Disclaimer: I own naught. Nada. Nothing. Capcom does.

This one's theme is E for Egeria.

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Noon – Matier

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She was so young. Humans always were, and the demons he fought now seemed the same. He had guarded this world for over a millennium and a half now and it always seemed the same.

Foolish human trying for power that destroyed every human it touched. Brave humans trying to stop them. Though in this case she was of the blood of his own kind as well, blood that he thought combined well.

She was strong, and she had that human strength as well, the striving even when she could not win.

Like now, she wished to venture into the portal, into the world of far less than half her ancestors and confront one of her gods in their rage at human presumption. She would never win, but she wanted to try. So small, so brave and so delicate. He wanted to teach her wisdom and sense, so that when she was 'old' (too soon, by his reckoning: how fast these humans faded!), she would pass it on to the young, generation after generation of them.

By his sense of time, it was noon, yet the eclipse turned the sky to a red, as the once sun-god had been buried in anger and darkness by its mate's death in the war against Mundus. Though not by his hand, that had been while Mundus was still subduing the Underworld. Sparda had joined in the conquest of the human world… ah, memories.

She knew the stories, of course, knew that her people lived thanks to his championing of them when Mundus would have had them all wiped out.

She worshipped him, idolized him, and it made him feel tired.

Well, a battle would make him feel alive again, a trial by combat. Even though as a traitor he deserved to lose.

Wait here, he told her, wait for daylight and I to return.

He walked forward into the portal, into the world of hellfire out of a land of well-watered forest, a 'maiden' watching him as he left her behind, and he was reminded of another maiden, one who had actually been one.

When it was over, he stood at the edge of the portal, planning to return home and wondering where home was. Weakened by the seal, it was not safe for him in the Underworld even though he was stronger there, as all demons were.

In the end, cool green called him back, rest and peace when as a demon he should have longed for strife.

Perhaps he as well was becoming a creature of both worlds, his homeland and his adopted home: an immigrant, he had set his roots here in the place where tall trees, life without defenses, lived for centuries in peace.

And she was waiting for him, the one who he should be disgusted by because she had failed in her quest to stop the sorcerer, and yet… Humans were still so strange.

She was waiting for him at his 'new' home, and her face brightened to match the glorious sun outside as she ran outside to greet him. So far from her island, so brave to come here. She was in love with him, he knew this. They often were.

A child of the world of light, in truth. She reminded him of another, though she would have hated to be compared to one of tainted blood.

This was the world her sacrifice had created, the light of the day that had come after Mundus' night.

Yet soon, he would arise, and dusk would fall again.

He needed to teach this one well, so her people could guard themselves when the darkness came.