[TTIABAD] Chapter 130: That Time I Accidentally Became A Demon

My shock was immense. For the first time since I got ripped apart, my internal turmoil seemed to freeze as my mind raced. It wasn’t often my ability was truly nullified but all it could read right now was lingering impossibilities, which just hurt the mind to focus on.

Thankfully, not even an ounce of me was paying attention to that.

Xilvia… was a demon. And not just any demon. I… knew there were others, of course I did but… but I hadn’t known they could look like that. A single word bubbled to the forefront of my mind and slipped out unconsciously as I simply stared at her new form.

“Beautiful…”

Those purple eyes with no white in them, that black skin, those tentacles, her latex like complexion… it was like some of my deeper fantasies come to life. The type of hentai I’d watch and then feel bad about, as an actual human being. High definition didn’t even compare to this. I’d knew I’d meet demons eventually but I thought they’d just look like me.

I was so beautifully, gratefully, wrong for once.

God, I wanted her to wrap me up with those tentacles and-

Ba-Thump

My-! My heart. W-What…

Ba-Thump. Ba-Thump. Ba-Thump.

Then it hit me. The waves my ability was picking up, crashing into my poor brain. The ones the very edges of had caused my heart to beat like an animal being readied for the slaughter.

Power.

Power.

Power.

Stronger than Vanessa.

Ba-Thump.

Stronger than Rinkaru.

Ba-Thump.

Stronger than anyone!

Ba-Thump.

It just kept going and going and going and going and going! It surpassed me, it surpassed my team, it surpassed this city. So much POWER! Comparisons began to fall short. The sun? Ha. When has the sun ever felt like this? Maybe if it had been falling on me. An explosion? Incomparable. This was like a towering might of endless proportions, watching energy coalesce and build to the point of being Almighty. Never ending, always flowing, constantly building.

It grew and grew and… surpassed my Ability entirely.

Endless Power.

Xilvia… Xilvia was so much stronger than… than I knew to be reality. Than I knew to be possible. It… It…

There was only one thing I could think to say, to ask, the being before me.

“A-Are you a God?”

Xilvia, Almighty and Powerful, froze for a moment.

And then she threw her head back and laughed and laughed.

Her voice had changed too, becoming… richer in nature. Smoother, deeper. Malevolent as well. I could feel it, more than I could feel anything ever. It was like her entire being was dedicated to the sole task of dragging me down into the unlimited abyss, and only she would decide what happened to me there. My heart beat like a drum, sweat already covered my body, my Analyze was screaming at me to run away or hide, and when she finally got done full belly laughing and looked at me, a massive wide toothed malevolent grin stretched across her face.

“Oh? Finally feeling some fear hmm? And what if I am? What if I decide your life is over now my student? That the only fate waiting for you is to be used by me in any way I see fit?”

“Hell yes.”

“...you weren’t supposed to agree it.” Xilvia grumbled.

I had spoken more on instinct than anything else, the idea of being used by such a powerful and beautiful person causing me to say my deepest thoughts without thinking. But it snapped the moment and I felt briefly mortified I’d just come out and said that. Get it together Derek.

Wait no, way bigger fish to fry here.

But where to even start?! That’s she a Demon of all things?! No, I knew exactly what question I needed answered. I felt like my nerves were on fire as she merely looked at me, but I had to know.

“Are you… really a God? You’re so…. Strong. I can’t even see the limits to your strength! You could probably destroy this whole city…”

“Way more than that.” Xilvia waved away, but instead of her waving a hand, she merely waved one of her tentacles in a clearly dismissive gesture. “And as for my strength…”

Xilvia smiled and this time… it was fully, full on, Evil. Capital E. I could already feel my stomach sinking inside me and my body beginning to pale. Whatever she was going to say or do… I was going to hate it. Was she… was she really a God?!

“I’m B-Rank.”

“Bullshit!”

“No. I am being completely honest.” Xilvia said and her smile only widened further somehow, like she was going to enjoy torturing me. No, no she was torturing me, in the only way she could.

“That’s impossible. You have to come up with more believable lies than that! There’s no way you’re still B-Rank of all things! That level of power is-”

“-is completely possible at the ends of the Rank. I became B-Rank before the War, over fifty years ago at that. Did you think B-Rank was a quick process? That the trash you’ve seen and found in this random city represented the best? Anyone who truly pushes their limits for around a decade will achieve B-Rank. A, for those rare few who make it there, need to push for over a hundred years. S for those with the potential? A thousand. Few things can shorten it, few survive, few push for so long, and even peak existences have rankings. S-Rank potentials are widely recognized because of what they could one day be, not what they are. And as for you? There’s a reason you will make enemies everywhere you go. So as long as you survive, S rank is all but guaranteed.’

“But that’s a long way to go. You’ll spend at least ten or twenty years in B despite your stupidly overpowered advantages over everyone else.”

This is… what on earth is this world?! What the absolute fuck…

I felt like I needed to sit down but I was already sitting, practically sinking into the cushions. This person, the ultimate being of power and strength to the point I felt like they could be a God… was the same rank as me? There were others with this same level of power? People a whole few tiers above that? How on earth… is this world even still alive?

“Honestly… I think that’s more surprising than the fact you’re apparently a demon in hiding…”

“In hiding? What an endlessly frustrating disciple you are. But I have at least confirmed my suspicions judging by your reactions.’

“Derek.”

There was a sudden weight to that word and despite the fact that I thought Xilvia had all my focus, that must have apparently been wrong, as I felt like a pivotal moment was approaching. She’d said my name with meaning and weight to it, her smile lessened, her face became neutral and her expression serious.

It was like time itself froze for a moment, like glass moments away from being shattered.

“You are no demon.”

Ba-Thump.

Oh, oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

“I have fought demons, I have trained demons, I am a demon. But more importantly? I have fought and trained nearly every race there is. I have slaughtered, dissected, and studied all of my opponents ruthlessly. I wasn’t blessed with your ability but the same information was needed all the same. Weak points, where to hit, where to hurt. The War was brutal and the dwarves, elves, beastkin, and more were not as passive as they would like the rest of the world to believe.’

“Your weight is off, your stance is off, you use your tail like a glued on appendage, your use of claws is almost… immature in your love with them, like they’re a fancy fun weapon you find entertaining. Your battle experience is all but impossible given where you should have originated. Your healing resilience before I began to train you was pathetic. You move like a human. Talk like a human. Act like a human. All with the same general level of mortality judging from what I’ve seen and heard. And if that wasn’t enough…’

“You called me, a demon from the abyss, beautiful. The very fact you didn’t piss yourself and run away in fear or try to attack me out of a desperate need to survive makes it impossible for you to be a natural born demon. So tell me Derek, how does a human become a demon?”

I swallowed, time seeming to slow down as I thought as fast as possible.

Was Xilvia going to kill me?

It was a real question.

She’d trained humans and demons before but… but she also mentioned just how dangerous my true hero potential was, even if she had missed the truth. She’d fought in a war against humans, an invasion demons started, for over ten years. She’d just in the last few weeks broken every law in the city and blatantly murdered a guild leader and her confidants. Xilvia was not exactly morally good no matter how you viewed it. She was, at best, chaotic. At worst, it was possible she was a demon spy in elven territory who felt like she could kill whoever she wanted with little consequence and with the goal of eradicating all humans. How would demons, who had fought in a war far more deadly than World War Two, that went on nearly twice as long, feel about humans being able to become demons? I was essentially in the middle of the cold war between humans and demons and her greatest enemies had apparently perfected transformation technology. Worse, I was a human turned demon with potential that could change the literal world. I was a potential future nuke to the demons, with a near perfect disguise.

Xilvia could really kill me. She had a lot of reasons to, even.

And she’d saved my life. Multiple times over.

Without her training, I’d be dead. Without her fighting and killing the guild leader and drawing away the second B-rank team, even if the rest of my team survived… a single moment where Konohora wasn’t healing me would’ve seen me dead. She’d sat me down against a wall and convinced me to stay and fight and train. And even more than that… I trusted in our bond here. We may not know each other that well but… she could’ve killed me when she first learned about my power, my potential, and my Ability. I wouldn’t have even seen it coming, it would’ve been child’s play. Even easier than me stepping on a bug.

She was revealing her secret here, no doubt a very well guarded one judging by the layers and layers of fairy magic that just came off her. She was showing me the biggest sign of trust that she could.

I would do the same. I… I wasn’t like Tyler, not nearly as naive or trusting. But sometimes, you just had to have faith in people. And almost more importantly, it didn’t fully make sense for her to kill me. At most… she might try to recruit me to the demons side of the war. I could deal with that, the offer at least, as long as she didn’t literally enslave me and force me to go kill people. But she’d probably sooner kill herself than do that. I had a feeling we shared similar sentiments on freedom, just judging based on personality alone. Xilvia was… most certainly a free spirit.

Thinking through all that, going through it all… I finally decided to answer her question.

“Accidentally.”

“Accidentally?”

“Yeah. Trust me, it wasn’t on purpose. Let me… tell you about That Time I Accidentally Became A Demon.”

Ha.

I should write an autobiography titled that.