Chapter 396: A Friend
"Aokitsu...what a tasteless joke is this?" I say, looking at Aokitsu. She showed up out of nowhere and was trying to break into my locked office, which would normally irritate me enough.
But not only did she break into my office, she was rummaging through everything looking for the communicator that was in the drawer. She was so stupidly rushed that she didn’t even notice I was in the castle.
"I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I..." She tries to apologize, but goes quiet when I look at her seriously. The real problem is not that she was rummaging through my things, since she was looking for the communicator, I can overlook that and let it go.
The real problem is the body inside that bag. I easily recognize the remnants of magic, and if this is a joke, it’s the worst kind of joke.
"Aokitsu, not only did you invade my office...but you even brought...this...explain the situation to me properly." I’ve already talked to Elena, and on her side, things are going well. They’re even managing to push the humans back.
And although the angels have proven to be a challenge for Elena, she’s still managing to deal with them slowly. Apparently, she’s good at a war of attrition.
"W-Well, our side in the war is doing great. We’ve been able to pressure the humans, and if everything continues like this, we’ll be able to expel them. Currently, both sides have taken a break because they’ve been fighting for several days."
"The magical teleportation spells and the magic that generates food for the troops have been a great help. While the battle in that location took the humans by surprise, so we have the advantage."
"B-But...Miss Lilith...s-she...she..."
"JUST SAY IT!" I yell at her, not wanting to believe that the body inside that bag is what I’m really thinking it is. After all, it’s just 1, there’s no way it’s Lilith, right? She’s 4 bodies, not just 1.
"F-Freya analyzed the location where Miss Lilith was supposed to be, and with magic discovered what happened. The captain of the human royal guard had a dangerous relic, a national treasure considered lost...a dagger perfect for fighting monsters."
"M-Miss Lilith was heavily affected because she depends on the other heads to fully control the body, and the dagger cut off any support from the other heads."
"S-So Miss Lilith fought extremely weakened, while being destroyed from within by her own body..."
"..."
"She...died...you’re joking, right? Lilith? Died? Are you talking about the same Lilith, the second strongest monster after just me?" I say incredulously, rushing to the bag and opening it to see the body directly.
As soon as I take the body out of the bag, I can’t avoid the reality. It’s Lilith, there’s no Kaos, Nyx, and Iris’ body, but Lilith is the main part, and if she died, the bodies of the others must have turned to dust, fragmented into mana, or just turned to ashes.
"..."
"Your...Majesty? W-What!!! What are you doing!!" She speaks alarmed when I start devouring Lilith’s body. It’s a natural instinct, Lilith is a powerful monster, and I need strong bodies for the ability of gluttony to work and for me to steal characteristics.
I start tearing her body apart with my hands and coldly devouring each piece. She should feel honored, there is no better burial than being devoured by the passive Devourer of the Demon King himself.
And in less than a minute, I have completely devoured her body, even with her clothes. Aokitsu looks at me horrified as the system issues an alert.
[New Characteristic Stolen.
Thermo-Psychic Regulation - Ability to control body temperature through the mind, manually adjusting the internal body temperature to quickly adapt to changes in ambient temperature, as well as being able to overheat the body to eliminate parasitic invaders.]
’Hmm...it’s a good characteristic.’ With this, I can leave the planet and go to the moon without problems, using this ability I don’t need to wait for my body to adapt, I can quickly cross the cold and hot layers of the planet just by manually adjusting my body temperature.
’This is what Lilith used in our fight...’ Lilith in our fight had a body that was too hot inside. When the black sludge tried to invade her body, it was immediately incinerated.
"Y-You! Why did you do that? S-She was a loyal servant who..."
"Aokitsu, shut up if you don’t want to be the next meal I’ll have." I say harshly, silencing her.
"It doesn’t matter if she was a loyal servant, or if she was a saint, or if she was my friend, now she’s a corpse that could give me something useful, so I devoured her." I am a monster and will never deny it.
She was my friend, she was special to me, and she understood me because she was the only one who was racially a monster like me. However, it is precisely because she was a monster that she should have imagined that I would eat her body.
"What did she leave for me?" I ask, knowing full well that my coldness makes it seem like I didn’t care, but I do care. I’m furious, but I also understand one thing.
We are at war, getting angry with the humans for killing her is stupidity. I’ve always known that allies could die, the fact that it’s Lilith who dies is shocking, but it’s not out of what I’ve already prepared myself for.
It’s a simple logic if I kill enemies, I have to be ready to be killed, and if I’m at war killing their troops, I have to be ready for them to kill mine.
It’s just...frustrating, but just being frustrated doesn’t mean I’ll ruin my plans. Besides, I think Lilith wouldn’t want me to be blinded by rage.
"What happened to the human who killed Lilith?" I ask without even waiting for the answer to the previous question, then sitting down in my chair.
"S-She’s dead."
"..." The frustration increases. I can’t even torture the culprit, it’s really...annoying. But Lilith doesn’t need to worry, I’ll make a beautiful "requiem" for her with the screams of the humans in their own kingdom.
"So? Going back to my previous question, what did she leave for me?" I doubt she didn’t leave something for me. I know her well.
"S-She left...this." Aokitsu goes to the bag and takes out a purple stone and a black egg with purple markings. She approaches me, handing me the egg. Immediately, the stone fragments and an image of Lilith appears.
"If this has been activated, it means Pandora is seeing me...well...I really don’t know what to say...I died? Haha, it’s kind of funny, you know...being killed...who would have thought, right?" She speaks a little confused, while I pay attention.
"Well...I’m probably dead, and if I’m dead, I must have fulfilled some of my last duties...well, knowing you, Pandora, my corpse must have already become food...I’d like it to be useful, so it’s okay if you did that."
"Now let’s get to the important thing. I’m a saint, and every saint has the important duty of training the next saint...but as you can see, I died, so I’ll just...throw my job at you." She says with a somewhat ironic smile.
"Think of it as a price for having eaten my body. That egg there is a hydra. Hydras have very turbulent births and are rare to hatch."
"Ah, before you get confused, this egg is not my child, okay? I just found the egg and kidnapped it in the past, keeping it preserved and stagnant with time magic while feeding it with my magic."
"So although it’s not my child, what will hatch from it will be very much like me, since it received a lot of power from me. I’d like what comes out of this egg to be the next saint."
"I know the title is not hereditary or an inheritance I can give, but the title of saint follows a pattern, and I already know how it is, and I can affirm that this egg meets almost all the requirements."
"It just needs the being inside there to swear absolute devotion to the goddess of the abyss, and learn corrupted holy magic, and it will automatically gain the title of saint. Of course, what will hatch from there will be a baby, but the maturation time of a hydra is fast, so in 20 years this little thing will be able to obtain the title of saint."
"...I’m sorry to throw my responsibilities at you...I should be the one training this baby, but...death doesn’t wait for anyone, and it’s always unpredictable...Pandora, thank you for the fun times."
"Even if it was only two years together, they were two extremely fun years. You really managed to cause me the same entertainment as your older sister."
"I...really wanted to have seen you two together...it’s a cruelty of fate that I died without being able to see you two talking, fighting, and maybe even having a relationship beyond that of sisters..."
"But if my time has come, there’s nothing to be done. I can only apologize for dying in such a ridiculous way. I once heard that a mere insect can kill things much larger and more dangerous than itself if the larger being is careless."
"It seems I experienced directly on my skin what that meant...please don’t get mad that I lost to a human...and I thank you in advance for taking care of the egg for me."
"I know you’ll do it, because besides being a saint and a demon king, we’re friends...and friends help each other in need. Besides, you ate my body, you owe me one!" As she says this, the image blurs.
"..."
"It seems this is my limit...you’re alone, aren’t you?" She asks as I look at Aokitsu, making it clear that she should never speak of what she heard here. Soon I expect what she wants to say that requires me to be alone.
"Well, I believe you’re alone...and if you’re not, well...it doesn’t matter. The last thing I want to say is..." I wait anxiously as she rambles.
"I know about that collection of Zephyra’s panties you hid in the treasury vault, and I’ve also seen what you do, and Zephyra would be very disappointed if she knew that..." I quickly crush Lilith’s image with darkness, but it’s just an image and she doesn’t stop talking, soon returning to normal.
"You’re licking and sniffing her underwear, seriously Pandora? I even understand you doing that, but hiding panties in the treasury vault and then licking them that way is extremely perverted."
"Especially it’s weird to see you masturbating on top of the gold coins while you’re obsessed with her panties that you steal in secret. I mean, you already have Zephyra obeying you all the time, so why do this? And in secret, too?"
"I even thought it was Kaelith until I saw your tail. Well, I’m just saying this because honestly I found the collection and it’s like...a lot of underwear...a lot, I don’t even know how you managed to steal so many without Zephyra herself noticing."
"By the way, hiding things in the castle treasury is a good idea, but if you’re going to hide it, don’t do it in that place, because it’s near one of the entrances to the vault. Do it higher up, on the left side, behind pile of coins number 19,837. It’s the place I used to like to sleep and it’s well hidden!" She says with a smile, as if she’s doing me a favor.
The image soon blurs completely and she disappears. It’s clear she wanted to say more, but I’m just glad she shut up soon.
"Aokitsu, if I hear anyone talking about this secret, I swear I’ll cut off your limbs and throw you into a pig pen with the most potent aphrodisiac I can find." I threaten her harshly.
"I-I didn’t hear anything." Aokitsu says as she starts running out.
’Bitch...no wonder she’s my friend.’ I give a gentle smile. It’s obvious she did it on purpose, one last prank between friends because she knows I can’t retaliate.
"Seriously...you’re so...annoying, throwing your work on me...lazy until the very end of your life." I say with some tears on my face. I’m not so insensitive as to lose a friend and not feel sad.
If I wasn’t so hurt, I’d enter the battle now just as retaliation and kill 1 million humans for each of Lilith’s heads.
"Haaa...I’ll take care of the next saint..." I murmur, accepting her request as I look at the egg.