I never would have imagined that I would become the owner of a castle one day... I didn't even say that I wanted it, everyone just kind of agreed that this place belongs to me now.
Well, after traveling for so long it feels nice to have a home again. And I got a big room all for myself, with a big, comfortable bed, and water dripping from the many leaks in the ceiling... It's been raining non-stop for 3 days now. Apparently, this only happens once or twice a year in this part of the wasteland so it's a bit unlucky that it happened just after I arrived.
Also, this place really is in need of some repairs. Having been built with stone from the depths of the infernal caverns, this castle is far more durable than most. But it is also 2000 years old and it seems that there have been a lot of battles here with high-level combatants that have been damaging the construction little by little, there are cracks and holes everywhere. Fortunately, there were some buckets in a storage room that I've been using to collect the water.
"Bucket number 4 is filling the fastest."
A large and imposing castle with exceptionally strong walls, with cracks and holes all over it. It almost feels like this is a metaphor for me...
And if I agree to become the queen of the demon wasteland this will probably become my permanent residence. I need to make a decision soon... I was hoping that something would happen to make the decision easier, or that I would suddenly come to some deep realization. Instead, I've been here in this room for a few days now and I still have no idea of what answer I should give.
That's not to say that I've just been sitting here doing nothing, I have a lot of things on my to-do list after all. So I tried to perform an autopsy on Kalroth's body, learning more about void mana seemed like the most urgent thing to do. But when I opened his body I discovered that it was mostly hollow, no organs, not even bones, I have to admit that it was a bit disturbing... I guess I should have guessed it from the lack of weight.
However, the void mana in him had formed a few crystals that had been somehow maintaining the shape of the body, so I decided to experiment on them instead.
And what I discovered from those experiments is that void mana is dangerous, in more than one way. At first, I attempted to use my magic to analyze the crystals, but it appears that when any form of magic is used on void mana the result is always the same. The void mana causes the spell to vanish, but if the spell is too powerful, the mana will change from void to the element of the spell. And that happened with any spell I attempted, it made no difference if it was an attack, an analysis spell, or a curse.
The next thing I noticed was that just being near void mana causes people's emotions to become less intense. It only affects me slightly, but when Nera came to visit there was a moment when she almost looked like a doll. That gave me quite a scare, so I decided to keep the crystals away from everyone else.
But the biggest scare came when some of the crystals I had left close to each other fused together and turned into another one of those void demons. That one looked like a featureless cube instead of a spike.
It attacked me with some strange magic that made me feel like I had become... less. After disposing of the demon I checked my status and my level had been reduced by 2. Fortunately, the effect was temporary and my level returned to normal after 30 minutes, but if I ever encounter a large number of those demons and they all use that magic at the same time things could get really dangerous.
In the end, I placed the few crystals I had left in a locked room surrounded by magic circles with the strongest sealing effects I can produce. Performing experiments that most people would call dangerous is nothing new to me, but this is the first time I've truly felt that I didn't know what I was dealing with...
And so, I'm now in my room watching how the buckets fill with rainwater. I should pour some of the water in bucket number 4 into number 2...
*Knock*
"Luna, are you there?"
"Nera? You can come in."
Since Nera is a princess, she might be able to help me figure out if becoming a queen would be a good idea, but I was afraid of talking to her after the incident with the void mana.
"So, have you made a decision yet?"
"No. But are you feeling well? I'm sorry about what happened..."
"You mean the void mana thing? I already told you that it wasn't a big deal."
"I see..."
Even if she says that she's fine I still feel bad, she could have been hurt because I didn't take enough precautions.
"So Luna, have you ever seen a rain spirit?"
"A rain spirit? No. I've never been interested in spirits."
"Well, there's one at the window in my room right now. Do you want to come and see it?"
"I don't think I can right now..."
"Oh, are you busy with those experiments of yours?"
"No, I've already finished for now."
"Then are you focused on deciding if you want to become a queen?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you to help me with that. Since you are a princess you should know what it's like to rule a country, no? And the Agua kingdom also has a lot of demons living in it."
"It's not really the same. The demons living in the Agua kingdom have a mindset closer to the humans there than the demons here. The demon wasteland has a rather... unique culture. Other demons often try to distance themselves from the ones living here."
"Yeah, I know that the demon wasteland does not have a very good reputation."
I suppose that's something I have in common with this place. But I don't think that I've done as much to earn my bad reputation...
"To be honest, even if you become their queen I don't think that this place can even be called a country the way it is now. It's just a collection of tribes that do not even have any laws in common."
"That's true..."
After taking a look at the buckets, I pour some of the water in bucket number 1 into number 5.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing, it's just that the water is dripping from some leaks faster than the others."
Nera seems confused for a moment, then she seems to realize something.
"Luna... are you pouring water from one bucket to another just to make sure that they all fill at the same pace?"
"Of course, yesterday I didn't pay attention and one of them overflowed long before the others, it was a disaster."
"Don't tell me that this is the reason why you didn't want to come with me."
"Yes, if I leave, bucket number 4 is going to..."
"Didn't I tell you to stop obsessing so much over stupid things?"
"It's not stupid! These buckets all have the same capacity, so they should all contain the same amount of water! It's just common sense."
"Let's go, I want you to see that rain spirit before it leaves."
"Wait! Nera! don't pull my arm!"
It seems like I have no choice but to leave.
Nera's room is connected to another room, where her maid, Mari, is staying. She's looking at us while trying to hide behind the door, but we can see her clearly. Does she think that we don't know that she's there?
"Look, that's the rain spirit."
Floating just outside the window there's something that looks like a semitransparent octopus with a large eyeball where its head should be. Looking at it while it taps on the window is somehow making me feel more aware of the fact that it's raining.
"You can hear it, right? Is it saying anything to us?"
"It's just trying to let us know that it's raining right now."
"Eh? But we can see that. What's the point of it telling us?"
"It doesn't matter if there's no point. A spirit just does whatever its nature tells it to do, and this one is supposed to inform living creatures about the rain."
"That seems dumb..."
"You should not think of spirits as if they were people or even animals. They do not possess free will, and they are incapable of learning or understanding anything that they are not supposed to know."
"That's horrible."
"It would be horrible if it was a person, I told you that it's not."
"So why did you want to show me this?"
"You seem to be having trouble making a decision, so I thought that seeing something that cannot make any decisions at all would help."
"I don't see how this is supposed to help me."
"Well, just think about it. This spirit cannot decide to not tell us about the rain because it cannot understand that we already know about it. Making a decision requires knowledge about the thing you're deciding, otherwise, you might as well just pick something randomly."
"I see... So the reason why I cannot decide if I want to become a queen is that I don't understand what becoming a queen would really mean."
"Xania knows the demon wasteland much better than me. I bet that she could help you."
"You're right. I should have a talk with her."
But do I have enough time? Bucket number 4 must be around halfway full by now...
"Luna, stop thinking about the buckets."
"I wasn't thinking about the buckets."
"Yes, you were."
"Yes, I was..."
This rain decision made for some extremely good characterization. Allowing for a showcase of the protagonist's OCD was a very nice touch. I thought it was some great writing if you were looking for a segwey. If you don't have much to say and need something to fill space before you get to the next chapter, adding in some character moments is always the right choice.
Poor Luna, for all the advantages that it gives her, a normal brain has information filters for a reason.
Even light and darkness mana seem able to coexist, but void mana does not. Our top candidates for "true enemy of the world" would either be Cureva and/or the biggest baddest void demon.
Cureva's elemental affinity is wind, but I kinda wonder whether her unique mentality would allow her to use void without the incompatibilities Luna is having trouble with?
While the emotions behind them are completely different, darkness, with its power to negate things, is probably the closest thematically to void. How much of void's abilities would it be possible to simulate using darkness?
days now, apparently, this only happens -> now. Apparently this
The void mana causes the spell to vanish, but if the spell is too powerful, the mana will change from void to the element of the spell. -> is this backwards? Mana changing from void to the element of the spell seems to not be dangerous, at least not compared to void mana itself. Does the spell go from element to void, or the target thing go from void to element?
unique culture, other demons -> culture. Other
To be honest. Even if you > honest, even
Void demons can cause level drain? Damn, that's serious. At least it's only a temporary ailment, though that could be because Luna killed the void demon that did the attack so quickly
Nera's Luna-wrangling skill has gone up a lot. Good job Nera.
Well, I think the chapter flowed pretty well. Luna has always been an obsessive oddball, so Nera visiting her and then dragging her out of her room is in character. Nera derailed Luna's train of thought that had stalled out on the tracks and was going nowhere. Now Nera just has to make sure Luna's thought train doesn't crash or stall again
Stray thought-since it seems like void demons can pop up easily if they have a source and they can twist people and make them apathetic, did a void demon attack Cureva or something? Or interfere with her reincarnation, or get stuck in her head?
Her mentality does seem a little alien. A typical psychopath cares plenty about "winning" the game of life.
Emotions often lead us to do stupid things when we don't let our higher brains manage them properly, but they exist for a reason, to keep us motivated. If Cureva is so nihilistic that she doesn't enjoy eating or care about pain, then I kind of wonder how she even keeps herself alive.
@scout821 I think she mentioned wanting to make everyone else “see how pointless life really was”? Or something like that, indicating she wants to actively drag everyone down around her. She’s that “wants to watch the world burn” type psycho
@MarkofWisdom That kind of attitude seems like a symptom of excessive void exposure. It seems that void mana drains motivation and also had the propensity to infect others and replicate. Which is exactly what Cureva is trying to achieve.
@Xyll-246 Indeed, but if Cureva were truly drained of motivation, making everyone else like her would seem just as pointless as everything else and leave her catatonic like Kalroth. If she was in fact tainted by a void demon, the void demon must have decided to make her a work of art, surgically leaving the spite, malice, and sadism in while it was removing other things.
That's not backwards, that's what happens when a spell is powerful enough to overwhelm the void mana, it's what Luna did in chapter 82. The part about it erasing any spell that is not strong enough is a bit dangerous, but when Luna said that it was dangerous she was mostly talking about the stuff in the next 3 paragraphs, maybe the way I wrote it was a bit confusing...
Fixed the rest, thanks.
@forli the wording made it seem like the spell got erased normally, but if it was strong enough it overpowered the void mana or something, go back(?) to being elemental mana and…? Cast as normal? Fluctuation in power/casting that would make the spell unstable and possibly dangerous? Or is the main takeaway “if a spell is strong enough it can overpower the chaos mana/demons”? I guess that was my main confusion, what the main reason for the detail was- the spells becoming unstable or something or just that they can overpower chaos mana but have then be extremely powerful to do so
@MarkofWisdom Basically, the spell and the void mana "fight" each other, and the strongest one "wins".
@forli Ah, ok. I’m probably just mixing it up with other series that have things like that where even if the spell wins, it’s weakened/made unstable and dangerous. I’m thinking like if a fireball got cut in half/half of it disappeared suddenly then the other half of the fireball would become unstable and dangerous, maybe exploding early or something