Even with his blurry vision, the baby Lord could feel its gaze on him. He felt a cold shiver pass through him as he stared at the figure standing behind the looking glass.

The skulking figure had one hand resting on the glass with its face pressed right up against it. Its hot breath fogged up the glass making its face even more blurry.

“The rumors were true. She is here! The Baby Snatcher!”

The baby Lord’s heart was about to leap out his throat. You got to be kidding me! His hair stood on ends. The nurses were still continuing with their inane chatter. The baby lord could hardly hear them. Their voices were drowned out by his rapidly beating heart.

Ba-dum! Ba-dum!

This was the worst position to be stuck in. They had really caught him at a bad time. He couldn’t move, He couldn’t see. He had nowhere near the strength of an adult. His magic won’t do him any good. Pulling pranks was fine but to get into a serious fight was out of the question. Even an ordinary non mage could beat him in the current state he was in.

What to do? What to do? What to do?

What was he supposed to do?

BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

“There you go little Rose”

The Baby Lord let out a choked gasp. He was pulled out of his panicked hysteria by the assistant. She brought little Rosie and placed her on a crib next to the baby lord.

“Your papa was just outside. He will come to see you soon sweetie”

The baby lord had an incredulous look on his face. Papa? He looked at the looming figure outside the nursery. He was still staring, but the one he was looking at was little Rosie. He raised the hand that was resting on the fogged-up glass and gave a small wave towards his daughter.

The baby Lord’s heart was still beating rapidly like a run-away horse. His breath was coming in short gasps as his mind was coming to terms about what just happened.

The assistant tucked Rosie in and followed the Head Nurse out of the nursery. The giant figure outside the nursery left together with the nurses. He had a few questions for the nurses about his daughter’s health.

The baby lord stared open mouth at the retreating adults. His heart wasn’t ready for that rollercoaster of emotions. It was her dad that was outside. What was that crazy bastard doing sneaking around? He nearly gave him a heart attack. And what was he doing with that mana pulse! Where did he think he was? A warzone?

The baby lord let out a big breath and then puffed his cheeks up. What was he doing? He nearly pissed his diaper. He was a demon lord and he should act like one. He deserves the dignity and respect reserved for a lord. A demon Lord would never be scared and neither was he.

The baby Lord scowled as he laid in his crib. He projected his aura out of his body and focused it on his yellow armband. The aura lifted the yellow armband and it dragged his arm along with it. The baby lord moved his arm to point at the giant palm print that Rosie’s dad left up on the fogged-up glass.

The baby lord stuck his chin up imperiously. “You will have to do better than that evil doorman Papa! You don’t scare me!”

He waited with baited breath for the other shoe to drop, but the only thing that greeted him was silence. Seeing nothing happening he let out a nervous titter. Ha! Take that! He wasn’t scared! A demon Lord such as him wouldn’t be so easily frightened. His rapid heart rate proved nothing. The reason for that is because of the intense workout he was doing projecting his aura, and it certainly wasn’t because he was scared. He wasn’t scared at all!

Beep! Beep!

“Eeeeep!”

The baby lord gave out a loud yelp and swung his head around to look at the crib next to him. Little Rosie was sleeping there peacefully. The beeping came from the armband that was on her wrist. The baby Lord through his blurry eyes could see the arm band on Rosie’s hand changing color. It flashed white once and then turned into a light shade of yellow. It was completely synched up and tracking Rosie’s vitals now.

The baby scowled at the sleeping babe. First the father then the daughter. It seemed like this entire family was taking a piss out of him.

The baby lord snorted, it was better to nip this problem in the bud before this escalates. He was the De-facto ruler here. King of Shawshank. It’s time to show who exactly rules these halls.

The baby Lords aura flared up. He spread his aura towards Rosie and poked her. The sleeping babe woke up with a start and her cute face scrunched up in distress. The baby lord completely oblivious to the situation, was trying to make himself look more impressive. He laid in his crib puffing his chest up. Just as he was about to dive into his villainous monologue, Rosie started wailing.

The baby lord had his mouth open. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! Panicking he sent his aura towards the crying babe, trying to soothe it. The aura projected warmth and comfort. Rosie’s eyes widened as the aura fell on her like a warm blanket. Her crying slowed down as she stared at the baby lying next to her. She couldn’t see him but she felt his presence.

Aura was a manifestation of ones will. Very few practitioners knew this but whenever you cast a spell you leave an imprint of your will in the spell. An undercurrent of residual emotion. Your words can lie but your aura cannot. It was the truest form of expression. Only a highly skilled practitioners can hide his intent from his aura. So, when little Rosie felt the baby Lord’s aura, her fear vanished. She sucked her thumb as she stared wide eyed at the baby lord.

“See, nothing to be scared off. You are fine.” He tried to comfort the little babe. Rosie couldn’t understand the baby lord’s babbling but she could vaguely feel his intentions through his aura.

The baby Lord seeing that things are going well puffed up his chest in pride. With his nose in the air he declared imperiously. “You’re in the presence of the great Demon Lord. You have my permission to feel honored!”

He tucked his arm at the base of his neck as he laid sideways, facing Rosie.

“You seem to have potential, little babe. Consider yourself fortunate that you caught my eye. I’ll give you the honor of being my first minion!”

He tilled his chin up as he spoke those words. The baby Lord looked towards the little babe as though he was waiting for an answer. The babe seemed to be considering this statement. The baby Lord could feel her thoughts through his aura. Finally, her will seemed to project the feeling of rejection.

The baby Lord had his mouth open in shock. In his previous life people would fall head over heels to serve him. Only one other person had flat out rejected him in the past. How many times did she make him beg, for her to join him?

A flash of memory played in his mind.

Auburn hair flying in the autumn air. Orange leaves falling in the wind.

“Stupid Grandpa!”

“Stop calling me stupid and I’m not your grandpa. You brat. You are not worthy.”

“Fine then. I’m going home.”

“Fine, fine. call me grandpa, Call me whatever.”

“Yeay!”

The baby Lord could she her shadow in Rosie. Stubborn as an ox, the both of them.

“Oi! Oi! Oi! Do you know what you are saying?”

“Opportunities like this come once in a life time. Are you sure?”

The feeling of rejection only intensified. An image of Rosie’s dad popped up.

“Oi! Oi! I’m much stronger than your dad. You got it backwards.” The baby Lord lied through his teeth. He pictured her Dad’s large hands. They came crashing down and smashed him into a pancake! The baby Lord gulped.

Rosie’s rejection grew stronger as she sensed his wavering aura. Clearly, he was lying.

“Oi! Oi! You clearly haven’t seen what I can do! Check this out!”

He lifted one end of his blanket, with his mind and made it float around.

“See this is my Psionic abilities. I can move things with my mind!”

Rosie was still looking unimpressed. The baby Lord began to feel the sweat on his forehead. What a tough audience! He had to bring out his trump card!

“This is my other special ability. Kinetic control”

The blanket he was floating around now zoomed with a burst of speed.

“I can redirect Kinetic energy from one object to another object. I can also project sounds in one direction using this ability.”

Rosie still looked unconvinced.

The baby Lord added desperately. “I can also store the kinetic energy in the form of a crystal to supercharge all of my previous abilities! See?!”

The baby Lord brought out a transparent crystal. It stood rotating in his palm, humming slightly as it absorbed the energy of the passing air currents.

Rosie was still sucking on her thumb. She sent out her feeling once again.

“What? Mama and Papa are the most important?”

“Wait! Wait! I’m not saying you should leave your Mama and Papa! I’m just saying you should be my minion.”

Mama and Papa are the most important she sent again.

“Wait, kid! I’m just saying we should stick together. Prison life isn’t easy kid. They have us locked in here for almost all or lives. Don’t you want to be free?”

“It will be the Dynamic Duo, once again! What do you say Hera?” The baby Lord’s eyes flew wide open as he heard what he was saying. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Rosie didn’t understand what he said, she was still quite stubborn. The little demon won’t fool her!

The baby Lord sighed. “Yes! Yes! Mama and Papa are the most important! I got it the first time.”

He was silent for a while. Memories of Hera swam through his mind. From the beginning to the end. From the moment he met her to the day of her passing. He remembered the day she first called him ‘Dad’. He remembered the day, he gave her hand away in marriage. He remembered the birth of her first born, and the joy of being a grandparent. He remembered his first and only apprentice. He relived through them all, once again.

A mana pulse moved across the room. The Demon Lord frowned at the interruption. A cold, frosty look was hidden deep in his eyes. His past memories seemed to have awakened a bit of his former self. He forcibly suppressed it, he didn’t want to cook his brain once again.

The mana pulse was getting stronger as the user was getting closer. It pinged across the room. The baby Lord frowned. Didn’t Rosie’s Dad have anything better to do? It was the same aura as last time.

The baby Lord felt a chill going down his spine. His eyes narrowed. Wait a minute, something was off.

He didn’t notice it last time because he was so engrossed in the nurse’s story, but he did now. He felt the aura behind the mana pulse. Emotion hidden in the will. Malice and ill intent. This wasn’t Rosie’s dad. The pulse never came from Rosie’s Dad in the first place. It was someone else, all along.

The door to the nursery swung open slowly. A blurry ghostly figure drifted into the room. It seemed to float in the air as it moved, slowly gliding across its surface. Long black hair seemed to flow along with it as it gracefully moved across the room.

“Naniii?!! 何?!! She is real?”

The baby lord gulped nervously.

‘Oh shit shit shit she is here. Crap what to do!’

No one told him the baby snatcher was a ghost!

The baby Lord tried to access his dormant powers he had locked away. An intense, sharp pain came from his forehead. It almost felt like he ran head first into a wall.

The ghostly white figure paused in its tracks, as it looked around the room. Seeing that it was alone with the newborns, it continued. From its long white sleeves, it pulled out a device, that looked like a gun and pointed at the one of the babies. A thin beam of red light fell on the yellow tag the babe had on its wrist. Seeing no reaction on the device she held, she drifted across the room checking the tags of all the newborns that were around her.

The baby Lord desperately clashed head on against the barrier he placed on his psyche, but it held on stubbornly. A little bit of blood leaked from his nose. For the first time, the baby Lord was left frustrated at his genius level spell crafting.

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

The baby lords quickening heart beat had reached epic proportions now. His heart leaped to his throat. She was looking at the tags. She was after a specific baby. How did she get that device anyway?

The baby Lords blood began to freeze over. What could he do? What options did he have? Fighting was out of the question. He had no chance whatsoever, in a head on fight. He glanced at the kinetic core that was in his hand. It wasn’t charged enough to lift anything substantial. What to do? What to do? What the hell should he do?

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

The ghostly white figure drifted closer and closer to the baby lord. Each step it took sent a hammer blow against the baby Lord’s heart.

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

What to do? What should he do?

the kinetic energy he had accumulated till now was a minuscule amount and it certainly did not have enough power to hurl anything with higher mass.

The baby lord was completely panicking now. What could he do? He could move things around but nothing heavier than his arm. He couldn’t run away. He could only hope that the one she was targeting wasn’t him.

he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

The ghostly figure glided closer with each step it took. The baby Lord had only a few more moments left, before it would arrive in front of him.

He cracked open one of his eyes to continue spying on the baby snatcher. Through his one open eye, he could see the white figure that was drifting across the room. The air around her seem to distort slightly. There was a hum of partially disguised magic around her. The baby lord could now hear the squeak of a pair of worn out combat boots.

‘This distortion? That sound? Was this a glamour?’

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

The ghostly figure was very close now, it pointed the device at the babies that where next to him. The baby Lord gulped. There was no reaction.

The ghostly white figure’s head then turned slowly to face Rosie. The baby Lord’s eyes widened. Quick as a flash, it sent a thin read beam of light towards Rosie’s armband. The baby Lord’s clenched his jaws and rapidly circulated his mana, readying his aura to attack. The device gave no reaction. The baby Lord was left clutching his heart. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take.

The blurry face of the ghost finally rested on the baby lord. She slowly raised her gun and pointed at him.

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

The baby lord was nearly wetting himself in fear. He gave a prayer in his heart. “Not me! not me! not me! Your holiness Internet Sama. Please protect your apostle.”

A red beam of light fell on the yellow band that was on his right wrist. The baby lord had trouble breathing.

Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum! Ba-Dum!

Not me not me not me he silently prayed

The device in the ghost’s hands lit up in confirmation. Its target has finally been found! The figure dressed in white raised itself to its full height. it towered over the baby lord.

The baby lord was in shock. It was here for him, after all. They were after him since the beginning. He looked at the yellow tag that was on his wrist hatefully. If it weren’t for this damn thing. He would have never been caught.

“Damn you, yellow band. Damn you, yellow geo tracking piece of shit!” The baby Lord caught himself mid cursing! His eyes widened! Geo tracking!

That was right this device was monitoring his vitals 24/7. So what if you found me! I just have to trigger this device.

The baby lord drew himself up imperiously. He turned his head and pointed at the ghostly figure.

“You messed up little Ghosty! In your arrogance, you forgot who you were going up against!” The babbling of an infant filled the nursery.

The ghostly figure stood stock still, shocked at what he was hearing. Newborns aren’t supposed to talk! They were nonsense words but still, this was impossible!

“This is the end for you! Baby Snatcher!” The baby lord said imperiously with his nose in the clouds.

His hand was still pointed at the white figure. The baby lord posed as hard as he could as laid in his crib. He had one arm tucked behind his head and the other pointed at the ghost.

The baby Lord quickly masked the mana signature that was reading his heart rate. He sent out a different fake signal of his own. In it he made it look like his heart rate was increasing to unprecedented levels and then he finally flatlined his heart beat.

The yellow armband’s colors seemed to spasm by the sudden change in its readings. The tag’s color changed as it recorded his deteriorating health. It turned white and started sending out a distress signal.

The baby lord grinned. This was it. Keikaku doori! 計畫通り! Everything went according to plan. You miscalculated baby snatcher! Consider yourself unlucky that you matched up against me!

The baby snatcher was shocked seeing the band turn white. It quickly pointed the device in its hand towards the baby lord and fired.

‘I don’t think so!’

The baby lord puppeteer his arm away from the red light. It missed him completely and hit little Rosie’s crib.

The baby snatcher shifted his aim and shot again. This time the baby lord couldn’t move his arm away in time. The red light struck his band once again. The band seemed to freeze for a second and then quickly turn to its previous yellow color!

“Naniiii?!!! 何?!!!”

The baby lord eyes almost fell out of his head. His cute baby face had its mouth wide open.

“Baka na! Sona-hazu-ga-nai! はずがない!”

He saw all his plans flow down the drain. He was done! Kaput! This was the end.

This guy had connections directly to the hospital, otherwise he couldn’t have hacked and disabled the device so easily! He was beaten from the start.

“Overida~…”

He couldn’t use his ultimate skill ‘run away’. Curse this infernal baby body.

The ghostly figure stepped towards the baby lord. This was it! The snatcher was coming. He was going to get snatched!

The baby Lord gritted his teeth together. No way! He wasn’t ready to give up yet. It wasn’t over till he says it’s over. The baby lord looked at the kinetic core that he had in its hand.

“Action plan no 37. Do you know who my daddy is?!”

The baby Lord tossed the transparent crystal towards the ceiling. It shattered and let out a loud siren which reverberated across the hospital.

The other babes that were sleeping in their cribs woke up and started wailing along with the siren.

The ghostly figure stumbled hearing the loud sound and panicked. It looked around itself. Was this a trap? Did they know he was here?

The baby Lord played on the primal emotion every living creature had. Fear! Fear would let a twinge of doubt enter even the most stubborn minds.

‘That’s right! Get scared! This was a trap from the very beginning! There was that weird talking baby, the armband that suddenly got triggered, and now there was a siren that seemed to announce your arrival!’

There were all these things happening suddenly without warning, and nothing was going according to plan.

‘You must be scared stiff! In fact, you are probably even more scared than me now. That’s right! Get scared, this is a trap! You are about to be caught!’

The ghostly figure almost lost control of his glamour because of all these unusual events. In a haste the ghost stumbled on its feet, nearly crashing into the baby cribs as it made its escape.

The baby Lord flexed his aura and sent shards of the Kinetic crystal after the figure in white. The shards phased right through the glamour that it had placed on itself.

The baby Lord clicked his tongue, it really was an illusion. He controlled the shards to find the baby snatchers pockets. Majority of them missed but a few managed to make it through. The figure threw the doors open and ran.

The baby Lord could feel the shards as it moved away from him. He had a faint connection to the shards and he could control them remotely in a limited fashion. This way he could keep track of the Snatcher.

The baby lord laid in his crib basking in his ultimate technique.

Runaway Ver-2.0. - Do you know who my daddy is!

This time you don’t run, but you bluff so hard that your opponent runs away. What a sublime technique!

The baby Lord had its nose up in the air, as he slowly moved his arms in a familiar gesture. Just as he was about to finish his dab, he stopped himself.

He frowned. “This isn’t over! Kore-de Owari-de Wanai!”

That stunt he just pulled would not work twice. The baby snatcher thought that the sirens were meant for him. As soon as he realizes it wasn’t, he would be back, and this time he would be determined to finish the job.

“Baby Snatcher?” The baby Lord cursed, remembering the glamour.

This guy was no ghost. He was clearly a kidnapper.

Two Hours old and already a kidnapping? Looks like his new family was loaded!

“Si vis pacem, para bellum. I’ll be right here, Snatcher.”