I can see the pressure that an intelligent mind exerts on reality, and it makes the movement of matter and physical energy quite dull.
"Do you hear me? Or have I caused you too much shock and broken your human minds... Are my abilities too unfathomable for lesser lifeforms to grasp, even with the help of this system's greatest treasures?"
Every word that leaves this being's aura becomes more and more clear.
I feel like I'm floating in a black abyss, yet it doesn't feel like I'm being suppressed or limited at all.
If anything, the dagger stabbing through my neck is acting like a lightning rod, allowing me to sense an array of frequencies and energies I had no idea existed with such intensity moments ago.
I don't even need to move my lips, or activate any system commands. Instead, I command the void in between us and respond.
"I can hear you loud and clear. But I think you're the one who is unable to grasp the situation."
My words are a bluff; I know our lives are in the palm of his hand right now, but I also know he wants us alive to extract some kind of information that he cannot find when we're dead.
I remember the waves of energy I saw when I realized he was lying, and fill my thoughts with memories of the past that trigger both the most extreme pain and pleasure I've ever felt. It distorts the signal enough to make my waves unreadable on the surface, especially after just one line.
The Royal Family Head's eyes open with disbelief once I respond in this fashion.
My comprehension speed is slightly faster than Maria's when our minds aren't linked, but right after my words I feel the waves of Advanced Primordial Aura around the edges of her body fluctuate according to her will.
There is a strange reaction with the Source Resin that is mostly stored around her head, and near the curved dagger in her throat.
Instead of becoming obsolete like most other physical matter, all of the sparkling particles begin to flow within her Primordial Aura, and brush up against the sharp blade of the knife.
Each one that passes steals aura from the blade, and it begins to make the mind-numbing beauty of the dagger dull. I start to realize that knife is not destined to be lodged in her throat; its desire to do so was just so much stronger than I believed it was.
I go through a mental battle of trying to imagine the dagger in my own throat coming out, but there is a calming sensation that makes it want to stay. It attacks the logical parts of my mind, and shows up as orange and blue strands of chaotic energy, overpowering my normal senses.
If I didn't see Maria start breaking down this strange energy, the idea to do so would have slipped away from my mind. Every moment I spend thinking about how to break it down myself, my desire to do so fades too.
I channel my corruption, saturated with Primordial Aura, and give the millions of Demonic wills trapped within it space to exert their own dominance on the outside. Usually, I would conquer them all completely, but now I use a ripple of the new Primordial Aura I'm learning to master and give them a single simple idea, and the freedom to carry it out in whatever way they wish.
Next, I sever my conscious thought from the task before I completely lose the desire to carry it out, and focus back on the Demon before me.
"What do you think you're going to achieve by coming here? The more minds there are in the system, the faster the final cycle of energy will run out! There is no longer any room for beings that wish to waste their time in peace, and repopulate the stars!"
He yells through the void, then raises a hand to hold both of the daggers that are pinning us to this strange plane of space.
As we float even closer to him, coming within a few trillion kilometers of the stump of the tree, this Demon's enormous presence stands right in front of us.
He's a few trillion kilometers tall himself, and we're within an arm's reach. Even now, I cannot see his real body; it is only waves of Primordial Aura. The only feature bleeding through are his chaotic purple and rainbow eyes.
"Demons are different! We were born from nothing, with Dragons as our counterweight. We do not burn down the clock of this system's end. How do none of you lesser mana beings ever understand it? We were always meant to live in the eternal paradise in the end; it was never yours."
His words are confusing, but all of the ripples coming off of him now are full of passion. I can only sense that he believes everything he says.
"So, let me see that amplifier... or you're both dead." Again, the ripples around his body quiver like he's lying, but I don't know why.
A very fast-moving blur of Advanced Primordial Aura hits my vision next, like rainbow confetti is thrown in front of my face. I don't know if this is another trick from the demon for a second, but realize pretty quickly it is a large amount of Maria's Source Resin melting through the outer layer of the dagger in her neck.
In a fraction of a second it's shifted out of place, and almost pulled out.
Before it is, the third and final one floating between us heads straight for her chest instead.
"Wait! I'll tell you what you want to know! Your next question, I'll answer," I yell out, and the dagger stops right before colliding with her Angelic Form.
Maria's Soul Energy core is not normal... it is sitting in the center of her chest, and it holds her divine core... but at the same time, it is not. All of the energy she wields has collapsed in on a single point, and technically does not take up any true space right now.
I don't know how she would be affected by that hit, but I don't want to find out in this way.
The Demon's chaotic eyes turn to me. They are the Primordial Aura equivalent of bloodshot, as the glyphs inside them and the energy pouring out is strained and at its breaking point.
"Fine. You do not want to show me your soul sword without reason, I can accept that. But answer me this, if you do not, your angel here dies." There are no ripples of deceit in his words.
I nod, and the simple ripples of Advanced Primordial Aura coming off me hold no complex emotions either; it's clear that I understand.
"Where is the Fallen One? He vowed never to return to this Zone again without the means to restart the cycle. You two are here, yet he is not. I repeat myself, where is the Fallen One... where is he hiding?"
The Family Head's waves of intensity become so strained that I feel them making my own waver.
It's like another version of these daggers' strange effects. I do not have any control over my will for a moment, and it bends to his wishes, making me answer truthfully whether I like it or not.
"He... is... hiding..." I try to fight it, but it becomes the right thing to do in my mind, like I'm meant to spill this secret whether I want to or not.
I can picture the soul bond's last known direction clearly in my mind. Even now, in the depths of my consciousness, I can feel my senses trying to probe for its latest position again.
However, once I get a reading, a strange anomaly makes my altered will waver. I gain a moment of clarity instead of pointing where he was before we entered this domain. My eyes track upward, away from this Demon, and to where this soul bond leads my thoughts now in the present.
A new foreign Advanced Primordial Aura starts to touch my senses, and cracks start opening up near the top of the Central Domain.
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