"I'll serve you! I'll give you everything! My magic, my territory, my life, just please, let me live!"
Aura sobbed, her words spilling out in a frantic, desperate rush. She offered the world, hoping the monster holding her head would take the bait.
But a demon is a demon. A man-eating monster disguised in a beautiful shell. Their words were nothing more than tools used to deceive their prey.
The moment she saw a chance, she would turn on her captor without hesitation.
The Stell clone knew this. It shared a database with the Main Unit; it lacked a human empathy module. Aura's passionate, tear-soaked performance registered simply as [Hostile Deception Tactic: Ignore].
"Query," the clone stated, its voice cutting through the demon's wailing. "Are you finished speaking?"
"Uh... ah?"
Aura choked on a sob. Her barrage of pleas died in her throat. Did it work? Is she going to spare me?
But looking into those glowing, golden lenses, she found her answer. There was no hesitation, no mercy, no bargain to be made.
I don't want to die. I don't want to die!
Panic surged, and Aura thrashed wildly, trying to break free. But the small hand on her head possessed an impossible strength, pinning her face-first against the dirt.
The clone had originally intended to use a gentler method, waiting for Aura to cast the spell herself so it could be cleanly analyzed. But the target was uncooperative. The opportunity was lost.
"Initiating forced extraction."
Aura screamed as golden data streams shot from the clone's fingers, drilling directly into her skull.
Because the clone possessed limited processing power compared to the Main Unit, the extraction process was not delicate. It was a violent tearing of information.
The clone didn't care if it scrambled the target's neural pathways, so long as the required data was retrieved.
A few moments later, the screaming stopped.
The clone released its grip and stood up. It sorted the newly acquired data, compiled it into a neat package, and transmitted it across the temporal link back to the Main Unit.
On the ground, Aura rolled over.
Her pink hair was a mess. Her mouth hung slightly open, a thin line of drool spilling from her lips. Her eyes, once sharp and arrogant, were now completely blank, possessing a serene, vacant beauty utterly unpolluted by thought or intelligence.
Her brain was broken.
The data had yielded a rich harvest. Not only did the clone possess the formula for the "Scales of Obedience," but Aura's memories had also revealed the hiding spots of several other surviving Great Demons.
They were scattered across the continent, lurking in the shadows, slowly rebuilding their strength.
Target list updated, the clone noted. It was time for a collection tour.
Looking down at the drooling, empty shell of the guillotine demon, the clone formulated a new plan. It reached down, plunging its hand into Aura's chest. With a sharp pull, it extracted a glowing, soul-like sphere of concentrated mana.
Aura the Guillotine was no more. She was just another tool in the inventory.
…
The Past:-
Ding.
[Data Package Received: 'Scales of Obedience'. User: Clone 01.]
I withdrew my hand from the Demon King's head. I didn't need to perform a messy mind hack on him anymore. The future had just delivered the perfect solution right into my database.
I looked down at the absolute ruler of demons, who was still kneeling before me, bound by chains of light.
"Evaluating newly acquired magic," I murmured.
I activated the spell.
A massive, ethereal set of scales materialized in the air above us. This was the magic of submission. It weighed the mana of the caster against the target. The loser's soul was enslaved to the winner for eternity.
The Demon King's side of the scale held the weight of a thousand years of accumulated demonic power. It was vast, deep, and terrifying.
But my side of the scale was anchored by the Dimensional Engine, a reactor fueled by the energy of the world itself.
It wasn't even a contest.
The scales slammed down on my side with a resounding, invisible CRASH.
The Demon King's body shuddered. The defiant, calculating light in his eyes vanished, replaced by a dull, unquestioning loyalty. The strongest being in this era was now my puppet.
Just as the subjugation was complete, my sensors picked up a disturbance at the edge of the barrier.
Someone was trying to break in.
A surviving demon? Negative. The clones had swept the perimeter. There were no hostiles left.
I checked my tracking logs. I knew exactly who it was. Takson and Flamme.
With a thought, I dissolved the section of the barrier they were prodding.
Crack!! shatter!!
The invisible wall broke apart like glass. Takson and Flamme, who had been leaning against it while trying to unravel the spell, stumbled forward, nearly falling on their faces in the dirt.
They caught their balance and looked up, taking in the apocalyptic wasteland of the castle grounds, and the towering figure of the Demon King kneeling peacefully at my feet.
I turned to face them, crossing my arms. I wasn't angry; they had come out of a sense of loyalty and concern. I tolerated a great deal from my apprentices. But discipline still had to be maintained.
"Query: Takson. Flamme. Why did you violate a direct order and come here?"
"Teacher! Are you hurt?!"
….
The Future:-
Auserlese. The Scales of Obedience.
It was a very simple, yet absolute spell. It placed the souls of two individuals on a mystical scale and weighed their mana.
The one with the greater mana pool became the undisputed master; the loser became a mindless puppet.
There were no exceptions, no loopholes, and no saving throws for the caster. It was perfectly fair.
If you cast it on someone stronger than you, you enslaved yourself.
Warriors, who did not cultivate mana, lost instantly. It was the ultimate weapon against swordsmen.
This was the spell Aura had dedicated her five-hundred-year life to mastering.
She had used her long lifespan to build a mana pool that dwarfed almost any human mage.
However, because of her cautious, cowardly nature, she had a habit of beheading the warriors she controlled, just in case their sheer willpower allowed them to momentarily resist the absolute command and strike her down.
But against Stell, a being fueled by the infinite energy of the world itself, Aura's life's work was nothing more than a bad joke.
Now, the once-proud Great Demon stood silently, her eyes vacant, her will completely crushed under the weight of Stell's power.
Ping.
A direct transmission from the Main Unit echoed in the clone's processors.
[Command: Instruct subject 'Aura' to disclose the exact coordinates and identities of all surviving demon remnants.]
The Main Unit's reach was expanding. Now that the timeline had shifted, thanks to my interference, Frieren's Elven Village remained peaceful and untouched, hidden away from the world, the surviving demons were even more scattered and cautious.
But with Aura as my puppet, they had nowhere left to hide.
The clone turned its golden eyes to the drooling demon. "Execute command."
….
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