Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 565: Kaya’s Enlightenment

Just as Kaya had predicted, Klever quickly assessed the situation and realized Kaya was the one giving off the weakest, most subdued energy, prompting two Klever Effigies to make their way toward her enthusiastically.

”Oh no, you don’t!” Aylin snarled and moved to intercept. She wrapped her body in a winter storm, hail and icicles and moved faster than the wind, like a rocket u you she slammed into one of the Klevers.

*BANG!*

The contact was impactful and try as it might, Klever found itself unable to break free of Aylin’s grip and soon found its back slammed against the wall of the Sealing Cube. At the same time, darts of ice stabbed at the demon’s body all over, invading its body with a deathly chill.

As soon as she had slammed Klever into the Sealing Cube wall, Aylin moved back a few paces, her hand raised and instantly brought down in a diagonal slash that caused frost to blossom across the Demon’s chest.

The blossom of frost became a thin band around Klever’s chest and with a yanking move of her hand, Aylin forced the demon to hit the ground headfirst.

”Ack!” Klever let out a pained groan that was muffled by the handful of earth now stuffed into its mouth.

Aylin raised a hand to cast another spell when her ear twitched. The winter swirl still around her body moved her away just in time to avoid a massive meteor hammer that struck the ground where she had been just a second before.

Even as she cast her eyes to the side to look at the Klever Effigy who had joined the fight to make it an unfair two-on-one, Aylin still cast her spell, causing an ice-blue spell circle to appear and conjure a massive blade that descended to bury the downed Klever’s head even deeper into the ground.

...

’Thank you, Aylin,’ Kaya thought as the number of demons charging at her was cut down from two to one.

When she noticed that the Klever Effigy still charging at her was wielding a spear, she couldn’t help but smile.

’What are the odds?’

This Klever was the one she had trapped and tortured with a combination of her gluing sap and lengthening thorn spells. What were the odds that she succeeded in trapping it a second time?

Spear-wielding Klever was as fast as ever but Kaya was very in tune with Nature at the moment— far too in tune to be thrown off by just superior speed. Even as deplorable as the existence of demons seemed to the natural order, they were still part of Nature.

Because Nature isn’t just ’good’. It is just as capable of ugliness as it is of beauty. It is as brutal as it is kind.

In Nature, the weak can find succor and yet, the weak also get culled from the whole so only the strongest survive.

On one hand, the weak are saved and on the other, the weak are killed.

Is it a contradiction? Certainly not.

Nature is all things. An all-encompassing being in which all can find meaning.

’Fuck, now is really not the time for this,’ Kaya shook herself to reality.

These weren’t all-new discoveries to her. In fact, she had long been wondering if her understanding of Nature Magic was limited. Simply fighting with vines of increasing strength and sturdiness seemed so limiting when it felt like Nature Magic should be capable of more. As Nature itself was capable of more.

This feeling had been exacerbated since her battle with the Malevolent Aura and her discovery of the metaphysical capability of Nature energy, so she was starting to think it was time she explored her Unique Element a lot more.

Just now, she turned down the Ordinance of death because it didn’t fit the foundation of Nature, but was that even true? There is death in Nature... Death is a vital part of it in fact because without death, there can be no life. One cannot exist without the other.

”Fuck!” Kaya cussed and shook herself again just in time to raise her staff and parry an attack from Klever who just dodged her vines.

But the thoughts didn’t stop and she was forced to multitask more than she ever had before; Having what seemed like a massive epiphany, fending off Klever just enough to not get skewered by the Demon’s spear while still luring it close, and placing finishing touches to her trap. All at the same time and all with the capacity to be the prime topic in her head.

Kaya felt the epiphany was a distraction while the other two thoughts were very important for what she had to do so she was ecstatic when she succeeded in her goal in spite of the existential wonderings.

Kaya stamped her staff against the ground and Nature Energy roused within her in a torrent. Green spell circles appeared on the ground and shone bright.

Klever was in the process of thrusting its spear at Kaya when the spell was activated and it froze in place as its mind was cut off from its body and sealed within its mental space— a Mental space that opened up for Kaya to enter, leaving her own body behind.

”What is this?!” Klever asked in a booming voice that shook the entire mental space, ”How dare you detach me from my body?”

”You have others so it can’t be all that bad,” Kaya retorted with a wave of her hand, ”Though the hope is that that will not remain the case for much longer.”

Klever was silent for a second and then it chuckled.

”So you know mental sorcery, do you?” It asked and then roused with anger, ”You were unwise to come here. This is my sanctuary. Here, I am stronger than I am in my Effigies.”

”No,” Kaya answered, ”No, you’re not.”

”What?” Klever asked and it sounded incredulous that Kaya would act like she knew its mind better than it knew itself.

”Oh, you are definitely impressive with all that multitasking but your fragmentation has left you riddled with weaknesses,” Kaya said in a musing tone and then she began pointing,

”Here, here, there, and over there. It’s all over the place. No one is perfect and no mind is without faults, especially not you. You haven’t gotten rid of your faults by creating your Effigies, you’ve just multiplied them.”

”You—!” Klever’s voice boomed even louder and its anger was like a tidal wave that threatened to sweep Kaya away.

An Arcane Circle appeared above Kaya’s head.

”Pain,” Kaya said, and the Arcane Circle spun until only one particular Arcane Script—the one representing the emotion of pain—was placed at the topmost center position where it glowed blue.

This was power Kaya had acquired after battling the Malevolent Aura back home. She had yet to learn how to integrate it into her spell casting properly, but in a mental space such as this—where the Arcane Circle that stored the power was most easily accessible—she could make use of it.

At the glowing of the Arcane Script, Klever’s anger was quelled and its entire mental space was saturated with a terrible pain. A pain born of loss— but loss of what? Klever had no idea. All it knew was that it was almost unbearable and it wished it would end.

Meanwhile, Kaya’s expression was solemn.

She had kept from using this move all along because of a chance that the Klevers were completely distinct. If they were their own separate individuals, getting locked in a mental battle with one while the others were free to attack her and interrupt the process, either killing her outright or forever trapping her in the mind of a demon, seemed very unwise.

But, being here, she already confirmed Eloise was right; Klever’s mind was a maze of intersecting thought channels and chains and diversions. On its own, the demon was perfectly capable of holding a full-length conversation while simulating eight differently reasoning minds. But it was still one mind pretending to be multiple.

It wasn’t split personality— The personality was singular; It was the personality of a being who only delighted in its own company, who only found pleasure in itself and had gone to great lengths to ensure that itself was all it would ever need.

Kaya caught glimpses into Klever’s memories and wasn’t sure what to make of them; she was far from a prude and orgies weren’t some diabolical practice, but it was more than weird when it was happening between multiple of the same creature.

Klever only ever fucked... itself. It’s large pairs of bosoms heaving, nightmarishly black hair sweeping, as it did all kinds of kinky stuff with itself while constantly professing;

’Fuck yes! I love ME!’

Over and over again.

It was all just... sad.

”Get away from there!” Klever yelled while still sobbing with the pain that rocked its entire psyche,

”Do you think you’ve won? This isn’t over!”

”Nature is a very weird thing, isn’t it?” Kaya mused as she watched more memories that didn’t involve orgies but brutal killings and torturing that the demons performed seemingly for sport,

”I assume a lot of what you and your fellow demon-kind do is within your nature. Abnormal to me, yes, but perfectly normal to you. So whose nature is truly ’normal’ beyond a difference in perspectives?

Whose nature is acceptable when acceptance is determined by a general census that is determined by region, culture, innate characteristics, and so on?

If our natures can be so different and pit us against one another, does that mean Nature itself is intolerant?”

”What nonsense are you spouting?!” Klever spat.

Kaya didn’t respond. Her Epiphany had bloomed and her reserve of Nature Energy tripled right then as she gained enlightenment. Her understanding of Nature Magic swelled and she saw the way into its Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circles. A codex of her own making was getting composed in her head and filling her with a sense of euphoria and accomplishment...

... that was colored by curiosity as her question hadn’t been answered;

Was Nature intolerant?