Orion had multiple weapons. He had wooden swords, shields, spears, a mace, and daggers. He still wore his cloak and had the hood covering his face. He had two sacks on his back on top of the weapons filled, most likely with clothes.

"Your back," I said. The petals fell around me. I picked them up in wonder and confusion.

"Yeah, and you just had to touch that," Orion snarled.

"so?" I asked.

"well, it's a piece, a speck, an atom of a god essentially."

Orion looked exhausted from the trip but had something else wrong with him. He felt cold and regretful.

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"You're a demon now, kid. That's what it means," said Orion.

I sat there quietly for 3 minutes. Orion just stood there waiting.

"You ok?" Orion asked.

"Yeah, I'm just… how?" I said in shock.

The fatigue in my body had diminished. I felt fine as if I didn't train at all. I also had bulked up a bit and gained some muscle mass. My forearms looked chiselled like before when they were twigs. I stood up; I was much higher off the ground.

"You got white hair now, and you fill out that sweater now, too," Orion said, trying to get me back to reality.

"What?" I said, surprised. I touched my hair, trying to see if it was any different. The hair felt normal, but as Orion noted, my hair was white.

Orion put down everything he was carrying but kept the sacks on his back and walked towards the cabin. He signalled me to follow.

"Let's talk inside," he said as he walked.

I followed and entered. Orion snapped his fingers, and the torches all lit up.

Orion dropped the sacks on the table and fell in his chair.

"All right, quick magic lesson," Orion announced. I sat down in a separate chair. "Familias draw on things for power, such as the sun or water. They essentially harness the thing to use it as a power."

I looked at him, puzzled. "How?" I asked.

Orion looked at me and pointed his index finger at me. A blue mist formed on his fingertip. "To harness first, you need to gather mana, then use mana to draw on the power."

"Seems complicated," I muttered.

"Beyond that, you have limitations, such as harnessing multiple things. Generally, once you choose to harness one thing or object, you can only harness things related to it to some degree. Like water and ice, or rock and sand." Orion explained.

"Ok, but what does that have to do with demons?" I asked.

"Well," Orion looked away. "The story is that one day, humans who harnessed their powers and fought the monsters off for the first time went on to create the familias. The problem was that not all the familias got along, so a war started. Looking for power, the humans looked for a greater source of mana and power."

Orion got up and snapped his fingers again. Suddenly, I was floating in dark space with stars in the form of humans coloured gold. It looked like they were walking in search of new land even though they were hovering in space.

"These familias found the celestials; they were beyond powerful, rather pure energy. People later discovered that these beings were the physical manifestations of things."

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The starry humans found what looked like a massive sun; it was gigantic and glowed bright like the sun.

"The manifestation of things? Like literal fire?" I asked, looking at this new space around me.

"They're like laws of the world with intelligence," Orion explained. "If something exists, like flowers or us humans, then there is a celestial for it. So humans, being the greedy bastard they are, plucked a bit of energy from them. Something so minimal that the celestial wouldn't even know."

The glittering humans all went and plucked what looked like nothing from this sun; it looked like they absorbed it. They began to shimmer brightly and then change. They began to fight until a group won and stood triumphant.

"The humans absorbed this piece and became gods, overpowering beings of destruction. They ended the war, and peace finally came. Or so they thought. The celestial notices that the humans had taken a piece of them. They punished them by turning them into demons."

The glittered humans flicker and change from bright gold to dark red. They got on their knees and wreathed in pain.

"Once humans changed, their power was sealed, and they went crazy. They had to feed on blood to survive and to regain the power they once had; they had to feel pain terrible pain."

The space and the glimmering humans vanished, and I saw Orion again in our cabin. He looked at me with his fist clenched on the table.

"Feed on blood? I have to drink blood to live now?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but don't worry, it doesn't have to be human; it can be a monster or animal," Orion said back.

"I have to drink blood to survive," I said again back to myself.

"That's not even the worst part," Orion said, grimacing.

"What's worse than having to drink blood?" I asked back enthusiastically. I chuckled as I thought he was joking.

"You can't die unless killed in battle, as you saw the other day," he said.

"Isn't that a good thing?" I tilted my head in disbelief.

"No, you'll outlive everyone; you'll have to see everyone die one day."

"What if I starve myself of blood?" I asked again with a worried tone.

"You'll feel like your veins are burning, and your eyes wanna explode, but you won't die." Said Orion.

I looked at Orion, worried, but I connected with him. I could feel a similar energy from him. It was weird, but we felt the same. "Are you also a demon?" I asked quietly.

"Yea… I am." He said back softly. "I've gone through everything you're going through right now, kid. It will worsen from here on out, but there are good things too."

I closed my eyes. We sat in silence; the torches flickered on.

"Like you said, being unable to die isn't completely terrible. The familias extend their lives with mana, so it's the same thing." He continues. "It also has the perk of making you look incredible." He had a fake smile on his face. "Like 'wow, you're handsome,' good-looking." He said in a sarcastic tone.

"why did this happen to me?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"Most likely, you gained the interest of a celestial. They must have sent a piece of themselves to you. Or you were just in the right place at the right time." Orion snapped again, and sparkles formed around us.

Look at the brighter side of things. You're a demon, and that won't change, but what can you change to be better?" I looked over at him; he wasn't as slouched as before and looked at me sincerely. "You can be better than the demons we met; you don't have to kill or do anything. Just live the best you can." He snapped again, and the stars around us disappeared.

Orion stood up. "I'm going to sleep, but I'll tell you more in the mourning. You should get some sleep as well." He went into his room. The left door from the table was my room, while he was on the right. He hadn't moved anything in there other than the bed. I walked over to my room and entered.

My room was a rectangle with a bed centred away from the door. Nothing else yet; I planned to make it look better, maybe putting a desk and some side tables in.

I plopped into bed and stared at the ceiling.

I couldn't tell how I felt. Since the eclipse, it felt as if my life had ended. Was I still Ezra? There I lay on a hay bed pondering. Hours passed, and I fell asleep.

The mourning came, and I could hear Orion already at work, making something. I walked into the living room to find some food on the table. I ate in silence. The food was great, but I couldn't help but be distracted. It felt as if something was missing.

I walked outside to find most of the widgets that Orion had built to help me train gone. Instead, there were more giant blocks of wood and sandbags. Also, the cliff behind and pegs stuck into it going all the way up. They were all about half a meter out of the stone. They also extended about 15 meters wide in random assortments.

"There's the new demon," Orion exclaimed. "Time for more training." He gave me a thumbs and had a massive smile on his face.

I walked over to him with a depressed face. "Is this all needed?" I asked.

"Just because you've powered up doesn't mean you are now unstoppable. You've seen how a demon can die." Orion smirked. "now then, let's get running."

"Great," I said as we began laps around the camp. We both went around maybe 100 times, maybe more. I wasn't in terrible shape after; I felt alive and well.

Orion threw me a glass bottle. "Drink up."

I looked at the bottle and could immediately smell it. Blood.