"I'm still shocked I actually hatched from an egg."
These thoughts ran through my head as I stood at the window, staring up at the sky.
No sun hung there. Instead, a massive, menacing eye glared down from the violet expanse, while gargoyles wheeled through the air where doves should have been.
Beneath it all sprawled the sharp, twisted skyline of the city.
"What the hell am I?"
I might be a demon, but I knew next to nothing about this world and everyone called me worthless trash.
"I'm a pathetic weakling."
That's why I stayed locked away inside this enormous fortress, treated like a complete moron. Even worse, I was the weakling who could hardly string a sentence together properly.
Thirteen years old now. At an age when every demon should understand the basics of life, I still lacked the simplest common sense and knowledge.
The past few years I'd poured everything into learning the harsh language of Hell, yet I remained far behind everyone else my age.
"Damn it."
Just thinking about it made my stomach turn. Why the hell did I carry memories from another life? Without them, I could have grown up as a normal demon without all this confusion.
Only heavy sighs left my lips.
Why these memories? Which existence was truly mine? Did souls even exist, and was a person's mind bound to one?
The questions just kept piling up, heavier than before.
Demons reached adulthood at fourteen.
I had just turned thirteen.
I wasn't sure what exactly would change, but I knew enough to dread the moment the "child" label vanished in this brutal, merciless world.
"They'll throw me straight onto the battlefield as cannon fodder."
That much I understood, even if I knew almost nothing else.
Kids were only shielded so they could one day become soldiers. A useless case like me would obviously end up as the lowest grunt in Hell, tossed into the endless war against Heaven's angels.
"Might as well work out."
Basic exercise was the only thing I could control right now. Being a demon meant my body had already grown to match an adult human's, but strength still eluded me.
I was weak.
Ether was everything to demons—that dark force that powered magic.
Mine was almost nonexistent.
I barely knew how to train or increase it. That left me feeble in every way. My physical strength sat at average human levels, while my ether was even lower. Completely screwed.
"Seriously, this sucks."
I started the routine immediately.
If I skipped even this, I'd break. Body training helped a little, but without ether, demons were nothing. I had no idea how I'd survive.
"Hoo! Hoo! Damn it!"
In the cramped training space beside my room, I pushed through the lifts until my lungs burned. Worries churned in my mind, but I shoved them aside and kept grinding through the pain.
How long did it take?
"Khaaaak!"
Finally done.
Sweat covered every inch of me.
"Whew... Mirror time."
I stepped up to the glass and stared at my reflection.
Pale skin, ears a bit elongated like an elf's, eyes pure white as if blind, and a pair of onyx horns. Aside from that, I looked mostly human.
Typical demon.
Open my mouth and the fangs were longer than any human's, but I wasn't some vampire. Black hair streaked with white and yellow framed my face.
"Total freak."
Still, the body and features weren't bad at all.
"I like what I see."
I almost punched the mirror in frustration, then caught myself and turned toward the tiny attached shower to clean up.
Knock-knock.
A rap sounded at the door.
"Yes? Who is it?"
What the hell? No one ever came to my room. As far back as I could remember, the maids and everyone else in the fortress had ignored me completely, treating me like the weakest loser around.
So who would bother now?
The door creaked open before I could reach it.
A fresh, clean scent flooded the space at the same moment.
The figure who stepped inside said,
"Knull Belial. Correct?"
Jet-black bobbed hair, a bit taller than me—nearing 180 cm. She carried the same seductive demon beauty, but right then her looks weren't what mattered.
"Yes, that's me—Knull Belial."
Her horns.
They stood out, large and impressive.
I'd spent years around other kids here in the fortress, so I knew the rule: the bigger and more branched the horns, the stronger the demon.
Hers were larger than any I'd ever seen—thick as a bull's. Whoever she was, she ranked high.
"But... who are you?"
I dipped my head slightly, shoulders up, hands clasped in front of me, the proper submissive stance, and asked as politely as I could. She felt stronger than the Hell instructor who drilled the young ones.
In Hell, power ruled.
She didn't answer right away. Her gaze locked onto me, intense, before she finally spoke.
"Imp, Mother summons you. Get ready and head to this location."
She thrust a pass and a folded map into my hands.
"Yes, understood."
I took them automatically, bowing even lower.
Imp?
Was she my older sister?
It clicked. Almost every demon around here had hatched from eggs laid by Mother. We all shared blood. Still, being called "Imp" by someone like her felt weird.
I didn't dare ask anything more. My courage wasn't nearly big enough to question a demon with horns that massive.
"Then I'll leave you to it."
Before I could react, she spun on her heel and walked out. I never even caught her name.
Alone again.
"Uh..."
Wait.
What the hell?
Mother?
"Mother actually summoned me?"
That's exactly what had happened.
* * *
The Overlord Elara Noctis Belial.
The full name of the demoness who had given birth to me.
Mother.
Overlord Elara—one of the supreme rulers of this endless Hell. I'd only glimpsed her face maybe twice in my entire life.
She was stunning enough to be called a goddess.
Black-and-yellow hair, massive matching horns, and a body curved with raw sensuality. Every demon woman carried that magnetic allure, but hers hit harder than most.
The Goddess of Darkness, that's what she was. Her image had burned itself into my mind forever. Probably instinct—something every child of hers carried from birth.
She stood among the handful of true overlords in Hell. Rumors said she was incredibly powerful, ruthless, and terrifying. No surprise she controlled such huge stretches of territory.
Her strength came from the ether eggs she produced.
From what I'd learned, Mother was a mix of succubus and baphomet blood. She laid eggs on her own, no mate needed, and roughly half the population here had hatched from them—making them all her direct subordinates.
"That's why I've hardly ever seen her."
She produced a lot of eggs, but they weren't equal. Low-grade ones went straight to the hatcheries. Workers would incubate them and ship the young off for basic training or simple service in her domain.
High-grade eggs, though, she handled personally—pouring her own ether into them during incubation. The strongest demons came from those carefully tended ones.
"Hmm."
First memory: the moment I hatched.
Everything was blurry, but I recalled fighting through darkness until light broke in, and there she sat—a breathtaking demon woman watching me.
That was sighting number one.
Second time, years back. She appeared before a huge crowd of us young demons and spoke. I hadn't learned the Hell tongue well enough yet, so her words were lost on me.
Those two times. Nothing more.
Until now, when this same woman had called for me.
"There's no logical reason for this, right?"
Why summon me at all?
An overlord who created endless eggs and treated her young like disposable tools wouldn't value any single child. Stories said low-grade offspring lived and died without ever laying eyes on her.
"Why me?"
I tried to piece it together.
Almost no reason came to mind... except that I'd seen her face right after hatching. Which suggested...
"Maybe I came from a higher-grade egg?"
Then why the hell was I so useless?
Why did I have almost zero ether?
None of it made sense.
"Damn it all."
I glanced down at the map and pass in my grip.
"When Mother calls, you answer."