Dead Reckoning III

As he waited for the necessary amount of Dark Magic Corruption to gather for his resurrection, Geist thought about what he had learned from his most recent ‘conversation’ with Lylia. In particular, her claim that the people of Facide couldn’t use revival magic because they were given the Champion Summoning Ritual.

Inessa said that the past Champions had to pay a price in exchange for the Divine Artifacts. But what could it be? As he tried to figure out what was hidden from him due to his own ignorance, he turned to the memories of past Demon Monarchs that he had gained access to over the past few weeks, or roughly a month by the Facidian calendar.

He still didn’t know for sure the cause, but as old Demon Monarchs passed their essence and power to the next one to take their place, he, too, saw the slow but steady devolution of the Champion’s party from the four-member structure to the duo of the present.

During Scymat’s reign after Chrysaor, the Champions carried with them the familiar-looking sword that Inessa wielded, though it seemed to alter its shape to match its wielder’s preferences. However, through the greater demon’s multi-headed vision, he saw the levels of the Champion’s party, none of which were above 18. And after a hard-fought battle that saw the frontline, heavily armored fighter of the group get killed multiple times, drawing Scymat’s aggression solely on him, only for the healer of the group to bring them back from death to do it again, they were victorious, sealing away a portion of her power.

Then, decades later, when Scymat resurrected and a new party of Champions came to face her, they had another Divine Artifact, armor that was given to the new fighter whose role was to draw her attacks to him. However, the other detail he hadn’t noticed before was that, unlike before, the fighter who got the divinely-crafted armor was only Level 17, not 18.

By the time Angrimandr took Scymat’s place, the Champion’s party had six Divine Artifacts, and the average level of the party that faced him was a mere 16. Angrimandr’s first battle ended in a horribly one-sided defeat, so the Champion’s party of the time didn’t seal away any of his power, but Angrimandr was slightly more cunning than Scymat.

When he resurrected decades later, he immediately went to the magnificent, white-walled capital of Facide and stole all the Divine Artifacts before a new party could be formed to receive them. In response, a six-member Champion’s party arrived to slay him and retrieve the Divine Artifacts, all of whom were over level 17. Their victory was overwhelming, and as punishment for stealing the Divine Treasures, all six of them had received a seal from the Goddess to weaken Angrimandr.

The next party had even more Divine Treasures, but an average party level of 14.

And from Angrimandr to Levimoth, from Levimoth to Kingorgon, from Kingorgon to Fenphidna, anytime a Demon Monarch claimed a small victory, the Champion’s party would revive, get stronger to defeat them. Slowly, the party size diminished, from six to five, then to four, then to three, with the Divine Treasures getting consolidated between the Champion, someone to cast healing magic, and someone to counter the Demon Monarch’s magic.

Even when they reduce their numbers, the average level of the Champion’s party keeps decreasing after they get more or new Divine Artifacts. Geist thought to himself, noting that the three-man party fighting against Fenphidna’s successor, Cetyphon, had an average level of 13, higher than the previous four-man party, but only by one level. Is it because the number of monsters continues to decline? Like Lylia said, less DMC means fewer monsters, so they can’t level up as much. Chrysaor’s Curse would have been devastatingly effective if Lini hadn’t shown such favoritism to the humans.

While he couldn’t see how the Champions of the past communicated with and petitioned the divine being for the Divine Seals that weakened the line of Demon Monarch, or the Divine Artifacts, that they got them so regularly said enough. It was as Lylia said. Humanity was enabled by the doting goddess too much. Whether it was to compensate for their weakness, or to make dealing with their threats easier, any setback the Champions experienced led to them getting a helping hand from their goddess.

If only I could find where those Divine Seals are. Reviewing the memories of Angrimandr when he attacked the walled capital, the Demon Monarch’s secondary objective was to find and break the seals denying access to his full power.

Bringing up the more detailed display of his stats, he could see just how he had been weakened; the bonuses from his equipment doing what they could to offset the penalties of the seals.

König Geistdunkelrustung [Legendary] | Race: Greater Demon | Level: 20
Age: ?? | Sex: ?? | Hair: ?? | Eyes: Purple
Height: 206 cm | Weight: 147.27 kg
Likes: Animals, Video Games, Candy
Dislikes: Animal Abuse/Poaching, Manipulators, Karen from next door,
Sturmblut Nachtkrieger, Getting stepped on, Favoritism, Entitlement
Hit Points: 0/628 [1188->588↓+(60↑)]
Mana: 0/555 [625->465↓+(90↑)]
Stamina: 0/157 [131->97↓+(60↑)]
Strength: 60 [77+(3↑20↓)] | Durability: 151 [114->81(↓)+(70↑)]
Deterity: 62 [78+(4↑20↓)] | Evasion: 29 [29->19(↓)+(10↑)]
Endurance: 81 [96+(5↑20↓)] | Barrier: 191 [190->141(↓)+(50↑)]
Vitality: 34 [54+(20↓)] | Force: 123 [147->103(↓)+(20↑)]
Intelligence: 139 [187+(2↑50↓)] | Precision: 120 [149->105(↓)+(15↑)]
Wisdom: 85 [115+(30↓)] | Arcane: 261 [303->226(↓)+(35↑)]
Charisma: 67 [87+(20↓)] | Faith: 167 [222->167(↓)]
Traits: Horny, Tailed, Hungry, Dual Mature Magic Cores, Dark Magic Attunement,
Inhuman, Chimeric: Soul Eater
[Equipment]
Armor: Schattenrustung [Legendary]
Shoulders: Undurchfinsternis [Legendary]
Gloves: Zehrgriff [Legendary]
Boots: Verderbnistreter [Legendary]
Main Hand: Verderbnisstreuer [Legendary]
Offhand: Bolzenschläger [Legendary]
Dark Magic Corruption: 35/100

My Durability, Evasion, and Barrier stats break even or get a very minor boost from their reduced states, but everything else… With hidden calculations revealed to him, he could see that the seals only affected the core essences of a Demon Monarch’s being, which impacted the parameters they influenced. Comparing his current stats to those revealed in his predecessors’ memories, he could get at least some semblance of a gauge for how much he had been weakened. Pretty much puts me on par with the average Level 15 adventurer with full gear, or a Level 12 Champion, which is pretty drastic given how little base stats increase with each level.

Because he had thousands of years of information to reference, even in the mid-levels, gaining more than two or three to a base stat wasn’t too common. Typically, no more than three or four stats would increase until they reached Superior-ranked Classes.

But why would Lini stop making more Divine Artifacts for them? Inessa and Lylia could carry more items, as far as I can tell, and even then, she could have kept gearing up the humans until there was a four-man party again. Instead… His memories skipping past a few more Demon Monarchs' lifetimes, it was Apepoth who was the first to face a Champion with a hair color unnatural to Facidians; jet black.

The Demon Monarch initially believed her to be a demon, but she insisted she was a human from another world. But whether the Champion was from Facide or not didn’t make much of a difference with all the Divine Artifacts she had. During Apepoth’s time, the resurrection delay was still a couple decades, so the otherworldly Champion was still the one to face him one more time, but after that, it was a boy with hair that was black at the roots and bloomed to a bright cyan towards the tips.

Slowly, as the generations of Champions progressed, the hereditary feature of dark hair diminished until, one day, a new Champion was summoned to continue the cycle all over again.

And from here on, no Champion who has faced a Demon Monarch has been over Level 10. But it’s more than their levels that plateaued. Geist thought, going back and listening to conversations that Chrysoar had with Leopollis and comparing them to how Lylia talked. The words they used, the format of sentence structure, the inflection, and pronunciation, there was little to no deviation. Despite being separated by thousands of years, it feels like Leopollis and his party could be transported to ‘modern day’ and there would be no cultural differences. That just feels… wrong somehow.

Thinking back to the literature from his previous world, Geist knew that language from just a few decades before a generation would have key differences in etiquette and slang, let alone a few hundred years.

And yet, Facide’s language, and apparent culture, hadn’t changed at all.

They stagnated. The entire world just continued to exist but couldn't make any progress forward. But why would they? Chrysaor’s Curse made things difficult for them, gave them challenges they couldn’t or didn’t want to face, and they asked their Goddess to deal with it for them. He thought, skimming through the rest of the repetitive history of his predecessors until he was re-experiencing his own memories. Now, they put the responsibility of fighting the Demon Monarch on two people and expect them to make their lives easier.

He thought of all the things Lylia complained about, venting the frustrations she couldn’t or wouldn’t tell anyone else. Not even Inessa. And how Inessa was, apparently, viewed with suspicion and as a source of ‘trustworthy’ Champions, born and raised with loyalties to Facide and its interests.

And he saw the weight both of them carried because of it. Inessa was a more open person than Lylia, though. She talked to Lylia. She talked to him. And she found peace in her circumstances.

“I think, if not for you, I may have already started crushing the people who cause me nothing but headaches under my heels by now.”

He recalled Lylia’s words, a joke that didn’t sound like a joke.

I’m sure she’d never go that far. She is the Saintess, after all. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be able to take the silent pressure and conscious or unconscious abuse she is suffering forever. Despite their relationship being that of prey to a slightly sadistic, demon-hating predator, like a certain unfriendly cat who constantly scratched him up when he tried to help it, he couldn’t help but worry about her.

[Dark Magic Corruption: 50/100]

I really hope–!? Wait… What was that cat’s name again? He asked himself as his consciousness began to return to the land of the living beyond the comforting embrace of death’s nothingness. What was my name?