Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 35 – Inheritors of heaven’s will

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

Despite being dubbed the ‘Demon Continent’ it was only really the case due to the majority of its residential populace being descended of demonic races. In truth much of the population was docile and relatively peaceful with there being minor exceptions. Throughout its history, it was only the actions of invaders and outsiders that tended to have any ‘demonic’ flare.

The finest example of such incidents being caused by outsiders was the crisis that had beset upon the small backwater town of Vertloch Snowdown. It was a location that was largely irrelevant to the global narrative, yet the destructive force and ardent nature of the fighting was no different from actual war.

Yet even amongst all of this chaos and destruction there were still much of the land that had still yet to lose its lustre. Like a carefully prepared oil painting the forests of the demon continent bloomed with aquatic and terrestrial colors. Marching through such a scene was a procession of deathly undead knights carrying wounded and unconscious passengers.

Carefully stalking deep in the background, the cries of exotic animals and monsters could be heard. Yet none of them made even an attempt to attack; to these stalkers the law of the jungle was quickly overwritten by the terrifying sight of the army of death- marching in harrowing unison.

It was but a small force of several two meter tall hollow skeletons decked out in ghastly dawn colored armor and weapons. Walking with perfect uniform stride they carried with them two children and a heavily injured adult woman as if being spirited away. Undead knights on their own weren’t all that formidable under their armor, at best they served as front line meat shields to an even greater unit, but this time was a little different. Normally they were slow, uncoordinated and lacked the crucial intellect needed for actual battle, yet these flaws seemed nowhere present on this particular set. Their perfect synchronicity served as a voiceless reminder to the would-be predators that they were not to be trifled with.

It was those sounds of excruciatingly coordinated stride brushing against the tall rustling grass that awoken one of the children from unconsciousness. A young boy of Elven descent with oceanic blue hair, rubbing his eyes as he coughed from the sudden intake of air.

“Keh… Wha-?”

Confusion compounded by disorientation; not only was the world around Ren an enormous mass of blur but due to being carried it was also shaky.

“It seems you’ve regained consciousness. It’s okay just a bit longer and we will reach our base so you can continue resting until then.”

A voice, feminine yet complete unnatural and inorganic sounding. It was the first time Ren had heard such a voice, though on second thought it wasn’t really. He had heard this kind of voice before… a few weeks ago, back during their little scavenger hunt in [Ingrid’s Tomb].

“You’re… Ingrid?”

Not yet having recovered his proper vision he couldn’t confirm that she truly was, but such a voice was distinct and unique. Mistaking her would be harder than identifying her.

“That is correct.”

A quick, emotionless response.

“I thought you couldn’t use our language? …ugh.”

Ren asked in the midst of trying to reopen his eyes, only to be met by an intense concentration of blinding light. He quickly closed them in response only to wait a little more to try again slowly.

“I am capable of every language. I have simply chosen not to use this one until now, however now that the situation has come to this I have no choice if I require your understanding.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ingrid suddenly ceased to conversation in order to think about the answer, or so that’s what Ren had thought from her silence. To him she was nothing more than a ghost of an old tomb, or so it should’ve been. Her enigmatic voice and the strange coldness of her tone was unlike anything he’s interacted with- it interested him. He wanted to know more about her.

“It’s simply a matter of pride.”

Giving such an anticlimactic and cryptic response, Ren couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by it. The entire concept of ‘language’ was a vague one in this world since every nation chose to adopt one language throughout the entire globe. It was much more convenient that way in terms of trade and forging closer alliances. Thus the only real places where a difference of language existed was with monsters who made their own language.

Thinking of that it wouldn’t have been surprising if Ingrid did use another language, since she would have been classified as a ‘monster’. Yet Ren was still unsatisfied with giving her that label, there was just something about her that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the world.

“Pride?”

Pride for language was not something Ren had easily understood as he had never experienced it. At best there was a difference in dialect that arose from different types of culture and language short hands but other than that there was no real barrier in understanding others.

“[Diversity in language does not exist in this world. You will not understand… or perhaps you will.]”

Ingrid responded, but as it was in a language he did not understand he was unsure on how to answer to it. However that very fact was the entire point of Ingrid’s response. ‘Ah, I see… pride, is it?’ Indeed Ren felt a sort of frustration and confusion from her foreign words and that feeling was the key to her ‘pride’. The ability to live in her own world with her own language, certainly there was some ‘pride’ in that.

It was never about understanding, but about excluding. After all, from the beginning she was nothing but secrets, and it was those very secrets that gave her purpose to exist. It was her profession as a ghast, to maintain and guard those truths from everyone else. Though without any real confirmation, that was the kind of entity that Ren had concluded that she was.

He breathed out a sigh. If she was never meant to be understood then he would do just that. To not understand her and accept the situation as is.

Ren paused for a second as his vision finally returned to him. The first thing he had laid his eyes upon was Ingrid’s faint and translucent figure. She was unlike any being he had ever seen before, despite this being his second meeting. Even for a ghost her appearance was distinctively unique; all other spectral beings had an aura of dread and coldness, yet see… was still cold but in a much different manner.

Against the soothing imagery of Ingrid surrounded were horrendous abominations, the undead knights upon which he rode one of. A chilling sensation crept up his neck as the hairs on his arms stood, but their docile mannerism soon left him rather relieved. On second thought there was no real need to fear them, they wer clearly under Ingrid’s control and it wasn’t as though he hadn’t seen these knights before either.

With a sigh he turned back to Ingrid to ask.

“You… just what are you?”

A ghost that controls undead, this wasn’t a particularly outrageous setting. Yet something about her stood out and distinguished her as a true spectral entity. It wasn’t particularly any closely guarded secrets that he wanted to know, he just wanted a general gist of what she really is. Though his first impression was ‘ghast’ even that didn’t seem entirely correct now that he had a closer look at her.

“I am a being known as an ‘Artificial Intelligence’. The sole purpose for my creation was to function as a bridge between humanity and technology. A purpose that I had once thought was lost.”

Of course even with that explanation Ren was unable to comprehend what she meant. He understood the individual words but their meaning in its entirety was lost on him. The thing he was most curious about was actually not about her but her relationship with his old friend, Morgant. However following that train of thought he came to remember what it was that he was just in the middle of doing.

“Mmh? Is that?!”

Having noticed who was being carried by the first undead knight Ren raised an alarm. In the skeletal hands was a tattered and bleeding Yvonne who seemed to dance near death.

“She is the one you call ‘Guard Captain, Yvonne’. She was heavily injured during her battle against the enemy and thus is being brought to Gladsheim for emergency operations.”

“Emergency operations? You don’t have healing magic?”

To Ren the term ‘operation’ in regards to a medical context may have been an entirely foreign one. He had lived his entire life in a world that possessed magic that could instantly heal a person without any physical medical procedure, thus his confusion.

“I do not.”

Having regained full consciousness only a few minutes ago, Ren was only now just able to recall the events that had transpired prior to this point. He was still on a mission to save his friends but his body was unable to endure. Ren’s heart started to race as cold sweat crept up his back. The sound of his own frantic breathing could be heard but he ignored it as he shifted his gaze back and forth in panic.

“That’s right… why did I forget?! I was in the middle of something… Morgant! Celina and Alice too! Just exactly what happened and where are they?!”

Ren commented, unable to hold in his anxiety as his usual expression of calmness faded from his face.

“The Lamia girl is over there. She hasn’t regained consciousness but her life is in no danger.”

Ingrid pointed to a nearby undead knight carrying a small pink themed girl. As Ingrid suggested, everything about her health aside from small negligible bruises was in fine condition.

“Celina…”

“Mmya?”

Even though it was only in a small voice, Celina was able to respond to Ren’s call and also regained consciousness. She gave a hearty yawn as she rubbed her eyes to focus her gaze, but upon doing so she had almost fainted on sight of the thing that was transporting her.

“Calm down Celina, they aren’t enemies.”

…

It took a fair bit of tries but Ren had eventually managed to calm Celina down enough to explain the situation as he understood it. Ingrid had also filled in the gaps for when they were unconscious thus they had a reasonable complete picture, even the situation back at the children’s hometown was explained to them. Though it was mystery as to if they understood the extent of the crisis.

“I… see, so something like that has happened.”

Celina nodded uneasily through her hesitation and fears. It wasn’t for long that Ingrid had observed these children but she was able to get a basic gist of their personalities. Celina by nature was a child that timid and this foreign situation only served to compound this feeling, yet she kept herself quiet as to not cause any more problems for her friends.

“Enough about that now. Tch, how could I have forgotten? Hey, I don’t care if you’re an Artificial Intelligence or whatever, but you better start explaining where Morgant and Alice are. You know where they are right?”

Over the years Ingrid had conversed with many entities from this world but none have ever been as meaningful as the one she had with this boy named Ren. Though he was of a foreign species, he was definitely her master’s friend through and through. The determination gleaming in his eyes as he was one step away from finding his friend and returning to their daily lives was evident, yet it was this desperation and anxiety that had piqued Ingrid’s interests. He had shown himself to be a fairly intelligent boy so he was aware that the situation was well above himself, yet he still continued forward.

Those were the eyes that did not shy away from what was truly important. ‘Will’ and ‘courage’, concepts that was important both in this world and to the old Sovereign. Long ago before even this world began, her master had told her something similar, that the ‘human will’ should never be underestimated. Yet these children were not human…

“[Could the human will be inherited by those that are not human?]”

‘Curious,’ Ingrid asked herself. As this world was built upon the ashes of the old world it shouldn’t be too strange for some of the old world’s will to flow into the new. ‘Perhaps not all primitive races of this world are irredeemable’, she thought.

After a long pause she turned her gaze towards Morgant’s and Alice’s direction. Her answer to Ren’s frantic question was a slender blue finger in the right direction. She had not confidence that they could make any difference with their dismal power levels but still she was curious as to what they would do.

“They’re there?!”

Ren asked as he followed the direction of her fingers.

Ingrid nodded, only once.

Without a word further Ren got off the undead knight and started to dash in that direction. It was a mystery as to what he was thinking would happen once he got there, but there was no doubt that something in his psyche would change once he sees the situation for himself.

“W- wait Ren! I’m coming too!”

Celina also slithered off the undead knight and followed shortly after.

“Director… I have sent them to you, curious beings that have inherited the will of old humanity.”

I know it's not a very exciting chapter but I think a bit of set up is necessary for what I want to write in the future. Please bear with it for a little while. :/