The Tentacle Awakens

by J. J. Pavlov

  "What did they do to you, my lady?" A younger man dressed in ripped but much more sophisticated clothes, wielding a sword and featuring much better hygiene, approaches me from the other side. He seems to think that I was tortured to the point where I lost my voice or something since I didn't answer the first man.

  Looking between the two, I assume that the former is a peasant and the latter is a nobleman. And both think I'm a prisoner just like they are. But their attitudes would most definitely change if they knew I was actually the daughter of the demon queen.

  "Alright." The crocodile calls out to me from the stands. Since his eyes aren't the same as a human's, nobody can tell whom exactly he's referring to. "Let's see how you'll deal with this bunch of humans."

  Huh, what's with that phrasing? What exactly am I supposed to do here? Fight them to the death?

  "Is there a demon among us?" The young nobleman mutters while looking around cautiously. It's clear he doesn't want to create a panic with that suggestion, but the middle-aged man on my other side overheard it.

  "What, one of us is a demon?" He shouts out in surprise.

  Instantly, the humans all step away from each other and raise their weapons in something that could only be described as a medieval standoff. Humans are very quick to doubt each other, it seems.

  "You! I haven't seen you around. Which squad are you from?" The peasant turns to me while holding his club ready like a baseball bat, to whack me with it if I make any wrong move.

  "You lowlife, how dare you threaten a young lady." Stepping in front of me and pointing his sword at the middle-aged man, the nobleman covers for me. I really appreciate it, but would you do that if you knew I was actually the demon among you? "Tell us your name and where you came from, my lady."

  I wonder where he's coming up with the idea that I'm a noble lady. Maybe it's because of my fair and spotless face. The other women in the arena look much rougher, and all of them have tanned skin and straw-like hair - the result of being out in the sun all day long and working the fields, I assume.

  They should be suspecting me since I look completely different from them; my facial structure and hair color is the way I looked before my death, but all of these people look like westerners. How anyone here could mistake me for one of them is beyond me.

  "Hey, your hair is black." A woman remarks with a suspicious glare and points her spear at me from a distance. I can hear others beginning their very own inquisitions elsewhere, and voices grow louder everywhere in the arena. "You're not from the empire, are you?"

  Humans are just like that, aren't they? I've seen this happen before. When people want to find faults with others, they will look for every little detail to incriminate them with. While they aren't wrong this time, what if I was a normal human who just happened to be different from the others?

  The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.

  In a world where mob justice still exists, that's not entirely true. Because here, saying 'a nail that sticks out gets pulled out and disposed of' would be much more appropriate. After all, if it gets revealed that I'm a demon, they'll lynch me.

  "She's not saying anything. I must be right!" The pockmarked peasant inches closer, ready to swing his club at my face.

  "Cease this folly. Can you not see that the demons want to make us doubt each other?" The young nobleman is trying to defend me, but more and more people seem to have caught onto the situation and are turning my way.

  Then I suddenly feel something piercing into my side. When I look down, I see that the spear, wielded by the woman who first raised suspicions because of my black hair, has been plunged into my exposed waist, all the way down to the shaft.

  But it doesn't hurt.

  "Wha-?! How dare you!" Rounding me and swinging his sword at the woman, the nobleman tries to scare her away. She lets go of the spear in shock as if realizing what she just did. The young man turns to me with a concerned expression. "Are you alri... ght?"

  I pull the spear out with one hand and look down at my side, where the hole closes up on its own immediately. There is no blood, and just like poking a thick liquid, it returns to a smooth state on its own.

  "Y-you... you are a demon!" Making a full U-turn in his attitude towards me, the nobleman draws back with an expression of fear and hatred. In the same move, he slashes at me and the sword cuts into my shoulder and goes all the way down to my chest in what would be a grievous wound for a human. My already ragged shirt falls off my chest and reveals the cut, which is closing itself visibly.

  What are these feelings I have right now?

  My heart, which I shouldn't even have since I'm actually just an amorphous being, is aching. The young nobleman stood up for me, but the moment the truth was revealed, he didn't hesitate for a second to betray me. No questions asked, no chance to explain myself.

  The humans surround me completely, their weapons pointing in my direction, and a mass of fear and hatred wash over me. It causes me to shiver, and elation fills my mind; it seems that a Crawling Chaos basks in those negative emotions as if it was nourishing sunlight.

  And that's when I realize what the sensation just now was: Disgust and disappointment. I find myself thinking that humans are only like this after all.

  The encirclement, emboldened by their large numbers and the weapons they wield, tighten the ring. Not a single one of them shows any apprehension to participate in my lynching, as their faces betray their bloodlust and malice.

  I feel my mind dull from the dark sensations that creep up within me, and my heart grows cold and distant. My vision blurs, and the humans before me turn into distorted figures only emanating a disgusting aura. Their negative emotions flow into me like sweet molasses.

  Simply irredeemable.

  When I come back to my senses, I'm the only one left standing in the arena. Several spears and swords are buried in my body, but I don't feel them at all. At one point, without me even noticing, my forearms turned into large bone blades - the one I used when I disemboweled the gorilla-like monster on the Dark Continent. From their tips, red blood trickles down and seeps into the dirt ground.

  The dismembered and mangled corpses of the humans lie scattered everywhere. And even though they are in such a state, there is no disturbance in my mind. A part of me coldly analyzes the way in which I just killed thirty humans, both men, and women. The rest of me doesn't even care.

  They attacked me first, after all.

  "That was incredible!" The demon queen applauds me from the spectator's box with a radiant smile.

  "I gotta say, she has great potential, Your Majesty." Nilotec has his arms crossed and looks at the carnage I caused with what I assume to be a satisfied expression.

  Said majesty suddenly jumps down from the stands and walks towards me with a spring in her steps. I remove the weapons stuck inside me by pushing them out of my body, and by the time I'm finished, she's already right in front of me.

  "You did really well. None of your siblings passed this test as quickly as you did." Maou-mama praises me and pets my head, even though she's smaller than me.

  I think I now understand what this whole thing was about. Its purpose was to determine whether I would be able to kill humans or not. More specifically, how far I would let it come before I fought back and started killing them. Maybe this test was conceived after some of her children refused to kill despite their lives being threatened.

  "What was this test for?" Looking around me once again, I take in the sight of the massacre I committed. I'm asking just to make sure.

  "That is no longer important." Placing a hand on my cheek, Maou-mama gives me a beautiful smile. "You have shown that you are not bound by anything."

  I guess it's just as I thought and this was to test my resolve when faced with humans. And after what I did here, I don't think I'll ever hesitate to kill anyone again. That is, as long as there's no other choice.

  When I think about it, under the same circumstances in my previous life, I would most definitely
not have been able to do anything. Being born in Japan, I've always been far from war and death. Let alone kill them all, I wouldn't even have fought back and most likely just been lynched. And the same would have happened here if I hadn't been accidentally sent to Yagrath and had to fight and kill for my survival there.

  I think my inhibitions have completely disappeared with this. I've made my peace with the fact that I've died and been reborn as a demon in a world where it's all about killing or being killed.

  "What's next?" I ask in a cold tone that surprises me. This shouldn't be a reason for me to lose my emotions!

  "We shall have dinner." Looking around us, Maou-mama states with a happy expression. It's evident what will be on the menu judging by her gaze, but I don't feel disgusted by the prospect. When I think about it, humans and animals aren't that different - both are perfectly fine meat. It would be a waste not to make use of all these bodies.

  And I, for my part, am not a human anymore, so I shouldn't be bothered by eating them anyway.

  Chapter 4 - Carry On Wayward Child

  Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Maou-mama taught me many things about the Dominion, the nation of demonkind that spans the entire continent of Ceogath, which the humans simply refer to as the Demon Continent. The most important thing she hammered into my mind is the fact that to be a good ruler one needs a heart that can hold love for more souls than one can count. She cherishes every single one of her citizens, and she tried to teach me to do the same.

  I didn't really understand what she meant until she took me on a walk through the streets of Arkaim, the capital of the Dominion, while in disguise. The bustling life of the city, despite the dark architecture and tinted windows, showed me that there were many different kinds of demons. Some possess an otherworldly beauty and grace, while others appear malformed and hideous. And I could see that Maou-mama didn't discriminate when speaking to any of them.

  Maybe I won't be able to gain the same kind of open-heartedness so quickly, but seeing her overflowing kindness as she watched her citizens, I felt inspired to at least try to do so. I must have been seeing the signs of a good ruler in her at the time.

  It's clear that she intends for me to become her successor, as all rulers do for their children. Leaving aside the matter of older siblings, who don't seem to be living in the castle, I feel like our kind is exceptionally long-lived or even outright immortal. I have no metabolism, after all.

  I don't tire, sweat, or produce any waste even when I eat a lot. When I morph into any of the templates from humans and animals consumed, I can allow myself to copy their body plan to perfection. At the same time, I can also make partial transformations on the inside, which enables me to change only my outward appearance while keeping my interior that of a Crawling Chaos.

  Therefore, I believe that we should be virtually immortal, as long as we have access to food. According to Maou-mama, that also appears to be our kind's only weakness, since overwhelming hunger can come to control our actions. It depends on the mass we have in us, with less causing a more intense craving when hungry, but with more requiring much more to sustain the mass.

  Sometimes I wonder how much mass Maou-mama has since she seems to eat about the same amount as I do.

  There is another thing I learned about myself, not in the physiological but psychological sense. Even though I had already started to become aware of it in my previous life, it took my death and this new beginning to realize one fact about my psyche. And it took this new body and the altered perspective on life that comes with it to completely embrace it.

  I'm not interested in the other sex. And I have never been.

  The Maid Corps in the castle are all incredible beauties - or cuties - without exception. Maou-mama told me they were chosen for various qualities, but the one all of them had to have in common was having uniquely good looks.

  I think she saw through my preferences and is hinting at the fact that as her successor, I will be able to create my very own Maid Corps just like that. It makes sense that a person in the position of the demon queen should be able to choose the most beautiful subjects in the nation for herself.

  Though I have to wonder, does that mean Maou-mama also swings that way?

  "Good morning, Chaos-chan." When I enter the dining hall in the morning, Maou-mama sits at the end of the table and greets me with a smile unlike any I've seen before.

  For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this.

  Well, that 'some reason' also derives from the fact that Mithra is standing next to the demon queen in his usual mummy-like appearance. He has been the one to transport us from place to place so that a repetition of my trip to Yagrath wouldn't happen again. So whenever I see him, I have to look forward to going somewhere.

  But the atmosphere in the hall seems different from usual. Many members of the Maid Corps are gathered, and Rewera appears to be carrying something in her hands. It looks like a crude leather backpack.

  "Today is the day for you to go on your journey." Maou-mama speaks in a happy voice as she stands up from her chair.

  My journey? It sounds like I'll be alone on this one, and it makes it seem like something more long-term than everything we've done so far. I haven't even had breakfast, and you're telling me to leave?

  "It is a pilgrimage to prove your worth." Her gentle gaze seems to suggest that she expects me to pass with flying colors, just like I have in almost every test I've been subjected to so far.

  "Where will I be going to?" That wording makes me think of a journey with religious undertones, and my destination will be a temple or ancestral catacombs, where I have to overcome some kind of trial that will feel like a dream sequence.

  "Not to, but from." She corrects me. When she sees my confusion, she stands up from her chair and walks over to me, while gesturing for Rewera and Mithra to come forward. "You will be sent to a location chosen at random, and your goal is to return to this palace within three years."

  "... three years?" I ask cautiously. Is she expecting me to travel across the world and perform some specific feat during that time? I mean, I don't know how big this planet is, but I've heard of a story in which people traveled around the world in eighty days. Then again, apparently they used trains and cars. Those most definitely don't exist in this world. "Do I have to?"

  "Yes, you do. All who aspire to sit on the Dominion's throne are required to undergo this final test." Maou-mama puts her arms on my shoulders and looks me deep in the eyes, the piercing yellow irises on her black sclera fixed onto me in a warm expression.

  It would require for the current demon queen to abdicate from old age or die, before I could ascend to the throne, though. The former feels highly unlikely if my theory about our kind's potentially infinite lifespan is right; the latter is something I don't ever want to happen. While being able to create my own harem is tempting, I don't want that in exchange for my new mother's death.

  "I don't want-" Before I can finish, Maou-mama puts her index finger to my lips and shakes her head with her eyes closed. It seems she knows what I'm thinking.

  "Do not worry. You should be able to return much faster than that, but this gives you time to see more of the world." Chuckling to herself, Maou-mama separates from me and speaks with a hint of mischief. I understand what she wants me to do with all that time I've been given. It's what she has been teaching me for the past three weeks. "I am sure nothing will be able to bring you down along the way. After all, you are my child."

  Her confidence in me is astonishing, but at the same time, I can feel pride well up inside me. It makes me want to affirm her trust in my abilities.

  Rewera hands me the backpack and lists the things contained in it. My breakfast has been packed, as well as some dried meat for along the way. There are some basic tools and a magic map which automatically shows the position I'm in. That last one should come in really handy.

  Alright, I guess I'm ready to depart... not really, but there are no two ways around this. As long as
I get sent to a place that isn't as dangerous as the Yagrath, and have a map to orientate myself with, I should be fine getting back here. I'll just treat this as an adventure trip.

  "See you soon, Chaos-chan." Waving to me just as Mithra steps forward and tips his gnarled staff in my direction, Maou-mama gives me a reassuring smile.

  "See you, mama..." I'm not entirely confident in myself, but I'll just have to grit my teeth and get this over with.

  Oh wait, in all this time it came so naturally to me that I completely forgot. The use of Japanese honorifics despite the fact that the language we speak isn't actually Japanese. What's up with that? Does this mean Maou-mama was reincarnated into that body, too?

  Before I can ask her about it, the familiar stream of light envelops me and cuts off my vision of her.

  When my surroundings return to those of the normal world, the first thing I notice is that the temperature dropped by quite a bit. Looking around, I find greenery all around me. Lush grassy plains with rolling hills extend into the distance before me, just past some mossy trees at the edge of a forest.

  Well, my question in regards to whether Maou-mama is a reincarnated person just like me, or picked up Japanese from someone else in this world, will have to wait until I get back to her side then.

  In either case, a choice is presented to me right away: Forest or plains?

  I've been in a forest before, so no thank you. It's easy to get lost, and the atmosphere can become quite oppressive when you know that behind each tree could be monster that might attack you on sight. I have a better view of my surroundings on the plains and will be able to see if something dangerous approaches. Also, I will be able to spot settlements from afar.

  Ah, now that I see the towering clouds in the distance, I remember something else I seem to have banished from my thoughts for a long time. I forgot to ask Maou-mama about the giant cloud monster in Yagrath.

  There are several things I wanted to talk to her about that slipped my mind so inconveniently, it seems...