[Holy fist: cost 20MP- coat fist in holy light. Level 1-0%.]
[Crushing blow: cost 40SP- strike with three times the force as normal. Level 1-0%.]
[Deadly finish: cost 100SP- upgrades the next attack 1 level. Level 1-0%.]
[Destructive dispel: cost 75MP- cancel enemy spell or ability and does damage equal to the cost of the spell canceled to the caster. Level 1-0%.]
[Dimension door: cost 25MP- open a dimensional door from one place to the next. Range 100 feet. Level 1-0%.]
[Port: cost 20MP- teleport an item into your hand. Range thirty feet. Level 1-0%.]
[Final embrace: cost ***- sacrifice yourself and deal damage to all enemy equal to that of your remaining HP, MP, and SP combined.]
For his new stat points Ash used them all in strength, agility, stamina, and vitality. The reason for this was because his current goal was to get all his stats up to at least 100. Ash knew that it would be nearly impossible but he figured it was worth the try.
It was two weeks before they received word from the king regarding both the war and the captives. When the reply was brought over to Emelia she unrolled it and read it aloud.
Emelia Hawkwing We have received your demand for ransom of the soldiers of the kingdom and the declaration of your right to succession from our domain.
In regards to this We demand the release of our men and that you and the one you have taken as your husband present yourself before us that We may pass sentence on your unlawful and unholy collusion with those of the demon race. If your refuse our royal decree then you shall face the full wrath that we can bring down upon you.
“Foolishness,” Tolarea said when she heard the king’s response.
“Indeed,” Emelia said her voice holding more than a tint of anger in it.
“What should we do?” Ash asked.
“We have a few choices,” Emelia said after a few moments of thought. “The first is to do as the king has demanded and turn ourselves over to be judged and sentenced to a public death.”
“Unacceptable,” Gena said harshly.
“Agreed but I always like to start with the least desirable so that the most desirable one is the last one you hear,” Emelia said with a giggle.
“You mean the choice that you like the best,” Ash said while rolling his eyes.
“You’re no fun,” Emelia said sticking out her tongue playfully. “The second choice is to refuse and wait to see how the king responds. We can also start killing the prisoners to make a point as well. The third choice is to send a force against the king and declare war. Finally we can send someone to negotiate a truce with the king and see if we can find a compromise.”
“I like the third choice,” Tolarea said firmly as a smile spread across her face.
“I think the second would be best,” Seia said with a look of thought on her face.
“What about you Ash?” Emelia asked looking at the two women with a slightly worried look on her face.
“AS much as I hate to admit it at this point I think the last option is the best,” Ash said in a defeated tone while a smile spread across Emelia’s face.
“I agree.”
“The real question is who should we send,” Emelia pondered. “It will have to be someone whose words can carry a bit of weight and also someone we can trust.”
“I will go,” Ash said after thinking for a bit.
“Out of the question,” Emelia said standing from her seat.
“Who else could we send that you trust?” Ash asked with a raised eyebrow. “Not only am I your husband so I hold a good deal of sway with the duchy.”
“Kingdom now,” Emelia corrected him. “Albeit a small one. We have broken away from the king so now we are independent.”
“Noted,” Ash said rolling his eyes. “I am also the maoh or demon king if you wish to look at it that way. If I go the king will not be able to overlook my words.”
“No he couldn’t but he could have you hauled before a mass of people to behead,” Emelia almost screamed.
“I would like to see him try,” Tolarea said menacingly.
“Emelia we both know this is the best choice,” Ash said reassuringly.
“I don’t like it,” Emelia said crossing her arms and pouting.
“Neither do I, but it has to be done,” Ash replied.
After the decision was made Ash spent the next three days with Emelia and his daughter. Ash had to admit that he was more than a little nervous about the coming meeting. Thankfully Ash would not be going alone. Not only would his guards be going with him but he would also bringing alone five knights from the former duchy and two more high ranking demons that had fought in the war for extra protection. The main reason for the two extra demon guards were that both could fly and in an emergency they could get him out. Ash didn’t like to think about this since it meant that he would have to leave his wives behind while he fled but none of the seemed to give it much thought.
The night before he left all of Ash’s friends and adopted family gathered at Emelia’s house for a large farewell party. Yuki, Shina, Milly, as well as Helen and her family were all present.
Helen was just as forward and outspoken as he remembered. She might have even became a little more forward since the last time they had met since she had taken over a government post close to Emelia. From what Emelia had said Helen was doing a great job, even better than expected. She had no problems dealing with snotty nobles and Emelia enjoyed the few that came to her personally to complain.
Surprising to Ash Yuki was not clingy. It seemed that in Ash’s absence she had grown up a lot. Ash couldn’t help but have a complicated feeling about her new independence. Milly on the other hand spent the whole night clamped to Ash. She was still young but she was not dumb and understood that soon as would be leaving again. Thankfully no one seemed to mind the small panther ear girl as she rode on his shoulders. In fact the only looks he got were ones of envy from many of the women in the room.
As the night came to an end Ash snuck away to a small sitting room away from everyone else. As soon as he was seated one of the maids brought him a small glass of wine. “Do you need anything else my lord?” The maid asked after sitting the bottle of wine on the table.
“Just some quiet,” Ash said as he leaned back in his chair.
“It had been months since Ash had really had any time to himself. When he was in the demon kingdom one of his new wives was always around and the only time he had to himself was the time he spent in the privy. Then there was the war, which kept him completely occupied and ever since he had returned Emelia had barely given him enough space to breath. He loved all of the people in his life but that didn’t mean he didn’t want some time alone every now and then so that he could recharge.
Taking a deep breath Ash took a small sip of the win and look at the white ceiling. “When will this be over?” Ash asked himself.
He knew that going to meet with the king was the best choice for a quick and hopefully peaceful end to the war but he also knew that it could turn blood fast if things didn’t go well. If that happened a war could drag on for years if not decades.
While he had some time to himself Ash started to look over his new abilities. He had gained the abilities weeks ago but he really didn’t have much of a chance to look them over. Ash was always amazed when he gained an ability from another human since they seemed to be much better than the ones he gained from monsters. He knew from his own research that almost all of them could be found if he killed the right monster but that was easier said than done since many of the monsters were very high level. The more he thought about it the more he started to form a theory. Most likely the abilities from stronger monsters had a better chance to be passed down among bloodlines from generation to generation.
Most of the abilities had a number of uses but two of them stuck out among the others. Port, and dimensional door could be extremely useful. Even at a low level port could be used in a number of ways while Dimensional door would ma
ke likely have to be leveled up a great deal before it could be used for more than a quick escape during battle.
Thinking of this Ash decided that the trip would be a great time to practice the two new abilities and level them up since neither of them required an enemy for them to be used against. Happy with his choice ash quickly drained the rest of his glass and moved to rejoin the others in the main room.
10-11
The next morning Emelia, Yuki, Shina, and Milly all gathered at the front gate of the city to see Ash off. After giving each one a hug and light kiss Ash mounted his carriage.
After they had left the city far behind Ash removed himself from the carriage and stretched his legs. Even though he had not ridden for long Ash had found the ride very uncomfortable.
“My lord has something happened?” one of his demon guards asked when Ash exited.
“No…Not really,” Ash replied. “There are just a few things I would like to try out.”
“Understood my lord,” the demon said bowing before returning to his post.
Ash had planned to use dimension door to catch up to the carriage but it seemed that he was not on board it wasn’t going to move. Looking around Ash noticed that everyone was watching him. A sudden idea hit Ash and a mischievous smile spread across his face.
Ash looked around and found a place that looked to be about seventy feet away and activated dimension door. As soon as the ability was activated a large obsidian doorway appeared in front of Ash. Shrugging his shoulders he quickly stepped through the door and found himself exactly where he had wanted to go. Quickly checking his ability page Ash looked at the experience earned from one trip and found that it was only 2%. “I have to do this fifty more times just to reach level two,” Ash said with a deep sigh before looking back at the people he had left behind. “Hay guys why are you all waiting back there?” Ash yelled in a teasing tone.
“My lord,” Ash heard a few of the call out as they rushed to where he was waiting the looks on their face showing more than a little confusion.
Just before they could reach him Ash activated dimension door again and moved another eighty to a hundred feet away. This time as Ash came through the large black door he quickly looked back at the people coming up the road. From the way they were acting they couldn’t see the doorway that he had opened. This brought up a lot of questions in Ash’s mind but he was not knowledgeable enough to even begin to answer them so he pushed them aside until he had more time to think.
Oddly enough dimension door was far cheaper than Ash would have guessed at only 25MP per use. With his current MP levels that meant that Ash could use it around fifty-five times before he would run out of MP, though that wasn’t really true since his MP would slowly recover even while he was using abilities. Still It left Ash knowing that he had enough MP to level it up at least once without having to take a long rest.
It didn’t take long to activate the ability so Ash was easily able to stay ahead of the group but after his fifth jump Ash noticed that while those on horseback were leaving the carriage behind. Grumbling to himself Ash was left with no choice then to wait on all of them to catch up to him so that he could explain what he was doing.
“MY lord,” Tolarea said in a harsh tone being the first to catch up to Ash her large warhorse panting heavily.
“Calm down Tolarea,” Ash said taking a step back when he saw the scowl on her face. “I was just training one of my new abilities.”
“And it never crossed your mind that you should let us know beforehand what you were doing?” Tolarea asked as she narrowed her eyes at him. “If you haven’t forgotten there is currently a war going on and I am sure there are any number of people who would like to see you dead. That is the whole reason that we have brought so many guards. What are their use if you run away from the safety that they bring you?”
Hearing Tolarea’s words Ash looked around to see that the others who had caught up with her were silently nodding their heads in agreement. “I apologize,” Ash said weakly as a feeling of remorse ran through him. “I was wrong.”
Once the carriage had arrived the small group took a break beside the road to let the horses catch their breath and so that they could talk.
“What is the new ability that you are training?” Seia asked as she came to sit beside Ash. “It looked like you just vanished and reappeared.”
“It is called Dimension door and allows me to move from one place to the next as long as it is within a certain range,” Ash explained.
“Can you take others with you?” Li asked weakly her voice barely audible over the sound of the blowing wind.
“I don’t know,” Ash replied honestly.
“Then we should try. If you can take two along with you I don’t think anyone would complain as long as you don’t move so far that the others can’t see you,” Li explained her idea.
“That could work,” Celina agreed making Li smile bashfully.
It was decided that Tolarea and Li would be the ones to go with Ash. Tolarea to fight any threat and Li to use her protection and healing spells. Once they were ready Ash activated Dimension door. “Can you see it?” Ash asked as the large obsidian doorway opened up in front of him. Having already heard Ash explain how the ability worked they both shook their heads. With Ash guiding them the three walked into the doorway. After being transported Ash looked around only to find himself standing alone only a few dozen feet away from the others.
“It didn’t work,” Seia said slightly disheartened as Ash walked back to where they waited.
“We should try again,” Tolarea said as if it was a challenge she had to beat.
Once again the three stood arm to arm but this time their arms were linked with Ash in the middle of the two women. “I see it,” Li shouted happily as soon as Ash activated the ability.
“It seems we have to be touching for it to work on more than one person,” Ash said nodding his head as he looked as his stats page and noticed that his MP consumption had also been raised to seventy-five. It was three times but it was good to know that he could move more people than just himself.
For the next three hours Ash transported himself and two of his guards forward while the rest of the party followed behind before his MP ran dry. Checking his stats page again Ash noticed that he still had 22% left before he could level up dimension door to the next level. Not only did traveling with others increase the cost it also increased the experience gained from one trip but it only increased by 1% per person.
After he had ran out of MP Ash was forced to retire to the carriage to recharge. As they rolled along Ash kept readjusting himself but no matter how hard he tried he still felt every bump that the wooden wheels went over. Seeing his discomfort Seia let out a laugh. Unlike the others Seia had the bottom half of a snake so it didn’t seem as if the rattling of the carriage bothered her as much.
To help pass the time Ash tried to read one of the books he had borrowed from Emelia’s library but at first it was hard for him to concentrate with all the rattling around though once he was able to get absorbed in the book it was as if the entire world around him disappeared.
After three hours of rest Ash had recovered enough of his MP to use dimension door again but he decided that it would be best to wait. He was still trying to build up his soul MP in case it was needed when he reached the capital and considering that it would take more than a six weeks to reach the capital Ash didn’t feel as if he was in a rush to level up the ability. Even the fast letter delivery using the adventure’s guild still took a week.
This also caused a bit of problem since Emelia would have to notify the king that she was sending a delegate to discuss the current situation, so the king would know long before Ash arrived that he was coming. That meant that there was a large chance of people moving to intercept them since more than a few say him as the catalyst for the war and believed that if Ash were gone the war would end without further trouble.
Emelia had promised not to send the letter until the
y had already been gone for a week. That would give them at least two weeks or a third of the journey without having to worry as much about assassins but there was no telling how many spies were watching Emelia’s every move so there was always a chance that the king would know long before the letter arrived and that meant that they couldn’t really keep their guard down. That was the reason everyone had been so agitated when Ash had simply disappeared from in front of their eyes.
Emelia had planned out the rout they would take so that at least a quarter of the time they could rest in a real bed at an inn. It sounded nice but the truth was that the first half of the trip would be spent sleeping under the stars since the cities gradually got closer together the nearer one got to the capital.
Ash didn’t mind as he enjoyed the outdoors. In fact sleeping outside was a lot better than sleeping in some of the low end dives that one would find in some of the villages.
Thanks to the carriage they couldn’t travel as far or as late as they could with horses but it wasn’t a choice that was given to him. For one Seia couldn’t ride a horse easily. Even when she rode one of the demon birds she had to use an especially made saddle and sadly they didn’t have any for her within the human kingdom. There was also the fact that delegates were expected to ride in a carriage and not just a simple one. The carriage that Emelia had prepared was made of an expensive wood that looked dark purple in the sunlight and almost obsidian in the darkness. It had a large crest painted on it in gold leaf on each side. One side had the crest of the Hawkwing family while the other had the crest of the demon lord on it. Ash didn’t see the reason for the demon lord crest since he doubted that anyone in the human lands would be able recognize the crest of the demon lord.
Since they were forced to set up camp as soon as the sun began to drop below the horizon it left them plenty of time for them to train before settling down to sleep. Ash had planned to use this time to look over his large number of abilities and try to learn them better and think of ways that they could be used but Tolarea and his other wives each had their own plans.
Reborn 10 - Demonic Valor Page 8