The Strongest

A chilling breeze drifts through the single window as night replaces day. Eliza stands motionless, her expression plain yet expressive—not mocking in its usual twisted way, but quietly curious. I meet her gaze, undeterred and unwilling to break. She raises an arm calmly and summons a chair behind me.

“Take a seat,” she says.

Instinctively, I hesitate. Who wouldn’t question her motives? This creature cannot comprehend kindness, its sole purpose is to sow chaos. That is what a demon queen is, and what she will always be. Still, in her gaze, I sense... sincerity.

“What happens now?” I ask, half prepared for malice, half terrified of any outcome.

“For the longest time, you’ve been confused, correct?” she replies. I nod slowly, waiting to see where this leads.

“Truth is... I haven’t been able to read your thoughts since I nodded off. Initially, I suspected something went wrong, but I was wrong.” She points at the pool of blood on her floor. The only remnant of my self-mutilation, drying and festering it began to ooze a rotten smell that made me recoil a bit.

“You nodded off?” I ask, surprised she would admit any incompetence. Still it bothered me, i don't remember her sleeping since I first got here, its almost like she can't.

She smiles playfully. “That period I was resting on you—I lost focus a bit because I was so excited.”

Really?! that's what she meant? I genuinely thought she dropped dead, she didn't even move almost a week—like she was frozen. My confusion must have shown, because she gently sighed and explained.

“I’ve lived far too long. My sense of time is somewhat elf-like. At first, I would nap briefly and wake to find my house reduced to dust and all my followers long gone or replaced by generations of descendants. Even though I am more careful it still happens and is no less annoying than it was back then.”

As she continued to ramble on about her strange problem, it only astounded me more. Is that even possible? And how old would that make her? Forget elves I doubt there are dragons that could live that long.

Thinking back to how shocking it was when i first woke up here, it finally made sense why she chose a living tree for her home. Trees don’t die, especially here in the evergreen. I had heard legends of the demon queen once being human but it gets harder and harder to picture that being the case, it would probably be more likely she is from a different planet with how 'unique' she is.

I truly started to feel the weight of my vow to kill her. Even if I had all eternity to do it, could I even come close? How much has she seen? How much has she learned? Not to mention, the worlds greatest heroes all couldn't come close whilst working together and I aim to finish the job? I might have to rethink things, i definitely need to learn more.

Noticing how long she had gone on about us so called "short-lived insects", she cleared her throat and continued her explanation.

“Now that you understand a bit more, I’ll shed light on your new abilities and how I intend to use you.”

My body grew tense. Things were getting serious. Could she be planning to attack humanity again? will i be a part of it? I shudder to imagine.

“That body of yours is beyond special. My medical skills are unparalleled, but what you are now is beyond science—it was a miracle.”

Is she praising me? I can’t tell. My nerves tighten as she paces, hands gesturing in excitement.

“Think about it Akoni! Magic is the ultimate power. It bends reality, and theoretically can turn a human to a god. Why is this power not absolute?”

I answered her easily, anyone who knows anything about magic would.

“Because of our blood, mages can only use so much magic before they die of exhaustion.”

her eyes widened and her face twisted into a horrifying grin.

“Exactly. I’ve faced thousands of human mages. None could even tire me out. They bled to death or suffocated under the strain of magic—thinning their blood. One after another, no matter how much they tried, they will inevitably fail.”

I was correct in fearing her, those she mentioned are the same humans people still sing praises about today. If I ever hope to kill her, I must master my own power... or even transcend my own humanity.

“Eliza, I think I'm starting to understand you, I still dont understand something. When I healed, I felt stronger, like I was powered up for a bit. Did you cause this?”

Her brow furrowed, taking a deep breadth as if challenged by explaining things to me.

“No, I didn't do anything. Remember how I told you your body emits massive mana decay? You have been burning through ten times the usual amount just suppressing your magic. The instant I stopped it, your body began to compensate—and something unbelievable happened…”

She pauses, her face became slightly agitated, as if she was dismayed, or defeated. “Combined with my cells, you basically transcended humanity. You began storing mana not only in your blood but throughout your body."

What? Impossible! This is beyond simply using magic, I might actually be able to do it. I stare at my hands, recalling the rush I felt as my wounds closed. I might actually become—The strongest.

“Are you saying I have two types of mana in me? Is that why I’m special?”

She shakes her head. “The properties of mana can't change until it becomes a spell or some sort of physical phenomenon. The mana you store everywhere else is beta, the same as in your blood. The difference occurs when you take damage. Normally your body would be constrained to fix what is metabolically doable, but now it's using up the excess mana and using it to fuel and hasten your regeneration. Getting more efficient every time thanks to the scaffolds I placed in your body to clear your mental block”

The information was difficult to understand, 'scaffolds', 'beta', and even types of mana? this is all too much. From the little I could comprehend—it seems i will get better at using my powers, that's a good sign. Yet one question remains.

“It felt so natural, almost automatic. How can I recreate myself so accurately when I have no experience with healing magic?”

She scratched her head and answered in her usual casual tone.

"It's true, healing magic is hard to pull off. Recreating something as complex as an arm or leg takes a lot of focus and decades of intuition, not to mention it costs a lot of energy. Thinking back, I never saw a physician work alone, and they were all basically on deaths door... disgusting"

She sighed as she shook her head. Just as she was about to continue her face took an expression I hadn’t seen before, she seemed worried.

“The Saintess of Bella, she is the only one who ever astounded me. I’ve seen Saintess’ raise the dead with no effort, if they weren’t sworn against violence I don’t even want to imagine how much of a problem they would be.”

It was a bit uncanny hearing her praise a human, but even I could see where she was coming from, even today Bella and her saints are worshipped and revered across the world. It’s said that a saint once spit in a well to cure a sick village. Even if it can’t happen, the thought of a violent saint is definitely gut wrenching.

Before continuing a wide smile crept across her face, proud and beaming with energy.

“Normally your too stupid to pull it off, but that’s where I come in. The cells I put in your body are called scaffolds, they were modified from my own. I regenerate so easily because every part of me knows how to rebuild every other part. Aging, disease, death; I'm immune to all of them.”

It was so conflicting to hear. I wondered—If those cells keep growing, how much stronger will I become? Yet I still felt so dirty and ruined. Afterall, none of this is natural, its all twisted.

“What will happen to the cells you put in me? I'll become immortal as well?”

She actually put a bit of thought before answering, it felt nice to finally ask a question that stumped even her. “I expected them to exhaust their energy and die off after i stopped infusing your body with mana. Now that you have so much, they’ll likely remain forever. Worst-case they will revert to their original directive and a clone of me will pop out your skull like a yakshini.”

The thought of it made my skin crawl. What a disgusting image, i couldn't help but clasp at my mouth to stop my self from vomiting.

“I’ll pass on birthing a demon queen. I’ll stick to killing them thanks.”

She only giggled and smirked playfully.

“Suit yourself. It's not even likely since I don't make mistakes… but you never know” laughing hysterically, relishing the thought of it like it was some amazing joke.

Collecting herself she wore a serious expression on her face and resumed her talking.

"Speaking of killing demon queens, that's what I plan on training you for. Needless to say my training will be hellish, but you don’t have any objections right?"

This is too good to be true, she wants me to kill her? what could She possibly gain from that? Just as I excitedly opened my mouth to ask, her face changed. That's when it dawned on me, just like when we first met, her eyes are still so empty.

"You can see it can't you, I have nothing to live for. How many millennia has it been since I felt like I had a real purpose. Truth is... I'm tired Akoni, I can't keep going anymore".

Honestly, hearing her say that so earnestly I almost felt bad. Thankfully, I know better. A monster will always be a monster, at least this one wants to die. I've already made up my mind, her life is mine to take.

Parting eyes with me, she manifested a sheet of paper thrusting it in my face.

“Forget all that nonsense. Take a Look at this!”

I grip the blank page. Another test? It's just blank, what am I supposed to do with it?

“This is litmus paper. It changes color based on the decay it's exposed to. I was ready to see something strange but this result is baffling. No matter what part of you I tested, the result was the same.

She stopped looking at the paper and turned to me.

"Not knowing your attribute will slow things down but I'll work towards a solution. I'm certain that mediocre mages wouldn't be able to test directly for the decay, if all they could look for was your attribute then you would definitely be labelled impotent.”

I see now, what I lack is an attribute, not magic. It will surely complicate things, for myself I need a solution.

"Isn't this terrible, attributes directly affect innate magic, without it I won't be able to learn beyond the basics."

she giggled and seemed pleased with me for once.

"Oh, so you even know that much? could it be that you've obsessed all this while over what you couldn't have? Of course I already know the answer to that. Pathetic!"

I couldn't let her taunting bother me, if I was going to be of no use to her then I would have been killed, she has to have a sure plan.

She smiled wickedly, grinning confidently as she confirmed just what I was thinking.

"Don't worry, with enough training even the basics will be enough to level cities, you wont be so limited though."

It bothered me so much how excited I was. The thought of wielding that level of power. Even conduits lost to the demon queen, if I transcend her I could become powerful... No, I could become the strongest.