DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN NOW READ THREE TO SIX CHAPTERS AHEAD. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE LINK.
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«Individual Frey has successfully fulfilled the conditions required for the Harvest Festival.
Confirming completion of the evolution sequence.
Commencing reconstruction of body, soul, and spiritual information.
...
Evolution complete.
Individual has successfully evolved from Harpy Queen into Divine Species: Astral Soul Divine Bird.
Confirming successful assimilation of foreign spiritual factors.
Angelic essence...
Archangel-class soul fragments...
Spiritron cores...
Holy energy...
Otherworld souls...
Incompati...
<
...
No rejection detected.
Spiritual compatibility exceeds expected parameters.
Commencing integration.
The subject's spiritual body has accepted all foreign factors and refined them into a higher-order existence.
Divine authority established.
Individual has acquired the qualification of a Divine Spiritual Lifeform.
...
Beginning Skill Evolution.
Unique Skill Reflector has satisfied the conditions for Ultimate Evolution.
Commencing evolution.
...
Evolution successful.
Unique Skill Reflector has evolved into
Ultimate Skill — ||Kokabiel: Lord of Mirrors||.
Processing authorities...
Reflection Authority acquired.
Echo Authority acquired.
Spatial Reflection Authority acquired.
Soul Reflection Authority acquired.
Mirror Domain established.
Mirror Storage established.
...
Confirming foreign Skills.
Unique Skill Leader detected.
Unique Skill Follower detected.
Both Skills originate from assimilated angelic factors.
Compatibility confirmed.
Commencing synthesis.
...
Synthesis successful.
Unique Skills Leader and Follower have fused.
New authority established beneath Ultimate Skill Lord of Mirrors.
Mirror Dominion acquired.
All acknowledged subordinates may now be linked through mirrored spiritual pathways.
Synchronization possible.
Sensory sharing possible.
Magicule redistribution possible.
...
Intrinsic abilities are being reconstructed.
Mana Jamming has evolved.
Celestial Eye has evolved.
Mana Perception has evolved.
Spatial affinity has increased dramatically.
Holy-element compatibility established.
Wind-element affinity greatly enhanced.
Astral flight capability unlocked.
...
Physical Attack Nullification acquired.
Natural Effects Nullification acquired.
Abnormal Condition Nullification acquired.
Spiritual Attack Resistance has evolved into Spiritual Attack Nullification.
Holy-Demonic Attack Resistance acquired.
Spatial Interference Resistance acquired.
Pain Nullification acquired.
Mental Interference Resistance has evolved into Mental Attack Nullification.
Magic Resistance has evolved into Magic Nullification.
...
Individual combat art Garuda Claw has evolved.
Divine pressure incorporated.
Spatial severance incorporated.
...
Individual combat art Harpy's Waltz has evolved.
Spatial acceleration incorporated.
Mirror-step incorporated.
...
Spatial Magic aptitude has reached the Divine Domain.
Warp Portal efficiency increased.
Spatial stability increased.
...
Confirming Gifts distributed to acknowledged subordinates.
Evolution of named retainers proceeding normally.
...
Harvest Festival complete.
Individual Frey has awakened as a True Demon Lord.
Designation updated: Divine Species — Astral Soul Divine Bird.
Ultimate Skill — Kokabiel: Lord of Mirrors.
Evolution successful.»
[xxx]
Frey opened her eyes, revealing irises saturated with starry lights and dancing auroras that shifted through countless colors, as though entire polar skies had been imprisoned within them.
For several long moments, she simply stared upward. The stone ceiling above her looked... The same yet different.
She could see every crack carved into the rock. Every grain of dust drifting lazily through the air. Every faint current of magicules flowing through the room like invisible rivers.
She blinked, and the countless streams of information vanished.
"..."
Then returned the instant she opened them again.
Her breathing slowed. "I..." Her voice sounded much different. Almost... resonant.
She slowly raised a hand before her face. The skin looked almost translucent beneath the room's light.
Tiny silver-blue particles drifted lazily around her fingers before disappearing into space itself.
"...Beautiful."
The word escaped before she realized she had spoken it.
Everything felt beautiful. The world itself had become breathtaking. She could hear the wind outside.
Every movement of air across the skies surrounding the palace.
Her awareness continued expanding.
Past the bedroom. Past the palace. Past the capital itself. Thousands... Hundreds of thousands... Millions...
Every bird flying across her nation appeared within her perception like stars illuminating a night sky.
Without consciously trying, she could hear them, feel them, understand them.
A hatchling taking its first flight. A scout returning from patrol. A mother feeding her young.
Each emotion reached her through invisible pathways stretching across the skies.
"...They're all..." Safe. The realization brought an unfamiliar warmth to her chest.
Then something else entered her awareness. A somewhat second network.
Unlike the countless birds connected through instinct, this one was deliberate. Elegantly and perfectly ordered.
Silver mirrors appeared one after another throughout her perception, each reflecting another before stretching infinitely into the distance.
They were all connected.
Each connection glowed like polished silver threads woven into an enormous web centered upon herself.
She reached toward one of the mirrored connections almost absentmindedly.
Instantly, her vision changed. She was no longer looking through her own eyes.
Instead... She found herself seeing through one of her aerial commanders soaring high above Fulbrosia's western cliffs.
Clouds drifted peacefully beneath them.
The commander blinked in confusion. "My Queen...?"
Frey immediately withdrew, and her own vision returned.
She slowly closed her eyes. "...".The overwhelming flood of information gradually settled.
Only then did she become aware of another presence. Someone had been watching her this entire time.
Frey slowly turned her head.
Kaede remained seated quietly beside the bed, her wine glass resting untouched upon the nearby table.
She had clearly witnessed everything. "...You look like you were enjoying yourself." A gentle smile appeared on Kaede's face.
Frey blinked, then felt the sudden urge to smile. Like she was filled with a wondrous emotion of... content.
"...How long did it take?"
"One moment." Kaede placed an item on the table before walking toward the bedside. "You've been asleep for a little over two days."
"...Two..." Frey looked down at herself. "I don't feel tired."
"I'd be more concerned if you did." Kaede chuckled softly. "You've just become a True Demon Lord. But tell me, how are you feeling?"
Frey exhaled, the feeling in her eyes returning as she viewed the world once again through celestial eyes. "It's hard to quantify actually. I will say I've never felt more fulfilled."
"Hmmn. Fulfilled huh?" Kaede tilted her head. "That's just the high speaking then. Your body really adapted to the archangel's essence."
"You can tell." Frey didn't sound surprised.
Kaede shrugged. "I do have something similar remember? Although, I don't have the drifting feathers."
"Feathers?" Frey looked at her wings, and surely enough, surrounding her wings were tiny single feathers that appeared and disappeared as if surfacing in a lake and then submerging again. The feathers themselves were somewhat translucent with incandescent light.
That... looked incredibly troublesome. Over the top for one, and she wasn't exactly sure what they did.
She willed them away, and they simply stopped appearing, although she felt a ripple somewhere in her psyche.
She would have to keep a note on that. She cautiously took a single step.
The ripple appeared in her psyche again. Before she could wonder what it meant, she felt a lurching sensation.
Instead of walking a single pace... She appeared three meters away.
"...Eh?"
Frey stared blankly at the place she'd originally been standing, through the hole in the wall she had made after apparently going through it.
Kaede covered her mouth. Then... She burst into laughter. "Hahahaha..."
Frey's cheeks immediately flushed. "Oh, get over yourself."
"Sorry, sorry." Kaede placed a hand over her stomach, still trying to suppress her laughter. "You just remind me so much of myself when I was younger."
Frey regarded her with an utterly flat expression. "You arrived in this world barely four years ago."
Kaede brushed a tear from the corner of her eye with exaggerated dignity. "I was very young back then."
Frey let out the faintest sigh, choosing not to indulge the absurdity of that statement any further. "I can already sense my harpies beginning to awaken," she said, turning toward the doorway. "I should see to them."
She paused, glancing back over her shoulder. "As for you..." Her head tilted ever so slightly, uncannily mirroring Kaede's own habitual gesture. "You would do well to remain here."
Kaede blinked. "...Huh?"
Slam.
The door closed behind Frey.
She continued down the corridor at an unhurried pace, her footsteps light against the polished stone.
Only then did she realize that, through the ragged opening she had left in the wall, Kaede's curious gaze still followed her.
"..."
Frey's attention settled upon the damaged wall. She merely entertained the thought of repairing it.
In the next instant, the fractured edges shimmered like polished crystal. Countless prismatic reflections rippled across the broken stone before folding inward upon themselves.
The wall reformed seamlessly. Not a single crack remained. It was as though the damage had never existed.
Frey's aurora-like eyes widened by the smallest fraction. "...Interesting." Her fingertips lightly brushed the restored surface.
"So this is another application of Mirror Dominion..." she murmured, a faint note of fascination entering her otherwise composed voice. "How wonderfully versatile."
[xxx]
The Golden Calamity.
The Yellow Catastrophe.
The Starfall Demon.
The Primordial Yellow.
Jaune.
They were but a handful of the titles once spoken in fear and reverence whenever the dead-eyed, blonde-haired young woman appeared.
Now...
That same legendary Primordial Demon was lying face-first across a wooden desk, letting out a long, pitiful groan.
"Make it end..." she whimpered, her voice muffled against the tabletop. "I don't want to stay here anymore. I'll do anything."
"Ah, Jaune's crying again."
"That's the second time this morning, isn't it?"
"Poor kid."
Jaune wasn't alone.
She currently occupied one of many mock offices arranged throughout a spacious bullpen, each workstation separated by neat partitions to resemble a proper office environment.
Around her, the other temporary occupants continued with their own work, occasionally glancing toward the dejected Primordial before quietly returning to their tasks, as though this had already become an entirely ordinary part of the day.
And it had.
For the last three days, to be exact.
After arriving in Maple Tree, eager to meet her new master, Lady Kaede, Jaune had instead been informed that the Lady Empress was currently outside the country.
She hadn't minded.
After spending several dozen centuries without a physical body, waiting another few days was hardly an inconvenience.
The first day had actually been rather enjoyable.
She wandered through the capital, taking in sights unlike anything she had expected from a nation ruled by monsters. She sampled unfamiliar dishes, explored bustling streets, and, for perhaps the first time in centuries, spent an entire day without leveling a city or provoking someone into a fight.
It had been... pleasant. Then someone handed her a bill.
Jaune had discovered, quite abruptly, that she was completely broke.
The situation had escalated with astonishing speed.
Within minutes, she had been arrested by Root, Maple Tree's law enforcement organization, a force composed primarily of Tengu under the command of a human.
Naturally, Jaune hadn't taken that particularly well.
She was a Primordial Demon.
Kingdoms trembled at the mere mention of her existence. Entire civilizations had lived in fear of her whims.
There was no conceivable universe in which she would quietly accept being arrested over an unpaid meal.
She had voiced that opinion.
Repeatedly. Very loudly.
...It had not ended well.
That was the day she met one of Lady Kaede's daughters.
Ari.
By the end of her very first night in Maple Tree, Jaune had been beaten to within an inch of her life.
Had Kanade not intervened, quite literally bailing her out, she was fairly certain she would still be occupying a prison cell.
It was only afterward that everything had been explained to her.
The moment she had promised to serve Kanade upon losing their duel, she had effectively become a citizen of Maple Tree.
She wasn't a guest. She wasn't a visiting dignitary. She wasn't even being treated as a defeated enemy.
She was simply... another citizen. Which meant the same laws applied to her as everyone else.
Including paying for her meals. And having a job.
After discussing the matter with an unusually sleepy Harpy, who somehow managed to conduct an entire conversation while looking on the verge of falling asleep, Jaune had been informed that she would be appointed as one of Maple Tree's commanders.
The reasoning was simple enough.
She already had nearly two hundred demons under her command, all waiting to be fully manifested.
However... Before she could officially assume the position, she first had to gain "experience."
Specifically... Experience with paperwork.
And so, despite being one of the oldest and most feared demons in existence...
Jaune now found herself attending a professional induction programme.
Jaune let out another long, defeated groan before slowly lifting her face from the desk just enough to stare blankly ahead. "...I miss destroying kingdoms."
A few nearby trainees quietly pretended they hadn't heard that.
Just then, the sharp ring of a bell echoed throughout the bullpen.
Ding.
Conversations ceased almost immediately.
One by one, everyone straightened in their seats.
At the front of the room, a neatly dressed goblina adjusted the stack of documents in her hands before offering the class a pleasant smile.
"Good morning, everyone."
"My name is Miss Sera, and I'll be serving as your instructor for today's session."
She glanced around the room, making sure everyone's attention was on her.
"Welcome to Day Four of the Maple Tree Command Staff Professional Induction Programme."
Jaune's soul nearly left her body.
"Today..." Sera continued brightly, "we'll be covering reimbursement requests, departmental budgeting, procurement procedures, and the proper filing of operational expense reports."
She turned toward the large board behind her and, with practiced efficiency, wrote the day's topic across it in elegant lettering.
Module One: Administrative Documentation and Expense Reporting.
"..."
Jaune stared at the words.
Then slowly lowered her forehead back onto the desk.
"...Kanade."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"...Please come save me."