The small rowboat bobbed on the gentle waves of the river, steadfast and moving.

In its confines sat a lone figure, patiently waiting as the waves pushed and pulled, attempting to sway the boat off course.

The man burned incense inside, and its scented smoke permeated the pitch-black darkness of the night.

Emerging from the shadows of the forest, two silhouettes caused the man alarmed.

With his right hand, he reached for his sword, ready to defend himself.

Then, a distinct sound of a whistle echoed from their direction, and he loosened his grip as he recognized the approaching figures.

"My lord! Is it really you?" one of the figures exclaimed.

"Yes, yes. Please come and help us with our things," replied the man in the darkness.

"But, my lord. You specifically instructed me not to leave the boat under any circumstance."

"Yes, but that was until we returned. Come on, I really need your help. Quickly," urged the figure.

"But, my lord?" the hesitant man protested.

The man in the boat unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the two figures on the dark riverbank.

"You will have to kill me, my lord, if you wish for me to leave this boat. I took an oath to never abandon it, and I would rather die than become an oathbreaker. You know this."

As the two figures approached, they spoke again, their voices familiar.

"It is us. Don't you recognize us? Please, we need your help. We have already arrived," Marvia's voice echoed from the darkness.

The man heard his name and knew for a fact that it was truly them.

"I hear you, my lord," he relented.

Sir Edward hesitated, torn between his oath and the desperate pleas of his lord and lady.

The urgency in their eyes, especially Marvia's, as she mentioned her child, made him realize that this could be a matter of life and death.

With a deep breath, Sir Edward made his decision. "Very well, my lord. I will accompany you and help in any way I can."

As he stepped off the boat, a mixture of apprehension and determination filled his heart. However, before his foot could touch the ground, a sudden movement caught his eye.

Conrad, donned in light armor and wielding a sword, swiftly attacked him with a powerful slash.

Sir Edward's instincts kicked in, and he barely managed to parry the attack in the nick of time.

The clash of metal rang out into the night, echoing through the surrounding forest.

"Why do you attack me, my lord? I am your loyal—" Sir Edward began, but Conrad interrupted.

"Silence, demon! Reveal yourself. You are not worthy of Sir Edward's face and honor," Conrad exclaimed.

The man clad in Sir Edward's knightly armor laughed deviously and loudly. He laughed so hard that he looked down, resting both his hands on his knees.

Then, he wiped his face, revealing a hideous, rotten smile with green eyes that met Conrad and Marvia's gaze.

The demon's malevolent aura awakened Dante, who had been sleeping soundly on Marvia's back.

"Huh? What is happening?"

Dante couldn't see anything, but he knew that Conrad and Marvia were confronting something sinister, even worse than the bongrels they encountered earlier.

The demon opened its mouth wide and vomited human organs onto the shore, near where the small boat was.

"Nor his... heart. Or his lungs. Or his fingers. I truly am not worthy of Sir Edward. How did you know I was an impostor? Was it the oath? I should have stayed on the boat. Well, it doesn't matter now. You are all going to die today."

Conrad knelt on one knee and softly stabbed his long sword into the sand.

Marvia took baby Dante from her strap and held him in her left arm while clutching the book in her right hand.

Dante, wide awake now, watched his parents closely.

"Via," Conrad said as he opened the little book attached to his wrist. "I love you, but this might be too much for me. You might have to go on without me for now. Remember your mission."

A tear fell from Marvia's eye as she looked at Conrad de Monfort, her childhood friend, and husband. "Yes, my lord, but I have faith that we shall meet again."

Both of them spoke in unison, and Dante, observing their every move, realized they were invoking a prayer.

"Oh Holy System! Bringer of peace, love, and justice. We ask for your protection, now more than ever, against the demon that has maliciously murdered Sir Edward. You are the provider of power, the One True Supreme Source. We are your humble servants. Holy System! Hear our prayer!"

The little book's pages glowed, and this time Dante could read the text. It was written in a language foreign to him, yet he understood its meaning.

[Scripture of the Holy Elder Knight]

<>

Name: Conrad de Monfort

Descendancy: Jeddic Marialian of the Celestrian Imperial Dynasty

Class: Holy Elder Knight of Valor

Piety: Champion

Esteem: Paragon

Tithing: Exemplar

Thaumaturgy: Church of the Holy System

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[Charism: Gift of Administration]

[Blessings: Divine Protection, Righteous Might, Divine Resistance, Shield of Faith, Holy Veil]

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

[Invocations: Shadow Veil, Shadowsong Blade, Umbral Resistance, Shadowstep, Veiled Insight, Shadow's Embrace, Void Severance, Shadeform, Twilight's Embrace, Shadowmeld, Spectral Projection, Nightfall Aura, Shroud of Absolution, Umbral Dominion]

<>

[Reliquary: St. Crassus' Pendant of Perpetual Prayer]

[Authority: Grand Commander's Authority]

[Affiliations: Celestrian Empire of Jeddah, Imperial Synod, Institute of Valor, Knights of the Steel Heart]

[Covenant: Covenant of Marriage, Covenant of the Imperial Dynasty, Covenant of a Holy Knight]

[Trials: Trial of the Steel, Quests of Honor, Trial of the Tartarian Abyss]

"Dad has some impressive stats! It seems to be some sort of RPG interface written in the book. And why can I understand this? It must be like the language from the earlier ritual. More magic... probably," Dante thought to himself.

The demon walked closer to Conrad, who seemed unguarded in the face of the enemy.

"Surely, you are not underestimating me, worm. Your kneeling and praying will not be enough to defeat me. Now, just make my work easier and just die!"

The demon swung at Conrad with blinding speed, its claws slicing through the air with a ferocious intensity.

Conrad not paying attention to the demon, uttered a silent prayer.

""Oh Holy System, shroud us in your celestial veil of shadows. Grant us fleeting stealth and elusive grace, that we may move unseen and evade our adversaries."

As soon as Conrad finished his prayer, the little book attached to his wrist glowed with a new text that said, "[Shadow Veil Granted]."

The three of them were suddenly enveloped with a protective cloak of shadows, that granted stealth and evasion.

Conrad and Marvia who were carrying Dante cloaked in darkness, moved like shadows toward the boat, and swiftly avoided the demon's charge.

The demon turned toward them and smiled, "So you got some tricks up your sleeve, huh? Well, go on. Ride the boat. You have bested me."

"Silence demon!" Conrad shouted. "Doubt's shadows may cloud the path ahead. In faith's unwavering light, miracles are bred. Quickly, Marvia. Take our child to safety. I believe in you!"

The demon's smile turned into a sour distaste.

He spits and charged at Conrad with powerful and malicious sword swings, one after another.

Conrad, a skilled warrior, raised his sword and put his guard up. deftly dodged the demon's attacks, his movements fluid and precise.

Each swing of the demon's claws was met with a parry from Conrad's sword, the clash of metal reverberating through the darkness of the night.

Marvia, holding baby Dante tightly, watched the intense battle unfold before her eyes.

Fear and determination mingled within her as she realized this was their chance to escape.

She swiftly made her way toward the boat, her heart pounding with each step.

"Dante, hold on tight," Marvia whispered to her son, his small body nestled against her chest. "We have to go now."

As the demon and Conrad engaged in a fierce duel, Marvia carefully stepped onto the boat, trying her best to maintain her balance on the gently rocking vessel.

She clutched the book tightly in her hand, its pages glowing with a faint, comforting light.

She felt a haunting aura emanating from the boat.

"Conrad! The demon put a curse on the boat. Please hold him off until I remove the curse."

Conrad heard her, and his eyes locked on the demon.

He could sense Marvia's unwavering faith in him.

With a brief pause in the relentless combat, Conrad tossed a pendant to Marvia and shouted, "Marvia, take this! You will need this on your journey!"

Marvia caught the pendant and saw that it was St. Crassus' Pendant of Perpetual Prayer.

Marvia nodded, tears streaming down her face. She knew that Conrad was sacrificing himself to buy them time, and she wouldn't let his sacrifice be in vain. When Marvia received the pendant, her faith deepened, and a surge of light came from the pendant, removing the curse from the boat.

With a determined resolve, she pushed the boat away from the riverbank, the water carrying them farther from the chaos that ensued.

Meanwhile, Conrad continued his valiant fight against the demon.

He unleashed a flurry of swift strikes, aiming to weaken the creature and create an opening for Marvia and Dante's escape.

The demon, fueled by its malevolent rage, retaliated with unmatched strength, its attacks becoming more relentless and vicious.

As the boat drifted away, Marvia glanced back, her heart heavy with both sorrow and hope.

She watched Conrad's unwavering bravery, his sword dancing through the air with deadly grace. She whispered a prayer for his safety, knowing that their paths would soon diverge.

"Dante, my little one," Marvia murmured, her voice trembling with a mix of emotions. "We must continue our journey, for the sake of our family and for Conrad. He fights for us."

Dante, wide-eyed and bewildered, watched the ongoing battle from the safety of his mother's arms.

Though he was new to the world to understand the magnitude of the situation, he could sense the danger that surrounded them.

The demon, sensing its last opportunity, paused, and said to Conrad, "You really have underestimated me. Be grateful, for you shall witness my true nature!"

Conrad then replied, "Surely, a demon such as yourself, is smart enough to know that revealing your true nature outside of Tartaria, would mean only destruction for you. Demon! Do you not know the maxim, When darkness weaves its intricate snare, let thy spirit soar, truth's light to bear?"

The demon who had taken the body of Sir Edward grew bigger.

Its armor and clothes ripped in the growth of its size and the demon's monstrosity towered over Conrad.

A horrifying 8-limb monster now stood in front of Conrad, that was ready to crush him with its gigantic feet.

"You are the fool, Marialian. For us demons, darkness is our shield. It is still the dead of night, and it will take hours before the sun rises. That will be enough time for me to kill you, and chase your little wife and child. Or maybe, I'll save you for later and eat them while you watch them chewed to death."

Conrad remained steadfast, and courageous in the face of his demonic foe.

For the first time in the battle, Conrad smiled and relaxed as he watched his wife and son, sail to safety on the horizon.

"Demon. You, poor thing. I wish that the world was not this way. And we could be friends. My kind could love you. And your kind could love me. That is a prayer of mine that can never be answered."

The demon astounded by the human's surprising words, paused too and then broke out in a demonic laughter.

"You gest, little Marialian. That is the most absurd and stupidest thing I have heard in my thousands of years of existence as a demon. You have given up, haven't you? Your will has broken in the face of my horrifying glory!"

The demon's saliva dripped to the ground.

"Because you humor me, I shall tell you this, before I kill you. There is a grander scheme at hand. More sinister than the grim histories of this world. It shall be a war of ancient prophecy. Ancient Prophecies shall be proven false and fulfilled at the same time."

The demon raised one of its arms that had curved claws ready to slice Conrad into 5 pieces.

"But you are strong human, I will grant you that. Bow down to me! And I shall let you feast with me. Only we shall be eating your beloved wife and newborn child. MUHAHAHAHA!"

Tears fell from Conrad's eyes and he looked up to the demon with pity and sympathy.

"You do not understand, poor thing. The pendant that I gave my wife was St. Crassus' Pendant of Perpetual Prayer. And I am a Holy Elder Knight capable of a Censer-Tier Invocation. The Umbral Dominion."

"Perpetual Prayer? Umbral Dominion?"

The demon's eyes for the first time in its existence cowered with fear and panicked.

Attempting to turn its huge body and run into the woods, the demon knew it didn't have enough time.

Conrad, with determination, closed his little glowing book, thereby canceling the effects of St. Crassus' Pendant of Perpetual Prayer, and deactivating the effects of the Umbral Dominion.

The pitch-black darkness of the night was all sucked into the little book that was strapped into Conrad's wrist, revealing the true time of the day which was morning.

The demon did not realize that time had already passed and it was morning already.

It had not noticed that Conrad had cast the invocation earlier, covering the whole continent with shadows, and making it look as if it was still night, even though it was already morning.

The light of the sun brightened and shone its truth upon the demon as it burned its skin and flesh.

"You bastard of a worm! I curse you with all my might and glory! You and your wretched family!"

The clouds moved and revealed the light of the sun even more, and the gigantic body of the demon had succumbed to the furnace of the daylight and was utterly destroyed, leaving nothing behind.

Conrad observed his surroundings and heard more demonic screams from other edges of the island, where their allies were also holding off demons that had come to ambush them.

Howls of agony echoed throughout the island, and every demon had fallen victim to Novario Blazekar's carefully planned trap.

Marvia watched from afar and her heart clenched with a mix of gratitude and sorrow as she realized the weight of Conrad's sacrifice.

She nodded, and her resolve strengthened. "Thank you, my love. I will wait for you in the meeting place."

With a smile on her face, Marvia steered the boat into the current that would bring them to where a ship was waiting for them.

Conrad had to stay away from Marvia and Dante for a while because Censer-tier Invocations have remnant auras and scents that could be tracked by powerful mages and demons.

As Marvia and Dante disappeared into the horizon, their journey continued, driven by the hope that one day they would reunite with Conrad.

Dante finally felt relief and comfort when the sun shone upon him and his mother.

He knew this world had lots to offer him. A second chance at life. And his parents were beacons guiding them through the unknown perils that awaited him.

The baby Dante smirked and thought, "So it's survival of the faithful, huh? I can work with that."