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.

And a ritual skill? Isn’t that a skill that requires over a dozen or so people working with the user for it to work?

“It is,” Tar answers. “Some might take upwards of a few dozen though. Generally the more people working with the user, the stronger the skill’s effect.”

“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. And I will shift the focus from slaughtering every human in the Fractures to just targeting the Guardians.”

“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.