Icing the Cake [2]

When my consciousness enters Cake's soul, I see her memories. She is not awake to contain them, so they rush toward me. In a matter of seconds, I experience all ten years of her life.

From the moment she was born, Cake was exposed to the hardships of a demon's modern-day life. Before she was even a year old, her parents were overworked, mistreated and beaten to death.

She was raised in an apartment dedicated to the housing and cultivating of demons that would later become servants and slaves.

It was there that she grew, and was eventually rented out until she was chosen for a permanent position.

Luckily for her, she was rented to those two nobles I killed. I cannot even remember their names now.

"Niece or Nephew, I need your Truth Magic now. Listen closely to my words, and execute my orders with the utmost care. Got it?"

In response, the egg shimmers and purs. When I refocus on Cake's soul, I take a glance at her astral space as well.

It is a perfectly normal astral space, housing a perfectly functional magic well.

"Good. Let's begin."

The egg ceases its purring and awaits my orders.

In my mind, I rummage through hundreds of memories regarding sorceries, finding the appropriate ones to forcefully feed to Cake's soul.

Once I find them, I transmit them to the egg.

"Overwrite her truth and implant these memories! No matter how painful it gets for her, you must not stop!"

The stone egg heeds my commands and begins the operation. Floating in midair, Cake's unconscious body suddenly twitches and tenses up. A pained expression comes across her face, and she subconsciously balls her small fists.

I fold my arms and pay close attention. In my mind's eye, I see the state of her soul. It is currently being invaded by the egg's mana, a sign of it performing its truth magic on her.

With nothing else to do, I inspect the process but find that I still cannot understand just how it is possible.

In the past, When Razalith found this egg, she was still searching for a way to grow stronger than any demon ever had. In her search, she uncovered the deepest truths of Clairvoyance Magic, something belonging to the god race.

That was able to help her identify the unknown entities lurking far beneath the demon realm. One of those entities was this giant stone egg, possessing a kind of magic that she had never heard of.

Truth Magic.

Magic capable of altering truth within a set space, allowing for the impossible to become real. The possibilities that truth magic created were essentially endless, which was also what Razalith thought.

However, no matter what method she employed, she could not acquire truth magic. Even worse, she could not learn anything about it. None of the other ancient entities could tell her anything about the egg, and the egg itself couldn't either.

In the past, the being in the egg was a lot less lively than it is today. Even so, the fact that communicating with it was a one-way street did not change.

It is yet to develop the ability to communicate properly.

Razalith had once tried to destroy the egg, but it simply negated the truth of her attack and proceeded to pur violently for a few minutes. She was forced to apologize a number of times.

The egg was also the reason why Razalith was able to produce an incredibly powerful army of demons; she used it to change their truth and eliminate their weaknesses.

Like them, Cake was also undergoing a process of truth-altering training.

My plan is simple: alter Cake's truth in order to insert memories that are not hers, thus forcing her to learn and master things she never really learned or mastered.

Truly, this Niece of Nephew of mine can only be considered a cheat.

Cake grunting snaps me out of my thoughts. I see the egg flash a bright color, indicating its own surprise.

"What is it? What happened?" I ask this while simultaneously inserting my consciousness into Cake's soul. What I find is that the inserted memories have vanished completely. Instead, all of the eggs mana was sucked into her magic well.

When I see this, I freak.

"How? How!? That's your mana! Your truth magic! There's no way she can just take it unless..."

The realization is about to surface, but I can only doubt it.

Truth magic is an incredibly specific and unique branch of magic. So specific and unique, in fact, that I believe that the egg is the only thing in existence that can use it.

Truth magic belongs to the egg, and the egg belongs to it.

Therefore, for Cake's body to be able to direct truth magic into her magic well...

The implication is brain-damagingly demonic!

I look to the egg, and find that it had grown quiet- as if asleep.

"Niece or Nephew, talk to me. If Cake has truly stolen away your truth magic, shine a bright color. If it was just a mistake on your part, shine a dark color."

The stone egg does not respond to me, and I begin to panic. It has never not responded to me. Not once.

Not ever.

"Egg? Egg!? EGG-"

Cake's head snaps to the left. Her body turns, a warm aura encircling it. I see her eyes, full of white light, stare at me. She smiles, I blink dumbly.

"THIS IS SWEET!"

Her voice is warped. I hear Cake speaking, but also another voice under hers that I do not recognize.

I look to the egg and back at her, instantly putting two and two together.

"Niece or Nephew? Is that you in there?"

Cake growls at me, and I jump.

"It's Niece! Niece! I'm a fucking girl, goddamn it! Ugh!"

Blinking dumbly once again, I raise a finger but decide not to say anything.

"For so long I've wanted to just- ugh! You know how annoying it is to have someone constantly guessing your sex? I'm clearly a girl- can't you see the beautiful surface of this shell!?"

Without a doubt, this is the egg speaking to me through Cake's body.

"Niece, how is this possible?"

"Hmph!" Cake's body descends and stands next to me, then she looks at her hands and flexes them a little.

"This demon girl is peculiar. My guess is that she possesses some kind of impressionist magic. Either that, or the crazier explanation: she has latent truth magic."

I suck in a breath of cold air and immediately sink into deep thought. Controlling Cake's body, the egg does a variety of moves and poses in all sorts of ways.

If Cake truly did have latent truth magic, she wouldn't even know. Demons aren't taught how to use magic in today's world. If she did learn it, it would have to have been from another demon, or a sympathizer.

However, after seeing Cake's memories, I know that she truly never tried to use magic. She did not know how. Even if an event occurred that she was unaware of, the people that 'raised' her would see a demon using magic as a threat and instantly kill her.

There was no chance that they would continue cultivating a servant who could possibly revolt.

So, I look to Cake and my mouth falls open involuntarily.

So truth magic can be used by someone other than the egg?

"Niece, which of the possibilities do you think is more likely?"

"Hm?" The egg looks at me and causes Cake to frown.

"If I had to choose one, then I would have to go with the crazier of the two. Even if she had a heaven-tier impressionist type magic, I doubt she could perfectly alter the flow of my truth magic. Only I can control it, because only I can use it."

Hearing the egg's words, I nod.

Then it is true. Cake unknowingly possessed truth magic all her life. How lucky I am to have found her when I did.

"Since that's the case, that means it's your turn to help me out!"

Hearing this, I shake my head.

"We need to finish helping Cake first."

"Cake? This demon's name is Cake?"

I nod.

"..."

"PAAHAHAHAHA!"

The Niece within the egg laughs at Cake's name, which I gave her.

"What dolt could have given her a name like Cake? Cake? Who in their right mind- GUHAHAHA!"

I listen with a bitter smile, waiting for its laughter to pass.

"There's no need for you to do any of the things you wanted me to do. If she truly has truth magic, then she can do it herself. So now will you help me?"

Nodding, I see Cake's body fly to the top of the egg and sit there.

"After ten thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight years, my spirit is ripe and my magic wells have fully developed. I can finally be born, and be rid of this accursed- I mean- I can finally leave my beautiful egg behind, with much tears and sadness."

My palm hits my face, and I shake my head. "How, exactly," I say with a sigh.

"You see, it's possible for me to tether myself to this demon. I couldn't do it with anyone else, cause no one else was able to maintain a contract with me."

I nod, this is something I know well. Even Razalith had tried and failed to form a contract with the egg, but that was partly because it was not yet ready to be born.

"She has truth magic, so she can sustain a contract with me, the Progenitor of Truth Magic."

My brows raise, "Progenitor?"

"That's right!"

Unconvinced, I say, "If you were the progenitor, you'd have known that Cake also had truth magic."

"Oh, enough of your bullshit. Will you help me?"

Smiling, I look into Cake's white eyes and tilt my head to the side. I put on a thoughtful expression and put a finger on my upper lip.

"I dunno, I'll have to think about it."

"!!!" The being in the egg is furious beyond words; I can see it through Cake's expression. However, before it can begin to rant and rave, I break out into laughter.

"Of course I'll help you. Who in this world do I owe more to than you?"

The being in the egg smiles through Cake's face, "Great! So this is what you need to do."