The Fiend's Creation System

Elf Village

Julius followed Arlayna back to her town. When he arrived, Julius saw the brick and wooden houses built into the trunks of the trees. There were some on the forest floor but most of them were in the trees.

He noticed that the closer they got to the elven town, the thicker and more resplendent the trees became. Now that he got to the forest, the trees were large and thick enough for houses to be built into.

[Info: The elves fortify the forest with their innate nature magic to keep it healthy and lively. The trees near their homes are naturally much larger than normal trees since they are directly tended to by the elves.]

Julius nodded at the trivia the system gave him. It was always nice to learn new things even if he didn’t actually need it. 

“Who is this, Arlayna? A human prisoner?” One of the town guards asked. His hand was cautiously placed on the pommel of his sword, ready to attack Julius in case he acted out.

The other villagers also came out from their houses to see what was going on at their town’s entrance.

Julius just remained silent and let Arlayna do the talking. After talking rapidly in elvish with some of the words eluding Julius’s understanding, one of the guards walked away. The other members of Arlayna’s party also left, only she remained behind to stand at the entrance with Julius.

“Is something wrong?” Julius asked.

Although he didn’t quite catch the entire conversation because there were some words that he didn’t know, Julius did understand that he wasn’t welcome here because he was 

a human.

“Nothing, they were just wary and mistook you for a human.”

“Oh…”

Naturally, Arlayna already explained to them that Julius wasn’t a human but a Fiend. This led to the previous guard running into the village to call one of their elders to come over. The elder would decide whether Julius would be granted entry into the village or not.

“It’s just bad timing. But can you be honest with me...you’re really not a human, are you?”

“No, I’m not a human. I was living silently within their midst along with my wife but we were found out and they cast us out…”

“I-I see...so you have a wife? You look like you’re only 15 or something…”

Julius shrugged but didn’t elaborate. For all the elves needed to know, he was a mature Fiend that only looked like a young teen because of his race.

“Well, humans do age faster than us. They aren’t a long-lived race after all.”

“Yes...and their lives are so fragile and they’re easily frightened by the unknown. How they managed to even find a place in this cruel world is beyond me.”

Arlayna could easily feel the satire in Julius’s tone. The lie that he previously told about him being banished because he was a Fiend―for all he knew, it was probably true. If not, why was he treated differently than everyone else? His younger blood brother was treated like a normal person but only he was treated like an outcast despite being the Emperor’s first son and the Empire’s crown prince.

He was only able to come to this conclusion because the system was constantly giving him topics to think about. His mind was normally in chaos because of the voices constantly echoing in his head, but Julius would sometimes pick up what they were saying, especially if it was something in regards to his life or Eisha.

He was always looking back at his life and this caused the system to constantly feed his mind with random hypotheses. Of course, it didn’t mean anything to him now but it came in handy when he had to spin up a story like right now.

They weren’t facts, but they could be proven true or false in the future once he found his way back to the Ephalerith Empire. While Julius was thinking, he felt his mind strain a bit.

“Ah, so this is as far as I can keep it up…” 

Julius had mumbled those words so Arlayna leaned in questioningly.

“Hmm?”

Julius shook his head at Arlayna. What he meant earlier was the Parallel Cognition skill’s duration. It had been around 4 hours since he first took control of Proto’s body. It was an hour later than what he previously estimated before he felt the strain on his mind.

On the other side of the connection, Julius turned to his wife and said, “My Love, my skill’s duration is at its limit. I’ll be cutting the connection for now.”

“Hm? Okay, honey… please come back soon, okay?”

“Yes, I’ll return as soon as my business here is done. I managed to find an elven town. Hopefully, I’ll be able to establish trade relations with them.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later,” Eisha gave Julius a sweet kiss before he cut off the connection, returning Proto’s consciousness to his body.

Eisha was just preparing food in their large abode hoping to eat it together with her hubby after having finished their intense lovemaking session. Eisha dismissed Proto and ate by herself. 

The food was just the meat created from the Fiend’s Food Cache diced up and served in a meticulous style. Eisha sighed, feeling a bit lonely now that her husband was no longer here.

“I’ll go order around those homunculi later. We’re about depleted of Stone and Ores, I’m sure Julius won’t be able to find them in the forest.”

Even if he did, Julius wouldn’t be able to take any because it would most likely belong to the elves.

Back at the village, the wait was finally over as Julius and Arlayna finally saw a contingent of elven soldiers making their way to them.

“It’s Elder Saria. Thankfully it isn’t one of those anti-human elders,” Arlayna whispered.

“...”

When the elven elder arrived, Julius almost said aloud that the elder didn’t look like an elder. The elf was a woman who looked to be no older than his mother. His memory of her was rather vague and he only saw her once as a toddler. 

And that was a few years ago so the ‘elder’ in front of him looked super young in his eyes. Julius was actually expecting an aged elf when he heard Arlayna say that they were going to call an elder.

“Arlayna, is this your guest?”

“Yes, Elder Saria. This man helped my team earlier when we were putting down the forest animals that went berserk.”

“Hmmm…”

Julius quickly greeted the elf when her eyes turned to him, “Greetings, my name is Julius.”

Elder Saria was surprised to hear Julius speak in elven. It was a little stiff but the meaning got through.

“Greetings as well, traveler. May I know your purpose in coming here? Ah, but before that, I’d like to ascertain whether or not you’re a human. To be honest, you look every bit of a human from our standpoint,” Saria said.

“Mhm.”

Julius nodded and did the most straightforward approach to show that he wasn’t human. He pulled out a knife made from the Mysantis Soldier Swarm’s foreleg and cut his arm.

Arlayna was alarmed and so were the other elves, but only Saria calmly observed his actions. The blood that flowed out of Julius’s arm was red in color, just like that of a human, but when it dripped onto the forest floor, it transformed into a humanoid homunculus just like Proto. 

“!”

“!”

“A spell?”

Naturally, that was what every other elf thought. Julius had cast a spell using his blood to create a doppelganger of himself, but Elder Saria saw something different. 

There were no magic circles or incantations so she immediately ruled out the use of a spell and the most glaring difference was the aura of life that appeared right when the homunculus was created.

“The power of creation?” Elder Saria mumbled.

“Yes, it is the power of creation,” Julius overheard her mumble and quickly replied.

“I see… Humans certainly don’t have this power…”

“Yes, they don’t. I am a Fiend so please don’t categorize me with them.”

“A Fiend? I see…”

Julius placed a hand on his newly created homunculus and absorbed it back into his body. Another amazing feat that shocked the elves. 

“It’s not like we’re discriminating against the humans, but we are currently in conflict with them since they are encroaching on our forest and lands. I hope you’ll understand,” Elder Saria said.

“It’s alright. Just know that I am not one of them.”

“Of course. So, shall we head in and talk about why a ‘Fiend’ like you came here? I’m sure it isn’t just because you wanted to admire the forest and us elves, no?”

“Mhm, then let’s get down to business then.”

Elder Saria turned around and led Julius into the town. The other elves spread out and kept him inside a tight circle. Although he had proven to them that he wasn’t a human, they still weren’t sure if he was an enemy or an ally.

He could also be one of those human spies so they kept their guard up. Julius didn’t know their exact thoughts, but he concluded from their actions that they hadn’t completely trusted him.

Julius didn’t mind this. In fact, he admired and was rather impressed with their vigilance. Otherwise, if they believed his words and trusted him on the drop of a hat because he had also helped and had received a favor from one of their own, his impression of the elves would surely drop.