? You said he would return here¡ How will he find us if we leave?¡± Novae pondered.
The Jovial atmosphere shattered and only silence remained. Able¡¯s once joking face turned deadly serious. She turned her head and shot an incredibly meaningful glare my way. I could only deeply sigh. Though I cannot understand the circumstances of novae¡¯s father¡¯s disappearance, given that everything pertaining to him has deeply saddened Able, I can only assume he is no longer of this world. [2]
It must be that Able wishes to keep Novae in a happy delusion rather than face the harsh reality of Novae¡¯s farther being gone forever. I personally cannot condone such actions as, though it¡¯s a harsh reality, this is only deferring the inevitable sadness Novae will face. Perpetuating the lie will only lead to more sorrow and possible distrust further down the line. I won¡¯t interject now but I must speak to Able about this later. I nod apprehensively to Able¡¯s glare and remain silent for the time being.
Able¡¯s glare softened as she picked up Novae. She looked directly at her and said ¡°Your daddy is off in a faraway place and always knows where we are¡¡±
Her look faltered between being distant and caring.
*Hic*
Novae looked back up at her mother with tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
¡°Will daddy definitely return one day?¡± Novae asked.
¡°He will.¡± Able replied.
¡°Promise?¡±
¡°Promise.¡±
I looked on with flashbacks to the past ever hassling me like persistent apparitions from golden days; long gone and never to return. I kept up such delusions when my wife went missing. To my sons¡ my daughters¡ and mostly myself. I have experienced first-hand the amplifying effects such actions can take on catastrophes. The capturing and, subsequent execution of my wife, combined with the amplifying effects of denying her death resulted in great sorrow. When the proof was un-deniable.. That she was dead¡ turned a war of defence into a war of annihilation. I guess I justified it with the supposed ¡°reconciliation¡± we could have after annexing and unifying most of the world under a single banner. However, I knew¡ I knew I was digging a grave for my entire race¡ Well those are matters of the past and should remain matters of the past. This is why I¡¯m fighting now ... and I must not forget that.
As I drew a deep breath and calmed down it looked like Novae and Able had also reconciled.
I asked Novae and Able to prepare to leave. Novae was reluctant to begin with but the events of last night gave her the resolve to follow us back to the demon capitol. We all packed our various amenities and headed to the gates.
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[1]Welcome to 1937 Germany. Enjoy you stay :D.(info-dumping since 1939)
[2] Rip tense.
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HOi. New chapter! Hope you enjoyed reading it and reply with any grammatical errors;or plot holes; or even if the plot is beginning to loose its bearing altogether(I''m not a consistent person :3) . Rate it if you like it or hate it and leave constructive criticism if you do so.
:P
(Don''t mind me I''m a derp and posted this chapter to the wrong series Q-Q).
Chapter 14: Slavery.
*clank* *clank* *clank*
I looked to my right as our group made our way to the outer reaches of the metropolis called the capitol. The roads and alleys seemed to flow like a river: erratic and without planning. In many ways the entire place was a lifeform all onto itself. As the boundaries of the city ever expanded the roads were built and rebuilt to the stage that no cohesive layout was followed. Centuries of modification and expansion built onto expansion left only a hard to follow maze of structures in its wake. The quality of the roads surface degraded after every layer of the onion like defence of the city we passed. Currently we were in the outer fringes of the city making our way to the bustling east gate. Novae and Able were wearing thick hooded cloaks with various multi-layered illusory and mind magics applied to them to divert people¡¯s attention elsewhere
*clank* *clank* *CLANK* [1]
There was a dull melodic rattling, and scraping, of chains along the dirt tracks we were currently walking down. I looked forwards. What greeted me was a scene I had not visualised in over 800 years. It did not surprise me as I had seen it in the memories of that degenerate who dares to wear a crown.
Slavery.
The word always left a sour taste in my mouth. A vile act that, regardless of world or timeline, still irks me greatly. As the indistinct poorly clothed figures came closer Able pulled Novae¡¯s hood down. I just looked onwards as the ever showing depravity of such a world made itself increasingly evident. The figures turned out to be, on further inspection, children. Not one older than 10. Each of their hands and feet were bound in hard rusted iron manacles. They were walking in an orderly line chained to one another; while being herded like cattle by a group of burly, and mostly unkempt, men.
As this line slowly passed there ragged breathing became audible. One of the slaves collapsed before me and turned his face to meet mine. His eyes were unfocused and void of all emotion or thought. The boy was utterly broken. No emotion. No thought. Just a marionette dancing to the cruel tune laid out before him by the slavers. I have seen this face all too often. Especially towards the end of the war. Parties would attack an individual¡¯s psyche until it was an empty husk of its former self. Upon this state being reached it is effectively impossible to revert.
Most [Mind Magic¡¯s] manipulate a person¡¯s mental state by adding suggestions to the underlying psychological processes that govern thought within the mind. That is impossible to do if a person does not have such thought processes to begin with and, without knowing the prior mental state of the person in question, [Mind Magic](s) are ineffectual . [Nullification magic] holds innumerable rule sets of what can or cannot be done. When a person has there state reverted it only manipulates the physical state of that person and is disconnected from what could be called the state of the [Soul].
The very existence of the [Soul], or the amalgamation of all that a person is, is confirmed. However knowing that something is there and understanding it are two different matters entirely. A good analogy would be asking a person of ancient times if there were stars in the sky. The person would agree without question. But then ask that person the functioning and inner workings of how a star functions and they will give either an explanation far from the truth or honestly admit to not knowing. That was the stage that we were at into research in relation to souls at the time of the beginning of the war. [2]
However ¡ That¡¯s odd¡ I seem to have no recollection of research being done during the war on such matters¡ But I was sure that at the time [Soul Magic] was the most viable method to injure the hero. A hazy, indistinct, almost static memory was pulled to the forefront of my mind as a jagged pain assaulted me. It was like if someone had just dug into my head with an ice pick. Jus¡ what is¡ going..
[D?o???????? ??????n?????????o???????t???????? ??f??????????????o??????????r?????????????g???e?????t??????? i???????????????????????????????f??????????????????????????????? w???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????e??????????????????????????????? a???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????r???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????e??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? t???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????o??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? w???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????i???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????n???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????y???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????o???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????u??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????m???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????u???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????s???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????N???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????T??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????F???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????O???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????R???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????G???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????E???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????T??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ]
forget? Forget what?
[3]
The rest of the memory fell into a deep static and there was just an incoherent mumbling as phantom like figures made motions towards what looked to be a formula; the area it took up was colossal. The characters were too indistinct to properly follow. As the static and pain got more potent my mental defence network was triggered and that region of the brain was isolated. That was odd¡ I will have to look into that in far greater detail later.
I clutched my head in pain as the two emotionless eyes remained fixated on me. The line of slaves halted upon the boys fall. The boy was human as evident by his two rounded ears. I looked towards the walking corpse as the face of absolute apathy looked back towards me. A slaver came with what looked to be some form of crude spear and shouted at the boy.
I looked towards him with a face full of scorn. The rule of might makes right still stands stronger than ever I see. Some in my position may have immediately gone up to the slaver and directly confronted him. However taking actions and thinking like that is far too short minded. After saving them then what? How am I to cure the untreatable? It¡¯s not a question of ¡®saving them¡¯ it is having the full ability to ¡®save them in all aspects¡¯.
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I don¡¯t have the time to handle each individual¡¯s case; cover up the repercussions of such an incident taking place and ensure each person¡¯s safety after the matter. Any time spent here is delaying plans against the summoning of [The Hero]. And in such cases even a day could spell life or death for millions of people. In this case I simply don¡¯t hold the necessary resources to take them away from slavery.
Though my morality is just a subjective world view that may be considered abnormal by this worlds standards I still hold it close. I¡¯m not one to temporarily solve a problem. And this supposed salvation may spell there end anyway as they would most likely to fall back into slavery given the state they are in at this point in time. I will certainly abolish this practice as soon as possible through one way or another but for now I must make it back to the demon capitol.
Looking at the technology of humans; the demons far outclass the humans in terms of technological prowess. The divide is actually quite stunning; maybe 300-400 years ahead? A few decades into the information era? [4]Or around 100 years behind my world just before the war broke out. This disparity in technology is incredibly interesting and another thing I will have to check up later.
However the inability to ¡®save them¡¯ and the inability to ¡®help them¡¯ are two entirely different concepts. I can most definitely make conditions better for them; though indirectly. I began to form a high level [Mind Magic]. This spell only worked on those with incredibly low mental fortitude and could be overwritten or treated by a mage with rudimentary knowledge of [Mind Magic]. However the beauty in the spell was not its immediate effect but its effects over time. In this case the spell was custom made by me using an amalgamation of other spells in a multi component [Recursive magic]. The spell itself would, over time, manipulate the base morality of the person under the effects of the spell. It would bring into question each time they did something ¡®wrong¡¯ relative to the casters morality and attempt to retroactively look for memories of times where there sense of morality was not so warped or, in worse cases, generate new memories to influence the person to change. Its effects are slow but permanent as it uses the persons own thought processes against them. At a certain stage it will dispel leaving no traces of it being there and it would seem that the person had changed of their own free will.
The spell was cast on all members and guards present leading the group of slaves. The nastiest effect of the spell was its ability to spread like an infection under certain parameters. In this case it would target slavers and use the infected person¡¯s mana supply to propagate the spell to other people. This cannot be used en masse as it would alert higher authorities before the spell had any impact and it could be contained. Moreover, this vector of transferal for a spell is difficult to pull off and can have unpredictable consequences; as the world is all too often more complex than a set of simple parameters. Regardless of that this is the most I can do for them at this point in time.
Able looked at me strangely as if I were plotting something; ¡ well I was. But in any case, with Able¡¯s eyebrows knitted, we continued forwards ignoring the further actions of the slavers.
We came towards the eastern commercial epicentre of the capitol that developed from travellers passing through while trading and buying goods close to the gate. Various merchants peddled their wares in a verbose manner with their loud voices.
¡®Beautiful jewellery sourced from the furthest reaches of the kingdom. Have a special someone in your life and want to tie the knot? This is the perfect way to do so! Only 2 gold! Valued at 3! [5]¡¯ one merchant shouted.
¡®That fur coat is from a frost wolf from the far south! 80 silver is effectively robbing me. 90 silver is my lowest. ¡¯ another merchant haggled.
Many merchants singled out prospective customers and attempted to convince to part with hard earned coin for scrupulous wares. Our group was of course exempt from constant pestering as per the passive effects of my [Cloaking Magic] that was still active. We made our way through the swathes of pedestrians and towards a distinct mana signature that could only be that of Vinoessa¡¯s.
I had already filled in the details of who we were going to meet with Able; while selectively holding unnecessary, or potentially dangerous, information about Vinoessa from her.
¡°Took you long enough! .{ o(¨Ro¨Q)o}¡±
(Author note: {ASCII emoji} is the text representation of the transferal of emotion over a telepathic link and will be held in curly braces ¨¤{})
A voice I had not heard in a (seemingly) long time resounded throughout my head. Looks like a low level form of [Telepathy] was used to form a link between me and Vinoessa. It¡¯s a form of [Mind Magic] that is hard to pull off at long range and effectively conveys meaning to another person and is typically parsed by the spell as speech. It looks like this version of [Telepathy] requires for emotion to be bound into the message for it to be properly received by the recipients mind. This is an old way of doing it; as, in my old world, the main form that telepathy came in was [Assumptive Telepathy] where emotion was assumed and used to pass meaning on to another person¡¯s mind. I might as well use the older method she is using for now.
¡°Oh [Telepathy] I¡¯m impressed {( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)}¡± I honestly replied.
¡°Oh of course he knows [Telepathy]! { ?(?Òæ??) } A top secret developmental magic! {(¨s¡ã¡õ¡ã£©¨s¦à ©ß©¥©ß}} Don¡¯t mind me as I walk into a corner and wallow in my own self-pity!{? ? ©n ? ?}¡± Vinoessa exasperatedly replied.
¡°Don¡¯t be upset; it is nothing to be worried about! {£¯ÈË ¡Ð ?? ¡Ð ÈË£Ü}[6]¡± I responded innocently.
¡°This is only the first level of [Telepathy]{(??¦Ø??)}¡± I jokingly added.
¡°FFFFFFF¡{͹(`§Õ¡ä¡}¡± I cut the telepathic connection there.
¡°What are you doing?¡± Able questioned.
¡°Oh nothing¡¡± I said in a matter of fact tone.
We darted round a few dark alley ways and offshoots from the main road until we made it to a secluded court yard. There, in one of its corners, was a girl curled up in a ball. It looked as if there were even physical manifestations of depression lines you would typically see in animated fictions eerily looming over her head. Well regardless, I called out to her.
¡°Vinoessa¡-¡± I carefully stated.
Vinoessa got back up and looked towards me with a slightly depressed face before whimpering.
¡°Yes paragon of everything.¡±
Looks like she was really proud of that spell¡
¡°Don¡¯t worry I will teach you the higher level variants of that magic later.¡± I replied attempting to mitigate the situation
¡°It took me and a team of researchers 8 years to develop [Telepathy]¡ 8 YEARS¡¡±
While we were bickering Able just stood there in a dumb stupor. Novae was giving Vinoessa a evaluating glare.
¡°Look¡ Please calm down Vinoessa¡ ¡±
She let out a sigh ¡°Well ¡ Whatever ¡ ¡± she acquiesced.
Just at that moment Novae seemed to decide on something.
¡°Donut!¡± Novae concluded with her hand raised pointing at the still half-curled up Vinoessa.
We all just looked at her with our mouths agape. Vinoessa curled back up into a ball while I began to uncontrollably laugh. Novae happily skipped towards Able before giving her a hug. Able just stood there in an even deeper stupor.
It took about 7 minutes of poking and convincing for Vinoessa to finally come out of her corner; while Able sternly reprimanded Novae and got her to reluctantly apologise. As Vinoessa stood her appearance had completely changed to that of a girl whose face could be used as the definition of normality in this world. This sort of disguise is actually quite weak as every person in this world has some sort of personality hidden within their appearance without fail. This actually makes a person who looks so normal all the more suspicious; especially if they are attempting to blend in with their surroundings. Well regardless I think I have unknowingly crushed Vinoessa¡¯s self-confidence enough today.
We all made our introductions and proceeded towards the east gate in earnest.[7]
[1]May or may not of just binge read ¡®Those who aspire to become gods¡¯.(How¡¯s about we make it *rattle* *rattle**rattle* *rattle*)
[2] All aboard the digression train
[3] If you read this there is a message hidden very well here (post it if you find it :D)
[4] INITILIZE DEUS EX MACHINA TO FULL EFFECT .
[5] Insert generic gold, silver, copper currency system here
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkTb9GP9lVI
[7] Will they ever make it to the east gate? Or will infinite digression keep them locked into the capitol forever? Find out next time on TGH!
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Thanks for reading thus far. Please comment as you are the only reason I am writing this :)
-point out any plot holes ore other discrepancies within the text for me and give constructive criticism if you don''t like the direction of the fiction.rate it honestly :D
Chapter 15: Past. present. future.
This one is the largest chap so far at 4000 words :D. (I type very slowly to that''s quite the achievement)
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We were waiting in line to be checked through the guard post that handled ingoing and outgoing traffic to the capitol through the east. It looked like they were requesting some sort of ¡®tax¡¯ to gain free entry out of the city. Well a fee at the customs office is a seemingly normal thing in this country.
¡°Next¡±
A man adorned with worn, but well maintained, iron armour called out. It looked like it was our turn. We headed towards the guard post and waited for the disinterested guard to allow us free passage.
¡°Reason?¡± The guard mechanically questioned.
¡°We are traveling to relatives who live in the Far East.¡± I answered in a similarly apathetic tone.
¡°That will be 2 silver per person and 50 copper for the kid.¡± The guard said uninterestedly.
Vinoessa paid for all of us and we continued out of the city. We passed through the firm bulwarks that served as the primary layer of defence for the city. On closer inspection the wall was enchanted with varying degrees of defensive magic and was composed of, what looked to be, granite.
Upon leaving the city walls we saw vast agricultural operations in all directions. Fields were ploughed and were being tended to by denizens of the sprawling metropolis behind us. Beyond the fields lay, what seemed to be, a dense forest tapering off into a colossal mountain range that covered the horizon line in its entirety . This looks to be an easily defendable position in event of an invasion as the tall mountains act as a geological citadel against any would be attackers.
It was high noon and the sun, or well suns, were clearly visible.[1] This planet looked to be a member of a binary star system. This led to the fantastical view of two suns being suspended high in the skies. This fact led to a very different time system to the one I was used to. From what I can get from my stolen knowledge the time system of this nation has no quantifiable values and uses the positions of the two suns, in relation to each other, to dictate a number of hazy ranges of time. The closest representation I could think of was using Morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night and midnight as a measurement of time. There is no clear value for time just a sense of the time of day.
I turned to Vinoessa and asked ¡°How is time measured in the demon continent?¡±
Vinoessa turned her head as we encroached upon the main road heading east. ¡°The demons use a denary time system. 100 seconds in a minute; 100 minutes in an hour; 10 hours in a day; 100 days in a month and 4 months in a year .¡± Vinoessa explained understandingly but with an undertone of having won some sort of battle.
¡°Thanks for the explanation¡± I thanked.
Able looked at me and asked ¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡±
¡°Well, all that I can say is that I am not from around here.¡± I answered.
¡°Well each race has their own ways of measuring time and it would be a nightmare to try to remember all the ways time is recorded¡± Able said.
We continued our conversations as we left towards the demon capitol. Time seemed to pass very fast as day turned to night. We arrived at the outreaches of the forest as the sun was setting. All our supplies had been stored in a small pocket-dimension bound to a ring as a keystone, courtesy of Vinoessa, who said they were common practice in the demon continent. Able was strangely quiet upon learning that we were using [Spatial Rings] to transport goods but complied with putting the large amount of luggage we were carrying before into the ring. [Spatial Rings] are apparently rather common in the demon continent as a common spell formation makes them easy to mass produce. This was the same case in my old world.
I asked Vinoessa ¡°How far?¡±
¡°How far to what? The Demon Capitol? A couple of months walk.¡± Vinoessa retorted.
¡°No¡ to the teleportation gate?¡± I replied calmly.
I had sensed it as we had begun to approach the forest. I could only sense its orientation to us and not its direct position. This was because the forest itself was covered in naturally occurring mana blanketing out the weak mana signature left by the spell. At first I was surprised the Demons had the technology to set up such a spell but looking at the strength of the residual formation it looks to be old; Very old. 4000 -5000 years old. The formation that was used looked to be built to last.
[Well I¡¯m not surprised by anything anymore. {©»(--)©¿}] Vinoessa telepathically quipped.
Able had a complicated expression but decided to remain quiet.
[That is a top grade military secret! I don¡¯t even know where it is. {¡¥\_(¥Ä)_/¡¥} All that I know about a teleportation gate is that there are a few scattered across the continents and that they are mostly dysfunctional. We have attempted to repair some but due to a lack of understanding of how they function, and a worry of if they were to break, we don¡¯t use them for the most part.{ £¨¡ä£ß£à£©}]
¡°Very well let¡¯s set up camp here tonight and head out tomorrow!¡± I suggested.
Novae and Able both gave me a strange look but never interjected.
---------------------------------------------------------POV Able----------------------------------------------------------------
Teleportation gate! How is Vacare a where of such constructs? I thought he was only highly powerful. I guess he is a high ranking member of the humans. Even I know little of them and have only seen them a few times given my former status. For that matter the trust I have heled in Him has come from his actions up until now and me being confident as a good judge of character. Though Vacare is like trying to read a wall of stone; he seems to be good at heart.
Vacare¡¯s expression slightly twitched as a light of understanding flooded his eyes. Looking at everything that Vionessa has done so far I suspect she is a high ranking demon given her use of covert operations magic¡¯s that are exclusive to the Demon high command.[2] This only furthers my suspicions that she is far more then she looks. Though It is hard to say¡
---------------------------------------------------POV Vacare------------------------------------------------------------------
We set up camp in the outer reaches of the forest. I could see nothing but fields for miles to our left and a dense verdurous forest to our right. We were at the precipice between the two. Not far enough into the forest to be bothered by bandits or beasts of any kind but enough to not be spotted by travellers or guardsmen coming from the capitol. I set a number of barrier formations around the camp to block any would be intruders.
The trees were lit in feint murky indigo hues by a camp fire we had set up earlier. Beyond the reach of the camp fire azure twilight bathed the unclear and distant forest floor. The sky was covered in a mass of stars varying in intensity and colour as the colossal celestial bodies that acted as satellites to this planet staked their claim to the vast majority of the sky. There was very little ambient sound. The odd distant cry of a monster or crackle of the campfire acted as a riposte to otherwise absolute silence of the forest.
Everyone else was well asleep. Well nearly everyone.
¡°Able¡± I said as mutedly as possible.
Silence remained for a very long time. After an indiscernible amount of time had passed a feint voice replied.
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°There are three types of ways people choose to live in this world. People may rapidly change how they choose to live and incorporate aspects of the other two into their current living state.
There are those who are denizens of the past. They look back on all that has been then make decisions based off them. They are ones to learn from, and dwell on, the past.
There are those who live in the moment. Mostly uncaring for what is yet to come and what has gone by. They take things as they come and deal with things when they arrive. They will learn from past mistakes but will not dwell upon them.
There are finally those who choose to live for the future. They work hard towards dreams or future prospects. They base current actions for a more desirable future for themselves and others.
These are not absolute and a person may use one state to motivate another state. ¡°I said faintly.
¡°Look I can see where you are going with this. I am still grateful to you as being my benefactor but how I choose to live is of my own volition.¡± She quipped.
¡°Well In all honestly I care not for who you once were or what occurred to you in the past. Nor am I particularly caring for how you choose to live now. Heck, I don¡¯t care for things of sentimentality in general. Or at least I have not for a long time now. But I worry for you. You live dangerously in the past; to the point where your future is being affected.¡± I said sombrely.
¡°So?¡± She exclaimed while deeply quivering.
¡°Not just yours but novae¡¯s. I hate those who see destiny as an absolute but that does not mean I am uncaring for things that have yet to occur. I don¡¯t know what has happened to you but I can see where it is leading you all so clearly¡± I replied in a deeper state of melancholy.
¡°How could you even begin to understand my plight? Hundreds¡ if not thousands maybe even tens of¡th- thouthands¡ no¡ everyone gone ¡. gone¡± She cried as she began to break down into tears.
¡°I must apologise if I sound uncaring but deluding others and in particular deluding yourself to such matters is ¡¡±
¡°SHUT UP!¡± She howled as the entire forest reverberated with this heart rending cry. The once carefully balanced noise of the forest collapsed into a cacophony of aggravated monster cries. She broke down into tears as an inexorable grief exuded from every part of her being.
¡°Look, don¡¯t drag Novae down with you. I don¡¯t know who you once were or what happened to your spouse but it is retroactively destroying your current life and maybe even you and your daughter¡¯s future. I¡¯m not asking for much. Just don¡¯t let it affect your current way of life.¡±
-------------------------------------------------------POV Able--------------------------------------------------------
...[3]
Just what the hell does he know? I have only just met him and he thinks he can barge in on a person like me and expect me to change? Just what sort of moron is he? STUPID. BROKEN. PUPPET.
¡
No¡
¡
¡
My hate is misguided.
¡
¡
His intensions are well mannered but he sure knows how to throw a person already covered in cuts into a pool of boiling brine. Why did he take his damn dagger and attempt to lunge for my deepest wound. Does he not know that what I am doing is to stop something like that from ever occurring again?
He sees me to be deluded?
Am I?
Why do I even care for his point of view?
Is it because I blindly trust in him?
Or he is so similar to him?
I guess I have been misguided. Novae is his final legacy. I should not let my own personal woes impact upon her. I guess I am so mad because he is correct. Setting up an INN after¡ that ¡ occurred. It¡¯s best not to think of it as he said.
I was slowly able to pull my emotions into check as my persistent crying turned to the odd sniffle. Well I guess it¡¯s for the best that he confronted me about this now. Though his methods are up front he raised a real issue.
I looked up to see a downcast face of the enigmatic broken person known as Vacare. I let out a long sigh.
¡°You are acting.¡± He said in a down trodden voice .
Acting? Acting out what?
¡°When I first saw you¡ your face was resigned as if you accepted the death that was put before you willingly. I know not of how strong you truly are but you should have been able to crush those bandits like ants. Yet you... let them do that to you. You were grateful after the fact but in the moment it was if you were seeking death. I cannot accept that.¡± He said sadly.
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
¡°Look, I do not wish to speak about the events of the past; both of us have had our fair share of heartache¡ And I cannot honestly tell who has had it worse? But I truly don¡¯t have the power you speak of¡ I may have once but not now. I¡¯m not the sort of person to vainly throw my life away; I am adamant that I wish to continue on in this world. If I live not for my sake then I will live for Novae¡¯s sake. I must thank you for confronting me on such matters. After giving it a deeply introspective look I agree that where I was heading was not a good place by any means. In all honesty I was planning to set up another Inn when I got to the demon capitol. But as you may know my efforts would be far better spent elsewhere. For now the night is late. We may continue this tomorrow but for now let us get some sleep. I don¡¯t wish to wake the others¡± I calmly replied in a composed manner.
Vacare looked back at me with a complicated expression but had seemingly made his mind up on something. He shook his head and said
¡°Very well I guess it is late; let us continue this tomorrow.¡±
¡°Oh and Vacare¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°I guess. Keep on keeping on.¡±[4]
Silence returned to the outcrop we were in. The once raging camp fire slowly turned to a small pile of smouldering ashes as I fell asleep to the rhythmic breathing of the others who were already asleep¡.
¡zzzz¡
---------------------------------------------------------------POV Vacare-------------------------------------------------------
I awoke feeling groggy as the heated debate of last night remained steadfast in my mind. Novae was using me as some form of mount. Vinoessa looked to be long awake and preparing to leave. Able was still in a deep slumber as the debate most likely opened old and deep running wounds. I remain resolute that what I did was correct. If she was not confronted there and then she would have only dug herself deeper into a pit she could later not escape from.
I picked up and played with Novae for around 30 minutes; using my old worlds sexagesimal[5] time system as a standard. Able got up and gave me a strained look; after a while she exclaimed ¡°Thank You!¡± before running off to get ready for future endeavours.
¡°You look worn?¡± Vinoessa questioned.
¡°Long night.¡± I muttered while still waking up.
She looked my way and giggled while muttering something under her breath.
¡°What is it?¡± I enquired.
¡°Oh nothing.¡± She quietly said while trying to hold back laughter.
¡°Novae now you go and use Vinoessa as a horsey.¡± I said in good humour.
Vinoessa¡¯s face notably dropped in mood as the ravenous little chipmunk, Novae, encroached upon her. She began to slowly back off before turning around and running off in a full blown sprint with Novae close on her heels. That allowed me the time to get ready.
I went to a brook that was running close to our camp site. As I turned down to look at my face I saw a mess of mud and leafs staring back. I can understand why Vinoessa would laugh at me. I¡¯m more surprised that Novae and Able did not laugh at me. I casted a number of low level, water based, magic¡¯s that worked to clean my face off and acted as antiseptics to remove what may have been in all that mud. I then got changed into a new set of clothes that Able had on hand. They fit will; though they were simple leather and linen clothes. Witch included a leather tunic and a pair of mundane slightly greyish trousers.
After getting ready I headed back to where our camp was.
¡°Thanks for helping us pack up¡± a snarky and slightly disgruntled voice called out.
I began laughing in hysteria as Vinoessa had Novae clinging to her head. Her transformed form had large clumps of hair missing and she looked to have been clawed by a small animal. Able, with a disconcerted face, was standing next to her. She looked to have ¡°How could such a docile creature as my dear child Novae do such a thing?¡± written on her forehead.
I eventually calmed down and casted a low level water magic in a flat plain to give the illusion of a mirror. When Vinoessa saw her disorderly appearance she immediately used [Transformation Magic] to reconstruct the damaged areas of her appearance with a liberal dose of [Healing magic] to ensure that the scratches would disappear without leaving a scar. Able was not surprised by the use of such a rare magic as [Transformation magic]. (By this world¡¯s standard)
Vinoessa then continued, with great effort, to tear Novae from her face and placed her in Able¡¯s hold where novae immediately fell asleep. She let out a long sigh and turned her head to Able.
¡°Keep your child on a leash.¡± She said.
She then turned her head to me.
¡°And don¡¯t look at me with such schadenfreude¡± she added.
Able woke Novae and got her to profusely apologise for the second time in a day. Able looked to have had her spirits greatly raised from yesterday. Well I hope what I said had a positive effect on able.
¡°Well then shall we continue to the [Telepotation Gate]!¡± I exclaimed.
¡°Very well¡± Vinoessa sighed seemingly being ready to go back to bed.
Able gave a slight nod and carried novae along with us.
We ventured forth into the dense and lush underbrush. As we continued deeper into the forest the greenery was tinged bleak grey by the thick canopy of that rustled above us. The ground was an amalgamated dissonance of mud, dirt, shrubbery and fallen leaves. As the mana signature of the teleportation gate got closer relics of bygone eras became a common sight. The odd malformed scrap of heavily rusted metal or a greatly eroded stone with indistinct runic carvings became an increasingly common sight. Eventually I made an abrupt stop after about an hour and a half of walking.
¡°What is it?¡± Vinoessa questioned.
I held up my hand to quieten her.
¡°~magicae~ ~edictum~ ~claudicatis~¡±
I chanted the given prerequisite incantation to form this high level nullification magic. The Flow of all ambient mana halted. The forest got distinctly quieter as a monochromatic overtone let the once vibrant forest bathe in a noir filter.
¡°What did you jus¡¡± Vinoessa began to question in confusion.
But at that point several runic engravings on surrounding stones shone brightly before rapidly deteriorating in their lustre. At this point the space immediately in front of us distorted into an entirely new space of around 50 meters in diameter. This space was superimposed onto our current reality. A resounding shockwave from the two conflicting realities exploded outwards before imploding under the effects of the nullification magic I had used earlier. The state of space in front of us stabilized and went back to its prior equilibrium.
¡°~magicae~ ~edictum~ ~ influunt~¡±
The world returned to its prior state as mana began to flow again.
¡°What the hell did you do!?¡± Vinoessa exclaimed.
¡°There was a key stone holding a pocket dimension bound to a number of the stones with the strange engravings carved onto them. They were heavily encrypted and would have taken a number of hours, if not days, to find a way of untangling there encodings. I used a magic called [Nullification field] to forcibly halt the flow of magic in the local area. This caused the key stones to loose there effect and the pocket dimension was forcibly expelled in the process.¡± I explained.
¡°Wait so if I were a meter forwards¡¡±
¡°You would have been annihilated by that space time anomaly.¡± I said matter of factly.
¡°Can you warn me next time you overlay two dimensions¡± she said exasperatedly.
At this point Able caught up and looked at me with and incomparably complex expression. Wait ¡ have I seen that somwhere Before ? That expression... [6]
I shook my head and looked back at Able. She looked to have dismissed something she thought not worth saying or too irrational to say.
She then looked beyond me at the new space with little surprise. I turned my head to look at what was stored in that pocket dimension. A towering obsidian monolith covered in enumerable runic carvings loomed menacingly in the middle of a small arid wasteland.
¡°Looks like we have found our teleportation gate.¡± I exclaimed.
¡°That thing?¡± Vinoessa queried.
Able remained silent.
I got closer to the monolithic pillar of obsidian and placed my hand on it.
Looks like this construct uses the portal variant of [Teleportation magic]. This is a simple way of getting from point A to point B. It works off using a massive amount of mana to tear a whole in space between to anchor points. This is a highly volatile way of doing things as the portals a typically highly unstable and prone to collapse. Looks like a large amount of the magic formations, engraved on the stone, is in place to stabilize and add fail-safes to the otherwise fairly simple, yet dangerous, spell.
There are many ways to teleport between two points in space. The way I use to teleport is a method called [Relativistic teleportation]. This works off a translation of your current self to a separate point in space. This requires large amounts of mana as you have to destroy all matter in the casters body to get the relevant information to reconstruct them elsewhere.[7] The information is then forcibly quantum tunnelled to the predefined region in space as encoded by the spell and, if the spell was properly formed, it should reconstruct your body. Your soul will automatically move at immense speeds to what it finds to be a suitable vessel, or the body that was previously reconstructed; exceeding the speed of light in most cases.[8]
There is also a method called [Absolute teleportation] that works on a similar premise but is far harder to use as it focusses on fixed positions in space. It seems simple in practice but when trying to fire something like that from a ball rotating at 1,040 mph; that rotates around a the suns at 108,000 km/h; that travels around the celestial centre of the galaxy at a speed of 514,000 mph; that travels through space at 1.3 million miles per hour. I commend anyone with the tenacity to go through and use that as a mode of teleportation.
Regardless of I began to connect to the network of anchors and looked to one the anchors at the in the Far East. This one looks to be far more damaged than the one here and just barely functional. I poured in mana to the magical formation as the runic engravings began to glow in a red lustre. A large magical formation formed in space before slowly opening in a portal to the demon capitol. The portal looked highly unstable. I casted a number of auxiliary spells to force the spatial anomaly to remain open.
¡°RUN!¡± I shouted as I ran towards the portal.
I made my way through the portal with Vinoessa, Able and Novae trailing close behind. I went through the portal in trepidation of what awaited us¡
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[1] Just for interest the way the star system is set up is like this
[2] No she is not omniscient *poke* *poke*
[3] No; Able is not a unlikable ungrateful twat.(E.g: she has more than enough reason to be this way though that is a secret :P)
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk3jepjGcvw Hu huh :3 sorry :P
[5] Our worlds 60 seconds in a minute 60 minutes in an hour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal#Modern_usage)
[6] W.D gaster would be proud ke ke ke . Please note if you see only squares or question marks get a browser that supports Unicode :P.
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI
[8] Hey it¡¯s a fictional world ¡ at least I try to explain this stuff in some twisted pseudo-science :P
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Rate it if you feel it is ready for critique. Please comment about things anything to do with the novel or corrections :)
(sorry for slow release exams are not fun :D) BTW will fix spelling errors when i work out how to edit chapters with this new fanged interface :P
And most of all Thanks For Reading!
Chapter 16: The world that once was
this has now been proof read so you wont cry tears of blood while reading it :P
---------------------------------------------------POV Vacare-------------------------------------------------------------------
The portal was heavily distorting. It looked as if it were going to collapse at any second. The spells I had casted, for good measure, took effect and forcibly held the gap in space time open. A battle between the laws of this world and the formations built to inhibit them was violently fought as the ambient mana levels notably dropped. I called out to run into the portal as it looked like the laws of the world were taking effect and slowly overriding the formations I had casted.
Vinoessa move with great haste through the portal. Able and Novae jumped through soon after. I followed thereafter. I winced in pain as I entered the chaotic void space that resided outside of existence itself. Void space is something hard to explain buy nature. It is not really a space as per se but more an effect of the conflicting spaces of the portal. Normally the anchor points would remove this conflict but it looks like the safety mechanisms on both sides have failed.
The acute pain was not a problem for me I was more worried about the effect it would have on Novae and Able. I continued on through the portal when a feint sound came to my attention. It was indistinct, hazy and omnidirectional; being heavily drowned out by the disjointed and strong static of the conflict of the two spaces.
¡°Help¡± A phantasmal, ethereal and sublime, yet resigned, voice seemingly plead as the space to either side of the void space began to contort.
¡°m-¡±[SYSTE]¡±-e-¡±[M NOT]¡± ple¡±[IFICAT]¡±-a-¡±[ION: you have entered the ]
I hastened my step and fell out on the other side of the portal. My line of sight was full of nothing but sand as the gravitational fields of the two spaces normalized. I fell, face first, to the ground making a rather spectacular impact; if I do say so myself. I stood back up and patted my tunic to remove the copious amount of dust I had collected on my little escapade with the ground.
I looked towards Able; being worried for her wellbeing. She looked to be fine. Novae looked to be heavily-muddle headed but otherwise fine. I then turned my head to Vinoessa who looked to be quite nauseous and was muttering something in a quiet voice. I then turned my head towards the anchor point that held the portal open on this side. It was violently pulsating with crimson sparks arcing between each of the engraved runes.
¡That¡¯s not good. [1]
The intervals between each pulse got increasingly shorter as the ferocity of the lightning like arcs got fiercer.
¡°Is that supposed to happen?¡± Vinoessa forebodingly questioned.
Able turned her head and looked at the anchor with a slight tinge of fear. ¡°This is bad¡ who doesn¡¯t put in protection against feedback loops.¡± she mumbled. ¡°Can you stabilize the positive feedback loop that has formed Vacare?¡± she gravely questioned.
Positive feedback loop¡ that¡¯s not good. Looks like two of the fail-safes are repeatedly triggering each other for one reason or another. Given that there is no cut of points for the amount of mana that can be passed through the portal as, by its nature, it requires a colossal amount of mana to run it looks like it is beginning to overload its power source. Ironically all those fail-safes made it fail-deadly [2].
I looked back at Able and said ¡°Well I guess I can try?¡± while giving a slight smile. I attempted to build a magic formation that would hopefully break the loop but building form out of such chaotic manner is incomparably difficult. Every time I attempted to cast a formation it would be washed away by the rampant and chaotic mana. It was like trying to draw a fine painting in the sand while the tide was coming in.
¡°Mabey using the portal was not such a good idea?¡± I dejectedly remarked.
Vinoessa looked at me with a forlorn expression and just muttered under her own breath ¡°The damn know it all can¡¯t do anything? Are we all dead?¡±.
She ran to the edge of the pocket dimension and hit against the bound of the space. Able looked to be coldly calculating something and novae was still looking round in a very strange and bewildered manner.
I looked back to the half destroyed monolith before me. It was now shining incredibly bright red light and was beginning to notably contort. Able quickly dashed towards the incredibly dangerous tower and struck it with a stone she had picked up on the way. The rampant mana went berserk and began to create slight spatial distortions.
¡°What the hell are..¡± My voice was cut off as multiple high level barrier formations were auto-cast by the anchor subsequently pushing Able back. A mechanical, highly distorted, artificial, and monotone voice said in a different tongue to the language typically spoken in this world.
[MaUual override initialiZed: ForceddD-d shu-Utdown in ef-Ef-Ef fect¡
¡
Err- Or: ManA LimIt Has BeEn ExceeEded bY -2,147,483,648%[4]
¡
¡
¡
¡
Stolen story; please report.Containment field initialised: scanning for living entities.
¡
Scan successful 3 Found!
¡.
Forcibly ejecting all living entities from protected space.
]
A small gap opened up beneath my and Vinoessa¡¯s feat. Able was holding Novae as a whole opened up beneath them too. My vision faltered before fading to white as I was forcibly expelled from the pocket dimension.
I awoke on the ground; still slightly jarred from the forced teleportation. I stood up and looked to where I was. Verdant grassland covered my immediate vision. This grassland slowly tapered off into an arid volcanic wasteland with seemingly active volcanoes in the far distance. Great plumes of volcanic ash, emanating from the precipices of each volcano, created colossal spires that rose into the sky supporting massive clouds of ash. The entire sky was tinged in various shades of indigo as if the world were locked into perpetual sunset.
¡°Vinoessa? Able? Novae?¡±
¡°Yes.¡± A meek and feeble voice replied from an indistinguishable source.
I turned to look for its source. A small draconian girl was sitting on a fallen tree just in front of me. It was novae. Her face was slightly pale. But that was not the surprising part. Beyond her lay, what looked to be, monoliths of the distant past. Engines of war laid sprawled out in a disorderly and inconsistent manner. They looked to have been abandoned in great haste. Whomever they belonged to looked to have been readying for something. This was evident from the large caches of ammunition, imbued with the slightest traces of mana, piled up against the various guns and tank like constructs that covered the entire horizon.
Beyond the mechanical graveyard stood a colossal metropolis eroded by the passage of time. What stood looked to be built to last; as many of the buildings, though worn and decrepit, still stood. The slightest traces of mana could be felt off them; suggesting strenuous reinforcement, by use of magic, had been applied to the buildings. The buildings in their own right were of varying size and structure with a general trend of getting taller and thicker as they encroached upon the centre of the dystopian city. The most notable buildings were hundreds of meters high and didn¡¯t pale in comparison to the skyscrapers of my old world. At the very centre of the city stood a particularly notable structure; of multiple miles high in height. It looked to have collapsed from intentional damage given its jagged top that remained inconsistent with surrounding structures.
I made my way towards Novae who was looking highly disconcerted with no sight of her normally extraverted personality. I arrived at the side of novae and sat on the log with her.
¡°Have you seen anyone else?¡± I grimly questioned.
¡°No¡¡± she replied in a near whisper acting far more introverted than she would normaly.
¡°How long have you been awake?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
¡°Are you ok?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
¡°What happened? were you left in this scary place for too long?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
¡°Are you willing to answer anything?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
I reached out and held Novae¡¯s hand. On the instance I touched her I felt something was off about her. Something indeterminate, an inexplicable void, a loss of complexity; like trying to reconstruct a 3 dimensional object from its shadow. Novae suddenly took in a deep breath and began hyperventilating before suddenly falling limp. I held her and casted a magic that would check the condition of someone¡¯s body. It failed.
The surrounding air was odious. There was something wrong with the condition of the air surrounding me. The atmosphere was off; it was too acrid.
Poison!
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[1]No shit Sherlock !
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_feedback ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUKQfMFKfjk
(some details about what they are talking about if my poor explanations are good for anything :P )
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2147483647_(number)
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Thanks for reading! (short chapter this time round but my AS exams are over so more soon (or not because i''m a lazy shit))
If you find any contextual or grammatical mistakes please reply
Spoiler : I was too influenced by this lol