"Nier! Aren't you coming to play?" A girl called out to the 14 yr old Nier.
"No Yan, you folks go ahead." Nier declined. He flipped the pages of a book he was pretending to be reading while sitting under a large tree. His thoughts were storming in his mind.
"Fourteen fucking years and my memories are still not entirely back sigh." Nier thought and sighed. It had been 14 years since he reincarnated in this world in a human body with fey bloodline. How the hell that happened, he had few ideas. His summoners were all freaking dead. He couldn't learn about them. He also was unaware why they summoned him. Nier as a matter of fact, didn't even remember his real name. He was stuck in a mortal realm with a mortal weak human body with negligible strength and magic. But he was well aware that he was an ancient demon of the highest level. He was the bane of all godly spirits and the unrivalled ruler of whichever world he moved to. Be it the world of living or the world of the dead, his prowess was unparalleled. Ironically, now he could barely use a miniscule portion of his original power which gave him negligible support.
But for the mortals around him, Nier was a freaking genius. Even at a young age he was able to read and write several languages. His learning speed was rapid. No matter what craft, book or skill he picked up, he'd master them all swiftly. He was the adopted son of Ra'z, chief of Hanxing village. Nier was a prodigy everyone praised and wanted to befriend.
But Nier found all these people annoying. They flattered him with sugary words but brought petty gifts. Nier remembered this much that he was once worshipped by countless mortals, humans or not. The sacrifices they brought to him were endless & of good quality. These flatterers around him now wouldn't even bring the heads of their children as sacrifices and they dared to pretend to be his loyals or admirers? The shameless guts!
"Sigh, this world is not the same it once used to be." Nier mumbled. "If I remember correctly, even mortals used to be decently powerful back in the day. Now all I see are cripples. These so-called Gods are to be blamed. They shared no knowledge regarding strength, cultivation or even magic. To the contrary, it seems that they destroyed all the powerhouses of the world, obliterating their centuries old heritage of cultivation & spiritism. Now all mortals are at cannon fodder level. Makes it easy to control them hmph. Well, there are still some talents…" Nier glanced at the girl named Yan who had been calling him earlier. She was playing some childish game with her village friends. Nier couldn't get enough of rolling his eyes at this child play. And it made his stomach turn every time these little chickens tried to pull him into their games or talked to him. An ancient demon now had to face the never-stopping mouths of these loud children who misspent all their time in foolishness instead of cultivation or learning some techniques or even a craft.
"Frogs in a well. So foolish, so content. What makes them so happy? Why are they playing in glee while they have neither strength, nor money?" Nier wondered.
Suddenly the children began to scream hysterically. Nier glanced over and discovered the reason. A mighty bear had come out of the forest and was running towards the children.
"Good, finally some bloodshed." Nier mumbled smilingly and watched with anticipation.
"Nier, what are you doing?! Run!" Yan said as she approached him and clung to his arm, pulling him away.
"Eh?" Nier was surprised.
"Let's go! The bear will kill us!" Yan shouted.
"You go. I'll be fine." Nier scoffed lightly while glancing at the bear's rampage. But contrary to the bloodshed he had expected, the bear ignored all the children and ran directly towards him. Their gazes met.
"Motherfucker." Nier cussed under his breath. Seemingly the wild beast had noticed something peculiar about Nier. It could be his fey bloodline which was rumored to attract the wild beast. Most of the times the encounters between fey and beasts were hostile. Were the beast envious that the fey surpassed them? Fey also had animalistic features after all. One would never know as the fey were all officially extinct and merely halfblood fey decedents emerged once in a while. It was due to the bloodlines activating randomly in the newborns sometimes, indicating that someone up in the family tree was a fey.
"Nier! oh no! It's already here. Run, I will stop the bear!" Yan shouted and stood in front of him.
"…" Nier didn't know how to laugh at this. A mere child claiming that she will protect the strongest demon in history. But then again, her stance was rather heartwarming. Nier approved of her action.
"Good, she can be a good servant to me." Nier thought and nodded.
"Step aside." He then said and walked towards the bear who was merely a few feet away.
Whoosh! A gust of spirit force rippled out from Nier's body and quickly manifested into the shape of a black lion!
Yan gasped.
"A spirit!? Y-you have a spirit!?" Yan exclaimed. Ignoring her, Nier faced the bear.
Roar!!! The lion roared and leapt at the bear. This black lion was tangible and was much stronger than any natural lion. It was the manifestation of Nier's spirit force and could continuously gain the spirit force supply from Nier if allowed.
The two beasts collided and fought. It was a fierce sight to behold. All the children stopped in their tracks and watched with dropped jaws.
Roarr! The black lion ultimately killed the bear and growled victoriously before turning into black colored spirit force and flew back into Nier's body.
"Nier you did it! You killed the bear! You saved everyone!" Yan shouted.
"Nier you're a hero!"
"You're our savior!"
The children gathered around Nier and lifted him up.
"Hmph! Yes, hail me. Worship me! Mwahahaha!" Nier exclaimed in his mind while smiling faintly on the outside.
"It was nothing. My father taught me how to summon the black lion spirit. He's the real hero." Nier faked modesty and spoke.
"No-no. You're so cool, Nier! We'll tell everyone! You'll be a famous hero in the village!" The children shouted and tossed him in air, catching him then as he fell down and celebrated in this manner.
It took Nier a while to calm them down and convince them to not speak of the incident as his father Ra'z had forbidden him to use his spirit due to some reason. The children sighed and reluctantly agreed. Nier actually simply didn't want to be bothered by the overenthusiastic villagers who didn't know how to worship him well.
Thereafter, Nier returned to the village and reached his house.
"Oh Nier, welcome back my sweet boy!" Myra exclaimed and rushed to greet Nier.
"Ugh." Nier's face flinched as he knew what was to come. Sure enough, the next moment, the slightly chubby milf hugged him tight and stuffed his face into her big bosom, squeezing and suffocating him for a few moments before releasing him.
"How was your day Nier? Are you hungry? Mother has made delicious sweets for you!" Myra said enthusiastically.
"Sigh, my day was fine. Thank you, mother; I'm not hungry yet though. I'll just go and study a bit." Nier said & managed to escape from the milf's clutches.
He then reached the library inside the house and pulled out a history book, reading about the kings of the olden days. History was his favorite subject. He wanted to learn the details of what went down. He was hoping to find a clue about himself. He was once worshipped by millions of mortals after all. There must be something written down about him in history. But this library was limited. This history book was already the last one left to read.
In merely an hour, Nier finished reading it and memorized it too. Sighing then, he put it back in the slab.
"Nothing… I need more books. I should go to the nearby city and search in their library." Nier thought.
"Nier. Your father is calling you in his office." Myra's voice suddenly reached Nier.
"Coming." Nier replied and walked out of the library, heading straight towards Ra'z's office which was just another room in the big house. Nier knocked at the closed door softly.
"Come in." Ra'z's cold voice was heard.
As Nier entered the room he faintly smiled. Ra'z's office was Nier's favorite room in the house. It was dark, gloomy, filled with numerous beast head trophies and had a malicious vibe overall.
"Have a seat." Ra'z said to Nier.
Nier obeyed while scrutinizing Ra'z. This cold man looked tired and there were bloodstains on his clothes.
"Did you go on a hunt, father?" Nier asked. Ra'z gritted his teeth and sighed.
"No. There were several bear attacks today in the village." Ra'z said. Nier's eyebrows rose up." He was a learned young man & an ancient demon inwardly. He deduced the reason behind these multiple bear attacks right away.
"A beast tide is nearby?" Nier frowned.
"Yes, it's heading right here." Ra'z minced his words.
"I'll stay behind to protect the village. I'm the only spiritist here. You on the other hand, should take your mother and little Yan and escape. Head straight towards the capital. There I have an old friend. He'll provide you refuge." Ra'z said.
"I can fight alongside you and eradicate the beast tide." Nier said.
"Humph. This is a large beast tide. It would take at least 10 spiritists to survive it. What chance do I and you together have? Go and survive. We cannot outrun the tide as a large group either. But there is chance of survival by hiding the villagers underground while I distract the beasts away." Ra'z said.
"..." Nier fell silent. He didn't care about the villagers. He would actually enjoy the sight of them getting ripped to shreds and eaten by the wild bears. But he cared about Ra'z. This man was ruthless, cold and badass. Such a mortal was worthy of being Nier's follower. It was a pity to lose such a person.
Ra'z took a deep breath and pulled out a storage pendant from his desk and placed it on the table.
"I've prepared & stored in this pendant everything you might need in the journey.
"…" Nier took the pendant and wore it under Ra'z's gaze.
"It is time I told you about our family secret too. Sigh." Ra'z said.
"In this universe, mortals can obtain spirits and use them to fight, defend, heal or do miscellaneous works. But they must present proof that they or their ancestors had slain the said spirit and were not its worshippers instead. There is a sharp contrast here. Since Gods wanted to obliterate all the spirits, demons and their worshippers, any spiritist who uses the power of a spirit which wasn't slain by them or their predecessors and was instead worshipped; becomes a criminal by the God's law and must be put down. It caused quite an uproar back in the day but currently there are no such heretical spiritists. Only legal spirtists exist who uses the slain spirits."
"You're a worshipper of the Black Lion, aren't you?" Nier said with a rare smile.
Ra'z was stunned. His mouth was still open as he was in the middle of speaking.
"How did you…" Ra'z frowned.
"Just a hunch." Nier smiled mysteriously. Ra'z shook his head. This prodigal son of his had always surpassed his expectations and surprised him too many times. He was already used to this. As such, he easily accepted the fact that Nier had already deduced his family secret.
"Sigh, yes, I'm a worshipper of the Black Lion spirit, just like my ancestors. The Black Lion has hidden itself in some unknown place but continues to provide us its power in response to our prayers. But this fact must never be revealed to anyone." Ra'z said.
"Sure. You bribed the priests to be acknowledged as a legal spiritist?" Nier asked.
"Yes." Ra'z replied.
"With what?" Nier was curious.
"A night with Myra." Ra'z replied.
The room suddenly became quiet and odd. At once the temperature dropped as Nier stared at Ra'z with a cold gaze. Ra'z stared back emotionlessly.
"Humph. Well played old man. This is one reason why I like you. You're ruthless through and through. Even to yourself and to your life partner. To keep your spiritist power and not betray your spirit, you even sold your wife's honor. Such guts…" Nier spoke in his mind but not out loud.
"Now, keep this secret and pray to Black Lion periodically. Pass down this secret to the next generation too." Ra'z said after assessing that Nier didn't intend to make a scene. He approved of this understanding son of his.
"The pendant contains the prayer methods." Ra'z added. "There's also this martial arts technique. It might be useful to your future wife Yan." Ra'z pulled out a book and placed on the table.
Nier's right eye twitched.
"I'm not marrying her. She's annoying. As a matter of fact, no mortal woman is worthy of me, hmph." Nier snorted.
Ra'z chuckled.
"You're still young. Get past your puberty and you'll realize that Yan is the perfect girl for you. She's childish yes, but give her time and she'll grow into a fine woman." Ra'z said.
"Humph." Nier only snorted while glancing at the book. Its title was: Cloud Catcher technique.
"Heh, what martial arts technique? Isn't this a cultivation technique instead? Cultivation has been banned ever since the golden age began. Did you bribe the magistrate to enlist this technique as a martial arts technique instead?" Nier scoffed.
"Exactly so." Ra'z smiled not surprised that Nier found out the true nature of the technique by a mere glance.
"And what did you bribe him with?" Nier asked.
"What do you think?" Ra'z said with an ugly expression.
"Shameless." Nier muttered.
"Humph, it's a wife's duty to serve her husband and be useful to him. Myra had no complaints." Ra'z said coldly.
"Not just that, I even hunted a spirit for the magistrate. Even though it was a lesser spirit, but still."
Nier sighed. It was almost a sin for a heretical spiritist to slay a spirit. Ra'z sins were deep and dark.
"It's impossible to survive in this golden age while keeping up your tradition and faith. You must lie, deceive, be shameless and be willing to give up everything else at your disposal without flinching. I hope you won't do anything silly & righteous instead." Ra'z lectured.
"..." Nier rolled his eyes.
"Now, I will impart to you the method of unleashing greater energy of your spirit." Ra'z said. "Once you master this method, your spirit will be as powerful as mine! No one will dare to push you around."
"…." Nier sighed once more, swiftly grabbing Ra'z hand and jabbing his forefinger at several meridian points in Ra'z's entire forearm.
"Here. This is permanent unsealing method. No need to remember it." Nier said. "Now your spirit will become 10 times stronger."
"…..What the…" Ra'z stood up and stared at Nier with wide eyes.
Boom! His spirit force exploded outwards, shaking up the entire office.
A black lion spirit emerged in the room with extremely realistic features and dense spirit force.
"…." Ra'z stared at it and then stared back at Nier. His gaze was filled with one question- 'how!?'
"Let's just say, the Black Lion spirit favors me." Nier said casually. He was actually being modest. In truth, the Black Lion spirit was fearful of him. As a spirit, it could tell that Nier's soul was that of an ancient supreme demon! How could a mere spirit be anything but servile to him? As such, the day Nier used the Black Spirit summoning method, taught by Ra'z, the Black Lion imparted all its secrets and methods to Nier spiritually. From day 1, Nier had mastered the Black Lion spirit. He had surpassed all past generations of his adopted lineage.
"…Sigh. You're indeed a prodigy. I'm proud to be your father!" Ra'z uttered. He felt very emotional. Nier scoffed inwardly but didn't reveal any contempt.
"Some prodigy. I'm unable to fight even a beast tide and save you." Nier muttered. He really did want to save Ra'z.
"Don't look down on yourself. Mortals cannot be omnipotent. We can only do our best. As the village chief, I must stay back and protect the villagers. You on the other hand should go out and find your own adventure in life. A fledgling must leave its parent someday & explore the sky. Separation is unavoidable." R'az said.
"…."
There was a long silence in the room. Ultimately, Nier sighed.
"Leave now. I can already sense the vibrations of the beast tide stampede." Ra'z said, getting up.
"Very well. I'll carry on the legacy of Black Lion to its apex again. This I promise you." Nier said. He was being kind for a change.
"Hmph. Good lad." Ra'z uttered and smiled. His eyes were teary but he didn't shed a tear.
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Half an hour later Nier was staring at the village from atop a hillock. Beside him was Yan who was sobbing incessantly. From one side they saw a dust cloud rapidly approaching Hanxing village. Next, with a flash of black spirit force, this dust cloud was obstructed from the middle and ended up flowing around the village and past it. This dust cloud was formed from the stampede of the bear beast tide. It was massive with at least 500,000 rampaging bears! How long could Ra'z protect the village was something futile to calculate. His fate was sealed, along with the villagers'.
Cold winds blew past Nier and Yan. They were the only ones there in the wilderness. In the end Myra had refused to escape and wanted to perish with her husband. She was loyal to the bone.
"Sigh. Let's go Yan." Nier said turning and wrapping his arm around Yan's shoulders. Yan clung to his side, crying and sobbing. The wilderness soon obscured their bodies.