It was truly a nice day. That was until a shadow covered Aiven's workspace. When he looked up, he saw the avian undead, Ulna, still emanating her hate like a glorious halo. Her glare was more open. She kneeled down infront of him until they were on eye level, and without much ceremony, produced five flawless coppers stacked neatly as if offering them to him.
Lamina rolled her eyes at Ulna's actions, seemingly bored and uncaring. Acromion hooted his approval and excitement, and Tarsus was in deep thought and quietly watched Aiven's reaction.
Crap, not again, he hid his surprise at his stare towards the winged undead.
Afterall, just from those actions alone, it was obvious that Ulna was claiming a duel with him.
Aiven didn't know how it came to this, but it had been established that giving him copper change become a common tradition among the undeads when asking for a duel with him.
Without any prompting, she added, "on grounds for being an obnoxious master."
"I reluctantly accept," he replied, formally accepting her challenge. There was a clear irritation in his voice, the first visible emotion he had given since the start of their harmless picnic. He looked down as if saying that it was unfortunate, then he took on the coppers and placed it on his satchel.
The copper coins clanked heavily inside his growing pouch. A lot of the Undead has been challenging him lately.
Then he addressed his friend who was scowling at the turn of events.
"Simos, took over." and when his eyes met Mieu who was shrinking further towards Simos, he added some instructions, "take some clean-out gargantuan manabeast's intestines and bloat it with air to act as floating device."
He left it at that.
When his last words finally sank into them, the dozens of familiars who were hiding close-by rose immediately took his meaning and moved into action. They all started hunting the forest in glee. They had been keeping to themselves as they watched with envy on to the seafolks playing with their mistress. In actuality, he was amazed they were able to hold on this long without any complaints.
He must have unleashed a massacre to the innocent gargantuans, an elephant-like manabeasts with a body of rhinoceros, with that single statement, but it was better than nothing.
Aiven also shuffled something from his satchel and took out a separate inventory black box he had claimed for his dismantling and reverse engineering crafts. He tossed it at Mieu which she clumsily caught in both hands. Simos was still in a bad mood, but his curiosity got better of him and decided to check on the inventory.
When Lamina and the other heads of the undead saw their sovereign taking out set after set of swim wears, they became more in awe of Aiven and was openly staring at him both in a perplexed and confused silence. There must have been at most a hundred swimwear inside the black box.
"Ah wow, these are beautiful!" Mieu breathed out a gratifying sigh.
It was too late, the demon lordling had latched herself on the inventory and was starting to give out the clothes. The board game was ignored for the moment while she said a bright 'thank you' to Aiven that could blind a man. And with her triplet assistants, busied themselves distributing the swimwear and following along in a sing-song rhythm how they could now all enjoy a dip in the lake.
Aiven kept the amusement away from his expression at the painful awkwardness Simos must be feeling right now. On one side of the banks, an amassing number of bloody carcasses were being dissected for their intestines, and on the other hand were gorgeous undeads trying on their newest gift from the lesser master.
Though the gifts were mostly the discarded and ultimately rejects, the quality was still on par with the ones the seafolks wore.
Afterall, the only reason these were discarded was because it had far more clothing textiles used compared to what the seafolks were wearing.
"You..." Ulna started then her words dropped, too speechless to complete her statement.
"Being a tsundere runs in his family," Simos interjected on Ulna who was clearly caught off-guard on Aiven's generosity.
"I see," she replied softly.
"What are you two talking about?" Aiven asked, already putting a distance from where Mieu and her playmates were having their picnic. He started to take six darners from his bracelet, a sure sign that he was readying for their duel.
The fight had long been concluded on the minds of the familiars. For them, it was impossible for Ulna to win even a single match against the lesser master.
But for once, the six darners piqued their interest. Even Simos raised his brow at his friend's use of twice the number of his normal weapons.
"Come," Aiven openly beckoned to Ulna, as if he was simply inviting her for a walk.
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Ulna followed along, her head low and was conflicted. From the start, she had aways felt that there was something utterly wrong with the boy. Simply trying to unravel his motivations was already too off-putting that her strength to face him simply vanished before it could took hold, leaving her confused as to how to deal with the lesser master.
And it can't be helped especially with her fuel to fight being doused with the happy conclusion of her subordinate's excursions.
"I had wrongly judged you, lesser master."
"Really now?" he replied, genuinely not understanding what Ulna's change of opinion of him.
"I had been mistaken of your hate on us, familiars of High Mistress Delica."
"Eh? But I do hate you."
Ulna snapped, "were you playing on me then, master Aiven?" Her feathers began bristling at her anger. Her corpse armory started to materialize on wisps of miasma. "You show your contempt on my brethren time and again, and yet...you...you..." She stammered, not knowing where to start.
She had witnessed first-hand this youngling's unremitting efforts on creating and modifying their equipment, endless nights perusing and reading the pile of random scrolls and logs from their captive brigands, the tasteless task of coming up with their disguises, and even his silent thankless work behind their everyday operations.
In all but on his title, it would looked like he was the one slaving over them.
The contradiction that was their lesser master hold on their ranks, was unnerving and put a heavy wedge to how she, as the forefront of the undead generals, and the others should approach the dark gloomy boy to whom their mistress deemed necessary to appoint as one of their masters.
"And I hate talking more," he answered expressionlessly.
Ulna's instinct instantly made her aware of his attack. Her miasma divulged into a spear infront of her and instantly parried three giant needles that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
True to his normal attack, Aiven started with [cross stitch] and three gigant-spec darners came rushing towards Ulna. They engaged her in an exchange of blows, almost like an invisible enemy was wielding them and kept her rooted on her place.
The spear itself should have proven to be at a disadvantage. It may have dominance on range, but each swing should have cost thrice the time for one darner to thrust at her. But the undead would use all parts of her spear to block every attack at needlepoint. And despite their speed, they moved in a mechanical set of movements, and can be considered as basic.
But everytime she get a foot advanced on Aiven's direction, the three needles would bundle together and deliver a heavy blow that would force her to step back, and their distance to each other would remained unchanged.
This tactic should result in a draw, but in terms of stamina and endurance, an undead's tenacity would always outmatch the living. No one knows this better than Aiven himself, and he was, unfortunately, far from being a living battery of mana unlike Simos.
On reflex, Ulna would also meticulously cut off any stray threads that could hinder her movement, in a calculated strike that would also deter the puppet darners. She had seen too many duels from the lesser master, to know his underhanded schemes to trap his opponents in web-like traps. If she was not careful, the [crossstich] could cage her within minutes with humiliating consequences.
Just thinking of the outcome of his past duels, she can't help but grit her teeth in disgust and braced herself to parry his close-combat ranged attacks.
From a safe distance, Aiven was conveniently watching as Ulna engaged his gigant darners. The other three spare darners were hovering on standby above him with mana threads seemed to have locked them on mid-air.
Finally after what felt like precious seconds of deadlock, Aiven grabbed one of the darners and latched a single thread on the eye hole. Like a javelin, he threw the needle. There was not much strength behind the straightforward throw so Ulna simply dodged the needle. She didn't left her eyes from the puppet darners, but she still saw how it pathetically struck a tree behind her.
"Fight me, Master Aiven!" Ulna shouted, agitated at the stagnant duel they were having.
She was aware of his unmatched speed in casting and dexterity in handling the craft tool as weapons, so the fact that he didn't use the full speed at the needles made her aggression rise more.
Aiven tilted his head, "Okay," he answered. And with a professional casualness, started wrapping one side of the eyehole of the two remaining darner with a red thread. The bandaged-style wrapping acted as gripping points that when he practiced swinging the darners at each hand, it didn't slip.
It took him time, time that made Ulna enraged with how unmotivated the lesser master was dealing with their duel.
She pushed herself faster and harder towards to where AIven was. But it was that moment Aiven was waiting. She was still on an all-out offensive. when in an instant, she noticed him breached her range.
Armed with one needle in each hand, he started to act and aimed to pierce her defense.
She was reeling back from the sudden development. Her eyes started to strain at keeping up with five needles trying to strike her, and the eye-catching tail of red-blood cloth from the lesser master's double-wielding lunges added additional irritating distraction to their fight.
A sudden lapse of judgment was enough for one puppet darner to pass through and pierce her shoulder. And as expected, it hit her corpse armory.
"Loss ten points on defense," Aiven muttered, his eyes gleaming with the notification as the stitches from her sleeve came undone, and causing it to dangle uselessness from her shoulder.
From the start, the darners never posed as danger to his opponents, afterall they had never targetted her vital points. They were, still, considered crafting tools, so their functionality was limited to his job-class. But for the lesser master, he actually dared to unconventionally use them not only a means to distract but also to disable his opponent.
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He would, without fail, use [Thread Guide], to lock on the equipment his unlucky opponent were wearing, then use [Dismantle], [Clothe Scavening] and [Shred] alternatingly, he was able to render his enemies on constant defence, and on edge as to which of his puppet darners were simply following his [Thread Guide] command, and which ones he had actual control over.
Ulna clicked her tongue and severed the sleeve completely.
At this rate, she would lose her armory and be stripped with nothing but her weapon.
It was truly an insidious fighting style, and the mental and psychological damage of possibly fighting with bare skin was too powerful a blow for a normal person to sustain.
"How formidable," she whispered under her breathe.
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As they resumed their exchange of blows, the other familiars had created a protective encirclement around them. If not for the great need of concentration a familiar needed to fight Aiven, Ulna would have heard the growing conversation from their little spectators.
"Capitate, Lunate and Hamate," Simos called out to the triplets.
The three stood in attention and chorused a respectable "yes general?" their cat tails swinging back and forth with the excitement the supposedly peaceful excursion offered.
"Take Lady Mieu for a swim, will you?" he smiled warmly and led Mieu by the hand further away from the commotion.
"Can't I watch? Please? I've never watched Ai-nee duel before, may I, Simos? Just this once?" Mieu asked, her eyes still glued to the back of Ulna that was slowly getting obstructed from view. Their movements were so fast that only flashes of blades and tip of a spear can be seen at their exchange.
"Apologies, Lady Mieu, but Aiven's duels are not suitable for children," he replied, with voice devoid of emotions.
"Truly?" Mieu covered her mouth, "is the fight really that vicious?!"
"On a very different level, my lady."
She beamed, happily, "Such a thing...! No wonder, he is so strong, maybe I should also spar with Ai-nii, one of this..."
Simos' steps froze, "No." He flat out refused, his bangs hid his expression that Mieu peered at him in confusion, her holy elements also nulls most of her discomforts that the sudden pressure on her hand was barely noticeable for her.
He was not the only one who heard her. All of a sudden, all three of the undead trembled at Mieu's proposal. As if feeling the grave danger of such an event happening, they all kneeled infont of Mieu and groveled at her feet, "Our great majesty, we beg of you, promise you would never, ever, ever face the lesser master for a fight. We beg of you!"
"Lunate, it was scary, right? It was truly scary, right?"
"The time, Capitate...when we bare our fangs to the lesser master..."
"It's all right, Hamate, even if...if we could never be maidens...still, it's all right," the three huddled, trying their best to comfort each other.
"Eh?" Is he truly that malevolent?, the demon lordling thought. She even saw tears of miasma forming at the undead's eyes, "As expected of my guardian! Fu fu fu." She leaned closer to Simos and chuckled, "maybe you should also learn after Ai-nee's methods?"
Seeing Simos sustaining such a heavy blow, the triplets perked up, "well, nee, Capitate, if it was General Simos..then..."
"En, en, Lunate," another one nodded, "to experience the great Suzerain..."
"Capitate! Lunate!" the last of them scolded, "have you two forgotten!? Didn't we swore to protect our General's innocence!"
The three made another round of gibberish talk about how to shield Simos from the clutches of corruption of virtues and such that Simos was left speechless.
The demon lordling was only too happy to share the sentiment, passionately agreeing, and even cited that it was afterall the liege's duty to protect her dominion and all its people.
His face was stiff from their awkward conversation, but to hear their latest profession to guard his chastity was too much for him to take.
"That's what you get for having a fan club," they heard Aiven's voice coming from the group of undead.
Revealing no outward injuries of any kind, he walked leisurely towards them. Simos recovered his wits and gave Aiven a measuring glance and knew that the duel didn't favored the familiar. With a sigh he said, "I'll call Delica."
"No need, General," behind Aiven came Ulna's reply. A trademark cloak was draped over her shoulder. It was obvious that her uniform was a tattered mess. In terms of damage, the winged bestial had cleanly suffered gaping wounds on her arms, thighs and between her collarbone. Even without witnessing the battle firsthand, Simos could already guess that his friend had inadvertently used five needles to pin all of her limbs, leaving the remaining one to target her soul gem and coax a submission out of her.
Despite of this, Ulna was still wearing a refreshing expression on her face as if enlightened. She faced Aiven and bowed, "the duel was...interesting. To think you would use this many on this lowly servant, it made me happy, lesser master," but for some reason, she was smiling---a big heartfelt smile was directed at Aiven.
"I would take my leave, but mind this, Master Aiven, this is far from over," and with a pride that would have been impossible with her current state, she marched away with a joyful bounce in her steps.
Aiven was clearly disturbed and faced Simos, "Did I broke her..?"
Simos' mood distorted even more as if he was dealing with a problem child. "It's because you were using that indecent swordplay!"
"I only drilled my tools into her body," Simos needed to take a second before he processed what he said, "I didn't went too far...did I?" he added while caressing his chin as if in deep thought.
"You know, sometimes I miss your silence," Simos remarked.
Aiven shrugged his shoulders and started to make his way towards their picnic blanket. And there, they saw Delica waiting on them, arms crossed impatiently while tapping her finger on her arm.
The girl was dripping wet in her full linen dress, long sleeves with pantaloons under her skirt. A traditional garb for swimming. The clothes stick to her skin, but she had securely wrapped the [Guardian of the Graves Robe] around her small body.
When Delica heard about their little disagreement on Miue's wish for her 'babies' to also had a swim, she started murmuring on her lack of consideration on proposing for the excursion and began brainstorming on how to solve it.
But the moment she stepped on the lakeshore, most of the familiars were already happily swimming at the lake, all with their own set of bloated donut shape floatation devices, and the sordid dueling match between Aiven and one of her babies was already commencing.
"So what did you do to my babies, this time?"
Simos could hear the coldness from his sister's voice.
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"She'll be fine," Aiven answered.
He noticed that she was left alone at their picnic. All of Delica's undead generals were engrossed on cleaning up the remains of the gargantuans they had recklessly hauled from the forest.
"I know she's fine! I was talking about you, stupid Aiven! Sheesh, why do you have to accept a fight from a three-ranked undead? What if you get seriously hurt? Or die? Hah?" She berated him with a slew of questions, "The first time you fought my familiars, you suffered mana exhaustion that you passed out! You were lucky this time, I mean lately but...look here, master hasn't yet mastered resurrection yet, and if I end up summoning you back to life, what do you think would I do with a youngling tailor apprentice undead?" It was her usual line, mostly as a passing remark, whenever any of her friends get into trouble, but this lately her tone were getting desperate.
"If this continued...I don't think, um, maybe we should get our heads together first?" Her voice suddenly became cheery but there was a strain to her words. She clapped her hands as if an idea came to her, "nee, why don't we wait until Master perfected her [resurrection spell]? She's been working on her holy magic, so it'll definitely..."
Both Simos and Aiven glanced at each other worriedly. The atmosphere was turning bad. Keeping with something on their mind, they would often gesture with their eyes as they heard the growing agitation at Delica's voice. Then, as if fully resigned to the task, Aiven hang his head and resumed his seat.
She was still on her rant when she felt a warm hand patting her on head that she stopped and sharply looked up at the expressionless face of Aiven, "understood, I won't die 'til I'm on my prime so you could have a nice body to summon."
"Eh, eh? Are you even listening to what I am saying?" Delica was shocked to hear that from Aiven. She didn't expected for him to take on her statement seriously.
Following along, Simos also took his place along with some refreshments from the picnic basket, "that would be twenty-five moons, I guess. Hm, make it thirty, tempering the body would require years afterall."
"Would the two of you, quit it already!?"
But Aiven continued, "anymore and we would be too old to be of use, right, Simos?"
"Hmm, I'll choose poison, to better preserve the body. The manner of death should also factor in, right, Aiven?"
He nodded in response and also took some drinks without leaving his eyes from Delica who was starting to tremble.
"W..w-why?" she kept her fingers playing at the hem of her robe, her head was low and the trembling of her shoulder didn't abated.
She looked considerably smaller compared with the two. Going to their fourteenth age, the past months had enabled the two to grow, physically. Simos, now sporting a perfect black-dyed hair, had shed some of his soft features and grown in width with lean powerful muscles as fruit from his constant training bouts with the undead familiars; while Aiven had finally catch up in height with Simos, though he's still a few centimeters short. It made his lanky appearance looked more slender, and with his shoulder-length hair that he kept in a ponytail, his appearance now actually looked more deceptively harmless than before.
Simos freed her grip on her robes and hold her hands gently. When she refused to look him in the eye, he slowly tucked his hand to her chin and raised it until they were facing each other, "Delica..." he said, “you can't protect us here, forever."
She flinched, her eyes showing pain at the gentleness from her brother's words. Her guilty expression was exposed, realizing that her friends had known that she had been postponing their quest.
"But Simos, I can..! I am stronger now, surely, there's no need for the two of you to chance fate. Why don't we leave everything to my babies, they've proven their worth. They could handle everything."
Her brother shook his head, empathically, "as we are now, we would slowly turned to a burden."
Delica didn't reacted. Guilt was still eating at her for placing her emotions above the well-being of their quest.
It was a proposition they had asked two months ago.
The young lich didn't want them to go, that was obvious enough, but more exactly, if there was no going around it, she wanted to come with them. However, doing so would simply like abandoning her master and placing them on danger.
She inhaled sharply when she felt a great tug at her phylacteral. Breathing itself was a useless for her current state, but the reflexive action of the living seemed to become more telling on her body whenever she felt her twin cores pulling at each other. This only happens when she felt torn from her mission as a summon of the great demon lord, and her shadow's humane sentiments.
As of now, their forces were too many to act underground, and too few to have an actual impact towards their goal.
With Simos' stumped in growth at his lack of class, and Aiven facing a deadend at his craft, they had planned to personally scout ahead to the Kingdom of Runsaer.
Without much choice, their only option was to split up.
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"Is that why they were leaving?" Mieu suddenly murmured to herself.
The little girl went back after changing for her swim and saw her three guardians having another dispute at the journey Simos and Aiven was determined to have.
The siblings didn't noticed her at all.
Following behind her were the retinue of undead generals and her attendants, all clad in their respective swimwear.
Knowing the heavy atmosphere of the group, she simply smiled and said, "may I request for a party's meeting?"
"Your highness?" Lamina asked.
They had just made a meeting last night about their next move and couldn't understand the need for calling for another one.
"Humour me, Lamina," she said.
"I'll call upon the mistress then, your highness," she answered and took a bow.
"Thank you," she softly added.
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As for the meeting. Everyone was tense. It was the first time Mieu had requested a meeting, and being the one to request it, she was also task to facilitate and head the meeting. Even when it had been a general knowledge that the highest position belongs to the demon lordling, she had never demanded any governing power or authority to her people, until now.
When they were all had settled, she looked around nervously to make sure she had everyones' undivided attention. On her right were her three guardians, and opposite them were occupied by the head of each unit.
She stole another look at her guardians; Simos, Delica and Aiven, who were curiously apprehensive at the lordling's objective for this meeting.
She then took a deep breathe, nodded, and with practiced motion clapped her hand twice, "Okay everyone! Le-let's commence the party's evaluat---I mean, meeting! Same, same!" Her words exactly copied Simos' opening at their first meeting that the boy choked back a cough.
Aiven held back on his chuckle, "Maou, what may be the reason for this meeting?" he probed, clueless as to what might have caused the well-behaved and obedient girl to demand for a meeting.
She cleared her throat, in what was supposed to be a mature and prim one, and announced, "I know that this might come across as my own selfishness, but.." she paused but resolved herself once more, and said with a confident voice, "I am going with Simos and Ainee."
"Wa-wait, your highness...it's too dangerous. For you to come along the lesser masters' journey is..." Ulna was the first one to voice her restless shock at Mieu's words. Her wounds had healed considerably after her duel with the lesser master, but that didn't erased her doubts.
"I've decided, everyone. Of course I will be accompanied by my bodyguard, right Delica?"
Suddenly, Delica who was still shocked from her master's announcement and beating herself with self-pity suddenly looked up, her face was glowing with contained excitement and grinned her ascent.
"Where my master goes, I go, is that acceptable, Ulna?" Delica also said, but her eyes were clearly saying 'my master is the best!.
A wave of protests rose at the familiars side, but none actually said them outloud. Their restlessness grew even more when the lesser masters were silently contemplating what she said.
"I am going," Mieu repeated. "To only know the known surface of Frear on books and hearsay alone...is not something a demon lord should be contented with. I would determine with my own eyes this world that wanted my race's annihilated. Please, let me do this."
"Are you sure, princess?" Simos asked. There were too many objections that kept coming up to his mind to oppose this move. Even he was not certain that this was a good decision for them.
"Yes!" Mieu answered, her voice determined, and her eyes returned a clear resolution on her decision.
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[http://pre04.deviantart.net/f436/th/pre/f/2017/186/c/1/sample_practice_by_evangeline333-dbf8piw.jpg]
Character Design for a younger Aiven