David had spent most of the day modifying weapons and making tools for hunting a demon, even if it wasn’t a demon they would still be useful for later. The poleaxe he made was another weapon that was used by inquisitors on Edea for finding people who were demi-humans or possessed. The Souldrinking Demon didn’t possess a physical body, it was similar to a Dybbuk or a Jinn. 

 

On David’s back was a box that was the size of something that shoes came in, except it was made of welded together metal and was covered in strange runes that were chemically painted onto it. Thin iron chains wrapped around this box and had various paper tags that were covered in similar symbols were printed on using the printer. These were then laminated and riveted to a metal tag and then attached to the chain at certain intervals.

 

David had used this chain to make the box into a simple sling, it was fairly light but it served an important purpose. This box could trap any disembodied demon like a Dybbuk or a Souldrinker if he could drive it from its host. It was an invention of the Machine Lord and David wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, he just knew that it was something useful for trapping them.

 

The moment he completed the runes on it, an eerie and dreary feeling was released from the box, and the rest of the metal blackened to match the runes he painted onto it, and the chain seemed to be rusting for no reason at all. This used the runes that demons themselves used, it was something specific to them as a race, it was similar to enchanting but it was only effective against beings with infernal energy. In hell and the Astral Sea, there wasn’t any mana, instead, you had infernal energy and astral force.

 

However, over time these energies are naturally released, and it can allow beings like demons and angels to manifest inside of a world. Mana is the main thing that allowed these energies to accumulate quickly, and all of the death and recent happenings had probably allowed some of these creatures to start making their way into the world. David could only assume that this was the reason why he would see a Souldrinking Demon this early.

 

Ghosts just aren’t a real possibility yet, a person would need to be high-tier to have a chance at becoming a ghost… 

 

David hoisted the box by the long chain, it had several links that were all connected to form it. These chains were used to seal the metal box after the demon was inside of it, David had also created extra lengths of chain that he could use to tie up anyone who was already possessed by it. On his neck was a talisman that was made using paper and the same strange symbols and runes, where enchantments looked smooth and flowing; these were rough and jagged.

 

“Alright, it should be dinner time now, what we are looking for is a dark shade, it will look like oil. On the same note, someone from the Astral sea will appear as a bright white. Do not think one is safer than another, in general though, you can never trust a demon.” David told her flatly.

 

“Okay.” She said.

 

“Demons will try to eat you, and Astrals only care about driving out anything that isn’t Astral force. They will destroy anything that creates any other kind of energy, they especially hate mana as it can mimic their powers.” David explained. “Demons and Astrals are opposites, they also exist at opposite ends of the void.”

 

Demons would treat any realm as filled with livestock, this would increase the levels of infernal energy which allowed more and more demons into the world. The best way to stop them was to head them off early and prevent them from causing mischief, but this didn’t make the Astrals any better. They wanted their flock to practice nothing but Astral Force, this was a power that humans couldn’t use that was only activated through the use of a song.

 

This was the same as the Astrals doing everything and the humans being turned into an effective Astral Force farm to supply more energy to the Astral sea. This was what the Machine Lord knew about them in general, usually, you didn’t want to deal with either one. Demons were murderous and mischievous, and Astrals were powerful and arrogant, they also liked to shape worlds to their whims.

 

Walking downstairs, David had his poleaxe at his side, he had also modified Bunker-kun, it now had a magical stone shaped like Lena’s wand did inside of the revolver. His spell was chosen as a wind-based one that fired out a bullet of wind in a straight line. The damage was poor but the penetration was pretty good, it also had a bonus if used inside of the victim’s body, this would cause incredible damage to them.

 

“What did you end up naming your wand?” David asked her.

 

The handle was replaced with the handle of the machete, it had been welded on and the trigger was extended and bent, with a handguard added to the back. The hammer was removed, and a silver wire fed through the slot and touched the back of the round he had made, this wire then wrapped around the handle. To activate it mana just needed to be fed into the silver wire and it would activate the magic stone through the silver base, and the trigger could still cycle the spells in the drum.

 

“Artemisia, I think I will name it that.”  She said as she ran her hand over the handle.

 

“Like the greek huntress?” He asked.

 

“No, someone else.” She said.

 

“Okay, I think it sounds nice,” David said as he began walking away.

 

“What about yours?” She asked.

 

David chuckled as he thought of a good one. “Trishula was Shiva’s trident, I think since this weapon is cobbled together, and not a trident, I will call it Trashula.” David nodded a few times as he looked at his cobbled-together poleaxe. “I am starting to realize that my dad has rubbed off on me a lot more than I ever wanted, maybe I was destined to end up like him no matter what I do.”

 

“Why do you say that?” She asked.

 

“When I look at the guy in my head, who my awakened memories come from, I feel like a damn hobo.” He said. “I just want to get this done so that I can get into that junkyard. If I am fortunate then I can get most of the people here to help me and we can all live fairly well once we have enough supplies. I just need to get past all of this bullshit, my cousin just keeps causing me problems.”

 

David sighed, as he stopped her at the back door, he could see his aunt making food using a barbeque that was filled with wood to heat a stockpot. The smell of chicken noodle soup filled up the entire camp, and a group of people was lined up with bowels. The layout of the house was simple, when his father had gotten it, it was already a ranch house that the original family had passed away in.

 

It was made with log walls on the outside, the large attic was divided with two walls two make two small rooms and a narrow hallway. The main floor was where his parents' room and connected bedroom sat connected to the Kitchen, an office was in the back with the stars to the attic and a small washing room. Then across from the kitchen was a dining room that led to a living room, a long hallway that led to a den, and 4 bedrooms along this hallway.

 

This house was way more than his parents had wanted, it was originally supposed to have been destroyed in favor of a smaller cabin for just the two of them. His dad originally only chose this property for the large workshop that was right next to the wall, and the main reason for its construction. His father was a nut who collected all kinds of different tools and made all kinds of strange creations.

 

The wall extended around the house, and the large barn-like workshop that was originally here, there was also a large driveway that could fit nine or ten different vehicles. Now all of the vehicles were removed from inside of the walls and instead it was filled with tents. This was because the living room and gen were already full of people, the three fireplaces were all out of wood too, this would be a problem for a Colorado winter. 

 

“Here’s what we are going to do, I am going to pass by them, with my weapon hanging on my back at an angle. This way it should shine on their legs and across the ground, I want you to walk along and check the various people, I don’t want to alert the demon to what we are doing.” David said.

 

Lena nodded silently, she had her blade strapped to her thigh, it used the original sheath the blade had come in. David lifted the poleaxe and slung it over his back, he then positioned it so that it would cast its light on anyone he walked past, the blade and hammer were both hanging off his shoulder. David then opened the door and began to silently start walking past the people as if he was making another trip to the workshop.

 

David looked up and saw that it was just getting dark, this made the light that the low-level magical stone cast, much easier to see. If he had more powerful magical stones, then he could have made this thing a floodlight, instead, he was stuck with this light that only worked well when it was almost dark. David lamented how poor he was as he stepped off the back stairs, and began to slowly walk past the people in the line.

 

His aunt merely stared at him as he passed, she hadn’t been very accepting of him since his uncle was suddenly killed. David was left cursing his dead uncle in his mind, as he walked past the short dark-haired woman. Then David began seeing the people in the line, and he began to see the members of Dane’s family like he had expected.

 

Most of them were farmers, that was the majority of what people did in this area of the state. Several of them were ranchers who were now completely out of the job, the one thing David realized quickly was just how well-armed everyone was. He saw a large amount of bolt action rifles, he suddenly wondered why they had so many issues killing the Ursok.

 

Why didn’t anyone mention this to me? There has got to be a story here!

 

David suddenly made it a point to staggering so that he could accidentally bump into his uncle and brush his hand over the man's rifle. The moment his hand touched it though, he suddenly saw something that alarmed him, and that was how it was almost empty. 

 

“Hey, watch out Kiddo!”

 

“Ah, sorry!” David quickly apologized as he turned and brushed a second rifle by accident.

 

It’s empty!

 

“How is your wife?” David asked the man quickly.

 

“She is fine! We both made it out.” He said.

 

“That is good!” David said with a smile, he then turned and brushed another rifle.

 

They are all almost empty I bet…

 

David suddenly began to realize just how bad his family must have had it, they hadn’t told him how often they were attacked by monsters yet, but he was starting to get the picture. David made several more attempts along the way and was able to touch several other weapons, they were all either empty or almost empty. This was information that his father had hidden from him, it now looked like almost everyone inside of the walls was out of ammo.

 

Did my dad lie? What if they drove the tank out of the walls because it was the only thing they had left?

 

David and Lena soon made it inside the garage after walking past the long line that wrapped around the house. David was deep in thought when he felt a hand tug on the bandages that covered his left arm. He turned and looked her in the eyes and she spoke to him.

 

“I saw two things as we made our way through.” She said.

 

“What was that?” David said seriously.

 

“The first was the soup, it was incredibly thin, now that I think about it, our meal was fairly simple.” She said. “The second thing I saw was that someone had a different colored light.”

 

“Really, what was it?” David asked her, he put the first piece of information to the back of his mind.

 

“Orange.” She said.

 

“A Lycan, who was it, what did they look like?” He asked.

 

“A little boy with brown hair and eyes.” She said. “He had two bowls with him.” 

 

This information made David pause, he had to carefully process it, Lycans were similar to vampires. It was an infection that started from being bitten by a monster, the target would then suffer a terrible sickness and usually recover if they were able to fight it off. The lycanthropy infection was much more sinister, it tried to get you to submit through hallucinations and make you want the feeling of being a beast.

 

That was because all Lycans had incredible healing abilities, there wasn’t a single one of them that wouldn’t be able to recover from a wound if you didn’t behead them. David suddenly wanted to curse inside of his mind over and over when the first two pieces of information both added together. Lycans didn’t transform during a full moon like most people thought they did, it was much worse than that.

 

Pain, fear, lust, anger, sorrow,  and hunger…

 

These were all things that could make a Lycan transform against their will, at that point they were a feral beast that would attack whatever was around them. The worst part of it was that they almost seemed like they could control it, but this was just a pipe dream. Every transformation caused the original DNA of the person to change a bit further away from a human, and eventually, they wouldn’t be able to change back.

 

And their emotions will be slowly destroyed as they become less human and more beast…

 

“Did you go into the kitchen at all?” David asked as he began pacing.

 

“I did help with some of the cooking.” She said.

 

“How much food did you see?” He asked.

 

“They didn’t let me in the pantry but I checked it out later when your aunt wasn’t paying attention.” She said, “It is almost empty.”

 

David and Lena were inside the workshop, he could see the long building that was filled with tools and shelving. The house was L-shaped and the workshop was a long straight building that ran alongside it making the shape of IL when placed on a map. Suddenly he saw that they had another problem that was hiding inside of their walls, and they were no closer to finding the demon.

 

“You said the Lycan had two bowls, right?” He asked.

“That’s right.” She said.

 

“I bet he had a family member, they may also be a Lycan. We need to check them, this is worse than I thought.” He muttered. “The Lycan had no chance of committing this act, so we can clear him of killing Jeff. We also need to figure out what kind of Lycan it is, there are so many different kinds.”

 

“It’ll be alright, as long as we are together.” She said.

 

David suddenly found her behind him, and she was massaging his shoulders again. When he had been pacing around, he had lost sight of the woman until she was suddenly behind him. David suddenly realized she was good at getting inside of his private space, as she was pressing his shoulders he could also feel her breasts occasionally press into his back.

 

The small tent, the room in the attic, being rescued by her from the helicopter, and their entire journey to his parent's house. Now he was home, and his family suspected he was the killer of his own uncle, just because of what he had advocated. Now he was sneaking around as he tried to locate a demon that was trying to create discord inside of the family.

 

“The demon is what I am really worried about, the older they are the stronger they usually tend to be. Souldrinker Demons are called that because they hollow out the victim after they kill them, they become like vegetables that will wilt away without the demon inside of them.” He said. “The demon only needs to get the person to accept them, and they are really good at it. The moment this happens though the person will get a black tinge, Astrals have races that can do something similar. It acts in reverse, but it also burns out the person's soul to make room for the angel.”

 

“It’ll be alright, as long as we are together.” She said.

 

David could feel his tension slowly being driven out of him by Lena, he could imagine her deadpan expression. If he wasn’t looking at her, she usually didn’t try to smile or make any expression at all, his mother had notified him of this trait of hers. 

 

“Yeah, let’s just try and find the demon.” He said as he walked away from her towards the other side of the workshop.