“Can I skip the evolution?” Serenity muttered the words out loud. He wasn’t enthusiastic about the whole evolution thing by now; sure, he mostly liked being a dragon, and most of the others weren’t too bad, but demon wasn’t one of the ones he’d chosen. It was just a form he’d acquired through Sovereign of Potential.
Come to think of it, the ones he’d chosen had all changed both his base draconic form and the “human” and chimera forms he used the most. Well, all except for Sovereign of Potential; that was how he learned to shift shapes, instead.
Greater Demon of Wrath hadn’t changed his base forms other than altering his horns. Now that he’d seen his grandfather … no, Timothy was his great-grandfather, wasn’t he? Either way, now that he’d seen that side of his heritage, Serenity couldn’t be certain that his horns were from the demonic influence rather than his ancestry.
Perhaps it was the other way around and his ancestry influenced his demon form. It certainly seemed likely that it influenced his draconic form; the colors were the same as his scale colors. One of these days, he’d have to pin his mother down and find out if she was being serious when she talked about her grandfather having feathered wings; he’d intended to, more than once, but somehow he always forgot.
[No. Evolution will commence either when you select your evolution or when you next assume your Greater Demon of Wrath form]
Serenity wanted to say he’d never assume the Greater Demon of Wrath form again, but he knew that never was a very, very long time. He’d already assumed it once accidentally; he had to assume that would happen again. He had to make a choice.
He took another look at the prompt. There were some possible traps there. If this Voice was as mechanical as it sounded, they were almost certain to happen if he wasn’t careful, even though they wouldn’t be intentional. The Voice simply wouldn’t care. “Which form or forms will the evolution apply to?”
[An evolution applies to the form it is triggered on]
That was … yeah, that was probably an accidental trap. After all, most creatures that evolved wouldn’t have multiple forms that could evolve separately. Serenity wasn’t certain how he did; other than the demon form, evolutions had always applied to all of his forms as much as they could.
That meant he needed to transition to his Greater Demon of Wrath form before he “selected his evolution.” Unfortunately, the evolution would begin as soon as he “assumed the form,” which might then be before he had a chance to choose. That wasn’t really a separate trap; it was part of the same one.
Serenity had never run into an issue exactly like this one before, at least not that he could remember, but he had run into odd loops in the Voice’s thinking more than once. He didn’t remember any of those since he came back in time, but the ones he did remember were like this one - a collision of assumptions and reality that didn’t quite match.
Order’s Voice had always been willing to make small adjustments; Serenity could only hope that this Voice was willing as well. He just had to think his way around the Voice’s limitations carefully. “If I trigger the evolution by changing forms, which evolution will be selected?”
[Entering your Greater Demon of Wrath form will cause the default evolution, Demonic Dungeon Lord of Wrath, to be selected]
This Voice seemed to be more verbose than Order’s Voice usually was; perhaps it simply wasn’t as good at selecting what the vital information was?
Well, whatever the reason was, Serenity was glad it had included additional details. They were exactly what he needed to know. There was a default; that was vital. “Can I change the default without selecting it?”
[As long as an evolution has not been triggered, the default can be changed at any time. Warnings will be provided at the time of default selection as though it were an evolution selection, as there may be no other time to give the warning]
Yes, definitely more verbose than Order’s Voice. Serenity kind of liked it, even if it would get old quickly. He was used to and preferred Order’s Voice’s style. That Voice seemed cold at first, but over time it became more friendly.
The remaining question was which to choose. “What can you tell me about the three evolution options?”
[Demon Lord of Wrath is the most common evolution of a Greater Demon of Wrath. Its evolution requirements are: Demon, High level of Wrath, Sapient, Control of a location containing a minimum of fifty demons, Acknowledged as Lord by a minimum of fifty demons, Not serving another Lord of the same or lower rank. For a Greater Demon of Wrath, evolution into a Demon Lord of Wrath increases the size of the Demon, increases the minimum Tier of any species abilities, and grants two additional Species Abilities: Demonic Presence and External Wrath]
That had to mean that the mechanical Voice was counting the demons inside the dungeon. The location might well also be the dungeon, but it could just as easily be Mornmot on Zon. Serenity was glad he hadn’t somehow gained acknowledgement from enough demons there; adjusting to the flashes of anger from his new Greater Demon of Wrath form were bad enough. The two abilities the mechanical Voice listed also weren’t ones he had any interest in.
The “another Lord of the same or lower rank” line was interesting; it implied a ranking system in place for demon lords. Perhaps it was the same sort of thing he’d seen in both reality and in dungeons, where a lord might rule a small area, like a city, while another lord might rule a larger area with more people that included that city.
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As a Planetary Sovereign, Serenity knew that it was entirely possible to have City and Regional Lords that fell under him. He’d never heard of National Lords under a Planetary-level Lord, but that was probably because most Planetary Lords didn’t allow that level of division. Serenity didn’t want to trigger the kind of upheaval that would come from attempting to unify Earth, however, so he wasn’t about to touch that issue unless he had to.
[Demonic Dungeon Lord is a very unusual evolution for a Greater Demon of Wrath; it is most often reached by Greater Demons of Obsession, though any dungeon end boss with a demonic origin can potentially qualify. Evolution into a dungeon variant is extremely unusual for a non-dungeon resident, though it has happened. No previous Dungeon-Bonded has qualified for this specific evolution. The evolution requirements for a Demonic Dungeon Lord are: Demonic or demonic bloodline or demonic alteration (permanent), Acknowledged as a Lord in a dungeon (usually a floor boss but a miniboss or dungeon boss can qualify; a dungeon-bonded can also qualify, though this is rare as most dungeon-bonded are Pathed), Acknowledged as a Lord by a significant number of demons that do not share the same base Passion, Not serving another Lord of the same or lower rank. For a Greater Demon of Wrath, evolution into a Demonic Dungeon Lord alters the Demonic Dungeon Lord based on the Passions of the ruled demons, alters granted Species Abilities based on the Passions of the ruled demons, increases the minimum Tier of any species abilities, and grants the Species Ability Dungeon Influence]
That was a lot to unpack. Serenity generally liked it better than Demon Lord of Wrath; he had enough wrath without the form’s influence. He didn’t have any specific Species Abilities from Greater Demon of Wrath, so altering them was probably acceptable, even if the sheer number of demons in the dungeon made knowing what would happen impossible; zero times a large number was still zero, after all. The additional ability sounded kind of useless, at least to him, but it was probably useful for other people. It didn’t sound like something that would hurt, at least.
The form alteration was a little more worrying, but it would only affect his demonic form. It almost didn’t matter what it was; being a giant honey badger/wolverine wasn’t exactly great.
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. Anything was better than the plant-thing that was a Demon of Pain.
[Demonic Dungeon Lord of Wrath is an uncommon evolution for a Greater Demon of Wrath, though it is common for Greater Demons of Wrath who achieve an evolution while residing inside a dungeon. No previous Dungeon-Bonded has qualified for this specific evolution. Its evolution requirements are: Qualified for evolution to Demon Lord of Wrath and qualified for evolution to any Dungeon Lord variant. For a Greater Demon of Wrath, evolution into a Demonic Dungeon Lord of Wrath greatly increases the size of the Demon, significantly increases the minimum Tier of any species abilities, and grants four additional Species Abilities: Demonic Presence, External Wrath, Dungeon Influence, and Dungeon Wrath]
Demonic Dungeon Lord of Wrath was a hard pass. It was just an overtuned version of Demon Lord of Wrath with some Demonic Dungeon Lord thrown in. Serenity hated it the first time he saw it and the more he looked at it the less he liked what he saw. It was probably absolutely incredible for a Demon Lord of Wrath that liked what he was and wanted to rule his dungeon, but Serenity didn’t want to be a Wrath Demon and he didn’t want to rule a dungeon.
He was honestly useless at ruling anything. There was a reason he kept handing it off; he wasn’t any good at it and he didn’t want to practice it and become good.He’d try to fix things, but he was far better suited to the role of troubleshooter than long-term management of any sort.
He also didn’t want to be stuck in one place. That sounded awful.
Accepting the evolution probably wouldn’t force him into that role or make him stay in a dungeon, but Serenity still didn’t want any of the options.
Actually, that was a good question. Serenity still didn’t believe that he’d manage to avoid ending up in his Greater Demon of Wrath form at some point, but maybe he’d be able to get an evolution to it that he liked better? He had no idea what that would be, but surely there was one? Maybe an elemental evolution or something?
Though would that be better than Demonic Dungeon Lord? That one seemed relatively non-Wrathy, which was huge.
It was still worth asking. “Is it still possible to unlock additional evolutions?”
[Yes]
So, that opened up a question: Did he accept the Demonic Dungeon Lord evolution or try for one he liked better? Serenity wasn’t certain which way to go, which meant that the correct decision was to set the default to the only acceptable choice, then talk to Rissa. He might also consult with Blaze; he knew everything else about Serenity, after all.
“Please set the Greater Demon Lord of Wrath’s default evolution to Demonic Dungeon Lord without selecting it.” He probably didn’t have to be quite that specific, but it was better to be clear.
[Warning: Demonic Dungeon Lord is a lower-grade evolution than Demonic Dungeon Lord of Wrath and will preserve fewer of your current capabilities as a Greater Demon of Wrath. Do you still want to proceed with changing the default?]
“Yes.” That was exactly why he wanted to proceed.
[Warning: Demonic Dungeon Lord will significantly alter the physical structure and capabilities of a Greater Demon of Wrath. These changes will be based on the Passions of the demons you rule. Would you like a projection of the alterations?]
He should have already asked for that; it was nice that the evolution Voice offered. “Yes.”
There was a short pause before the flat, mechanical sounding Voice continued. [A broad range of Passions are represented with no dominant Passion. Root commonalities of all Passionate Demons will be used. Resonance exists between the Asura bloodline and one of the five major contributors to the original Passion Demon. The projected outcome is a minor variation on the Asura body plan]
[Warning: Projections are not always completely congruent with final results. Do you still want to proceed with changing the default?]
Serenity blinked. Asura bloodline? That had to be from the Suras, the people his great-grandfather belonged to. No wonder there was a similarity in the horn structure if demons came from them. He knew what “pure-blooded” Suras looked like; that was how the ghost of his great-grandfather had appeared in the Well of Souls, after all. He could guess what Rissa would say, but for now this simply confirmed his choice. “Yes.”
He’d think about the deeper meaning of what the voice of evolutions said about demonic origins some other time.
[Default evolution for Greater Demon of Wrath set to Demonic Dungeon Lord. Evolution will commence when selected or when the form requirements are met]