“Big Brother!”
Not even a second after he appeared, he heard a spirited exclamation before belatedly noticing a flash of black shooting towards him.
“Woah!”
Damien hurriedly reached out his hands and expertly redirected the force of Little Xue’s impact with vector control as she entered his arms so she wouldn’t get hurt.
“What the hell?”
He couldn’t help but mutter. This girl charged at him with the speed of a car! How the hell was she able to move so fast?!
It was then that he noticed the bundles of green spirits circling around them in the air while giggling to themselves.
‘She hasn’t even trained at all, yet she’s able to use the wind spirits to boost her speed?!’
It didn’t make sense. It made more sense to say that the wind spirits had voluntarily helped her without her having to do anything.
Damien smiled wryly. This was talent!
Looking down at the little girl who was happily smiling while rubbing her face against his chest, he wasn’t even able to get mad at her.
“Are you liking your new home?” Damien asked softly.
“Mm! It’s great! And I have lots of friends here, see!”
Little Xue waved her hands at the elemental spirits, urging them to come closer, but they maintained their distance with auras emanating their hesitance.
“Awww! Why are you being shy? Big brother isn’t a bad person!”
The spirits shook their little heads in protest.
“Master? What does that mean? Big brother, they said they don’t want to be disrespectful to the master!”
Damien became even more bewildered. For one, Xue’er was fluently communicating with spirits that could only flare their auras to display their intentions. Secondly, the spirits regarded him as the ‘master’.
Although he couldn’t understand them, he knew that they didn’t mean it in the same way Elitra did when she called him Lord.
Elitra was referring to him as her Lord. She had devoted her mind, body, and spirit to him for some unknown reason.
As for the spirits, they meant it in a way that more accurately placed him as the master of the world itself, not their master exclusively.
He didn’t know how the spirits developed such complex thought processes, but he let it be. It was another one of those things he wouldn’t be able to explain with the limited amount of knowledge he possessed.
But the line of thought suddenly reminded him of Elitra, who had been calmly living in the containment area he set up for her.
Now that he thought about it, the Nihility Flames he stole from her were never properly used. Actually, an odd phenomenon had taken place instead.
His reddish orange sunflames had suddenly taken on a golden hue. Evidently, there was some reaction between the two flames in his body.
He realized there were a lot of gains he made from the previous battle that he still had to go over, including the results of devouring the dark material. But that could wait.
Damien played with little Xue for some time to recharge his mental battery with wholesomeness before leaving her alone with the spirits again. His next destination was the containment area.
“Lord!”
The second Elitra saw him, she bent her body ninety degrees into a bowing posture on the ground. Since she didn’t have legs, it was even more awkward.
“Right. Let’s talk about this in detail now. Why are you calling me Lord?”
Elitra obediently raised her head at his instruction and began speaking.
“As I told you before, Lord, I’ve been tortured by the Nihility Flame since young. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t writhe in agony wishing that my life would come to an end.
“And within Demon society, such things as loyalty are scarce nowadays. The only people who truly showed me care were my father and his confidants. Due to those people, I decided to grit my teeth and endure the pain so I wouldn’t disappoint them.
“But as you saw, the Nihility Flame isn’t under my control. Every time I grew strong enough to control it, it would leech my strength to become stronger than me again. Due to this struggle, I would often lose control over myself and go on rampages.
“Luckily, the Nihility Flame in my body was merely a seedling. Its intelligence hadn’t developed, so whenever I lost control, it was easy to stop me since the Nihility Flame only knew how to throw random attacks at anyone and anything.
“But it was only easy for those more powerful than me. It wasn’t uncommon for some of the weaker people close to me to be burned as sustenance for the Nihility Flame while I could do nothing but watch…”
Damien listened to her story quietly. Frankly, it reminded him of himself a bit. Just like how he had to fiercely fight his bestial instinct to regain control over his body back in the day, she had to do something similar.
However, his instinct was never another entity. It was always a part of himself. On the downside, this meant that when he was taken over, he was still able to use his skills perfectly. But on the plus side, conquering and merging with the instinct was much easier.
He was lucky enough to go through the struggle within the dungeon. Thousands of beasts had become food for his bestial instinct back then. He couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like if something similar took place while he was surrounded by people he cared for.
“Eventually, the number of people who earnestly cared for me dwindled until only my father was left, and the number who despised me vastly increased. In fact, most demons should be celebrating the fact that I never returned to the city.
“But, then I met the Lord. Although Lord had indeed treated me poorly, it was only necessary since I was an enemy who had information you desired. Considering the hazy and slightly crazed state I was in after the Nihility Flame possession ended, I can also understand why the Lord had to use extreme measures against me.
“But even with all that, the Lord still brought me to this mystical place and got rid of the curse that had been tormenting me for so long. If that isn’t enough to make you worthy to be my Lord, what is?”
Damien nodded, but his brows were still furrowed. Indeed, her reasoning made sense. But he felt that there was more to it than just that.
If it was just this much, his intuition wouldn’t have rung alarm bells signaling opportunity. Whether he gained a little maid or not, it wouldn’t have much effect on the future.
There had to be more. And Damien didn’t intend to let Elitra hide it.
“If you truly wish for me to accept you as my maid, isn’t it normal that you tell me everything? I have no interest in a maid that hides things from her Master. It’s either full transparency or nothing.”
Elitra looked into his eyes as if she was trying to pry into all of his secrets. Slowly, the hesitation on her face began to vanish.
“Right, as Master suspected, there was another reason.”
“Master?”
“Ah, well, Master just called me your maid and yourself Master, so I assumed you were into this kind of thing.”
“Kuhum, you must’ve heard wrong. I have no clue what you’re talking about. Continue with what you were saying.”
Damien spotted a hint of teasing in Elitra’s eyes as she spoke, but he didn’t mind it. He’d rather have a maid with personality than a robot.
‘Damn, I’m really getting into this whole having a maid thing. I should control myself.’
I’m already pursuing two women, so there’s no need to have an illicit relationship with my maid! Thinking such righteous thoughts, Damien refocused on the conversation.
“Right. As I was saying, Master. The other reason is far more complex than the first. To preface, I must tell a story my father told me many times as I was growing up.”