3 months later.

X stood in a familiar stance, hatchet near his back, knees bent.

'Fire escape'

Then he disappeared, turning into a stream of blazing flames that flew in the air with extreme speed, rushing towards the muscular man with red hair. The flame solidified into X once again, then he swung a hatchet fast, towards the man's back. The knight, Ken placed his sword on his shoulder, blade sloping towards X. The hatchet collided with the sword, sparks flying in the air. Ken then used his sword as a lever, his shoulder the fulcrum. Pulling down on the hilt, he sent X's hatchet flying, clattering on the ground.

Just then, a sword swung quickly, toward Ken, who sidestepped the attack with ease, before grabbing the sword with his bare hand, covered in flames. The heat of the fire knight's attack caused small blisters in Brik's fist, and he dropped the sword with a yelp. Ken extinguished his hand and aimed a punch the weaponless Brik in the gut.

Another stream of flames came flashing, and this time, only the hatchet shot out of the moving jet of fire, aimed for Ken's neck. Blocking the attack by pulling back the hand that was about to punch Brik, he grabbed X's collar just as he transformed back into a kid. Caught unexpectedly, X was defenseless, and as he hung on his collar, he heard a scream of anger. Ken let him go and turned just in time to get punched in the face by Brik.

'Ow. That hurt, kid.'

'Sorry, I just got angry after none of my attacks hurt you.'

'Your punch hurt a lot. I think it would be better if you just stuck to it. I have been telling this to you for the past two months, but of course, you do not listen, do you?'

'Fine. No swords'

Uncle Ken left, returning to the wooden mansion where all three of them lived. Since Uncle Ken had decided to stay here and train Brik, X thought he would have to find another place to live, but there were quite a lot of other guest rooms in Brik's mansion. As they walked in, X and Brik joked about how the both of them were utterly useless against Uncle Ken.

'At least you can turn into fire. And every other knight I know also has some ability. But I only have terrible swordsmanship and a short temper.'

'Your punches are pretty strong. Just give up on the sword, and get punching. I know that you used the sword to be like Uncle Ken but just don't. As for lack of powers, you are really strong. I told you, my grandfather was a Stage 3 knight, but he had no powers. Just raw strength.'

'Yeah, but still. You look really cool, you know. '

Brik started to imitate X's voice, and despite his best efforts, it did not work. It sounded less like X and more like a doll speaking.

'I can turn into fire. Fire Escape.'

He made motions with his hands to indicate how X looked while he used Fire escape, and Brik was so hilarious, that X almost died from laughter. They went into the mansion, and X went to his room to change his burnt, smoky tunic. Brik went to his own room.

While changing, X thought about how he had become so close with Brik over the past 3 months. He was never a person who liked to be around people and Brik was just the opposite, friendly and extroverted. When his grandmother told X that Brik had no friends, he was truly shocked. He thought he understood it then, but only now did it actually strike him. Brik had a nasty temper, and most of the rich city kids could not handle it. But even so, X had never been so comfortable with someone, except maybe his grandfather. And since today was the first day of the week, they would be going on an excursion with Uncle Ken to an area where Stage 1 demons were known to roam, and hopefully, they would find a few demons to fight.

Two weeks ago, they had found two Stage 1 demons and had shown them the result of all the practice they had done. Uncle Ken stood behind, watching X and Brik fight against the other two. In the end, X killed a demon, while Uncle Ken had to step in and save Brik from getting ripped apart.

X walked out of his room and went to the dining room. Calling it a room was a mistake, it was more than five times longer than X's hut in the village, and twice as wide. Brightly lit by torches, a long wooden table was set in the middle, with carvings of bones all over the sides. Brik had once told him that these bones were here because their surname, Ossibus, meant bone.

Brik was sitting, and so were his grandmother and Uncle Ken. X sat down, right next to Brik, and they joked for a while, while eating lunch. As usual, X kept asking him doubts about what life was like in the city, and Brik answered as honestly as he could.

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'How did your grandmother manage to live here? I came here with more money than I had ever seen in my life, and it was not enough for four months.'

'Well, our family had a lot of heirlooms, and she sold all of them except for a few. They are all these spooky artifacts, all edgy and nightmarish. Sharpened bones and skulls and all that.'

They continued speaking while they ate, X maintaining a volume similar to that of a whisper. After lunch, X and Brik went out to the park with the training dummy, where they first met, since X was still fascinated by the city, its shops, and its training facilities. Uncle Ken settled down for a nap and Brik's Grandmother was making food for the excursion.

Brik got bored of swinging a sword, so he went shopping with X, and they spent hours finding clothes that fit him well. There was a bunny costume, a swimsuit, and a suit with long flowing cloaks that made X look richer than he thought he could ever be.

When X and Brik returned, Brik made some joke that caused them to laugh like they had gone mad, waking up the sleeping knight. After a sound scolding, the two of them changed into more comfortable clothes, simple tunics and trousers equipped themselves with all their weapons, and grabbed the pack of food, they set out on the tour.

They went out of the massive gates, and Ken asked the guards about the latest demon sightings, hoping to get an idea about whether there were any demons they could potentially fight. Unfortunately, there were none, but they still went ahead with the excursion. After all, there was still a month till the exam, and fieldwork would help with it.

They walked through the fields, which looked much less awe-inspiring after harvest. In a month, the farmers in the nearby small nameless villages would sow the seeds for next year's harvest, and till then the ground would not have any ripe, golden-brown wheat stalks rising from it. Even the young green shoots were not there.

As they walked, they kept a careful eye on the surroundings, wishing to spot a demon. However, there were none. They kept going, and after a while, reached their destination. A small depression was there in the ground, similar to a crater in the story Frederick had told X, about 20 meters deep. Within it was an abandoned village, part of the old demon-nest led by the Stage 4 demon. Even now, a few of the weakest demons, who had survived the battle by hiding, roamed this village, and the damage done to it was irreparable.

While some of the small houses in the area still stood, most of them had been destroyed, and the ones that remained were charred by the flames of war. Even the ground itself had turned barren, black ground scarred by war, and there were cracks across the village so large in both size and number, that it would be impossible to rebuild the area. And most importantly, there were no survivors. There were traps in there, walls that could be raised with levers and a net that trapped people if they stepped on a pressure plate, meant to contain the occasional demon,

Since demons frequent the area, the Tower left these places as it was, to capture the demons for research. Some rumors were going around that the weakest demons captured here would be used to test the applicants to the Royal Academy, which would mean that they had to slay demons during the exam. So they would have to practice heavily for it. X and Brik waited for demons to appear, weapons in hand, as they scouted the village from above the depression.

-----

In a small forest, close to the destroyed village where X, Brik, and Uncle Ken were, a large tree was dented to form a platform to sit on, similar to a throne. There was barely any light that came through the canopy of leaves, unnaturally less amounts of it. On the makeshift throne, a man sat. He was extremely muscular, only a part of his face was visible in the darkness. He was resting his face on resting upon his palm. He had a sharp jawline, and serrated teeth, all canines. He spoke with a low, deep voice that reverberated throughout the forest.t

'I think I have seen that kid somewhere. The blonde kid, I mean. I sense Fro... I sense her power from him. What do you think?'

From above the man, the sound of footsteps was heard. But they were not normal footsteps, more like someone was stabbing silk with a dagger, but the string did not tear. Cobwebs fell down, and as they did, more light entered through the canopy, though the small amount barely made any difference. The voice of a woman was heard, soft and soothing, but also commanding. She sounded middle-aged, with a sharp edge to her voice, like even the sound of it could cut through steel.

'Kill off every threat to Master immediately. Even though we left him behind, that was and still is our goal. But of course, it is all up to you, leader'

'Should I go? No one will know.'

The man sounded extremely angry, but the woman was unfaced. The man shifted out of his comfortable position, and his muscular shadow got even more muscular. The woman spoke calmly,

'Master will. If he finds out, we will not be able to stay hidden from him. So, send those weak little cuties. 3 of them should be enough, then let's move back to the Great Continent. It would just be a random attack, like the nest. We wouldn't be connected.'

'But they are weak. Very weak. That adult human looks stronger than they are.'

'It's fine. Should be enough, leader. Send them, then let's go. Doesn't matter if they don't die, as long as they are out of the way, it's fine.'

The man nodded, then returned to his previous position, head in his right palm. He flicked his index finger, and all of a sudden, he disappeared.

-----

X was watching the area with great attention, while Brik joked about something he did not hear. Suddenly, he felt something moving in the distance. Rushing towards them. He was about to alert them, when Uncle Ken suddenly jumped out of the crater, moving with his full speed, flames billowing from his arms.

'Run away! Quick!'

'Why, uncle?'

Brik did not seem to feel something coming towards them. He asked his father figure about this casually, not really sensing the terror on the knight's face. X jumped back as the knight landed next to him, and jumped back once more upon hearing what he said.

'Stage 2 demons. Three of them.'