Chapter 3: The next step! But first…

~... Zero. You may address me as such.~

Demon Queen Rose simply blinked, tilted her head to the left a tad and asked, "Zero… is it?"

With slight amusement in my tone, I answered with a question of my own, ~Not to your expectations?~

Rose quickly shook her head back and forth before saying, "No no! Just… unexpected? The other Gods and Goddesses have many different names. Normally meaning something related to their domain more often than not as well now that I am thinking about it…"

I took a peek into her mind to see what she considered to be "Gods and Goddesses" and was immensely disappointed. From her memories, I was able to even witness her talking to one while she was in an astral state. It seems this is not her original body, which I found mildly interesting.

Mentally shaking my head at the stray thought, I refocused on her meeting with this "Goddess." And the reason for my disappointment. It was just some entity that had more access to this "System" than she did. A higher "level" as it were, and was nothing at all special or "divine" in any way, shape or form. Well, at least it is an actual entity this time, and not a protocol of the system like the so-called "Heroes" dealt with.

At first, I was interested that this goddess existed solely as an astral entity, but from what I now understood of this system and how it generally worked I was willing to bet it was helping with that. While it is very much possible to exist only as an astral being, it is generally not worth the effort in my opinion. You have to expend so much more power to constantly affect the physical world than it would to just create a body to inhabit, which I quickly found out in the early years of my life.

Another thing is that contrary to what I had originally thought in my youth, it is next to impossible to strengthen your astral self in the astral plane. My body feeds my astral self as it gains power, and vice versa. It's a small positive feedback loop that I took great advantage of. Well, the constant injections sure helped, even if they were the most painful thing I have ever experienced.

So in the end, it was just another entity being babied by this system and not powerful in any meaningful way. In other words, not worth my time. As I refocused on Rose I was once again glad I was able to process things at such astonishing speeds, otherwise, there would be quite a few awkward pauses when people talked to me…

Rose shook her head and said, "Well, no matter. I apologise for insinuating that your name was strange, Goddess Zero!"

She gave a deep, deep bow as she continued, "It is far from my place to comment on a Goddess name like that, I was lost in my excitement."

I simply waved her off and said, ~It is of no consequence.~

While I internally thought, 'Not like I put much thought into my name. Maybe I'll change it one day if it starts to bother me.'

Rose thanked me again before righting herself back up and saying, "Thank you for your leniency, Goddess Zero."

Raising my eyebrow I asked, ~Speak, what is bothering you?~

She blinked a few times before letting out a slightly nervous laugh and said, "Ummm… I… Well, you see…"

She was stumbling on her words for a few seconds before she just groaned and finished, "I hate to ask more of you Goddess Zero, but I must implore you to dress yourself!"

Raising an eyebrow and tilting my head slightly to the right I asked, ~And pray tell, why do you insist I clothe my body?~

She started to fidget some more nervously before stating, "To be completely honest Goddess Zero, I don't think the male members of my Royal Court would be able to… behave should they look at your form as it is…"

Laughing slightly I asked, ~And why would that be my problem? Should they be foolish to try anything, I will simply remove them.~

It was amusing to see her shiver a little in fear at my statement, as it was clear she understood what I meant by "remove them." However, she seemed to drudge out some more courage deep within as she said, "Yes, and that is your right to do so. But, as much as I hate that these words are coming out of my mouth right now… I need them. I've been working on replacing the bad ones, but it is slow going. As all things political."

I gave her a soft smile as I restated, ~Again, little one, how is this at all my problem?~

It was amusing to watch her squirm, but I think I'll stop for now. She did save me, if only briefly, from the Phantasmal. And while I wasn't sure they were hunting me, I was a result of something they did so I felt it was better to be safe than dead. Or worse.

I was stumped on what to wear though! I had no real fashion taste, so I did the only thing I could think of at the time. Look to other versions of myself and see what they have picked! This was a fun ability I had found very early on in my life; looking at other versions of myself. When peering at them though, it was abundantly clear that time was not linear as even when I was young, I was able to see older versions of myself not in captivity.

Another thing I had discovered, much to my disappointment, was that I was never able to communicate with another version of myself. All I was able to do was watch on with interest or envy.

After perusing a few other me's and mentally giggling at what some of them were doing, I finally came across one that had a look I LOVED. With a mental flex, my power spread out across the room and several of the ruined blocks of stone glowed a rainbow of colours before shifting into dust and flowing towards me. The radiantly glowing dust storm swirled around me for a few seconds before forming my new attire and accessories.

Looking down at my handiwork, a ghost of a smile makes its way to my face. The dress I now had on was extremely form-fitting, hugging all my curves, with a deep "V" cut around the neck to show off a fair amount of cleavage. The dress itself split at the hips and the front was narrower, while the rear was wider, almost like a small cape.

I had long pantyhoes that came up to my upper thighs, giving off a wonderful view of skin between them and my panties. Naturally, the whole outfit was rose red giving a wonderful contrast between it and my skin and scale colours.

On my neck and ears were gemstones of pink diamonds, and rather large ones as well. The earrings themselves were teardrop-shaped and several centimetres long. The necklace had a much larger teardrop pink diamond, and along the pearl white chain were little teardrops of Alexandrite. It was my second favourite gemstone next to pink diamonds after all! It seems that version of myself and I shared the same tastes in gemstones.

While I didn't need it, I also had taken the idea for the ring this version of myself was using. Judging by the disgusting men around her, I had a feeling she was using it as a wedding band of some kind. The "wedding" ring was on my left hand and the main gemstone was another pink diamond, in a circular shape and studded all around it was a mix of rubies and Alexandrite. The band itself was extremely pure jade, to sell the whole "married to wealth" idea.

Happy with my, totally, not stolen attire, I looked at the gobsmacked Rose and asked, ~Better?~

She just numbly nodded her head a few times before snapping out of it and saying, "Wow! Just… WOW. Maybe I should have had you stay naked… I feel like this is worse somehow…"

She glanced at my left hand and asked, "Married?"

I just stared at her while floating, not seeing a point in clarifying anything as I thought it was better to just let her and others make up the scenario themselves. And I could always clarify, or directly modify it in their minds later if I truly needed to after all.

I was also enjoying her squirming while I thought, 'I am a sadist it seems. I should look into this further at some point in time.'

She coughed awkwardly before saying, "Right… never mind. Umm, I or rather, we should be going. I need to let my generals know what we will be doing soon. They should have gotten the quest completed like me, so everyone should be gathered already in the war room downstairs. Strange that no one has come up to check on the situation though…"

While she was puzzled slightly about the situation, I was not. I had felt several minds appear in a room beneath us rather suddenly a few minutes ago after all. As for why no one was coming up, I thought it best she experienced the reason first-hand.

She simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well no matter. Please follow me, Goddess Zero. They should be in the war room nonetheless, and I would like to introduce you to everyone. Ah! Please be assured, however, that I am in no way asking you to fight in this war more than you already have!"

I gave her a small smile and waved for her to lead the way. She gave a modest bow and then turned on her heel to lead the way. As I floated behind her, I gave the throne room one final look before we left it. It was torn to shreds, and the effort to repair it back to its once noble look would be rather immense. Even her throne was not spared from the battle, and the only thing left of it was a small section of the seat.

I ended my inspection of the throne room as we passed through a large doorway that was now missing said doors. The hall was still decorated, and more of it survived the battle the deeper we got. It seems a few spells managed to go astray and destroy some of the paintings and busts that dotted the hallway though.

Hearing a delicate and soft sigh from Rose as we passed a rather large painting, I quickly glanced at it as I floated by. It was clear this was a relative of hers, as the similarities between them were honestly astonishing. It was like looking at a future version of Rose! Having my curiosity peaked, I took a quick peek into her mind and discovered that the woman was her mother. And the reason for this war.

It seems these humans are just Nanrites at heart after all. They started the whole thing by killing her mother because she was "A Demon." That was it, that was all it took for the humans it seemed. The only Xeno attributes Rose and her mother had were horns on their heads, but it seems that was enough of a reason for the humans.

Several flights of stairs and long corridors later, we finally arrived at the so-called war room. From Rose's mind, this was the eastern part of the castle, where the throne was nearly directly in the middle of it all.

As Rose started to push the large double doors open, a small smile started to grow on my face at what was about to happen. Before she even finished pushing open the doors, there was a loud yell, "NOW!"

In a matter of seconds, there were now several arrows dripping with some kind of venom and several spells coated in my power floating lazily just in front of Rose. With a hidden smirk, I thought, 'It seems you're going to get your chance to do some cleaning sooner than you thought, little demon queen.'

To Rose's credit, she did manage to bring up her arms in a protective stance that covered her chest and head while also having a barrier of energy around her. But the barrier was much slower than the attacks, and most of them would have hit her body long before it was fully formed. And the venom on those arrows was most likely rather nasty if they planned to kill a demon queen.

Everything was silent for a few moments before Rose collected herself and yelled, "What are you doing?! YOU DARE?!!!"

Her raging scream snapped the would-be assassins out of their shock and they all tried to quickly ready a second salvo. I raised my hand for dramatic effect and said, ~That is enough of that~. ~

My power pulsed out and covered everyone, attacker or not, causing them all to freeze in place. And then with a snap of my fingers, the attacks that were currently floating vanished without a trace.

Seeing that everything was under my control, Rose quickly turned to me bowed deeply and said, "Thank you so much, Goddess Zero! Thank you, thank you!"

I giggled inwardly as I felt the whole room's atmosphere shift when she called me a Goddess. All of the struggling, even if it was beyond worthless, ceased soon after her bow.

Ignoring the others, I merely waved off Rose and said, ~It was no trouble, Rose. I merely demand that you let me have the betrayers after you are done with them.~

With amusement, I thought, 'This is a great way to see just how much of a sadist I am. Interestingly, I am still finding things out about myself, even to this day. Well, I didn't exactly get to indulge myself in such actions while I was in confinement now that I think about it, so it really shouldn't be a total surprise.'

While still bowing Rose replied, "Of course! May I ask for your aid in interrogation to get to the bottom of this and weed out the malcontents?"

With a small smile, I said, ~Raise your head, Rose. And, I do not mind lending you more of my aid.~

She fixed her posture, stood straight, smiled at me and said, "Thank you again, Goddess Zero. Let's start with him." She turned around and pointed at a man in a blue set of armour. It was ceremonial rather than for actual combat as it was much too sleek and thin while also lacking any major power from the system like the heroes' attire displayed. He was not expecting a fight to break out with his attack on the Demon Queen if he was wearing such basic, if fancy, attire.

He also had an interesting shade of red skin and three black horns on his head that curled up from his brow. The coat of arms that was on his right breast was of a strange wolf-like creature with an eagle-like tail. It must be his house's crest, as it did not match the crest I saw on the flags that survived the battle in the throne room.

With clear and justifiable venom in her voice, Rose continued, "Duke Shadthorn. I always knew you were a slimy, disgusting man. But to attempt regicide?! More so after I had successively killed the human Heroes?!"

I floated said duke in front of Rose, and forced him to his knees while raising his head to look up at her. The pure disgust in his eyes was just as strong as Rose's. I loosened up my hold on his face which caused him to growl before he spat out, "You have doomed us all you worthless child! As I knew you would! Yet again you make me regret that the assassin failed to kill you along with your whore of a mother. No, more than that! Because of your actions, the humans will be able to summon their Goddess as well! Do you know what this means for our race?! DO YOU?!"

Rose had stilled halfway through his raving screaming and now was shaking with an impressive amount of rage. Which, to be fair, is not shocking. The man had just confessed to killing her mother after all.

With an impressively cold and collected voice she quietly asked, "What did you just say about my mother?"

He spat at her, which I just flung back at his eyes with a soft mental giggle. He cursed up a storm before yelling, "I said you should have died with your foul bitch of a mother! But just my luck that the stupid human had a soft spot for children. Well, he was a damn human, so I should have expected as much."

Rose then exploded with a massive amount of energy, it was red like her hair and was covering her like a type of aura. It was also releasing threads of system type of energy that was targeting everyone in the room but myself. From the reactions of everyone else in the room, it was some kind of "killing intent" skill being activated.

She raised her hand and a brilliant spear that looked to be made out of blood-red crystal quickly formed. She grabbed hold of the new weapon and shoved it towards the man's heart. She gasped in abject surprise when her weapon suddenly glowed with my power and stopped just shy of entering his skin. Her head whipped to me as she asked, "Goddess Zero?! Why would you save him?!"

The man gained a smug smile and said, "It would seem she agrees with me, you little bitch! Now, release me goddess and-"

I cut him off as I smiled softly at Rose, ~To kill him like that for the murder of your beloved mother is a waste. Prolong it, really make it hurt. Here, I will help you.~

With a flex of my mind, they both glowed brilliantly as my power covered their entire bodies. In the next moment, the three of us were now in an empty white space. The Duke was also now tied to a chair and unable to move instead of kneeling. They both looked around in wonder and confusion before Rose turned her attention to me.

Widening my smile I say, ~Welcome, to a mind space I created for you Rose. Here, anything you can think of will materialise. Please, do get creative while you torture the man for what he has done. And fear not, time will not pass no matter how long you break him.~

The scene in front of us shifted, and suddenly we were in a dreary cellar of some kind. The room was covered in tools used for torture of all kinds, it was impressive honestly what her mind was coming up with.

Rose had a sinister smile on her face that was only continuing to grow as she looked around before she focused back on the Duke. Said traitor was now strapped down to a rather uncomfortable table that had him spread eagle.

Despite the man's rapidly paling features, Rose was looking more and more ecstatic at the situation. Without breaking eye contact with the Duke she asked, "Will he truly feel all of this?"

My giggle "echoed" off the room walls as I said, ~Oh, my sweet little Rose. It will be so much worse than that! While I called this a mind space, you are both here as your astral bodies. Your soul as you call it. So yes, he will truly feel this. And so much more…~

A truly dark and sinister smile graced her lips as she raised her hand which now had a scalpel in it. As she leaned over the now screaming man she said, "Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Let me give you but a taste of the pain I feel at the loss of my mother, you traitorous sack of shit."

The man's screaming intensified a thousandfold as she started to cut into him, and it was truly music to my ears.

[author]Whoa, here is a sudden chapter! It's been awhile, huh? Sorry, but my will to write lately has been at an all time low. So do not expect to much from me, sorry... Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter though![/author]