"Ok, holy shit, relax. I was making a joke here. I know it may have not been the perfect time for it, but that's just my way of dealing with it. You sound like an alright guy, but you are impossible sometimes. As I said, I can fully empathize with everything you say, more than just being bound to you. I'm genuinely worried all the time as well for that sort of stuff, but don't let it get to you, it's what I've learned. Laugh it out. Despite the world constantly screaming bad all the time, there's always going to be good times where you least expect it," Yuno sighed.

Lass paused briefly as he looked at Yuno, knowing full well that he was more than right, and nodding at him in an understanding of his words, lacking the simple ability to vocalize his agreement. He kept on eating next to Yuno, even after his friend finished and kept him company, knocking out what looked to be a full course meal of some spicy sandwiches, leftovers from the fridge and some spare sweet snacks at the cabinet, finally finishing his meal after around half an hour.

"Alright, I grabbed a bite, back to work." Lass covered his mouth as he burped softly.

"Hell of a bite." Yuno briefly looked with amazement at the big pile of empty food plates, "But no. You will sit here first and tell me exactly what you did last night." Yuno folded his arms.

"Won't he ever quit the handholding?" Mellistar scoffed.

"Seriously with this parenting shit again? Fine. I did exactly what you'd expect me to do. Smacked dummies, defeated illusions and all that." Lass answered with annoyance in his voice.

"There's a distinct...aura, left out there that I can feel." Yuno looked at the partially slashed and destroyed training ground.

"Don't even try to take the piss with all that goddamn demon aura things again." Lass got defensive and tense again.

"No, no, don't worry. I'm not." Yuno calmed him down, "Instead...now that I have a higher sample of it, your powers do not resemble that of a demon at all! Sandaco isn't that far from here, so we came into contact with a lot of demon demi-humans, so I know the feeling. In fact..."

"'I'm glad' is what I'm supposed to say?" Lass sighed.

"Hmm? How so?"

"On one hand, I am not what everyone suspected me to be. You know. A being of death and destruction, much like how all demon demi-humans acted when their military was at its prime. But on the other hand...it's not like I really cared. So long as I could work it out for everyone else, I guess it's fine, although I still don't really have an answer for what I really am.", Lass looked at his previously injured hand from the testing.

"Huh...it's not like it'd matter anyway. The name of demons has been tainted by the malicious minority, same for Obsulyte users around the globe. Demons are indeed, other beings. Like you and me. They do have a tendency of destroying, sure, but that doesn't mean that they're innately evil. Like you and I want to use and understand our powers. Though the decision-making they had throughout history is aggressive, note that soldiers are forced to do things they don't want or ever thought of. Though I'm sure you know that. Not every war is one that everyone in the forefront wants to fight."

"That's both interesting and a given. However, it doesn't change my stance on things, as far as I am the one to go. So, what can you get from my power? Any answer to my mountain of questions?"

"Something damn near impossible. Traces of Dirunon."

"Diru-non? What is that?" Lass asked curiously.

"A long gone kingdom. Dirunon was the midpoint of the entire Riza. Dead centre in the middle of the world, it was inevitable for it to suffer the most major casualties when the God War first showed sparks. They said that the citizens of said kingdom suffered the most, as the attackers apparently had a genocide in place of their attack plan. The ones left over simply escaped deep into the Victorian mountains in the frozen north. Not that long ago that happened, and that theory is open to multiple controversies, but one thing is certain, the genocide surely succeeded as far as everyone says, taking place around the end of the recent World War. The how it did is the million Merit answer here."

"All the way back at the God War? Is there a way I could be from such a place?"

"You're alive, so chances are almost zero. Records are unclear for its extinction as a kingdom but...well no one can pinpoint the exact time it happened. It's just plugged in with the God War and that's it."

"What was exactly that place?"

"It was a city with a bunch of sub-branch of dragon demi-humans classified as 'Diru', much like everyone has like a million different subspecies under one tag of demi-humans.", Yuno sarcastically said, "They were essentially just humans plus dragons, without showing any characteristics of it, like tails or horns. Hence, even though I use the term demi-humans, the correct term is 'Null' which is used to describe anything, not in the human or demi-human spectrum. Stories in the books I've got in my library have it they were the first to be created after Ikarisa's vision. But as of now, it's widely believed that they're extinct."

"The God Of War really was ten times worse than what it was on paper, huh?"

"Yeah. But some of them did survive the initial attack in the God War hundreds of years ago. However, their last colony in the north was completely wiped off around the World War, or so, years ago. Despite their claims to fame, we don't really know much more about them, because there are no more records of them existing in this world, I haven't even felt their Obsulyte aura's myself. Their genocide served as one of the major reasons for the Trifecta Pact to come into place so...I guess we could count them as the unsung heroes in a way. Who the hell knows where we would be if the world didn't witness the full extent of hell before some dumbass decided to set off the real bombs."

"Sounds sad. Yet the name does sound familiar." Lass laid back, "Maybe it's all just an omen. How much until we put history on playback, without that Dirunon place to stop it this time?" Lass wondered.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Laying back, it was easy for Yuno to realize that the amulet Lass was wearing had started to look different. Dim yet noticeable, a shine started to be emitted from the small rusted-down jewel.

"Hmm..." Yuno reached to touch the artefact.

"Just no." Lass pulled back.

"Oh shut it. I'm not gonna eat it, I want to take a look at it! Come on." Yuno pleaded.

"Hmph. Fine." Lass looked around, "One wrong move and I swear."

"Don't worry. I know." Yuno took the amulet off.

With one swift look at the amulet in full glory, it was to Yuno's immense surprise to find out what he was actually dealing with.

"Holy..." Yuno chuckled, "Well then. It's really a surprise to even me. I was joking about it but..." he gave the amulet back to Lass.

"So? What did you find out?"

"I found what your thieving Wolven friend never could find, as there are no records aside from my tribe on this. It's not any amulet. It's the Silverlance Insignia. And you...well holy hell, I didn't believe I would get to see one with my own two eyes. A Durandal!"

Lass jolted up as a major headache accompanied by fast heartbeats and a heavy breath started to be all the actions that he took at once, almost falling to the ground, barely hanging onto his weight from the wooden bar he ate at.

"God...dammit! What the hell did he do?!" Mellistar echoed in pain.

"Gah! Dammit! Shut up.", Lass screamed as he grabbed his head, hearing both Mellistar's and a bunch of other voices screaming at him.

"Damn, relax! This must be what I told you about, the Obsulyte overuse doesn't instantaneously show, it takes a while for all the side effects to kick in! You need to breathe sit down and stay still!

"My head! Dammit! Gyah!"

The moment that such a name has been spoken a slew of sounds and images started flying through Lass's head. It was as if the life he never lived, was all he could think about and remember of. Shortly after, he was fading into white, completely losing consciousness. Coloured images, and mirrored sounds, all distant yet familiar were all he could focus on, as when his time was fading away, it was as if he was taken back. The colours and images then disappeared, instead breaking like glass as he lost his balance over the cracking ground below. He then began endlessly falling into black, without being able to scream, as if he was completely surrounded by water, sinking further and further down a none existent bottom, constantly feeling as if he was about to drown, without ever doing so. Knowing full well how that feeling engulfed him again and again, sometimes the same, sometimes different and sometimes harder, he let himself go and chose to instead give himself away as he kept on sinking to the bottom of a bottomless pit. Having his eyes closed throughout the entire ordeal, he opened them again after it felt like he held them shut for eternity, echoing the familiar voice of Yuno calling out to him from the surrounding void. As he slowly drifted back into reality, he began making out the image of Yuno flying right in front of him, hearing what he soon came to realize was the sound of snapping fingers, over and over again, before eventually waking back up from both painful and painless experience he could hardly describe, aside from the fact that it was simply, awful and unpleasant.

"Here, here. Focus on this. I know you can hear it," Yuno snapped his fingers.

"God..." Lass tried to get up.

"No, stay down. I knew the work fatigue would catch up to you at some point."

"No...It wasn't that." Lass tried to get up, kneeling on all fours as the dizziness faded away.

"Whatever, as long as you're fine. It's getting late too."

Lass jolted after hearing these words, "What?! Dammit! An entire day's of work just...son of a bitch! I could've done so much more, I really could!" Lass said as he punched the ground, still completely broken down by the experience he just had.

"Hey, you were lucky that it just so happened that you went into a goddamn shock and didn't just die there! I was doing chest compressions for god's sake, we're lucky you actually breathe right now! Stop with all this craze over this situation, it's doing you no good! For now, you need to relax and recover, because tomorrow night it's going to be the time to go. We have one more day for it before the moon comes up, so tonight you are doing nothing but relaxing, you hear? And that's final."

Lass struggled to agree with the logical good, "I..dammit." he gave in, "Hmm...Still here." he grabbed his neck, feeling the amulet was still there and calming down.

"What? You thought I'd scrap it? Anyway..."

Lass finally slowly got up as he rubbed his head, with Mellistar not echoing a word as he panted, "The...thing you said. That name sounded so, so familiar. Like...too familiar. Am I supposed to be called 'Durandal'? Or at least was called at some point?"

"That's what this was all about? This is the explanation. No, it's not a name. It's a title. The Silverlance Insignia is an amulet passed down for literal generations among generations in the Diruron tradition. Among the strongest of the Diru, this insignia is given to the absolute top. Commonly in the ranks of the Royal Paladin of the Golden Lances or leader of the Silver Lances of the army. The person to be passed down upon is said to be above all others, whose golden shine will light the darkest of darkness, and whose gloss will never be touched by the erosion of time. And along with the insignia, came the title of the Durandal, the knight of the people, bringer of light, justice, hope, honour and glory. Said title is sometimes used to replace the actual name of the person, it's like an official honorary thing of sorts."

"So could that mean that I'm a...did I...so many goddamn questions added to the ones I already have. Can I get some answers already?"

"Too early to assume a single thing. You are also lacking basic physical features for a Diru, that or I haven't witnessed them yet, and besides, after their extinction, it's easy for someone not affiliated with Diruron to get his hands on this since there'd be no one to protect it anyway. The colony of the north in the World War might be to blame for why this ended in your hands since loot runners surely got their hands on some remains from the genocide event there and put some items in circulation to the black market."

"Nothing's ever easy in this bullshit life of mine." Lass sighed as he calmed himself down.

"Hmm? What exactly?"

"There's a thing you might not know since I myself tried to forget. Something the old man told me when I was young. 'Once you start to notice the change of pace in your life, then you'll get your life back'. Not yet."

"Maybe...that being said I'll tell you this. I tinkered a lot with this thing while you blacked out, trying to see if the reason it shone was also the reason you got knocked out. I now know what's wrong. It's not you emitting said aura. Well, partially. Most earie aura is emitted from the insignia itself. And there's no way it'd be from an artificial source, because the degree of power that aura has, is insane, not at all able to be duplicated as far as I'm aware with current technology. In short, something or someone is locked off inside that thing."

"Doesn't change my will to wear it."

"Why are you so obsessed with it anyway? Seriously, it's almost concerning."

"I...I don't know."

"Whatever. Don't press yourself any further for today. We will need it for the infiltration mission tomorrow. That being said, get some rest. Tomorrow, I'll teach you the basics of summoning duplicated weapons and manipulating of your power to increase other attributes. It's a bit more advanced than what I'd like you to do right now, but if you learn the absolute basics we should be ok for this one situation. Mastering anything will take way more than that. So you'll need to be in top shape."

"Please, just...answer me one thing, since you're obviously way more into that stuff than I am. Will I ever know what the hell is going on?"

"Hard one to answer me but...don't worry. One day we both will."

The night felt heavy, as the atmosphere got denser. And all but questions remained, as even more added themselves to the massive pile. But there was no time for answers. Now was the time to act.