The Prince of Demons

Lux

All of the around Nil suddenly condensed. His eyes shot open again, and an immense pressure filled the room. Nil looked at me, and it felt like death was upon me. I swear I could see a skull materialize behind him. All the adults in the room backed off, wondering what was happening. I looked at his eyes, what was once the white part of his eyes was now pitch black, highlighting the amber color while giving them an incredibly haunting appearance. I launched myself at him, gripping him tight; his body felt like a rock. He’s alive! He is fine!

“Water.” Nil gasped. His voice sounded hoarse and raspy.

His mom quickly sent his uncle to fetch water. Nox returned with water and handed it to Nil, who drained the glass. His stomach then let out an immense growl. Senna picked up Nil and carried him downstairs to the dining hall. The chefs were on standby and started making dishes. Nil wolfed them all down. Normally, one plate was a challenge for him to finish; Nil was currently on his ninth. If anything, his eyes were getting darker. All of the adults were looking at his now pitch black and amber eyes. After his eleventh plate, Nil was finally full.

“Nil, how do you feel?” Senna asked him.

“Great! I was so hungry!” Nil stated happily. You slept for four days straight; I would feel great after too.

“Are your eyes bothering you at all?” Azzeck inquired.

“She said there was a minor side effect that turned my eyes black.” Nil replied nonchalantly. Every adult became tense.

“Side effect?” Nez checked.

“She?” Azzeck probed.

“You know?” Nox asked.

“Please explain.” Senna requested, her voice getting incredibly tense.

“Utol said I came really close to dying, played a game, she gave me a gift, and mentioned it had the minor side effect of making my eyes black.” Nil explained like it wasn't a problem.

“As in, Lord Utol?” Azzeck pressed, blinking a few times.

“That was her name!” Nil exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly looking at the adults.

“What did she give you?” Nez asked.

“A !” Nil answered calmly. What is that? Judging by the reaction of the adults, it was something good.

“At this point, I am just out of surprise to have.” Nez muttered under his breath.

“Should we do another ?” Azzeck asked his wife. Nil is okay. That’s all that matters.

“That might be needed.” Senna answered as she shook her head.

“Can we go sightseeing?!” Nil requested. The adults shot looks at each other. Nil really doesn’t feel fear; from death’s door to let’s go sightseeing.

“We could go around the castle grounds Nil.” Senna said with a smile. Nil and I went with Senna after eating. I am glad we can play again!

I walked with Senna and Nil to the castle grounds, where I was met with a surprising sight. There were bodies displayed on tall, pointed sticks, each seemingly died in a horrific fashion. Nil was looking at the display wide eyed, trying to grasp the sight.

“Who were these people Mama?” Nil asked, seeming a bit put off by the sight.

“They were a that needed to learn a lesson. They are now training dummies or a message, depending on how you want to look at them.” Senna answered with a chilling smile.

“Did you put them here?” Nil inquired.

“When your dad told me to take a break, I had to let out a little, steam.” Senna answered. She went away for maybe ten minutes a day to my knowledge. There are hundreds of these bodies. I shivered, but Nil seemed unfazed.

These don’t creep you out? I asked him.

Oh, thank the Lords it creeps you out too. So many demons, where did she find this many demons? Nil replied with immense relief in his voice.

I think it is the behind the attack at Ein’s birthday. I answered.

This is pretty brutal. Nil stated. I nodded in agreement.

As we walked along, I was looking at Nil. There was something off about him, other than the black eyes. His body felt wrong when I hugged him as it was surprisingly solid, but I suspect that had to do with the he mentioned. The problem was his , it didn’t feel right. I closed my eyes and used like Orga taught me. Nil’s current was immense, larger than it was previously, but that wasn’t it. Something else was off. I looked him over, trying to put my claw on it. I noticed a ring I don’t think he had before. It wasn’t the source of the odd sensation, but when I looked at it, Senna noticed it too.

“Where did you get that ring Nil?” Senna probed.

“It was a gift from Utol.” Nil answered casually.

“Is there anything special about it?” Senna prodded in a voice that was a mix of curious and concerned.

“Yea! It contains these!” Nil replied excitedly, and in a quick flash two black pieces of metal appeared.

Senna’s eyes went wide. Nil was effortlessly holding them, and proudly showed them to his mom. I wonder what those are. One was clearly a sword; the other was a cylinder of some sort. His mom’s eyes were glued to the sword, so he put the other back into the ring.

“A with a sword and a cylinder of the metal as well?” Senna asked, trying to hide the concern in her voice.

“She gave them as a gift. Utol is quite nice.” Nil explained.

“Did she want anything in return?” Senna questioned, definitely suspicious.

“Help getting some support was all she asked for.” Nil answered seemingly oblivious to his mom's concern.

“Did she happen to clarify what some support is?” Senna pressed.

“From what I remember reading Utol doesn’t have an anywhere on Tenebrae, so I think building her one would meet what she asked for.” Nil replied.

“And why did she ask for your help getting support?” Senna investigated. Nil seemed to be ignoring the immense concern Senna had.

“Well, she said she would revive me, but if I wanted, I could play a game for some stuff. I won, and she threw in the ring and stuff for some support!” Nil stated excitedly. A wave of relief flooded over Senna.

“That is a lot better. I think an is a great idea. What game did you play?” Senna asked.

“I can’t say!” Nil replied happily.

“That’s okay. Is there anywhere else you wanted to see?” Senna probed as she smiled at us.

“The !” Nil answered. He is oddly happy today. I mean, he did come back from the dead.

“Maybe later Nil. We need to take care of a few things first.” Senna informed him.

“Okay!” Nil conceded.

We did a few more laps around the grounds. The uneasy presence around Nil was not subsiding. On the fourth lap, I think Senna noticed as well. I could feel her trying to probe Nil. Maybe if we wrestled, no sparred as old Nil and Poam called it, I could figure it out. A massive chill went down my spine at the thought. That’s new.

Nil, what all did you get from Utol? I asked him.

The , the , and some . Why? Nil answered.

There is something just off about your and it has been bugging me. I explained.

I have no idea; I noticed something was off ever since I woke up. Nil said with a bit of a shrug.

How does it feel? I probed.

Like there is a lot more, or as if it is heavier might be more accurate. Nil informed me.

It definitely feels heavier, but I don’t think that’s it. I replied.

What do you mean? Nil asked.

While you were sleeping, Orga taught me more . I think it helped my ability to sense . I said, trying to grasp the change.

That’s interesting. We need to explore that more. Nil suggested. Of course he would want to. He always loved exploring .

*

Nez

Nil had somehow managed to get an on his . At first, we were not sure what was off about his , other than it was substantially denser and more developed than before he nearly died. What on Tenebrae happened while he was near dead? It was astronomical how much denser his was. It will slow his training down, but the benefits are nice. It not only was denser; he also greatly increased his . Normally one of them would be increased, the two in tandem is unheard of. Then again, he was between life and death, which theoretically has an amazingly pure to draw from. That was not the problem at hand. Senna was not pleased to find her son's eyes had now become black, and that there was a horrific aura of emanating from him nonstop. I was reading up on Lord Utol and trying to find information on as a whole. So far, most of what I had found confirmed what I knew, it was a like and , Lord Utol was the Lord of Death, and was known for being able to be both dominating and ethereal which was a unique trait.

In my literature review, I had found that supposedly, Lord Utol was the arbiter, the one who decided one’s fate upon dying. In special cases, she would allow one to return to the world of the living if they were taken prematurely, which is what I suspected happened in the case of Nil. Another unverifiable portion was she would allow one to play games to try and win the right to live back, but not surprisingly, defeating a Lord proved to be seemingly impossible. Lord Utol possessed no , and had very little support on Tenebrae, which also caused a desperate lack of information. As for , it was the rarest of the , as most people who possessed it tended to either go mad, go on brutal killing sprees, or were summarily executed by superstition. Geez that’s a grim fate. does tend to affect the person who possesses it over time, so that was likely an unfortunate side effect. It is also probably why Senna does not like that horrific new aura emanating from Nil. I looked into , which we had been putting off for Nil to focus on his ability to handle and learned that the was a near myth, as only a representative or test from the Lord could provide one. Like Nil’s , it needed criterion to be met and to partake in some sort of trial from the Lord, which due to her extreme lack of representation, made getting gifts and from Lord Utol difficult. Each one uses for , , and had an effect on the person who them. From the quick testing of Nil earlier, his for was still ridiculously pure.

That meant the was likely neutral, which was in line with the . Now that bizarre of Nil’s was likely due to either his , his , the , or some interaction between them. It was likely his eyes turning black was a result of the meaning that change was going to be permanent, and the only way to change it was to remove the , which would at minimum cripple Nil forever. The instant Senna would agree to that I imagined the world would end about a second later. Honestly, tier were known to have potential side effects, and the fact the first two he had no apparent ones was pretty impressive. His third and last one Nil needed only turning his eyes black was a pretty small price to pay all things considered. The more pressing issue was the aura of that he was emanating. At first, we were terrified he had become an , but that quickly subsided as his heart was clearly beating and he was breathing just fine. It also shouldn’t be able to result from something neutral like the he possessed. I was skimming through various books, trying to find some explanation.

A shouldn’t cause it; or more accurately, there were no known that caused a person to possess an aura of a they didn’t possess. Nil had two neutral and a aligned , which definitely would not result in a aura. He had definitely been between life and death, and probably was technically dead for a little bit, which might have caused it, but the aura was pretty prevalent. It would easily cause him to be mistaken for an , which until we could either mask or explain it, Nil needed to stay inside the castle as isolated from people as possible. tended to be executed no questions asked. Given the circumstances, we definitely did not want that to be the answer. His beating heart and definitive breathing at least helped argue he was not an . I skimmed through books that were theoretical, ones with unproven anecdotes, and even some philosophy ones to try and find something to work off of. I grabbed a few theology books. Maybe general information on the Lords could explain what happened. After plowing through nearly thirty books, I finally found something promising.

There were tales of people who through either an immense sacrifice to a Lord, besting a challenge set by a Lord, or through deep devotion to a Lord, would receive an from the Lord. It carried the traits of the Lord, and would emanate from the person, letting all know the prowess and dedication of the individual. There was also a list of theoretical benefits and abilities that may possess. It was a working theory, but we needed an incredibly thorough to be sure. I found several books in the general same subject matter, trying to find the distinction between and an . I read several of the books. From what I could tell, an was much stronger than a , so much so that they were difficult to hide or conceal. It was also thought that contained the of the Lord to which they belonged. There were other pieces of information that seemed plausible, but those two stuck out the most to me.

But how did he earn one from Utol? Nil was only a child, and while saving the others was impressive, what the book listed as a necessary feat or sacrifice in the name of the specific Lord absolutely dwarfed that act. And that bizarre of Nil’s, was it a result of using an from Kron? This needed to be studied further, but I could take my preliminary findings to Senna. I wandered the castle looking for her, and she was walking the grounds with a very happy looking Nil and concerned looking Lux. I made my way down to them and saw Senna looking at Nil with some mild concern. Hopefully, I was about to alleviate some of that.

“Hello Nez, what brings you out here?” Senna checked. Nil and Lux were looking at me eagerly.

“Remember those things you wanted me to look into, I have some news regarding them.” I answered.

“Is it good news?” Senna inquired uneasily.

“Mostly. It should be great news overall.” I replied. She looked slightly more relieved.

Is it news Nil and Lux should hear? Senna asked me telepathically.

I suspect Nil is aware of one of things I will tell you, and while you may not like it, it isn’t technically bad news; the other is important for him to know. I explained. She nodded her head.

“So, I suspect his eyes turning black is a result from his . Other than removing the , I do not think there is any way to change that fact. Given he has three and the only side effect is his eyes becoming black, that is pretty good. As for that aura of he is currently emanating, I suspect he has an from Lord Utol, which is similar to a but a bit stronger, and I need to research further into the subject. I recommend getting a thorough to verify.” I informed Senna.

“Thank you, Nez. We will schedule an as soon as possible. Come on Nil, I unfortunately have some things to take care of. Your uncles will take care of you until dinner.” Senna told her son. He looked a tad deflated.

“It’s okay Nil! There are no lessons today! We are going to play some games and have fun!” I tried comforting Nil.

He got a new sword, maybe teaching him to use it might be exciting. Senna suggested.

That would be up Nox’s alley. We can try it. I replied.

“I hear you got a cool new sword; would you like to learn to use it?” I asked Nil. His eyes lit up in response.

“That sounds fun! Can we teach something cool to Lux too?!” Nil said excitedly.

“We’ll see if Orga can think of something.” I told them, and brought them to the study room, thinking of what we could show them.