An Unborn Hero

Some laws of common sense varied between universes. Kellela, for example, would struggle to imagine a world where magic didn't exist, despite plenty of such worlds existing. On the other hand, some laws were ironclad, utterly inviolable no matter how far through the Void one travelled.

One such rule was the utterly stupid and self-defeating habit of villains to brag. Whether it was a full on monologue or just taking a few seconds out from their busy schedules to sneer, they seemed absolutely determined to give heroes every last chance to stage a dramatic comeback.

"Got you," whispered Lilith into Kellela's ear as she reached for her stomach.

The split second of warning saved the lives of both mother and daughter, Kellela reacting instinctively by diving to the side. The clawed grasp of the invisible demon—aimed to tear Mystery straight from her home—instead clipped Kellela's waist. There was a flash as defensive magical items activated, but shields instantly shattered, and a hiss from the demon was the only sign it may have been wounded.

Kellela was less well off, suffering a rent in both dress and flesh. There was surprisingly little blood as magical girl logic fought against basic biology, insisting that magical girls did not bleed out and staunching the wound. Nevertheless, the sudden pain left Kellela distracted, and to make matters worse, she'd dodged away from the gate, her increased dexterity taking her halfway across the plaza.

Grace struck. She didn't need to see the demon, given her all-encompassing shock-wave, and so the moment Kellela started moving, she unleashed a tide of white light from her hiding place, washing over the plaza. There came another hiss and a snarl as it impacted the invisible demon.

Rose dived through a window, rushing towards the noise, materialising a pair of swords en route, but one sound wasn't sufficient for her to stab. Her eyes flickered, unsuccessfully hunting for signs of their enemy. But as she hesitated, the cobblestones of the plaza shifted and buckled, blades of green grass pushing up between them as Rrillandral employed her bestowed ability in combat for the first time. Just like Hayedalf's unrealistic version of enchanting, she'd ended up with an unrealistic version of plant control. Yes, elves could grow a tree into the shape of a carriage, but not at speeds visible to the naked eye.

"There it is!" shouted Rrillandral pointing at a pair of footprints.

"Oh, that was cool," thought Mystery as Rose stabbed at the demon. No blood was spilt, though, and the footprints multiplied as the demon dodged. "Brilliant teamwork, but the demon's too fast. I need to help!"

Hayedalf emerged, looking uncertain. Without the enchanted items he'd provided Kellela, the battle would already have been lost, but on the field, his abilities were not suited to fighting an agile unseen foe. Grace, on the other hand, spammed her purification wave. Alas, the effect it had on the arch-demon was a lot less than on Zyfyl'p, despite the increased performance of her transformation this time around.

Rose screamed as a line of red appeared across her face, crossing an eye. Again, magical girl logic protected her sight—magical girls did not get their eyes ripped out—but it didn't stop her reflexively grasping at the wound, disrupting her concentration on her invisible foe. Another, larger hole appeared in her chest, and this time even magic wasn't sufficient to keep the blood on the inside. She crumpled to the floor, the light fading from her eyes as she fell.

"Rose!" screamed Mystery in the privacy of her own mind. "Invisibility is a cheat!" she added, without the slightest hint that she'd realised her hypocrisy. "We need to make the demon visible."

Soldiers were piling through the gate, but the fight thus far had taken mere seconds. And now the footprints in Rrillandral's grass showed the demon speeding straight for Kellela. Larger vines grew, trying to entangle the demon's feet, but she was moving too quickly. Kellela summoned barriers at shin height, trying to trip her, but she ploughed straight through.

Mystery took in the state of the battle: Hayedalf left useless. Grace rushing towards Rose, chanting a spell of healing despite still firing wave after wave of purification magic. Rrillandral's abilities ineffective. The soldiers still far distant. The demon paces away from ripping into Kellela's womb, determined to snuff out the [Hero].

But Mystery was no longer helpless.

ding

For distracting an enemy, [Lightning Bolt] advances to level 3.

Lightning arced from Mystery's projected soul to the invisible demon, but at its low level, it had little effect. Without the additional boosts from [Demon Slayer II] and [Hero], the demon may not even have noticed. But it was enough to make her hesitate. It took her a second to process that she'd been struck, to work out where it had come from, to look for her attacker, fail to find her, and decide the attack had been weak enough to ignore. She turned back towards Kellela.

But that time had been enough for Mystery to think, and all her thoughts were bent on making the demon perceptible. It was a task she'd succeeded at once before, but Kellela was in no fit state to be donating mana. Thankfully, Mystery had another available spell now. One she could cast with her own supplies.

ding

For a successful cast in a very high-pressure situation, [Cosplay] advances to level 4

She needed a target for the spell to imitate, and with her previous success in mind, she'd made use of it. An odd squeaking and jingle came from a patch of empty space.

It failed to make her visible, but once again, the demon hesitated, and with each second of hesitation, reinforcements drew nearer. The only reason they hadn't already launched ranged attacks was because of the demon's stealth. Mages behind the army were chanting, and with [Translate] active, Mystery knew they were spells of detection and unmasking.

Hayedalf threw a handful of gravel, taking advantage of the demon's brief hesitation, his new powers used to enchant it with lightning. The demon was outlined in sparks as it impacted.

An outline that was clearly missing an arm.

"Mum's defensive items! They worked!" thought Mystery.

Yet despite their apparent success, exchanging an arm of the demon for the wound on her side, the demon kept coming. Despite the groups of soldiers moving to encircle, she didn't retreat. Unlike Fylith, violence did not break Lilith's stealth. There was a reason for that; her powers reflected her mindset.

"... Void... works..." whispered Mystery at Hayedalf, even as she turned the dregs of her mana into more lightning, desperately trying to do anything to the demon.

Rrillandral was putting forward her full power, vines bursting from the floor by the dozen, but they couldn't bind down the demon. Kellela was chanting, trying to activate magic that would let her see the demon. Grace was still preoccupied with Rose, and had even ceased her purification waves to preserve her mana for healing.

Hayedalf, hand once again full of half-charged gravel, switched his plan, dropping his makeshift weapon to the floor and making full use of his magical agility to charge the demon.

Lilith jingled once more as she thrust at Kellela, once again aiming her claws at her belly, but Hayedalf dropped between them, having leapt over the demon. Her claws sliced into his back instead. Once again, there came a flash as enchanted items activated. This time, Lilith screamed.

Kellela finished her spell, as did the mages of the army, and mana washed over the battlefield. Where Mystery could see the threads of miasma, the air blurred, Lilith appearing as if being dragged from a distant place. She was in a bad state, both arms missing above the elbows, the stumps bleeding profusely. Patches of her skin were burnt, and her eyes contained nothing but hate. She'd discarded any disguise she must have worn to pretend to be human, her horns and tail on full display.

Combined with the effects of [Cosplay], leaving her clad in shiny black latex, she certainly looked the part of an evil villain.

Hayedalf collapsed, despite his wound not looking too bad from the outside, but he'd bought enough time. A dozen soldiers rushed in, and the literally disarmed demon was running out of options.

"For the lord!" she shouted, diving one final time at Kellela, tail whipping around at neck height, but she'd slowed from injuries and lost her stealth. Kellela dodged. A dozen swords plunged into the demon, and she fell, the effect of [Cosplay] shattering before she even hit the ground.

ding

Achievement unlocked: [Demon Slayer III]

The entire conflict was over in twenty seconds, but it had left its mark. Rose and Hayedalf were down. Kellela was injured. Mystery and Grace were out of mana. The plaza had been destroyed.

Mystery retreated to her foetus to recover, her mind filled with disappointment. "We won, but only thanks to Dad. It was his void items that saved the day. It's Grace's regular healing magic that's saving Rose. None of the magical girl abilities could do anything. She tore Rrillandral's plants and Mum's barriers like wet paper. Rose couldn't hit her, Dad couldn't stop her, and even Grace couldn't hurt her, but they were all defenceless against her claws. I was... useless. I need to stop them going into the forest! We aren't ready. I'm going to get them all killed!"

She was selling herself a little short; without the extra magical mobility, they wouldn't have won even with Hayedalf's enchanted defences. Likewise, Grace's attacks had hurt the demon, and slowed her down significantly, sapping at the miasma that gave all demons their strength. The burnt patches of skin were Grace's responsibility. But to Mystery, it felt that the role [Magical Girl Transformation] had played was minor.

Mages scoured the area, looking for any other demons in the vicinity. Army healers poured from the gates, adding their efforts to saving Rose, and healing Hayedalf and Kellela. The girls were ushered back inside, taken back to their home. Rrillandral was the only one remaining in high spirits, the others subdued or, in Rose's case, unconscious. A victory, and in some ways a total one; not a single life had been lost in a fight against an arch-demon.

Nevertheless, Mystery felt disquiet.

In the depths of the demonic forest, the nascent demon lord raged. Someone daring to kill a demon, any demon, was bad enough. But now two of its champions had been slain. Two arch-demons, its most powerful and trusted servants, each centuries old. Each having survived multiple previous cycles. Melcrinash had even gone toe to toe with the previous [Hero], part of a group of four that challenged the hero's party of that cycle, and the only one of them that had escaped unscarred. Now she was no more, defeated not by a [Hero], but by the hands of nobodies.

"The fools," spat Xander, fighting to keep control of an army of monsters despite his master's anger riling them up. "Fighting in enemy territory, far away from the miasma that empowers us? Bringing no reinforcements? What were they trying to prove? Utter foolishness."

"And an ambush here in the forest worked so much better last time," came a sneering response. "I remember it well; the way that zycrian mage quite literally wiped the smile off your face."

"And I remember well what that elf did to your wing," replied Xander evenly, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Touché," replied the fellow arch-demon, Dreobeth, who was only a few inches in height. Indeed, he had only a single wing, a sheet of darkness hovering in the air behind him, seemingly unattached to anything. The lack didn't seem to impede his flight, just as Xander's lack of a face didn't impede his continued existence. "But I didn't make this visit to trade barbs."

"Then speak plainly. Our master grows angry, and I have little patience for games."

"Our master... But that's just the thing, isn't it? How often has our 'master' survived more than two decades? In the past millennia, only twice. And five decades? Never."

"Your point?"

"Every cycle is the same. Our lord is reborn and orders war, the mortal armies fight us back, the [Hero] invades and slays our lord once more, slaughtering us like children as he does so. Yes, on occasion our lord emerges victorious, but what good does it do? A new, stronger, [Hero] arises, and the cycle continues. But this time... things are different."

"Again, you are skirting around your point. Say what you came here to say, or leave me to my preparations."

"Fine. Then, if you'll excuse a bit of blasphemy, I propose we don't fight the [Hero] to the death."

Xander's neck twisted, his glowing eye sockets focusing on the twisted mockery of a fairy for the first time. "You would betray us?"

"Betray is such a strong word. I'm not saying we should side with the humans or anything, just that we should take the opportunity of our master being... young... to, well, not bring a genocidal, divinely blessed, practically invincible warrior down upon our heads."

Xander turned away, the light in his eyes fading. "As much as it pains me to admit, you speak good advice. Our master would not settle for anything less than the death of a [Hero], and yet it currently lacks the ability to articulate such commands clearly. We thus have the freedom to apply some creative interpretation to its instructions. Even should we succeed, the gods of the mortals would send a more powerful pawn to accomplish what their first could not."

"I'm glad you agree. Then we should..." started Dreobeth, before the skeleton interrupted.

"After all, there can only be a single [Hero] at a time. Were we to capture one, and keep them alive..."

"An interesting suggestion indeed," admitted Dreobeth, legitimately impressed at what was, from a demon, a genius level of long-term planning. "Not quite what I was thinking... Very risky, but if we pull it off... And I suppose it has the advantage that we're more likely to be able to convince the others to go along with it. So sure, let's go with your idea."

Mystery (Human)

Age: -9 months

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (36/100)

>> Sense Vitality (U)

>> Sense Soul (R)

>> Sense Mana (U)

>> Sense Light (C)

>> Sense Sound (C)

>> Pierce Illusions (U)

>> Sense Miasma (R)

>> Multi-focal (R)

>> Sense Spirit (R)

- Astral Projection (U) (22/60)

>> Sure Navigation (U)

>> Uncontainable (U)

>> Tether of Will (L)

- Robust (C) (20/40)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

>> Secured Mana (U)

>> Pain Tolerance (C)

- Stealth (C) (3/20)

>> Camouflage Vitality (R)

- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (21/30)

>> Age Correction (R)

>> Gender Bending (R)

- Light (C) (12/20)

>> Heterochrome (U)

- Increased Attributes (C) (10/20)

>> Mana Storage (U)

- Investigation (C) (3/10)

- Cosplay (U) (4/10)

- Mana Absorption (U) (4/20)

>> Drain Mana (U)

- Translate (U) (6/20)

>> Two Way (U)

- Telepathy (U) (9/30)

>> Reciprocity (U)

>> Empathy (U)

- Lightning Bolt (U) (3/10)

- Fireball (U) (4/20)

>> Multishot (U)

- Wall of Light (U) (1/10)

- Energy Resistance (U) (1/10)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer II (R)

- First Skill (C)

- Journeyman (U)

- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)

- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)

- Astral Explorer I (R)

- First Spell (C)

- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)

- Spell Forger (R)

- Demon Slayer III (E)

- Monster Slayer V (E)

- Curiosity (U)

- War Veteran (U)

- Royal Audience (C)

- Diligent Hero (L)

- Studious (C)

- Pioneering Guider (E)

- Royal Pervert (R)

- I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited (E)