The Prince of Demons

I flew around Umbra until the sun began setting. When I returned, Nil was still trying to replicate . Good amount of time attempting it. Then I realized something. Wait. No. That shouldn’t be possible. I immediately undid my raven form and landed next to Nil. He seemed surprised to see me. How?! How did you do that?! I glared at the confused Nil before he shrugged. He began his attempts at replicating . Maybe Ipnerslei had a point. No. Not yet. It was a fluke. I rubbed my face a bit; maybe I was tired. I saw Nil’s current version of the . No. He was nearly all the way there. Did I show him it for too long? Did I make this test too easy by accident? There was a chance it just looked right. Next time he formed it, I was going to test it. Nil formed it once more and I immediately cast on Nil. Nil was launched about eight feet back, and his was forcefully dispersed by it as I expected, but he took no damage. Nil had the formation correct, just not the stability which was as far as he had reached in the other attempts before running out of time.

“What was that Krahinn?!” Nil cried at me. I definitely caught him off guard with the sudden attack.

“Testing.” I told him with a shrug.

Nil grumbled before resuming his practice. He was taught by his uncles, right? I combed the facts I knew. Yea, I was right. I immediately probed for where they were. Teaching his little brother. One later, I was able to observe them. Both of them glared daggers at me, but I paid no mind to their minor protest. I needed to see them in action. What was his brother’s name again? One? Inn? Whatever it was, he hadn’t noticed me, so his uncles resumed their lesson. It was surprisingly good despite the overall lackluster of Tenebrae. Maybe Tenebrae wasn’t as hopeless as I was led to believe. The foundation was here, or did the Void King sabotage what would be their growth period to spite Nil? That was something he’d do. Something was nagging at me. If Nil was able to replicate the so well, I could see how he stalemated the Void King. Did the Void King get even stronger than I thought? Maybe. Something wasn’t adding up here. What was off? Brain, come on. Work with me. Something wasn’t right. Am I just that suitable to being Nil’s ? I needed more information. I used to go to an isolated area; I activated two of my and made a to jump to Ygdazi.

Now that I was back in the Wastes, I made a to a different Realm, and then back to Ygdazi. I repeated that several times, jumping between various Realms. I made sure the first ten or so were in Realms not touched by the Void King. After those ten, I went into places I knew he had conquered before returning to Ygdazi another ten times. After all those jumps, I scrambled all the tunnels I had made, before erasing the signature. No need to give him any hints. You know what, I should be extra safe. I activated a different and repeated the process nine more times. That should have created plenty of muddy water if he decided to try and investigate what I did. After all of that, I wiped the space between Realms to make tracking what I did even harder. Finally content with covering my tracks, I made a to Arcadia. I entered it, stepping into an area all too familiar to me. Numerous alarms blared from my impromptu entry. That should summon her for me. In a matter of moments, Ariam appeared. She looked wildly uncomfortable at my presence.

“Hello Ariam.” I stated calmly. Several guards had this amusing idea to surround me.

“Stand down, all of you. Hello Krahinn.” Ariam ordered, clearly wondering why I was here. Her nervousness was palpable.

“Relax, if I wanted to cause havoc, I would’ve already. Not like you could stop me either.” I taunted her. Her violet eyes were locked on me.

“What do you want? I know you would not come here just to say hello.” Ariam inquired. I wanted to rip her eyes out before feeding them to her, but now was not the time. She tensed as my thoughts got violent.

“I needed a quick test, and you are the easier of the three to find. Also, you are a much better stick than Mahdi.” I mocked her. Before I continued, I felt him. In a flash, the Void King was standing there.

“Hello Krahinn.” The Void King spat at me, his crimson eyes glaring at me. Those eyes do not belong to you, but don’t worry, I might be fixing that soon.

“You were here. Even better.” I cooed. Both of them were a bit tense as some of the guards seemed to notice just how irrelevant they were to the outcome.

“What do you want? I doubt you came here for pleasantries. Why did you even bother coming here?” The Void King snapped as he took a few steps forward, forming his to fight.

“We both know if you and I fought here, it would end disastrously for everyone around us. There were quite a few of your people coming to Ygdazi recently, and it seemed so much more than normal. I was curious about something, so I came to check it out.” I informed him. His stolen eyes began glowing as I just chuckled at him.

“I’m still a King. Did someone forget that? Behave you big baby.” I taunted. The Void King took a deep breath before resuming his glare.

“You saw here. Leave.” The Void King stated. I summoned a chair and sat down in it to his visible chagrin.

“What did you want to measure?” Ariam probed, trying to get me out of here.

“I didn’t here a please, respect, or any reason to be nice.” I pointed out. Both of them glared murderously at me.

“Show resp-“ one of the guards began before I separated his bones and flesh with in an instant.

“Anyone else? Not even the illustrious Void King can protect you from me.” I taunted. The Void King was seething. I may not be able to beat him, but he couldn’t stop me from fleeing to Ygdazi after making a disaster.

“I am sorry for the impudence, King Krahinn. How may I be of assistance to you today?” The Void King asked in a hilariously forced tone.

“Where’s the customer service smile?” I added on. Watching him impotently seethe was making my day. He slowly gave me the most forced smile.

“That’s much better. Now, what I want before I leave is simple. Block this.” I piled on before activating all nine .

The Void King immediately lunged at me as he formed numerous aggressive . His casting speed was still impressive, but not enough as I cast a fully augmented at him. I made sure to have ready to bend the space around me and deflect his in case he wanted to trade with me. His eyes went wide as he formed the counter. He was forced to take a step back and redirect my to the sky. Above, the sky was ripped in two as his arm had some scuff marks from the attack. I felt roughly how much he possessed as he glared at me. I knew he was blocking my probes and containing a good portion of his , so I would definitely have to extrapolate the answer. He seemed to realize I wasn’t following up the attack and repaired the damage my had caused.

“What are you after?” The Void King snarled after the halves of the sky were reunited.

“I heard an interesting claim and wanted to measure if it was true. Sadly, it was. Who knows when or how you’ll see me next. Remember, I am always watching.” I taunted as I opened a back to Ygdazi.

“Always a pleasure seeing you. Good you’re leaving back to the nothingness where you belong.” The Void King mocked with a smirk.

“You know, I’m shocked you don’t have any kids yet. Why is that again?” I taunted. Ariam gave me the most rancorous stare in return as the guards averted their gazes.

“What?” The Void King snarled, his smirk vanishing in an instant.

“Why are there no Void Princes? Or Void Princesses? Is there something your can’t fix? Wait, I know that for a fact. You know what, I should be asking, ‘how’s the family?’.” I replied with the fakest sincerity before I leapt into the .

I immediately closed it behind me as I felt a slam into where it once was. I chuckled. Forl the Void King. Now, I was back in the Wastes. The Void King was about where I expected him to be. He obviously had a few hidden tricks that should be accounted for, but he was definitely near his limit. His strength couldn’t increase much more with all he had done as I had expected. I felt his probe towards Ygdazi, which I immediately shattered. Not a chance you forling bezka; I won’t be done with you until one of us is dead or worse. Ipnerslei folded out near me. I didn’t have to turn to feel just how pissed off she was. The others would always hide behind her; it was grating she let them. If they wanted to risk voicing their displeasure to me, they should be willing to face me in being.

“Krahinn, why did you decide to go taunt the Void King?” Ipnerslei inquired, trying to hide how annoyed she was.

“I was curious about something.” I answered her. Something was off. Something wasn’t adding up even more now.

“What were you curious about?” Ipnerslei asked as I summoned a chair for her to sit in which she graciously accepted.

“How strong the Void King currently is. Something doesn’t seem right.” I replied. What? What was off?

“Is someone starting to consider actually helping Nil?” Ipnerslei cooed. Of course she would wildly read into it what she wanted.

“No. I simply observed something which made me wonder about the Void King. Something with Nil isn’t adding up.” I retorted. Ipnerslei let out a bit of a chuckle.

“I think you are either underestimating yourself or overestimating the compatibility of other with Nil.” Ipnerslei teased. I made two of my eyes float to stare at her.

“That’s not funny.” I snapped at her.

“I’m not joking, Krahinn. What did you observe that made you curious about the Void King? Why is something not adding up?” Ipnerslei probed, having lost all the edge she had previously.

“I showed Nil once, and he is already at the point he stopped working on the in less than a day. If he is capable of that, with all of these attempts, how has he not won against the Void King?” I explained as I kept mulling it over.

It didn’t make sense. Either the Void King had a massive trick he kept hidden, which was likely quite true, or the others had to be woefully incompetent. It probably was a combination of the two, but they’d have to possess terminal brain damage with the Nil had innovated and documented not to come closer. Maybe it was a fluke of Nil? Was the Void King that good at hiding his full strength? Was my estimate off and not properly accounting for what was hidden because of my hatred of him? Was there some bottleneck to Nil’s growth that made closing the gap harder than it seemed? It was gnawing at my mind. What was I missing? What information did I not have? Nil even was a demon, which made closing the gap on the Void King easier. Demon was one of maybe two races that even stood a chance of repelling him in such a tight time frame. I knew the Void King would battle a Reincarnator to the death. He despised them way too much to ever let it go, which could explain why Nil couldn’t repel him. The Void King was just that relentless and tenacious.

“Sometimes you have to take a chance Krahinn. It’s virtually impossible to account for everything.” Ipnerslei told me to break the silence.

“I will avenge Hugminn. I am not failing him twice.” I snapped back. Even if it was the last thing I did, I was making sure the Void King was going to die. Until his death was cemented, I couldn’t die.

“I understand Krahinn, I miss him too. I just feel you might let your opportunity slip by if you wait for a hundred percent certainty.” Ipnerslei replied. I let out a frustrated sigh.

“You just want me to help Nil.” I spat at her as I tucked my legs onto my throne a bit.

“You were a massive jerk to put it nicely, Krahinn. I’d like you to approach this objectively and be willing to accept a bit of gray. I know how you get.” Ipnerslei retorted. I grimaced a bit; she had a point.

“Fine. I’ll keep a more open mind.” I grumbled. Ipnerslei put her hand on my shoulder.

“It’ll be okay Krahinn. Come on, you shouldn’t isolate yourself all the time. Go back to Tenebrae and see if you think you can make it work.” Ipnerslei prodded. I let out a deep sigh.

“I never got why Hugminn tolerated how pushy you can be.” I taunted her. Ipnerslei laughed.

“Oh yea, I am so pushy. Goodbye for now, Krahinn.” Ipnerslei laughed as she stood up.

“I’ll get moving. Goodbye for now.” I replied as I did a few stretches.

I felt around Ygdazi for the Void King’s . Thankfully, the other Kings had a protective veil up currently because of his previous probe; that would hide my work quite well. I used the opportunity to make a to Tenebrae. In a few moments, I was back in the courtyard. Wait. I looked at the position of the setting sun. I did all that and time barely moved here. What did Nil call it, time dilation? Definitely a useful quirk between Realms; one that could definitely be used to buy time and train without advancing the clock, and the inherent weakness of any . Wait, Nil had that could alter and mess with time. Theoretically, he should be able to dilate time on an individual. Was the too complicated to perform, or did he struggle controlling something that complex? It bugged me. This made even less sense to me now. If so many things could be used to even the gap, why did Nil have to reset time? What was I missing?