Will of a Prince

Lidia’s head swelled as she tried to understand what Slimo was showing her.

"What does all of this mean? Why is his name the Prince of Everything? And what’s with his Zalo? I thought he was only able to control roots?!"

Slimo ran his hand through his hair.

"I’m not sure. But he’s extremely dangerous. How do we even know if that’s really Jacob downstairs? What if he got replaced somewhere along the way with... whatever that is and we haven’t noticed?"

"No... that can’t be possible."

"But you don’t know that. We have to do this cautiously. I can sneak in and kill it while it sleeps."

Lidia slapped Slimo across the face. He rubbed his cheek and looked at her in shock.

"Don’t call my future son in law an ’it’. I’m sure there has to be an explanation for why his name comes up like this. Maybe it has to with the mark he has."

Slimo held her face and looked into her brown eyes.

"Lidia, we have to be careful. I didn’t mean to offend you, but if that thing-... if he really isn’t Jacob and he has such a power, we could all die."

Lidia held his hands on her face.

"Can we at least confirm my suspicion before we think of anything drastic first?"

Slimo sighed.

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

"I need the glasses. I am going to see what comes up if I look at my daughter, Maria. If hers is just as strange, we will know that they are both innocent."

Slimo took off the glasses and handed them over to Lidia.

"Just be careful."

Lidia nodded and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"I’ll be back."

Lidia walked out of her room and down the stairs toward Maria’s room. She knocked on her door and took a few steps back. Gentle footsteps could be heard approaching from the other side. Maria opened the door slowly to see Lidia wearing glasses.

"Mom? Is everything okay? Why are you wearing Slimo’s glasses?"

A small bit of panic started to rise in Lidia’s gut as words slowly started appearing next to her daughter.

"Oh! I just wanted you to see how I look in them! Do I look good? I think I want to adapt glasses into my style! What do you think?"

Maria looked at Lidia confused.

"Look good? Are you trying to impress someone or something?"

Lidia hesitated.

’Shit. She’s going to find out another secret while I’m trying to hide another one!’

"What? Impress someone? Never!"

Maria started smirking.

"I know what this is about."

Lidia’s heart dropped.

"You do?"

"Yup. You just wanted an excuse to see me again before I went to sleep! I know you too well mom."

Maria ran up to Lidia and hugged her tightly. Lidia couldn’t believe it. She somehow managed to fall backwards into everything working out for her.

’This must be how Squabee feels all the time.’

"You caught me! I just couldn’t help it!"

Maria let go of Lidia and walked back towards her room.

"Goodnight for real this time, mom."

"Goodnight!"

After the door closed, Lidia sprinted back up towards the stairs and entered her and Slimo’s room. After closing the door, she ran around the room looking for a pen and paper. Slimo had some ready for her at the desk.

"Thank you."

Lidia started frantically writing. Slimo tried talking to her while she wrote.

"So, did you see anything?"

Lidia shushed him and shoved his face away with her hand.

"I can’t focus if you’re huddled over me!"

"Sorry."

"You better be."

After three moments, Lidia finished writing the paper. She stared at it in awe.

"Well, there’s some good news and bad news."

"What is it?"

"The good news is that those two are definitely Jacob and Maria."

"What’s the bad news?"

Lidia slowly handed over the sheet of paper to Slimo. His eyes widened as he skimmed the page.

Name: Commander of the Fallen

Zalo: Strength Enhancement

Zalo Type: Curse

Zalo Description: This user is able to enhance their personal strength to insane levels. This also means they can strengthen their body to make it extremely durable when need be.

Threat Level: Elder Monster

Weakness: As long as you do not touch their leader, they will hopefully not kill you.

Release: This user is able to explosively strengthen any part of their body for a devastating attack. Those under their command gain an increase in their strength as well.

Transformation: Error

[Role]: Harbinger of the End

[Marked]: This user’s destiny has been locked. This mark feeds off of Zalo’s and others life force.

[Sore Loser]: Every time the commander loses a battle, their strength quadruples. Resets after a short period of time.

[Sore Winner]: Every time the commander wins a battle, the strength of their legion increases relative to the difficulty of the battle, number of forces lost, and number of opponents slain. This effect can stack infinitely and is permanent.

[Commander of the Fallen]: Right hand to the Prince of Everything. Must protect the prince at any and all cost.

Slimo was silent for three moments studying the paper.

"What the hell..."

Lidia’s face looked pale. Neither of them knew what to think of the information. They simply stared at the paper in silence. Lidia was the first to say something.

"What do you think we do? Should we tell them the truth?"

"Absolutely not. We need to keep this between me and you."

"But... this is my daughter, Slimo."

"I know. But these abilities are far too fantastical to mess with right now. They are extremely dangerous. Do you remember what happened when Jacob attacked us? He must have been driven by his insatiable hunger. That would also explain his random regenerative abilities he gained as well as the poison in his teeth. Not only that, but his main ability..."

Lidia interrupted him.

"I believe I understand what you’re saying. If Jacob continues to believe his ability is weaker than it is, that prevents it from being used in a bad way by accident."

"Same thing with Maria. However, her abilities she gained from the mark were especially intriguing to me. She has a power that would benefit her as a commander, but as of late, the two commanders of everyone have been me and you. Do you think we should slowly let her make more decisions for us? I don’t see any risk associated with it."

Lidia thought to herself for a moment.

"I’m a bit unsure. Sure, it would be extremely beneficial, but we would be risking the power associated with forces we don’t understand."

Slimo slowly grabbed the glasses back from Lidia and situated them on his face.

"You aren’t wrong. However, I think her powers have a much smaller risk compared to Jacob’s."

Lidia hugged Slimo gently.

"Let’s just sleep on the ideas and make a decision tomorrow."

Slimo held her tightly, kissed the top of her head, and slowly rubbed her back.

"I think that’s a good idea."

Lidia and Slimo both went to sleep soon after. As they did, the heavens seemed to sparkle through their window.

Hours later, small bumps resounded from the attic. The same muffled sound kept reverberating through Slimo’s room. However, no one was able to hear it. There was one thing Slimo never realized he forgot about throughout his whole day: he never wore his helmet while walking into the palace. As if foreboding this grave mistake, a familiar shadow of a man appeared against the wall of their room. Just as quickly as the shadow appeared, it dissipated into thin air with a light breeze.