A New Goal (2)

"Why don't you make conquering that world as your current goal?"

It was the last sentence that came out of Vera's mouth before Blake was taken aback and accidentally hit the back of his head onto the stone wall behind him.

"Ouch! That hurts!" He cried as he rubbed the part where it made contact with the stone wall.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Vera asked while chuckling at Blake's action.

"You exactly know why! That is unthinkable!" Blake exclaimed after he finally eased the pain in the back of his head.

"Unthinkable? Why?" She asked again, this time, genuinely curious about why Blake thought like that.

"Conquering worlds? How am I supposed to do that? Is that even possible?"

Vera blinked a couple of times as she stared at Blake with her eyes squinted, but then something clicked inside her head and she opened up her mouth,

"Let me tell you then, ex-human."

It was the first sentence that came out of Vera's mouth. And although Blake could feel the teasing tone that Vera used to say those words, he couldn't help but feel slightly afraid that she would be warier towards him because he had told him about his past condition about being a human.

However, he would soon forget about his unnecessary fear because of the fact that Vera was about to tell him.

"It might be unthinkable if you used the same logic as the one that you had back in your world, especially for the humans. But I, and you now, we, demons have been doing that for countless years."

"You said that mana started appearing in your world because of a gate and that gate leads to another world that is currently fighting against the demons right? That is probably the work of one of the higher-ranking demons trying to conquer that world." She explained with a tinge of pride behind her words.

"Really? But the fight has been going on for about a decade and there hasn't been a winner yet. Can the demons really succeed in conquering that world?" Blake asked with pure curiosity.

"Of course, there are cases where the world was able to defend themselves from a demon attack. But that could only mean two things. The world was very strong or the high ranking demon was very weak and they overestimated themselves."

"But if what you're wondering about is whether the demons really can conquer worlds, then the answer is yes. There are countless worlds out there, and there are so many worlds left for us, demons to conquer. And the stronger demons can ever conquer more than just one world."

"More than one world?? How strong would that demon be…?" Blake muttered as he couldn't even imagine conquering a single country back in his own world.

Seeing Blake's dazed expression, Vera chuckled and thought to herself, 'I wonder what kind of face he would make if he know father had hundreds of solar systems under him…'

Seeing that Blake still hadn't come out of his stupor yet, Vera spoke once again, "But of course, you are still not strong enough to do that even with your unimaginable talent. You are still a long way there. But I'm sure, it would only be a matter of when you will be able to do it."

"Haa…." Blake released a huge sigh before continuing, "Alright then, might as well make it my distant goal since I have nothing on my mind yet."

"Don't make it too distant though, you will never know what could have happened." Vera suddenly spoke.

Blake looked at her with questioning eyes, but she soon explained herself.

"You said that your world is connected to the other world where demons are currently invading. If the demons were to succeed, you can assume that they would be going after your world. And later on, if you wanted to take back that world, then it would be tens of times more complicated for you to snatch the world back from another demon instead of conquering an unoccupied world. I don't know how long you've got, but I suggest that you hurry up if you don't want to have a complicated battle against a highly evolved demon from the deeper realms."

Hearing Vera's explanation, Blake quickly thought of one thing,

'Amy…'

If his world were to be invaded by the demons, then it was certain that Amy's life would also be changed upside down. With the current situation, where the war was held in another world, the citizens of his world didn't have to mandatorily take arms against the demons. Only the ones that wanted to do it will do it.

But if the fight were to be brought into his own world, then all people, at least the ones that were capable of using mana, would surely be forced to join the war whether they wanted to do it or not. Thinking about Amy and how a gentle person she was, he couldn't ever imagine her fighting on the frontline with the demons.

'I need to either be strong enough to prevent that to happen or I need to find a way to bring her out of that world if war really comes into that world…' Blake promised to himself.

Vera had purposely said it even though she wasn't sure herself whether Blake would really grow to be strong enough in a short amount of time. It would probably only take about another decade or two for the war to conclude, and if the demons were the winner, then it was certain that Blake's world would be the next target.

And a decade or two would certainly not be enough time for a demon that hadn't even evolved once to catch up to a demon who had the ability and strength to try and conquer another world.

But Vera still told him nonetheless since he wanted Blake to be prepared for that possible reality to happen when he eventually reaches that level of power. And another reason she also told him to hurry up was that she wanted him to have something to work for. It would only hold him down and he would progress much slower without a goal that he wanted to thrive for, which would be a waste of his godly talent.

And the faster it is for him to reach that level, the faster it is for her to get closer to reaching her own goal.

"Vera, can I ask why you are here?" Blake's voice suddenly entered Vera's ears.

The question might mean anything like 'Why are you living in the middle of a forest in this vast realm?' Or 'Why did you stay in the basement all the time?' But it could also mean, 'What makes you live in this realm even though you are from the deeper realms?'

Vera was quite surprised to receive that question out of nowhere, but after thinking about it, it would make sense for Blake to want to know more about her after he shared almost everything about him.

Vera stayed silent for 5 whole seconds and Blake thought that he had made a mistake by asking that and quickly added, "If you are not comfortable in sharing it, you can just ignore my question."

"No, it's not because I'm uncomfortable with telling you about it. Let's just say that my problem was quite complicated and telling you my problem would only make you have unnecessary thoughts about the deeper realms." She explained shortly.

"Is there anything I can do to help you deal with it? I might not be strong enough right now, but just as you said, I will definitely become stronger quicker and I will be able to help you soon. I want to thank you for taking me in and for becoming my teacher…" Blake said, while almost mumbling the last part as he felt quite embarrassed saying it outrightly, straight in front of her.

It might not have been visible because of his jet-black skin, but if he was back in his human form, then his ears would already be bright red when he said those last few words.

Vera almost laughed when she saw Blake getting visibly embarrassed, but she didn't want to look as if she was laughing at his resolve, so she kept her emotions to herself before saying,

"Well, if you really wanted to know… Then I will tell you after you've descended into the third realm."

Hearing that, Blake's face visibly lit up in excitement as he nodded his head repeatedly. It might have been some time when he would know more about her, but just the fact that she had also put her trust in him, enough to promise him that she would tell him about her personal problems, made Blake feel as if the positive feelings he had for her was not one-sided.

"I will definitely reach the third realm soon!"

Vera saw the obvious excitement visible on Blake's face, and this time, she couldn't help but let out a chuckle and rubbed Blake's head while muttering, "How I wish my little siblings would be like you…"

Blake's face was flushed when Vera smiled and rubbed his head, but after hearing what she said about him, Blake quickly retorted, "I'm not a child you know! I am already grown up! I -"

Blake was only halfway through saying his sentence before he was frozen speechless when he felt a soft and warm sensation on his cheek.

Blake couldn't even see when it came or how she did it, but in just a blink of his eyes, he suddenly found Vera's face right beside his as she planted a kiss on his left cheek.

And while he was still paralyzed from the shock that he just received, Vera patted Blake's head twice and smiled.

"You can say that again after you have fully grown your wings, okay? Little Blake."

She teasingly said before walking away, leaving him alone in the testing room with a blank look on his face.