A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

[Interlude] (22) Part 1

If Fei Chuan were doused with one of the truth potions from his lich lab, he would admit that the incarnation of the [Villain] that he most wanted to appear, didn't. While Huang San, Hei Le, and Brixon had their own separate issues, those weren't ones Fei Chuan could fix, nor were they ones he deserved to repent for. 

Not that Huang San would let him. Just this once, Fei Chuan wished he'd listened to his ex and took that one psychology class. Biochemistry is less about how to fix things and more about how they are. That was pretty damn useful in his military stint, but it was all but shit in worlds that didn't even bother adhering to some semblance of natural law. 

Fei Chuan hovered, in the empty darkness of the Prelude, before closing his eyes and letting the system transport him to the Eternal Sands. 

******

 [Interlude: World 19] 

Though sweeping generalizations are hard to make, it is widely accepted that a new demon king is birthed once every half a century. This is not an exaggeration: demon kings (regardless of if they're male or female) have incredibly active libidos, incredibly low fertility, and an incredibly minimal population. The last part might have to do with the species' tendency to regard fellow members as competition more than mates. In fact, there has not been a single recorded case of a demon king being born to two demon kings. There were demon king-fae pairs, demon king-human pairs, and even demon king-draconic pairs. There were rumors which no one dared to confirm about a demon king-orc pair.

It is also widely accepted that a demon king's primary choice of partner is anything not of the same species that moves. This is wrong. Demon kings will mate with anything not of the same species, moving or not. Belgorath knows this because his father was an sediment nymph. Not only did his mother decide to do it with a rock nymph, an asexual species that was barely more conscious than a boulder, she somehow succeeded and disappeared, as magical law dictated that only one demon king of a particular lineage existed at any given time. Something about their offspring absorbing all of their negative energies.

 Luckily, as a demon king Belgorath didn't have to worry about fending for himself. It was instinct for any nearby monsters to appear and press themselves into a demon king's service, and his mother's old subjects had done so even before her energy fully dissipated. 

Belgorath kind of agreed with Hilda. So maybe his species was a little weird. 

******

A typical day in Belgorath's life mostly involves sitting on a throne as lines after lines of entirely too vapid monsters come up and present their gifts to him, so that his attendants can take them away. Some of them bring edibles (fruits, beast meat, packets of blood from this or that virgin, etc) and others bring gifts (poisonous fruits, beast hide, necklaces of eyeballs, etc). Still others fluttered their eyes, whispering that they themselves were the gifts.

A wooden hand grabbed the succubus by their hair and tossed them out the nearest window. "Hell no. Lord Belgorath is only one and a half decades old, you cougars." Belgorath sat up straighter at the voice. Hilda was back! 

Belgorath was proud to say that his Hilda was probably the strongest wood nymph ever, though that could possibly because he was the only combatant wood nymph. No matter. He was formerly the old demon king's high general, and stepped down from the position in order to become Belgorath's primary caretaker when it became clear that everyone else only knew how to fight. 

"Hilda, what have you brought me today?" Human meat may be especially succulent, but eating it on a daily basis made Belgorath less appreciative of it with each passing day. Luckily, food was the one thing Hilda never brought, always trusting the cooks to feed the king whatever they needed to.