Chapter 342

Demiurge looked down at the corpse. 'So you were a woman of legend.' He thought, "What an absurd way to die, killed by your own friend." The archdevil held little enough pity for the dead creature, but disloyalty offended him on a deeply personal level.

The 'friend' or what had been her, lay on the next table over. The mush of her head and brain matter lay where an intact head would have been in life, it made resurrection marginally easier if more of the corpse was present. But so far he'd raised neither of them from the dead, or 'undeath' as it were.

Instead, because of their strength, and their diverse physical tendencies, he'd been conducting experiments with mana flow. 'Tier magic is so close to what it was like in Yggdrassil, but there it… it just had none of these properties, it just 'worked'. Here though?' The thought was a blend of exhilaration and intimidation.

'I've learned so much from Remedios… but I'm missing something… even if our lord doesn't use this… the possible applications are boundless.' Demiurge began to pace beside the preserved corpses. "Maybe…" He looked down at the body of Lakyus, "Maybe the base form matters more than I thought, what if I added another step… and what if…?" He looked toward the door of his lab. Somewhere out there, the Draconic Queen, a rare Wild Magic user, was slowly reaching the conclusion that she had no future unless it was under the Allfather's thumb.

'Wild magic… may be the key.' He considered it more, and more… but then gave it further thought… 'I need more souls though… more followers, her kingdom just doesn't have enough… but then… the beastmen do. I suppose one more trip would be worthwhile… and I get the feeling the Draconic Queen won't be feeling particularly merciful anytime soon. Perhaps we can see how strong her Wild Magic can be… do what we did with Arche and her companions…'

The thoughts and plans spun on in the archdevil's mind, for possibilities that seemed to go on and on without end…

"So can you really beat him?" Brain asked the question of his traveling companion the following morning.

"It's that or a fate worse than death." Zesshi answered him when they were well on the road again.

"I don't want Zesshi to die." Layali chimed in, for the moment she rode on the front of Zesshi's horse and leaned back against the chest of the heterochromatic half elf. "So you're not allowed to." She insisted with the kind of seriousness that only a small girl could muster.

"Understood." Zesshi answered and patted the top of Layali's head. "I'll just have to win then."

"And if you win the throne, what then?" Brain asked.

The breeze blew on, and the long dangling hair of Zesshi's was joined by the rest of her long strands, the sun was beaming down with only the most distant of clouds which carried the southern storms to the far north. The horses clip-clopped along and for a fair time, Zesshi didn't say anything.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Brain said and bringing his hand to his mouth, he coughed into it, clearing his throat and hoping to have cleared an awkward moment.

"I don't know." Zesshi finally stated, "I just don't. I was supposed to hand it over to the Slane Theocracy like a present, something they could use to crush the last resistance of the elf Kingdom. But I can't do that now, and I won't. With my father dead and the power of the empire, there'd be nothing to stop the Theocracy from overrunning the whole region… things like… what happened with my brother, and those others… they'd never end. I don't want that. But I don't know how to rule anything."

"How would you like it?" Zesshi asked him.

"Like… the Empire… the throne?" Brain pointed at his chest and looked at her half openmouthed, "You're not serious?"

"I'm not 'not serious'. You know a lot more than me, I'm just a warrior, I fight, and that's all… I can't do a damn thing… I don't want a throne. If I win, I'll give it to the next most powerful survivor, maybe I'll offer to guarantee their spot on it… of course… if somebody beats me, and offers to make me the Empress, that's different."

"That's something you really want?" Brain asked, "To just fight and have strong children?"

"I never really thought of anything else, not really." Zesshi answered, "When you're a scripture member they really only want you to do two things, fight and screw. So it's all they taught me."

Brain inched his horse closer to Zesshi so that they were side by side, "Is that why they took you from your mother?" He asked her, and it was her turn to drop her jaw.

"I-I never thought of that… I… by the balls of the gods…" She lowered her eyes to just watch the road pass beneath her horse. "I… they said it was for my own good, that she was getting too old and I had too many special needs as a…" Her eyes stung as she the realization hit her.

"Bastards… they wanted me as a… and they were always trying to get me to lie with Cenna… they took me away from my mother, let her die without me… so they could raise me for that?! I really was a card… to be used and discarded when they were done…" Zesshi lost herself in her own thoughts, 'Did Raymond know… no, no he couldn't have known that much, plus I heard him talk about me… whatever else he's done, he does care about me, he wouldn't have kept that from me…'

"You're just like my mother, in the end…" Layali said and put her little hands over Zesshi's, "Not human… not a person. Just a tool. I'm sorry, really sorry… I didn't like it either…" The little girl's tiny voice was utterly sincere, and she twisted herself halfway round to swing her arm around Zesshi's slender frame to give the elder half-elf a hug.

They were silent for a while, Zesshi, with great delicacy, put her hand on top of Layali's head and stroked it a few times, she couldn't say how it felt for the little former slave to actually pity the pinnacle of power. But when she felt her heart tear in half at Brain's unexpected and unimagined observation, the little embrace… put a few stitches at the tear.

'Maybe… maybe we don't have to give her up…' The trump card thought, playing her cards close to her chest as they rode onward to the north, and without thinking about it, both Brain and Zesshi spurred their horses at the same time, and chased after the northern horizon on the endless road ahead.