An Unborn Hero

For witnessing the manifestation and destruction of the demon lord, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 48.

For successfully engaging in telepathic communication with a demon, [Telepathy] advances to level 23. Sorry, but no huge leap in levels for that one. You should have tried talking to the demon lord after getting stuck.

Achievement unlocked: [True Hero]

Achievement unlocked: [The Final Cycle]

Mystery the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [True Hero] at the age of 0.

Mystery the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 0.

Rose the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 15.

Kellela Catter the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 25.

Grace Flinel the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 15.

Hayedalf Catter the Human has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 27.

Rrillandral Lehibeborn the Elf has obtained the mythical achievement [The Final Cycle] at the age of 2671.

Mystery stared at her long list of messages, the words not making an awful lot of sense. She was feeling seriously concussed, which wasn't something a foetus should really be feeling, but she did at least have something that was almost a head now, if you squinted a bit. Having a concussion without a head would be really weird.

"Hah. They fixed the overflow bug. But why don't I have a family name when both my parents do? Oh, bloody hell; Rrillandral is ancient! Wait... Rose had a birthday? Why didn't she mention it? Oh, damn; speaking of ages... What's the betting that pair of achievements are going to do something really horrible to mine? Bah, I'll deal with that later. For now... let's just pass out for a bit."

She wasn't yet at an age that required sleep, her brain still insufficiently developed to differentiate between unconsciousness and wakefulness, but there was something about having half of one's soul eroded away that made one just want to switch off for a bit.

"Night night."

Brylyndril Lehibeborn, the [Monarch of the Vale], walked impatient circles around Myllearn's Heart, remaining in his magical girl form to protect himself from the burning quantities of mana. Waiting around inside the Heart's chamber wasn't the most sensible pastime, but from this close up, he could feel the subtle flows of mana every time Mystery drew on the Vale's Finger. Each trickle of mana was proof that she was still alive and fighting. That she hadn't given up, or been captured again.

ding

The elven monarch read the unexpected message, seeing within it everything he had dreamed of and more. Unlike his echo within Rrillandral's dream, his gamble had paid off spectacularly.

[The Final Cycle]. Final. To him, who had lived for millennia, 'final' was a strong word, yet for now, he need fear no demon. The chosen [Hero] of the administrators had won a victory that no previous hero could manage.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, jumping for joy.

Alas, he failed to account for the vastly increased mobility his magical girl form offered.

"Ouch," he added, rubbing his head where it had impacted the ceiling.

Dave the [Scribe] sat at his desk, colleagues flashing him pitying looks as they walked by. Frankly, he missed the days when monitoring the Recorder had been a zero-prestige, thankless task. At least it had been simple. Then it had briefly become Important, in a way that justified the capital letter, and he was proud to do his duty even if things had suddenly become Interesting. But now it was just... weird. Why did he need to be the one to report the [Hero] earning [Royal Pervert]?

And then there were the modifications the [Royal Knight] had ordered after discovering murderers had been covering up their activities by ensuring their milestone kills took place outside of the kingdom's borders. It had taken a while—thanks to Hayedalf being unavailable and needing to fall back on lesser enchanters—but recently, as well as tracking activity within the borders, it also tracked the activity of registered citizens wherever in the world they were.

Which, of course, meant that when Mystery earned [Royal Corrupter], it had once again fallen upon Dave to report it. The [King] was only barely talked down from barging his way into the Vale of Myllearn's embassy! And then there was all the effort that had gone into convincing him that [Veteran of the Corruption] was an evolution of [Raider of the Corruption] rather than [Royal Corrupter]. If they didn't have history books from the previous [Hero] to fall back on, he probably would have charged straight into the demonic forest!

The [King] doted on his daughters in the weirdest ways, in Dave's opinion. Probably a side effect of the way their upbringing was mostly delegated to nannies and sour-faced governesses while he concentrated on kinging.

[I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited] had caused issues of a different sort, but at least the [Hero] had still been in the capital at the time, and hence was verifiably fine. No-one had worked out how she'd been smitten, though, and she hadn't owned up to anything. One of the palace guards had surreptitiously started a betting pool, under the assumption it would turn out to be something obvious once she was born. Dave had personally put down a few silvers on her sharing the affliction of the grechen.

Thankfully, her pace of achievements had slowed down somewhat since her earliest days of activity, so most of the time he could just...

Dave cursed himself for raising such an obvious temptation of fate as he noticed a light flashing to indicate that a person of interest had earned an achievement.

"Please don't be something that sets the [King] off... Please don't be something that sets the [King] off..." he chanted as he checked the output and spotted that the light had indeed been triggered by Mystery. Twice. Thankfully, the words 'corrupter' or 'corruption' did not appear anywhere in the output. "[True Hero]? That sounds better than [Diligent Hero], and [Diligent Hero] was already legendary. Does that mean there'll be a..."

ding

"... world announcement?"

Dave read the world announcement.

"Oh well. The [King] has seen it already. No need for me to do anything," he muttered.

Mythic achievements were like passenger carts. You could go your whole life without seeing one, and then seven turned up all at once.

In a bar in Karn's Vigil, Melody and Platus clinked mugs of ale together with a few other adventurers they'd become acquaintances with during the life-or-death battle for the kingdom.

"Here's to promotion!" they cheered in unison before taking a swig.

"Impressive how quickly the guild sorted the mess out," said Melody, fiddling with the new silver plate around her neck.

"Disappointing we only got silver, though," said Platus, who was proudly wearing a matching tag. "We took down dragons!"

"Makes perfect sense to me. We can't actually cast the spell, so they could only promote us based on the achievements and level gains we managed during the battle," sighed Melody. "Maybe I'll try to get an occupation change, but I'm a bit old for that sort of thing."

"Same here," said one of the other adventurers. "A pity. I can think of a few things I'd like to try with that spell, if I could cast it myself."

"Oh? Like what?" asked Platus, taking another swig of ale.

"How about using it in the bedroom?"

The ale left Platus at high speed, while Melody's expression turned complicated.

"Huh?" continued the adventurer. "I've seen you two together, so it's far too late to go acting innocent now. Don't tell me you've never considered it. The panties may be irremovable, but they're thin and supple, and the outfit as a whole isn't exactly modest. You have to admit it's sexy. Not to mention the chance to experience things from the other side," he added, wiggling his eyebrows at Platus.

"It's not that," explained Melody. "Remember that anyone casting the Aster Blue form of [Magical Girl Transformation] ends up looking like our daughter, so the thought of people getting sexual gratification from it is... Uh... I'm not sure how to finish that sentence, but I'm sure you can imagine."

The adventurer in question fell silent, glowing red with embarrassment.

"Well, that killed the conversation pretty thoroughly," said a fourth adventurer after a few seconds of awkwardness. "Anyone got another topic they want to try?"

ding

The silence resumed as everyone checked their messages, wondering what they'd just got a level for and not realising everyone else had heard the same ding.

And then eyebrows furrowed as they all tried to work out what they were reading.

Platus was the first to react. "Yes!" he yelled at a volume sufficient to rattle the windows. "That's my daughter! My daughter got a mythical achievement!"

"That's nice, dear, but I think the rest of the room will care more about the fact that this presumably means the demon lord has been defeated."

Inside the egg of the demon lord, another sort of awkward silence was taking place.

"Is Mystery okay?" asked Grace, finally.

"She managed a few words to me, which is an encouraging sign," said Kellela. "Her soul didn't look in great condition, though, as far as I could see with [Sense Soul]. I... have no idea how quickly that sort of thing heals, or even if it heals. We should probably see a priest."

"She managed a couple of words to me, too," added Dreobeth, the cause of most of the awkwardness. "She sounded weak, but she was conscious."

Everyone stared at the flying demon. The arm he'd used to cast his demonic fireball was hanging limply, burnt, but he was otherwise in good condition. But his condition, good or otherwise, didn't change the fact that he was a demon. A demon that had captured the magical girls not much earlier, deliberately inflicting significant mental anguish on them to get them to behave as he willed.

No-one quite knew how they were supposed to react.

Kellela was the first to respond. "Thank you," she said to the demon, bowing her head. "If not for you, I'd have lost my child."

"Why?" asked Rrillandral, simply.

"I already explained, didn't I?" snorted Dreobeth. "As things were, you were going to win, but the [Hero] would have died in the process. Between you being pissed and whatever the hell you were doing to the demon lord, I didn't fancy my chances of survival. If I'd hit you from behind, I bet I could have killed Grace and then the demon lord would have won. But the moment it recovered, it would just order the same war it always does, and as the last surviving demon, I didn't fancy my chances in that direction either. Switching side was the best way to save my skin."

"So you're saying you have no loyalty or honour, and will betray us the moment you feel it's advantageous?" asked Rrillandral.

"Exactly! I'm glad someone understands me," he answered.

The suspicious magical girls peered at the demon a few moments longer.

"Then why did you blush when Kellela said thank you?" asked Rose.

Dreobeth blushed harder.

"I think the word Mystery uses for this sort of situation is 'tsundere'," opined Grace. "But Rrillandral, how is your arm? That looks... nasty. Does it need purification?"

"Looks fine to me," grumbled Dreobeth, admiring Rrillandral's new patterning. He thought the heterochromia was pretty cool, too, although the vertically slitted pupil in her new red eye was perhaps pushing things a bit.

"It's okay. As long as I'm not exposed to more miasma, it'll remain stable. I'll need to get it treated eventually, but for now, conserve your mana. We're still trapped in here, and even if we get out, we're in the middle of the demonic forest."

"Which is a good point. Does anyone know how to get out of here?" asked Hayedalf.

"Well, how did you get in?" asked Dreobeth.

"Teleported by a counterattack when Grace attacked the egg. How about you?"

"I just flew at it really hard."

"Sounds as good a plan as any," shrugged Rose, looking upwards appraisingly and materialising an axe.

"Please don't," came a voice, and then the five magical girls were outside.

"Huh?" asked Kellela.

"Don't look at me. I have no idea what that was."

"Please don't tell me the demon lord isn't dead."

"I believe that something is still alive," suggested Rrillandral, peering at the unburied tip of the pure white egg. "I do not believe it is the demon lord."

"Hey, where's Dreobeth?"

ding

The girls each peered at their notifications but didn't get the chance to comment before Dreobeth appeared in front of them in a flash of light, his missing wing finally restored.

"You know, actually, maybe I'll keep this arm," suggested Rrillandral, looking at the sheet of white hanging behind the demon—no, the former demon, she corrected herself—and admiring the contrasting effect against his previous black wing. The two sides, together as one.

This cycle really was interesting. Even after it had ended, new things were still happening one after another.

Dreobeth himself recalled the few words his master had spoken to him before sending him out to join the others, for the first time not thinking 'master' in the same tone he'd use for 'slaver'. And then he checked his messages once more, just because he could. It was a novel experience; he'd never had messages before.

Dreobeth the Nephalem has obtained the mythical achievement [First of Their Kind] at the age of 0.

Life really was looking up.

Mystery (Human)

Age: -15 years

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (48/100)

>> 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) (31/60)

>> Sure Navigation (U)

>> Uncontainable (U)

>> Tether of Will (L)

- Robust (C) (37/50)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

>> Secured Mana (U)

>> Pain Tolerance (C)

>> Strengthened Will (U)

- Stealth (C) (3/20)

>> Camouflage Vitality (R)

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

>> Age Correction (R)

>> Gender Bending (R)

- Light (C) (12/20)

>> Heterochrome (U)

- Increased Attributes (C) (11/20)

>> Mana Storage (U)

- Investigation (C) (8/10)

- Cosplay (U) (12/20)

>> Skit (U)

- Mana Absorption (U) (14/30)

>> Drain Mana (U)

>> Conduit (U)

- Translate (U) (11/20)

>> Two Way (U)

- Telepathy (U) (23/40)

>> Reciprocity (U)

>> Empathy (U)

>> Guarded Mind (U)

- Lightning Bolt (U) (8/30)

>> Multishot (U)

>> Continuous Discharge (U)

- Fireball (U) (23/30)

>> Multishot (U)

>> Overcharge (U)

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

- Energy Resistance (U) (7/10)

- Recharge (U) (4/10)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer II (R)

- First Skill (C)

- Adept (U)

- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)

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

- Astral Explorer II (E)

- First Spell (C)

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

- Famous Spell Forger (E)

- Demon Slayer III (E)

- Monster Slayer VI (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)

- Royal Corrupter (E)

- Blessed of the Forest (C)

- Artefact Wielder (R)

- Veteran of the Corruption (R)

- Skill Capped (C)

- True Hero (M)

- The Final Cycle (M)

Artefacts:

- The Vale's Finger