The next morning, Alastor was on his way to the studies to see Mephisto. Following their discussion the previous day, Mephisto would teach him about politics between all kingdoms, Noroeth on the basics of magic and theories, Naberius on close combat and survival skills, Amelia on magic battle. As for Azurus, the slime told him that Alastor was not ready yet for his lessons yet so he needed to become stronger to do so. Looking at the slime, Alastor had some doubts as Azurus seemed to never take things seriously. Perhaps it would be better for Alastor to focus on the others for now. * * * Alastor's POV "So Alastor, tell me all you know about Astora." Mephisto asked me. "The world of Astora is divided three main continents: Ragna, Oros and Mara. In the North is Ragna. Ragna is where the demons have retreated back a few centuries ago after the war. Since then, other races have multiples times try to eradicate all demons completely but there have not been any successful attempts because of the harsh climate and terrains which proved to be very difficult to pass by. Oros is the dragon continent to the West. Compared to Ragna, it is slightly smaller but the creatures who live there are extremely powerful. That is not to take in account the roaming dragons. While dragons are solitary creatures, they are rules by the dragon council in a similar manner to the other nations. Mara is the biggest continent as it is ten times bigger than Ragna. Located to the south of Ragna. It's where all the rest of the Primes races live." I bragged about my knowledge. "Good. What can you tell me about the Prime races" "The race with the biggest population is the human. However they are divided into three kingdoms: to the North lies the kingdom of Ceadric. South of Ceadric we have Zagon Empire. The two countries have been in a feud since the last few decades and it is likely possible for a war to break out between the two. The last country, sharing the borders with the other two is the Theocracy of Light, ruled by the Church of Light, under the Pope. Together these three take the northern half of the Mara Continent. Compared to others races, human may lack in physical strength or magic affinity but they have proved to be the most ambitious and many great heros in history were human. The second race is the elf, renown for their affinity with magic and nature. Unlike human, there is only one elf kingdom, Malatas. But while they may seem united, the elves are divided into two faction: Solona and Luna. The third is the beastman. The beastman doesn't have a country as they are divided in clans and tribes. Most of these tribes are located in the plains and mountains to the east of Malatas. The dwarf race is the most unfortunate one. They used to live near the volcanoes to the South east of Mara but after the eruptions of these volcanoes a few years ago, the dwarves were spread among all others countries or even the dragon continent. Because of this the dwarf no longer has a country for themselves. The celestials don't live on any continent. In fact they live in a flying island which never stays at the same place for long. Even though they are small in numbers, they compensate with an exceedingly long life expectancy. Finally the dragon. They are known as the strongest race thanks to their natural magic resistance and scales hard as steel. Aside from that, I don't personally know much about them as they are usually solitary and quite secretive." As I ended my speech, Mephisto clapped his hands to congratulate me. "You already covered the basics. I am glad! This means I can jump to the next part. About the demon race. Now Alastor tell me! In your opinion what is a demon?" His question certainly raised my curiosity. Up until now, I have seen many different kinds of demons. Most of them, aside from those who shared monster attributes like Azurus, had a humanoid appearance. They also shared attributes with the Prime races. Naberius for example looked just like a beastman but with three heads, Amelia like a small elf girl. As for Mephisto he just looked like a human except for his claws and wings. Could it be... "Is there such a thing as the demon race?" I answered Mephisto with a question. It seemed like I found the right answer judging from the smile he gave me. "You seem to have got it. You have seen demons who share appearance with the Prime races. Others with monsters. In fact according to the archives, the demon first appeared when one of the monsters accepted the blood of the Old One, a deity in the demon religion. Many demons are descendants of these monsters. Of course this knowledge is widely spread even among the Church of Light. But there was also a second part of this myth. Taking pity on the demon, the Old One put a curse on the Prime races. Anyone from the Prime races who succumbs to the Dark will become a demon. This means that even if all the Primes manage all demons, we would one day come back as long as there is life in this world. This knowledge is of course censored by the Church as it can cause panic in the population. So in short, anyone has the potential to become a demon as long as they meet a certain requirement. In the history of demon lords, there were some who were celestial or dragon to begin with. Of course these kind of transformation don't happen every day but there are demons out there who have once been a Prime." Mephisto spoke. "Then which one are you?" I asked him. "The later. Would you believe me if I tell you that I used to be a priest of the Church? But alas that's a story for another time. Now let's get back to the subject!" * * * "You sure about this?" Alastor asked Naberius. "Trust me on this!" Naberius assured me while patting on my shoulders, making me lose my balance. "Here goes nothing!" The next second Alastor understood that he just made the stupidest thing in this life until now. Naberius has brought him to a nearby forest. He thought that the boy was too fragile and lacked endurance to begin the close combat lessons. Although Alastor did not wish to become a warrior, he still needed to be able to defend himself against those. Therefore he needed to work on combat instinct, sharpen his senses and survival skills. To Naberius, the only way to improve in those areas as quick as possible was to have a taste of death. And so he told the boy to hit the giant boar in front of him. "It's waking up. What do I do next?" Alastor started to panic. The boar was huge in size. It had two curved horned from its mouth and spikes on its spine. "What do you mean? Run you idiot!" Naberius jumped on a nearby tree while Alastor was being pursuited by the boar. "What the hell? I thought you would teach me something." screamed Alastor while running as fast as he can. "I am. Just try to survive for one hour without using magic! That's your first lesson. That's how I learnt anyway." Naberius grinned. "You bastard!" Alastor wanted to use the tree terrains to avoid the boar. But none of that matter for the boar, it just charged toward him and crushed everything on its way. Alastor could have used on the boar or even to weaken it. But he decided not to. Using those powers could be convenient but solely rely on them was not a good idea for Alastor. Just like the night of the attack, those powers turned out to be useless against powerful opponent or at least Alastor did not have the power or experience to use them wisely. Therefore training on survival skills should be the top priority until he became capable enough. After one hour, Naberius found a paralyzed Alastor lying on the ground. As he lifted his head, the boar charged toward him. "Well done, kid! You passed. I will take care of the rest!" Naberius raised his axe as he spoke. .... .... .... "Isn't that a bit too much?" Noroeth spoke to Naberius, looking at an unconscious Alastor on Naberius' shoulder "How am I supposed to teach him with him like this?" After putting Alastor on the bed, Naberius turned to Noroeth. "No worry! He is a fighter. He can take it! By the way did you see my axe? I just dropped it outside the room." the beastman said as he checked outside the room but he could not find anything. He went back in and looked around the around. "Do you mean the three meters long giant axe?" Noroeth said while looking out at the window. "Yes that's the one." Naberius confirmed. "The one with a white wolf emblem on the blade?" Noroeth added. "Yes that's it. I didn't know that you pay much attention to my axe." "The one that little girl is holding?" Noroeth pointed his hand to what he has been observing outside the window. "How....?" Naberius ran to the window only to see a sight he could not believe What caught his attention since earlier was a red-haired little girl, wearing a white robe in a the garden. Such a harmonious scene if no one took in account that she was holding a giant axe on her small shoulders. It was clear that the axe outsized her greatly but she handled it as if nothing. "This is certainly interesting!" Noroeth grinned. * * * Alastor's POV "Alastor, what are the basic elements of magic?", asked Noroeth. "There are in total five basics elements: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning. Light and Dark are not of this as they are the primitive elements, meaning the basic elements are created from them. While Dark magic is often frowned upon because it is usually associated with demons, it is not uncommon to see a practitioner of the Dark element. Aside from the Church of Light, other countries are very open-minded on using the Dark element." I answered. "Very good Alastor! To be able to use elemental magic, one must control the mana flow inside him and imbue your element into it. This means that you can't use elemental magic you don't have affinity with. That's why mage with multiples elemental affinities are very well regarded, often working for the royal family. As for you, we have used magic stones to determine your elemental affinities and I conclude that you have no elemental affinities at all. But don't take this as a bad news. In fact you might just be lucky. Just because you have no affinity with any of the element, it does not mean that you can't use magic. In fact thanks to that, the mana in your body remains pure, allowing you access to certain magics that can only be used if the individual has no affinity such as Soul Magic. At first you might think that no affinity is bad but I can assure that Soul Magic is so powerful since it can bypass all magic defense. However these individuals are incredible rare so not many even know about this magic. There are also other types of magic who don't rely on the elements like blood magic, necromancy but these are quite uncommon. Now while I can't use Soul magic, I could still help you with the knowledge about magic. You may not be able to use elemental magic but you can learn about their weakness and exploit them against your opponent. Remember: knowledge is power!" As he paused, Noroeth saw that it has been three hours since the start of the lesson. He decided to end the lesson as it has been a long day for me. The old lich started tidy up the old books on the table. I still had a few minutes before going to Amelia for the next lessons. Perhaps I should use this time to ask him about my mother Lakyus. I have been curious for a while. She was, at the end, my real mother after all. Since Noroeth was her teacher, perhaps he could tell me a few things about her. "Theoron, can you tell me about my mother?" I asked him. "I have not been called by that name for a long time...." he put down the books and took a sit. "What do you wish to know?" "Everything please. I want to know as much as I can about her. She is my mother after all." I said to him. At first he sighed and seemed to be reminiscing about the past. Then he spoke. "As you known, Lakyus was the elder of the two princesses of the Zagon Empire. When she was chosen as a hero, the people saw her as a goddess on earth, even those from other nations. But like every story there was a darker side not many know of. Lakyus was not exception. Lakyus' mother was a commoner. She caught the king's eye when he was on an expedition out of the castle. But because of her background, the king chose to let her live outside of the castle, in an isolated house hidden from the rest of the palace. Later he found out that a child was born and that child had incredible magic potential in Soul magic. A rare gem, once in a thousand years. And that child was Lakyus. And so he decided to take Lakyus and her mother back to the castle and intended to make Lakyus the heir to the throne despite numerous protests from the nobility and the court. Of course the queen was not happy about this but she did not have a child yet at that time so she could not openly express her discontent. One would have thought that things started to have brighten a bit for little Lakyus but a year later her mother succumbed to illness and died. The king also learnt that because of the tremendous amount of mana flow inside her body, Lakyus would not live past her twenties. Disappointed, the king announced a new heir which was Lakyus' young sister Morrigan who was born a few months after Lakyus was taken in the castle. But the king did not let his daughter go so easily. Although she won't live long, perhaps her body could be of use for magical research or later to be used as a military weapon or so he thought. So Lakyus was locked away inside a tower for fifteen years, subject to countless inhuman experiments." Noroeth spoke in a sad tone. As I listened to the story, I unconsciously clenched my fist in anger. Even if I did not know her personally, to hear something like this about my mother was more than enough to enrage me. At that time, I realized that Noroeth had caught on the expression shown on my face. Then he continued. "And indeed the king found the opportunity. When the 'so called demon invasion' was announced, he invited me to the castle to train Lakyus. At that time Malatas was in a friendly relationship with Zagon and we thought that the demons should be a priority concern so I accepted the invitation. But I changed my opinion about Zagon and its king when I first met Lakyus. She looked at me with a detached and cold eyes as if I was just like many of the others she saw before. Still she followed my training and instructions meticulously. Only a few months of training and she has already surpassed my level. She might had a fragile body but the scale of her magic potential and destruction was not of this world, unlike everything I have ever seen. I was suspicious of this. I only knew her as the hidden daughter of the king but to have this kind of power, I was afraid that Zagon was planning something bad. And so I sent a few spies to know more about Lakyus' origin. But what I found shocked me to my very core. It was only at that time I learnt the truth about her, how she suffered, how she endured all this time and how she only had little time left in this world. I tried to bring her out of the castle to see the world. I thought at least it would bring some happiness to this child. But the king refused completely, saying that when the time came, he would send her to kill the demon lord. I tried to do something, believe me! But my position did not allow me for careless moves. When you think about it, perhaps it's true that I was just like anybody else in her life. Either a heartless one or a hypocrite. Then one day Lakyus came to me, saying that she wanted to go kill the demon lord. I was completely blown away. I did not know for what reason would make her want to do something like this. Why would someone who was abandoned by the world want to save it? But at that time I decided to follow her wish. She only had a few years left and I would do everything I can do to answer her wishes. At that time, the king was also desperate because none of the assassination proved to work so he agreed pretty easily for Lakyus to go. And so we gathered a party and went to the demon continent. As for the rest, you already know it." I was deep in my thoughts after hearing the story of my mother. A part of me wanted to go to Zagon and just let my fury freed, destroy everything there. The other part could only weep for her. I may be her son but I did not think I would be able to agree saving the world who treated me like I was some lapdog, only to be used when they needed me. I did not know what to say so I stood up, thanked Noroeth for his story and went to the door. But as just as I went out of the room, Noroeth talked to me. "Alastor I did not manage to protect your mother nor did I do anything to help her when she needed me the most. I consider her like my daughter even though we only knew each other for a few months. That's why this is my promise to you. Whatever happens I will follow your decision." I looked at Noroeth who showed a sincere expression. I simply nodded at him as I closed the door and went to see Amelia. There was something on my face. Things were a bit blurry. I guessed there was a bit of dust in the castle.