After what seemed like hours, the magic mist was fully gone, fully absorbed into my body; so were the souls. I had completed the Transformation spell.

A sensation washed over me, the feeling as if I were rising up from the bottom of an abyssal lake, I could almost feel the pressure of cold water pressing against me.

Acting on a long ingrained instinct, I forced myself awake and gasped as I tried to sit up, but my body couldn't react quickly enough. My balance seemed wrong, my back and head were heavier than before.

All I managed to do was twitch.

This feeling of wrongness and weakness scared me, I was so used to being in complete control of my body.

When I felt a strange softness and warmth under my head, a sweet scent filled my nose, and my head, causing my mind to go blank.

I remembered that Soea had embraced me gently as I passed out.

Prying my eyes open and looking up, I looked into softly glowing blue eyes, just above mine. Black hair fell like a curtain and gently brushed my face.

My head was in Soea's lap, her soft thighs cushioned my head, her distinctive scent filled my senses.

Something wet suddenly splashed onto my forehead, and after a few seconds of confusion, I realized that Soea was crying.

"My pet, what's wrong?" my voice seemed a little strange to my ears, it seemed almost dark.

"My Lord!" Soea's voice was almost a wail as she started bawling, bending down in a way that would require an almost inhumanly flexible body, she pressed her lips against mine.

This wasn't a deep passionate kiss, though I could feel the passion in her. She kissed me again and again, quick pecks moving from my lips and then covering my face.

I felt slightly stunned as I looked into her pale face.

This kiss was a frantic, almost panicky, mixture of relief and worried confirmation that I was still alive, still there.

I reached up and stroked her hair, moving and guiding her head, so her lips were over mine. Kissing her deeply, trying to reassure her that I was alive, trying to get across my guilt and apology for worrying her so much.

With one hand, I gently brushed away her tears.

"I am okay, my pet."

Finally reassured, she reached down and stroked my face with one hand, her other started to run along my new horns. It seems that her fear was fading, and her curiosity came out again.

As I recovered from the surprise attack from my panicked minion, I realized that I had a splitting headache, the illusion of lights flashed behind my eyes in a highly unpleasant manner.

It was a very strange sensation, Soea's soft, warm, fingers stroking my horns. My horns felt weird, the sensations were muted, but around the base where they joined my skin was sensitive, ticklish.

Under my head, I could feel that she was still trembling, but it was slowly lessening as she finally calmed down.

I accidentally groaned quietly as I tried to shift my body slightly, eliciting a gasp from Soea.

"My Lord, please don't try to move." She implored, her eyes showed that she was serious as her hand, which was moving on my horns, had stopped moving and was pushing down on my forehead softly, it seemed like an instinctive reaction.

She wasn't seriously trying to restrain me, but she seemed to have highly protective feelings that manifested as an instinct.

Suddenly, another realization made its way through my still foggy brain: my wings were cold and uncomfortable, since they were pressed against the stone floor.

Ignoring the discomfort in my wings, I reached out and gently brushed her face again, wiping away what was left of her tears and gently stroking her cheek.

"I'm sorry, my pet, I didn't know it would be quite this bad. I didn't mean to scare you." I really felt apologetic.

Soea flinched when I apologized, but she also looked very happy.

"My lord, it's okay. I just panicked." She smiled softly at me.

This smile showed true happiness, it was no longer shaky like it had been since I woke up.

I felt an odd sensation in my chest, and when I pressed a hand to it, I found out that I now had two hearts. With a smile, I grabbed Soea's hand and pressed it to my chest as well, which resulted in her looking at me strangely.

"My Lord, you have two hearts? You seem like a Demon, like me, but I only have one heart. Why is that?" When Soea said that, she guided my hand to her chest, to show that she had only one heart.

The soft sensation in my hand distracted me from feeling her heartbeat, but I didn't say anything.

It seems that Soea was cheering up and getting inquisitive again.

"To be honest, I don't know." I couldn't contain my smile, it was so good to have something new and interesting to research, "All I know is that I am a combination of Hero and Demon King, fully both, but also neither, something very strange."

Soea seemed to notice that I wasn't checking her heartbeat, and she lowered my hand with a flushed face and soft giggle.

"You are a Hero, My Lord?"

"Yeah, I was. I was the Hero who slayed the previous Demon King. But I was also the Hero who got betrayed by the bastard god Arre and the Human Church."

Soea flinched at the venom in my voice, hatred and rage that I didn't noticed it contained.

Then her eyes widened, "You are the Hero who killed the Demon King, the one who was rumoured to have turned against Humanity? When I was in the church, they slandered you, but I always held you in high regard because you saved untold thousands of people... I didn't believe fully believe the Church when they said that you betrayed Humanity."

When I nodded with a smile, she looked so happy.

I fidgeted slightly, trying to relieve some of the pressure on my poor squished wings, squirming around to try and move my body around to put my arms under myself and push myself up.

My body still felt alien to me, it felt like I had almost none, to very little, control.

Soea saw my actions, "Sorry, My Lord, I was too distracted."

She put her hands under my arms and pulled me up.

I slid up her body a bit, my head now on her stomach and just under her breasts.

She jumped and made a strange unladylike sound, an odd squeaking noise, as the sharp tips of my horns poked her nipples. Accidentally, she had positioned me to that I was in the perfect position to poke her in a very sensitive location, which I found rather amusing.

Purely by accident, positioning me perfectly, what a talented girl.

Twitching backwards, she pulled me back a little more, so that my head was now sandwiched between her plentiful and soft breasts, better than any pillow in the castle.

I was in the Heavenly Valley.

With my wings freed from my weight pressing down on them, grinding them into the cold stone floor, I curled them up and around myself like a feathery cocoon.

Soea reached down and started to gently brush my pitch-black raven feathers.

With a sigh, and a lot of mental effort, I left the Heavenly Valley, unwrapped my wings and sat up properly. With a little more effort, I climbed to my feet.

After my few minutes of laying down, I had been doing the mental exercises that Master had taught me, getting used to my new body. I had the benefit of going through temporary Polymorphs a few times, cast by Master, specifically for this kind of situation.

My healing factor had also noticeably increased, I could tell by the way my headache faded rapidly.

Soea made a small noise of complaint as I stood up, but she didn't try to stop me.

When I was fully standing up, I noticed that my height had increased by a lot, I used to be six feet tall, but now I was somewhere around seven feet.

Well, eight-and-a-half if you counted my new horns.

Like a normal Demon, I had horns, but they were different than Soea's, they were even different from the previous Demon King. The previous Demon King was an Incubus, so he had fairly short, swept back horns that grew from his temples.

Soea's horns were like sheep horns, that grew from her temples and swept back into her hair.

Mine, however, grew from my forehead. They grew upwards, gently curving backwards, sweeping back a little at the tips, They were taller and a lot straighter than most Demonic horns I had seen, though the Mare bloodline was the most prevalent in the Demonic society, so Rams-horns were the ones that almost everyone had.

I felt so tired, lacking in energy.

Which was understandable because of how much energy, both Magical and Physical I had used in the Transformation spell. Even with the support of the Magic Constructions and Soul Energy being used to lower the strain, it was still a taxing spell.

While I had come a little close to dying because of the pain overloading my nervous system, it wasn't even close enough to activate my Soul Skill, so I still had room to spare.

I have no idea what would have happened or how it would have interfered with my Transformation if my Soul Skill had activated.

"Soea, I feel fine," I smiled down at my worried minion who was watching me closely, her hands and tail were twitching, like she was ready to rush over and catch me if I happened to so much as stagger slightly.

She was so worried, so protective... So cute.

Looking down into her glowing Sapphire blue eyes, seeing the love and care in them, even though I knew that it was a fake emotion caused by brainwashing, it helped warm the coldness that had dwelled in my chest since Master died.

I knelt down again and wrapped my arms around her soft body, holding her close to me. She made a happy noise and nuzzled up to me, "I am so happy that you are okay, My Lord. Please warn me if you plan on doing something this dangerous again?"

My response to her honest plea was a nod, though I was tempted, I didn't point out that the ritual wasn't as dangerous as it seemed.]

Of course I would try not to scare my important companion, if I could help it.

She peered deeply into my eyes, like she was trying to look into my soul. Apparently seeing something that she liked, she smiled and nodded happily, then nuzzled her face into my embrace.

After a few seconds, I released her and moved back, laying on my bed. I had to shift around for a few seconds so that my new wings didn't get uncomfortably squished.

Soea looked at me, an unvoiced question in her face, as though asking permission for something. I nodded in affirmation, though I didn't know the re quest.

She smiled happily and knelt near my bed and began crawling towards me. I could see straight down the neckline of her shirt, I am sure that she noticed what drew my gaze, and I also had the feeling that the neckline was deeper than before.

Managing to drag my eyes away from the splendid view, I met her gaze, saw her flushed face and the twinkle of amusement in her eyes. The way she was moving seemed to indicate that she was going to lay on top of me, but at the last second she moved to the side and lay down next to me.

Shifting slightly, she curled her body around me, one arm over my chest and taking my left leg between both of hers, her head nestled on my chest.

Looking at my contented, peaceful, and quiet minion, I decided to discuss with her what would be happening in the future.

I talked of how the Humans in the Capital probably already knew about the fall of the town, and they would soon be sending reinforcements. Strangely, Humanity didn't like their towns being eradicated by 'Demonic Magic', or even by normal Demons, how odd...

 

Soon, Soea and I will have the joy of fighting a massive Human army.

The reason that they could find out so quickly, was because some of the people who escaped the town would have some training in magic and could send a message to the Mage's Guild or Church using simple communication spells.

This incoming army would need to be completely destroyed, with no survivors, because the more people I killed, the less Faith energy the bastard god Arre would get. The less Faith energy he received, the less power he had access to outside his stores.

Though, for a fight of this size, I would need some time to prepare. I needed to kill the enemies quickly and efficiently, so that they couldn't offer a threat to the safety of Soea.

 

They wouldn't be a threat to me, even if new Heroes had been summoned, it hadn't been long enough for them to train to the level where they could challenge me.

As I spoke of my worry of the army threatening her, and how I couldn't let that happen, Soea looked happy and blushed, nuzzling my chest as though trying to hide.

Her arms squeezed me tighter.

I couldn't help myself and began stroking her hair as I continued my thoughts.

Speaking honestly, I told her how I would make sure that no matter the cost, she would survive. I admitted that even though she may have started off as a minion, but for some reason, she was now important to me.

Her hand gripped my shirt firmly, "My Lord--"

Though she only said two words, I could hear the overflowing emotion.

After regaining her calm, she spoke again, "Please, make sure that you put your safety above mine...I would happily die for you, My Lord."

She looked into my eyes, seemingly trying to get her feelings across.

Her effort succeeded, I could see a depth of emotion that terrified me. But, while scared, I also felt the warmth in my chest, the feeling of something melting, healing.

A wave of tiredness suddenly swept over me.

Soea's warmth pressing against me, the very comforting and familiar scent she emitted, as well as her steady heartbeat, was incredibly soothing.

Without realizing it, my eyes shut and I felt myself falling asleep.

I hadn't been this tired since I had explored a Dragon nest and killed a King Black Dragon. Back then, I was technically still a 'mortal'. After eating its heart, absorbing its power, I then bathed in its blood to enhance my physical body.

That was the second time that I had a massive and noticeable increase in my physical capabilities.

At that time, I had also found a very rare book on Draconian magic.