Half.Blood: Visual Novel-esque Original Fiction

INDEX
Prologue

CHARACTERS

Spoiler: Ashley Braveheart

Ashley Braveheart @ Prince Elske Lucifice

Picture will be added later

Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race: Human-demon hybrid (half-incubus)
Occupation: Warrior, swordsman

The main character of the story, and the eponymous half-blood. Ashley is a seventeen-year-old warrior-in-training who is currently studying at the Academy of Warriors. Ashley, as a young warrior, is a skilled swordsman, and it is said that Ashley is a natural-born hero who will fight the demons and monsters, protecting humanity from their threats.

In reality, Ashley Braveheart is actually Prince Elske Lucifice, a hybrid son of Demon Lord Nadzieja Lucifice and Queen Serce Lucifice. He is a human-demon hybrid. Due to his father's attempt to possess him so that he can be rendered mortal, Queen Serce, a human, escaped with him from the Pandemonium and took new identities for themselves.

As a person, Ashley is a righteous young man who despises injustice. He is willing to slay either demons or humans who perform evil deeds. However, he holds no grudge against demons and monsters, probably due to the influence of his demonic blood and heritage. He also believes in the idea of coexistence between humans and demons.

Living together with his mother, Kokoro Braveheart, whose true identity is Queen Serce Lucifice, Ashley is rather protective of his mother, and despises the idea of having a step-father. But, since he is unaware of his father's identity, he yearns to know more about the man who fathered him. Also, among his peers, Ashley is rather popular, with a lot of girls wishing to be his girlfriend. He's rather clueless about his charm and popularity, though, much to their disappointment.

Spoiler: Nadzieja Lucifice

Nadzieja Lucifice

Picture will be added later

Age: 1021
Gender: Male
Race: Demon (incubus)
Occupation: Demon Lord, sorcerer, swordsman, sex-maniac

The secondary main character of the story, and the father of the eponymous character, Ashley Braveheart. Nadzieja is the immortal Demon Lord of the Pandemonium who rules over the demons. Highly charismatic, Nadzieja, together with his companion and best friend, Amduscias Lorelei, united the demons that were banished into the Pandemonium and created a society there.

Together with Amduscias, Nadzieja became immortal after eating the heart of an immortal woman named Kier, who willingly sacrificed herself so that Nadzieja could save his own people. After eating Kier's heart, he became an immortal and was granted with immense powers. Using his newfound strength, he united his people and establish a kingdom in the Pandemonium. Amduscias became his Right-Hand and Royal Vizier, his most trusted adviser.

Nadzieja is a strict yet fair leader of his subjects, and the demonkind adores him for bringing prosperity to them. However, due to his inherent nature as an incubus, he is addicted by sex. Due to that, he has a harem filled with a variety of female demons with whom he regularly has sex with in order to satisfy his rather insatiable lust.

Despite his overwhelming lust, he never experienced true love, due to the fact that he killed Kier, a woman he somehow fell in love with. But then, he met a human woman, Serce, and they fell in love with each other. Against the protests of his ministers, he brought Serce into the Pandemonium and made her his Queen. She bore him a son named Elske Lucifice.

Over time, Nadzieja started to realize that he would eventually outlive his Queen, and he was overcome by his grief over the idea of losing the love of his life. Soon after that, he found a way to remedy the situation as he discovered a forbidden spell that allowed him to transfer his soul into another body, provided that the other body is his flesh and blood, so that he can spend his life together with his Queen as mortals. His son, Elske fits all the criteria, and he planned to do it as soon as Elske reaches adulthood.

Upon learning his plan, Serce was furious, and she escaped the Pandemonium together with Elske, with the help of Nadzieja's best friend, Amduscias. Enraged by Amduscias' betrayal, he tortured and raped her and threw her into the dungeon before releasing her five years later. He soon came to regret doing such heinous things to his best friend, and he apologized to her after that.

As a person, Nadzieja can be a little arrogant, considering that he is a powerful Demon Lord who is also an immortal. Even so, he is also kindhearted and caring to his friends and his subjects. He is also a little eccentric, considering that he considers attacking human's armies as his favorite pastime. Being an incubus, he's also very lecherous and perverted.

However, he is often blinded by his love to his Queen, Serce, and this blindness made him attempt to sacrifice his son so that he can be with his love together as mortals. Besides, he is also very impulsive and prone to blind rage, which can be seen when he brutally tortured and raped his best friend, Amduscias, after she helped Serce and Elske escape the Pandemonium. He is aware of his impulsive nature, and is ashamed of it.

Spoiler: Amduscias Lorelei

Amduscias Lorelei

Picture will be added later

Age: 1022
Gender: Female
Race: Demon (lilim)
Occupation: Royal Vizier, the Lord's Right-Hand, sorcerer, Nadzieja's personal adviser and fuck buddy

Amduscias is a side character of the story, and she is Nadzieja's childhood friend as well as his most trusted adviser. Together with Nadzieja, she rebuilt the livelihood of the demonkind that was banished into the dark realm of the Pandemonium. Like Nadzieja, she was also granted with immortality after eating Kier's heart.

As a person, Amduscias is a gentle woman who understands her best friend. They knew each other since their childhood, and she supported Nadzieja and his dream of uniting the fractured society of the demons. She also tolerates Nadzieja's eccentricities, such as his insatiable lust and his tendency to do most things for fun. They are best friends, yet they often engage in sexual activities with each other. She is also one of those who oversee Nadzieja's harem, and she sometimes indulges in their rather scandalous activities.

She is also very loyal to Nadzieja, and she did not resist being tortured and raped by him due to her perceived betrayal after helping Serce and Elske escape the Pandemonium.

Like Nadzieja, she also fell in love with Kier, a woman who sacrificed herself to help Nadzieja to realize his dream, and because Serce also reminded her of Kier, she secretly harbored a romantic feeling for her.

As a lilim, a subspecies of succubus, Amduscias is sexually active and a bisexual.

Spoiler: Kokoro Braveheart

Kokoro Braveheart @ Queen Serce Lucifice

Picture will be added later

Age: 36
Gender: Female
Race: Human

Occupation: Former Queen of the Pandemonium, baker, White Mage, single mother, explorer

Kokoro is a side character of the story, and the mother of the main character, Ashley Braveheart. Her real name is Serce Lucifice, the Queen of the Pandemonium and Demon Lord Nadzieja's wife.

As Serce, she used to be a White Mage. She fell in love with Demon Lord Nadzieja after meeting him. After making love with him, she bore him a son, of whom she named Elske Lucifice. After that, she was made a Queen of the Pandemonium and lived together with the Demon Lord happily for five years.

However, after learning Demon Lord Nadzieja's plan to possess their son's body in order to render himself mortal, Serce was repulsed and decided to escape the Pandemonium together with Elske. Royal Vizier, Amduscias Lorelei helped them to escape the Pandemonium and return to the surface world. Over there, she assumed a new identity, Kokoro Braveheart, while renaming her son Ashley Braveheart.

As a character, Kokoro is a warm, loving person. She loves her son, Ashley and tries her best to raise him all by herself after escaping the Pandemonium. Even though she was repulsed by Demon Lord Nadzieja's plan, she is still in love with him, and she hopes that there can be ways for them to be together as a family.

PROLOGUE

Long before humans started walking out of their caves, we, the demons, are the supreme beings of the realm.

We had trudged through the lands long before humans started gaining their sentience.

We had explored the deepest parts of the oceans long before humans started making use of fire.

We had invented countless technological wonders long before humans started crafting their tools from rocks and broken bones.

When the humans were still mere primitive creatures, we had already reached perfect enlightenment. We were once the rulers of the world, and we were once feared and revered by humans as their Gods. However, as humans started growing up in number, so did their intelligence, so did their craftiness, so did their rebelliousness.

Humans started building civilization, erecting monuments and buildings as the sign of their growing strength. Humans were no longer the hairless apes that resided within the caves. Like us, the demons, they also invented countless wonders such as weaponry, agriculture, arts and many more. They became cleverer, more devious. They intended to surpass us, the demons, the beings that they once feared and revered.

In their attempts to surpass us, they learned the way of demonkind's crafts; magecraft, astrology, demonology and many others.

And they rebelled. The humans, the beings once so pathetic they could only hide in their dark caves in fear at the first sign of dangers, fought against us with everything that they had learned. They considered us the creatures of darkness, and they waged a holy war, a crusade against us. In retaliation, the demons fought back, causing massive casualties from both sides. We lost countless men and women whom we considered as brothers and sisters, and the same thing happened to humans as well. Even children were not spared from the horrors of the war between humans and demons. By waging the war against each other, we stained the very surface of the world with the blood of humans we slew, and they also did the same.

Ultimately, the demons lost, and we were banished into the Pandemonium, a dark realm barely habitable. In the war against humans, we had lost all our leaders. Left without authority figures to shepherd the demons, disputes started to grow among us. The demons started taking sides, making small clans and groups. We tried rebuilding our lives in the Pandemonium, but the Pandemonium was a realm with little to no natural sources, unlike the surface world we used to live in. We fought against each other just for the sources which might run out eventually. The threat of extinction loomed over our heads, and the demons were overcome by despair.

There was a young demon whose wish is to end the plight of the demonkind. His name is Nadzieja. During the war between humans and demons, he lost his parents and siblings. Having witnessed the horrors of the war, he wished to save his race from the slow extinction.

But, Nadzieja was small and weak compared to his peers. His dream and wish were often mocked by the other demons, and he was ostracized by his own people. Saddened by this, he left his people and ventured deeper into the Pandemonium. I was his only friend, and out of pity, I followed him.

As we walked deeper into the dark realm, we ran out of foods and supply. Crippled by hunger, both of us waited there in the valley deep in Pandemonium, expecting our deaths.

But, we were unexpectedly rescued by someone, who claimed to be the original resident of the realm. Our rescuer was a woman whose race was unknown to us. She claimed to be an immortal who had lived long ever since the creation of the planet. Yet she looked young and beautiful. She nursed us back to health in her small hut which was located in the deepest pit of the Pandemonium. Her name was Kier.

Then, she listened to our stories, and she was moved by Nadzieja's dream and ambition. She told us that there was a way for him to achieve such ambition.

Kier told us to kill her with a special dagger and eat her heart.

We were shocked, to put it rather mildly. She was a kindly woman who nursed us back to health, but she told us to kill her so that Nadzieja's dream could be realized. We cried as we voiced out our protests, but she calmed us down by embracing us, telling us how moved she was by listening to Nadzieja's wish.

When we asked her why we should eat her heart, she told us that her heart was a catalyst that could render its eaters immortals as well. The only thing that could kill immortals was her special dagger, which would self-destruct once used. Moreover, by eating her heart, one could be granted powers beyond reckoning. By eating her heart, even demons could surpass Gods.

We hesitated. After being showered by Kier's kindness, we were hesitant when she handed us the dagger. But, with reassuring tone, she comforted us, telling us how beautiful Nadzieja's wish was in his effort to save our people. With tears rolling unbidden down our cheeks, both Nadzieja and I together held the hilt of the dagger, and plunged the blade into Kier's chest.

And the kindly immortal woman, the fair Kier, was dead.

After killing Kier, we cried. The dagger that we used to slay Kier was reduced to dust. We cried for almost four nights, and the valley of where Kier's hut was located was filled with our sobs and hiccups. We regretted killing her, a kindly immortal woman who showed compassion to us, who told us how beautiful Nadzieja's wish was.
After four nights, we prepared ourselves for the next stage. Even after four nights since her death, Kier's lifeless form remained unblemished. Tearfully, we took out our knives and started digging into Kier's chest to take out her heart. It was Nadzieja who pulled out Kier's heart from her chest.

Kier's heart was small and it could even fit Nadzieja's palm, and Nadzieja was small compared to our peers. It was covered in golden ichor and we could smell pleasant fragrance from it. We looked at each other, wondering about what to do with Kier's heart. At first, he suggested to cut the heart in half so we could get equal share. He told me that we should be equals in power once we became immortals.

But then, I suggested to Nadzieja to cut the heart unevenly, with him taking the larger half. He was confused, and I explained to him that by eating the larger half, he would become the stronger immortal among us. By becoming stronger, he would be able to realize his dream.

Despite his hesitation, Nadzieja agreed and cut the heart unevenly. He handed me the smaller half, taking the larger half for himself. Then, we ate the heart.

The moment we took a bite of Kier's heart, we were instantaneously overwhelmed by some sort of power, which coursed through every fiber of our bodies. It was a painful, yet instantaneous process as our bodies were rebuilt. The concept of death was literally taken out of every cell in our bodies, rendering us deathless, immortal.

When the process was completed, we looked at each other. Nadzieja's appearance had changed drastically. His body was no longer small. Instead, he was achieved something that one might call as demon peak condition. He retained his slim appearance, but his muscles were visibly seen, turning him into the epitome of demonkind's manliness. I could see that his very own frame radiating power and authority, and he looked more confident and cocky, fitting for someone who had become an ideal demon. His demonic horns, which used to be mere stubs, had grown longer.

As for me, Nadzieja commented that some parts of my body had turned bigger, much to my embarrassment. My demonic horns also grew longer, twisting like a ram's horns. He told me that the enlarged parts of my body were bouncing whenever I moved, and I kicked him as hard as I could. Due to my increasing strength, Nadzieja was sent flying. Thanks to his perfect body, he was unhurt.

Before we left the valley, we buried Kier's body, erecting a tombstone for her as a remembrance for the kind woman who helped us. When we returned to our people, we started gathering followers, thanks to Nadzieja's overwhelming charisma. We fought other demon clans, bringing them to their knees. The more clans we defeated, the more followers gathered under our banner.

Finally, after a series of grueling fights, we managed to unite all the demons under the same banner, and with that, we establish a kingdom, with Nadzieja crowning himself as the Demon Lord, and me as his Royal Vizier.

In order to find the alternatives of the natural sources which the Pandemonium lacked, both Nadzieja and I, as well as a few scholars who survived the Human-Demon War and the Demon Civil War, started our research. Besides powers and immortality, both Nadzieja and I were granted with high intelligence and wisdom. Thanks to that, we managed to find a way to utilize the poisonous gas within the dark realm as an alternative to the natural fuel. Slowly, but surely, we started rebuilding our civilization, as well as our livelihood.

With the help of my sorcery, I created an artificial sun and moon within the Pandemonium. Agriculture started to grow, sustaining the life in this once dark realm. We built our capital right at the place where we were found by Kier, naming the city Kierivia, honoring the kindly woman who sacrificed her immortal life for the sake of Nadzieja's wish. Kier's grave became a shrine and a sacred place for the demons in the Pandemonium.

As the Demon Lord, Nadzieja was a strict yet fair ruler. He valued his people above all else, and was willing to personally help his subjects. Most, if not all demons adored him for his fairness. Though there were those who disliked his reign and plotted his assassination. All of them failed due to Nadzieja's immortality, and those who were responsible for the assassination plots were personally executed by Nadzieja. Their corpses were hung at the plaza of Kierivia, as a reminder for his people to never bite the hands that fed them.

Demon Lord Nadzieja also wanted to reconquer the surface world, taking it back from the humans. He had several times led the charges to fight the human armies, but most of them ended in stalemates. Like demons, humans had also gone through progress. While they might lack in pure powers compared to the demons, they compensated with their massive number.

Over the time, Demon Lord Nadzieja's attempts to reconquer the surface world were reduced into his pastimes. He often decided to go and attack the surface world on a whim, much to the consternation of his ministers, including me, who acted as his Royal Vizier and Right-Hand. Once in a while, he would go into the surface world on his own, and return back into the Pandemonium with the knowledge that he found in the outside world. For a Demon Lord, Nadzieja could be a little carefree.

Even so, Demon Lord Nadzieja continued ruling over the Pandemonium, bringing prosperity to his subjects. But, as his Right-Hand, I started to realize that over time, his personality started to change. While he was still a benevolent ruler of his people, his lust for women seemed to grow over the years. He started collecting women into his harem, and it became clear that Demon Lord Nadzieja had become addicted to sex. His harem was filled with a variety of female demons. You name it; sphinxes, harpies, lamias, succubae, female slimes, beast girls, mermaids, female centaurs, dryads, dragon girls, female ghosts, zombie girls and many more. It even got to the point where there was a minister in charge of managing his harem. It became a rather hot topic amongst the subjects about Demon Lord Nadzieja's addiction to sex.

Despite that, Demon Lord Nadzieja never took a Queen. While he treated all the female demons in his harem fairly, it didn't change the fact that the reason why he made a harem was to satisfy his lust. He regularly had sex with the members of his harem, sometimes during inappropriate moments. There were times when he was having an orgy with a group of succubae during a gathering at the castle. It left a lasting impression to all who attended, and traumatized most of the ministers.

He once admitted that while his lust was insatiable, he had yet to experience true love. Perhaps he was still traumatized by the death of Kier by our hands. While he never said it, he might have fallen in love with that kindly immortal woman when she rescued us. I could understand his pain because like him, I also felt the same for Kier as well. Sometimes, when we were reminded of Kier, we would end up comforting each other, bonding over the memories of the woman whom we fell in love with.

Unlike the time when he was with his harem, whenever we had our time together, he always ended up crying, overwhelmed by his memories of Kier. I couldn't exactly blame him, because the same also happened to me.
We ruled over Pandemonium for almost one thousand years. Demon Lord Nadzieja was still a sex-addicted demon, but he still led his people fairly.

One day, during his time at the human world, probably trying to discover something new, he met a human woman named Serce. If his accounts were to be believed, Serce's resemblance to the late Kier was remarkable. He immediately fell in love with her, and after talking to each other a few times, so did Serce. They made love with each other, and as a result, Serce bore him a male child.

Such thing was not left unnoticed by the members of the court, and there was an uproar among the ministers. They were still bitter over their defeat by the hands of humans thousand years ago, and they were against Demon Lord Nadzieja's relationship with the human woman.

Yet, as the supreme ruler of the demonkind, Demon Lord Nadzieja vetoed against the court's decision. He was madly in love with Serce, the human woman, and he decided to bring her to his castle in the Pandemonium and make her his Queen. Against my better judgement, I approved of his decision. It was probably due to my lingering feeling for the late Kier.

For the first four years, both Demon Lord Nadzieja and Queen Serce were living happily with their son, Prince Elske at the capital of the Pandemonium, Kierivia. But as Prince Elske grew older, so did Queen Serce. Demon Lord Nadzieja started to realize that unlike demons, human's lifespan was far shorter. Queen Serce would eventually die because she is a human. And being immortal, Demon Lord Nadzieja would surely outlive his Queen. The Demon Lord was overwhelmed by grief over the thought of losing the love of his life, and he started finding the way to make sure that Queen Serce would remain alive. For the first time since becoming an immortal, Demon Lord Nadzieja cursed the immortality bestowed upon him.

When Demon Lord Nadzieja tried to convince Queen Serce that he could turn her into a demon so that she could live longer, she adamantly refused, citing that she would retain her humanity until her death. Demon Lord Nadzieja conceded defeat due to his love towards her, but he never gave up on his quest to avoid losing his beloved Queen.
One day, Demon Lord Nadzieja discovered a forbidden spell which allows him to transfer his soul into another body, provided that the body has his blood. He came to a conclusion that if Queen Serce did not want to become a demon to live longer, then he would render himself mortal by transferring his soul into his son's body. Given that Prince Elske has his blood due to being his son, he was sure that it would be a brilliant idea.

For his love towards his Queen, Demon Lord Nadzieja was willing to sacrifice his only son so that they could live together as mortals.

But then, when Queen Serce found out his plan, she snapped at him, telling him that what he was about to do was insane. Repulsed by Demon King Nadzieja's willingness to sacrifice his own son, the Queen decided to run away from Kierivia together with her son.

Planning her escape, Queen Serce went to me and told me everything. Because she reminded me of the late Kier, I sympathized with her and agreed to cover her escape. Using my magic, I altered their appearances and brought them back into the surface world.

Upon realizing that Queen Serce and Prince Elske went missing, Demon Lord Nadzieja was enraged. Thinking that there was no use keeping it a secret, I admitted to him that I helped them.

For the first time ever since we became friends, Demon Lord Nadzieja violently hit me. He brought me to his bedroom and violently violated me for my treachery. He almost executed me on the spot after that, but then, changed his mind because of our history together. And being an immortal, decapitation couldn't kill me. Instead, I was dismissed from my position as the Royal Vizier and was thrown and locked into a dungeon for five years. For the first year during my imprisonment, I was brutally and repeatedly tortured personally by him, and some other things.

I knew that he was angry, and I accepted the punishment for my supposed betrayal. After a year of my imprisonment, he finally came back to his senses, and he profusely begged for my forgiveness for all the horrible things he had done to me. I forgave him, citing that it was my fault to begin with. Five years after being imprisoned, I was finally released and retook my position as the Royal Vizier once again.

Despite everything that had happened, Demon Lord Nadzieja's love for his Queen remained strong. He never stopped searching for her and their son, hoping to be reunited once again. He did not ask me of their whereabouts, probably due to his regret for hurting me. Whenever he had time, he would go to the surface world in order to track down Queen Serce and Prince Elske.

And I knew that once he found them, he would transfer his soul into his son's body in order to live with his beloved one as mortals. As the Demon Lord's best friend, I understand Nadzieja well. He would never stop until he finally accomplish his mission.

Even if his son had to pay the price.

Amduscias Lorelei
Royal Vizier of Kierivia Kingdom, Pandemonium.

TO BE CONTINUED

PS: This is a SFW fiction, though the NSFW sections will be put separately.