Hana and the heroes rode the snail-paced flying skiff down into the gorge. The blinding light caused them concern, and they were nearing the bottom.

“Rescue! Soldiers are here!” A man below shouted.

Hana looked down to see about twenty people below waving up at them. There were an additional ten to the side bound and gagged.

Hana jumped from the skiff at the protest of the soldiers and used Wind magic to slow her fall because she saw someone exit the large gateway, dragging a bound man.

“HALEY!” Hana ran past all the people and hugged her friend.

“Hey, Hana.” Haley sounded exhausted.

“Are you alright? You… your equipment is in ruins, but you are not hurt?” Hana questioned.

“I’m… not okay,” Haley replied.

It was evident to Hana that Haley was greatly troubled with something.

The skiff had landed, and the other heroes arrived.

Lindsey hugged Haley, thanking her goddess that she was alright.

“I’m glad to see all of you are alright,” Haley commented, putting up a fake smile.

“What happened here,” Gabriel asked, looking over at the bound cultists.

“A lot,” Haley responded.

“Did you defeat them yourself?” Greggory asked.

“No, I had help. Actually, they did everything.” Haley held herself.

“Who was it?” Lindsey asked.

Haley looked away from them. “The Demon-Lord.”

“WHAT?!” The four heroes exclaimed.

“I was badly hurt when I reached the bottom of the gorge, but he saved me,” Haley told them.

“Why was he here?” Gabriel asked.

“He came to stop the cultists. They were trying to resurrect the Demon-Lord of Slaughter, but he put a stop to it, saved the people here, and killed the Apostle of Slaughter.” Haley summarized.

“Lindsey, perhaps you should purify her. She may be under the Demon-Lord’s influen-.” Gabriel started, but Haley decked him in the face, knocking him over.

“SHUT THE HELL UP! You have no idea what I witnessed. He…” Haley stopped, looking away in shame.

“Haley.” Hana tried to comfort her friend.

“All of you will see for yourselves. Everyone will see the truth about him. He is not evil… He… They all were victims.” Haley said while trembling.

“Let us return you to the airship. You need rest.” Greggory helped his troubled companion to the skiff.

Hana watched as her friend was seated on the skiff, and Greggory returned. “Shall we investigate?”

Hana wanted to support her friend, but they needed to check out the cultist den. The four heroes turned toward the ominous gateway.

Lindsey and Hana finished checking the broken magic circle in the prison area.

“Something was here. This circle was meant to leech life from the nearby cages and push it into something. But I don’t know what.” Hana commented.

“Hana! You will want to see this!” Gabriel called out from further ahead.

Hana and the others moved toward him and found him standing at the entrance to a large cavern.

“What happened here?” Lindsey was scared.

The entire cavern was scorched black. They could even see a few spots about the room that had the dull glow of orange.

Hana went to enter, but Gabriel stopped her. “Don’t. The heat in there is insane. I had to drink an elixir to heal my lungs and skin.”

Hana checked the room with her mana and found that the room was nearly 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

She swallowed hard, thankful to Gabriel for once.

“It might have been the Demon-Lord. Haley did say he was here.” Greggory commented.

“It makes sense. Only he would have such power.” Gabriel agreed.

“We should go. There is nothing else we can learn here.” Hana commented.

The heroes returned outside, seeing the last few townspeople getting loaded into a skiff.

“Truly, the Demon-Lord is a dangerous existence. It would be best that he is not allowed to run wild.” Gabriel commented.

A stone sailed through the air and hit him on the back.

A small boy looked at him angrily with tears in his eyes. “DON’T HURT HIM!”

The boy picked up another stone to throw, but his mother snatched him up.

“Please, forgive him!” The woman begged, holding her son like he might disappear at any moment.

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“He doesn’t want us to harm the Demon-Lord?” Lindsey asked.

Hana approached them. “Can you explain?”

The woman seemed hesitant, but the boy spoke up.

“He saved me! I was in a cold and scary place. But he took the dark away! He made me feel warm again!” The boy yelled. “He saved Mommy too!”

Hana was confused, but the mother reluctantly spoke up.

“The hero, Lady Haley, told me what happened. The cultists took my son to sacrifice him for their god. Lady Haley told me that the Demon-Lord brought my son back to life while purging some kind of darkness from his body. I am unsure what he did, but Lady Haley assured me my son had no odd status.”

“Lindsey,” Hana asked the Saintess to check the boy.

Checking his status and using light mana to check the boy’s body, Lindsey smiled.

“He is fine, perfectly healthy. No oddities.” She reported.

“Go. Thank you for telling us.” Hana let the mother and son board the skiff.

Lindsey looked away.

“Did you not find anything?” Hana inquired.

“The boy had a pure, divine mana in his body. It was… beautiful and comforting.”

The heroes were stunned by her statement, unsure of how to react, they decided they would need to speak with Haley to learn more about what happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caeldaemos sat in a dark room, the curtains blocking out the sunlight that was trying its hardest to liven up the room.

After leaving the cultist den, he teleported to Lady Temerilla’s home instead of returning to Hallibrush. He didn’t want to worry his family and chose to stay with a friend until he could somewhat straighten himself out.

The door to the room burst open, and Lady Temerilla, Alpen, Hannah, and a couple of the women he had saved last time entered the room.

“What are you doing?” He asked as they ripped open the curtains. He winced, regretting sounding annoyed.

“You have locked yourself away long enough. Change into a human and come with me. You will be keeping me company as I inspect the city.” Lady Temerilla ordered.

Two of the ladies yanked at the bedsheet, but because he was sitting on the bed, it didn’t budge at all.

“I really don’t…” Caeldaemos muttered while looking away.

Lady Temerilla raised up her Crys-Link, showing a prepared message. It was a report on his condition and a plea for help. All three of his wives were going to be the recipients.

“If you don’t, I push send.” The noblewoman threatened.

“Please don’t.” He begged. Caeldaemos didn’t want them to worry about him.

“Then get up, take a bath, and come along.” Lady Temerilla spun on her heels and headed out of the room.

Alpen had a happy smile. “The bath is ready, your lordship.”

Caeldaemos reluctantly got out of bed and followed the old butler to the bath.

An hour had gone by, and Caeldaemos was walking next to Lady Temerilla through the town of Flower. Multiple stalls were set up along with a stage where some people were putting on a performance. The energy in town seemed festive.

“Is this a festival?” Caeldaemos asked.

“It is.” Lady Temerilla replied while greeting a few townspeople.

He wasn’t feeling very festive.

“Mr. Michael!” A child shouted when he saw Caeldaemos in human form.

“Hey.” Caeldaemos tried to put on his best happy face as several children approached.

“Huh? You know the lord?!” A boy cried as he saw Lady Temerilla.

“Is there something wrong with that?” She teased.

The children shook their heads.

“Are you okay, Mr. Michael?” A girl asked.

“I’m…” Caeldaemos looked away. “I had to do a difficult job not long ago. I saw some terrible things that are weighing on my mind.” He knelt and patted the girl on the head. “I’ll be okay.”

“Then play with us! Playing always makes us happy!”

“Can you perform something?!” A boy pointed at the stage.

“Uh… I…”

The children looked up at him with great expectation. He found it hard to turn down their request.

“Alright. But don’t expect much. It has been a while since I have played.” Caeldaemos gave up.

“Are you sure?” Lady Temerilla asked.

“I will just try my best.”

Caeldaemos got in line for the stage behind a couple of guys in colorful outfits.

“Alright, you two are up.” The man handling the stage said.

The two men headed up on stage and began a comedy routine. It wasn’t great, but they did make the crowd laugh and cheer for them. Seeing how forgiving the public was helped against his nervousness.

After twenty minutes, the pair wrapped up their show and stepped off stage. Caeldaemos was directed to head up to the stage to begin.

Caeldaemos stepped up to the stage a pulled out a few items. One was a stool to sit on, another was an odd-shaped lute with a long neck, and the last item was a box he hooked up to the odd lute.

“Hello, everyone. I am Michael, a mercenary. All of you may not be used to this kind of sound, but I hope you enjoy it.”

Caeldaemos strummed the strings causing a loud noise to come from the box.

“What was that!?” A man asked.

“What kind of lute is that?”

“Is that something from OWP?”

Caeldaemos chuckled. “This is called a… Mana Guitar. Using mana, sound travels from the guitar to the box that projects the sound. It is an upcoming product of a new company called Terra Technologies.”

Caeldaemos began playing a simple tune. It was calming yet energetic.

“Does it have lyrics?” A woman asked.

“It does, but I am not confident in my singing voice.” Caeldaemos joked.

“Bah! Do you think you’re bad? Listen to this! Hey Jerry!”

Another man began singing on cue, and it sounded horrendous. The crowd started laughing over the spectacle.

“Alright, just don’t complain later,” Caeldaemos replied with a smile.

He began the song once more, singing the lyrics. The song went on about traveling a great distance and the writer’s experiences, all in pursuit of finding their long-lost brother.

Caeldaemos finished the song a few minutes later to the happy and supportive cheers of the people.

“Thank you for listening.” Caeldaemos bowed, collected his things, and headed off stage.

“A new product?” Lady Temerilla asked as he got down.

“Yeah, Rana is going to be happy,” Caeldaemos replied, putting the items away.

“Mr. Michael! That was so amazing!” The children ran up to him excitedly.

“Thanks.” He smiled warmly at them.

“Looks like you feel better.” The girl from earlier commented.

“I do. Thanks for the suggestion, guys.” Caeldaemos pulled out snacks for the kids and handed them out as thanks.

The children ran off to continue enjoying the festival.

“Feel like talking about it?” Lady Temerilla asked him.

Caeldaemos nodded.

The two arrived at a quiet location where it was just the two of them. Usually, Lady Temerilla would have a guard or two with her, but having the Demon-Lord beside her, no one would stand a chance.

Caeldaemos took a deep breath. “It was horrible.”

“The cultists?”

“They were draining the lives of people to resurrect the Halturnafey.”

“What?!” She exclaimed.

“Relax, it would not have worked anyway. But they were killing people for their own twisted reasons. One was a young boy, couldn’t have been more than six years old.”

“I’m sorry.” Lady Temerilla leaned against his arm, wrapping her arms around it.

“The people I saved from the cages blamed me for their suffering. I didn’t do anything.”

“Such is the self-centered nature of people. We always want answers for bad things. Something to blame. They wrongfully treated you as a convenient excuse.”

“When I saw the boy, I lost any remorse.” He paused. “I made them tear each other apart.”

“You were angry. They were evil people.”

“When I used Lord of Darkness to feel what the boy had, I… I lost it. I reduced them all to ashes.”

“They deserved the worst fate. You are not evil, Cael.”

“I was able to revive the boy.”

“That is good. Did you talk to him?”

Caeldaemos shook his head. “I couldn’t bring myself to stay. I gave the boy to the hero and let her return him to his mother.”

“You were with the hero?”

“Yeah. Haley. She seemed to be more understanding. But I think she feared me in the end. She couldn’t meet my eyes when I gave her the boy.”

“Perhaps there was another reason?”

“I’m not so sure.”

Lady Temerilla got up and stood in front of him. “Go see the boy.”

“But-.”

“No buts! Go see the boy. I know full well what it feels like to have the darkness with one’s heart purified by you. Go see him. I am sure the results will heal your heart.” She ordered.

Caeldaemos was reluctant to see the boy and his mother. What if she screamed? What if the boy got scared of him?

Lady Temerilla bopped him on the head. “You’re overthinking. Get moving!.”

Caeldaemos closed his eyes and teleported back to Elaseen.