Back in the misty red realm.
Edol watched Ugly warily. The pain in his head had finally diminished, but now he was faced with just as big of a problem.
What had his enemy done to him to cause this pain?
A gravelly voice emanated from his counterpart, the language felt both familiar and unheard at the same time.
"Magicless goblin. Where are we?"
'Goblin? What? Is Ugly here calling me a goblin?'
"Hey Ugly, what did you just call me? Check yourself before you try insulting me, demon."
Edol spoke in his native English, and it seemed the demon could understand him as well. It recoiled from his words, horrified.
"D-Did you just call me an ugly demon?!? I'm the most handsome Suvian alive!"
Ugly charged at Edol, attempting to skewer him for his words, but Edol wasn't nearly as slow as he had been weeks ago.
Edol sidestepped the demon's charge, backing away from his foe and grabbing an earthen spike from the ground.
"What else could you be? This place is probably hell, so you must be a demon!"
The demon stopped, shocked at his words.
"Hell…? But... I'm dead?"
A look of desolation and despair surfaced in the demon's eyes as its head slumped.
"What's up, Ugly? Giving up already? I think it's pretty obvious you're dead, I already killed you a few times!" Edol's opponent was now slumped on the ground as if it had lost his soul.
The demon's voice sounded again, its voice breaking off as if it was about to cry.
"If I'm dead… then all of my brothers too…"
The demon turned to Edol, tears shining on its face as it clenched its sword in rage.
"YOU GOBLINS! Your kind are the scummiest creatures on Suvia! Everyone is dead because of you filthy goblins!"
'Suvia? What is this demon talking about?'
"What, did you lose to humans in your last life too? Ha! You really are weak!"
Edol dodged the demon's wild charge once again, wincing as its sword cut against his arm.
"You're all the same! You would probably do the same as the goblins back on Suvia! My whole family! Your kind killed my whole family, just for your greed!"
Tears streamed from the demon's eyes, clouding its vision.
"Yea, they probably deserved it! You killed me the second I came here, for no reason at all! If your family was anything similar to you, then they deserved painful deaths!"
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
The demon ran at Edol, completely disregarding its defenses. It wanted nothing more than to rip this filthy trash in front of it to pieces.
A smile covered Edol's face as he watched his foe charge recklessly.
"Ha. Just keep coming at me, Ugly. Just a little closer…"
Once the demon was just a few steps away, Edol attempted another side-step, revealing a particularly large earth spike angled towards the charging demon.
"Idiot demon! You're just going to ki- AHHH!!"
The demon's arms wrapped around Edol, preventing him from dodging away from its charge. The demon's remaining energy carried both of their bodies onto the spike, and moments later, the duo respawned.
"Damn, I almost got you! This would be so much easier if I could use magic too!"
The demon's eyes shined with fury as a cruel thought formed in its mind.
The greatest difference between humans and demons was their magical abilities.
Demons were known as the jack-of-all-trades race. On the planet of Suvia, magic was commonly known as "Legacy". Passed down through families or from teachers, anyone with enough luck could acquire useful abilities.
The so-called "demons" held an advantage in terms of inheritance- Initially, their magical abilities were the same as any other humans, until a great genius was born nearly a thousand years ago.
He developed a formation that could allow one to practice using multiple legacies. It could've been a great boon for all, but even at that time, there was still conflict ongoing between the so-called "Western Demons" and humans in the East, so the genius added countless traps within the formation.
If anyone not of the demon race tried to use the formation, they would quickly perish. Despite the formation being common knowledge, no one had managed to unravel all of the traps hidden within the formation, and the race limit of the spell held on to the present.
As a result, if a demon was given multiple legacies, they would be able to use each of them. On the side of the unlucky eastern humans, they were locked into using just the first legacy they acquired.
As such, demons typically held the advantage in one-on-one fights. Their superior arsenal of magic gave them much more flexibility.
If demons held the advantage in every fight, humans wouldn't be tough opponents for them. The problem came in group fights. Magic… didn't hold nearly as much sway as one might expect.
The range of magic was quite short, much shorter than the range of even a simple crossbow. As a result, most wars centered around equipment rather than magical ability.
The amount of magic one could wield was largely determined when one received a legacy, but control over mana was only learned through practice.
Seeing as how Edol had never touched magic before, if he made it to Suvia, he would be able to acquire any element of magic with enough luck.
'Heh, ugly goblin. You wanted magic… don't forget to thank me!'
The demon charged at Edol, covering the distance between the two quickly.
The demon's plan was simple: Use a modified version of legacy bestowal to gift trash-level earth magic to Edol. Soon the boy would be able to cast giant earth spikes, just like the demon!
Earthen spikes ripped out from the ground under Edol, spearing through his knees and securing him in place.
The boy didn't even have a chance to scream as the demon slammed its hand into his chest.
"Iduol isna olka muon!"
A strange, distorted language rang out from the demon's mouth, sweat dripping down its face as a small brown orb of magic formed around its hand.
After spending the last few hours in agony after the demon's last experiment, Edol wanted nothing to do with whatever his foe was doing now.
"AAAAGH! Get away, demon!"
Edol flailed his hands at the demon, one of his hands passing through the ball of magic that had formed in its hand.
The brown orb's energy began spinning around wildly, drawing a confused look from the demon's face.
'How did the goblin's hand interact with the legacy core?!'
The demon watched the orb nervously.
Despite his hatred for the goblin in front of him, he didn't want to do something that would kill it for good. Neither of them knew how long they would be trapped in this hell, or if they would ever escape.
Even if they fought for an eternity, it was still better than being alone here, with nothing to interact with.
As the demon hesitated, the swirling orb's energy seemed to settle down a bit, forming a whirlpool. The energy moved around the core of the orb at a steady yet rapid pace, drawing in the eyes of any observers.
'Ah, whatever. Who cares if this ugly goblin dies from this.'
Having made up its mind, the demon shoved the swirling orb into Edol's chest.