Doing my best to ignore the kid I readied my blade against the Leviathan.
"Kid, he's going to make a blast capable of destroying a country. That includes your princess. Stop it." Why is he being so illogical?
You don't care about the princess, the country, or the Leviathan, beyond using it to control me. You just want to kill!
"I don't want anything, kid. I do as logic dictates. Right now, logic dictates that you allow me control. Maybe if you were stronger, you would be fighting the Leviathan right now. The truth is, if it wasn't for me the princess would have died."
The kid finally shutting up, I returned my focus to the Leviathan as a blast of change erupted from his mouth. Spreading my darkness out to act as a shield for myself, I flew through the blast preparing to strike its throat.
Flying through its cavernous mouth, I ignored the dampness of the saliva and the leftover heat from its first blast.
The kid should thank me, I made sure to bait the beast into aiming at the air. If he was in control, all of his subjects would surely have died.
His affection for them still perplexed me.
Can't think about that now! It's entirely illogical to waste the precious seconds.
Flying past its tongue, I was milliseconds from my target, the part of a Leviathan's throat that allowed them to make their beams of change. Readying my blade as I spun through the air to accelerate my strike, I could see victory right in front of me.
Until my body flung me sideways, hitting the side of its throat.
Cursing at the kid, I spat "Kid, what's your obsession with those ants!? What's your obsession with control!? You're nothing, you illogical idiot!"
Opening the system's interface, I activated its sub-space feature. Hopefully, it would affect the Leviathan. The system operates on a level that most low-level beings can't even perceive, so by accessing the system you experience a flow of time completely detached from their world.
The Leviathan was not a lower being, but its weakened state as a baby was my only bet.
Forcing the kid's consciousness to enter the sub-space, I punched him as soon as he manifested. As he flew across the room, I wouldn't even give him time to recover. You illogical twat!
Filled with this foreign thing, I grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and punched him again and again. The blood appearing on his face only strengthened that thing.
Feelings?
You weak, pathetic kid! Who decided that you would be important?
Throwing him to the ground, I stared at my bruised fists.
What's happening to me!?
"This is why I don't want you in control." I stared at the kid as he stood up, multitudes of these foreign... things filling my mind.
Rushing to Miko, I grabbed him by his throat, lifting him in the air. Cold venom in my voice for the first time in existence, I said, "What are you doing to me?"
Even as his face was beaten to a pulp, even as blood trickled down his face, even as he stared the greatest fear of the darkness in its face, the kid looked at me with defiance.
Putting his hands on my arm, he said, "Ever since I got the system, I've had a nagging voice in my head, telling me to kill. Trying to turn me into its perfect killing machine. I know you were that voice."
Forcing my grip to loosen, I watched him return to the ground in disbelief. His defiance continuing, he said, "That's why you can't control my body. You know nothing but murder. How long until you find Aruna or Roan to be problems? Farvakhin?"
My eyes grew wide as he was brandishing my own sword against me. I had little idea about most of what he was talking about. Who the hell was telling him to kill?
Raising the demon sword, he said, "Now go where you belong, or I'll cut you down here and now."
"Kid, what the hell are you talking about."
Over my initial shock that he would be so illogical as to confront a superior being such as I, I summoned the sword back to me.
But I was no longer looking to fight. He posed serious questions.
Noticing him balling his fists, looking to fight even now, I made my intentions clear. Unequip.
Sitting down, I said, "Kid, I'm not looking to fight."
He was still hesitant, still looking for a fight. Over his games, I used the darkness to force him to sit. Which he of course took offense to.
His eyes cold, he whispered "Looks like you're not trying to fight. It's like I said, you're a machine made only to murder."
Studying the kid, I said, "I'm not trying to fight. I need to know, when you said there was a voice telling you to kill, what did you mean."
Miko
Furious at this demon, it took all of my will not to lunge at him. I looked down at the darkness, the shackles he was using to hold me back. Physically attacking him would not end well.
Instead, I kept up my cold glare. It was all I could do in response to such a ridiculous question.
"You're going to act like that wasn't you? Who was it then, huh? Who has been telling me to kill? You're the only voice in my head."
It kept looking at me with its emotionless eyes. Another reason not to give myself over to him. He was right, in this fight, it would be good for us. He would effortlessly slay the Leviathan. But if he is given an opening to use my body, he would certainly take full advantage of that.
After seeing Aruna and Roan dying in the fields, I wasn't ready to put them in that kind of danger again. It would be harder for me to kill the Leviathan, but I would still be able to do it.
I had to.
"This is troubling."
My thoughts returned to the present. The demon was deep in thought, staring into empty space. It appeared as though he was trying to visualize something.
A lie that would convince me to hand over my body, perhaps.
"What does that mean?"
He stared into my eyes. This time I saw something more than emptiness though. I saw uncertainty, borderline fear.
He said, "I don't know who that voice is. I know you're going to be illogical and deny such a simple truth, but it is the truth. This is deeply disturbing."
A dark ominuous fear clutched me. I was certain he was lying, but if he wasn't...
When did I lose so much control over myself?
"I have to think on that later. Kid, there's no more time. You have to quit being idiotic and illogical and see this as our best course of action. Between the 2 of us, I am by far the better warrior. By multiple eternities of experience."
"No."
He glared at me.
"You are the first being in existence to have excelled this much in such a short period under my wing. Quit thinking I'm stupid or illogical. I know that if the princess dies, you will lose much of your will to fight. I don't know why, but that's not important. What's important is that you are my first chance to usurp the Demon Lord. And you're going to waste this opportunity on something as stupid as your body."
I felt a cold anger rise inside me at each of his words. This bastard is trying to convince me to hand over my body when he doesn't know the first thing about empathy. He doesn't even know why Aruna's death would hurt me...
Clutching my fists, I screamed, "No! It's my body, my life! You can't even put aside your cold-blooded killing intent long enough to trick me into letting you in. Why the hell would I trust you!? I'm taking my body back and killing the Leviathan."
Struggling against the restraints, I ignored my earlier hesitations against attacking him head-on. Even though he was lying about everything else, it was true that my friends were in mortal danger. I need to get back to my body as quickly as possible.
He watched with a blank stare as I struggled against the restraints. "This is so confusing. I've promised the princess's protection, I've offered to defeat your enemy, and I disproved your idea that I've been molding you into a killing machine. So why struggle?"
I watched with horror as multiple more restraints appeared around my body.
The demon stood up, staring down at me the entire time.
"I'll have to ponder that later. I do have to say, I'm impressed by your fight. Even if it's entirely illogical."
He walked past me, disappearing into a wall of darkness.
With the sharp realization that I lost the battle and that he would regain control of my body, I cried.