Demon King of Britannia
Dying hurts. Being reborn into royalty can be even more painful, especially a royal family constantly trying to one up the others. Add in an encounter with an Ancient King and a rebellion in the East and life can only get more interesting.
And we're back. Sorry for the long wait, but writer's block is pain in the ass. This chapter begins shortly after the events in Shinjuku and will get the story rolling properly. I'll cover any events that happened in the intervening years in flashbacks if it becomes necessary. Enjoy!
Chapter 4
When I woke up on the morning that things really got rolling, it was to find my face squashed between a pair of warm and very soft pillows. I blinked in confusion, unsure of exactly what was going on and lifted a hand, squeezing on of the pillows, causing a faint moan to come from above me.
"Ah, so thats whats going on," I muttered, looking up to see that Erica was laying next to me.
The gorgeous Italian Knight had apparently snuck into my room at some point in the night (Again) and was hugging my head to her naked chest. This wasn't the first time this had happened, in fact it was a regular occurrence. Erica had decided a few years ago that she loved me after seeing me go up against and defeat a Heretic God and since then had started to treat me a lot like she treated Godou in the series, made even worse by the fact we lived in the same house. Unfortunately, Liliana was also crushing on me, leading to some rather dangerous situations and more than a few destructive fights.
"Good morning my love," said Erica, hugging my head back between her breasts, "Did you sleep well?"
"MURPHUL!"
At that moment, the door opened and Liliana walked in.
"Lord Eren, your sister wants to...WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!?"
She dropped her tablet and covered her eyes with her hands, her face turning bright red.
"Oh Lily, what are you so embarassed for?" asked Erica, looking at her fellow Knight.
"Have you no shame Erica?" demanded Liliana, "Doing such things with our lord is improper!"
"Oh really?" asked Erica, smiling ferily as she leant forwards, "Then what about what I read in that notebook I found in your dresser?"
"N-no, y-you didn't!" stuttered Liliana, backing away slightly with a bright blush on her cheeks.
"Seems to me that you don't exactly have the purest intentions to our Master, now does it?" asked Erica, grabbing me around the waist and dragging me back into her embrace as I tried to make my escape.
"N-n-n-no, t-thats not true," stuttered Liliana, backing away, "I-I don't…"
"Lily, go and tell Euphie I'll be with her shortly," I said, snapping Liliana out of her trance before she could pass out from embarrassment.
"Y-yes my lord," said the silver haired Knight, before turning and running from the room, steam almost coming out of her head from embarrassment.
"That was mean Erica," I said, getting out of bed and heading into my bathroom.
"She needs to loosen up a bit," said the blond Knight, sliding out from under the covers and grabbing her underwear, "Besides, winding her up is fun."
I just rolled my eyes as I performed my morning rituals, hearing the door open and shut as Erica returned to her room to get ready for the day.
In short order, I was making my way down to the dining room with a now serious Erica and a still lightly blushing Liliana flanking me, both ladys wearing the Royal Guards uniform in black and gold, my personal colours. I entered the room where a now older Euphie was sat eating breakfast. I greeted my sister, before taking my seat and digging in. About halfway through the meal, Jeeves the butler entered the room with a sad look on his face.
"Pardon me for interrupting you, sir, madam, but I'm afraid that I am the bearer of bad news," he said, "We just received word that, during a routine urben renewal in the Shinjuku slums in Area 11, your brother, Prince Clovis la Britannia was killed in a terrorist attack."
Euphie gasped and covered her mouth as tears swam in her eyes while I narrowed my eyes.
"I see, so Lelouch is making his move," I thought, "Guess we'll be shipped of to Japan pretty soon."
"I have also received word from your sister, lady Cornelia," said Jeeves, "Once she has finished taking Area 18 she will be heading to Area 11 to help clean it out and stabilize the regen. She wishes for the two of you to join her their."
I glanced at Euphie who was wiping her eyes.
"Tell Cornelia that we'll be there," I said, "But I have no intention of leaving school yet, so enroll me in one of the schools in the Tokyo settlement under a pseudonym."
"Of course my Prince," said Jeeves, "And will your Knights be joining you?"
I glanced at the two girls who nodded.
"Yes."
"Then I shall see to it immediately," said the butler, bowing.
I nodded and shuffled my chair around next to Euphie and hugged her, waving a hand to dismiss the servants and guards in the room. Euphie hugged me back, crying into my shirt.
"Why, why do our siblings keep being killed?" she sobbed, "First Lelouch and Nunnally and now Clovis."
My heart clenched at that and for a moment I was tempted to tell her that Lelouch and Nunnally were alive, but I quickly squashed that impulse. It would give rise to some awkward questions I wasnt ready to answer. Instead, I contented myself with comforted my younger sister and giving her a shoulder to cry on.
An hour later I returned to my room to find a small, silver haired girl curled up on on my bed.
"What are you doing here Athena?" I asked, shutting the door to my room.
The Heretic God lifted her head and fixed me with her apathetic purple gaze. Athena was the God I had defeated a few years ago after the Gorgonian had made it into my hands, drawing the Sliver Haired Goddess to Pendragon and resulted in a battle that flattened half of the city, an even attributed to an earthquake after some hasty coverups from the local Mage's Association, the Clave. I defeated the Goddess after making use of my experimental Magical Knightmare frame to crush her Serpent servants and my Excalibur to cut away her power over Darkness, vastly weakening her. Once I had taken her down, I refused to kill her on the grounds of feeling sorry for her and not seeing the point in slaying her. After that she kept showing up at random times, claiming that she was keeping an eye on me.
"I'm keeping an eye on you," said the Goddess.
"So you've said," I said, dropping into the swivel chair in front of my desk, "But what I want to know is why? What makes me different that you'd keep an eye on me?"
Athena eyed me for a moment before replying.
"Two reasons," she said, "The first is that you had a chance to kill me, but instead let me go. Not one of the Devil Kings I have ever encountered in the past would have done such a thing. The second is that you are an Outsider and your very presence will cause the course of history to change. I wish to witness the events to come."
I narrowed my eyes at the Goddess.
"What do you mean 'Outsider'?"
Athena smiled a smile that said that she knew much more than I did.
"Oh, you'll find out in time," she said, "For now, I look forwards to seeing what you can do."
With that, she vanished. I groaned and rubbed my temples, trying to lessen the headache Athenas visits always seemed to leave me with, before turning to my desk and opening my computer, bringing up the blueprints for the new Knightmare Frame I had been working on for the past 6 years, constantly redesigning, adding to and removing pieces until it reached its current incarnation and was pretty much as good as it could be.
The Seraphim resembled the Lancerlot in that it was much slimmer than the bulky Sutherland's that were currently in use. Its armour was light so as to allow for the fastest movement and agility to compliment my fighting style. It had six slash Harkens, located in its wrists, ankles and hips, in addition to elbow, wrist and knee blades that can be deployed at will. However, its main weapon was its MSV sword, the designs for which I had 'ahem' acquired from Camalots servers and fine tuned to the point of being even more deadly than Lloyd could have possibly imagined. Combine that with experimental Magical tech from the Claves research divisions and you have a powerful weapon that can channel magic and even Authorities, although that particular piece of equipment was still in development since magic and technology have a bad habit of exploding if mixed. On the other hand, Sakuradite acted as an incredibly powerful Arcane amplifier. The stuff was basically crystallized magical energy, which is why most of the deposits were found in places of cultural or religious importance.
A single piece the size of a little fingernail had the capability to amplify magic by a factor of 10 and the Yggdrasil Drive could actually be powered of a mage's magic for twice as long as the average energy filler could manage. Of course, this also drained the pilot, meaning that they had to keep an eye on their energy levels or they risk passing out or even dying from Magical Exhaustion. Sadly, most of the above was still just theory and the researchers had yet to figure out a way to actually bring them to fruition. The current Magical Drives weren't very efficient and could completely drain the average mage within 15 minutes of activation. Still, using a combination of Campione authority, fear of pissing me off and a lot of money being thrown their way meant that they were hard at work to perfect it.
I shut my computer with a sigh and leant back in my chair. Their was truly nothing I could do to improve the designs any more and the only thing left to do was build it. Unfortunately, I had no intention of giving Britannia my designs, not when I plan to use it to fight against the Empire. Fortunately, the Mages Associations located in the Homeland are more loyal to me than the Emperor, so I sent them the plans with orders to get it built and delivered to a warehouse I had acquired in the Shinjuku Ghetto for this very purpose. That done, I slumped back in my chair and closed my eyes.
"I hate flying," I muttered, shifting uncomfortably in my leather seat and eyeing the clouds that past the window with trepidation.
We were on our way to Area 11 by way of our private plane, something I wasn't best pleased with. I had always hated flying because I was never comfortable with the idea of being stuck in a metal tube thousands of feet above the earth, not to mention all of the bullshit at both ends (Although I wouldn't have to go through that since I was in a private plane). It doesn't really help that I hate heights with a passion. Kinda strange that I can face down a being powerful enough to kill me with a touch but a bit of turbulence makes me stiffen every time.
"So you say whenever we go somewhere," said Euphie, not looking up from her book, "There's nothing to worry about. The plane is perfectly safe."
I scowled as I tightened my grip on my seats arms as we hit a bit of turbulence. I really despised flying. Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind and a pair of soft orbs pressed against the back of my head.
"I can distract you if you like," purred Erica.
I sighed as Liliana gave a squark of protest from her place across the plane. I opened my mouth to respond to my amorous Knight, but before I could the cabin once more rocked and was momentarily lit by a flash from outside, followed by a deep rumble of thunder. I stiffened, eyes widening as my breathing sped up. My hands gripped the arms of my chair hard enough to leave imprints on the leather and make it creak in protest. Ever since I had been reincarnated into this world, I have suffered from Astraphobia, the fear of thunder and lightning, perfectly understandably when you consider how I died, and not even becoming a Campione had cured me of it. I was well aware that it was irrational, but that's exactly what phobias are, irrational.
Erica noticed my change of demeanor and changed her grip from flirty to comforting. Both of my Knights had been with me long enough to know that storms and I don't mix and, if left to my own devices, my magic sometimes gets out of control and damages the area around me. Fortunately I react well to reassurance and can usually be kept calm fairly easerly. I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of Ericas heartbeat to keep calm, although I still stiffened whenever I heard the sound of thunder or saw the flash of lightning through my eyelids. I felt someone take my hands and cracked my eyes open, seeing Liliana and Euphie. I gave a weak smile, only to flinch and close my eyes again as lightning flashed outside. I really hate flying.
"You know, I don't think anyone would believe us if we told them we had to comfort a Campione during a thunderstorm," said Erica as we disembarked from the plane at Area 11's airport.
I scowled at the blond Knight.
"Not nice Erica," I grumbled.
"Are you OK my lord?" asked Liliana after shooting a glare at her comrade.
I sighed.
"Yes, I'm fine," I said, "By the way, do you know if the packages have been delivered?"
Liliana became serious.
"I believe so," she said.
"Good, in that case, send my regards to the Clave and let them know I may have more work for them in the future," I said.
"Yes sir."
"Eren!"
I turned to see Euphie approaching with a uniformed driver.
"We're all packed up," she said, "Are you coming?"
"Right behind you."
We arrived at the Viceroy palace in good time thanks to a Knightmare escort and were immediately greeted by the Pureblood faction with Jeremiah Gottwald at the head.
"Greetings my Lord, my Lady," said the blue haired man, bowing, "Welcome to Area 11. I trust you had a pleasant flight?"
"Yes, thank you Lord Gottwald," said Euphie politely.
"We have prepared your rooms for you," continued the Margrave, "I am also pleased to inform you that we have made great progress in locating the one responsible for Viceroy Clovis' death."
I glanced over at Euphie as her face fell at the reminder of our brothers demise.
"Thank you Margrave, but for now I think we just want to rest from our journey," I said, "Could you have our things taken to our rooms?"
"Of course," said Jeremiah, waving to a servant, "Miss Smith here will show you the way."
The servant bowed and beckoned for us to follow her.
In short order, we had been shown to our rooms and Euphie had turned in, leaving Erica, Liliana and I alone in my room.
"Alright, now that we're in Japan and in private, I can give you these," I said, handing both Knights packages.
The ladies opened them to reveal a pair of matching masks, designed to look like a Knight's visor. Erica's was red while Liliana's was blue and both were made of the same stuff as they used to build Knightmares.
"What are these for?" asked Liliana.
"You'll see," I said, "Its for the same reason I told you not to wear your Knight uniforms outside of the Magical World. In the meantime, lets see if they made mine to my specifications."
I turned to the package that was resting on my bed and opened it, revealing a long, black coat with a high colour and red lining, made of what appeared to be kevlar, a pair of black gloves with metal claws on the fingertips and a black helmet with a white mask and spikes that resembled a crown.
"Ooo, they've outdone themselves," I muttered, picking up the coat and examining it.
"My lord, what is that for?" asked Liliana, eyeing the outfit.
Instead of answering, I flipped the TV onto the News where the reporter was talking about how the Purebloods had captured the one responsible for Clovis' death and were now transferring him to his court martial. It appeared that I was right on time as the procession came to a stop as the car masquerading as Clovis' overly opulent car appeared and Zero revealed himself.
"Thats what the masks are for," I said, "I am going to help Zero take down Britannia."
"May I ask why my Lord?" asked Liliana.
"I want to make a world where there is no more pointless fighting," I said, "The mandate of Britannia is 'The Strong rule while the weak are crushed'. In a world like that, there's no way that a person like Euphie could ever find happiness."
"Thats not a very Campione-like thing to say Eren," said Erica.
"Oh, I'm also doing it for the challenge," I said, flashing her a wicked grin, before sobering, "And theres another reason. I won't say how I know this, but if I don't get involved then far to many tragedies will occur that I have no wish to see happen. To that end, I will pledge all of the forces under my command to aid Zero and maybe even convince Doni to help out. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to take a few swings at the monster that is Britannia."
I turned to face my Knights and fixed them both with a serious gaze.
"This will be an extremely dangerous undertaking," I said, "While I could order you to support me, I have no right to force you into this battle. If you don't want you fight, say the word and I won't get you involved."
Erica and Liliana glanced at each other, before dropping on one knee.
"We pledged to serve you in all things my King," said Erica, "This is no different."
"You are our Lord and we would be poor Knights if we abandoned you for any reason," said Liliana.
"We will remain at your side, no matter what," said the two girls in unison.
I smiled.
"I knew I could count on you," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a two Knightmare keys, "Now stand up."
The two girls did so and caught the keys I tossed at them.
"Those are yours. They're stored with my own in Shinjuku, ready for use. Now get some rest. We've got a big day tomorrow."
The two Knights nodded and left the room, leaving me to get ready for bed in piece.
And there we have it, finally. Erens new outfit looks like Izanagi from Persona 4, only without the bladed shoes and sword since he uses Excalibur instead. Next time, first day at school, Eren scares the crap out of Lelouch and Eren takes the first steps towards avoiding some of the tragedies that are to come.
With regards to Erens fear of lightning, I personally think its well founded considering how he died. While some might consider it to be an odd weakness for a Campione who is practically a force of nature himself, its a phobia and, by definition, phobias are irrational, meaning theres very little he can do about it. That said, while in combat, Erens battlelust can push the fear aside if his opponent can toss around lightning bolts.
With that out of the way, please leave me a review!