“Lucadon, what the fuck are you doing here?” The words spill out of my mouth before I can catch myself. I only barely manage to hold back from covering my mouth with my hand. If I let them know that saying the stupid demon’s name was a mistake then I have no hope of salvaging this. As several internal struggles fill my mind and start to give me a headache, the aforementioned stupid demon begins to simply laugh at us.
“Heheheh, what is with the sour faces? I am simply stopping by to say hello and check on your progress.” Punctuating their statement with the usual and far too wide grin, Lucadon lets the joyous atmosphere they were letting off vanish. “I must say… I expected better.” The whole room suddenly feels like it is underwater as Lucadon lets out a chilling aura. I want to shiver as the cold runs through every inch of my body and reaches my soul.
“Oh fuck off.” Despite the cold, my hard glare never leaves the demon as I keep my spear pointed directly at it. You leave me and Alice in the forest with a gods damned note and now you come back early to what? Criticize me!? I want to punch this asshole so badly right now.
“My, my, my, such abuse! I am simply stating that being stuck at Class 3 for so long is rather… slow.” With a lazy attitude, the demon leans back in its throne without a care to the weapons pointed its way. Despite the relaxed actions, the bastard never lets up on the overwhelming aura. I can hear teeth chattering to my side but pay the sound no mind.
“If you have been stalking me that closely then I am sure you must know that I didn’t exactly have anyone around to provide me with advice on advancing to Class 4 without The System.” I am talking about you, asshole. I glare harder at the demon.
My silent and completely obvious jab at the demon’s ‘dad going to get cigarettes’ routine is simply ignored, the demon seeing no reason to take the blame. “Excuses, excuses. You had that over muscled elf to talk to any time you wanted.” Waving off my complaints, Lucadon’s eyes slowly slide over to my side and off of me for the first time.
To my right, I can see out of the corner of my eye Randall preparing his magic, the currents of mana silently flowing under his skin. I don’t want this to break into a brawl, and we have zero chance of winning anyway. Quickly, I shout to warn the whole group of making any stupid or rash decisions. “No one attack! The bastard is Class 5 and has full control of its magic, we will all be dead in moments should a fight break out.”
Randall looks over fearfully at the realization, and Sera is barely keeping her legs from giving out from under her at the bone chilling presence pressing down on us. Lucadon for its part, does not react to me calling them a bastard. I am really glad I had Snappy wait outside, the dumb dog would have given us away in an instant by acting all friendly with Professor P.I.T.A. over here.
Glaring back at Lucadon I do my best to get the conversation moving and over with in a way that does not completely fuck me over when I have to explain what is going on to my party later. “So, if you are here to lecture me, I really don’t have the time for it. And since we are all still alive, I am guessing that you have no intention of harming my party?” My words are laced with venom, annoyance, and a small quiver, the quiver mainly coming from the pressure Lucadon is exuding and not any real feeling of fear.
Just in case Lucadon decides to be difficult and play dumb after screwing up my whole plan, I send over a message with light magic that only they can see.
[If you are going to show up unannounced then DON’T fuck this up for me. These people only know about me being a Hero so why don’t you play the Demon Lord. Kay?]
My message does not exactly ask so much as demand, but I am the Demon Lord so I think I deserve at least this much from the asshole.
“Of course.” Lucadon smiles, answering both the question and my secret request at once in an all too happy tone. I hate this guy. My thoughts, undoubtedly clear on my face, don’t phase the demon’s stride. “Harming you would be a waste of time! I assume you are here to learn more about The System, yes? Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really made a mess of things, haven't you?” Shaking their head in mocking exasperation, the demon begins to extol us with all the failures I have accomplished.
“I will admit, your plans were clever. However, you failed to do your research. Now The System is after you and more on guard than ever. Then, you come running to what is probably the last place you should go in such circumstances. And all without proper reinforcements.” The demon stands from their throne as it vanishes in a haze. “Five out of ten points.”
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Now that pisses me off.
“I am fucking dealing with it! Five points?! The stupid System Quest is a minor hiccup, nothing more.” With a serious amount of indignation I shout back at the demon. I deserve far more than five points!
“Heh, of course. Well, I have completed my greetings and must be going now.” And with that, Lucadon turns into smoke and sweeps effortlessly through our formation before appearing behind us at the entrance to the hallway. “Oh, one last thing, little Miss. Hero. Evolving your magic will be a trying task, but when it happens I recommend asking yourself ‘What magic does The System use?’”
And before I can turn around to even ask what that is supposed to mean, I find the demon gone. An empty black hallway and a glimmer of glowing gold from the runes, nothing to indicate the monster’s presence remaining. It takes several minutes of everyone standing in tense silence before we all truly believe that Lucadon is gone.
No more than a heartbeat later everyone collapses to the ground, sweat pouring off of them as they struggle to catch their breaths.
“Who was that?!” Sear, clearly the most shaken being only Class 1, practically screeches as she turns to me.
However, before I can get an answer prepared, Agera speaks up in a grave tone. “The Demon Lord…”
Randall’s stony eyes turn to me as I am now being questioned from all sides. “Lua, how do you know the Demon Lord?”
It is hard to read the eyes of people who have been changed by their magic, but I don’t detect any real suspicion in the others. I sigh before carefully choosing my words. “It is a long story, but I met the thing in the woods right after I woke up from being murdered by my parents. I had just been reincarnated and my mind was a mess while I fought for my life when the damned thing showed up and shoved me off the cliff into the second ring…” Looks of horror fill the gang's faces as I recount my traumatic memories. “If Snappy had not caught me then I would certainly be dead right now.”
I won’t mention the fact that Snappy was sent to catch me by the very same demon who did the pushing.
“By the gods…” Sera is unable to contain her tears as I go into more detail about my experience meeting Lucadon for the first time, and the two boys just look on with pale hollow faces.
“I can’t be certain if that thing is the Demon Lord, or in the worst case scenario just a lackey. Though from our interactions I don’t see that thing as the kind to just go around serving another.” I am trying very hard to word things perfectly so that I never tell a lie and always have plausible deniability, but I can only keep my own need for honesty in check so much. I end up saying what is likely far more than necessary, but I just can’t help it…
“It knew you were the Hero though, so why not kill us?” Ever the practical one, Agera brings up a point that I have been spinning the old hamster wheel at magically augmented speeds to come up with an answer to. Eventually, I just decide to hedge my bets with a vague ‘I don’t know.’
“No idea, maybe we are that insignificant, maybe it is too arrogant, or maybe we are part of some kind of plan and we just don’t know it yet.” I kick my legs out from under me as I turn to look at Randall.
“I would say the second option is our best bet, but the aura rolling off that thing made it impossible for me to even speak. I am sure it has earned some of that arrogance. However, if it is the last option, then some of the things it said to you make more sense. It felt like it was leading you to something.” Randall leans back with his hands on the ground still breathing heavily while he speaks. I can tell that he is trying his best to act calm, but the tremor in his hands is not doing such an act any favors.
“Yeah, I don’t know why I never thought about it, but The System must have been created by magic. I just don’t know of any magic that would even work for making something like it…” Taking the opportunity, I flop on to my back to avoid the stares of the others. Turning to the side I look at Alice. She has yet to speak up, but that is normal. Alice tends to leave things to me, as well as personally avoiding attachments to people I may have to kill in the future.
Sighing several more times I try and think about everything Lucadon said. What the hell kind of magic could The System be made with? Most magic is elemental in nature as far as I can tell. Though… thinking about it, there are some outliers. Stronger magic generally envelops not just an element, but a concept.
Even then there are variations within each concept. Space Magic and Gravity Magic are good examples of very similar magics but one being far more limited than the other. Few people care about gravity mages.
I just can’t think of any kind of magic that would facilitate something so complex, even of the possible evolutions of different magics I can think of won’t do it. And yet Lucadon said this as though it relates to me. I must be missing something. “Well, we came here to learn more about The System and how to fight it. Maybe doing so will tell us more about how it was made. It could even help us get ahead of the Demon Lord.”
“Or help us play right into the thing’s hands.” Agera responds to my slight diversion with some severe pessimism.
“Knowledge is power, better to know and prepare than to know nothing and be blindsided.” Having said my piece, I nod my head as everyone groans but agrees nonetheless and begins to push themselves off the ground to start our search of the temple.
