“Why does he never listen?” Chris muttered to himself yet again.
It was just after Charles’ meeting with the king of Therode, where Chris was the one paying attention to the explanations being given. He had to agree with Charles' take that the man was a weak ruler, which raised the question in Chris’s mind as to how the man stayed in power. The only two conclusions he could come up with with the evidence he had was that the king was either a puppet figure for another powerful individual or that he somehow had incredibly devoted people supporting him. Chris felt most confident with the puppet theory.
Basically, the only two things of note during the meeting was Captain Seiren’s promotion to Commander, which was to give him the flexibility to travel further with Charles and secure aid at military fortresses, and the deployment to the frontlines against the demon forces. They were going to a place called Riverwatch since it was a sturdy fortress that was closest to where the demons had first attacked Adalth. Supposedly, Seiren and Charles’ other trainers determined that he was strong enough now to face down the demons, which was why they were headed there. While Chris could see that Charles had grown stronger, he felt it was difficult to determine such a thing with nothing like levels or statistics to measure such progress with.
While Charles had been training his martial abilities, Chris had been doing what he could, when he could, to try and grow something out of the connection they shared. No longer was he just sitting in a corner of Charles’ mind when he visited through the connection but now it was a visual space that he could occupy. He had also managed to block out most of the distracting background noise that frequently accompanied his dives.
Within the visual space, there was what equated to an empty room. Bright light blocked out any sort of visual beyond about twenty feet of himself when he was there. The only two objects that were in the otherwise empty space was a chair, which looked remarkably similar to the one Chris used when diving into Charles’ mind, and a glowing yellow orb within a glass case. The orb was the representation of Charles’ mind. Chris was capable of using the orb as something like a projector, leaving him to now watch his brother’s actions like he was at a movie theater rather than through a virtual reality-like setup.
The cringiest part of spectating so much as of late was watching Charles flirt with his female party members. Chris had already figured out each of the girls’ romantic ‘roles,’ and really wanted to watch Charles mess it all up. Unfortunately, Charles was not inept in this area, and was making all the right moves to slowly seduce each of them. It made Chris want to gag with how cliche it was.
The journey to Riverwatch was uneventful for Chris, since he was in no real danger. Instead he just continued to train his side of the connection. There was one experiment he wanted to try, but he was reluctant. If it succeeded, he was not sure what sort of repercussions it might have. It was a decision that he agonized over for several days during Charles’ journey. It was the last night before they were set to arrive in Riverwatch that he made up his mind to try it; he was going to control Charles’ mind.
Sitting in the chair in the visual space, Chris watched and waited for Charles to fall asleep. Carefully, he reached through the glass encasing the orb that was Charles’ mind. It provided no resistance to him, something he suspected was due to their connection equating himself to the mind within. Placing a hand on the orb, nothing happened. There was no surge of sensation or emotion. There was no warmth or pulse to it. It barely even felt solid to Chris.
Since Charles was asleep, there was no visual feedback to be projected so Chris could see. Despite the impairment, Chris proceeded with his test.
“Roll onto your side.”
It was an odd sensation to feel things through his hand. He felt Charles shift his position, removing the pressure of sleeping on the ground from his back and moving it onto his right side.
“Roll onto your left side.”
The shift occurred again, and Chris felt the slight pang from a sharp rock poking into his, or rather Charles’, side. There was a surge of resistance that Chris felt through his hand, as though he no longer had control. He felt his hand move and brush the offending pebble away. Once complete, the resistance faded away. It was useful to know that Charles could still fight his attempts, but Chris could see what sort of implications his new ability possessed. For better or worse, for now he was Charles’ mental barrier against attacks.
“Open your eyes.”
The resistance came back instantly, and much stronger than before, when visual feedback was restored to Chris. He quickly pulled his hand away from the orb, satisfied with his test.
“What is it?” Seiren, who was keeping watch at the time, asked.
Charles looked about for a moment.
“Weird dream, I think. Sorry.”
Chris smiled to himself. Charles could tell something had happened, but not what it was. If he could develop his power over the connection further, he might be capable of influencing Charles without him noticing, or even when he was awake and his resistance was up.
For Chris, Riverwatch was a marvelous little city. Its unique architecture screamed ‘fantasy world’ to him and he knew at that moment that when the time came to establish himself in Adalth, Riverwatch would be his capital.
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One thing that Chris had realized that seemed to evade the people of Adalth was that all demons were intelligent. To the people, there were two types of demons: the commanders and the grunts. While a number of various species of demon existed, they all were classified into these two types.
Commander demons were considered to be the intelligent ones. They formulated demon strategies, ordered around the grunts, and did other tasks. The grunts, on the other hand, were considered to be purely combat and labor tools for the commanders. The shadow hounds that Charles’ group had encountered were considered grunts.
Since it was unclear exactly what made a demon intelligent, it was instead vaguely defined by their ability to speak language. Since humanity had previously captured demons that utilized telepathy, they also assumed that demons had a sort of hive mind brought about by the ability. Apparently no one had challenged the idea.
Chris had heard the idea and initially accepted it as the default fact. However, he had noticed the strategy in the shadow hounds movement and attacks. These were grunt demons, and so by that logic they were not capable of strategy. While he could not rule out an invisible commander, it was clear to him that the shadow hounds were a harassment type of troop whose purpose was to get in, cause chaos, and get out. The ones that Charles had faced were just unlucky when picking their target.
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The Pleasant Dream seemed ornate from the outside. It left no question as to why it was chosen to be a requisitioned officer’s quarters in this city that had a large portion of its population evacuate already. Of course, the inside only further backed up Chris’s assessment of the place.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Then there was Jynna. Even though he was spectating through his visual space and could not experience much from his own side when he did this, Chris felt a particularly strong reaction from his own body at the mere sight of her. If someone were to witness him squirming in uncomfortable excitement, he would have probably gotten extremely defensive. He was a young man who had never had a serious romantic relationship, or even a casual one, and she ticked numerous mental boxes for him after all. It actually was his uncomfortable excitement that actually helped resist the effect Jynna was having on the men in the group.
In a moment of clarity, Chris started questioning why Riverwatch was still standing as it was. It was a tough fortress, sure, but apparently the demon forces had already conquered other fortresses that were considered even more secure. The fact that Riverwatch continued to stand seemed to be that the demons ignored it for the most part, attacking with small groups which posed little threat to the city itself. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Therode continued to lose territory and soldiers on every other front. It was at that moment that Chris realized the demons were not taking Riverwatch seriously because they were utilizing it. And the only reason to utilize an enemy city the way they were was for intelligence gathering. Jynna pulled Charles close to her as Chris realized that officers were the perfect targets for espionage.
“Charles! Something isn’t right here!” he shouted suddenly.
A haze filled the glass container with the orb that was Charles’ mind, blocking it from view in the visual space. A force pressed down on his shoulders suddenly as he too began to feel incredibly sleepy.
“Now let’s take a look at this hero.”
Throwing his consciousness back into himself, Chris dispeled the sleepy sensation instantly. He instantly shoved himself back through the connection, appearing in the visual space again. The haze within the glass container had taken on a pinkish hue. With no clear plan, Chris lunged at the box and plunged his hand inside. He attempted to grab at the misty haze, and was surprised that he felt something solid as he closed his hand. Pulling with all his might, the pink mist was dragged out of the box.
The mist condensed rapidly and solidified into a form before his eyes. Standing in front of Chris was Jynna, who looked practically the same as she did moments ago. Slightly different though was the thin tail that protruded from the base of her spine that was swishing about and the slight horns that poked out of her forehead before curling back. Her outfit was not that of an innkeeper anymore, but instead was a raunchy thing that barely kept her intimate areas covered and revealed nearly all of her pale skin.
Both Jynna and Chris stared at each other, shocked at what was occurring. It was Jynna that recovered first.
“Well Charles, that was certainly impressive. How did you overcome my dreamsleep ability?”
Chris smiled for a moment.
“I’m not Charles. And you’re a succubus.”
Jynna’s eyes went wide for a moment, but she kept on smiling.
“I see. How about you let go and we can talk then?”
“Huh?”
“You’re holding my boob.”
Chris dropped his gaze from her face. Indeed, his hand was grabbing as much as it could of her left boob, but there was a lot of the flesh that was still not in his grasp. In a panic, he jerked back his hand and stared at it accusingly as his face flushed with embarrassment. He did not even see the enticing jiggle that resulted from his movements.
“So who are you then?” Jynna asked.
Chris looked back to her, and now realized her attire. Again the uncomfortable excitement of his own body reached across the connection. He shut his eyes and tried envisioning her in the more modest innkeeper attire she had been in earlier.
“What?” Jynna exclaimed.
Opening his eyes again, he saw that Jynna was once again dressed exactly how he had envisioned.
“How did you do that?” she demanded.
“You’re in my space,” he muttered back.
“Sleep!” she called out as she shoved a hand forward.
Nothing happened. Chris envisioned her being brought to her knees, and instantly Jynna collapsed into the position.
“I rule here, not you,” he said, confidence returning as he saw the power he wielded here.
“What did you do to me?”
“I decide what goes on here. I’ve decided that you have no power over me.”
Chris was not actually sure that was the case, but he was going with it for now.
“You can call me Master.”
“Don’t let whatever power you have go to your head. There’s no way a demon like me is submitting to a human like you.”
“I’m not a normal human. I’m the hero that was supposed to come and beat demons like you.”
“Supposed to? What do you mean?”
“Charles is my brother. Twin brother obviously.”
Jynna’s eyes widened again for a moment, then nodded in understanding.
“I see.”
“Unfortunately, he got in the way and was summoned instead of me.”
“Then how are you here?”
Chris was not sure why the magic of the summoning had given the two of them the connection they now shared, but he was not about to reveal that to Jynna.
“That isn’t important. What is important is that I’d like to make a deal with you. Or rather, you demons in general.”
Genuine surprise crossed Jynna’s face, immediately followed by suspicion.
“What sort of deal?”
“First, let me make sure I have something straight. You demons seek to conquer the other races here, but what is it you plan to do with them once you’ve won?”
“We won’t kill them all if that’s what you’re trying to figure out. There are many things that we need them for. Food, reproduction, test subjects… Shall I continue?”
Jynna’s smile was no longer seductive as she spoke, but rather sinister. Chris felt a little bad at her implications, but this world had turned against him and he wanted them to suffer for it.
“I see. Very well, here is my deal to you. I will obstruct my brother, the hero, from completely destroying you all. You, in turn, will figure out how to summon me to Adalth and, once I am there, give me the city of Riverwatch with its surrounding territory and a small populace to oversee. I will take on members of the other races if you no longer have need of them.”
“How about I just kill your brother now?”
“You really think you can? Against a hero that will only continue to grow in power with each passing day? My power exceeds yours here. You see that?”
Chris pointed at the orb that was Charles’ mind within the case.
“That is Charles. I can control him from here. So long as we work together, I can restrain him. The second you demons betray me, he goes free to destroy you. I can make sure you can never stop him.”
It was a massive bluff. Chris could barely control Charles and still had little idea how it was that he had compelled Jynna in this space. Both silently stared at each other, thinking through their next moves respectively.
“I will pass along your offer to the Demon Lord. I make no guarantees about anything,” Jynna finally said.
Chris nodded.
“Very well.”
Jynna glanced around.
“So how do I get out of here?”
It was Chris’s turn to be surprised. He had not really thought about how he had dragged her into the visual space. Maybe if he put her back she would be able to extract herself.
“Come here,” he said.
Chris released the pressure he had been exerting on Jynna, allowing her to move again. He was certain that her overly seductive walk over to him was intentional. He quickly snatched her hand and began dragging her into the glass box.
“I do like it a little rough sometimes.”
He tried very hard to ignore the comment as she reverted into a pink haze around the orb within the box. A moment later, the pink color vanished and almost immediately after the haze followed suit.
Chris sighed in relief and sat back in the chair, keeping a hand on Charles’ mind to watch over his brother as he shut his eyes. It seemed so quick, but it had only been a few months since he was supposed to be summoned. Now he was going to help destroy the world that, according to him, had failed him.