Leneas stared at his left arm. It laid beside the corpse of the Demon King, and he had to turn his head to the right to see it. He had won. They had won. Even though they had lost so much. Cassarah and Raine died together at their last stand upon a bridge against their demonic pursuers. Sam took a fatal hit meant for Leneas, and was irreversibly damaged. Jochi ran out of arrows, and was forced to improvise with melee weapons. Unfortunately, he did not survive. Leneas stared upwards at the Demon King's throne, smiling. Perhaps in his dying moments, he started to see things that weren't there. A glow, coming from the throne. Was it a ball of light, he wondered. He stared at it as it approached him, floating soundlessly in the air. In better days, he would have reacted. He would have asked Cassarah for her opinion, and attempt to analyse it on his own. But in the final minutes of his life, he just closed his eyes. They won. Everything ends. ----- The ground suddenly felt softer. Even a little bit bouncy. Leneas raised an eyebrow even before his eyes opened. A wooden ceiling, soft sheets upon a cosy bed, and... was this his room? In his house? Leneas got up and stared. Dying dreams were getting realistic. Everything was there, in its usual spot. A painting of him and his mother, smiling together hung on the wall. He recalled the day he had to run from his hometown of Arcus. When everyone was dead or dying on the floor from the demons that attacked, snatching this painting from the wall was all he could do. "How cowardly. I think this painting's here just to remind me of my failures," Leneas laughed cruelly at himself. When the demons attacked in proper force, slightly less than 2 years ago, the villages on the border fell like dominoes. Arcus was no different, and even the Duchy of Savoyard fell too quickly. Even a hastily formed alliance between Ishgardia and Loris barely held the line. The door opened, and a young woman looked in. "Brother, why are you crying?" she asked. Brother? The girl standing at the door was Kelli Solomon. His half-sister. Pure human. Her brown hair and blue-eyes matched his own, and most people called them pure siblings at first glance. And she died at Arcus, too. If this was a dying dream, perhaps the last thing Leneas could do was hug his sister. With tears in his eyes, he rushed Kelli and hugged her. She felt real. Everything felt real. Good enough. "Brother?! Brother?!" she yelped, struggling against his tight embrace. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" She launched her first to his cheek, shattering his grip and toppling him to the floor. Kelli panted for a few moments, before yelling again. "Give me a freakin' warning next time, you crazy bugger!" Kelli stormed off. Leneas held his cheek in his hand. It stung from the punch. Did dreams hurt? Something else felt off too. He reached to his lower back and touched it. The demonic tail, the one he grew when he was 18 years old, was gone. Did he become human? "No." An opportune glance towards a mirror told him everything he needed to know. "I'm 17 again. Did... I... travel into the past?" ----- Standing at the village gate, Leneas stared hard at everyone passing by. "Leneas, you're kind of on guard today? Did something happen?" asked Lee, the other guardsman beside him. Just as young as Leneas, Lee survived Arcus, and he managed to lead a group of survivors all the way from Arcus to Ishgardia before dying of his wounds. Not bad for a lazybum village guard. Leneas never expected that when he saw the badly injured Lee at the gates of Ishgardia, and even knowing the truth did not help the incredulity of the feat. He recalled an off-handed comment of Cassarah. "I went to Arcus once. 3 years ago. I think I saw your face once, Leneas, but I didn't notice you at the time." Cassarah Vincent discovered the prophecy of the Demon King. That a demon, uniting the demons, would lead an invasion at the head of a massive host against the humans. No one believed her at the time, and she was too late, too. A single month after her prophecy, Arcus fell. He needed Cassarah. He loved Cassarah. But he needed Cassarah, more than he loved her. "Jeez, it's going to be awkward," Leneas mumbled to himself.

Arcus...the village of Arcus...Why did my mother always insist that these kinds of villages are smelly? Cassarah thought idly while she walked down the dirt road through the main street, If anything, cities are worse. Filth everywhere... She stepped over a fresh pile of horse dung reflexively after almost stepping it, momentarily reconsidering her opinion. I suppose there are similarities. Cassarah decided to keep an eye to the ground as well as the buildings around her for further obstacles. She was looking for a wise woman who apparently eyewitness to a large form of demon from a raid decades ago. No one had really gone out of their way to document the demon, so Cassarah had been following its trail for a while. Thankfully, no difficult institutions had caught wind yet. All she would need to do after this was take her material back to Savoyard and add the extra chapter to her secret treatise. It was really a shame that she could not gather more information, let alone see the demons for herself. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the directions Cassarah was provided to find the wise woman were too ambiguous to follow. She wandered around for too long, wasting much of the day. Once she had looped back to the market for the third time, she sighed and resigned herself to asking directions. There was a guard nearby patrolling for pickpockets that would do. She tapped the man on the shoulder and he turned to reveal a thick moustache sticking out from the front of his helmet. "Can I help you, miss?" He said in a friendly enough voice. "I was wondering if you could help me find a residence," Cassarah said with an impatient frown at her lack of progress today. The guard blinked and nodded despite Cassarah's expression. "Of course, who are you trying to find?" Cassarah managed to cover her surprise at these villagers knowing where everyone is. She wasn't used to small towns. "A wise woman by the name of Sheera? I believe she reads fortunes." "Oh, that old goat? She's got her hovel not too far from here, what you have to do is follow the road until..." The guard continued pointing and gesturing while he gave directions. Cassarah took it all in, but caught the eyes of another pair of guards watching on. One of them in particular seemed to be giving her the strangest of looks. After she had received the information she needed, she nodded curtly to the guard and started on her way. She pulled up her cowl while she walked past the guards. She hoped they had not caught wind of her business here.

Leneas spotted Cassarah from a metaphorical mile away. She conversed with a patrolling guard, and apparently he seemed to be giving her directions. Even without the words, he was pointing towards the seedy shack that his mother called a shop. Sheera Solomon was a shady fortune teller, and his mother. She apparently adventured in the demon lands a long time ago, and spent a few years in a demonic village with her first son. Himself. Fortunately, his demonic traits did not appear until he became 18. Unfortunately, it meant that no one would listen to him and Cassarah until it was too late. "Lee, I'll be back in a moment," Leneas lied. Well, he probably did. A conversation with Cassarah might take some time. Walking briskly to Cassarah, he popped himself in front of her. "Cass!" he cried out, before instantly regretting that outburst. There was no way he would know her name right now. He didn't even see her face in the previous timeline this day. He just started grinning, if only out of nervousness. "Do you... uh... uh... crap... uh..."

Cassarah even went as far as to pull on the side of her cowl that was facing the two guards. If she was lucky, she wouldn't be stopped. Her heart sunk and her pace quickened as she heard the footsteps of one of them approaching. She didn't need to deal with this right now, she just had to be on her way to see that damned wise woman. Then he said something that stopped Cassarah in her tracks. Her staff hovered over the ground right before it was going to land again. This was too strange to ignore now. She slowly turned her head, one eye spied the guard with brow that spoke of equal curiosity and anger. She turned the rest of her body until she saw the man with both her eyes and looked at him with her head angled to one side. She hardly heeded him tripping over his own words as she gave her own response, slowly and with menace. "What did you just call me?" The tip of her staff began to glow faintly as she prepared to flash the guard's eyes to disorient him if he made any sudden moves. The only one who ever called her 'Cass' was her riding instructor. He died two years ago. The guard appeared to be having trouble even speaking at this point, so Cass threw another question at him. "Who the hell are you?"

Leneas learned an important lesson today. When travelling into the past, he had to differentiate between the types of knowledge he knew from his future exploits and tragedies. This was something he was not supposed to know, and he definitely screwed up by blurting it out loud. Cassarah was on the defensive. Her staff glowed with her signature non-lethal flash spell. "I... I..." Leneas began stumbling over his words, even more so. Cassarah was a fearsome foe, and even as a half-demon, he had trouble matching her in magic. And that was when he was at his peak of his abilities, before the suicide mission. Oh right, his mother! His mother was a fortune teller. Well, she was a hack pretending to be a fortune teller, but he could use her. He sighed audibly and wiped a hint of sweat off his brow, as if he felt a lot safer. "My mother, the fortune teller. Sheera Solomon! She predicted a woman called Cass would see her today! Don't hurt me, please?" said Leneas, before ending his speech in a meek squeak of a sentence. He kept grinning even more nervously, and the sides of his cheeks began to hurt even more.

"She predic-?" Cassarah let out the rest of her breath and looked away, shaking her head. She had been in contact with the woman via courier message. Mrs Solomon's reputation for being relaxed about the truth was beginning to become apparent. Cassarah sincerely hoped that it was not a bad idea to seek her out. At least the woman didn't tell her strange guard son why Cassarah was there, else she would be running from them or in manacles by now. Still, this guard's behaviour was thoroughly confusing. Was her spell so obvious that he thought she meant her harm? Cassarah decided to lower her staff to the ground calmly, but kept energy in the flash if she needed it. "I'm not going to hurt you, now leave me alone," Cassarah said simply, letting go of her anger. Cassarah turned to leave and her cowl-hidden expression spoke of nervousness while it was facing away from the guard. Please don't follow me, please don't follow me, please...

Leneas had to follow her, somehow. If she was meeting his mother, perhaps he could get some into a more private conversation with Cassarah later. He wrinkled his face as he tried to think of some rationale that wouldn't scare the scholar off. "I'll bring you there, Cass." He popped beside her and grinned. "Don't worry, if you want a private chat with my mother, you've got it." He gestured to the direction of his mother's shop enthusiastically. 3 years of time certainly made him feel younger and more enthusiastic, and it was, at least, a world without a demon invasion yet. He waited in nervous, grinning silence for her response. Hopefully, that response would lack a flash spell.

And he's following... The guard's footsteps elicited a small sigh from Cassarah. She figured that this guy was probably just trying to help, and it was likely that her horrid sense of direction would get her lost again. She bowed her head forward and swallowed back a less civil response. "Okay, fine," Cassarah stopped and dissipated her spell without casting it, then looked at the guard without much patience, "Just so you know, my name is actually Cassarah." Cassarah held the guard's look for a few more seconds, glancing down the road and wondering why he still had that stupid grin. "Well, go on then. Take me to you mother."

He already knew her name. But he thought that maintaining 'Cass' would make a bit more sense. The new timeline gave him a reason to call her Cassarah now. Calling her Cass felt a little too intimate. He recalled the moments of pleasure, the moment when two were one underneath a starry night. She called out his name, and he called out hers. The name Cass reminded him too much of those times. Even when the images were long gone from his mind, he could imagine Cassarah's entire body, sans clothes, perfectly. And something else also rose when he thought of those times. Fortunately, the armour covered it. Leneas took the lead immediately, mainly so that Cassarah couldn't see and comment on his beet-red covered face. Fortunately, the hovel his mother called a shop was barely a few seconds away. "This way, Miss Cassarah." He paused for way too long when his mother's shop was in sight. Leneas began to think. He had a single year, before his demonic traits would manifest. He would only be humanity's last hope when they had lost everything else. He needed 3 things. Power. He needed to become stronger. In combat and in magic. Leneas needed to be the best, or at least, in the top 10, of both. Training was going to be important. He could still remember the techniques passed on by the masters who considered him worthy, but his youthful, still-human body was likely unable to fully leverage on these. Friends. The friendship and trust of Archbishop Claudius, Jochi and Dame Raine were enough to persuade the remnants of humanity to back Leneas against the demon invasion. Still, their support came too late for any meaningful victory. He needed them by his side, and early, and potentially the support of anyone else who died before they could come to support him. Money. There were things the first two could not buy. With money, he could buy equipment. Weapons. And most importantly, prestige and support. If the people sang his name with praises in a year, he could unite their support and present a united front against the demon invasion. Leneas must have spent at least 10 minutes in silent thought before realising that Cassarah had disappeared into the shop. "W-wait for me!" he yelled, rushing into the hovel. ---- Sheera Solomon was in her early forties, but a few magical tricks kept her young. She enjoyed her semi-youthful looks, but for appearances' sake in a shady fortune teller's shop, she wore a face-concealing shroud and held her illusionary-wrinkled hands above a crystal ball. "Tell me... what you seek?" the ragged voice of an old crone asked, never looking up to face her customers. Even if it was Cassarah.

Paying no more heed to the guard apart from a curt, "Thanks," Cassarah entered the fortune teller's residence and took a quick glance around. It seemed like a cosy place, but it just seemed so...stereotypically mystical. There were a few implements of magic, but many interesting shapes seemed to be mundane artwork. Nevertheless, Cassarah approached Sheera, getting down to business. "Greetings Mistress Solomon," She said in a less entranced tone than most of Sheera's customers were likely to sound, "I am Cassara Vincent, we talked over letters about my research? Would now be a good time to talk to you?" To her annoyance, the young guard bumbled in partway though Cassarah's greeting. She turned her head and shot narrow eyes at him. "Thank you for your help, guard. I need a moment with your mother," she said as if talking down to him. This strange young man was testing her patience.

"Oh, you're here!" Sheera's voice perked up as she looked up, and flipped down her hood. "Leneas, Cassarah!" His mother had retained her youthful, though she was in her early forties. The benefits of being a skilled magic user, he guessed. With a grin, she pointed at Leneas. Leneas cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. What did she have in mind, anyway? He didn't know what Cassarah came here for, only that she did. "What you need to know..." Sheera paused, as if for dramatic effect. "My son knows as well! Leneas, tell her everything about Astech!" Leneas gulped. Astech the Great was a great demon general. He was also his uncle, a brother to his father, Lucius. In the original timeline, Astech was one of the great demon commanders that spear-headed the initial invasion. It was only by the efforts of a brave knight of Savoyard that Astech was slain in battle. Sheera stood up, and shooed the two to a side room. Leneas's face turned beet red. The last time the two were in the same room, together... Leneas fanned his face as much as he could, taking a seat at the small table. He smiled the best he could at Cassarah. "So... what do you want to know?"

There seemed to be little that Cassarah could do as she was directed into a smaller one of the few rooms in Sheera's home. "Wait, hold on! I thought we were going to talk! Missus Solomon!?" She paid no heed. The door shut behind the two and Cassarah's brow curled worriedly. She placed a hand to her forehead and wondered how this day could diverge any further from what she had planned. "Okay," Cassarah sighed, putting her staff on the counter next to her, finding a seat opposite Leneas, and retrieving some parchment, ink, and a pen from her shoulder bag. Leneas, what a rural name, she thought. When she finally brought herself to look up at him, he was blushing like a forge. People didn't really blush around Cassarah unless she insulted them enough to make them furious. Unless this Leneas character had so much pride that he would explode from Cassarah's regular behaviour, that meant that perhaps he...Cassarah couldn't bring herself to think that far into it. The guy was probably just not used to being around girls. Leneas' question reignited Cassarah's suspicions that the guards were after her, so she was cautious. "Well, Leneas, what can you tell me about this Astech?" Cassarah asked in a tone that sounded less like she wanted to be rid of him and more serious and professional. Leneas' answer would decide whether he actually knew about demons or was involved in a sting to make her admit her business in town.

Leneas smiled a little bit when he thought about Astech. Not about the future, at least, of the original timeline. More about the past. Astech was a demon that towered over just about everyone, and a man who babied Leneas at every turn. He also taught Leneas how to use a sword and cast spells. "Well..." Leneas's voice trailed off. He wondered if he could mention all that to Cassarah. He didn't even mention that to anyone in his party in the original timeline. "Well..." his voice and thoughts went into the distance, again. Leneas could mention Astech's size, perhaps? His three eyes? His red skin, and ridiculously well-toned body? The horns? The tail? "Well... Where do we start... uh..." Leneas started grinning like an idiot again. A few hours in a nicer, less demon-invaded world, and he started to feel like a complete naive fool again. Wasn't there Cassarah's prophecy? The one that failed to convince anyone until it was too late. "Do you know anything about a demon invasion, Cass? I mean, Cassarah?" he asked. Leneas stopped grinning, though he was still pretty damn sure the awkward expression he had on his face was still too obvious.

At first, Leneas sounded slow. Frustratingly slow. By the third 'well', Cassarah was about to start being more specific and ask about description, personality, powers, authority and such. Then he went and threw a question right back at her, an odd one at that. Cassarah habitually glanced over to her staff to double check that it was in reach. The only talk of a demon invasion was in some old text that claimed there would be some kind of demon king in ten thousand years from when it was written. Or was it five hundred? Cassarah was never good with the strange numeral system that the demons used. Either way it was nonsensical. Wait, Cassarah stopped herself from beating a hasty retreat, A guard would be far more smug if he wanted a confession out of me. Cassarah angled her head an eighth turn to one side in curiosity. "Demons don't war, they raid," Cassarah admitted, "They don't unite to war. To do that would require a...a..." Cassarah waved a hand in the air, trying to find the word, "A leader. A king. I don't think you would have to worry, Leneas. That kind of thing only happens in stories." Cassarah leaned forward on the table, "Now, I thought we were talking about Astech. Is that a specific demon? A variety you saw? Tell me." Perhaps Cassarah had said too much, but she would be able to get out of there if it turned out to be a guard out for cheap glory. She often didn't check herself when talking about the subject of her research.

He cursed under his breath, and his face pretty much made his feelings obvious. Cassarah didn't know. Not at this time. His mind raced through the possibilities of her knowing the prophecy. There had to be something he could do now. A year was too long to wait. Leneas looked at the impatient Cassarah, taken by sudden surprise by his question. This was going to be tricky. He wondered if he could try to guide her thoughts in the right direction. After all, she did mention that she knew something. "I'll make you a deal, Cassarah," Leneas leaned back now, a little more confident. He had a plan. "Show me a particular book in your collection, and I'll tell you everything about Astech." His smug smile became a little more genial as he waited for her response. "I'm related to this just as deep as you are."

Related to this as deep as I am, what is that supposed to mean? Cassarah narrowed her eyes in confusion and suspicion. Technically, if the guard wanted to lynch her for researching demons, he had enough evidence as it was. Either he was trying to secure physical evidence or he knew more than he was letting on about demons. Perhaps he had read about them as well? Maybe this guard outfit was just a cover for someone in hiding studying in Cassarah's field. An idea crossed over Cassarah's mind that might test this guard's legitimacy. Her suspicious expression unfaltering, Cassarah spoke firmly, "I accept on one condition: Name the book you want right now." Most of Cassarah's resources were back in Savoyard, safely hidden away, but she had three books one her person in her bag. One was a demonologist's reference book with some profiles of common demons and demonic symbols, another was her travel and research journal, the last happened to contain the prophesy that would herald the end of human civilisation, if only Cassarah knew. The book with the prophesy was titled The River of Steel by a long dead scholar named Finnian the wanderer. There were other details in the book that Cassarah was trying to work out while she travelled, but she had skipped over the prophesy as being exaggerated nonsense.

The book was simple. Cassarah spoke so many times of it in the original timeline, Leneas could hardly forget it even if he tried to. "The River of Steel by Finnian the Wanderer. As a bonus, I'll even help you with the demon numerical system." Leneas did not want to mention it, but he found the human system harder to get used to that the demons'. Leneas got to explaining Astech. Leaving out personal details, he described the giant, red-skinned demon as he knew him. A lot of it was guesswork, and could hardly be applied to the broader spectrum of demons Astech was related to, but hopefully, Cassarah would be satisfied by it. 2 hours later, he finished his explanation. With an inward sigh to draw some breath into his parched mouth, he felt the dry sting of air upon his even drier mouth. "Crap, I'm thirsty as hell. Do you want to get a drink, Cassarah?"

Genuine surprise spread across Cassarah's face. So this man did know of the book she carried, and judging by his comment on the numbers, he knew of its contents as well. Did he have a copy himself once? Before Cassarah could even move to get the book out from her bag, Leneas began with Astech. Cassarah was sick enough of Leneas' belligerence that she let him talk, interrupting only to calmly ask questions to elaborate. Astech turned out to be a particular variety of demon that Cassarah already knew of, but this specimen described was larger than usual. Probably a leader of a raiding clan or something. That was the only way Cassarah could fathom Leneas knowing the demon in such detail. Cassarah had to put Leneas' question on hold while she scratched down the last of her notes on the interview. After a few seconds, she put down her quill and looked up silently. "Um," she swallowed, "I'll just have water." By this point, Cassarah was a little less adverse to the guard's presence, so she decided to honour their agreement. She pulled a thick rectangular leather pouch from her shoulder bag and placed it on the table. Unlacing the leather and pulling it away revealed an old, faded book. It wasn't especially huge, but it was rare and precious as the vast knowledge it held. The cruel, jagged runes on the cover read its title in a common demonic dialect: The River of Steel. "What chapter did you want to see?" Cassarah asked quietly, keeping her eyes on the book cover.