[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 120: Personal Demons

Ever since his transformation into a clearly higher state of being, Darren’s life had taken a “turn” as his mother would say.

“You’re being a bitch right now,” the imp whispered into his ear like a buzzing gnat. “Just thought you should know.”

Darren swiped at the creature, but it always seemed to know just where to go to dodge it. Like a damn fly.

He only wished it was. If it was somehow infernal or hellish, as it suggested it was, shouldn’t it look horrifying? Terrible and gruesome at least?

Then it would be something to be proud of, it would be scaryand therefore command respect.

Instead… it looked cute.

Oh sure, it was evil. The little bastard was as evil as they came, with red glowing eyes and tiny claws that made a kitten’s razor talons seem dull. But the thing was fluffy and purple.

It was about the size of a cantaloupe and just about as round as one. Somehow, its tiny little light purple hued wings gave it the power to zip around like a hummingbird with no regard for gravity.

Darren didn’t think he’d ever seen it land on anything.

He hadn’t gotten much sleep. It’s hard to when you have a literalpersonal demon.

“Stop, just stop talking!” Darren wailed. That stupid ghost was right. He was cursed.

The imp floated in front of his face. “See? That’s what I’m talking about. You’re being a little piss baby.”

Snarling, Darren swiped at the imp, but always he was out of reach. Never where you thought he should be, and always, always running his tiny mouth.

“I’m not being… that,” he told the imp. “I am being calculating.”

“Well, while you’re being a calculating baby, your enemies are catching up with you and are going to slaughter all our hard work. You know how annoying it is to cross the realms just to be saddled with a little baby like you? It’s a pain. So, make my time worthwhile and do something about it!”

“You’re not the boss of me!” Darren shouted.

Albert poked his weaselly nose into the dank cave that Darren was using as his home. With his Ascension to Copper, he was able to do a lot more than was ever possible before, but he still needed tools that he didn’t have.

Without even bothering to knock, Albert sauntered in. He sauntered!And then had the gall to look to Darren for answers as if he wasn’t already racking his brain. “The other Skyshard is gaining on us. We don’t have any means to escape. What do you want to do, Darren?”

No respect! Why couldn’t he get even an ounce of respect anymore?

Because he knows too much, Darren thought. He’s seen what you’ve done to get the power you now have, and the veil has been lifted. Since when have any of your Profession’s tricks worked on him? Not since the altar. Not since Will’s… sacrifice.

The imp, at least, was not privy to his thoughts. If he was… Darren probably wouldn’t be able to stand it. The little runt could rifle around in his memories somehow, but his thoughts were still his own.

Thank goodness for small miracles.

Crossing his very tiny stubby, and yes, cute, arms, the imp glared at Albert. “The boss is busy, peon. Get outta here before we use your skin for toilet paper!”

Albert raised a brow slowly, gave the most mocking bow ever, and departed.

Darren’s head spun. Ever since he gained the imp—who refused to give a name—the little bastard had been nothing but a blight on his life.

He berated Darren at every single turn, non-stop trash talked him, all of his ideas were stupid or sheer lunacy if he ever gave them, and yet… whenever Darren was disrespected or in the company of somebody else the imp became his fiercest advocate.

Afterwards, the imp always acted like nothing had happened. He wouldn’t even acknowledge it!

So Darren had stopped letting that little ray of hope into his life that things were changing, that their relationship was rounding the bend.

Because of course it wasn’t.

“He’s right though,” Darren mumbled. “That Skyshard seems able to move of its own free will. Sure, the damn thing moves like a boat, but we can’t even direct where we’re going.”

“You forgot that your food reserves are out, you don’t even have tents, and everybody is beginning to hate you because Albert is telling them what a big ol’ horxnax you are.”

Darren’s frown deepened, and then he paused. He wants you to ask. You know he wants you to ask. And yet, Darren couldn’t help himself. “What’s a horxnax?”

The imp frowned. “It’s like… have you ever shit yourself?”

“No?”

“Suuuure. I believe you. Well, it’s like that time you shit yourself at Andy Weller’s birthday party and you tried to cover it up by taking the pants off another kid as they slept and put your shit-covered pants on them. Only, everybody knew you didn’t wear those pants to the party because even kids have limits to their idiocy, and so everybody knew you not only shit your pants but tried to blame it on another person.”

Darren’s mouth gaped like a fish.

“Yeah. That’s a horxnax. You, buddy.”

“There’s no way that’s the definition.”

“No,” the imp agreed, “technically it loosely translates to ‘trying to shit in another’s pants unsuccessfully’ but it’s pretty close to the example. Your life is a fucking mess, buddy.”

“Well it’s going to be over very shortly if you don’t help me out! What good is the Malicious Maligner Legend if I don’t get any extra power from it?”

The imp shrugged his tiny, round shoulders. “If you were less of a little piss boy, maybe you’d have figured out how to use your powers on these new people, take them over, and now instead of running like a little baby you’re in command of an even greater force!”

Darren looked into the imp’s red, glowing eyes. There were no pupils, no irises. The thing’s entire eye was red as lava and its gaze was strangely hot, like lava as well.

“I would need to survive long enough to do so, and even then there is little guarantee that I’ll be able to manipulate them. What if they’re also Copper?”

“That seems pretty likely,” the imp suggested. “You’re weak for a Copper as is. The only reason you were able to undergo Ascension is because of the altar. You literally siphoned that poor bastard’s Experience as you killed him. Couldn’t even level up yourself. Now that is sad.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut UP!”

“See?” the imp said, shaking his head and tut-tutting. “You’re being a little bitch again. I can’t fathom what the altar saw in you to give you even a fraction of its power. You do realize that you’ve gone through an initiation that most Dark Lords go through? And what’re you doing with it, ruling over people and raising armies? No. You’re whining and complaining in a wet dark hole that smells like ass.”

“It’s the soil!” Darren cried.

“And? You chose this place.”

“It’s not like I can make a house. Do you have any idea how complicated it is to build one? How much wood you need?”

The imp looked at him funny. The thing didn’t seem to have any neck, just a head and a fluffy orb-shaped body. “Four walls and a roof, genius. How hard is that, really? Do I need to possess you and do it all my damn self?”

“No!” Darren paused. “Wait, can you do that?”

“No, but I sure as hell wish I could. I could whip these pathetic dingleberries into shape ten times faster than you ever could. Even if you had a full head of hair.”

“W-what?” Darren put a hand to his head but didn’t feel anything missing. So many of the imp’s remarks were just spiteful and mean, often coming out of nowhere. “Listen, we need to work together.”

“No, you need my help. Very different.”

“Do you want to go back to wherever you came from?” Darren asked. “Because the way things are looking right now, this other group is going to slaughter us. There’s only 5 of us now, and we haven’t been able to find any other survivors.”

The imp sighed. “My heart’s too soft for you little skinbags. Sure, I’ll go do some recon on the new people’s place. Help ya out.”

“Really?” Darren asked, almost hoping that the people really were savage killers and stomped the puffball into the dirt.

The imp zipped around his head, flicking his ear painfully with a claw. “Even if they kill me, I’ll respawn the next time you sleep.” And here, he got close enough that Darren could smell his sulfurous breath. “Oh sure, you can probably put that off a day or two… but you gotta sleep sometime, bucko. And then pop, I’ll be there. And if I die, you can betI’ll be angry. So far, I’ve been nice.”

Darren watched the imp twist through the air like a leaf blown about on an autumn day and shook the vision of an even angrier imp from his mind.

Maybe it would be best if he didn’t die. That way, he could get some useful information about the new people. And you don’t have to deal with a hellish little torture demon that seems to enjoy pushing your buttons to no end.

“Yes,” Darren said to himself slowly, gently. “Yes, that’s right. Besides, the other survivors are probably just as starved and hurt as we are. We’ve hardly seen a dozen people on any given Skyshard since the exodus.”

Darren’s dreams of making an empire were quickly crumbling to dust in his hands, but he refused to let go. He brushed the bits of dirt from his stained, unwashed clothing and stepped out of the cave with his head held high.

He would rally the troops. That was the term, right? They were in sore need of rallying, anyway.

Lisa and Albert had their heads together near one of the small camps they had made with a stretched cloth between a few trees to keep the rain off them. They stepped apart and suppressed smiles as Darren approached.

“Everything good here?” he asked them, trying to remember to stick his chest out and keep his hands clasped behind his back.

If only I had a power tie.

Lisa gave him a little smile of insipient mutiny. “As ready as we can be. There… isn’t much we can do, is there?”

Darren looked at her, disliking the way she dangled the question like bait. Well, he wasn’t going to take it.

“We are resolute,” he told her. “These others are no doubt chasing us because they have heard of what we can do.” Darren wove a hefty amount of compulsion via Mirage mana through his words. He needed them all to be on their best form.

There were only two reasons anybody chased another. One, they wanted to kill them, or two… they wanted to enslave them. And whoever was after them was clearly better off than they were.

Even from the initial distance that they had seen them from, there were obvious signs of civilization. Buildings made of stone and wood, at least a dozen tiny figures were spotted by Albert using [Eagle Eye] to enhance his vision.

They were well and truly screwed.

Especially if Darren couldn’t pull out a miracle. But what could he do with so few people? You needed an army to do anything, and a handful of people wasn’t enough.

The glimmer of self in Lisa’s eyes vanished, replaced by a glazed understanding of Darren’s intent. “Yes, they must be looking for guidance.”

The Mirage mana should have afflicted Albert too, but the man merely looked between the two and smiled that little smarmy smile that seemed to say, “I know your secret, I do. Your power is useless against me, but I’ll keep playing along. For now.”

It was all Darren could do to keep the fear from showing on his face. He had made a grave mistake keeping Albert alive, and now he wasn’t entirely sure he could do anything about it.

His Dark Deceiver Profession could turn minds, but Albert was already working hard to make himself useful to the others, all while poisoning their minds against Darren.

If he commanded them to kill Albert, they very well might. Or they might break free from his grasp. It was risky forcing people to do things instead of suggesting it. Albert’s example told him that he might never get them back, and then where would he be?

No, better to keep the uneasy alliance. For now.

Darren began plotting for the eventual meeting. There was no denying the inevitable.