Chapter 41: A Feared Monster, A God.
Chapter 41: A Feared Monster, A God.
It's time for a story.
A story of a girl who became strong, ridiculously strong, all so that she doesn't have to die, all so that she wouldn't have to follow someone's command if ordered, all so that she can be free of her lord's influence.
And so she challenged her god and won.
For some, she was a monster. For some, she became their new god.
There was no in-between.
And so, she spent a long time, oh so very long time, alone.
She was safe, free of anyone's command, she was strong enough to not worry about anything and there was no one who could do anything to her anymore or take anyone precious to her ever again but ...she was lonely.
She wasn't regarded as a person by anyone anymore.
And then, she met a boy, a strange boy, much much younger than her, to her he was just a kid.
He didn't treat her as a feared monster like others did, he didn't treat her as a revered god like others did.
...And that baffled her.
Over time, she became close to him and became fond of him.
And then, he told her, he would leave.
She said she would come along with him but he refused, telling her it would be impossible for her to follow him.
She didn't like that, she was the feared monster, the revered god. Why wouldn't she be able to follow him?
But she didn't brood over it, for the boy in front of her was strange, had strange artifacts, potions that helped in ways she hadn't known before.
She didn't like that, she wanted to threaten him, tell him that she would put him in prison, cut off his legs, to make him stay here, with her.
She didn't want to be alone, she couldn't bear to be alone, she was afraid of being alone.
But she didn't act on her feelings because...
She didn't want him to suffer, she didn't want him to be sad, she didn't want him to be hurt, she didn't want him to be in pain.
So, she decided to spend whatever time she had left with him, she would enjoy it.
But... nothing goes according to one's own desire, such is the way of the world.
Thus, those who feared her as a monster decided to band together to kill her and her kind.
Truthfully, she didn't care about her kind. She wasn't interested in being some king or God either. She had dumped all the managing and responsibilities on the person who once was revered as a god.
All she wanted was a life that no one controlled and a life she could live without any worries.
Regardless, now that they were coming for her, she had to stand up and fight, resulting in her shortage amount of time with the person she wanted to be with.
She made a simple wish with her fears of being left behind once again, with the fear of being alone emerging.
'...Don't go'
As she drifted to her sleep with her hand clasped in his.
By no means, was she a king material.
She was just a normal person who simply happened to have power.
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(Third person pov)
In a room, dimly lit with the help of whatever light came through the windows, a lady who seemed to be in her 20's, her physical appearance defying her real age, slowly opened her eyes.
Her hazel-colored eyes shone radiantly in the dimly lit room, her black sclera complimenting the color of her pupil, and her silver silky hairs spilled behind her.
She looked around trying to look for someone, she willed mana into her retina allowing her to see through even walls, as she inspected her whole castle, built upon 250 acres, every person, slave, and beast that was within the vicinity.
She realized there were millions of beasts guarding her outside of the room and castle.
Guess, they all realized about me.
She thought and then went back to search.
After a while, she lowered her head, heaved a sigh, and closed her eyes.
"You said you had to be with me when I woke up."
She muttered, slowly patting her hand that was once held by Noah with the other one.
And her body seemed to be trembling.
She looked like nothing more than a kid.
Terribly lonely and afraid and at the same time, used to it.
Bland memories came back to her, no they weren't even memories, what came back to her were feelings of loneliness that she had once felt.
The coldness she had felt.
She didn't want to go back to those days. She really didn't.
And so, she picked herself up. Ready to go look for him and while at it, she will help her kind.
Just then, she looked towards her left, into thin air.
She felt it, all too strongly.
'Something.. is looking at me'
She thought.
'...what is this?' she questioned.
She couldn't see it, whatever it was, it kept its eyes locked on her.
But soon after, she came to her own answer.
She was fine, she was okay and Noah had promised her, he wouldn't let anyone so much as touch her.
But Noah wasn't here, so he needed an alternative and from the things Noah had shown her already, she could believe in it.
'What kind of artifact is this now?' She mused.
"I don't know who you are, but tell him, I am coming to see him to wherever he is and once I catch him, he is losing his limbs, for, he dared to leave me behind with neither a prior notice nor any words."
In the next instant, the already thin presence disappeared entirely.
Gone, as if it was never there, to begin with.
She hmped and turned away.
But before that, she needed food.
She had spent 3 days sleeping and recovering from her years of exhaustion, she was starving and she could feel it, if she didn't consume the meat soon enough she would go into a frenzy, never to have her consciousness back to her.
A really annoying drawback of her kind, she thought.
She rang the bell near the table.
And the next instant 2 maids came inside the room. One looked to be in her late 20's, a demon, their appearance like Elves ages slowlier, far slower and stops once to age once they reach their youthful appearance.
And the other was a teenager, a human girl.
They both entered the room along with the food trolley, moving like professionals they were.
"I hope you had a peaceful sleep?" Liza said looking at the messy silver hair of her lord.
"That I did. What's for the breakfast" The Demon lord asked, her voice carrying a hint of urgency, she wanted nothing more than to go and search for Noah.
"It's lunchtime. Also, how could you do it!? Did you forget the risk it entails!?" Liza shouted, the only person capable of shouting to her Lord.
Liza still couldn't believe that the demon lord had gone to sleep without so much as telling her.
"Welp, what's done is done now, let's not dwell on it, tell me about the situation outside," She asked.
Liza wanted to retort but didn't, as she started to lay down all the information while the teenage maid simply served the food.
"Hm? So they decided to go after the pregnant women? Whoever came up with it must have been a heartless individual" The demon lord said taking a bite of the crisped heart, as she took the bite of it, the blood flowed out of the heart, or was it sauce that the chef had prepared?
Whichever one, the site of her simply eating was still mesmerizing.
Demons pregnancy works far differently than other species, the time period for them is about 5 years.
And during the entirety of it, those women became weak, far too fragile to kill.
Not only that, when they add the fact that one woman can bear only bear 2 children, and some of them only 1.
It goes without saying that protecting those women was a huge responsibility. After all their race has the lowest population after the vampires.
Thus, they put all the pregnant women in the same area, guarded by millions of beasts, and are served only the best of the best food.
If other species can bypass the warriors and beasts that stood in their way, then killing all the pregnant women would be all too easy, in such a way they can ensure that their population will thin out in the future and such an attack would definitely be a heavy toll on their kind.
"They are able to hold up for now, but from the looks of it, the line would be breached in a day or two," Liza said
"Why haven't you intervened yet?" The demon lord asked.
"...They managed to cast the spell 'Lowenace' on me," Liza said turning around and showing her bare back to the demon lord.
A large black tattoo on her back, with the number '15'
"Uh-huh"
Lowenace is a spell that binds the user from using any amount of demonic energy, mana, or aura for a certain time period, it could be seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, or years, though it's impossible to cast this spell for years on anyone simply because of the cost it takes.
In return for casting 'Lowenace,' one has to sacrifice a huge amount of one's own life. Casting the spell on someone for even a few seconds would cost someone years of their lifespan.
It might have been a huge boost for vampires but they can't cast it.
Regardless, whoever has cast the spell on Liza has spent chunks of their life, since it would the mark would remain for days to come, thus signifying that this spell was indeed cast by a child of the Elven race, with the biggest life span after Vampires and Demons.
The boy will die in maybe, a decade?
Finished eating, she stood up and prepared to go take a bath but before that, she asked
"Do you know where Noah is?" She asked, she didn't expect an answer to come her way, she knew if Noah disappeared it would be impossible to find anything about him.
To her, he was an anomaly, a kind of one that simply didn't make any sense.
"He left, the last place I saw him at was 'Forshire', where he took me along with him for reasons unknown to me, I was ambushed by someone there, a weakling but I swiftly dealt with him."
Liza's words came as a shock to her as she racked her brain.
Forshire, a place where her abandoned castle is located, is a place with ferocious wild beasts roaming around, with overgrown trees, and densely intertwined branches forming a canopy.
Why would Noah go there? And an ambush? On Liza?
"...The rank of the person?" She asked in a low voice.
"What, my lord?" Liza asked unable to hear clearly
"What was the rank of the person who came after you?" This time she asked with annoyance in her voice.
"SS+" Liza replied instantly.
A sudden realization dawning on the demon lord, she asked once more.
"...Tell me, did he kill anyone?"
"I can not say with certainty but he probably did" Liza replied and then coughed "Agh"
The demon lord released her demonic energy or more accurately, her emotions did, making it harder for anyone else to breathe in the same room as her.
'..That was stupid of me, he came to become strong, I should have known
Noah had come to her to learn from her, to become strong like her, and not only that he worked day in and day out. It was clear that he was trying to get strong in the shortest amount of time possible.
It goes without saying, he will also want to rank up as fast as possible.
But there was a problem, something that he didn't know about.
Most likely.
If so, he might be in danger.
Thinking so, the demon lord looked at Liza shielding the teenage girl, both of them on their knees.
"I am leaving"
In the next instant, a gust of wind hit the room and the demon lord disappeared.
And just like that she appeared once again and cast a cleansing spell on herself as she spoke.
"Dress me up fast, Liza"
She ordered.
She had slept in a lingerie, and for whatever reason she was not okay with going out in it. She was going to kill everyone, so it really didn't matter to her if she wore a change of clothes or not but for whatever reason, she didn't like the idea of any other person seeing like that except for Noah.
Noah was the only one who had seen her in complete bare skin, not even Liza had seen her naked.
'It has to be our only secret, one no one else can replace'
Thus, the demon lord swore, she wasn't going to let anyone else ever see her naked for that was one of the things for Noah and him alone.
And it made it special. As she smiled to herself.
If Noah heard her thoughts he would most likely say something like 'What in the seven hells is going? Gotta leave.'