The Prince of Demons

"You want me to be grateful for the opportunity to be hunted for your entertainment?" I checked as the ringing in my ears got a bit worse.

"I know, it is such a small ask from someone as grand as me, but I think you can manage." Nyx mocked me with an insincere smile.

"What about those around us? Those we get attached to? Our loved ones that get sucked into the Void King's crusade against beings you actively import like we're animals?" I probed as I tried keeping my voice level.

"Tragic byproducts of my entertainment that suffer alongside you until the glorious conclusion of the show." Nyx said with the same awful glee in her voice.

"It is okay as long you get to enjoy the suffering until the end." I quipped as how abhorrent of a being I was looking at was sinking in.

"See, you get it! I guess I should have explained it to you sooner as seeing the same beings get hunted over and over again as they suffered in similar but slightly different ways countless times was aggravating." Nyx lamented. Because I made her rewatch her hunting sport, she gave me a present?

"Nil, you are so much smarter than I gave you credit for. Here I thought I would have to spoon feed you such basic concepts. Also, I do need to clarify, you are giving yourself a present, I simply set up the structure for the <Magic> to happen." Nyx taunted with the same sadistic smile.

"You keep saying I made it, but how could I have? I have no idea what you are talking about." I challenged Nyx who simply laughed at me in response.

"You know Nil, it is unfair my poor Scius, a true innovator of my entertainment, a champion of the people, the maker of the great, multi-Realm Kingdom of Arcadia, has to win against you while you keep resetting time for yourself, giving yourself to time to fine tune your approach to eventually defeat him." Nyx told me in a condescending tone.

"It is the benefit of my <Spacetime Affinity>; I need to over come centuries of experience and training." I pointed out, as if being hunted by the Void King was some picnic.

"I know it is; it is quite unfair. You have no idea how unfair it is you can cast that <Spell> on your behalf and Scius cannot." Nyx agreed with immensely malicious energy.

"You could cast it for him; you seem to be quite adept at manipulating the <Veil>." I pointed out sarcastically. She began laughing uncontrollably.

"Why are you laughing?" I probed. Her laughter could only be bad for me.

"It could be good. It's not, but there was a chance." Nyx taunted with a smirk.

"How did I amuse you?" I inquired, not grasping her joy.

"You misunderstand how a Lord's <Magic> works. You see, we all for the most part can use any <Magic> the others can, our specialties are where our titles come from. Kron is the Lord of Fate as time and space manipulation is their specialty. I am good at pretty much all <Magic>, and am able to make constructs of <Magic> better than anyone else. We are not expressly forbidden from using each other's specialty, but casting the specialty <Magic> of a different Lord eats into the <Veil> at a rate like you wouldn't believe." Nyx informed me as her smile got more twisted.

"You needed me to cast the time reset <Spell>?" I checked as the gears in my head were turning. What could she do with that?

"Correct. I can set up a complicated <Magic> structure that can only trigger and piggyback off of a specific trigger or <Spell> of someone else casting it." Nyx cheered with utter delight in her voice.

"I fail to see how this is of my own creation; you did all the heavy lifting and just tied it to my <Spell>." I retorted. Nyx kept cackling.

"Nil do not sell yourself short. You know, you are the first person to make a Regressor to my knowledge with your precious Luna. It was such a great innovation you know! Passing your experience and knowledge to yourself through an <Eternal> between timeline resets by writing a compendium as well! True innovative spirit!" Nyx added on. Ryker; that was why he was weird. Oh no.

"EXACTLY!" Nyx cheered, laughing so hard she fell over.

"He's a Regressor. But.. but…but he died well before I cast that <Spell> to my knowledge." I told her. Wait, she knew how to siphon souls from one Realm to another. Nyx's smile got even more ruthless as her sadistic glee radiated from every pore.

"He did, each and every time. Worry not dear Nil, I made sure to preserve, copy, record, and then store his soul between his death and you casting the time reset. You have no idea how much he hates you, especially when you ripped his body apart and displayed it in a <Sever> like a statue. Oh, by my word does he want to rip you apart limb from forling limb." Nyx explained while laughing with unmatched glee in her voice.

"What?" I probed, as my brain was processing the information.

"See Nil! It is your own idea! Your own work! You inspired it all! Regressors, storing information between destroyed timelines, and even trying endlessly to win against an opponent that hopelessly outclasses you no matter how many times you fail!" Nyx exclaimed as she kept rolling on the ground laughing.

"How is this not interference of a Lord?!" I cried at her. Nyx shot up in front of me with a monstrous smile on her form.

"See Nil, if I make a structure of <Magic> that only triggers when you do something, I only barely interfered regardless of how complicated the <Magic> I made actually is. This is only a massive problem for you because you have failed over, and over, and over, and over again. You cast your time reset countless times to try and find a way to defeat Scius, so you have that many minus about a thousand or so before I got bored and decided to spice it up for myself by refining attempts of your defeat. Why should Scius be the only one who gets an opponent endlessly practicing his defeat? It's only fair after all." Nyx lectured while wagging her finger in my face.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Ryker doesn't have <Spacetime Affinity>! You are actively helping him!" I snarled at her.

"Oh Nil, I simply am providing him the opportunity to retry his horrendous defeat at your hands! If you are going to bore me with watching the same slop repeatedly, it is only right that I add my own dramatic flare for the exciting conclusion to the saga of Nil dying tragically at the hands of Scius! I will say, this final season has had a few surprising twists and turns such as Krahinn suddenly growing a heart. I cannot wait to see where this goes." Nyx told me as she all but danced around me.

"Is that why you sealed away Krahinn? Because he would have realized that?" I inquired. I needed to be out of here immediately. Was there any reasoning with Ryker? How many times did he die by my hands?

"So many times! And he has been patiently waiting for his one, glorious chance to finally be the victor. He has waited for the time I told him that would be different than the rest, but he kept trying so hard each time! Granted, this time it is going to be a lot more special than the rest." Nyx explained while sounding absolutely elated. Where was Ryker? I needed to deal with him. How? Do I have to continue the pattern?

"You want to try and reason with a man you have systemically murdered each and every attempt?! You realize you also annihilated Modinar so many of those attempts?!" Nyx taunted. As much as I did not want to take her advice, killing Ryker might be my only option.

"Why did you seal away Krahinn?" I pressed. Nyx just kept laughing at me.

"Because Krahinn would have pieced the dots together when he looked at Praecan and Ryker! Now, do not worry, him just being a Regressor would have never closed the gap between you two no matter how many attempts I gave him." Nyx clarified. Wait, didn't she say copy? What was there to copy?

"Someone finally caught the operative word!" Nyx cheered, clapping enthusiastically.

"What does your <Magic> structure do?" I inquired. Nyx clearly made something fierce to retaliate against me for ruining her entertainment.

"Okay, I did stretch the truth a little bit; one part of it was not your idea. I had to add my own little pizzazz in order for the little rascal to realistically stand a chance at not dying horribly at your hand each and every time. I am surprised you do not know what a <Magic> based copy of someone is called, your precious Luna nearly died to one after all." Nyx confessed while feigning remorse for that omission.

"Mahdi, you mean a <Homunculus>! Wait, did you make a copy each time I cast the <Spell>?" I checked as I wondered which was the more pressing question. How did a Lord making a <Homunculus> not count as interference? Or did she make a literal army of Rykers?

"Maybe you are a bit slow, as I did tell you the answer to both of those already." Nyx mocked me. That was truly not good.

"You made a <Homunculus> army of Rykers one at a time, adding to it as he retained his knowledge and fine-tuned his methodology to defeat me each and every time that I reset the timeline, thinking eventually the Void King would stop me from resetting the timeline so then you could unleash that stored army upon me." I stated, kind of confirming it for myself.

"And I couldn't have Krahinn killing him before the fun started because that cranky old bird definitely would. But, thankfully, the time of my grand entertainment is nigh!" Nyx said cheerfully, dancing a bit to herself.

"Why tell me this? What do you gain by informing me of this before it begins?" I probed. What possible benefit could Nyx gain from this?

"You really are a dilwaul! The answer should be brutally obvious, then again, why should I expect something other than failure from you?!" Nyx taunted. Her sadistic glee seemed to be reaching a fever pitch.

"The <Veil>. You needed to offset sealing Krahinn away as to not interfere with the <Geas> that the Void King made as it will break and free me from it if you take actions beyond a certain point on his behalf." I deduced. Crap. Crap. How bad is an army of Rykers?

"I just needed to give you enough information, and with this, I have fulfilled my obligation to remain ever so slightly, but entirely, within the bounds of the <Veil> I am allowed without risking breaking that genius <Geas> nor the other Lords smiting my precious Scius." Nyx informed me as I began slipping back to Tenebrae.

I felt myself returning, knowing I had maybe moments to try and avert what Nyx planned. Could I somehow rewind enough time on Tenebrae to give myself a little extra to act? That cunning bezka, that's also why she took Krahinn; I cannot cast that <Magic> at the moment but he can. She managed to kill two birds with one stone in that maneuver. There was no time for some elaborate scheme, some gambit, I needed to somehow stop Nyx's machination. From her phrasing, my only out appeared to be killing Ryker. Was she telling the truth? My time was rapidly dwindling as I knew I was nearly back on Tenebrae. Was Nyx lying? Was she trying to bait me into killing Ryker so Praecan would try to kill me? Something about the malice and sadistic joy she oozed told me that wasn't the case. I had maybe one attempt to stop this as I felt myself now fully back on Tenebrae.

There is zero time to waste. I shot up, rapidly probing the crowd with my <Mana>, hoping Ryker was in this Temple. He is! One precious second had already passed. I engaged my <Imprint>, activated my <Arcane Eye>, reinforced my body with as much <Mana> as I could, and formed a spear of <Void Magic>, using them in conjunction to throw the spear full force at Ryker's head with <Temporal Erasure>, making it appear less than a foot in front of him due to the width of the Temple. A total of three seconds had passed. Ryker's eyes went wide as a collective gasp went through the Temple, my family looked confused, as Praecan deflected the spear while glaring angrily at me. Shiza. Five seconds had passed. Ryker needed to die. I immediately condensed my <Mana> into an <Aqueous Formation>, but Praecan already formed a protective barrier. Forl.

"What are you doing Nil?!" Dad cried out, seeming perplexed at why I tried killing Ryker.

"Ryker! Kill him! NOW!" I snapped back, hoping one of them caught on. His eyes were cold as ice as he calmly smiled at me. Nine seconds passed.

Papa immediately seemed to realize something, summoning a sword to attack Ryker with. Praecan went to say something, but blood shot out instead. What? No. No. Not like this. Ten seconds since I got back. She turned in shock, seeing Ryker holding a sword he buried into her heart. Her barrier fizzled as Papa launched a full force <Astral Slash> at Ryker, which was stopped cold by Praecan as she stared stunned at Ryker. I could see her mouth the word why to him as the color was rapidly draining from her.

"I am sorry Praecan, but your sacrifice is necessary for the greater good, as you dying is the key to construct. I, and Tenebrae, thank you." Ryker informed her as she slumped to the ground, dead, but his voice was deeper, older. Oh no. I wasn't fast enough. From where Praecan was, there were two what I imagined were older copies of Ryker stepping out of thin air, glaring at me, looking ready to fight.

"Everyone, get out, now!" Mom ordered as she realized Nyx's plan had sprung into motion.