Name: Nil

Race: Demon

Type: Transformed Deviant Soul

Age: Immortal – 34years, 8months.

Crystal Essence: [Crimson]- Lvl.8— 358.2esq

[Available Essence Points— 0]

Strength: 31

Agility: 56

Wisdom: 26

Abilities: [Faithless Absorption], [Faithless Mimicry], [Faithless Essence Amplification]

[Available Trait Points— 0]

Traits: [Armoured Form]- Lvl.2, [Greater Cognizance]- Lvl.4, [Psychic Resistance]- Lvl.5, [Quick Mould]- Lvl.5

Ascension Perks: [Reais Fiend]

Spells: [Invisibility]- Lvl.1, [Minor Illusion]- Lvl.2

Patron: Nil

The indiscernible sound of gibberish breaks through the black. Something growls at my feet, snapping and slobbering at them. I snort and my nostrils bleed, cut by the rush of air— it’s long gone without any use.

My mouth hangs open, my tongue is dry and cracking. It bleeds as I move it free from its position. The crust on my eyes snap free and light seeps in to blind me. Slowly I break myself free of the lethargy of slumber and my quiet hearts beats with activity.

I snatch a coherent glimpse at my stat and find a particular bit ridiculous.

Age: Immortal - 34 years

My jaws cracks and I croak out the number. “Twenty-seven years…” Light stings but I recover quick and find myself suspended above a large pit leading to a zoo of prowling monsters. And then out ahead of me, standing some feet away are a pair stand, one gapes and the other has a thin frown on her soft lips— Valery.

She’s older than she was when I saw her, not by much but for an elf or half-elf she’s lost all the feign of youth. The scars on her have multiplied, though they’re merely darker strips of skin, nothing like the one slicing through her upper arm. The one I had Henry put.

A smirk crawls on my lips. I spit the blood and mucor mixed in my mouth and the ravenous beasts below swallow it and roar.

‘Elf.’

There’s a younger one beside Valery. Ears shorter with a thinner point I figure she’s the full-blooded out of the two and her true years would be lost on her pouted face. Unlike Valery’s glaring in bare undergarments, the elf wears a smooth silk gown and carries a ball of light in her hand. She carries an air of elegance even in undesirable backgrounds, but the pace she comes to terms with things is disconcerting.

She snaps at Valery and Valery mutters what must be half-hearted apologies before snapping back at her, Lumina. From my encounter with Valery, I know who she is, Lumina, the elven sister she summoned me to save.

‘Already saved.’

That’s right. She’s here with Valery, safe and in one piece. Hope blossoms in me that after keeping me prisoner for nearly three decades, Lumina, what seems to be Valery’s more, dignified and reasonable sister has come to free me.

My mood sours as the thought of just how much time I’ve lost crosses my mind once more. It was different before, when I first woke up to find Valery’s devilled gaze of wonderment. Then only moments had passed I’m sure, I could’ve returned to Calridian, harvested the Essence of hundreds, no, thousands of droned demons. I could’ve saved Haern should he have needed it— I’m certain he did— and I would have learned of the gods I’ve been chasing; the enemy I loathe.

I would’ve returned a Blood Orange tier, a potential rival to Hargoil and a better to Haern. I’d have joined the war and reaped my way to Maroon tier. I would have grown.

But now I’m here, the atmosphere is still without Essence but I’m not as empty as I felt when I first woke.

‘Prisoner.’

Yes…I’ve been her prisoner. Valery’s found and fed my Soul Crystal the Essence it needed. Immortal that I am, there’s always a bit of Essence left over in my crystal to keep me alive, but when there’s nothing else in front of that base, all I’ve got to go on as a defence or even as an offense is mana. But now I’ve got some Essence to spare.

Flexing it throughout my body, cracks and pops echo around the room as the Essence my body has missed so much rejuvenates it. Letting out a content sigh I bother at the quarrelling sisters, “Lumina.” I say aloud, startling the both of them.

Valery jumps over stair railings and stomps over to me. She glares up and points a finger I snap at. She flinches away and growls, “Don’t even think about it. Lumina is beyond your control but if any harm comes to a single hair on her head you will never be free. I’ve made sure of it!” she blasts at me in that carnal language.

‘Truths at last.’

‘How are you so sure?’

Lumina shuffles forward, still cross with her sister more than anything. I can’t make out their language, it’s terribly difficult to understand from the little glimpses I got from Henry and the rest of the team. Worse yet is that even with a telepathy at the level it is, Valery has taken several precautions in guarding her mind and Lumina is no different.

‘Weaker.’

Yes, there’s that. Since I woke and saw the two I’ve launched my mind at them, Lumina has been through some troubles recently…at least, in the past five years. There’s a spectre behind these troubles— trauma. And now this, me, finding out her sister’s kept a demon locked up and hung above a pit of hungry monsters under their home basement infuriates her.

‘Under the basement? She must really want to hide me.’

There’s a lot more to it that my telepathy has gleaned. If I push their minds any further their wards will notice and they’ll lock up all their impressions and I’ll be left in the dark. Still, without telepathy I can’t communicate with them, certainly not in their garbled language and not in Valery’s carnal tongue— a language I seem to only understand because she’s the one who summoned and bound me from Reais.

But there’s no need to play by their games, if I do nothing now, chances are Lumina is going to lose this argument and Valery will keep me chained and forgotten down here. I reach out to my Blade, it has to be somewhere close by.

‘No. Battles. War.’

The disembodied voice occupying my head speaks again. An issue I’ve been too preoccupied to address— better to fight the enemies outside before dealing with those within.

But the voice is right. Lumina’s trauma, Valery’s rescue and the Sainid Empire. Of course there will be war even after so many years, these are elves after all. By the disgusted look Valery keeps throwing at me I can tell she’s still sour about Henry and the lot— she doesn’t want to use me now, especially after saving Lumina all on her lonesome.

‘Maybe I should have agreed earlier. Then I wouldn’t have lost so much time.’

No, the last person I bowed to hasn’t lived up to their end of the deal and I trust Valery even less to do so now. Besides, why would anyone summon a demon only to release it?

‘I can’t trust her and she can’t trust me.’

A fine and understandable impasse.

Valery pauses, a frown sits on her lips. She raises hand to silence Lumina who still hasn’t noticed my good work.

I laugh in her face as she glares. Speaking in English, I tell her, “You should have kept it farther away or maybe…in the circle with the demon you bound.”

Her eyes widen but it’s too late. I rip the chains binding my arms out of the walls and fall into the pit. Valery hurries to the edge and stares down to find blood spilt and the second circle broken in several places.

I am free.

The Seeker Blade twirls around, slicing off the manacles as it drips with the blood of the monsters Valery set for me. Many of them I vaguely recognize. Giant dire wolves, wingless griffins and even a pack of hobgoblins. To the speed and edge of the Seeker Blade, these monsters may as well be pets.

A shard of ice glances my shoulder before I can get out of the way. A flurry follows as Valery roars indignation. Mana rises from her and I’m sure she’s about to activate whatever failsafe she’s got in store but Seeker’s already out, it zips through her footing at the edge— I’ll have to settle with that since I still can’t kill her directly.

She crashes with rubble, landing smack in the midst of torn griffins. Essence bulges in my calves and I leap out of the slightly larger hole. Lumina gasps but quickly surges with mana as well, I can’t stop her from casting something that makes my body weigh several tons. Seeker zips after her fleeing form, I have it cut at her ankles and tendons, enough so she takes a spill.

The little Essence Valery has been generous with bolsters the three long strides it takes to get to Lumina where lightning blasted out of her fingertips carries me through the solid roof.

I land half in what used to be a well-organized and beautiful dining room kitchen. Valery roars and more shards snap at me.

‘Run.’

I don’t need the voice to tell me before I’m on my heels. Without regard for furniture or even walls, I burst out of the building I’ve been trapped under for decades and spill into a garden. Voices at the upper levels yell down at me from windows, many yell out for Valery and Lumina.

I could stay and fight. Hold my ground and send Seeker to slaughter more of her friends. But rushing through the thick, perfumed multi-coloured shrubs of the garden I run across graves. It’s unmistakeable.

I pause at one, a spot I remember clearly as though it were yesterday I stared at it. A headstone sits where Henry bled out pitifully. I’d robbed him of his last moments in a last ditch effort at deceiving Valery— it didn’t work. Just like fighting her won’t work.

Whatever magic she’s used to summon and keep me from Reais, in this place the stat sheet calls Ire, I don’t know the first thing about it.

‘I do.’

Wind scythes cut at me as an unfamiliar man gapes at my height, shaken but determined to keep me from escaping. I snarl down at him, he shrieks and fires off more scythes before Seeker severs his spine. His blood pools at my feet, wholly different for the ichor of demons. The watery quality, the thick smell of iron and the way I look in its reflection. There’s something different about mortals.

I don’t wait to find out, Valery’s out of that pit by now and hot on my heels. I doubt I can escape her completely, but I need time, time to learn, time to find out what cards I’ve got on my deck.

‘What do you know about this magic? Who are you and where are you speaking from? Are you part of them?’

My questions are met with silence. In the first place I don’t know who I’m targeting my thoughts at but I bet they’re listening closely to mine— watching my every move and impression from wherever. They’ve been rather interested since Valery summoned me.

Surveillance like that should be unsettling. It always has been, in fact, my first goals in Reais were to guard my thoughts from prying minds, shield my intents from opponents. And yet I’m not agitated by this presence, not in the slightest. It’s the opposite, I welcome them…unconsciously grateful for their input even though it’s vague.

And now I need it.

‘Alright. One at a time. What do you know about this magic?’

The ground quakes and breaks as I skip across. Mana surges from someone behind me. ‘Valery? No…Lumina.’

Her magic cracks the earth in two creating a chasm. One I can scale across without concern but I sense keeping me from running isn’t the goal here.

“Wait!” She calls out to me. The wards on her mind vanished so I can penetrate and translate her garbled words— she’s letting me in.

My feet tethers on the edge as I turn to face her. Lumina, golden haired and eyed elf has her arm stretched out to her sister waving her back from me.

‘Make the pact favour you.’

More vague instructions. I snarl as Lumina steps towards me, she stops and mouths something and reality cracks at her finger tips and the scent of Reais spills out but only just as the crack snaps shut, leaving a scroll in her hands. She turns it towards me.

“Valery will chase you…hunt you down even, maybe not now but…she isn’t comfortable with letting you run amok. You’re her responsibility.”

With her mind ajar I read between the lines— Valery won’t let me go because I killed her friends and cost her time and a shard of her own soul.

I smile and Lumina shudders. “The only way she’ll let you go now is if you help us, the Empire isn’t done.”

Again, I read between the lines— She’s the only person familiar with the summoning and soul binding techniques she used on me, Valery’s the key back home. The Sainid Empire is searching for...

“So you are Queen then?” I say, speaking a rather broken version of her language.

“Heavy is the crown.”

“And this is…” I search for the word, “Pact then. I help you, you give me magic, power and send me back home?”

“That’s not part of the deal!” Valery yells over, daring to step forward but Seeker makes a show of circling Lumina.

Lumina shrugs, “We’re at war with Sainid, they have many powerful Mages and artefacts. A share of the spoils will be yours, but you’ll be signing the pact with me, not Valery.”

“That means you have to protect her!” Valery yells again.

There aren’t any lies here, even the voice hasn’t protested. But it did say to make the pact favour me.

“One more condition then.” I say, slowly becoming fluent in the language though it makes my tongue uncomfortable.

“What?”

“I protect you, I help win your war…then, you help me win my war.”

Lumina’s mind races, a frown finds her lips, “What war? Against demons?”

“Not primarily.”

“Then who?”

“Everyone in my way.”