The Past

Zach was now sitting on the ground, covered in blood and sweat. There were about 16 wolf corpses strewn across the field with blood coming out from all over their body, dying the grass red.

Before the reinforcements arrived, Eevee turned into Vaporeon and washed themselves of their scents. After that, Eevee and Zach hid again, waiting for their prey to come. 12 wolves arrived after 5 minutes or so, they then started investigating their comrades' deaths after not seeing and smelling anybody nearby.

After the wolves let their guard down, Zach and Eevee emerged from hiding and instantly struck out AOE attacks, dealing massive damage to the wolves. Many of them were injured after the attacks, so the fight went easier for Zach and his partner.

After finishing the group battle, Zach collected all the blood wolves' fangs, as proof that their job was now complete, he also told Eevee to wash the surroundings clean of blood and sweat. Zach then skinned the wolves, as their pelts and fur were valuable. Now that he was living in a town, money was now a valuable resource. Unlike before where he didn't need money to live in a forest. After all said was done, it was already evening.

Zach looked at the sky and said to Eevee, "Eve, we should get going now, it's starting to get dark."

Eevee, who was licking her paws nodded and asked, "Are we gonna teleport, Master?"

Zach was silent for a moment before replying, "No need. Let's just walk and enjoy the sunset."

"Vee!" Eevee then smiled and jumped in Zach's embrace, after that, she climbed up to his shoulder and wrapped her tail around Zach's neck.

With everything ready, Zach stood up and carried the wolf pelts on his back. He then started walking towards the North Gate of Magnolia.

Three and a half hours later, Zach and Eevee arrived at Magnolia Town. They walked around for a while, looking for an inn to stay in as it was already dark with only the street lamps illuminating the streets.

Asking people for directions, Zach finally found a decent inn to stay. He went to the counter, paid some jewels and went to the room. It wasn't weird for kids to already be independent at his age, so the landlord wasn't that surprised.

Entering the room, Zach put down the wolf pelts to the side and took off all of his clothes while Eevee directly jumped to the bed and layed down there comfortably. Taking a clean cloth and a bowl full of warm water on the table at the side, Zach wiped his body thoroughly. Having done that, Zach dried himself using another clean cloth on the table. After that, he stretched and let his body fall on the bed. Facing up, Eevee laid on his chest. Zach then put his hands behind his head and started thinking of the past and his weird memories.

'I've been thinking about this for the past 3 months but I still don't know where these weird memories come from, they're so hazy that I can barely understand some of them. My past life? But is there even such a thing? Well anyway, thanks to these memories I made a lot of techniques and abilities that are highly effective and useful for combat.' Zach thought.

He then started remembering his past, 'Thinking about it, Father and I have always stayed solitary. This is my first time being surrounded by so many people.' After a while, Zach slowly closed his eyes and dreamt of the past.

---

"Father! Father, look! I finally succeeded in making my own Demon flame!" A very young looking Zach with Eevee on his shoulder had a happy smile on his face and was raising his arm that had a small blue flame on it, he was showing it off to his father, Daemon.

"Oh, I knew it. My Zacharius is a genius!" Daemon caressed Zach's cheek after seeing the blue flame on Zach's hand.

"Hehehe." Zach laughed sheepishly after hearing the praise. After laughing, Zach then asked his father with adorable puppy eyes, "Father, can I play outside now? You said that I can only play outside after getting my own flame."

Looking at Zach's puppy eyes, Daemon couldn't resist the irresistible cuteness and eventually agreed, "Hahaha! That's no problem." After saying that, Daemon's face turned serious and said, "But Zacharius, know that many races don't like us Demons and only a few accept us. One of the few races that accept us are the Dragons. They only respect the strong and we Demons are even stronger than them regarding individual strength. Another would be the Celestial Spirits who are relatively neutral."

Zach tilted his head and asked, "Am I a Demon too, father?"

Daemon thought for a moment and said, "Hmm, somewhat. You are part-human and part-demon. Mostly human though but your blood is that of a Demon."

Zach who didn't understand a single thing just nodded his head. "But father, why don't they like us Demons in the first place?" Zach asked.

"Because we are Demons, Zacharius." Daemon then shook his head and said, "Nevermind that, let me tell you a story."

Zach's eyes sparkled after hearing that his father would tell him a story. He then perked his ears attentively.

Daemon then started storytelling, "A very long, long time ago, There were no Demons and Devils. There was only one race called the Gods alongside the humans, animals, monsters, and many more mortal races. Gods were worshipped by the mortals because of their compassion, kindness, and power. They were respected, adored, honored, idolized, praised, revered, venerated, and loved. Because of that, some Gods became arrogant. They started taking advantage of the mortal races. They tricked, lied, and did many bad things. The mortal races started to take notice of the bad things some Gods were doing, so they stopped worshipping them and started scorning them. The Gods who were scorned and hated became twisted in nature, they became treacherous and started calling themselves the Devils. And that's how the Devils of today are formed."

Zach just kept nodding while listening, after Daemon paused, he asked, "How about the Demons, father?"

"Don't worry, I'm getting into it." Daemon said with a smile. "As for how the Demons were formed, we were originally Gods too, but we didn't really care about being worshipped or something like that, we just wanted to get stronger and have more power. We did anything we wanted, be it good or bad. We were indifferent towards others. We didn't care about being worshipped or being hated. Because of that, people started calling us Demons, they feared us. They feared us for our overwhelming power. Because of that, many felt threatened, be it Gods, Devils or the mortal races. Feeling the threat, Gods, Devils, Humans, Monsters, and many more banded together and tried to annihilate us. Thankfully, there were also some Gods, Humans, Monsters and Dragons who were on our side and helped us in our time of need. A great war unfolded, the Demons were outnumbered, they were picked out one by one. With our devastating strength, one Demon needed to be ganged up by five to ten Gods and Devils. But even with our overwhelming strength, because of the endless horde of enemies, we were tired. We didn't have limitless stamina.

Noticing that we can't go on like this, we created a race called the Lesser Demons and started calling ourselves Arch Demons. Thanks to that, the war was now evenly matched. Even though the enemies were still more than us in numbers, it was not that overwhelming anymore. The war came to a deadlock. Many Gods fell, Devils killed, and Demons slayed. Eventually, the war stopped because of the devastating losses on both sides. Both sides negotiated and finally made an agreement. 'Demons are to hide and not show their power unless necessary while the other races are not to bother the Demons'. That was the compromise agreed on both sides that finally quelled the war. We went into hiding and they finally stopped bothering us."

After hearing the story, Zach got a bad impression on those races that fought with the Demons. He thought that they were very bad people and didn't want to be friends with them.

After seeing Zach's expression, Daemon then produced a wry smile while shaking his head and said, "Don't be, Zacharius. It was us Demons who were at fault in the first place. We did everything we wanted, we were lawless, doing absurd things regardless of the consequences. So, don't hate other races or else, you won't have any friends."

Zach, who always listened to what his father says, nodded his head and considered his words carefully.

Flashing a smile, Daemon said, "Well, it's not like everybody will follow the agreement, so don't hesitate to cut them down, okay?" When he said that, Daemon thought that it was somewhat strange and felt that what he said was kinda off. He didn't bother thinking deeply into it and said, "So, to describe them all, Gods are worshipped because of their benevolence, Devils are scorned because of their treachery, and Demons are feared because of their power."

-----

*lick *lick

Eevee was licking Zach's cheek to wake him up. "Vee, wake up, master. It's morning already."

Zach slowly opened his eyes after feeling Eevee's lick. He then hugged her and said, "Good morning Eve!"

"Good morning, master!" Eevee replied in a sunshine-like voice.

Zach stretched his body while yawning. Sitting up, he saw the wolf pelts and a bag of the wolf fangs. Zach then put Eevee on top of his head and stood up. Packing all of their belongings, they then headed down the stairs.

Treading downwards, Zach talked to Eevee, "Let's eat a meal first before going to the guild. I don't know where to turn in the wolf fangs so let's ask grandpa Makarov."

Fully comfortable on top of her master's head, Eevee replied, "Okay master. Do you want me to teleport us there?"

Zach replied after thinking for a moment, "Nah, let's just walk."

Eevee looked at her master with a complicated expression while lying down on top of his head and sighed, "...vee, whatever you say master."

Arriving in the lobby on the first floor, Zach walked towards the landlady and asked for food. The landlady smiled as she took a menu and gave to Zach.

Zach looked at the landlady confusingly; not knowing what to do. The landlady then gently instructed Zach on what to do. After learning all of that, he then ordered 15 servings of food for breakfast.

Shocked by the amount, the landlady then told him the amount which costed him 18,000 J.

After paying, Zach took a seat in the dining area and waited for his food. 5 minutes later, the food finally came. Zach and Eevee then ate with great relish, as if there was no tomorrow.

20 minutes later, 2 stacks of plate were left on the table. Standing up, Zach picked Eevee up and cradled her in his hands. Thanking the landlady, the boy and fox went out of the inn happily. Their destination, Fairy Tail.

-5 hours later-

Arriving at the doors of the Fairy Tail guild, Zach's expression brightened after finally seeing his guild after hours and hours of walking. Eevee's expression on the other hand had a tired one. With her master always turning the wrong way, Eevee resigned herself to fate when she saw her master coming back to the same place thrice.

Opening the doors, Zach looked around the lively guild; looking for the guild master. Seeing that the guild master Makarov was not anywhere at first glance, Zach looked towards the incoming people.

Walking towards Zach, the group with colorful heads greeted him. One with a red head, a pink head, a dark blue head, and a brunette.

The pink headed Natsu bolted forward and then stopped in front of Zach. With a beaming smile on his face, Natsu said excitedly, "Aniki! Did you just come back from a job? Are those wolf fur? Did you hunt wolves? Was it ha-"

The dark blue headed Gray suddenly snapped at Natsu, "So noisy!"

Gaining a tick mark, Natsu snapped back, "So what of it, slippery bastard?!"

Leaning forward and hitting Natsu's head, Gray replied, "Just shut up already. Your mouth stinks!"

Natsu fought back by bumping his head harder onto Gray and said, "What did yo-"

*Bang! *Bang!

Before Natsu could finish his sentence, a thick metal gauntlet came crashing down like a karate chop on his and Gray's head. Leaving a visible bump on top of their head with white smoke coming out of it.

"Hmph! Guildmates should be friends. No fighting is allowed," Erza said strictly while doing an akimbo pose.

"Puhahaha!" Cana laughed hard while clutching her belly. She then said, " Natsu and Gray's antics never fail to amuse me. Also… Gray, clothes!"

"Ahh!" Shocked by how he became half naked all of a sudden, Gray looked for his clothes. But when he didn't see them anywhere, Gray shrugged his shoulders and just stayed half naked.

Watching his peers' actions, Zach had a small smile on his face. He then turned to Erza and asked, "Erza, you know where Makarov-jii is?"

"If you're looking for master Makarov, then he's on the 2nd floor," Erza then replied.

Glancing at the 2nd floor, Zach then turned to Erza and said, "Thanks, Erza."

Planning on waiting for the guild master, Zach walked past the arguing red and blue duo and sat on a stool near the counter. He then ordered a jug of apple and grape juice.

Seeing as Zach went to the counter, Erza's group followed through as they sat together with him. Looking at Zach, Cana suddenly asked, "Right, we know that you have a Demon Slayer magic, but what is its type?"

"..." Zach looked at Cana for a moment and then to the others then said with a smile, "...It's a secret."