Chapter 36 #2
It was disgusting to even have this conversation, but in the background outside this room, I was still flexing my ability to alter the landscape of my soul.
He watched me. "So, to become king of the humans… what is it you want, Bran? Which desire should be fulfilled?" He suddenly disappeared from his chair and reappeared, lingering around mine, a grotesque smile plastered on his face.
"What if I want to be the one in charge?" I asked. "What if I want to be ruler of the world, and you can go be king of the demons? After all, that's what you want."
The Demon Lord laughed. "A Demon Lord is not simply a ruler of demons.
It is a pedigree, a title." He waved his hands, and the scenery within the hall with the two thrones shifted.
"Imagine hundreds of thousands of worlds out there.
In the far distance, there are perhaps even a million worlds, each and every one of them a touch unique.
Humans are common; demons even more so. And our conflict is almost never-ending.
" The Demon Lord smiled. "But out there in this great universe, there are demons so mighty and powerful that they could put entire worlds beneath them.
" He held out his hand, and the imagery continued to shift as an absolutely titanic humanoid stomped on a world so hard that it oozed lava from the massive quakes he created.
"It's from these demons that I come. A fragment of their souls seeded into other worlds.
It is because of that that I am the Demon Lord," Camden said, with a smile on his face, turning to inspect my reaction.
"I didn't realize demons practiced such nepotism," I said.
His smile vanished, replaced with a scowl.
"Bran, Bran, Bran. What am I going to do with you?
" he repeated, sounding exhausted by the thought.
"I mean, to even get into that statement, we'd have to agree that beings are equal, which they are not.
Humans and demons… incredibly, not so. Do you understand?
" he asked, crouching down as if I were a child, and this would make the conversation easier.
Though it was awkward, even sitting I was far taller than him.
"I actually think I understand very well," I said.
The Demon Lord watched me closely. "I am not a fool. Do not dare lie to me," he growled.
I continued to swirl through my options, my gut telling me that my opportunity was slowly shrinking. I was as ready as I was going to be. The room, which I had slowly been lining with decorative spikes along the molding, closed like one giant set of jaws.
Camden, as I refused to think of him as lord of anything, cried out and jumped from my throne. Much of soul battles were done in almost metaphor. If he wanted to exit, it was most likely going to be through his throne, which, in this sudden shift of the room, collapsed into the floor.
I made sure it was swallowed and moved elsewhere in my mental space. Multiple actions had all been building up in the periphery and sprang into action at once.
Camden screamed and wrenched himself free from the room trying to consume him, only for both of us to be standing on a wide, flat plain, neither throne anywhere to be seen.
"You think you're clever," Camden challenged.
"No, I simply think you're sloppy," I answered just as quickly.
A blood blade appeared in my hand. "Tell me, how do all of those souls taste?
Are you having significant indigestion from unwilling souls?
" I asked. "I was wondering what you might need to do once you absorbed them, but the second we came into my soul, I was certain of it. "
I shook a finger at him. "Whatever you did to harvest the souls, however you consumed them, is still incomplete. And that means you're likely at your weakest, and I somehow doubt the temple is guarding you here as well."
I swung, putting every bit of force, both real and imaginary, into the hit. I imagined swinging straight through him and obliterating the Demon Lord once and for all. He threw his hand up to block me, and my sword shattered his arm.
Cracks and fragments of his soul scattered, only for him to jump back. With a moment of concentration, he pulled some of the fragments back to himself.
"You cannot keep me here," he growled and tried to shunt away, his body disappearing only to reappear five feet to the left. Camden scowled. "No! You can't stop me," he said, trying to move again, only to find he barely went anywhere.
I chuckled. "Right, and with the soul, you should be quite capable, Camden. Why are you struggling with this one?" I teased.
"Whatever parlor trick you pulled will soon be remedied." Camden growled, swinging at me as his body stretched along the cracks, straining and reaching beyond where it should.
I chuckled, blocking his blow and striking his elbow with an empty palm.
His elbow shattered, fragments spiraling off as I breathed deeply, several of them entering my mouth and joining my soul.
"Tasty," I said as I licked my lips as the world shifted, and massive walls rose up to enclose both of us. At this point, I couldn’t let him escape. This fragment couldn’t be allowed to let even a wisp return to the whole, because with it would come the memory of what I’d just done.
Camden's mouth opened wide. "Soul absorption arts," he said under his breath. "Impossible. They do not exist in this world. I have made absolutely certain of it… be it this life or the one before it. There is simply no way you found those arts."
"Not so. There is one thing you might not fully understand about our previous lives.
" I pointed between the two of us. "You believe that my life only lasted up until yours did here.
" The Demon Lord, at least this iteration, had perished to complete the First Demon War.
Demons had survived, and another leader had risen out of them, but Camden had died.
He frowned. "It lasted longer, did it?"
"Much," I answered, with a massive smile.
He leaned back with wide eyes. "How many more?"
I wagged a finger. "That would be telling far more than we both know I should. Already having given you this clue is more than enough to make up for the handicap you have."
"Handicap that I have?" He choked on those words. "You will regret, one day, believing that I operate under any handicap compared to you."
His body then turned to mist as he tried to run away.
But we were deep in my soul, and I had hidden his throne in the far reaches. The expanse of my soul was far larger than I believed he could even imagine. I simply imagined a filter drawing in air, and with it the smoking form that was the Demon Lord, as he tried to escape.
He screamed incoherently as I continued to draw the smoking form through, picking out flaking fragments of his wounded soul and absorbing them for myself.
I grinned. This couldn't have gone better if I had planned it. I would absorb the Demon Lord's strength for my own, and then, when all was said and done, I would use it against him in the next fight.
"You can't!" he screamed as I pulled him apart, piece by piece.
"I can, and I will, dismantle you much in the same way you've spent your life trying to dismantle humanity," I told him.
"How many years?" he shouted, even as I began to crush the fragments of his soul, scouring my own to ensure not one wisp of him escaped.
Once I was sure of my absolute victory. I paused, grinned, and answered. "Five hundred years I faced your first war, then one of your generals managed to ignite a second, and even a third. I trained with an orak when they came to this world to hunt demons."
His eyes grew even wider.
"And I watched painfully as your kind slowly consumed my world, over a five-hundred-year-long struggle.
But don't worry. I've learned a lot of your tricks, and perhaps you nearly got one over on me here, but it won't happen again.
Because I have too much to lose." I began wringing the last of his soul dry for power, feeling it flood me like an intoxicating draught.
I didn't want to admit it, but I could understand how people simply grew high on power itself.
The Demon Lord made one last attempt, throwing everything he had at a small gap I'd created, only for me to imagine twisting my soul so that it became my own throat that he dove the last of himself into.
I swallowed and finished devouring this fragment of the Demon Lord, only to break the connection with the talisman and stand up as his form dissolved, consumed by the system atop the temple that was supposed to protect him. I let out a deep breath, power coursing through my body.