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So, it was like that. Just as I had thought, the demon general and the demon armies were mostly dealt with by my parents, their heroic friends, and the armies assigned to them. On the other hand, they left behind the unprotected cities filled with people, the villages, and then…
It was obvious that the humans would want to take down all of that, so there wouldn’t be more chances for new Demon Kings to be born, even demon generals. With that in mind, they also used this opportunity to rid the continent of the “pest” and take over its territories, creating outposts and more, investing in the conquest of a completely new and fertile land filled with precious materials, rich soil to plant all sorts of crops, and even more.
This faintly reminded me of the conquest of Amerasia in my original world. The continent where I lived, Euramica, had conquered Amerasia only fifty years before my birth. It was said that they had encountered many native humanoid species there, which were all slain as they were called barbaric. However, I was sure they were just people like us.
Naturally, it was all because of greed. The nation of Euramica had conquered Amerasia and had slain its natives so there wouldn’t be any opposing forces trying to stop them from taking over the entire land. Of course, some were spared from it but later enslaved. They were used as mere pawns for the conquerors, who began to extract all sorts of resources from their untouched mountains, rich forests, and beautifully vast grasslands.
Unsurprisingly, the same concept was present in this world as well. The Gallatea Continent’s four major kingdoms had forced an alliance to completely conquer the Demon Kingdom and make them human territory, building up their outposts, and exterminating all the demons. Even the most innocent of children weren’t spared, so there wouldn’t be loose ends.
My parents at that time had believed they would simply be taken in as prisoners of war, or the humans would rule over them and turn them into something like citizens of vassal nations. Sadly, the truth was harsher than their naïve hopes. As they were swallowed by rage and sorrow over the death of their companions, they wanted to slay the demon generals and the Demon King more than anything, prompting them to ignore most of what happened behind their backs.
When everything ended and they realized what the humans had done… they felt disgust to the point of disbelief. They felt horrendous guilt and sorrow, to the point that they decided to isolate themselves, living far away from those monstrous and greedy people who only wanted to use them as an excuse for mass genocide.
But… was that all? Weren’t there any demons left they could help? Anyone they could offer their hand to, to at least redeem themselves? I know they technically didn’t do this, but… even then, they felt guilty enough, right? So why?
“Why didn’t we help the demons after that?” I asked.
“Well… we didn’t do it because we didn’t want to. We cut ties with humans and anything happening in the Demon Continent. In short, we escaped from there… we simply didn’t want to get involved with them any longer,” my father answered.
“We… we’re sorry to disappoint you, Sylphy… maybe… maybe we should’ve done something else,” mother apologized with a light sigh.
“We simply wanted to live our own lives. But due to such a desire, we ended up becoming rather selfish. We had the power to change things, but we chose not to, due to the fear of going against the gods,” Shade said.
“Yeah… well, we did try once, but the Gods sent oracles to us, telling us we shouldn’t meddle with the affairs of the Church of Gods,” Nepheline added.
“As dogs of the gods we were, we decided to obey their orders and lived in isolation, where we could finally begin our lives and build our family… since we were kids that lived as heroes, trained as heroes, and constantly fought life and death battles, we simply wanted to live as people now, as citizens. We envied the freedom of choice that the people we protected had… we decided to selfishly make new lives and… well, you came to be not long after,” father said.
“If we hadn’t taken such a selfish decision, you wouldn’t have come to life, dear Sylph… however, we don’t regret such a selfish decision as that… after all, you’re our light,” mother continued.
“You’re our treasure. Even if you were born after we took such a decision, we won’t regret it, ever… I’m sorry that… I’m such a disappointment,” father said, his voice croaky.
Shade and Nepheline said similar words to Aquarina, who seemed to be taken over by grief.
“I’m sorry, my little princess…” Shade apologized.
“We did it because we wanted to have our own lives for once… but maybe… it wasn’t truly the right choice. Though, it was the one that also brought you to us… my beautiful little treasure,” Nepheline said.
They hugged Aquarina as she began to cry. On the other hand, I was embraced by my parents.
“W-What nonsense are you talking about? I’m not blaming you for anything! And I would never become disappointed at you… y-you’re my mom and dad… I would never… never hate you after all the love you’ve given to me…” I told the.
“S-Sylphy…!” My father broke into tears as he began to hug me tightly.
“S-Sylph…” My mother did the same.
“Y-Yeah! It’s… like Sylphy says… I won’t judge you for what you did… I still love you, mama… papa…” replied Aquarina, kissing her parents’ cheeks.
With that, we were suddenly embraced by our parents as a sorrowful yet mellow atmosphere was built. Knowing this tragedy made us feel the bitterness of war and the harshness of reality even more than our battle against Hell. But not just that, it also reinforced our bonds with our parents…
It didn’t matter if they made the wrong decisions. After all, they’re weren’t perfect… they’re people… and nobody was born perfect. Then again, that’s… also what make people humans. I know they commited many mistakes, but I am just a near five year old girl. I doubt I can even get through them or even dare lecture them. I was never good at talking anyways... I just want to live happily. We'll see what we can do in the future.
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At this point, I think that the gods have been attempting the hostile takeover for so many years ago. Promoting highly gifted individuals as their heroes while disregarding their own will, granting them just a bit of their powers and asking the impossible while leaving them to their death after they've served their purposes, and stopping them when they interfere with the plans. The gods wants the demons to go extinct, so they can claim the world for themselves.
Curiously, one god somehow went and help the demon, probably his plans are to cause irreversible chaos upon the world.
The best part about our MC is her power is hers… the gods can’t take it away, even the blessings the god gave her were devoured by her system… maybe she will have a feast in the future? The food would be ‘divine’
Someone needs to tell the heroes that it's not their fault. The world can't be saved by just one person.*
Sylph mentioned before that she wanted to govern some land, I kind of wanted to see that later on when she gets older.
Maybe after hearing this she will govern a land free of racism against the demons near the demon continent!
Her mother is royalty and that makes her an elven princess, so she could technically get her own plot of land in the Continent of Atlanta, where the elves and other magical races dwell
@PancakesWitch If that is near the demon continent, maybe on the border of it or something, then that is exactly what I'm hoping for.
It would be interesting to know what the oracles said exactly. Since based on what they said Sylphy and Aquarina can just say as long as the war is on the demon continent they will not interfere. So the church can take the brunt of the new demon kings forces since they wanted the old heroes not to interfere with they hostile takeover.
“Yeah… well, we did try once, but the Gods sent oracles to us, telling us we shouldn’t meddle with the affairs of the Church of Gods,”
At that point I feel like the gods are the bigger cause here. They are basically directing their followers to do it, and interfering if someone tries to stop it.
Ancient Aliens ruleset, the gods found the planet and created mankind to be the local workforce to extract "mana" from the world. We're still at the "creating religious buildings (pyramids) as active energy converters" stage, need to erect them on the demon continent to complete "the grid". The world sent the demons to stop the gods and therefore ALL demons must be destroyed.
Are these gods on the same level as the one that reincarnated her? That is my question… if not she will probably grow stronger then them eventually because of her link.
Well they were young and stupid, blinded by grieve and sorrow filled with hate for their enemies... they didn't have the option to stop and look back at what they were doing as they were always in a life or death struggles taking most of the burden of the war.
The problem is what they did after. It wasn't too late to turn around and help the remaining population, but they turned their backs, becoming willfully ignorant. Although they are the parents, Sylph at the very least shouldn't have just brushed it aside so easily. I don't understand how you could find that out and disregard the responsibility and guilt, even going as far as saying "this is the beauty of being human". Being human means making mistakes yes, but they didn't try to fix their mistake, which stipulates growth—which is arguably more representative of being human. Instead, they did the same thing, blindly listened to the gods that pseudo threatened them and stayed tolerant of the atrocities. Not knowing the situation is one thing, but they are just as guilty of causing the massacres for refusing to change themselves. Although I understand that for the story to continue they have to move on at some point, I don't agree that it should be taken so lightly. Despite the diction in this chapter, it just doesn't have the same impact narratively. "It didn't matter if they made the wrong decisions." With this kind of ending, I don't expect the characters to change their actions in how this kind of stuff is approached. Where's the character growth? Repentance is not just the admittance of wrongdoing, but the life changing decision to do better and fix things. It does matter, because if it doesn't matter to them then it would just be another way of avoiding consequences.
@Nubtastic Well yeah, they didnt wanted to face their mistakes and are simply self-loathing, thats the whole thing. I am not trying to redeem anybody, Sylphy simply doesnt seem to care until she faces problems related to this later on. As a near five year old girl, it would be weird that she just tried to lecture them or something, don't you think? Also both of her parents are depressed internally, and she's like the only thing they got that gets them going, they want to concentrate in raising her instead of trying to get involved in more war and drama. You can think as badly as you want from them, but Sylphy simply wont hate them for it. Dont expect her to be the judge that makes other repent or something,
@Nubtastic Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t have minded this if it was kept lighthearted or just less personal, like maybe it truly wasn’t their fault and they couldn’t do much about it. They would all grieve and move on, no problem. I did after all say I enjoy this series for that; inconsistencies are fine, I’m not too hung up about that part. However, I do want to point out inconsistencies and problems where they are found regardless, because it’s worth discussing. I find it much more satisfying to talk it off my chest as well, and clear up the understandings.
@Nubtastic I dont really get what you're talking about but I was just clearing up something you misunderstood, remember that this is a first person narrative, so we see things through Sylphy's perspective, and all her personal opinions. Everyone is biased towards their own personal opinions and this is not a third person narration, the narrative itself is not trying to say "it's okay for them do this", not even Sylphy is saying this. But i get your point and I should make her mindset clearer, I wrote a bit more of things in the last paragraph