- - The Day After - -

Arnold Norr smiled to himself as he walked through a nearly empty restaurant. It held a silent ambiance as the sun began to rise above Asgard. Thin streams of sunlight peered through the curtains and windows.

Each wall was built with white bricks. Every single room and corridor bore gold-lined doorframes and windows with golden-yellow lights blaring from each corner of each room.

From a few meters away he could already hear the conversation of his comrades.

He stared at them from afar. None of them wore the robes and uniforms they usually wore.

Still, Arnhild's long white hair remained to be the most noticeable feature of a room, her hair cascading over her clothes. Arnhild sat in front of two others, her back facing the entrance as she spoke.

"Surely, it's a disgrace as the commander of the Golden Dawn that I barely complete missions. Things must be done, but I barely accomplish anything. Atlas is doing all kinds of things and I-"

Atlas let out a sigh of interruption, as he put his hands behind his head. "You see, what I don't understand is the flow of these things. We have to wait for each demon and each stage? I don't see how that's necessary. If we want to, we could just speed up the process and cause ruin overnight, right?"

"He's right, y'know," a woman agreed. She sat right beside Atlas, her arms crossed against her chest. She was pale-skinned and had curly brown hair, with green eyes behind her glasses.

"Not about causing ruin, but about how this whole plan and process is taking too long."

"Yes, I understand," Arnold said, approaching them from some dozen meters away. "But it's all in preparation for what's next. Games that end right away are dull, aren't they? Soon, all life will the palm of our hands."

Arnhild's eyes lit up as soon as she heard her brother's voice. "Arnold!" she said from afar, waving at him as he approached.

Arnold smiled in return. Despite their ages and maturities, all Arnold saw was his childish little sister.

Despite the fact that she was almost erased from existence yesterday, she was still smiling.

Two people sat in front of her. Atlas, and Eve, another Titan chosen by Arnold.

"So when is the food gonna get here?" Atlas asked.

Arnold disregarded Atlas' words and sat in front of her. "So, Eve. How's Lilith?"

"Well... Getting worse almost every day."

"Well, that's too bad."

"Why have you called me here?" she said, her dark green eyes glaring at Arnold.

Arnold chuckled. "Well, there's no need to be so aggressive. What, I can't enjoy a brunch with the lovely Titan of Life?"

"One, stop calling me that. Two, if you call me 'lovely' one more time, I'll hit you." She paused. "And what the hell is brunch?"

"Well, Atlas came up with that name; Titan of Life. I think it's nice. Besides, brunch is... Well, it's eating breakfast food at lunchtime. I think. It originates from Earth, so I'm not exactly sure," he said, laughing.

Eve sighed.

"What even are Titans?"

"It's complicated," Atlas said, chuckling as he spoke. "I'll explain later."

"Just explain now."

"Well, essentially, titans were figures from ancient Greek myths. They were a human civilization from thousands of years ago. So basically-"

Arnold cleared his throat to interrupt Atlas from rambling.

"So what I wanted to discuss..." he said. "...is the future. These past seven months- Well, the past year may have been pretty boring. Sure there were exciting moments here and there as we searched for the catalysts, but overall... It was nothing much for people like you and I. But from here on... Things will get exhilarating," he said, his grin widened.

"You see, some humans have caught Arnhild's interest. Seven of them, to be exact. And they're just children. I didn't see their value at first, but now... Now I understand why she wants to learn about them. Some of them have significant potential."

Eve stared at Arnold, into his pale golden eyes. They disgusted her. Arnold, overall, disgusted her. But she couldn't refute his brilliance. As a strategist, as a fighter, and as a leader.

She was constantly questioning his dedication, his loyalty, and his ideologies, but even those concepts didn't matter. What mattered was the result.

If taking orders from scum like Arnold would bring victory for the Golden, if following Arnold would lead the rise of the new world, that would be enough.

Eve rarely cared for the words that Arnold spoke. But now this piqued her interest. "I thought the only dangerous one was the Paladin. Charles something."

"Yes, yes, yes, Archibald. He's too dangerous to be left alone. He must be stopped for the sake of our plans." Arnold took in a sharp breath as he spoke, "But it's not like we can kill him, anyway."

"There's plenty of ways," Eve interjected. "We can-"

Arnold shook his head. "You're the only one here that hasn't seen him. And I know you can't beat him. Arnhild and I have faced him. Atlas witnessed both battles. Charles Archibald is an unstoppable force."

"So even if we work together, we wouldn't be able to kill him?"

"Nope. Your attacks won't reach him," he said with a smile.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I don't know, I simply find this conversation amusing." He continued. "But think about it this way for a minute. If you were to punch him, your fist wouldn't hit him. You'd only hit the space around him.

"I still don't understand."

"Ever heard of Achilles and the Tortoise?"

Eve shook her head.

"Surrounded by morons," Arnold muttered under his breath as he spat out a sigh. Arnhild smacked the side of his shoulder. "Be nice," she told him.

He smiled again.

"How it works isn't important. It's a weird form of magic, and the point still stands. You won't win. If the plan works, you might be able to escape with your life. Worst case scenario, he kills you all and the plan fails."

Eve glared as she clenched her jaw. This is why Arnold disgusted her.

'You might be able to escape.'

'Your lives.'

'You all.'

Not once had Arnold mentioned himself in whatever plan he had. To Arnold, Eve, and probably everyone he knew... They were just pawns. Objects he could use, pieces he could move. All for his own desires.

"Hey. I'm gonna kill you one day," she said, her eyes still glaring, almost glowing in fervent anger. "Surely... Surely you didn't join us so you can send us to our deaths?" she asked, clenching her fist. "I don't work for you, Arnold. I'm not one of your weak-minded lackeys."

"I never said you were," Arnold laughed. "The plan isn't to kill him. Well, I'm hoping he dies, but that simply isn't the priority. We'll have to settle for something else. Instead of focusing on killing him, we're going to neutralize him. Either way, he'll be handled."

"Neutralize? How?"

He reached into his bag, pulling out a thick folder. "Well... I wonder." As he dropped the folder onto the table, his grin widened.

"Do you believe in fate?"

"Stop. Dodging. My questions." Eve pressed the palm of her hand against the table.

Arnold smiled and swallowed his saliva as he sensed the dense magic energy rising from her hand. And not just her hand. Arnold knew that the energy had already spread around them, even below the ground. If this were a preparation for an attack, then...

Arnhild turned to Eve and pointed a single finger at her.

Atlas cleared his throat to break the dense silence. "So, uh... Are they gonna bring food, or what?"

Arnold continued the conversation without regard for Atlas' words.

"I like strong women, but you're just a bit too scary for my taste, to be frank," he said, chuckling to himself. He gently gripped Arnhild's wrist and lowered her hand, as he continued, "So... Do you believe in fate?"

Eve's face remained stale. "I'm gonna give you ten seconds."

As Arnold took another sip of water, he snickered to himself. "Alright," he said. "I believe in fate. Fate controls what happens and when it happens and why it happens and so on and so forth."

"Yes, people have free will to do what they choose. But fate supersedes that. And by studying fate, by looking past the curtain of the current world... You see patterns. You see the truth. The God Crystal, new types of magic, more spirits, and more people with incredible power appearing. There's a reason for all of this happening."

"I'll get to my point on Charles Archibald in a moment so please, bear with me. But there are simply more important matters going on. Yes. More important than the man who could destroy everything we've fought for."

"As above, so below. And these matters... They're all happening now. Well... They've been happening."

Arnold's smile widened as he looked up, his eyes meeting Eve's once again.

"It's... an oncoming storm, if you will. A new beginning. And no one knows what it is. Might be hope. Might be despair. But there's no way of knowing. The only way to find is to keep moving forward. Now..." he said, opening the file.

"Let's discuss the world to come."

- - - - -

Alexander laid in a hospital bed, thinking about yesterday's events. The Golden Dawn's attack, just after the demon fight. He groaned, sitting upright. Staring at his arms, he remembered the excruciating pain inflicted on him by Asmodeus.

He rubbed his left arm, thinking, 'It still hurts even after being healed...' As his fingers ran across a small smooth bump on his arm, he winced. 'This sucks!' he thought, dropping himself back on his bed.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Everyone's already back to school and I'm stuck here," he sheepishly groaned to himself.

"Yeah, I understand. I miss my days back at the Academy, too," a voice mumbled. It was Charles Archibald.

Alexander sat up as soon as he heard his voice. "How the hell did you get here?"

"Spatial magic. Do people still say 'Duh'?"

"I guess."

"Well... Duh."

Alexander chuckled, saying, "I see."

"Can't believe it's been seven months since this whole thing started," he muttered, staring through the window at his side as the sun began to descend from the sky, its crimson light glowing over the city.

"And just five months until the next demon arrives."

"Oh," he said, remembering how the demons would continue to arrive every so often, remembering that the battles would only get rougher from here.

"What's this one's name again? Mamman? Momman? Mammon? I didn't really pay attention earlier," he said with a chuckle.

"Mammon, a demon of greed."

Alexander paused. "Wait, a? Not the?"

Archibald smiled, saying, "I wish that were so. Unfortunately, demons don't structure themselves that way. Take Belphegor. Demon of sloth. There are several more demons of sloth. And now that you killed Belphegor, another demon has taken his place, as well as his name."

"So the Belphegor I killed... Was that the real one or just a replacement?"

"Well... there's no way of knowing."

Alexander continued to stare out the window. "So... What am I still doing here?"

"What's that?"

"Like why am I here? I'm already healed and everything. So what am I doing here?"

"You tell me."

Alexander furrowed his eyebrows as he squinted at Archibald's remarks.

"You..." Archibald began. "You do realize you could've left hours ago, right? You've just been sitting here for no reason."

"What?"

Archibald chuckled. "Yeah."

"But I suppose that's not relevant," he said. "Apparently, you fought the Minotaur. Is that right?"

Alexander smiled. "Yeah, actually."

"Did you win?"

"Not really. All I did was stab it in the eye. I slashed at its ankles and forearm, but the wounds weren't deep enough. I did get its horn though."

Archibald's eyes widened. "You got its horn?" He shot up and gripped Alexander by his shoulders. "You got its horn?" he repeated.

"Well, yeah, but I lost it in the cave."

"Ah." Archibald let out a defeated sigh.

"The composition of the horn is probably the best thing to use to kill beast-type monsters like the Minotaur."

Alexander furrowed his eyebrows.

"The Minotaur's basically a demigod. So basically it has some kind of divine protection that can only be bypassed by the same genetic composition as it. So it can only be killed by other divine or semi-divine beings, or weapons of the sort. It's a whole thing."

"It's complicated, y'know."

Alexander nodded. He was confused, but he nodded nonetheless.

The doors burst open.

"Yo, Alexander!" Leonard cried.

He waved as he almost tripped on the wet floor. He quickly approached Alexander.

"Check this out," he said with a smile.

"Why are you out of breath?"

"I ran here. But dont worry about that. Look at this." A small, red reptilian figure crawled from his bag. The reptile crawled up Leonard's arm before resting itself on his shoulder. "Cool, huh?"

"What type of Summon is that?" Alexander asked, his eyes fixated on the animal.

"It's Salamander," Leonard said, his voice carrying a strong sense of pride.

"The Salamander? Like the fire spirit?"

"Yep," he smiled. "Technically just a portion of it. But still. Salamander."

Small wings began to grow from the creature's back as it crawled back into Leonard's bag.

"The others are on their way here, too," he said. "I was let out early 'cause I was the only one able to summon anything."

"Wait, why are you guys summoning stuff in a general studies class? If you wanted to summon stuff, wouldn't you just take a summoning class?"

"Yeah, I don't really know why he's like that. Tucker's weird. I don't even think he's qualified to be a teacher."

"Oh, hey, Archibald," Leonard said, finally noticing the fact that he had been sitting there for the past minute.

Again, the doors burst open as the other Virtues walked past.

Archibald smiled.

His phone began to ring. He chose to ignore that ringing and instead stared at his watch. "Well, damn," he mumbled.

He cleared his throat as he stood up. "This is horrible timing but... I should get going. Well, not should. Kind of have to I have a meeting to get to," he said, letting out a sigh.

Archibald waved at the other Virtues, and said, "Good day to all of you," before disappearing without a sound nor a trace.

"Well, that was weird," Alexander mumbled.

"Yeah, even I can't teleport like that," Anastasia said, still staring at the spot where Archibald disappeared, struggling to pick up any trace of magic.

She spat out a sigh as she realized there was no energy to pick up at all. She sat down on the chair beside Alexander, staring out the window at the setting sun.

"Why the sun setting? It's not even four o'clock."

"Age of Tribulation stuff," Liam responded. "Stuff like that is supposed to happen every now and then. Eventually, it'll start being cold or hot at random times."

"Hm."

Leonard pasued. "Wait, so Tucker didn't keep the class after-"

Gabriel grabbed Leonard's head. "He never follows through with that, yknow."

"Yeah, he realized that it wasn't worth his own time to keep a bunch of people there," Anastasia said in agreement. "He's weird like that."

Alexander chuckled.

"So you're okay now?" she asked, gently grazing her fingers against the thin bump on his arm.

Alexander's ears turned red as he muttered, "Y-yeah. I'm fine."

"Good. Try not to break your arms next time," she said, letting go of him. "It was a pain to keep your arms together while making using magic."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Anastasia sighed. "Don't apologize when you don't have to. It's weird.

"Fair enough," he said, nodding. "But honestly, it is kinda my own fault that I got my arms broken. But it was pretty cool, either way."

She chuckled. "You can't just get your arms broken and say it was pretty cool."

"Either way, you held my arms together even through magic exhaustion. You even threw up and everything. Thanks for that."

She paused. "...You didn't have to add the fact that I threw up. It's-"

Their conversation was interrupted as Liam dragged a chair across the floor. The ear-splitting screeching of the metal chair legs against the tiled floor echoed throughout the near-empty hospital room.

They stared at him as he sat down.

"Back then..." he said, his amber eyes meeting Alexander's.

"There was that guy, the magic-less one. He could've killed you. I'm sure you understood that. With the sword you had, you could've killed him. You should have. But you didn't. That type of hesitation could've led to your death. In fact, the only reason why you're alive is that you have some kind of resistance to poisons. But poison won't always be the case. You should've just killed that guy. Would've made everything a whole lot easier."

Alexander sighed. "I guess. But even so... I don't want to kill anyone."

"He's from the Golden Dawn. Their objective is to kill you. All of you."

"Well... If I were to kill someone, I think the choice of 'killing' will come into my life. I feel like... that'll make me question the value of life itself. The value of life will become ambiguous to me. And maybe I won't even know the value of the lives of the people I love. And honestly... That scares me."

"I see..." Liam said.

Gabriel let out an audible sigh. "Stupid philosophy."

Lumiel smacked his shoulder. "Gabriel!" she whispered.

"What?" he asked. "Not wanting to kill anyone? We're at war. It's life or death at times like that. Sometimes you're gonna have to kill your enemy. I wouldn't just let myself die or suffer for the sake of someone else, much less my enemy. That's just how war is."

Anastasia smiled. "Still, it's kinda admirable."

Lumiel sighed. "Now Alexander went and got philosophical. Ruined the vibes for a party."

"It's not a party," Gabriel objected.

"It is."

"Seven people in a quiet room isn't a party."

"Who cares, Gabriel?" she said. "I'm just trying to make it a tradition, I guess. Another Prince of Hell dead, another party."

"Not a party," Gabriel repeated.

Lumiel smacked the back of his head.

"So is that what were doing?" Giovanna asked. "Someone else's house for each demon we kill?"

"Or we could just do dorms," Gabriel said.

"Finally a good idea from Gabriel Archibald," Lumiel said with a smile.

Alexander stared at the others. They argued and discussed and laughed together. The atmosphere that came with them into the room, the way they talked and acted together... He couldn't keep himself from smiling.

As he finally got up, he paused. "Wait, we have dorm rooms?"

All six of the Virtues turned to Alexander.

"He..." Anastasia spat out a sigh. "He didn't go to orientation," she explained.

"Oh. That actually explains a lot," Lumiel said. "But, yeah, we do. In fact, we're all on the same floor," she continued. "It's a weird system."

"Weird system for weird people."

Again, Lumiel smacked his head.

At the same time, Archibald had just arrived at his "meeting".

As he shut the door to his own office, a hollow click sprung out of the lamp. It immediately illuminated the room from his desk, where a spectacled man sat. Xerxes Agnes, Chairman of the Magecraft Association.

He smiled, saying, "Evening, Sir Archibald. It's been a while. Not only that, but you're late, too."

Charles Archibald spat out a sigh as his eyes met that of the man seated in front of his desk. "You're just early."

"No, seriously," Xerxes said, tapping at his watch. "You're late. You have horrible time management, you know that?"

Archibald remained silent at that remark.

"Heard the kids killed another Prince."

"Yeah. They did, actually. Plus, they-" Archibald paused. "Get out of my desk."

"Why? It's a nice desk. Nice office, in general. Not as nice as mine, though," he said, his eyes scanning over the walls and just about everything inside the room.

Archibald's office was a simple one. Simple desk, simple carpeted floor, simple chairs in front of his desk. Simple.

He knew how plain it was, but he didn't care.

Archibald sat himself down in one of the seats before his desk, letting out another sigh.

Xerxes remained seated, disregarding what Archibald had told him. "So at this rate... I guess the whole Virtue project was a success. You did well. I mean, other than using child soldiers, of course.

Archibald's stale eyes remained fixated on Xerxes.

"That was a joke."

He reached into his jacket, pulling out a crumpled box of cigarettes. "But seriously speaking, though, it's my duty to oversee you Paladins and the Knights, and everything you do, since, y'know, I'm the Chairman of the Magecraft Association."

"Which is why I'm telling you now," he said, raising his forefinger. The fingertip ignited with a small scarlet flame as he held it just below the cigarette in his mouth. It ignited with a thin stream of smoke.

"There are problems with it in general."

"It?"

"The whole concept of the Virtues. Plus, who you chose. Like you really involved Adam's kid? You gotta be crazy," he said, taking out a box of cigarettes.

"And that Algerian kid, Liam Bernard. Not a lot of information on him."

"Don't get me wrong. I really don't care for them.

"Still, I suppose it is kind of reasonable. Those kids... They all got crazy potential. But Alexander Lane being a demon and all... It makes me think about the safety of the populace."

"Again, just joking. But seriously, though... I'm sure most of the higher-ups don't like the fact that Demon-Born is there."

Xerxes finally stood up. "They barely killed Belphegor. After six months, they barely killed Asmodeus. Do you understand what I'm saying? Half of them won't last till the end of this war unless you do something."

"They're still children," Archibald interjected. "Not true magicians yet. Not warriors. They've yet to challenge the world. They still haven't overcome reality. But I know they will. I know. I have faith in them."

"Fair enough," he said. "I'll just leave it to you, then."

Xerxes stepped away from the desk and began walking across the room. "But honestly, don't be surprised if this whole thing gets shut down. Not everyone agrees with it, like I said. Plus, General whats-his-name is annoyed at you. But it's reasonable. You are pretty damn annoying."

Archibald smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"And you, talking about a wave of power. Someone as simple-minded as him won't understand that."

"It's an oncoming storm," Archibald said. "It's been coming for years. No one noticed. Not even us, until now. Like what you said about Alexander Lane, plus the Golden Dawn. And if what Lumiel told me is true, then there's another with Heaven's Curse. Plus, the God Crystal started manifesting."

He spat out a sigh as he burrowed his head into his hands. "Horrible time to be alive. Horrible. All of this... All of this is some disgusting prank of fate."

"And don't forget about Ronald's son," Xerxes interjected.

Archibald immediately raised his head. "When did you hear about that?"

"Doesn't matter. Doesn't change how it works, doesn't change what happens." Xerxes sighed. "I have other things to do today," he said as he began walking towards the door.

As he opened the door and stood in the doorway, he stopped. "I just wanna say. Your plan... with Adam and Arian. It's ballsy. But it's brilliant."

"It's not gonna be as easy as we expect," Archibald told him.

Xerxes chuckled. "It never is. See ya soon, Charles."

- - - - -

The Virtues walked across the harbor right beside the hospital, making their way back to the Academy.

Crimson light refracted upon the water.

And those who walked behind the rest were Gabriel and Alexander. Their steps were slowed as they moved, walking behind and away from the others.

"Y'know, I've been thinking," Gabriel spoke.

"Well, ain't that miracle."

"Dude, shut up."

Alexander smiled. Over the past months, he's been called Demon-Born, devil, et cetera. Being called 'dude' crashed down on Alexander as a wave of pride and accomplishment.

"But still, I've been thinking about what you said," Gabriel said. "After the fight against Ashford."

Alexander smiled. "Fight? That wasn't a fight. We just got beat up."

"Just shut up for a minute. It's just that... It feels like we were born for this. Do you understand what I mean? I don't think it's just a coincidence that we were the ones Archibald chose. I know it's not something as arbitrary as that. If anything... it's like we were chosen by fate."

Alexander nodded. "Probably."

"But that's the thing. You lived a normal life until a few months ago. Plus, the way you think and act... You're not like other people, much less like other magicians. Honestly, that's a problematic concept. So I just have to know why. Why are you willing to get launched through walls, and get your arms broken, and get stabbed in your leg? If you're-"

Alexander interrupted him by letting out a heavy sigh. "Do you know what the 'Curse of the Demon-Borns' is?"

Gabriel shook his head.

"I've researched it a bit. To make it simple... It's a curse that just manipulates fate to make life miserable and horrible for Demon-Borns.

"My mom died before I could even meet her. My uncle, pretty much the first father figure I had, died when I was eight. And then I learned that their deaths were my fault. Because of my curse."

"Wait, is that why you end up getting more injuries than the rest of us?"

Alexander paused. "Well, damn. How have I not realized this before?" he whispered to himself, mumbling and cursing to himself.

"But whatever, he continued. "I just... I want to dispel that curse. Not just for me, but for every single Demon-Born out there. I don't care if there are only a few of us. But... I just have to do something about it."

Gabriel let out a chuckle. "'If not me, then who?', right?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I guess what I'm trying to say is... If I can just be strong for someone... I'll take all the pain."

"Because time and time again... The world, or fate, or whatever it is, has beaten me up. So back then... When faced with that choice... I decided to fight. So I can finally get back up."

He sighed, staring outward at the setting sun. Alexander's near-obsidian eyes glistened in the scarlet evening light. "I don't want to watch innocent people die. So... Time and time again, I'll take all the pain. I've resolved myself for that much."

Alexander swallowed his saliva. He repeated to himself, "I've resolved myself for that much."