Demon Princess Magical Chaos: The Tentacle Awakens Read online

  "Now that you had your first conscious meal, shall I teach you how to take on a form that will cost fewer maids their sanity?" The demon queen suggests when I finish absorbing the stuffed and baked human torso into my body.

  By taking on another form, I assume our kind can shapeshift. In other words, we must be doppelgangers, or however the fantasy race that can copy other people's looks and abilities are called in works of fiction.

  "There are two ways for a Crawling Chaos to change forms." She begins to explain.

  Crawling Chaos? It feels like I've heard something similar before. I think it was the title of a certain crowbar-wielding girl with a very long ahoge.

  "The first is through consumption. Our food will get dissolved inside us, and the information contained in the flesh will enable us to replicate their original bodies perfectly." And my beautiful mother's shape changes into the equally beautiful elven queen she ate earlier. I look at where her huge cleavage was only moments ago and notice the lack thereof. So elves have such pitiful appearances in this world? Or was this particular individual still just a child?

  Wait, doesn't this pattern lead to her expecting me to change into the human king next?

  "Now you try it. Transform into the one you just consumed."

  I knew it!

  But I can't betray her expectant expression, especially when she looks like a cute elf. I stand up and focus my mind, go into myself and draw on whatever I can grasp, finally taking hold of a strangely clear image before my eyes. It's that of the male human's body before it was chopped up and made into my meal. And it's naked.

  Wait a sec-

  But it's already too late. I return to my exterior senses and look down at my hands. They are human ones. Then I look further down and see a thing dangling between my legs.

  Oh, my!

  "Great, you did it." The demon queen is back in her previous appearance. She looks me up and down, her eyes stopping at my groin for a split second longer than anywhere else. "Now, the other method is a little more difficult and requires some imagination, as not all the information is as readily available as it is with something we consume."

  With this, her body changes into a copy of mine. In other words, she's now a handsome but muscular man, wearing a revealing dress. Before the image burns itself into my retinas, she quickly morphs back into her previous self.

  "I do not have any interest in the male form unless it is absolutely necessary." Her expression shows that she didn't like doing that, and I agree doubly in that matter. You shouldn't transform into a man when you're wearing a form-fitting dress like that. "Then, please do it."

  I guess I'll try and morph into my actual appearance. While I'm obviously familiar with the female body, I can't visualize any other than my own to the degree that I could replicate it from memory. I can't do it with a single look like Maou-mama just did. The image of my own body is quite clear, but I make the same mistake as before.

  Now I stand in front of a bunch of strangers in my original appearance, wearing nothing but my birthday suit.

  "That is incredible. I expected you to copy one of the maids or me, but you created an appearance from imagination alone." Looking at me in prideful astonishment, Maou-mama praises me.

  "Thank you, eheheh..." I answer with a shy smile.

  Wait, I have a mouth! I can talk! And I just spoke in this language that isn't Japanese, even though I wasn't able to get a basic grasp of English in school. Am I a genius?

  "Oh my, you already learned how to speak?" Widening her eyes, she looks amazed.

  Crap. Does this mean I shouldn't be able to speak yet? Am I an idiot?

  "You are so gifted! Then we shall commence with your training right away." It appears that it didn't cause reason for concern or even suspicion, and I internally breathe a sigh of relief.

  Training? Will I have to wear a heavy turtle shell on my back and do all kinds of activities with it? Or maybe learn to focus my inner energy to walk up trees and conjure a ball of lightning from my palm?

  "But first, I shall personally give you a tour of the palace." With a radiant smile, Maou-mama claps her hands together in front of her voluptuous chest. Why does she seem to be looking forward to it so much?

  Then I notice the giant maid looming over her with an icy glare. That's an expression of disapproval if I've ever seen one. But the target of that glare is wholly unaware of it or is just ignoring it. Don't tell me she's using me as an excuse to skirt her court duties?

  "Come with me." Gesturing for me to follow her, Maou-mama goes ahead and walks towards the door I entered the hall through. The other maids stay behind and begin to clean up after our breakfast, but the giant one follows us.

  "Oh, that is Rewera. She is the head maid." Noticing that she is coming along without being invited specifically, the demon queen explains. "She is very dependable."

  For some reason, I can't help but imagine that the maid in question is thinking something along the lines of 'unlike you' in regards to my mother. Nothing of the sort is showing on her mask-like face, though.

  I'm reluctant to go on a tour through the entire palace while naked, especially while I'm in my human form. I gathered from the fact that Maou-mama didn't change her outfit while morphing into different appearances that real clothes can't be created from our bodies. But I guess body paint simulating a skintight bodysuit would work.

  Thus, I visualize my school's sports uniform, which consists of a form-fitting white shirt and blue school bloomers. It should be much better this way, but in reality, I'm still naked.

  Wait, isn't this actually worse?

  Am I some kind of pervert? Everyone knows that I'm naked since I did this transformation in plain sight. Well at least I had the presence of mind not to include my name tag, or it would really look like I'm going for the image of someone working at a questionable establishment.

  Though somehow I can't help but feel strangely excited at the thought that I'm actually naked right now... I'm a pervert, aren't I?

  "Are those clothes? That is quite curious." Maou-mama looks me up and down with a finger on her chin. She doesn't seem to be bothered by the knowledge that I'm naked, and I feel like an idiot for over-thinking this.

  Then again, this transformation is a stroke of genius, if I may say so myself. I removed some features of the human anatomy, such as the important bits on my chest and those down below. From my point of view, I can say that it's a great disguise, though I don't know about anyone else looking at it.

  "The part of the palace we are in right now is the main complex. There is the audience hall, dining hall and living space for the regent's family. In this case, you and me." As we walk down the corridor, we begin our tour. The windows to our left, just like the floor above this one, grant a great view on the dark beauty of the city below and the surrounding wasteland.

  "The Maid Corps live in the left wing. There are exactly ninety-nine maids with various combat capabilities stationed in the palace. Rewera here is the one hundredth, but she is special." Maou-mama explains, as we walk down a flight of stairs and come upon a large hall from which two corridors branch off to the left and right.

  Maid Corps? Combat capabilities? In other words, combat maids? And there are a hundred of them! I think I like it here already and can't wait to meet them all. From the ones I saw in the dining hall, they all must be real cuties or beauties, even though - or maybe especially because - they aren't humans.

  "The right wing houses the court officials. There are not many of them, since the maids take care of most of their jobs, too." Continuing with the tour, Maou-mama leads me down the curved stairs into the large foyer. "That is the gate to the courtyard, but we shall continue inside."

  Gesturing towards the huge steel gate in a somewhat dismissive manner, she directs me around the stairs and into the corridor that leads back into the depths of the palace.

  I look around to take in all the foreign sights. Judging by the lengths of the hallways and the tall ceiling, I can t
ell that this place is enormous. I'm sure I would become lost if I were alone, but that just makes it so much more of a miracle that I found the dining hall where I was supposed to go on my first try.

  We walk down several flights of stairs, and the windows disappear entirely. This place must be underground, most likely part of the dungeons. Don't tell me training involves me fighting against some captured humans or something like that? But I can't find it in me to ask where exactly I'm being taken. Not like I can just refuse even if it's somewhere I don't want to go. It feels like I can't oppose my mother.

  "This path leads into the dungeon, but it is no longer in use." Pointing down a dark hallway to our left, Maou-mama explains as we pass it. "And to this side is a large wine cellar. There are vintages from over a century ago stored over there."

  Over a century? While I don't know much about wine, I'm aware of the fact that it gets more expensive the older it is. Usually, that's when it's decades old. Just how much would a bottle of wine from a hundred years ago be worth? Then again, maybe it's quite normal in this world, especially for demons, which always have the setting that they're really long-lived compared to humans.

  Finally, we come upon a heavy metal door at the end of a hallway. Pushing it open effortlessly with a single hand, the demon queen leads me into a small antechamber directly connected to a large circular room with exposed stone walls. The circular portion is elevated by two steps, which somehow makes me think that it's missing another door right there.

  When I walk up these two steps and look around, I find that there are cuts and claw marks all over the walls. Either a fierce battle with steel weapons took place here, or a thrashing beast with sharp claws was confined in this room. Considering this looks like a small underground ring where people are forced to fight to their death against monsters, both explanations seem very likely.

  "Come up here." Maou-mama's voice sounds gentle as she gestures for me to join her in the center of the room. I somehow can't help but think that I can trust her, even though I have absolutely no basis for that thought.

  When I walk up the two steps and look down, I realize that there are markings on the ground which remind me of something I've seen hundreds of times in fantasy games: This is a magic circle. So this must be a teleportation circle or something like that.

  "Concentrate. If you do not, you may get torn to pieces." I hear from next to me when I reach my destination and begin to look around the room.

  I understand, mama. I just need to concen- what?!

  In the next moment, before I can turn to Maou-mama and see what kind of expression she has on her face, the magic circle begins to glow with blue light, and I feel an unseen force tugging at every fiber of my being. Then my surroundings disappear and are replaced by a stream of violently flashing lights, inside which my body is thrown around helplessly. So this is how a wet cloth inside a washing machine must feel.

  It feels like I'm being torn apart!

  Riiip.

  That sound just now doesn't bode well.

  Wait, that came from my body! I just lost my arms! Come back to meee!!!

  Ah, they disappeared into the light.

  Waaah, it feels like I'm being pulled apart by my waist!

  Ah, my lower body is gone, too.

  Now I'm floating in space, only a limbless torso with a head. And somehow, I don't feel any pain. Did I die? Is this the end of my dream?

  Yes, I still believe this is only a strange dream, and I'll wake up either when my alarm clock rings, or when I die in here. Like in that movie about a group diving into a person's dreams. Though in that one they didn't wake up when they died, they just went deeper and became trapped somewhere for a long time.

  Well, that was only a movie, and this here is reali- no wait, it's not.

  With a splat, I impact a solid surface face-first. My previously pristine seventeen-year-old Japanese high school girl face changes into something that needs to be hidden with mosaic - again.

  The fact that I'm still alive is a testament to the fact that a Crawling Chaos doesn't have to worry about injuries or even loss of limbs. I just consolidated into a solid form almost immediately after getting splattered. That's mighty convenient, especially when considering that I can't feel any discomfort in this form, which is what makes people wake up from dreams most of the time.

  I guess I'll be stuck here for a while longer.

  I try morphing into a humanoid form using the mass I have, but since I lost half my body, only a loli version of myself comes out. And I'm in a white t-shirt and sports bloomers, which are practically nothing more than body paint. If I were a character in a thin book, a van would drive up next and a sweaty, balding ota-

  I shake my head to banish the thought.

  Standing up on my two short legs, I look around. I already suspected it, but that magic circle was a teleportation circle. But below my feet, there's only dirt and dead leaves. I'm in a forest, and I'm alone.

  Um, mama?

  Chapter 2 - I Eat, Therefore I Am

  It would seem that my body is amorphous and my real form isn't actually humanoid at all. I could tell when I turned into the human king because it felt like my body practically melted down in the process and changed in its basic structure. Then I became a proper human not just on the outside, but on the inside, too. For the duration of my transformation, I felt my heart beating, my lungs drawing air and my muscles flexing as I shifted my body weight from one leg to the other.

  In other words, I'm like a mimicking slime that can recreate anything down to the cellular level, using genetic information gained through consumption. This means I should be able to gather the pieces of my body that I lost and add them back to my mass by reabsorbing them.

  But I have no idea where to find my pieces. It's not like I was on a train and they fell out of the window; I can't just find them by walking back along the tracks. It'd be more akin to traveling at high speeds in a jet plane and dropping them at different points. In other words, it's practically impossible to find them again.

  Basically, I'm stuck in this loli form for now.

  Fortunately, this is a forest, so there are no wild beasts around that could be enticed by my appearance and attempt to eat me up. In the sexual sense. Unfortunately, this is a forest, so there are bound to be wild beasts that could be enticed by my appearance and attempt to eat me up. Not in the sexual sense.

  Of course, all these thoughts are moot, because I'm actually staring into the eyes of one such beast. And not the kind I could scare away by pulling the latch on a crime prevention buzzer.

  It's a wolf-like creature with a row of sharp and pointy spines running down its back. With shoulders about as tall as I am in my current form, it's easily the size of a tiger. And at my diminished height, it looks more like a giant bear.

  Why is the first more dangerous monster in these kinds of stories almost always a wolf? I got past the slime level solely based on the fact that I basically am one myself, so it instantly jumped to wolves next?

  For now, neither of us is moving, but as if realizing that I'm alone and helpless, the beast begins to sneer. At least that's how I perceive its facial expression, as it bares its sharp fangs and takes a step forward.

  Maou-mama, you didn't teach me how a Crawling Chaos fights. Floating into my mind is the image of her in the elven queen's form, avoiding looking at me, winking and sticking out her tongue. I can picture her say 'tee hee' while knocking herself on the head.

  I flip a table in my mind.

  I run away in reality.

  There's nothing I can do with my small stature and little mass, and against a monster that seems more likely than not to be a member of a pack no less. If I hurt it, it will most likely call for its companions, and I'll have a dozen of them on my tail. At least I'm confident in my ability to run away; after all, I'm a track and field ace.

  Obviously, I forgot that I'm not really myself right now.

  As if my short legs could outrun a canine's four legs! In
fact, even if I were at full size, a wolf can still run faster than a human! It catches up with me in no time and pushes me down.

  Ahn, I'm going to get eaten~

  Sorry, now is not the time to make such jokes, I'm seriously in a pinch here.

  With just its front paw on my back I'm completely pinned and unable to move. Its saliva drips on the ground next to me, and the dried leaves begin to sizzle and dissolve from it. Acid saliva on a hunter-predator? Why is that a thing? Only the god of fantasy knows.

  Then I hear a sniffing sound from very close to my ears, and a shiver runs down my back. That feels like the last stage before a test bite. I'm seriously going to get eaten! The story of Chaos-chan is going to end here, Maou-mama. I'm sorry to disappoint you...

  With a whimper, the creature takes its paw off of me and runs away with its tail between its legs, as if it just smelled something foul.

  I cry.

  Hey, come back! Take responsibility and eat me!

  I don't stink!

  So that's how a Crawling Chaos fights in the wild? By being unpalatable? I'm sorry for being born, world. Nobody would want to eat something that would take precedence to a cockroach when getting a mosaic applied to it, right? Even though right now I look like I did when I was ten years old.

  With that in mind, I feel like crying some more...

  Since the immediate danger has been averted, I have time for such idle thoughts. Maou-mama said that we would begin with my training right away before I was teleported here. Does that mean I have to survive in the wild on my own for a set length of time and she'll come and get me at the end of it? Or will I have to find back to the palace on my own?

  In either case, it would appear that at least I'm not a member of the natural food chain around these parts. But there may always be a monster that eats even things that look unappetizing or inedible.

  Like me.

  In fact, I'm feeling so hungry that I could eat myself. It should have been less than an hour since I had basically a whole human body as breakfast, but I'm already starving. There's no cute rumbling noise coming from my stomach, as would usually be the case in these situations. Instead, it feels like I'm actually eating myself from the inside out, dissolving my body to create energy to keep me going.