Reborn: Demon's Legacy (4 page)

Three days quickly passed with Ash and Celina making it to the twenty second floor. The last night, Ash was called to the head’s room alone.

“You called for me?” Ash asked as he entered the room and sat across from the older demon.

“Just requested,” the man said with a thin smile. “You are the Maoh so it is not like you have to obey my summons.”

“It would be impolite of me not to do so after everything you have done for me over the past week,” Ash said as he took a small cup of the bitter green tea that was offered to him. “Was there something that you wished to talk to me about?”

“Yes,” the head said without hesitation. “It is about the marriage. I wish to know if you will take Celina to be your wife and guard. I have talked to the sage at great length about this during your stay and he was unsure about your decision on this matter. Before you say anything first let me say that I understand your feelings. I myself have five wives from each of the smaller clans under my control and a sixth wife I chose myself whom I love dearly. Love is not something that can be forced and I don’t think it can even be built. It just either is or is not present between two people, but there can be fondness.”

“I will go through with the marriage but I can’t promise anything will come of it,” Ash said, having already made up his mind days before on the issue.

“It is good that you are thinking like a Maoh and not like an individual. We have little control on if we follow your orders so it is nice to see that you think things through and consider it from our side as well.”

“I just figured it would be best if I could hear the viewpoints from the others under my control. I figure this is the same reason that the marriages were set up in this way to begin with. It is easy enough to ignore people you don’t know, but much harder when one of the people speaking is your wife,” Ash said with a thin laugh. “So how do we go about the marriage? I must admit I don’t know much about how demons do this sort of things.”

“That is simple enough,” the clan head said with a chuckle. “Unlike humans, we don’t have large rituals for such things. All you have to do is declare that you are husband and wife before the statue of the goddess. You can do that early in the morning before you leave for the next clan.”

“Understood,” Ash said before taking another drink of the bitter tea.

The two talked for a short while before Ash began to yawn and he started to return to his room. The clan head called out to him once again. “Ash, if you could treat her well. I have no daughters of my own, but Celina is as close to one as I have.”

Thinking about it, Ash noticed that he had not met any children that belonged to the clan head. From the pained look in his face, Ash could tell there was more to it than just not having a daughter, but he didn’t have the strength to delve deeper and instead just nodded his head. “I will.”

The next morning Ash was met by Celina who was wearing a long silver gown that matched her hair. She was wearing a large smile and her eyes were slightly red. “Thank you,” she said throwing her arms around his neck. “I promise to be a good wife.”

“I am sure of it,” Ash said trying not to laugh.

After a quick ceremony before the goddess’s statue Ash, Celina, and the sage mounted their birds and headed toward the next clan.          

      
9-5

From the sky, Ash took his time to look around. He was too far to see the mountains that separated the demon kingdom from the rest of the world. The demon kingdom was much larger than he had first thought. Ash had looked at a number of maps and the demon kingdom was about twice the size of the kingdom of Heluria but seeing from the sky was much different.

The clans were not close together and even with flying, it still the better part of three hours to reach the next clan. From the size of each land, Ash guessed they were about the size of a counts holdings. So it would take about three clans to equal the size of a normal dukedom.

The next clan looked much different from the sky then the last one. For one thing there were few building and most of them seemed really small. From the sky, Ash couldn’t even tell where the lord’s residence was. When they landed, Ash was quickly surrounded by a type of demon that he had never seen before. They looked human, but starting from where their legs should be, there was the long body of a snake. The other thing that Ash noticed was that the males were different as they were an assortment of other kinds of demons and not one of them had snakelike bodies.

“We welcome you our lord,” one of the snake demons said moving forward her large chest swaying as her lower body slithered forward. “It is an honor to meet the new Maoh. I am Silia the head of the Liam clan. This is my daughter Seia who is to become your bride and protector,” Silia said as another snake woman, looking in her mid-twenties moved forward. Just like Silia, her large chest swayed in a mesmerizing fashion as she approached.

“It is a pleasure,” Ash said giving a stiff bow.

“Well, no reason to stand around outside all day. Shall we go inside and discuss what the next few days will bring us,” Silia said charmingly.

Ash followed behind with Celina staying close by his side and was quickly joined by Seia. Ash was surprised when they walked through one of the large doors that looked to belong to a small shed to find stairs leading down into the earth. As they walked down, the area opened up and small globes of light illuminated the hallways. It reminded Ash much of the labyrinth, though without the same sense of danger and excitement. It was also much warmer underground than Ash would have expected and he was already sweating enough to take off the thick coat he had been wearing.

“Sorry about the heat my lord,” Seia said with a slightly worried look. “The people of the Liam tribe do not do well with the cold. We prefer the warmth so we tend to keep our caves a little on the hot side.”

“It is still bearable,” Ash said as he loosened a few buttons on his tunic to allow air to pass over his hot skin.

After they entered a large room, once again Ash found himself sitting at a table while on the ground. Ash had ended up sitting next to the clan head while her daughter Seia was to his left. “My lord, no reason to sit so far away,” Silia said as he tail pulled him so close that he could smell her hair. Ash tried to pull back, but Silia’s tail wrapped around his waist and refused to let him go.

Leaning down Silia ran her hand down Ash’s chest. “You smell divine my lord. Could that be because of your human blood? It is said that our ancestors had much better chances to produce offspring with humans than with other demons. Do you wish to test the theory with me?”

“Mother,” Seia said, using her own tail to pull Ash so hard that he was flung to her chest.

“Che,” Silia clicked her tongue. “What kind of daughter won’t even share with her mother?”

“There are some things you don’t share with your mother,” Seia shot back.

While the two women argued, Ash pulled from Seia’s grasp and crawled away to sit beside Celina and the sage. “I should have warned you,” the sage said slightly chuckling. “The Liam tribe is a little unique among the demon clans. Like the succubus tribe they don’t have any males within their tribe. Whenever a child is born, if it is male it is born as the child of the father’s clan, while females are born as a member of the Liam tribe.”

After the two women finished arguing and noticed that Ash had run away, they both pouted but the clan head pushed on with the discussion. “The sage already sent a paper showing your current abilities and after looking over them, tomorrow you will enter the labyrinth to gain five new abilities. The Liam tribe are poison users. You already have a few abilities in this area but they are relatively weak. After that we will train you on how to properly utilize poisons and things of their nature. The blood ability of the Liam clan is ‘toxic prism.’ It allows us to absorb any poison we come across and use it at will. There is no ability that we know of that can mimic it but there are ways to mix other abilities which can give you close to the same effect. That is the reason for the abilities you will be gaining tomorrow. As for today I would suggest that you enjoy your day of rest. From the letter that the sage sent you will have few of those over the coming weeks, and if you want I will be more than happy to help you relax during your stay.”

“Mother,” Seia yelled and the mother and child began to argue again.

After the meeting was over, Ash asked Seia to guide him outside. It was not that he didn’t like the underground but it felt more than a little stifling with the heat. The sage stayed back and talked to the clan head while Celina followed him sticking close to his side while he and Seia talked. She asked him many things about his life and seemed genuinely interested. When she heard about Emelia and the current circumstance within the duchy Seia’s eyes turned cold.

“That is unacceptable.” Seia said angrily. “We should crush the humans who have dared to raise their blade against the Maoh at once.”

Seeing the determined look on her face, Ash couldn’t help but suppress a laugh that was bubbling up inside him. Still she was an honest woman though a bit too open for his liking. As he thought about all the women around him he found it slightly odd even if there was a five to one ratio isn’t there a bit too many surrounding him. “Maybe it has something to do with my luck,” Ash said to himself as he thought more about it. “Though I don’t know if that is good luck or bad luck now that I think about it. They do tend to make my life much more difficult. There is no charm or charisma attribute in this world but then again luck says that it effect many things so maybe it affects that as well.”

“Something bothering you my lord?” Seia asked, her face taking on a worried tone as her chest swung close to his face.

“Just thinking about something,” Ash said shaking his head. “Definitely bad luck. Then again who said all luck had to be good.”

That night after having Seia show him around, Ash headed for his personal room that was close to the entrance of the caves. It seemed that all visitor rooms were done this way to help limiting people becoming lost. Seia said that the caves were extensive and some of the tunnels ran for miles. It was not uncommon for even those of the Liam race to get lost from time to time so it was a real worry when it came to visitors.

Opening the door to his room, Ash was surprised to find Celina waiting on him wearing a thin silver camisole. “I thought you had your own room?” Ash asked as his voice faltered slightly.

“Did you forget tonight is our wedding night,” she said with an impish grin as her face turned a light shade of red.

The next morning Ash was taken along with Seia to the labyrinth along with six other guards just like he had been with Celina. Celina on the other hand was forced to wait back in her room. Something she didn’t seem to like much, but she relented when told it was customary.

The plan was for Ash to absorb five abilities from three different monsters that was on the seventh, twenty-second, and forty-sixth floor. The monsters were the toxic salamander, coral snake, and the demon frog.

Once again Ash could only follow behind the guards while they fought. Even on the floors where he could easily kill the monsters, they didn’t let him fight. All he could do was follow behind them and absorb the monsters after they had turned cold.

Blindly following behind the guards, Ash and Seia talked as if they were out for a morning stroll. Seia was very interested in his life though the way she hung so close to him left him feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

It didn’t take long for the first monsters to die and for Ash to absorb them. In fact there were so many of the lizards that some disappeared before Ash could get to them.

[Toxin- cost 25MP: spew out a cloud of toxic poison that does 1 damage per second for five minutes. Level 1-0%]

[Poison Affinity: cost of using poison related skills and abilities will be reduced by 10% and power of fire related skills and abilities will be boosted 5%. Level 1-0%.]

The lizards were easy enough but the coral snakes even seem to worry the guards. One of the guards stayed close to them at all times while the others hunted the snakes. Ash felt it was silly at first until he saw the snakes attack for himself.

Coral snakes were small, only about a foot long and only about as wide as his thumb. The area was shallow water and given the snakes small size, it moved astonishingly fast when in the water. To attack it only needed to get close to you as the poison came through its scales and could be transmitted through the water.

Thanks to the coral snakes high speed and maneuverability, it took longer to kill thirty snakes than sixty lizards.

[Poison Control- cost ***: merge poison with mana to use it more freely.]

Ash thought the ability was much the same as the earth manipulation ability and from what he heard seemed much like the blood ability that the Liam tribe had. Thinking about what the clan head had said the day before Ash asked Seia about it.

“The Liam blood ability allows us to freely use poison. Not only can we manipulate it we can also merge different kinds of poisons to make new ones. Poisons have three ways to enter the body; blood, lungs, and skin. There are few poisons that can do all three, but if I merge them right I can do just that and with my innate ability I can even coat my arrows with it. That way if the arrow is blocked by a shield, there is still a chance for it to injure the enemy.”

The last enemy, the demon frog was much larger than Ash had expected. It was easily the size of a large dog and had oily black skin and six eyes. It attacked mainly with its tongue which was easily six foot long and coated with some type of acid that even ate through the guard’s armor when it connected. Thankfully the frogs were slow and sluggish but it still took time for each one to be killed.

[Secrete- cost ***: create a liquid form of poison that will last until needed. Cost depends on poison made and amount created.]

[Hemlock oil- cost 60MP: thin oil that can be used as medicine for swelling and pain when used in very small amounts. Causes complete paralysis when used in a concentrated form.]

By the time they exited the labyrinth it was already night so Ash was quickly ushered to bed where Celina waited on him.