The Fiend's Creation System

Dwarven Princess, Brunhilda

After waiting for a few more hours, the door to the great hall swung open and a dwarf woman with red hair similar to the dwarf king rushed in. She looked around and saw the disbelieving Sithaeth sitting next to Julius and dashed over to him.

Sithaeth stood up from his chair and the small woman dashed straight into his arms.

“D-daddy!”

“P-Pumpkin, y-you’re okay!” Sithaeth was in complete disbelief. He turned towards Julius and asked, “Is this...is this real?”

Julius shrugged and said, “Don’t ask me that. Ask yourself that. Can you feel her warmth? Can you feel the life that’s beating inside her body?”

“...”

“If you can, then this is real. I can assure you of that!”

Sithaeth released a sigh and pushed back his daughter and took a deep look at her crying face. It was her...it wasn’t fake at all. With his strength, he could definitely tell if this was real or fake, genuine or necromantic. 

From what he could feel, all of this was genuine. The revival was a complete resurrection of her body and soul which from the looks of it, didn’t hold any repercussions.

After their tear-jerking, father-daughter reunion, the Princess walked over to Julius and thanked him. 

“I...I heard that it was you that ordered your subordinate to bring me back to life. The woman that revived me is currently being taken care of by our castle’s best clerics at the medical wing. She was pale and too exhausted to move when I woke up so I took the liberty of ordering my people to take her there to tend to her.”

Julius nodded and thanked her in return, “Thank you.”

“This may be a bit late, but I am Brunhilda Oakenfury, Princess of Aurumfaust. Once again, I thank you for saving me,” Brunhilda curtsied and formally introduced herself.

Julius nodded and returned the greeting, “I am Julius de Ephalerith, King of the Fiends. There’s no need for thanks, I did what I did because I knew there were benefits to be had.”

Naturally, there was no way anyone in this world would help another person out of the goodness of their hearts unless they were a hero or a saint and those were something Julius wasn’t. 

In fact, he was more of a villain than a saint. Massacring thousands and using this opportunity to manipulate the dwarves into forming an alliance with him. There was nothing heroic about his actions at all.

“Anyway, your father and I have much to discuss now.”

“...”

Brunhilda felt rather put off that she was being ignored by this young King. It was her first time ever hearing about the fiends, but Julius had a meaningful smile on his face.

Brunhilda wasn’t aware of it, but her consciousness was connected to the fiend’s collective mind. This woman was a fiend. She didn’t even have to be reborn as one through Aria’s rebirth process.

Julius didn’t know how this woman was able to possess the power to control darkness when it was practically an antithesis with the fiends’ very existence. However, there were a few of his fiends that just recently evolved and gained the ability to manipulate negative energy.

Negative energy was rather synonymous with the darkness element of mana. His understanding of the fiends was still shallow so he didn’t try to rule out the possibility of there being fiends that could adapt and manipulate that element.

Brunhilda was a fiend so Julius wondered whether or not her parents were one. However, he couldn’t feel the presence of any fiends other than Brunhilda who was half-fiend half-dwarf.

He was half-fiend half-human so Julius felt a sense of camaraderie with Brunhilda. This only caused his hatred towards the church to grow even more. 

He wanted to conquer and reshape this world into something better for him and his fiends so undoubtedly, the ‘light’ alliance and the damned church were going to be nuisances to him.

Julius had been able to secure the cooperation of the dwarves and things would be much easier on this end starting from now. However, it still wasn’t time for him and his fiends to go into the light.

They needed more time to develop themselves before Julius was confident that his forces were formidable enough to stand toe-to-toe with the other forces of the world.

Julius and Sithaeth took a long time negotiating the terms of their cooperation and alliance. Eisha and Brunhilda left them to visit Aria who was at the other side of the castle so the discussions were only between Julius, Sithaeth, and some other dwarven officials.

Julius’s kingdom didn’t have people like the dwarven officials because everything ran through Julius without any of his subordinates needing to say anything as they executed their duties.

Even during this negotiation, the fiend’s collective mind was giving Julius suggestions and help via the system to get him a favorable outcome. 

The dwarves were rather startled that Julius, being the young and inexperienced-looking man he was, was very wise, coercive, and unyielding during the negotiations.

He had learned his fair share of politics back when he was in his former home, the Ephalerith Empire, so he knew the basics. The system and the fiend’s collective consciousness only further aided him.

They assumed that he was inexperienced so they wanted to take advantage of that but who knew that they would meet such a young wily fox like Julius. Their usual tactics couldn’t be used because the debt that they owed Julius was incalculable.

He had revived their princess from the dead. This was a feat no one would be able to accomplish and it wasn’t through necromancy or vampirism. Julius knew that he had the advantage but he didn’t demand anything too overbearing.

Julius only made his terms and conditions just at the point where the dwarves wouldn’t mind agreeing to it. He was able to gain all of the dwarven kingdom’s current information by accessing Brunhilda’s memories.

The woman was a year older than him and she was really learned. From taking a peek at her memories, Julius was able to see that this lady was both talented and smart. She was groomed to be the next successor that would bring the dwarves into a new age of prosperity.

Basically, she was like him but had it better since the dwarves didn’t discriminate against one another like his former race and people. She perished only because she was unlucky to have a mother that didn’t mind taking her own life.

Now that he thought about it, his mother was pretty much the same as Brunhilda. They abandoned them in their childhood but at least his mother didn’t try to kill him. Julius didn’t know why but he had a slight thought that the church was once again behind this.

It was stupid how they always targeted women but it was effective. 2 consecutive cases had nearly been successful if it wasn’t for luck that had the two victims miraculously remain alive.

The scene of Brunhilda’s mother feeding her something that resulted in her death was quite heart-wrenching. It was no wonder why the girl had a rather depressing atmosphere despite having been revived.

Julius finished up his negotiations with the dwarves but by the time he was finished, it was already late into the evening and dinner was soon going to be served.

The timing was perfect because Julius as well as the others who participated in the negotiation, including Sithaeth, were all famished. The night was merry as the celebration of the princess’s revival and the forming of a new alliance preceded this banquet.

Julius had secured his source of income and weapons. Now he needed to have his fiends learn and adapt to the dwarves’ technique and methods. If he could, he would have wanted to kill a dwarf and steal their techniques by having a homunculus devour them and steal their memories.

He didn’t resort to this, however, because after seeing how the dwarves reacted to just one of their people dying, Julius didn’t want that to happen to him. The dwarves’ technology was something that he felt was moving along the path towards the future.

Magic was great and all, but just relying on that alone wasn’t going to get his fiends anywhere. At least, not within a short period of time that is.

With things finalized between him and the dwarves, Julius decided that he would return to his sanctum the next day...However, things went for an unexpected twist just as he was about to leave.

“Th-the humans! They’re attacking!”