“Urhagh. I am exhausted. Finally, we get to sleep on a real bed again!” Flopping down onto the large canopied bed having just stripped out of my armor, I start rolling around in this world’s equivalent of shorts and a t-shirt. I have been incredibly exhausted despite all the power from my magic and crap like that. The culprit has been sleeping in sleeping bags out on the bumpy and solid forest floor. I deeply regret not storing a full bed inside of my storage skills. Worst mistake of my life.
“You say that like it was not your idea to head into the forest in the first place.” Alice, who had to listen to my complaining both on the way to the temple and back, rolls her eyes at my antics from her place on the bed beside me. She is also currently in her casual clothes and drying her hair as we both just got out of the bath after washing away the fatigue and muck. After spending weeks in the forest and fighting monsters, I felt dirty down to the bones. That clean skill is something I really need to figure out how to recreate.
“Look, if we stuck around in the kingdom any longer we would have been roped into political garbage. They are already forming these dumb factions after all!” We had been briefed by Prim as we rode back from the temple via the light network I created. It seems that humanity has decided to do what it always does and be illogical while trying to kill one another. Morons.
Honestly, these factions are really fucking dumb, but at least it makes it clear who is too stubborn or irrational to be allowed to live in this world any longer. I can’t understand why anyone, after being explicitly told they were being mind controlled, would choose the side of the mind controlling System. Though, I believe there was a saying back on earth about people voting for the orphan stomping party and then being shocked that the party went around stomping orphans. I repeat, morons.
As I get stuck reminiscing on the wonderful jokes the internet produced back on earth, my girlfriend is still thinking rationally. “You want to hit the System Faction next?” Her eyes lock directly on to my own as she leans over my face, my back still refusing to leave the soft comfort of the bed.
“Nah, besides hitting only one faction would be suspicious. The army should be ready in a couple weeks so we need to play things up until I can get to Class 4.” Lazily waving away the idea I reach out and poke Alice in the face just to see her scowl at me. “Love you.”
“Uh, huh.”
Her response is so dead that I can’t help but smile.
Anyway, in regards to reaching Class 4, things have been moving faster since the temple. I was screwing around with my shadow, which I can use to store things, when I discovered that it basically functions as a hermetically sealed room. Previously I could not enter the thing myself, but when I was trying to figure out that dumb Akashic Records ability that formed from the merging of Hero’s Hand and Lord’s Shadow, I found an interesting trick.
I still don’t know if this is how it is meant to be used, but if I coat my hand in the light of Hero’s Hand and reach out directly above my elongated shadow, an inky black door filled with faint stars will rise up. I probably would not have discovered this if I didn’t let my inner edgelord take over as I played around with the glowing hand and evil shadow.
Going inside would give me access to everything stored in both skills, but more than that I found that I could fill the space with mana, Qi, Heroic Aura, and Demonic Essence! Even opening the door won’t let the powers out, as nothing can leave without my permission, making it the perfect place to ascend! Sorry I made fun of you Akashic Records, I let my isekai novel collection taint your image. You didn’t deserve the hate. I am still not sure about the name though, my guess is that I am missing something about the ability that would make the name make sense.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“How goes filling the space? You said you were, what? 20% of the way there.” Alice, having not moved from my face-poke, just stares at me with my finger still pushed against her cheek. Taking the chance, I wrap my arms around her neck and quickly peck at her lips before scooching my head on to her lap. Ah, bliss.
“It is going well, I can fill it with all my energies without even entering the thing, as I push it directly into my shadow.” I had been doing this since we left the temple about two weeks ago. We had just arrived in the capital of The Dragon Empire, which was a massive pain to do with all the security protocols in place for teleporting, and were settling in at the palace.
I received word from Prim about The Oracle’s request to speak with the elves and dwarves so I spent the whole trip back planning out how to manipulate both sides into cooperating. Sadly, the majority of my plans involve mass murder. All the races are stubborn and have thousands of years of hate brewing inside them, so while I had only started with the humans, I need to pressure the other’s as well or none of this will ever work. To pull that off I need to focus my forces away from the humans for a while, but with the army coming for me I can’t just leave them alone. I need more allies to run interference for me.
[Knocking sounds.]
Just on time a message appears for me in the light network from a certain tall edgy maid demon.
…
[Why write ‘knocking sounds’ when you can… you know what, just never mind. Come in.]
I had started to call the woman out on choice in communicating her arrival but decided against it at the last minute. It is just not worth my time to try and correct her. Sighing rather loudly at my maid’s antics, I whip out my spear which is wrapped around my arm to grab the door handle from my place on the bed and swing the door open.
Swiftly entering the room is Prim in her prim-and-proper maid outfit, which instantly changes to her black and red evil one the second the door closes behind her. I think my inner edgelord ended up a bit too large a part of her personality. She’s getting worse about it…
Prim has been doing really good work and is leading the other demons quite well, but I sometimes cringe at her style choices.
Turning my head upwards, I notice Alice giving me a disapproving look. What did I do?! Choosing to ignore the look that most certainly does not mean ‘like mother like daughter’ I get to questioning the demonic maid. I had her running several errands while I was off questing with the gang, and she had finally finished them all just in time for our return.
“Everything set up?” Refusing to move from my place in Alice’s comfy lap until I have no other choice, I rotate my head to peer at Prim. The plan I worked out on the way back was to get some propaganda going and to stir up some internal conflict while I finished preparing for my ascension. Can’t have those pesky humans hunting me down quite yet.
“Yes, we can head to the meeting now. But before that…” Prim starts to smile ominously, and I can’t help but inch back into Alice’s lap as far as I can go. “We need to decide on your Demon Lord outfit!” A groan escapes my lips as no doubt this will be a test of patience. Prim’s edgy fashion sense, and dozens of rolls of black cloth that suddenly appeared from her space bag, are going to break my heart.
Looking up to Alice for a bit of help, I only see a wicked smile staring back at me. Shit, this is what I get for teasing her all the time! Not that I have any plans to stop any time soon. “Please be gentle.”
“Nope.”
“Ugh, Prim! Do you even know how to sew?” With no assistance from Alice, I try and fight back in the only way I can think of.
“I have been practicing while you were away just for this moment my lord! The maids in the palace have been very helpful in my lessons.” Grinning like a yandere seeing her target's blood, Prim pulls out several sheets of paper with all kinds of designs sketched out on them. “I have also added them to the light network so we can test them out on you before making anything official.”
Several excruciating hours later, I am finally freed from the girl’s clutches, and with rather dead eyes I begin making my way secretly out of the palace. “Well, I guess it is time for the Duskallen to meet their Lord.” I am finally going to go see the people who caused my parents to murder me. Fun times.
