If one were only going by the Duchess's face, it would have been impossible to tell that she'd just had an arm cut off a few minutes ago. The calmness that she was displaying right now shocked Mariana.

She and the God-King sat opposite each other, in the former's office. The Duchess was currently behind her desk while the God-King, flanked by Alverion and Mariana, sat in front of it.

The God-King hadn't said a word since they'd arrived at this building. The Duchess, ignoring the blood slowly dripping from her covered-up stump to the floor, waited with a polite smile for the ruler of all that exists under the sun to speak.

And, finally, he did.

"Remind me, what exactly happened?"

The god-king's voice, slightly muffled and distorted by his helm, sunk into everyone's ears like a needle piercing skin. For some reason, Mariana found her own heart beating a little faster.

Quickly, but steadily, the Duchess began to summarize the events leading up to this moment.
"Some scouts of mine found three girls just outside the town, lurking in the woods. A drasen, elf, and a... demon." She spoke at a slow, careful pace, almost like she was pouring water into a pitcher knowing that just a single spilled drop would mean the end of her life. "I had them incarcerated."

"Not executed?" The god-king asked and the Duchess quickly replied:

"I had never seen a 'demon' before. So, I wanted to notify you of her strange existence and hear your response before eliminating this wo- demon. I figured you would be angry if you wanted to have this demon sent to your capital or if you wanted to keep her alive to torture her."

"It."

There was a pause. The Duchess's lips parted as though she wanted to ask what he meant, but she didn't say anything. Mariana and Alverion were both just as confused as she was. Soon, the god-king added:

"These are monsters we speak of. They are *things*. Abominations, not people. You keep calling it 'her'. You should be saying 'it'."

"I see. Forgive me, Your Majesty," the Duchess replied, bowing down as far as she could without hitting her desk.

"Continue." That one word may as well have been the lifting of a sword off the Duchess's neck.

Temporarily, of course.

"Right. I wanted to have it locked up until I heard back from you. Then, I would do as you asked. However, it escaped the very same day that it was captured."

"How?"

"It was quite powerful," the Duchess stated. "The demon cut down many guards and ran off before anyone could intercept it. I wish to add that your faithful Inquisitors tried and failed as well."

The God-King just stared back at the Duchess for a while before slowly turning toward Alverion.

"Yes, your majesty, this is true. Unfortunately, as was the case for the Duchess, Allen, Mariana, and I had never seen this thing before. We underestimated it and it cost us an ally and a pair of limbs."

Grumbling, the God-King lowered his head for a moment before looking back at the Duchess. Taking this as an indication to continue, the Duchess said:

"It ran off, along with the other two women, in the direction of the capital. I had never expected any escapees to do such a thing, so I had no scouts assigned to that part of the woods. We do not know where it went. That is the last we saw of this thing."

Having heard the full story, the God-King crossed one leg over the other, his bulky armor scraping against itself. His fingers interlocked as he put his hands together and stared the Duchess down. The only sound that could be heard was that of the blood from her fresh wound dripping slowly onto the floor.

"Very well. I will not kill you."

The instant those words came out from the God-King's unseen lips, the Duchess's body deflated a tad, as though she'd been holding her breath.

The God-King then said:

"Your ignorance will be tolerated just this once. You will not be able to fall back on this excuse again, however. Should you come across any more of these demons, I want them dead the moment you lay eyes on them." He turned toward Alverion. "The same goes for you."

"Understood, Your Majesty," both the Duchess and Alverion said before the God-King added:

"Additionally, I do not want you to speak of their existence."

"What?"

The instant that one word had slipped past the Duchess's lips, a sword appeared before her neck. Her eyes widened and her body froze, just as Mariana's did.

"... May I ask why, Your Majesty?" The Duchess then added with an infinitely nicer tone than she'd already been using.

"It is not enough that these things be killed," the God-King soon explained, taking his sword off her throat and sheathing it casually. "I want their very existence to be forgotten. Erased. It is why I hesitated to inform even many of you about them," the God-King said to his Inquisitors. "I want there to be no trace of these demons. If you ever see one again, you kill it and if the people who saw them cannot keep a secret, then you kill them as well. Got it?"

"I understand," the Duchess said, bowing.

"Good," the God-King replied, tilting his head. "Because all of you will be given an opportunity to make up for this mistake. You will find this thing and eliminate it, wherever it may be. I..."

He tilted his head, his tone softening a little.

"I just felt something odd to the southwest. An odd power that just flared up. You should look in that direction."

"I will," Alverion promised.

"You," he said to the Duchess, "will tell all of your guards and the civilians of this town to keep that thing's existence to themselves. If you find out that they were unable to keep their lips sealed, you kill them, and then find and kill whoever it was that that they told about this demon as well."

"I will do as you instruct, Your Majesty," the Duchess replied. Both Alverion and Mariana bowed.

The God-King stood up then. The Inquisitors took a step back as he moved toward the doors of the office. He did not need to say that the meeting had been concluded, that was made evident by his exit.

He stopped, however, and then looked back at Mariana.

His red eyes locked with hers. Mariana felt her hand getting sweaty under her gauntlet.

"You," he then said. "If one Inquisitor died to this demon, and another was crippled, how did you remain relatively unharmed?"

Alverion, who hadn't heard the full story either, also stared her down.

"After our initial skirmish, and the demon ran into the woods with its friends, I chased after it," Mariana quickly began explaining. "It stopped to fight me and we battled briefly. It overpowered me, however, and pinned me to the ground, holding a sword over my neck."

"How are you still alive, then?"

"It asked if I had ever thought about the people I was going to kill in the future, as an Inquisitor. I told it that I had no choice and that it was simply my job to do so. The demon then removed its blade from my neck and said that I do have a choice. That I should think about that. And... it let me go."

Her words lingered in the air for a moment.

The God-King turned away from her.

"It was wrong." He said, pushing the doors open.

"Hm?" Mariana asked, tilting her head. "I do not-"

"You don't have a choice," the God-King clarified before she could ask, and quickly left the room. "You do as I say, or you die. That is all."

Mariana blinked.

[Oh.]