(Ch 50)Light vs Dark

While Faith sipped on what he thought was fruit juice but was actually wine Anima sat beside her father and half-siblings. There was an even bigger divide between Anima and her siblings than there was with Light-dark and Dark-light.

If they weren't riddled with envy and jealousy perhaps Anima's rather pessimistic view of people might've been altered. Unfortunately, Anima could confide in neither of her parent's problems simply because they did not care.

To them, she was but a tool so eventually, her parents had simply become a means to an end to Anima.

'They're all the same, no one is pure in this tainted world' Anima had concluded long ago.

"Anima darling, did you do as I asked?" Her father, the emperor of humans Athren Arlas, ruler of the Arlas empire asked.

"Yes," she replied rather curtly.

Anima preferred to avoid using words and was never very good at spinning them to begin with. In a battle of them, she would never no matter the age beat her father and his silver tongue.

"What did you think?" Athren asked.

"He's… strange," Anima answered.

Athren shook his head at that, considering the answer unsatisfactory. His daughter was as powerful as she was difficult. Unlike all his other children Athren had always found her increasing hard to manipulate despite being one of the youngest.

"Strange how? Elaborate." Athren prompted her.

Anima paused for a moment, thinking of ways to go about explaining properly without giving any detail about her Empathic telepathy.

"He's genuine and kind, more so than anyone I've ever seen. But for some reason it feels like a lie, one that he's trying to fool himself with more than anyone else" Anima finally answered, recalling what her Empathic telepathy had shown her.

The boy burned like a sun with a strange sense of purity and Anima wasn't sure whether or not she could believe such a person existed. There also seemed to be something more to him, though it was veiled and clouded in a silver mist.

'It was still pretty regardless' She noted.

"I meant how strong is he?" Athren corrected.

"Oh, probably a little less than you thought. He has a Dragon claw though so defeating him would be a little tricky for me"

"But not impossible right?"

"No" Anima answered.

"Good, teach the evil bitch's brat a lesson Anima while I make all these idiots understand how far stupid they've been" Athren replied.

Too often were demons compared to humans and too often did humans come up short. It had created a deep-seeded inferiority complex and the fact that Eshir was stronger than Athren didn't help.

"Attention, can I get everyone's attention please?" Athren shouted, standing up and tapping his hand against the glass and silencing the ongoing conversations among them.

Faith looked up to see a blonde-haired man dressed in a white suit gathering the entire halls attention. He had a Mane of hair quite like Faith's but unkempt and not tied back with crystal blue eyes and a smirk as cunning as it was charming.

"Man must have missed the memo about this tangy fruit," Faith said, holding up the glass.

"That's wine sweetie" Eshir responded.

"IT IS!?!" Faith said shocked, almost tipping the contents onto himself.

Demons increased metabolism caused wine to dilute far faster than normal so Eshir saw Faith drinking it as no problem, he was shy and she wasn't against him gaining some liquid courage.

"Guests and attendants, I'm sure all of us are a bit at odds with each other" Athren said, beginning his speech. "Like habits, grudges die hard, but we are all almost at peace and personally I'm sick of fighting. Though I may be but a child in comparison to some of you, I've learned that prolonged war benefits no one and I'm sure you can all agree."

Athren held up his glass in a welcoming manner, as if inviting all of them to gaze upon his sincerity. In truth, Athren meant every word he said, prolonged war no matter who with was never for the better and after having the majority of his ancestors die due to grudges valid or not, Athren wasn't willing to go down so stupidly.

"If you need proof then I'll ask, what rating was your Trial of Ascension. Despite my ancestors being weaker and having advanced far less they were still able to pass to the higher realms. Most of you consider humans lesser but remember that even we at one point could Ascend regardless of social status. I'm without a doubt the highest-rated human and yet my mission rating was C class and I was rewarded with a 46% completion" Athren admitted openly, surprising a few with his sheer transparency.

"Mom, what a Trial of Ascension?" Faith asked, curiously while Athren went on building up the crowd.

'It's how I killed my parents despite being half their age' was what Eshir wanted to say and the explanation she gave to most. She held back purely because she was sure Faith wouldn't take his grandparent's deaths as well as she did.

"It's like… a test I guess" Eshir answered.

'That's vague, Luna you got any clue what it is?'

'… not even a little' Luna replied, coming out of his soul space and back into Faith's vest pocket.

'At least your back I guess, missed you pal'

Faith listened to Athren's pitch while patting Luna on the head, who kept comfy inside his pocket with her head peeked out to see.

"We are regressing, not progressing. Endless war while bringing us strength at one point has begun to stagnant our progress and drain our resources more than we can handle. War has its merits for pushing us further but everyone gets tired and eventually, we lose more than we could ever gain." Athren spoke in a very inclusive way, most forced to painfully agree that the human was right.

"Alzeor, Cerian, Tell me what was your what were your ratings?" Athren asked, directing his questions towards the two strongest individuals present.

The gaze of most shifted to either of the two who looked halfway between swallowing their pride and thinking up ways to kill Athren without restarting the war. Faith obviously looked towards his father, waving at Ascillia who shared his table.

"… A rating with a 78% completion" Alzeor spat out, Lora his wife doing her best to put together whatever remained of his pride.

"Hah! 79% for me lizard" A woman with hair like Animas but brighter and eyes that shined like emeralds shouted, standing triumphant as if she'd just won the lottery.

"Oh suck my scalely ass Cerian" Alzeor snapped back.

"Calm down both of you, for gods sakes your older than my great-great grandfather yet you act like children," Athren said, fed up with them both.

"This isn't a contest of strength, it's an example that despite leading in the two strongest races neither of you passed the benchmark of 90%. We've been focused on our lands and resources when we should've focused on aiming higher" Athren spoke.

Neither of them could reply and Athren just stood there sending them both admonishing stares. Once he felt the room had died down enough he gave a good long look at all 12 rulers present, only one of which he stared at with a little contempt.

"With that being said, I doubt I can bridge the gap between our clear divide of Light-dark and Dark-light without a means" Athren paused. "So here's what I propose, for negotiations purposes we pit two younglings against each other. If our side wins Dark-light will loosen up on their sinful nature and if you win Light-dark will loosen up on our "Strictness". Does anyone have any grips, if nothing else it will make for a good bonding opportunity for two younglings to give pointers"

A man sitting next to Reasla, adorned in a blood-red suit with silky silver hair raised his hand.

"Who will the two "Younglings" be?" Yurem the lord and sovereign of Vampires asked.

"Well Yurem, I'm not one to offer a solution without a willingness to offer something up. I believe Anima would be a good pick for Light-darks side if no one has any objections." Athren answered. "Now all we need is a participant from Dark-lights side"

All eyes first shifted to Anima as silence pervaded through the room, before shifting once again to a rather hungry little demon chowing into his dinner without a care in the world. The speech was about peace and unimportant to Faith so he'd stopped listening in favour of eating dinner before Luna beat him to it.

"Hwuh?" Faith said with a mouthful of food stuffing.

'Faith we missed something important didn't we?' Luna realised.

'just act natural' he replied.

"What are you all staring at my son for?" Eshir asked, while Faith swallowed whole the pieces of meat he damn near choked on.

"Well, Eshir it's just that Faith is probably the only one close to Anima's age that's even remotely on her level of power," Cerian said, unbothered by Eshir.

"You best watch your mouth master of none" Alzeor spat out before Eshir could reply.

"Mom.. what's going on I tuned out while eating because the guy was boring?" Faith whispered, tugging Eshir's sleeve while being as subtle as possible and failing abysmally.

"They expect you to fight sweetie since no one else is as close of a matchup in Animas age bracket," Eshir said.

'Do it Faith' Luna Immediately chimed in.

'Why?'

'Good chance to test out the sword and would be really fun for me'

'How would it be fun for you?'

'Because when you fight your vest pocket turns into a rollercoaster'

'… what the hell even is the familiar world?' Faith wondered.

'Less questioning, more kicking the bratty little girl's butt. I grow in power with you so if you win I'll probably get my second tail, then transforming time. Imagine all the cool shit we could do' Luna replied, smacking Faith across the face with her paw.

"Can't argue with that logic, child abuse it is" Faith mumbled, getting up from his seat.