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                                                      Scarlet

“I won’t tell you any of the specifics of the prophecy since neither you nor the prophecy want that, but the main points are,” he pauses to glance at his father before looking at me again after finding Grandpa frowning at him, seemingly still angry at the prophecy thing in the first place, “in order for you to grow independent, you had to be left to your own devices with some occasional nudging to grow. To gain achievements far greater than any other at the same levels. And to grow fast.”

“So it was you who was making all of the Fractures I entered so bizarre,” I state with a frown. And he nods his head and says, “It was.”

Grandpa doesn’t seem to like that, but he stays silent anyways.

“Before I tell you about the prophecy itself, I believe it should be fine to tell you about what happened before it,” he starts, making me frown slightly. “About how your mother and I met.” My eyes widen. “How we had you.”

“Back then, I hated humans just as much as any other demon did, and she absolutely despised demons even more than other humans,” he says, leaning back slightly in his chair. “I had gone to the witches’ valley after receiving a request from them and deeming it important enough to look into, simply because it’s a bad idea to ignore the seers. But when I arrived, they cast a ritual scale mythic skill with each and every one of their Nobles working together in order to trap me in the illusion valley alongside a human. Your mother. The White Knight of Humanity.”

They… the witches were behind them meeting?

I glance at Grandpa to find him still scowling.

Oh, right. He doesn’t like my biological mother.

“We, of course, tried to kill each other right away,” the Blood Lord continues, drawing my attention back to him with a start. “It didn’t work out. Because the illusion valley was in complete control, making it so that only the summoned creatures made by the witches would actually be able to kill either of us. Whenever we tried to attack each other, it simply didn’t do anything. So we were left fighting the creatures for days upon days, months upon months, and eventually, entire years began to pass in there.”

I raise both my brows at that.

Entire years just fighting alone with someone you hated? I think I can understand how they managed to get over their differences, if I’m being honest.

“It took us about three years to stop hating each other, and another two to realize we had fallen in love,” he continues, verifying my conclusion. “And after that, we had you, and the witches let us out.”

I blink at the abruptness of that.

“But why?” I can’t help but ask.

His eyes directly meet mine as he says, “Because that was their goal all along. To force us into realizing our feelings for each other, and to have a child.”

My jaw drops open.

That’s certainly one brutal way to matchmake.

“We, as you may have guessed, were not very happy with them,” the Blood Lord says with a dark chuckle. “But as it turned out, the entire illusion lasted for only a fifth of the time on the outside world as it did inside of the illusion. Although just like any time magic, it didn’t affect our level gain, no matter how unfortunate that was.”

Right. Time magic. I don’t like time magic.

“After that, they told us of the prophecy,” he continues, his eyes turning serious. “The goal of the prophecy to them is simple. To save the universe from the Class VI being who will be descending upon us from the void in an attempt to destroy it.”

“Holy shit…” I mutter out loud, my eyes going wide in shock. And I can’t help but glance over at Grandpa to see if he reacted at all to the mention of a Class VI, only to remember that he already knew about the prophecy. So I focus on my biological father again.

“They simply saw the breaking of the curses and the peace between the demons and humans as a means to that end. Something that had to happen for us to all work together against this threat,” he continues, sounding rather annoyed by that. “But you were absolutely necessary for it all. You, the daughter of one of the Knights of Humanity and a Royal Princess of the Demons. You, someone afflicted with the Demonic Instincts curse but who also has vestiges of null magic in her. And you, someone who, if raised a certain way according to the prophecy, could potentially reach Class VI in the distant future.”

Oh. Oh. Yeah, that does all make sense when he puts it like… wait, I could potentially reach Class VI?

“Of course that’s what you focus on,” Tar says, sounding exasperated as his voice rings in my head.

“So you are the only one who can end the curses for reasons I can’t speak of, you are the only one who can bring humans and demons together, and you will be the only one who may be able to bring an end to the threat to the universe,” the Blood Lord continues, his eyes never leaving my own as he speaks.

Several seconds pass in silence, the blood domain around us slowly shifting with droplets of blood moving in the air while likely protecting us from any would be eavesdroppers.

“I see,” Grandpa says, bringing both our attentions to him. “I knew all about the prophecy’s goal, but even I avoided trying to learn of any specifics that haven’t happened as of yet, since this is not a set in stone prophecy. And I understand that the wrong people knowing about it can lead to a shift in the prophecy.”

That’s a bit of a surprise.

“But still,” he continues, making both me and my biological father frown ever so slightly, “I will not be stopping my war on the humans until it is proven that Scarlet can indeed break the curses herself.”

When he sees Leonidas – which I believe was my biological father’s name and will be what I’ll call him now since constantly calling him biological father is getting awkward even in my own head – beginning to speak, he raises a hand and says, “However, I will not slaughter all of humanity even after I win. Not until we know whether or not Scarlet can indeed break the curses herself.”

“That’ll have to do,” Leonidas admits, and while I wish he would call off the war entirely, I know that’s stretching things a bit. Considering how much he’s put into this war, and how it could all go up in smoke if I can’t actually break the curses. Curses he seems to really want to break for the sake of both us and his own people.

Because I can tell just from looking at him that this is more about that than his revenge and hatred of humans. After all, he wouldn’t consider not killing them if he truly hated them to the bone.

It’s something, at least.

Grandpa brightens up after a few seconds before turning to me with a smile and saying, “Oh, that’s right! We still have a ball to go to!”

I let out a groan.

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Comments

Captain2003Rex

….Huh. So, last chapter I started writing a comment with some thoughts on where the prophecy thing might be going, but by the time I’d finished putting my thoughts in order and writing them, there was only a few minutes until this chapter would be posted. So I figured I’d wait until then to read this one and 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 post my predictions. And well, let’s just say that I’m a little surprised by how many of the same points we ended up hitting lol

Captain2003Rex

At a guess, the sheer power and magic of a Royal Blood Lycan combined with the Null magic of the White Knight of Humanity is what’s going to be needed to either defeat the Threat and/or break the curses. To be specific, I’m wondering if perhaps Scarlet might eventually gain or even craft a skill that combines her father’s Blood Runes with her mother’s Null magic to create something… 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡. Now call me crazy, but I figure that if 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔’s going to be able to break the curses without caving into the genocidal “become the very monster they accused you of being” demands of the crazy old coot who cast them in the first place, it’s probably going to be the combination Runic Blood/Null Magic of the sole living Human/Demon hybrid who just so happens to be directly descended from the single strongest beings in both species. Those two of course being her mother the White Knight and her grandfather the Demon King. Yeah I think that’ll probably do the trick lol. She’ll probably need to be at least Class V to pull that off tho. Speaking of which, I’ll be opening and taking bets now on whether or not Scarlet ends up being the one to nab the ten cores and ascending to Class VI rather than ol’ Grandpappy after all XD P.S. As for why all that needed her to be abandoned in an orphanage where one of her father’s own subordinates actively worked to make her life harder for her? Fuck if I know man, don’t look at me for that lmao

Braden Moody

Pretty good lore dump there! And the ball 🤣

FCSalem

She can never escape the ball lol, especially not after a prophecy.

Purified D2

Yo I was right about the void being what ends up as the “threat to the universe”. Always found it odd how an entirely different species that’s considered weak when someone reaches class 2 was just in the story without a proper role, seems like those weak void creatures were just the fodder of the species.

Purified D2

Wouldn’t be surprised if grandpappy happily gives Scarlet some class V cores

GetZ3rged

However, I will not slaughter all of humanity even after I win. Not until we know whether or not Scarlet can indeed break the curses herself.” I'm confused here wouldn't winning for him be defined as humanity going extinct and the curses lifted by that way.

WolfWrites

Do most people going to war with another nation go and kill off every last member of their nation down to the last citizen? No. They don't. All he has to do is kill Earth's Class Vs and he wins.

roflkong3

+ He is a doting Grandpa and would not easily disapoint His Granddaughter by Killing her adoptiv Family.....

Maliticus

Wolfshine, there is a disconnect between your statement and the character portrayal of the Demon king we have been given. During the info dump on why the Demon king is attacking Earth we found out that demons are cursed until every last pure blood human in the universe is killed. This implies that the curse might not be lifted even after every last human on Earth is dead. I mean this guy went and killed over 10 Billion humans, the vast majority of which had nothing to do with his wife's death, him being turned into a demon, and were probably conquered by him for the empire, over the actions of a single ruler. He's not merely waging war... this is a TOTAL war waged purely for selfish gain. Any attempts at humanizing the Demon king will fall short due to the weight of souls screaming for his head. He, and even Scarlet's father, have been portrayed as monstrous tyrants that will willingly sacrifice dozens of class V sentient demons, including a fellow blood lycan, just to retrieve Scarlet... I will reserve judgement until the end of this arc, but right now it's hard to see them as anything but enemies of both worlds.

Halfrose9

and then have an open industrial base to use and take over and expand

Peter Smith

My theory is that they are the opposite of the fas in the same way as in his other series. The fae are a complete reality race, no true physical form or anchor, id say that the void is a complete physical race no reality anchor. They probably have a system similar to the acrual system, which is why Tiamat/Titania created the original system. My theory is that in classic story fashion, they grow stronger on a regenerative level, and not a totality level. Tier II simply lets them reach the regeneration rate of a normal guardian, tier III would be even stronger maybe cubing in effect, and since its like that maybe its more of an overhealing affect. Thats of course ignoring the fact that entropy could be counted as part of their power from the little bit we've seen so far, which would mean that a person of high power with the freedom of humanity and the unaging strength of the demons powered by the energy of reality, would be the only one truly capable of defeating them. Thats of course ignoring the fact that shes got the etched skills of three class V beings, before even reaching class V and getting her own mythic skills.

Peter Smith

No, it would be more akin to serving superiority. They have lived in a society of violence, in which the strong are to be served or challenged, the young and weaker are given the strength to try to get stronger. It should also be noted that when the rifts break all living demons are returned to tartarus, meaning that if a class V demon is still alive after the rift they will have grown in significant power. The tier V rifts are both an attempt to break into the world and to strengthen the younger and weaker. You should avoid looking at it with a human mindset. The fodder demons grow like weeds, i would not be surprised if even the noble demons will have kids in the hundreds in the 100 someodd years they're alive. And they are functionally immortal due to genetics and powers of reality. Humans have to be more social and hold more rules and regulations due to how slowly we grow as well as how little the size of families are. I bet you that if we poped out kids in the tens every time a lady got pregnant we wouldn't be as focused on protecting each individual child. Oh we would protect them, but if you have 8 kids growing up together and you lose one. it'll hurt but not as much as if you lost your one and only child... And remember as well demons are cursed to be violent, they have to fight, for their pride, or their envy, or their wrath... Also it should be noted that of course leonidas and Grandpa wolf are willing to sacrifice other demons to bring her home safe. Shes leonidas' only kid, Grandpa wolf's only grandkid, his only granddaughter at that, and the only future of their family. In other words she would have definitely been spoiled rotten if she stayed with them... Which now that its spoken is also the reason why she couldn't be with them as a family. You cant be an independent badass wolf queen if you are a spoiled princess puppy. Also we need her to have an actual name for her race. I mean i get that shes half demon half human, but now that its proved that hybrids can be born (and im assuming that shes a true hybrid and not a partial one like the mule) that means that the system should have a name for her race as shes not really a blood lycan and not really human, and that human part of her means that technically she could have a kid with another demon race as well... Which means chimeras could become a thing... As such i decided that she is the first of the beastkin race. Not demonkin as that is way too overdone, and honestly too on the nose to be worth it. No beastkin because i bet you anything if her dna suddenly balances out, maybe through a passive effect from a skill (possibly corruption resistance (since technically her demon blood is corrupting her human blood)) the effect of her gaining power would balance out as well. And assuming we follow the tenuous line of blood, bloodlines, and growth through absorption, she possibly could gain access to the etched skills of others whom she absorbs the bloodlines of, and turn them into lesser skills. Imagine her gaining the etched corruption skill of an arachne, and it increases her power over her corrupting blood skills and an increased resistance to corruption, or maybe even access to arias shapeshifting skill from blue and become able to more easily control her shapeshifting. Now obviously it wouldnt really work if she doesnt have some kind of skill with the etched skill shes absorbing, but imagine the shenanigans she could get into if she got her hands on that kind of ability, and especially if its her first mythic skill earned by gaining access to three different etched skills, from three seperate individuals as well as the ability to resist corruption from external and internal sources...

Maliticus

So... monstrous tyrants and enemies of both worlds? The prophecy we have been given implies that Scarlet's twinblood status and the mutual threat of a class 6 being is going to somehow make up for everything the demons have done to Earth and allow the two factions in a total war to come together... The enemy of my enemy only works when both sides respect each other. We have been given nothing but evidence that both sides hate each other as a species with it taking a coven a seers YEARS to force just a single demon and human to work together. As you have said, the demons will probably do so because their entire society is centered around who's the strongest and they have no choice but to obey, but don't think for a second humans aren't going to use every opportunity to throw the demons under the bus during a conflict and won't immediately go back to attacking demons in revenge the moment the mutual threat is gone. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the humans tried to use the void against the demons. We already have that one guardian that has void powers from human experiments. I'm suspending disbelief until the end of the arc so I can see where this is going. Just feels like the concept of generational hatred is being severely underestimated at the moment. At this point, the only way I see humans working with demons is if the demons win the war and humanity is handed to Scarlet as a prize leaving them no choice and giving rise to a new tyrant.

Purified D2

The opposite to fae can be further proved because it almost seems like after Tiamat died is when things started to go downhill. It was stated that the demon king is stronger than the fae king but the void lord or whatever is stronger than the demon king so it would mean the fae being weaker, disrupt the balance and Tiamat could’ve been the one that was the equal to the tier VI void. Tiamat no longer being alive means that a third party (being demons/humans and Scarlet) need to help the fae by killing the tier VI and bring the balance back.

Bad Dog

The two are not really mutually exclusive. You can be a merciless monster to those you consider your enemies and still care about your family. I also like to point out that every single war leader has to be completely ruthless when it comes to sacrificing their own soldiers. Otherwise your only option is to surrender your authority to someone with the will to make the call. This goes all the way down the chain to even the squad Sargent that has to order some of his man into almost certain death in order to achieve the objective.