Arc 2 Chapter 2

After an endless talk about the history of New Eden and how the demons failed again and again to destroy it we arrived the city. Did I ever say that I hate fanatics? And those are even worse since they don't even separate between the soulless and those with strong souls, they just call them demons. They hunt what they don't understand. How human.

Moments like this make me glad that I genetically left my humanity behind. Like this a fanatic and a demon arrive in the mountain city filled with oni. What a bad joke and the poor thing is completely unaware of it.

We begin our tour with the fields surrounding the city. It amazes her that we can create such big fields without using any vehicles. We use our energy manipulation for it, but I tell her that we use the cows for it. We continue with some of our shops and community kitchens, for those that live alone, she openly enjoys the atmosphere of the city. My objectives right now is to either convince her that her believes are wrong or to at least buy some time.

I show her our small solar power plant, our water system and some other points of interest, for example our radio-station. We finally get to the council hall, which is like most of the buildings here, rather new and build from salvaged goods or traded materials. We talk about her 'proposal' and ask for a bit more time to get a proper meeting and conference on the matter.

Through all this time we tried everything to not let her witness our powers. But what came next blew our cover. All she needed was one question. “Can I join you in your sun down prayers? I would really love to see your church.” she asked the question that doomed our cover. There are no churches here and our only evening ritual is a final training session, that includes sparring with powers.

It was for this reason that I led her here. I helplessly look towards the others. After an awkward moment I reply with “Then come. I will lead you to the pride of our people.” She follows me outside and I lead her to our training field, a place I tried to avoid before. Around the field we erected a high wall, we didn't want a shrapnel to hurt some bystander.

As we pass the gate our guest freezes in her movements. What she sees is befitting to a battlefield, the ground is torn apart by rampaging and redirected energy waves, people are jumping higher than they should, move faster than some cars, pushed by an invisible force. For me its a flashy spectacle, for her it looks like an invisible monster playing with people.

“ATTENTION!” I shout. They rapidly align and greet me. “Welcome head trainer!” Its an awkward title I got, but I am the person observing their training, I only teach a few directly but I also trained their teachers. I used this privilege to stop their training only once before, that was when I searched for people to learn my craft.

“Today we have a rather special guest. She is blind in our sense. She prays for our destruction” I turn towards her “Because we are something she doesn't know anything about and she throws us into the same pot as the soulless. She calls us demons. Yet she doesn't even know that we are human just like her, we just trained something that was always there. Let us show her what that is.” I say to the group behind me.

“Unite your efforts gather enough till even a soulless could sense it with his pitiful soul.” I command. Evangelia is still frozen in place, her mind racing to catch up to the events. As time passes she feels an indescribable shiver pass through her every being. Then she saw no she felt a giant light in front of her. A giant mass of soulmist was gathered. It got denser and denser.

Then I felt something strange did the soulmist just manifest and liquefy? I will have to research that later, but first.... “Can you see it now, that which you condemn others for is an innate human ability that just was dormant before the apocalypse. We train it and learn its uses to adapt. We don't need machines because we are stronger than most of them. The other kind of demons are those we call the soulless and we call them that for a reason. Their soul got blown away.” I say to her.

I didn't except her reaction. “For I have been violated I shall smite myself.” she said while shoving a dagger in her own heart. Did I ever say that I fucking hate fanatics? We let her die. We could save her, but wouldn't it be the inhuman thing to do? To seal our misery I got a report that the captured soldiers killed themselves with poison. I hate fanatics.

With that we have a few days till the kingdom of New Eden begins to suspect something, they don't have to walk like we did in the past, they can drive many times faster than that. They need two days from the capital to come here. I guess we have a week. Luckily I overheard the conversation between the soldier and the ambassador. They don't know our numbers and since they are in a war I guess they won't send too many soldiers. Through that we gain another week until they will send the next group to investigate. At that point we have to have found a solution. We need allies. Luckily I know just the right place to find some. After a quick discussion I start my journey. I fly towards the borders of our new found enemy.

I cross forests, lakes and abundant meadows. Of course I also see some villages and settlements. It is a really bright night and with my enhanced eyes it looks like it is day. A lot of them are decorated and look like they are having a festival, at some I see convoys similar to the one that came to us. Just how big is this country really? How many will follow the call to arms? I memorize the location of every point of interest, if we need to flee or invade it will be helpful to know the area, where bridges are located and of course intact.

Soon I reach the border, it is easily recognized by the groups of scouts and outposts along it. Seems like this conflict went on for quite some time already. I don't see any battlefields, but the border area is huge and I can't see everything clearly so it could be I missed it. I hope there weren't any major battles yet though.

I know the rough location of my first destination, I quickly find the river I need to follow. I fly for some more hours and when the sun finally begins to rise again, I reach my destination. It is a very old city, which grew around an old castle and a medieval village. It looks like the new inhabitants cleaned the city core and use the old walls, which were restored, probably to be a monument, as their line of defence against the soulless. There are around thirty thousand people living here.

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I drop from the sky. I notice something strange when I get closer to the ground and the people. This should be a city of so called demons, right? Why were their souls so weak? We didn't spread our knowledge, but we shouldn't be the only ones which discovered how to use and train the soul or are we? Could it be that the ones asking for help shouldn't be our measly five thousand but the ones we wanted to ask?

I land on a roof and descent from it into a small alley, which is abandoned in this early hour. I quickly ask a lone man on the street if he can point me towards their government district or building . He gives me a confused look and just points towards the castle. To be blunt I could have guessed that they are there, but castles normally don't have the image of being comfy, the thick stone walls and primitive architecture make them hard to heat. To add to that the doors are narrow, since the people back in that time were smaller.

I walk through the peaceful city, that is just awakening and getting ready for the day, I see shopkeepers set up their displays and even some bakers setting up chairs and tables on the streets. I wonder if they have reinvented money here. Back home we only accept trades with goods, since some of us could just copy money it holds no value for us. What counts is quantity since it takes time to create big masses of something.

In this society though the use of money is actually a good idea, it lessens the traffic of goods and brings stability in prices. Everything gains an objective value, that is free of the individual judgement of worth. More and more people cross my path as I make my way up the hill towards the castle. The atmosphere tells me that the actual war hasn't really begun yet. There weren't any weeping widows or orphans around, the facial expressions were overall joyful and filled with hope and the will to work towards their goals.

It saddens me that what led me here is such a depressing business. I finally arrive in front of the castle, but I have to wait a bit longer, since the gate is still closed. After a few minutes two guards open it and get on their posts next to it. “Never seen you around here before. What is your business here?” The guard to my left greets me when I approach the gate. “I am here on a diplomatic mission. I come from Evervale, a city which is sadly surrounded by New Eden, but we refuse their leadership. Like you can guess we would benefit greatly if those fanatics loose the war they started.” I reply. “You ever heard of it?” the guard on my right asks the other. “Nope. But I can't imagine any plot that would benefit from giving us this information, that makes him even more suspicious.” The other one responds.

“Fine. We will inform our superiors. But I will need you to leave your armour and weapons here.” he says. “I agree to this conditions.” I reply. I follow him to a small chamber where I take my armour and weapons off. Then I wait together with him near the gate. After a short time I am escorted to a meeting room. Those doors are really small, I would hate to live or work here. I have to wait again.

This room looks like it is frequently used for conferences and meetings. There is also a big map on one of the walls. Interested I step closer and inspect it. This map doesn't show the old cities as inhabited, it marks most of them as ruins. It is an accurate map of all new settlements, except one blank space. Seems like they know nothing about Evervale. We did our job concealing it too well it seems. We also have created a similar map, so I already know most of the settlements on it. The borders on it are interesting and new though.

Finally someone approaches the room. I guess there were other morning businesses to take care of than an unannounced diplomat, with questionable origin. She opens the door and enters. She looks like a middle-aged secretary. “Greetings, I am a representative of the council of New Babylon. My name is Angelika Veron. I heard you have some business with us. So let us find out if and how we can help each other.” she introduces herself. Seems like the tradition of using surnames survived here. I reply with “It is nice to meet you. My name is Oliver. As you may have heard I come from a city called Evervale, which as I already checked isn't on your map. Actually that isn't surprising, since even the ambassador of New Eden was surprised and though we were a mere village.”

“So am I correct if I say you tried to escape their attention? Are you by any chance what they call demons? Like us?” she asks. “Yes and no. As you have already guessed we don't want to interact with the people from New Eden, because their extreme believes can't coexist with us. As for the demon part... We don't really accept that term, but if I were to compare you guys, that can merely 'see' something, with us, you would be like cute puppies compared wit full fledged devils.” I respond, “As far as I could determine nobody here has tapped into his potential.”

“I can understand your secrecy to hide from your neighbours, but what do you mean with untapped potential?” she asks brimming with expectation. Seems like she realizes the stakes and sacrifices this war will bring. She hopes to find an easy way. “First of all let me say that one needs a lot of time to train it, but a strengthened soul, which is what those called demons have, is capable, but not limited, to use telekinesis, soul based attacks and waves of energy of almost every kind. Some like me are capable of body modification. As I am currently the strongest I am the only one capable of safe and prolonged, free flight. Which is also how I arrived here.” I reply, resulting in a gaping mouth from her.

“Could you demonstrate some of it please? It is not that I absolutely doubt you, since you were able to enter our city without anybody letting you in. But it might be the easiest way to convince the other councilmen to help you. If you are as strong as you say, your city and its fighters could prove as invaluable assets in what is to come.” She says with growing enthusiasm.

With my agreement we begin the preparations for the 'show'.