Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 23 – Regroup

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

A low hanging moon; the royal light of the night sky’s sovereign bearing its gentle glow towards a small boy. For that single fragile moment Morgant appeared no different than any other child. Though covered in cuts and bruises, the horror of what it should have been was washed away by a peaceful, sleeping face, of which smiled satisfactorily at overcoming a tall struggle.

Neatly leaned up against the base of a large and welcoming tree, it was as though eternity itself could pass by without changing the quiet and tranquil expression on the boy’s face. Thus as the boy slept, his three former opponents watched over him quietly until such a time he decided to arise.

“My apologies, Lord Erendel. I had thought I had covered all of our tracks but it seems that my efforts were insufficient as the boy was somehow able to figure out your identity. I may be prudent to figure out a counter plan for this compromise to some degree.”

Enrich bowed in utmost sincerity, ready to give up his life as a way of atonement. That being said he knew better than anyone else that he was worth far more to the former demon lord alive than dead. It was not so much about being forgiven, rather what he wanted was for Erendel to know that such a failure of this magnitude would not be repeated a second time. This apology was merely an excuse to get that message across.

Erendel raised his hands, a gesture that voicelessly expressed that all was ‘fine’. To the weak human bowing before him, it would take no more than a few seconds to completely annihilate him, however to such a being Erendel had given his full trust. Their relationship was not of friends, not even of master and servant but one born of mutual trust and partnership. He had relied much on Enrich as the same vice versa, to each other the other’s triumph and failures were just as good or bad as their own.

“When he’s sleeping he resembles any other child… yet I wonder what it is that makes him so different then, when he is awake?”

Erendel stared down towards the gentle face of the sleep boy as his figure cast a large shadow over him. Though he was not expecting any sort of answer he was given one, by the sleeping boy no less.

“What makes me different? There may not be one simple answer to your question… but if I had to summarize it in a single word then I would choose ‘understanding’.”

Morgant answered still with his eyes closed and having woken up just a few seconds prior to Erendel’s question.

“Understanding?”

Asked Erendel, not even pretending he was surprised at Morgant’s sudden answer. Rather he was curious as to what exactly Morgant had ‘understood’ that made him the target of his esoteric daughter. Astaroth, as much as she was a child that moved largely based on impulses, with her gift of precognition she was also fairly well grounded in reality. She was good at judging other people’s innate characters thus he wanted to know what exactly his daughter ‘saw’ in this boy to make him her chosen one.

“Yes, understanding about this world. All that I am, my ideals, my confidence and my actions, they are support by the truth that has long been hidden away from its denizens. You may not realize it, but behind me stands a power that is unfathomable to even the gods above. That is what makes me so different to anyone one else.”

A brief silence overtook them, nothing but the sounds of rustling trees in the wind could be heard. Erendel looked down, not with an arrogant or superior gaze but with genuine interest. He wanted to know what this seven year old could possible understand that he, as the Demon Lord that has lived for centuries, did not.

“This ‘power’ is it related to the strange technique you have used?”

“That’s certainly a part of it, though they are little more than apparitions now.”

Morgant slowly opened his eyes and raised his head up towards the quietly contesting gaze of the former demon lord’s glowing red eyes. Erendel sighed as he gave up trying to understand who exactly this small child really was, not because he wasn’t curious but because he felt that it wasn’t something to be understood as much as it was admired. Both this child and his daughter were impossible enigmas and that was just the kind of entities they were and he had respected that notion.

‘Perhaps…’ Erendel thought, that there could be no better match for his daughter than this child. From the ancient past to the far future, the two complimented each other this regard; it was not something Erendel could supersede. With that thought Erendel gave a small but satisfied grin as he told Morgant.

“I leave my daughter in your capable hands; though she can be impulsive and hard to control I trust that you will be able to look after her.”

Morgant snickered, though not with malicious intents he still spoke in such a manner.

“Well, if Papa Demon Lord asks me to, I won’t refuse. After all, a power such as ‘precognition’, there’s no way I’d ever be willing to give up something so useful like that.”

“Is that so? Do whatever you want.”

Giving nothing more than his blessings and those parting lines Erendel walked away from the scene, leaving Enrich and Lilith behind to explain the situation to Morgant. Though he had a sneaking suspicion that Morgant had already figured out what was going on from the get go, it still couldn’t hurt to lend the boy a small hand. Morgant may not have known yet, but Erendel understood that something bigger was at large and this small incident was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Are you feeling better now? How about your injuries?"

Enrich asked as he approached carefully with a sociable smile. That being said even if he gave off such a carefree mood, after all that's happened Morgant was hard-pressed to believe his sincerity. Morgant averted his gaze to the side to see the calmly sleeping face of Yvonne also nestled up against the large tree. He sighed seeing that she was safe and turned back to Enrich.

"I'm fine."

Answered Morgant as he brushed him off coldly. He had no intentions of being dragged into Enrich's pace now, what he wanted was answers to overdue questions. Despite this Lilith had come over and started casting light healing magic and tended to his wounds, though that being said her magic wasn't anything to boast about. In fact half the time it had trouble activating itself as the effects flickered on and off.

"I said I was fine, you don't have to do this."

"B-but you're injured..."

The pink haired progeny of demon lords, Lilith answered in an uneasy voice. From the moment she dodged Yvonne's sword instead of outright deflecting it Morgant had deduced she had a timid personality. Matters of her self-conscious nature would've only worsened when coupled with her innate super strength and clumsiness at magic. Even now she wore a wary and uneasy expression that seemed to be perpetually on the verge of tears.

"In any case I'm glad this situation was able to resolve itself before it came to anything truly irreversible."

Enrich commented with the same smiling façade.

"You say that but didn't you plan this entire farce?"

"Ah, I was found out; was it that obvious?"

Enrich answered back playfully as he shrugged. Seeing his annoying and carefree smug Morgant could only sigh.

"Thinking back now, I feel so she stupid that I wasn't able to see this coming. That time you met Miko and Diana at the orphanage you mentioned about not going near the forest, that was you luring me into this situation weren’t it? You knew I was eavesdropping and used my ignorance against me."

"That's right. Though admittedly I had greatly underestimated your capabilities, which is why we arrived at this predicament. Well, as long as you understand that we aren't your enemies then it’s fine. Still though, I am genuinely curious as to how you knew about Lord Erendel's identity"

Morgant smirked.

"I wonder? I think that’s for me to know and for you to try your best to find out. After all you did say that you and I are alike, so it should be a cinch right?"

A slight but noticeable twitch in Enrich's eyes gave away his discomfort at the situation before him. He could exactly deny Morgant's words without seeming like a hypocrite for saying the same thing before.

"Is that so?"

Seeing his perturbed face Morgant couldn't help but giggle to himself.

"You don't have to continue making that face, because it's not like I told anyone. Rest assured knowing that Erendel's secret hasn't been compromised."

Enrich sighed as the tension in his body left him.

"You have my thanks."

"Ah, but well… you know it's ‘that’."

Morgant spoke as he got up from his sitting position and started to dust off the dirt from his pants. Though clumsily done and most of the bruises and cuts were still visible, Lilith was at least able to stop his bleeding and numb the pain.

"That?"

Enrich asked.

"Yes 'that', even if I didn't know Erendel's identity or even if all of this was real, none of it would have changed because my victory was assured from the beginning."

"Why do you say that?"

Glancing up towards the bright blue sovereign deity of the sky, Morgant took a deep breath basking at its gaze towards him. The light of which showered Morgant in a manner specific as if to claim him as its eternal champion. His usual lightless hair cast in its royal silvery, his smooth skin whose glimmering was made more prominent through the congealed blood and cuts.

He reached forth for the celestial body high up in the darkened night sky. It was true that Morgant himself was far removed from the old world but more than anyone else in the current world, he was the closest to their former glory.

It was not just any moon. It was 'his' moon and for anyone else in this world who would claim otherwise he knew their words were empty. It was not worship or blind faith but a promise from the old world to him, of a destined greatness.

"Because under the guidance of Luna my victory is destined."

Morgant answered, without breaking sight from the sky.

"Luna?"

To Enrich this word was foreign but with quick deduction he was able to understand what Morgant had inferred. The unreachable celestial power that cast light towards night, if such a power had guided him then perhaps it was not so farfetched to believe in Morgant's mysterious 'apparitions'.

"Well, enough of that; I have questions and you have answers."

"Yes, I guess that's true."

Enrich answered with a nod, knowing what specifically Morgant wanted to know. As he put it the 'minute' circumstances surrounding his birth, they were of great interest to Morgant.

"The lineage of Fallon, what do you know of them?"

Enrich giggled at Morgant's question.

"As much as I don't want to tell you, I do suppose you are the one person that has the right to know. That being said I do think that now isn't a good time, of which I mean you really should be going back before they start worrying about you."

Morgant understood well that Miko, Diana and his childhood friends would no doubt be waiting. Due to this he couldn't exactly deny that this wasn't the best time nor was it the best place to talk, however his curiosity was peaked. At the very least from what he had seen from Este, the Fallon lineage didn't particularly seem like a normal one.

"That doesn't matter right now what I-"

Morgant tried to answer back but before he couldn't finish his sentence he was interrupted by loud coughing coming from his right. After all this time Yvonne had finally started regaining her consciousness.

"Yvonne?"

Morgant asked as he crouched to check up on her condition. With haggard breaths she nodded with a subtle smirk, signifying that she wasn’t hurt too badly and all she needed was a bit of time to adjust.

“It seems you have some business to attend to, so I shall leave you to it.”

Turning his back Enrich slowly started walking away from the scene with a hand wave back. Lilith also took notice and bowed out before gently floating away with her small, seemingly flightless pair of wings.

“Wait dammit! You haven’t answered my question!”

Morgant tried to chase after then but having underestimated the extent of the damage suffered from the use of [overload] fell down, planting his face against the dirt. Several of his wounds reopened as minute quantities of blood trickled down his face. As he was about to feel stupid for being in such a compromised position a voice echoed back from the darkness of the forest, it was Enrich’s voice; a promise.

“Do not worry, I shall explain everything to you in due time. For now it’s best to focus on the real problem that lies ahead.”

Morgant rolled over to one side and stared back up towards the tranquil stars high above. Like a gigantic celestial river, a stream of stars shined their pitiful lights towards the small boy, showing them that even to the heavens there existed something above.

“Tch, that bastard got away…”

…

“Are you truly sure that they weren’t the enemy? Enrich could’ve just been telling you the stuff you wanted to hear to get you to come to such a conclusion.”

Once more Morgant and Yvonne found themselves back at the Longmoore Trading Post in a situation reminiscent to before. Francisco had carefully started patching up the injured Yvonne who laid face down on the sofa, half naked. Periodically she whispered ‘ah~’ or ‘mmm~’ in a sensual manner.

Morgant had just finished recounting the entire farce that occurred in the forest, including events relating to the former demon lord. At the very least, he had determined that Francisco was not likely to be a character that would spread word about the former demon lord.

“While I can’t exactly discount that possibility, like I said before, it’s extremely unlikely.”

“If you think that’s the case then I won’t speak any further about it. After all our primary suspects are the Adventurer Association’s leader, Gerald and the Mayor, Dalton. However, it might take a bit of time in getting more specific information on Gerald, since he isn’t originally from this continent.”

“About that… we might not even need a background check on them. Perhaps we can run past the trail the opponent has carelessly left behind and set up a trap in front of them.”

Francisco ceased applying first aid to Yvonne to contemplate on Morgant’s words. He raised his right eyebrow up to express his confusion then turned back towards Morgant who sat upon his chair.

“Have you figured something out about the nature of the enemy?”

“Not necessarily but I do have a part of the puzzle. [Monolith Shard, Matter Reconstruction].”

Morgant reached forth and summoned the small yellow shard he had collected from his expeditions into the forest before.

“That’s the ‘monolith shard’ you talked about before? Hard to believe that little thing could cause so much devastation in such a short amount of time.”

“It’s just a piece of a larger whole. Still, considering the actions the opponents have taken I’m willing to be that they still don’t understand the full functionality of this artifact.”

At his words Francisco couldn’t help but giggle to himself. His shoulders lightly shivering in amusement, Yvonne stopped to look up to see if something was wrong with him. After only a day she had understood that Francisco and Morgant’s discussions happened on an entirely different plane to what she was used to, thus she had opted to keep her confusion of what Morgant had said was so funny.

“Aha… is that what is it?”

Morgant nodded back.

“The key to dealing with those weeds are to let their own hubris overcome them. Once they become bloated we can cut them down at their roots.”