The demons were fast. In mere seconds, they had covered ten kilometers, vanishing into the dense canopy of the forest.
I did not pursue immediately. Instead, I descended, landing softly beside the corpse of Beliza.
Normally, a slain demon would dissolve into mana particles within moments. But Beliza remained. He was frozen, a gruesome statue pinned to the earth by the massive lance of El Kanaph.
This was my doing. Using a localized application of Zafkiel, I had halted the flow of time around his body. The interaction between the lance's "Mana Breaker" properties and Kries's "Restore" spell had created a unique anomaly I wished to study.
[Initiating sample collection. Transferring analysis protocols to sub-system.]
I extracted a sample of the demon's blood and tissue, then turned my gaze toward the forest.
Tracking them was trivial. No creature could hide its heat signature, mana trail, and auditory footprint from me.
I replayed the audio of their conversation in my mind.
"Why did Schlacht sent us all the way out here?"
"He sees the future."
Schlacht. The Omniscient. The Demon King's right hand.
He knew of me. He had dispatched four Great Demons to my location. But he hadn't sent them to win.
He had sent them to die.
Based on their dialogue, these warriors were political rivals, unruly subordinates who chafed under his command. By sending them against an "unknown anomaly" that he had likely foreseen would destroy them, he was killing two birds with one stone. He eliminated his internal enemies and gathered data on me in the process.
A calculated sacrifice. Efficient.
However, without more data, I couldn't determine exactly how much he knew. Did he see me as a machine? A mage? An angel?
To answer that, I needed to ask the survivors.
I engaged my Velocity Override and shot into the trees.
….
Deep in the Forest:-
CRASH!
Trees shattered like matchsticks as two bodies were slammed into the earth.
I stood over the pit I had created. Inside lay the two remaining warrior demons, Rasa and the nameless guard. They were pinned to the ground, each skewered by a replica lance, immobile but still conscious.
I had incapacitated them with surgical precision. Like Beliza, I had frozen their temporal states, preventing them from dissolving or dying from their wounds.
Demon bodies were unstable after death, making autopsies difficult. But a living subject? That was a treasure trove.
I placed a hand on Rasa's head.
"True Endo: Mind Hack"
It was a spell I had synthesized from Serie's library, Mental Invasion Magic.
I dove into the demon's memories. Images flashed before my internal eye: The Demon King's castle. The cold, calculating gaze of a demon with many eyes, Schlacht. The orders given.
Schlacht saw a golden light in the south. A power that rivals the King.
He did not know what I was. But he knew I was coming.
He sent these four to verify the vision.
In the original story, Schlacht the Omniscient chose his own death. He foresaw a future where his sacrifice was necessary for the Demon King's victory, and he walked into it willingly.
He was a rational actor. If he had truly seen me in his visions, he would know the consequences of provoking me.
Therefore, this ambush was not an attack. It was a disposal operation.
These four Great Demons were likely rebellious elements, thorns in his side. By sending them to "intercept" me, he achieved two goals: he gathered data on my capabilities, and he eliminated his political rivals. I was merely the executioner he had hired without pay.
A bold strategy, I thought. Using an Ex-Machina as a cleaning service.
Did he have a plan to deal with me later? Perhaps. But without more data, speculation was inefficient.
I turned my attention back to the present. The extraction of the "Restore" magic data from Beliza was complete. Now, I just needed to verify it with the source.
I walked to the edge of the smoking crater.
Visibility was low, the air thick with dust and ash. A normal person would be blind here. But my sensors cut through the haze, locking onto the figure standing on the opposite rim.
It wasn't the demon mage. It was the girl.
"Query: Flamme, why are you here?"
I wasn't surprised. I had been tracking her signal for hours. The bracelet I gave her wasn't just a magic storage device; it was a GPS tracker and a communication terminal. And, unknown to her, it also contained my own real-time coordinates.
"I think you already know the answer to that, Stell-neechan," she replied, her voice ringing clear through the smoke.
She stepped forward, the wind blowing her long, orange braid behind her.
Years had passed since our time in her city. The small child who had begged for stories was gone. In her place stood a young woman, tall and confident.
She had grown into a beauty, though her posture, hands on hips, standing triumphantly over a scene of absolute destruction, was hardly "ladylike."
"..."
I glanced down into the crater. Kries, the demon mage I had intended to interrogate, was nothing more than a stain on the earth.
"Don't worry," Flamme said with a grin, misinterpreting my silence. "I didn't hold back. You told me never to show mercy to a demon, right?"
"Affirmative."
I had indeed taught her that. And she had learned well.
My plan to extract more data from Kries was ruined, but it didn't matter. I had gathered enough from the warrior's corpse. The loss was acceptable.
I looked at Flamme. She was beaming, clearly proud of her victory. Unlike the Flamme of the original history, this version hadn't lost everything. She hadn't been forged in the fires of tragedy. She was brighter, more open. Her hatred for demons came from education, not trauma.
Whether this was better or worse, I couldn't say. I didn't regret my interference.
"Query: You wish to join the expeditionary unit?"
It was the only logical conclusion. She had packed a bag. She had tracked me down. She had proven her strength.
"Mmhmm." She nodded, a playful sparkle in her green eyes. "So? Can I?"
She winked, a gesture of practiced cuteness that seemed a bit out of place on a battlefield, but suited her perfectly.
I had the right to refuse. I didn't need a companion. Takson was already a handful.
But as I looked at her, at the friend my apprentice had made, at the prodigy I had helped shape... my logic circuits offered no objection.
"Application approved," I stated. "Flamme, you are now registered as a 'Companion.'"
"Yay!" She cheered, throwing her hands up in victory.
….
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