Chương 22: Chapter 20 - To Fulfill a Prophecy

Behold! There shall come a [Hero] who will right your wrongs forever. You shall be defeated, you shall be cast into the pit of eternal corruption, and a new age will dawn. A long-forgotten prophecy given to Titus the Tyrant, the Demon Lord of Pride

"I hae tae admit, when ye said ye needed a loat o' mana, I thocht ye wid hae needed time tae gather it," Thomas stated as he watched me prepare to convert said mana into manipulation points.

"Whit hae ye been gatherin' aw this mana for onywey?" he asked.

"For my maniacal plans to take over the world," I deadpanned. However, I didn't want to answer any follow-up questions because I was pretty sure our partnership was over if he ever figured out what I was planning to use it all for. So, I made sure to change the subject right after.

"And I'm not going for the full [[Edit Character]] right off the bat, even if all of this was anywhere close to enough," I said as I gave a lazy wave to the mana gathering arrays all scattered around, with mithril pipes leading to the central pedestal I was touching with my other hand.

"I have no frickin' clue what I'm doing, so I'm just as likely to give you a dragon tail or an extra head as I am to remove a…" I paused.

"I suppose I never actually asked. Was it a perk that Sanithel gave you or something else?" Thomas grunted in affirmation.

"It wis cried an 'innate ability' in that warld."

"Huh," I mumbled. This could get a lot more complex if we don't even have the same basic stats to work off. Then, with a shake of my head, I said the next part of my thoughts aloud.

"Anyway, I have no clue what I'm doing. Your abilities are set up differently than mine, and so that's why I'm starting small and just going with [[View Character]] instead." He raised an eyebrow.

"An' ye're sure that's an admin skill ye can use?"

"Function," I corrected automatically.

"And, no, not one hundred percent. But, I'm guessing that if there's a [[View Item]] and an [[Edit Character]], there should be [[Edit Item]] and [[View Character]]." Thomas nodded along with that, and then we lapsed into silence… well, until he pointed out the elephant in the room.

"An' the System Quest that's tellin' me that I need tae stap ye or ye micht destroy the warld?" he asked. I grimaced.

"Right. Well, it basically does that now any time that I cast something big. No matter what it is. I'm not planning anything dangerous I swe-… Actually, wait I can swear." I cleared my throat.

"I solemnly swear by the System that I will use this mana I'm gathering only for an attempt at using the admin function [[View Character]]. That work for you?" I asked. Thomas nodded.

"That's strange, tho. I've no' been tae mony warlds whaur System oaths exist." It was my turn to be a bit surprised.

"Most worlds don't have something like that?" I asked. He shrugged a bit.

"Maist warlds hae some type o' magically bindin' oath, but no' sae mony seemed tae hae anes that are enforced by the System." He paused and shook his head.

"An' I'm michty glad o' that. System oaths are nasty things. Wouldnae recommend throwin' them aroond sae lightly." It was my turn to shrug.

"It was the fastest way to convince you. And the second fastest was probably to take you to meet the merfolk since they could vouch for me." I paused as I remembered something that might make that a bit trickier. Oh yeah. The whole breathing thing. I thought. Aloud, I asked, "You do have something that would let you survive for long periods underwater, right?" I asked. He gave me a gruff nod, which made me curious.

"Where did you get all of those random skills in the first place, and how did you come to this world already so strong?" I asked. Before he could answer, the timer on the quest to stop me hit zero, and I belatedly realized that everything was ready. So, I immediately started condensing all of the mana into manipulation points.

"Okay, I'm about to call it. Are you ready?" I asked. He gave me a nod… which worked out just fine. I was pretty much going to call the function whether he was ready or not. I didn't want to waste several months' worth of mana generation from those arrays just for him to back out at the last second.

"[[View Character]]!" I called.

"That's uncomfortable," Thomas replied with a shudder.

"It's like ye're starin' directly intae ma soul. Nae wonder Sanithel knocked me unconscious afore she mucked aroond wi' [[Edit Character]]."

"… Titus?" And that last question was asked because I had been incredibly quiet since the start of the function call, almost like I hadn't heard a word he said. And that's because I hadn't. I was being overwhelmed by the sheer flood of information that was assaulting my brain, and, unlike a spell, I couldn't simply stop it halfway through. The admin function didn't care a single whit for the squishy brain that was on the receiving end of the deluge, and it continued full force until my brain simply had enough…

and possibly even after that. I didn't even feel myself hit the floor. I eventually came back to myself an unknown amount of time later with Thomas kneeling over me and with dried blood from a nosebleed covering me.

"Well, I think that went fantastically for a first try," I said, being neither entirely snarky nor entirely sincere since it definitely could have gone worse. Thomas scowled.

"Dinnae go dyin' tae something like that! If onybody will kill ye it will be me. Ye arenae allowed to die afore we fix aw o' this, unnerstood?"

"Yeah," I stated as I reached up a hand to have him help me up.

"Since that wis ower muckle for ye, that means we need tae stairt smawer. Ony ideas?" he asked. … And while I could generally get the gist of what he was saying even through the accent, I have to admit that one stumped me for a moment. That was too much… Start… Smaller? Ooohhh. Start smaller. Yeah.

"Actually, I do have an idea. We can start at the smallest," I said with a nod. Then, touching the pedestal to just get a touch more mana, I cast.

"[Summon Dave]!" The lime ball of slime appeared on the ground, and Thomas looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"Ye named yer pet slime Dave?" he asked.

"Nope," I sighed.

"I accidentally named the entire species dave." At the dubious look he gave me, I just shrugged.

"[Demon Lord] problems. Anyway, I figure if we want to start small, this should be the simplest possible monster. They have a few perks and stuff, like I don't think they use stamina for starters, but they should be much easier to figure out than an old monster like you."

"An auld monster is better than a young fule," he retorted.

"Hey! I'm not young! I'm…" I trailed off as I tried to figure out how old I was. Which also meant that I had ignored being called a fool, so I guess I had my priorities.

"I'm like, 600 or something."

"Ye dinnae strike me as bein' that auld," Thomas replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, excuse me for not acting my age!" I replied. Then, after a moments pause, I continued.

"Also, that's probably because I technically haven't been alive for 600 years? I've spent a lot of that in a state where I'm dead but can still observe the world. Or trapped inside my mind. Or literally crazy." I paused.

"I kinda forgot about that decade where I went nuts. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't hunt down all of the dragons like that." Thomas snorted.

"The dragons here maun be muckle weaker than I'm used tae. Even I struggle wi' them on occasion."

"Hey!" came my indignant reply.

"They were strong, some of them even up to level 50!" I paused.

"They were also stupid and weak to ambushes by hordes of daves." That got the [Hero] to turn an appraising eye to the monster on the floor, and he even gave it the barest nod of approval. Fortunately, the second function call was ready soon enough, and I used [[View Character]] on the little lime ball of slime. It shuddered uncontrollably as I did, but at least I was fine and didn't pass out or get a nosebleed. However, that's about all I could say. I didn't seem to glean much information.

Sure, all of the details assaulted my brain, but it felt like the equivalent of someone shoving an entire computer program to you in binary. Unless you know how to interpret what each individual line means, that data is mostly useless. Which was altogether odd.

I had managed to gain several insights into the Hero's Rapier when I used [[View Item]], but I couldn't figure out if that was because I also accompanied it with [Appraise Weapon], or if it was because I was actually used to physically making weapons while I wasn't used to creating Thomas or a dave from scratch. Either way, that was a puzzle for another time.

"I didn't get much from that," I said.

"So, this is probably going to take a few attempts before I can even get [[View Character]] down. Help me bring in some more of these arrays?" I asked. Thomas nodded in agreement, and we scoured the island, bringing in arrays from outside and setting the depleted ones back out. … Not that all of that went without incident.

I kinda forgot about all the turrets and dave spawners that I had guarding various parts of the island, and while they were hardly a threat to the newest [Hero], it did mean that I would need to replace the set that he encountered before the final stages of my plan. … And I also had to explain myself.

"Why dae ye hae magical traps inside o' a pocket dimension?" Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow as he dropped the remains of the turret in front of me.

"Because I'm a [Demon Lord] and not a [Hero]," I replied.

"And a [Demon Lord] can never be too careful." He accepted that with a grunt but seemed a bit more distant from me after that. Or maybe it was after his next question.

"Whit are ye gaun tae dae when ye arenae a [Demon Lord] onymair?" he asked. I paused. I wasn't sure if the [Hero] had any truth-detecting skills or even just the ability to read body language. So, I decided I would stick with as close to the truth as I could get without ruining my plans.

"I guess I hadn't really thought about it," I replied.

"I've kinda enjoyed the random jobs I've taken on through the years. Being an [Armorsmith]. An [Enchanter]. A [Weaponsmith], and even a [Stage Magician]." The last one at least piqued his curiosity, so I told him a bit about my time traveling Dryadal and giving magic shows. I even showed him a [Major Illusion] or two in between attempts at using [[View Character]]. However, his countenance seemed to get stormier and stormier, and I couldn't figure out why… until I remembered a few key things.

When was the last time he ate? Or slept? I thought. And… this can't be that exciting. Now that I'm not using the function on him, he doesn't even need to be here, does he?

"I think that's enough for now," I stated after another function call.

"I'm going to need some more mana-gathering arrays, and you probably need some food and a place to sleep."

"I'm guid withoot food an' sleep for anither week or twa," he replied. You might survive that, but I might not. I thought and shuddered as I imagined the Scotsman getting truly irritable.

"Well, then, why don't we both go and kill some boss monsters for more of these giant crystals?" I asked as I tapped on the magicite.

"They respawn every month, and it's been at least a month since I got the last set, so we should be able to get 12 more or so."

"Och, finally," he replied.

"Ma auld legs were needin' tae get oot an' stretch a bit." Old legs? I couldn't help but think. I'm pretty sure your body is like, 25 or something. Instead, I explained where we were headed as I cast a [Teleport To Beacon]. I brought him along for the ride. We reappeared at the bottom of a mine that was now abandoned, and then we threw a rope down into the inky void of the Below. That led to yet another cast of [Teleport To Beacon]. We sat, which gave us some time to talk… but we didn't do that much.

Well, except for one question that Thomas had.

"I'm new tae this warld, so I could be aff on ma guess, but it seemed like ye were slingin' aroond a loat o' magic power back there. Enough tae destroy the world if ye chose." … Okay, it wasn't a question, it was more of an interrogation, but the point still stands.

"I mean… maybe?" I replied with a shrug.

"But only because this world isn't that big." As he gave me a flat look in return, I realized that maybe it wasn't best to admit to the [Hero] that I was perfectly capable of destroying the world… Actually, maybe that's exactly what I should admit since it's true, and I haven't done it. I thought.

"I once cast a ritual to destroy an island," I continued but held up a hand to forestall questions.

"I was captured on it, and they were torturing me. I'd say I was justified there." Thomas only grunted… and I couldn't tell if that meant that he accepted my excuse or not. So, I soldiered on.

"Anyway, long story short, if I had to guess, I would say that cast took about as much mana as each individual [[View Character]]. So, yes, from that perspective, I probably had more than enough mana to destroy the world if I wanted to." I leaned in earnestly.

"And that's why it should be pretty obvious that I don't want to destroy the world. Or even capture it. I mean, I already kinda had that as Titus the Tyrant, and I wouldn't want that again." I paused.

"Oh, and that's when I was basically possessed by the concept of pride. Don't want that again either, and don't really want to talk about it. Though I bet some history books would mention how awful that was for everyone involved if you're interested."

"If ye dinnae want tae destroy, an' ye dinnae want tae rule, then whit were ye savin' aw that magic for?" he asked, and I was a bit unnerved by his stare that seemed to go directly into my soul… especially since I wasn't exactly planning on telling the whole truth. I looked away and held up my hands in time with a shrug.

"I figured it would take a lot of mana for me to stop being the [Demon Lord]. It turned out that I was right. Good thing I created all those mana-gathering arrays, eh?" He merely grunted again, and we were back to silence… except for one final tidbit.

"There's something wrang wi' yer efficiency. Ye should be able tae use admins skills a lot cheaper than ye hae been," he stated.

"Noo, I dinnae ken muckle aboot candidates, but I think it micht help if ye get yer magic skills higher."

"Really?" I asked.

"Which ones?"

"A' o' them," he replied… and the discussion was over. Meanwhile, I griped a bit internally. I have a ton of levels in magic skills. Especially [Temporus] and [Spatius]. I even have a lot in all of the elemental schools. I paused as I leafed through. [Temporus] 10. [Spatius] 7. I wonder if I'm capped out on that one; it hasn't been going up. I frowned, but if making an entire island-sized pocket dimension hadn't been enough, I had to assume that nothing would be.

[Electricus] 5, should really up the cap on that one… I looked over the others. [Ignis] 5, [Frigis] 3, [Aeris] 2, [Terris] 4, [Communicatio] and [Deprendio] both at 4, and [Obscurio] at the lower cap of 5. Oh, and [SpatialTemporus] that had somehow climbed above [Spatius] to 8. Huh. I thought that would be capped at the lower of the two. Guess not. Any way you looked at that, it was a lot of different skills in many different spell schools…

but most of them were at or below the initial cap of 5, I only had one tier 2 school, and I was missing a few basics. I'm missing [Mortae], and [Animae] at least. I thought. And then whatever the names were for buff and debuff magic. I was a bit annoyed that I also didn't have [Gravitus] even though I used it a bunch for the time magic ritual, but missing death magic was at least expected since I had never used the stuff. Not having [Animae] was frown-worthy, though.

If casting [Restore] for almost a decade in the fey forest wasn't enough to get [Animae], I think I'm literally capped at 0. I shook my head. Either way, that seems like a lot, but I guess if I compare it to the total amount of available skill levels I'm not even a quarter of the way there. Tim mentioned that the spells schools go up to tier 3, and I haven't even unlocked… [Impermissus]? I think it was? The tier three school for forbidden magic?

And that led off into another tangent, wondering why death magic wasn't also wrapped up with the other forbidden magics. I placated that portion of my mind by saying that it had to be under the same school as healing magic to keep the whole "equal and opposites" thing going. Anyway, my ruminating didn't last long enough to get all of my mana back, and the silence finally got too awkward for me.

"So, you've saved other worlds before," I started. He grunted in confirmation.

"Got any good stories?" He nodded.

"Aye, I suppose I hae a few," he replied.

Despite being dozens of centuries old and having been to countless fascinating worlds, I think it was safe to say that Thomas was not a good storyteller… or at the very least, he was choosing not to be at that point. And that was without me occasionally struggling to parse his stories through the accent. They were mostly short, bare-boned in details, and ended with him easily slaying the big bad evil guy. After which, he always gave me a pointed look. … Yeah, I had gotten the picture after the first one.

He didn't really trust me, and if I stepped out of line he was more than capable of killing me. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. However, I also knew that he wouldn't as long as I was the only one who could help him with his chronic "being-chosen-as-a-hero" problem. … Though, that was about when I started making additional plans to either convince him there was no need to kill me or to try to fight him when the time inevitably came.

I didn't have high hopes for the second one, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that the worst he could do was kill me, and that would just set me back 50 years. And 50 years wasn't much in the grand scheme of things. Especially if I simply skipped that time, then it would basically be like nothing had happened at all. Anyway, the stories came to a close, and I got the underlying warnings he gave me throughout.

Then, it was time to challenge some Crystalline Calamities and get some more mana generation going.

We appeared on the ceiling of the Crystalline Calamity's boss room. Or at least, its ceiling and our floor. I belatedly realized that I hadn't quite prepped Thomas as much as I probably could have.

"The boss is down there- err- up there on the ceiling," I stated, pointing upward.

"I normally just stay up here and [Mage Bolt] it to death since it can't fight back, but I'm assuming you want to get down there?"

"Aye," he nodded.

"But I think I can mak it up there wi' juist <Air Walk>, so that shouldnae be a problem." He paused.

"The main problem is aw this blasted darkness. But I think I can tak care o' that." I was about to mention that I had eyedrops that would let him see down there, but he beat me to the punch.

"<Radiant Illuminator>!" he said as he activated his skill. Now, most light sources didn't really work in the Below. I had never bothered to figure out why light sources would only go a few scant feet down there, but I never really needed to after figuring out the eye drops. It seems that no one gave Thomas's skill the memo. A brilliant ball of light appeared on his hand, and the entire cavern lit up like mid-day. … And that was apparently not the only effect of the skill.

I stumbled away from him and fell to the ground as my brain frantically screamed at me to flee. The next thing I knew, I was huddled on the floor with my arms over my head, and he was shaking me gently.

"Are ye awricht, laddie?" he asked.

"Sorry aboot that. I forgot aboot whit the skill daes tae demons."

"Y-yeah, I'm good," I replied shakily as I accepted his hand to help me up.

"Let me handle the lighting, okay? I have some eyedrops that will let you see just fine down here." He grunted his ascent and let me put in the eye drops. All the while, I was thinking through the ramifications of what had just happened. He just laid me out flat with a light skill. Am I really that weak?... Or I guess, is Placeholder really that weak compared to everywhere else he's been? I asked myself as the Crystalline Calamity screeched its anger at the unreachable foes.

Thomas bellowed his own battle cry and made several bounding steps up into the air with his <Air Walk>. I followed behind and then passed him with [Invert Gravity]. If that's such a simple skill that he didn't even think to use it in our first battle, then there simply isn't a way to counter every trick he has up his sleeve. I thought as I dodged a salvo of crystals with a [Flash Step]. Thomas got the monster's attention with a giant swing of the axe portion of his weapon that caused it to roar in pain.

That gave me an opening to approach with Herobane set to its sharpness and boss-slaying enchants, and I also scored a clean hit along its back. That means I either need something that will take him out quick, or- It spun to face me, but I quickly stepped back as Thomas hit it again. I need to remove all of his tricks at once. I thought. That gave me an idea, but I decided that perhaps battle wasn't the best place to flush it out… mostly because I wanted to continue sizing up Thomas, not because I was in any danger.

Anyway, the Crystalline Calamity didn't last long after that. Neither Thomas nor I used any fancy skills or magic, either. It was just a straight beat down. I forgot how nice it was to actually outnumber an opponent. I thought as Thomas struck the killing blow. I shook my head. But I shouldn't get used to it. Being outnumbered is kinda a [Demon Lord's] thing… unless you count minions.

"Now, hou dae we collect this hulkin' crystal?" Thomas asked and snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up and was surprised to see him still just floating on his air walk skill, upside down"With brute force, mostly," I replied. After that, I showed him how I broke it free, picked it up just enough to get it in my inventory, and then vanished it. He seemed impressed by that of all things, but of course, he had his own skills that let him carry far more than he should have been able to.

And that's how, instead of limiting myself to 2, we cleaned out all 12 of the known giant crystal spawns in a single long day. After that, it was back to my island to set up the arrays… and I realized there wasn't much for the Scotsman to do while I did that and waited for mana to come in.

"You want me to drop you off at a human city or something?" I asked.

"There's not really much we can do for the next month or so. We just have to wait for more respawns and for mana to come in."

"That should dae," he replied.

"I hae some things I wanted tae luik intae onyway." I nodded along. My next decision was a bit of a gamble, but if it increased the chances of him trusting me even slightly, it was probably worth it.

"You'll need a way to get in touch with me so I can go ahead and teach you [Message]," I said.

"As for the name you use to contact me… It's Titus Null." He raised an eyebrow.

"Huh. Giein' me yer fu' name? Arena there a lot o' nasty things someane could dae wi' that?" I shrugged.

"Not… really. Mostly just send me a [Message] or [Scry] on me. The first is something I actually want you to do, and I can tell when the second is happening, so I'm not that worried." I paused.

"Besides, I think your ability to kinda just show up whenever you want is way more concerning than being able to [Scry] me." He thought for a moment and then extended a hand.

"Thomas McKay," he said.

"A pleasure tae finally meet ye, Titus Null." We shook hands, and I realized that his grip strength was monstrous and almost enough to cause HP damage.

"Unfortunately, I winnae be needin' the magic lesson." I cocked my head.

"Why not? [Message] is a simple spell. I'm sure it will just take-" He shook his head.

"Nae, it's no' that. The innate ability I wis given wis maistly a blessin', but it has also been a curse. It's no' only boons that hae passed through every life, but also ailments." He paused, and he continued seeing that I didn't quite get it.

"I cannae use magic at aw." My eyes shot wide open." Any magic?" I asked.

"At all?" He nodded gruffly, and I was left stunned. That dangerous… with only skills and perks. Wow. I would not want to see him with magic.

"Does that include magical items, or-" I started to ask, but he cut me off.

"I think that's enough aboot me," he replied.

"Noo, juist go ahead an' drop me aff onywhaur." He paused.

"Though, I wid appreciate if ye lent me some coin. I'll pay ye back next time we see each ither. Dae normal monsters drop random items here, or dae I need tae actually tak them apart an' sell the bits?" So, the discussion while I waited for mana was about the economy in Placeholder and how killing monsters gave both some "bits" and some gold coins. I also lent him 1000 gold because I wanted to get on his good side… and because I wasn't actually sure how much a stay at an inn was these days.

A teleport later, we said our goodbyes, and he said that he would rejoin me in a month so that we could go hunt down some more Crystalline Calamities. A month was more than enough time to get the 12 new arrays up and running, and I didn't want to spend the rest of that time twiddling my thumbs, so I needed something else to do. Fortunately, I had a real brain-teaser to puzzle through in the form of the data I had gotten from [[View Character]], and also an excellent place to do that puzzling.

Mindscape, here I come. I thought.

Thomas knew from the night they had gone out to get drinks that 1000 gold was far too much for what he was asking for. In other words, he knew that Titus Null, the [Demon Lord] of Placeholder was trying to butter him up. He took it anyway. He didn't want him to know that he was on to his games… and there was also a part of Thomas that hoped he was wrong. It could juist be survival instinct. There could still be a chance that he could chynge. Thomas thought. And he was referring to the lies, of course.

Or, not quite lies, to be more accurate. The evasiveness, the truth spun in just a particular way, all the attempts to disarm Thomas and make him seem like a normal guy. It juist means that he's an experienced liar. The first step when dealing with someone like that was to verify their story from a second source. That's how Thomas found himself searching through the capital city of Vir for a bookstore or library that he could get some historical information from.

He found the second one and also a helpful [Librarian] who pointed him to books on the history of Titus the Traitor and Titus the Tyrant. A point in Titus's favor was that he didn't seem to pull many punches when telling his own story. While the accounts that Thomas found were heavily biased against Titus, they matched up fairly well for the most part. Thomas could also see why Titus wouldn't want to talk about being the Tyrant…

if he wasn't lying about being trapped inside of his own mind for the duration of that oppressive reign. However, it was an account in the tale of Titus the Traitor that made him pause. Prophecy. Thomas thought. O' course this warld has prophecies… I should probably check tae see if ony are current. He flagged down the [Librarian] again, and she led him almost right back to where he had started. It turned out that two prophecies were given during the time of Titus the Traitor…

but Thomas couldn't think of a way that either would still be in effect. This is the strangest-worded prophecy I hae heard in aw ma years. Thomas thought as he read the rambling "prophecy" that foretold adventurers coming and gave some pretty specific things for the first [Hero] to do. Could this hae been an admin muckin' aroond instead? That led to the second one… That prophesied woe to the people in the [Hero's] party. And this ane... I cannae see ony wey that this hasnae been resolved yet.

The only wey it wouldnae be wis if it came back aroond again. And while Thomas hadn't heard of many cases where a prophecy was reused, so he wasn't too worried, he also decided that maybe it would be best to either never make a party or to have less than seven people in it, just in case. Nae prophecies aboot the end o' the [Demon Lord]. I cannae tell if that's a guid sign or a bad sign. So, just to make sure, he asked the [Librarian] for any other books about prophecies. And that got the young woman to hesitate.

It took some cajoling, an oath, and even some gold to finally get her to show him a dusty old diary from a [Priestess] hundreds of years ago that supposedly fit the bill through her skill [Find Book]. The contents were likely thoroughly banned if Thomas had any guesses about the cloak-and-dagger nature of the meeting. Either way, Thomas thanked her, pocketed the book, and then returned to the inn to study it. And just like that, things were not looking good for Titus…

or for Thomas if he was going to try to circumvent the prophecy. She disnae remember the words. O' course no! It's juist the maist important prophecy this warld will ever see, nae need tae remember it or write it doon! He grumbled as he unceremoniously dropped the book on the bed beside him. In truth, he was frustrated at the situation, not with the poor woman who lived hundreds of years ago.

It wasn't really her fault that the word that she spoke overcame her so much that should could only remember the broad strokes. And Thomas couldn't be sure that having the particulars would actually help at all. She seemed to remember the prophecy as being one of the [Demon Lord's] final defeat and an era of peace being ushered in, and there could only be so much wiggle room on that. A lot o' it could depend on the definition o' defeat. Thomas thought.

However, he had been up for several days at that point and needed a rest. He resolved to think about that more the next day and was asleep as soon as he hit the pillow.

I was in the Mindscape, attempting to essentially create a dave entirely from the ground up, when the Mindscape started shaking. I ignored it. Must be more tired than I thought. I reasoned. Probably need a break after this. I was putting in the section that I thought correlated to the dave's physical appearance when a voice startled me.

"Och, here ye are," Thomas said.

"Nice personal realm ye got here. Very…" he looked around at the blank white stretching in all directions.

"Functional." I let the poor mutilated being-that-would-be-dave dissolve as I sighed.

"We're in my mind, and I don't want distractions. I got enough to think about." Then, finally noticing the elephant in the room, I shook my head and then stared at the [Hero].

"Wait! How the frick did you get in here!?"

"I hae a skill for it," he replied nonchalantly.

"An' I wouldnae hae used it, but ye wouldnae even wake up tae me shakin' an shoutin' at ye." Of course he has a skill for it. I groaned.

"So, I take it that I lost track of time, and it's already been a month?" I asked. He nodded.

"Alright, let's go hunt some more calamities," I replied. The hunt went about the same as the last time, but one thing of note happened after our third clear.

"Whit dae ye ken aboot prophecies?" Thomas asked.

"What do I know about prophecies?" I snorted.

"Well, in my experience, they seem to be unavoidable pieces of garbage that always seem to spell doom for me." He kept quiet after that for several seconds before continuing.

"Well, whit dae ye ken aboot avoidin' prophecies?" he asked.

"Avoiding prophecies?" I asked in return.

"Is that even possible?" I shook my head as I thought back on the two prophecies that had come true in my first life.

"I guess nothing. My attempts at making them not come true didn't help." Thomas was quiet for a bit, and he seemed to be contemplating whether he wanted to tell me the next part or not. Then, with a large sigh, he nodded to himself.

"There are a few different weys a prophecy can play oot. First is that ye dinnae dae onythin' an' it comes true. Second is that ye try tae avoid it an' end up causin' it-""In other words, it will come true whether I want it to or not," I grumbled.

"Let me finish first ye impatient twit!" He shook his head and scowled.

"Third is that ye fulfill the prophecy, but fulfill it in a wey that a normal person wouldnae think."

"Oh, so if I was prophesied to become penniless, get ahead of it by giving away my money?" I asked.

"Oooh! Or I could just get rid of all of my pennies, and that would still fulfill it, right?" He ignored my outburst and continued on.

"An' fourth... an' this only works in some cases... is that ye repent frae whatever caused the prophecy in the first place, an' it disnae happen." I gave him an appraising look after that.

"Alright, and what brought all of this discussion on?" I asked.

"It's not like I have some prophecy hanging over my head, right?" He didn't immediately reply, and that could mean only one thing. Frick. I have a prophecy of my doom hanging over me, don't I? I thought. And then, digging into my memories, I had just a tidbit of one that seemed relevant. Pride was in a church… making time magic legal… A woman came up. Gave a prophecy… Something like my eventual defeat and making a new age. Frick. I mentally said again, this time with a sigh. I guess I'm on a time limit after all.

That's what I get for thinking I have all the time in the world. Aloud, I said, "I can't exactly subvert a prophecy if I don't even know what it says, and as for your last option… I have nothing to repent for on my current path," I stated. And… honestly I don't even know whether I believed that to be true or not.

"So, it seems I'll just have to get what I need done before then." Thomas's next words were barely audible.

"Then I'm feart that I hae a prophecy o' mai ain for ye. Should ye stay on yer current path, ye will no' see the turn o' the millenia." With the faraway look in his eyes, I had the feeling that that wasn't just a prophecy he was making up on the spot. It was yet another prophecy of my doom from the System. However, I didn't quite take it the way that I'm sure the System wanted me to. More than 3 centuries left. I thought. I can make it work. I have to make it work.

And so I took that last serious conversation we had to heart. After that, Thomas seemed much more distant, and we only spoke as much as we needed. That was fine with me. I was planning how I would kill him after all.

It turned out that figuring out [[Edit Character]] took a long time. Decades, to be precise. I soon found myself at the limit of what I could learn from [[View Character]] on a dave, and attempting it on Thomas was still too much. While I could muddle through it with a wand I made to constantly cast [Restore] on myself so that my grey matter didn't get liquefied, I couldn't make heads or tails of what each individual piece was supposed to be.

To make matters worse, I couldn't use [[View Character]] on myself at all, and I had to wonder if that was a normal restriction or if it was just [Memory Protection] once again doing its annoying thing. Either way, I eventually figured out a solution. One that the [Hero] vehemently opposed, but I didn't see any other way to go forward. Human testing. Well, not necessarily the human species, but you get the point.

And while I felt a bit squicked out about just testing it on any random member of the public, that just meant that I had to be creative about who was "volunteered" to have me take a peek at them through [[View Character]]. Murderers. Rapists. Gang bosses. You get the picture. Anyway, even that wasn't enough until I had another bright idea. You see, the entire exercise was to remove a perk from Thomas, which he did wise up and make me swear that I would give it my best to do.

So, the best way to figure that out was to look at someone with [[View Character]], get them some perk points, and then have them pick out specific perks to see what changed. That was finally the breakthrough that I was looking for, and it helped me a great deal with compartmentalizing what each different portion of the data returned by [[View Character]] meant. However, that wasn't the only thing I worked on during that period.

With a time limit in place, I didn't really want to die again if I could help it, so I made strides into how I could neutralize the [Hero]. I needed to catch him off guard with a single powerful attack, so I ensured he "caught me" working on several new lightning spells. Meanwhile, my ace was something else entirely. Speaking of the [Hero], I wasn't quite sure what he was up to during all of that.

We still had our hunting parties every month to go and get more magicite crystals (and my island was getting stuffed to the brim with them), but I didn't have a clue how he spent the rest of his time. I think I remember hearing about a large dwarven slave revolt around that time, however. Sooner than I thought, we were ready for the trials with [[Edit Character]]. And while the first few were failures, thankfully I didn't create any monstrosities.

I mostly just messed up their ability to get new perks, which, given the test subjects I had chosen, didn't really put me out much. Only after I finally succeeded at removing a perk from someone was it time to try the real deal.

"Is there a reason we're daein' this at yer castle instead o' on the island?" Thomas asked as I set up one of the several dozen arrays.

"I have more mana here," I answered, which was probably less than half of the actual reason, but he didn't reply.

"And that extra array ower there?" he pointed towards the entrance where a solitary array was sitting by itself unconnected.

"A backup," I replied. His suspicions were undoubtedly growing, but he only grunted. Which meant that he assumed he could take whatever I would throw at him. Keep up that cockiness, [Hero]. I mentally urged him. No need to worry about me. No way I could hurt you. With the preparations complete, I had the [Hero] sit in a chair in the middle of everything.

I put the restraints on him, which wouldn't hold him if he actually wanted to get free but would stop him from socking me in the face while I was trying to concentrate. Then, I stood behind him.

"Now, as discussed, I am going to make your innate ability <Mark of Persistence> toggleable. Will that fulfill the oath according to your satisfaction?" I asked. That particular reasoning was done because we found out that making a beneficial perk toggleable costs a bit less than removing it outright. And given that this had been bestowed by an admin who I had to assume was much more powerful than AltSys, I needed any cost reductions I could get.

He grunted his assertion, and I hid back my wicked grin as I got to work.

"[[Edit Character]]!" I called out. I had Singularity in my right hand to help with the mana to manipulation point conversion, while my left hand manipulated the pieces that were Thomas's very self, and my ears blocked out his pained grunting and choked-back screaming. I don't know how long we stayed like that. The mental strain felt like enough for two hours, but it was probably closer to 5 minutes. And then, just like that, it was done. Thomas broke free from the bonds and stood up. And then…

he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ye actually did it. I cannae believe ye actually did it." And then, he pulled out his halberd.

"Here's where I curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, right?" I deadpanned.

"I'm sorry laddie, but ye winnae repent, an' ye are far ower dangerous tae let live," he replied as he shifted the point in my direction.

"Good thing I planned for this," I said as I [Flash Stepped] past him to the "backup" array.

"Power of lightning course through me and-""I winnae let you!" he shouted as he reappeared in front of me with his halberd cocked back for a devastating axe strike… right where I wanted him.

"[Blink]," I cast simultaneously with a [Disrupt]. And then, even as I reappeared across the room, I cast the real spell that I had been prepping for all this time.

"[Detonate]." I had calculated everything out. While reconfiguring his <Mark of Persistence>, I had tied it together with his other skills so that a single [Disrupt] would temporarily remove everything. He couldn't stop me with <Spatial Lock> or defend with his <Embrace of the Seraphim>. Meanwhile, I would be safe on the other side of the throne room, hunkered behind my throne, which was a dungeon-reinforced material. I had calculated everything… except for the sheer size of a 10, 000, 000+ mana explosion.

The front walls of my throne room, dungeon-reinforced or not, were completely blown apart. The supporting pillars were brought down, and the ceiling started caving in. And, as far away as I was, I was still tossed like a ragdoll into the back wall. I landed heavily and was thoroughly concussed, but I was able to make at least one coherent thought. Did I get him? The halberd spike that appeared in my chest as words showed on the screen confirmed that I did not. System: Hero Thomas has slain the Demon Lord!

The realm will have relative peace for the next 50 years. Demon morale will be reduced for the duration"Aww man," I groaned as I stared up the halberd shaft to the [Hero], who was bloody and had shrapnel sticking out of him in various places.

"That wis close," he panted.

"Far ower close."

"Guess I forgot to consider that [Disrupt] tends to work shorter against stronger things…" I muttered and briefly looked into my status at my now-negative HP.

"Oh well. You got me, [Hero]. Go ahead and finish it off." I said as I closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"You got nothing to be sorry for," I tried to shrug.

"I tried to kill you. You killed me. We both won't really die either way. It's no big deal."

"Nae," he replied.

"I'm sorry that I couldnae save ye. That I couldnae get ye tae gie up." He paused, and his voice became sorrowful.

"An' that I hae tae fulfill the prophecy richt here an' noo." My eyes shot open wide as he pulled back his halberd." [Heroic Sacrifice: -" he started, and I began panicking and screaming. I tried to move out of the way. I tried to activate any of my skills."[Panic Button]!" I even shouted to no avail." Empowered Soul Strike]!" Thomas finished. His halberd landed home, and then the 9 th [Demon Lord] of Placeholder, Titus the Last Demon Lord, felt pain in his very soul… and then nothing.

Thomas Mckay found himself on the side of the road. For a moment, he felt like there were thousands of things he was forgetting like there was so much of his life that felt out of reach… but he quickly shook his head to clear it of that nonsense. He felt… good. He had trouble remembering his family at the best of times, but it was like the fog of senility had suddenly blown away. And even better, he would see all his loved ones today! After all, it was his 85 th birthday! It'll be guid tae see everyone again.

It feels like it's been ages. And with that, Thomas McKay, [Hero] of countless worlds, finally got his rest..... Meanwhile, I did not.

System: Critical Error! Soul Heavily Damaged! Could not complete New Game Protocol! System: Attempting recovery from backup! The words meant nothing to me, but they did break up the low-throbbing pain that had come to be my only knowledge of existence.

System: Backup failed! Retrying attempt 12 The words were comforting at first, but now they had become a nuisance. Couldn't they leave me in peace?

System: Recovery Protocol Partial Success System: Beginning preparation phase for New Game I mentally gasped as I found myself suddenly aware again, in a familiar void.. Ow. Ow. Ugh. I groaned in my mind. What happened? Where am- My thoughts stalled as I remembered what happened. To my time with Thomas. To the betrayal that I saw coming from a mile away. To him trying to shred my very soul. There was only one thing I could take from all of that. Okay, [Heroes]. I've had enough. I've tried befriending you.

I've tried avoiding you. And I've even made some half-hearted attempts at killing you.

I gave a dry mental chuckle. Well, that's over now. Now, it's time for hardball.