Negotiation

(That was a close one.)

Had Theodore not thought to overlay his Aether with his nervous system, he might have gone into shock brought on by the sudden blood loss. By using Aether to manipulate the signals sent throughout his body was he able to maintain clarity of mind even with a knife plunged into his throat, allowing him to calmly apply healing magic, stopping the bleeding and clearing up his airways.

Of course, a technique as complicated as this took time to deploy and couldn't be used at a moment's notice. Had Theodore not prepared it beforehand as a method to keep himself calm while trying to do something as outrageous as blackmailing Albatross, he would probably have died on the spot.

Once he was no longer in danger of bleeding to death, Theodore played dead and waited for the right time to rise. Thankfully, he did not have to wait long as Albatross seemed to be in a state of distress.

He waited for her to calm down, knowing that fatigue would eventually set in after that tussle of theirs. When it seemed like she was too tired to immediately respond, Theodore rose from the ground with expert timing.

Pulling the knife out of his throat, blood flooded down his airway before the blood vessels were quickly forced shut and the wound closed.

"A mere knife cannot kill a Demon Lord," he said, trying to sound nonchalant, as if being stabbed meant nothing to him.

When he saw that Albatross had become completely dumbfounded by the situation unfolding before her, Theodore rejoiced internally, knowing that the situation had fallen into his control.

With his eyes firmly on Albatross, Theodore shot out threads of Aether from his right hand, towards the severed fingers that had fallen to the wayside. By the threads, he pulled them to the bloody stumps where the fingers once sat and stitched them in place, planning to properly heal them alongside the rest of his injuries later.

"I get that you have a grudge against me, but I am going to have to ask you to put that aside for the moment," said Theodore, his hand caressing the red slit on his neck, held together by threads formed from his Aether. The wound ached with each breath, but for the moment, Theodore suppressed the pain signals with the Aether overlaying his nervous system.

"I don't intend to die in this god-forsaken place," Theodore continued. "I need to get out, but there isn't much I can do while stuck here. I need the help of someone outside, someone not aligned with the Circle of Mages. I need *your* help."

Albatross remained silent, her only response was a glare sent Theodore's way. However, Theodore felt that her glare had lost its sharpness. He sensed that her will had weakened.

"You're the same, right? Who in the depths of the Abyss would want to be here if they had a choice?" Feeling that Albatross might be close to her limit, Theodore kept pushing. "You want revenge? Fine, feel free to come and take it! But you can do that once we're out of this place!"

Slowly, while listening to Theodore, Albatross rose to her feet. Not once breaking her gaze, her glare beginning to regain its previous sharpness. Something within her had been fired up. That 'something' was anger.

"Shut up!" uttered Albatross, the hatred within her reignited.

Sensing something amiss, Theodore spread his Aethereal threads across the room, covering it from wall to wall with the threads forming waves on the surfaces.

"What do you mean 'who wants to be here if they had a choice!?'" Albatross began to shout as she pointed at Theodore. "To begin with, it's your fault that I'm here in the first place! It's your fault that my home is gone! It's your fault that my mother is gone! It's your fault that my younger brother or sister that was about to be born is gone! It's your fault that my father is gone! Everything is your fault!"

The outburst surprised Theodore, making him quite glad that he had surrounded the room with his threads in the nick of time, using them to absorb the noise. At the same time, however, Albatross's words rubbed him a certain kind of way. It made him feel as if he was stabbed in the stomach. For a moment, he was confused about his own feelings. Everything she said was likely true, the Demon Lord was to blame for many people's misery, and yet, Theodore couldn't help but feel slighted.

"It's not as if I wanted this either," Theodore blurted out. "It's not as if I chose to be here and I certainly did not choose to become the Demon Lord. I just happened to be the closest viable host at the time."

Theodore's voice was calm, yet at the same time, Albatross could see a measure of anger on his face. It had to be the first time she saw him truly angry and the uncanny dissonance gave her a chill, turning her anger into apprehension.

"What do you mean?" Albatross asked, begrudgingly. She had no sympathy for someone who had tried to blackmail her, but she couldn't help herself. There was something about Theodore's situation that didn't make sense to her and she simply had to get it straight. "Aren't *you* the Demon Lord? How do you choose to become yourself?"

Sensing a change in Albatross as well, Theodore saw a chance to turn things around. And so, he began to explain, carefully choosing his words.

"I am what they call a 'Demon Lord Larva', to be precise. Through a combination of circumstances, I inherited the Aether and memories of the late Demon Lord. I was but an infant then, and by the time I became conscious, the memories were already a part of me. In a sense, I am the Demon Lord; I became the Demon Lord before I became myself. Does that answer your question?"

Albatross stared into Theodore's eyes with scrutiny. To her, he might as well have just spouted a bunch of garbage. Still, even she was able to glean a thing or two.

"So what? You're trying to say that you're not *the* actual Demon Lord?" said Albatross, her arms crossed, wondering if this was another trick.

"Who knows, maybe I'm just Theodore with the Demon Lord's memories. On the other hand, maybe I'm the actual Demon Lord thinking that they're Theodore, trapped in the body of a child, along with all the 'alchemy' that goes on within."

"So even you don't know then?"

"It's not something I can say for certain, that's for sure. However, it doesn't change that I have inherited the Demon Lord's Aether and memories. What do you think the mages would do to someone like that?"

"Nothing good, I'll bet."

"So now I know your secret and you mine. With this, we can't betray one another to the mages for fear that our secrets would be revealed during interrogation. What's more, you don't have the ability to kill me while I absolutely need you alive. We are at a stalemate. None of us is going to come out of this on top and if we keep fighting, we'll only destroy one another." As he spoke, Theodore slowly approached Albatross and extended a hand to her. "I want to leave this place and I am sure you do too. So what will it be? Do we set aside our differences for now and work together to escape, or do we fight to the death and destroy one another? What say you?"

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End of Chapter 48

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