Chapter 35: Second Prince

"So, what is happening here?"

I get out of my Soul Palace and come into the physical world. And I see Turin in front of me sleeping in a crater that was left by the devil's body. I guess he would be dead tired after all that.

I look around and see the prince and the other two exactly where they were before I entered my Soul Palace. What the heck. I guess not long has passed while I was inside my Soul Palace then. That's convenient.

I get out of the crater of the devil's body and look to toward the prince.

"Your devil is fertilizer and Turin is safe. Is there anything else you got hidden?"

"No, you managed to efficiently negate my every preparation for all this. First, you broke through my barriers and killed my soldiers. After that you killed my succubi and broke my magic circle. Just now you killed my last trump card: Abrax the devil and saved the third prince from certain doom.

I suppose you managed to foil everything."

"So, you just give up like that?"

"Of course, no."

He lifts his arm and bring up a small tower. Looks like a leaning tower of Pisa. But size with size of keychain.

"And what is that supposed to be?"

"This is an item called Vast Room. This item here is containing all the residents of this city."

"You mean that keychain is capable of storing tens of thousands of live people?"

"Not exactly. Before I out them inside the Room, I put them into suspended animation. So, they are considered dead."

"So, I we don't let you go, you will smash that keychain?"

"I suppose I will."

"And once again what makes you believe that I care about those people?"

"I know you don't. But what about them?"

Once again, he points to the two guild masters and they look at me.

"Seriously dude? Again?"

"Yes, again. Maybe you should gave let Abrax kill them before coming here."

"Maybe you are right. But there isn't much they can do if I want to ignore those residents and simply kill you even if you smash that keychain."

"But will you really do that?"

"Of course, I will, saving third prince according to their wish was business. But killing you is personal. I don't care what will happen after I cause all those people's death. I can just leave. But letting you live is not something I want to do."

"And why are you so determined to kill me?"

"Well, there is quite a few factors but just the ones on top of my head is, even if I let you go, I'm pretty sure what you are going to do with those people. And when I broke through your barrier, I vowed that I will kill you."

"And what do you think I will do with them then?"

"Sacrifice, right?"

"Indeed, you are right."

"So, just give up and let me kill you painlessly. You don't want what happened to that devil happen to you. But I will do it if you try something."

"I suppose you are right."

"That's it? You are giving up?"

"Not exactly. But I will give this back to you."

He throws the keychain to me. As I caught it, I see a similar red magic circle forming around the prince.

"You think that will protect you from me?"

I throw the keychain to Owl.

"I know it won't hold for long, but I know it can hold on for long enough."

As he says that I see the circle changing somehow. It color turns blue. I guess he is doing something. But I don't feel anything dangerous.

"So, I suppose you want to teleport out of here?"

"You are right once again."

"If you can do that, why not just bring the keychain with you?"

"Even though people inside that is in suspended animation, their souls are still intact. So, I can't carry that much soul with me. And if I smash the Room everyone inside will be dead and I'm sure humans will wage war on us if it got out."

"You were going to kidnap the anyway. Why worry about that now?"

"I thought I could get away with it."

"Indeed, you might have if it wasn't for me."

"You are right."

As he says that I finally see some kind of emotion in his cold eyes. Anger and frustration.

"Since you are leaving, can I ask you one thing?"

His calm returns as his eyes go back to its cold form.

"I guess."

"What did you want to achieve by doing all this?"

"I wanted to become a crown prince."

"What?"

"Okay, since I failed, there isn't much of a problem with telling you this. As you may have already heard I'm a second prince and my brother is the crown prince. I may be exceptional, but my brother is same too. And he got the birthright. So, I will always be a prince.

I didn't want that. But I can't very well just kill my brother. So, I was starting to despair until I came across a certain spell from ancient tomb.

And since I got that spell, I started planning all this.

That spell was a certain Arch mage's self-invented spell. According to his records, one day he came to a certain discovery. He didn't go into how he came into that discovery, but he explained his spell's working concept.

According to him life forms need to be observed by others for them to exist. Specially humans. So, according to his theory, if others refuse to acknowledge that someone's existence that someone will stop existing.

So, he came up with a spell to confirm that theory. His spell affected everyone that ever observed that someone that the spell is targeted at.

That spell gently but effectively suggests to the observers' psyche to stop observing the target. Thus, causing that someone's existence to be ignored by others. And that causes those that know that somebody to no longer remember that someone.

And those who know that someone forgets he or she. So, that makes it that someone never existed in the first place.

I was immediately taken in by that spell. But problem was I wasn't an arch mage. So, I needed another way to cast this humongous spell on my brother. To fuel this spell. So, I came to a foregone conclusion. Sacrifice.

Specifically, human sacrifice. With that I hit two birds with one stone. Casting my spell and getting rid of a city.

After I cast my spell, my brother will be wiped out of existence and I will be the legitimate crown prince."

"So, in other words perfect crime. No one will ever suspect you because you would be a genuinely legitimate crown prince."

"Indeed, that is right."

"In a way that is ingenious. But unfortunately for you I was here."

"Indeed, you were."

As we converse, I feel his spell nearing its completion. Still, to think someone came up with Schrodinger's cat here. I'm not sure if that arch mage came up with the other experiments. But I'm sure that this spell of his is definitely based on Schrodinger's cat.

And what's scarier is the fact that he came up with that scary spell just to test out his theory. Watch the demon prince finish casting his spell. And as soon as his spell finishes the magic circle lights up and the prince gets distracted by that.

I use that period and pounces on him. As I reach the circle vicinity the familiar barrier flickers into existence. And as the prince realizes what I did, he looks to me with fear and surprise.

"You fool, this formation can't teleport us both."

"But I know it won't kill us. I said I will kill you right."

As the circle lights up one last time I feel myself getting sucked into who knows where. And my vision gets dark.

...…

As we watch 47 converses with the demon prince and disappear into the thin air.

"What just happened?"

"I think 47 interrupted the prince's teleport by attacking him and got teleported with the prince."

"Think they reached their destination safely?"

"Highly unlikely."

"Why is that?"

"Because, I'm pretty sure that prince didn't expect to carry two people with that circle."

"So, because 47 interrupted his spell, they got teleported to someplace else?"

"That would be my guess."

"Then that would be good for 47."

"Why is that?"

"Because if they got to where the prince intended to, he will be in the heart of the demo's territory."

"You are right."

"Anyway, let's hope he will be fine."

...…

I wake up in a dark cave. Shit that was unpleasant. And where the hell am I?

End of Volume 2