Night descended upon the crossroad town, hiding the visage of the many carts, wagons, and tents behind a shroud of darkness. The demons shook in fear, even those hiding behind their reinforced doors of wood and steel. Their hearts pounded fast in anticipation as they prayed for protection in the darkness, prayers meant for Adam to answer.

The beasts know not the difference between the rich and poor, the old and young, or the peasant and the noble, but while their slaughter is indiscriminate and unstoppable, fear wasn’t the only thing to find a place in the hearts of the demons that night, for hope was present as well.

The crystallization of their hope walked down the dark, empty crossroads, passing right by their boarded windows and chained doors while admiring the view of the night sky.

His eyes sparkled as bright as the stars he gazed at, for much like himself, the night sky was just as it was in the past, a relic of a time long gone, unchanged and unaffected by the war. He wondered if his people were amongst those stars, living happily in a new home, a new earth.

“beautiful, aren’t they?” The charming voice startled Adam, He turned around quickly to see the familiar face of the merchant who sold him the information about the Mist City, Yassu.

It took Adam less than a second to prepare for battle, closing the distance to the merchant and clasping his neck with an augment-enhanced grip. “who the fuck are you?”

It was a simple question, but one that would lead to the merchant’s death if left unanswered. Yassu put both hands up and spoke in a shaking voice, his fear manifesting in his slurred words. “w-wait I-It’s me, Yassu? The humble merchant that sold you information about the mist city? Please calm down, great one.”

Adam tightened his grip on Yassu’s neck, “bullshit, how did you sneak up behind me? Who are you? Who sent you? If you don’t start talking I’ll break your neck.”

“n-nobody, I was just heading to the communal shelter, y-you see I don’t have anywhere else to stay and—” Yassu continued explaining, shaking and grasping at Adam’s steel-like arm in fear.

The fear in his eyes was genuine enough for Adam to let go, reflecting on himself for getting distracted enough to allow a random demon to sneak behind him.

“you shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous.”

Yassu took a few deep breaths, drinking in the precious air he was deprived of before speaking. “It is as you say my lord, but I unfortunately lost track of time and ended up stranded outside, but it is safe with you here, no monster would dare attack the land where a god resides.”

Adam wasn’t particularly interested in what he had to say. He had his fill of praise and near-fanatical worship for a lifetime, but Yassu’s words felt different than all the others thrown at him before, they were twisted in their meaning and lacking in their sincerity.

“not a real believer, are you? Good, I’m tired of the constant worship and tributes anyway, however, I’m getting the feeling that you have a bit more to say, so out with it.”

After a moment of nervous fidgeting, Yassu explained himself with fumbling words. “well, I was just thinking that if those abominations don’t appear tonight, just as they didn’t when the army was patrolling the villages a few months back…wouldn’t that mean that it’s intentional? That someone is watching us and giving orders to those things?”

The thought had crossed Adam’s mind long ago, but he simply ignored it. It was irrelevant, those creatures that were too weak to face regular demon soldiers stood no chance against him, and if someone was controlling them it would be from inside the mist city, so his plans wouldn’t have to change too much regardless; however, something was still amiss, not with the theory itself but with the demon that proposed it to him.

Adam couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, it was just this feeling in the deepest pit of his stomach telling him that something was wrong, that Yassu knew far more than he was letting on.

“b-but that’s just this humble merchants’ ramblings, please do not worry yourself with it sir.” As expected, Adam could not locate the source of his unease in Yassu’s trembling voice, but his piercing gaze was enough to scare the merchant into saying his goodbyes and running away into the dimly lit sea of wagons and rundown shacks, leaving Adam alone to contemplate.

Adam looked up at the stars again, thinking back to the elder’s words and all the other madness he lived through since his revival. He knew and accepted that his very existence was an abnormality, and that his apparent immortality was nothing but the product of a technological miracle; however, all that was happening around him was unexplainable.

“demon clans coming back from the dead, centuries after being driven to extinction and humans taking the role of gods to demons then disappearing into space… it can’t all be a coincidence… can it?” Adam spoke out loud, but only the shadows and stars were there to listen, and in their silence, he found no answer.

“what am I even doing here, I should be inside the mist city by now, looking for any sign of human life. That’s why I’m here… isn’t it?” his fist trembled under the pressure of his constricting muscles as the realization he’s been trying to avoid caught up with him. “but what if there are none? What then?”

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It was his greatest fear, it haunted him more than anything else, even more than his own questionable mortality. The idea of being the last human alive, cursed to walk the rotting carcass that was once his home alone couldn’t be described as anything other than hell, but that wasn’t even the worst part.

Having to make peace with the demons, to really forgive everything, and move on, was not something he was sure he could or wanted to do.

“I let them capture me, imprison me, and even change my damn name… all just so I can focus on finding others instead of waging a pointless one-man war on the demons. I thought that if I could find others. If I could rebuild just a little bit of what we once had, I’d be able to move on… but if I can’t find anyone? What then?”

Adam was unconsciously grinding his teeth, a bad habit that emerged when he was irritated. “fuck staying here.” His knuckles turned white as he tightened his fist to its limit. “I’m going to that city, I can’t wait anymore. That girl is nothing but dead weight anyway… I just… I have to know.”

It was a rash decision, one that he wouldn’t usually make, but his circumstances were everything but usual.

Adam calmed himself and began his journey to the mist city, silently weaving through the sea of wagons and carts, heading towards the massive dome of shifting haze in the distance, but he did not get very far before another demon approached him.

It was a child, small, frail, and wearing nothing but a thin white cloth around its tiny body. Adam couldn’t know if it was even male or female, but he still prepared himself for battle against it.

Sweat ran down his face, a bizarre sight to a layman, but a very logical one to a soldier of Adam’s caliber. It was the second time in the span of a few minutes that someone managed to sneak up on him, bypassing his inhuman senses and training, but where Yassu’s situation could be attributed to Adam’s own lack of awareness, this one could not.

Adam was paying full attention to his surroundings, careful to not run into Shiira of one of the elders, even if the chances of it happening were low. He could hear the faint snoring of demons slumbering inside their fortified wagons miles away, and he could smell the scent of rotting wood swimming through the air from the scrapyard on the other side of the town, yet he could not hear any footsteps approaching him, not even as the child was standing mere meters away from him.

“you can’t.” The child’s voice was ethereal and otherworldly as if it was a cacophony of many other voices merged into one, however, Adam felt no despair or fear upon hearing it. “you can’t go… not now… not time.”

“w-what are you—”

“not now Adam, we see you, we know what you want, if you go now an ill fate is all you’ll find.”

Adam’s defenses loosened with every passing second. He could not sense an ounce of hostility from the child, and his words, as nonsensical as they seemed to be, radiated with great wisdom, but even then, he could not take it at face value.

“who are you? How do you know what I want? Did the demon lord send you?” Adam tried to sound as calm as possible, hiding his shock and uneasiness behind a stern expression and a coarse tone.

“we know you, we see all, none sent us, few know of us, you must trust us, we want you to walk the right path.”

Adam only got more confused, but before he could ask any more questions another presence made itself known, one much more terrifying than the child.

Adam had faced many dire situations in his life, even one of which would completely break lesser men. He survived an attack by a group of demons as a child and had to watch them tear his adopted family limb from limb. He had to dredge through an entire enemy camp by himself while hanging on to his own falling innards, and he had to watch as the cold bodies of the people he grew up with were wheeled out of the same operation room he was heading into. In all these instances, Adam felt genuine fear, but nothing could’ve prepared him for the utter terror he was experiencing.

He couldn’t believe it, but the darkness around him came to life, shifting, moving, and even whispering to him in twisted tongues he could not comprehend. It was the most horrifying thing he ever experienced, and he could not even explain why. Every fiber of his being just knew that this was something outside his comprehension, something that man was not supposed to know of, let alone interact with.

“w-w-what the fuck…” Adam’s voice cracked under the immense pressure and fear, his eyes grew wide and his breathing heavy. He did not even bother with defenses, he instinctively knew that whatever powers he had meant nothing in the face of such inhuman malevolence.

But as vile and horrifying as it was, the darkness seemed to have no interest in him beyond whispering incomprehensible words to him, and it quickly became obvious that the child, who unlike Adam remained showed no signs of fear at the sight of the living darkness, was its target.

“our time is brief, he knows, he sees all, do not go now, do not go alone.” The darkness coiled around the child as if it were a snake preparing to feast upon its prey. “he is a deceiver, he will send many after you, he sees all, even that which can’t be seen.” The whispers overpowered the child’s voice once the darkness completely enveloped him, driving Adam to his knees as he was assaulted by the increasingly deafening vile dissonance of wails and laughter.

But just as they appeared, they once again disappeared into thin air, leaving the sweat-drenched Adam confused as he looked around. The child was nowhere to be seen, and the shadows returned to being nothing but a harmless absence of light.

Adam got to his feet, unsure if he was going insane from the stress or if he had fallen victim to a demon’s illusion magic. He wanted to believe that what he just experienced was not real, but he could not ignore it and dredge on as if nothing had happened. There was no running around it, Adam was terrified, and he had no plans to ignore the child’s instructions.

He looked at his trembling hands and clenched them in a fruitless attempt to stop the unflattering display of cowardice but in his mind, he couldn’t help but recall that very last moment when the darkness had fully enveloped the child.

“he said something didn’t he?” it was difficult to hear due to the whispering, but Adam’s ears still caught it. “I’m sorry… why did he apologize?”