This body of mine was a blank slate. It had nothing, and it was nothing. I was free to change it in any manner I wanted to.

Why did I know this?

It was simple.

[Level: 0]

Every living being had to begin at Level 1. A Level of 0 was simply outside of common sense, and was usually used to determine something that did not even exist. That was how I had written it, and how it should be.

Thus, I was undeniably in a state of limbo. My existence was a glitch in the matrix. A weird wiring of atoms.

…A wonderful place to be.

Especially in this medieval city I had found myself in.

***

[Fourth Moon, Twenty-Ninth Day]

Clear skies, with not a single cloud in sight.

The vast expanse of the blue, overhead dome was blinding in its radiance, yet peaceful in its timelessness.

I was once again seated in the teashop, with pastries in one hand, and a cup of tea awaiting my lips. Sitting opposite of me was a stranger I didn’t know.

A woodworker. His hands still bearing the wooden splinters he had to work with, and some bits and pieces that had found its way into his scraggly beard. I eyed the minute details of his presence.

The smell of dried oak that emanated from his clothes.

The steadiness of his hand as he grasped the tea cup.

Suddenly, a streak of light in the sky caught my eye. It was not a jarring bolt of lightning in the blue. It was instead a small flash of white that many would miss..

As if a sword had cleaved through the atmosphere, dissipating instantly as the world resumed its calm.

I stood up.

It was time.

“I’m sorry, but I have to leave.” I bowed my head to the carpenter whose company was another pleasant surprise. “I wish you good luck with your craft, Sir. Goodbye,”

***

Walking through the city, my stride was neither slow nor hurried. I took my time, yet wasted none of it.

Carriages kicked up dust as they drove past me. Commoners formed a busy crowd, bustling through the sidewalk.

The smell of human body odor, urine, and feces was unpleasant, but I had grown used to it.

Eventually, I made my way out of the city, pulling a cotton hood over my youthful features. I made sure to keep myself out of trouble, avoiding the paths where thieves mostly lingered. I had even walked past the place I had set up my trap for the ones who beat me up.

There was no trace of their existence any longer. No bloodstains, no corpses. No bones.

I walked for another hour, heading deep into the forest while avoiding the territories of dangerous beasts, until I found a clearing. After dousing myself with a special bag of odorless powder, I hid myself in the bushes and began my observations.

The clearing… was a clearing. Green grass grew, and a small pond could be seen near one of its corners. A deer was sipping water, nice and calm.

Everything looked normal, save for the unconscious man lying beside a boulder.

[Name: Lycsi Allevant]

[Age: 9928]

Blue hair and golden skin. Lysci didn’t look like the humans of this planet. In fact, with his pointy ears and huge build, it was clear that he wasn’t even human in the first place. Moreover, his age did not match the features that adorned his face.

Nothing about him seemed old.

Perfect, I thought.

***

I stood before the alien being, peering down at his face with nay a single fluctuation of emotions. The man’s body was much bigger than it seemed. He was at least ten feet tall, and two full-grown humans wide.

Lysci was a bonafide giant in comparison to my small frame.

“I know you’re awake,” I said dryly, sitting cross-legged on the grass. “I have no ill-intentions.”

In fact, it was normally impossible for me to have such intentions in the first place. This alien man could level an entire city with a single breath. I would be a fool to antagonize him.

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Thankfully, he was heavily injured. Too weak to move.

If I could show him just the right amount of goodwill, perhaps I would be able to gain something from this interaction.

“All I want from you is knowledge.”

***

Lysci did not expect the human child to stand just out of his reach.

‘Is he really not here with ill-intentions?’ He doubted the words he heard.

In the vast universe, taking advantage of any injured, high-level beings, was a risk that many would take for the sake of power. If there was a dying dragon in front of Lysci, he wouldn’t hesitate to exploit its weakness to bathe in its blood.

Then, he would devour its heart. Turn its scales into armor, and its teeth into weapons. Every part of the dragon’s body would be put to good use.

He had been expecting the same from the human before him.

In response to such evil, Lysci was ready to fight back. He had primed the ring on his finger to kill the arrogant ant before him in an instant.

Yet he wasn’t given the chance.

So, he continued to feign unconsciousness.

‘Perhaps, if I wait long enough, the human will step forward.’ Lysci thought.

“...”

Thus, the hours went by, and the sun had begun to set. The diurnal animals were crying out their last cries before hiding for the night. More importantly, Lysci’s condition was declining rapidly, and the human still refused to move. The human simply watched him as he lay there, unconscious.

Lysci was beginning to think that the human’s words were indeed true.

No ill intentions.

After hesitating for a few more minutes, Lysci decided to open his eyes. His aura experienced a minute fluctuation. A momentary lull in his defenses as his ring reacted to his change in states.

It was like the moment that a person would get up from bed. From lying down to standing up, where one’s center of gravity would shift…

And any disturbance would be significant.

—Swish!

The moment was fleeting. Swift and deadly.

Lysci watched it in slow motion, yet he had no way of reacting. His guard had been down.

A small, weirdly-designed metal sheet flashed. It was in the shape of a dagger, with many lines carved through it, allowing one to look through.

It was crude, as if made by a child. Yet Lysci could not help but feel an unimaginable horror.

“NO!”

He groaned out a roar, shaking the surrounding molecules and heating up the air. He writhed in pain, trying to move. Golden blood spurted out from his pores, pouring out of his seven orifices.

Despite the pain, he forced himself up.

Yet…

“It’s too late, Lysci Allevant. I have your true name and the runes of a Demon Lord’s Insignia.” The human’s voice wasn’t deep, yet it resounded in Lysci’s ears. Cold, detached, and sadistic. “You will be my sacrifice.”

It was wrong to trust.

Even the smallest of worms would devour a dead elephant.

Lysci’s regrets could fill the heavens, and in his desperation, he cried out.

“Y-You bastard! Do you know what you’re doing!? You’re going to doom your own planet! Halt this at once!”

Lysci’s voice was beyond desperate. It was frantically hysteric, cracking with every syllable. He was terrified beyond imagination. Yet, in reply to his torment, the human laughed with delight.

“Haha,”

The human’s soft laughter was the last thing Lysci heard before his vision went black.

***

The runes of Demon Lord’s Insignia that Athelei had carved out with much effort almost failed to pierce into Lysci’s eyeball. If not for the fact that Lysci’s defenses wavered for a second, and the fact that he was experiencing his last moments, Athelei wouldn’t have been able to get close.

The ring in Lysci’s possession would instantly turn Athelei into a mist of blood.

“Phew,” With a sigh, Athelei stood up and stretched his back.

In the next moment, a tremor shook Lysci’s body. The golden blood that had spewed out suddenly flowed in reverse, returning from where it came.

Athelei watched in silence. The process was slow, yet each moment that went by was of great significance.

After an hour, all the blood had returned to Lysci’s body.

Thus came the next phase of the process.

Biting his thumb, Athelei began drawing on Lysci’s golden skin with his own, crimson blood. Lines that were similar to the ones on the dagger he had used slowly took form. This time, Athelei was not relaxed. Sweat dripped down his chin as his complexion rapidly turned pale. He was losing quite a large amount of blood — the wound on his thumb failed to heal as it continuously supplied blood like it was ink from a pen.

Yet Athelei continued to draw, and draw, and draw. As fast as he could.

When he finished, he was very much lightheaded. Hurriedly, he bandaged his wound, before then retrieving the dagger in Lysci’s eye.

“If I did things right, then—”

—Vwhoom!

With the sound of space being torn apart, Lysci’s figure was pulled into the dagger in a brutal instant. His bones were crushed, and he became a small, dense, golden gemstone that adorned the hilt of the dagger.

Then, as if responding to his newfound form, the gemstone shook.

A golden, metallic liquid —Lysci’s blood — flowed out from the gemstone, filling up the empty spaces that formed specific demonic runes. In a moment, the thin iron sheet that looked as if a baby blacksmith had hammered something into existence, had suddenly become fuller.

It had turned into a crude icon of gold and silver, shaped very much like a dagger. It was about half a foot in length, and lay perfectly within Athelei’s grasp.

[Athelei’s Crude Demon Lord’s Insignia]

[Description: Supposedly the insignia of a demon lord. However, both its essence and its appearance need a lot of work, far from being able to match a true Demon Lord’s Insginia. It was crafted by a human using the body of a Planetary Demigod and an ugly iron sheet. It also represents a Double-Edged Vow.]

[Effect 1: Concept Crafting]

[Description: Using the insignia, one may upgrade, combine, and disassemble the ‘concept’ of different objects to create something related to its constituents’ former idea.]

[Effect 2: Vow of Anonymity]

[Description: A manifestation of the origins of the insignia itself. The owner of this insignia will be bound by an identity that is not theirs with every use.]