Nate was awoken by someone causing a ruckus on the train. Checking the aisle next to the room he was bunking in there were two individuals arguing, the taller of the bunch a wiry and well dressed man in need of a shave was arguing with a shorter and wider man with impressive facial hair. Nate overhears snippets of their conversation, the taller man says to his friend. “Did you think no one would come? Someone was bound to step up at some point, the prophecy is true.”

The shorter man replies “Exactly, she is saying the obvious, ‘chosen by birth or fate’ just means they the heroes think they are special.”

“Is that not being chosen by fate? We’ve both had our run-ins with fate and destiny. Is it really that hard to think that they’ve had their greater share of them?”

The shorter man saw that everyone was peeking out of their rooms at them, he diffused the situation.

“Perhaps, shall we agree to respectfully disagree?”

“Indubitably.”

With that they went back into their cabin and Nathan and the others were left confused as they returned to their own cabins. Sitting on his bed Nathan thought about the words the two men had said. Both of them had made good points about fate; he thought about his past and his run ins with fate, how he was lucky enough to get accepted to Pollor Vantz, how the thing with Lily started and ended.

The time to make myself known was coming imminently, I just needed some showing of ability in order to convince him, wait, what can I even do? I am Bal Iendus, a devil lord feared by even the gods but… how did I even get into this young fool’s head? I would need to investigate this, I will think about it later, more importantly what were my capabilities? What was I left with?

Nathan reflected on how fate had affected him and deluded himself with how fate would affect him in the future and its outcome. As he did this I tried to stretch and struggle on what I could do, we couldn’t use mana or internal energy, we didn’t have aura to weaponize, the most I could do was simply support his will, but what if I can take the place of his will? I don’t remember what my sword felt like to wield but I could at least try. Would trying to take over be a good opportunity to reveal myself? Yes, but at a later time, coming when I am not needed would be perceived as an invasion but a welcome and needed guest.

Soon the time came and we arrived in the last train station before the Odez Republic, we saw massive hordes of people looking to leave, we were quickly asked to get off the train by one of the conductors. With our luggage there we stood outside of the station, in that unfamiliar place he started to doubt himself, his mental state decays ‘I-I really shouldn’t have done this.’, ‘I gave up everything I had, perhaps I should go back.’, I halt these thoughts here, I need him to regain my old power, having him bend and break at simply going to a new country is something not even I can stand for, but this would be a good time to make myself known.

‘Child, destiny waits ahead for us, do not give up.’

Nate was spooked and looked around, he didn’t see anyone looking at him as if they were talking to him. I continue.

‘This is the start of a grand adventure, I am Bal Iendus, devil of mythical times, together we will make this world right.’

“How?”

‘I don’t know, also don’t open your mouth when speaking to me, say the words using your inner voice.’

‘What are you?’

‘You catch on quick child, now I’ve spoken once, I am Bal Iendus the one you know from legends.’

He pauses, not quite believing what he is hearing.

‘How do I know you’re him?’

I didn’t have an answer, I wish the circumstances were more favorable.

‘I… have lost much of my power and I need your help to return to my former strength.’

‘Why should I help you?’

I don’t reveal all of my capabilities, I know what he wants already.

‘I can give you what you want, power? Land? A quiet life?’

My suggestion and his desire synthesize and merge.

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‘I want to do some good in this world and to live a quiet life.’

Perfect, he is hooked. ‘Then follow my command, power is needed to enforce our will, together we will silence the demons of this world.’

‘Demons?’

‘There are monsters in this world, they come with the faces of men and angels, you see them act and you see that face melt off.’ I pry in further. ‘Things that don’t care about how their actions affect others, ones who go too far.’

He thinks of the Tzar and that man’s irresponsible experiments, just as I predicted. Now was the finishing touch. He asks.

‘How can we kill these demons?’

‘First we find allies, second we get stronger, third we suppress them.’

He is still suspicious, rightfully so I haven’t shown off anything that would be effective in convincing him.

All his standing around has not been unnoticed, the taller of the two men who argued put a hand on Nate’s shoulder, who then spins around arriving face to face with the tall man. His clean shaven face and pearl-white teeth gave a businessman’s smile and asked Nathan. Didn’t he have stubble on the train?

“Young man are you alright? You’ve been standing there for a couple minutes.”

He responds with “I’m fine, just trying to figure out where to go.”

“Well we had a bunch of folks who were signed on bailed on us after they heard about the state of the war, you looked aimless, do you want to join us?”

“Who exactly is ‘us’?”

“Merchants of a certain sort, some call us humanitarians.”

The man has this odd look in his eye, Nate was suspicious.

“What do others call you?”

“War profiteers, but in our case we view it as delivering needed supplies.”

Nathan thinks they could have an exploitative contract but he also had no clue how he would get to Odez and they seemed to know what they were doing. I viewed them as a valuable group to learn how to survive in this world from, Nathan had no clue what he was doing and I… can’t remember any survival skills. I know I have lived through difficult times but I don’t remember a moment of them.

“Do you have a contract available?”

“Of course, it is a certified one so we will need a little blood.”

Nathan as all people of that world were familiar with certified documents, oftentimes it went without saying that documents by default were certified. He read over the document after the tall man had revised it a couple of times, from the document he said his name was Jelel Quannine working on behalf of Odez Commercial Expeditions?

“It’s a shell company, don’t worry about it.”

“Who do you work for then?”

“There are people in this world who want to do good and don’t want it to end, we work for them.”

Nathan is intrigued! Partially afraid that they aren’t what they say they are, but also curious that the man was telling the truth. The terms of the contract were to be a guard for the cargo they were carrying to and from? Odez.

“What are you taking back?”

Something changes about the man for just a moment. “Things we purchase at a steep discount and all.”

“No wonder people call you guys war profiteers, I’ll take some time to review this contract, where can I find you?”

Jelel smiles and mentions a place on the outskirts of the city they were in, he mentions that they would be leaving tomorrow. Nathan takes note of this and looks for a place to stay the night.

He found a room in a hostel, in which he reviewed and signed his name on the contract, the hostel provided secure storage for his belongings, he left many things behind, but always made sure to have his pistol on him. Now he wandered the streets of the city he was in, one named Bealnor, he thought about how the room was weirdly cheap and as he walked he noticed a few storefronts boarded up, it seemed the instability from the war drove people off. The moonless night was lit up by stars migrant and normal and the stores still open.

Nathan was attracted to one like a moth to a lamp, it was trivia night at a bar, it seemed that everyone in town was there. He wandered in like he did weeks ago in Relnakel, he ordered a light drink to make the night smoother, they asked a series of questions, a man used wind magic to amplify his voice as he asked questions.

“Local history! What was this city founded as?”

The teams collected their answers and then they yelled them out, no one got it right.

“The answer was mythic beast hunting.”

People booed as some thought the answer of hunting should have counted, the host replies with.

“We’ll switch to something those from out of town might know better. Speaking of out of town this one’s going to be about the tech lords. According to their various statistics firms, what’s the average number of testicles a human identifying tech-lord has? Closest to the actual number gets it.”

What? People were more confused than angry. Nathan thinks, if it was a normal number it wouldn’t be a question, average amongst the baseline is a little less than 1, but from what he’s heard about tech-lord family structure… he guesses 0.35.

The host takes answers from teams actually participating, he announces the correct answer.

“The answer was 0.78, that guess of 0.8 was the closest they get the points.”

There were even more boos and Nathan thinks that the question is stupid, I can’t help but agree. We make our way back to where we were staying the night, wandering past soldiers and citizens living this night as their last one in civilization because it might just be. They enjoyed the last moments they could afford to be stupid before they needed to march off to fight, and perhaps meet their ends. We should have too.