In terms of information to pacify the lords, William and Lorelei gained little. The best they could do was say that the Eternal King would be displeased if they started a war with the humans and lost gevai lives. However, that wasn’t anything new. It was just backed by more authority now. Thus, the only real report they gave was the Demon King would surely return within a few dozen years… and that everyone must wait patiently. Of course, Lorelei also added a diplomatic spin to that… and a large amount of diplomatic distractions.
Obviously they didn’t and couldn’t say the truth- the Demon King had been shattered into many pieces, most of which had already reincarnated. They wouldn’t say that Lorelei had hunted down and destroyed several, or that William was responsible for the split in the first place- and had really just intended it to be the final destruction.
They couldn’t share what they had learned in the secret chamber- nor would they want to. It was better that the lords not have the idea to sacrifice the other gevai so they could grow stronger. Perhaps if there were any trustworthy they could tell them that was what they were trying to stop.
William desired to stop the Demon King because… well, he had been human, and thus invested in humanity’s survival. Now that he was a gevai, that hadn’t really changed. He didn’t want anyone to be completely wiped out. He hadn’t even been interested in destroying all of the Demons when he was a human- though he wasn’t particularly sympathetic to them either. William wasn’t sure if genocidal ideals were better or worse than the same results for the sake of personal power, but he didn’t like either of them. Alexander Goddard was probably worse than the Demon King. William doubted he was even interested in the gevai as a whole- at least the Demon King thought he was helping them in the long run or at least used that as an excuse. William was nearly certain from the notes that Alexander saying everything was for the good of the gevai was just to trick the Demon King. Even if he held those same ideals… it didn’t change anything. He still had to die.
William considered whether he would need to destroy his soul. Probably not… but it was better safe than sorry. Destroying souls was the most detestable thing William could think of… but doing it to the one who had destroyed an unknown but very large number of souls and the one who made it all possible… that was justified. Two people who were definitely evil was not an unacceptable amount of soul destruction. William wasn’t sure exactly where the lines of good and evil were- just that they were definitely far into the evil side. However, having seen souls destroyed, William knew that if he ever let the numbers he destroyed grow to even three or four… he would have to seriously reconsider his own standing. He didn’t count insects or animals among those numbers- but he would also rather not have that number grow. He had no need to demonstrate it to anyone ever again… he could handle any further necessary destructions on his own… or at least with the help of Marek, but he really didn’t have more than one or two left in him- and that was just for fragments of the Demon King.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
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The report they made on the Eternal King’s estate would give William and Lorelei some time to plan… and a few moments to relax. In gevai time, that was enough for Lorelei to feel comfortable spending several months with William. Though some might have considered the fact that they were making a better version of the phone work… it was a way for them to avoid stress.
The first step was to improve the looks without losing functionality, and then to improve upon the functionality. In the end, William was still slightly disappointed with the sound quality. In theory, each end could communicate from anywhere to the other one. Of course, that meant they would find issues. William could imagine strong magical fields would interfere, and perhaps the connection wouldn’t hold over long distances. The discs didn’t have to worry about any sort of interference, as they were imprecise. A flip was a flip, and the exact speed and timing wasn’t important, at least not in the system they had devised. The phones would be very sensitive to any sort of delay. At best, it would be an awkward conversation, and at worst it could easily become unintelligible or not transmit at all. But then again, it might work fine. If it worked as they thought, the only real problem would be that it was always live- adding ways to make a ‘call’ was just asking for it not to work. Of course, they were far inferior to real phones or cell phones, as they could only contact the other in the pair, and even with improvements they were still bulkier than old-style cell phones. Even so, they were a significant advantage in communication, allowing quick communication over long distances… and also conversation, which the discs were less good at than merely sending a short message.
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William watched Theresa disappear behind a corner. She wasn’t skulking around or avoiding him- but she was avoiding Lorelei. “What did you do to make her afraid?”
Lorelei shrugged, “Nothing much. I just questioned her to make sure she wasn’t a spy. That said, with no knowledge of her background, she might still bring trouble of some sort, but at least she doesn’t intend any. I didn’t hurt her, but I had to make sure she wouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“I see.” William nodded, “Your questioning can be… quite intense.” William believed Lorelei that she hadn’t harmed her, but she could be terrifying enough without doing so. When she thought he was the Demon King he had only experienced a mild version of her interrogations… perhaps because he had tried to be truthful. Early on she had already determined to have Marek search his memories, so she hadn’t put too much effort into the actual verbal interrogation. Lila had experienced the less pleasant side of things when she was looking for a way to destroy the Demon King, but William had always gotten along with Lorelei- even when he considered her a dangerous enemy.