Neither of us speak any further. This is a fight to the death, and conversation would be a waste of time.

My father lashes out with dozens of purple slashes.

Wisps of shifting mana flicker around the blades of space mana as the head towards me.

I charge to the side to avoid getting hit, only to find all the slashes warp to surround me.

Shit. A space mage is going to be a massive pain to deal with if all his attacks are like this.

Thankfully I have my vision projected so that I can see the fight from multiple angles. Surprise attacks like that won’t work on me!

I quickly set backwards and bend down to avoid the attacks while I launch one of my own.

Spears of earth fly out of the ground from behind daddy dearest as my golems had maneuvered their cores into place while I dodged.

Instantly sensing the attack he vanishes from sight, only to reappear in my path, swinging down his jet black blade.

The swing from the Adamantine sword is too fast for me to dodge, space mana trailing the weapon as he uses his magic to swing with impossible speed.

Wham!

The sword slams into the ground and sends dirt and debris flying all over the place.

The smell of smoking charred dirt reached my nose as the speed of the impact was enough to cook the earth beneath us.

Suddenly the wooden spear I was holding reaches out and stabs into his arm before he can pull his sword away.

Blood sprays out from the wound as he warps away from my follow-up attack.

“Hmph, clever.”

The very first compliment I have ever gotten from the man. A disappointment that it is only because I managed to land a hit on him in a duel to the death.

Truly, attempted murder is the real way for a father and daughter to bond.

Mr. Filicide is now in a defensive stance.

The magical glint in his eye getting stronger and the runes of space mana floating around him glow as he tries to determine where I am.

Truth be told, I was never in the line of his attacks to begin with.

I had created a golem made of dirt and used light magic to make it look like me.

I am not stupid enough to face this man head on.

Three new golems appear from thin air as I drop the invisibility spell around them. Each one is completely indistinguishable from the real me.

My control over the fine details of my golems has reached new heights with each advancement. I can even use other materials than just wood and dirt now.

strands of plant fiber to simulate hair, sheets of soft stretched out vines acting as skin, even flowing water to take the place of blood.

All I need to do is slap some light magic over the whole thing and no one would ever be able to realize which one is the fake. They each have their own Mana Cores after all.

My father’s shining silver armor flashes as the wooden weapons are deflected.

Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to enchant the golem’s weapons on the way up so they can’t stand up to high class armor like his.

Getting a stab in on the arm was a lucky break in and of itself.

Not that such a wound is slowing him down.

I can see purple energy quickly stitching the wound together as he reaches out with more mana to tear the golems to pieces.

The runes on their bodies give out as they are shredded, releasing the illusion over them.

Chunks of mud and vine explode outwards as the space magic rips them apart from the inside out.

That is a bit disappointing, though I never expected this to be easy.

The blue haired knight ignores the earthy gore and quickly turns to stab into the space behind him.

I can feel the mana core inside of the invisible golem shatter as the blade goes right through its neck.

Damn! That is a horrifying level of precision to hit the Mana Core when they are so small…

I need to be extremely careful here. If he manages to find out where I am then I will surely learn whether my strange evolved body can withstand a beheading.

I launch another wave of golems at him. These are not anything fancy though, just the basic monkey models.

The new wave is pushed back and struggling, but not torn to shreds like the last.

Their small ape-like bodies carrying sharp wooden spears move sluggishly as the space around them tries to force its will upon them.

This time, I imbued them with a bit of Qi. Qi is something that is rather incompatible with mana from my experience so I thought that adding a layer of Qi around them might help. I never expected it to be so effective.

My brain feels like it is overheating from the strain of manipulating all these golems and energies at the same time though.

If I let myself falter for even a second then it could spell disaster.

A frustrated look washes over my father’s face as he finds himself unable to detonate my golems anymore.

Ha! serves you right.

You raised me to be a weapon so you should be proud that I am managing so well!

Eventually giving up on shredding the golems, the baron of child murder decides to attack head on.

The pressure abates and the golems can move freely but that is of little help when a space opens up behind each of them and mithril daggers fly out, piercing their cores instantly.

Fucking hell! I know he got his Barony for accomplishments on the battlefield but this is a bit much don't you think?!

The daggers vanish into new portals as my father decides that he no longer desires to be on the defensive.

A wave of mana flies out with crushing pressure.

Branches and trees start to crack and the air becomes hard to breathe.

I can see divots in the ground forming where each of my invisible golems are inevitably pressed into the earth under the weight of his magic.

I quickly rearrange my magic to blanket the area in an illusion.

The dents in the ground vanish and the trees return to their clean unblemished states.

I lose three more golems before I get the illusion up and my soldiers out of the way.

Unholy cubes, this is not going as well as I hoped.

The pressure abates and my father finally speaks.

“You are quite the obnoxious opponent I must say, Hero. However, that will not be enough for you to win. Now die!”

I can barely think as I see a blade appear behind me aiming right for my neck.

My real neck.

“Fuck!”

I use every ounce of strength to dodge out of the way as the blade slices through the side of my cheek.

Just when I think I am in the clear the blade changes course and flies at me again.

Not letting this opportunity pass by, my father launches several more blades all to shred me to pieces.

I immediately throw up a wall of light, Qi, and demonic essence around myself to block the attacks.

Despite my efforts the blades still manage to embed themselves in the barrier and continue to try to push their way through.

This is not good!

But, I am not out of the game yet.

All of my golems begin to spread out to attack my father no matter where he may appear, the invisibility layered on top of the illusion making it hard for even his advanced spatial perception to get a read on the situation.

The density of magic in this forest and the blanket of spells I have running everywhere are interfering with his detection magic.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?! Why do you care so much about my Light Magic anyways?!”

My father, evidently feeling as though he has this in the bag with my current predicament, finally deigns to answer me while slaughtering my golems.

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“I knew my daughter was dead when I dumped her here, how foolish of me to assume that those damned gods would not intervene and bring about a Hero.”

More and more of my golems are broken apart and toyed with as he seems to monologue more to himself than to me.

“What are you talking about?! I am not a Hero!”

“Die Hero!”

Evidently not giving a shit about anything I have to say, he continues decimating my golems as he does not even bother to teleport around anymore.

He is strong.

The stupidly hard trees in the second ring are nothing to him as I see his space magic split them in two.

I can tell he must be at the peak of Class 4 to be able to treat my golems like they are nothing.

But even he has limits.

I can see his movements starting to dull and his skin start to redden.

Yes, I was not just layering an illusion. That would be boring and a waste of mana.

No, I was also concentrating large amounts of radiation across the entire battle field.

It took some time to get past his resistances, but it evidently is having an effect on him.

No longer acting with the same confidence he charges around to slaughter all my golems in an attempt to get close and finish me off.

Naturally my golems won’t let that happen.

Attacking from all sides and sneaking invisible attacks as well as illusionary attacks with the real ones.

Spears and swords made of wood and light slash at him from every direction.

He falters and occasionally slashes through the illusions, putting him off balance for a fraction of a second.

Seeing the effectiveness of the false attacks I create even more illusions of myself as they charge in from all angles.

It looks as though hundreds of me are spread out across the forest, all attacking with a terrible ferocity.

With the overwhelming numbers and illusions interfering with his perception, even my father can’t keep all the attacks away.

Crack!

One of the blades in the barrier breaks through and stabs into my side.

I grit my teeth as I will myself no to feel any pain.

I look up with my actual eyes only to see the barrier finally shatter as the blades pierce through my armor and stab into me all at once.

My body starts to bleed heavily from the wounds and I crumble to the ground.

The illusion around the area begins to fade and the golems' movements slow.

“Cough, hack!”

I spit up blood as I try to breathe through the fluids filling my lungs.

The rest of my golems collapse into the dirt as I lose strength.

“Why… Why do you want to kill the Hero anyway?”

It makes no sense to me. Humans should love having a Hero on their side.

My father looks down on me disdainfully.

“The Hero is a blight, a wretched being destined to kill our lord.”

Anger and a bit of madness envelop his face as he raises his sword above his head to slash down at me.

“That is why you were sent here, those gods must have told you to kill our lord!”

He is completely crazy! I don't understand what he is going on about!

“Who the hell is your lord?!?!”

“The Demon Lord you brat!”

My mind freezes up at his proclamation.

He worships the Demon Lord… Seriously?!

He killed me because he thought I was the Hero due to my Light Magic?

But I’m…

This is so stupid!

As he swings his blade down I shout out one last cry.

“I’m the Demon Lord you fucking moron!”

Now it is his turn to freeze up, I quickly transform back into my Demon Lord form.

He hesitates for a second. Just a brief moment.

I take that moment to release my repressed demonic aura.

Black waves roll off of me as the light in the area dims and the world bends to my will.

I had been holding it back for so long I had nearly forgotten I even had this aura.

The pressure is immense, all my power from the mana in my Soul, to the Reality I had taken for myself enhancing the strength of the creeping clouds of nothing until the world begins to tremble.

Now he is completely frozen in place.

Attacking his lord would be unforgivable, I can see his mind race as he tries to come to terms with who I am. Unsure if it is all another illusion.

Goodbye dear father.

A hole bursts open in his chest and his insides are shredded as a large chunk of metal makes its way through his body.

My eyes dart towards the railgun prototype lying on the ground.

It was a golem after all, so I can control it even without anything holding it.

My father collapses to the ground, blood and dirt filling the air as he loses his strength.

Seeing him lay there lifelessly I finally dispel the final illusion I had created.

The light around my body fades and the plant covered skin of the wooden golem begins to crumble.

I look down at the golem I pulled out of my shadow as soon as I got stuck in the barrier.

I was never really in any danger once I created the barrier.

Ok maybe not completely out of danger… If my bluff had not worked or if the daggers had been at different angles then I would have been fucked.

I had brought out that golem and hid myself with light magic within the barrier.

Normally, with how small the barrier was, I would have never had the room.

But I can shapeshift rather freely. So…. I made myself rather tiny and flat.

Honestly, describing how I looked in that moment is difficult. I was more like a slime than a human if anything…

Whatever, I survived.

No, I won.

As I stand there looking down at my narrow victory rather proudly, my father coughs up blood and looks up at me with glassy eyes.

“What the hell?! How are you still alive?”

The asshole is missing half his body and I am certain that his heart is shredded so he should be very dead right now!

“Hack. Impossible, you can’t be our lord…”

How are you talking you 150 year old psychopath?! You don’t have lungs!

“I am, so deal with it.”

Now it is my turn to look down at him with disdain.

I hate this man.

With every fiber of my being I want to make him suffer the same fear I felt when he stood there and watched as my mother killed me.

“Prim, come here. Show your true form.”

Within moments Prim rises from my shadow and exits her golem body.

Black Smoke and red lightning fill the air as she materializes. The vicious crimson glow of her eyes glaring at the man before her.

“No…. Why would our lord use Light Magic?”

He still seems stuck in his own little world.

I just can’t stand it anymore and begin shouting my head off.

“So that is the reason you killed me! You are what? Part of some stupid Demon Lord worshipping cult or just a freak with an obsession with the demons?! Let me guess, the last Hero had Light Magic so you decided to kill anyone who has it. Even your own god damn daughter!”

I can see the life leaving his eyes, but he still manages to speak once more.

“Apologies my lord.”

“Save it. You killed me off and dumped me in this nightmare of a forest, then came to kill me again as if once was not enough. Your words are meaningless to me. If you worship the Demon Lord so much, then I will give you what you want.”

With a cold hatred I reach down and grip the base of his neck.

I move my hand in one fluid motion. Blood erupting as I tear out his spine and pluck the Mana Core from within.

“I will see to it that your memories and power contribute to my army.”

I roll the bloody crystal around in my hand and examine it properly.

Class 1 cores are green while Class 2 are closer to blue. Next on the list is Class 3 cores which are purple. Now, in my hand is a shining gold crystal, much like those I saw in the temple of rebellion.

Class 4 is a very hard level to reach. If I recall my lessons correctly, Class 4 is between levels 500 and 1,000.

I may have let my absurd growth blind me, but my current strength is only around level 250. That is obviously not counting the strength boost from my Qi, second magic, or the Demon Lord Title.

However, looking at my father’s core I can tell that he was at the peak of Class 4.

Scary.

I really should not have been so stubborn about this fight and tried to do it alone.

It was incredibly stupid and I nearly got myself killed.

I thought I was being safe by keeping my distance and letting my golem clones do all the work… but I severely underestimated the power gap.

This will have to serve as a reality check so that I don’t bite off more than I can chew in the future.

Now that the fight is over, I transform back to my normal human looking self before my legs shakily fall out underneath me.

“Shit.”

Honestly I am shaking. I was so close to death there.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It was the height of stupidity to challenge him alone.

My father…

“H-Hic….”

Crap, I… Why am I crying?

“Sniffle.”

My hands are trembling as they hold the core that I can barely keep a grip on it.

“Lua!”

I hear a voice shouting at me through the tears.

Why, why does my life have to be like this… You said you saw promise in me you strange cube god, is this what you were referring to? I-I don’t…

“Lua! Are you ok? What happened?!”

Finally the words register to me as I look up and see five people coming towards me. Four of which I recognize.

Ugh, I don’t want to deal with these people right now!

I look around, but Prim is already gone.

A sea of shattered golems and my father’s corpse sit before me while I cry blood soaked tears.

“Go away! I don’t want-”

I just wanted to be alone right now, but reality really seems to hate me.

You have earned the Title Hero of Light!

This comes with the benefits:

Summon Weapons of Holy Light

Holy Protection To Your Allies

Demonic Resistance

Unavailable

…

..

.

Your new title will be broadcast to every sapient creature on the mortal plane

I stare blankly at the glowing white and blue screen in front of me.

“SON OF A-”