I waited until all the newly hired bodyguards headed to the training room to test out the weapons they chose. Once I was sure nobody was left, I closed the door and locked.
I began gathering demonic energy over my skin and quickly transformed into the demonic form.
"So, let's see, be careful with that item; it's a feisty one," I warned the researchers as they brought me the axe artifact.
They had sealed it by wrapping it in layers upon layers of cloth and placed it in a separate wooden box.
Yo, long time no see.
The demon appeared once more; this time it took a different shape than usual. Usually he would appear in a much more bestial form, with scales all over his body, large arms that reached his feet, short legs, and the face of a lizard.
Right now he almost looked human; his skin was red, he still had his signature golden eyes, and he now had hair, brown hair, and a couple of long horns poking out of his forehead.
He was dressed in a black suit and was wearing a monocle on his left eye, all while holding a golden cane.
What's with this ridiculous getup? Why have you changed form all of a sudden? I liked you better when you looked like some ferocious beast.
I asked him.
I was thinking about it; I thought and thought about it until I felt like my head was bursting.
He answered as he kept pretending to adjust his gloves.
Get to the point.
I kept it short because I was still in the middle of working.
Well, you see, I am a demon; I have sentience and all.
Even his mannerisms had completely evolved; now he behaved in a much more theatrical way.
Stop dragging this; I have stuff to do.
Well, aren't these weapons my kids?
The world came to a stop for half a second. That sentence made the corners of my mouth curl up for how ridiculous it sounded.
Sorry, what?
I didn't know the demons even had a concept of family, especially since when I first met the dragon and the angel, the dragon was trying to eat the angel.
Think about it; when you humans make children, they're made of your flesh and bones, right?
It was a bit humorous seeing him trying to explain such a ridiculous concept.
It's a little more complicated than that.
I corrected him. I kept my answers short to get over with this discussion as soon as possible.
These children are also made of my flesh and bones.
The process is entirely different; moreover, these are your scales, not your flesh and bones.
I found it absurd that a demon was trying to pretend to be a parent all of a sudden.
Still, then I also granted them consciousness; wouldn't that be enough to view them as such?
I simply rolled my eyes back and began preparing my mind for the tasks I had at hand. Emptying my mind of most other thoughts to avoid distraction.
The demon kept floating around me in the meantime, happily humming. songs I had never heard before.
And what does that have to do with your new form?
Still, that curiosity lingered, so I asked in order to finally put it to rest.
I can't make them remember me as, like, a brute beast; I wanted some more class, more style. After all, every good father should leave a positive impact on their sons.
Those words left a strange feeling in my chest; I felt a sense of tightness.
What about the countless other failed artifacts we destroyed? Were they also your sons?
I asked, looking around the room.
Mhhh…
"Young master, is there something wrong?" One of the researchers asked.
I think I was an awful father; I was too immature to really understand what I was doing, so I'll try to make it up, at least when I can.
The demon said with a genuinely sorrowful look on his face, biting his lips and looking down without sparing a single glance at the many walls all around us, filled with weapons.
"Ah, sorry, I got distracted by something really dumb. Anyway, what were you all talking about?" I asked as I did my best to ignore the depressed demon heading to one of the corners of the room to cry.
What a fucking drama queen.
"No worries, we were talking about—" He was interrupted by the sound of the door suddenly opening.
"Luuuuca!" Suddenly, a very energetic voice yelled my name out loud in excitement.
That voice, don't tell me.
"I'm back!"
I had barely time to react that that was already in his arms; he was squeezing with all his might, then proceeded to lift me in one big swoop and parade me around like a pet.
"You're as cute as always; you haven't changed one bit." He said as he pulled me back into his arms, squeezing all the air out of my lungs.
Calm down; I'm not your plushie. And I have grown, a whole 2 centimeters in the last year.
Leo, in the meantime, had grown a lot; in just a few years, he had grown to almost double my height.
"So, how was your little tour in the fraction? " I asked once he finally weakened his grip on me.
"Amazing, you have no idea!" he replied.
"I came here as soon as I set foot back. I heard today you were meeting your bodyguards. Want to wait for them together?" He said as he finally put me down.
You're as energetic as you were when you departed; I'm glad to see that not much has changed.
"I met them a while ago—" Before I noticed, he was already gone, inspecting the weapon sealed in the wooden box.
"Ah, what's this, your new weapon? Do you mind if I try it first?" He asked, already holding the weapon in his hands.
When did you…
"Wait, no! Not this one; this is dangerous!" I tried to warn him, but he simply didn't bother listening and unwrapped the weapon.
The researchers tried to pull the weapon away from him, but they couldn't hope to ever match his speed; within a matter of seconds, he had already snatched the weapon and unwrapped it.
I saw the light in his eyes quickly fade away; his body quickly relaxed.
I felt my heart sink in my chest as it stopped beating; I immediately rushed over to his side to take the weapon away from his hands, hoping that he didn't suffer too much damage.
"Sit!" His voice suddenly echoed throughout the room.
A wave of energy was suddenly unleashed from the weapon he was holding. Blue flames appeared around it and spread around the whole room.
"Wow, I did hear about this in passing, but this is even wilder than anything I ever experienced." He recovered almost instantly; nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
He began testing the weapon almost immediately, swinging it around and unleashing blue flames all over the room with each swing.
"Are you okay? How do you feel? Please put that thing away; it's still incredibly dangerous." I asked as I tried taking the weapon away, but his grip was stronger than mine, and no matter how strong I pulled it, the weapon simply wouldn't budge.
The other researchers quickly scattered and pulled the fire extinguisher to kill the flames Leo had made.
"I didn't think the weapon would test me like this. Did you come up with that idea? That was genius." He said as he threw the weapon up in the air.
Test? Stop playing and give back the weapon, Leo!
As he let go of the weapon, it quickly melted away, and from its remains, a large beast emerged.
What the fuck is this? Since when did that weapon have the ability to—
All the researchers naturally fled as soon as they saw the massive lion appear where the weapon was. It had white fur with black stripes akin to a tiger, a mane made out of flames, and patches of white flames around its joints.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him.
"The test, obviously, the weapon brought me into a weird space, where it tried to eat me, and after beating it, it quickly turned obedient," he explained while petting the beast he had summoned from the weapon.
"I figured it was a test to find if I'm worthy or not, kind of like in those old fairytales." "He added while hugging the large beast.
"Was it not?" He asked when he saw my panicked reaction.
"No!" I yelled back at him.
"How did the space look?" While taking a pen out, I was ready to write down the details on the back of a nearby sheet of paper I found laying nearby.
"I had nothing special; it was just out in the open, in a green space, with no trees or forest in sight, just tall grass. The beast tried to attack me, and I responded in kind." He answered.
This is… so it was a mental battle of sorts?
"Barehanded?" I probed a little more, hoping to squeeze out more details.
"Yep." He was more dense than I expected and gave me a single-word answer.
I sighed in frustration.
Like, were you as strong as you are normally? Did you feel weaker? Try to collaborate more; my success depends on this!
"How did you beat it?" I asked again.
"How? Simple, I kept punching it until it almost died. Then I kept punching it until it finally released me from that weird space." He explained while showing me how he punched the beast.
That's… if you could do that. Why did so many of our testers die to this thing if beating it was so simple? And how did you even manifest its power that way? Does it mean that it took into account your physical strength? Because those testers are also trained; the only thing they lack is your overwhelming power…
I noted down that theory.
The beast must've been stronger than we thought, or they were weaker than… No, it's probably your cousin, the anomaly; he has an abnormally high willpower to the point it becomes frightening.
The angel chimed in, filling in the blanks. Unlike the demon, who had drastically changed his appearance, the angel didn't.
He still looked as majestic as ever, with long blond hair that could reach the ground from any height, blue eyes, fair skin, and a face so beautiful it would sway over even men.
Are you sure?
Either that or the image one has of oneself; since your cousin views himself as overwhelmingly powerful, then he naturally retains that strength in that imaginary space.
I'll write that down as well; it could be either way; it's not that hard to test it out.
It's crazy you went in and made something so dangerous without knowing if it would even work or how dangerous it could've been. You're a bit too reckless.
I'll fix it one day; right now finding out how this strange ability works takes priority.
He then generated an imaginary hammer to strike me on the forehead.
This is exactly what I'm talking about!
He yelled angrily.
The attack barely had any weight to it, so I simply ignored it.