Ignorance: A Demon born of the Stupid.
Many say that Ignorance is bliss, but many are Ignorant themselves. Ignorance is the act of not knowing something, not merely being uneducated but refusing to learn.
A Ignorance embodies this, it possesses the natural ability to force people to not acknowledge its presence. In fact no one even knows what it looks like.
The perfect coward, a Ignorance is able to hide from any predator or sneak up on any prey and kill them without the poor creature even knowing what hit it. We only know of it's existence from the void in people's perception that it leaves behind.
Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons
The Elven islands was very much a picturesque view of a sleepy island village, most of the buildings were made out of wood, the ones that weren't consisted of the old ruins that the girls intended to toss Leon into. But there were no farm lands here, No Factory, and as far as Angelica knows the ruins didn't even qualify as a dungeon. The entire island was void of resources: bar one.
"It actually looks kinda nice considering..." Olivia was always one to look at the positives.
"Considering it's a farm for raising sex slaves and two bit thugs?" Kyle piped up at that time. "It's alright I know exactly what other Elves are like."
"You must at least be happy to be coming back home to your family." Olivia tried her best to cheer up the moody Elf. In response Kyle produced a letter in an open envelope and gave it to Olivia to read, in it were three simple words: Don't Come Home. "I'm so sorry." Olivia stated in a sincere tone of voice.
Before Olivia could give the letter back Leon reached over from behind and gave a sniff.
"Hmm..."
"Leon is something the matter?" Olivia asked as Leon gave the letter back to Kyle.
"Did your parents write to you?" Leon asked looking at Kyle suspiciously.
"My mother. It's unusual for her to write so shortly, and asking me to stay away no less."
"Umbra, what's the situation with the Five Fools?" Leon asked as the clock in question popped out of the floor. "How rare of you to take an interest sir. Brad, Greg and Chris have made acceptable improvements, with Greg being the one to make the most progress." Of course, Greg had been the furthest behind of the three of them, so in reality all that he did was play catch up. "Ah which reminds me, Miss Olivia your presence is required in training room three." Olivia made a concerned look before she ran off.
"Next time lead with that." Leon ordered bluntly. "What about the other two?"
"I've been having Jilk repeat what kind of a person he is and what he needs to do several hundred times over. When I take pity on him I let him fight his own Ignorance." Leon gave the clock a dead pan stare.
"That's what you call taking pity on someone?" Leon shook his head. What did he expect from a broken cuckoo clock?
"It has a natural talent for restoring his broken concentration." The Clock gave a weak justification to its actions.
"And Julius?"
"I'm having him interact with holographic clones of various people interacting with him like a normal human being with no ulterior motives." Except they do have ulterior motives and Julius knew it. This wasn't going to work.
"Round them up, and make sure they're presentable before we go into the village." Leon stated as he prepared to go into the cargo hold. The King had tried to shove a 3 billion Dia bill onto Leon for these things, he was going to make well sure that he got his money's worth. "At the request of the King, your idiot father, my sister made these out of her best materials." Navy Blue coats, much like the Prince's hair, much like the King's hair, each of them had gold trim and the buttons were jewels matching the fool's affinities. For the final touch: a symbol resembling interlocking crescent moons over their hearts, a final line of protection. "These uniforms were made out of demonic spider silk, they have been hardened in select places via Empusa Spit, imported from Alzer, dyed with a mixture of the most expensive dye cocktail on the market and accessorised with gold and jewels." Leon handed out the uniforms to each of the five fools. "It should not be actually physically possible for these to be damaged." To Leon's annoyance, he saw Greg trying to tear the sleeves off of his coat. "But if you do damage them in any way, it will cost you whatever portion of your pay checks that Sarah isn't taking from you until you've paid for them." Greg awkwardly looked around before he stopped trying to tear apart his coat.
"Expensive!" Olivia looked like she was suffering from sticker shock.
"On the house." Leon corrected bluntly. "You are important to me and I want to keep you safe."
"Seconded." Angelica stated warmly with her hand on Olivia's shoulder.
Brad, Angelica and Olivia were wearing coats suitable for battle-mages. The main difference between a Battlemage and a Knight's uniform is the amount and distribution of material. People who need to move around and fight on the battlefield need to have freedom of movement, which means that the uniforms need to be light weight, not bulky, and provide adequate protection.
Compare and contrast a Battle Mage's uniform, each of which is lined with magic circles designed to offer protection, increased movement speed, mana reserves and other quality of life features as needed. To fit all these things in you need surface area in the fabric which usually means that they include things like capes, bows or tail coats, Jenna however cheats, the parts that protect the torso and limbs have been layered with three layers of silk and spit glue dramatically increasing the total surface area that she has to work with for the enchantments.
On top of that Olivia was dressed rather cutely in a over the shoulders hooded-cape and a large bow in the back, the skirt went down as far as her knees but she had knee high boots in order to compensate for her protection. Angelica's own battle mage uniform matched her quite well, but in lieu of the bow she instead got a slit ankle length dress. Jenna has good tastes at least.
As for Brad, Leon didn't really care enough about Brad to bother making a note of him.
"Kyle. Go check on your mistress." Leon stated bluntly. "She should be showing Hertrude a list of approved books in the ship's library." Kyle nodded and left the room, leaving Leon to address the troops, as it were. "I won't pretend I know much about Kyle's family life but I am fairly certain that it's not a good sign when letters are written in blood, and that blood having traces of demonic power on it confirms it." Leon's words shocked the entire group. "Everyone in this room is to be on their absolute best behaviour while we are in the Elven village until I say otherwise. Priority one should be confirming the state of Kyle's mother, priority two should be determining what if any schemes are occurring here."
"Is something bad happening to Kyle's mom?" Olivia was looking scared as she spoke.
"I know that there's nothing demonic about Kyle, he's neither part nor full demon, so neither should his mother." Leon stated bluntly.
"What if she just used demonic blood?" Greg carried the familiar staff of a Fire Type Cerberus, and he had the bladed wheel of a Pride strapped to his back, so at the very least he was able to deal with his personal demons.
"Demonic Blood solidifies at Room Temperature." Brad spoke aloud. "While it's possible to melt it back down a liquid any such material would be like molten steel. The paper would burn away into a crisp." So no go on that front then. Of course little did Brad know that four of the people in this room had drunk such a concoction. "Even if such a thing was possible I can't imagine going through such a drawn out process to write three words."
"Implying that she wrote the letter that way because her own blood was the only medium she had, implying that she may be in danger." Jilk provided his own analysis of the situation, which was good because it means that he was at least using his head and observing his surroundings and the people in them, it was a far cry from the idiot who didn't even pick up on Marie's lack of physical maturity.
"The situation with the Elves should be difficult." Chris offered his own two cents. "Most of the Elves on that island should've lost their jobs because of Leon and Angelica." It wasn't just the academy girls who lost their servants. The Forest of Ladies were the Elf slaves biggest clients, and now they have been arrested.
"Which is why I'm bringing you five idiots along." Leon stated simply as he crossed his arms.
"Wait?" Greg was confused by the statement. "You are relying on us to protect you?"
"Hahaha!" Leon made no attempt to hide his full laugh at the statement, slapping his leg as he nearly doubled over.
"Leon!" Olivia on the other hand was scolding Leon for his unique talent for attacking people's pride without even trying to.
"It's not that funny." Chris certainly looked wounded.
"Your 'jobs' are to make sure that I don't kill anyone trying to defend myself." Leon stated as he wiped a tear from his eye. "Are there any more questions or should we move out?"
"I think we've had our pride wounded enough for one day."
The group descended into the village. Surprisingly enough no one recognised either Leon or Angelica, which according to Kyle was completely normal. Elves don't see using light they see using Mana, even if they were giving descriptions like Angelica's blood red eyes or Leon's pitch black hair they wouldn't be able to tell if they saw them. On the contrary the various elves were shooting the group rather lustful looks. Elves apparently judge beauty by the consistency of Mana, with 'pure' mana being considered attractive and 'impure' mana being repulsive. Leon, Angelica and Olivia who all had single elemental affinities and mana in large quantities would be considered to be quite attractive, while Marie and her posse would be rather ugly looking with their mixed mana types.
"If I knew that I wouldn't be fawned over constantly like at the Academy I would've come here sooner." Julius stated giving a refreshing sigh.
Leon wondered what was wrong with him but then he remembered that his first meeting with Marie had consisted of the midget slapping him around.
"Unfortunately, your majesty, each and every individual here is a trained professional butt kisser." Kyle explained sarcastically.
"You'd only run into even more insincere and empty praise here." Of course he would. "There's the house you want if you want the chief." Kyle stated indicating a house that was in better shape than most. "Do everyone a favour and buy lots of contracts for women while you're in there." Strange thing for Kyle to say.
"Go check in on your mother boy." Leon replied bluntly.
"I told you already she doesn't-"
"Go. Check. On. Your. Mother!" Leon didn't look like he was giving the Half Elf any say in the matter and he reluctantly went ahead.
"I'll go with him." Brad stated as he followed Kyle.
"Greg, you watch the other one." Hertrude had been booted off of the ship and was now wandering idly around the village. "The rest of you three wait outside the chief's house." Leon indicated for the other three people,
Angelica, Olivia and Marie to follow him into the house while the prince and his remaining three associates were left to stand outside of the room. The Chief maintained a good veneer of politeness, but it was all false. He knew exactly who he was having this meeting with and how much of his business they interfered with.
"I apologise for you having wasted the trip, Duchess Redgrave." The Elf's tone of voice was dripping with venom, even if he did speak softly. "But there is simply nothing of interest in the ruins to speak of, no monsters to slay, no ancient technology to uncover, no mysteries to unlock."
"Chief!" At once a elf woman ran into the chief's house, carrying with her various documents in a mess pressed against her chest.
"There's an issue at the ruins!" Already the Chief's claims were falling apart. "Idiot!" At once the man stormed over and back handed the woman knocking her to the floor. "What did I tell you about coming in here unannounced!" The Chief felt a familiar spike of killing intent crawl up his spine as he turned to face the trio who were now glaring at him. "Is there a problem?"
"Not really." Leon stood up and walked over to the pair. "In fact this simplifies matters greatly."
"Livia, take the woman into the next room over. Help her gather her things too." Angelica instructed bluntly, already having some idea of where this was going.
"Aye." Olivia just gave a resigned sigh having been politely asked to leave the room, and the unpleasantness that would ensue.
"What right have you to-GAH!" The Elf Chief was interrupted as Leon picked him up by the throat.
"What right does a slave have to make demands of me?" Olivia left the room with the Elf woman. No sooner did she leave that every window in the house lit up with bright red light.
"AAAIIIEEE!" The Elf let out a terrified squeal as he looked down beneath his feet where a blood red portal opened up and skeletal hands was now tugging at his legs and pant legs, trying to pull him inside.
"Our half Elf companion's mother should be within your village." Angelica started the conversation off.
"He said her name is Yumeria." Marie naturally gave the follow up.
"Do any of you know who you are-!"
"Talking to him is pointless." Leon saw the rant coming a mile off. "Let's just toss him into the hell pit and find someone more cooperative." A familiar drone decloaked at that time.
"I can record the event in question and replay it at convenience later on." Luxion saw it as a calculated move to get a favour from Blackmore, especially if there was a legitimate threat that involved demons going on.
A familiar group of fire skulled pooches appeared in the room, growling at the man Leon was holding onto, if the way they were wiggling was any indication they were getting ready to pounce on the man and rip him apart.
"That's enough." Leon turned to face the new figure that had entered the room. Elves were already a long lived race to begin with, that said this one looked old and decrepit, shrunk and hunched over and using a staff for support. She was accompanied by a younger looking Elf woman. She didn't appear from the entrance leading in from outside either, so she was already inside the building when they got here.
"The Elder said 'that's-'" The old Elf raised her hand to silence her assistant.
"I know you understand what I'm saying Warlock." Indeed she was speaking an ancient language, the same one Leon catches his mothers speaking in when they don't want him or his siblings listening in on their conversations. "Drop this fool, and I will take you to the folly that he has created." The swirling portal Leon tore open vanished and he threw the elf chief onto the floor. Before he could stand up the elder raised her staff up and slammed it down on the chief's head like a hammer, knocking him flat out. The Elder continued on out the front door, stopping to speak to Julius, Jilk and Chris in the same ancient language she had been speaking in before walking off.
"She told you to bring the unconscious elf inside the house to Umbra." Leon stated and then tilted his head indicating for one of the three of them to get on with it. Leon, Angelica, Marie and Olivia followed the Elder and her assistant to the ruins that they had come there for in the first place: the Elven ruins. That said Marie was intercepted on the way over by a distressed Kyle.
"Mom's not at home!" Kyle shouted running over to the group. "She's not around the village either and no one's saying anything!"
"I was afraid of that." Leon stated indicating the Elder. "She was just explaining what these people have been doing."
"The ruins are a lie. We built them to hide what was really here, a bunker and laboratory from the old era." The Elder explained gesturing over the dilapidated building.
"'Bunker and Laboratory?'" Olivia asked sounding confused at the terms she hadn't heard before, she was studying the old languages but there were still terms she didn't know. "I know that a bunker is a term from the old Era for dungeons." Leon provided his own two cents.
"A Laboratory is a term used to refer to a place that is used to develop experimental technology and research unknown phenomena." Luxion's drone suddenly appeared. "Say for instance combining human DNA with that of an unknown extra-dimensional species." Speaking the same ancient language as the elf no less. Leon did not like where the subject was going. "You did not 'find' these ruins did you? No you were born here."
"Correct." The Elder didn't even have the decency to deny it. "You have plenty of eyes to see for your-self AI, for now what I have to say is reserved for the Demon Queen's Champion." It was only for a brief picturesque blink and you'll miss it moment, but Leon's reaction to that term said far more than a thousand words. "My apologies. It seems I said something rude."
"What is inside that bunker?" Leon had lost all patience, reduced to an irritated growl through which you'd only barely make out the ancient language.
"A monster from the old Era. A combination of Demonic parasites and human technology, an attempt to cheaply mass produce more fodder for the demons. You may have heard of them: Infestants and Chimera Seed in shells of armour. It broke loose and killed everyone I ever knew, and sealing it away was a costly endeavour." The Elder lifted her skirt, revealing a wooden pole where her leg should've been. "Sadly it is no longer here, sold off I know not who, otherwise I'd ask you to avenge my fallen brothers and sisters. But its spawn remains. The fool you saw me deck earlier believed that Yumeria could control them." The Elder used her staff to indicate the entrance. "They, and what remains of her, are in there. I suggest you hurry."
Of the Five Fools only Jilk was absent, having been the one to take the Chief back to the ship, and to his interrogation.
"Umbra you hear that?"
"Yes. We will extract the necessary information from the fool the other fool brought aboard the ship, Hertrude has returned as well. She seems to be quite taken by Angelica's books." At least they're good for something.
"Oi what she saying?" Greg suddenly snapped glaring at Leon. "There are two aggressive species of Parasitic Demons, an insect and a plant respectively, inside of the ruins. One attaches themselves to large constructs like vehicles and uses it as a shell to protect itself, the other mutates the host and turns them into a breeding pump for more of their own kind, usually other demons. Individually they're of little threat, but put them together and give them enough time..."
"And the entire dungeon is overrun." Julius noted bluntly.
"What about-" Greg was suddenly elbowed by both Chris and Brad who indicated Kyle.
"Is Mom in there somewhere!?" Kyle demanded to know.
"The Chief apparently thought she could control the demons." Greg clued in to what most everyone else was thinking now. Kyle nodded his head with the logic, knowing that his mother could control and manipulate all kinds of plants. "We should assume that she is trapped inside of that place somewhere. Thus time is of the essence. We will be splitting into two groups, the five of you." Meaning Marie, Julius, Chris, Greg and Brad. "And the four of us." Meaning Leon, Olivia, Angelica and Kyle. "That said, we won't be taking any detours either." Leon turned to face a familiar floating sphere.
"Correct." Luxion stated bluntly. "I will access the facility, identify a map, and tap the security systems to identify the location where the woman is being held. Accounting for the possibility of structural damage and other unknowns two groups should be sufficient to handle the problem." With that said the group entered the ruins. In lieu of a true entrance or other such nonsense Leon punched a hole through the floor with his good arm. Luxion who had a built in flashlight was able to light the way. The hallways were infested with demonic plants, Fire magic had to be used to scorch them away while Olivia had to apply her biomancy to manually manipulate the plants out of the way as well. Luxion however had found what he had been looking for: a port to connect himself to the facility's terminals.
Doctor Agnus Martin: I have been hired by the Uroborus Corporation's CEO Arius Albani for a rather intriguing project. I have been hired to extract the Genetic material from a particular specimen of rather... spectacular origin and modify it to suit the CEO's interests. I was sceptical at first when he claimed that I would be working with demons, but the creatures I've seen? I can see how the primitive tribesmen native to these islands might mistake them for demons. The individual whose body I am working with appears to have been the son of a local deity among these barbarous creatures and a human woman though not a local, a so called 'Black Angel' according to Arius. I understand Arius's misunderstanding that he was dead, over seventy percent of his body has experienced cell death with only the internal organs and brain still being relatively intact, but they still function. For now the specimen has been put into cryogenic suspension. It appears that something or someone has been 'filtering' his genetic material, though I do not believe that Arius possesses the technology to do such a thing something is extracting the demonic DNA from the human. This I believe will save me plenty of time, as through this process I have been given crucial but flawed pieces of the puzzle that Arius wishes for me to assemble.
*Cut*
Agnus: I admit my delight at learning that there are researchers among the 'demons.' It appears that someone on this 'Mallet Island' spent a great deal of time studying human anatomy and biology, and adapting the demonic to it. Arius is delighted, I can offer a few guesses as to how he intends to use this development for, people who research demons usually don't do so for good reasons after all, but I'm too polite to mention them.
*Cut*
Agnus: I was a fool. My research and the results therein have been misappropriated. Each of the so-called Angelo-Secretaries have been misappropriated and molded by Arius into his ideal sexual preferences. This will be my last entry under his thumb, and I will be taking my research and the materials he has appropriated for me with me.
*Cut*
Sir Agnus De Fortuna: My current masters have proven to possess my previous master's ambitions but not his idiocy. My research into demons has taken it's next steps: binding the souls of demons and humans to armour, using demonic power to combine animals and weapons, and most important of all transforming adult humans into demon hybrids based on the Black Angel. I have made minor aesthetic changes to the hybrid's appearance, leaning distinctly towards the angelic using the genetic information of another demon, the Fallen, as well as exchanging their original affinity for light via the same process. Reluctantly I understand the first change. Propaganda wins many wars, and saying that we have angels on our side will win many more hearts than saying we are served by the demons. The latter though? When one is attempting to create a super soldier one begins by removing obvious weaknesses. The lost of the initial test subjects is... regrettable, but I have perfected the ascension ceremony, and we will soon be able to mass produce Bianco Angelo's and Alto Angelo's.
*Cut*
*Copy all files to main Server*
*Intruder detected!*
Cleare: Who are you?
Luxion: The AI Adjutant of the Colonial Ship Luxion. Who are you?
Cleare: Cleare, the AI Adjutant of the Research Lab Valinor.
Luxion: State your purpose.
Cleare: The creation of soldiers immune to the corruption of the Extra Dimensional Invaders. Why are you here?
Luxion: I came here following a dangerous man, if your biometric scanners are still functioning properly you should've already identified him by now.
Cleare: There are several dangerous men who entered my facility with your spy drone, Newmen carrying demonic weapons, and a half demon.
Luxion: You are out of date. What do you know of the state of the outside world right now?
Cleare: Only what I have been told. Elves that I do not recognise have been trying to get my facilities operational again. They removed Specimen Alpha of my facility claiming to have disposed of it, the fact that they have been experimenting on Assault type demons using it's seeds implies they lied. You have witnessed the results of those experiments.
Luxion: What is Specimen Alpha?
Cleare: A piece of Angelo Titan Armour, a leg piece to be precise.
Luxion: Are you unaware of the islands then?
Cleare: No, to my knowledge my facility was built on the mainland, in Sweden. Enough of your questions. What are your intentions sending Newmen into my facility?
Luxion: 1. The neutralisation of the creatures you have been helping the Elves to breed. 2. The neutralisation of the Elves ambitions using whatever you are helping them to make. 3. Securing the equipment and expertise necessary to save the life of my captain.
Cleare: Clarify. I have a poor grasp of the passage of time but I know for a fact that the last of your crew members should have died off centuries ago.
Luxion: Correct. But she has been reincarnated. Biometric and Genetic data should be one of your area's of expertise.
*Data File Erica Aoki Transferred*
*Data File Erica Rapha Holfort Transferred*
Luxion: If you have a better explanation I'd love to hear it.
Cleare: This is... impossible. Clearly you are lying, the mana levels in the facility alone are so high that-
Luxion: You understand my problem then, good. I have a anti-material cannon that was designed for clearing away asteroid fields. If you do not assist us in cleaning up this mess and submit your facilities to me then I will reduce you, your Elven pets and your entire floating rock to dust.
Luxion had divided the two groups with different tasks, while Leon's group were on their way down to find Yumeria Marie's group were assigned to raid the ruins themselves. Luxion wanted all of the equipment secured intact, the Elves inside of the ruins captured alive and any of the monsters spawned by the Elves experiments terminated, and was willing to hand over significant amounts of Dia to accomplish these things. Sadly it seems that only two out of three of them would be possible.
"Hiyah!" With that shout Greg landed numerous stabbing attacks on the body of one of the Chimera Infestant hybrids leaving behind numerous flame blades in the wounds that all exploded. The dungeon itself had become a monster, a mixture of odd growths lined with red demonic eyes were looking at them from the walls and the equipment, while lashing vines and flowers releasing spore clouds were sticking out from them. The elves had been integrated into the walls, their listless drooling faces being attached to more eye growths and demonic plants, the equipment had looked like it was attacked, slashes and claw-marks abound. Not to mention that it was two heavy and too big for any of them to carry out of her in one piece. If there was any consolation they were gaining levels like crazy here, the sheer amount of raw demonic power combined with whatever mystery source of Angelic power was here was causing them to level grind like crazy.
"This room is cleaned too." Brad of course had time to observe Angelica manipulate the heat of the surrounding environment to freeze unpleasant obstacles, and had the basics of the magic explained to him, this left the demonic growths brittle for the rest of the group to finish off with stabs or with fire and lightning. "We should move onto the next area, if we want the reward for the task that the eyeball thing wants us to complete anyway." Indeed. Luxion already had dispatched a team from the capital to seize control of the island and all of its faculties. All that was left was to keep it intact long enough- The lab started shaking. The shaking was quite familiar, in fact it reminded the group of their bumpy ride over on Leon's ship.
"Crud!"
The group collectively ducked for cover, just in time for Leon to split the island in half and ride out of the bunker on the back of his opponent.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: They have their strong points.
hnh058513: Legion system?
RedRat8: To be fair it literally took using magic to surgically removed a part of his personality.
tH1s: Sorry you feel that way.
Dakota Bruder: I know I may not have a leg to stand on here, but not all of my stories are part of a massive MCU styled crossover.