CHAPTER 1467: SO WHERE ARE THE NIGHTMARE DEMONS AT?!

-----

"So where are these Nightmare Demons at, Elizabeth?" I asked her.

"Hmm, I don’t really know the coordinates," she said. "You’ll have to find them or just never met them; the latter would be for the best."

"What is their civilization like?" Emeraldine wondered. "I’m really curious!"

"Not that different than what my family is, but larger, more complex here and there..." She said. "They got chiefs and sometimes leaders, but the King is still my father, and he sometimes visits them. From what I remember, there’s one major city, I would recommend not visiting it, and then several villages. There’s not enough time for any of you to do some touristic trips either way, you’re in a hurry to the Nightmare Void Sea, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose we’ll have to leave doing some tourism for later," I nodded. "But they seem rather detached from the other Demons invading humanity, or are they related?"

"We resupply demons through these villages and the big city. There are two ways we are born, the first is our primal birth, where we are born from a Nightmare Demon Egg that can appear spontaneously within areas of high concentration of Nightmare Power and Nightmare Miasma," she said. "That’s how dad, mom, and a few of my uncles were born. They’re called Primordial Nightmare Demons, and are among the strongest..."

"Oh! I assumed the majority would be born that way..." I said. "So those born "naturally" like that are very special, huh?"

"Indeed, it’s not something common, it happens every several hundreds of years after all," Elizabeth said. "And well, there’s the second method... The same way you all do it."

"Oh... Ooh? You mean...?" Emeraldine rubbed her belly as she glanced at me for a moment. "L-Like... sex?"

"Ugh, yeah, it’s disgusting though!" Elizabeth groaned. "But yes, we can also be born much quicker through sexual reproduction. Mom and dad... well, you know what they did. And that’s how we were born."

"So you’re born from... well, like human babies or through eggs?" I asked.

"Mom lays eggs," Elizabeth explained. "Though she also has the power to create Nightmare Demons without Seed. They are much weaker though, but they can strengthen if she eats Dream Hearts, which also hastens her production rate a lot... She represents the Lust of Humanity after all."

"Is that so..." I wondered. "And you and your siblings are special?"

"Of course, as the direct children of two Primordials, we are gifted and much stronger than the rest! We can develop Nightmare Authorities and powerful Nightmare Magic and rapidly grow stronger through devouring Nightmares and also Dream Hearts." She smiled. "We are the most elite caste of Nightmare Demons!"

"Hah, you sure like talking big..." Jonathan said with a slight smile. "It’s quite interesting though... perhaps once we can take care of the King and that castle, the other Nightmare Demons will choose to live peacefully? Or do they need to eat humans to continue living?"

"Hmm, weaker Nightmare Demons don’t need it and can survive with Nightmare Cores and Nightmare Beast Meat," she said. "But the stronger you get, the larger the craving becomes. Once the Commoner Nightmare Demons raised in this Layer gets strong enough, their appetite for humans increase and they join father’s army."

"So as long as you remain weak you won’t need that," I nodded. "Gotcha... but you seem pretty fine right?"

"Ugh, that’s because you forced me into becoming your familiar or something..." She complained.

"But you haven’t craved humans, right?" I asked her. "I think there might be some relation to my Mana..."

"Mana?" She asked.

"It’s the energy that fuels magic, elements from other worlds, mostly from Yggdrasil, but I think it exists everywhere in the Tower," I explained. "It’s weird how this world works without Mana. It’s as if anything that Mana would do is instead performed by Nightmare Power or Dream Power making things very twisted and weird."

"Yeah..." Nodded Emeraldine. "It indeed makes for a very interesting world, however!"

"I guess so, this world hasn’t disappointed on how interesting it is!" Partner said.

"I want to stay here for longer than a week, mama!" Nyx said. "Can we?"

"Pretty please?" Celes asked me as well, and also to her mother.

"Hmm, well, I was planning to stay for another week at least," I nodded. "It all depends how things turn out though, we’ll have to see once we get there, so let’s not be impatient."

"Indeed, it is as Maria said, Celes," Nia said. "Let’s wait until we get there to begin with, alright?"

"Umm... okay..." Celes nodded, looking at me with a determined expression.

I smiled back at him, but then his face blushed a little.

"Um mom, so... Uh, you and auntie Maria are together, right?" Celes wondered.

"A-Ah?" Nia blushed a little. "I-I mean, you already know this... son, why ask again?"

"So that means Auntie Maria is my new dad?" Celes wondered. "Wait, but she’s a girl... how does that works?"

"Well, I wouldn’t mind being your second mother, if you want to, Celes," I smiled back at him, petting his head.

"Second mommy?! Wow! But that wouldn’t make me and Nyx siblings?!" Celes gasped. "Wait, we can’t be siblings!"

"What’s wrong with being siblings? We’ll be family, Celes!" Nyx smiled cutely.

"But that’s..." Celes seemed a bit disappointed for some reason.

"Hmmm~" Nia quickly realized what was going on, and well, I did too.

We looked at one another in silence for a good second.

"Well, you shouldn’t worry that much, it’ll be just a family bond," she said. "You won’t really be like, blood-related brothers that were raised together or something, dear, calm down."

"Yeah! Right Nyx?" I asked her. "It’s just because we’re like a big family together."

"Hm!" Nyx nodded. "Why are you so sad about that, Celes? You don’t want to be part of my family? We’re nice!"

"I-I know, I’m glad..." Celes nodded. "I just... I hope one day we could... U-Um... we could one day... be more than that? Ah, sorry... d-don’t mind that!"

He was such a cute boy, saying such things out of nowhere.

----