(time skip 4 years)
Saturday morning.
Probably the most beautiful two words in human history. I slowly opened my eyes and just lay in bed for a few seconds. The room was immersed in a pleasant twilight. The first rays of the morning sun penetrated through the blinds and drew thin golden stripes on the walls.
It was quiet. Perfect. I turned my head to the other side of the bed.
And he smiled. The fox was there, curled up like an ordinary animal. Its tail was wrapped around its body and its chest was rising and falling slowly. If anyone saw it, they would never know it was made of pure shadow energy.
Years had passed since her creation, she had become my first soldier and my first companion. The first proof that my abilities were not just some strange dream. And also the only member of my army. Which sounded much less impressive.
"Good morning."
The fox opened one eye, then the other, and finally lazily raised its head.
"Do you know that a one-man army is a pretty sad thing?"
The fox tilted her head.
"Yeah. I know."
[The system agrees.]
"No one asked your opinion."
[Solicited or unsolicited. It's still correct.]
"I hate you."
[The host is lying.]
I sighed and got out of bed. A lot had changed in the past few years, I was twelve. My core was many times stronger than before. The energy rotation ran continuously. Elemental magic had become second nature. And through constant training, I was able to create almost any weapon I could imagine.
But one thing kept bugging me. The Create Artificial Soldier skill. I've been researching it practically since I got it. Testing, experimenting, failing, and then failing some more.
In the end, I came to a simple conclusion. Creating an artificial soldier was much more difficult than conjuring an ordinary shadow. I had to create not only a body but also a mind, abilities, personality, memory, and then stabilize it all with my own energy.
In other words… It was a nightmare. I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and pulled out a black notebook, my greatest treasure, written in the language of my past life.
A language that no one in this world understood, because it doesn't even exist. If anyone found it, they wouldn't be able to read a single word. That's why I wrote down all my ideas, plans, abilities, future soldiers in it.
I sat down at the table, opened the diary and started leafing through it. On one page was a drawn knight. Next to it was a note: "Igris - too expensive. (maybe I'll get it through the system)" Next page I take. Next Bellion.
Then came the special lesson, characters, beings outside the world solo leveling Kakashi Hatake, Arthur Leywin, Dante Sparda, others… "No." I muttered. "Still too expensive."
I flipped through and through and through. Until I stopped. 'Agrona Vritra. There were several notes on the page. Dozens of hours of reflection, calculations, theories.
Strong intelligence, strategic thinking, advanced energy manipulation, Asura magic, opponent analysis.
It wasn't the strongest, but it was useful, Extremely useful. "It could work." [It could.] "That sounded suspiciously optimistic."
[The chance of success was recalculated.] "And?" [31%.] "You never say anything normal, do you?" [Rarely.] Finally, I made up my mind.
I'm going to try it right now today.
I went out into the garden behind the house, it was pleasant. A light breeze was blowing through the trees, birds were singing somewhere in the distance, simply the perfect place to experiment with potentially dangerous magic.
I sat down in the grass, took a deep breath, and began to focus my energy. The first attempt failed almost immediately. Shadows began to form, forming the outline of a body, and then disintegrated.
"Damn." The second attempt was even worse. This time the body formed almost completely. I even caught a glimpse of the face, but then there was an energy collapse and everything exploded into a cloud of black smoke. "Damn!"
This time I felt tired, real tiredness, which has rarely happened to me in recent years. Third attempt, last.
The rotation of energy started in full swing, my core lit up, the shadows around me began to gather one by one, slowly, carefully. This time I was in no hurry, I checked every detail, every layer, every flow of energy.
First the skeleton, then the muscles, the skin, the clothes.
Minutes passed, sweat trickled down my forehead, and then... The shadows stopped. A man stood before me.
Tall, elegant with long black hair and large black horns, his face seemed calm, almost aristocratic, his red eyes slowly opened.
At first glance, he looked completely normal, like a real person, not a shadow. I almost forgot to breathe. "It worked..."
The man looked directly at me then knelt down. "Greetings, my lord." In that moment, I felt something strange. A connection. As if a part of his existence had connected to my own.
And just then a voice came from behind me. "Mephisto?" I froze. Slowly, very slowly, I turned around. My sister was standing on the terrace, holding a mug of tea in her hand, staring alternately at me and the grown man kneeling in front of me.
Silence, a long, very uncomfortable silence.
"So..." she began slowly. "Do you want to explain to me why there's a strange guy in our garden?"
Damn