I dreamt of an almost empty nd covered in ash that stretched on for as long as I could see it. The only thing breaking up the ashen wastend was a mountain of bck stone that breached the bck clouds above it. As I wondered what was at the top I felt myself moving and I saw everything become a hazy blur as I suddenly found myself at the top of the mountain. I looked around confused until my eyes spotted something.

  At the edge of the mountain's peak was a lone humanoid figure sitting on the bck stone. I could tell even with it sitting down that it was tall, easily dwarfing me unless I raised myself as high as I safely could in my mia form. It had ash-grey skin and wore the tattered remains of a bck and white robe around its waist. A pair of strange triangur-shaped horns, that swept backward before suddenly jutting forwards past the being's head, protruded from its ashen hair. Its face was almost skeletal but some things were off, and she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong. It was like her mind just couldn't understand what was wrong.

  It figure turned its head towards her, its empty bck sockets staring deeply into what felt like her soul. It slowly stood up from the cross-legged position it was in, its bones audibly cracking from ck of movement, and ash the same color as its skin fell off the now moving body. When it stood to its maximum height it stood a little over three meters (around 10 feet) and its figure was extremely nky despite all the visible muscle it bore. I also noticed that it had a golden locket around its neck.

  "What brings you here newborn? You shouldn't even be here in the first pce," it said in a deep bassy masculine voice, but it was also tinged with sadness.

  "I don't quite know what I'm doing here either. Do you perhaps know the way I may leave? I'm afraid I need to awaken from whatever this is if I want to survive." I asked and stated.

  It rubbed its chin in thought before nodding sagely.

  "For your current condition, it should just be a matter of time before you naturally awaken. Don't worry about your body, it'll be fine. Now do you mind if you entertain this old man's curiosity?" he asked while gesturing with his hand at an open space near the edge and two thrones of bck stone materialized themselves.

  With nothing better to do, I agreed. I sat down and beheld the view from the mountain. As far as the world stretched on, there was seemingly nothing but ash, smoke, and dark clouds.

  "The view is nothing much but it helps stave off the eternal boredom. Now what is the reason you find yourself here in my little slice of this realm newborn?" he said while sitting on the other throne.

  "I have a name you know. And why do you keep calling me newborn?" I curtly responded.

  He just chuckled at my response. "You are a newborn since you became an Ur so recently little one. Also if you have a name it's only proper to introduce yourself, no? To make it easier I will go first. To some, I am the 'Monarch of Ash', 'The Eighth King', and the 'Heavens Defier'. But you may call me 'The Eighth Ur of Demons'. If you prefer something shorter than King is fine."

  I gulped in nervousness. This was a being that may as well be a god to me. If he's the eighth that means he killed the seventh who killed the sixth and so on. Plus he called himself old which even if he's a demon means he's been around for a while. But I felt no hostility from him, despite, or maybe because, him being so powerful he probably could destroy this mountain with a single punch.

  "My name is Orstelia and I am the first Ur of the mia. To answer your previous question, King, I was beaten into the ground and unconsciousness by a lesser demon. Otherwise, I have no idea why I'm here." I answered honestly, if not a little nervous because of who I was talking to.

  King just nodded in understanding.

  "May I ask a question myself, King?"

  He didn't seem surprised and just nodded.

  "I know this may seem rude of me but why do you have a locket? Did you lose someone?"

  Even though his facial expression didn't, or couldn't, change I felt great sadness come from him as the very air around us felt like it was sad with him.

  "Yes," he mencholicly replied. "They were very dear to me, and I don't think they could ever be repced."

  The sadness coming from him was enough to almost make me want to weep with him. Even the heavens seemed to agree with me as in this nd of ash and smoke it started raining on us. The cold rain snapped me out of the crippling sadness I felt, and all I could think to do was ask one specific question.

  "Would you like to talk about them? It won't bring them back, but it may help alleviate some of the pain."

  King turned to look at me instead of the ndscape. I felt a small tinge of warmth come from him and a small but warm smile came onto his face.

  "I think I would like that." he quietly responded.

  Something decided that our talking to each other wouldn't be good as the chiming of a rge bell filled the sky, which dispersed the rain instantly. King looked skywards in annoyance.

  "We should've had more than that, but it seems like it's time for you to go, but before you do would you be interested in some advice I have to give?"

  "It wouldn't hurt I suppose."

  "Good. When fighting against demons remember that their hearts are to their right instead of to their left. I think that information will prove quite useful to you."

  I nodded in understanding as my body began to fade away.

  "Until we meet again King," I said while waving him goodbye. Hopefully, that would make him a bit happier and make sure we meet in the future. He needs all the happiness he can get.

  I soon faded away and awoke in a bed with the smell of cooking meat traveling through the air.

  -POV Change-

  The being, known as King to Orstelia, watched the newborn disappear from what he suspected was an unintentional dreamwalk. They happen to magical beings, especially Urs when they experience great turbulence of mana. Since she was previously fighting a demon it tched onto something demon-reted, and since he has a great deal of emotions running through him he was like a lighthouse for the dreamwalk. But the brief interaction with her had helped at least get him moving from the spot he sat in for a decade. So he decided it was time to manipute the red string of fate a bit.

  Tonight was a Walpurgis, a meeting of the twelve monarchs of the world. He hasn't attended in the past decade due to the depression bnketing him, but he felt that now was the time to act. His tattered robes went up in purple fmes that then covered his entire body. When they disappeared he was covered in bck and gold robes greater than any mortal king could ever wear. He had an annual meeting to attend, and he must look his finest while doing so.

  -POV Change-

  The smell of cooking meat filled the air and I heard a faint humming as someone was cooking. That was ruined by my system's sudden intrusion.

  Cursed by a lesser demon!

  [Curse of Sin: Sloth] acquired

  No levels were gained as the summoning of the lesser demon consumed all of the souls of those who died in the summoning's proximity

  Okay, a couple of questions for you system. What do you mean by that st question? What do souls have to do with me leveling up?

  All living beings have souls, and souls require a certain amount of energy to function. This "soul energy" is released as a body dies and the soul goes to the death gods that have domain over it. The leftover soul energy goes into the one/ones who killed it and empowers them. The system uses the term level to make it more quantifiable with less esoteric magical knowledge being needed. Even this expnation is heavily abridged for your convenience.Okay, so what I seem to understand is this. Every living thing has a soul, and the souls need energy to function. When something dies that leftover energy is then absorbed by the killer to empower it. So it's safe to assume that the stronger something is the more energy it gives right? I did level up a lot from killing Arthur after all.

  Correct. The stronger something is, which means it's a higher level and has absorbed more soul energy, the more soul energy it gives. It's why most dark rituals eschew mass sacrifices and instead go for stronger sacrifices. The only exception is demon summoning in which case they use the souls more like a trail to follow into the mortal realm. The less, or weaker souls, leave less of a mark and therefore are less likely to summon the more powerful demons. What happened to you was a series of unfortunate events that happened to pce a lesser demon near the summoning seal.

  You have managed to grasp that concept well. Most beings of this world are not as understanding of the concept, although that is slightly on purpose. The gods don't want the common man to realize how fragile the bance of power is in the world.

  Well, that answers that question. now to see what this curse is.

  [Curse of Sin: Sloth]

  A curse given by a lesser demon who has not fully aligned themselves with one of the Seven Sins, or become part of the Demon Monarch's faction and therefore has no control over what curse is bestowed.

  A [Curse of Sin] is a curse that makes it much more likely to fall to the sin it represents. Sloth makes it much more likely for you to become indolent1Averse to activity, effort, or movement. Habitually zy. Showing an inclination to ziness and most activities will tire you out. If you can surpass your urges you may find that things become much easier to master and that your personal growth is faster.

  The curse will either disappear with the curser's death or with holy energy given by the curser's opposite.

  A demon's curse allows the cursed to feel a general pull towards the demon and vice-versa. This happens as most demons wish to humiliate the cursed even further but some just use it as a way to guarantee a good fight.

  Interesting. So I become zier but I also improve myself faster. Are all sins curses like this? A debuff and buff at the same time? Well, I don't particurly feel zy right now, and that food is calling me.

  I threw off the bnket covering me only to see a pair of legs instead of a tail. Didn't I turn back into my mia form before being smmed into the ground repeatedly? Weird. I also have this cloth wrapped around my lower parts. That was probably done by my rescuer as I can tell that I'm in a city now by looking out of the gss window and seeing the twilight-kissed streets, buildings, and people. No need to dispy all of that for everyone to see.

  I slowly got off the bed, my entire body aching from the beating and whipping I had taken. I slowly left the room and marveled at all the excessive shiny things. Whoever lived here loved everything shiny, that much was obvious. I heard a cheerful humming coming from down the wooden staircase that led to the ground floor. I slowly stumbled my way down the stairs, my body was not fully healed yet and the aches and pains were extreme. What I saw at the bottom was a sight to see.

  Various things were floating around and making food. Some knives were chopping vegetables and greens for a sad, a rge spoon was stirring some sort of drink, and several dishes were being cleaned. They were all presumably controlled by the person who stood over a rge metal pte that glowed with heat and had four steaks cooking on it.

  The cook made me pause midway down the stairs. There were many words I could use to describe her but only one came to mind, divine. She was a head taller than me in my human form, more so with the singur fluted and spiraled bck horn she had that started from her forehead, and curved back towards the middle of her skull before curving upwards. She had short white hair with shimmering gemlike bck scales running down part of her neck. From her forearms down were also covered in the same scales but from her elbow came a bckened spike and her fingers ended in bck draconic talons. She also had scales from halfway down her shins and beyond, her toes ending in smaller but simir cws. She had a long and thick tail with scales of the same color and a white underside that also had evenly spaced angled spikes down it and it ended with a small curved, almost bde-like spike. Her draconic sapphire eyes were transfixed on her cooking as her tail swished back and forth happily, her fanged joyful smile a vast difference from King's sadness. It almost felt like the sun was warmly kissing my scales while I was in her presence.

  I found an empty seat at the table and sat down, watching her cook. Her tight bck crop top and bck hotpants left most of her exposed, much to my delight. I found her luscious curves and ample breasts appealing for some reason, maybe because of the contrast between them, her joyous mood, and her rippling muscles. I don't know personally but something about her drew me into her. I sat there and watched her cook for a few minutes before she finally finished. She pted everything as nicely as she could before stepping back and admiring her work.

  "I should go and see if she will wake up now. Don't want all this food to go to waste after all," she said to herself, not expecting anyone to hear her.

  "I'm already up and waiting," I said, trying to surprise her. I was not expecting her reaction though.

  She turned around to look at me and in a fit of presumably practiced embarrassment, she turned a bit red while covering her horn with both her hands while mumbling something incomprehensible and colpsing to her knees. To my surprise, her body transformed into that of a normal human woman, all draconic features gone, and her white hair turned into a fxen color. Everything else stayed the same. She was still mumbling something incomprehensible while still holding where her horn was and looking like she was about to burst into tears. Well, this isn't good.

  I got out of the chair and approached her. She didn't even register me coming towards her. She seemed like she was about to become a hysteric mess so I did the only thing I could think of. I grasped one of her hands with mine and tried to convey I wasn't doing anything else. This seemed to confuse her as she just looked up at me confused.

  "What are you doing?" she asked cautiously. "Shouldn't you be threatening to kill me?"

  Okay, now I'm very confused. "Why would I do that? If my guess is right you saved me from being stuck out in the wilds. Why would I threaten my savior?"

  "Because I'm a bck and white dragonkin. All I'm supposed to do is bring camity and ruin," she stated as if it were a matter of fact.

  "I don't think that's the case at all. Now get up, we have your home-cooked food to eat, don't we? After that we can talk about who put these lies in your head, okay?"

  She just nodded meekly as she stood up.

  "And why don't you turn back into what you truly are? You're too pretty and cute to stay in this false appearance. Plus I think your scales and horn are quite nice to look at." I said confidently, as it was the truth even if she didn't like it.

  She quickly turned around to look away from me, her ears betraying the fact that she was blushing heavily. She went to grab the pted food while her body slowly transformed into her true appearance. I went back into my seat at the table and waited patiently for her. I had a feeling that this would be an interesting night.

  PgueDaddy