As she entered her house she fixed her dress. If she gave a bad first impression to her parents’ friends, they would probably hit her once again.

  “Oh you must be Iko! Pleased to meet you!” As she entered a man who was seating on the sofa talked to her.

  That’s my parents’ sofa...

  She looked at her parents, quietly asking for permission to speak up.

  At her mother’s silent approval, she answered “Hi...”

  “You are a shy one, aren’t you? Don’t worry, We don’t bite!” He said while doing a small laugh.

  Why does he scream so much.

  “Sorry... Y-you are?” She asked him, the least the man could have done was tell her his name.

  “Oh my bad! I completely forgot to present myself! My name is Jake Lake” He said while taking off his weird shaped hat.

  A-A last name?! HE’S A NOBLE?!

  “I-I didn’t know you were a noble! I’m so sorry!” She quickly bowed at the man.

  Mother and Father are going to get so mad at me!

  “You don't need to worry about anything child! You are the daughter of an old friend! Hey Rachel, come meet Iko!” He called for someone that was on the back room with her father.

  Using the time that the so-called Rachel was wasting while walking the few rooms, she analyzed the man, he looked old, but had that elegant tone to his age, he was gripping a stick, but like a fancy one.

  His hair had become gray already, but he seemed to be in good health.

  He was wearing an expensive suit, it was stainless and looked really resistant.

  “I’m here! Let me meet the small angel!” A female voice said from the hallway, where a gray-haired woman appeared while holding her dress to walk better, the dress was a light green with a few patterns of white spirals.

  The funny thing, neither of them had eyes.

  She wondered why her parents didn’t say anything, but she wouldn’t dare to comment about their friends.

  "Oh you are so pretty little one!" The woman said while putting her hand on her head.

  Don’t touch me... I hate this feeling... this sick feeling.

  She felt sick, as always, that sick feeling whenever someone touched her, the only exception was Aiden and her parent’s.

  With Aiden, whenever he touched her, she felt warm, not rejected, but accepted.

  With her parent’s, their touch had 2 forms, when they hit her, she felt sad, but not because they were hitting her, she felt sad because she done something that made them mad. The other variant of their touch was the one she loved the most, when they touched her not to hit her, it didn’t matter if it was just before the beating, but that touch made her feel truly accepted by them, the only people she wanted to be accepted by were her parents, and that touch gave her that feeling.

  After a minute of her sickening touch, the woman finally let go of her hair.

  “Hi little one! My name is Rachel!” She said while offering her hand to her.

  She looked at her own hands, completely dirty and faint traces of blood normal people would not see. Then she looked at the woman hand, clean, empty of any type of dust.

  As if reading her mind, the woman grabbed her hands by force and did the usual normal people greeting.

  “So your name is Iko right?”

  Sickening...

  “Yeah...” She didn’t want to be rude, but she was 10 seconds of physical contact away from puking.

  Fortunately, Rachel let go rather quickly.

  “Iko dear, why don’t you go to your room? Your father and I will be there rather soon, we promise” Her mother said, she knew that affection was fake, but she loved those words.

  “Sure!” She fake smiled and walked towards her room, where her father was still messing around with a strange sphere.

  “Hey, you useless piece of ice, come help me turn this shit off! It won't cool off” He said low enough the guests wouldn’t hear.

  “Sure!” She loved to help her parents when they asked for it, she felt more loved! More needed!

  She walked towards her father with a fake smile once again, even if she loved them, she couldn’t bring herself to truly smile at them.

  “Freeze this shit slowly, otherwise it might blow up and kill us all” Her father said while backing away.

  She moved her hand closer to the sphere, sphere that was clearly made out of something hot, as her hand touched the sphere, her skin started melting, a faint hissing sound surrounded the room, and a faint smell of cooked meat invaded her nose.

  And yet, she felt nothing.

  She felt a little disappointed, hoping to feel it’s heat, but nothing.

  I better stop messing around or father will get mad!

  Ever since Aiden first said her powers were cool, she started using them more and now she could at least control how fast it froze.

  She sighed, cold air leaving her mouth, and talked.

  “Freeze” By saying what she wanted, it became easier to control.

  The temperature around the room plummeted, or so she guessed by how her father reacted, it always felt cold for her.

  As her skin and flesh stopped melting, she took her hand off the sphere, a hissing sound leaving the sphere as she took her hand away.

  Her father grabbed a nearby stick and touched the ball, when the stick didn’t catch fire, he grabbed the sphere.

  “Thanks, but now stay here and don’t get out, don’t want my friends to see you anymore than they should, you would give them nightmares” He said as he leaved.

  H-he thanked me? He actually thanked me?

  She smiled, a true smile like the one she had with Aiden, her father had actually thanked her for something she did! If only they could stay longer with her... but they have to take care of their friends...

  “Mμo ?ɑλ? ?μ?λ cɑu'? ?b?uq wo?? ??w? ???μ λon?”

  What?

  “I-is someone there?” She asked quietly, after she had closed the door with her injured hand, it was starting to get a faint color of black.

  “?n?? ?ɑ? ?o? ?μ?w ?o ??ɑ??... ?μ?u ??????!”

  “W-what are you saying? I can’t understand”

  “I’m sorry, I forgot we talk different languages, what I said was, who says they can’t spend more time with you? Just wait until they leave and then strike!”

  She could understand the voice now, but it still sounded... wrong.

  “Strike? What do you mean? W-where are you?” She was getting scared, a strange voice talking to her, saying things like to attack others?

  “Don’t act innocent, you know better than I do what you want, you want your parent’s attention don’t you? I can help you”

  I want.. Their attention? Yes, yes I do! Who wouldn’t want their parent’s attention?!

  “You can... help me? How?”

  “I will make the stupid guests leave the house, after that, you just have to go out by the window, wait a few minutes... and then take care of them! Easy right?”

  “Y-you want me to kill my parents friends? I-i can’t do that! They would hate me!”

  “Only if you get caught, don’t worry, I’ll make sure they don’t, you just need a final push...”

  A hand landed on her shoulder, she quickly turned around to find another girl with a similar age there, with pure black hair and purple eyes.

  Beautifull purple eyes...

  The girl grabbed her head and forced Iko to look at her eyes.

  “You don't have to worry about anything... I will take care of your fears”

  Her pupils started spinning, weird black, green, and purple cubes appearing around her eyes.

  “You only need to look into my eyes”

  Lilia felt confused as she was transported inside the tower, after all, there were only demons around her, and there were a lot more races outside.

  But other than confusion, she was also uncomfortable, since she was the only demon princess. Whenever someone saw her, they would bow and then walk away the most respectfully they could.

  Haaa... not that I dislike being treated like a princess but is not like I’m a tyrant and order you to get executed at the slightest offense!

  Then, a system panel appeared before her, and she guessed everyone else too.

  The creation... of our race?

  The ground cracked, the walls cracked, the roof she didn’t even see cracked.

  And then, it broke, the previous white room that seemed infinite broke.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  What came next was beautiful, it was a city filled with humans to the brim, they were in some kind of festival, the humans didn’t seem to be able to see them, or the beings in the sky for that matter.

  [It seems you did what was correct] one of them said, she didn’t really think about it, not when her eyes were bleeding.

  W-what is that?!

  Her head hurted like hell, worse than anything she had ever felt, but she guessed if she lost consciousness, she would lose the trial.

  They continued talking.

  [I told you! I still can’t believe you don’t trust me for these things!] The second figure said [You should see how the elves and dwarves are doing! They are doing great!] The tone made the voice sound childish compared to the other one.

  [I know you are excited because of your children doing well, but, it’s time for my children to walk in this world]

  [You mean demons?]

  At the mention of her race, she moved her head upwards. Even though seeing them made her hurt, she had to know what they were talking about.

  [Who else? Just so you know, my children are better than yours] Its voice was filled with pride.

  [Whatever makes you happy]

  With a huge *crack* a human fell down while the terrain changed around them. When the human landed on the ground, he started to change, honrs grew frm his head and his muscles grew. The demon had deep black hair with the same color eyes, but his horns were different, they were more like charcoal. Suddenly, they were in a volcanic zone, completely empty of anything but rock and lava.

  [Corruption comes in handy when we need to create a mutation]

  Corruption? They mean... demons are a mutation from humans? What kind of bullshit is this?!

  She felt insulted to be called a mutation from humans but the pain in her head wouldn’t allow her to be angry, only annoyed.

  Then, the vision broke. The last thing she saw was the naked demon looking directly at her.

  She was teleported to a new room, completely white like the one before the vision.

  Infront of her, was the same demon that was summoned by the beings, just that this time he did had clothing.

  “W-what?” She was confused, she was supposed to fight without skills?!

  “So, you are the latest royal of our kin?” The man talked, surprising Lilia.

  “Y-you can talk?!” She wasn’t ready to fight, not even close after the first trial.

  “Don’t worry, we don’t have to fight right away, I can see that the first trial impacted you hard, you can take a rest before we start” The man said with practiced elegance.

  “T-thanks...” She didn’t know why but she believed him, she took her time to rest and with time, her head stopped throbbing from the pain and her breathing, that she hadn’t even noted was going that fast, became calm.

  “Are you ready now?” He asked with a smile on his face, a calmed smile.

  “Yeah, I’m ready” She was in fact, not ready, she had no idea how to defeat him, she was a mage for fuck sake, and she couldn’t use skills! Like, her physical stat was less than 30, while she was making fun of Iko for being barefoot, Lilia was in fact the one that was tired.

  But she still felt her mana inside her, she was able to move it, although weakly, but she knew she should be able to use magic even without the system, after all, magic had more history than the system.

  “Let’s start then” In less than a second he was already in front of her, she barely reacted in time to jump back, although he still managed to cut her, with the air from a punch.

  How is this even fair...

  “Huh, my body is quite weak in this form” He clenched and unclenched his fist.

  “T-that’s weak?!” She blurted, not believing what he said.

  He had moved faster than anything she had seen before, with the exception of her father, the demon king. She literally had seen him jump from ground to the tallest floor of their castle in a single jump. That took less than a second.

  “Of course, but... why are your muscles so weak? And even with this weakened body you barely managed to dodge that” He said while tilting his head.

  What is he on about?

  “I’m a mage, not a warrior! My body is naturally weak” She said kind of annoyed.

  “Mage? Like a mana-wielder? I see... but why haven’t you used any spell then?”

  “I can’t cast them on my own... no one really can” She said, thinking about what a mana-wielder was.

  Probably what they called mage’s back then.

  “Learn then, don’t always hope someone will have your back on battle, what will you do if that demon isn’t there to help you when the time comes”

  But the system is not a demon... but he is right, I can’t always think the system will help me to cast spells.

  “I’m trying...” She jumped back the moment the man tried to hit her once again.

  Dammit! I can’t concentrate while also dodging!

  “You know? My wife was a mana-wielder as well” He said while throwing a kick at Lilia, which she was barely able to block with her arm, but she was still sent flying.

  Shit! This hurts!

  “What are you saying!” She said kind of annoyed of him.

  “She always said that mana wasn’t an unconscious object” He landed a hit in her stomach that made her cough blood.

  Fucking hell!

  “Where are you going with this!” She tried to force mana out of her body. If she couldn’t do magic at least, she would push him back.

  “You will kill yourself first if you do that” His feet landed on her hand, breaking her concentration.

  Dammit!

  “She always said mana wasn’t something one should force, but something one should live with, cooperate with it, give it the form the mana wants to be” He continued talking while landing a hit on her face, most probably breaking her nose.

  Shit!

  She was sure if her father was hearing her thoughts, he would scold her.

  To not force the mana? But isn’t that what the system does?

  “Of course, if one is strong enough, they could just force the mana, but you are not strong, not yet”

  So that’s how It does that

  “That’s not easy you know?!” She threw a fist at him, hitting him but clearly not doing anything.

  “If you do not try to learn, then you will die here” She was punched in the stomach once again, this time much harder than before.

  To live with the mana... this shit would be way easier if you stopped hitting me!

  She tried to not force the mana, to talk to it, but the mother fucker just retreated to the deeper parts of her heart!

  Fucking asshole... I knew I should have begged father to turn me into a warrior instead of a mage

  Suddenly, the mana moved with great force and pushed her to the side, dodging a hit from the man.

  Eh?

  “Oh, seems you finally got it?” He smirked, his toothy grin showing a somewhat level of pride.

  But I didn’t?! I just insulted the mana!

  “Well then... Let’s get serious” The air around the man changed, he wasn’t going to keep playing around Lilia to teach her about mana.

  Mana? You will help me, right?

  But the mana inside her didn’t do anything.

  As the man suddenly appeared before her, she had no time to react but only to curse.

  Useless piece of mana!

  A ball of black and pink fireball manifested right in front of her, exploding on the man’s face.

  That gave her enough time to jump back.

  So you only help when I insult you...? You are one weird piece of mana.

  She felt the mana inside her tremble but like in a good way.

  “Black and pink fireball? How did you even...” Before he could continue with his wonder, she guessed if the mana was this... masochist, then she could now force it.

  She grabbed the mana inside her with an imaginary leash, trying to give it a form. Sadly, it wouldn’t accept any form she offered.

  Fine! What do you want to be, you useless prick?!

  The mana transformed around her hand into a... whip, a whip, a fucking whip.

  She just stared at the black and pink whip in her hand for a second deciding she can wonder about her mana preferences after the fight.

  Hey, you weird piece of magic, you will help me use this thing because I have no Idea how.

  Her hand moved on her own forcing the whip onto the man, he dodged, but the crack that came when the whip missed was loud enough to affect even him.

  Lilia wasn’t unaffected, of course.

  That shit is loud!

  Her hand continued moving on her own, trying to hit the demon, but he managed to barely dodge everytime.

  I’m going to break my ears at this rate...

  She grabbed more mana with the imaginary leash, forcing it to fuse with the rest, but this was all she could do right now, she didn’t have much more mana after all.

  The whip became larger, but using so much mana forced Lilia to cough blood, luckily, her hand was moving on it’s own, so she didn’t have to do much.

  Then, the demon grabbed the whip before it could hit him, and Lilia was clearly not strong enough to do anything, so he used the whip to move her around like a rock on a string.

  You useless pieces of shit! Become hotter!

  The mana went along her order after a small shiver, the temperature on the empty room increasing a lot and the hands of the demon started to hiss, flesh melting and smoke coming out of it.

  “That’s a neat trick, I’ll give you that, it has been a while since something managed to hurt me, still, is not enough!” He launched her across the room, luckily, she didn’t hit a wall since they almost didn’t exist, but as she landed on the ground, she coughed blood once more.

  Her hand clenched in the whip, her frustration increased.

  “You are a nightmare...” She said to both her mana and the demon.

  Hey, you can take a different form, right? I’ll abuse you all you want after we get out of here, but you will need to give your all.

  Her mana shivered, excited, and the whip changed, it wasn’t a whip anymore, at the very least.

  It changed into a demon, a demon created by black and pink flames, her pupils changed into a heart, her horns were slightly smaller than Lilia’s, her hair landed on the floor with a soft swish, and she was wearing an equal length dress.

  “W-what?” “What?” Both she and the man demon were confused.

  The demon made of flames ignored both of their questions and looked straight at Lilia.

  “You promise?! You promise you will abuse me more if I give my all?!” The woman said with a animalistic smirk on her face.

  “Y-yeah!” She said, not really with the energy to try and tell her no.

  “Hehehehe... I will get abused by master...” She grabbed her own face “I have to give my all~!” She turned around and dashed at the other demon, who she was sure was confused as hell.

  He jumped back as the flame demon got to him, but surprisingly, it was him who was too slow to dodge.

  He touched the cut on his cheek, it started bleeding, and the borders around the wound were being burned by a black flame.

  “A summon... Then I just need to defeat the summoner!” He ignored the flame demon and dashed straight at Lilia, the flame demon allowing it.

  Do I really have to insult her just for her to protect me...?

  “Hey you bitch! Protect me!” She screamed and the next second the flame demon was in front of her, punching the man on his face and sending him back.

  “Keep calling me names~ I beg you master~” She said in a low voice.

  Where did I go wrong in life I now have to deal with a masochist manifestation of mana?

  “Stop messing around, you whore, kill him already” She said in a groan while cleaning the blood of her face.

  The flame demon shivered “Y-yes master!” She then ran towards the demon, who also got up, and they started to have a clash of fists.

  If I was there, I would have died from 3 serious hits...

  “You are a strong one!” The demon screamed while blocking another one of the flame demon attacks.

  “I hate praises! And you don’t have authority to talk to me!” The flame demon said while landing a kick on his stomach, sending him flying.

  She didn’t give him any chance to breath as she jumped right at him, landing blow after blow, the flames on her body burning him and melting his skin and flesh, a faint smell of cooked meat filling the room.

  Ew.

  With a final hit, she pierced his stomach with her flames, leaving a hole that started burning to consume him.

  “Hahahahaha! This was fun! I didn’t expect you to summon a manifestation of your mana! Even less for it to be so... particular! My name is Shalgo Hellflame, what’s yours? Young mage?” He said as he coughed blood.

  “My name is Lilia Hellflame...” She said after a bit of hesitations.

  "HAHAHAHA! You really are my descendant! Live well young one!” He said as his body turned into dust from the flames.

  He was... my ancestor...

  “Master! I’m going back in for now ok? Remember to summon me later to fulfill your promise!” The flame demon said as she hugged Lilia and then got absorbed by her body.

  As she felt her mana go back into her body, she couldn’t help but sigh.

  “Feels... a little anti climatic... I didn’t really do much... just got my ass beaten”

  A whip? Really?