That night a party was thrown celebrating both brothers graduating into a new level beyond the common. Keilan went into the forest and came back with a couple of boars, fresh, without any marks on their bodies. Damien and Elas were in charge of the drinks, a rare blend of the natural fruits hanging around, some of which had an intoxicating taste to it. They made sure to clean out the entire tree, and those around it.

Elas, genius that he was, was able to scrounge up something truly fantastic from the different kinds of fruits he meshed together.

"You know, we could make a lot of money from this if we introduce it into the market," Elas suggested.

Damien nodded, taking another sip and then using his tongue to clean out the tiny remnant drops still on his lips. "That's a great idea. I know a gu—"

"You're not turning this island into an alcohol factory, Dame," Keilan interrupted without even looking in their direction; one of the boars was over his shoulder with a wood staked through its mouth and out the other side.

Damien grumbled, picking up another cup. He sighed loudly at the taste, raising a subtle thumbs up at Elas.

"I can still see you!"

***

Later that night, Damien sat on a boulder, his thoughts far away as he stared into the skies. Who would have thought a place so unreachable would hold countless civilizations? His head came down, tracing down the moonlight as it streaked down onto the surface of the water, giving it a serene glow.

The moonlit water suddenly took him back to a moment back in his childhood. The woods on the western side of the village, aside from the usual prowling monsters, which were somewhat rare depending on the location, had been crawling with hares and deers.

Usually, they wouldn't have disobeyed their parents' instructions and gone out at night, but Keilan had been in the early stages of his crush on Boria, the village head's daughter and also twin sister to Borvin, a jerk who always found one reason or another to come at Damien. Thankfully, he wasn't a pushover. Borvin learned that the hard way.

They'd wandered into the woods, looking for what Keilan described as 'The perfect one for his perfect one'. A few minutes later they'd already come across at least half a dozen hares, but Keilan hadn't been satisfied because none of them had white fur. Their task would have been all but impossible had the moon not been full that night, lending them its silvery light.

Luckily, about twenty minutes later, a white one had come into sight close to a tree, nibbling on a fallen branch. To this day, it would continue to be a mystery why there were so many of those animals still up and about in the late hours of the day instead of going into their hole to sleep.

Their slow, quiet stalking apparently hadn't been quiet enough as the animal immediately perked up the moment they got within a few feet, and then in a burst of speed, it dashed away. Keilan, not one to give up, had immediately given chase, leaving Damien to follow.

Running through the half-dark woods in the night, with fallen branches and rope-like roots sticking out, had been enough to see Damien soon stumble onto the ground.

To this day, he wasn't sure what had persuaded him to look behind, but the burning blue orbs that had locked eyes with him still gave him the chills to this moment.

A shuffle close by had unwillingly taken his attention as Keilan walked up to him with the live hare held tightly in his arms. When Damien had looked back, the woods were once again dark.

He didn't know why his memory was suddenly taken to that moment, but that night he'd vowed never to go back into those woods at night ever again.

"You know, when I was young, I used to sneak out of the house at night to the lake close by."

Damien, brought back down to earth, asked without looking. "To go swimming?"

"Hehe, no." Elas chuckled. "I snuck out to go see my childhood sweetheart."

Damien snorted.

"You see, the reason we made that place our meeting spot was because I couldn't go to her house because of her father, obviously, and she couldn't do the same because of my mother. So we simply just met up on the lake shore close by."

"Weren't you afraid of monsters?" Damien said.

"Nahh. The village hunters had that taken care of. Besides, the lake wasn't that far from the village, basically a mile walk. And I'm pretty sure most of the hunters knew of our movements, but for some reason, they didn't say anything to our parents. Though I could still see the knowing smirk on their faces whenever I crossed paths."

Damien grunted.

"Tresha, that was her name. A reaaaal beautiful lass, that one. Had long chestnut hair that shone in both sunlight and moonlight. Body the color of brown, delicious malros fruit. And her voice? Her voice could have brought the dead back to life. All the village boys wanted her but she chose me." The man smiled wistfully. "I wasn't the most handsome, nor was I the richest, but for some reason, she still picked me over them all."

Damien rolled his eyes at the theatrics. "Elas, I'm not so fragile as to be buttered up first. And I know you well enough to know your approach whenever you want to ask something uncomfortable. So, what do you want?"

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The other man sighed. "Got me alright." He chuckled. "Look at you, all smart and such, catching me, an intelligence specialist to boot, in the arts of subtlety."

"Elas." Damien sighed.

"Okay. Okay, fine..." The man raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Don't get all cranky on me here." He moved to take a position close to Damien, resting his back on the boulder.

"If you don't want the subtle approach, I'll just come right in with the opposite. Your sudden trust in Gray worries me."

"You think I'm being mind-controlled." It wasn't a question.

"There are a variety of ways to get someone to trust you outside of just mind-jacking them."

Damien looked down on where the man was standing. "So, which one do you think?"

"That's the thing, I don't know, and it scares me. You aren't some bumpkin who's unfamiliar with the darker side of this world, so I don't understand why you would trust someone so explicitly the way you do Gray. Damien, you just met him."

Damien sighed, this wasn't surprising. Heck, he would have been suspecting Keilan of being mind jacked had the same thing happened to him. But the truth was that he knew himself, he knew what he was feeling, and he knew it wasn't a lie.

"You know, ever since I woke up in that jungle," Damien began. "I've always been on my toes, anxious. I haven't told this to anybody, even Keilan. I'm sure you must have noticed, being the intelligence specialist that you are, so you must have seen how I was always jittery, always looking over my shoulder, scared that one day something would appear before me that I'd not be able to escape from. Something that could easily subject me to its will. That was a major reason why Keilan and I continuously dove Into hiding whenever the kingdoms got a whiff of us again.

"When I met Gray, it was like," he snapped his fingers. "Those feelings were suddenly washed away, and I could breathe again. I don't know how to put this, but when we did what we did that bound us together, it was like something I wasn't aware I'd lost, an essential part of me, was suddenly returned. I don't know why I feel this way or why I continue to trust him despite everything he's withheld from me, but I believe Gray is out to protect me."

"You know that word 'protect' could mean many things, right?" Elas said. "As a spy, I am very familiar with the word 'protect' and how it could be twisted, mostly to the detriment of the person that's supposed to be protected."

"Yeah, I understand. But I can feel it deep within me, I know that Gray is the only link I have to my origin, and I need to know."

"Why?" Elas said, perplexed. "I mean, I'm not going to criticize your need to know about your origins; that's a worthy effort, but I've seen people with no knowledge whatsoever of where they came from, and they're still doing fine on their own. I understand what you said about your father's enemies catching wind of you, but isn't that more of a reason to avoid getting into that pot of boiling water? There is always the option of abandoning the past should it prove detrimental to your future."

Damien sighed. He understood what Elas said, and the truth was that the man was right. But, "While my brain agrees with you, Elas, my heart says otherwise. I need to know, not just for curiosity's sake, but to be prepared for anything that could blindside me.

"My greatest opponent is Solaris, and I'm not sure I could even defeat him. And then I hear from Gray that compared to the enemies that will come after me, Solaris would be but a speck, a completely invisible one. I can't live my life at the mercy of luck, Elas, I just can't. If I'm going to be fighting people who could kill me with but a flick of their fingers, then I'm going to strive for a power that would make them use all their strength simply just to touch me," Damien finished with conviction, a fierce resolve burning in his heart. "And Gray's going to help me."

Damien knew that he'd been very complacent ever since he caught up and surpassed the people of this world. None of them could kill him. He was the strongest. Well now, witnessing the sheer power of a Spirit Queen, he finally realized that this planet was getting too small. And very soon he'd grow too big for it. And when that time came, he didn't want to be at the bottom rung ever again, subject to the whims of the powerful. He wanted to be powerful enough that his mere name would serve as a detriment to anyone looking to put him under their heels.

He wanted a power that would make him unafraid of anyone ever again.

***

They arrived back at the clearing to meet a gloomy atmosphere. Damien sensed Lena upstairs, moving from one room to another, packing clothes into a bag.

"What happened?" He said to a grim faced Keilan sitting nearby.

"Solaris."

Damien took a minute to calm his bubbling anxiety. "What about him?"

Finally, Keilan looked up, the burning fire in their midst reflecting off his blue eyes. "I just got a message. The Emperor's fleet has been sighted alongside a massive host, moving straight for Camlen."

"Just his fleet? Keilan, you know the sun fleet could move without the presence of the Emperor. Why the grim face?"

"Damien, Solaris was sighted on his capital ship."

"He's desperate," Elas suddenly interjected, clear confidence radiating of his words. "The power manifestation of the Winter priestess has just wiped out every defiled he has on the continent, and those on the other continents would soon follow as the Great families descend on them. Solaris's forces are already spread too thin, even with the assistance of Torinia and the Hive, he knows that if the war continues as it is, he will lose."

"But why attack now? He might be spread thin, but we've also suffered just as much as him, if not more. The majority of our alliance was made up of the smaller nations, and most of them are already wiped out. We're basically on an even footing now."

"You see, that's the thing," Elas answered. "That man is smart. He's turning his loss into an advantage. The war against the defiled was one that saw a continuous battle for days as your alliance fought against an unending swarm. They've all been running on adrenaline all this while. Take that away instantly, what do you get?"

"A bunch of relieved soldiers," Keilan whispered, his eyes widening. "Soldiers who would be too relieved to respond to another instant attack."

Elas nodded. "The soldiers of the alliance are tired, but they're also relieved. Their adrenaline has worn off, and no doubt some have already fallen into a deep slumber that would leave them incapacitated for, probably, at least a week. Spirit strain and all. The entire alliance has just taken a deep breath, and before they release it, Solaris plans to punch a hole into their lungs."

"And he's coming to do it himself."

***

In a location outside of reality, a small room just at the threshold between reality and unreality, a being turned its gaze down toward a location.

They dropped the book in their hands onto the onyx-polished table, their gaze piercing through unreality and into reality, settling onto a star system.

The system consisted of three planets revolving around a large yellow sun, with six moons likewise revolving around the outer circle of those planets, forming a two-layer circle.

Though, that wasn't what drew this being's attention.

Their will brushed aside the planetary scrying ward without alerting the World Spirit, settling down on the event that was just about to play out.

"Well, that was fast."

And then they returned their attention to the half-finished book, a smile playing on their lips as they looked forward to the future.

"And so it begins.”