Side Story: Demon world prisoner

Author’s note

The prisoner first appeared in ch647 and the item they’re using in ch705

In the woods, a ring of energy floated, unlike any other thing in that world or the universe beyond.

The descendant of a star race that had been forced to move to a terrestrial world by an ancient evil god, its species survival despite that one disaster had lost in the end to the next, leaving him alone, still there by virtue of his value as a trophy more than anything else.

Not that the fact that he had reached such a point hadn't been earned. When his home was invaded, he'd fought and fought, not stopping even as his allies fell one by one, not even stopping when there was no one else around him. He hadn't known he was the last at the time, but he did the only thing he could, honing his magic until the end.

An end that never came. When the fighting finished came the real challenge as he faced eternity, a solitude surrounded by strange beings each screaming in their madness as millennia passed, the temptation to fall into that same madness all too strong, only held off by the same thing that has kept him alive while the rest of his people had been slaughtered. Alone in his cell, he honed his magic, praying for the day he could use it to destroy the swarm he could see below.

With that day having come and gone too. He was freed, at least to an extent, even if that freedom hadn't come with security. A new world but the same danger, the same monsters that had slaughtered his last, with their sights set on it and the chance for him to claim their blood, along with power his own kin never dreamed of for themselves.

The holder of a ninth leveled high light magic, he'd only learned with his arrival that such a thing meant he was only a step from godhood and he was bound and determined to claim it. That was a power that could make a difference. If the skills he'd wielded so long ago hadn't been enough to save his world, then that level of power could at least be used to protect that new one, even if that new knowledge brought with it a different goal.

I have to live.

It wasn't like he particularly wanted to. Even if a time that felt akin to eternity hadn't left him mad, he most certainly had long lost his desire for life. Instead, what drove him to reach that goal was a sense of duty. His people and his god were both long dead. As the only one who could remember them, it was his responsibility to do so for as long as he was able, even if that meant doing it alone forever.

All of that leading to where he was. The staff of Yuhano, a mythic item clearly not made for beings like him floated in his core while others stood around to aid him in those deep woods, the coming sound of stomping feet telling them all that soon they’d face the arrival of one of those monstrous herds as he primed his spell, his mana directed at the staff and bringing with it a soft glow at the same time the first of those beasts could be spotted through the trees, waiting only a moment longer before he fired.

While normally the domain of healing and illusions, his light magic had been honed over untold ages and in his long imprisonment, tested on the only thing he had available, himself, to let him see the effects of his effort, with those same efforts now eating away at his former captors. Light condensed to pure energy and the force of the hundreds of beams he shot out ripped through the bodies of each demon, bringing their corpses to the ground as more behind them trampled their brethren, not able to comprehend what had happened in such a short time and understanding far too late to escape the same fate as more were slaughtered, with only the ones farthest back able to tell something was wrong and to turn heel to escape, leaving it a matter for that day’s companions to clean up.

While one clicked their tongue at the sight of him using the staff and another focused entirely on trying to help him grow stronger, it was the last that gave chase, the great light spirit he’d met when first being released onto that world showing a speed and strength that made his own efforts look like nothing in comparison as she vanished for only a second before reappearing, that time more than enough for her to end the job and left his attention on her when she did.

The staff he’d been given to use was special beyond compare, not only able to strengthen the effects of light magic but also help its wielder raise their skill with it and once more he couldn’t help but wish it could show that same level of value in her hands instead. As grateful as he was for the chance to grow beyond his limits, he valued the mass slaughter of the demons more and would have happily turned it over to her if not for the fact that spirits couldn’t grow. When the third wave came, if he didn’t cross the threshold then it would make the most sense to put it in her hands, but before that, it was his to use.

“Excellent reaction time, Vaughan,” Lux told him, the sound of his own name still feeling unnatural to him even after his months of freedom when it had been so long since anyone else had used it. “You’re continuing to refine your spells well, and every time I come to watch you’ve grown more. You should be optimistic about your prospects.”

“He should be grateful, if anything,” the man who clicked his tongue earlier grumbled, being ignored by the rest for how often that sentiment came from him and the rest of his people who would join their outings. A hominid body plan with unusually large ears, he was a member of the race who owned the staff of Yohano, sent to watch over Vaughan’s training after the rest of the gods of that world had finally pressured them into using such an incredible tool for the greater good, rather than trying to raise up their own weaker light mages. A fact that every member of the man’s church who showed up there when acting as a guard made clear they still weren’t happy with, even with the world at stake.

Not that Vaughan himself cared. Let the man grumble and let every other member of his species do the same. If that was the cost he had to pay to get stronger then he’d be happy to ignore every one of them while he practiced and he let his attention turn to the last of that small party as they went through the woods to find a more fertile training ground.

One who was destined for the same godhood he himself sought, with how valuable she was, he could only get a bit of the soul mage Yuzu’s time but when he did he needed to make sure he used it for all it was worth for the value she added to his training and he could feel her eyes on him as they moved, something clearly on her thoughts that he decided to address. Even if he preferred the silence after all of his time among the screaming demons and the mad, focusing on his preferences wouldn’t get him to his goals.

“Soul mage, is there something wrong?”

“Oh no, I’m just thinking about your progress. From what I can see, you're on the edge. You could cross over at any time.”

What went unsaid was that even being that close, he still might never cross beyond that final limit, but that truth had been stated more than enough by that point that nobody needed to say it again. It simply didn’t matter. The fact that she was sure that he had the potential to do it at any moment was of far more worth. If it was at all possible, then it just needed the right push.

Even if the right push has long since come and gone, he thought to himself, holding back a sigh. With every day here just a reminder of that fact.

As the only being on the world made of neither matter nor mana, no other living thing experienced it the way he did, but there wasn’t a single second there that the planet wasn’t screaming at him that it wasn’t his home. The taste of its sunlight was different from what had once beamed down on him, and the way the air moved through his core spoke of a gaseous mix alien to the life of his lost world. In the few moments he could escape his thoughts of what he’d lost and what goals his newfound freedom had brought, he even felt like he could feel the difference in that planet’s spin as it endlessly passed through the void.

Every part of it told him that he wasn’t home and that the fall of his world was his missed opportunity to pass a barrier he hadn’t even known existed at the time. That was when he had the power and energy, the righteous fury at seeing his people slaughtered and his planet killed. When the last of his days before his capture had been endless violence, first in the name of protecting his planet, then revenge, and then a simple survival that had kept him from even dreaming of the chance to rest.

No, it was somewhere in that madness that he should have awakened if he was going to, but no matter how he felt on the inside, his long imprisonment had worn away the bite of the loss. It was still felt, but after so many thousands of years, it was in a half-remembered state, and he didn’t yet care enough about that new world to well the same emotions he thought he needed.

The demons may have robbed me of my life, but time has robbed me of myself.

Still, he didn’t voice it. For all he’d lost, he still had the chance, and even if he couldn’t remember the desperation he’d felt back then, there were always ways to find more. If he was on the edge then he could throw himself into anything to get whatever bits of power he could.

Not that he could say it to the others around him. Even if he hadn’t reached their desired goal for him yet, he was still as valuable as a mortal could be, having hit the absolute limit that would let him still qualify as such. Any outing he’d be sent on to train would always be too safe in the end.

Which means I’ll need to go out to find my own bits of desperation, eventually.

Something the rest of the world wouldn’t want to allow but also couldn’t stop. He wasn’t a prisoner any longer, he could go wherever he wanted and if in the days when he wouldn’t have a soul mage or great spirit or even the staff he wielded around, he could test himself in the depths of those woods instead.

“You okay, Vaughan?” Yuzu asked, wearing a look he’d learned to recognize as concern. “You seem a bit spacey.”

“I’m fine,” he lied. “Just thinking about what I need to do next.”

Author’s note

Honestly not sure how I feel about this one. I tried to make it a bit introspective from the perspective of one of the two who’d been saved with the potential to become a third tier but in the end I’m not completely satisfied with the result. If you feel the same after reading it then I’m sorry and hopefully I’ll be able to give you something better next month