“How’s prison life?” asked Sylvia cheerfully.
“Fine,” I said, shrugging. “I’ve been better.”
“I’m sure you have,” she said. “Are those chains comfortable?”
“Are you just here to gloat?” I asked.
“I’m here to check up on the situation of my old friend.”
“Yeah, sure you are,” I said. “Well, I’ve been officially checked up on. Thank you for your concern. You may leave now.”
Sylvia frowned, but a moment later, it was replaced again by a smile.
“How does it feel to have your life ruined?” she asked. “You were on top of the world. Part of the group that slew a dragon! And now you’re stuck down here, chained to a wall all alone for the rest of your life.”
“I’m not alone,” I said. “I have a guard in here usually.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “You’re stuck down here forever, until someone comes down to decide to put you out of your misery. You’ll never see the light of day again. You’ll never get to use magic again.”
I shrugged. “Who knows? The future is anything but certain. Maybe they’ll let me out in a century or two, and I’ll be able to return to committing heinous crimes, like minding my own business and defending myself.”
“No!” she said. “You’re never leaving! Ever!”
“Are you here to make sure of that?”
Sylvia scowled. “I don’t need to. Everyone knows what you are now. It’s only a matter of time. Your life is over. It’s ruined!”
“Like yours?”
“Shut up!”
“Do you really still blame me for that?”
“Of course I do!” she shouted. “Why would I not?”
“...Because it wasn’t my fault?”
“It was! I had everything set up perfectly, and you had to go and ruin it! You and your stupid pride. If you had just taken the stupid deal, then we would both be happy right now!”
“Would we though?” I said. “We would both have been slaves to your asshole of a father’s whims. Did you really want to live your life begging for attention from a man who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you? He didn’t even know your name. He’s probably completely forgotten it by now. He never cared for you, and bringing me in wouldn’t have changed that.”
“How do you know?” she demanded. “There were 43 of us. He didn’t have the time to look after all of us. But if you had taken the deal… obviously you’re talented enough to be worth it! He would have started to care!”
“Are you really making excuses for him? If he didn’t have the time to take care of 43 children, then he shouldn’t have had 43 children! He’s an asshole, and a terrible father, and no matter how much attention he might have given you, that would never change. You’re better off without him. Or at least you would be if you weren’t so stuck in the past.”
“Shut the hell up!”
“You had a shitty dad and he disowned you,” I said. “So what? Get over it! It’s been five years, and you still can’t move on! Stop blaming other people for your problems and do something about it! You’re literally a Godly Emissary! You can be a hero! You have a bright future! But instead you’re embarrassing yourself and digging your own grave by seeking revenge on someone who’s done nothing to you!”
“Shut up!” she shouted. “You ruined my life!”
“I did nothing!” I said, louder. “And even if I had, you’ve already gotten your revenge haven’t you? Like you said, I’m stuck here in prison forever. Just move on already!”
“No!” she said, her face contorted in anger. “But-! It’s-”
She brought her hands up toward her head, her fingers tensed and curled like talons, then gave a scream of frustration and stomped out of the cell.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered as my paladin guard entered. “You’re not gonna start screaming at me about your unresolved family issues, are you?”
The paladin shook his head.
“Good,” I said.
With Sylvia gone, I was able to focus my efforts back on my impending escape. During the next two guard rotations, I slowly built my [MP] back up, and by the third guard after Sylvia’s departure, I was fully charged, and ready to enact my plan.
My initial idea had been to make an illusion of Lust kidnapping me, then teleporting away with the illusory Lust, but the more I thought about it, the less I thought it would work. From the way they had been talking after Lust’s visit, the anti-teleportation wards around my cell were very powerful, so the fact that Lust had managed to slip by without triggering any alarms was a matter of great confusion. I could probably break through the wards, but that would completely defeat the purpose of using the illusion of Lust.
Instead, I had decided that I would make an illusion of Lust teleporting in and kidnapping me, but instead of actually teleporting out as the illusion disappeared, I would just use [Greater Invisibility], and sneak out the hard way. It was a bit risky, but I thought it had a good chance of succeeding. And in the worst case scenario, I could always just teleport out. I would lose the guise of being kidnapped, but it would be better than being imprisoned again. Or worse.
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[Greater Invisibility] was a complex combination of light, sound, air, and unattributed magic that used precise modification of the space around me to make it appear as though I wasn’t there. The light magic made me invisible, the sound magic made me inaudible, the air magic made the air stay still when I moved, and the unattributed aspect made me absorb and release the ambient mana at a constant rate to make even my mana signature disappear. Before gaining [Authority], I would be more hesitant to try this plan, because Natalya could still see through my spell, but now, I doubted even she would notice anything was off.
I started my escape plot halfway through the third guard’s shift. As usual, he was standing perfectly still in front of the door, casually watching me as I pretended to reread one of my books. As I flipped one of the pages, I cast [Phantom Person] twice, conjuring Alexander Tchaikovsky right next to me, and a copy of myself over where I was sitting, while also casting [Greater Invisibility] over myself, and using [Telekinesis] to undo my cuffs.
The moment the fake Lust appeared, the guard drew his sword and filled it with aura, but before he could swing it, fake Lust grabbed fake Lucy’s arm, and the two vanished, with my manacles clattering to the ground.
The guard stared at the empty space where I had just been sitting for a few seconds, before turning around and swinging the door open in a panic.
“The prisoner’s been taken!” he cried as I slipped past him and started running down the hallway.
A few seconds later, I made it to a staircase, and without hesitation, began bounding upward, taking the steps three at a time. I did not hear any footsteps behind me, which was concerning, because that meant they had some way to remotely communicate with whoever was above, which would reduce the time I had to escape. My fears were confirmed a moment later when a ripple of spatial mana behind me as someone teleported into my former cell. It was probably Natalya.
I redoubled my effort to climb the staircase, only to be met with disappointment when I reached the top and found myself staring at a large set of iron doors, locked from the outside. Additionally, I could tell that there were intricate spells woven into the door, so even if I could open it with magic, it would not go unnoticed. I would have to wait until they opened on their own.
The minutes I stood at the door, waiting for someone to open them were agonizing, but fortunately nothing happened, and eventually the sound of footsteps on the other side soothed my anxiety. A moment later, the doors opened, and a small group of people quickly filed in passing a foot in front of me on their way down the stairs. I stiffened when I saw that one was Mirella, the greyhound beastwoman specialized in tracking. Fortunately, [Greater Invisibility] did it’s job, and my scent never reached her nostrils, as she ran by. The person behind her, however, was not as fooled.
Saintess Evelyn, dressed in a white nightgown, was following closely on Mirellas heels, but when passed through the doorway, she hesitated, and her eyes widened as she saw me. For a split second our eyes met, and I began preparing to attack, when she suddenly looked away, and started slowly descending.
“What is it?” asked Antonio, who was behind her, wearing striped pajamas.
“Nothing,” said Evelyn. “I was just worried about going down the stairs too quickly. I don’t have the [Vitality] or [Dexterity] to go that fast.”
“Here,” said Antonio, scooping her up in his arms.
“Hey!” Evelyn protested as Antonio ran down the stairs. “Put me down!”
“No time for that,” said Antonio.
I did not stay to listen to the rest of their conversation. Antonio was the last one in the group, and the doors were slowly closing behind him. I dashed through them, and found myself in a much more ordinary looking prison, with multiple cells, and barred windows on steel doors in a stone hallway. I sprinted down the hallway, ignoring the guards stationed periodically throughout the hall, thinking about what had just happened.
Clearly, Evelyn had seen me, but she decided not to say anything. I could not even begin to fathom her reasoning, or even how she had seen me in the first place, but whatever the case, it was clear that she was not against my escape. I didn’t have time to ponder that though. I had more pressing matters. Like how I was going to get through the next set of nearly identical iron doors.
As I waited again for the door to open, I thought a bit more about my plight, and with a start, realized that I may have made a fatal error. Mirella was a tracker who specialized in using smell to track. If she went down there, she would know that Lust had never actually been there. There was a chance that they might think he had somehow masked his smell, but Natalya knew almost all my skills. She knew about my prowess with Illusion Magic. She would know what I had done.
I considered just teleporting out right then. If my cover was already blown, it wouldn’t matter if I made my escape loudly or quietly. There was no point in wasting time trying to sneak out anymore. However, as I thought more, I realized that there was no point in doing so. There was still a chance they would fall for my illusion, and if not, there was a much greater chance that they would believe I had actually teleported out. Again, there wasn’t much difference between teleporting away loudly or quietly, but I had done everything quietly so far. It would be a wasted effort to just give up on it. Besides, even if Natalya found me, with [Authority] I had complete control of my mana, she wouldn’t be able to stop me from teleporting away.
The next hour was a series of tense waiting and running from door to door, trying to find my way out of the cathedral. I had to pass through four more sets of heavily guarded doors just to get out of the prison area and into the cathedral proper, and even then, I didn’t recognize the place I was in, and had to make it through another three sets of doors until I finally found a side door that led me outside into the cool night air.
I never caught sight of any pursuers, which was a relief. It seemed that my ruse had worked, and they believed that I had gotten away cleanly, and had given up on trying to find me. This gave me much more freedom to move, and once outside of the cathedral, I was able to take a much more leisurely pace as I headed to the edge of the city so that I could teleport away.
I teleported all the way back down to the lighthouse in Hengeburg, and once I was certain that I was safe, I began considering my next moves. I was now officially a Demon King, and was wanted by the church, which limited my options. On the other hand, I was also strong enough that there were very few things left in the world that could threaten me. Still, living on the run would be stressful and annoying, and the only way not to live like that would be to either go into hiding, or defeat the other Demon Kings and use my wish to leave this world.
I immediately vetoed the first option. Going into hiding was the coward’s choice, not to mention that it would be a long, and boring process. It would be better to defeat the other Demon Kings as quickly as possible. And, recalling Anatoly’s words from when he had come to visit me, I realized that I had the perfect opportunity to do just that. Wrath and Lust were locked in a stalemate in Maradona. If I joined the fray, I might be able to pick one of them off, even if I wasn’t strong enough to defeat them in combat yet.
Since my information was multiple days old, and I didn’t know if it was still accurate, I immediately set out for Maradona. I had never been there before, so I could not teleport directly, but I had a map in my inventory, and I could teleport. It took a few jumps to get the exact location, and I had to spend a few hours meditating in the middle somewhere to recover my [MP], but twelve hours later, I finally arrived on top of a hill overlooking the walled city of Rio Azul, the capital of Maradona.
I looked down at the city, looking for signs of battle, but saw nothing. I used [Far Sight] to look more closely at the walls, and saw scorch marks, and even a few places where the wall had collapsed, but the only soldiers were ones casually patrolling the ramparts, none of whom seemed particularly concerned about any impending attacks. I prepared to move closer to get a better idea of what was happening, but before I moved, I felt the mana shift behind me, and turned to find myself Lust standing behind me, with a small, tan, malnourished woman in his arms.
“Lucy?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
Before I could answer, the woman in his arms made eye contact with me, and though her mouth did not open, I heard her voice inside my head.
Please help me, it said. I am the Godly Emissary of Patience. If you help me escape, I can promise that Wrath will no longer be a problem for you.