A Forgotten Hero - Volume 1 Chapter 31 Tale Of The Book

“You truly are so unfortunate. Once again you’re trapped in ice…but this time, are you even able to escape? What rotten luck..well it might turn beneficial for you.”

Jack lucidly gains some consciousness from hearing that voice; the same cold voice he heard before he escaped his ice tomb. ‘She’s back’ Jack vividly thought.

“Oh, I was always here, my hero. The longer you remain trapped, the more your mind becomes corrupt.” She calmly speaks.

‘Lets see I was running towards a book and then it turned purple and sucked me in’ Jack recollected his thoughts from a few moments prior.

“I cannot believe you touched something that you have no knowledge of, you should really be a bit more careful hero.” The voice said with a slight laugh at the end.

She continued “We don’t have time, hero, you must complete this story’s tale to escape your demise.Good luck.”

‘Wai-‘ Before Jack could think of anything, A bright blue light engulfed the blackness!

His entire scene changed to that of a frozen village covered in purple ice with Jack’s hand raised forward.

“Um…did I do that?” Jack questioned himself, seeing his hand slightly frozen purple.

“Well done my lord! Your power is truly amazing everytime I witness it.” A small hunched midget exclaimed with pure amazement.

“My lord?” Jack asked out loud from surprise.

“Hm? Did I do something wrong my lord?” The hunched midget asked politely.

‘Is this the tale that voice told me? Am I in an illusion barrier or something.’ Jack thought. He decided to let it play out and see what’s going to happen.

Jack followed the midget to find a whole camp of people holding various weapons and equipping different sets of armour. Jack decided not to question it as they all bowed to greet him as the “lord”. The midget told them of Jack’s action of taking out that village and all of them began to praise him; clapping,cheering or smiling. To them, Jack is the most important figure who all of them thrive to serve till the end of their lives.

“My lord, we are all ready to leave when you are ready.” The midget says respectively to Jack.

“Um…let’s go home” Jack replied hesitantly.

The midget nods and shouts towards the rest telling them to head out. All of them nodded in unison and grew demonic wings! Their wings were of different colour, they had no feathers or hair on them and kind of resembled wings of a bat but much bigger and defined.

‘Wha-‘ Jack was taken back from their sudden burst of demonic wings! Wait if they call me a lord and all of them are demons…then I am currently in the body of a demon!

“My lord? Is everything alright?” The midget asked out of concern and wondering why his lord is not releasing his wings.

Jack understood why the midget asked this question but the problem is Jack doesn’t know how to “release” his wings. Jack tried to imagine growing wings to see if it works but it failed.

“We are going to walk!” Jack demanded with a pissed off tone. ‘F.u.c.ks sake! I looked like an absolute idiot to them!’

Everyone around Jack was surprised by this demand and didn’t really know how to respond. They retracted their wings; landing back to the ground.

Seeing them obediently land, Jack told them to lead the way back home which the midget warned that it’s going to be a very long distance but as Jack ordered it, they will follow it even if they find it questionable.

The crowd, with Jack in the centre, tracked through the forest silently; not daring to speak without Jack’s word which of course he is unaware how strong his authority is so he is thinking they are not really talkative.

A few days have passed since the group has walked without rest as demons have less need to rest compared to humans. In the time of their travels, Jack has experienced the consequence of his action as this home base of theirs seems to be further than he originally thought. He has already wasted a few days which could mean his life could be closer to death!

“Stop, we are taking a break,”Jack ordered.

They all unloaded their items and set up a small camp. While they were busy, Jack separated from them and went further in the forest to try and grow wings.

Before Jack separated from the group, he asked the midget what it felt like growing out wings which the midget was confused by his lord’s request but described the feeling of directing his energy to his back; spreading it out behind him in a wing shape which leads to his demonic wings appearing.

So alone in a part of the forest Jack followed what his servant explained; directing his ice cold energy towards his back: once he felt a cold sensation he tried to spread it in a wing form with what he had seen of their demonic wings and his own knowledge of them.

After a few seconds, a weird sensation enveloped his back with wings popping out! Jack could feel his wings like any other limb on his body. His wings are a violet colour with a similar bat-like shape but his wings are noticeably bigger compared to the other demons in his party.

“This-” Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing…his wings are far larger compared to the others…only one species of demons can have such wings. They are the demon king! Jack is currently in the body of a demon king!

‘No way’ Jack was lost in thought and sat down to take all of this in. In his time, he has slain three demon kings in total with each stronger than the last. Now he is a demon king….on one hand as he is now he would not care about this but on the other hand it’s hard to completely get rid of past feelings; seeing himself become the very thing he has been ordered to kill for years is quite a lot to take in.

After Jack composed himself, he headed back to the group and told them it was a test to see their resolve and commitment to his authority which they all were pleased they “passed. Of course he just told them this, to have a reason for the whole walking to their base thing but now he got his wings, he wanted to fly. They all grew out their wings after complimenting Jack’s amazing violet purple wings and ascended to the skys. Jack copied their motion and he immediately flew up. It was weird, though this should have taken longer for him to grasp, his body knew what to do immediately without much of Jack’s input. Now this could be due to Jack being in the books tale so it isn’t completely realistic or that his body is attuned for this sort of thing like his original body is attuned for fighting.

They all flew across the sky at high speed which Jack fell in love with as in his life, he wasn’t able to fly since he was a human and the magic spell ‘flight’ was part of the air element which each hero eventually learned except for Jack as he was born with no affinity to any elements. At the time Jack was somewhat jealous that no matter how strong he gets, he will never experience flight or anything relating to magic. It was like missing out on half of what life had to give. Well luckily, Jack in his later life built his armour and added runes of flight to it so he could experience it for a little while until the betrayal. But something about being able to fly with your “natural” wings felt amazing to Jack like this was always something he should have been able to do. It felt like a gap in his heart was fulfilled, experiencing flying as a demon like it was always meant to be.

“My lord, we are almost home”