Chapter 49: Secrets

"Hello there miss, do you wanna play Truth or Dare with me?" Suddenly a childish voice rings amongst the trees.

Suddenly, on the calm and sunny summer day, a wind picks up and it brings chills down Julie's spine. The whole world around her seemed to shake, one moment it aroused the feeling of being burnt by fire and the next it became so cold that she felt like her nails would fall off.

"Truth or dare?" The childish voice rings once again and Julie, even though she knows that this is an illusion, she just can't seem to break out of it.

It was during this time that Julie pushed her conscience outside of her body.

<Soul Gaze>

This way she could see what was going on in the real world as while she knew that it was an illusion, that didn't make the pain that she is feeling less real.

In the real world, she saw Lily was still entrapped in the ice and Alex was also still in the cocoon of cursed chains and seemed to not be fighting at all.

But out of the bushes comes a new girl, she didn't seem any older than Alex, making her look around six years old. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and innocent green eyes. She looked at Julie's immobile body nervously. 

"U -Um, miss, are you okay?" The little girl asked.

Julie looked at what was going on in the real world and was confused for a split second. But she immediately theorized that the girl wasn't what she seemed to be and almost attacked her. Though she stopped, Julie isn't the type of person to care about sacrificing the life of a little girl for her own. But what stopped her is another part of the equation. 

'She is the Hell's Creatures most likely.' Analyzed Julie, now back to being calm once more. 'Panicking will not solve anything.'

Once she started thinking clearly once more, Julie immediately broke Alex out of the cursed chains cocoon. 

Boom!

*cough* *cough* 

Once he is out, he coughs a couple of times. 

"Truth or Dare? Truth or Dare? Truth or Dare? Truth or Dare? Truth or Dare?..." The childish voice inside Julie's mind continues ringing out loud as her body is filled with even more pain. The pain is so bad that any normal person would have started begging for death as it feels like her flesh is being melted off.

Julie isn't affected by this too much though. 'I have had worse. Though I can't think straight with all this pain. I need to take care of it.'

But Julie stealthily uses a spell on herself.

<Greater Numb>

It numbs her body, getting rid of the pain plaguing her body. Well, she still felt the pain, but it was dulled and it felt more like a foreign sensation.

She then releases Alex, who has his smile on his face even as Julie undoes all the curses on him. 

"You knew about this didn't you?" She asks, already knowing his answer.

Alex only shrugs. "Nope, but I see no need to panic… unlike you…"

"Tch, what did I expect from a brat. You can't even comprehend just how scary death is for people like us." She finishes, but soon her lips also form back into a smile. "But you are right Alex. I truly do not see a need to get panicked over nothing. Seems like not having a true threat for hundreds of years has dulled my senses."

"Did you get them back now?" Alex asks her as he puts his hands in his pockets.

"Yes," she says simply before walking towards the little girl and patting her on the head. 'It was only for a split second, but I panicked, and… the problem isn't that. 

I still remember how it felt to be at death's door every day, feeling the reaper's scythe around your neck. But none of that is important, because panicking at this time means that I have… regressed… I am a weaker version of myself-'

"Truth or Dare?" Asks the little girl with a smile on her face.

"I hope you don't reveal what you hear here." She says while looking at Alex and smiles gently, but he knows better than to go against what she says. She needs him alive, but not necessarily mentally sane. "Truth."

The little girl smiles at that even more, her smile widens so much that it seems like her face is split in half. 

"Kekekekeke~" her childish voice rings through the clearing. "Then, tell me your deepest secret."

Julie is taken aback by the question but in the end, only sighs. "I am the daughter of the Demon King…"

Alex's body immediately cringes and his eyes widen in shock. 'What the hell!!! This wasn't mentioned or even hinted at in the game!!'

But he brings his expression back under control and looks at Julie seriously.

The little girl's expression goes back to normal and she asks again. "Truth or Dare?"

"Truth" Julie answers again.

The little girl's face turns into a demonic-looking one again. "What are your goals?"

"My current short-term goal is to try and achieve the rank beyond Legendary without touching Godhood, I want the power of a God but to still be able to stay in the mortal plane and do whatever I want here. 

My long-term goal is to try and become the strongest person in this world and look into the Records of Akasha and discover the truth of the world. I guess becoming the strongest would be just a byproduct, I wanna be one of the Omnipotent and Omniscient beings."

Alex blinks rapidly as he looks at her. 'I knew she was ambitious… but holy hell… she is way too ambitious!! Also, her background is the daughter of the Demon King, that guy is a different kind of monster that makes anyone in the Human Continent look like a weakling. 

He is the kind of guy that even with my in-game Ice God Power I couldn't beat. He is someone who has gone beyond the limit… and to think that he had children on this side of the continent. This has just added another layer of complications to my plans.'

He got a little anxious as he thought of this since even in-game he didn't know exactly how strong the Demon King was. Though Alex knows that even at the end stages of the game where there were already thousands of Legendary Rank players, even when they banded together in a certain war... a lot of them were eliminated… and they weren't even able to meet the Demon King or see his face. 

'I hated NPCs like him even back in the game. They were too overpowered. So strong that they seemed to do something out of normal logic. Just like that annoying Monk, but at least the Monk wasn't someone who would just wanna enslave humans or anything like that.' Contemplates Alex.

'Actually, the Monk was kind, and if I didn't go to raid his monastery and almost killed the head monk there… he probably wouldn't have even attacked me. 

But those Monk techniques, even if none can be used with Mana, I can simply copy them over and change the energy usage. Not that hard, especially with all of the theoretical knowledge that I have together with my knowledge from the Game.'

Alex's mind is already planning hundreds… no, he is planning thousands of steps ahead together with how many variables might get in the way. 

"Truth or Dare?" The little girl asks once more.

"Truth." Answers Julie.

*crack*

The girl's neck suddenly twists and breaks. "Impossible, we are playing a game of two truths and a dare. So you have to do a dare now to keep the game exciting. Truth or Dare?"

Blood starts seeping out of the girl's eyes as she asks that.

Julie still has a smile on her face as she says. "Dare."

*CRACK*

The little girl's head snaps right off her body. "Amazing! Then I dare you to…

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A/N: Julie is crazily ambitious too and has a lot of secrets. Some that even the MC doesn't know, since she would never reveal them to anyone. Also, she had reached beyond Legendary Rank during the game… so it means that she had somehow figured out a way.

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 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

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