Lilith (14.12.9978 AS)

Tristan and Ai were sitting on their beds in the infirmary of Lilith. Just a few moments ago, they had to go through several medical checkups. The results were obvious to Tristan, but surprising for the medical team: Besides a few scratches here and there and being depleted of mana they didn’t have any serious injuries.

“Do you think she’ll be fine?” Ai asked, after arriving from Solum they had been split up from Laura and brought to separate rooms.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine, she just used too much mana to fight and didn’t realize when she had reached her limits.” Tristan said waving with his hands. “Her injuries were already cured there on the battlefield by me and those other guys that came later, right now she’s just undergoing through some test, like we did. I bet she’ll wake up tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

Ai looked relieved at Tristan. “So… now that it’s sure that we’re safe do you care to tell me what is going on here?” She finally asked putting all her courage together.

Tristan looked like he didn’t know what to say. “Erm… I… I actually don’t really know to start… Ahh, yeah, that’s probably the best way to start. Did you know that the Human’s aren’t the only race in this world?”

If I didn’t witness that battle right now when wouldn’t have believed Tristan. “Well, if you count in beasts and monster than there are countless, but if you count only intelligent then yes, the only race I know of are the Humans.” She replied, curios of taught something new.

“Actually, there are three races” Tristan said, showing forming a three with his hands. “Three and a half if you count in the Elder, the three major races are: Humans, Seraphs and Demons. The ones we fought today were Seraphs, so yeah… I’m actually a demon.” Tristan said sounding a little insecure towards Ai.

In the Human Worlds Demons were portrayed in a really bad: As creatures that just cared for themselves and that tricked people into contracts they couldn’t break, always ready to seduce Human girls. This picture of the Demons for common Humans was created by Fors himself and not even the Elder could do anything against it.

Not only the Demons were portrayed in a bad light: the Seraphs were portrayed as winged beasts that would hunt young children.

“So, you really are something like Mephisto?” Ai asked shocked.

Tristan remembered the story he had read during his stay in Solum, about a Demon tricking a guy too smart for his own good, to sell him his soul, if he showed him a way to live a fun life, spoilers: it didn’t end well.

“No, well, I’ve never heard of a Demon taking the soul of someone! And, you also have Demon’s blood running through your veins!” He pointed at her.

As he said that the Door of the room went open, a nurse entered the room and walked up to Ai.

“We almost forgot to take a blood sample to find out which clan you belong to.” The nurse said without batting with the eyes and started doing her job. Not even a minute passed and she was already gone with a vial filled with Ai’s blood in her hands.

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“So, I’m also a Demon?” Ai pointed at herself.

“Kind off… You’re actually a Demi-Human, we call your kind; Elders. Most of the elders have a Human mother and a Demon as father, thus they are stronger than your normal Human, but still weaker than a Demon.”

Tears filled Ai’s eyes. “What do you mean by that? That’s not how it was supposed to be! I’ve been working hard for them and you are telling me that I won’t be able to meet them even if I reach the top?!”

Tristan left his bed, walked towards Ai and hugged her. “Ai, I can understand that you’re in pain right now, but believe me everything will get better.” He whispered at her.

“How can you tell me that? I was an unwanted child! I always was, but I… I… I convinced myself my parents would be waiting for me! If you tell me that, then that just means that I’m an unwanted child, nothing especial, just some random child in this world, who is a little better than the rest of…” Tears kept falling down her cheeks as she screamed these words in Tristan’s breast.

Tristan continued hugging her as tight as he could. “I know your pain, better than you might think, but there is no reason to be sad about not having parents that love you. You don’t need to show off your effort to nobody else, but you! In the end you’re the only one that you have to prove that you’ve made it! If you want, I also can be the one that you need to show your growth, I won’t let you down; I’ll be always there to cheer you on, so why don’t you cheer up now?

Ai looked up towards Tristan, while her tears kept flowing down her pale cheeks. “You really will always be there for me?”

“Yes, I’m your friend after all, I’ll always be there for you.” Tristan gave her the brightest smile he could.

Ai wiped the tears from her cheeks and answered Tristan with an angelic smile. “I’ll trust you on this, but if you ever let me down, I’ll hunt you down” She said as she bore her index finger in between Tristan’s rips.

“Got it.” Tristan answered, trying not to give in to the pain.

“So, what now?” Ai asked Tristan, sure to get an answer from him.

“One thing is for sure, you can’t return to Terra.”

“Why?”

“Because, if you go back the seraphs will hunt you. You see the Seraph don’t like Elders, because they see them as the puppets of the Demons, because we take our time in educating them in magic and the how this world works. And yeah, the Seraphs don’t like us, because of the Great War that ended up erasing both races from the Human’s memories…” Tristan said and continued telling Ai about the differences between the races and the reason she was being hunted by the Seraphs.

***

Laura slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by Ai’s cheerful voice. “Hey, Tristan she’s awake, she’s awake!” – “Yeah, yeah, I got it already, but try not to bother her too much, she probably doesn’t even know what happened.” She heard Tristan’s voice coming from the other side of her bed.

‘I’m alive! I thought, I was going to die there, what happened? How could I survive a direct hit by such an attack? Fors, thank you so much!’ Tears suddenly started running down her cheeks. “I’m alive, I’m alive” she whispered over and over as she was being hugged by Ai.

“Of course you are, I wouldn’t have let you die there!” Tristan answered her with a smile.

“Yeah, Tristan healed you until the pro’s arrived.” Ai said still euphoric of seeing her friend fine.

“Wait, what?” Laura asked confused.

“Well, you see…” Ai explained Laura what had happened after she had received that attack head on.

Laura bid her lips as she heard of Tristan’s deeds after she had lost consciousness. ‘How could he keep fighting after being hit by that attack? He shouldn’t be much stronger than me, so why did he keep fighting? Why had he enough energy left to even treat my injuries?”

“Now, now, I think it would be the best for us to let her rest for a while more, don’t you think too Ai?” Tristan said to Ai, after realizing that Laura’s mood was getting dark.

“Yeah, you’re right!” Ai said and walked towards the door of the room.

“I hope you get well really soon.” Tristan said to Laura waving at her for a goodbye.

Suddenly, the door of the room was busted open and Erika rushed into the room and hugged Tristan. “I’m so glad nothing happened to yeah, I was so worried!” She said with tears in her eyes as she went on and hugged Laura, who tried to escape her, but couldn’t because she was still too weakened from the fight.