Demons and angels had often appeared in many different mythologies, in truth even without mana people are capable of becoming awakened. The Demons and the Astrals involved all loved using various marketing schemes to draw in unsuspecting humans. The most common one was to draw certain perspectives of themselves, all while painting their enemies in a terrible light.

 

Demons are evil soul-stealing beings that will drive you insane, astrals require you to spend your entire life in their service, all for the sake of a second life after death in the Astral Sea. These were how they painted each other to make the other seem unappealing but the reality wasn’t much different if you chose one side over the other. A human could use infernal runes like David did when he created the Demon Box on his back.

 

“Mommy, does that man think he is some kind of knight?” A boy asked his mother as David walked past them with his equipment.

 

“That is Macklin’s boy, he used to pretend he was a knight when he was a child, so I wouldn’t be surprised.” She told her son confidently.

 

David wanted to refute that statement, but if he had to choose between his current equipment and a gun, he would choose his current equipment. The main reason he would choose it was that it was all silent, even the mana cannon he created made almost no sound since it was wind-powered. Even Bunker-kun was capable of driving its enchanted spike through solid steel without making a single sound thanks to the mesh inside of it, except for the target metal breaking.

 

He also carried a set of tools at his waist that would make any lock maker cry and throw all of their tools right into the trash. Many of the picks he had made were ones that the Machine Lord created, he even made some picks for locks that were specific to Edea. Once the demon and lycan issue were solved it would be time to go monster hunting and explore their surroundings.

 

Walking back through the line, David took note of the little boy who was a lycan. The boy was not quite a teenager, but his eyes already showed a sharpness that was common in adults. David tried to figure out if he had seen the boy before, but he couldn’t recall him from any of his memories. 

 

They were soon past the line and made their way back into the house, the next place they needed to go was the kitchen. David reached behind him and removed the poleaxe from his back when they made it through the backdoor. Reaching down he twisted a few times and removed the bottom of the flashlight from his poleaxe.

 

Normally the batteries of the flashlight would be underneath this flashlight head, but now he was just using it to store the magic stone that powered the electric coil. David handed the light to Lena, he then ran upstairs to their shared room and collected a basket that had all of the clothes the two had worn over their week in the woods. He then went back downstairs carrying the basket, he then nodded at Lena as the two walked through the door.

 

The moment the pair walked through they were greeted by the stare of several women, David could also see his Aunt and mother in the back. His Aunt looked exasperated, and she started walking away towards the door the two came from. David moved out of her way and watched as she passed in front of the dim light that was in Lena’s hand, but her aura was also pale blue.

 

David sighed in relief as the short black-haired woman walked past them and out of the kitchen. Lena was able to hide the flashlight head in her hand so naturally that David wasn’t able to see it. The kitchen was daily large, with a custom stove that his father had made that had 6 burners, this was Little Mac 147 and it was a gift to his mother.

 

David shook his head as he saw the two women who were cooking were both human, with no tinge from another source. The one that made him most worried was his mother, as they began to pass by her he noticed a strange look in her eyes. She seemed to look at David and the basket in his hands, then at Lena and nodded at her proudly.

 

This confused him greatly, he exhaled in relief though when he saw his mother was also human with no signs of deviation. Before he had any time to discover what the two women were silently discussing he could hear Sarah’s voice coming from the laundry room. The disgust in her voice upset him.

 

“Is it fun to parade your girlfriend’s underwear through the house?” She asked him.

 

David looked at the top of the clothes hamper and he could see a pair of lacy black panties at the top of the clothes. He smiled though as he had an ironclad escape method to this situation, Sara had brought the attention of all the women in the kitchen onto him. 

 

“I was carrying it for Lena.” He said. “And I didn’t see what was in it.”

 

A straight face with no room for any doubt, this was man’s greatest weapon against a woman who was questioning something he didn’t anticipate. 

 

“Do you make it a point to go through everyone’s things when you are helping them out? I just saw her trying to carry them down the stairs and made it a point to carry it for her.” The kind idiot, David could see from the reactions around him that he was slowly getting points with all of the women in the kitchen.

 

“Does Lena also wear boxer shorts? What about gray t-shirts with skulls on them.?” Sarah asked him.

 

David had seen his clothes mixed with hers, it looked like the two had sloppily changed together, the more he looked at it the more incriminating it looked. He wanted to glare at the blonde woman who was staring at him with her normal blank expression but this was not the situation for it. He realized the moment he saw them that there wasn’t a good explanation for why their messy clothes were organized in such a way.

 

Even David had to question the placement when he saw it, then he realized he was all in on ignoring the problem. David looked directly to Lena, he was making it clear that he had no part in this. David shook his head several times before he paused as his jaw dropped open.

 

No! This isn't the time to show a new expression!

 

Her face was slightly blushed, even with it completely blank she still raised her hands to cover it as if she was embarrassed. Looking at the women who were now chuckling at him in the kitchen, he could only be left turning red in embarrassment. His lack of response only seemed to make his cousin angrier, the only fortunate thing for him was that she spared him any more words.

 

The hate-filled glare that she directed at him was all he needed to know that his relationship with his cousin was over. When she walked by him and he saw her blue shade of mana using the detector, he could only sigh out in sorrow. He wouldn’t change any of his actions up to this point, the worst part was that the two of them used to be close, in the living room was a family photo of the two of them together.

 

“Let’s go,” David told Lena, sighing sadly as he thought about his hot-tempered cousin.

 

“Son, hold on.” His mother called him.

 

David paused as he saw his mother walking towards him with a deadpan expression, just like Lena his mother was also bad at expressing herself. She stopped right in front of him and stared him right in the eye. It was the most pressure he had ever gotten from his mother.

 

“Did you kill your uncle?” She asked.

 

“No! Of course not!” He immediately repudiated.

 

David watched his mother nod to his statement, she then reached forward and began playing with his hair, the wind from outside had messed it up. His mother then reached into the hamper and readjusted the clothes for him. 

 

“You shouldn’t be too much like your father.” She said this as she looked at the cobbled-together weapon on her son’s back. “You should instead focus on things like grandchildren.”

 

If he had been expecting something reasonable from her, he had been mistaken. When his mother looked at the two of them walking into the kitchen together, she remembered herself and her husband when they were younger. This caused a gentle smile to cross the face of his mother, her blue eyes were like a tranquil pond.

 

“Don’t worry mother, you won’t need to wait for long,” Lena told his mother from his side.

 

This statement caused a cascade of questions to flow through his head, he looked down and saw that Lena had pointed the mana detector at her and it caused a pale blue light to appear. There were too many different emotions going through his mind, while he was relieved, this only added to the complex feeling he was having. Just as he was feeling lost in the situation the image of a short, bald man with a giant smile appeared in his mind.

 

I bet my father went through the same thing with my mother, maybe he can help me understand this.

 

When he had saved her, he had mostly done it out of obligation and wasn’t thinking of anything else at the time. He mostly used her as a way to drag himself out of the much that the Machine Lord’s memories caused him when he woke up. Now he felt like he had given her an inch and she was taking mile after mile from him, and he felt like if he didn’t do something then he would soon be married before he even had time to choose it.

 

“I want a grandson, the Wilson name needs to be carried on, but I definitely wouldn’t complain about a few granddaughters either.” His mother said.

 

Wait, what are you two discussing?!

 

“I won’t be happy until I at least have one son and one daughter, wherever comes out of trying to get them is just a happy accident,” Lena replied.

 

David realized quickly that the more time he allowed Lena to talk to his mother the worse the situation would get for him. He was desperately trying to figure out how he was going to stop the two women when his mother gave him a sad smile. Her words were just what he wanted to hear though.

 

“Son, me and your father need to talk with you later.” His mother told him.

 

“That is fine, why not later tonight?” He asked.

 

“Alright, you two can come to our room before you go to bed.” She said.

 

“Of course, mother,” Lena said with a smile.

 

I wonder if she is finally going to tell me how bad everything is? No food, ammo, and probably low fuel, I doubt anything is going well here.

 

David and Lena made their way towards the laundry room, it was a large room with a washer and dryer that used to have a small office attached to it. That office was removed and more washers and dryers were added, it looked like they had looted two sets and added them in. David could see a small group of women and younger children who were working on these clothes in the large space.

 

A large plastic table had been unfolded and was being used to fold laundry, at the head of this table was an older woman of color. Her hair sith shot with gray, and she wore a colorful green dress and had a smile as she hummed songs for some of the smaller kids. When he was growing up, his best friend had been a kid named Trey.

 

Trey and he had gotten into all kinds of trouble together, and they were usually always doing whatever was popular at the time. Trading cards, superheroes, and everything in between, the two ids had done all kinds of different things together. When he had met Amanda and gotten into a serious relationship, that had all stopped though.

 

“David, I am so glad to see you back!” Susie said with a sad smile.

 

“Susie, have you heard from Trey and Amanda?” He asked.

 

“No, they were in Boulder before the power cut off, then everyone was ordered to hunker down by the military. They had gunships in the air and helicopters, they were trying to fight all of the emerging monsters,” She said. “It only got worse once bigger flying monsters began to destroy the aircraft, after two months no one could see any more military aircraft, they also stopped sending tanks and armored vehicles.”

 

“We stole a helicopter to get out of Colorado Springs, we weren’t able to even get further than Castle Rock before we were attacked by flying monsters,” David told her, his eyes watching Lena as she walked to his side and grabbed the laundry basket.

 

“Girl, you can just throw those over in that corner. We can wash it for you and I will send one of the little ones to tell you when they are ready to be folded.” She told Lena.

 

“Thanks, Susie.” He told her as he watched the kids begin moving in earnest.

 

David watched as Lena used the basket to hide the light, and began making her way through the people. There were ten of them in total, and Susie and the first half were all quickly confirmed as human, then she made her way to check the rest of them as he continued to talk.

 

“After the military stopped moving, most of the radio towers were stopped dead. Only a few of them still broadcast and most of them aren't good.” She said this sadly. “No one knows what is happening in Denver after some man named Marco took over the city hall. The roads to Denver were also torn up by tank tracks, and we aren’t able to get there using the highway. Baker was able to make it out of Boulder, he said that it is surrounded by trees that have been attacking it.”

 

“Trees? Did they have skeletons and black oil coming out of them?” David asked seriously.

 

“No, he said they could move around and attack. They were like giants, and their arms were like large clubs.” Susie told him. “The bullets they used weren’t able to penetrate the creature's bark, only the tank's main cannons were able to take them down. I am so happy that Cherry got her boy back, but I am worried about my son.”

 

“Where did you learn how to make a mana detector?” A young female voice asked.

 

David looked over and he could see his younger cousin Bella, he could also see Lena standing in front of her, and behind her was a dark shadow. It seemed to dance across the wall like dense smoke but David was well aware this was the unique signature that was created by demons. Seeing no sign of light blue anywhere in her shadow, it was clear that she had been completely emptied and was just a shell now.

 

“So you are the demon,” David muttered sadly.

 

“So it was you, no wonder!” She said happily. “I had been in this world before mana was here, I wanted to eat this little girl. Unlike the older one she was well aware of what her father was doing, she spent a lot of time on the internet in places that she shouldn’t have.”

 

David watched as the demon began to laugh happily at revealing this piece of information, seeing her black hair and happy expression that looked like a younger Sarah upset him. Sarah was only five years younger than him, and due to how their birthdays landed she was only four years behind him in school, so they had been together through some of it. Bella, on the other hand, he had little contact with, they had been too far apart in age.

 

“Damn, and I am guessing that Sarah was going to be your next meal? Or was it supposed to be me after you singled me out?” David asked her.

 

“Just what kind of memories were you able to awaken?” She asked this as she licked her lips, this was not a sexual act but one done purely from hunger. “Was it some demon hunter? Or maybe it was someone from a plane that was ravaged by us? I can’t wait to find-”

 

David had seen enough of the expressions on his cousin’s face that did not match what she normally showed. Susie and all of the other kids were also showing looks of alarm as they looked at the changes in Bella’s expressions. He reached behind him and grabbed the box he had made of metal, with the runes causing it to get an almost rusted and dark appearance it made the box seem eerie.

 

“No, not a demon hunter… that isn’t a strong enough word for what he did to them,” David muttered as he patted the box.