I strengthen my resolve. With the letter's content in mind I ready myself to find out the mystery about my past. I will find it there within the heavens, but I still doubt whether he speaks the truth, and as for what I know from common knowledge is that the heavens are the realm of the gods and being's of great power. 

A place where no normal human can enter. The letter does not even tell me where to begin to find heaven itself, but it is the place where my foster father told me to journey to. 

Could it be that I might only find out the answer by becoming stronger? Possibly.

I prepare all my belongings before setting out, without a clear goal of where I should be heading to. Although I am still immature, and doubt still crowds my mind thinking that even if I find it, I don't think I'll make it there alive in my current state, but I need to face it no matter what the consequences. If I do not then the thought of not knowing my past and who I was will haunt me for the rest of my life. 

("You fear death?") Asks the daemon that resides within me.

"I do. I fear it so much that I tremble merely at the thought of dying at any moment because of my weakness, but I've been disciplined, taught and trained to someday overcome this fear I feel hiding within me. Will you help me reach the end?"

("That will depend on your abilities. Will you truly become strong enough to overcome this? I am merely here to assist. How you use my strength will be up to your discretion")

After thinking about what Marchosias had said. I cleared my mind of any hesitation and began my quest to become stronger. I bring with me a bow and plenty of arrows, a dagger and my new short sword, polished and ready. The other miscellaneous things are, a long line of rope, medicinal equipment, a small makeshift bed and a key with some strange crest of a dragon inscribed on it.  I was told that it was my so called memento from the past, or so my foster father says.

He told me that I was wearing it when he found me. not revealing anything else.

I exit our house, but not without looking back once more before leaving. I say goodbye to it silently. It was a small cabin, probably built by hand, and located somewhere in a secluded forest, perched on top of a slope surrounded by trees and nature. As I finish reminiscing. I take my leave and finally begin my journey without a specific location in mind.

~after a while~ (Day)

I've been walking aimlessly for a while, exiting the forest filled gigantic trees that leads to our home. I follow the river that gushes slowly and heading downstream in hopes of finding another person.

Truth be told, I've never met another person in my life other than Andour. So I may not know how to speak properly with them.

"Tell me Marchosias. Have you ever seen another human other than us before?" 

He responds after a while, I assume that he was resting. ("Another human? I have. Many humans have come to challenge me as well in hopes of gaining my powers, but to no avail did they succeed. They were few, but in terms of strength... That they did not lack. One almost forced me into using my full power, but I simply played along that I was almost at an end. I attacked when he let his guard down. A clear sign of weakness, or maybe he was just gullible.")

As we talk. A strange noise could be heard from my position. The ground slightly trembles as the sound seems to be coming closer. Marchosias warns me. ("Raise your guard, and prepare to fight. An enemy approaches with apparent signs of murder in his eyes") with Marchosias's warning. I throw my belongings at a nearby bush, hiding it from their sight. They get close enough for me to clearly identify them.

Fully armored men, 4 of them are cloaked in random clothing as to conceal their identity. All armed with spears and swords. They come riding a four legged creature running at a great speed, but a name comes naturally. A horse? I think to myself. It's the first time I've seen such a creature, but how do I know it's name? While I think about the answer to my question. They come closer, stopping in front of me, and in turn I raise my guard, leveling my short sword to my body.

One the men speaks. "Oy captain, this just be a little boy, how much do you think he has on him? Oy! Boy, cough up all yer belongings lest you want to be cut."

I analyze the situation quite calmly to my surprise. Marchosias speaks ("you fear them, I merely suppressed your emotion to fear and heightened your other senses, enhancing your overall capabilities. Just follow my directions, and do not speak. just follow without hesitation") 

I am wearing a customized leather armor, with a thicker layer at my arms, vambraces that will help me if I can parry their attracts and other standard equipment given to me by Andour. 

The daemon gives me commands from within my mind. ("Run and lead them to the river bank, with those horses they'll rely mostly on speed, but you yourself are quite fast enough, but with my enhancement. You should be able to outrun the horses. Go!") 

I follow his command without question, running faster and analyzing my surroundings faster that I could originally do. I thought to myself that the powers a daemon bestows upon its user is amazing! 

The horsemen follow in pursuit "oy! This ain't normal. How can a mere kid outrun horses?" Their captain speaks loud enough for me to hear. "It doesn't matter, just keep trailing the kid and don't lose sight of him."

I arrive at the riverbank faster than I anticipated, but now stronger with the help of a daemon. I have gotten a lot stronger than before. 

The horsemen follow shortly after, but they do not stop. Two of them charge with their spears raised.

("Leap forward and strike the man on your left from behind.") I do as Marchosias says, and leap forward, and to my surprise I leap farther up in the air than I thought I could, and I land behind the two horsemen who halted their horses from rushing into the river. I face the two horsemen and leap forward once more, striking the target horseman that is now to my right. 

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

My short sword easily plunges into the back of the bandit, exiting from the front of the man with a strong gush of blood. The man screams in terror as he feels excruciating pain from his back, and goes insane from seeing a bloody sword exiting the front of his body. 

("Place your hand open in front of the target on your left, and imagine releasing a ball of fire from that hand") yet another command.

It sounds ridiculous. Yet not impossible. I do as he says and at that very moment, a small blue ball of flame begins to appear from my hand. ("Now release it!")

I do as he says, but instead, the flame grows unstable and immediately bursts from my hand. the burst pulses to the man I was targeting, scaring his horse, and as I was knocked off the horse, I see the man engulfed with blue flames that do not disappear. He screams in pain with a sound that might make you deaf if you were close enough, but the man does not scream once more: indicating his death, but the blue flames do not die down rather it continues until it burns the deceased body into ashes.

As I stay on the ground and bear witness to this horrifying sight in front of me. I glance at the two remaining horsemen, clearly petrified. One of them shouts in terror. "This kid's a demon! Let's get out of here." And with those words, they dash out of the forest with great haste.

With the battle finished, all that remains is the bloody body of an impaled man and the burnt ashes of my victim, but just what was that? I ask Marchosias "Was that the manifestation of your powers through me? I know I've seen it before, those flames of yours, the one from our previous battle, were they not red?" He does not respond right away, and a bit of time passes. 

("I cannot explain this. I searched your entire body for signs of another source of power, but there are no sources from which that could have come from. All that mana that I have shared with you are mine, and I can tell just by its presence that it is mine, but enough of this, we will figure this out soon enough. I suggest that we move to a safe place where we can rest for dusk has arrived, and I feel your exhaustion.") 

"I understand, let's go then, but why don't we take the horse? It looks like it could save us a lot of time in traveling."

("Take it if you wish. You may try and learn how to ride these creatures for the future.") 

With Marchosias in agreement. I take the horse which carries a bag of things, belonging to its previous rider. Filled with rations and a bag of gold coins? Hmm coins? Now where have I heard that word before? It vaguely comes to me that these things are called coins, but that is all I can remember. Hopefully I can feed the horse with these rations. I do not know what it eats either way. Next, I take my sword that is still impaled from the body of the man I defeated and I decide to check His person for anything that might benefit us in our journey, but with no luck I fail to find anything.

"Then let us move on and find a place to rest with the horse in tow, It goes with us rather willingly for I thought that it would resist. Preferring to remain with its previous owner, or to simply run away. 

On the way Marchosias asks me something ("are you not disturbed that you killed the first humans you encountered, are you not affected by those sorts of things?")

"I am, I am truly sad that the first humans I encountered died by my hands. I would have wanted to instead make peace with them and to try and understand them, but it seems that it was impossible."

"Besides. Andour, my foster father had taught me much, and it has aided me in keeping myself sane sometimes. I just hope not all humans are like that. 

We walk through the woods trying to locate the perfect spot from where we would rest, and after a while we find the spot. Setting up our campsite for tonight."

Marchosias does not give me a reply, but I feel that he is satisfied with my answer.

I take the reigns of the horse and tie it to a nearby tree. The season of winter nears, so the cold is quite noticeable if you stay outside. I gave the horse my blanket, and it snuggles into it indicating that it is quite happy and satisfied. "I'm sorry that this is all I can give you. I know it's cold, but please bear it for a while."

I set up a fireplace made from twigs and tree branches, setting up a warm and cozy circle from here we can feel comfortable for the night. 

"Have a nice rest Marchosias"

("... Hmph, I can't believe there is a human here on earth who can nonchalantly say that to a daemon that commands the legions of hell. Truly unbelievable. I thought you would have gone insane from seeing that flame burst from your hand, but I was clearly mistaken, it is either you were used to daemons in the past before you lost your memories, or you are just a natural.")

"Wait.. How do you know about that? About me losing my memories of my past." 

("I have told you this before, so I will repeat myself. We share one mind, and since I merged with your soul. We are somewhat connected, but this current connection we have is rather weak, but our trust in each other will grow as time passes. Now enough. get some rest. Teach yourself how to ride a horse tomorrow, and I might train you as well in controlling fire so that your mistake from earlier does not repeat itself.")

"Thank you. I always thought that all daemons were cruel and terrible, but it seems that *yawn* you're different" zzzzz

("Humans are indeed interesting.")

~The day ends~