Even more time went by and I found that I had some control over the strange blue strings that appeared when I closed my eyes. If I touched a string it was sensitive to my thoughts but if I touched more than one, I found I could combine thoughts. For example if I touched one string and imagined a fireball it would manifest. If I touched two strings and imagined a fireball, the image would remain suspended in my mind waiting for a second image. I could give it direction, make it bigger or combine it with another element. The strings seemed to give me complete control over reality. It manifested as magic and yet making it happen quickly seemed to take a lot of effort, it also left me exhausted.

  I found myself sitting alone and tired in the cool dampness of the cave listening to water drip from the ceiling and the cold wind howling outside. My clothes had worn out so I went about naked except for my shoes which I had managed to fix in order to protect my feet from the jagged cavern rocks. I had made a magical object that created a pool of lava in the cave by constantly producing heat and this kept me warm and illuminated the cavern. Surprisingly, creating magical objects was quite simpleI had found that the blue lines existed in all objects, so I would close my eyes and find the objects blue lines, grasp them with my mind and impress my desires upon the object. In the case of the heat emitting object I had picked up a stone and turned it into a glass like magic emitting substance. It looked like an obsidian sphere, I then told it what I wanted it to do and it did it with amazing force and efficiency leaving me both stunned and impressed.

  When I tried to impress my magic upon the red sword that I had taken, I found that it was filled with red strings instead of the usual blue ones. I had some trouble figuring out what that meant, I was unable to manipulate them in the end. I had considered discarding the sword but decided to keep it so that I could study it more.

  It seemed to me that the rules of magic were something like, blue strings go through everything and by touching them I could command things to change. But I still wasn't really sure about anything.

  I spent my time teaching myself magic to drown out the emotions that I could feel constantly nagging at me. I woke up in the evening warmed by my hot dry pool of lava, I stood up to stretch and suddenly found myself missing my parents. I hated the emporor for taking them from me, and most of all I hated the hero who seemed to cause me pain just by existing. I would have my revenge one-day. I would wipe out the human race. I sat against the wall of the cavern and sobbed quietly. Days came and went but the pain stayed and nothing I did seemed to dispel it.

  Sometimes I would be fine going about my business day by day, when suddenly I would remember everything that happened to me and the pain was so much that it knocked me over.

  Some days it was so much that I couldn't even leave my cave.

  My parents didn't deserve to die like that. I didn't deserve to lose them at Thirteen years. I missed learning my father's trade, I missed chatting with my mother about my future. Even if I was to blame the heroes and the empire couldn’t be overlooked. I would have my revenge.

  I looked down and saw that my fingers were digging into the cave floor, They had dug into stone leaving a mark and were now sore and bleeding. I sucked my fingers and cradled them. The only thing that seemed to make me forget the pain was leaning magic and there was one other thing.

  What kind of world did I live in? My parents hadn't taught me much, but the king and his evil heroes and the emeror above him, They came to take my life because of the day on which I was born… What was a demon lord?

  My head started to hurt as the memories that I had blocked out started to flood back in. When I first used the magic at my parents house, my memories from a previous life that I had forgotten returned to me instantly. I didn't accept them as real and blocked them out but during my time in the cave I soon realized that they were a part of me that was just as real as my own life memories.

  I recalled from my past life that a demon lord was usually an evil ruler of monsters, The fact that humans were so afraid of it means it's probably real but I couldn't be that since I didn't have any monsters.

  I thought for a while about how cool it would be to lead an army of monsters against the so called good humans who had rewarded my parents with murder for leading honest lives.

  Well enough dark thoughts. I switched my focus back to the magic. I had found that while magic seemed unlimited, there were only certain things I could do with it.

  I had broken it down into several different forms such as transmutation, elemental, spatial, and I could sense that there were many more but I had yet to discover them.

  I would need to be better fed to drink deep of the well of magic since it seemed not only to drain me of energy but if I didn't have it, the magic would suck the life right out of my body.

  A new day dawned and I hadn't even realized that I had fallen asleep since there was no night or day inside the cave. Though to me night was day and day was night since I disliked the sun. I crawled out of the cave on all fours and greeted my wolf friends who were there as always at this time of night.

  There were two of them that showed up around the same time. I didn't give them names because it was meaningless to me. I pet them as they dropped bloody meat in front of me. They were such nice friends. I ate the meat and played with them for a while before they were on their way. I hurried back into the cave before I froze to death, I couldn't even feel my legs or feet by the time I went back in. I sat next to my lava lake as I always did and focused on learning the magic again.

  Why… Why was I dropped into this world on my own with no guides or instructions. Why was I born at such a time that the king would send his men after me. Why was I so unlucky. Why was my last life so unlucky. Why didn't I have a guide or some goddess offering me cheat codes. Why was my life one of misery. I started to sob and cry.

  “Stop that, you/re disturbing my sleep! “ a girl's voice said from somewhere but when I looked around there was no one there.

  “Down here” the voice said and I looked down to see a small cute fairy. She was about a foot tall, completely naked and totally adorable! She had purple hair and dusky skin, fairy wings and…. No Parts down there… She was completely smooth.

  “What… Are you?” I asked as I stared in wonder.

  “I'm the spirit that you summoned when you started using magic in this cave. There are actually a lot of other spirits that you called here but somehow I've become connected to you. Your body is my home and I sleep in there when you're recharging your mana. “

  “Nothing you said makes any sense” I said to the strange fairy as I rubbed the back of my head and tried to hide my confusion.

  “When you cast spells it messes with all kinds of stuff and summons or awakens spirits as a side effect. In my case I found myself attached to your body in such a way that I can't leave and even if I could, I don't want to!” She said and stuck her tongue out at me. ” When you sleep and regenerate mana, I absorb the excess mana that would normally be dispursed from your aura. Over your time here I grew stronger and now I can manifest an appearence and talk to you. “

  “Well OK, what's your name then? “ I said realizing that there was no point in arguing with her.

  “ I don't know bestie I just got here from the spirit realm and while I know all kinds of things and have a spirit name I think you should name me. “ the little fairy said.

  Hmmmm…. This reminded me of how wizards sometimes would have a familiar pet that would help them out with spells and things, perhaps that was what this was.

  “I will call you cat then, since I think you can work as a catalyst to strengthen my spells. “ I said to the fairy as she sort of pranced around me.

  “Cat! I love it, but if I turn into a cat stop me. My form isn't stuck to just one thing, as I grow and live here in the world my form can change to pretty much anything but this is the form that I find most pleasing right now and that comes naturally to me. “ she said

  “ Cat do you know anything about the world that I am living in? “

  “I am afraid I don't know a lot about it since I'm not a native. I do know a little bit though. It's divided into humans and monsters. Evil humans live with the monsters and good humans won't live anywhere near monsters. The good humans want all the evil humans and monsters dead, the evil humans and monsters want the good humans to leave them alone. I think that is about all that I know. Now if you'll excuse me all this talking has tired me out and I need to go back into my house. “

  “No wait! “ I shouted as the faerie flew right into my chest and disappeared. Well so much for that I guess. ‘

  I felt that I was getting a comfortable control over magic, it would soon be time for me to return out to the human lands and figure out how best to go about getting my revenge. It was time to make a game plan.

  The first thing that I would need to do is get out of the land of the hateful empire. The second thing was to build an army. Not just so I can insulate myself from attacks but also so I could crush the kings men beneath my heel and perhaps even conquer the kingdom itself… That way I could end their nonsense about demon lords that drives them to slaughter innocent families.

  Now I found mself in my cave musing over the red sword. I attempted to pluck apart the red strings the sword was made of but it was seemed to be an impossible task. They were woven so tightly together that no matter how I tried they seemed to resist me. I wondered if the red strings represented some opposing force to the blue strings. I had never encountered red strings anywhere else before. I attempted using force. I held onto some blue strings and the red strings at the same time and concentrated. I felt the energy change and transfer. I closed my eyes as I acted as a circuit transferring energy from the larger mass of blue strings I had wrapped myself in, to the tight knit mass of red strings that the sword was made from. The red strings slowly untangled themselves like a ball of yawn unraveling and then they turned into black strings as they revealed something that they had been protecting in the center, it was the thing that they were wrapped around.

  A demon lunged at me and I was forced to erect a barrier to protect myself. My fairy friend popped out

  “What did you do! That's a demon, we need to get away fast!” it shouted and buzzed In a panic.

  I ignored the fairy and focused on the demon in front of me as it attacked my barrier again and again. The thing was red and small it had leathery skin and horns that came out of various parts of its body. Minus sign goat like eyes and made of muscles, a long prehensile tail and claws that were knives. It bellowed fire and radiated malice.

  I held onto the strings with my mind and I quickly cast a fire spell, that had no effect what so ever, so I blasted the demon with a cone of ice and that seemed to slow it down, I then created a wave of a thousand knives and threw them at the demon all at once. It screamed and fell to the ground wounded but not dead.

  Next I conjured gravity holding the demon to the ground.

  “I bid the kneel.“ I said to the demon and opened a telepathic pathway to its mind.

  Why do you seek to kill me? I asked it calmly.

  “I dreamed that I was a sword awash in blood and I fed on the blood of all those who the sword killed. My appetite is insatiable, you disturbed my slumber. Without the sword I will not get such easy meals.” The demon said as it looked at me with awe."That radiance… Could it be? “

  “I don't know what you're talking about, I can place you back into a sword where you can get easy meals if you like, but first, swear an oath of loyalty to me. “ I told the demon without breaking eye contact.

  “Yes my lord, you are my natural ruler who I have been waiting millennia for. I am yours to command. “ The demon said still pinned to the ground.

  “Very well then demon, I will seal you back in the sword but this time it will be a sword of my choosing and making. “ I said to the demon and released the gravity spell.

  I weaved the black strings together and recalled the time that I had spent forging swords at my father's side, I also recalled my favorite swords from my past life. I carefully weaved the black strings into a finely crafted oversized Nodachi.

  I opened my eyes. Everything that had happened with the strings was completely invisible on the material plain. I could only see the strings with my mind however the effects that they had on the material world were quite real.

  The red sword that had been used to kill my family by the hand of the wicked hero had vanished. It was replaced with a massive jet black Nodachi, curved like a katana and sharp enough to cut through anything, I was amazed at how the sword seemed to absorb the light, unfortunately the sword was bigger than me.

  I looked closely at the sword and I realized that the black was less the color of the sword and more an absence of light. To make It even more interesting it was also somehow shiny in places.

  I tried to lift the sword and found that it was light as air somehow, but when I set it down I could tell that it had real weight to it, somehow the sword was only light for me, meaning I would be able to swing it with its full weight but I wouldn't be effected by more than about three pounds of it. Now this was a sword fit for a king.

  “I am yours to command master, but don't forget to feed me” The sword said to me, it seemed to speak by vibrating the air around it.

  “You will be well fed when the time comes, blade of darkness, but be patient. “ I told the sword as I considered how I would carry a blade that was so much bigger than myself.

  “Use your magic to turn me into a pendant” The sword suggested.

  “How do you know so much about magic?

  I asked the sword.

  “I am a demon, I am skilled in the ways of magic and the powers of hell. Because I am a lesser demon my skills are limited but I do know the basics, now make haste!” The demonic sword said.

  I close my eyes and mentally grabbed a blue string and imagined the sword as a pendant sealed inside of a chunk of amber. When I opened my eyes, instead of a black Nodachi, an amber pendent with a black Nodachi sealed inside rested on the stone before me. I picked up the warm to the touch pendent off of the cold stone and tied it around my neck.

  Despite loving nothing more than the quiet solitude of the cave it seemed the very air around me was alive with things and it was more or less impossible for me to fully escape interactions.

  My past life had been a rotten one, I was in many ways disappointed that trauma had awoken those dark memories. I would have preferred if they went back to sleep, but they were here to stay.

  I remembered another world with cars and plains and terrifying weapons of war. If I had to choose, the world I was in was much more simple. There were no mechanical monstrosities and the worst weapons of war I had encountered so far were the so called heroes. I had more respect for the demon in the sword than those wicked men masquerading as good. The fact that a demon came out of a heroes sword told the whole story.

  These heroes only pretended to be good, I didn't know what they really wanted but it was safe to assume it was power. All evil men craved power.

  I could feel my old persona mixing with my new one, I was only thirteen or fourteen years. I didn't know anymore since I had lost track of time in the cave, but I no longer felt like a child.

  It didn't matter. I may delay my revenge longer still, the cave was peaceful and I had befriended the animals in the area. I enjoyed the solitude but I didn't have any clothes and I didn't know how to create any with magic. Most of the magic I could learn seemed to be destructive in nature.