48th of Season of Fire, 65th year of the 32nd cycle

  Newt looked up and saw the weirdly evolved sharpbeak. Its body had grown elongated, more snakelike. It had lost its vestigial legs, but had powerful forelimbs along with the wings, and its sharp head and beak had grown blunter, more serpentine.

  “You are not a heart demon. I sense no part of myself on you.” The snake glided, circling high above Newt. “So, what are you?”

  “I am Newt,” Newt said. “And you are Magmin’s heart demon.”

  The creature chuckled.

  “I Am Magmin. I was once weak, lacking in confidence and strength alike. Finally, I wrestled control from my weak side and became something greater. Look,” the sharpbeak boomed, and all the lava lakes and fountains surged, spraying molten rock up into the air. “I once lacked the courage to soar, so I crawled and hid, but no more. I overcame myself and spread my wings!”

  The sharpbeak flapped its wings, and Newt realized with horror that Magmin had lost to his demon. The tiny snake helplessly crawling into hiding was Magmin, or what was left of his original personality.

  “Magmin? Are you there?” Newt hissed, but instead of the serpent, the one who responded was the regal sharpbeak.

  “I Am Magmin. Magmin’s flesh is mine, Magmin’s realm is mine, Magmin’s mind is mine. Even Magmin’s name is mine. Now. Who Are You?”

  “I am Newt, Magmin’s friend.”

  The sharpbeak regarded him without a shred of hostility.

  “Yes, the aura is similar, and more robust than mine, despite your lower layer.” The creature paused. “Why are you here and how did you get here?”

  Newt regarded the sharpbeak. He had slain the creature at every realm, and his current strength was so much greater than its that it wasn’t even funny. Newt was certain that he could slay it in three moves, perhaps less. That thought emboldened him.

  “You are dead. You are a ghost stuck in the remnants of your realm, an echo of Magmin before you or he reached the fifth realm. I am here to help you or slay you, depending on your choice.” Newt had never been that brutally honest with Magmin before, but since the real Magmin in Newt’s realm knew the truth, he didn’t feel like softening the blow for his heart demon.

  The sharpbeak nearly plummeted from the sky, blasting itself back up with a burst of flames much less sophisticated than the Salamandra clan’s original techniques, which Newt knew weren’t all that good.

  “You’re saying I’m a ghost?” It said finally after gathering its wits.

  “Yes, you can’t know that, and I have no way of proving it save for being here. I met another one once. He knew because he intentionally created his realm as he was dying, but he thought he was dead for a week or two, when it’s been thousands of years. And he was much higher realm than the echo I’m speaking with.”

  “And which realm did I reach?” Magmin’s heart demon asked, its eyes sparkling with intelligence and curiosity.

  “You were a legendary tenth realm dragon when you perished.”

  The sharpbeak, which was evolving into Magmin, made another circle above Newt in silence, then roared a laugh. “You hear that, little worm? I carried us all the way to the top. You never could’ve done that, hiding and entrenching yourself like an earthworm that you are.

  “A dragon. Yes, I see it. He who soars and hunts,” it said dreamily after a moment of self-satisfied silence. Then it regarded Newt once again.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Well, there’s your answer. I don’t want to fight you; you’re too dangerous, and you brought me the greatest news ever!”

  “I told you that you have died,” Newt said with some confusion.

  “Yes, after reaching the peak, which takes ten thousand summers or more. By the time I reached it, I must have fathered all snakes alive and eaten wonderful treasures I can’t even imagine now. I wonder if I ate a dreadwalker without poisoning them first, just swallowed one in a gulp? I should’ve, right? I always wanted to do that.”

  Newt listened and watched the sharpbeak, and it was undeniable that there was some Magmin in there. The tendency of speaking nonsense was very much present in the previous realm spirits, even if Magmin’s evolutions inside Newt’s realm had changed the serpent to be more plotting and contemplative than he was in life.

  “I’m going to enjoy this,” Magmin said, and flew away from Newt.

  “Wait, you have to let me out! Don’t make me chase you and kill you, I like Magmin!”

  Already high above the ground, the new Magmin looked at Newt. “And what will happen if I do that?”

  Newt considered lying, but lying to Magmin, even if the snake was in an altered state of mind, felt wrong.

  “You and your realm will disperse, and I will absorb some of its mana.”

  Magmin’s heart demon circled around Newt.

  “Fine,” it said in a sulking hiss, “but give me a day to enjoy the news you have given me. It’s the best affirmation of my path and my personal superiority I could ever get.”

  Newt met the heart demon’s gaze, but he wasn’t certain of its sincerity.

  “Just so you know. If you kill me or I leave, you will forget everything you have learned from me.”

  That news turned the heart demon’s face ugly.

  So, he was planning on ambushing me.

  “Yes, yes, you have brought me good news. I’ll let you leave, but tomorrow.”

  Newt didn’t believe it, so he started scribing a seal on the ground.

  “And what marvel is that?” the heart demon asked, gliding a safe distance away.

  “An alarm spell seal. It will release a sound once a day passes, since there is no perceptible passage of time here.” Newt kept working, then a question slipped. “What can you tell me about the world you lived in?”

  “Well, nothing much. There’s the jungles and the deserts. I roamed both until I found a good place to settle. A fourth realm flower grew there; shone like the sun and smelled like a freshly plucked core. I had to defend it a couple of times, so you could say it served as a perfect lure for the overconfident…”

  Newt listened to what was a broad description of a wild fourth realm manabeast’s life. It involved a lot less violence than he had estimated, but if they generally lived like that, growing and minding a precious treasure rather than hunting others, it certainly explained how their numbers swelled over time and why the onslaughts happened.

  Finally, Magmin’s heart demon finished its telling, and Newt had questions.

  “What about the onslaughts?”

  “The what?” While flying, the heart demon tilted its head to better regard Newt.

  “The onslaughts? You know, when you pour into the human lands and fight us over territory.”

  The heart demon kept observing him. “I understand that the hiss ‘human’ means your kind, but you are the first member of your kind that I have ever seen. And what an odd little thing you are. I’ve been watching you, looking for a weakness,” the monster admitted without shame. “You are much smaller than me, but there’s a lot of explosive power in you. You would take time to whittle my scales and crack my Granite Crust, but eventually, you would, and your tiny claws and teeth would hurt and kill me. And you seem like you’re fast, I doubt I would get to bite or claw you, let alone grab and strangle you.”

  The heart demon nonchalantly chatted about fighting Newt, dying and trying to kill him. And based on his casual demeanor, Newt decided that manabeasts must often have conversations like that.

  Is that what all the roaring is about before a fight? Newt was stumped, but it was possible. After all, many roaring contests ended peacefully, with one side just leaving.

  “Did you have discussions like this with your prey?”

  “Sometimes,” the heart demon admitted. “Most of the time, I ambushed them and devoured them swiftly, but those who could pose a threat, I talked to first, no sense for either of us to put ourselves in danger and let others eat the winner.”

  There was a pause, then the heart demon continued. “There are exceptions to the rule. I have eaten my flower, and once my realm increases, I will search for a new treasure. You could say I will be weaker than those I contest, but that’s where negotiation comes into play. I prefer having the power, and I will, since you told me I will reach the tenth realm, but for now, I will have to both think and fight, so that one day, all others will hunt for me and deliver food to me.”

  Newt nodded. “And what gave you the idea to shape your realm like this? I know your first realm was a piece of genius, but the others…”

  And so, Newt and Magmin’s heart demon talked until Newt’s spell seal sounded.