Worlds First Demon Lord - Chapter 123 The Only Reason You Have Regrets Is Because You Cared In The First Place

Gadiel

May 23, 12:44 pm, Canberra, Australia

Gadiel stumbled towards Medina, grabbing her by the shoulders. He could feel her body shaking with fear, her eyes wide as blood flowed out of them. The floor under him was shaking, shuddering, making it difficult to stand still.

“You can fight it!” he yelled at her. “You’re stronger than her!”

Medina’s face twisted into a painful smile.

“Please,” she whispered. “Just go.”

Gadiel felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Tarik looking at him sadly.

“We have to go,” he said quietly. “She’s already giving it all she can.”

“We can’t just leave her!”

“If we don’t, we’ll all die!”

“I refuse to accept that!” Gadiel yelled. He turned back to Medina.

“Too…late…” Medina gasped, “Please…end…”

“No!” said Gadiel, grabbing onto Medina’s shoulders. “We’re all gonna get out of this alive!”

Medina’s face twisted into a wide, maniacal grin.

“Is that so?” said Medina-Ai, tilting her head creepily, imitating some deranged puppet. “Cause I think I can make that happen, if you want.”

Her arm shot out like a whip. Gadiel instinctively dodged, but she wasn’t going for him. Her hand grabbed Tarik’s wrist, and held tight.

“It’s time you did as you were told, Sun boy,” Ai growled.

“No!”

Gadiel created an ice knife and immediately brought it down on Medina’s arm, intending to slice it off. She could probably heal it anyway.

But before the knife could even reach her, it melted and evaporated.

Gadiel stared at his hand, then up at Tarik and Medina-Ai, locked in a stare-down. The air around them seemed to warp and bend, like a heat wave.

In fact, Gadiel was starting to realize that was actually getting pretty hot. His forehead was already slick with sweat, and it wasn’t from overexertion. He hadn’t noticed because he always had a small aura of cold that protected him from the heat.

But now, it seemed like even that was being overwritten. Gadiel had to take a couple of steps back in order to keep from getting burned.

He watched as Tarik radiated his invisible heat, slowly burning the surrounding area. Whiteboards melted, papers on cork-boards burst into flames, and Gadiel could even feel every bit of moisture into the air burn thinner.

Gadiel grit his teeth as he braced himself. He created a small area of cold in order to keep from getting too far from Tarik, but he was already a couple of meters away now.

He watched as Medina’s flesh began to burn. He could smell the scent of meat cooking as Medina-Ai simply stared back, not even flinching in pain. Gadiel wondered how she could stand the heat, before realizing that she was healing herself as soon as she was getting damaged.

But that didn’t soothe the pain at all, did it?

However, Gadiel clearly noticed that it was now Tarik who was holding onto Ai. His fingers had dug into Ai’s wrist, and she was struggling to pull away.

“Stay back!” Tarik suddenly warned.

Gadiel felt it too. He released a little more of his cold aura, preparing for what was to come.

With a roar, Tarik unleashed his heat, flames bursting from his body like a miniature explosion, leaving the breaking through surrounding walls and leaving the ground scorched black. Gadiel watched as Medina’s flesh was burned off her, peeling away at her hand, then arm, then entire torso and face, her eyes slowly melting, and just as quickly heal itself back.

By the time Tarik’s aura burst was done, Medina-Ai had already healed herself over. As the temperature dropped, Ai reached out to grab Tarik’s falling body.

Only to find an ice knife piercing through the back of her palm.

She turned to stare at Gadiel hatefully, but he was somehow already right in her fact, glaring right back at her.

“LEAVE!” he yelled, swinging down an ice sword.

Instinctively, Medina-Ai stepped back, dodging. The ice sword shattered against the floor, and Gadiel glanced over at the fallen Tarik, panting on his knees.

“I’ll…be fine,” he gasped in French. “Just…catching breath…”

“No wonder the two of you get along so well,” Medina-Ai snarled. “You’re both freaks of nature. It’s so romantic I might throw up.”

“Please do,” Gadiel growled. “It’ll give us relief from your incessant bickeing.”

Medina-Ai ignored the jab, and simply looked at Tarik. Something passed over her face for a moment, so quickly that Gadiel almost missed it.

But he didn’t. He saw it.

Fear.

He narrowed his eyes, and looked over at Tarik himself. He didn’t see anything that scary about now-shirtless Vestige of the Sun slowly getting up. In fact, Gadiel was feeling something completely different from fear.

No. Focus.

“What happened there?” he asked, curious. “What did she do?”

“Oh, that’s right, side with the man,” Medina-Ai interrupted. “It had to be something I did, not something he did, right?”

“You’re a literal monster,” Gadiel said, patience running thin.

“And the world is round,” said Ai. “What do the facts have to do wi-?”

WOOSH!

Ai dodged Gadiel’s ice dagger, and immediately leaped towards him. She moved surprisingly fast; faster than a lot of monsters. Gadiel barely had time to dodge her swipe, moving back fast.

He looked down, and noticed that she had grazed him. Four gashes split his hospital gown, revealing four similar scratch marks across his defined abs.

He looked up, just in time to see a glaring Medina-Ai swiping down at him once more.

Immediately, Gadiel raised a hand to block the strike, creating a thin armor of ice around his forearm. Ai’s claws swiped through the ice armor, slicing Gadiel’s arm to the bone.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Gadiel grabbed his forearm, pain bursting from the wound in aching waves. It was only a flesh wound, but it hurt like hell.

And it slowed him down.

He watched in slow motion as Medina-Ai swiped at him once more for his neck. He knew he needed to move, he just needed to move, but his body wasn’t moving in the right direction, he needed to dodge, just mo-

No. Freeze.

“DIE!”

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Gadiel managed to put up a cold aura before Tarik’s flames engulfed him and Ai.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”

Ai screeched and jumped up, using her claws to dig into the ceiling. Tarik quickly rushed over to Gadiel, keeping an eye on Ai.

“You okay?” he asked.

Gadiel nodded, watching Medina-Ai as she healed herself. Finally, he was able to get a good look at her.

“You’re a shape-shifter?” Tarik asked.

Medina-Ai sneered.

“My little puppet doesn’t know how to properly use my powers,” she snarled. “Of course she only used it for paltry little healing tricks for you.”

Gadiel watched, disgusted as Medina crawled up on the ceiling. She had somehow changed her body, sharpening her nails into claws, making her teeth sharper and deadlier too. She was crawling on the ceiling thanks to her newly created hand and foot claws.

It probably meant that Medina had been a lot more powerful that she believed; maybe having a power to re-shape things instead of just healing, but Gadiel didn’t care about those implication. He clenched his shaking fist, trying to calm his seething rage.

“Get out of her!” he yelled. “Get out of her and fight us yourself!”

That got a chuckle out of the monster.

“You silly boy,” she hissed. “This body IS mine. It was made for me by the Supreme Lord. I’m just taking it back.”

Gadiel didn’t have a response to that.

“Gadiel,” said Tarik calmly. “I don’t think she’s in there anymore.”

“She wouldn’t go down so easily,” Gadiel snapped. “She’d fight.”

“She was fighting,” said Tarik. “And she told us to run. Because she knew that was the best plan.”

Gadiel bit his lip. Anger flared up inside him, at Tarik for stating the obvious.

“Well, at least until she told us to-”

“I’m not leaving her!” he yelled, looking at Tarik. “We can’t just leave her!”

Tarik simply looked at him. Gadiel shook his head.

“No, she’s fighting in there” he said firmly, looking back up at Medina-Ai. She stared back, the wounds on her back slowly healing.

“She’s fighting, and we’ll bring her out.”

“That’s not what she wanted,” said Tarik gently.

“What about what I want then?” Gadiel exploded. “She knows that it’s not just about her, right? That we’re in this too? Why don’t we get a say in this?”

Tarik simply looked at him. Gadiel knew he was being unreasonable. He knew that he was being selfish.

Was that so wrong?

Was it so bad to want to save a friend?

Why was Tarik looking at him like that?

Before he could say anything however, he heard something drop from above.

His body moved automatically, leaping backwards as Ai crashed down. She immediately leaped forward, going for Tarik.

But Tarik was ready. He immediately activated his heat aura, the sheer force of energy keeping Ai away for just a moment.

Gadiel slammed a hand against the wall, covering it with cold and erecting a spike to skewer Ai. She twisted her body around to dodge, backing to the other wall. Gadiel sent some cold down his feet and the ground, erecting spikes to get her from the floor, but Ai simply climbed onto the ceiling.

He kept sending spiked at her as she scuttled on the ceiling, like an annoying, over-sized cockroach, refusing to die. Tarik sent blast of fire every now and then, forcing Ai to fall to the floor and evade the spikes from point-blank range.

But no matter what they did, the two of them couldn’t seem to hit her. None of their attacks would land. It was as if…as if…

Gadiel closed his eyes. He created a few a random spikes, trusting Tarik to protect him with his fire.

“AAAAAAAH!”

Bingo.

Gadiel opened his eyes, to find Ai glaring hatefully at him, a spike running straight through her shoulder.

SCHLUCK! SCHLUCK! SCHLUCK! SCHLUCK! SCHLUCK!

Before she could break it off, Gadiel sent spikes through her other shoulder, arms, and legs, so that she couldn’t move.

Ai glared at him hatefully as he moved closer, snarling.

“Couldn’t finish the job?” she spat, grinning. “Knew you couldn’t hurt your precious f** hag.”

Tarik walked up to her too, from the other side of the hallway. He placed a hand on her head.

“No!”

Panic rose up in Gadiel’s chest. He knew what Tarik wanted to do, but if he did, then Medina would die.

“There’s no other way!” said Tarik, exasperated. “What else are we supposed to do?”

Gadiel ignored him, and instead walked over to Ai. He looked at her.

“I know you’re in there,” he said. “You just have to fight.”

For a moment, Ai simply sneered at him. Then, her expression changed to confusion then annoyance.

“I…I’m…try…”

The words escaped Ai’s throat sounded a lot more like the girl Gadiel had grown to care for than Ai’s annoying hiss of a voice. Tarik took his hand off her head, giving Gadiel some space.

“Try harder,” said Gadiel. “Remember. You’re a real person.”

That got a small, sneering laugh from Ai. She opened her mouth to speak.

“I’m…real…”

Ai’s eyes grew wide, as her face shifted slightly. Her left side slowly softened out, becoming more like the Medina that Gadiel knew.

She looked up at him.

“Help…” she pleaded.

Gadiel watched as the left side of her face pleaded with him while the right tried to snarl, looking scared. He’d seen that expression so often, usually in the down time during all their adventures. Then again, it wasn’t like they had had many adventures.

But he knew her.

He knew her smile, her fears, her worries, her embarrassingly enthusiastic hobbies, her goals, her dreams…he knew who she was.

He knew exactly the kind of expression Medina’s face was making.

He smiled kindly, stroking Medina’s cheek.

And sent an ice spear straight through her skull.

Ai’s eyes widened, this time in true surprise.

“How…did…you know…”

“Medina would have a plan,” he said simply. “She always had a plan.”

Even if Gadiel thought it was stupid, or that it wouldn’t work. Medina was always the best at figuring out the best way to overcome the situation.

And didn’t she say that the only way out of this one was to end it?

But the true reason he knew, the reason that told him that this was just Ai faking to be Ai, and that Medina was already dead, was the expression.

Medina was always honest with her feelings. She didn’t know how to hide them.

The expression she had been making was too calculated, too…perfected…to be something Medina would ever express.

Gadiel’s lower lip trembled as Medina’s body went limp, her eyes rolling to the back of her head, blood dripping down the ice spear. Gadiel took his shaking hand away, unable to look anywhere else but at Medina’s side of her face.

Was it his imagination, or did she look like she was relieved?

He felt something warm wrap around his waist. He didn’t look; he knew it was Tarik trying to calm him down.

“There was no other choice,” he said. “It was her plan.”

That didn’t make it any better.

He should’ve been stronger.

He should’ve been smarter.

He should have never have gotten into this mess in the first place.

If he had been, Medina would still be alive.

Gadiel’s entire body trembled as he stood there, in front of the remains of his friend, unable to stop his tears from freezing before they hit the floor, shattering into mist.

*****

Author’s Note (here because it won’t fit in the box T.T)

Hey guys! sinfuego here, the author, writer, whatever is the best word you got for me. Bit of bad news unfortunately.

Furthermore, due to the pandemic I’ve been doing some overtime, because I work in the Health Department, which has been…hectic. This leaves me with less time to write, and even less time to edit.

No, I am not sick, let’s just get that out there. And no, I have not been fired, thankfully. The job I do is kind of essential, so that’s…nice, I guess. But it doesn’t pay as well as I would like, not with the financial strains I’ve been under thanks to the pandemic. Writing here does earn me…well, nothing so far lol, but that’s only because I’ve just started out. It’s kind of expected that a new writer like me doesn’t make much, so I’m not too concerned about that.

But as I said, money is tight. And waiting for Webnovel revenue will take too long.

So I applied for a promotion. And because I’m kinda good at what I do, I got it. Hooray!

I’m gonna set October 1 as my return date, so I have a goal. Goals usually help me focus, and by setting this, I should be able to come back on time. Don’t worry, I know where the story is going (I’ve planned out the end since the beginning, and so far nothing has changed in the story to make me want to alter anything).

Daily updates are about as hard as I thought they would be, and I am actually a little surprised I managed to go four months without stopping. I’m more amazing than I thought 😛 But not so amazing that I can keep writing indefinitely. Burnout hasn’t set in, exactly, but I feel it getting there. Hopefully, this small break (from writing, cause I will actually be working more T_T) will allow that to pass.

At least when I come back, I definitely think I’ll be stronger and better than before. Maybe set a goal of six months before the next hiatus? Lmao

Thank you all for reading through this (way too long) Author’s Note. Thank you all for reading World’s First Demon Lord this far. Thank you everyone in the comments (I love ihateyounot’s reactions, Vsdare and Menma’s war for 1st, jhersey and Hesreth’s paragraph comments, and FallenReaper’s insight into the themes of the story), you all have kept my motivation alive and burning bright.

And thank you to everyone who voted for this story. I know it can seem like it doesn’t really do much, but I see everyone who votes (Delfin_Lindo, javip, Julkur, Daoist, kp_khera, Konno_Yumi, Yumbring, and so, so many others), and that also helps me believe that there are at least a couple of people out there who are as invested in the Demon Lord’s quest for entertainment. After all, what weeb hasn’t wanted to live out their favourite anime? Lol

See you all in a month!