“Princess, what do we do?” David asked.

 

“What do you want to do?” She asked him.

 

She was laying on the bed behind him, and he was sitting against the mattress. They were inside of their room in the attic and it was currently deep in the night. His parents had told him what he had expected, they were out of almost everything but water.

 

“Do you not have any friends or family?” He asked.

 

She never answered him when it came to herself, she always just left him guessing, suddenly he felt a pair of hands begin rubbing his shoulders from the bed. There was so much on his mind right now that he wouldn’t be able to sleep if he laid in the bed. In the corner of the room was the chained-up Infernal box, his poleaxe, and mace, on the nightstands next to the bed were Bunker-kun and Artemisia. 

 

“That Lycan is still a problem, but at least they agreed to burn the bodies. I told my parents that we have to burn all the bodies that are created, or we will have a serious zombie problem.” David told her.

 

“Will they do it?” She asked.

 

“Yes, they already had issues with monster corpses a few times when they all turned into the undead on the new moon. It is one of the main reasons they ran out of ammo so fast, bullets aren’t great against the undead.” He said.

 

Undead didn’t die unless you destroyed their soul fire, and putting out a fire with a bullet wasn’t very easy. They had learned this lesson the hard way, according to his parents a man with diabetes had died when he ran out of insulin. This man had also become a walking corpse and was killed before he managed to harm anyone else.

 

Just like on Edea humans were slowly learning how to deal with the various risks associated with a world with mana. This was a quality of Edea’s moon that was specific to that world, but if it was bleeding into Earth then it made sense to David that this effect would also happen. It meant that the way humans lived would fundamentally change and become similar to Edea over time.

“As long as Marco is still alive, then he will be a problem that we will need to deal with, Colorado Springs will also be an issue with all of the undead. There are more reasons to leave this area than there are to stay.” David said. 

 

“Do you want to leave?” She asked.

 

“No, because things will only be the same elsewhere. I feel like if I run away then that is all I will ever be able to do.” David said.

 

David wasn’t sure if she was trying to understand him, or to help him understand himself, ever since the kitchen when he had felt the Machine Lord standing behind him talking, he had been rattled. 

 

“When I was exercising the demon from myself, what did you see?” He asked.

 

“I told you, you just stood there with that creepy box. Why did you need to use your blood to make that candle?” She asked.

 

“Blood has to be used to make an Infernal box. According to my memories, that candle has a lot of uses but it is most useful to demons. Sealing, refining, trapping, and confusing demons are only a few things that the Infernal box is capable of.” David said.

 

“Why is it shaking like that?” She asked.

 

“It is refining the demon, it is hard to explain. Demons don’t exist in the same way we do, they exist as a spiritual body inside of the Blood Sea which is a part of Hell. The Blood Sea is at the very center of Hell itself, anytime a demon dies, they borrow energy from the Blood Sea and are reborn inside of it. Whenever they collect a soul or take in power then a portion of it is sent to the Blood sea, they have a symbiotic relationship.” He said. “It isn’t a conscious entity though, it is closer to a plant, it just does what it has evolved to do. Much different to the Astrals fountain of creation, hopefully, we don’t encounter any of them.”

 

“So will that demon come back then?” She asked.

 

“No, that box is special, it can pull the true body of the demon out of the Blood Sea if it can seal it in the box. That is why I can’t use it, now that the demon is being refined the box is full. Inside of it is a demon soul that is pure and will allow the user to connect to the Blood Sea, allowing them to become a true demon.” David said.

 

David looked over at the box that was covered in Rust and wrapped in chains, the runes would occasionally glow in a pale red, and the box was slightly shaking. These were all signs that the demon inside of it was being refined, in the end, it would leave behind a demon soul. That was the surest way to kill any demon, this was only possible because it was such a weak demon.

 

“What about the Lycan?” She asked.

 

“I don’t have any tricks for killing him, the fact that his aura was that dark means he has already transformed several times, the only good thing is that we didn’t find any other Lycans among the people,” David said. “If we can silently strike him down, then it means that we will be saving ourselves a future risk.”

 

Knock! Knock!

 

David paused as he heard two sharp knocks at the door, this was then followed by a male voice calling through the door.

 

“Hey kiddo, can I talk to you?”Dane called through the door.

 

“Come in,” David said.

 

David looked over and saw that his uncle had a tired look, with bags under his eyes, the two of them matched in that regard.

 

“Care if I smoke?” he asked.

 

“I don’t, Lena?” David asked.

 

Looking back, she was shaking her head.

 

“Go ahead, what’s wrong?” David asked.

 

“David, I had to burn Bella’s body, that was no longer human,” Dane said. “How long was she like that?”

 

“It had already gotten inside of her before the apocalypse happened, but it wasn’t able to act. Demons will hunt any sentient creature, they love sowing discord.” David said. “Souldrinker demons like the one that possessed Bella love tricking people, they will constantly whisper in their ears.”

 

“Promising them things like power, right?” he said as he lit the cigarette he was holding.

 

“Did it try to talk to you?” David asked.

 

“That’s right, it’s been talking to me for days. It started a few days before you two arrived, right when we realized how low on ammo we were.” Dane said. “I wanted to go into the laundry room and help you, but that horrible feeling seemed to fill the entire property. I felt like I was in some kind of slasher film, where if I took a single step I would be killed. Was that the monster?”

 

“It was.” He lied.

 

He had no idea how to explain what had happened in the kitchen when everyone else had also felt the presence of the Machine Lord. Killing intent was unique to the individual, it was similar to breathe or body odor. 

 

“I ain’t ever seen anything like that before. When I was burning the body, I saw her bones were covered in runes, was that creepy box what you used to deal with her?” He asked.

 

“That’s right,” David said.

 

“What about the medieval weapons? Are they also special?” He asked.

 

“That’s also right, it’s why I didn’t care to take the .22 survival rifle that was still in the safe, it was useless,” David said. 

 

Reaching over he grabbed his mace by the handle and twisted it to activate the magical stone, causing a blazing fire to appear in the mace head as the enchantment became powered. This lit the entire room with a bright orange glow, this also caused his uncle to almost drop the cigarette he was holding onto the floor. 

 

“Dane, I realized that knights were fictional a long time ago,” David said this but felt a pinch at his shoulder.

 

Turning around he could see Lena staring back at him blankly. Deciding that he had shown enough, he reached down and turned off the flame on his mace. Then he decided it was time to break some really bad news to his uncle.

 

“That demon wasn’t the only monster that was hiding among us, I found another one as well,” David said.

 

“Shit, is it gonna be another ghost?” He asked.

 

“No, ghosts are much, much harder to deal with,” David said. “It is a lycan.”

 

“Like a werewolf?” He asked.

 

“Close, how do you know all this?” David asked.

 

“Son, what the hell do you think we do at night on the ranch? We stream movies and play video games!” Dane said with an annoyed expression. “Why do all of you people from the city think that we only work and sleep? Do you know how many nights I spent grinding my way from bonfire to bonfire?”

 

Crash!

 

“Sarah is missing!” Molly called through the door.

 

“What?” Dane called out.

 

This also caused David some alarm, he had realized that the reaction from his cousin was going to be extreme, but running away at night was a death sentence. This thought gripped him, as he stood up with mace in hand, already reaching for his boots. On his shoulders, he could still feel Lena working out the last bit of stiffness.

 

“Did you check the house?”David asked.

 

While she looked defensive, she also seemed to have a defeated look in her eyes. David could imagine the shock of finding out a monster had been hiding among the people inside of the survivors. 

 

“I checked the entire property.” She said. “The main gate was unlocked, I think she slipped through.”

 

“Alright, I will go look for her,” David said.

 

“I’m going with you,” Lena said as she strapped her blade onto her thigh. 

 

Having fastened his mace to his waist, he grabbed his poleaxe and strapped it to his back using some paracord. Lena took this time to get a bag that was used to collect magic stones, as well as a rolled-up mat that was attached to the back of her waist by her belt.  She also picked up a lantern since she would have a hand free.

 

“Hey, in the morning, let’s talk about what to do,” Dane told him. “I want to get the junkyard back.”

 

These words caused David to pause, he remembered that the main reason he had come here was for the junkyard in the first place. Now that he knew his parents were okay, he felt like once all of the unstable elements were out he could begin turning things around at this place. He also had a lot of questions about the junkyard.

 

“Got it,” David replied.

 

“Go, Grab a walkie-talkie before you go, we will search until morning,” Dane said. “In the morning I will use the four-wheeler to look for her.” 

 

“Alright, let’s go, Lena,” David said as he turned and left the attic following his aunt and uncle.

 

His aunt and uncle turned towards his parent's room, and he just grabbed a flashlight and a walkie-talkie and headed for the back door. They soon walked outside and David was forced to shiver a few times at the temperature difference. Sniffing the air a few times he realized it smelled humid like it was going to rain soon.

 

“She picked an awful time to run away,” David said.

 

The two of them crossed the dark backyard using the light of the lantern, they then found a metal reinforced gate and pushed it open. David could see hills and dirt paths illuminated under the moonlight, there were also many tall fir trees. In the sky were dense clouds that caused the moon to go in and out of focus.

 

“It is going to rain soon,” Lena said.

 

“This means that we shouldn’t see many monsters, a lot of them will go to sleep,” David said.  

 

As soon as he said that he felt a raindrop fall and land on his shoulder, he could also hear rumbling in the sky. Soon several raindrops began to fall one after another, David reached over and grabbed Lena’s free hand and began to lead her towards the treeline.  He would have to be a fool to think that she minded. 

 

“We can’t call out to her. It would draw too much attention to us, but this gives us time to talk.” David said.

 

Raindrops began to fall rapidly from the sky as the two moved from tree to tree as they slowly climbed up the hills behind their house. It was the same way the two had originally come from.

 

“I feel like I am on pins and needles around my family and friends, I have to be careful of what I tell them. Awakened were always treated like expensive textbooks, people would search them out, read them, then never care about them again.” David said. “The more valuable the memories you have, the more fiercely people will hunt you down.”

 

Edea had what was called the Librarians society, they worked to collect all of the knowledge that the awakened had. In a way they were one of the largest repositories of skills and abilities, they had also been a neutral faction. Many strange religions had different legends that foretold about the coming of unique awakened.

 

“We will be fine.” She said.

 

“Why is that?” He asked.

 

“We can defeat whoever comes.” She said.

 

“You think?” He asked.

 

“I do.” She said with determination.

 

“I don’t understand what you see in me, I wonder sometimes if I have gone crazy. So much has changed about the world around us, it’s enough to make me question if I survived the car accident.” He said.

 

“You were in an accident?” She said. 

 

“I was, I was injured heavily, but for some reason, it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in my file,” David said.

 

They had finally reached the top of the hill and were making their way into a small valley. Going from tree to tree they were able to stay mostly dry hiding under the needles of the trees.

 

“We’re not going to find her,” Lena said, in the distance, he could hear thunder. 

 

It was getting darker as the rain continued to fall harder and harder, David was also starting to get covered in water. He suddenly heard his walkie-talkie buzz as his uncle’s voice came through.

 

“David, any luck?” Dane asked.

 

“No, nothing.” He said.

 

“Meow!” a small cat called out in the rain.

 

David turned in the direction that he heard the call, and reckoned it came from further in the valley. Since he had been tempering it with mana, his left arm was getting stronger than his right arm was. The poleaxe felt half as heavy, and he could maneuver it one-handed, this left his right arm free to use the mace, for now, this was until he could trace runes in the air.

 

Behind him Lena was also getting ready, her bladed wand was drawn, and she had a card in her right hand that was glowing. From the blue sheen and the sparks, he could tell that it was a lightning spell. David nodded internally in satisfaction as she was taking advantage of the rain.

 

Crunch! Crunch!

 

David could hear the sounds of something being broken, and after taking a few more steps he could see a gruesome scene. The large orange monster cat was being eaten by the one-legged bear, and hiding under the roots of a tree he could hear a small cat crying out. Blood and fur littered the clearing between the trees, suddenly seeing the bear, he felt some relief.

 

“Ever since I woke up, I have been dealing with a lot of things that I don’t understand,” David said as he walked towards the bear.

 

It was rare for monsters to care for their offspring, that was one of the major reasons that David had let the cat monster go. On Edea, several locations were protected by powerful monsters who had reached the supreme tier. At that level, they were no different than humans and he could remember a cat who had wings named Barnabus who was incredibly kind.

 

“I hate bullies, I bet you feel real proud of yourself, don’t you?” David asked.

 

The Ursok had noticed him, and it had begun growling towards him, in response, he tossed the mace to the side since he wouldn’t need it. David spun the poleaxe and began to cycle the enchantments, this caused sparks to erupt from the end that had the flashlight. The Ursok saw this and began hobbling and trying to circle him.

 

“I just can’t get a break, can I?” He said sadly.