I have become Legion - 7 - Camio

A coin flew through the air.

Caught in the hands of the guardsman. Isn’t it the best? Just a few coins will make you seem so much less suspicious. And so I was let into the city. When I had gotten out of the Misty Forest, it was dark out. I don’t really need to sleep, so I’m not planning to. But also for my plans, I need to go buy a bunch of stuff.

Like for example clothes. Right now, I’m just wearing some really fancy clothes from Valac’s horde. But I don’t really like these. It’s annoying to move in. And generally uncomfortable.

“So you need to waste time for the night?“

Exactly my good buddy.

“How about Spartan?”

Still no luck on the names, though.

“So, what are you going to do?”

Well, can’t you see?

I can see.

I can also smell it.

It’s a sewer.

“But, why?”

Well… Quest has a lot of mechanics. One of these mechanics is that if certain things aren’t accomplished fast enough, some bad stuff happens.

“Ugh.”

This place really smells.

And I clear my mind for the thing I’m about to do.

You’re probably glad that you don’t have a nose—Left—No actually nevermind, that means you can’t even smell the food you eat—Right, no, Left again, Right actually—Do you even eat food—Right you eat emotions—Forward, but actually backwards and do a backflip—That’s sad.

“Slow down, please.”

Surf—Why—Get hit by a spear launcher—Sorry I can’t—I’ll be like a Minotaur—I need to do this—Right, Right, and Right again—for now—Explode!—Speedrun—Left, right, right, left, right, straight ahead, right, left, left—Break through the wall—Fall into a hole—Enemies!

“I’m getting a headache from your thoughts.”

Sorry about that—Jump—Just deal with it—Block, actually nevermind just take the hit—I need to be like this for a sec—Turn my head like an owl—It’ll be over soon—My head is dangling, so it’s scary—Since I’ll kill them all—One dead—Two dead—They’re quite weak—Tear one apart with magic—Then some more.

“How do you even do that?”

Just be fast—Decapitate—The reason I have to think fast right now is because of an annoying fucker who lives here—Seek death—He’s a mind reader so he’s probably reading my mind right now—The Labyrinth is almost over—Two more doors—Big slime.

Swim through—Fish for a core—Break—One more door—But it’s metal—I need an explosion—Magic—Condense enough magic power into a small enough point—Then let it burst—Listen to me you little shits—Do that!

Then breaking through that last door. I slow down my thoughts.

It was weird to do that.

But thankfully, it worked.

I see a black magic guy clutching his head in pain.

“How do you like it, guy? Shouldn’t pry into other people’s brains.”

He still tries to cast some magic, but I just shrug it off. Well, Black Magic deals with a lot of Curses, and I have [Curse Conquest]. So I just beat him to death with Bulwark.

So yeah, as I was saying before. Quest has a mechanic where if certain quests aren’t completed, bad shit happens. Well, this city here is going to be destroyed by this cult. They had this mind reader guy to warn them about intruders. So I had the funny idea. What if I just overwhelmed his mind? Wouldn’t that work? And I guess it did.

“I guess that makes sense, but my head also hurts.”

You don’t even have a head that can hurt. What the hell are you complaining about? Anyway, this is exciting. I never managed to infiltrate the cult without getting caught. Even if you max out stealth, that fucker is going to detect you. Well, I guess you could teleport in here, but by the time you get teleportation, this place would’ve already activated.

“So, you’re here to save the city?”

Uh I guess, but my primary goal is to get xp.

“Get what now?”

Experience Points, you know, when you kill someone, you become stronger.

“What?”

Well, there’re a lot of ways to get experience points. And experience points apply to different things. Like if you complete a quest, you get xp to your level and all your traits and abilities, but when you kill somebody, you get xp for whatever you used to kill that person. If it’s a class trait or ability, then you also get it as class xp.

It’s a pretty standard system, I think.

“So you’re saying that if you kill people, you grow stronger?”

Just a normal amount. Actually not. I’m in hell difficulty after all, so it’s much harder to gain levels. But still when there’s an xp farm like this, why not abuse it?

Right, did you notice how well I used my magic fighting against the goblins? Spatial distortion to rip apart a goblin was fun.

“You snapped your neck off and played by the sound of violence.“

Yeah?

“How the hell am I supposed to know what was going on, especially when you were flooding my mind with all kinds of thoughts.“

Right… You’re a little slow.

“I’m not slow! You’re just insanely fast.”

Just a little above average.

“You invented a magic system while running at your full in only a couple hours.“

I did do that, didn’t I?

Well yeah, It even shows up on my stat sheet.

Abberant Magic Genius — Class Trait [P-6]

A unique form of magic constructed from the ground up by an otherworldly genius.

—You gain access to arcane spell-casting.

—You can more easily identify, create, disrupt, and adapt magical spells.

Right. I need to get to the fight proper, right?

But I’m not really a big fan of stealth. So I just kick down the door. The primary place of the black mages is a circular antechamber with a table at the center. There’s a round staircase to the door I came jumping through. And yeah, the Black Magic guys are looking at me.

“Confused, aren’t you?”

This place is good for me. Why? Because this place has only one exit, and that’s a secret route just behind me. So these guys can’t leave till they kill me. Which is not possible.

A ball of fire is flung directly at my face and it sets it aflame. The pain of the flames is relentless, as it burns through each layer of my skin. I can’t breathe as the air that should reach my mouth is eaten up by the flames. But even though my nerves are being destroyed, they are also being restored equally fast. I could not escape from the pain. Thus I’d have to end it.

My magic power coalesces in my skull and with a massive blast my head bursts. And I die. It is an instant death, with only the briefest sensations of the most brutal pain. Still… I feel quite strange. Rather than feeling bad about the torment. It feels like I’m becoming something greater. And those guys who threw the fire at me. Well they…

“Hahahahahahahahha.”

Aren’t they cute little guys? A wide grin stretches out on my face. I am not sure what this sensation is. The world feels light, even all the heavy pain. It all feels light. I haven’t slept in such a long time, so I guess it could be that. But it doesn’t really matter.

Since.

“You fight against an immortal.”

You’re fucked.

Yeah, you’re fucked.

It’s gonna take you a while to realize it. Stubborn as you are. You keep giving me more and more pain. My body burns with your magic, and I let it. The pain has become something else to me. And eventually it will end. I can’t stop it, I can’t prevent it, I can’t fight against it. So I’ll just wait it out.

You’ll lose.

Because.

I’ll never lose.

===

The Heihn birds have been singing their songs. Many flowers are in bloom. The court is quite harmonious. There haven’t been many issues that warranted major attention. The populace is happy, and the treasury seems full. Soon it will be Akalaar’s festival and I can see the preparations already in full. It is the second most important festival of our great kingdom, after all.

But that is just the situation with the kingdom. I’ve followed your advice Teacher. I got assigned to the red knights. And as you said, there were many talents that had gotten curbed because of political issues. I’ve gotten them six promotions since Rynel. My father, the King even congratulated me.

But my brothers and sisters weren’t happy with this. They still calm me a half-blood. A bastard. And they plotted together. My father is sending me to the magic academy. Even though the red knights can teach me the basic self-defense techniques. They’re trying to make me into a knight rather than a member of the royal family.

What should I do, Teacher?

—Naresi Asiel.

The demon Camio smiled while reading the letter. It had only taken two years of giving information to the snake princess to get her to trust him. And now she was even asking him for advice. With this, he had gotten another chess piece for his great game.

In ten years’ time, when his king, the king of all demons, invades the world. He will have already caused the greatest political strife for all the ages. And humanity will have no defense against the host of demons. And so it would be that he should be rewarded for his effort. He might even be given a higher title.

Knock. Knock.

But when Camio was about to begin writing a reply, a knock sounded on the door. A frown appeared on his face. He had bribed out the owner of the inn so he wouldn’t be disturbed. Since Camio himself wasn’t powerful in combat, he decided to act in the background as a black hand.

He got up from his chair, turning into a human form. He took steps towards the door, but then.

Thunk!

An explosion pushed the door in.

Walking out from the smoke was a frail-looking man. He had a gladius. A terrifying smile adorned his face.

===

When I got out of the sewer

The sun had finally risen.

It was a beautiful day. Now that I thought about it, this world probably didn’t have seasons. Since Quest, the game didn’t have them. The developers said that it was too much effort to make them. So I wonder if that applies. This place at least looks and feels like it did in-game, so it’s either the same season as in-game, or that this world doesn’t have seasons.

“What is a season?”

And there I have my answer.

“No, nevermind.”

What? Aren’t you interested in learning more about the differences between our worlds.

“No, I have another thing on my mind…”

Then shoot.

“I shouldn’t be thinking like this, since I’m a demon, after all. But I think you might’ve gone a little too far back there.”

Well yeah. I had tortured those black mages a bunch. I don’t have a background in torture, so I just did what I remembered off the top of my head. One of them actually drowned.

“They had surrendered.”

Yeah, they had. After the first few died trying to get me, the rest gave up and surrendered. And after they surrendered… Well, I tortured them. Not for anything good, like getting information. Since I already know everything they might know. And honestly, I feel a little bad about it. But not that much. Those guys have done a lot of bad stuff, and even if I let them go, they would end up doing a lot more bad stuff. The torture I can do is quite light compared to even the most minor of their soul extraction rituals. So yeah, those guys deserved it. And the reason I actually did it, instead of just killing them… Well, Faith. The Calamitous Powers you get Faith when you do stuff that goes against morals.

And I kinda want more Faith so I can trick the Calamitous Powers for another Trait.

“I’ve been traveling for a while. Mind giving me the date?“

“Of course, sir. It is the 4th Zylar of Heihn.”

I was getting myself dressed up at this fancy place. They had a proper butler-like-guy who was measuring me. These guys are used to making all kinds of outfits. So I asked them to get me an outfit for basically everything. I’d need one for adventuring. I’d need one for going to sleep, even though I wouldn’t use that. One for formal parties. Also, classes once I get to the academy.

So yeah, this place is just straight up good like that. And also this place is really good on secrets. They’d lie to a paladin for me.

Oh, another interesting thing. He said 4th Zylar of Heihn. Since all the months have the same amount of weeks. The people in this world just say how many times that day has happened in this month. So it’s currently the 21st of Heihn. Though when they’re writing down dates, they usually just use the day number.

“Why are you repeating stuff that we both know?”

Zip it, buddy. I’m trying to explain it to the readers.

“Again, there are no readers.”

So anyway, the months go like this: Rynel, Fynra, Heihn, Jeryn, Sylva, Evril, Auryn, Kyvas, Vorrin, and Zephyra. There’s 10 of them, though I think I already said that. And there’s 6 weeks per month, and 6 days per week. With the days being called Eshra, Lurok, Zylar, Veyda, Solyn, and Ovrin.

“Anyway, it will cost you—”

I just hand over a bag of coins to the butler looking guy.

“Just count the coins yourself.”

I didn’t care if they cheated me out of a couple of coins. Also, these guys are pretty trustworthy. Little secret, they were founded by a Holy Knight.

So I got done with shopping for clothes.

“What else do you need to do?”

Right, I still probably need to do some other stuff. Let me think.

“Don’t humans need to eat food?”

I can just kill myself. It’ll restore me to full, anyway. No need to waste money like that.

“Didn’t you say you had a lot of money?”

Ah… Fair. I was still stuck in the frugal mindset.

But well, I don’t think I’m gonna have time for that.

“Why?”

The 4th Zylar of Heihn.

You know… There’s this one character who I really wanted to meet in-game, but couldn’t. Since they just happened to have died before the game begins. Harul Winter, the witch of the far north. And that person gets burned at the stake on the 4th Ovrin of Heihn. So in 3 days.

“Is that why you’re running?”

Yup.

“What about those guards chasing after you?”

It’s fine.

“Are you sure it’s fine?”

Yes.

One of them almost catches me, but I just use a bit of spatial distortion to get out of reach. And then I finally make it to the inn where that demon bastard is hiding.

“Why are the guards even chasing you?”

No clue.

“Are you sure you don’t know?”

I do actually know.

“Then why?”

Doesn’t matter. They’re about to be branded as heretics.

“What?”

I run up to the second floor of the inn, dodging the people coming down. Thankfully, these guys don’t seem to care that much. There’s a particularly bulky guy who seems to think for a second about catching me. Maybe because the guards just shouted “Catch the criminal!” But thankfully he doesn’t.

I make it to one of the doors in the inn. I knock twice on the door.

But since it probably won’t work, I force all my magic power into a tiny point in my body until it explodes.

That’s a new ability, isn’t it?

Probably since I’ve used it twice now. Once in the sewers, once now.

And in this room is going to be the demon, Camio.

Those guards are about to hunted down as warlocks who made a deal with a demon.

I felt a wide grin starting to form on my face as I entered the room. Camio, the fucker was here. And I saw him. He looked like an ordinary human, but he’s a demon. So the moment he dies, he’ll turn back into a demon.

“Who—”

But I don’t let him finish his words. Decapitation. I cut off his head. And a demon’s corpse falls to the ground. Just in time for the guards to see it happen.

I turn back, smiling at them.

“Let’s keep this under wraps. Go manage the civilians.”

Yeah, if you left for a second, I’ll have disappeared.

And they really took it.

Both of the guards went away and started to block off others from seeing what’s happening.

“Camio.”

Speaking the demon’s true name, I gain his ability of [Prediction].

“So, why were the guards chasing after you?”

Oh right, I didn’t explain it properly, did I? Camio this morning should’ve gotten a vision that there was some frail looking guy with a short sword out on the hunt for him. So he forwarded that information to some of his bribed guards. If I hadn’t threatened those guys with ‘cooperating with a demon’ as their crime, they would’ve come up with something for me to get locked up.

Explosion.

This guy had a lot of letters that I didn’t want to get out. Especially not the guards of this city. They’re corrupt as hell. Probably could figure out by how I bribed myself into the city. Also, a little fire will destroy the corpse of the demon.

Then I opened the window, and using spatial distortion, snuck myself into the crowd.

“What the hell?”

Right, dude? That was awesome.

“Don’t you need to shrink the space between two points to do that. But that wasn’t a straight line.”

I’m just that good.

Now, I’ve got 2 days to run to that fake witch burning.

Should be easy enough, right?

===

Holy Knight Aaron had come to the city of Ivearlisk to check for rumors of corruption. While corruption wasn’t an international crime, he would still check it in case they had committed a crime so great that he’d need to move. And also if he stayed in this city, he’d intersect with the path of the returning Saintess.

He was currently having tea with the guards’ commander of the city.

“Describe the man again?”

“Frail looking. He had a short sword. A sort of insane aura about him.”

Holy Knight Aaron felt like that sounded similar to the boy he had met in the Misty Forest. And even if it wasn’t that same boy, the church of light would always be interested in somebody who managed to kill a demon.

“Where did this man go?”

“North, but we aren’t sure about much else. He disappeared after killing the demon.”

Something amazing had happened in the city. A demon had been killed. But it had been kept under wraps for various reasons. One of them being that the demon had bribed many of the city officials. Another being that the demon’s body was burnt to a crisp. So there was no evidence of the fact.

Holy Knight Aaron decided that instead of meeting with the Saintess. He’d go follow the demon killer.