Within the Farshore
Not long ago
Tar feels incredibly nervous as his form watches over the spiritual land of which he has taken care of for an entire month. He’s put all of the effort he could possibly muster into this tournament, even bringing out every last resource he has built up over the years to win. To match the amount of effort Scarlet has been putting in all these years himself.
Because the last thing he wants to do is to become a burden for her.
At this point he knows very well that she could easily destroy their contract and abandon him. He knows she wouldn’t do that, but he knows she could. All she would have to do is have the Red Plague within her devour the bond and that would be it.
Most importantly, he can’t stand the idea of her giving him one of her pointed judgmental stares for losing. Even if he knows she won’t if for no other reason than not particularly caring much.
After all, they will win so long as he gets twentieth place in this competition.
And he also knows that if she were to fail at getting the ability to teleport, they would find some way around it.
That’s just how Scarlet is.
She doesn’t let anything stop her if she actually wants something, and she ignores the things she doesn’t care about. After perhaps giving them a judgmental stare with her now-internet-sensational eyebrow raise.
Tar almost tries to take a deep breath to calm himself, only to remember once again for the umpteenth time that he is currently in the Farshore. And breathing is not something fae do in the Farshore.
There isn’t air here after all, nor is there even a physical reality for them to breath in.
Tar grows more and more nervous with every passing second, just thinking back on the journey he and Scarlet have taken till this point.
To when Scarlet first contracted with him in order to save her life as she was awakening her demon side.
When she fought her first demons, like the spider demons that were chasing her through the halls of her father’s office building.
Or when they fought in that first ranking tournament for Lion’s Heart university, and she quickly ran in and killed one of the higher Class students in the middle of his fight. Having burrowed under the ground and tunneled her way towards their battlefield.
The first Interschool Tournament she competed in. Meeting her uncle for the first time. Her mother.
Going to Tartarus and meeting her Gramps, the Demon King. Meeting her birth father and the other Demon Lords.
Everything that’s happened on their journey. One that’s only taken a few years despite how long it’s felt to him.
Tar senses another one of his siblings having received their judgment for the round, his father now moving onto the next.
His nerves continue to grow, but the more he thinks about Scarlet and how she’s waiting for him to return with the crown, the less nervous he gets. Because it makes him remember every last effort he put in for this.
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Spending all of his own resources to benefit the ruling of this territory. To benefit the fae inside of it.
Setting up more than one institution within to help care for partnerless fae who are dying from a lack of life force. Expanding the spiritual territory further into the void using his resources. And dealing with an illegal market of reality energy harvesters.
He’s done a lot for the territory.
Tar continues waiting patiently until his turn for judgment finally arrives. And when it does, his father pulls him out of the Farshore to take a look at it himself. Leaving Tar waiting outside in the void.
Time ticks by, feeling like the clock will never stop. That the judgment will never come.
But it does. And he gets his answer the moment he sees the smile on his father’s face.
“You did well,” is all his father says before vanishing again to judge the next fae royal.
He still doesn’t know how he placed, but from those words alone, he feels safe to assume that he did well enough to bring home a victory for the entire tournament.
Yet he still feels anxious, wondering just how well he did.
Fortunately for him, his anxiety doesn’t last long. Because he was one of the last ones being judged.
He feels startled in his artificial form within the void when a System Notification appears in his vision. One stating everything he needs to know about what happened.
Warning! This is a Farshore notification for all fae!
Tarankar Floorid Del Vaschmir Detra has just won the Fae Ascendancy Tournament, earning him the position as the new ruler of the Fae with a score of 10,101 points!
Tarankar will now be granted Moderator privileges over the System!
This will entail the ability to teleport anywhere within reality through the power of the System’s Core, the ability to turn off System Assistance for anyone using skills up to rare rarity skills, to initiate anyone into the System regardless of contract, and to upgrade a single mythic skill into transcendent rarity!
May Fae King Tarankar rule fairly and justly for as long as his rule shall last!
Long Live the King!
And right after he sees the notification, he feels a surge of knowledge entering his mind. Knowledge that feels completely natural to him. As if he’s known about it all for his entire life.
He gains the knowledge on how to tap into the System’s power to teleport. How to direct the teleportation. How to turn off and on System Assistance for others. How to initiate people into the System. And even how to upgrade a mythic skill.
All without any confusion in his mind.
Then he receives a message from his father with the rankings of each one of his siblings.
And more than the sight of that previous notification, the message makes a wide smile stretch across Tar’s face.
Because he got tenth on the final round of the tournament.
He actually beat the majority of his elder siblings and made it to the top ten, albeit barely.
Tar feels a tear begin to leak out, but he quickly shakes his head and teleports straight to where Scarlet is, only barely noticing the crown over his head.
And he sees her for the first time in what feels like ages.