Chapter 36
Iarrived deep within the jungle, a heavy frown on my brow as I looked back over my shoulder, wondering what sort of trouble my women were about to get themselves into with Eve.
They would almost for sure pick a fight with Eve, but I supposed Simone being there would give them plenty better odds.
I sighed, pushing that aside for what was coming next.
In front of me was a small stone temple built out in the forest. A relic of an ancient time long past. As I stepped up to it, curious what the Demon Lord was doing within, I found there was no inside.
Instead, a set of a dozen stairs led me up to the apex of the small temple where the Demon Lord knelt in his armor.
"Ah, Bran," the Demon Lord said without moving. "It's still so surprising."
"What is?" I asked, not wanting to play his games, but also knowing this was a rare opportunity for a lot of answers.
"You and I. Two people who've lived this life once before. I'm afraid we've never had a chance to sit down and talk about our rare experience," the Demon Lord replied.
"I doubt you and I have much in common," I said, understanding he was stalling.
He paused, scowling at me. "We have more in common than you likely understand, but our situation is a rarity, to be sure. There's no harm in the two of us talking about the experience, is there?"
I walked up to stand beside him, and he didn't so much as flinch. Purple veins, however, writhed underneath the little skin I could see around his armor. I smirked and raised my blade high. "Not going to ask me to stop?”
“Would you? Even if I did?" he asked.
My blade came down with the single heaviest blow I could manage, only to ring like I had struck a steel plate rather than another living being. My hands went numb under the force, and I shook them out.
The Demon Lord laughed.
"You knew that was going to happen," I accused, flexing my fingers.
A thin field had wrapped entirely around the Demon Lord, protecting him and stopping my sword. Whatever it was, it hadn’t budged at all.
"I made preparations, Bran, the same as you.
We're both using our knowledge to reap unfair rewards from the world.
Eve understood that and immediately jumped to join me in them.
I'm sure you like to think the best of people, Bran, but really they'd kill their own family for the chance to get ahead in life.
Every single time. Humans, here or in other worlds, are always the same.
Greed and selfishness always win out. All I have to do is give the offering of power, and you would have thought I'd laid out a feast for your people.
Though I welcome the resistance. Nothing that comes easy is particularly satisfying in the end. "
"Oh, I would love to enhance your satisfaction," I said, my dry humor carrying that comment as best it could.
"Yes, yes, you're upset. And you feel it's rightly so, and I do not. Disagreements give the world all of its tactile feel," the Demon Lord said. "Now, the real question is: are you going to wait here until I complete my transformation, or are you going to get a head start and run away?"
I stared down at him, frowning. "It would have been far preferable if that first swing had worked," I said, raising my blade and hacking again, to no effect.
"I'll have to admit I have a difference of opinion on that particular outcome." The Demon Lord chuckled.
"Yes, I suppose you would." I placed the blade against the back of his neck and pushed. The barrier appeared again, and even as I pressed as hard as I could, it did nothing. There wasn't even a flicker in the shielding as my blade sawed across it.
"You can try, but I don't think you'll break that," the Demon Lord said, and I glanced around for inscriptions, hoping I might be able to disrupt whatever was creating the barrier, only to use Soul Gaze and realize the entire little temple he knelt on was an SS-rank object.
I read it carefully, trying to understand more.
The Forgotten Temple SS- A place to stop and pray. For all those who have been lost, for your prayers, you will be protected from all intentions to do harm by the Forgotten God.
I scowled at it. "You've got to be kidding me. You're actually praying."
"Prayers are just flowery thoughts and perhaps kneeling in supplication to things that don't actually exist. Or perhaps they do.
But it matters not. This item isn't intelligent enough to hear my words and change the outcome.
While I solidify my gains, it's the perfect place to avoid any and all reprisal.
Not to mention, it's a chance to have a long-overdue conversation," he told me.
"Yeah, a long-overdue conversation, but you know, this isn't the best setting. How about we go somewhere more private," I said, putting as much intention into my words as I could, as I pulled out a simple talisman and stuck it to my forehead.
"A trick. Just because you say it isn’t an attack doesn't mean it's so. If you strike me, this temple will protect me.”
“I know that to be true, which is why I simply won't strike you. In much the same way you can argue the semantics of prayers, I can argue in my own way." I pressed the talisman to the Demon Lord's forehead and found myself deeply satisfied when the temple didn't protect him.
"See? Not harming," I said. "In fact, I am inviting you in." I then placed my palm on his forehead where he knelt, opening up my soul and activating the inscription that would create a bridge between the two of us.
The Demon Lord laughed. "You would invite me into your soul? I'm certain with your age you have some experience in combat; however, I believe you have just woefully underestimated me." He laughed moments before he was sucked straight into my soul.
Space warped and shifted as my own consciousness sank down to join the Demon Lord. Even as I tried to shape it, he fought me, trying to do the same.
The world of my soul shifted and cracked, broke and shattered as we both tried to form the landscape. It was a literal show of worlds colliding.
Despite the brutal battle that was about to ensue, I grinned. I had a massive home-field advantage when it came to battles of the soul. I had invited him into mine with that very advantage as my ace up my sleeve.
The room twisted and shifted until it became a long throne room with a throne for each of us at either end.
The Demon Lord looked much like I had last seen Camden; however, this time there was one very noticeable difference.
His skin cracked and split, purple light shining between, even as he sat here with me.
The finest cracks were healing very slowly and disappearing as he became more whole by the second.
I understood then that whatever he had done to split and disseminate himself over such a large population also needed to be undone, and it wasn't an immediate process.
I could only imagine how many unwilling souls twisted and writhed beneath his skin, fighting tooth and nail as he consumed them and what remained of their strength.
"Oh, well, isn't this funny? Two time travelers stuck arguing over whose throne room it is.
" The Demon Lord chuckled, leaning on his knuckles.
"Whatever will we do with the situation?
" he asked. While creating the space was certainly one part of the contest of wills, it was far from the end.
I was unsure if he could forcefully disconnect himself from being in my soul.
The Demon Lord was likely well-versed in the battle of souls, so I let it be a tie for now, letting him sit on his throne with a smile on his face, thinking he had this well in hand.
"You're just a fragment. I can only imagine how strong the whole of you is," I said with a shake of my head. "And don't pretend you didn't know that."
The Demon Lord chuckled. "We know each other quite well, after all, don't we?"
I shook my head. "Actually, the first go-around, I wasn't much of anyone. I was a low-level thug who worked in one of the cities."
"Vein City, one presumes," the Demon Lord said quickly. "I noticed how rather attached you are to it." He crossed his legs and leaned on his palm, his fingers splayed delicately across his face.
"You know, I would have thought you'd take a different image in here,” I told him.
“It's a conversation. A negotiation. I thought you'd prefer to negotiate with me like this." The Demon Lord smirked; even in small details he was meticulous, trying to maintain his advantage.
"Well, I think the first thing we have to agree on is that Vein City shall go unharmed in all of my endeavors. If it's precious to you, well, then it's precious to me," he said, as if he thought I would even potentially believe him.
"That makes sense." I nodded along. "What about you? I don't think you allow there to be any borders to your empire. Take Eve, for example. You were going to betray her."
"Yes, of course," the Demon Lord said, not even pretending to hide that fact. "But she's not you. She doesn't have knowledge of the future or of different areas of the world that might have significantly more value than her vanity."
"I bet you told her she was different, special, and that you wouldn't betray her," I replied.
The Demon Lord pouted. "Oh, you're jealous." He clicked his tongue. "Jealousy is never a good look."
I rolled my eyes and moved on, rather than trying to dissuade him of anything. "So… you leave Vein City alone and just move on. Is that the offer?"
"Well, you would be king of the humans," the Demon Lord offered.
"After all, demons need humans to live. I won't exterminate all of them, just those who are persistently problematic.
You understand… It's a breeding program of sorts.
I don't care about their intelligence or, quite frankly, anything except their obedience.
As soon as they're old enough to be initiated, I'll simply stuff a demon in them, and they'll join my army. "