.
As the seconds stretched out, Áne’s eyes shifted from confusion to uncertainty, finally reaching suspicion.
“No matter how many times you reincarnated, you could never come back as an Elder. You cannot be reborn to an extinct species.”
I smiled thinly, then resumed the spiritual pressure. Do you say the higher ups could never find a workaround? Although they created us, they could never recreate us?
She seemed to shrivel slightly as the weight fell upon her once more. “Your Highness! Have mercy! I cannot simply call him out for you! What’s impossible is impossible!”
Feeling a little bad after seeing her reaction, I eased up.
Pass him my regards and my message, and let him work out how to meet me. I will wait.
A moment after I spoke, something like a carefully-applied pressure, not aggressive but simply strong, pressed against my mind, and I heard a spiritual voice.
It is not necessary for my daughter to be further involved. Will you allow her to retire?
I pursed my lips and nodded. I told her, As your father has heard my message himself, you may retreat.
She nodded weakly, and the cloud of butterflies which had born her up sank groundward, carrying her back to her tower.
The spiritual voice recited, Erebos, Captain of the Tenth Legion’s Third Company of Holy Lancers, greets the Last Commander.
Erebos? The Greek god of Darkness? But Er-E-Bos was a legitimate three-character Xa-Ne name. Childhood Character / Adulthood Character / Nomen Character, just like Senhion, Oberon and Diurhimath.
Was it a name that I had known as Senhion?
I nodded my head in acknowledgement and replied, Commander Senhion of the Third Legion, greets Captain Erebos of the Tenth Legion. ‘Last Commander’ was never my official title. I was merely the seniormost officer left alive, leading a mixed bag of survivors. If you were part of the Last Force, I apologize that I do not currently remember your name. I have experienced dozens of mortal lives since my death, and my memories of my previous life in this world are still dim.
It turned out that he was not bothered by it. Despite your juvenile body, the spirit of my abode has confirmed your identity. I apologize that my daughter doubted you.
Her doubts were reasonable, I ruled, dismissing the offense.
Then was it truly necessary to treat her so harshly, Commander?
He did not sound upset. What I heard in his weary spiritual voice was the weight of millennia.
Let me describe how she received my companion yesterday, I answered, growing a wry smile.
It isn’t necessary. I am already aware of the incident. My daughter briefed me. So you were merely forestalling similar treatment, then. Understandable.
The presence had no form, but in his voice, I could almost hear him putting up a hand to wave off my offer.
Briefly, I wondered if his daughter had mentioned attempting to have sex with a mesmerized victim, then decided not to go there. I had bigger fish to fry.
Are you truly unable to receive me face to face, Captain?
He answered without apology. I am. My body failed and crumbled to dust millennia ago. I could not remain in it once I began my Ascent. I am now nothing but a soul in a spiritual vessel within a sea of bonded pneuma and mana. I remain within the Mortal Realm by clinging to a lode of magic ore. It is important not to expose that lode to my enemy, so I cannot drop my defense to allow you in.
He had brought us to the subject I came here about, so I decided to use the opportunity.
That enemy is a primordial god, I stated. I was not asking him to confirm it. Eurybia was a better authority on the matter than him. The Demon King turns out to be an Immortal. Yet I remember this to be impossible. Did he shed his immortal body and descend like we first Elders?
My suggestion could not be the answer, though. No matter how powerful he might be, he would have become just another strong Mortal Realm being if he had done such.
Perhaps this knowledge, the answer to a question that bugged the heck out of me after I remembered my Illusory Space visit, had been in one of the less-tightly-sealed memories, used by Fan Li as a sacrificial shield, burnt away during my reentry into the Mortal Realm. I woke up with no memory of the subject coming up.
His existence is the exact opposite of mine, Erebos differed. The Primordial Gods who resisted Heaven’s edict banning them from the Mortal Realm converted their Immortal bodies into soul essence and dove into the Void. They entered through it into this world through spiritual vessels forged out of blood, gidim and deceased souls.
I heard that explanation in horror, as there was only one possible origin of such materials.
I also felt bewilderment. This is impossible as well, isn’t it?
For you, a descended ex-Immortal from the lowest immortal realm, or I, an nascent ascendant on his way out of the Mortal Realm, it certainly is impossible.
Meaning, they were beings of the higher realms.
Exactly, Erebos agreed.
Why are we speaking in the plural? There are more?
There were once a dozen. In ancient times, during the Advent of the Gods, before the Elder Age and the forging of our race, Heaven brought its punishment down upon eleven, and expelled them from the Mortal Realm.
But one remains, I noted.
One continues to somehow evade Heaven’s retribution. He remained hidden throughout the Elder Age. We only learned of him during the Dawn of the Ancient Fairy Age. Although we mark the start of that Dawn with the birth of your son, I think you may have already passed before we learned about him.
So it wasn’t that I had lost the memory, but never had it. I nodded.
Did this being have a name? I wondered.
When we first knew of him, we named him As-Tar-Oth.
The small compartment of my soul named Robert was shaking his head. We now had Erebos, a Greek deity, doing battle with Astaroth, a demon out of Kabbalah.
Did we misunderstand? I wondered. Did we falsely accuse the humans? Did an Immortal create the demonic race?
I confess that I was hoping the answer was yes. Given all the misery and havoc the demons had sown over the millennia, it troubles me that they had originally been humans.
I am sorry, Commander. It pains me as well, but the humans who abandoned mortality and became demons cast their own lots. The primordial god committed many foul deeds during and after the Great War, but he became Demon King only after I trapped him here.
My hopes had been dashed before I really had a chance to cling to them, so I was able to simply accept once again what I had long since accepted.
I now knew what we were fighting, which was critical information in order to combat it. I didn’t understand it well yet, but I would be able to use more of my mind on the problem the next time I visited a higher realm.
So I moved on to the next question.
One of my companions is a summoned hero, charged with the defeat of the Demon King. The Demon King has been defeated many times before, but always returns. But if an Ascendant cannot defeat him, how can a mortal champion have any hope?
I mean, let’s get real. Ryuu is strong, but he’s a strong human being. He isn’t a god.
A mortal cannot kill him, Erebos confirmed. But a mortal can cut off his hands. There are lesser defeats.
Defeats that will end the demonic hold on the Regaritan Empire and prevent the demons from spreading here?
The Ascendant seemed to hesitate before answering. The answer he gave turned out to be an example.
The Demonic Empire once held sway over most of the known world. A human champion with a fairling, an elve and a dwarf for companions defeated the emperor and brought it down.
We are talking about the Demon King, I countered. Was Orgoth the same being?
Orgoth, the Demonic Emperor, was once called Demon King Orgoth. That was how Durandal called him.
It’s a matter of semantics, Erebos temporized. One is a god. The physical demon kings are that god’s physical incarnations.
Incarnations of gods… the Benemites spoke of such things, but the ones they believed in were all legends of the legendary past. They resembled the avatars of Hindu theology.
Where is his incarnation now?
He is attempting to create one. He mustered sufficient strength to reach out to a group of Demon Lords and organize the demonic race under them. The events in the Regaritan Empire are done in his name, but by the hands of his underlings. They did so to harvest resources for him.
Wait. I blinked, confused. He has no incarnation yet?
There is none yet, but he has built up much strength through the offerings of his underlings. The stronger he becomes, the closer the day draws. Eventually, he will become strong enough to create that incarnation and rule his demonic empire once more.
Have you ever really, actually, genuinely wanted to go find a table to flip?
What the heck had we even been doing all this time, if there was no demon king to kill?
Then our champion can only kill those underlings?
That is one route. There are many routes to weaken the enemy.
I frowned, studying the tower absently because I had nothing in particular to stare at while I contemplated.
Finally, I asked, Was killing all those townspeople one such route?
Erebos took several seconds before he answered.
I could not destroy the formation that would have absorbed them. Astaroth placed it in such a way that it is invisible to me. I sensed its existence and deduced its purpose only once it activated. In that brief moment, I had time for only one thing. Those people would die no matter what I did, Commander. I could only prevent the theft of their soul essence and pray for their good fortune in the next life.
I could hear the regret in his voice, but I could only agree with his decision. A soul has an indestructible kernel, but its soul essence, the substance of its growth and evolution gained throughout its lives and trips through Samsara, is a precious commodity, the only possession a person truly owns. The robbery of soul essence is the highest crime in Immortal eyes.
Erebos was not their murderer, but rather their defender.
How did he manage to build a formation that you cannot see?
He had demons do it for him in secret. He had been preparing the spot for decades. The town’s location is just barely close enough for him to absorb the blood and essence once the formation drains them. He once had a puppet in Pendor who did his bidding in return for rewards. That puppet had cleared the wilderness and founded that town in the location that Astaroth chose for him. This was no doubt the purpose for doing so.
It didn’t take me very long to realize the ‘puppet’ in question was my father.
Recently, when he grew impatient with the progress of demonic offerings, he noticed that the town was nearing sufficient size to meet his goal. He had his minions build a formation that I could not see.
I asked, So if we can find and remove that formation, that danger is gone?
The danger will never be gone until the wilderness reclaims the entire radius he can reach and the town ceases to exist. I wish I had noticed the town’s presence earlier.
I frowned. I was sure Mother would not be happy to hear about this. It was probable that the Oseri viscountcy lands would have to be abandoned in their entirety.
After absorbing the news, I stated, Captain Erebos, I have one more question.
You remain the Last Commander, Senior Senhion. Your request is a command for me.
I had never had someone say ‘your wish is my command’ to me before.
I told him, If we have no Demon King’s incarnation to kill, then we need a new victory condition. I request the benefit of your ten thousand years of experience. What can a hero do, to prevent the Demon King’s incarnation?
