It seems that the demon king of that time decided to walk in a particular path and something that was unique to him, never done before.
Previously, all the demon kings attacked the other kingdoms as quickly as possible to do the most damage possible and therefore increase the power of all the demons.
In this specific case, nothing has happened, so much so that I am not sure that any kingdom knows that the demon king has already appeared.
Lucian : "He plans to hide and let the mountains cover him up so he can secretly train his army, kinda genious I must say"
Thanatos : "Well, he is the demon king...he has so much prepared that you would be amazed"
Thanatos just appeared when I was in the library on some book trying to understand the strategy of the demon king, if someone would help me it was him, I'll atleast try to extract some pieces of information through him.
Lucian : "Don't appear when I speak to myself"
Thanatos: "That's funny"
The demonic city Abyssia, the capital of the demon "kingdom" is 3 months by horse from the nearest kingdom, the kingdom of humans.
Making it impossible to spy because of the demonic infection that would kill anyone without even the demons having to take care of it.
Lucian : "But their is a problem, if they can't spy on us, we can't spy on them either"
By thinking in my head to all sort of things Thanatos didn't really know what I was talking about but did seem to still je able to figure it out and join the "discussion".
Thanatos: "You are kinda wrong on that one"
Lucina : "I see"
By ensuring that his army trains in secret, by digging the holes in the mountains and going underground, the visible kingdom seems uninhabited.
But for demons it's even weirder, how do we have information, I guess we have books and he has us, I don't know if he did read our minds but that would be my guess to how they got some informations.
Humans will surely suspect that the demon king has appeared when the hero appears since the two events occur almost at the same time but they can't really confirm it apart if they use boat.
Lucian : "But that's not gonna happen, that's just too big of a travel"
Not that they will do anything, they also need time to finish the wars already underway and organize themselves and also train the hero to be avle to take us when we "appear", the more time the better.
From what I could find out, the demon king estimated at 5 years the time he had before the hero tried to venture here. so 5 years for me too...
Lucian : "Why five years ?"
Thanatos : "It's simply the longest ever time the two event can possibly be separated"
Lucian : "Shouldn't they happen the at the same time"
Thanatos : "Emphasis on should"
Lucian : "???"
Thanatos : "Don't try to understand"
5 years may seem like a lot but it's very little, I could train with the sword and reach a correct level but would I be able to face someone who has the teachings of the best?
I could also try magic but again it is very limited as long as I don't kill a human and it's not even something where my talent as a *commander* would really shine as I don't really get the best quantity of mana, even for a two star.
Theory seemed to be the only option, I have to find something that no one likes to think about that could give me even a small chance of beating him.
Lucian : "Thanatos do you have any idea on how to progress ?"
Thanatos : "Continue to watch and learn"
Lucian : "Can't you help ?"
Thanatos : "Nope"
Lucian: "Why are you even here ?"
Thanatos: "Have nothing else to do"
In the generals of the demonic army there were all profiles, specialists in magic, hand-to-hand combat, summoning, and others so observing them would for sure widen my view but will it be enough, surely not.
To understand demonic mana I was watching vampires manipulate blood, which is one of the rarest magics, and seems quite easy to understand in the way ok of the commander used it.
Usually magic for humans use the powers of the elemental spirits or even form contracts with them or just use them for basic magic attacks or in artefacts.
Here for vampires there seemed to be no spirit in this case, how can they manipulate blood witch is not even an element that exist, for me a human that is used to noraml element for everyone beside four stars, that seems weird.
Lucian : "How do vampire control blood ?"
Thanatos: "Guess"
Lucian : "You really don't plan to help me do you ?"
Thanatos: "Absolutely not"
Lucian : "Then go away and do nothing in another place"
The strangest thing is that I can't assume that she just controls the water in her blood because she doesn't seem to be in contact with water spirits either.
This is where I understood the essence of mana atleast it was what I could come up with, even knowing my lack of general knowledge on that.
Usually it is either used as a catalyst to summon a spirit or as a source of energy to cast a spell related to a spirit apart form some exceptions.
Lucian : "Or am I wrong and I cant just see their spirit, oh it's annoying"
Basically the spirits "eat" the mana and the result is a spell depending on the quantity, quality of mana, and the will of the wizard which is a lot, a LOT simpler for anyone.
It is never used directly except in the army of evil, suddenly the answer seems pretty obvious, mana could be used in absolutely anything but we don't do it because it is harder.
When I think about it, it makes a lot of sense, demons have talents very young so they can master their mana easily and they are just used to it, for humans they have to learn every single spell and how it's done, it's easier to concentrate on one path where you are more efficient.
Lucian : "It's just a difference in how they use the mana, whether pure or by converting it to make more or less damage"
Whether it is the general "the immortal lich" of the 7th army who summons the dead or the general "bloody fangs" of the 5th army they use mana more directly on organic matter.
Which I confirmed quite easily by looking in the library at the number of different variations that there may have been in the army of evil.
Moreover, something else allows me to affirm my theories, the astral spirits thanatos and hypnos, who use mana directly whether for space or others.
Lucian : "They could also be exceptions, those two are weird"
Hypnos : "Weirdly enough I am pretty sure you wer talking about me"
Lucian : "Not you too"
Hypnos : "Relax, just coming to tell you to go train"
It was actually a good time to go train, the best I could do would be to use my mana to confirm my theory because I have bo spirit I could surely do elementary magic but not much, let's see if that is true.
Which means that if I am right, the mana will not have a particular "shape" but can take the one I would like and "us" humans are just dumb.
If I can pull this off, I will surely be less powerful in a specific field than someone else but I will be more versatile which leaves me with more luck to kill the hero, atleast theorically.
Hypnos : "Oh Lucian, I said time to train"
Lucian : "Oh yeah sure"
It's very far from enough, I need something other than that, still something that no one has thought of.
And when I think about it, the only thing that humans have never been able to try is the demonic system.
Since it is the demon king who is the only one who can make it appear and that it is only used on a very specific specie, the demons.
In this no human has ever been able to have both systems at the same time in him apart form us five right now, it make us kinda special I guess.
Lucian : "Okay time to try some things"
Hypnos : "So you are not gonna train ?"
Lucian : "No I have a better idea"
Hypnos : "Okay do whatever"
According to the demon of the last time we can activate at will either one or the other to appear more or less human but why not use both at the same time.
The next 5 months were devoted to this theory where I took a small place left out where I would try and not even go back to real training.
Hypnos : "Is your thing even working ?"
Lucian : "It's not bad"
At the beginning I fell down almost directly because I was trying to merge the two powers, then I tried to use one at the time, it seemed more manageable but I still couldn't get anything done.
My role is going to fight the hero one day, so I guess I had to fight to know how to do it more properly, I can't always evade it.
Lucian : "Okay time to go back training"
So after having made more progress on mana than on my talent, I finally returned to the training ground where everyone seemed disappointed to see that I was alive...
Vector : "So you're finally coming out of your library, I thought you'd given up training"
Lucian : "if you would do something better to talk maybe we can train"
Vector : "Oh you..."
I didn't want to engage in a conversation and I knew that Vector hates provocation and it didn't miss...he also didn't miss me either and kindly made me eat the floor during the rest of the training in an even more painful way than usual.
Vector : "You are getting better I see, you are using your mana to defend yourself now"
Lucian : "I don't just do nothing and talk"
He must speak of the same technique as his own, use the mana directly on his body as a kind of booster, directly and not indirectly like with spirits even if of course the human body (and demonic one too) has a limit to the amount it can use in the muscles.
But wait, yes, I am stupid, that is the solution to my problem, how did I not think about it when I know the style of Vector...
Vector: "Oh you seem to have an idea, you always make that face when you have an idea"
Lucian : "Yeah, sh...up"
Vector : "Glad to help"
I have been trying since the beginning to use two systems in parallel that are opposite, but that's just make to work.
But if I use the energy that I have thanks to my human talent and use it to amplify my demonic talent I can "combine" both without really having to mix my mana.
It would be more accurate to say a conversion of the mana in one system to the other so I have exactly double the quantity of mana.
I can activate my normal talent thanks to my normal body and my body supports the demonic energy thanks to the marks of the infection on my body.
And to say that the infection that killed so many humans could be what makes me up to be 2 times powerful is quite ironic.
Demon : "Why is he laughing out loud ?"
Other demon : "Let him alone, he is just a weird human"
With this I can get something very close to the 4 stars or atleast catch up easily with a 3 stars, it's really not bad with that I may have my chances.
But to become even stronger I had to kill humans and at least a lot of them, only here could I absorb some of their power and be really powerfull.
Which would be killing two targets with an arrow because that would also allow me to better control the mixtures of energy, mana and others.
Demon : "He did not even stay one hour and he is already gone"
Other demon : "What did I szy, useless humans"
Chief of training: "Atleast he can put up a fight against Vector, don't takk if you can't"
Demon : "Tchh"
But no war before 5 years, how am I gonna do that..and no enemy will dare to venture into the demonic lands...hmm though.
I know that the borders are often guarded by teams of adventurers and knights but also by the assassin's guild.
Thanks to their talent, they make very few quick silent sounds and can even eliminate annoying witnesses.
Their missions are to collect information about demons and every borders in general, or just watch nobles in secret.
Lucian : "They are gonna make quite the good preys, I ecen have a good trap ready"
Vector: "So you went away to do something like that, not bad, good luck"
Their greatest strengths here could turn out to be their greatest weaknesses too because they have to see what they want to report, it means I could trap them if played right.
These are people about whom no one knows anything, often are orphans (or in any case they make them orphans) with an unknown identity, perfect for me cause I don't have my old one after been exiled.
Which is perfect for infiltrating me, no one could tell the difference between me and a human if I cover my marks which is easy for an assasin.
Even an examan of my talent wouldn't tell them anything, so I can cross the border quietly and go in any town without much trouble about being recognised.
All that remains is to go fishing for an assasin...fortunately for me, I already had a little foreseen that it could be useful to me so I kinda already did a trap.
When I returned to the village with thanatos, I took back my weapons and destroyed so bit of our old village very methodically to make the assassins who sometimes watch us believe that we had fled because of the monsters, no weapons, a deserted and abandoned village, my perfect little assassin trap.
I knew very well that he was watching us from time to time and had orders to kill us if we tried to return to the humans or others, they would finally serve.
I had wasted enough time like that, let's go for the village again and see if he comes back to it ecen after all the time we were gone.
Lucian: "Thanatos??"
Thanatos: "yes?"
Lucian: "To the village please"
Thanatos: "I'm not your teleportation device you know"
Lucian: "Yet you are of no use for anything else at the moment"
I could clearly see that he wanted to kill me but hey it was funny to talk with thanatos, about all the subordinates of the demon king "he" was surely the most interesting.
But hey, he won't be disappointed with the trip this time and he could get some answers to what I was trying to do last tile, even though it was not what I originally planned.
Thanatos: "I guess I kinda deserve that one"
Lucian : "Don't worry you will love the trip"
He stopped looking at me as if he was going to kill me and took me away as agreed, he stood there looking at me waiting for me to do something but I did nothing.
Well, almost nothing except to put on my demonic aura to appear like a demon, with that I was sure that one of the assasins would move soon and that it would be there that I would kill him...