~Lying is a fickle thing to do. The more you lie, the more you risk contradicting yourself.~

If there was ever a time to panic, now was definitely not the time! Yet Symonne found herself pretty close to straight up having a heart attack by what she was seeing. Dark black hair and orange burning eyes? Some might cough it up as coincidence and it wasn't really that much of a stretch to think of it as nothing more than a coincidence, after all: many humans shared various bodily traits. However, there was this insi, teensi, tiny detail, that little fact that Sorey's features had been hidden from the world, even himself! Calling it a coincidence now was definitely a stretch.

"Whoa! My hair! My eyes!" Sorey exclaimed in complete and utter disbelief. "Looks cool," he said after a second of admiring himself in the mirror, which Symonne had given him.

"It looks silly if you ask me," Mikleo said in full honesty. "Especially the hair. It just doesn't fit your style."

"You think maybe it'd look good with a little haircut? Oh, it's gone."

Indeed, just as quick as the new colors in his hair and eyes appeared, they disappeared just as quickly and were replaced by the usual brown and green respectively. That didn't help Symonne's anxiety at all though. Inside her head, she had already counted two and two together and knew or at least had a good idea as to why Sorey should look the way he looked a couple of seconds ago. She could also almost immediately think of the reason as to why she would want to hide his true heritage from him. However, there were still some things bothering her. Most prominent of them all were: Why had she never told Symonne anything about Sorey? And if not her, who did she ask to put the artes on Sorey?

"Symonne?" Laila's voice brought the darker Seraphim out of her thoughts. Symonne looked up to Laila and asked: "What is it?"

"Is something wrong?" asked the so-called "Lady of the Lake". "You seem troubled."

Great. Symonne had slipped up yet again and in the span of twenty minutes too. And now that Laila had said it out loud, the two boys were now looking at her as well. The smaller female Seraph doubted she could just give the excuse that she had just been wondering as to why Sorey had those artes on him, not if she had looked as troubled as she actually was. As a result, once again the Seraph needed to come up with something that would satisfy the three other occupants of this room.

"I'm simply wondering who put the arte on Sorey and why," the Seraphim replied, telling them at least the half-truth. "It doesn't make any logical sense to hide those specific body features and leave the rest untouched. It's not like he's a demon in disguise."

"Hmm… that's true." Laila conceded, putting a hand under her chin, thinking. "This is quite the mystery we have found ourselves in. Unfortunately, I have not the faintest idea as to who or why would do such a thing to Sorey."

The two female occupants of the room looked over to the male ones, who appeared to be lost in thought about the matter as well.

"You think Gramps has something to do with this?" the shepherd asked his longtime friend.

"Possible." Mikleo conceded. "But I have no idea why he would hide this fact from you, let alone put the artes on you in the first place. I think it is safe to say to cross him off the suspect list."

"Which leaves us with no one." Symonne pointed out. "Personally, I don't know any Seraphim who could do such a feat."

"Me neither," said Laila, slightly disappointed.

"So… what now?" asked Sorey, giving Symonne the opportunity to change the topic.

"I think we should put this on the backburner for now, so to speak," the darker Seraph spoke up. "I can see if I find something out on my way back. But I make no promises."

"That's all right. Your help is greatly appreciated." Mikleo replied, giving the smaller Seraphim a nod.

"Now that we have more or less cleared up this issue, Symonne, I would kindly ask you to continue your story," Laila asked her fellow female. Symonne looked over to the fire Seraph and nodded, understanding their curiosity.

"All right."

XXX

"As I have already mentioned, I followed the woman into the woods, curious as to what kind of business she possibly could have there. As far as I knew there was nothing to find there. It served as an occasional hunting ground for the locals, but that was as far as my knowledge went.

The woman walked for quite some time and pretty deep into the woods. There's not much I can really tell you since it was nothing more than a run out of the mill forest we were traveling through. For a time I considered just going back, seeing as this woman appeared to do nothing more than taking a stroll.

However, all of the sudden she stopped. I hadn't been paying too much attention to the environment, so it took me a second to realize what was happening. Right in front of us was a hellion's domain and a big one at that. It covered the back half of the forest and made the environment… weird to say the least. The trees had come alive, as in they had gotten faces and their tranches became hands. They even could turn their bodies around and did so in order to eye me and the woman in front of me. It certainly was a different experience from your normal hellion encounter.

The woman, however, seemed perfectly calm, as if this was nothing new to her. In fact, I almost had the impression that she was bored as she approached the hellion's domain. The trees got ready to strike and I was sure her to be a goner. But as it turned out, her gauntlet wasn't just an oversized accessory. A hidden blade came out of a hole I hadn't noticed up until this point. I couldn't exactly see how the mechanism works, but the blade itself proved to be masterfully crafted. With almost lazy swings she cut down each and every branch that came near her. I think that was the first time in my life I ever saw a hellion having a dumbfounded expression on their face. Those turned quickly into pure horror when she straight up kicked one of the trees out of the ground complete with the roots and sent it flying fifty feet or so away!

It was at this point that I realized that I wasn't just following a woman. My first thoughts were that I was following a Seraphim, who was on the hunt for the hellions. It made sense at first glance. She didn't have a domain of her own and she managed to take out a hellion with a single kick. But then I remembered that she was able to interact with humans. So something didn't add up. I had not much time to ponder over this contradiction, however. The woman, whoever she was, was keeping herself busy with cutting and kicking a path through the trees. And when I say cutting I literally mean her using her sword to cut straight through them, as if they were made of butter.

It might have been a good idea to turn back right at this very moment, especially when further following her meant entering a hellion's domain. But my curiosity got the better of me and so I followed her, making extra sure to keep a safe distance from her. Luckily the domain hadn't changed the land any more than it already did. I wasn't prepared to deal with any more transformed plants and as one might expect, there were plenty of hellions residing in this domain. Yet for some reason, they appeared to be more interested in the woman than in me. I guess they thought she had more meat on her bones than I. Still even those hellions proved to be no challenge for her. No matter whether they were animals turned evil, former soldiers or even evil spirits, her blade could handle them all. She used powerful kicks to get rid of any hellionized animal in her way. If I had to guess, I'd say she didn't deem them worthy enough for her to use her blade. How the former soldiers got lost in the forest in the first place, I don't know. But their armor was still mostly in good condition. It was no trouble for her. Her boots were so thick for a reason. They had hidden blades inside of them and with some careful aiming, she could take those out with a single strike each, exploiting weaknesses in the armor. But the ghosts and spirits…

I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. She cut them down as if they were actually corporeal. But they weren't. I already knew for a fact that it requires Seraphim Artes or at least an enchanted weapon to take those down. And enchanted weapons have their limits. There was no way she could have killed all of those hellions with just a simple enchanted blade.

I was getting a bad feeling about this. Yet, I threw caution to the wind once again and simply continued following her, myself dodging hellions as they came. Soon enough we reached her destination.

It turned out to be a hellion, namely the hellion responsible for the domain. It wasn't as horrifying as I imagine it would be, but it was huge. It looked like a holed out tree trunk with a green-skinned human child inside of it. In my life, I have seen plenty of hellions that take on that appearance, albeit they usually are smaller. It let out a scream as soon as it found the woman approaching its territory and crawled nearer almost immediately. But instead of taking on a fighting stance or even attempting to run away, she just stood there and waited for the hellion to come closer. I wasn't really sure what the woman was thinking, but I know that I was acting on instinct. As soon as the Hellion was close enough I started preparing the strongest fire arte in my entire arsenal, hoping to distract the hellion or even possibly scaring it away. But I acted too late. I wasn't even halfway done with my arte, when the hellion reached out with its huge branches, ready to flatten the woman in front of her. It never came down to this.

Out of nowhere, the woman jumped up towards the hellion. She jumped higher than should be humanly possible. The surprises didn't stop there. While she was flying in mid-air, her arm transformed! It turned into one gigantic demonic claw! The tree-hellion was just as much taken aback as I had been. It couldn't react quickly enough and from one moment to another it found its face to be ensnared by the claw. And here is when the hellion woman, because what else could she possibly be, revealed her true power. She started to eat the demon! Not with her mouth, but with her claw! It sucked the very life out of the hellion and with its life force followed the tree-hellion's malevolence! I can't recall ever having heard worse screams of agony, especially coming from such a monster.

I don't know how long it took for her to devour the demon. I was frozen in place from sheer shock. I could do no more than to watch as the hellion, who was at least ten times the size of the woman struggling to free itself from her grip. But it was for naught. Slowly yet surely the tree-hellion's struggle became weaker and weaker until it completely stopped and surrendered itself to its fate. Eventually, the hellion disappeared, the woman somehow having fully devoured the monstrosity. With the disappearance of the hellion, the domain disappeared as well.

That was hardly reassuring for me. Of course, I wasn't in danger of turning into a hellion myself anymore and the forest had returned to its natural state. But now I had the attention of the hellion eating hellion, who still looked hungry. She turned her attention directly to me and gave a smile that sent chills down my spine.

"Don't you know that it is impolite to sneak up on people from behind?" she asked in an amused tone.

I had seen what she had done and from that alone, I knew that in an open fight I wouldn't stand a chance against her. As such, I finally acted in a reasonable matter by creating as many clones of myself as possible and I began to run. I wasn't sure how long my clones would be able to last on their own, as they break down rather easily. The sound of an explosion happening behind didn't really reassure me of their longevity. In fact, they were defeated faster than anyone else had ever done before. I found this out the hard way. All of the sudden I found the human-like hellion landing in front of me! She was so close that I ended up ramming directly into her. Of course, she wasn't fazed in the slightest by the impact. Her demon arm had returned to normal and she immediately used it to slam me against a nearby tree. I lost my breath for a couple of seconds and my vision blurred for a little. Once I recovered, I could feel the cold hard steel of her blade pressing against my neck.

"Now then, tell me. What is a little, lonely Seraphim like you doing here all on their own?" she asked me in a sickly sweet tone. I am not sure how I managed to keep a mostly clear head, but it might be the reason as to why I am still alive today.

"N-nothing," I answered her, trying my best to keep my stuttering under control. "I was… doing nothing."

"Wrong," she replied in accusing tone "you have been following me the entire time. Now, I will ask you one more time and I heavily suggest you answer honestly. What are you doing here?" Her tone was slightly more aggressive.

Knowing that she wouldn't accept anything but the truth, I did just so. However, I was concerned that the truth wouldn't satisfy her. After all, I followed her purely out of curiosity. But what else could I say?

Luckily for me, she actually believed me. I could feel the pressure she put on my body decreasing, but her blade was still held against my neck.

"Have you ever heard of: "Curiosity kills the cat?"" she asked me rhetorically. "Well then, now that I know what you have been doing, the question is what I am going to do with you. I could eat you, but Seraphim don't really taste that good."

Up until today, I am not sure whether she was joking or being serious. I didn't dare to say anything, as it might just rub her off the wrong way and mean the end for me. At the same time, I was desperately trying to think of an arte that might just be able to save me.

"Tell me your name," she demanded and I answered.

"Symonne, huh?" she spoke aloud herself, before giving me her name. "My name is Velvet Crowe. And now that you know me, I have a little errand I need you to do for me."

"An errand?" I repeated confused. What could a hellion possibly want from a Seraphim like me? The answer? Spreading panic.

"Indeed. Go home and tell your little Seraph friends that the true Lord of Calamity has returned."

As soon as those words left her, it all of the sudden became very hard for me to breath. Looking around I could see that a new domain had appeared out of nowhere, darker and much stronger than the previous one. I looked up to the woman holding me in her clutches and she just smiled at me.

"I think this is sufficient proof that I am telling the truth, wouldn't you agree?."

I could only nod."

XXX

Symonne sat on Sorey's bed, hugging herself. Laila was quick to move beside her and give her fellow Seraphim a hug. Sorey's and Mikleo's expressions had turned stone cold after hearing the story.

"I thought for sure I would turn into a dragon," Symonne spoke, struggling to keep her voice straight. "Luckily I only lost consciousness. By the time I came to, she was gone and left me in the woods." Symonne successfully managed to fake a shiver. "As soon as I returned to Pendrago, I tried to find out as much as possible about this Velvet Crowe and why exactly she was calling herself the so-called "true Lord of Calamity"."

Sorey and Mikleo looked at each other for a moment, before turning their heads back to Symonne.

"And… did you find something?" Sorey asked, to which Symonne nodded. She was now looking down at her hands, not showing her face.

"It took me weeks. A lot of the records were disorganized or lost. But I found something, a document which had been copied over the centuries reaching at least a thousand years back in time. It depicted the detailed description of a woman wanted for a multitude of crimes. The destruction of a city, the murder of both civilians and soldiers, pirating, theft, the list was surprisingly detailed. It didn't lack the description of the demon arm, which she used to consume her enemies."

"Wait. A document dating a thousand years back?!" Mikleo exclaimed in shock and excitement. Sorey could only share the sentiment, but a feeling of dread was growing inside the stomach. "And the name of the woman was…"

"Velvet Crowe." Symonne finished. "Also known as the Lord of Calamity, the birth mother of all demonkind, the bane of humanity and devourer of souls."