Second Chance in the Demon Kingdom

Caro couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought she heard the illusions in the second trial saying that they wouldn’t be able to help her in this last one, but for Ruby to be standing there… Did they lie about not helping her?

“Ruby? But how?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” the wolf half-human answered. “You remember the ring Ruby gave you? She added a little protection spell to it before giving it to you. She might not have known you’d be sent to Darkest Night, but she did know you’d run into trouble at some point. Trouble you can’t get yourself out of, as she had always feared.”

Caro couldn’t help but smile at those words, knowing how true that was, and how well Ruby knew her. “Even when we’re apart, she always has my back,” she muttered out.

“Don’t get used to it. Unfortunately for you, I am just a fragment of her magic, only to assist you in any way I can for only one time. She tried to find a way to make it permanent or extend the effect, but unfortunately, magic can only do so much.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Besides, one time is more than enough. Especially… if it means defeating those demons and passing this final trial.” Caro got up and turned to the enemy illusions as she said that.

Fragment Ruby looked at the pair as well and nodded. “I may not be exactly Ruby, but as a part of her, I will back you up just as much as she would have.”

The pair of illusion monsters were not amused with this.

“You think having back up will change anything?! You’re wrong!” Illusion Father roared, as he and his wife charged at the pair.

As soon as the illusion monsters charged, so did Caro. The second they moved, Fragment Ruby softly muttered out a spell, summoning a number of white magic circles all over the area. The close combatants all moved around to avoid the circles, two of the three wary of what they do, while the other was well aware of the circles’ purpose and simply continued on through. A few seconds later, the circles vanished.

“Heh! What good is a magic circle if you can’t-!” Illusion Father was caught off, as one spot he stepped on suddenly exploded on him, causing him to trip off his feet and tumble down, thus setting off another explosion.

Illusion Mother was surprised at this and took flight, distancing herself from her beloved to a safer zone in the air.

“To all allies and enemies alike, do be careful of the minefield,” Fragment Ruby warned playfully. “You wouldn’t want an explosion to occur, would you?”

Illusion Mother grimaced at this, seeing now that the ground was not as safe as it once was for her. However, it still mattered not to her, as she still had the advantage in the air. That in mind, the monster flew towards Caro, claws at ready to kill the human. What the female monster didn’t expect, or should’ve expected, was a fireball shot towards her and got hit by it. She let out a screech in pain by the burn, and tumbled back on the floor. Luckily for her, she didn’t land on a mine.

“It’s not fair for you to gang up on my owner’s friend again,” Fragment Ruby said. “How about you dance with me?”

If the Illusion Mother’s face was normal, she’d grit her teeth in annoyance and rage.

With Caro, she was practically dancing along on the field, going around and cutting and dodging the Illusion Father like she was, as well as avoiding the hidden mines as she moved about. It especially helped that the explosions broke off some of the male monster’s armor, leaving him more vulnerable to her attacks than before.

“You damn girl! How dare you make an unfair match?!” he shouted.

“You started it. I’m just evening the field in more ways than one!” Caro retorted, avoiding his scythe.

Illusion Father let out a growl in frustration at the miss, as he kept swinging his weapon in to try to even hit the girl. Although the guy was smart to not move, he overlooked one little thing about the mine field he was in the middle of.

Caro jumped to avoid the weapon, and used it as a foothold to jump into the air, high above her opponent, with her sword glowing.

"Wind Wave Slash!" She swung her blade and sent her wind-based energy blade at him.

The boney armored monster raised his scythe to block, only to see that it instead hit the ground right in front of him. Not only that, it also set off an explosion, the smoke clouding his sight.

“Damn it!” he cursed.

Caro, on the other hand, started falling back down, her sword glowing a different color as she held it in a reverse grip. She had fought plenty of enemies that either camouflaged themselves or concealed their presence well during battle in every way; she knew where the Illusion Father was.

"Cliff Hanger!” She fell into the smoke and jabbed her sword down, striking a vulnerable area on her opponent.

The Illusion Father let out a scream in pain and smacked the girl and her blade away, right into a mine. The moment Caro landed right on it, an explosion was set off.

If the Illusion Father had a mouth, he’d be seen smiling. While the explosion affects him so much as to slightly injure him through his armor, since the human had no armor to protect her, he knew she’d get the worse off.

At least, that was what he thought.

To his shock, Caro dashed out of the smoke at sonic speed, landing a powerful thrust in another weak point of the monster’s, strong enough to cut into him and draw out some blood. The Illusion Father let out another terrible scream at the hit and pushed her away from him, gripping on his new wound.

’How?’ he wondered. ’How could that insolent little brat hit me like that?! And how is she not even burned by that explosion?!’

True to his thoughts, Caro stood there, with no sign of being hurt by that explosion in any way. Not even a burnt mark was shown on her. And he knew for sure she was a vulnerable human, so how the hell did she manage to escape from that blast? No… it wasn’t an escape. He could see that her clothes got somewhat tattered and had a few rips and tears, but that was just it. There was no sign of an injury on the girl herself. Unless…

The Illusion Father’s eyes widened when he came to one conclusion. ’Don’t tell me… Did that magic circle from earlier also boost her stats when it healed her?!’

That was the only conclusion he could come up with that could ever make sense. There was no way Caro’s companion could ever have added a stat boost magic circle amongst the mine field, and he knew there was no Blade Burst that could boost one’s own defense, unless if that person uses a shield.

Before he could process this reveal any further, Caro rushed at him with a red, fiery Blade Burst. He raised his scythe to block the strikes, which was a big mistake.

“Crimson Tempester!” The human swung her blade and struck the snath multiple times, each strike growing stronger than the last. At the sixth strike, she swung her blade downward at the long handle, cutting it in half.

Illusion Father was shocked at this action, so much so, he was wide open for an upward slash by Caro’s sword. And thanks to the Ultimate Blade Burst she used, her last strike was strong enough to break off some more of his boney armor.

“GRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” The male monster let out a scream in great pain at the final strike.

The Illusion Mother heard her beloved’s painful scream and turned to see him downed and heavily injured.

“What?! That damn brat… She could never have!” she screeched.

“Caro is no brat. And you? You are just a nightmare that will be put to its end!” Fragment Ruby retorted. The remnant held her staff out, calling upon some white magic circles around Illusion Mother.

The monster looked at the circles surrounding her in fear, afraid of what will come from these circles.

“I call upon the spirits of light. Ye who sought the great darkness to vanquish. Eliminate the target before you, never to be seen again! Flowing Lights!” At Fragment Ruby’s chant, the magic circles glowed brightly, blinding and hurting the Illusion Mother, like sunlight to a vampire.

Glowing light marks appeared on the female monstrosity, causing her to screech louder, as she slowly reverted back to her human self, incredibly weakened.

Upon seeing his beloved defeated, the Illusion Father looked on in shock. “NO!” he cried out.

“You’re next!” Caro shouted, distancing herself far from the remaining boss. Using every last bit of stamina she had left, her sword glowed once more, and she dashed on forward at full speed. “Sonic Strike!” With a powerful thrust forward, she pierced her blade straight into the Illusion Father’s injury and through the very monster.

It was silent. The male monster struggled to even breathe. As Caro took her blade out, he tumbled down on his back, reverting to his human form.

He gasped and wheezed for air, bleeding heavily from the jab.

“I… I never thought… you’d ever… m-murder…” he breathed out.

“It’s not murder, if you’re a monster, or even an illusion,” she said. “You can try to justify it, but compared to you and ‘mom’, compared to what you both have done to me my whole previous life, illusion or not… It’s better than just torturing you endlessly. Besides, I have better places to be. I am not going to let the past define any part of my life now.”

“You think… you can live life… as you can now…?” the Illusion Mother weakly questioned, wheezing between some words. “You’re still… that weak girl from back then!”

“Maybe I am. But at least I have more people who care about me. People who are more willing to stand by me than you, ‘mom’ and many others in my previous life. I may be weak alone… but I have people who have my back now when I need them most. And that’s what makes me— no…” Caro turned to Fragment Ruby with a small smile and reached a hand out.

Fragment Ruby smiled back and took the hand.

“Us being together, being there for one another… That’s what makes us strong,” the human finished.

The pair of illusions were slowly gasping for breaths, slowly fading away in black wisps. “You… will… pay…” With the Illusion Father’s last words, both fakes faded away completely.

Caro simply shook her head at the monster’s words. “Not in this lifetime.”

A speck of light was then seen in the middle of the room. Looking at it, Caro felt something tugging in her, something that was telling her to go and get something from the light. She approached the light and saw the Cardiac Blade’s black hilt from within.

“It seems my service here is done then,” Fragment Ruby said.

Caro turned and saw the half-human starting to fade. Unlike the Illusion Mother and Illusion Father, she had glowing lights leave her body.

Caro’s eyes widened and dilated at the sight. “No… No, no, no! You can’t leave me again! Not again!” she pleaded, rushing to the illusion and grabbing her arms, hoping that doing so would prevent her from leaving.

Fragment Ruby shook her head. “That’s not how the spell works. Besides, you know I’m not the real Ruby,” she spoke. “As you said earlier, you’ve better places to be. And it’s not here.”

The human’s eyes slowly watered. “I know. But it’s just… I’ve never done anything without Ruby before. If you really are a part of her, then you should know. The two of us are each other’s anchors, supports, two sides of the same coin. We rarely had done anything without each other…”

“That’s not true, and you should know. You’ve survived these past two years in Darkest Night without her. And the fact that I appeared when you needed help most means that she is still alive as well. I can’t tell you if she is doing well or not, but the fact is she is still alive. And if you know her well enough, you should know that she is also still fighting.”

Caro looked down, her grip slowly lacking. “I know she is…”

Fragment Ruby lightly removed the human’s hands from her arms and held them in hers. “Besides, you also said it yourself; you’re not alone.” Caro picked up her head at those words. “You still have Kagero by your side. Something tells me she wouldn’t let you go through whatever troubles you’ll be facing alone. According to your contracts, Velva is still your ally as well. Perhaps once you’ve reached her kingdom, you can gain more allies who will fight alongside you. For all we know, she may have an army prepared to fight for you. And there’s that kushtaka and the Demon King. With some luck, after the truth is explained to the other demons, you may also find allies in them. You won’t be alone. Not anymore.”

A smile formed on Caro’s face, some tears leaking out of her eyes and trailing down her cheeks. Caro caught on to that and quickly wiped them away. “If… If you are going back to Ruby, and assuming you can relay a message… Tell her, ‘I’ll see you soon’,” she requested.

Tears started to form in Fragment Ruby’s eyes. As she was a part of her owner, her feelings for Caro is the same as the real Ruby’s. “I can’t make any promises… But I’ll try…” she answered. “You should best get going now…”

Seeing those tears and the forced smile on her face, Caro couldn’t help pull the fragment in a hug.

“I’ll find you… I promise…” she said.

Those words may have been for the real Ruby, but feeling the warm embrace slowly broke down the fragment, as she returned the hug. “I know you will…” With that, her body glowed white, and she disappeared from existence.

Caro looked down at her arms to the remaining glowing lights where the fragment once stood. She thought back to the last time she saw her wolf half-human friend, and she couldn’t help but wonder what she had been doing while Caro was busy surviving these past couple of years.

’I’ll definitely find you, Ruby…’ she thought.

******

Meanwhile, in the real world, while Caro was finishing her last trial, with the help of the Orison Ring, the Demon King had explained everything to his son and subjects. All the truth that was forgotten in their history. As he spoke, Kagero kept watch on Caro.

“You mean to tell me… we were at peace with other races?” the Demon Prince asked.

The king nodded in confirmation. “That’s right.”

“Even the humans?”

“Even them.”

The prince and the soldiers all looked at each other, taking in everything that was told to them. Their reaction?

“Hahahahahahahahaha!” They all laughed.

“Father, please. If you’re going to tell us a joke, tell us one when we’re not dealing with the human criminal,” the Demon Prince said.

“But it’s the truth!” the kushtaka told them, as he was the only one of the other demons who saw the truth. The rest just waved off his words.

The king did not find their reaction at all that amusing. “If you think that is true, then tell me now. How many of you here have children? And how many of you here have only one parent?”

That question and the serious tone he used caused the laughter to die down.

“What are you talking about, Father? You know you’re my only parent,” the prince said.

“I know I don’t have to explain to you how babies are made my son. So do tell me now… Who was your mother?” the Demon King asked him.

The question just made him even more confused. “Isn’t it obvious? She’s a demon like you!”

“Is that the truth? Or are you saying that because you don’t remember much of her?”

That question caught the prince off guard, as he angrily retorted, “Of course I remember her! I may be a kid at the time she passed, but I do remember my own mother!”

“Then name one motherly thing she had done.”

The prince thought back to at least one thing he remembered his mother doing for him. But for some reason, he couldn’t remember any of it. And the things he could faintly remember, he couldn’t remember his mother’s face in any of them.

His struggling face was all the king and the kushtaka needed to know that the prince couldn’t remember a thing. Not just him; some soldiers tried to remember their wife, husband or a parent they lost, but failed to.

“Now you see?” he asked. “None of you remember the family you miss. Not your loved one or your parent… Some of you even have kids that are of your beloved’s race, but fail to remember them.”

“That’s a lie!” the prince denied. His eyes then widened as he recalled something from his childhood. “Now I remember! There was a song my mother used to sing to me!”

“And how did it go?”

“It was… It was like…” The prince hummed out the melody of the song his mother once sang to him so long ago. As he hummed out the notes, the soldiers all looked at him wide-eyed.

Sensing the many eyes on him, and not in a good way, the Demon Prince ceased his humming and turned to them. “Why are you guys all looking at me like that?” he asked.

“Well, milord, the song you were humming… was an elf’s song,” the kushtaka explained.

To say he was shock would be an understatement. “Say what? But we’ve never had an elf in this kingdom! The only time they were here was at the end of The Great Kingdom War!”

“And tell me how they managed to get into this kingdom,” the Demon King asked.

“How…?” This caused all the demons in the room to wonder indeed. How in the world did those other races enter their kingdom at the end of the war? Now that they think about it, none of them were even armed at the time. If anything, they were all scared, frightened, anything but fighters. There were even children at the time, and they were just as or even more scared of being in their kingdom.

The Demon King took out a necklace, hidden under his clothes. “If you really still don’t believe me, my son… Then take a look at this.” He passed it onto his boy, revealing the necklace to be a locket.

The prince took the locket and opened it up. To his shock, he saw a photo of his father, himself as a little boy, and an elf. Not just any elf; it was the same elf he saw at the end of the war, the very elf he thought had somehow snuck into the kingdom with many other races, snuck into the castle, in his room…

Putting all the pieces together, he could only come to one conclusion. “M-… Mother…?” he breathed out.

The Demon King nodded at his words. “So now you see? Everything I told you… is the truth.”

Those words hit everyone hard. Never did they ever think that such a thing was possible. Never, did they ever think… that those people they threatened, hurt, and… sentenced to death… were really their loved ones…

“How do we not remember them?” the prince asked.

“I had told you; it was the Banshee Reaper at fault. Somehow, when it was getting sealed up, it took away everyone’s memories of the true past. Only a handful managed to escape such fate, myself included,” the king explained.

The harsh reality kept coming down hard at them. Some broke down and shed tears for the lost souls.

“Was it hard…? Killing even my mother… your wife…” the prince questioned.

The king placed a hand on his shoulder. “Did you really think I sentenced them all to public execution that day? Knowing that they were our friends who many of us, even themselves had forgotten? I did no such thing.”

Those words made many pick up their heads and stare at their royal majesty.

“But… We saw them-”

“An illusion,” the king interrupted. “How do you think I still remember? By luck? Far from that. At that time, mages, those who were active and had more than enough power left in them at the time, used the last of their magic to create a barrier, big enough to protect themselves and those closest to them. Sadly, there weren’t enough mages. And even if there was enough, even if they were at full capacity, they couldn’t create enough barriers in time to protect everyone.”

“So then… Mother and the others…?”

“Safe. But like you, they do not remember their true past.”

“But Father, if you and the other Head Royals remember, why can’t you speak the truth?!”

“Have you already forgotten how you all reacted when I told you the truth just minutes ago?”

The Demon Prince remained silent at that question. As his father said, when he told them what really happened during the Great Kingdom War, none of them believed it. They just passed it off as a joke.

“Then… how come he knew?” the prince asked, pointing at the kushtaka.

“I found out by accident,” the otter demon answered in his king’s stead.

Before the prince could ask any more questions, a thud and a clang were heard. The demons all turned and saw Caro down to her knees, panting in exhaustion. Her weapon even changed back into a simple hilt.

“Human!” the Demon Prince called, this time in worry, as he and the others crowded around her.

Kagero was especially worried, as she nudged her right head at the human.

Caro picked up her head, and saw many worried eyes at her. “What’s going on?” she asked.

To hear those three, simple words brought relief to the demons.

“They all know now,” the kushtaka answered her. “The truth about our relationship with other races.”