CHAPTER 8 - YOU GUYS AREN’T DEMONS?

"True Demons? You guys aren't demons?" I asked in confusion.

"We are Demons but not in the truest sense, at least not by the general characteristics other races have known us for, we have evolved… We all like to think we have evolved for the better… Sorry, it's difficult for me to put in a way that you'll understand because this is related to the complicated history of our race" Amelia says while shaking her head, trying to get her thoughts in order.

I remained standing at the side without interrupting her although I couldn't help but feel anxious after she said that we are at risk of becoming corrupted or evil.

"*Sigh*" Amelia sighed before continuing to speak.

"Appearances of demons a long time ago varied distinctively. They always appeared in humanoid form standing on two legs but some had tails, horns, bodies covered in scales, claws, extra limbs and so on or sometimes even a combination of these"

"Demons from over 400 years ago could be defined as barbaric existences that even with intellect surpassing demonic beasts they saw no need for improvement or development but instead dedicated their entire lives to not just fighting against other intelligent races but even among themselves"

"As demons had a combined strength that surpassed the forces of Dragons, Elves and their natural enemies the Angel race it was common knowledge that demons were not to be trifled, but as if to restore balance, the demon race started to deteriorate"

"Demons of low combat strength with appearance resembling humans were born from one generation henceforth without anyone noticing and because of their weak strength, they always maintained a low key status and lived longer compared to the stronger, savage demons that lived careless lifestyles of day-to-day battle"

"It was when the strongest of the demon race began to die out one by one without any new blood rising up to replace them did the demons finally notice this anomaly"

"Luckily for them, the Angel race had disappeared and when their descendants, the saint race replaced them, the demons paid a price for the dragons assistance in repelling them"

"400 years ago, the first Demon King of the new era of demons was crowned as demons could make a stand on their own against the saints and by then all demons looked like the way we do now, very similar to humans, our savage nature almost completely gone"

"In order to determine what caused the downfall of our predecessors, an investigation was launched and about a decade later it was discovered to be directly related to the humans of the human realm"

"Humans!?" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, Humans"

"In the time of Ancient demons, human were seen as the weakest intelligent race with the highest population, the demons favourite plaything and secretly their secondary source of strength"

"You see, a common pastime for ancient demons was to manipulate humans into committing evil acts and atrocities against other humans"

"But a secret that went around high level Ancient demons was that if they were grant a human a small portion of their power he lets it corrupt him to commit evil, then upon the death of this human, the power returning to them would be in hundreds fold the amount they gave out based on the amount of evil the human had committed during his life"

"Satanists and Demonic worshipers" I said with wide eyes as the realisation suddenly hit me.

"Yes, but it's not only them, even some of your world leaders were corrupted with demonic powers after being misguided by the promise of gaining immortality, humans saw the ancient demons as gods and thanks to this their realm was placed in a constant state of war and destruction for centuries even with the Angel race doing everything they could to stop the demons"

"In the end it was the humans that broke out of this cycle themselves"

"As much I look down on humans, they are universally acknowledged as smartest race, Their advancements in science, technology, communication, government system all lead to abundance of resources, reduced malice and a boost in overall standard of living almost completely eliminating the need for war, violence and bloodshed even with the continuous interference of ancient demons"

"This sharp reduction of human sin is what lead to the downfall of the demons, because back then what gave demons their overpowering strength was the abundance of evil that dominated the human realm"

"When this discovery was released, most demons were happy at the thought of evolving beyond a savage race that relied on the evil and destruction of another, but some thought otherwise"

"Then it was discovered that training demonic aura to a certain level granted one the ability not just to sense but also to absorb malice and evil generated by humans in the human realm to make themselves stronger"

"It became a controversial topic if this was the true way to train the <Demonic Aura> but the training method itself was denied by most due to obvious reasons"

"Absorbing the evil energy from the human realm corrupted the demon and influenced their attitude, making them evil, similar our predecessors the Ancient demons"

"Then a demon who had trained his <Demon Aura> to the pinnacle using evil energy unlocked a form called <True Demon Form> that made him resemble ancient demons both in strength and appearance allowing him to fight one on one with the demon lord at that time"

"He titled himself the Devil King and proclaimed that those who choose to be corrupted by the evil energy are the True Demons while those who resist it are false cancers that must be wiped out from our race entirely"

"He claimed that since our power relies on the sins of the Human race, then we should just enslave, make them do our bidding or just plunge their world into chaos ourselves, to this end, he gathered millions of followers and about 1/4th of the demon race chose the corruption route but with the combined efforts demon lord, his ten knight and the special forces, all corrupted demons were routed out into the wilderness where they formed their own empire and concentrated their efforts to wiping us out"

"Faced with with the threat of extinction from two sides, the saints and the True demons, most demons started to doubt life and our society was on the edge of falling apart"

"That was when the demon lord at the time, Lord Grande reached the pinnacle of <Demon Aura> without absorbing evil energy proving that absorbing it was merely a shortcut, he then declared to all demons that we shall no longer be a race that feeds of the evil of humans, we have evolved passed that stage and will from henceforth take a different route from our ancestors, we are…" Amelia pauses and stares into my eyes before concluding.

"We are ONIMIRAI, Demons that would continue moving forward to the future[3]"

Demons have such a complicated history and they've had so much influence on the human realm as well, yet humans are still oblivious to their existence.

So humans were the source of power for demons, then could the same be said about the Saint and Angel races?

I wonder if they absorb the good karma from the human realm or something.

Finally, everything makes sense now. I previously wondered why demons weren't inherently evil as they are known to be in the human realm or how come Richard had such an excessive reaction when I told him about the demons that came to take my mum and why demons look like humans and not like the monster in the illustrations that I've seen.

"Wait! My mum! From what you've said, doesn't that mean she's a True Demon?!" I asked worriedly.

"No she isn't"

"From the way you described her personality, it's impossible for her to be a true demon plus there are rare cases of people breaking out of evil's corruption so she might be one of those and not to mention that she fell in love with a saint and had a child with him on top of all that Haha! all that would be impossible for a true demon that finds saints more repulsive than we do" Amelia says with a slight laugh.

"Well, this time I'm sure you don't have any question left to ask, so you can finally start practising and no offence, fighting you was fun and all but I couldn't really let loose better get strong enough so we can both fight without holding anything back" Amelia says with a smile as she surrounded herself with flames before dashing to the other end of the training field.

Okay! Time to train! Let's start with mana management.

I'll try casting basic fire balls with as little mana as possible with little mana while ensuring there's no leftover mana from the spell before I move on to more complicated spells like explosive fireballs.

I enhanced my eyes with mana so that I can see the amount of mana I'm using for each spell I cast.

I still don't know what <Mana sense> is, but I guess it's similar to what I'm using.

I also don't know mana is stored in my body exactly, I don't even know if I have a magical affinity for other elements.

I guess I have a lot of questions to ask… I hope it's not too late to know about these things later.

***************************************************

I spent the next six days doing nothing but training, eating and sleeping… I really miss my manga and anime collection at home.

The private training field was free to me and Amelia during my time here and it has always been the same guy at the reception that welcomed us.

I was able to successfully train my mana management for basic level fireballs and have made progress optimising different levels of <explosive fireball> and can now instantaneously cast a perfect fireball with some degree of explosion and burning temperature.

I survived on only the magical beef noodles, not because I don't want to eat anything else, but because it's the only thing Amelia eats and although I've tried asking to get me something else that she thinks would be good she replied with:

"Huh? But this is the only thing with the right amount of meat here, I wouldn't recommend anything else"

Of course I would love to order food myself but I haven't got the slightest idea how to hide my "Revolting Saint Aura" so I rather not risk talking to anyone apart from Amelia or I might get attacked again if discovered.

As for sleep, well I was made to share the room with seven soldiers from the barack… talk about a dangerous situation!

I was always paranoid every night that I barely got two hours of sleep.

I would roll in bed for minutes, waiting for my roommates to fall asleep and when they did, I would pretend to have slept for an hour before completely dozing off and godforbid one of them rolls around too much or gets up from bed, then I'll have to start the process again.

I was deeply terrified that one of them might just activate <mana sense>, discover that I'm not a demon and then wait for me to fall asleep before assassinating me.

In fact, one morning after getting barely any sleep, I heard one of them talking about the weird dream he had where he fought a pitifully weak saint.

He and the other guys thought the dream was funny, but personally it scared the shit out of me!

Now that I think about it, these were practically the only times I wasn't with Amelia this past few days.

Well she obviously had to sleep in the women's living quarters, so she couldn't babysit me at night as well.

I'm honestly just happy that none of my roommates tried to talk to me because I wouldn't have known what to do then.

Today started as usual with me waking up sleep deprived to the announcement of morning drills for the regular soldiers.

Apart from the regular morning chores and clean up, the soldiers also practise some intense combat exercise before shower and breakfast.

After having my bath, I head to the cafeteria where I've been meeting up with Amelia every morning for the past six days.

She was already standing at the entrance wearing a regular t-shirt and joggers along with a wide smile on her face as she swayed left and right clearly in a happy mood.

What's got her so excited this morning?

"Morning Amelia"

"Hmm Good Morning Aito, come on let's get something to eat" She greeted me back before escorting me inside in a hurry.

"What do you want?" Amelia asked after I sat down.

"The usual" I said with an awkward smile on my face. It's not like I know anything else that she can get me.

After coming back a minute later with our bowls Amelia wastes no time before immediately digging into her meal.

"Ahhh!" I exclaimed in comfort after swallowing a bite.

No matter how many times I've had this magical beef, I can never get enough of that feeling of mana spreading out when it gets to my stomach.

When I'm almost done eating, I notice Amelia staring at me while impatiently tapping her hand on the table.

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten what's happening today?" Amelia asks in annoyance.

I pretend to think for a moment before answering.

"Oh isn't today the day my new master stops by to give me his collar?"

"No it's…" She says, suddenly stopping to glare at me for a few seconds before continuing.

"Today is the day we get to meet Sir Kuda, Rank 10th of the Onimirai knights, he's the only reason I've babysitted you this long"

"Hurry up so we can meet up with Major Richard before Sir Kuda gets here!" She shouts at the sight of food left in my bowl.

Under Amelia's constant glare, I rush my food before following her to Richard's office.

His office was in a tall building situated at the centre of the barrack.

Amelia said that Richad would be down shortly so we didn't enter the building but stood outside and waited for about ten minutes before he came out.

He looked especially dashing today, his golden hair shined to match his freshly trimmed moustache. This time he was wearing a tight-fitting military uniform that further enhanced his aura, making look extremely imposing.

"Sir" Amelia said loudly while saluting with a smile on her face.

The soldiers passing by salute Richad as well and I hurriedly followed suit although clumsily.

Richard waves his hand down signalling for the soldiers to be at ease as he walks towards us, smiling slightly when he looks at me.

I think my current master likes me and I like him as well… I really don't want to change my master![4]

"Come with me, we would be welcoming our guest at the entrance" Richard says strolling past us.

When we reached the gate, I noticed a dozen men and women in military uniform standing on both sides of the gate that's wide open staring outside with excited looks on their faces as they gazed upwards.

The men saluted Richard the moment they saw him before continuing to gaze at the skies.

"Can Sir. Kuda fly?" I asked Amelia when I noticed her and Richard staring into the cloud as well.

"Probably… Why do you ask?" Amelia answered with a confused expression.

"Isn't that why you guys are looking upwards? I sort of guessed that's how he travelled"

"... …" Amelia says nothing, merely looking at me in disdain for a few seconds before speaking.

"Who in their right mind would waste mana flying such a large distance when there are cars, planes and other forms of transportation?"

Oh! I guess I just really want to witness the sight of someone flying.

I look around and don't see any helipad, so I cross out a helicopter… hmm there doesn't seem to be any runways either so it can't be a jet.

How the hell is he going to get here?

We waited for a few minutes before seeing a black dot in the distance coming towards our direction at incredible speed and ended up above us in less than a minute.

I observed what I assume to be a jet as it floated directly above the entrance.

It is huge, pitch black and lacks the gliders that jets would usually have. It looked like it was ripped straight out of a scifi movie.

A door slides open and a figure jumps out of the aircraft, landing heavily on the ground outside the gate.

An extremely buff man about 7 feet tall, wearing a red suit and black tie appeared.

His hair and beard has a pale green colour, his face showing his fair complexion contained a few wrinkles characterised by his old age but his golden eyes not the least bit dull.

The moment his figure became clear, everyone kneeled in union as knights greeting a king.

Expecting something similar to happen, I was able to follow Amelia's movement and kneel correctly without looking too odd.

"Greetings Sir. Kuda!!" Everyone greeted loudly.

Kuda strolled forward a little while nodding his head before talking in a deep commanding tone.

"Irrelevant people should leave first. I would depart once I've settling my matter and there'll be no need to see me out"

After he said that, everyone except Amelia, Richard and I stood up and left.

After the irrelevant people had left, Kuda raised his hand, signalling us to rise.

"Are you the abomination I'm here for?" Kuda says expressionlessly while looking at me.

"Yes sir" I answered respectfully although a little uncomfortable after being called an abomination once again.

Suddenly, a huge pressure begins to assault all corners of my body.

My body feels extremely heavy as my thoughts begin to stagnate.

I broke out in cold sweat as every cell in my body shook in fear.

I couldn't move but I sensed danger! Extreme danger! And when I looked at the man in front of me having the same expressionless look on his face I felt fear like never before.

I remember feeling something similar to this when I met Ryan's group, but it wasn't this exaggerated.

"Kneel!" Kuda said in a deep voice and I didn't even try to resist as my body forcefully obeyed his command.

*BAM!*

My knees slammed heavily on the tarred floor due to my lack of control and even a sigh caused by the slight pain from impact couldn't escape my lips.

Dammit! I guessed this guy would be angry, but not Unreasonable!!!

[Author's Note]

1. Word count - 3164 words.

2. I know I have already made it clear that this is a fantasy novel, so you can also ignore the weird history. As far as you know, this is an entirely different world.

3. "Oni" means demon and "Mirai" means future in Japanese soo… the naming wasn't exactly genius, but how about you create your own race, give them a backstory and try naming them just so you can see how hard it was for me.

4. You guys should take care of your pets… I don't think they like to change masters as well.

5. History Lesson Complete!! What do you guys think of this fantasy world's history that I created?