The Prince of Demons

Krahinn

I sat on the top of the castle looking out over Umbra, seeing the sun shining overhead. Hugminn loved clear skies and the sun shining above. I let out a massive sigh as I mulled over what brought me here. Forling Ipnerslei; I sighed again. What would Hugminn do? I knew he’d give Nil a chance. I cycled through my as I thought. Below, I could see Luna beginning to train with Nautilus. Maybe I shouldn’t let her thoughts slide; I could make her mission near impossible. Ipnerslei wouldn’t approve of me doing that. Why did I make that promise to Hugminn? I looked at the sky again as I sat there. I let out a massive yawn. How long has it been since I slept? It had been a while. I leaned against the nearby spire, closing my eyes for a moment. All around me turned to a nice, warm canyon. This memory again.

“Krahinn! I decided to become a today!” Hugminn told me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

“Really? What good is that?” I repeated like I had countless times before.

“You need to think about others Krahinn. We’re both knowledgeable and can help so many.” Hugminn lectured me. I wished I could hug him.

Hugminn looked as I remembered. Dark gray feathers, two crimson eyes, two dual horns on each side, and the same grayish blue plume as me. Behind him was Scius. How many times had I relived this memory? Scius was as plain as I remembered, brown hair, hazel green eyes, and olive skin. A relatively normal human. He was looking between Hugminn and I, his eyes narrowing in curiosity. I lifted my left hand, seeing it was actually there rather than the I used nowadays. Hugminn stood there, smiling wide as he was excited to tell me the news I heard innumerable times.

“A human? Really?” I asked. I’m sorry I wasn’t more supportive Hugminn; I’m sorry I didn’t do more.

“You are such a party pooper, Krahinn.” Hugminn chided me. Hugminn, I’d do anything to hear you actually speak again.

“Wow you two look similar.” Scius observed. Obviously, we’d look similar you moron.

“Krahinn’s my twin, Scius.” Hugminn informed him. Scius looked at us in awe as I remembered thousands of times.

“ can have twins?” Scius probed. I wanted to strangle Scius. Rip out his heart. Anything to stop this from continuing.

“Nah, we just happen to be twins and .” I mocked him. I wished I could say so much worse to him.

“I met a hero today! He says he’s a Reincarnator!” Scius told us. That Reincarnator. What a hero; he saved so many lives. Oh so many lives were altered forever by him.

“You should be your own hero, Scius. You should always try to be the best you can be and help those around you with your abilities!” Hugminn exclaimed. Hugminn. I should’ve been the hero. I should’ve done so much more.

“Ugh. Not everyone needs to be a hero. Sometimes making sure you’re safe is all you need.” I retorted. I’m such a hypocrite. How could I say something so stupid?

“I can help the hero though! I can change the world!” Scius chimed excitedly. Lords above. No. No you shouldn’t.

“That’s the spirit!” Hugminn agreed happily. No. No. No. Please. Don’t. Don’t do it. This was the beginning of the end. We just didn’t know it.

I knew no matter how much I wanted to change the events; nothing could turn back time. Nil couldn’t alter an event this far in the past. I stood there, watching Hugminn excitedly show Scius how to alter to mimic different . I remembered feeling annoyed that my brother would waste his time helping some insignificant human. He was so excited to be able to help and teach, and I just didn’t support him when he was trying something new. How could I ever have justified this? How was I so self-absorbed? Why? Why was I like this? were thought to be immortal. How many petty, stupid things did I do? Nothing I could do would let me turn back time and be a better brother. I just watched as I was a grouch to my brother. Don’t say that! Your time is more limited than you think! You two aren’t twins destined to live forever! I wanted to put my face in my hands as I recalled this moment, but I couldn’t. I just had to sit and see it play out.

“Krahinn, why don’t you try teaching a bit! You’d probably be good at it! You always read more than I do!” Hugminn suggested. Scius gave the same, wondered expression that haunted this nightmare.

“You agreed to be his , not me. I guess the benefit of picking a human is they grow up fast, so you can test run your teaching quickly. They’re like vermin that way; there will always be another to replace them too.” I taunted. I wanted to slap myself; strangle past me. Why would I say such a needlessly cruel thing when he was trying to share his joy with me?

“If you are just going to be a grouch, you can leave.” Hugminn spat at me. I’m sorry brother. I’m so sorry. You deserved a better brother than me.

“But I want to see the human reach for a place he’ll never attain. Some beings are destined for the heavens, and then there are humans. It’s fun seeing them come to terms with their limited life span and ability. You should’ve picked a demon.” I taunted. Lords above how was I so insufferable?

“But demons are causing the issue! It’s why the Lords summoned a Reincarnator to help our world! He was reborn here to save us and guide us to the grace of the heavens above!” Scius snapped at me. I wanted to scream. There was so much that could’ve been changed. So many ways to avert the impending disaster.

“Maybe Hugminn should’ve picked the hero then.” I mocked. Hugminn, I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you just once. Tell you all the things I should’ve said. I always thought we'd live forever.

“He was picked by a King, the King of the Oasis.” Hugminn informed me. I knew now the hero's was Helsiri. So much came back to these moments. They seemed so insignificant, so small at the time.

“You mean King of the E-“ I started.

Before the memory continued, it all faded away and I was staring at Nil. I noticed there were massive fissures in the ground and castle. Must have lost control of my as I slept. The sun was not looking like it moved far. Nil looked quite irritated at me as I stretched. That was a solid fifteen minutes of sleep, so I should be good for a few days. I grabbed Nil and floated along the sky with him as he looked unhappy to be under the influence of my again. Whoops, the castle looked like I nearly ripped it in half. I used my to mend the castle back to being as good as new in a matter of seconds.

I wonder what made Krahinn freak out. Nil mused to himself.

Maybe I should stop passively reading thoughts, or at least teach Nil how to shield himself from passive reading. The Crowthornes were likely going to be annoyed that I nearly shredded the castle. Nil stabilized himself using his own . Hugminn would want me to help Nil; he would believe in the best in others. I sighed. Maybe a test. Nil was currently desperate because the Void King without question would exterminate everyone here. Maybe see how hopeless it was to get him stronger than that monster. If I was going to attempt to get my revenge on the Void King, Nil was at least worth testing. How? What would be the foundation for defeating him? Nil was physically a kid, so he was limited in abilities. I combed the compendium a bit. Huh. None ever figured out what the associated with the . Get him to figure it out? That would hardly be a fair test. What from the compendium would be a reasonable test?

“Mind explaining why you used the castle to practice some claw ?’ Nil probed. His was surprisingly stable given his age.

“My slipped when I was sleeping. I fixed it, good as new.” I replied with a shrug as I let go of Nil.

So can get nightmares. Interesting. Nil thought to himself. He loved to learn from what I could remember. I was surprised how well Nil was performing . I heard he was bad at . Wait, his weakness was his . There was one, his incomplete : . The one I found interesting enough to finish for him. One of his few attempts to innovate that was quite useful.

“Enough on that. Activate your Nil.” I ordered him. Nil looked at me a bit confused.

“Why?” Nil probed, clearly on edge.

“I am going to apologize, one time. A for you to replicate.” I told Nil. Let’s see if Nil had the talent to replicate the completed version.

Nil activated his while looking at me. Immediately, I enshrouded myself with . I had to give credit where it was due, Nil managed to innovate the counterpart to . He reached out and used to feel the while analyzing it with his . As he observed it, I shifted the maintaining it so he could see the formation once slowly. I gave him about another two minutes to study it before I stopped the . Nil looked at me with wonder as he began trying to immediately replicate the . Let’s see how well little Nil does. I could feel a wildly disapproving glare nearby. Maybe I should give him a live demonstration of some . Hugminn would always try to talk thing out. This was so annoying; talking things out was so obnoxious.

“Oh no, I am being observed.” I said out loud. Maybe I just suck at dealing with others.

“Krahinn, why did you make such a mess of the castle?” Older Nil inquired as he to the air where we were.

“I fixed it. It was an accident.” I retorted. I could sense his irritation while his grandson mentally wondered if I just was socially awkward.

“You startled everyone and scared the entire staff when you began cracking the castle.” Older Nil snapped at me. Maybe trying to be Hugminn would be beneficial.

“I apologize. I already gave Nil an augmented apology by showing him a .” I apologized again. I nearly hurled; that felt wrong. How did Hugminn ever do this?

“I see.” Older Nil stated, thinking it over. Young Nil had already checked out as he was trying to replicate . Nil reminded me of Scius a little. Would helping him be making the same mistake as Hugminn?

“Don’t worry, it should be impossible for him to hurt himself while trying to replicate that .” I assured older Nil. Nil was already on the ground trying his heart out attempting to replicate it.

“Do we need to be concerned with when you sleep?” Older Nil checked. The mix of concern and pity I felt from him made the dark pit in my stomach stir.

“No. I just forgot to place some wards up first. It’ll be an isolated incident.” I replied. He sighed, before using to leave as he conceded that was likely the best he was getting from me.

Part of me was curious, what could that of his do for the ? It was something so abstract no one had guessed it. Or maybe it was something so subtle no one noticed. I shook my head. I am not getting curious about what Nil can do. But, if I wanted revenge on the Void King, Nil might be the best option. I sighed as I looked back at the sun. There was a breeze slowly starting to pick up which brushed across my feathers. Maybe going for a small fly would help clear my mind. The weather here was at least nice. I transformed into my raven form before flying into the breeze. I surveyed Umbra a bit. It honestly reminded me of Zaubsaal. Was I just comparing Umbra and Zaubsaal because I was thinking about Hugminn? I did a few slow laps around the city. No, the two did have quite a few similarities. Was this some way of the Lords giving me a chance to right my wrongs? I highly doubted it; this was nothing more than a sentimental coincidence. Maybe I should help Nil anyway and if I failed at least, I know longer had the burden of living. But I lived this long to try and avenge Hugminn. If I was going to try, I wanted to be as close to guaranteed success as I could get. Was it possible to get a better attempt than Nil? He at least was able to stalemate him with inferior help. I shook my head. I am not going to make any impulsive, emotional decision. Nil needed to prove he was worth helping. I’m sorry Hugminn, you might need to wait just a bit longer.