Out of everyone under his guidance, Jessica was definitely one of the wildest and most unpredictable ones. Also, absolutely uncaring about who she was throwing her spiked words at.

Honestly, who the heck treats the demon lord specifically visiting them as just some annoyance? Did she do that to her superiors in the human world as well? The demon lord had been so stunned, he hadn’t even known what to say and left!

Nomed had always known that girl had potential as a demon, what with all those negative emotions swirling around her when he’d first met her. Depression, angst, the feeling of being lost, and most of all, anger. Oh, so so much anger. She’d looked like she was ready to go on a bloody rampage against whoever had wronged her. Yikes.

Nowadays, a lot of these emotions seemed to have been overlaid with more positive ones, but that didn’t matter anymore now that she had fused with a part of him.

Besides Jessica, there were other surprisingly capable people. And as expected, most of them surrounded the crazy girl.

Cody hadn’t had Jessica’s mixture of negative emotions, his had been pretty straightforward. Depression, lack of self-confidence, and some sense of defeat. He’d been pretty easy to convince as a result.

Although his combat prowess was… lacking, his ability to research, plan, and come up with breakthroughs in magic usage was unparalleled. No wonder Jessica kept him close. He was like her pocket scientist, digging through mountains of theory so that she could apply all that insanity in practice.

… And then throw the whole thing into the corner, calling it a piece of crap. Ugh… Back when he’d still been alive, that spear would have been an admired masterpiece! What did that girl expect to make? Another doomsday device to kill everything in the demon realm?

Nomed let out a sigh.

The other person working closely with the two as of late was on a different level. When Nomed had first seen Max, his spiritual jaw went slack. Depression and… some kind of dysmorphia. So much of it. From his experience, that much would be enough to completely neuter a grown adult. Render them into a walking corpse. And yet the boy still kept going somehow. The moment Nomed first saw him, he knew he had to recruit him.

And oh boy, did that pay off.

If Cody was the brains, Max was the brawn. He had one in a hundred years kind of talent when it came to using magic in practice. Not even Jessica could compare. He’d perfected the basic form shift in just two days and went on to master all kinds of magic in a couple of weeks.

And yet… He had basically no ambition to speak of. He could have easily qualified for a leader, or even a demon general position a long time ago but never seemed to make use of or even care about it. He barely even tried in all those raids, always letting himself be easily defeated like any other minion. The downside of all those negative emotions…

It took Jessica to make him put in more than the bare minimum effort, and even then, he still refused any kind of promotion.

Well, either way, Jessica did have ambition, and being near those two definitely helped elevate her abilities even higher than before. She would be the perfect candidate for the upcoming trials.

“If you say so…” the demon lord mumbled, no doubt still weirded out by his encounter with Jessica.

“She is! Her personality might be… a little difficult, yeah. But she’s definitely gonna pass. Not to mention, she already has two loyal minions near her!” Nomed assured him.

The demon lord sighed. “Sure.”

Nomed felt a little bad for the guy. Having to act as the big bad boss all the time must have been taxing. He didn’t even want to do it, he just didn’t have a choice. After all, the only other true demon still alive…

“Daddy!” The big door to his room slammed open, revealing the girl with horns and wings, wearing her armored dress. She wasted no time before running to the demon lord with a bright smile on her face.

“Oh, Hecate? What is it?” the demon lord asked, his exhaustion from before seemingly washing away to make space for the pure adoration in his voice.

“I found him! My candidate!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement, before turning around and calling back to the door. “Come here, Jake!”

A minion walked through a few seconds later. A grown adult man who didn’t look much at first glance, but Nomed knew looks could be misleading as shown by Max.

Also, while Nomed couldn’t quite put a finger on it, something felt familiar about the man.

“Hello, sir.” The man walked forward, displaying the usual respect anyone – except for Jessica, apparently – would show the demon lord. Nomed noted the anger in the man. It reminded him of Jessica in a way.

The fellow demonic spirit fused with the man seemed to have gone dormant already. No friendly chat to be had, unfortunately.

“I didn’t know you two were actually related,” the man noted, looking at the little demon general.

“Hello, minion,” the demon lord greeted him, his tone regaining his usual ‘big bad boss’ energy. “So, you think you have what it takes to be a new demon general?”

“I–” the minion began to speak, only to be interrupted by Hecate. “He does! He already made this cool axe thing! And he’s pretty good at enhancement magic! He’s perfect!”

“I see…” the demon lord said, probably not wanting to shoot down Hecate’s enthusiasm. There weren’t many minions working under her, after all. “I will later come to assess you and your weapon then.”

“Come on, daddy! I’m telling you it’s all good! Trust me!”

Eyes turned to Hecate as she turned puppy eyes at her dad. The demon lord sat silent for a moment, probably debating what to say.

“You shouldn’t–”

“Alright then,” the demon lord said, giving up. “But as is the tradition, you will need to undergo a trial of our ancestors before fully qualifying as a general. I will let you know about the details at a later date.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

With that, the minion left, leaving behind the dumb doting dad and his daughter.

Nomed shook his spiritual head before giving the demon lord an unimpressed glance.

“Dude… You need to stop playing favorites.”

BottledChaos

Next time: "Gaming night!" or "Okay, fine! I'll take a break! You can stop saying I'll die from overwork! Jeez!"

 

Happy new year everyone! I hope you're all doing well and if not... I hope the next year is kinder to you. See you all on the other side!