Scarlet

The instant I see Gramps taking a step forwards, I control the strange new ‘muscle’ in my eyes. Letting the energy in the symbols within my eyes flood out again, forcing everyone nearby to kneel once more. Except for Isaac for some reason.

Since that doesn’t work on him for some reason, I simply directly take control of the blood within Isaac’s body. Forcing the man to stand straight right in front of us while ignoring the glare he’s trying hard to send my way but failing since I’m controlling him.

Then I cross my arms very carefully so as to not send everyone flying before stating, “I don’t really have the patience for any of this, so here’s how things will go.” I glance at Isaac. “You will behave, tell us your story, and stop being an asshole. And you will never call a blood lycan a ‘filthy mutt’ ever again or I’ll toss you to Gramps myself.” I turn to Gramps without bothering to give Isaac’s reaction to my words any attention. “And you will calm down. We need the information he’s going to give us so you can’t kill him.”

And with that, I let go of them both once again. Relaxing my control over that new energy muscle thing.

To my pleasant surprise, Gramps calms down and Isaac does so as well. His face just returns to his usual mostly expressionless albeit slightly arrogant state.

Interesting. Guess brute force does work on the old man.

Gramps probably just listened because I said it and he already knew he shouldn’t act like that. But habits die hard I guess, and he was a demon of pride for thousands of years.

So being called a ‘filthy mutt’ wasn’t something he was used to and could tolerate.

On another note, I’ve noticed this before, but…

“Do you dislike demons?” I ask while tilting my head and directly meeting Isaac’s eyes.

He answers while meeting my eyes in return, “Yes. I dislike all humans and demons.”

I blink at that in surprise, despite having suspected it.

“You dislike both humans and demons?” I repeat before asking, “Why?”

The man answers plainly and rather bluntly, “Humans and demons are two of the creatures in the universe most likely to act on their emotions. They’re baseless and lazy creatures who take the easiest and simplest way out of any situation.” His gaze turns to the distance. As if he’s looking at some city far away. “And they turn against anyone who is different from them, fearing them as a monster without bothering to learn about them.”Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Hmm. That last sentence was said with a hint of emotion in it. Something I don’t generally see from this old man.

It’s weird.

Did he… experience that himself? And where’s he looking?

I look off in the direction he’s looking, and so do the others. But all I find in that direction is the city surrounding us.

Although I can sense far beyond that, and when I do, I realize the direction he’s looking is in the direction of the capital.

Out of curiosity, I close my eyes and focus on my hearing. Letting it expand to cover the planet as I focus on the discussions of people in the capital.

I listen and listen and listen some more until I find conversations all across the city about a single subject. Not to mention some news channels discussing it.

And those conversations have me opening my eyes and furrowing my brows.

“Have you heard? That thing is in the neighborhood!” “Seriously? Why is a void creature even allowed to walk around unsupervised?!” “I know, right?! He should be-”

After listening to one conversation after another all talking about that same bullshit, I let out a sigh and turn my attention back to Isaac. Who I find staring at me.

When he sees me meeting his gaze again, he continues speaking, “The base instinct of humans and demons is to dislike anything that is different. Whether they’re weaker or stronger than themselves. Whether they look different on the inside or the outside. It’s disgusting.”

He does have a bit of a point. It’s rather sad and twisted how humans tend to react to things like this.

I feel bad for Anthony and what he’s going through right now. The void creature and human hybrid.

When did that even start? I know it wasn’t this bad when I left to hunt void creatures.

Is it because I left to go hunt void creatures? Leaving the defenses on Earth to be far weaker and causing a lot more casualties to happen?

So they started to take their frustration out on the only sapient ‘void creature’ they could find?

It’s entirely possible. Taking out their frustrations on non-sapient creatures whose sole purpose is to destroy and kill doesn’t exactly do much for their hatred. No matter how sad that fact is.

Things were different for me when they found out I was part demon. I had Mother who took the heat off of me. I had my own great achievements that saved Earth and the humans on it numerous times already. And I had a prophecy that many people knew about.

Anthony has none of that. He has no powerful family members. No great achievements. And nothing to back him or support him at all.

So he’s an easy target for that sort of people.

I frown as I think about it.

Maybe I should help him out a little…

For old times’ sake.

“You want to know who I am? What I’ve done? How it was done?” Isaac suddenly starts talking, sounding like he’s getting worked up a bit. “Fine. I’ll tell you.”

I narrow my eyes slightly at him.

“My full name is Isaac Cross val Knight, and I am a human originally from Tartarus two thousand five hundred years ago,” Isaac states with a scowl on his face directed at Gramps. “And it is true. I created the System alongside Titania. But we had different goals. While she wanted to save the universe…” he turns to look at me and genuinely smiles for the first time since I’ve met him. “…I wanted to create a being superior to humans and demons. Superior to any of the sapients of this universe.”

I feel uncomfortable with the look in his eyes now. Very uncomfortable.

It’s like a fanatic in a way, but different.

“I wanted to create a god,” he finishes with that same smile on his face.

One filled with both ‘grandfatherly love’ and fanaticism.

Well that’s unexpected.