‘Feet of sand and Eyes of Glass.
You can take this Isekai, and shove it up your….’
-Baby Lord
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Vibrant and beautiful, they speak to you in a way nothing else can. It is a language without sound or words, but they can express thousands of emotions. Confusion being one of them. It was with such a pair of eyes that a certain Demon Lord woke up in a baby’s nursery.
The baby Lord had his cute face scrunched up in annoyance. This was the third time he woke up like this. Confused and alone, with no idea where he is. His tiny arms milled about as he tried to get his bearings. As he felt about, his hands came across something soft and comforting. By the fluffy blanket that he was swaddled in, he guessed he was probably in a baby crib.
A pair of emerald green eyes darted about the room to take in the lay of the land. His eyes were wide open but he couldn’t see anything clearly. the world around him looked like a washed out Van Gogh painting. He raised one of his chubby arms out in front of him only to see a blurry stump in front of his face. It got more and more hazy and washed out, the further away it got from him.
The baby Lord scowled at the blurry appendage that was in front of him. Frowning with concentration he brought his hand closer and closer to his face, inch by inch. Slowly a chubby arm came in to focus. It was only when his hand was around twelve inches away from his face that he could see his tiny baby hands clearly. Five chubby fingers came into view. He carefully flexed them to make a fist. At the end of his wrist, he could see a yellow armband. It was probably something from the hospital. He considered his chubby little fist as he experimentally opened and closed his fingers. His hand was small and tiny with a healthy pink hue to it. They were the hands of a human.
The baby lord was outraged. His hands shook with fury. This wasn’t the vessel he desired. His hands continued to shake. The baby Lord looked at his shaking arms with morbid fascination. What was wrong with his vessel now?
His tiny body didn’t have the strength to hold up his arm for prolonged periods of time. Losing all the strength it had, it fell down limply towards his face. His own arm smacked him in the face with a loud thwack.
“Son of a @&₹&@!” He cursed out loud. The baby lord flopped about in his baby crib cursing his lungs out, but the only sound that escaped his lips was the wail of an infant. He paused in the middle of his rant when he heard himself. That’s right, he couldn’t even talk yet!
The baby Lord cleared his throat and carefully tried to enunciate everything he said. It wouldn’t do for him to keep babbling like an ingrate. A proper lord should know how to speak.
In a commanding tone he said shaking his fist.
“Fear…. Me…. Mortals!”
He stuck his nose up in the air when he finished, trying to look as regal as possible.
A garble set of nonsense words echoed about the room while he was sticking his nose up in the air. The baby Lord looked almost affronted. He wasn’t used to failing so hard. Uncertainly, he tried again, saying few of his favorite words.
“Annihilation!”
There was no change.
“Devastation!”
He still sounded like a babe.
“Decimation!”
Not only did he fail this time, he also started drooling from the mouth.
His baby body wasn’t used to performing such strenuous activity. It was no good, he had almost zero control over this primitive vessel.
He began to curse once again, but this time he did it silently in his head. This wasn’t how he planned his magnificent return. He flopped his arms about. He couldn’t see. He could move his arms about a little, but he could see next to nothing. This was the worst. He couldn’t think of a more aggravating situation than this. He was completely helpless. If he was attacked in this form he was in right now, there would be nothing he could do. This vessel was very inconvenient.
He needed another vessel, pronto. Being locked in a body with no ability to move or see was a nightmare. He had to get out, before he did something crazy! He had to get a new body!
There were various methods he could use, but most of the methods were done using dark magic and had severe side effects. It wasn’t worth the cost and besides, all these methods were beyond his ability in his new baby form.
The baby Lord’s head began to heat as his mind ran a million miles a minute. A method, a single method, that was all he needed. He frantically searched for any other methods that didn’t involve death magic. As he kept searching for a way out of his predicament, he suddenly paused and that was when it hit him. He had thousands of memories locked away within him. Even though he lost more than half of it there might still be some useful little dregs left.
The Demon Lord dove head first into his mind palace. Thousands of confused streaming images flashed before his eyes. His head started to heat up even more. This was no good, all the memories are jumbled and mixed up. It will take an eternity to clean this up. It was like playing the ultimate version of a jigsaw puzzle, with billions and billions of pieces which you have to arrange in four dimensions.
Seeing the countless pieces of memories floating about, the baby Lord’s head started to burn up again. His temperature started to suddenly skyrocket! His eyes widened as he started to panic. Something was seriously wrong!
An intense sensation of pain shot through his head. It felt like a nail being jabbed into his skull.
“Aaaarrggh!” The baby lord began to scream in agony.
His entire head throbbed like an open wound. His head had gotten so hot that you could almost see steam rising from it. He could barely think straight and all his brain cells felt like they had been turned to mush.
The baby Lord’s head lolled to one side as he tried to process what exactly had happened. He groggily put the connection together. His brain was that of a baby. Babies cannot handle the processing power of an adult. Ergo De Facto, his brain got fried like an omelet!
It could barely handle his thought process much less access higher memories. With such crappy hardware his state-of-the-art software was meaningless!
The baby lord groaned aloud in his head. He was out of options now. He slowly reduced the processing power of his brain to tolerable levels. If he kept thinking in this high frequency state, he would eventually burn his own brains out. Slowly, he got dumber and dumber. He could physically feel every drop in his IQ. The world in his mind got darker, like a warehouse shutting down one light switch at a time. The baby Lord sniffed, he was literally in tears. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t see, now he would have to be dumber as well. Where was the justice?! If he ever found that elf again! He would... He would… He couldn’t even think of a retribution that was bad enough for the elf!
All higher order thoughts were left under a safety lock. It would take a while if he wanted to access them again, but he figured getting himself stabilized was a higher priority. He grudgingly accepted that he had to work on limited capacity for the time being. He left only his battle instincts but shut down all other higher process thoughts.
He silently laid there for a while bemoaning his fate. His abilities were limited and so were his options. If he had to get through this, he had to make the best of the options that was available to him. Baby or not he was still a Demon Lord. He still had his magic. It was time to find what his kid body could do!
He stilled his breath as he laid in his baby crib. He laid both his arms above his chest and entered into a meditative mindset. His breathing slowed down as he took steady deep breaths. Very soon the outside world faded away. In the silence there was only him and his breath.
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Deep breaths.
In…..
Out….
In….
Out….
Breathe in….
Breathe out…
…..
…..
Deep in his meditation….
his breath slowed down….
His thoughts slowed down….
His heart slowed down….
Ba Dum…. Ba Dum…
It kept beating slowly but steadily….
The baby lord was waiting…
waiting for a perfect moment…
it was no use to try chasing after it…
It was transient and ephemeral….
To see it, one have just have to wait…
In…..
Out…
In….
Out….
….
….
Slowly like a glimmering haze or a mirage in the distant, the baby lord felt the pull of his natural mana from his heart. It was tiny and minuscule, but it was still there. Slowly and carefully, he attuned himself to this mana signature.
Lvl 0 -> Lvl 1 !
The baby Lord allowed himself a small smile. He could use mana now. He slowly circulated his mana through his blood vessels. It circulated throughout his body, slowly nourishing his growing body.
The baby lord raised his nose in the air with pride. He had officially become the youngest mage in history. He was able to cast within two hours of his birth.
Now that he had access to mana, he should probably check his affinities as well. He continued to circulate mana through his blood vessels. Affinities could be determined by watching were large pools of mana accumulate in the body. Depending on the locations and strength of the mana pool different skills can be accessed.
The baby Lord slowly circulated his mana. It originated from his heart and then slowly flowed towards the rest of the body. Little pools of mana accumulated at all the major organs, slowly strengthening and nourishing them. He slowly directed the mana towards his lungs, stomach, liver and intestine. Bit by bit they all became saturated with mana. Those organs had reached their capacity.
The baby lord noted all the areas were mana had accumulated in large quantities. He then slowly circulated the mana towards his four limbs.
First the arms. The mana flowed through the muscles and tendons and finally ended in his fingers. The baby Lord retracted his mana when they also reached saturation. He then moved on to the legs and repeated the process. The mana that accumulated in his limbs weren’t that significant.
‘Looks like I’m not going to be a front line fighter’ The baby lord mused.
The baby Lord steadied his breath. There was only one place to check now. He slowly and carefully channeled his mana towards his head. It flowed slowly, towards his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The mana accumulated steadily. After that with extreme care he sent mana towards his brain.
The baby lord worked steadily and methodically. He didn’t want to overtax his already exhausted brain. His brain cells drank his mana like a parched desert. More and more mana flowed into his brain and very soon it surpassed all the other mana rich areas. It didn’t stop there, the mana capacity seemed to be set at a ridiculously high value. It now held four times the sum of all the other areas!
‘A Psion, huh?!’ The baby lord mused.
He projected his aura outward. It extended to about a foot from his body. He could feel the blankets that he was swaddled in. Concentrating on the blankets he gave it a mental tug. It flapped open. He gave out a mental cheer
Now for something more difficult. He concentrated on the plastic yellow band he had on his hand. He had to be careful, he could crush his hand if he wasn’t gentle. With his aura he felt for the yellow arm band and slowly lifted it. It slowly lifted in the air, dragging his arm along with it.
His hand was raised above his head. He could puppet his arm anyway he wants to now, he thought in smug satisfaction!
He did it! Just as he was about to celebrate his victory, he realized he had yet to commit the sacred ritual he learnt from earth.
Carefully and reverently, He controlled his hands to perform a slow and intense dab to celebrate his success!
What was the point in doing anything, if one couldn’t dab on the haters!
Huh! He snorted. Take that hand! That will teach you to smack me in the face! He raised his nose up in the air once again in smug satisfaction.
He looked around himself, even through his blurry vision he couldn’t see anyone in the room with him. It was such a shame. Surely there must be someone to see his momentous victory against the evil hand! Then again who would be worthy enough to witness him?! This was probably for the best. Seeing such awesomeness could be injurious for their health!
The Demon Lord’s delusions of grandeur seemed to have gotten worse now that he had become a kid. He didn’t account for his childish nature when putting his higher order thoughts under lock and key.
The baby lord seemed to have forgotten his failure at his earlier attempts at speech! He was continuously singing his own praises! His nose kept getting higher up in the air! If his head got even more bloated with his ego then he would have floated up into space.
‘I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best!’
‘Oh-Yes! you are the best’
He hummed a little tune in his head as he rocked his baby head back and forth.
‘I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best!’
‘Oh-Yes! you are better than the rest!’
‘I’m the best—’
A wailing of an infant interrupted him mid song. The baby Lord looked about in confusion. Did he just wail? He was pretty sure he had his mouth closed.
Through his blurry vision he could see two nurses walking towards him carrying a baby wrapped in a bundle.
The baby Lord finally understood where he was kept. He was in a nursery where they kept the newborns, right after being born. His mother was probably resting, tired after the birth.
The first nurse kept the fussing babe in her arms calm, while the second nurse did her rounds, checking all the other babies in the room. The baby lord was astonished, there where other babies in this ward? He didn’t even realize that!
Finally the nurse came to his crib. She adjusted his open blankets, tucking him in and then walked towards the other nurse with the new baby.
The baby Lord wrinkled his nose in annoyance at the child’s wailing. Who did this baby think it was? The little twerp was moving in on his turf!
“There, there, little one.” Cooed the first nurse comforting the crying babe.
“Dora honey. Can you be a dear, and get me the WB?”
The assistant rushed about to get the instruments in order. The baby lord could see her lift something silvery and metallic and placing it before the Head Nurse. The first nurse then placed the babe on top of the instrument and took careful readings off it.
The baby lord gave the babe the stink eye. He huffed and turned his head away. He was better off meditating than worry about these petty humans.
“9 pounds and 13 ounces. My, My! You are a big girl, aren’t you little Rosie?”
“Rosie?”
The Head Nurse chuckled good naturedly.
“Her Mom had already picked out her name. Isn’t that right, little Rose!”
The assistant smiled as she handed over a stethoscope.
The baby lord snorted, annoyed that he wasn't the center of attention. He bet little Rosie couldn’t circulate her mana!
He went back to thinking various ways he could use his new found powers. He had to find ways to integrate his psychic powers with his previous skills. He went down the list of skills he had at his disposal, when he remembered his core. That’s right! He went to all that trouble and he didn’t even check it out. He sent a tendril of mana towards his core.
“Vitals are okay.” said the Head Nurse.
The baby Lord wrinkled his nose again as his thoughts kept getting interrupted. He started inspecting his core again. He had stolen this core from the guardian beasts of the rebirth river. It had one primary ability ‘Entropy reversal’
With this core in hand he would be unstoppable!
He tried to activate the core’s primary spell matrix. To its annoyance it remained unresponsive. He needed a lot more strength to activate it.
He tried activating it with only limited capacity, using its secondary arrays. The core lit up within him with a slight hum. The baby Lord looked up at the corresponding spell matrix. It looked like some form of kinetic control.
He could combine this with his psychic abilities! He looked towards the two nurses and smirked. It was time for a prank.
The Head Nurse was checking Rosie’s heartbeat.
“Heart beat looks fine.” said the Head Nurse.
Just as she was about to raise the stethoscope, the baby lord sent in a tight beam of sound at the end of the stethoscope.
“Beep! Bloop! Beep!”
The Head Nurse looked at her scope like she was looking at a snake!
The baby lord snickered.
The Head Nurse check Rosie’s heart beat again.
“Heart beat looks fine.” the Head Nurse said again.
The assistant looked at her quizzically.
The Head Nurse just shook her head.
“Just a headache.”
The assistant nodded understandingly.
“We are really getting swamped today!” The assistant said as she quickly went through the instruments.
“Dr. Blyde is away.” The Head Nurse said absentmindedly as she quickly checked for Rosie’s vitals.
“Why?” Asked the assistant incensed. This was the busiest part of the day.
“He is probably out trying to reassure the parents again.”
The assistant gasped. She asked again in a hushed whisper. “Do you think it’s about the incident?”
Incident? The baby Lord perked up his ears, now this was interesting.
“The baby snatcher?” Asked the Head Nurse.
The assistant nodded her head fervently.
“I heard about that. A woman came in the ward and managed to run off with few of the newborns!”
She put her hands on her hips looking affronted. “How can someone do something so terrible? What a horrible person! Do you think it’ll happen again?”
The Head Nurse shook her head.
“No. Do you see this?”
The Demon Lord craned his neck to see the Head Nurse pointing at a blurry yellow object. It was bound to little Rosie’s hand.
“That’s a geo tracking identity chip. The moment she leaves this facility, we will know.”
“Don’t worry Dora. That happened a long time ago.” The Head Nurse comforted Dora.
“It is only because of that viral video, that all parents are panicking everywhere.”
Dora placed her hand on her chest to still her beating heart. “That’s good!”
The baby lord’s musings were interrupted when a slow moving mana pulse moved through the nursery to check its inhabitants. The mana pulse was so discreet that you almost couldn’t sense it. He looked sharply at the entrance to the nursery to see a blurry form skulking around.
“Thank God! I was getting worried there!”
“Yes, Yes! Now hurry up and finish up.”
The blurry form pressed itself against the transparent glass as it carefully looked at each infant, and finally its eyes fell on the baby Lord.
The baby Lord gulped ‘Oh, you gotta be shitting me!’
[https://i.imgur.com/F1eKCMr.png]