ã€ŠDemon&#x27;s Country Protectorã€‹


 Chapter 1: Cracks

    The big furry fist coming straight to my round face after I thought to had dodged it, made one thing clear to me. The path to becoming a real Grand Prince is too long and once again beyond my reach with my current power.

    But one day, I will have power enough to defeat Zorenyth and fulfill-

    I coughed blood as Zorenyth sent me flying.

    ...

    Nowadays you can¡¯t even have a reflection without being interrupted! Where will this world go in this way? I should ask mother to let me create a law to save all the unfinished reflections since the people are rude enough to interrupt them.

    Feeling the spring¡¯s rash winds against my tiny body and appreciating the obscene clouds above me - don¡¯t ask me why they are on this way, nobody knows - while I am flying, gave to me a chance to make some deep questions.

    Who am I? Where am I going? And how can I be alive after eating mother¡¯s homemade food?

    To completely answer the first question is really hard, but I will try. I am Alexander, a disgusting Human with short black hair and eyes dark as the robe I am wearing.

    What? Do you want more? Well, in this world, Maroeltha, there are Humans and Demons, and although my body is of a Human - why did I born as a Human? The worst shit that has happened to me in my seven years of life - I live in the Demon¡¯s country as their Prince. The reason to be hard to answer this question is that there is information about me that I don¡¯t know. So bear with it.

    The second question in comparison is easy, I am of course going to-

    The ground. My head hit it, and as I was feeling the pain of two hard places colliding, the ground rebounded me in the air.

    My body spun, not knowing what is left or right for a long time. Until Solaris, my first friend, with all her speed and dexterity possible in her small body, grabbed one of my feet in the middle air.

    I stopped spinning and when I was going thank her, she deviously smirked and I knew what was going through her head in that moment.

    ¡°Your Highness, don¡¯t worry. I will put you ¡®in¡¯ the ground before you can blink.¡± She said, still suspending me in the air.

    I¡¯m fucked up, aren¡¯t I? She deliberately used ¡®in¡¯ instead of ¡®on¡¯.

    Solaris gave a cute yell and brought me down to the ground with all her strength, making me kiss the ground and create a crater around my bloody body.

    Who could know that the son of the Holy Demon Queen, Nuala Ophiuchus, would give his first kiss to the ground?

    It is time to answer the third question and how I am still alive after being so much beaten up.

    ¡­

    I seriously don¡¯t know! I don¡¯t think being capable of manipulating Essence is enough to maintain me alive until now.

    I groaned as I stood up with my body bleeding and screaming to me give it some rest.

    ¡°Solaris, after I finish my lesson you can heal Alex. Go back to your chair.¡± Zorenyth, Infarcerio¡¯s clan leader, said with his golden slit eyes criticizing Solaris¡¯ decision of daring to leave her place in the classroom.

    Zorenyth had a golden mane surrounding his face with horns at its sides and together with all his blond fur and muzzle, he is normally compared to a lion by Mother. Even though he wears the noble darkrobe only available to the Arcanum¡¯s users and clan leaders, he everyday calls poor demon children to his garden in the Infarcerio¡¯s mansion to teach them about Essence and the world.

    You can say he is a strict and sometimes a too prideful Demon, but when near any person in need he is the noblest and caring Demon that I know. He mounts a classroom and plans his class with his utmost effort, not forgetting to give food to the children that show interest in the lesson.

    Although if you are a Half-Demon you will immediately die if you get near the mansion¡¯s gates. And I don¡¯t even need to say what will happen if it is a Human, however, it is impossible to one get near here, since they are all slaves in this country.

    Of course, with exception of me.

    ¡°Tch! Stupid lion.¡± Solaris quietly said while playing with her scarlet long hair and short horns. ¡°Fine, I will heal him later.¡± Solaris without fear of Zorenyth¡¯s power, she calmly strolled back to her chair in the middle of all the poor children.

    Zorenyth ignored her and continued his lesson as I suffered to go back to my place in the class, at Zorenyth¡¯s side. ¡°What I and Alex showed to all of you was a combat application of the Essence. For the ones that are new I will explain again about it, Essence is an energy that is everywhere, in our bodies and in the space around us.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, even with years of training, it is only possible to use Essence to do Augmentation, the process which you strengthen a part of your very ¡®being¡¯.¡± Zorenyth raised his right hand. ¡°To do anything beyond it, you need of an Artifact provided by the Army if you decide to enlist in it. But even so, you will never be able to manipulate the World¡¯s Essence, the energy from the planet.¡±

    A mighty white fire appeared on Zorenyth¡¯s right hand after little red sparks made of the World¡¯s Essence touched his hand, the heat and pressure emanating from it threatened to burn mine and everyone else¡¯s own existence. ¡°The only ones capable of manipulating the World¡¯s Essence are the Arcanum¡¯s users chosen by one of the twenty-two Arcanum Artifacts. And of course, it is impossible to a filthy Human use it or steals it like they stole the mean to use the Essence within one¡¯s own body.¡±

    The white fire disappeared and I and the children let out a sigh of relief that I didn''t even know I was holding on. ¡°Any questions?¡±

    A boy with chestnut hair in the front row asked. ¡°My parents always told me to hate Humans and how filthy Humans are, since they can¡¯t speak the Holy Tongue or become an Arcanum¡¯s user. So, I¡­ would like to know¡­¡± The boy stopped himself from uttering any more words with fear of angering me, a Demon Prince.

    I smiled at how timid he was and made a signal to Zorenyth urge the boy to continue, a ruler can¡¯t govern without knowing the thoughts of the more humble part of his subjects. ¡°Fret not, you are in the presence of me, this country¡¯s General, I have permission to even kill princes or princesses if they bully any of you.¡±

    The confidence in the Peasant General seemed to won over his fear and the boy looked at me with determined eyes. ¡°Why a Human is wearing the Noble Robe and is a Prince? Why all the uncles of the stalls friendly greet him and even give to him things for free?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, could be you are seven or six years old?¡± Zorenthy and all the rest of the children curiously looked at the chestnut boy.

    I thought he would question something more interesting to answer, like ¡®why that filthy imitation of Prince is here?¡¯ or ¡®Humans killed my parents! I don¡¯t want to be near one! Why he is still alive and without a collar?¡¯.

    ¡°How did you know?¡± The boy strangely looked at the General and the other children.

    ¡°Then I can¡¯t blame you for not knowing or your parents for not telling you, they probably got too used to Alex¡¯s existence that they might have forgotten Alex is a Human.¡± Zorenyth made a contemplating expression. ¡°Did you perceive what language Alexander had used when I and him fought?¡±

    The boy widened his big blue eyes and Zorenyth continued. ¡°That¡¯s right. He used the Holy Tongue that not even the Half-Demons aberrations can use. So Our Divine and Maroeltha¡¯s Will don¡¯t recognize him as an invader like the rest of the Humans. And one the reasons for him be a Prince is because Her Majesty had adopted him and the other reason is¡­ seeing is believing. Alex, do it.¡±

    I raised my hand like Zorenyth did, concentrating on the sparse but grandiose energy around me, I called the red sparks and a small scarlet ball of fire appeared on my hand. ¡°I am actually an Arcanum¡¯s user,¡± I said trying to sound cool to my fellow comrades of near age.

    However, I won¡¯t tell them that although my assimilation rate in my two Arcanum Artifacts is one hundred percent, I still didn¡¯t receive any new ability.

    I don''t want them to have a bad impression of me. My image as a Demon Prince needs to be perfect! So, Solaris. Please stop smiling! Don¡¯t ruin even more my image, do you know how hard it is to rule over a country when your subjects think their ruler is weak?

    ¡°The ¡®uncles¡¯ of the stalls like of His Highness because the majority of reforms and new laws are made by him, and many of them improved the lives of poor people like you or the commerce of small business¡¯ owners like those ¡®uncles¡¯. You can even say he is our actual ruler.¡± Solaris still had inside of her some compassion and didn¡¯t destroy my image with her explanation.

    The boy tried to apologize to me, but I didn¡¯t let him. It was just a curiosity of his and I wasn¡¯t offended by it.

    Time passed as I became Zorenthy¡¯s guinea pig to show the children how to train Essence and finally all of them left the mansion with food enough to sustain their family for some time.

    ¡°You failed again. At this rate, you will lose the Grand Prince¡¯s position.¡± Zorenyth approached me while Solaris was grumpily healing me. ¡°How many years have you been trying to receive my approval, Infarcerio¡¯s Seal?¡±

    ¡°Four years,¡± I said, understanding my weakness and how deplorable I am to still not receive it after trying since I was three years old.

    In this country, Stroudor, is relatively easy to become a Demon Prince or Princess, you only need to show a certain amount of talent and you become one. The hard part is to become a Grand Prince or Princess that will be the next to rule over Stroudor, to do it you need to receive the approval of one the twelve clan¡¯s leaders and the acknowledgment of one the Arcanum Artifacts.

    I already have two Arcanum Artifacts and I am the closest to become the Grand Prince, but I still don¡¯t have a ¡®real¡¯ Clan Seal.

    Everyday Zorenyth gives me a different Trial to surpass and I fail in all of them, today was the first time he asked to fight with him.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you use Torest¡¯s Seal to become the Grand Prince? You have it, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t use that woman¡¯s Seal. I didn¡¯t finish curing her. I refuse to become the Grand Prince in this way.¡±

    Torest¡¯s clan leader gave me her Seal, but how could I use a Seal from someone that can¡¯t even ratiocinate or even remember her daughters¡¯ face? I will cure her no matter how everyone says it is impossible.

    Zorenyth went silent while fumbling with his mane and because of it that annoying winged thing¡¯s words became more clear to me. ¡°Run! They are trying to fool you! Lord! Please, open your eyes to the truth! They don¡¯t like you, they will use you and then abandon you-¡±

    Why they always come no matter how many times they are killed? Could be they don¡¯t appreciate their own life? If it stayed quiet, I would probably spare it.

    ¡°There is an Angel on my right shoulder.¡± With the end of my words, Zorenyth used his high speed to grab the small invisible Angel to his eyes. ¡°Save me-¡± It cried.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ what strange feeling. I can¡¯t see it or even sense its presence, but when I use my strength I can clearly feel it.¡± Zorenyth opened his jaws and slowly ate the Angel while I could see the silver blood dripping from his jaws and hear the blood-curdling screams of the Angel.

    ¡°Tomorrow my son will be here, I will give you another Trial based on him. Come here after the sunset.¡± Zorenyth said after finishing his meal and going back to work without saying goodbye to me or Solaris.

    Solaris locked her violet eyes with black slits into mine deep pitch black eyes. ¡°For how much time will you continue this farce? What will do you if someone becomes a Grand Prince before you? My entire life and childhood weren¡¯t sacrificed to you play this stupid game of ¡®child¡¯s stubbornness¡¯. In one month we will become eight years old and I will receive mother¡¯s Arcanum Artifact, if you still haven¡¯t become a Grand Prince by then¡­ I will kill you.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    I became silent as Solaris gave a punch in my face and ignored me as she left the Infarcerio¡¯s mansion.

    Solaris has always been like this, direct and slightly murderous when near me.

    A strange coincidence occurred that she, the daughter of the Kahonusk¡¯s clan leader, born on the same day I had born. Since then she became my maid wearing a black dress with apron and never had the right to have a normal childhood or friends.

    She was brutally trained to become my shadow and protect me from assassinations of both sides, the Humans and the Demons.

    Leaving the mansion after recovering from the punch, I saw Solaris waiting for me together with a carriage powered by Essence Crystals.

    Unfortunately, I won¡¯t have today the opportunity of feeling the carriage¡¯s comfy seat.

    I can see many Angels and Artifacts¡¯ Essence pulses in the nearby houses¡¯ roofs, in other words, there is a bunch of assassins from both sides waiting to kill me today.

    Being inside of a carriage is the worst place to be in this case, I can see myself dying in a street accident or even by the Essence Bomb planted under the carriage.

    I approached Solaris and hugged her, whispering in her ears. ¡°There are twelve assassins from both sides on the roofs and I can sense a weak Essence pulse below us, the enemies are in possession of at least middle-grade Artifacts.¡±

    Solaris¡¯ body trembled and she grabbed so strongly her dress that it began to tear, breaking the hug I could see blood dripping from her lips by her angrily biting it and also the pure fury which can, in this case, be called of hatred in her eyes.

    She must be feeling exasperated, her whole life was spent and trained only for these moments, but she didn¡¯t sense the assassins or discovered the bomb. ¡®Why I suffered so much to learn to protect this dumbass, only to in the end not perceive his hiding enemies?!¡¯, a similar thought to this must be going through her head in this moment.

    The hatred maybe isn¡¯t even directed at the enemies but at her own lack of power.

    It wasn¡¯t really her fault since these assassins seemed to be awhole level above the normal ones, making me worried at her safety. ¡°Can you take care of them alone? Do you want me to call mo-¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll massacre them all, don¡¯t even dare to call that tit-monster¡­ just walk to the castle, I will catch up with you before you arrive there.¡± Solaris¡¯ body divided into numerous ball of flames while letting a dangerous message to me. ¡°If you stay to help me, I will cut all my ties with you.¡±

    Solaris different from me that always have to lie for various reasons, she never did lie in her life. So her warning was completely serious.

    I silently went home whilst ignoring the yelling and explosion sounds, not wanting to end my first friendship.

    On the way back, after kicking a fallen Human slave - it is me or him, I die if I show any tinge of compassion to Humans - to maintain my image as Demon Prince and buying food to a nearby Demon beggar, I saw a common scene which I didn¡¯t know if I could intervene without dying.

    In the alley, Demon teenagers are bullying and kicking a female adult Half-Demon. And by their lascivious smiles, I can see where this is going if nobody interrupts them.

    Which nobody will do, all the rest of the Demons were ignoring this common scene, but because I stopped at the alley, they are now looking and judging what I will do.

    Normally Solaris handles these cases, but I am now alone. Will I be an exemplary Demon Prince? Or will I disgrace myself by helping someone that can¡¯t use the Holy Tongue?

    Because of my one hundred percent assimilation rate with my Arcanum Artifacts, an intense hatred against Humans flows through my blood, mind and even soul. And my Arcanum Artifacts will immediately kill me if I try to help someone related to the Humans.

    ¡°@%@(&(&()! @@/* save me!¡± The woman shouted using the common Human language that I didn¡¯t completely learn.

    My Human¡¯s language comprehension is still at the basics, but I could understand the words ¡®save me¡¯.

    I considered my options, it is impossible to this adult woman had survived to this age without already been used by a nearby Demon, so I saving her now would change anything?

    Like it is impossible to end with all the slavery of all the Multiverses, there are innumerable Half-Demons in worse situations than this woman, and what makes her special enough to be saved instead of the others Half-Demons?

    Probably... her face? No, it is ugly. Her eyes? No, they have lost their luster. Her talent? No, she won¡¯t ever be an Arcanum¡¯s user.

    There is nothing.

    So why am I walking to the Demon teenagers?

    I am being a fucking hypocrite right now, didn¡¯t that male Human slave also deserve to be saved? Is it because she is a female that I am going to help her? I don¡¯t know.

    ...

    Fuck it all!

    I am going to save her because I can!

    I didn¡¯t save any slave until now because they had already received Our Divine¡¯s mark, but this woman didn¡¯t.

    ¡°My gentlemen, can I ask you to continue this in an appropriate place? Please think about the problem the cleaning¡¯s ¡®aunt¡¯ will have to clean this alley.¡± I warmly approached them with my arms open.

    Please, Solaris! I am counting on you to my plan work! I trust in your power, come back to me!

    ¡°Demon Prince Alexander, what the hell are you talking about?¡± The one that seemed the leader with a red skin asked.

    ¡°Do you know how hard it is to clean certain ¡®liquids¡¯? The person who cleans this alley will have tremendous work to do it.¡± I talked with them without stopping smiling and with friendly eyes.

    ¡°But, do you want to join us?¡± They ignored the cleaning¡¯s ¡®aunt¡¯ argument. How rude of them to not consider the cleaning¡¯s ¡®aunt¡¯!

    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t have anyinterest in ¡®spoiled goods¡¯ and I doubt my penis would be long enough to my ejaculation-¡± I interrupted myself seeing the teenagers¡¯ puzzled faces.

    ¡°Was I being too technical?¡± I wondered aloud. ¡°The Reformation in the education must the next on my list.¡±

    ¡°Can you make the school fun!?¡± All of them - even the Demons at the street - asked me at the same time.

    ¡°...That is impossible.¡± I told them the grim news. ¡°School is called school because it is boring. If the school was made to be fun, it would have been called Gaming Place when our ancestors created it.¡±

    Solaris, where are you?

    All the Demon¡¯s faces had a defeated look as their tiny last hope was cruelly smashed by a sledgehammer know as reality.

    I know I''m exaggerating, but I could use this chance to reach the Half-Demon. ¡°Let me help you guys take this thrash to a nearby hotel, I will pay for you guys. Consider this as my apology for damping the mood.¡±

    ¡°Woohoo!¡± The teenagers celebrated and the Demons of the street continued with their life after hearing my ¡®kind¡¯ suggestion.

    Solaris! I don¡¯t want to do something I will regret, please show yourself!

    I showed my back to the teenagers and looked at the raven-haired Half-Demon with hollow red eyes. ¡°@! *(#), I &(%)(*) save me!¡± She said crying and with fear.

    My hands went to take her and I slowly said while flashing a smile, and using my basic common Human language. ¡°Don¡¯t, worry, I, save, you.¡±

    When I was close to touching her, a strong hand gripped my head and I never in my life felt so good by receiving pain as my Artifacts would me kill me at that moment because they can''t be that stupid to not perceive what I''m doing. My savior has come. Solaris, my bea-

    The hand made me kiss the ground for the second time today and as if not satisfied, it burrowed my head so deep in the ground that only my legs were outside of the ground?

    If an ostrich saw me now, it would give me a prize for winning the tournament. Which tournament do you ask? I don¡¯t know, maybe at burying heads deep in the ground.

    ¡°Your Highness, what do you think you are doing?¡± From underground I could hear Solaris¡¯ cold voice. ¡°I don¡¯t think molesting females is on your agenda for today, and even if it was I doubt your deplorable excuse of a penis would be long enough to make any woman feel something.¡± She raised me up by the legs and unceremoniously threw me to the alley¡¯s wall whilst my teeth fell to the sides because of the earlier powerful ¡®burrowing¡¯.

    I don¡¯t think I will ever be able to forget the concrete¡¯s taste mixed with blood and broken teeth. Note to self: never let your mouth open when you are expecting Solaris to attack you.

    ¡°Now, Teenager A, B, C, and D. Do you understand the crimes you are all committing?¡± Solaris brought up her authority of Demon Princess to show to the teenagers that she no even bothered to ask the names.

    ¡°What?! Solaris Kahonusk!¡± The leader looked to the sides, searching for a way to escape after exclaiming and seeing the Kahonusk¡¯s Clan Seal. ¡°We-¡±

    ¡°You all had broken the Law number 8.666: You shall not abuse of Half-Demons.¡± Solaris activated all her Artifacts and pointed her finger at the street. ¡°I know there is a police officer watching this, come here do your job before I decide to myself their sentence and yours too by neglecting your job.¡±

    In a puff of wind, the teenagers disappeared while a voice sounded from above. ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me! I will take them to the delegacy, so please don¡¯t report me.¡±

    ¡°Coward, I don¡¯t have time to deal with little insects like you. I need to deal with an even bigger criminal at my front.¡± She deactivated her Artifacts. ¡°Begone while I still can control my temper.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Demon Princess.¡±

    When I was going to stand up after rolling on the ground, Solaris stepped on my body and glared at the Half-Demon. ¡°Do you know the number of crimes you committed?¡±

    ¡°You used your body to tempt a Demon Prince! Almost his holy body became tainted by you, and as if not enough you punched, kicked and took his teeth off.¡± Solaris punctuated all her accusations by stepping on me again and again.

    Solaris, no matter how you see, it is you the one that needs to get arrested.

    ¡°Your crimes are too big to be paid with your miserable life, so I sentence you to become a slave maid through all your life!¡± Solaris knocked out the Half-Demon and called the castle¡¯s guards using a short distance talisman. ¡°I have someone that will become a slave maid here, do all the preparations and come get her. I am in an alley at the front of Simon¡¯s bakery.¡±

    It seems Solaris knows well me enough to discover my objective without asking me.

    If the Half-Demon continued living her normal life, a similar thing would occur and I doubt she has a good life in Stroudor, being a Half-Demon. But if she becomes a slave maid, nobody will abuse her anymore and she will even have the right to meet her family wherever she wants.

    She will be a slave, however, in this case, is a fate that many would like to receive. Although her ¡®crimes¡¯ are strange, she will have money, food, security and if she works well enough she can even bring her family to the castle.

    Solaris carefully healed me and regrew my broken teeth until the soldiers came and took the Half-Demon with them. ¡°You could have died if your Arcanum Artifacts reacted. Why are you so irresponsible for just a random Half-Demon?¡± She grabbed myrobe with her bloody hands and letting her head down.

    ¡°It is because I trust you, Solaris. I knew you would come.¡± I looked at how her body is full of blood.

    Taking out my favorite handkerchief from my pockets, I began to wipe the blood from her tiny hands that have already killed far more people than me.

    ¡°Stop.¡± She shakily held my hand. ¡°I am the maid, not you.¡±

    We walked back to the castle without anything of interesting happening and Solaris tired after the fight was silent through all the way.

    Finally, the Holy Silver Castle appeared on our visions, the lustrous castle¡¯s gates were protected by many soldiers bearing Artifacts and its defense was powerful enough to endure an explosion of a high-grade Essence Bomb.

    The castle had thirteen towers in a spiral form that seemed to be piercing the heavens, aside from it, the castle didn¡¯t have many decorations or extravagant places like a useless big garden. The castle was built around the pure concept of war, Mother told me it can even fly if needed.

    Of course, everything inside or outside of it is silvery white. The obsession with this specific color is strange and I wonder who decided to this glorious and imposing castle be of only one color.

    But I never complained it to Mother, since silvery white is my favorite color - actually, I just learned to like it, try to live your entire childhood in this place. If you don¡¯t like it, you will become crazy after seeing only one color for your entire life.

    The soldiers saluted us and I saw something I didn¡¯t want to see.

    ¡°Hide! Lord is here, enter inside of the clothes.¡± Angels were embarrassedly trying to fit inside of the Fourth Demon Prince¡¯s clothes.

    By the quantity of them, it wasn''t a coincidence. What a shame, I liked trading blows with you.Crab, you had dug your own grave. Curse the Hinyn¡¯s clan leader for not being loved enough by my Mother to know about my capability of seeing Angels.

    ¡°The Fourth Demon Prince is a traitor. Send our spies to track to what house or city he is going after leaving the castle.¡± I used my serious tone of voice that Solaris knows she can¡¯t play around with me or injury me until my orders are completed. ¡°In my country traitors are unacceptable. Our objective isn¡¯t his capture, we will slowly kill him until he realizes the deep sin he has committed. No matter who gets on our way, even Hinyn¡¯s clan leader.¡±

    ¡°My King, your wish is my command.¡± Solaris bowed and left.

    You couldn¡¯t lose the chance to say that, could you?

    <hr>

    Meanwhile in a secret cavern under the Holy Silver Castle

    The Holy Demon Queen was hysterically laughing. ¡°Yes! Yes! Only one more push and it will be destroyed, as expected of my Alex. He never disappoints me.¡±

    At her front, the Prophecy Slab received another crack, it was so full of it that you could say the slab hasn¡¯t been destroyed yet by its pure willpower.

    ¡°Your Majesty, Zorenyth Infarcerio called and said he decided that tomorrow he will use his son for ¡®that¡¯.¡± Solaris¡¯ mother said.

    The Holy Demon Queen took her stupid evil laugh to a level beyond everything that is known. ¡°Call all the others Clan Leaders, with the stupid lion¡¯s decision the slab will receive the final blow. Finally, the prophecy will be destroyed!¡±

    The Holy Demon Queen began to dance and sing. ¡°Celebrate, all my ancestors! Tomorrow will be the most important and grandiose day since our country¡¯s creation.¡±

    She cried. ¡°My little Alex, soon I and you be set free from this ridiculous Fate and Destiny! My three thousand years of effort will be paid off tomorrow.¡±

    She laughed more - will she never stop doing it? It began to become ridiculous - ¡°Everything will change tomorrow!¡±

 Chapter 2: Name

    I punched over and over the pure white Essence Crystal at my front. Each time I did it, the flesh and skin on my fists got pulverized and only my cracked bones survived the impact.

    Even though I do it since I was two years old, I still can¡¯t get used to this excruciating training. The pain seemed to seep through my brain and arrive at my soul.

    But I won¡¯t stop until my body gives out and go unconscious.

    Essence Crystals are regularly granted to us by the Maroeltha¡¯s Will and we can use them for anything possible. We can construct carriages, bombs, Artifacts, lamps and other things. Our creativity is the only limitation to this miraculous crystal.

    The crystal at my front is called Heaven¡¯s Retribution and has two enchantments, Reflection, and Absorption. When I hit it, it absorbs all my Essence, making my body temporally weaker than a baby¡¯s body and then reflects the fist¡¯s impact and my Essence against me. In this process, my entire body breaks and is reformed after reabsorbing my Essence again.

    Why am I doing such inefficient training when it is better to focus on an Artifact''s utilization? Many asked this question to me since I was two years old, and I always answered in the same way. ¡®Different from you guys, I don¡¯t have the talent to use any kind of Artifact well¡¯.

    I can seem impressive by having two Arcanum Artifacts, but a weapon you can¡¯t utilize all its potential is useless against the truly powerful ones in this world. It is the classic dilemma, Master of One or Jack of All?

    So I neglected all the sword, spear, shield and Arcanum¡¯s training to perfect the only three weapons available to me that can one day reach all their potential.

    My body, mind and my pure Essence that isn¡¯t tainted by the usurper False God, the Mother of All.

    ¡°Alex, can you stop your training for today? You still need to go see Amayomi before going to Zorenyth¡¯s mansion, don¡¯t you?¡± Mother appeared with her silvery white eyes and hair shining amidst the sunbeams penetrating the Training Room.

    Mother has little fangs protruding from her mouth and always uses the Noble Robe with a tinge of shame because of her really short horns which aren¡¯t normal to her age.

    Probably a minor side effect of being a Demi-Eltha, the progeny of a Demon and a Maroeltha¡¯s offspring.

    ¡°Nuala, is it already so late?¡± I asked using mother¡¯s real name - she hates being called of Mother, in the last time I did it, I had to eat her food in all the meals.

    ¡°Yes, you always lose the track of time in this room.¡± She said with a lovely expression on her heart-shaped face and bringing my Noble Robe to me.

    I took my sweaty clothes off and began to wear the dark Noble Robe. It is a form-fitting full-length robe with the option of changing its slits for the part below waist become reinforced long pants.

    The robe also has symbols and decorations that will appear according to your Arcanum¡¯s Artifacts, and it functions as an armor to protect even your head as the amount of Essence you can control increases.

    My symbols are from the First Arcanum and the Twenty-Second Arcanum, a hollow sphere and a grayed out planet.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you stop training like this? Your body is already strong enough to endure my food and that little bitch¡¯s hits.¡± Mother said, worried about my well-being.

    But¡­ bitch?... oh!

    She is talking about Solaris.

    Since Solaris swore to kill Mother, their relationship only gets worse by day. I didn¡¯t know Solaris has already descended to the position of¡­ bitch in Mother¡¯s heart.

    ¡°You are wrong, Nuala. My body isn¡¯t strong, every day I wonder how I am still alive with it being so weak. Zorenyth can easily send me flying and my teeth even fall when Solaris is more serious about breaking my body to the ¡®healed¡¯ version be stronger.¡± I walked with Mother until the castle¡¯s gates where Solaris is waiting with a carriage that hopefully won¡¯t explode.

    ¡°If you say so¡­¡± Mother said with sadness on her face and bid me farewell.

    The carriage was blueish and had four white wheels, my Arcanum¡¯s symbols, and black leather comfy seats that won¡¯t even make you perceive a slight trembling from the carriage.

    I entered it and Solaris as the driver asked. ¡°To Torest¡¯s mansion?¡±

    ¡°Yes, and give me some Augmented rations. I¡¯m hungry.¡±

    ¡°Your Highness, I am worried that maybe you are burning yourself out.¡± She held the square cereal bar without giving it to me. ¡°In the last two months, you have been working without a real rest in the Throne Room and also doing that mad training. Moreover, when you have time to eat, you eat these... emergency rations instead of a proper meal.¡± She said worried about my well being just like Mother.

    Why they only concur on this point?

    I understand their worries, but it is a, ¡°nonsense, just give me the cereal, I am fine.¡±

    ¡°I think you should stop with your train-¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    ¡°Shadow.¡± I used Solaris¡¯ formal name as my maid and also the name her mother gave to her. ¡°Just give it to me.¡± I slowly said looking into her restless eyes.

    She became infuriated with her eyes widening and darting around, not believing I used the accursed name that she inherited from her hateable mother.

    Solaris and Mother are so alike, both of them don¡¯t like their formal names. Why can¡¯t they get well? Maybe the saying, ¡®likes repel each other¡¯, is correct.

    She angrily gave me the Augmented ration and began to drive to Torest¡¯s mansion while doing unnecessary daring maneuvers through the streets to annoy me.

    I ate my dull ration whilst analyzing in my head once again the information the spies got about the Fourth Demon Prince yesterday.

    He went to the Holy Silver Castle to receive a new armor and a high-grade Artifact from our Blacksmith, the grandpa of Mos¡¯ban¡¯s clan leader. He also bought miscellaneous general war¡¯s items, Essence Bombs, standard armor to his personal army and¡­

    The list goes on and everything about it seemed suspicious.

    Later he went to Brountight¡¯s mansion and met the First Demon Princess. Of course, their meeting was a disaster and the Broutight¡¯s clan leader had to save him. Did he think he could talk with that psychopath? She is rotten to the core.

    ¡­

    Could be he went talk with her as just as an excuse to privately meet the Brountight¡¯s clan leader after being trashed by her? Or am I going too deep in such strange but trivial meeting?

    Anyways, after leaving the mansion he hurriedly left the capital to the city where his father governs.

    The spies are still tracking him and an army to siege the city if necessary is going there ahead of us.

    We will leave the capital tomorrow with a clan leader as a guardian to arrest - kill - him.

    I don¡¯t get-

    ¡°Your Highness, we have arrived.¡± Solaris already outside of the carriage opened my door for me.

    Putting my foot on the overgrown grass of the Torest¡¯s mansion, made me remember of my failure of curing Amayomi.

    Amayomi is the Torest¡¯s clan leader and was inflicted with three curses. They made her quickly age, lose the capacity to rationalize and finally forget about her loved ones.

    In this mansion infested with overgrown plants and wildlife, you can¡¯t anymore appreciate the antique splendor of this mansion. You can only see the vines and rust winning over everything.

    Demons like Solaris can¡¯t approach it because of the curse power permeating the mansion, so she is waiting for me in the carriage.

    I am somehow not really affected by the curse.

    After spending one month with Amayomi I discovered the cure for her curses when I decided to give a bath to her. In her body, there were three strange spear¡¯s fragments that were invisible and intangible to everyone with the exception of me.

    Because of my training with Heaven¡¯s Retribution, I was strong enough to pull off the first fragment and stop her aging.

    Sometimes I wonder if my mind is more ¡®mature¡¯ than my peers because of the time I spent here when the first curse was activated.

    The second one was harder and only ten days ago I was able to take it off, but she still sometimes blabbers or suddenly drool without reason. So I can¡¯t consider that she recovered the capability to rationality yet.

    However, every day I give her an activity or a question to her answer to me in the next day. Yesterday, I asked her to say her own name after she suddenly gave me her Clan Seal.

    The third fragment is impossible right now, but thankfully the abilities of her Arcanum Artifacts can still maintain her alive until I get strong enough.

    I opened the main doors and saw Amayomi with her asymmetrical body waiting for me on a chair.

    Amayomi had her left side dominated by the blue color and her right side dominated by the red color, the proof of her absorbing her twin sister and being acknowledged by the Nineteenth Arcanum and Twentieth Arcanum, The Moon and The Sun.

    I said. ¡°Amayomi, since when are you waiting for me? I hope it''s not since the sunrise.¡±

    She continued still with her heterochromatic empty eyes only staring at me without any expression.

    Sometimes she answers me and others not, I am used to it, so I began to talk with her not expecting her to answer me every time.

    When I am close to leaving, I got up from the rusted chair and looked at her. ¡°I will leave tomorrow and I don¡¯t know when I will come back, so don¡¯t wait for me, okay?¡±

    She nodded and then flinched not knowing exactly what she did.

    ¡°Can you answer me the question I left to you?¡± I said.

    ¡°...Hmm¡­Anoiomi Forest?¡± She rocked her head to the sides and finally answered after ten minutes doing it. ¡°No, it is Amayomi Torest.¡±

    ¡°Good, while I am away I want you to not forget of taking baths and to next time answer me how many times did you take a bath.¡±

    She made a disgusted expression. ¡°...I will try.¡±

    I left the mansion and entered the carriage. This time Solaris didn¡¯t even ask me and already began to drive to Zorenyth¡¯s mansion.

    I silently observed the sunset, thinking about why do I care so much about Amayomi.

    It is possible to me analyze the reason just like I did when I was torn between ignoring or saving the Half-Demon, however, it is unnecessary.

    The reason is simple, I do it because her daughters groveled at my front to try to save Amayomi.

    What I don¡¯t understand is why I put so much effort into doing it. Is it pity? Or is it just because everyone says it is impossible to cure her and I in my ¡®child¡¯s stubbornness¡¯ - in Solaris¡¯ words - want to prove them wrong?

    Lately, my life is being filled with a lot of questions, I should consider sometimes stop thinking too much about everything and just act.

    When we were close of reaching Zorenyth¡¯s mansion and with the street strangely empty, I felt an Artifact pulse coming straight to the carriage, it was too quick to me warn Solaris or to take the steering wheel. So I just kicked Solaris out of the carriage and used the kick¡¯s impulse to leave it too.

    The carriage was cut in the middle by a big sword made of fire which created a gigantic ball of fire around the carriage and an enormous explosion sound echoed through the streets.

    The silhouette of someone began to seem visible as this person left the fire.

    With such flashy entrance, it is safe to assume it is not an assassin sent by the traitors or the Humans.

    ¡°Who are you?¡±

 Chapter 3: Beasts Failed Expectations

    ¡°Who am I? I am-¡±

    All the fire was absorbed by Solaris that was behind of the now visible red-haired Demon astounded by Solaris.

    The Demon by the length of his half-grown hornswas a teenager, and he was large and muscular. His square face together with his thick straight eyebrows exuded a masculinity that made me immediately know whose son he is and how the streetwas empty.

    He uselessly swung his stiff short hair and glared at Solaris with his bulging dark brown eyes. ¡°Girl, you are quite something to be able to destroy my Destroyer Masculine Red Flames of War. But I don¡¯t have time to a flat woman like you, come back at me when you are older.¡±

    What is this guy saying? And how can your naming sense by so bad?

    I don¡¯t think Zorenyth would teach him these things, so probably was his bearded mother or he just learned it by himself.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s fight to the death, Hum-¡±

    ¡°Die.¡± Solaris produced a high-grade spear with the spearhead in flames and thrust at Zorenyth¡¯s son with a clear killing intention in her eyes, not caring about the consequences of killing a Captain and a General¡¯s son of our army.

    ¡°You will regret this! I am strong!¡± Zorenyth¡¯s son used his big fire sword to directly confront Solaris¡¯ thrust.

    Wrong choice, buddy.

    What will I do if he dies? His mother will go berserk.

    Solaris sneered as she suddenly covered her spear with more Essence and her thrust broke the red-haired teenager¡¯s Artifact Sword into small pieces.

    Disbelief, fear, and then pure despair emerged on the face of Zorenyth¡¯s son in this order as Solaris'' thrust went at his throat to finish the job. He couldn¡¯t move and won¡¯t anymore if the spear compressed with all Solaris¡¯ killing intent and Essence arrive at his body.

    But thankfully that bearded woman wasn¡¯t stupid enough to let her son freely walk alone in this capital full of hidden masters.

    Before Solaris¡¯ spear touched Zorenyth¡¯s son, a gigantic - I am seven years old, everything is big to me, so stop complaining - shield with a lion¡¯s symbol on it, protected Zorenyth¡¯s son from encountering the Soulkeeper.

    ¡°I would like if you don¡¯t kill my son, Maid.¡± Hucleia, Zorenyth¡¯s wife, surged from the shield with her burnt beard as always highlighting her presence.

    Hucleia with her face and eyebrows exactly equal to her son, said to Solaris with the same tone her son used. ¡°Girl, you are quite something to be capable of destroying my son¡¯s Artifact. But now you are facing the Ninth Captain of the West Frontier!¡±

    The mystery was solved.

    ¡°You talk too much.¡± Solaris aimed her killing intent now to Hucleia since Zorenyth¡¯s son was with his butt on the ground while gasping for air similar to someone having a heart attack.

    My head hurts just thinking about the political problems that will rise and annoy me after a Captain dies by underestimating a seven years old Demon Princess.

    It¡¯s time to stop this. ¡°Hucleia and Solaris, stop this stupid fight right now!¡± I raised my voice and used Augmentation to cover my whole body in a pure white Essence, making them focus their attention on me. ¡°One of you is a Demon Princess and the other a Captain, you two are part of the pillars that sustain this country, what image will our government give to our citizens if the pillars began to fight between themselves instead of against the two Humans Empires?¡±

    A round of applause sounded from the houses and alleys together with the normal Demons¡¯ complaints. ¡°That¡¯s right!¡±

    ¡°Tell them, Demon Prince Alexander!¡±

    ¡°I need to work at night, but I can¡¯t even leave my house. Ninth Captain, what will I do if I lose my job because of you?!¡±

    ¡°I have a date! Let me free, Macho Woman!¡±

    I understand your urgency, but calling her of that was over the line.

    Look at Hucleia.

    She is beet red and almost crying.

    ¡°We will continue this later.¡± Hucleia picked her son and hurriedly entered Infarcerio¡¯s mansion while stifling her tears.

    ¡­ Now I am feeling bad.

    Solaris calmly walked to my side without caring about the others Demons¡¯ complaints and expressionless said. ¡°Now that grandpa will grump again about the carriage, it sucks to ask him every day a new carriage small enough to let me drive.¡±

    ¡°Good luck.¡± We walked to the mansion as the street began to fill with people again.

    ¡°Why must I be the one to ask him? He likes you more than me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s true he likes me and I also like of sitting on those leather seats, but the only reason we use the small carriage without the rest of my personal guards, isn''t because of you like of spending some time alone with me?¡±

    Solaris flinched and I continued. ¡°So it¡¯s your responsibility to convince him, since for me I can use the Royal Carriage with my guards without any problem.¡±

    ¡°... Fine.¡±

    The sun went down and the night began to be ruled by the eternal crescent moon together with the blue lamps that gently guided our way with their vibrant glow. Blame Mother for this description, the night is the time she most likes of the day. Something about ¡®the night releases my true nature¡¯.

    We passed the mansion¡¯s guards and the maids told us. ¡°Master is waiting in the Throne Room.¡±

    I thanked them and let them guide the way.

    Throne Room is how any place with the role of ¡®serving a leader¡¯ is called here on Stroudor. This is exceptionally in the case of this mansion and the Holy Silver Castle that are actually just an Artifact shaped into a house and castle¡¯s form.

    The person controlling the Throne Room of an Artifact can access strange special functions, I remember seeing an option to spy on the female restroom in my Throne Room.

    Why does it have this useless option? Mother refuses to tell me the reason and Father is occupied training his new disciple in Shien Blye, the country of the Maroeltha¡¯s offsprings, to answer me.

    ¡°Welcome, Alex. I am sorry that my useless son and impatient wife had perturbed you and even destroyed a carriage from the Grand Blacksmith,¡± Zorenyth said, welcoming us to the Throne Room with his ever-present frown.

    ¡°No problem, Solaris will in some way arrange another.¡± I shook hands with Zorenyth and turned to Hucleia that was wearing a smile behind him as if what happened in the street never happened. ¡°Hucleia, sorry for what happened earlier. It wasn¡¯t my real objective, I just wanted to stop the fight.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Your Highness. It was my fault for wanting to see how my son would fight against you and forgetting about the little monster at your side.¡± She said, laughing and playing with her burnt beard. ¡°So¡­ what do you think about my son, Ruaidhri? Is he strong enough to one day become a Demon Prince or a Captain?¡± She made an army¡¯s hand signal of ¡®look around¡¯.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Obeying her, I observed the scarlet colored room. It had adornments of flames surrounding a lion that was eating itself with special words in a majestic gold below all the adornments, ¡®For Strength, sacrifice everything, even your Flesh, and Reason. Do it and the Arcanum will answer you¡¯.

    On the canopy where normally is the throne, the Artifact controller, Ruaidhri was there sulking.

    So that is the kind of relationship they have in this family, I can¡¯t say it is a healthy relationship between the parents and the son. Though, I can¡¯t badmouth them or intrude since my relationship with Mother is similar to them.

    ¡°Of course he is. At his age is incredible to him be already capable of Transmutation to summon flames and his Augmentation is really amazing. He cut the carriage in two!¡± I put more liveness than normal in my voice to motivate Ruaidhri.

    ¡°Although I can¡¯t lie to you and say it is certain that he will become a Demon Prince. It is easy for him to become a Captain.¡± Ladies and Gentlemen, mixing truth in your lies always work.

    Ruadhri stopped sulking and puffed his chest with pride, and Hucleia made a ¡®thank you¡¯ hand signal. Now, Solaris just need to stay quiet and¡­ who am I kidding? There is no way she will do it.

    ¡°How laughable, that useless blob of muscles a Demon Prince or a Captain? There is even a chance he won¡¯t even become a Lieutenant.¡± Solaris wasn¡¯t of the forgiving type - this is what happens when you mess up with her carriage - and maintained a sneer while talking in a condescending tone. ¡°He was only capable of cutting the carriage because it was made of weak materials to make it small enough to let me drive.¡±

    Ruaidhri glared venomously at Solaris. ¡°You only won because you cheated and hid your true Essence. I am stronger than you, there is no way I would lose in a fair and just fight against you, a mere impertinent child.¡±

    ¡°Fair? Just? What are those things? Are they edible or even a concrete thing?¡± Solaris laughed using the words I used against the Seventh Demon Prince in a bout. ¡°The only thing that matters is to win. In a war would you be ¡®fair and just¡¯ against your enemy? And before you began to bicker, those words aren¡¯t even mine. I learned them with His Highness.¡±

    Why you only pick and learns the worst parts of me? Would kill you to be sometimes humble or considerate about a teenager¡¯s fragile pride, or even a little gentle with your words? Look, he is almost attacking you.

    ¡°You little bitc-¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Weakling.¡± An oppressive Aura came from Zorenyth like a big red circle with an animated symbol of the lion eating itself covered the entire room.

    Ruaidhri was brought to his knees and Solaris and Hucleia fought against the Aura to not let their knees arrive the ground. Though, if the Aura continues with the same strength they will become just like Ruaidhri, humiliated and hopeless.

    Me? I am fine. Mother¡¯s Aura when she makes me eat her food is more powerful, so Zorenyth¡¯s Aura is just tickling me.

    ¡°The Weak and Losers have no right to complain. You searched for a fight on your own and lost. Dying is the most common resolution, but you were saved by Hucleia. For me, you could have died there and I would have at least a little of pride that you fought until the end. However, it didn¡¯t happen. If I still haven¡¯t another use for you or another heir, I would myself kill you to save the Infarcerio¡¯s pride.¡± Zorenyth Augmented his Aura, making blood come from his son¡¯s knees.

    Ruaidhri was crying with a face that seemed to be screaming ¡®I just wanted to you recognize me!¡¯.

    How do I know it? It is because this is the face I will make when I fail to answer Stroudor and Mother¡¯s expectations in me. I until now have been able to do it by making new laws and constantly becoming stronger, but each time I do it the expectations of my next action becomes even bigger and drags me down like chains trying to bring me to the Abysm.

    I am certain my fall will be even worse than Ruaidhri¡¯s one.

    So I can understand your frustration, buddy. However, don¡¯t hate your father, Zorenyth is in this way for a reason I hope to have time to tell you. For now, let me help you. ¡°Zorenyth, can you stop with your Aura? It will be a pain in the ass to stroke Solaris¡¯ ego if her knees arrive at the ground.¡± I said pointing to Solaris that was making a strange pose under the Aura¡¯s effect.

    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Zorenyth¡¯s Aura receded into him and everyone let out a sigh of relief. ¡°The years training with your mother at the frontier hadn¡¯t been capable of making you worthy yet of the first form of our Arcanum, Strength. But you finally became powerful enough to your mother let me use the Trial Portal. You have been called here because of it.¡±

    He clapped and a whirling green portal appeared in a form similar to a Black Hole. Zorenyth turned to me. ¡°Alex, this is the Trial I wanted to give you to receive the Clan Seal, this place can only be used when someone of the Infarcerio¡¯s blood is close and haven¡¯t yet completed it. However, as you already know, I and my son are the only left of our clan. And I have already completed it, so I was waiting for Hucleia¡¯s permission.

    ¡°If you reach the end of the Trial Portal in two hours, I will give you the Clan Seal,¡± Zorenyth said before his son could complain or shout. ¡°Ruaidhri, I just want to you to survive until then. You don¡¯t need to reach the end, you are too weak.¡±

    I and Ruaidhri stood side by side waiting for Hucleia to pick a watch to mark the time. ¡°Alex, I have faith in your abilities, but you won¡¯t reach the end if you talk some useless stuff with my son or without using your Arcanum Artifacts. Although you can¡¯t use them well, they will serve to increase your attack power.¡± Zorenyth warned me, knowing about my plans to tell about his past to his son.

    Well, next time then.

    The symbols on my Noble Robe dully shone as they absorbed the World¡¯s Essence and then emerged from my body in two forms, black and white gauntlets and a peculiar scarf that is more like only two pitch black pointed lines glued on my back shoulders because of how thin they are.

    I ignored the wide-eyed Ruaidhri and entered the portal.

    At my vision, two silver axes without a tinge of Essence came crashing down on me. ¡°For now, let¡¯s see how sturdy they are.¡± I let them cut at my neck, but they just bounced off on my body. ¡°So it¡¯s more or less high-grade normal weapons, I don¡¯t need to worry about them.¡±

    I tried to walk, but there was some kind of restriction not permitting me. I think I need to wait for Ruaidhri.

    On some moments he appeared with his sword already suffering a process of Transmutation to transform his own Essence in flames. ¡°Human, I will prove to my father that I am strong by reaching the end before you. It¡¯s a race!¡± His dark brown eyes burned with determination after finishing of crying, probably Hucleia said something to him recover so fast.

    ¡°Buddy, if you want to compete with me, I don¡¯t care. Let¡¯s see then who will reach the end. If you win I will make you a Major and if I win you will have to let me become your friend and arrange some time to we talk alone. Okay?¡± I extended my left hand with the white gauntlet to him while a lot of axes came and bounced off me without stopping.

    He gulped with fear for some reason and said. ¡°I won¡¯t touch the hand of some disgusting Human, but you can consider I have accepted your proposal.¡±

    I shrugged and with my restrictions lifted, I stepped down with force at the gray tiles. They slightly cracked and the ¡®wind¡¯ created by my step buffeted away all the axes, permitting me to observe better this Trial Portal and search where is its end.

    This Trial seems to be inside of a box with gray tiles surrounding everything, even the roof where there are lamps to illuminate the space only enough to you see some meters at the front.

    I can see some obvious traps, however, since I can¡¯t sense an Essence or Artifact¡¯s pulse from them, they are useless against me.

    I doubt a Trial from the ones bearing the Ninth Arcanum would be about carefully trespassing some weak traps, they were a prideful and hot-blooded bunch.

    My objective at this level seems to reach the person or thing throwing those axes at me and smash everything obstructing me.

    So considering their personalities... I just need to go forward and I will find what I am searching for. ¡°I will meet you outside.¡± The world blurred around me as I made my first step using Essence and destroyed all the traps as I passed over them with my speed I can¡¯t control yet.

    ¡°Wait!¡± I turned my head and I could see Ruaidhri trying to follow me, but when I blinked I couldn¡¯t see him anymore because of how fast I am going.

    I felt some itchiness at my chest and turned back seeing more axes coming at me with some Essence within them now. On some moments as I smashed some axes as a warming up, I saw my objective.

    There was a hollow armor brimming with Essence throwing the axes, it was using Conduction to move itself and aim the axes so far away from me.

    I am against the time and don''t have time to play with this interesting toy.

    So I charged up my fist with Essence and just smashed it into pieces.

    It was easy to destroy the armor, but stopping myself was an issue totally different. Tiles and a wall at the end of this first level broke to reduce my speed enough to me control it.

    This is a serious problem I need to fix, but Father said that as I encounter more powerful opponents I will gradually learn how to control myself and use my Styles together with my best element, Wind.

    When I stopped, a clicking noise sounded and a light at my feet teleported me to what I assume is the next level.

    I could hear a lively voice in my head. ¡°To pass this level, you need to defeat one of the four most powerful Trials in this room, if you go to any direction you will end up finding them. Or if you are some useless weakling that doesn¡¯t deserve to live you can try to survive in this room full of Trials for two hours to pass the level.¡±

    This family really likes to call someone of a weakling.

    Trials or being more precise, Rogue Maroeltha¡¯s offsprings appeared at my front with their Essence already prepared to kill me. I could see a great diversity of species that can actually hurt me, so I concentrated on the World¡¯s Essence to cover my body and Augment it to fight.

    ¡°Now it became a real trial to me surpass.¡± I indulged myself in the thrill I am not usually allowed because of Solaris and Mother.

    This is a fight where I can die if I am weak!

    ¡°Come at me! I will kill all the ones that stand in my way.¡± I laughed as my careful side honed by political schemes and my days surviving in Shien Blye slowly was put aside, but not abandoned. ¡°Who will be the first one to die?¡±

 Chapter 4: Change of Past

    Rogue Maroeltha¡¯s offsprings are the ones that lost to their savage nature, they can¡¯t talk in the Holy Tongue anymore and Maroeltha¡¯s Will has abandoned them. For convenience, everyone calls them of Monsters, but I refuse to do it.

    When I look to the first inhabitants of our planet and the poor state they degenerated, I get sad for them. They once were sapient and now they aren¡¯t even sentient. They lived at the apex of their life together with Demons, however, they are now only ¡®stupid beasts¡¯.

    ¡°So you are the first one.¡± I sprinted at a red Griffin with scaled wings and a metallic beak that was salivating through its eagle head while flying to eat me.

    Of course, being sad and feeling pity is completely different from mercy. ¡°Let¡¯s see who is harder, my fist or your beak!¡±

    Father told me that the cheesier I get while fighting the more the enemy is prone to commit a mistake.

    And before you ask why am I talking with them, please put yourself in my position. I lived months alone in a place full of enemies that never said anything except when dying, so I got a little habit of talking with someone that doesn¡¯t answer to relieve my loneliness - Amayomi is also at fault.

    But this is not a problem, because if my enemies say something first than me, I tend to not talk through all the fight.

    My fist with the black gauntlet collided with the Griffin¡¯s sharp beak, the Essence in the beak disappeared and it cracked, provoking a scream of pain from the Griffin. It tumbled over to the ground and I took this chance to crush its eagle head with my feet.

    ¡°The Rogues in this portal are all part lion, I should say I¡¯m not really surprised.¡± I kicked away two more griffins coming at me and used one as a foothold to jump to the ceiling to see all the species of this room.

    At the north, there are more griffins with their lion¡¯s body lying on ground resting.

    At the west, there were manticores with Demon¡¯s heads and scorpion¡¯s tails.

    At the south, there were fire-breathing chimeras with goats¡¯ heads and snakes as their tails.

    And finally, at the east, there were Werelions with semi-Demon¡¯s bodies and lion¡¯s heads.

    With they being divided so organized as you kill more of them, means the strongest Trials will be of one these species. Now, what species will provoke the most growth in the control of my power?

    I landed on a young chimera, it tried to burn me with its breath but I held its horns and pointed its head to the others Rogues while evading the snake tail, burning them. ¡°Thank you.¡± I held its goat skull and crushed it.

    Kicking the body in the direction of others Rogues to hold them back of reaching me, I observed that fighting with the ones with lion¡¯s bodies wouldn¡¯t really help me. My true enemies are Humans and they don¡¯t move in a similar way to these beasts.

    ¡°So it will be the Werelions, they at least have Demon¡¯s hands and should normally fight using them.¡± I avoided all the others beasts by jumping around and kicking them until I reached the east area where there are only Werelions.

    Looking at a group of red Werelions coming to kill me gave me chills and the feeling was similar to fighting an army alone. I tried to control better my speed by only dodging, avoiding and ducking under their attacks. They attacked more or less like a Human but I was wrong, they were too bestial and used their jaws too much to give me the perfect training.

    I ignored some shallow cuts and wounds to press forward as I used all of my body to kill them. They were strong, however, they still weren¡¯t strong enough to make me do something beyond a simple Augmentation of my body.

    ¡°Where is the boss Trial? It is beginning to become boring.¡± As time passed, the rate I killed the Werelions increased and my wounds decreased as I became used to their movements.

    After twenty minutes in this Trial, a boisterous roar sounded and a Werelion three times bigger than the others appeared.

    ¡°Good, you finally appeared.¡± I grinned and gave the initial blow.

    My kick connected with its lion head and sent it tumbling, but it didn''t take long to it stand up and jump at me.

    ¡°So Augmentation isn¡¯t enough.¡± I kicked the ground to avoid the jump from the creature that was like a giant to me.

    Crawling as if it was a scorpion, the Werelion didn¡¯t give me rest as it plunged at me and tried to bite me all the time while I evaded it or punched it.

    ¡°If the body is too strong for my punches, how about it?¡± I ducked under the Werelion¡¯s jump and gripped the ground with all my strength, before the Werelion could perceive what was happening I concentrated all my Essence in my feet and used both of them to launch it on the air.

    The Werelion roared in fear of being high up in the air for the first time in his life but couldn¡¯t do anything against what I will do next.

    I opened wide both of my arms and between them, a greenish semicircular blade was formed, it was completely made of my own Essence and transmuted to become like the element Wind.

    Spinning to get more power, I threw the blade at the falling Werelion.

    The Rogue tried to protect itself but that was useless, the spinning blade of wind gradually absorbed more Essence until it was even bigger than the Werelion and cut it into two.

    Blood rained down on the east area and all others Werelions backed off in fear of me and the two lumps of meat at my side that had fallen down.

    I was the ruler of this area.

    Someone else also agreed with me. ¡°Congratulations, you are worthy of the last Trial where the Hunger for the power of the ones who came before you waits.¡±

    I was teleported once again and this time I wasn¡¯t at a grey box, I was at the courtyard of a mansion I knew well.

    The Infarcerio¡¯s mansion.

    And at my front in a pose to fight was a Demon child of around ten years, he looked feeble and didn¡¯t have an ever-present frown, but that was undeniably Zorenyth, just younger.

    If I had to assume what all of this is about, the Trial remade the version of Zorenyth when he finished this Trial and I had to win against it.

    I couldn¡¯t fail here, principally because this version of my dear friend was from before his tragedy. My heart hurts even seeing him so innocent.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    I¡¯m sorry. ¡°I didn¡¯t come here to play, please die.¡±

    My punch full of Essence connected with his unprepared face, but as expected from the future Peasant General, before he was blown away he countered back with a kick on my stomach, sending both us flying in different directions.

    I quickly recovered back and was surprised by a real gigantic sword of fire coming towards me and burning all the mansion.

    My wind protected me from the fire and I answered back in a similar fashion by making a piercing green sword of wind to clash with the flying sword of fire.

    Both of them destroyed each other and their explosion made all the debris fly around.

    When I was recovering with the cloud of dust on the way it was when Zorenyth¡¯s genius truly shone.

    An arrow made of pure fire and Essence burst through the cloud and aimed directly at me, it was so sudden and so powerful that I had no way of escaping from it. All because Zorenyth had used the sword of fire and the cloud of dust as distractions to gather this pure power.

    In despair, I put both by Artifacts at my vitals and conjured a field of wind to try to block the arrow.

    Unfortunately, even as I screamed to give me more power the arrow destroyed my shield.

    But I had altered its trajectory to only hit my a non-vital area of my chest and pin me to the wall behind me.

    I roared in anger and with my hands burning I held the arrow with my two hands and retired it before breaking it.

    I coughed a lot of blood and began to regenerate, but Zorenyth wasn¡¯t over.

    Just like when I punched him without warning, he punched me back in the face and made me fly to another part of the mansion.

    After I took off all the debris above me, I found Zorenyth standing at my front amidst the sea of fire with a smirk in his face as if waiting for me to get ready.

    ¡®You ask and you shall receive¡¯, it seems I asked too much and finally someone stronger than me that can help me control my powers appeared.

    ¡°Then I will go all out and learn how to control my Style.¡± A pure green wind surged on my whole body and powered by the World¡¯s Essence it increased all my powers, principally my speed.

    I can¡¯t control it yet, but at the end of this¡­

    I will.

    Finally, the smirk on Zorenyth¡¯s face disappeared as I vanished from his sight only to attack him from behind with the piercing wind, making a gap on his back and spilling his blood.

    Now he just summoned his trademark twin swords and swang them at me.

    If it was me from before I would have to evade this attack, but I instead just punched at them.Stopping their momentum and entering in a deadlock before I also used an arrow of compressed wind at Zorenyth.

    He didn¡¯t expect that while in such close fight so I slowly began to have an advantage in this fight as he had to jump all over the place to avoid the arrow.

    I don¡¯t how much time passed as we traded blows and tried to outsmart each other, maybe one hour?

    Our bodies were full of injuries, however, I¡¯m almost completely dominating my powers and Zorenyth perceived that since I gradually began to inflict more injuries in him than he could injure me.

    He must be feeling anxious and will bet everything in a last blow.

    Just as I thought that, I saw him concentrating all his Essence on his fist and advancing towards me.

    I can¡¯t flee right now, if I evade this the fight will take too much time and the time limit will reach its end.

    ¡°You want a direct confrontation? Fine by me.¡± I mimicked him but put the sharpest, spinning wind at my right fist and punched directly at his attack.

    Both of us yelled like the idiots we are, and everything around us was blown away.

    It was a stalemate at first, his fire destroyed my wind and my wind pierced his fire. Both of them were eating each other and yearning for the destruction of the other.

    However, I had something Zorenyth didn¡¯t have.

    Emotion-based Arcanum Artifacts I couldn¡¯t control which wished not only for my own destruction but of all life, principally Humans.

    As I concentrated on my own repressed memories of seeing what my own Race was capablewhen I went nearShien Blye, I saw how they ate my friends¡¯ flesh to get stronger and how they raped beautiful Demons and then sent their children to the Demon World to die.

    I was a mere child before even entering the Torest¡¯s mansion but was forced by Father to see all of this with my own eyes and hear the cries of help from the adult Demons and babies.

    What emotion could be more useful and powerful than hatred?

    Maybe love, but that wasn''twhat my first Arcanum Artifcal longed for.

    So I forced myself, it wasn¡¯t like I was naive enough to believe all Humans are bad or that exist absolute evil or absolute good, everything was just a conflict of interests and in this war of Demons and Humans, no one was right or wrong.

    However, right now I needed to deceive myself and believe in such lies told to children to indoctrinate them.

    My scarf flew in the air as if with life on itself and then chained itself on my arm, it pulsated with Aura and energy from beyond this world and feed my wind the power to defeat the enemy at my front.

    I screamed in pain and anger as my wind became bigger and devoured Zorenyth¡¯s fire.

    But that wasn¡¯t the end, my fist continued onwards triturating Zorenyth¡¯s arm until I reached his heart and crushed it.

    The long battle was over with Zorenyth smiling at my feet and becoming motes of light.

    The scarlet seal of his clan with the image of the lion eating itself was floating above me, my hand moved-

    Suddenly I was in another place, the floor was made of clouds and high up there was a beautiful woman flying with pristine angel wings.

    Her eyes were of a limpid blue and her hair was blond, combining with her bountiful breasts and holy Aura around her that dared me to kneel to her, I could guess who she was.

    ¡°It¡¯s an honor to finally meet the Mother of All, the one who created the Humans and wageredwar against the Divine,Lavemuria Nems, of my religion.¡± I formally bowed to the filthy being that led Humans to eat Demons¡¯ corpses and almost destroy this world. ¡°I¡¯m kind of busy now, can we talk later? And if possible, can you stop the Cherubims, lower class Angels, of coming to meet me?¡±

    As expected of a self-proclaimed God, she was able to teleport me from Zorenyth¡¯s Trial.

    ¡°Don¡¯t take this Clan Seal. Don¡¯t you perceive the Demons¡¯ plans to make you hate us and wage war against us?¡± Her voice was charming and enticing, though I couldn¡¯t care less, I¡¯m just a child, such desires didn¡¯t bloom in me yet. ¡°You were to be our Lord, our savior, the one who would wipe out all the Demons and bring peace to this world!

    ¡°Then you would ascend to be at my side as my consort and rule over everything, anything that you desire would be yours!¡± Her voice bordered madness and her eyes became swirling pits of unsatisfied desires. ¡°So don¡¯t take this Clan Seal, come finally to our side, the side that is absolutely right, the Humans¡¯ one!¡±

    She really became crazy, spouting nonsense of I being the savior of humans. ¡°Until the end, I¡¯m only at the side of my friends and family, I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t answer to your expectations. This whole country¡¯s expectations are already too heavy to me bear with it, I can¡¯t handle any other expectation.¡±

    I moved once again to take the floating Seal and on the exact moment before I touched it, the woman who usurp everything said. ¡°So that¡¯s your decision? As I thought, letting you to that woman was a mistake. But if I can¡¯t have you in life, then in death shall it be, I¡¯m sure the Soulkeeper will hear my wish. Cursed blood of Udalth, now this is war! I won¡¯t rest until all Demons die!¡±

    It seems I may have caused another World War, however, it is something fated to happen one day. If I want to protect this country then winning over the Humans is something I will have to do someday.

    I¡¯m not feeling guilty, but I wondered how much of what this false God said was true?

    It would make sense why I can see Angels that normally no even Humans can and why such Angels would call me of ¡®Lord¡¯.

    But me, Alexander the son of the Heavenly Demon Queen, being the one who would destroy the Demons?

    As if I can believe such nonsense!

    With these feelings of incredulity and anger, I grasped the Clan Seal to be filled with a red light and the Seal be absorbed in my Noble Robe and black gauntlet.

    I felt like the world fundamentally changed because of my actions.

 Chapter 5: Falsehoods

    In a certain place moments before Alexander grasping the Clan Seal.

    ¡°Good to see all of you gathered here,¡± Nuala said looking to the Clan Leaders she called to the place where the Slab was.

    ¡°Though Brountight and Dralt¡¯s Clan Leaders didn¡¯t come.¡± Solaris¡¯ mother and leader of the Kahonusk Clan said at the side of Nuala. She was like a clone of Solaris, only older and emotionless.

    ¡°It¡¯s a shame, now we can¡¯t be sure they are one of the traitors.¡± Nuala¡¯s eyes glowed and the others Clan Leaders gasped in fear. ¡°I doubt that False God would be stupid enough to use more of her informants.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my Queen. But on what basis do you call us of traitors?¡± Hynin¡¯s Clan Leader and father of the Fourth Demon Prince said, he wore a dark robe and it was possible to see his hardened bald face from years in the battlefield.

    ¡°Oh, you will see in just a moment,¡± Nuala said laughing as the Slab behind her began to shake and then explode before a pillar of light engulfed it, and tore through the heavens destroying all the soil on its way.

    And it wasn¡¯t the only pillar of light, on the distance, it was possible to see others two pillars ascending to the heavens. The power behind them made many wonders if the world was ending.

    However, that wasn¡¯t the end.

    As the light of the pillar shone brighter than anything else, its bright light began to reveal everything, even the Angels that were near Hynin¡¯s Clan Leader to anyone.

    ¡°In this way.¡± Nuala¡¯s hand full of Essence beheaded the Fourth Demon Prince¡¯s Father and then lunged at his heart to just be sure he was dead before also killing all Cherubims. ¡°Only Alex can see these Angels but when the slab is destroyed ¡®all falsehoods will be destroyed¡¯, meaning even these stealthy things won¡¯t be capable of hiding from me. This is why I wanted all Leaders here, but I failed, unfortunately.¡±

    She turned to others Clan Leaders stricken in fear and smiled. ¡°I¡¯m happy to see all of you were fine, now the World War will begin and I expect good work from you, right?¡± Her words made her point when she swang the decapitated head around and sent a deep warning to the other most important people of Stroudor.

    All Clan Leaders bowed to her in dread and only hoped Alex would come soon to appease their terrifying Queen.

    Now Nuala just needed to deal with the bigger headache coming to them before the World War and she would be able to sleep soundly today after the Fate and Destiny planned to her beloved son was destroyed. She could be with him now without any fear and love him like she always wanted since she killed his real parents.

    ¡°Filthy Demon, receive your punishment!¡± The sky parted in the middle with a rift forming on it and from it surged a being higher class than any other in the world, it was one of Archangels the Mother of All copied from the religion named Christianity from another world because of their overwhelming power just like she did with all other angels, this was why she feigned to have angel wings to control these copies.

    The Archangel was more handsome than any other men with his chiseled face and beautiful eyes, his angel wings red as the sun where his power comes from and hair pure as the energy emitted by him.

    He was no other than Michael, the leader of all Archangels wearing yellowish armor.

    Michael threw his long Holy Sword bathed in fire directly at where Nuala was.

    The worse was that such sword despite not being too big, had the power to decimate Stroudor¡¯s entire capital if it ever hit the ground with its Essence so concentrated like a bomb waiting to explode.

    Nuala, of course, couldn¡¯t let it happen and flew to intercept the Holy Sword thanks to the destroyed Slab opening a path to her.

    ¡°I can¡¯t handle it without paying some sacrifices, but I¡¯m sure Alex will be impressed and nurse me back to normal.¡± Nuala was in the middle of the air and was almost activating her two Arcanum Artifacts to do her best to protect the Capital from the Archangel¡¯s coward attack even though no official declaration of war was made.

    However, before she could touch the sword, another beam of light appeared to make another tear in the sky.

    This time it was one made of two basic colors, red and blue.

    The direction where it was coming was a place Alex knew deep well and the owner of such pillar of light that could be compared to the Prophecy Slab being destroyed soon showed up, gripping the Holy Sword with her slender fingers. No even Michael or Nuala saw her coming before she put another hand on the Holy Sword and broke it as if it was some twig.

    ¡°Amayomi Torest!¡± Both Nuala and Michael exclaimed in surprise and with a tinge of fear in their voices, at their front there was the only Demon who dared to hurt a God and escaped alive after being attacked together by all Archangels.

    ¡°The boy lives here, you can¡¯t destroy his city without his consent.¡± She said slowly as if with anger but not really capable of demonstrating it. ¡°It¡¯s bad, you are a bad person.¡± Her reasoning was still at the level of a young child.

    Michael unconscious flew back to be a little far from his Archenemy. ¡°But that¡¯s impossible! You received the full brunt of God¡¯s Lance and three powerful curses were implanted in your body, you shouldn¡¯t have your power back!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t why, but when I look to the boy I kind of get happy.¡± Amayomi turned to Michael with her asymmetrical sides glowing. ¡°However, when I look to you a deep emotion is formed within me, what is its name? Anger or hatred, I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t remember of ever meeting you, but I remember the boy saying this to me, ¡®if someone makes your heart hurt in a bad way, just kill them. Violence is the answer to many situations with exception when handling an entire country and making sure everyone is happy¡¯.¡±

    Amayomi ended up mentioning a quote too long to make sense, but her point was made across when a mini-sun and mini-moon appeared on her hands to Michael¡¯s panic and she carelessly threw them at him.

    Michael felt in his skin the same Nuala felt earlier, if he doesn¡¯t stop this attack then Angels¡¯ homeplace will be seriously damaged and he himself couldn¡¯t stop the attack without making some sacrifices.

    Fortunately to him, a similar scene as if staged occurred to his favor.

    Slender fingers swiped around the attack and extinguished it completely, the Mother of All had appeared to save her subordinate¡¯s life.

    ¡°Two of the curses were retired from you, it was Alex, wasn¡¯t it? As expected of Lord Fourth, his power to make miracles and destroy everything is beyond someone like me can fathom.¡± She made the bowing Michael go back to their home and said. ¡°My subordinate did an offense and that I apologize for, not to you Demons, but to the Humans living here that are the only reason we didn¡¯t make a full attack here yet.

    ¡°We will probably only meet in the battlefield in at least fifteen years, so do your best to survive until then. I¡¯m also talking to you that didn¡¯t move a muscle even though your beloved city was almost burned down.¡± She looked to a certain place in the silver castle before disappearing as she pleased when all the pillars of light vanished.

    And so, the first crises in this World War ended inconclusively, but to Nuala, they had won the first contact with the vile usurper God without even calling their own Divine and also by taking to themselves the key to the Humans¡¯ victory.

    Alexander.

    Even though he isn¡¯t special anymore as he was when the Slab still existed after he began to help the Demons and cracks were formed because of it, he was still a worthy ruler to the Demons and quite talented in using Essence. There was a chance he wouldn¡¯t be the main key to defeat the Humans, but Nuala was sure he would at least contribute greatly to the Humans¡¯ defeat.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Though it wouldn¡¯t make difference to her, Alex already had a place in her heart and if he was useless now she would make him the official ruler while locked in the castle for his own safety.

    ***

    ¡°Alex!¡± Solaris shouted flustered, her normal cold demeanor was broken as Alexander surged on the mansion pale and unconscious.

    She tried to heal him but nothing she did could make Alexander¡¯s complexion become better.

    ¡°Hey! Lion! What happened to Alex?!¡± Solaris was hysterical as Alex¡¯s wellbeing got away from her firm grasp and lost all composure, ignoring even the explosion sound coming from the sky when a tear appeared on it while Michael appeared.

    Zorenyth had a thick smile on his face looking to the symbol on Alex¡¯s gauntlet. ¡°It¡¯s simple, Alex had finally acquired my Seal and broke his original Fate and Destiny. He is now a free boy who can do anything he wants, and finally ready to become a Demon in his Ascension Ceremony.¡±

    ¡°What being free has to do with being so feeble?¡± Solaris wasn¡¯t mature as she showed normally, she was still a child that when something precious to her is in danger she can¡¯t calmly rationalize.

    ¡°Oh, so you don¡¯t know. It should be fine to tell you now why a human is living with us as if we are equals, no, he is superior to us and is our ruler. My son didn¡¯t come back yet, after all.¡± Zorenyth procced to tell one of the biggest secrets of this country in the presence of his wife who also already knew the truth.

    He told details of how Nuala killed Alex¡¯s parents to raise him with qualities and mindset of a Demon - even to the point of making him hate humans by showing to him only their worst sides, not their good ones - to make cracks in a prophecy that would spell their own doom if left alone.

    ¡°Receiving my Seal was the last crack, he isn¡¯t more Alexander from the prophecy and lost what made him special enough to be capable of reincarnating if dying before the destined time and other things. So now his Essence is berserk for not knowing how to flow in this ¡®new¡¯ Alexander, causing him to be so feeble. By tomorrow he should be fine if his talent for Essence is still the same.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? Thank you, Infarcerio¡¯s Clan Leader for explaining this to me. If you excuse me, I have to take His Highness, no, he is the Grande Prince now, right? I have to take him to the castle so he can rest.¡± Solaris¡¯ violet eyes were dead cold and her killing intent was so overwhelming that Hucleia shuddered at looking to her.

    Carrying her ruler like a princess in her arms, Solaris slowly left the mansion with seemingly unknown thoughts until she remembered her whole life until now, how she suffered so much that even after puking or having her limbs cut from her, that person never gave her any respite. Now she knew the reason for it and why Alex needed her protection, her mere presence was there to continue to make cracks and be used to make Alex care more for Demons.

    Just it, her entire existence was just to make some goddam stupid cracks in a nonsense prophecy. Her struggles and meaning of life were just for it and to continue to be Alex¡¯s shadow when he truly becomes the Demons¡¯ ruler.

    Solaris¡¯ frustration and hatred escaped from her control, she ended up gripping Alex tighter than necessary, causing him to grunt even though he should be unconscious.

    She stopped and looked at Alex until she calmed down and relaxed.

    Solaris knew very well who she hates now and who she likes.

    And both of them wouldn¡¯t escape from her, they would both receive her emotions in their full power.

    Zorenyth sighed looking to the girl leaving, he also knew who would die today and felt slightly guilty.

    He just wants now to his son endure for the rest of the time to him go sleep and make preparations for the World War.

    ***

    In a bad lightened room in the Silver Castle¡¯s underground, two Demons that were practically twins with how they looked alike faced each other. ¡°Well done, Shadow. You had safely retrieved the Grand Prince, we were worried he could be attacked in the confusion but it seemed to have no problem.¡± The older one, Solaris¡¯ mother, who forsaken her name to serve Nuala said.

    ¡°I only did the job I born to.¡± Solaris mechanically answered across the brown table they were.

    ¡°Good, it seems it is time for me finally give you our Arcanum Artifacts, the Grand Prince now needs more protection than ever.¡± Solaris¡¯ mother gave a white mask with a yellow star on its entirety, making unknown if someone would be able to see while using it, and also gave a ring with a red jewel on it that no one from the Kahonusk¡¯s clan was able to activate until now.

    Solaris put on the mask and it immediately accepted her, the ring she put on her pockets. ¡°Does it mean with this you can¡¯t draw more the power of the extinct Phoenixes that are our Clan¡¯s symbol nor regenerate yourself?¡±

    ¡°Yes, now I will have to be more careful to not die. But it is necessary to you have it, you shall your use your own body to protect the Grand Prince. And who knows? Maybe after he becomes an adult and a Demon, he will perceive how good of a job you did and let you warm his bed at least, though the position of lover and wife will be impossible with how little of political power you would bring to him if you marry him.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for giving me a hint about what I should do next, Mother,¡± Solaris formally bowed, her mother looked to her without understanding what was happening, ¡°and goodbye.¡±

    At the end of Solaris¡¯ words with her Essence activating her secret weapon, her mother¡¯s vision became disturbed and she fell over.

    Black marks as if they were spiderwebs crawled through her entire body, causing the adult woman to scream in pain and have to use all of her Essence to just breathe and survive.

    ¡°Like it? That Blacksmith gave me this poison made with humans¡¯ fluids when I said I wanted to kill someone between me and Alex, that old man is quite compassionate sometimes even though he doesn¡¯t like me.¡± Solaris had a paper with pink powder that was the cause of the poison. ¡°A shame it is useless on war and is more for assassination with their short-range effect and small lifespan.¡±

    ¡°Shadow! Do you-¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t call me by that name.¡± Solaris stomped hard on her mother until teeth flew around. ¡°My name is Solaris, that¡¯s the name he gave me.¡±

    She fondly remembered of her most precious memory while she abused her own mother and put fire stakes on her.

    ¡°Are you okay? Why all the injuries? Tell me who bullied you and I won¡¯t let them get away.¡± A child of two years and a half innocently asked the crying girl on the underground path he accidentally discovered.

    The boy listened to a false story made by the girl and comforted her with his pure smile. ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem like very fun and your name shouldn¡¯t be a noun. How about changing your name to Solaris? It means I want you to smile again like the sun and live freely by the language I learned yesterday with the big thing Mother called of Father and that I should I also call him like so."

    It was the first time someone cared for Solaris¡¯ mental and physical state, completely different from her mother who tortured her day and night with the purpose of making her ¡®stronger¡¯. ¡°I would love to do the same thing you did to me to you gradually, seeing you squirming in terror, but it will take too long and there is a chance Alex will discover, so I will settle with just killing you. Be grateful for that.¡±

    Her mother spat words thick with malice that showed her true side, but Solaris ignored her by stabbing at her brain before burning the dead body.

    Solaris felt no satisfaction or guilt at killing her own mother, to her it was just another day of her killing someone to protect Alex, but even those days are now over.

    ¡°You took quite long to come here, that old man really did his part at distracting you,¡± Solaris said to the being materialized at the corner of the room with the poison¡¯s antidote in hands. ¡°But you were too late, your dear guard is now dead, I recommend searching for another, and if possible not a child abuser or with mental problems.¡±

    Nuala sighed with a headache, it wasn¡¯t the first time a Clan Leader was killed by their own child, however, she didn¡¯t know how to explain this to Alex. ¡°Shadow, you know I can take you right now for treason, right?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about who you are talking about.¡± Solaris activated The Star with a ring of light behind her. ¡°Today both Shadow Kahonusk who was the Grand Prince¡¯s maid and her mother died by the hand of an Angel who tried to infiltrate the castle, you¡¯re looking right now to Solaris Kahonusk, the newest Clan Leader. Are you trying to imprison a Clan Leader for no apparent reason?¡±

    ¡°You thought of everything, this time I lost.¡± Nuala gave up, she couldn¡¯t kill the last one capable of using an Arcanum Artifact from the Kahonusk Clan.

    ¡°I now have things to deal as the new Clan Leader. Can you leave me alone now? And¡­ don¡¯t forget of contracting a new maid for the Grand Prince, his previous one is dead now and won¡¯t come back to his side.¡±

    ¡°I can understand killing your mother, but why are you trying to distance yourself from Alex?¡±

    ¡°Someone like you would never understand, this conversation is over.¡± Solaris departed, in her head were only the words that bitch said earlier, ¡®the position of lover and wife will be impossible with how little of political power you would bring to him if you marry him¡¯, Solaris was in certain aspects a child too precocious.

    She thought with her hand on her new mask. ¡°Alex obeys too much Nuala, if so, he will for sure not be able to refuse his mother who will make a ¡®deathmatch¡¯ between the candidates to become the next queen and Alex¡¯s wife. He thinks his body is for the country and will gladly marry any of the candidates that Nuala choose based on how much will be easier to control the army and entire country.

    ¡°Then I just need to have so much influence that Nuala will be forced to choose me that is worthy of him, after that¡­¡±

    The red jewel faintly glowed in her pockets before becoming dull again.