Imagination Incarnate (Custom Made Demon King remix)

The Eldest Son (I)

The sun rose over the fragment world. Fish leapt in the streams in the land. Insects chirped in the vegetation. Mermen went about their morning activities, getting ready for the day. Within the walls of the Dark Silver castle, a young nephilim woke from slumber. He yawned unceremoniously and blew his long hair off of his face.

"Today's the day, huh..." He mumbled to himself groggily while wiping his eyes. "I wish I had more time with Cora. Ah crap, I slept in. I hope mom doesn't get mad."

By the time he was dressed, a merwoman maid had already come with his breakfast. He thanked her and scarfed it down. He then hurried outside, where his mother awaited him impatiently.

"You slept in again, Rhevos," Lyra frowned at him with crossed arms. "Don't tell me you got frisky with a maid."

"It's not like that, mom!" Rhevos put four hands up in surrender. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I'd never do that!"

"Mhm. Even though I caught you in your room with one a week ago?"

"That was a one time thing! We were just talking!"

"Oh, 'just talking' my ass. You're fourteen now. It's normal for you to have urges."

"Mom!!"

She stubbornly rolled her eyes. She tapped the ground with her foot. A swirling blue and purple portal opened on the ground between them. "Hop in. Today's our last day, so we must make it count."

Rhevos knew better than to argue any further with his mother. He grumbled indignantly under his breath and did as he was told. He and Lyra fell through the portal and entered a vast open space.

It was a grand cavern the size of a football stadium of black crystals, purple sinew, and blue crystals. There were several tunnels leading out of it. Thousands of different types of voidspawn crawled, walked, swam, or flew out of the cavern and into these tunnels. Rows of eggs and membranes contained unborn voidspawn.

These were not to be confused with voidlings, who were corrupted lifeforms not originally under the void's influence. Voidspawn were lifeforms bred by Lyra through the void, combining hundreds of different bloodlines to create hybrid abominations that fulfilled certain needs. Some were builders, others warriors. All served some purpose in Lyra's void hordes as it spread to various worlds. The tunnels leading out of her incubation chamber would split off into many smaller tunnels that lead directly to these worlds.

It was in the incubation chamber that the void's essence was the strongest. This empowered Lyra, Rhevos not so much. Being inside the void didn't empower him at all, it actually did the opposite and halted his aging while he was there. She had worked him hard in the void to teach him void magic even though his attribute was clearly dark. It wasn't easy, but after 14 years of fragment world time started to show promise.

"Okay Rhevos, cast Void Pulse."

"Hrngh!" He cast the spell successfully on his first attempt with minor results. A weak radius of void energy spread for 10 feet around him. He slumped over in disappointment. "I'm still weak..."

"With that attitude, you'll stay weak. Don't go getting disheartened on me after all this time," She planted her hands on her hips. "We'll be doing this for a few hours. If you give it your all, you will improve. Okay?"

"Okay..." He wasn't convinced, but he didn't disobey.

Void magic was easy for Lyra because she bore the void attribute. Rhevos' dark attribute and inexperience with magic in general made it exceedingly difficult, as the dark and void attributes canceled out. Put simply, his body was not made for void magic. Forcefully overwriting that genetic layout was a herculean task that led to Rhevos often losing heart. Yet every time he did, his mother's encouraging words brought him back.