He fell deeper into the void, the darkness swirling around him. Memories floated by, of a normal life, of family, of friends, of enemies, of a future dashed in an instant. They all seemed so meaningless now as they drifted away from him. The last of his memories, of the air rushing past him, of the single instant of pain, of the water and it’s icy coldness, and finally of the sense of relief that it was all over, didn’t seem as meaningless.

It was supposed to be over, he thought with a hint of bitterness. Yet, as distorted and dulled as his senses were, he was still here. Or at least, he was somewhere. Was this hell, he wondered, or perhaps the journey to it?

No.

A voice whispered in his mind, thoughts that weren’t his own and felt indescribably alien and powerful, worming their way through the cracks in his mind. This wasn’t hell? Then what was it?

An opportunity.

An opportunity? Ridiculous. He had killed himself. He wasn’t looking for any “opportunities.” If he had been, he wouldn’t have killed himself. All he wanted was for everything to stop, for his awareness to fade away to nothing.

What is your name?

His name? The voice had trouble listening, apparently. He wanted to be left alone.

What is your name?

Or not, then. So it wouldn’t leave him alone, or at least not yet. As much as he wanted to be left alone, if he had to bear this thing’s presence, then he supposed he’d have to do what he had to do to make it less annoying.

What is your name?

His name. What was his name? He couldn’t remember off the top of his head. Turning his attention to the meaningless memories swirling around him, he let some of the pieces come back...

“Well, Warren Valentine? Are you going to say yes?” She asked, a smirk on her lips.

...Warren Valentine. Yes, that was his name. That memory wasn’t meaningless anymore, though he wished it was.

Warren Valentine. Identity acknowledged. Beginning reincarnation procedure…

Huh? Warren wondered what this voice was on about now? Reincarnation? He didn’t want-

Any further protests were cut off as the void swirling around him even faster. It was a whirlpool of darkness and pure energy, and his burning blue soul began to transform, changing to a deep purple. For a moment, his thoughts were nothing but a chaotic jumble as the alien thoughts wormed their way deeper into his mind.

You despair. You believe that you simply wish to disappear, but there is a better way. You can be reborn. You will have the chance once more to have everything, everything you have the power and the will to take.

The darkness swirled in front of Warren, a bright red screen appearing with glowing purple writing.

Congratulations, Warren Valentine! The Abyss has chosen you to be one of its Demon Lords!

You shall become the Demon Lord of the world of Wixia, and lead the Dark Forces of that world in glorious conquest with an opportunity to rule everything and have everything you could desire!

Do you accept?

What was this, Warren thought. Him? A Demon Lord? The term was familiar to him, very familiar, but he couldn’t remember where. Games, perhaps? Yes, he could remember them being in some of the games he would play. That was it.

He wanted to just fade away honestly, but could he really just throw something like this away? He didn’t think he could. No, he was certain that he couldn’t. In the depths of his frozen heart, a small fire sparked.

Excellent! The Reincarnation is commencing! Please answer the following questions!

Question 1. Choose your Demon Lord type: [Pick One]

- Undead

- Beastial

- Eldritch

Warren considered the options carefully as some of his earliest memories slowly came back to him in broken fragments and gave him a good, if vague, idea of what each “type” was.

Undead was out. He would probably be unable to feel anything if he chose that, and if he really was going to have another shot, Warren wanted to be able to enjoy everything he could.

Which left Beastial or Eldritch types. Both were tempting, and he found it a matter of risk. Eldritch definitely seemed like it would be riskier to pick and was far less defined than Beastial. He wished it gave him some hint, but it didn’t seem like it was going to do that.

Warren thought, and came to a decision. This was his second chance, and he couldn’t take risks without understanding them. Better to go with what he had at least some familiarity with.

[Beastial Demon Lord] Chosen.

Question 2. Choose your Prime Elemental Affinity: [Pick One]

- Fire

- Air

- Water

- Earth

A similar question, Warren thought, and one easier to pick. He had always liked solid ground, and remembered avoiding airplanes or boats in previous life. Flame was another easy possibility, but Earth felt more natural to him.

Prime Affinity set to [Earth]

Question 3. Choose your Focuses: [Pick two]

- Strength/Endurance

- Dexterity/Agility

- Spellpower/Magic

- Willpower/Attunement

Warren felt a vague bit of confusion as he regarded this question. He… honestly didn’t have a clue what to go with here. Two were physical and two were magical, and he got to pick two, so should he go all in or split up? The latter option seemed smarter. Between Strength and Dexterity, Strength seemed to be the better option; and considering that he had wanted to die, having Willpower be a focus was probably a good idea.

[Strength/Endurance] Focus and [Willpower/Attunement] Focus selected.

Generating Demon Lord Template:

Identity: Warren Valentine

Races: Demon Lord(Beastial), Tyrant Wyrm

Classes: Berserker, Summoner

Skills: Mastery: Heavy Weapons, Mastery: Conjuration, Greater Analysis Magic

The words appeared before just long enough for him to see them, and then flashed brightly. A wave of heat washed away the cold of the Abyss, the blackness becoming boiling ink that sank into his form and began to remold him, before everything went black.

----------------------------------------

“Hey!” A light female voice said in his ear, “Hey, Myaster! Wake up! Myaster~!”

Stirred from unconsciousness, Warren noted immediately how off he felt. His body felt wrong, incredibly so. Muscles ached as blood began circulating through him, and he took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his sore, raw throat on the way to lungs that expanded and contracted for the first time.

Warren opened his eyes, being greeted with sight of a small purple-furred house cat sitting on his chest. Its eyes were solid ruby red and had a soft glow to them, and a patch of fur shaped like a thirteen pointed star on its forehead was black in color instead of purple. It also had not one, but three tails; each with a small red, purple, and black colored flame at their tips.

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It opened its mouth, revealing black fangs that were sharper and longer than they were in a normal house cat, and spoke in the same voice that had woke him up. “Greetings, Myaster~! Welcome to Wixia, your new home.”

Warren opened his mouth to talk, coughing and choking for a moment due to how dry his throat, his voice raspy but also distinctly deeper than he remembered it. “W-who… and what… are you?”

The cat bowed, her three tails wrapping around her from the right side in mimicry of an arm. “I am called Bell, Myaster~, and I am a Grimalkin. I am here to aid you as your Familiar, and explain any questions you have concerning your new role.”

Warren rose up slowly, Bell hopping off to the floor, and looked around at his surroundings. He was in some sort of throne room of a castle. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of black stone that disturbingly pulsed occasionally as if they were breathing, and had what looked like exposed bright purple blood vessels. He sat upon a blood red carpet, leading from a great metal door to the foot of the steps that lead up to an intimidating throne. The carpet path had a dozen thick pillars on each side lining it, which were made of jagged purple crystal and glowed brightly enough to light the room. The crystal pillars slightly expanded and contracted at a slow, steady rate, pumping a dark purple liquid up them.

“What is this place?” Warren asked as he took it all in.

“This is your castle, Myaster~,” Bell responded happily, “More specifically, we are in your throne room.”

“My… throne room?” Warren muttered, raising a hand to put against his head, but stopping as he saw it. The skin was hard, reminding him of an exoskeleton, and was dark purple in color. Instead of fingernails, he had sharp black claws. Quickly getting to his feet, Warren began to examine himself when Bell helpfully tapped the ground and caused a section of the wall to transform into a mirror.

He was still humanoid in frame, standing at around seven feet tall and with a muscled frame. From the elbow down, his skin was hard, but his upper arms and most of his torso was far more normal skin, the only strange thing being its pale lavender color and the dark green tattoos all over it. His lower back and from the waist down, however, was covered in black scales and was more lizard-like in appearance. Warren also now had a tail, which he experimented with, getting used to the extra appendage.

His face was human, but only on the surface. His eyes were like a snake’s instead of a man, with royal purple irises and bright green serpentine slits for pupils. When he opened his mouth, his teeth were all sharp fangs. He had straight hair that went all the way down to his lower back, and was black in color with several sea green highlights.

Warren regarded his new appearance, surprised at how calm he was. Perhaps it had something to do with him being unable to remember what he looked like originally, he thought.

“So, I really am a Demon Lord…” Warren finally said, looking down at Bell. “Aren’t I?”

Bell nodded her head, “Yes, Myaster, you are! And this world is yours to conquer, but we must hurry. The invasion of a new Demon Lord is not something that will go unnoticed for long.”

Warren spared his altered for another glance, then looked away. “Yes, lets.”

This was his life now. He felt like he should have had a much more emotional reaction to his transformation, but he didn’t. He wondered if there was some magic involved, or if he was in shock and would be freaking out about this later.

“To start, Myaster,” Bell began, “say ‘Status.’”

“[Status],” Warren repeated, and his entire body began to glow with a purple aura. Some of the aura emanated and drifted away from him, swirling in front of him to form a screen with white letters:

[Personal Status:]   Name: Warren Valentine Type: Demon Rank: S Level: 4 Race: [Demon Lord(Beastial)] - Lv.1, [Tyrant Wyrm] - Lv.1 Classes: [Berserker] - Lv.1, [Summoner] - Lv.1 Affinity Levels:  

- Fire:

- Air:

- Water:

- Earth:

- Light:

- DarK:

60

20

60

100

0

100

Skills:

* [Mastery: Heavy Weapons] - Novice I

* [Mastery: Conjuration Magic] - Novice I

* [Greater Analysis Magic]

Stats:

Hp:

Sp:

Mp:

Vit:

Res:

Str:

End:

Dex:

Agi:

Spe:

Mag:

Wil:

Att:

Luc:

7958 / 7958

8890 / 8891

5031 / 5031

42 (+25)

47 (+25)

54 (+25)

51 (+25)

31 (+25)

35 (+25)

32 (+25)

26 (+25)

40 (+25)

37 (+25)

19 (+25)

Warren considered the status screen, something bugging him almost immediately, “I have Hp? How does that work?”

Bell smiled, and gestured for him. He complied, cautiously holding his arm out to her. With a quick motion, she slashed his arm, or rather, she tried to. A aura like the first one erupted, though this one was green in color instead of purple. It seemed to push against Bell’s claws, and red energy erupted them to push back against the aura, but blue energy crackled through the aura to cancel out the red. His skin glowed like a glow stick as Bell’s claws struggled to draw blood, and only a few drops left as the green aura sank into the marks and healed the injury completely.

[Minor Injury Sustained: -0 Hp]

“What was that?” Warren asked, standing and examining where his skin had been marked, searching for any sign of the scratch.

“That was your Health Pool in action, Myaster~.” Bell examined. “When you are about to be harmed, your Health Pool acts as a shield to deflect and dampen the blow. Then, it heals whatever injuries you sustain as best it can.”

“And the red and blue lightning?”

“My attack’s Attack Value versus your Defense Value. With such a minor attack, you won by a landslide. Had it been a more serious attack and overcome your defense value, it would directly reduce your Hp.”

“And what if my Hp is reduced to zero? Do I die?”

Bell shook her head, and then extended her tails in front of her. “You have three Pools: Health,” one of her tail flames turned green, “Stamina,” another turned yellow, “and Mana.” Purple. “All three will regenerate normally from even small rests, but if one of them reaches zero, it ‘Shatters,’ which has different effect depending on the Pool. Once a Pool is Shattered, it cannot recover from short rests and weaker spells. Only an uninterrupted slumber of at least eight hours, or a powerful spell or item, can recover a Shattered Pool.

If your Health Pool Shatters, you will be, as they say, “On Death’s Door,” and you will not naturally recover and will be effectively helpless. The wounds you sustained that put you in that state will not recover, and will likely kill you without ally intervention.

If it is your Stamina Pool that Shatters, and this happens the most often so make sure to pay attention to it Myaster, you will feel extremely tired and lethargic; and will most often pass out quickly.

And finally, if your Mana Pool Shatters, you will feel dizzy and suffer from a severe migraine until the Pool recovers. This is the least immediately detrimental, but perhaps the most outright painful.”

“Don’t let any of them reach zero, understood,” Warren nodded, turning his attention back to his Status screen and looking for anything else of immediate interest, when Bell spoke up again.

“Anything boxed can be further examined for more details.”

Warren focused on [Demon Lord(Beastial), and sure enough, a second screen appeared next to it will more info:

[Race: Demon Lord(Beastial)]   Level: 1 Stat Growths:  

Vit:

Res:

Str:

End:

Dex:

Agi:

Spe:

Mag:

Wil:

Att:

Luc:

+ 15

+15

+ 20

+ 20

+ 15

+15

+ 10

+ 10

+15

+ 15

+ 5

Traits:

[Abyssal Power:]

* Normal Attacks and Magic against you are 90% less effective, Blessed Attacks and Magic against you are 50% less effective, Divine Attacks and Magic against you are 5% less effective

* All of your Magic and Attacks are considered “Infernal”

* Heroes killed in your presence cannot be resurrected

[Aura of the Demon Lord:]

* Ally Demons receive +15 to all Stats in your presence

* Ally Monsters receive +10 to all Stats in your presence

* Other Allies receive +5 to all Stats in your presence 

[Dark Release:]

* Cooldown: 1 Week

* Can be manually Triggered, or Auto Triggers once Health Pool is Shattered

* Transform into true form for ten minutes, restoring all Pools to max and tripling Stats

Skills:

[Summon Demon Lord's Guard:]

* Charges: 2

* Cooldown: 3 Days

* Summon 4 Dark Minion(Royal Guard)

[Abyssal Chain:]

* Cooldown: 1 Day

* Prevent target God from opening a Divine Portal for 12 hours

“So, this is what a Demon Lord is…” Warren muttered, before looking down at his nude form, and turning to Bell. “I don’t suppose there’s a place for me to actually dress the part?”

Bell gave a wide grin, “And now for the fun part! Come along, Myaster~, your Dark Throne awaits!”