NOVEL FROG Chapter 417: A Family of Demons
Rachel steamed ahead with her goal; her only concern and purpose was reaching quasi-rank 15. She refused to be sidetracked by anything else.
Rachel's intentions were not public knowledge. While she and her incarnations were busy creating the perfect infinite body, other rank 14s and immortals in her universe, and others lived their lives as usual. Her efforts weren’t entirely secret, as many rank 14s had found clues about them, but despite knowing this, she chose not to make a fuss, preferring to avoid any disruption. Rank 14s couldn’t do much to interfere, and Rachel, no longer intimidated by them, could seal them if necessary. However, she still preferred to steer clear of any trouble.
...
In a universe under the control of one of Rachel's incarnations.
Lana was paid handsomely for her cooperation in the infinite body experiment. She worked closely with Luther and successfully cultivated a few other infinite bodies. However, for rank 13s, money and resources held little meaning, especially for Lana, who was a subordinate to Rachel. No one dared to look at her, let alone challenge her.
Lately, Lana had been reflecting more on her past, particularly about her former husband, Zagronan, and her favorite son, Saviour. She had divorced Zagronan so long ago that she no longer had any memory of him. Fortunately, she had saved her memories in external magical devices; otherwise, she wouldn't have remembered him at all.
After so many years, she now wished to meet him again.
She had already sent invitation letters to both Zagronan and Saviour, who were both alive and well as rank 13s. Besides Saviour, she had many other children—millions, in fact—but she had eaten most of them, and only a few survived to this day. Among all her children, she only truly remembered and missed Saviour.
One of Lana's favorite snakes used to be one of her own children, which she found delicious. One reason she gave birth to so many was due to the enticing aroma and taste, but over the years, her preferences changed. Now, she no longer enjoyed eating her own babies. Instead, she found pleasure in eating others, especially newborn elves.
Aside from worldly matters like food and entertainment, Lana had begun contemplating deeper issues, such as family and friendship. Lana had no friends; people either feared her, hated her, or served her. Over the years, she had married many men, women, and even some genderless beings, like plant-people, but she usually ended up eating or killing them. None of these relationships lasted as long as her marriage to Zagronan.
"Maybe we should marry again," she thought. Zagronan was the only man who had married her and survived, which made him special in her eyes.
"I should prepare," she thought. Zagronan and Saviour might arrive at any moment, and she planned to welcome them with a grand celebration.
...
Following the queen’s order, the entire world mobilized. Lana knew that Zagronan enjoyed the realm of 'True Hell,' so she planned to construct a miniature version of it in her world. She wasn’t sure about Saviour's interests, as she had never really paid attention to him, but as a demon, he might share traits with her parents, and would probably enjoy 'True Hell'.
...
Zagronan looked at the invitation letter in his hand and frowned.
"Hey, Zag, I’m waiting for you in my world. You’ll be in trouble if you keep me waiting!"
"Is this from Lana?" Zagronan wondered. He hadn’t heard from his first wife in years, but he still remembered her, especially the day they divorced.
"Is it Lana? She’s been cooperating closely with my main body. Why don’t you learn something from her? Join the Infinite Body initiative; it's very profitable!" Rachel, in Zagronan's hand, complained.
"I don’t care about your main body," Zagronan said, dismissing the fact that Rachel's main body was a rank 14 being with absolute power.
"Your edges are too sharp," Rachel remarked.
In his younger days, Zagronan used to 'sharpen his edges' by killing periodically. Rachel always hated it. While she didn’t mind slaughtering entire universes for a 'worthwhile' purpose, killing for no reason disgusted her. Back then, she had solved his issues, eliminating his need for these violent outbursts. However, over the years, his tendencies returned. This time, she couldn’t treat him. After all, Zagronan was now rank 13, and fixing anything wrong with a rank 13 was no easy task.
As a result, from time to time, Zag's edges became dull, and he needed to slaughter a few worlds to sharpen them. Rachel prohibited him from killing random worlds, so he bought space in the universe and "planted" millions of rank 10 worlds. These 'world plantations' grew and prospered for the sole purpose of being slaughtered by him later.
Recently, he went berserk and slaughtered 10,000 worlds, killing an uncountable number of humans, elves, demons, and other species. Rachel tried to stop him but failed. Nowadays, she could no longer easily control him, as her main body was busy with more important projects and wouldn't assist her in anything.
After his latest spree, Zagronan’s edges became so sharp that he even lost respect for Rachel. It got to the point where if a rank 13 looked at him the wrong way, he would attack and kill or seal them.
"What? This is how a true demon should be!" he laughed. "You’ve suppressed me for too long. A demon should be a chaotic killer who destroys for no reason!"
He even looked at Rachel's pill-container body with killing intent as though he was considering smashing it.
"Your edges are too sharp!" Rachel warned. "Be careful not to sharpen them too much the next time. And remember, if you kill me, my real body will erase you from existence. I don’t want that, and trust me, neither do you!"
Zagronan glared at the pill container, his red eyes glowing with intense rage. Yet, despite his sharpness, he still retained enough sanity to refrain from committing what would amount to suicide. Over the years, a few hosts had killed their Rachel incarnations, and all were erased by the rank 14 Rachel. Even in his current state, Zagronan knew that he was powerless against the real Rachel.
Frustrated by his inability to destroy his Rachel, he decided to visit Lana, perhaps to vent his anger on her.
...
Saviour, a demon born from Lana and Zagronan, had lived the first few thousand years of his life as a typical demon. However, over time, he transformed into a good person, living up to his name. He tried his best to save as many lives as possible and improve the conditions of the weak. Unfortunately, the number of mortals suffering across the universe was so vast that his efforts made only a minuscule impact—less than a quadrillionth of a percent of the universe's population.
Saviour had long tried to convince Rachel to set basic laws to protect mortals, such as banning slavery. However, the main body of Rachel never even met him, and no matter what he told his own Rachel, nothing changed. His Rachel lacked the power to influence the universe.
Saviour didn't believe in using force, despite his formidable rank 13 strength. He despised war and refused to ignite a universe-wide conflict in the name of peace. To him, war rarely, if ever, brought about true peace.
Over time, Saviour lowered his expectations. He no longer sought to fix the entire universe but aimed to help as many as he could. He saved money and bought impoverished worlds, offering mortals there a peaceful life. Currently, millions of worlds are under his control, with even a few rank 12 and one rank 13 worlds among them.
Saviour was ashamed of his father’s habit of slaughtering worlds to 'sharpen his edges.' He frequently had nightmares about it and had tried to persuade Zagronan to stop, but to no avail. His attempts at reasoning recently nearly led to war, and if Rachel had not intervened, he might have been sealed by his father.
As for his mother, Saviour was somewhat less ashamed. At least she didn’t regularly slaughter worlds, and the people in her rank 13 world seemed to enjoy some level of peace.
...
Saviour opened the letter and read it: "My dear Saviour, you’re invited to my world. Don’t keep me waiting, or I’ll catch you and eat you!"
His lips twitched as he recalled long-forgotten memories. Back then, his mother had literally eaten many of his brothers and sisters. Recalling those horrific scenes, Saviour’s face paled. Fortunately, he wasn’t one of her unfortunate victims.
"I should go," he thought. "If I don’t, she may really come here!"
Saviour genuinely feared that his mother might eat him. It wasn’t an empty threat—she had done it countless times before with her other children. Even though he was now strong enough to resist her, he didn’t want his mother to discover the millions of worlds he had saved. If a battle ensued, they would all be destroyed. For the sake of protecting these worlds, he decided to go, even if it meant risking being eaten.