The Fiend's Creation System

Awakening

Julius stared into the distance from the ramparts of Aurumfaust City. He noticed the large congregation of human armies with different battle standards camping out a distance away.

They didn’t even act discreet about their attack and just pompously decided to literally camp out right in the dwarves' front yard. It was a blatant show of disregard towards the dwarves.

Julius had scattered his fiends around and were spying on the humans’ movements. The mimics he had planted within the human army were giving him so much important information like their plan of attack and the distribution of the human army’s forces.

He was rather lucky this time that the elves had given the dwarves information about a possible human attack. If they didn’t, Julius was afraid that he might arouse the suspicion of the Mountain King since the king knew that Julius’s fiends could transform into humans and who was to say that King Sithaeth wouldn’t be able to pick up on the fact that the humans could have been manipulated by Julius into attacking their kingdom?

As luck would have it, however, the humans were already planning to attack the dwarves and Julius only gave them that final push. So now, Julius and his fiends were able to genuinely help the dwarves this time around, to some extent, at the least.

“What are you looking at, King Julius?”

“?”

Julius turned around at the unfamiliar voice. He looked down and saw the dwarf princess standing behind him.

“...Do you normally sneak around other people’s backs like that?” Julius asked with a slight frown.

He wasn’t able to detect this little woman at all and he didn’t even know when or how long she had been standing behind him. Even though this was Proto’s body, a homunculus’s senses weren’t dull enough that they’d be unable to sense a person standing right behind them.

He figured that it was because of the girl’s darkness element that gave her an innate trait that allowed her to go undetected by anyone. If not that, then she had definitely used a skill or a spell.

Julius wasn’t in his own body right now so he couldn’t scan this little lady whose height reached only up to his abdomen. Auburn-colored hair that ran all the way down to her waist tied in a twin tails hairstyle.

Brunhilda’s eyes were amber in color and her tannish skin color was just like her father’s but instead of a super muscular build like the king, she had a rather lean and full build just like other dwarf women. Despite being only a year older than him and having that small body stature, Brunhilda had a rather voluptuous body. Regardless of race, anyone would undoubtedly be attracted to this beautiful lady if they didn’t mind her height.

Unfortunately, Julius wasn’t able to feel anything other than sympathy towards this girl who shared a similar fate as him. 

“I didn’t sneak up on you. You were just in deep thought right now and didn’t notice me. However, I’m really curious, King Julius...should I address you as King, Emperor, or Crown Prince?”

“Hm?”

Julius had a neutral look on his face. He had already told the dwarven king about his exact origins so he wasn’t surprised that his daughter knew.

“You introduced yourself earlier as Julius de Ephalerith. It took me a while before I remembered that this was the name of the Crown Prince of the far north’s greatest human power, the Ephalerith Empire.”

“And?”

“Why are you here so far away from home?” Brunhilda curiously asked. The dwarven kingdom was closer to the south-central regions of the Harrdigor Continent. It wasn’t exactly that far away from the Shifting Hallows that was located in the southern regions.

However, Julius being here when he should be in the extreme northern area of the continent was rather puzzling to Brunhilda.

Julius turned his gaze back to the horizon. He was processing the information flowing into his mind from his fiends but he didn’t neglect to answer Brunhilda’s question.

“...Let’s just say you and I share a similar fate.”

“?” Brunhilda had a rather puzzled look on her face when he said this. “That doesn’t answer my question.

“But it does... cast away by their mothers and left to die by our own kins’ hands...sound familiar?”

“?!”

“Hmph, I guess the Empire suppressed all news about the second prince’s coup d’etat.”

Brunhilda was able to deduce a few things from his words. Since he was left to die like her but somehow managed to survive, he had to leave the Empire and strike out on his own.

However, from what Brunhilda knew about the Ephalerith Empire, their people were of humankind...they weren’t of the race that Julius was leading and proclaimed himself to be.

She was rather skeptical that this person really was the crown prince of the Ephalerith Empire or not. There were rumors of a coup circulating in the alliance but it was never confirmed.

Empire itself only released news about their Emperor passing away due to illness while the first prince was lost inside the Evilati Forest while conducting his coming of age ceremony. Most people in the Empire presumed him dead because it’s been months since he entered and never came back out.

Everyone in the world was skeptical but they could only believe the news that the Empire released. Even the third prince of the Empire that was this era’s sage’s disciple had returned home to attend the funeral of his father and brother. Since there wasn’t any response from the third prince, everyone had to believe in the story the second prince had spun.

The Empire was going through hard times and it was said that the crown prince’s coming of age ceremony which was wrapped with ominous auras of misfortune and doom was the cause of it all. 

The crown prince was said to be the Empire’s dark star according to the church and this was the result of the Emperor’s stubbornness in keeping the child as the empire’s successor. The heavens didn’t agree to it and decided to smite the father and the child.

Due to this, the Empress had decided to become a nun of the church after her beloved husband and child both passed away so that she could pray for their souls’ salvation in the afterlife.

Since the church was backing that up, everyone thought it was the truth. However, the reality of it all had turned out to be a coup that the second prince had staged and Brunhilda was rather intrigued by this piece of information.

“...So you managed to survive and now you’ve gained some power here in the south...do you plan on going back for revenge?” Brunhilda was a rather curious child so she always liked to ask questions despite sometimes sounding inconsiderate. “Also, is the church involved in the coup? Your deep-seated grudge against them seems to be unfounded if not for that. However, I thought you were human? Not a...Fiend, was it?”

Julius’s frown deepened but he answered her, “Believe what you want. Just know that I was always a fiend, never a human.”

“...” His curt and unfriendly answer left Brunhilda rather speechless.

She had more to ask but seeing that Julius seemed to be upset about something and no longer wanted to talk, she had to stop for now or else she might get on his bad side which was something she didn’t want.

When she was being revived earlier, memories had flowed into her mind and she was able to see a few things. Julius had appeared in a few of those memories and Brunhilda felt that she had connected with some kind of entity before it was severed and she regained consciousness.

Brunhilda didn’t know what all that was about but she could slightly feel the faint connection she had with the unknown entity that poured those memories into her head even now. She was able to verify a few things after her talk with Julius since a few of those memories she saw were about the young man after all. She saw his struggle and a few other things but she didn’t know why she was made to see them. 

“I’ll leave you be then since you’re so unfriendly…” She said to him with her cheeks puffed. “But do take note that I’ll be coming again to ask you a few more questions!”

“...Whatever.”

Brunhilda walked away and left Julius by his lonesome. Julius’s frown slowly loosened as a smile crept up his face.

“Finally…”

Back at his Fiend’s Sanctum, the thick layer of ice that had enclosed around the Fiend’s Cradle began to crack apart as the cradle began opening up. 

Julius, who was undergoing his evolution inside the cradle, opened up his eyes. He stood up from the cradle and floated down. On his way down, Julius noticed that his Metamorphosis form’s large body had somewhat slimmed down, however, he could feel the energy and strength coursing through his body hadn’t decreased one bit. In fact, it had increased several folds.

Clenching his fist and exerting his strength a bit, Julius saw sparks of red light flash around his body. 

“This...this feels good…”

The feeling was so intoxicating that Julius began laughing. When he reached the ground, Julius looked at his reflection from the clear water and saw his body’s new look. A red horn had grown on the sides of his head while strange markings and tattoos were now covering his body.

His large wings looked like they were covered in a thin layer of metal and claws were growing on their joints. He tried moving them around and noticed that they were much more flexible than before.

“System, display my status.”

[Status

Name: Julius de Ephalerith

Race: Fiend

Class: Creator

Level: 3 (10/100,000,000)

STR: 150 (S)

AGI: 150 (S)

INT: 200 (S+)

Partner(s): Eisha de Ephalerith

Skill: [Creation EX], [Mental Immunity S], [Unholy A]

Addition: [Creation EX], [Parallel Cognition], [Divine Sense], [Stygian Heart]

Created Skills: [Metamorphosis], [Weave], [Cause and Effect]

Created Spells: [Wind Arrow]

Condition: Healthy        ]

Level 3 was a large milestone for Julius. The large jump in attributes and the additional skills he gained were tremendous. However, the amount of EXP he needed to gain another level was astronomical. 

He’d be stuck at level 3 for quite a while. 100,000,000 points, Julius didn’t know how many living creatures he needed to kill to get that amount.

“Is this what the system meant by us being created in the Fallen’s image? Intoxicated with power that it drives us to search for more…”

Julius shook his head and reeled in the ecstasy he was feeling from his newfound powers. He instinctively knew that drowning in this...intoxicating feeling was bad. He’d be no better than the mindless enemies he swore to destroy one day that devoured everything in their path.

The universe’s enemies, the Fallen, only had one true objective which was to annihilate all life in the universe but Julius figured out one thing. This was probably driven by their lust for power and to get that, they needed to consume other living beings.

“I won’t degrade into such a useless creature.”

His [Mind Immunity] let Julius quickly adjust his emotions and desires so the intoxication quickly disappeared. 

Julius created some clothing for himself at the snap of his fingers and his body began reverting to his normal form.

“Transforming is easier now and I can do it at will...the duration seems indefinite as well…” Julius analyzed. 

“It’s time I head to Aurumfaust. I don’t want to miss out on all the fun.”

When Julius exited the sanctum, he could feel the minds of all of his fiends connect with his and unlike before, Julius was able to clearly feel all of them and wasn’t burdened by the numerous thoughts and consciousnesses melding with his own.

“It’s time for our banquet.”

His words caused his fiends to raise cries and screeches of delight. There were easily over 10,000 fiends which was 10 times as much as his previous forces’ numbers. They all began moving and Julius followed from behind.