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Chapter Text

Becoming a vessel for Maotelus; Sorey imagined it would be like sleeping for hundreds or even thousands of years. But he did not expect to see snow. He needed to blink and rub his eyes a couple of times to make sure this wasn’t a dream. The cold Sorey felt on his skin assured him he was not, in fact, dreaming.

Sorey began rubbing his arms to warm himself up as he searched for shelter. While walking he theorized what could have happened to him. His first thought was that Maotelus made this imaginary world for him, affecting his brain and making him believe that this is reality. Another theory was that he woke up from his slumber after the world was purified. The only way to find out was to ask someone about it.

After minutes of walking in the cold, there were no signs of the forest ending. Sorey felt like it was going to be an endless walk.

“Maotelus? Are you there?” silence. “Thought so.”

Sighing, Sorey continued his trek. He wished Lailah was with him, she could warm him up with her flames thus making the walk faster. Sorey decided to try and find positive things about his current situation: if he really is awake, then his plan to purify the world by sacrificing himself was a success. If this is a dream, at least it’s a pleasant one so far and he’s grateful for it.

Suddenly, Sorey stopped in his tracks and whipped around to do a double take. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye and he was right. A child was sitting under a tree leaning against its trunk, face hidden in his knees. Sorey hesitated for a moment but finally spoke:

“Hey, uh, are you alright?” he approached the child and squatted down beside him.

“I’m fine,” he replied without looking up.

“You don’t seem fine,” Sorey smiled gently and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s none of your business,” the child’s voice got harsher. He jerked his shoulder to get Sorey’s hand off of him but once he looked up and actually saw Sorey he couldn’t help but let out a giggle, “What are you wearing?”

“Oh, this?” Sorey stood up to show off his outfit, smiling proudly, “where I come from, people call me the ‘Shepherd’”

“You’re weird,” the kid laughed.

“I guess the word hasn’t spread yet, h-”

A twig snapped.

Suddenly Sorey tensed up. He slowly surveyed his surroundings to find the source of the sound. Eventually his eyes landed on a shape emerging from the trees. He grabbed the kid by his shoulder and pushed him aside, leaving him on the ground, covered in snow. A wolf hellion, there was no doubt about it. It was strange though; the hellion didn’t seem to emit much malevolence. The beast’s aura was different from what he had gotten used to.

The sword, once Sorey grabbed it, lit up in blue flames. The power was either Lailah’s or Maotelus’, but Sorey was just glad he could use it. As he swung his sword down, he relived the wolf’s reason of becoming a hellion. Humans had tried to hunt the wolf down, just like with every other animal he'd met. Injured, it escaped and later hellionized. Thankfully, the wolf had only been a hellion for a few days and was saved just in time.

“There,” Sorey pet the wolf’s head, “you’re safe now.”

The wolf turned back and ran deep into the forest while Sorey let out a sigh he had been holding in through the fight. The process of purification still took quite a bit out of him. He was certain that after becoming Maotelus’ vessel purification would be a piece of cake but then again it could be the same as it was with Lailah for the first couple of times. Sorey turned back to the kid, who was staring up at him in awe.

“And this is what the Shepherd does.”

“W-woah, the daemon... it turned back!” the boy was at a loss of words.

“Demon?”

The child stood up wiping the snow off, slowly. As happy as he was that Sorey had saved him, he couldn’t help but feel cautious.

“Hey, mister, are you an exorcist by any chance?”

“An exorcist?” Sorey looked at him, dumbfounded. Technically, it was what he did. But then again, exorcists dealt with malicious spirits and the like, not literal manifestations of uncontrollable emotions. Or at least that was what Sorey thought.

”Well, if you call that wolf a demon then I guess that makes me an exorcist,“ Sorey offered the boy his hand, “What’s your name? I can walk you home.”

The boy hesitated but accepted Sorey’s offer.

While walking, Sorey tried to get as much information out of the kid as possible without coming off as too weird. He learned the boy’s name was Joseph, he had had a fight with his parents and then ran away from home to prove he was mature enough. Sorey tried to console him, saying that being a kid is great. That you could spend your days carefree, not having to worry about politics or money. That seemed to open up a new perspective for Joseph, but he still tried to act all cool and tough.

He lived in Hellawes. There was an Exorcist named Teresa governing the city. Sorey figured talking with an adult who dealt with hellions was the best course of action. Another thing he learnt was that there was no such thing as bringing someone back from being a daemon, so what Sorey did could be considered a miracle. However, as interesting as all of this turned out to be getting Joseph home safely was his number one priority.

Once they approached the city gates, Sorey started becoming hesitant. He realised that talking to a kid is easy because, with luck, they’ll take you seriously despite what you say, but an adult is a whole different story. He risked sounding like a complete nutjob.

But in the end, Sorey decided to take his chances with the city folk. He felt this was the only way to get answers.

Chapter Text

Joseph’s parents, Marta and Stewart, were relieved to see their son safe and sound. Sorey was offered food and water, even a place to stay the night. Although he did not want to take advantage of their kindness, it was nice to see hospitality to strangers.

Sorey had only a few dozen Gald on him and had to be smart about his spendings and so a warm meal and a good-hearted gesture moved him to tears. He kept thanking Marta and Stewart for their generosity over and over. Marta told him that it wasn’t a big deal, they didn’t get visitors from other villages often and it was the first time they’d heard of Elysia, so naturally they wanted to know more. Joseph was especially inquisitive, all bright eyes and increasingly ridiculous questions.

Sorey decided that there would be no harm in entertaining the questions and opted to indulge in the stories of his mystical village, his journey and adventures with Mikleo, and the harsh, but purposeful scoldings of their gramps. The way he told the stories made them believable if you remove the magic filter but to his surprise he found out Seraphim were visible to the inhabitants of this world. He also learned that here they were known as Malakhim.

Three years ago, after something called the “Scarlet Night” Malakhim became visible to humans. The exorcists started using them to defeat daemons. The word “using” struck Sorey as odd but he felt that it kind of connected with why they could not purify the demonds. He really wanted to start an argument why you shouldn’t “use” Seraphim, or in this case Malakhim, but he was not about to go all preachy on a child.

In any case, Sorey had to talk to Teresa in the morning to find out more. Stewart had offered for him to stay the night which he accepted with little resistance. Laying in bed Sorey kept going over all the things on his mind. This was unlike any other dream he’d had before, it felt too real. Even when he really put his mind to it, he couldn’t change the dreamscape. He found it weird to be going to sleep in a dream but in the end decided to not question it too much. It’s not like he could come to any kind of conclusion overnight.

He redirected his thoughts to more plausible things. Maybe he could somehow teach the Seraphim to purify demons. He had to shake his head and cut that train of thought short so as not get ahead of himself. There was still a lot he didn’t know about the current state of the world. Maybe it wasn’t as bad he as he thought.

When Sorey woke up he was only a little surprised to find himself in bed, in the guest bedroom Stewart and Marta had so graciously offered him last night. He got dressed and started carrying out his plan of meeting Teresa. Before leaving for the town center, he thanked the family again. As he was heading for the door, Marta gently grasped his arm.

“Honey, there’s a storm coming. Do you need a coat?”

“T-thank you, that’s really thoughtful,” by now Sorey knew that refusing wasn’t an option.

Sorey was surprised by how lively Hellawes turned out to be. He assumed it was the weekend because of how many people were milling about in the streets. Sorey kept taking quick glances at the buildings he was passing by. The local architecture didn’t look too different from the one he was used to seeing, which raised some of questions that he pushed to the back of his mind for now.  A couple of elderly ladies gave him concerned looks when he almost slipped and fell a few times.

When Sorey came to what looked like a central square, he looked around for someone that didn’t look like they would be too bothered by him approaching them. He spotted an older looking woman sitting on a bench.

“Excuse me,” Sorey sat near her, “I hope I’m not interrupting something. Could you tell me where I could find Lady Teresa?”

“Not at all, dearie,” she smiled softly, “I believe she’s at the shrine right now, praying.”

“Oh, then I guess I’ll wait outside. Wouldn’t want to disturb her at a moment of peace,” Sorey gently laughed, “Also, where’s the shrine?  I’m not a local here.”

“Just go straight down that path,” she pointed, “And the shrine will be on your left.”

“Thank you very much!” Sorey cheerfully exclaimed as he lifted himself off the bench.

“You’re welcome, dearie. But may I ask, why are you looking for her?” the woman looked worried.

“I wanted to talk about the daemons. And to help her with them,” he sighed, “It must be hard being the only exorcist here.”

“What a brave young man. Oh, there she is,” the woman motioned towards an elegant lady followed by a weird looking girl. Sorey thanked her again and briskly approached the lady and her companion.

“Hey, wait!” Sorey stopped them, “I need to talk to you, Lady Teresa.”

“I’m sorry but we’re busy right now,” she spoke firmly yet softly, “For now I’d recommend you find a safe place.”

“Yeah, you better hide,” the witch looking girl had a smug grin on her face, “She will devour anyone in her way!” Sorey had to take a step back from the girl’s yell as a confused look crossed his face.

“Please don’t yell, commotion in the city would not be wise now,” Teresa’s tone got stricker.

“If it’s a daemon I can help!” Sorey interrupted her scolding, “I can purify them!” Truthfully, Sorey had no idea what was happening or who they had to face but he was sure that his power could prove useful.

“Alright,” Teresa sighed, “Help me evacuate the city.”

Chapter Text

The evacuation turned out to be due to the fact that a couple of daemons had escaped from a prison island and snuck into town masquerading as humans. As an exorcist, Teresa was duty bound to stop them an ensure that no harm came to the residents of the town.  And so, people lined up at the town’s exit, taking advantage of shelters they had prepared sometime beforehand or going to visit friends and family in nearby villages. Strangely enough, there was no commotion or screaming even though a fight had broken out in the middle of the city. Sorey felt sorry for the people, yet this was clearly something that the townsfolk of Hellawes were used to. 

For someone who had warned him about who exactly the daemons were, Magilou sure did not seem to care about helping with the evacuation. She simply trailed after Sorey, occasionally making comments about how strange he acted and how unusual he looked. Mostly she just looked to be enjoying herself. Sorey was fully aware that this was definitely no time for confrontation and so he simply laughed her comments off. 

When it looked like the town was emptied out of its inhabitants, Teresa demanded that Sorey and the witch girl – Magilou, stay back and let her handle the rest of the situation. Magilou had no problem with that and Sorey was forced to follow suit and watch the fight unfold from the sidelines. 

Teresa, now surrounded by two little kids, no more than 12 years old, was standing in wait on the front steps of Hellawes’ church. Sorey assumed the children were Malakhim as they had apparated seemingly out of nowhere, much like Seraphim did for him. Then he noticed two people, a woman and man, approaching them. Sorey quickly put two and two together and recognized these people as the infamous Velvet Crowe and Rokurou Rangetsu, the daemons Magilou had mentioned earlier. It was hard not to recognize them really, Sorey thought to himself while regarding the woman’s bandaged arm and the huge sword the man carried. 

While the situation was quite clear, what threw him off was the energy emanating from the group as a whole. It was odd, a strange mix of barely-there malevolence that reminded him of Heldalf and something else, much more prominent and familiar. An inkling of recognition was starting to form, the name on the tip of his tongue, when Sorey's thoughts were abruptly cut off. 

“Bloodshed! More bloodshed!” Magilou laughed. Sorey didn’t know if she was joking or not or who she was cheering for and, if he was being honest with himself, wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. 

Disregarding Teresa’s previous warning to stay back, Sorey drew his sword and prepared to join the fight. He had a gut feeling about the strange man and woman, there was clearly something more to them than just being daemons. He wasn’t sure what had caused this feeling but, nevertheless, it had planted itself firmly in his chest. Besides, there was definitely something unsettlingly unnatural about the way Teresa’s Malakhim acted. They seemed empty, emotionless, almost like puppets being controlled by some invisible strings. 

Suddenly Velvet shouted something about an explosion. In the following moments, she had knocked Teresa clean off her feet and proceeded to run towards the port with the man in tow.  

“Hey! Aren’t you forgetting someone!?” Magilou yelled as she grabbed Sorey by the forearm and started dragging him behind her in an attempt to catch up with the duo. 

Sorey looked back over his shoulder to see Teresa stand up, much to his relief, and resolved to run with the rest of the group.  

Nobody seemed to mind Sorey just joining them. He suspected that the foundation of the party was shaky, Magilou being a prime example. 

 
Soon it became clear that they were headed for a ship docked square in the middle of the harbor. It seemed like no one was chasing them at the moment and they would be able to safely board it safely. Once they have set sail everything would surely calm down and Sorey would get some answers. 

The next moment a man – no, a lizard? – standing at the bow of the ship had yelled at them to hurry up but was immediately knocked over by a fireball. Teresa and her Malakhim had finally caught up to them. 

Once the four of them had stopped running and turned around to face their pursuers, Magilou regarded Sorey’s ceremonial blade with a funny look. 

“Don’t swords like yours belong in a museum?” 

“I’m fine,” Sorey assured her. 

“I won’t let you escape! Never!” Teresa’s glare was somehow scorching hot and ice cold at the same time. It had sent a shiver crawling down Sorey's spine. 

As another fight erupted Sorey quickly came to realize Velvet and Rokurou were holding back in the last face-off. They were ruthless, a deadly flurry of blades tearing through cloth and flesh alike. Sorey hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he should join a battle that was clearly not his even though he wanted to put an end to it. He took a glance at Magilou who was standing to the side and looked to be enjoying the spectacle in front of her eyes and resolved to do the one thing he could: defend the innocent people that had wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

“You, deceitful snake!” Teresa spat while hurling her staff in Velvet’s direction. 

“I’m a daemon. Spare me your sermons,” was the cold answer that followed. 

“Then you pay with your life!” 

The battle dragged on, metal clashing against metal and spells being deflected by swords. It seemed endless, Teresa’s and her Malakhim’s wounds healing seconds after they had taken any damage, a luxury that Velvet and Rokurou did not have. Finally, with a well-timed hit Velvet had managed to send Teresa flying to the ground and the battle seemed to be drawing to a close. 

Despite the impact of the last attack Teresa had managed to get up on her knees, leaning on her staff for support. “As Exorcist Praetor Teresa, I give you this order,” she exclaimed, her voice weakened, yet still full of determination “Do it, Number Two!” 

One of the Malakhim boys ran closer to the group, energy crackling in his palms, so dense that it had formed into a ball. 

“The kid’s gonna blow himself up!” Magilou cried out, recognition dawning in her eyes. 

Hearing that Velvet reacted by giving the boy a well-placed kick that made him lose his balance and stop his summoning. She gave him another kick to push him aside and, without a pause, leaped at Teresa ready to strike her down. There was a harsh clang as her gauntlet blade connected with a long metallic rod. A red-haired girl had suddenly entered the scene, extending her two-pronged spear to protect the currently incapacitated exorcist. 

“To think, you were a daemon!” she exclaimed, disbelief clear in her voice. 

“The crybaby exorcist?” came Velvet’s surprised reply. 

“I wasn’t crying!” She pushed Velvet’s blade aside and assumed a defensive stance, Teresa slowly getting to her feet behind the girl. 

“Two praetors. Not looking good!” Rokurou looked at Velvet waiting for orders on how to proceed. 

Velvet surveyed her surrounding, appearing to look for what the next best action was. Then, all of a sudden, her left arm which was previously tightly wrapped in bandages had burst through them, growing in size and morphing into a huge pulsing red and black claw. The sound from the claw was gut-wrenching, like bones snapping in half and flesh being torn apart. Sorey felt a sharp pain stab through the left side of his chest, where his heart was, and seized it with his palm.  
 
In the meanwhile, Velvet had grabbed the Malak boy known as Number Two and lifted him up into the air. “Knock them back. That’s an order,” her tone was sharp, threatening. “Knock them back, or I’ll eat you!” 

“An… order…” the boy rasped out and slowly lifted his arms to start casting a spell. 

Teresa and the “crybaby” exorcist girl stood their ground and extended their weapons as a means to defend themselves while the other Malak covered his eyes. The ground began trembling with the power of Number Two’s attack and suddenly an explosion erupted under the three’s feet sending them flying. 

“Now!” Velvet shouted to the group, retracting her claw and effectively snapping Sorey out of his stupor. The sharp stabbing pain was all but gone. 

Sorey, Rokurou and Magilou ran for the ship, Velvet just a step behind. Unbeknownst to any of them, Number Two had latched onto Velvet’s wrist and was subsequently dragged onto the ship as well. Once they had all boarded, the lizard-man (he was more lizard than man, Sorey had decided) steered them away from land without looking back. 

It had started to rain. Sorey watched as Hellawes, engulfed in flames, shrank in the horizon. He hated seeing the city like this, hated what it would mean for its inhabitants but couldn’t do anything about it. The fire was devastating, swallowing rooftops and bridges, burning people’s livelihood to the ground. Sorey was thankful for the sudden downpour, it would take care of the worst of the flames. If only Mikleo was here, he thought, they could armatize and quickly take care of the fire with a couple of well-targeted Arrow Squalls. He realized his muscles had tensed, his hands instinctually reaching out for a bow that was not there and forced himself to relax. 

The lizard-man turned away from the ship’s helm, looked over his new crew and smiled. “Well, that turned out better than expected,” Rokurou smiled as well, leaning against one of the ship’s masts. Magilou stood just off to the side, grin mischievous and catlike. “Though we wound up with a little extra.” 

Velvet took a long look at Sorey, not realizing that Rokurou was referring to him and the boy currently clinging to her hand. Once Velvet noticed the Malak and realized she was also holding on to him she let out a gasp and dropped her hand.