Chapter 382: First Strike
"Okay girl, I’m Thalruk Acheron, I’ve trained your mother in the past, she may be a rebellious and very ungrateful student, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was my student," I say to the little girl named Eclipsya.
"I won’t fall for tricks, I’m experienced enough to recognize your look," I say to her sitting in the chair, she has the same look as Pandora.
"You’re probably already able to speak, and you understand perfectly well what I’m saying, I won’t fall for the act that you’re just a baby," I’m absolutely certain that she already has mental abilities equivalent to many adults.
"..." She looks at me, then averts her gaze and looks at me again.
"What do you mean by training my mom?" She speaks just as I imagined she would.
"I taught your mother to control her true form..." I’m not sure if Eclipsya has a form like Pandora’s, hybridization is extremely rare and usually fails with the child dying.
As Pandora’s race fixes any genetic flaws, she can create hybrids without problems, but that also means that the genetics of Pandora’s children are unique and also means that they haven’t inherited everything that Pandora’s race has.
"...Mom has 6 arms now...is that her true form?" Eclipsya asks with a little curiosity.
"No, it’s just a partial modification, her true form is much larger and resembles a viscous black sludge with hundreds to thousands of additional limbs," When I say this, she seems extremely attentive.
"Mom looks really cool like that," She murmurs, as if imagining Pandora in that form, I wonder what exactly she’s imagining, but it’s not something I should intervene in.
"Since I’m not sure if you can also change form, I’ll train you in magic, there are many books around here that you can use to practice...any problems?" I ask while she seems a little distracted.
"What is Mom doing? Why did she leave me here? Is she going to die?" She asks several questions, and I think carefully about what to say.
"Your mother is at war, a war is when two groups that are enemies move soldiers to kill each other in a bloody fight until one side wins," I summarize what a war is.
"She left you here because she wants to keep you safe, it’s unlikely that anyone would be able to reach this place, and even if they did, I could easily repel or kill the intruder," I explain the reason why she is here.
"As for whether she’ll die...well, it’s possible, she’s not invincible, and the heroes were literally brought to this world to kill her, whether Pandora survives or not depends entirely on herself," I respond honestly.
"Hmmm..." She makes a satisfied murmur and gives a smile that a child certainly shouldn’t have.
’Great, it’s practically a Pandora 2.0,’ I think sarcastically, just seeing this smile reminds me of Pandora.
"Master?" She calls me master, which I approve with a nod.
"Ask your question," I let her ask, it’s good to see that she’s polite, at least she was well-taught and isn’t a complete savage like Pandora.
"Can I learn magic to trap others?" She speaks, leaving me surprised, I thought she might prefer to learn something offensive first, honestly I can’t see this talented girl focusing on support magic.
"Curious, you’re not interested in offensive magic?"
’Well, it’s easy to teach magic to trap others...but should I teach that to this girl?’ I don’t know, I want to see her motivation.
"I’m interested in offensive magic, but I don’t need that right now, I need magic to trap others, preferably...a really strong magic...one that can’t be escaped unless I allow it..." She speaks with a rather dark look.
’...Specific...too specific...’ For a daughter of Pandora, this has to have a dark reason behind it.
"That’s an interesting magic, is it to trap multiple targets?"
"No...just 1 target," She speaks as my curiosity as a master and someone who loves knowledge speaks louder.
"The specifications, this magic needs to trap the person how?"
"Well...trap them close, still allowing me to touch, talk, and still allow the person to move if I let them...and I don’t want the trapped magic to hurt the person, just prevent them from escaping," She makes the magic even more specific.
’These conditions...’ I’m not a fool, with each condition she adds, the magic becomes more specific, these types of magic work through addition.
The more things you add to the magic, the more costly and limited it becomes, with the conditions Eclipsya stated, the only hypothesis I can come to is that she wants to trap a specific person to keep that person close.
’Pandora...didn’t she do something similar with that wife of hers?’ Pandora told me a little about her wife named Zephyra, of course what I gathered from that is that Pandora is lovingly obsessed.
’Like mother, like daughter’ Eclipsya seems to be following the exact same steps, but honestly, I don’t care at all.
"Well, such a magic with such specific conditions doesn’t exist, but...I can teach you to create such a magic, I’ll teach you basic fundamentals, advanced fundamentals, the basis for magic creation, and other things."
"But...I’ll only teach that at specific times based on your grades in other activities I assign you." I say, using her desire as fuel to make her focus on what I’ll teach.
"Oh, is that so? Can I really create this magic?" She asks now with complete focus on me.
"You can, but you need to do what I ask, as your master I’ll guide you in various magical, combat, and strategic areas," I say as she nods positively.
’Well, the war will last for some time, I should have a few months to train her...’ A new disciple, I must admit I’m slightly excited.
"Let’s start then, disciple," I say with a small smile.
...
...
...
"Hey, Violet, don’t you think this is beautiful?" I say, approaching the rear of the army.
"Shut up, Pandora, I’m not in the mood to talk to you, you cheater," Violet says grumpily as I advance through the bloody battlefield, finally feeling the heroes nearby.
[Hey Lilith and Freya, I’m going to teleport with the heroes, you take care of the rest here] I send a message to Freya and Lilith while controlling all the nearby angels with my power.
I leave a simple command with the angels, as soon as the humans call the angels, they should kill each other until only 5 remain, and the 5 that remain should attack the humans.
’Time to move them’ As I’m close to the heroes, I use magic to create a huge teleportation circle covering the entire area, soon it activates, teleporting only me and the heroes.
I appear in the throne room while the heroes appear outside the throne room, quickly I sit on the throne using magic to clean my clothes.
’I still have a scent of blood...but it’s okay’ The clothes and mask are now clean, perfect for what will be the "final battle" between me and the heroes, of course after defeating them, the war will still continue.
But this is where I’ll finally get my revenge, I’ll do everything to win this fight and send them to my universe to be tortured.
"Hmmm..." I wait calmly, I’m sure they’ve already noticed that something is behind the door, they just need to open the door and come in.
’...’
"..." They take a while, they seem to be discussing, but that doesn’t matter, I feel that everyone is here, everyone except Ren who is still at the church being a potion factory.
’Oh, it seems they’ve finally decided to come in...’ I calmly adjust my posture, sitting authoritatively on the throne as the door opens and they all enter.
’Amiya is also here...well, she has nothing to do with this, lucky she’ll get out alive’ She’s very lucky, the stars have protected her from going through something terrible, after the fight I’ll throw her out of the castle.
"..." The heroes stop, staring at me as they prepare, I also prepare to generate cores and get rid of any debuffs on my body.
"Hello, heroes, I was so eager to see you," I say with a smile that can’t be seen because of the mask.
"I believe I don’t need to introduce myself, right? You all must already know that I’m the Demon King and that we’re going to kill each other, it’s your duty obviously," I stand up, a slight sound of my tail dragging on the throne echoing through the hall.
"You all look so tense...you don’t need to worry, just come kill me, I’m generous, I’ll give the first blow to you, as soon as you attack me, I’ll also attack." I say arrogantly, giving the first blow for them to use as they wish.
"You’re more...rational than expected," Tsubasa says, stepping forward.
"Am I? Thought I’d just attack? Why would I do that? I’m the Demon King, the first blow can go to the heroes, after all, it would be boring if I knocked out the heroes with the first blow."
"...Are you really going to wait? Your confidence is...very high," Tsubasa speaks as the other heroes prepare.
"Yes, I’ll wait, you can attack me first, but I can assure you, an attack won’t kill me, and as soon as the attack happens, I’ll attack, and I can assure you, I’ll kill you and torture you even after your deaths." I say with extreme confidence.
"I hope you entertain me a lot, heroes, and that your screams spread throughout this castle."
I soon stand still, waiting for the first attack, of course this is not stupidity, I wouldn’t let them take the first attack if I didn’t have a plan.