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I looked at the man that has his hand on my shoulder. He seemed relaxed, almost casual, like everything here was just a game he had already won.
I couldn't get an accurate read on his strength. The only thing he was letting me see was that he had more energy than me. For pulling that off, there were three possibilities, either he was far stronger than me, he was much more skilled than me in control, or the worst one, he was stronger and had more control.
As I observed this feature, I remembered one of the only things Valentine taught me, as he was far more occupied with Luminous.
"Lilith, remember, in this world there are four groups of people you can't hope to win against with your current abilities. First there is the true dragon, it is obvious, as they are the strongest species in the world and are more like natural disasters. There are the three fragments of the mad titan Ashura, Dagruel, Glassord, and Fenn. Even separated, their strength is formidable. There are also the seven angels of origin, but they are most of the time in heaven, so I doubt you will see them. And finally there are the primordial daemons, the other half of the angel of origin. I don't know the abilities of six of them, but for their leader, the primordial of red, named Guy. Just know one thing, if he comes to you, he is either interested in you or you have done something to displease him, in all cases, it is not a good thing."
So the person in front of me is Guy, the primordial of red. I should be trembling in fear, like the other succubus. After all, he is clearly displeased with my interference with the human nation.
But in that moment I only wanted to fight him. Beyond its strength and the fear it inspired in me, I could feel the emotional intensity that I only felt in Luminous.
No, even more than that. I could sense his incredible amount of pride, the pride to be the strongest and to be able to do whatever he wants.
My new unique skill that I acquired just a moment ago was already activated at full power after so long. I was truly happy to find someone that could give me so much emotion. I just ate 100 000 people's worth of emotion directly from their souls, and the man beside me was already giving me more emotion and of better quality.
"So you didn't answer. Are you the one responsible for this mess?"
I looked at him. I need to find an answer that will not result in my death. But honestly at that point I don't think I can find something. I will have to fight him to the death, but nothing says that you need to be disrespectful to people who want to kill you, so I respond with all the respect someone of his stature deserves.
"Before I respond to your question and we start to kill each other. Can I ask what the fucking primordial of red is doing here? Shouldn't you be destroying kingdoms and fighting heroes?"
He looked surprised, probably by the fact I wasn't cowering in fear and was still smiling. He smiled again, this time a genuine smile.
"You know who I am and still have the nerve to ask me questions?" His tone suggested he was angry at my disrespect, but the smirk on his face made me think he was interested in me and was just faking his anger to see my reaction.
"Why would I be afraid? Sure, you are probably capable of killing me, but I will get to fight you and eat your overflowing pride, and if we don't fight, we can become friends, which means we can fight whenever we want." I looked at him in the eyes with a maniac smile on my face, eager to have a fight with someone that could perhaps fill the void in my soul, even if just a little.
"It's a win-win scenario for me, don't you think?" He looked at me, in disbelief at my reasoning, and laughed for a good ten seconds before continuing to speak.
"You know it's rare this day to find someone so eager to fight me. Even more one that has enough strength to offer me a good fight and is not just so stupid they can't see that I could kill them with just a look." I see that we are on the same wavelength here, but the succubi around are starting to get on my nerves with their occasional squeals of terror.
They are distracting me in my discussion with my new friend and will get in the way of our fight.
"You all, go back to the castle. Don't you see I am having a conversation here?" They flinched at my word. Slowly they turned their head at me. Their face had a look of fear that was understandable considering the situation.
"B...but, Lady Lilith, we c...can't let you a...alone with this m...monster." I looked at her, my smile having disappeared from my face, replaced with my natural look, the one I didn't use for many years even in my past life, hidden by a fake expression and constant smile after the first time I tasted emotions.
The face of someone who doesn't care if the world is burning in front of them, apathetic to the suffering of others as long as it permits them to be happy.
It is my true face, without mask or artifice, just plain old me. "Go back to the castle, or I will eat all the emotions from your soul. Maybe like that I will get subordinates that listen to my command."
The fear they felt for the primordial beside me was overpowered by the one they felt at seeing my true face and my menace.
They immediately flew the fastest they could to the castle. "Now can you tell your subordinates to also go somewhere else? I don't want anyone interfering in our fight."
He continued to look at me, even more intrigued now that he saw a glimpse of my true expression that was immediately replaced with a smile of anticipation at the fight.
"I really made a good decision by not just killing you without having a little chat." He looked behind him, where I could sense two formidable presences, weaker than Luminous but still impressive. "You two follow the other one to the castle and wait for me there, but don't kill anyone."
The two of them immediately followed the order and flew in the direction of the succubus. He looked back at me after giving his order.
"So, I still need some information. I got your name, Lilith, but I still want to know more, like what are you, and why did you start a battle between the human nations?"
I started to smile again and answered his question even if I wanted to fight him now. But I could wait a little.
"Well, for starters, I am a succubus, more precisely the first succubus. The girls you saw were also succubus that were born from my genetic material and energy." He didn't seem surprised by my race, since he probably expected me to be a new race.
"I see, so you are the new project of Valentine. Well, you are at least more powerful and fun than the other ancestors."
I didn't really care about how strong I was, but I still took the compliment. After all, it's not every day you are complimented by a primordial.
"Thank you, you are not bad yourself, but let's get back on track. The reason why I started this conflict is due to my race. You see, we don't need food to live, but to grow stronger, the best way is to eat the emotion of someone. The more emotion there is and the stronger the person is, the better."
He observed me searching to see if I was telling the truth or if I was hiding anything from him. "I see, but why did you need to cause a war? Couldn't you have waited some century for you to naturally evolve? And why did you take their souls if you only need their emotions?"
I stopped myself from laughing at the idea of me waiting for emotions to naturally get absorbed. I will probably go insane in some years.
"For normal members of my race it could have been a good option, but I crave emotion to a degree you can't even imagine. As for the souls, I can absorb the emotion from the soul of someone, getting even more emotion."
He had a look of understanding and of pity? Why would he pity me? I am probably the happiest person there is in this world.
"It seems there is no other way then. I would need to kill you. It's a shame, after so many years of boredom, I finally find someone worth my interest, and my job forces me to kill them. Such a pity."
"Wait, why would you need to kill me?" I am genuinely curious. I mean, I knew he would want to fight me and probably kill me if he grew bored of the fight. But for him to want to kill me because I killed some human?
"It's my job to make sure the humans don't kill themselves in war or that they are killed by a third party, and with your need for emotions, I will need to kill you."
I looked at him, trying to see if it was a joke. Who gave the job of making sure that the humans aren't killed to a big bad primordial that probably wouldn't have any problem doing it himself if he thought it was fun?
"Who is the one that thought it was a good idea to give you this job?"
He looked at me, offended by me implying it was a bad idea to give him this job. "It was Veldanava. But why wouldn't it be a good idea to give me this role? I did a pretty good job this past century."
I almost laughed at the idea of him doing a good job at keeping humans alive. That was like saying it is a good idea to let the guard of your sheep to a pack of wolves.
"Please. You, helping humans? The only way I could see you doing your job is destroying any nation that starts too many conflicts."
He didn't react at my word, but I could sense him becoming slightly embarrassed. "So I was right, uhh."
"It works, so why would I change methods? And you are in no position to lecture me. You probably would have done the same."
'Why would he say that? How dare he accuse me? I would never have done such a thing! I would only make them start a civil war, killing most of their population and making sure they can't start conflicts. I am not a monster'
"Okay, I get you needing to protect them, but do you really need to kill me? I would like to stay alive."
"Well, if you can stop causing conflicts to get your daily dose of emotion, I could probably let you go free this time. After all, I would probably have destroyed this nation in some years since they were starting too much war these days."
I exhaled a sigh of relief and started to think of alternatives to massacring thousands of innocents to get my fix.
As I was thinking of an option that doesn't involve too much death, my eyes stopped on Guy. I smiled at the idea I just had.
"I got the perfect solution. It doesn't involve the death of anyone, would get me even more emotion, of better quality, and you will like it."
He looked intrigued at the idea. "Oh, what is this idea? I am curious now. You better not disappoint me."
"It's pretty simple, really. You fight me every time I need to eat emotions. I get to eat your high-quality pride, and you get a good fight to alleviate your boredom."
He took some time to think even if I knew he would accept. He is far too bored to refuse a proposal like this one.
"I will accept, but you will have to pass a test to see if you are good enough to give me a 'good fight,' as you said."
"A test hum... Well, I guess it's fair. So what will it be?" He flew away from me and got 10 meters away from me. He let his aura out, which, if I hadn't already destroyed everything around us, would have corrupted the environment with all the magicule he was emitting.
"It's simple. We fight until you die or you prove to me you are worth me fighting you. Sounds good?"
My smile threatened to split my face, something that didn't happen since I killed the rapist in my previous life.
"As long as I am fighting you, I am fine." I also let my aura run wild. It didn't reach his level, but our levels weren't so far apart.
That was probably what he wanted me to think, but I wasn't so dumb. "I appreciate you going easy on me. But I can manage to fight you at full power, you know?"
He laughed at my word, happy that I could feel he was hiding his true strength, something not many people could feel, and seeing the amount of control he had on his energy, which was even better than mine.
"You truly are good. Only my subordinates and Veldanava know about that. But I can't do it. My true strength will cause too much damage, and I couldn't appreciate our fight."
I understood he probably wanted us to fight at equal strength and determine the victor based on control. But it was frustrating for me to not be able to give him a good fight, meaning I wouldn't appreciate all his emotions to the fullest. "If I see them, I will force you to use your full strength!"
I launched myself at him, starting the most important fight of my life, determining if I would be able to continue enjoying this life or if I would die here and now.