The Prince of Demons

Lux

Having Onilin and Zagzin to fly towards Elijiah was such a time saver, or at least an effort saver. Zagzin was bitter about being at the bottom of our pecking order; it was amusing seeing Ikol thrash him repeatedly in their spars. Ikol repeatedly demonstrated his physicality and strength by shattering countless bones of Zagzin in each duel. The trick to fighting Ikol is to heavily shield yourself and minimize his attacks connecting as much as possible. Onilin made my bones creak when she managed to connect, but Ikol was undeniably the physically strongest. Onilin preferred to spar with me, wanting to try and find a counter to my hyper speed light spears, while I was trying to get better on not relying on that method as I improved my physicality and <Mana Reinforcement>. My <Magic> was above theirs, but the rest needed to be brought up more.

I was loathe to admit Miril's lessons were helpful now that I was not fighting the utter monster of Miril. I was expanding my ability to use my halos and runes a bit better, not that I knew their names all that well. Onilin seemed to be trying less in our spars recently as I seemed to win faster than before. Why is she giving up so suddenly? It was annoying how little she was trying recently. Onilin also has been steadily getting politer for some reason. I was a bit annoyed by that fact, but I was not sure how to approach the topic. As we were continuing to fly towards Elijiah, the weather finally was taking a turn for the better. Ikol had been inconsolable the night it rained on us in the middle of the plains. I tried making a <Light Barrier> around us to keep Ikol dry, but Lords forbid he could hear and see the rain so close to touching him. I had to order Zagzin and Onilin to make a wing shield over us to try and get Ikol to sleep.

These plains seemed almost endless. I kept checking our position with <Cartographic Projection> and <Waypoint Compass> to see if we were closing in on the Aethrus Desert. There's so much distance to go, are you kidding me? We were taking a relatively straight line towards there, but Phestia was simply that large. I imagined if I could get Miril's light speed down it wouldn't take that long, but I could not control it whatsoever. One step and I detonated a tree. I tried in our down time when we were pausing to eat to learn how to properly move that fast; part of me wanted to understand how the excessive speed turned to such devastating impacts. That nerd Nil probably knows the exact answer. From my understanding it was more speed caused more damage from the final impact. For now, I needed to get the <Technique> down because I was imagining it was one of Miril's best. As cruel as she is, Miril is undeniably strong.

"Lux, Vndrglz is nearby. Do you want to fight him?" Onilin chimed as we were traveling along. I could use a new sparring partner.

"Let's go. That sounds fun." I agreed. Zagzin gave his sister some side eye at that. Interesting.

"What is that expression, Zagzin?" I inquired while he deflected his gaze.

"Vndrglz is fairly strong." Zagzin informed me. Even better. Ikol looked a bit dismayed.

"He's mean." Ikol grumbled as he slumped on Zagzin. Vndrglz was getting beat for sure, as Ikol looked fairly upset at the mere mention of him.

"Is he related to or the same kind of <Spirit Beast> as Zzhyndsplrt?" I probed. I was curious as I wanted to know what that King was like.

"Same kind; they are both <Gnortis Anfau>." Onilin told me. I wish I knew what that was, but I had never heard of or seen one before.

"I see." I quipped as Onilin began banking towards the left.

Soon enough as we flew over the plains, I could see Vndrglz after a few moments. So that was what a <Gnortis Anfau> was. It was some kind of insect with massive front pincers, large jaws in front of his face, two segmented tails with barbed tails, six legs, four eyes, and his entire body was covered in a thick, armor like carapace. His main body was oval shaped with massive plates on top with more plates beneath. Off of first glance, I'd imagine he is quite sturdy. Now that we were approaching, Vndrglz had an inner set of jaws that looked more suited to eating. Vndrglz rotated faster than I expected to face us approaching. Overall, his demeanor seemed unbothered by the fact we were approaching.

"Onilin, Zagzin, and the moron." Vndrglz chimed. His voice sounded like rocks grinding against each other.

"Square up bug brain." I snapped as I leapt off Onilin.

"Why should I spar you?" Vndrglz taunted, clearly looking down on me. I'm going to relish this.

"Because you insulted my premier musclehead. Ikol is my friend, and I am going to teach you respect." I snarled at him. That and I really want to see how strong you are.

"That is hardly a reason, and I highly doubt it." Vndrglz retorted with what I imagined was a shiza eating grin.

"I do not care if you believe me or not, in ten seconds I am going to start attacking." I explained to him as I stretched a bit.

"Sending her first, really Onilin?" Vndrglz mocked us. I was going to absolutely enjoy beating this bug.

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"No, she already beat me. You best get ready." Onilin shot back nonchalantly.

Vndrglz immediately straightened up a bit, clearly preparing his <Mana>. I guess that is enough for him to take this seriously on the off chance she's not lying. It was only fuel to the fire of my irritation. After ten seconds, I began my assault. I did a testing swing, seeing just how hard his outer shell was. Oh yea, his armor is sturdy. Vndrglz chuckled as he unleashed several spikes made out of darkness. <Magic> similar to Nez, that was good for me; I shot back to easily get out of range of his <Spell>. I used Miril's speed <Technique> to launch into a kick at Vndrglz while I engaged two halos to sturdy my body from the sheer force of the impact. Vndrglz staggered back as massive cracks went through the front pincer I slammed into.

I summoned several <Light Lances>, launching them consecutively at the cracks I just made. Vndrglz realized he needed to take this more seriously as his body <Mana Reinforcement> got substantially more thorough. Too little too late. I went into the half form again, forming several needles that I slammed into a few spots in the crack I made, causing Vndrglz to growl in pain as his pincer began violently twitching against his will. I changed which halo I was engaging, combining it with <Light Screen> to get under Vndrglz. I landed on my back, placed both back paws on him, and engaged the thorns halo to launch Vndrglz into the air. My muscles screamed from the exertion as Vndrglz was much heavier than I anticipated. I immediately cast <Burning Star> directly at him while spamming <Light Burst> to dissolve all nearby shadows so Vndrglz couldn't melt away. I know how to deal with that nonsense thanks to Nez.

Vndrglz rotated in the air, launching a <Shadow Wave> at <Burning Star>, shock going across his face as <Burning Star> went right through. Such inferior <Magic>. I used <Light Blade> to summon a spear, using Miril's <Technique> to throw it at Vndrglz. Unlike with Onilin, I didn't dull the tip so it could pierce as effectively as possible. The spear slammed into Vndrglz with a sickening cracking sound right before <Burning Star> made him scream. I realized he wasn't done yet, so I summoned another spear, coating it with <Aqueous Formation> like how I made <Channel Disruptor>, and launched it with Miril speed again. Vndrglz barely put a <Dark Shield> once he saw me make the spear, which it went right through and a fountain of blood erupted from my attack where it connected. I ran up into the air, grabbing the bug, and went to throw him back to the ground as I reinforced my body as much as I could with <Mana>.

"I concede!" Vndrglz roared quickly as I was already rotating.

"What?!" I asked as I finished throwing him straight down.

I let up on the amount of force behind the throw at least. Vndrglz flew towards the ground, slamming into it with a massive plume of dust. I undid <Air Step> and landed in front of him. His <Mana> was going haywire from my attacks and numerous plates of his carapace were severely cracked. That was disappointingly easy. I was expecting more than that given the description was fairly strong. I glared at Zagzin, before sighing while shaking my head. Why should I expect a weakling to have a valuable opinion? Ikol ecstatically ran to my side, nuzzling me happily. You are ruining my image. I didn't swat him though because I did not want to discourage him blindly worshiping me. Blind worship is always important.

"Thanks Chef!" Ikol chimed happily, doing his happy little trot next to me.

"You could have done that; he's not that strong. For future reference, Zagzin, refer to someone this weak as strong again and I will punish you. Do not insult me like this." I retorted while debating if I wanted to attack Zagzin for this.

"Sorry Chef." Zagzin apologized with an expression like he was freaking out.

Vndrglz clearly wanted to protest but was struggling to heal the wounds I inflicted. How is he so slow at healing? Was this how bad I was when I arrived at Phestia? No wonder Miril was such a vicious teacher if that's true. I noticed there was fish at my feet, with Ikol giving me massive pouty eyes. Why was he looking like that? Where did the fish come from? I looked between the fish and him, trying to grasp where the forl it came from, or why he randomly put it in front of me.What was Ikol trying to say with the fish? What was the point of the fish?

"Why is there a fish in front of me?" I inquired as I tried to keep my voice level.

"You look gre gre so I pulled one out of the eme eme stash." Ikol explained. He had an eme eme stash of fish?!

"You have been hiding fish from me?" I snarled at him. Ikol used his paws to lift the fish up, presenting it to me like a fine platter while giving me his pouting eyes.

"When we were near water I caught a couple extra just in case." Ikol confessed, still looking at me sheepishly.

"Where did you even store them?!" I roared at him. I could have been eating fish instead of vole this entire time?! Unacceptable.

"The ring Ni-" Ikol began before I shot my paw over his mouth to shut him up. Of course, Nil gave him a <Storage Ring>; we couldn't bring previously caught food, but we can store food we catch on the <Journey>. That also meant he had an extremely finite number of fish to give me. I sighed before adjusting my paw to patting his head.

"Good thinking Ikol. I'm sorry I got mad at you, I just thought there was more fish. That was wrong of me because I know you wouldn't have had time to catch more." I apologized. Onilin and Zagzin perked up at the mention of Nil. Onilin was clearly thinking of how to phrase the question. Nosy Bezka. I cut the head off the fish and gave it to Ikol as part of my apology. His face lit up as he ate the eyes.

"Who is Ni?" Onilin inquired. I was not answering that question.

"No idea." I lied while staring at her. Onilin looked at Ikol, who simply chewed on the head while keeping his eyes straight forward. Good musclehead. I pat his head for keeping silent.

"You have no intention of telling us who this mystery being is, do you?" Onilin sighed, looking disappointed at my answer.

"I am not sure who you are even referring to." I added on, glaring at her a bit.

"Come on, just a hint?" Onilin begged as she clearly wanted to know.

"Fine, I'll give you a hint. He's not on Phestia." I told her with a gleeful smile; she looked perplexed by that hint. Vndrglz was still moaning and writhing as he was healing.

"I'll take it." Onilin conceded, looking like she was thinking something over. Part of me was curious as to what, but I wouldn't pry as I began enjoying my fish.

"Stop that racket, you're ruining my snack." I snapped at Vndrglz, who begrudgingly went silent. I am such a generous leader.