Dark Fate, Chapter 281 (Patreon)

Chapter 281 – Arrival

Mhyreth, carrying Vyllan, our son, walked with me, Lilith, and my most important pets me as I strode into the room where the [Transport Beacon] had been placed. The room was in part of the palace, which helped to restrict who could access the device. There were also four soldiers from the Ceres Royal Army here. Two were the regular watch for the room, because teleporters leading out of the domain were obviously going to be watched, but the other two were to be the visiting Demon Lord’s escorts.

Not that I thought he needed escorting, or that he wouldn’t have his own guards as protection. However, a Demon Lord does lose a good portion of their strength when they are away from their people. If something happened to him while he was my guest, because I hadn’t done anything to ward him? That was my failure, and reflected poorly on me.

Likewise, there was also the fact that, while I trusted this Demon Lord to some extent (otherwise the [Transport Beacon] would never have been put in place), I did not trust him completely. A nominal guard to watch over him also provided some surveillance, to ensure that he didn’t do anything openly seditious or harmful to me and mine. I’d learned the lesson about trusting too deeply the first timeline, after all.

And then, there was the symbolism of it, and that was not the smallest consideration, by far. Symbolically, my having guards for the Demon Lord signaled to anyone watching that not only was he an official guest, but he was one under my protection. That was very different from having, say, one of the Ambassadors walking around, who were, in a sense, official guests of the realm, but saw to their own protection on the day-to-day side of things. That made this more official, like a state visit, rather than just a visitor who happened to get an audience with the Emperor.

Symbols were important things to any ruler. The flag, the coat of arms for different military branches, the uniforms, even the ruler themselves. All of them were symbols. What those symbols meant depended on the way the ruler lorded over his domain, and how the people saw it. The difference between a sleek, efficient, professional look for an army’s dress uniforms, and something that evoked 1930s Germany was more subtle than one might think at first glance. But it was something that a ruler had to pay attention to, or they would be putting forth a symbol that conveyed the wrong message, and nothing good came from that.

Stepping into the chamber, I could feel the magic in the air. I looked at one of the guards, and he informed me that it had been like this for the last ten minutes or so. I told him to tell his superior, when he got the chance, that new standing orders would be to report a buildup of magic like this immediately. Advance notice that the connection was forming was good to know, and could help head off trouble if the beacon on the other side was hijacked somehow, or someone found a way to transport in from a different beacon.

Oh, sure, it wasn’t supposed to be possible to add a new [Transport Beacon] to a connection. But the same was also supposed to be true with the [Teleportation Circles] that connected the different parts of the Empire. However, Ceresan researchers had dug into the ‘code’ of the things, and discovered how to make a network out of them, and how to add new nodes to that network. If that could be done for the Tier 1 [Teleportation Circle], then it could be done for the Tier 3 [Transport Beacon].

Of course, reverse-engineering and modifying a Tier 3 device was much harder than doing the same with a Tier 1 device, especially without Tier 3 crafting classes or professions to help you. However, difficult was not the same as impossible. It could be done. The only issue was resources and time. More resources and time than any normal person with a normal lifespan would ever be able to devote to such a task without being both incredibly wealthy and utterly obsessed, but in a world where there were actual immortals, and races who could easily live for hundreds of years, those problems faded somewhat. And with the size of the galaxy being what it was, it was almost guaranteed that someone out there had made it their life’s work to understand the [Transport Beacon] in particular, and learning how to alter it.

That wasn’t just me being paranoid. Even before the System, human history was full of devices that were said to be impossible to reproduce, but were cracked by those with the right combination of genius, obsession, and funding. With this [Transport Beacon] being in my own home, some caution was warranted.

But I didn’t have time to reflect any longer. As I watched, the magic in the room swelled, crested, and then, in a flash of light, crashed back down like a tidal wave. When the light cleared, our guests were here.

There were seven, in all. Two were soldiers, wearing armor and carrying something that was likely an alien version of a rifle. Four were women, with evolutions of a Knelfi, Atlantean, Gorgon, and Succubus in the mix. I already knew the Greater Succubus was Orinona, Mhyreth’s mother, just like I already knew who the last figure was.

Yhrath the Unrelenting

Greater Balor Male

Level 36 Blademaster of the Hellfire Citadel / Bloodsworn Demon Lord

Titles: Cunning One, Swordborn, Bloodthirster, Executioner, General, King, Emperor

Three meters tall, red skin, horns, and armor made from plate and hide that was certainly from Tier 3 creatures, with a greatsword sized for his immense stature hanging across his back in a [Phantom Sheath], which would let the wearer draw and store a blade on the back, even if the mechanics of their arm and shoulder would never allow for such a thing normally. Yhrath cut an imposing figure, that much was certain, with a presence that far outshone his stature, massive as it was. But then, anyone who could rise to be a Demon Lord could say the same.

It was, I reflected, a very different image from the last time I’d spoken with him. Back then, he’d been in his private chambers, with one of his wives, talking to his daughter and the man who bound her as a familiar. The bathrobe was fine for that kind of private, family discussion, but he was in public, now, even if this was a private part of my palace, and he was all too aware of the power of symbols and image.

The Demon Lord looked down at me, and I met his gaze. There was pressure in that gaze, but I met and matched it. Not a hostile act, but a test. If a Demon Lord could be so easily overwhelmed in the seat of their power, then that was a problem that needed to be addressed, after all, especially since his daughter was bound to me.

Satisfied, Yhrath grunted, and engulfed himself in hellfire. While Greater Balors did not have [Shapeshifting], they did have a racial skill called [Resize], which allowed them to shrink or grow their form, from roughly human size to a towering giant. Most of them used it to more easily fit into spaces designed for normal people. Because while turning into a 20-meter giant was intimidating, especially when your gear transformed with you, it also made you, and any weak spots you had, a far larger target. With the number of precision-based ranged damage skills and abilities there were out there, that was rarely a good trade-off.

Now human-sized, Yhrath stepped forward, and offered a hand, which I took in the style popular on his world. Mhyreth had shown me the custom, obviously. Showing respect with little things meant the first impression was going to be more favorable, and something like that cost me nothing but some time practicing an unfamiliar gesture.

“It is good to finally meet you in person, Yhrath,” I said, omitting titles, since we were, effectively, evenly ranked, and family. Though in a formal setting there would still be titles I ought to use instead of his name. Because formal settings were designed to be as useless as they were important.

Yhrath grunted once. “Hmph. Zayn, it is good to see you have the posture of a Demon Lord, despite having little time to grow into the role. As for finally meeting in person? Well, it took a while for my people to even find this place, honestly, or we would have met before now. But then, with the System being off for so long, and all the damage to time in this system, it isn’t really a surprise that your Sol System wasn’t on any maps.”

“Enough about that!” Orinona said, leading the contingent of women that I assumed were Yhrath’s other wives forward. “Who cares about stodgy demon lords when there’s a grandbaby to meet?”

Yhrath and I shared a look, and a stifled laugh, which drew Orinona’s gaze to us. She narrowed her eyes at Yhrath, warningly, before looking to me. “Oh, right. These are this big bruiser’s other wives. Saida Yeldan is the Greater Knelfi, which is what a Tier 3 Knelfi normally evolves into. Aelina Stoneaxe is the Greater Atlantean, which, as you might guess, is a rough analogue for humans out in the wider galaxy, but with more magic in their blood. And the snake-haired woman is Hespa Shadowsong, an Ascendant Gorgon. Don’t worry, the glasses she’s wearing mean her gaze ability only activates when she wants it to, and only on specific targets.”

Yhrath sighed. “Dear, you could at least make proper introductions.”

“Bah!” Saida said. “Who cares about that kind of thing. From everything we’ve heard from Mhyrie’s letters, her Master isn’t the kind that stands on ceremony when practicality is better. Besides, we came to see the grandkid, and make sure Mhyrie is keeping up on her training!”

The way Mhyreth stiffened at the mention of training told me that Saida, regardless of what classes or professions she might had (or perhaps because of them), was the disciplinarian and personal trainer for the Demon Lord’s household. I could only imagine the kind of training regimen she put young Mhyreth and any others through. Part of me wanted to see such a demonstration, but I did think it best to go ahead and find a way to rescue my familiar without making myself a target for ‘training’.

Clearing my throat, I said, “Well, we shouldn’t spend all day standing around the beacon chamber. Mhyreth, why don’t you and the girls head to your wing, and show these ladies all the other kids running around, here? I’m sure they would be just as happy to see all Vyllan’s siblings. I know that Aura stopped by with the younger Lilith, as well.”

Lilith smiled, and said, “I think I’ll stay with you, Daddy, if that’s all right. Little me is starting to come into her abilities as a Seer, despite not being old enough to unlock the System, yet. My being in the same room as her for too long can disquiet her, since her talent starts seeing the future histories I lived, and the others that I saw. She’s too young to properly make sense of such things, yet, so it is best to keep our interactions limited, when not in specially warded areas.”

Yhrath, catching on to what was happening, nodded once. “Oh, you are the Princess Lilith, Mhyreth told us about. The daughter from another timeline who came back and set things up so that this timeline would work better, yes? That kind of meddling with time, even with a Diviner’s abilities and a Seer title, is not something that most people would consider doing. And you say your younger self is already displaying the effects of the Seer title? I would love to hear more.”

The wives’ attention split between the idea of multiple youngsters to talk about, and the very unusual situation that was Lilith saying her younger self had trouble when she was in the same room as her. Talk of training disappeared. Just as intended. Mhyreth sent a wave of thanks through our link as she and my other pets led Yhrath’s wives away, while Lilith and I headed to one of the sitting rooms where we could relax.