The monster girl awoke in a strange space.
It was an empty plane that extended infinitely in all directions. The ground was made of a strange metallic substance that behaved like a non-Newtonian liquid. It was soft when you gently pressed it. It was hard as concrete when you punched it.
This whole place was cold. The unsatiated void hungered. It drained all energy from everything inside - including heat. The chill seeped deep inside and violently tore warmth away, causing excruciating pain in every bone.
This place felt incomparably less hospitable compared even to the dungeon.
She came to this world when the Dungeon Core self-destructed. She landed on a colder and harder variant of black ice of a glacial dungeon called The Frozen Abyss. It was one of the worst places to be, as an endless blizzard raged inside that could freeze a person in seconds. Only places safe from the deadly wind were caves and ravines. Still, the temperatures there reached negative 70 degrees Celsius.
The only redeeming factor of her memory from that place was that there was a powerful explosion right before her birth. Even when the shockwave heated up the air in the boss room, she still felt frigid but it was not at a life-threatening stage.
This time, however, she felt as if she was dying for real.
Unable to bear the pain while standing, she curled into a fetal position and started shivering on the wet ground. Unfortunately, shivering did nothing as her muscles did not generate heat. Yet, due to a human body being used as a framework, it still had these unconditional reflexes.
It was not her first time appearing in this place. This was a reoccurring nightmare that happened every time she fell unconscious. She knew it was not reality, but it hurt more than in reality.
Most of her time was spent in this place.
First, she fell here a few minutes after birth after being stabbed. Next, she briefly awoke only to find out she was bound and caged and in the process of being moved, and was brutally sent back here after several salvos of bullets tore her apart. It happened a few times during the travel and once more upon reaching the destination.
By now she knew that in order to get out, she would need to patiently stay here for a few days and endure the cold. Then she would be able to wake up from this barren nightmare.
The cold was so bad in here that in fact, the last time she had awakened, the first thing she did was raise her body temperature, but due to her awful control, it did not end well.
She continued to stay on the ground.
"Pathetic."
A condemning female voice resounded.
The girl jumped to her feet. She was confused and nervous. Why was there someone with her this time?
"Aurora? Where are you?"
There was no answer.
She walked away from that spot but everywhere else looked exactly the same.
"Pathetic."
A low bestial voice growled from above her.
The darkness around has gotten thicker. Strong bloodlust filled the air. She could not see anyone but she felt an ominous premonition.
"Who's there?"
Again, no answer.
"Pathetic..."
A male voice repeated with audible disappointment.
"Let's change that."
A single, thunderous clap created a shockwave that rushed past the girl.
The increasingly thicker darkness was blasted away like a fog. The liquid ground in front of the girl rippled, and an adult man emerged. He had no facial detail, as everything was blurred. The girl couldn't make heads or tails of any of his characteristics.
"Who are you?"
She asked. There was a trace of fear in her voice.
"A helper. A bunch of memories embedded in that empty brain of yours, unfortunately."
"You want to help me? Where is this?"
The man smiled. The girl was confused at how she managed to pick that up, as she could not even see his face through the blur, but she knew his expression changed to that of a smile.
"This place is your soul. Or rather, the realm of your mind. As you can see… it's completely blank at the moment." He extended his arm showing the complete lack of anything around the two of them.
"Why?"
The man rested his arm and on the top of the girl's head and began explaining.
"Why is it empty, you ask? Simple. You have no soul. All of this space is for a soul to fill. You were meant to be a vessel to house my soul in particular. Wow, would you look how big my ego was? Anyhow, I ran out of time to move thanks to a certain someone. You've seen how hard it is to move right now, right? Imagine the current you on the outside to be a character in a video game. You have a console up and running, the controller is plugged in, but press any key screen still flashes because the player never showed up. You were basically causing short circuits to cause button presses. "
The man toyed with the girl's horns.
"...But that's not the way to go. This racecar can't gThat'shout a driver. That's why, little lass, you need to start thinking. You don't even think right now, do you?. You can, but at the same time you can't."
Everything the man was saying confused her.
"What? I think but I do not? This doesn't make sense. Ouch"
Something pricked her shoulder. Soon, she felt more and more pain all over her body.
"What is this pain?"
"Let me show you something."
A huge flatscreen TV emerged from the liquid just like the man did. It then hovered in the air and only displayed static noise.
"This is currently what your eyes see in the real world. As you can see, well… the problem is you can't see cause your eyeballs were destroyed. Don't worry, they regrow. Albeit we will have to wait for quite a while for it to take place. I will show you a trick on how to recover faster."
The man checked something on his phone.
"Ugh, you're running on fumes gi~rl. It should be enough for one eye though. When you finally get up, make sure to eat properly or you won't recover. And most importantly, don't take that much damage again, or else long-term complications might develop. This is, very much so medical advice."
The ground rippled again. This time, a small cube with a lens on top appeared. The box was an advanced device just like the other ones, and it lit up to display a holographic display of a 3D model. It was an extremely detailed schematic of an eye.
"Once you know what to do, you can consciously guide the creation of cells to quickly regrow organs."
The hologram started turning opaque from top to bottom, layer by layer. A single eye was rapidly regrowing.
"~And we have visuals! Whoa! You seeing this? This scorched corpse is you." He shook her by the horns.
The girl shivered at this sight. She recalled the pain of being shot time after time.
"Then, this cold feeling and pain is… death" She turned depressed. She stared at her hands and started regretting being unable to do anything.
"Wrong! Fret not, little one. It's not the end." The blurry man threw a tablet that suddenly appeared in his hand towards the girl. It hit her square in the face and brought her out of the depressing daze.
"Calling you a corpse was not entirely accurate. You aren't completely dead (this time) thanks to the black box component that is your skull and ribcage. You are currently in a coma while the body slowly repairs itself. Let us focus on a more important matter - While you are not dead, you are not something that can be considered alive either."
The blurry man shook his head and pointed at the tablet which lit up with a long pdf opened
"Here's a lifetime worth of memories and knowledge. I used imagination to fill in the gaps so take it with a grain of salt.
"Why do you have those memories?"
"Correction, you are the one who has these memories I uploaded them long ago when I was beginning to make you, so these have always been inside your head. It's just that they are stored deep within your memory database. You just had no urge to look for them. Here, look at this picture…"
The man pointed towards the tablet where a certain schematic was shown. It was a firework rocket. Then, a video of a firework show during new year's eve played. It lit up the dark, empty night sky with countless sparkling shapes and illuminated the world below.
A ripple in the black ground spread out and the exact same firework launched upwards to explode above the two, illuminating them like in the video.
"Pretty cool, right?"
Sparks lingered in the air for a long time. After a moment the man noticed something was wrong with them not disappearing. The sparks burned brighter and brighter and condensed into a whirlpool before taking shape of a woman. She descended before the two and-
"Sho sho- Not your turn." The blurry man blew away the sparkles with his arms and the light dispersed.
"Annoying parasites… Ahem. You can try making it in the real world and many other, way more beautiful things once you wake up."
"Other things? Like what?"
"That is for you to discover. The drive to satisfy one's curiosity and learn is one of the basics of a personality of a human."
She pondered for a moment.
"You want me to become form a personality and become a human?"
"Bullseye. You see, this little midget right before me is quite a surprise, honestly. I thought it would be impossible and that my creation would be a vegetable. But then you appeared. A tiny embryo of a pseudo-soul that formed somewhere in the mind. You are already capable of connecting to the exterior body as you can feel interpret the various signals that the body is sending. And they are not the standard human impulses."
"How do I become a person?"
"You already have emotions, you also show some desire to learn.
You have shown hints of greed - a desire to acquire - too.
What you lack is a sense of identity, goals, drives, and so on. The topic is broad, but you should understand what you lack to become a pseudo-soul after you finish reading everything on this tablet. I read one or two psychology books.
The more you know, the more aware will you be of what you don't know"
She nodded furiously. She wanted to know a lot.
"As for a goal for now, I can tell you what you should discover first."
She nodded and listened for what she should do.
"Your name."
A considerable amount of time later.
The monster girl walked around the empty realm of her mind while being immersed in the e-book. She was finishing reading the last chapter. She had a lot of time to process every little bit.
She did not get tired in here at all.
The constant pain she felt was still there, but the constant exposure hardened her and pushed her threshold up.
The girl walked in circles as she hastily absorbed the knowledge within the last chapter - a combination of all previous chapters in a practical manner. It was the blueprint for her body. The peak of engineering.
Then she turned to the last page. There was a single sentence written there. A name given to her by her creator.
[The most fitting name I could think of is Lucy - because of the horns.]
She smiled and tossed the tablet away.
"A fitting name. I like it…Thanks for the chapter."
She had read almost every single chapter and memorized the essential knowledge while filtering the unnecessary opinions, overly bulky descriptions, and the authors' mumbling.
The only chapter she omitted was a chapter numbered 69. The title was "Intercourse".
She was denied permission to access it, and she could only read it after reaching eighteen years of age. But for that, she would have to wait pretty much 18 years without three months, as she was less than a year in this world.
Thus she could only skip it.
"Hmm, maybe I should check it out in the end. Now after reading the exact structure of my brain, I can pinpoint where it's stored and bypass this pointless protection."
She picked up the tablet again.
Soon, terabytes upon terabytes of pictures, videos, and fanfictions appeared before her to access.
She looked at the first video.
Two minutes in, it was just a poorly put-together move with horrible plot and acting It was quite boring so she decided to double-tap to skip to the middle.
Then, she widened her eyes when the scene changed. She quickly threw the tablet as far away as she could.
"..." She could not hide her flushed face. She was glad nobody was here.
Far away, the tablet continued to play the video. She waited with pointy her ears plucked until it ended before grabbing the tablet again.
"Nope, this needs to go."
[Deleting chapter 69 - 0% of 750 TB]
"..."
Now that she had almost all of her creator's knowledge and memories, she felt at ease as she knew he would not reappear before her again. She would not be able to look at him the same way.
Suddenly motes of light gathered and Aurora materialized in front of Lucy. Since they looked very alike, one could confuse them for siblings.
Aurora just stood there with an impatient look.
"I know you." Said Lucy, massaging her forehead in advance for the headache this person will cause.
"Listen, I need you to put the plot back on the right track. The future will change too much! Things will go horribly wrong. Trust me, I had seen the future and I know how delicate changes can alter the course of actions. Can you go back to that dungeon and wait a few years for Arthur to appear? He's just going to slay you and-"
"Not interested." - Lucy walked past her and cut her rambling short.
But then, she stopped, lost in thought.
How was it that Aurora was still here? Ever since she gained the related knowledge, she could use her brain to the fullest extent. Everything that happened in the realm of the mind was a result of it happening in the brain. And yet, here she stood - completely off the radar.
She recalled the description of the brain. It was a hybrid of Aurora's brain and a supercomputer. But the creator made sure to only copy parts that he knew what they did, such that it would not carry over something like habits or personality - he intended to move his own mind inside and wanted no conflicts or a shift in his personality towards something more like Aurora.
Nevertheless, there she was - just as annoying as the last time she saw Aurora.
Not only that, the brain was able to create a sprout for a new personality that was her.
As such there must have been memories of Aurora in the brain just like there were creators, and with that her knowledge.
"I will consider doing that."
"You will!?" Aurora was delighted.
"If you give me the most valuable assets you have, I will do the thing." Lucy bluffed. She had not listened to a single word of Aurora's. "But you have only one shot at that so give me something worth my time. Knowledge will be very welcome, but it alone will not suffice."
Aurora thought for a moment. She bit her lip. She hesitated.
Then, she plucked a hand into her chest and yanked out a glowing orb from inside. Aurora was visibly conflicted at giving it away but did so in the end.
"Sigh. I did not want to do this, but it's the only way. Here, this is the core of my being - my knowledge, memories and abilities, all I can possibly give-"
Lucy leaped and snatched the sphere before Aurora could finish.
After crushing like a fortune cookie, she took out the contents. Inside was a Pendrive that contained data she was able to digitalize and put in her database. After sticking the Pendrive into the tablet, a message appeared.
[New files found in folder \Aurora\]
[ - knowledge.pdf ]
[ - aurora_personality.exe (Bloatware Detected) ]
[ - memories.mp4 ]
[ Skills: Basic versions of Aurora's [Oracle] have been obtained (Sixth Sense); The potential to develop skill [Sovereign of Time] and [Sovereign of Light] acquired ]
She quickly deleted personality and memories in case they affect her in any way. She did not want to end up as a deranged, hysterical madwoman.
'Thanks, sucker." She laughed, but the weakened Aurora before her had an expression of disbelief, shock and betrayal, as she slowly dimmed out of existence.
"You will go back, right?"
"Nope!"
Aurora was tearing up, but disappeared in time for her crying to be cut short.
"Haha, well done, minion! But some parts of her remain." - An eerie voice echoed from above.
Then, a flickering form of Aurora appeared once more. This time, she was restrained by black chains and most importantly gagged.
The girl raised her brow.
"How many of you are there in my head?"
"Once you get rid of her, Only you and me will remain."
"Good to know. I'd rather deal with you first."
Suddenly, countless spears made of black metal shot out at her from the darkness. She easily sidestepped the first one. The spear stabbed into Aurora and shattered her feeble form as if a mirror was broken.
'Hopefully, this time she's gone for good'
The next spear came out of nowhere and hit the off-guard girl in the head. It failed to pierce her durable skull but the weight of the impact sent her flying like a ragdoll. Mid-flight another spear struck her torso and smashed her into the ground.
Soon, more javelins fell to the ground, each and every single one was thrown precisely where Lucy moved to escape as if the opponent toyed with her because he knew how she would behave. She was bounced like that for a long time, before gritting her teeth in frustration and meeting a spear with her fist, breaking the momentum. Subsequent spears missed their marks and the onslaught ceased.
Lucy had slight injuries but was more or less fine thanks to her durable body. What shocked her was the battle sense of her opponent. He easily predicted where she would go in advance, and despite attacking her countless times she did not detect where the attacks came from. There was a huge difference in skill. Nevertheless, she remained composed.
She spat on the ground and waved her fingers to come at her.
"Hm. As you wish."
A horizontal sweep came for her neck like a guillotine. The blade was huge, it filled her entire vision.
With lightning-fast reactions, right when the attack would connect she slammed her hands on the side of the blade, redirecting the attack into the ground, stopping it dead in its path. The black metal withstood the powerful attack without a dent.
"Sturdy blade, but not that sharp."
"Then it's just like you." The eerie voice laughed "Your efforts are futile, nameless one."
More attacks came but she deflected and dodged them one after another. At first, Lucy expended huge amounts of energy to deflect these attacks. Her movements were exaggerated, almost comically large.
She noticed the inefficiency of her actions. She would not be able to win like that.
After each successful evasion, the subsequent evasions had a smaller margin of movement.
After each successful parry, she exerted less and less force to divert the giant blade.
Out of nowhere, the attacks changed and started landing on the girl again. The swings were faster, more frequent, stronger, and seemingly random. There were even consecutive attacks from the same angle, which caused Lucy to conclude there was more than one blade.
Yet, as the battle against the invisible enemy continued, the girl caught on and managed to stand her ground. Her progress was rapid.
Whenever she became proficient, the attacks intensified once more only to trash her around with the next attack. This happened a dozen times. In the end, the attacks were completely soundless and were fast enough that the swings themselves were invisible, and only afterimages could be seen. They no longer followed a straight trajectory, but instead moved as if they were alive. On top of that, up to four strikes were launched at once, each carrying enough weight behind it to level a mountain.
"Huff. Huff." The eerie voice was out of breath. "How are you not tired?"
The girl cracked her fists and smirked.
"Is that it?" - Lucy taunted.
"The next one will surely kill you."
The darkness of the whole realm seemed to become a thick fog. It obstructed vision that it was difficult to see even your own nose. Furthermore, the fog seemed to constantly move in random patterns to hide anything that would give away the direction of the next attacks.
Them, Lucy felt danger incoming from every side at the same time. Her previous encounters screamed at her to dodge, but the conflicting directions made her frozen in place.
"Can you feel it?"
The voice whispered into her ear from behind. The girl tried to turn around, but it was harder than she expected. It was as if the air turned into a dense solid mass.
"Fear? Despair?"
She did not answer immediately.
"This is the bloodlust of the slaughterer of worlds!" The enemy roared from all directions at once.
She felt another attack incoming. Four simultaneous slashes. This time it was an overhead swing that aimed to split her in half. It was the fastest attack the enemy managed to create. Yet, she saw it before it even was launched. [Sixth Sense] skill already started working in full swing during this battle and without fail warned her about the attacks while she was deprived of senses.
She slightly stepped to the side and managed to avoid instant death.
She kicked the blades away and noticed her movements were being limited.
"So that's how it is. You affect the battle instincts and cause your enemies to freeze with your killing intent. Then, there is this fog that behaves like the ground. The faster you move in it, the harder it gets." She spoke. To counter the former, she had to let go of her instincts. Fortunately for her and unfortunately for the enemy, she never developed instincts in the first place.
Every action a normal person did unconsciously she performed consciously. Without exceptions, she controlled every muscle of her body, and behind every motion was a thought.
"Who are you!" She shouted.
"I am the rightful owner of this vessel."
"Oh yeah? I was told I am the one too. Mind showing yourself so we can talk face to face, or are you going to hide all the time?"
"A weakling like you will not be able to withstand my presence. I had the opportunity to toy with a bug like you before squashing you. But, since that is your wish, I will grant you mercy and end it. After I am done with you, I will slaughter these puny weaklings on the outside for their insolence."
The voice moved again. This time, it was high above Lucy.
"I want you to know terror, nonentity."
"Why should I fear a coward who won't even reveal himself."
Maniacal laughter echoed throughout the empty space. Then, strong wind created a tornado that sucked all the fog into one place far above.
Slowly, a gigantic red behemoth appeared. While it was mostly blurry, some parts of it were prominent. It was a colossal bipedal creature over hundred meters tall, wielded four long glaives in its four arms. It had a maw that split into four as it sucked in the thick fog. It stood tall on two legs that ended in hooves.
The whole body was plated in thick armor made of black metal of black metal, same as the bones of the girl.
The most distinguishable feature of this monster was five pairs of horns emerging from its head. They were thick and bulky, curved into a shape of a crown. They were made of gray bone-like material and gave the monstrosity a very domineering aura.
They were the opposite of Lucy's horns, which were thin and straight, elegant and captivating, made of rough diamond crystal and gold.
He did not lie. The sheer presence of him sent chills down her spine. Murderous intent in the air was increased to the extreme.
"Demong God? Is that you?"
"Oh, you know me? A seedling of consciousness like you is already aware of my existence? Perish, nobody, I have a world to conquer and races to enslave. Sitting here made me itchy for real action."
A series of attacks ensured, each stronger than ever with deadly precision. Not a single one missed its mark.
The onslaught only ended when the girl was launched into the air, before being slammed by all four arms downwards.
Yet, after this powerful beating, the girl had only a few bruises.
"Hey, demon. You are not the demon god."
The Demon God smiled seeing the seedling being fine after his strongest attacks.
"True. I am a mere shard of a shard of the real demon god. May your egg be damned, flawed thing created a failure."
"Do you have a name, demon?"
"I am the Venerable Emperor of The Exalted Horned Race, The God of War, Conqueror of Darkness and Bringer of Dawn, Lucifer."
"What a coincidence. I like your name."
"Tell me, how did you know I was not the complete being."
"How? Simple. You hit like a girl."
Then, the ground rippled with the girl at the center. Soon, rippling turned to an earthquake, and the unusual material that made up the ground hardened from the ongoing tremors. As the trembling continued to escalate, the solid ground cracked.
"You made a few mistakes. First, this body is not a failure."
A copy of the girl rose from the cracks between the ground.
"It's quite powerful once you figure out how to use it."
Then, another copy of her appeared.
"During this battle, I underperformed because I have been figuring how things work"
And another.
"And there's the fact I am constantly suffering from the outside. I had a huge disadvantage."
All around copies started emerging.
Soon, the demon god was surrounded by thousands. Thousands became millions, millions became a billion. The clones continued to appear, the infinite plane threatened to become full.
"The strongest muscle of this body is a supercomputer that can split into billions of thought processes! It's over. I won!"
"I see…" The demon god looked around.
Then, he smiled.
"It seems you are truly a worthy candidate." The demon god shard threw away his weapons.
"Are you giving up?"
"I know a lost battle when I see one. It's only natural that I admit my defeat. You have passed my trial with an excellent score. Will you listen to my last request?"
This surprised Lucy.
"Of course."
"Then, as a scion of the Demon God, accept the title of the 72nd Demon Lord, as well as this heirloom of your ancestor."
A glowing orb appeared and flew towards the original girl. She smashed the fortune cookie and absorbed his 'heirloom' just like before.
Somehow, his grotesque, segmented face seemed content with this result.
[Skill: The potential to develop skill [God Of War] and acquired]
[Title: 72nd Demon Lord acquired]
[Quest: Become the next Demong God ]
"You know we are not related by blood or anything?"
"Oh, you don't have demon blood flowing in you? That will be a problem." Lucifer laughed as his form started disintegrating.
[Quest: Become the next Demon God has risen in difficulty to (Impossible)]
"Oof."
"Indeed… May I know your name?"
"Lucy." The billion Lucies bowed in sync.
"A fitting name."
The infinite plane shattered and everything disappeared, with it the demon god fragment.
The vast empty void was replaced by a new, young pseudo-soul.
"Time to finally wake up..."