The Demon Queen's Royal Consort

"Interesting!" Master Elian said in a loud, clear voice, his hands still firmly gripping my shoulders. He observed me with a piercing gaze, as if he could see beyond my flesh and bones, straight into the essence of my energy.

"A small barrier clouding the senses, preventing me from verifying your energy. Well-constructed, but clearly not made by a high-level mage. Perhaps Selene," he muttered to himself, as if deciphering a riddle.

"Anomalous energy pathways, prana and mana flowing through the channels, two innate cores, and a high aptitude for..." he continued, analyzing me meticulously, as if I were a living X-ray.

"Electricity?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, sir!" I replied respectfully, still motionless under his hands.

"Sir is your late father. Just call me Master Elian," he corrected me in a firm but not harsh tone.

"Yes, Master Elian," I responded, maintaining the respectful tone Lesley had advised me to use.

"Good... good... Affinity with gravity, interesting. But there's something more, something I can't quite discern," he murmured, lost in his thoughts. "What is this feeding your inner world?... Hmm... perhaps a gift?" he wondered aloud. "No, impossible. Too early and too low in the ranks for that."

"Perhaps, with so much chaos happening inside you, a third affinity?" he raised his head, staring directly at me.

"Yes, an affinity with space as well," I replied, trying to stay calm.

"Hm..." he murmured, his expression becoming enigmatic, as if he didn't like my answer. "Problematic, but acceptable."

My eyebrows furrowed. It wasn't the first time I'd heard something like this. On the day of my awakening, Lesley had said something similar.

"Master Elian, why do you say that?" I asked, unable to contain my curiosity.

"Well..." he replied, releasing my shoulders and bringing a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "It's a complicated affinity. Progress in understanding affinities is related to your understanding of their natural laws. And, well, it's extremely difficult to interpret the laws of spatial affinity."

He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "Moreover, we have few cultivation sites rich in spatial energies in Atlas."

I didn't fully understand, but I decided to leave future problems for the future. After all, I was still trying to survive the present.

Suddenly, the room began to change. Mountains rose around me, the sky darkened with heavy clouds, and lightning painted the sky in yellow and blue. The air grew heavy, charged with energy.

"We won't waste any time!" Master Elian announced, his voice echoing like thunder.

Before I could react, a bolt of lightning shot toward me, hitting me with brutal force. My body was hurled down the mountain, pain burning every inch of my skin. My hair stood on end, and blood gushed from my mouth. The fall seemed endless, and I could barely think.

In the air, floating casually beside me in a reclined position, Master Elian began to teach me how to use magic.

"Magic manifests by using your inner energy and expelling it outside your body. In this process, you need to visualize your energy transforming into elements. First, think of one of your affinities."

"What the hell!!!" I shouted, exasperated, remnants of lightning still paralyzing my body.

I was falling from the peak of a high mountain at a terrifying speed. In a few seconds, I would hit the ground. I tried to organize my thoughts, trying to understand what Master Elian was saying.

"Visualize, visualize, visualize," I repeated to myself like a mantra.

I opened the pores in my energy pathways and released prana and mana uncontrollably. My idea was to try to replicate the effect Master Elian had used on me earlier, something akin to a pull.

The result: nothing happened.

I felt my energy transforming into gravity with my intent, but the moment the magic was constructed, it was destroyed.

"What the hell!!!" I screamed, just seconds away from being crushed on the ground.

"It works... it works... it works..." I repeated, as my internal energy leaked uncontrollably. Almost ten percent of my reserve had been spent in a few moments.

"Hoo... there's something wrong with the activation," Master Elian commented curiously. He was still floating beside me, as if this were the most normal scene in the world.

"I see!!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Prana and mana are canceling each other out when you try to visualize the construction of the magic."

"What? What the hell!! What do I do!!!" I screamed in desperation.

There was no time. I was ten meters from the ground.

"Again!" Master Elian announced.

The entire space changed. Another ten kilometers were added to the distance to the ground. Now, I was falling from a frozen mountain. Ahead of me, a fierce avalanche with massive chunks of ice was hurled in my direction.

'Think, think, think... Mana and prana... mana and prana... mana and prana...'

I did the only thing that came to mind. If the two energies were canceling each other out, I tried to use one for each of my affinities.

As soon as I visualized the effect in my mind, my body began to be covered in yellow lightning, and the gravity around me began to shift.

And then, I did the worst thing I could have done. Feeling the gravitational effect around my body being altered, I replicated the pulling sensation I had felt earlier.

And I have to say: what a terrible choice.

I don't need to explain why; my body was sucked toward the mountain. As soon as I felt the icy snow on my skin, I was buried under an avalanche of ice and passed out.

**

Report on the first day of class with my new magic teacher: Many broken bones, a series of catastrophic near-death events, energy collapse, and a lot of trauma with a certain buff mage.

The extreme situations continued until I passed out from energy collapse. I was thrown into a volcano, then drowned in a tsunami on a paradisiacal beach, bombarded by a lightning storm at sea, attacked by giant birds in free fall, and finally passed out.

Fourteen broken bones and a brief lesson on how magic works in this world.

There are no runes, magic words, incantations, demonic language, magic circles appearing out of nowhere, quick hand symbols, or anything of the sort. Magic in Atlas can be defined as: visual and intuitive.

Visualization is the first prerequisite for transforming prana or mana into magic. Followed by intuition. One can manipulate elements available in nature or transform internal energy into elements. And the faster the visualization—that is, the creation of a concept to be applied in the real world—the quicker the conjuration.

Perhaps because I'm from Earth and have read countless superhero stories, novels, comics, and graphic novels, my conjuration speed is acceptably fast. My own teacher's words. I also possess more than double the internal energy of any awakened person of the same level, another advantage.

The critical problem lies in controlling the two energies running through me. Throughout the day's practice, I had to use two affinities simultaneously, even in situations where it was unnecessary. This resulted in the rapid depletion of my internal energy.

Mana and prana canceled each other out when I focused on a single element. I lacked much in energy control to open the pores of my energy pathways only on the side of mana or prana.

**

After dinner, I headed to my room, asking Dália to bring me a calming tea to recover my energy.

A clear lie.

She entered the room, and I was waiting for her, seated in one of the chairs. She calmly placed the tea in my cup and sat down in front of me.

"Dália, we need to talk!" I said imposingly.

"Yes, young master."

"I know that what has been happening between us is part of your duties."

It was the reality. In the demon world, sexual training was widely practiced by noble families. This was to ensure their heirs wouldn't be corrupted by any summer fling.

How many great names had been destroyed by the charms of a beautiful maiden? How many talented heiresses had been dishonored and lost their prestige and fame due to the enchanting words of a man?

Thus, all prestigious families implemented strict sexual training to combat the disillusionments of life.

I wasn't naive. Whatever the goal of making me the royal consort candidate, it had something to do with granting what the queen wanted. And it was clear that satisfying her would likely be one of my duties someday.

'Leave future problems for the future!'

"We can't continue like this. At this rate, I'll end up dead," I said, pointing to all my fractured bones that she had just healed.

Dalia's eyes flickered with a strange light, but no words came out of her mouth. It seemed like disappointment, but perhaps I was misreading the situation.

"But I also know it's impossible to stop your advances. I believe it's an assignment that won't be easily revoked."

Dália stared at me silently, waiting for me to complete my reasoning.

"Therefore, my proposal is as follows... Four times a week, from 03:00 to 05:00," I offered.

Dália's face darkened, clearly rejecting the proposal.

"Phew... okay, five times a week, from 03:00 to 05:00."

"No," Dália refused again.

"Alright... alright... six times a week, but the time won't change. Anything longer than that will send me straight to the grave," I grumbled.

Dália didn't respond for a while, until she finally nodded in approval. She stood up, walked toward me, leaned into my ear, and whispered:

"I'll be eagerly waiting for the young master's hard service."

I felt a light bite on my ear, and my cock hardened, pressing against the linen clothes I was wearing at the moment.

Dália walked toward the exit, leaving me alone. The daily schedule was set.

I would train from 05:00 in the morning until 21:00. I would have my last meal and sleep until 03:00 in the morning, when I would resume my training with my maid.