The Prince of Demons

The physically adult members of the Crowthorne family quickly began coordinating the guards and beginning to prepare the rites for Magus Supreme Praecan. Her funeral will have to be a different day; she seemed decent in the little I talked to her. It was tragic she was wrapped up in Nyx's malice, but unfortunately the time for formalities was something we did not currently possess. We had little time on Tenebrae to work with until the army of Rykers began their assault on Umbra. Nil needs to get that <Lord's Eye> of his working now. I conjured a ring, handing it to Elder Nil who looked at it a bit perplexed.

"That ring will one time let you signal me. I need to take Nil, and I guess Luna, for some last-minute learning. Nil needs to get his <Lord's Eye> ability working, especially given what our opponent will be." I informed him discretely, not wanting to overly draw attention of the rest of the family.

"I understand; when do I need to use this?" Elder Nil checked while seeming a bit off guard by the decision.

"Whenever Ryker begins his attack if I am wrong on when he will. I will return with Nil in what should be about four hours on Tenebrae." I answered as I wanted to get moving.

"Understood. I am curious as to why, but I trust you have your reason." Elder Nil replied while nodding along. It was great that he trusted me enough not to ask a lot of questions at the moment.

"If he can get Kron's <Lord's Eye> working it will be obvious, trust me." I assured him.

I quickly snagged Nil and Luna and dragged the three of us to Ygdazi. Before doing the next step, I went to my coffers, grabbing a few things while Nil and Luna looked at me perplexed as to why I brought them here. Nil, this is about to be awful for you but there's not a lot of choice. Killing a quarter of a million copies of anyone while being restricted from area of effect <Magic> was taxing, no matter how weak they were. I also highly suspect Nyx tampered a bit more than she let on. That was not important for now because time was a precious commodity we were short on. It was information I needed to get, but not the most pressing concern.

"Why are we here?" Nil checked as I kept rummaging for the last vial.

"Because we are going to dilate time as much as possible between where you are and Tenebrae. You are about to get a grueling training session that you need to succeed in to make defeating Ryker much easier. I brought Luna because you need someone with some variant of healing <Magic> and emotional support. She can do some last minute training not that it will overly matter much as she's not strong enough to help." I explained as I found the last vial.

"Can I even help? Those were copies of adult Ryker, and even if they're weaker than the original I was struggling with my age Ryker." Nil probed, clearly skeptical on how useful he'd be.

"Remember a while ago I told you I could tell you what your <Lord's Eye> did?" I asked as I marched us more to the center of the Wastes.

"Yes, and then you said it needed to hold off until I was stronger and I lost the right to know for a bit because I annoyed you." Nil reminded me. Never did it enter my mind Nyx would interfere like this. To be honest, I should've; there was no way that bezka didn't do something for the inconvenience of Nil trying to win against Scius.

"Today you are going to get that <Lord's Eye> working one way or another as it will help immensely against an army of Rykers." I informed him while Luna looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"What do you mean by, 'someone with healing <Magic> and emotional support' there, Krahinn?" Luna inquired. She caught the operative words of that sentence.

"I am about to forcefully train Nil here and it is going to be awful. Nil, this is probably going to be the nastiest and least pleasant lesson you will have in your life." I explained, which made both of them look nervous.

I did not have time to be more comforting nor sugar coat my words. Before the two could ask more questions, I grabbed Nil and used his <Magic> to create a <Null Space>. This should give us roughly a day and a half of time to get Nil using the <Lord's Eye> ability. That was nowhere near the amount of time I would have wanted, but the short clock we were on necessitated some accelerated learning. I actually felt a bit bad for Nil because this was about to be awful. I can't think of an alternate idea when we have this much of a time crunch though.

"Why can't you control the eye?" Nil asked. Logical idea but unfortunately wouldn't work.

"While you and I can bond and fuse due to me being your <Totem>, however, using your <Arcane Eye> that much would straight kill you from the <Backlash>. There is a difference between me borrowing your <Magic> with our <Mana> fusing together to be controlled by our joined efforts and me actively using a <Lord's Eye> actual power like that. Using you as a conduit to cast <Temporal Erasure> technically produces more strain than if you cast it yourself, it is just usually I am skilled enough for you to not notice as I am more efficient than you currently. The ability of Kron's <Lord's Eye> used against an army needs you to be the one activating and controlling it to reduce the <Backlash> as much as possible." I explained to him.

"Isn't that dangerous though? There is an army of Rykers." Nil probed uneasily. His fear was slowly showing on his face.

"Nil, I get it looks daunting, but the only way through the mess you're in is to ride it out and emerge victorious or die trying. You need to scrape every last drop of what you are capable of in order to face the malice of the worst Lord. That is also why we are keeping Luna in Ygdazi during this, she is only a weakness to be exploited and not even Nyx can drag her to Tenebrae from here without breaking the <Geas>. Now is the time for focus." I snapped at him.

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"How is that even possible? I can barely use <Warping Ward>, let alone maintain <Totem Armor> for more than two minutes." Nil pointed out. I took a long, deep breath to compose myself.

"That is why we are here. There are two things we need to do before returning to Tenebrae, and we have limited time to do them. It is not as hopeless as it seems on the surface." I assured Nil. Luna was next to him, giving him an assuring hug while nuzzling him a little.

"What do we need to do?" Nil probed, looking a bit calmer. And that's why I brought Luna.

"I'm not just a weakness." Luna grumbled, looking irritated to be referred to in such a way.

"I should have been more clear, you currently do not possess the strength to fight off even one copy of Ryker therefore you being on Tenebrae is simply risking something happening to you. As for the what to do, I want to comb through your conversation with Nyx to see if she gave you any backhanded hints to buy herself more <Veil>; I doubt she did, but better double check just to be sure. The more important and main thing is getting you able to use that <Lord's Eye> as an actual <Lord's Eye>." I answered, stretching my neck a bit.

"Understood. So, what does Kron's <Lord's Eye> do?" Nil stated with a nod. I hate to take time to somewhat explain this, though I feel not fully explaining might create problems for us at an inopportune moment.

"We are going for a more robust explanation because even though our time is precious, it is important for you to grasp the why and theory of what you're using. To start, do you remember what Nyx's <Lord's Eye> does?" I replied, hoping Nil was quick on the uptake. He usually is, but I need him to be in peak form right now.

"Allows one to create unique <Magic> and constructs, kind of like she did with Ryker." Nil answered after a moment. That was great, as it gave a precious starting point.

"How do you think the <Magic> of a Lord works?" I checked. Please have a good starting guess. I need him to have the basis for making that blasted thing work.

"They can each somewhat use all <Magic>, but the individual Lords have a specialty which they possess a title named after. It is the <Magic> most associated and created by them and uses immense <Veil> to cast by a Lord that is not them." Nil told me. What? Nil already knew that?

"How do you know that?" I probed as I was not expecting Nil to know a serviceable answer to that question.

"Nyx told me." Nil confessed while his shoulders drooped a bit. Nyx must have explained a little behind the mechanism and how she manipulated the <Veil> a bit to buy herself more then. Not promising for the kind of information I was hoping for, but Nyx likely planned it out in advance then to make sure she had a script to stick to.

"Perfect, gives us the starting point of explaining what Kron's <Magic> is, because they are the Lord you are the most aligned to. Also, the obvious you have Kron's <Lord's Eye>." I chimed. Nil looked down for a second as he seemed to realize something.

"Wait, do <Lord's Eyes> copy the specialty of the respective Lord? Nyx is good at <Magic> constructs so that ability is imparted into the <Lord's Eye>?" Nil checked. Fantastic, he was moving right into the explanation.

"Correct. She is the best bar none at crafting unique <Magic>, making constructs, or at playing around with the <Veil>. The copies she made into <Homunculi> are going to be the theoretical limit of what can be done by one. So, what is Kron's title?" I confirmed for him.

"Kron, Lord of Fate. Is that why I have <Spacetime Affinity>? Is the ability to control time Kron's specialty?" Nil replied. Close, but not quite there.

"Kron is indeed the Lord of Fate, but Kron's specialty is technically speaking not <Spacetime Affinity>. I imagine that part is a bit of a distinction without much of a difference, but the important difference is Kron's specialty is the manipulation of fate, hence their title." I clarified for Nil, who just looked a bit confused.

"As in Kron can alter events that happened to change the future?" Nil inquired. I mean, it likely helped Nil's ability to alter timelines, but it is not where I was going.

"Not a topic we will be going into at the moment; for now just focus on what fate means. You have seen the <Spell> <Astral Scale> before, correct?" I probed. It was the first half of what Kron was truly capable of. Half was a bit disingenuous, as the key part was a bit more than half on top of being the part that was truly dangerous.

"The <Spell> that let's you see the karma of a being, right? Can't pretty much anyone cast it?" Nil answered, clearly not grasping how that connected.

"Yes, it is an <Affinitiless Spell> so anyone can cast it which is not important right now. That is going to be the first step in the training as being able to cast that <Spell> is going to make the next step much easier. That <Spell> is from Kron themselves, a <Spell> of their own creation. Kron generally acts as the peacekeeper between the other Lords as they generally keep to themselves, but part of why they are the peacekeeper is because Kron can measure all their actions and intents and quantify it with <Magic>. Kron is able to see what has happened, what the intent was, and how it will influence the outcomes in the future; that value is tied to the <Veil> so intrinsically the ability to manipulate and circumvent the <Veil> is directly tied to it. You've been able to use <Future Peek> and see a few seconds ahead, which while assisted by the <Lord's Eye>, is more of a by-product of what Kron can actually do." I explained. I could see the gear in Nil and Luna's heads turning as they were trying to figure out what the next part was.

"So, what is the specialty of Kron? What is the ability of the <Lord's Eye>?" Nil asked. I could see him desperately trying to connect the last dots.

"Fate is what you make it, literally. Good things tend to happen to good people, and vice versa in Kron's worldview, and they made sure of it with the <Veil>; Kron can turn someone's <Astral Scale> into a weapon to punish or reward them accordingly. Kron's specialty is warping the fabric of <Magic> to manifest the consequences of someone's actions. It is why something can be considered fated to happen, it is the result of the actions you took to reach there. The by-product is the actions of someone's thoughts and intent let you see into the future where they will be or what they will cast; it also can determine what the weather will be as I know you've always wondered why you could see that so clearly." I informed Nil who lit up.

"That sounds awesome!" Nil chimed, looking overjoyed at the news.

"It is both the strongest and weakest specialty of the Lord's, unfortunately. The part that matters right now is hard to use it against someone who is righteous, moral, generous, and benevolent, for example. Lucky for us, Ryker is none of those, much like Scius and Nyx. Now, it is time for you to learn to cast <Astral Scale>." I told Nil. He didn't seem to realize the disparity between step one and two as he focused on his second favorite thing in the world, but Luna clearly realized there was more to it.