(MC POV)
My disciples and servants were all crowded around me. The dining table, chairs and food were gone, though the chair I was sitting on still remained, leaving the others to stand at where they were.
In front of us was a tall tower built out of what seemed to be some kind of black stone, obsidian, maybe.
There was a single window placed at the top of the otherwise featureless tower.
"What is this?" Elaria asked, looking all around her, though the pistol she had drawn still remained pointed at Sophia.
"A memory, or rather, my memory of my first meeting with young Master Lin," Sophia explained offhandedly.
We looked around the empty plains and not a single soul was in sight.
Brendan stepped forward, several vials of poisons and potions clutched in between his fingers, "Is this supposed to be an elaborate set up for a trap?"
Sophia chose not to answer and instead pointed to the empty space right in front of the tower.
A split second later, an inscription lit up on the ground and a small boy appeared from within, his head swivelling around to inspect his surroundings.
"Onii-sama!" Elaria gasped, recognising the younger me.
Younger me stretched his arms to the sky lazily before peering up at the tower in thought.
He brought both hands to cup around his mouth to shout, "Heyyyy! I heard the Demon Lord is here or something?"
A few seconds passed before a face popped out of the window, all of us recognising it as Sophia albeit with shorter looking horns.
"Who goes there?! How did you get past the barrier and guards?!"
Younger me dug his ear with a finger, "Never saw them. I just teleported myself in here. Could you answer my question please? My adorably cute imouto is expecting her Onii-chan to bathe her soon."
I facepalmed.
"Ehehe~ Onii-sama called me cute~~" Elaria giggled, clearly enjoying this more than I am.
Younger Sophia growled at younger me, "Are you making fun of me?! Tsk, no matter. You're not even supposed to be here, did you get here by accident?"
Younger me shook his head, "Nope, I heard there was news of a Demon Lord causing trouble around so I came to take a look myself."
Younger Sophia leaned her arm on the window, "Well, you found the Demon Lord, so what are you going to do about it?"
"Oh really? You don't look very demonic to me. Hey, want to be my sister too?"
My second hand went up and joined my first hand in facepalming myself, hiding myself from Elaria's pouting face.
"I'm talking to a clown it seems," Sophia scoffed before making a shooting motion. "You really should leave before the guardians arrive and turn you into--"
Something huge crashed down from the sky, shaking the earth and throwing up a giant cloud of dust.
The wind dispersed the dust cloud to reveal a giant humanoid figure that was three times the tower's height and oozing with black miasma. It had no facial features except for two red lights at where its eyes should have been.
"Ohhh, I get it now. Interesting," Young me marveled, not concerned by the giant in the slightest.
"Stupid boy! Get out of here!"
The giant raised his fist and slammed down on top of younger me, everyone present except Sophia and I letting out loud gasps at the scene.
My disciples even tried to summon a wall to protect the younger me or throw their own Techniques at the Giant in an attempt to strike it down.
Of course, all of that was for naught since this is just a memory and everything they did passed through the giant harmlessly.
The giant lifted his fist to reveal an empty crater devoid of younger me.
Younger Sophia looked just as confused as the giant was until a small portal formed on the ground to shoot the younger me out of it a short distance away.
Younger me stood up and patted himself down with a grin, "Wow, what a rush! HA! Thought you got me, didn't you?!"
The giant raised his fist and smashed it down again without warning.
This time the portal appeared a further distance away, the younger me tutting at the giant, "Tsk tsk, not so smart are you? Guess that should be expected of an emotionless construct. Hey, lady!"
Younger Sophia turned to me, her mouth still open in shock.
Younger me grinned, "Nothing wrong with me destroying this fake demon lord right?"
"How… How did you know?"
"I have good intuition," Younger me grinned, giving her a thumbs up.
At this point I wished I had another pair of hands to facepalm myself with.
The giant opened his mouth wide, gathering some kind of energy ball inside it.
Younger me was looking down at his hands and muttering to himself, "Now… What was that… Err… Spinny energy thingy and some visualisation… Oh why does it need to be so complicated. Let's see… How about snap!"
He snapped his fingers and the ball that was in the giant's mouth exploded, taking out the entire giant's head in one blow.
The headless body stood still for a moment before it fell backwards, smashing into the ground with a loud boom that shook the earth.
"And evil is thus vanquished from these wretched lands, peace and prosperity shall reign forever more! Heh."
"Papa… Cooooool~~" Cai Hong squealed beside me, her hand gripping my arm.
Cringe more like it… I want to dig a hole and bury myself right now. Please don't learn from that, Cai Hong...
Great, I see Elaria scribbling away in her notebook, I should burn that page later.
The younger me half turned his head and gave younger Sophia a two finger salute, "Now the evil is vanquished, my lady. Perchance I request thee to be mine sister?"
Younger Sophia was still gaping at him, "How did you…"
"How did I know? Well, it's elementary my dear lady. I noticed the barrier around your tower, this isn't your home, it's your prison. And then there's that red line that was connecting you to that giant thingy, so I'm guessing you were its battery or something."
Younger Sophia's eyes widened, "You… You could see the line?"
Younger me scoffed, "Of course, it's right there. How can anyone not see it?"
There was no red line in the memory as far as I could see.
"So what do you say, wanna be my Onee-chan?"
She sighed, "Didn't you already say so yourself? This is my prison. I can't get out of here even if I--"
Younger me punched his fist at the tower and there was the sound of glass breaking, white particles dissipating into the air.
Younger Sophia gasped, "No! What have you done! The curse will… ARRRGHHHH!!"
The sky had turned dark and the tower started crumbling away, lightning flashed across the sky while dark miasma gathered around Sophia.
There was a small explosion that came from Sophia before it revealed her clad in a dark mist with madness in her eyes, her glare levelled at the younger me.
I had thought we would see the fight between the two but everything suddenly faded to black.
The next thing we knew, we were back at the pavilion again.
"Apologies, but what happens after that is… Private..." Sophia said with a conspiratory smile.
"Ehhh? So this is why you were late that one time, Onii-sama! It was weird of you to be late to our daily baths!" Elaria gasped in realization.
I decided to ignore Elaria, "Ok… But watching that doesn't really explain much other than how I met you. I don't even know what that supposed fake demon lord did or why I even went to find you. This whole thing just gave me even more questions than answers."
She looked at me, "Do you want the short version, or the long version?"
"Short version please."
She sucked in a breath, "I got cursed, locked in that tower, used me to construct the fake demon lord, you saved me, you couldn't break the curse, we separated, I went to the Dark Sect to find a way to break the curse, worked for them for a bit, they got killed off by you, I had nowhere else to go, I found you, now I'm here."
I gestured to Diao Chan, "And my disciple said you were one of Heaven Sect's Sect Masters?"
She sucked in another deep breath, "Came to Heaven Sect before I got cursed, spent fifty years here, became Sect Master, got cursed by a jealous 'friend', turned into the Demon Lord and got trapped in that tower by the same 'friend'. Good enough?"
Well… I guess that settles that…
Guess I have the Demon Lord as my servant now…