As much as I wanted to deny it, I hadn’t been ready for my father’s death. There were still far too many pieces to the puzzle. I also understood that Father’s death also meant the death of Saria’s father as well. If they were linked as he cimed, then their deaths would have been linked. That meant that his death had to be rather recent, within the st week or two.

  This wasn’t like my world where there was television, phones, and radio to quickly deliver messages everywhere. A succession after the death of a king might take months or years. Still, forces outside of my control might already be moving while I had been dancing around with dragons. I no longer had time to waste worrying about trivial matters. In that respect, taking me through Hedgemon’s pass felt like the right decision. A week trip through the desert would have only added more time to what already pressed me.

  I’d like to say that his death hit me emotionally, but I had only ever met the king a single time. Thus, I had no great feelings for the man, although I supposed the true Prince David who had spent his entire life near his father might have different feelings. I didn’t know if Prince David had much of a retionship with his father. The King didn’t come off as foolish or evil to me, and it never seemed like he bmed David for losing so much power, although I still questioned the motives of his brother. It irritated me that I wasn’t in the capital while all of this was going on. It still had too much that needed to be done.

  “I-I see…” Lucille was looking down, and I was surprised to see that she was shaking slightly.

  I instinctively put an arm around her. She jerked slightly, but when she looked up at me with teary eyes, she wrapped her arms around me. It didn’t grow awkward like when I embarrassed her before. It wasn’t the hug of lovers, but a hug of family comforting each other. Seeing as she was the one who was away from home the longest, I had thought that her feelings for her father would have been the least severe. However, looking at it from another direction, she had been the oldest when she was finally sent away, which meant she would have had the clearest and longest memory of her father compared to her sisters.

  I reached up and stroked her hair, while Duheart continued to glower at us. When he had enough of waiting, her cleared his throat.

  “Well, hopefully, you understand why you must be brought back.” His voice still had an edge to it, but perhaps he was caught off guard by Lucille’s reaction.

  Perhaps, this guy wasn’t completely evil. He at least could possess empathy while trying to exert his power over us. He gave a wave and the guards escorted us back out of the tent. He no longer found it fun to taunt us as Lucille wept. We were returned to our camp, where I found Aster had already made the acquaintance of the other girls. True to his perverted nature, he upon each girl, although after finding the elf girls to be too ft for his liking, Aeryn had become his primary target.

  However, unlike Mom who hugged and snuggled the beast, Aeryn stood with her back rigid, seemingly ignoring the dragon no matter how much it nudged her or tried to get her attention. Meanwhile, Saria tried several times to get its attention, only for it to side-gnce her ft chest and gave a snort. This only seemed to upset her more.

  “There is much for us to talk about. The first thing I’d like to know is how you ended up with a baby dragon.”

  No sooner had we reached camp than Baba spoke up, her voice low enough that the guards sent to watch us while pretending they weren’t watching us couldn’t hear. I sat down at the fire they had started. I had let go of Lucille as soon as we left the tent, and she fought a spot noticeably apart from me. Perhaps, she didn’t want to seem too close to me in front of my wife, or perhaps she needed some time to work out where her mind was in that moment.

  Saria finally had enough of being ignored by the dragon, so as casually as she could, she walked around the fire and happened to find a space next to me. It was clear to me though that she was still worried after seeing us snatched away by the drake, but didn’t want to appear too affectionate. I supposed it was for the best that the girls around me weren’t particurly great at showing their affection. The journey could have become quite irritating if they were constantly hanging on me or competing for my attention.

  “I’d rather like to know what happened to that woman.” Saria frowned.

  The woman she meant was, of course, my mother.

  “The Drake dropped us into the dragon pit as a sacrifice to the dragon. The dragon was benevolent. Mother was there. She had been drawn to this child.” I gave an extremely short and hushed version of events, keeping my eyes out.

  I was sure that Baba was making sure no sound leaked out that wasn’t supposed to, but you could never be too certain about anything.

  “Then, he’s dead?” Baba asked, her eyes looking somewhat sat.

  I gave a curt nod, and she let out a sigh, lowering her head.

  “D-did you know him?”

  “That one in particur? No.” She spoke in a voice that belied her appearance, and for possibly the first time I could truly feel the weight of age that sat on her shoulders. “However, I’ve witnessed the decline of the dragons. I felt him die, and the energy of his life spread out across the world. It’s considered a bad omen. Every dragon death has usually been accompanied by troubled times. Their species come from an age of immortals, long before the time of man, and the creation of faeries.”

  “Faeries were created? The Celestials?” I asked.

  “I supposed it is time that I told you the whole story. After all, you will be encountering your true mother soon. As much as this world likes to pretend, you are a half-faery.”

  “I see… so the species did all evolve from human/faery hybrids.”

  She nodded slowly. “You may not be aware of it, but this world is old. It’s so old that even gods and immortals have begun to die.”

  I had seen a so-called god myself. He was an old man. In fact, I would have called him feeble. He had been short and impatient, and when he had expined what he wanted from me, it had been seemingly close to babbling, which is why I had to crify everything. It was just like an old man in his advanced age. I had just assumed at the time that he was eccentric, but even in the vision where I had seen a younger god, he had looked far better. It never occurred to me that the god I met was growing senile.

  “I see… when did the magus come into it?”

  “Patience!” She shot me an irritated look. “We three magus weren’t created until after the age of immortals and the breaking.”

  “Why is there always a breaking?” I sighed.

  Although, it wasn’t surprising to me that this world had been broken at some point. All things eventually ended, and nothing sted forever. However, it was hard to imagine a breaking that would end a time so loftily called the age of immortals.

  “The age of immortals was an age where dragons, titans, gods, devils, and champions roamed the world.”

  “Devils?”

  “They weren’t the devils like you know them to be. These devils were twenty feet tall, with horns and long spiked tails. They walked on hooves, and their skin was as red as blood.”

  The girls had started to listen in as well, and when the devil was described, Saria next to me couldn’t help but shutter. Aeryn and Ba were also leaning forward to listen. Aster had given up on getting attention and had finally lowered his head, breathing in the fmes of the fire with a bored expression on his face. Other than the dragon who likely had no clue what we were talking about, only Lucille seemed disinterested. She might have already heard all of this before, especially given the amount of time she spent with my mother.

  “So, those kinds of devils…” I sighed.

  Her description fit the typical devils that were counter to God perfectly. Well, the size was exaggerated, but having seen a dragon and imagining titans, I could believe the needed to be just to have a chance.

  Baba continued, “Much like how you mortals have broken into territories, they also each had their own territory. They were much rger though. A single territory in the age of immortals was rger than all of the known world of current. This world is only a fragment, a remnant of the world that came before it. This is merely what survived by the end of the war.”

  “A war caused the breaking?

  The breaking occurred because of something so simple… jealousy.” She spoke, staring into the fire almost like she was remembering the events herself, even though she had just confirmed she hadn’t been there. “A human woman by the name of Callista.”

  “Humans were around in the age of immortals?” I was a little surprised by this.”

  “Oh, yes… humanity has existed for a long time. They are surprisingly adaptable and resilient.” Her voice sounded almost like it contained admiration. “In a world where they should have been squashed instantly, they had managed to establish themselves and thrive to every corner of the world.

  “It isn’t known how the humans arrived. Some say that they were summoned by the gods. Others say they arrived when a celestial body crashed onto our world. Yet, shortly after they arrived, they began to spread. They chose to worship the immortals as gods, and most of the immortals, amused by the antics of humans, sheltered them within their care.

  “Some despised the humans. Some tortured them. Some loved them. However, there was a time where it seemed like every immortal was obsessed with them. Their lives were so short and meaningless, it was fascinating to watch. With the wave of a hand, an immortal could bring them great strife, or great rewards. Before they knew it, humans had settled every part of the world, and certain humans were starting to even grow above their limits.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Humans began to compete with the immortals. They began to challenge them. At one point, a human managed to kill an immortal. That was when the immortals started taking them seriously. So seriously, that one immortal in particur sought to marry one of them.”

  “Callista.”

  “They say she had a beauty to destroy nations. That was an underestimation. Her beauty was enough to destroy the world.”

  “Let me guess… the gods and the devils.”

  She nodded. “The titans took the devil's side, while the champions joined with the gods. Only the dragons remained out of it. Skirmishes became battles, and battles became wars. Weapons were built, and damage was done. The woman herself was killed in the fighting, and both sides bmed the other. The fighting continued until the original people who started it no longer existed, and they kept fighting simply because they had always fought.

  “Land was torn asunder, and entire continents were sunk. It was during this time that demons were created by the true devils. At the same time, the celestials were created by the gods. They were built as war machines, aimed at destroying the other side. The war continued to escate to the point where even the dragons faced significant casualties. The champions and the titans were wiped out.”

  “How did the war stop?”

  “It was the humans, who had perhaps suffered the most death of anyone, that finally put an end to it. It was the humans who caused the breaking. They used a powerful spell, and with the help of the dragons, they ignited it. This spell destroyed 90% of the world, and when all was said and done the devils were no more.

  “It was only upon achieving victory that the few remaining gods came to their senses. They knew that their species was dying, and also knew that after everything they had done with the world, that they deserved such a death. Three of the gods pooled their power to create avatars on earth. While they all wanted to help the world, none could agree on the method of doing so. They eventually agreed to create three, each serving the purpose of one of their gods. Thus, we magus was born. We were taken from humanity and given a gift of immortality, and a mission.

  “Bance.”

  “That is my mission and my purpose. My goddess believed that the world must obtain bance. Back when there were the five species, the world was in bance. With the true devils gone, we must find a new bancing point. There should be good and evil. My goddess believed this so much, that in the absence of true devils, my goddess destroyed themself shortly after creating me.”

  “Really?”

  I was a bit surprised by that. I hadn’t necessarily thought that the magus was created by the same God that I met, but this confirmed that the god that had chosen to summon me was not the same one that had created her. It made sense. In the vision, my god had created a hero and attempted to bring light to the world. He wasn’t the god who believed in bance. Just the fact that he remained alive told me that wasn’t the case.

  “One god believed in bringing light to this world,” I spoke up.

  It was Baba’s time to be surprised. “You know of such a god?”

  “I’ve… read some of his writings…” I made it up. “One of the other magus… they are alongside the celestials, aren’t they?”

  Baba nodded. “I sometimes forget how clever you are. It seems you’ve already figured out why I wanted to tell you this story.”

  “I still am not sure how the faerie fit into it,” I admitted.

  “As you pointed out, one of the gods believed in bringing light to this world. His magus gave the Celestials all of his knowledge, hoping they would use it to wipe out the remaining demons in the world. He wanted them to become the bastions of good, residing over humans and forcing them to the light. However, the Celestials thought differently. They realized that their numbers were too low, and if they went after the demons, it would only be a matter of time until they too died. In their minds, they were the light, and the only way the light could preserver is if the Celestials persevered.

  So, instead of beginning a war, the Celestials took his knowledge and decided to become immortals themselves. They used the knowledge to obtain eternal life and then created the faeries as their servants. Once the faeries were established, they sent them to fight the demons, only to find that humans were already doing it. Multiple heroes had seemingly been summoned over the years, each intent on throwing back the demons and defeating their king.

  “That’s when the faeries and humans began to intermingle, and the variant races started to be created. The Celestials were obsessed with control, and it wasn’t until things went out of control that they started to panic. Then, a grey-skinned variant appeared. They were cunning and inventive. They found a way to weaponize their blood, using it to subdue and control the demons. The Celestials saw this as evil, and so they turned everyone else against them, beling them the world's new devil.

  The faeries were pulled back, remaining somewhat apart from humanity, while the Celestials went into seclusion, where they have remained until this day. Even since the devils have fought the other races, and the other races have fought the devils. The faeries egg them on, and that is how things have been…”

  “Until I was born,” I responded.

  “One day, after decades of silence from the Celestials, an order came down that Queen Aurica was to marry the new King of Pria. No one understood why such order came. Many believed it was an olive branch. They believed that the celestials were going to come out of seclusion and that the faeries would bring peace to the rest of the nds.”

  “That isn’t why?” Saria asked.

  Baba shrugged, “I don’t know why they sent Queen Aurica to marry a human king. However, the current Celestials are the same Celestials from back then. They are immortal, and they are very well aware of what happens when humans and faeries have children. The devil variant may be exceptionally rare, but given how many children they had…”

  “It was almost like they were trying to create a devil.” I finished.

  “Trying?” Lucille had finally started to pay attention. “Why would they want a devil to be born?”

  “A catalyst.” I leaned back. “A reason.”

  “I don’t understand.” Saria shook her head.

  “The Celestials want to finish what they started. They want to wipe out the demons and the devils and create a pure world. The only way they can get the world behind them is to expose that corruption. The reason I was born was to give the Celestials a chance to move. A devil on the throne would allow them an excuse to perform a holy war. They’ll cease control of Pria, and to everyone, it will look completely justified. However, it won’t end with Pria. They’ll take Peri next, and then Benatong. Finally, they’ll wipe out the demons and devils, and finally bring the world under their control, just as they always wanted.”

  The god had summoned me to this world to clean up his mess. For the first time, I realized just how big of a mess it was.

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