Chapter 3 - The First Encounter

Weak…

Tears once again found their ways to his eyes, within seconds a cascading waterfall soon followed. Was there even a point to staying strong anymore? His previous life was filled with happiness, protected by his parents. Yet, he seemed to lose everything he loved in the blink of an eye.

WEAK.

The void that threatened to consume him suddenly filled with fury. In his newfound rage, he put all his power and pent up emotion into a single spell. A magic circle far greater than any that he cast before manifested in front of him. With an agonized shout, a great blast of translucent light erupted from his hands. It tore through the trees, and the landscape, creating a small scar on the land in front of him.

WHY IS HE SO WEAK?!

Panting heavily, his hands once again found its way to the pendant that hung around his neck. It had a slight presence that seemed to calm him, like someone, somewhere, told him that everything was going to be okay… even if he knew that it wasn't.

He looked up, wiping his tears with a sleeve; the sun shone bright above him without a cloud in sight. He allowed the rays of light to bathe his body, fueling the resolve that burned from within. A small smile broke through his saddened expression. Everything still looks the same… Benjin looked around the forests, then to the rocks below. So why does everything feel so different?

So, what was he to do now? Uncertainty filled his being, his eyes drooping to the grass below. A hand reached towards his pendant, allowing him to feel the soft aura imbued inside. It's been calling me for awhile now. Benjin looked towards the North West, towards the distant mountains barely hidden by the horizon.

Benjin bore his teeth at the sunrise, a feeling of rage and determination filling him.

I won't be helpless… ever again!

Somewhere in Bosco - X776

"ARRRGHHH!" A great scream of fury screeched across the landscape, followed by a golden construct of a gauntlet delivering a devastating strike to the mountain side.

I refuse to be weak! He remembered the despair and helplessness when everyone around him left.

Another great strike plowed into the rock face, sending massive chunks of debris all around him. With eyes filled with conviction, a golden magic circle emerged in response to his will.

He hated himself for abandoning his father; as a naive child, all he could do was follow his mom. There was nothing he could have done, except run.

A compressed pillar of aura erupted from his form; it concentrated itself into a golden sphere before launching itself towards another rock face. The explosion that followed caused his robe to billow in the wind generated by the force. His hands came together, clasped in a prayer position in preparation of another spell. His teeth gritted against each other, beads of sweat dropping from his brow.

Never Again!

The golden-haired mage thought back to the time he sat and could do nothing but watch when his mother faded. He focused his power into the ground, causing a magic circle multiple times his size to emerge.

"Smite!" he shouted; a great pillar of brilliant gold erupted into the air above, incinerating the tree branches that were unfortunate enough to be struck.

He panted in exhaustion; the strength of the spells took great tolls on his reserves. Releasing several grunts of exasperation, he pushed back his fatigue and ran towards the semi-destroyed rock face. Conjuring constructs resembling large hooks, he hastened his ascent of the small mountain. Never had he truly tested his magic to this extent; his everlasting momentum carried him to the peak, allowing the rays of the sun to tickle his skin. A familiar feeling of invigoration entered his body as he felt some of his stamina recovering. With one last bellow, he forced all his magic into one final spell.

If we ever meet again, I won't have to fall behind! He remembered the departure of his blue-haired friend.

Another magic circle materialized, this time straight above him. His body slowly levitated into the air as the construct of a gargantuan paladin began to form, flashing in and out of existence.

Conviction, determination, and resolve filled his being as he pushed his will into the golden knight, solidifying its form with a glow that traveled from the top to the bottom of the construct.

Giving one last look to the skies above, the spell faded and Benjin plummeted into the ground.

Shit.

Despite the difficulty of standing up, he forced himself to his feet and went to sit on the edge of the mountain. His magic was spent, but not his spirit. As soon as he was recovered, he would continue to practice and practice, until he is fully prepared for whatever might come for him.

And I'll never have to feel that pain ever again.

A week later

Damn, has it really been a year?

Following the 'call', he constantly travelled towards the North West, hoping that his search wouldn't be fruitless. On the road, he constantly practiced the magics that his parents taught him. The white cloak he wore before was replaced by one that was dark blue, bearing a symbol on the back that had a circle with a cross contained in its edges on. Bright golden lapels lined the collar of his jacket while he had simple brown pants and boots to complete the set.

Nothing exciting happened, couple villages here and there, even managing to find a tailor that made him his current attire. On a whim, the boy looked back towards the South East, where his home would be. If I ever go back, would it still be there?

As if by reflex, he once again grasped his pendant, remembering the grief and then the determination that came from it in order to become stronger.

God. Has he been basically by himself for - I think three? - months already? Sometimes he would resort to throwing rocks and random things just to pass the time. Despite the freedom, it was getting increasingly frustrating from being in the wild by himself. This was the longest he went without any villages or something; any longer and he would probably go crazy.

Whenever he would truly sit down and try to clear his mind, the only thing he could think of was the horrendous image of his mom going silent. The only thing he could do to take his mind off of that was train. Fire spell after spell until he got tired, then nap it out; repeat. Cook when he got hungry, sleep when it got late. True, he was constantly adding more and more to his repertoire and he could probably beat up a gorilla, but it this routine was maddening!

After another while of walking, he noticed some movement from the horizon. As they moved close, he was able to make out two old men sitting in front of a wagon while a horse pulled them along at a hurried pace.

Finally, some people!

His face lit up as maybe they could have something interesting to talk about. They were probably merchants or salesman or maybe those guys that went around towns screaming about dumb things that nobody cared about. I village criers… so, so much.

It wasn't even a minute before they closed the distance between each other.

"Hey kid! Move to the side!" One of the men pulled the horse's reins to stop the wagon, causing a loud rattle from the back of their cart. "Can't you see we're in a hurry!?" Benjin jogged up excitedly, eager to talk to people after months of isolation.

"Hi! Where are you two going?" One of the men relaxed while looking back on the road behind them and said. "A demon showed up in the village we were at." He lifted the horse's reins while preparing to tell it to move. "Listen kid, take it from me, don't go there."

A demon?! Benjin thought of the horned beasts his father used to tell him about, his eyes opened fully from the interesting news. Would it be a cuddly demon? Okay that's absolutely stupid, damn dad would have laughed at that. Should he turn back? Or maybe just go around the village when he reaches it? Benjin put a finger to his chin in thought. It can't be THAT bad… but I'm SO curious. It's decided, he's going to check it out.

Looking up to the men with a sly grin, he asked, "Where is this 'Citrus' village? You know, so I can go around it."

One of the men raised his brow, obviously not convinced, before sighing. "Probably a day's travel on this road," Benjin quipped up instantly running around the wagon. "Oi kid! Don't do anything stupid!" His warning fell on deaf years as the boy was already a dot in the distance.

"Hey Carl, do you think we should have taken him with us?" Carl looked back at his companion with a look of disgust.

"Jaime, just because we deal in this business doesn't mean we can just go kidnapping whoever… I draw my line at children." Jaime simply shrugged.

"Whatever, you're the boss."

After about another day of travelling, he finally saw some houses in the distance. Hurrying his pace, Benjin went into a run for the final stretch of distance.

Yes! I'm here!

Wow, the village looked like every single village he visited before. The same houses made of rotten wood, grass, and other stuff he didn't know about but looked the same.

Wait. That's new.

In the middle of the town, there was a large stone building inscribed with three swords intersecting with each other [1]. A church? It seemed to be in the worst condition compared to the other buildings as far as he could see. Parts of it broke off and had large claw marks on the right side where he could make out traces of a dark aura. Did… the demon do this?

Benjin walked around the large building; by the way everything looked, it was as if the demon decided to drop by just to scratch it a couple time. Cat demon? Maybe this was a good thing. From what his dad told him about demons, this entire village probably should have been a crater, or at best, completely burnt down.

As he walked around the damaged structure, he noticed a figure in the distance. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was an old lady doing some gardening in her front yard. Ah ha, a person!

"Hey old lady, do you know anything about the church and a demon?" Wait. Was that too rude? Bracing for the incoming scolding, he could only stare in confusion when the woman didn't even seem to turn. Okay, bit louder this time.

"HEY! DO YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A DEMON?!"

The old woman slowly stood up; she began to look around before slowly turning towards Benjin. "Did you hear something? I could have sworn I heard someone said demon." Wow it's like somebody dumped water into her ear.

Benjin walked closer to the woman before shouting louder. "I SAID, DO YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A DEMON?!" The word demon caused the old woman to put a look of disgust on her face. Finally! She hears. She put one of her hands on her waist and pointed towards a lone house in the distance, separated from the rest of the village.

"Why it lives right over there," she spat with venom laced in her voice. "Are you here to get rid of it?" I guess?

Nodding in response, Benjin noticed a sly smile from the woman before he walked towards the house. Wait… Did that old lady just allowed him, an eleven-year-old boy, to go and fight a demon? What the hell is wrong with her? Benjin scrunched up his face in thought. Then again, it could have been an imp. Those things are supposed to be annoying little things that just went around stealing your stuff. Basically, like rats really. Wait, what about those claw marks? Those looked pretty nasty.

Something's wrong here… A queasy feeling stemmed from his stomach as he thought about the demon. If it could do that much damage to stone, maybe he should just get out of here? The old lady didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. Or what if… it was an imp and the claw marks were done by the locals trying to kill it and they all gave up because of how annoying it is! HAH! Genius! He could just find the thing, punt it a couple times, boom! Problem solved! Benjin put on a confident smile before walking towards the edge of the village.

Making his way towards the house, he noticed that it was covered in vandalism, graffiti and had giant holes in its windows. The stones making up the walls were crumbled, the wood surrounding the frames were rotten black and the lands all around had no grass. This thing makes that crap shack look like a decent place! Whoever lived in this dump would be very, very unlucky.

"Hey Imp Demon! Your horn looks ugly so you should come out and fight me!" From what his father told him in the past, demons, especially imps, were very touchy creatures. They also hate anyone using light magic so another plus there.

"…" His initial proclamation did nothing. That should have had hordes running out in anger. Unless of course, there is no demon, everything's a lie, and this house is completely empty. That means I can take the stuff inside… heh. Probably wouldn't have anything useful, but still.

"If you don't come out, then I'm coming in~!" he exclaimed in a sing-song voice, pointing his index finger at the door while flaring his magic just enough.

What followed confused him; he saw a white-haired boy and girl who looked several years younger than himself hurriedly exit from the front door. Eh? Neither of them had proper clothing; ripped and dirty rags covered their bruised forms and unkempt hair. Benjin raised his eyebrows at the absurd scene in front of him. They don't look like imps to me.

Focusing his eyes, he decided to take a look at their auras. Don't really seem too demon-y, oh? Probably have enough to become mages, not bad!

He looked towards the two children, still wondering if there is anything here interesting in the first place. Wait! Benjin widened his eyes as he remembered the words of his father regarding demons.

"...Demons come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Some can be the most monstrous and terrifying beasts in the world, yet some could look just like you and me. Like mages, Demons can be as harmless as a rabbit, but some hold strength that could rival the most powerful beings in the world. However, despite their differences, all demons shared a common trait - their horns. No matter what type, element, or birth a demon holds. All of them have at least a pair of horns on their heads.

Again, like mages, Demons have a wide variety of abilities. One thing to note however, is that they don't use the same Ethernano like you and me. Within Earthland, there exists a balance of energy within the landscape. While we use a combination of all three, demons mainly use the darkness that exists within Ethernano. It's because of this darkness, that demons all share an ability regardless of its strength - the ability to control the darkness of lesser beings… to possess them, so to speak.

There are very few who share our ability to see the auras of magic present in every living thing; the only indication of possession other than erratic behaviour are the irregular flows of aura..."

"My sister's not a demon!" the boy shouted, interrupting Benjin from his thoughts. The boy put his fists up in a fighting stance, his legs widening as if preparing to go for a tackle. The girl had her hands opened defensively in front of the house while looking at him in an angered expression.

"Is that your sister?" Benjin pointed towards the younger girl beside the boy. "She looks like a normal kid." No horns either. Were these children being possessed or controlled? God damn why can't this be an easy encounter, play ball with a couple imps - with them as the ball of course - boom, done. Of course, he would have to deal with some weird crap that no one could have prepa-

"Nobody's a demon!" This boy needs to stop shouting.

"We won't let you get to our sister," the girl beside him ran forward defensively. A third?

Benjin raised a brow at the two, mouth slightly agape. "Can I see her anyway? I just want to make sur-"

"No!" The boy interrupted.

Okay that was kind of rude. Benjin walked forward, startling the two. "Just tell me whe-"

"NO!" Benjin bit into his lip as a vein bulged from his forehead.

"I will drop you right now if you-"

"NOOOO!" The boy shouted defiantly once again.

"…"

His face began to contort with anger, he breathed in through his teeth and his fists were just begging to kiss that boy. Right in the face. While he did not want to attack some little kids that really didn't do anything wrong… although the boy could use a big bowl of 'shut up.'

Benjin walked to the boy while grabbing him by his collar, lifting him slightly to meet his eyes.

"Listen here you annoying twat! I'm trying to be civil here and you are not making my life any easier! Just tell me where she is," he shouted menacingly while his eyes glowed with power. "Or I'm going to blast you and it's damned well going to hurt!"

The children were visibly shaken now, all the bravado they had seemed to be gone as they felt magical pressure for the first time on their shoulders. God, I want to punch his dumb face sooo much!

"That's enough, Elfman, Lisanna," A soft timid came from behind the doors; a figure wearing a torn cloak where white locks of hair could be visible under the hood exited to meet him. She walked out in front of the others, taking her right arm from the cover of her cloak, revealing a grotesque clawed arm of a demon. The arm was a fleshy red colour, similar to an arm that was recently skinned, and burned… and thrown into a pit, then stomped by a diseased eleph- Oh my friggin' god, that is HORRID.

Wait. Benjin squinted his eyes to get as much detail as possible. Are those EYEBALLS? Sure enough, multiple blue bulbs resembling reptilian eyes littered her entire fore arm. Benjin pulled back his lips into his mouth while his nose scrunched up in disgust.

"You wanted the demon to come out, right? Well, here I am." Despite her calm demeanor, Benjin could tell that she was afraid from the way he was looked at.

"Wait, you can't!" The little girl pleaded. "He'll hurt you!"

Ok time for an aura check… Okay, nothing out of the ordinary. Benjin slightly widened his eyes. Not bad, pretty large aura. The blonde gave another look at the… arm, before once again scrunching up, to the older girl's irk.

"Are you sure you're a demon?" Benjin kept glancing back and forth the arm and the three. "You don't look… horny" he put his fingers on both sides of his temples to mimic horns, causing her to stare back with a deadpan expression. Darn, I was actually looking forward to kicking some imps around.

Said boy edged towards Benjin while swinging his arms down. "She's not a demon!" He once again shouted at him with his fear no longer present.

Please shut up, god! Benjin pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the incoming headache.

"Okay, okay, I get it. But seriously though what's with…" Benjin made another face while pointing at the arm, annoying the white-haired girl yet again, "That."

"…"

"…"

"…"

The three kids stared at each other, as if silently debating whether or not to tell. They began making weird faces at each other with the boy constantly shaking his head. Eventually, the two younger kids slumped in reluctance, while giving Benjin one final glare.

"…I guess we can tell you." The eldest of the trio gestured him to enter the house. Well okay, maybe there's free food?

Upon entering, Benjin took notice at the interior of house - the conditions were much worse than the one he himself had lived in.

Wow, and here I thought I would be able to find cool stuff here. As he looked around the house, he saw a painting of two people, a white-haired man and a brown-haired woman embracing each other. It was not of the best quality, but it wasn't difficult to conclude that they were the parents of the three kids.

He focused his magic to try to feel more auras; however, it seemed that those three were the only ones in here not including himself. Either their parents were out, or they… died. Benjin's gaze travelled to the ground, his eyes crestfallen and his lips parted. Boy, I know how that feels.

The three kids proceeded to sit around a crude dining table. Benjin pulled a stool from his dimension and followed suit. "Before we start, why don't we introduce ourselves," the eldest girl gave him a guarded look. She had a more mature face compared to the younger sister… Lisanna?

Wow, if all imps were like her, I probably wouldn't kick them, maybe. Although he had never seen a demon before, his father shown him illustrations of the savage beasts and they were the most frightening things he ever saw. Most of them were gigantic monstrous beings with massive horns protruding from their heads.

"…this is Elfman," she pointed to the boy, "and this is Lisanna," she gestured to the girl. Benjin raised a brow. Wait she didn't even say her own name, oh well.

"I'm Benjin!" The blonde gave a confident smile. Sounds so much cooler than Elf-man… hehe. "So, weird-arm wh-"

"Mira-jane!" The girl turned away and crossed her arms, obviously not happy. Oops.

Benjin rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Okay… so what happened here?"

Mirajane sighed, before beginning. "It happened like this…"

The village of Citrus was in chaos, it was being attacked by a demon known as Arzea - a succubus subservient to one of the great three, Diablo. It was an unprovoked attack as it was the first time anyone in the village has ever interacted with a member of her race. Arzea was supposedly an intelligent demon; however, she was behaving like a savage - she screeched randomly while constantly attacking the church - and only the church.

It was at this time that a lone white-haired girl ran towards the church. She attempted to fight the demon despite not knowing any magic herself.

As she neared, Arzea did not pay attention to her. She instead focused on doing as much damage as possible to the church, continuously swiping it with demonic energy. The girl only had basic combat knowledge, but she still went and engaged the demon. She was able to send a strike to the demon's back; however, instead of a strike, she felt as if there an internal tug of war between the demon and herself.

The demon did not put up much resistance, no doubt due to the state of her mind causing her to have an extremely weak will. The moment the demon was overpowered, the girl felt an inflow of power into her body, simultaneously transforming her arm into the same likeness as the demon she defeated.

Despite defeating the demon, the girl received no praise nor gratitude. Instead, she was treated as a demon as the villagers believed her to be possessed. They even went as far as to harass her and attack her, forcing her to live in isolation from the rest of the village.

Wow.

Those villagers honestly sounded like a bunch of assholes. Gesturing to the girl, he asked "if staying here brings all of you so much trouble, why not just leave?" The kids looked at each other in silence, their eyes distant while a forlorn expression was plastered on each of their faces.

"This is our home, it's our parent's house" the eldest answered. "We don't want to leave…" She began gripped the fabric of the cloak. "We have… nowhere else to go." I guess, I can kind of understand. If not for whatever came that day, he probably would have chosen to stay in his old home.

After a couple minutes of silence, the three kids began staring out of the window, where it showed a path leading out of the village.

Benjin stared at the floor, before glancing to the three. They must really want to leave… But what could he do? It wasn't like he could just store the entire house with him… could he? He still had his limits, and he was sure this was something that he just couldn't do.

Looking completely stumped, Benjin put his hands to his temples and began massaging them, trying hard to think. What would dad do? Sure, he could probably just tie them up and carried them away. But they would probably just return here. Dad… would have used his words. His father always knew exactly what to say. If he was truly his son, maybe he could do it too?

Benjin got out of his stool and walked to the center of the trio, putting a hand on the two younger sibling's shoulders, to the slight irk of the boy. The siblings looked at him curiously as he put on a gentle smile and began to say.

"Hey, I'm not experienced at stuff like this but…" he gave all three children a glance before looking out the window.

"Home isn't a land, village, or some rundown shack like this," Benjin saw three slight glares towards him, probably not happy he just insulted the house. He rolled his eyes, continuing.

"Anyway, it's somewhere where you can just sit down," Images of his parents smiling at him flashed across his mind, causing a slight frown, "and say, this is where I want to be."

The eldest girl looked down in thought, before facing the blonde. "But we can't just-" she was interrupted by Benjin patting her head - causing a small huff to escape the girl's lips.

"I probably don't have any business saying this but," Benjin glanced around, gesturing to the junk lying around the house, as well as the bruises on her siblings. "Is this really where you want to be?"

"…"

Closing his eyes, Benjin walked towards the front door, getting ready to leave the three. "From what I see, there's really not much for you here," Just like how there wasn't much for me in that village. "I'll tell the villagers I 'vanquished' you or something, maybe that'll help." A silent stare from the three.

Benjin gave one last glance at the siblings before leaving. "I'll see you three around, I guess…"

After Benjin left the trio, he could only stare at the ground. They still have each other… Seeing the three care for each other, reminded him that he was alone. Benjin sighed as he looked up towards the sky. Light's on my side my butt…

While being lost in his thoughts, Benjin did not notice the crowd of villagers until they began murmuring at him. Raising his head up, he looked at the villagers with an expression filled with fatigue and annoyance.

"If you are wondering about the 'demon', I punted it in the face many times and is now dead." What the hell am I even saying?

A man dressed in a long brown robe walked forward with a slight smile. "Wonderful! The demon attacked our village and possessed a girl!" he extended an arm up and tried to shake Benjin's hand. "We could not thank you enough for getting rid of her!" Did he just say her?

Wow. Just wow. He didn't think it was possibly to eclipse the asshole scale to this degree, but wow. Screw it. He was done here, and never coming back.

"If there's anything we can do for you, just say!" Benjin sighed, before his eyes landed on a cart of food.

He pointed to the stack, a grin on his face. "Can I have that?"

The man looked at the wagon, before shrugging his shoulder. "Our extra potatoes?" He looked back at Benjin, who was still grinning. "Sure, it's probably going to go bad anyway, it's the least we can do for our little junior exorcist!" The blonde felt a hand ruffle his hair, to his dismay.

"…Thanks." Benjin walked towards the wagon before focusing his magic. After about thirty seconds, a golden rippling portal appeared above it, descending and taking the entire thing into his storage dimension. A bit draining, but nothing too serious. Once he finished, he walked past the crowd of gossiping men and women and made for the edge of the village.

On the corner of his eye, he could see three familiar tufts of white hair entering the forest to the West, bringing a smile to his face.

Good Luck.

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Chapter 3 finished! Next Chapter: A Library?

[1]: Chi-roh symbol

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