Chapter 13: Spirit of the world
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After Marcel got carried away from the demon lord’s room by Claude, the demon lord after finishing his conversation with Frostbite and tucking away Marcel’s little gift from Frostbite got dressed and then decided to escort Frostbite out of the castle, although Frostbite was feeling way too guilty for insulting him earlier and calling him names, so he quickly ran away through a teleportation spell and ended up back in his old home where Winter happily awaited his return. They began talking afterward. 

After Frostbite had left the castle, the demon lord decided to go see someone; the person who caused all of his misunderstandings with Marcel in the first place and might also be the cause of his death in the future, the spirit of the world. He made his way to the dimension where the spirit would easiest answer his calls.  

You see, the spirit of the world is sort of a very busy spirit. After all, her job was to give titles and other stuff to people all over different dimensions, so she didn’t always answer when called from wherever one thought was convenient. The demon lord when he requested for Marcel to be made his wife had to wait for a total of four days before the spirit finally responded and that was fast. If the spirit was extremely busy, it’d take weeks, months even before she answered anyone’s calls, and so the demon lord has to go see her himself before he’s made to wait for who knows how long. 

The demon lord headed to the dimension of the world tree, where the great tree Yggdrasil was situated. The dimension where Yggdrasil was located was almost in the center of all the other dimensions, thus lightening the load of the spirit of the world. From there she could enter all the other dimensions that were connected to the world.  

Since he teleported himself with his own magic, he could also specify where the drop would be, meaning that he could arrive at the edge of the great tree if he so desired, and so he did.  

He looked up at the big tree that touched the edge of the skies and as usual, thought it was magnificent indeed.  

A tree that’s been there ever since the beginning of this world. Its strength and vigor were unlike that of any tree that exists. A tree that held the knowledge of everything that exists and directly corresponds with the nature of its native spirit; the most powerful spirit in all the world. The spirit whose name most don't knows. Its branches were much sturdier than the strongest metal in the world, durandium; making it almost impossible for anyone unable to break even a tiny twig from it. Its leaves had a golden color and shone from miles away, like a beacon signaling of its location. The tree was indeed as powerful and magnificent as the demon lord thought it was. It even had a few secrets abilities of its own. 

Oh, come to think of it, Marcel’s tattoo can be said to be a gift from that same tree since that’s technically also where the Earth Mother resides, connecting herself to every single thing that exists upon and under the soil. If that tree and the Earth Mother hadn’t wanted for Aspen, the dryad to give Marcel his special tattoo, then they would never have allowed him to, meaning that he basically had that big, thick tree to thank for being wired to the earth and let’s not forget the Earth Mother either. She’s very important after all. 

Okay, enough with the diversions. Now back to the demon lord.  

Yes, the demon lord made his way to the trunk of the tree that was several miles away from the edge where its thick roots crept across the earth by walking. 

Wait, but can’t the demon lord just teleport himself or fly there even?  

And the answer is no, he can’t. The tree, being in the center of all the dimensions and all, had a ton of magic power flowing all around it. The magic power is so immense that it creates a thick gravitational field around the entire tree, making it impossible for most creatures to approach the center. Even the demon lord has trouble getting close to the trunk of the tree when he uses teleportation magic because of the jamming effect that the gravitational field possesses. It denies him perfect control of his magic and makes him appear somewhere random in that dimension whenever he uses teleportation magic near it, explaining why he arrived at the edge of the tree in the first place. Flight is also impossible since it literally feels like getting crushed under a huge mountain whenever one flaps their wings, even for the demon lord, so he had no choice but to walk the whole way there. 

He walked so fast that it was almost like he sprinted with incredible speeds, making it across several miles in less than a few minutes. Finally, something done right unlike the disappointment that is Marcel. 

When he finally reached the trunk of the tree, he touched it and then mumbled some words and then the trunk opened up a door leading deep into the tree and the demon lord entered, as if it wasn’t creepy or anything. 

“Oh, so you’re finally here, huh? I’ve been expecting you.” The spirit of the world said after she saw the demon lord enter her chamber. 

“Yeah, yeah. You know everything, so I presume you must know why I’m here then, Vitalis?” He asked, looking especially displeased. 

“Oh, come on. You can’t possibly tell me that you didn’t enjoy that scenario. I bet you had fun doing this and that to him, and even if I didn’t tell him, so what? This isn’t entirely my fault, so deal with it.” Vitalis, the spirit of the world replied in a similar tone. 

“Deal with it?! How am I supposed to just deal with it?! Thanks to you, I might end up dying. Why did you not clearly tell him that he’s my wife in the first place? I thought you had already done that, so I did this and that and now he might really end up coming after my head!” He yelled at the top of his voice. This is the first time in a long while that he’d actually yelled at someone like that, but Vitalis just brushed him off as easily without a care in a world, looking totally unconcerned. 

“Nice look, by the way, and oh, please. He’s not strong enough, and even if he was, he wouldn’t come after you with a stupid reason like that, although, he might hold a grudge against you forever for what you did last night, hahaha~” She let out a snort at the end there and the demon lord looked especially infuriated by her. Who knew that the person said to be the calmest and collected of them all would get angry from seeing a few expressions from an especially annoying woman? 

You’re probably wondering why she commented him on his looks, so let's turn back to about a few minutes ago before the demon lord started sprinting like he was basically teleporting, now shall we? 

[Flashback] 

Yes, the demon lord. A man with looks that can only be described as exquisite. A beautiful face, a fine body and let’s not forget the topic we’re about to talk about, the incredibly, extremely freaking hair upon his glorious head.  

A question: How does an incredibly hot guy who also happens to have too much hair get across a forest without getting tangled up and stuck because of all the twigs and vines across said forest. It’s simple actually. Lock all the hair up in a dimensional room, seal it shut and throw away the key. But seriously though, he really did seal away his hair by storing most of it with spatial magic storage space, leaving just enough to reach his back and fun fact that’s supposed to be a secret; he does this every day or else he’d flood the entire castle with hair. I bet even Rapunzel wouldn’t do that, now would she? 

After he was done locking it all up and throwing away the key, he then began his ‘definitely can’t be called a sprint by somehow is a sprint’ across the forest, which brings us back to the present. 

[End of Flashback] 

“Okay-okay. Jokes aside, the real reason why I didn’t tell him about his title as your wife was that there was no need to.” She suddenly got serious and so did the demon lord. He wanted to know more, so he just nodded and paid attention. 

Vitalis, a spirit who normally didn’t see the need to assume a proper physical form actually took one, making the demon lord know how important the topic they were about to discuss was.  

When the demon lord entered the tree, Vitalis was more like a shapeless ball of light, but now the light was no more, instead being replaced by a silver-haired woman with white, almost transparent skin wearing a frilly white dress. Her hair was even longer than the almighty demon lord’s and at the ends of it were thin green vines that connected her to the tree, flowing freely like a stream of flowing water.  

She conjured up two chairs and a table and invited the demon lord to sit, which he quietly complied and then began the serious talk. 

“What did you mean by there was no need to?” He asked her. 

“Oh yes, that...” she conjured up a pot and cups, then poured some tea out of it and took a sip before she continued, “Yes, there was no need to because it was already done.”  

“Huh, what do you mean by that? Could you start talking in a more understandable way?” The demon lord, not getting anything Vitalis was talking about said to her. She just smiled, making him feel slightly irritated, but alas, he was not there to pick a fight, just answers, and the only one who could give them was this woman who annoyed him so much. 

“What I'm trying to say is that there was no need to explain anything to him because he already understood it, or at least his soul did...” She put her teacup down and looked straight at the demon lord and continued, “Normally, when I’m forced to give someone a title that isn’t originally written in their soul, they at least show a bit of resistance and sometimes reject it fully, but that wasn’t the case with that guy at all. In fact, he wholeheartedly accepted his title as your wife without any resistance at all. Don’t worry so much. Everything will be fine in due time.”  

“But-but I did that to him last night, and why didn’t he see his title as my wife then? If he already accepted it, why did he not seem to know anything about it? He looked very shocked when I told him that he was my wife this morning.” The demon lord still had a few unanswered questions and he wasn’t going to leave that easily without answers to all of them. 

“Weren’t you listening to what I said earlier? I said his soul had accepted the title already. The soul and the body are two different yet exact same thing. Think of it as a connection. His soul on one hand already likes the idea of being your wife, while his body seems to think otherwise, so it’s up to you to convince his body to accept it too. His body consists of two parts, his consciousness, and his emotions. You have to think of a way to convince the other two to accept you just like his soul has. Is that easy enough for you?” She took a sip again and smiled. 

“But I did those things to him last night, and he seemed to also really hate the idea of being my wife, so what do I do? I mean, I’m glad that his soul has already accepted me, but convincing his body too will be hard? And what about myself? What if I don’t actually accept him even though I'm the one who asked for this in the first place?” The demon lord seemed to be panicking and someone sitting across from him was laughing on the inside at him. 

This was the first time Vitalis had seen the demon lord panicking like this. Sure, she’s seen him panic a few times before, but it wasn’t as much as he was now. Huh, looks like getting a wife really does change everything. 

“Don’t worry too much about yourself. You won’t have too many problems in that regard and also, there’s more than one way to convince someone, don’t you think so, Mr. ‘Let me take advantage of someone I just met’?” Vitalis once again teased him and she hit the demon lord’s sore spot. 

She thought that she’d had enough of teasing him and had to get back to work, so she added, “His soul likes you. Just treat him right and he’ll be yours and also, don’t try to do what you did last night again without his consent, or else he really might hate you and want to kill you. One more thing, I’m already looking after him as we speak, so I’m sure everything will be fine. I’ll call you if anything unprecedented happens.” She said and then she got up and dragged the demon lord along with her towards the exit. 

“One more question...” the demon lord asked as they were nearing the exit, “Speaking of which, why did you help me anyway? You normally never do something as unpredictable as getting a hero to be my wife?”  

“True, and that hero was supposed to be someone else’s. Take good care of him or that someone really might steal him away from you.” She explained with a serious tone and after she was done, shoved him out of the tree, although not before the demon lord thanked her for the advice. 

The demon lord left the vicinity and quickly made his way back home. 

“Ah, that fool. Daddy really will be able to snatch Marcel just like that if he lets down his guard. He doesn’t even know who Daddy is and he plans to steal someone so important to him? I at least wish him good luck.” Vitalis said, then she transformed back into the shapeless ball of light that she was before the demon lord arrived and got back to work. After all, maintaining statuses and managing titles isn’t something a job that’s going to do itself.  

In the end, Vitalis went back to work thinking about her dear Daddy while the demon lord went back thinking of how he’s finally and officially avoided the death by hero penalty. He was in very high spirits and went to fulfill his duties as ruler of the demon realm with one less worry straining his mind. He was also thinking of how to improve his relations with Marcel, just like Vitalis had told him and also who this mysterious person that she mentioned was.  

Speaking of Vitalis’ Daddy, if Vitalis is the spirit of the world and she has a father, then what was her father anyway? That’s a question that the demon lord tried to find the answer to after he came back. He spent several minutes thinking of it, then something else came up, so he just ditched the deep thinking and went to deal with that instead. After all, you deal with your problems when it’s time to deal with them. Never beforehand.  

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