“Good, you’re here.”
Johann looks at us with an expression that is hard to understand. Excitement and disappointment all rolled into one.
“Looks like everything went well?”
“Yep! Alice is life sized now!”
I smile broadly, excited myself to show off our evolutions. More excited about the moment I reveal my “true form” of whatever the hell I am now.
I called it a homunculus, but that is just a word I ripped from stories back on earth. A homunculus is an artificial human created through magic. And while I am not originally created from magic, with all the crap I have been doing to my body and soul… Well, I am far from natural anymore.
Johann remarks how I have grown a bit as well, noting that I seem to have become more normal looking.
“Well, actually.”
I let my body morph back into its true ashen skinned state. Cracks forming on my skin and my crown growing from my head.
I have quite a bit of control so I keep my height and other proportions at what they were so not to look like a little kid in a suddenly too big robe.
I am so glad to look like the adult I am on the inside. Being stuck as a child forever would have made life very difficult.
The Grand Elder rockets to his feet at seeing my new appearance.
Shapeshifting is apparently an absurdly rare racial trait. More than that though, it seems something about my appearance is nostalgic for the man.
I want to ask, but the conversation quickly changes when Johann interjects.
“While I would love to test out the limits of your new bodies and skills with you, Luke showed up and is asking for you back.” He says with a strongly disappointed look.
I really am just a science experiment to these people!
“Why does that sound like I am an object and not a person…”
Johann just shrugs and says it was Luke’s words and not his.
Taking that as the end of the conversation Alice and I head over to our room and collect our stuff.
“There is so much we could have learned here. I wonder why Lucadon wants us back to suddenly?”
“No Idea, I just hope we can test out our limits before the demon throws us into another ‘training session’ that ends up with us hunting monsters in that dumb forest again.”
Alice gives my statement a wary flinch. She is now a proper living being, meaning she can’t just sit on my shoulder and soak in the sun while I do most of the moving and fighting.
This may require a bit of an adjustment period for her.
As we converse, we finally take a step through the main gate to the sect. Waiting outside the barrier is a certain pain in the ass demon with the same concerning grin on its face as usual.
“There you are! Well done with the evolutions, but now we must be going.”
“Why the rush?” I can't help but back up a bit at the demon's tone.
“I shall tell you when we get to where we need to go.”
I want to argue, but I have never won a single argument against this stupid archdemon, so I just give in.
“Fine…”
So with Alice and I just slumping our shoulders, we start portal hopping all the way until we find ourselves back in The Sea of Trees.
Judging by the size of the trees and the height of the canopy I can tell we are in the second ring.
I turn to look for Lucadon behind us only to find the bastard is not there.
“Uh…”
Alice turns to look at me and points to the giant tree right next to us.
“Hey Lua, there is a note on the tree.”
I apprehensively ask what it says, knowing full well it will be nothing good.
“Dear Lua and Alice, The divination lock on Lua is failing and can not be replaced. It seems your evolution has given you an increased resistance to magic, and this is interfering with the spell.
For now, because of numerous factors, you are not completely visible to diviners and they should only be able to get an estimate of a 200 mile radius. That number is assuming the diviner is of a much higher class though.
I would help, but I can no longer continue to coddle you. A Demon Lord needs to be able to think for themselves after all. I think some real battle should help push you to new heights.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
I will return to you when you are strong enough to command me to. Good luck!
-Lucadon”
After Alice reads out the whole letter, we both just stand around in a bit of a daze for a while.
“Well shit.”
The words come out rather hoarse. That bastard just dropped us in the forest and told us to fight off an army of higher Class humans on our own! And I know that we won’t have much time to prepare.
A 200 mile radius may be a lot, but an army will be able to clear it in no time.
“We should start preparing, I suggest you make more demons and start collecting cores for golems from the third ring.”
I nod my head at Alice’s suggestion. The rings are massive and filled with powerful monsters. I don’t know where we are in the second ring, but it will take a month on foot to move from one end to the other according to the maps I have seen.
Luckily I can make a golem horse for us to ride on.
I reach into my bag and pull out a Class 3 Mana Core. The one I got from the stalker I killed.
I place it against a tree and channel mana into it. The crystal begins to glow and the wood is pulled from the ten plus foot wide trunk and begins to take a familiar war horse shape.
I notice the detail is actually far greater than it used to be. Something I will have to investigate.
After the horse solidifies I use every bit of my strength to create a new demon. A storm of black smoke exits my body through the same place where the cracks would be were I not transformed into my “human form.”
Red lightning arcs off the smoke. Swarming like small serpentine dragons in a raging hurricane.
The smoke falls to the floor in front of me and swirls as it condenses. The shape taking on a vaguely humanoid appearance as the flashes of red die down, obscured by the black smokey form.
The figure stands straight, looking to be just a head shorter than I am and with what looks like an ox skull taking the place of its face. The red lightning fills its eyes, giving them an eerie flicking glow.
I stare in amazement at the upgrade from the tiny imps that I had been able to make before.
The ox skulled demon then kneels before me in reverence.
“Greeting My Lord. It is an honor to serve you.”
Now, I am completely reeling. The demon's voice sounds almost like a normal girl’s! I know Lucadon never had a gender, but now that I am looking, I think this demon looks slightly feminine. I wonder if they all will be, or maybe I can choose? Though I get the feeling somewhere inside myself that it is going to be completely random.
My mind is spinning, so it seems Alice snaps back into reality first when I hear her shout.
“You can talk?!”
The kneeling demon looks up from its kneeling position with no expression visible on its static skull.
“Of course My Lady, I received knowledge from many of My Lord’s memories when she created me.”
Now that has me snapping back to reality.
“Wait, what memories?”
I really don’t want any of my personal memories to be just given away like that. I can only imagine the fallout if the demons end up getting some of my more dirty memories from earth and then relay them to Alice.
“Just information, things you learned in both this world, and the other you are from.”
I can see Alice perk up at this and so I take steps to immediately shut things down.
“Never tell anyone of the things you have learned, that is an order.”
The demon nods, and I ignore the pout forming on Alice’s face.
“Now, Let us see what you can do.”
----------------------------------------
Slam!
The door to the king’s office opens rather forcefully and a silver haired woman enters the room with a serious look on her face.
King Alcott adjusts his body after nearly falling out of his chair before asking why the crazy woman just barged into his office in such a manner.
The Oracle ignores the complaints she can hear muttered under his breath and moves on to explaining her actions.
“I finally broke through! That damned magic is no longer able to hide the Demon Lord from me.”
“Really?! Thank the gods, the alliance was about to have my head!”
The king is really happy to hear this news. Over a year with no information on the Demon Lord, and the alliance was moments away from breaking. He knows that he should not be happy about the Demon Lord finally making a move, but he can’t help it. Those people were driving him crazy!
“Yes, yes. Your head is safe. But focus on the actual information instead of grinning about your newfound safety. The Demon Lord is in The Sea of Trees, I can’t get a precise lock on the location but I know that they are somewhere, here.”
Pointing to a large map on the wall The Oracle’s finger circles around an area that intersects with their borders.
That has the grin falling off the King’s face.
“That’s…”
“Yeah. We are in a dangerous position here.”
The king sighs at the increased workload that is soon to come. Things were already chaotic with the disappearance of Baron Knight and the arrest of his wife. Now they are neighbors with the Demon Lord? He is never going to get any sleep!
“We should send out scouts immediately.”
The Oracle really wants this Demon Lord dealt with as soon as possible. But sadly things are not so easy.
“That area covers part of the third ring as well, it could take months for the scouts to search the whole space. And that is assuming the Demon Lord is stationary.” The king sighs again seeing the dower look on The Oracle’s face.
He knows she has lived a long time and is incredibly powerful, but also that her power is not as much as others in her level range due to her non combat focused magic.
She must be worried about going out alone to face the Demon Lord which is why she suggested the alliance. The problem is that, after waiting so long for the Demon Lord to move, that the other powerful figures standing behind their nations will have little interest in helping out.
Especially when the problem is on the border of a nation they had been growing rather annoyed with recently.
The fact that they were right in the end will only exacerbate the issue.
“Worse, we already have most of our scouts out hunting down the Baron. We can’t leave ourselves any more unprotected right now than we already are.”
The Oracle slams her fist into the wall, cracking it rather badly despite its enchantments.
“Damn, The Tuskan Kingdom is sure to try something soon now that we are being flanked by the Demon Lord!”
King Alcott grimaces.
“My point exactly. But, perhaps The Dragon Empire can assist? The Demon Lord is near their border as well. I doubt they can turn us down now.”
The Oracle slumps down into the sofa and decides to do the only thing they can do. Hope that The Dragon Empire takes them seriously.