I just want to warn you guys that this fiction will contain sensitive topics, so read at your own discretion.
She was useless.
It was a fact that had been hammered into her so many times in her life.
Ever since she was a kid, she already knew how worthless she was. The only thing she could do to contribute to her family was help around the house. Not an equal exchange to the money that had been poured into her.
Both of her parents had died when she was still a bronze-rank adventurer, so she couldn’t even pay back the debt that she owed them. Even though almost all of the money she’d earned back then went to her parents, it barely made a dent in what she owed.
Bronze-rank adventurers made decent money, but she was only an adventurer for two years before her parents died. It just wasn’t enough time.
Eighteen years of taking care of a human being since they were a baby took a lot of money. Not to mention the stress and effort of taking care of one.
Right after she became an adventurer, her dad told her how much she owed him, and she had only paid off 1,57% of it before both of her parents were executed.
She didn’t remember why they were sentenced to death, she only remembered that it was her fault.
When she didn’t know what to do with her life, she found them. The ones who had given her purpose when she didn’t have any. Her saviors, her reasoned to live. They were her first team.
They always helped her when she needed it, but when they needed her, she failed them. All of them died while she ran like a coward.
She didn’t remember their names, how many they were, their genders, or even their species. The Ring of Emotion helped with that. It was, in her opinion, the ring's best function.
In the past, the only way she could forget the painful memories was by drinking a lot of alcohol. But ever since she’d gotten the ring, she hadn’t even taken a sip of alcohol. The pain in her chest was all but gone.
However, that didn’t mean she forgot what her team’s dream was. Killing the Demon King.
It was impossible for her to achieve that no matter what she did, that was why she agreed with Garron’s plan even though she knew that it would turn her into a demon.
Aria was not delusional like Garron. She knew both of them had turned into a demon, fated never to reincarnate again. But she didn’t care. Turning into a demon would help her achieve her goal.
Before a new Demon King arrived, she planned for Garron and herself to die at Victor’s hand. A Demon Lord was the reason why her team died, no way she would help them in any way. It would also help Victor grow when they didn’t have anything more to teach him.
It was still a long way to go before that could happen. Because even if Victor had a chance of killing them in a fair fight, she still had a lot of things to teach him. Victor didn’t scream anymore or even let out a noise when she pulled out his nails, but he still cried when she got serious in torturing him.
A demon was always cruel, and even though she had trained Victor to endure pain ever since he was a kid, it was still not enough. Victor would die fighting the first demon that wasn’t them.
She wouldn’t let that happen; Victor had to kill the Demon King. There wasn’t enough time to create another child and give them the resources they needed to become strong.
Almost all of her resources were already depleted, and it would take time to gather more coins without being discovered as a demon. Not to mention that her next child could also be a failure, like her first few.
They were a failure, just like her, and that was why she erased any memories she had of them.
Victor was different. To say he was talented or a genius would be an understatement.
Aria didn’t say that because Victor was her child and her last hope—she wouldn’t let emotions get in the way of her team’s dream. Victor was genuinely the most talented person she had ever seen.
Victor was only nineteen and he was already as strong as a gold-rank adventurer.
It was normal for a person to be an adventurer their whole life and never achieve that level of strength. They either always played it safe and never leveled, or they died before achieving anything worthwhile.
Only a few managed to survive and become a gold-rank adventurer. But that didn’t mean Victor could easily kill a Demon Lord, even if he trained for fifty years.
Before The Calamity happened, Garron had been a brave man. But after meeting a Demon Lord, he changed.
It was normal, even expected. The magic and Skills that demons had were different from those of people. If you didn’t have a strong mind, it would be impossible to kill a Demon Lord.
That was why she had to make sure Victor was ready for what was to come, because if he failed to meet her expectations, her team's dream would die alongside him.
She would do everything she could to not let that happen.
Looking at the group of adventurers that just arrived, she felt that her entire plan was about to come crashing down.
The halfling, [Scout], [Warrior], and the kid were no threat to her. Aria couldn’t tell what type of Class the kid had, but [Sense Threat] told her the boy was no threat to her.
The bull was a concern; it had grown fifty percent stronger since Victor had carried it back from the forest. The halfling probably had something to do with it. It was definitely the work of a Skill, most likely a capstone Skill.
In a straight-up fight, she didn’t like her chances of winning against the bull, but that wasn’t what concerned her right now. She was no [Warrior]; she was a [Cautious Assassin]. Direct combat was not her specialty. If she wanted to, she could easily kill the bull.
What worried her was the human man carrying what seemed to be an ordinary-looking spear. He was strong; she wasn’t sure she could kill him even if she had a month to prepare, let alone right now.
There was no doubt in her mind that she and Garron would lose even if they fought together.
She didn’t even know what Class he had or his fighting style. The puppets she had placed to kill anyone coming toward the village had all been destroyed. She hadn’t even gained any information from them, because none of her subordinates had witnessed the fight.
It was foolish to kill everyone who wanted to come to the village; that would invite [Investigator] to come knocking at her doorstep. She was just short on manpower at the moment. Victor had killed almost all of her subordinates in the last few days. Hence the puppets.
Aria couldn’t stop Victor not because he killed them quietly, it was the opposite in fact. Victor had killed them out in the open, forcing her to clean up his mess and make sure that no one remembered what Victor did or report on his murder.
Most of the people in this village weren’t completely under her control, after all.
By the time she called her subordinates back to her house, only four remained, making her eyes and ears compromised at the moment. That was why she wasn’t aware of this group of adventurers until it was too late.
I could feel the miasma poison in their body slowly disappearing. A slow-acting cure, how annoying.
If the effect was immediate, she could just poison them again when she got the chance. But it won’t work if it was a slow-acting one. Because the cure would grant them at least some resistance, and it could even give them complete immunity.
The only way she could kill them with the miasma poison she created was by poisoning them again as soon as possible. But she wasn’t sure she could do that without being found out. The trick with the puppet wouldn’t work again, because they would be more careful going forward.
Assuming your opponent was stupid was a dumb move. Besides, she was almost spotted by the spear-wielding man when she was following them.
The risk was too high, and she didn’t even know if the poison would kill them or not. No, the only plan she could think of that was safe was slowly contaminating their mind until their thoughts and emotions were completely under her control, or to put it more simply, curse them. She just had to make sure they didn’t report anything or leave the village until that happened.
I could take the entire village hostage, but that wouldn’t prevent them from finding me or Garron out. Unless…
Aria was sure that they didn’t know the number of demons that were in the village. If she made them think that there was only one demon and made Garron and the spear-wielding man fight, then it would make them think there wasn't any demon left.
She would then fabricate a curse: if they tried to tell anyone anything or leave the village, people would start to die one by one. It would be easy to fool them. She could just erase the villagers' minds one by one to sell the lie.
They would try to find a way to break the curse, and that would give her enough time to bring them completely under her control.
Aria wasn’t worried that they could break the real curse. It was just impossible.
Only a [Healer] above level fifty would have a chance to do it, and she was sure that none of them were a [Healer]. Even if they had a really, really good potion, there was no way they had more than one potion that could break the curse.
The only complication to her plan was Victor.
She didn’t know what he was planning, and there was no way he didn’t have a plan. The adventurers were definitely not part of it because even she didn’t know that they would be coming.
The adventurers were just bad luck, nothing else.
So, Aria left them alone and went into the forest to capture Victor. She didn’t order her subordinates to watch over the adventurers, because she knew that they would immediately get found out.
It was easy locating Victor. She had [Locate Purpose], after all.
Even though she blocked out any thought of escaping from Victor’s mind, the Skill was still useful. It made it easy to spy on Victor and prevent him from doing a sneak attack on her.
Aria found Victor sitting on a rock, seemingly waiting for her.
It was suspicious, but she didn’t sense any trap or anything weird around here.
“Finally, I was getting bored waiting, doing nothing.”
She was startled; Victor had been able to sense her the moment she arrived.
But he didn’t see me. [Diminishing Presence] still activated.
The Skill made her harder and harder to detect the longer she was watching her target. If someone saw her, the Skill would break, and she would have to wait a full day before she could activate it again.
That was why she didn’t immediately attack Victor. The longer Victor didn’t see her, the bigger her advantage was.
“You must be wondering how I sensed you were here the moment you arrived.”
Victor got off the rock and started looking around.
Why is he talking? Is he trying to buy time? Why?
She never told anyone about any of her Skills. If she had, Victor definitely wouldn’t waste time talking, but it was still suspicious.
“You probably didn’t know this, but mana reacts differently when a demon or a piece of shit is nearby.”
He could see mana?
It was not unprecedented. But it was something a [Mage] got when they reached level fifty.
She was sure Victor was not that high-level and there was no way Victor would have an item that could let him see mana. Which left only one possibility: Victor had made a contract with a spirit.
The halfling probably told him how to do it.
That was still a mystery to her, how someone who had so little mana and didn’t know any spell could make a contract with a spirit. But honestly, she didn’t really care. She had no interest in spirit.
“Thank you for cleaning up my mess. You even buried them, how kind. Though you probably do it because ghosts are annoying.”
Victor’s voice was relaxed, and he hadn’t even pulled out his weapon yet. But Aria was no fool; she knew Victor was just pretending. There was no way Victor didn’t know what she came here for.
“Still not speaking? I’m hurt, truly. What kind of mother stays silent when she’s about to kidnap her own son?”
A tear fell from Victor’s eye and he clutched his chest, expression pitiful.
“What are you planning?”
Her voice came from everywhere all at once, so Victor wouldn't be able to locate her.
“This.”
A knife appeared in Victor’s hand, and he grinned, the sad expression completely gone from his face.
“You know I thought for a long time about how to make you suffer. Killing you? Torture? No, that would probably make you happy. Then it came to me, it was so simple. I’m such a fool for not thinking of this sooner.”
Before she could do anything, Victor stabbed himself in the heart.
“VICTOR!”
Aria immediately appeared in front of Victor, a healing potion in hand. But before she could pour it into the wound, [Dodge Lethal Blow] activated and she backed away.
Her instinct kicked in and she ran away, then after a second, she finally realized how foolish she was and went back to where Victor was.
Victor was now on the ground, his blood spilling onto the ground.
“[Time Dilation].”
It was her level fifty Skill, her strongest Skill, which accelerated her personal time.
The Skill had a cooldown of one day, but she didn’t even hesitate to use it. There was only one thing in her mind, saving Victor.
She turned Victor around, and immediately poured the healing potion into his mouth and into his wound. Then she checked if Victor was still breathing, and thankfully, he was.
[Time Dilation] had already ended, but she didn’t even realize when that happened. Victor was alive, he would definitely be asleep for at least one day and feeling weak for a week. The greater the effect of a healing potion, the harder it was to mitigate the side effects.
However, it was beneficial to her. Her goal in coming here was to capture Victor, after all—
“Flashbang.”
There was a loud noise and a blinding flash of light, then she felt something hit her stomach, sending her flying. She didn’t take any damage from it, but one of her Artifacts broke.
[Illusions of Me].
At the same time, Aria turned invisible, teleported, and fifty identical copies of her suddenly appeared. But it was all for naught when she heard the voice in the distance.
“Bye, you piece of shit!”
Victor was running away, not attacking her.
Aria didn’t know how Victor could move around after drinking a high-quality healing potion, she also didn’t know how he could even think of escaping. However, it didn’t matter. She could think all of that later. Right now, she had to capture Victor before he escaped.
It was risky. A lot of her Skills were unusable now that she'd been seen and struck. But she couldn’t risk Victor escaping.
Following him from a distance and capturing him a day later would not work. Because even though she was faster than Victor, he had a lot more stamina than her. In one day, there would be a noticeable gap between them.
[Burst of Speed].
It only took a second for her to catch up, and even though she was currently invisible, she didn’t get close and attack him.
Aria pointed the Ring of Emotion at Victor and activated her level thirty capstone Skill of her second Class, [Mother of Borrowed Dream].
“[Inviolable Order]. Stop.”
Victor immediately stopped, but Aria still kept her distance.
It was obvious now that Victor was prepared for her, and she would be a fool if she thought that Victor didn’t prepare for this Skill.
She had no idea how Victor knew about any of her Skills. But it was safe to assume that he knew a lot of her Skills.
Aria threw a knife at each of Victor’s legs, and predictably, Victor dodged both of them.
“I guess doing the same trick twice won’t work, huh. Shame.”
“How?”
It should not be possible.
Even if Victor couldn’t hear the order, it didn’t matter. And she was sure she had fulfilled all the conditions of the Skill; she could feel it activating.
Is he able to resist it?
Fear ran through her.
If Victor was able to resist [Inviolable Order], then it was more than possible that her control over him was all but gone. That meant she could only rely on her [Cautious Assassin]Class.
Should I just run away?
She didn’t like her chance of winning.
“If you want to run away, go ahead. It didn’t matter either way. You would die one way or another.”
It was a stupid statement.
Even If she was at a severe disadvantage, there was still a good chance of her winning this fight. And even if Victor reported her, she could just run away.
So, it was either facing off against an [Investigator] or Victor. The former was much easier. Besides, dying by his hand was part of my plan, and my team’s dream would be ruined if I escaped.
Just as she was about to attack Victor and cut off all of his limbs, she could hear a lot of footsteps coming towards her.
“Finally noticed? Now that you are out in the open, did you think they wouldn’t sense a demon?”
Shit.
It had slipped her mind because she was always undetected, so they never bothered her.
Animals hate demons, and she was in the middle of a forest that contained multiple magical beasts.