\ 1st Person POV: ?????????? /

Few would believe it but I used to be quite timid.

That shouldn’t be surprising with my history though; my mother died during my birth (maybe even before that) while I was born under the king of a biggoted country.

Honestly I would’ve had a better start in my life if I was born due to a sex slave than if I was born a princess. I’m sure of it since due to me being birthed from a certain person's body I can remember everything just like they can. My life likely wasn’t helped by the fact that my hair was black at night with skin pale as snow making me appear almost like a doll…

Well my eyes are kind of small yet they are pretty blue so it couldn’t be said I wasn’t beautiful even as a child.

Me being beautiful was hardly a good thing since it just made me easier to sell off as a political piece for my ‘fathers’ ambitions. It wasn’t even as if I shared any traits with my ‘father’ so obviously I wasn’t actually related to him - as a result he hated me more than any of his other daughters which there were quite a few of due to his lustful nature. What more could be expected from the king of a country that puts a {Slave Mark}, renamed to a {Patriot Mark}, then later began to use even more viscous methods.

I was too terrified to act up despite my constant beatings because of their new method which involved forcibly making (usually a woman) a drug for an extended period through a tube while having their bodies restrained to prevent resistance. According to my friends it slowly weakens the spiritual bridge between the physical body and mind meaning the woman can only ‘watch’ yet not actually control their body. Then with simple techniques similar to how one would make a golem that ‘woman’ is then completely controlled mentally by the man with zero ability to resist so I chose to call this whole thing {Last Rights}. Since only those with outrageous talents in [Dream Magic] which is a magic evolution above [Illusion Magic] and [Mental Magic] .

The sickest thing about this is the sick king who I call father called this disgusting process {Amelioration}.

If there was anything I knew I couldn’t lose even as a baby so no matter what I was told to do I did it even if it involved performing the ‘last rights’ to women entering the harem. Even when young I was recognised as being a talented Spirit Summoner as well as golemancer beyond even the elves slaves who were know for their talents… So with them having no more purpose I was made to give them their {Last Rights} as well making them into mindless dolls.

As is quite understandable the thought that I would become less useful therefore able to be given my own {Last Rights} by these elves I did it to only make me more timid. Everyday of my life I was terrified one day it would be me that becomes someone else's puppet with no ability to express myself in any fashion. Not sure why it’s so terrifying to me yet it is.

Still I was never alone as I always had Solus & Acuar to keep me company while also giving me advice and just help. They weren’t people but they were a part of me due to the other half of my unique heritage combining into the form of two spirits; one of fire and the other of water. For the longest time they were everything to me while I was everything to them as well.

Together us three spent hours speaking in our minds and they helped me with everything they could. They were my teachers, my friends and my siblings. I clearly related to any of those humans after all, yet in order for that man to not do something worse I had to pretend I was their loyal human sister who didn’t mind them taking their anger out on me…

Except for one.

While I was timid - big sister Bridget was outgoing and confident in a country where such girls shouldn’t exist as they would be snuffed out. Despite many rejecting her dreams, all the men in her life constantly telling her she’ll accomplish nothing as a weak girl, she never let any of that hold her back. Above all she was kind to me as the only one who stood up for me like the beautiful big sister she was.

She really was a beautiful swordswomen with big bright green eyes with slender lips that constantly held a heroic grin that could make anyone feel safe. Those arms of hers were always covered with a tan which suited her well defined physique ‘unfitting’ of a princess. While her short blonde hair was quite dimmer than the other royals her green eyes glimmered like emeralds that well suited her heroic disposition.

Was she femmine in any way? Absolutely not, she likely didn’t even know the difference between conditioner and shampoo let alone makeup or dresses. On top of that even as she grew up you couldn't tell where her back ended and butt began - chest just as apparent as our imperial father was in our lives. Yet she didn’t need to be since she was my beautiful older sister called Bridget who had even told father off for hitting me.

Her dreams were to become a great warrior that could adventure around the world helping those in need like a heroic knight. In my opinion it wasn’t just a dream but an eventuality since she was really talented with a sword and shield. We even practiced a lot with her more than keeping up with me despite me being obviously talented due to being birthed between the primordial Spirit and the {Heavenly Demon}.

If I was Emily she was my Elizabeth Jr.; she even spoke in an interesting ‘old fashioned’ way with “thou”s and “thine”s which she constantly mocked me for not understanding. Never in bad faith as we both know how Elizabeth Jr. is quite regal yet they get along well even with Elizabeth Jr.’s constant teasing. Maybe our similarities showed I too felt something more than ‘sisterhood’ between us?

Well that hardly matters..

I was satisfied even with the constant terror of the king down my back as the four of us slowly grew up happily despite the horror of our situation. She knew that I wasn’t her real little sister since she wasn’t dumb yet we continued on without doubts that we at least had love for eachother in this loveless place. Time went on till my Solus who could burn through a person could burn through a stone wall with his powers while big sis Bridget who wasn’t even fully through her teens had become a Swordmaster despite a lack of support.

To say I was proud of her calling me sister was a bit of a lie.

We spent many days simply just training my golems against her sword only to collapse on the warm sun above. I would tell her some interesting facts like the sun is really an ancient crow and she would tell me that it made no sense just like my level of strength. If she felt her words were too harsh during our banter she’d pull me into a tight embrace.

Constantly we had moments like that; I was truly happy and still consider those to be the best days of my life. Even if I am far closer to what my true parent wants of me, closer to what she says I need to be for my own happiness, I can never forget those sweet summer days. The gentle smell of pollen making the grouchy Acuar sneeze with Solus dancing about happily like a shooting star in the sky. Despite the miniature sun the warmest thing in those memories will always be that confident overbearing smile with no inhibition.

She was way older than me with her being 18 while I wasn’t even 6 thus didn’t have access to the system. Though I do find it funny these mortals rely so much on a set of gods they don’t even worship for easy power so I myself had no desire to wait till I was 7 even back then. I wasn’t a human though since I was some sort of hybrid ‘spirit’ with a physical body at the same time so saying I aged at the same rate was foolish. Well physically I appeared to be the correct age mentally I was able to understand my situation from day one.

Unfortunately I didn’t understand big sis Bridgets.

It was a day like any other where I was practising with the biggest golem I had made yet so that I could actually ride inside of it. Being inside the golem let me control it better yet I couldn’t help but feel even back then that it would be more efficient as a puppet. Regardless I was waiting for so long on that grassy knoll a bit outside the castle yet no matter how long I waited she never came to me.

I felt something was wrong yet the calm Acuar told me that even if there was something going wrong I couldn’t help her with my current strength. Solus didn’t like the wording but I agreed that it was probably just something to do with that new sword she was having made. She was being all cute by not telling me anything about it yet Solus who often roamed around freely of course spotted her ordering such a massive ornate greatsword.

Then again she always was a fan for theatrics so I often played the part of the nefarious villain when we sparred.

Not minding her disappearance for a day I was joyously awaiting her to dash out with the sword before thrusting me on. Perhaps she would’ve said something like “I know you are useless as chosing weapons so I got you this” or “I can’t be the only one wiedling a sword”. Thoughts of us going around on a journey around the world like she had described many days - two brave girls showing that anyone can be heroes.

Even on the second day of her being missing I was fine since it made sense that a trip outside the castle would be a day back and forth. It wasn’t the first time she had been out for more than a day since she had been working as an adventurer since she first hit 7 - apparently she had even done a job with {Elizabeth Paradises} B-Ranked elf duo! To me my mind only felt with the dreams that would take place in a year's time when I too could join her in setting out to never look back on our lives as an unloved princess’.

On the third day I was distraught though no matter how much my two spirits attempted to calm me down. I too thought I was stupid yet that anxiousness from the first day clawd at my throat making me throw up several times; I didn’t even know I could throw up till then. Despite emptying the contents of my stomach while waiting for Bridget I couldn’t eat anything without forcing it down my throat.

It was a silly feeling since it was only an extra day yet my mind couldn’t keep drifting to the worst case scenario I could imagine. Even if she were to die I would have no problem making a deal with literal demons to bring her soul back to me while I myself could repair her body. So what if summoning a demon could cost all the lives of the people in this ‘empire’? Compared to her life those bigots should be fucking glad I even consider them in the same thought!

But I had no way to cure a {Last Right} which took three days!

No matter how much I plotted there was no way I could have my beautiful Bridget return to me.

I begged and prayed to any god I could remember that on the 4th day she would return to me.

I was desperate.

Spirits weren’t liked by gods since they felt spirits took power away from them.

Still I prayed to {The Infinite Mother}.

I prayed to {The Dreamer}.

I prayed to {Munzumira}.

I prayed to {The Archangel of Life}.

I prayed to {The Primordial Mother}.

I prayed to {Atlas} and received an apology.

I prayed to {The Birds of Prey}.

I prayed to {The Azura Dragon}.

I prayed to {The White Tiger}.

I prayed to {The Vermillion Bird}.

I prayed to {The Black Tortoise}.

I prayed to I prayed to the fucking {The Heavens}.

… And, I even prayed to that shitty {God of Light}...

Finally on the fourth day since she vanished, my entire body felt weak as if I never slept or ate (which I didn’t but I’m part spirit so I don’t need to) all siblings were called. I was hopeful as I did all that I could praying to every god I could think for her safety with my two spirits telling me that our empress {Munzumira} wouldn’t ignore my desperate pleas. As such I was wishful that I would see my big sister happily standing with gift in hand calling me stupid for being so worried.

She was indeed there.

Her murky blonde hair that made her stand out now a vibrant yellow that was so obviously bleached to try to get it to be the same golden blonde as the rest of our siblings. Those glittering green eyes that always turned to me were now dully looking into the distance in a rather dumb looking manner. The slender lips which always tugged up into a heroic smile had been replaced with plump cushions that couldn’t even be closed properly leading to her salivating on herself.

Even when she didn’t know how to apply conditioning she now had a vibrant red lipstick on those ‘pillows’ with long fake lashes. While before only her arms which often had their sleeves rolled up as she practised swinging her blade were tanned now her entire body was bronzed in an unnatural manner. As for her breasts and butt? Defying gravity for how they refused to sag despite their large size dressed up in a lewd bikini armour - hell she even wore armoured heels making the fact she was an expert with the sword and shield she wore an ornament

No, it was more like she was an ornament.

Our father was announcing something but I couldn’t hear what he was saying as I was too busy staring at what was now ‘Bridget’ with disgust building inside me. It wasn’t a disgust with what had been done to her ‘previously perfect’ self, making all her hard work to become an adventurer now just a tool to make her more attractive… No, I felt disgusted with myself for truly thinking she looked absolutely beautiful still despite how much they had changed her simply because some man thought this looked better.

I felt disgusted because I thought the exact same as that man who decided to make her into that; she looked sexy.

Still when our ‘father’ announced that Bridget would be wedded to Earl Thompson for raising the wonderful hero who defeated the demon lord I felt something new. This time it was anger that they would rob her of her own free will - apparently it was that earl who handpicked her due to him liking the ‘fit fake loving bimbos’ and Bridget being a good foundation for that. So that was all that Bridget was in this country… A foundation to be built upon to fit the specific kinks for a man she didn’t ever meet.

When he began that greasy old man began feeling up her chest like he was studying a vase for purchase I couldn’t help myself. I Iost it resulting in me charging at themlike I was some dumb purple lizard fox thing who didn’t know the meaning of hestitation. Of course, I had no weapon nor a strong body so the result was Bridget being told to hold me which she obviously succeeded in.

Regardless, as she sat on my waist with her metal gauntlet pounding my face over and over again I felt I didn’t hate being beaten anymore. In fact I enjoyed the fact it was her the one beating me which again made me feel disgusted in myself. This disgust grew as I saw my big sister still in there somewhere as her fists shook midair for a second before being forced to come down.

Even when it literally wasn’t physically possible to resist, my sister somehow resisted for a solid second each time since she didn’t want to hurt me…

This country… I truly hate it…

My loyal spirits responded to my desires even if I didn’t desire it as they two charged forth towards the king. Though even if they were strong they weren’t as strong as the [Adult Drake] who worked as a loyal protector of the crown. Unsurprisingly they didn’t stand a chance as the lizard mercilessly killed my spirits unaffected by their attacks even in his human form.

The pain I felt upon the death of my spirits was something of another level as it suddenly felt like something was torn away from my very soul. But that was because that was exactly what had happened if one thinks about it. These two spirits were indeed part of my soul so if they were to suddenly vanish it wouldn’t be surprising what would happen next…

Although the pain was torture I was somewhat relieved that a disguting person like myself would die and this nightmare would be over…

Slowly my body melted into a black goo which was just as ugly as my true self…

Yet I found something out about my heritage…

…

…

…

I can’t die that easily.

All alone I woke up in my cold bed looking up to the stone brick roof with an intense feeling of loss beyond anything anyone could understand.

I cried for the first and last time in my whole life.

I just lay there for hours crying while looking back at happy times I could never go back to.

In the corner of my eye I noticed a large ornate greatsword which looked like something a demon lord may swing about only to cry more.

I desperately tried to call my Solus only to call a black flame that sped up everything around it to fill me with energy unlike the joyus Solus who always gave calming warmth of summer. I called my Acuar with hope only to find a cold uncaring crystal with none of that water which once helped me to grow. I was aware they were both yin undead forcibly corrupted by my own inability to die making me cry more.

I thought back to the fact that if it wasn’t for me Bridget would have set out on her adventurer when she was 7 thus never got caught up in any of this thus I continued to cry more.

I remembered Bridget's beautiful dream to become a hero and cried more.

I recalled how beautiful I thought her appearance was and I cried the most.

Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months.

Many times I had thrown myself out my window.

Other times I cut off my own head.

Even went ahead to bang my head against the wall.

Of course I just recovered from every wound I could inflict on myself.

When a year passed and I was already 7 my true ‘parent’, Munzumira, arrived to tell me who I really was and the first thing I tried to do was to strangle her. Although I said I prayed it was more accurate to say I begged on my hands and knees that any of those influential figures would come to my aid. If they just showed up Bridget could still be my big sister instead of some royal made sex doll for some noble who paid enough.

Still how could someone like me manage to kill one of the all powerful Empress’ who managed the entirety of existence itself. The first thing she told me was that the body I was strangling was merely an ‘incarnation’, something similar to a puppet. If I could just describe the way she said that accursed word she said in mocking…

She didn’t end there as she continued to inform me that it was all my fault big sis ended up the way she had and she knew I wouldn’t disagree. That didn’t mean she ended there as she continued to summon a literal white board to describe each mistake I ever made in my life as well as how it led to me losing everything. To summarise I was weak thus in order to get strong I needed to suffer just like she did when she was young.

This sadistic cunt really put all of her children through this?

Then again I couldn’t exactly disagree that it was foolish of me to have any hope in someone else helping me. Truthfully I didn’t care much about anything now that those 3 were gone however something still pushed me forward now. It wasn’t as if I was dead so I may as well become the karma that was required.

Somehow or another Munzumira convinced me it would be a good idea to become a puppeteer while even using the System (who was so unreliable it lied saying my father was the king till I said that that was a joke) to powerlevel it. Honestly it wasn’t even hard to do since I could get over the basics quickly thanks to my knowledge in golemancy and summoning. It was while going through with my research I found some interesting knowledge about souls & necromancy.

Apparently all souls actually do travel to the {Heavenly Realm} however that is only temporary as the {Cycle of Reincarnation} only begins there. It actually runs mostly through the {Demon Realm} where all souls will be cleansed of their remaining sins which is the resource that helps sustain the demonic realm. Before that happens the soul will be repaired of any damages, then the soul cleansed of its sins, then the memories are wiped from the past life. There are also many cases of the sins being too heavy dragging the soul out of the {Cycle of Reincarnation} whether it is only part of the soul or the whole thing; that wasn’t what interested me.

It got me thinking…

When one dies the soul which acts as the bridge must break away from the physical while still being connected to the mind. If that wasn’t the case then it wouldn’t make sense that the mind being cleaned up happens during the process of reincarnation the way it does; if it was completely unrelated as two different things no reason to have the order. It was also true that the {Dreamscape} was considered more demon territory than holy due to {The Dreamer} apparently taking up position as an honorary {Demon God} without being a demon.

With all that in mind, if one was to kill someone who had their soul purposely damaged to limit their control over their body their soul would be repaired like anyone else's. Then if they could capture the soul before they have a chance to leave the territory of the {Demon Realm} thus preventing the mind from being wiped… They could perfectly reincarnate that person with a refreshed soul and their memories intact.

There are certainly things to be worried about such as keeping the body ‘healthy’ despite the lack of vital functions due to the lack of a soul. In fact you would need to ironically be worried about the remnant spirit creating a low-level undead out of their body, however these are all things that I could easily deal with… Except getting to the {Demon Realm} to do it.

According to Munzumira, my ‘father/mother’ Jeeves actually died shortly after I was conceived, then used the advent of a hero to reincarnate under the radar. That would mean a soul takes a year to reincarnate at most which wouldn’t be a lot of time - I can’t make any lies to myself that I could fight through the {Demon Realm} to access the {Cycle of Reincarnation} even if I could get there which means no way I could do it yet… Yet.

It is a well known fact in the field of summoning that only a demon lord or above has the ability to freely travel between their and the {Mortal Realm} without the use of rituals or access points that are both difficult. Quite clearly I’m not a demon lord since I have suffered from these mere mortals yet it isn’t as if there are no hopes at all. If I can become a demon lord then I should stand a good chance of making it all up to my beautiful smart Bridget even if it means I really do become the evil demon lord she heroically fights.

I'm fine with it as long as she gets the choice to fight again.

Based on my research it doesn’t seem impossible for an undead to become a demon lord if difficult to do and I just so happen to be an undead now since I’ve died enough times. From what I’ve found out, for a powerful undead to become a demon lord they need to complete several tasks. This includes bathing in sins, enhancing souls and getting a catalyst to become a demon in the first place.

Those first two are actually quite easy; I just need to devour the souls/spirits of all those from this country to officially form a powerful {Demonic Dao Heart} of my own. The latter will certainly be more difficult and honestly I was lost in what to do while planning my mass genocide by taking advantage of my posistion as a stratos to borrow some {God Hunters} to train my creation.

Munzumira always had an answer which made me believe that she had long planned all this out to her own benefit. In hindsight it was quite obvious what could allow one to become a full demon as long as one knows their tales of old. Honestly it was so obvious that I can’t believe I never thought of it myself considering who I was planning this all for…

To kill a hero, the protectors, to officially become the hated invaders called ‘demons’.

At first my mind turned to killing Hiro Thompson whose father is probably having fun using my Bridget right at that very moment yet Munzumira was quick to correct me. Apparently too many people believed he was a villain while few people were actually saved by him resulting in nobody holding the same reverence as him. That means he can’t even get the hero title that can be considered as a ‘self made hero’ though still a valid hero of another kind.

Instead she guided me to another hero, one born on the very same day as myself with more similarities between us than I would like, who had the ‘job’ hero. She even went on to tell me that the girl was currently weakened as her circumstances upon birth led her to be unable to awaken her full powers. In fact the system was doing a similar thing as it did to me in lying about who their actual parents were - each of us only being told our true birther.

It was also at that point I was sure this was just some scheme of Munzumira with some hidden reason for wanting this hero to be killed. If I had to guess it was likely because she was bored while also wanting to annoy Mother by having her own kin kill Mother’s. Obviously I didn’t care about any of that since after I got my Bridget back I would next set my goal to kill all those who refused to help us including Munzumira, no, especially Munzumira…

Still this begged the question of what demon lord I would be since I can’t just develop a dao without considering it. Then again it didn’t take me too long to figure the perfect demonic dao to create for someone as disgusting as myself. I would become the {Faux Demon Lord}, representing the fake.

From the day I was born I was a fake descendent.

Acting as a fake princess.

Living as a fake human.

Indulging in a fake sisterhood.

Surrounding myself with fake servants.

Hide my desires behind fake feelings.

Fell deeper in love with a fake Bridget…

Pretended to be a victim despite not being the one to suffer at all.

Even now I merely fake being alive as an undead slime thing!

With a goal in mind I continued to work my hardest while keeping up the fact that I’m still the same timid little princess afraid of becoming a puppet. Long having accepted the fact that I’m a puppet of beings far greater than that dumb king though a puppet venmous strings. Bridget was still a princess so wasn’t actually in any danger so I only kept brief knowledge about her position in case things take a sudden twist.

As can be expected she rarely was made to leave the bedroom except for during events where he would show her off. I wanted to assassinate him and rescue my Bridget but I couldn’t break any of the protections on her so she would likely be killed. As it were I cannot reclaim her soul so it’s too risky to do anymore than watch from a distance…

I did do something though.

In order to apologise for finding Bridget’s disgustingly over the top faker body hot I decided to do the same thing. I bleached my black hair, enhanced my body in various ways easily thanks to my ability as a ‘slime thing’ and learned how to walk in heels. Unfortunately I couldn’t give myself {Last Rights} yet but if when she awakens she wants me to become her puppet who can only act when & how she desires I’ll do it in a flash…

Honestly I kind of liked my appearance and wished my body would finish developing so I could see the final result.

I spent some time learning about the hero before I first ran into her though.

I’m not fool yet when I first learned about her I must admit I was quite angry; she wasn’t smart like my Bridget and put far more attention to her appearance. Yet regardless she reminded me a lot of what my Bridget was like so it was easy to hate her at first. However just like everything else I’ve ever done in my life nothing was that easy.

When I met her I could still act somewhat rashly yet as I spent more time with her I truly began to look at her as something of a kindred spirit. That wasn’t to say I ‘loved her’ but we certainly weren't mortal enemies at first sight. Quite frankly the time we spend biting at one another is the most fun I have had in years to the point I’m somewhat able to forget my pain. The physical fights we’ve had bring me back to better times where I used to spar with my Bridget. I know what I need to do and I know the time to do it is only getting closer as we continue on with her journey yet I’ve begun to feel anxious again…

I didn’t know if I had the strength to do what I needed to do.

Being the dumb hero she was she seemed to realise I was after her life in the long run yet only egged me on. Even telling me not to be a coward when the time comes, she really knows how to make me angry yet I can’t help but feel less anxious. If I’m being totally honest she’s so weak it’s unbelievable.

She hasn’t even discovered what type of hero she’ll be in the future yet despite that I may be the only person who understands what she’ll represent in the future…

A hero who always pushes everyone forward.

As annoying as she always is…

She’s my hero.