Finally, we're ready to begin Act IV. And, like always, we start it with the Interlude.

But first, a little response to the reviews:

Dr. Bob - Thanks, I appreciate that you liked my version for Alice and Decus' first meeting, I try to keep the canon character's origins as close to the originals as possible, so people feel more at home with AU's. To be sincere, in the game why Alice saved Decus in the orphanage was never really explained. She might have liked him from the beggining or not. Well, I think it goes as that old saying: love and hate walk hand-to-hand.

Also, their story sounds like something out of Shakespeare. I mean, what with the whole "You said I despised you, but... I always loved you." *dies* "Oh Decus... don't worry... we'll meet again..." *dies*?

Emil C - If you really like Genis and you and other Genis' fans wanted him to have more space, I think you'll love this version of him.

Now, this interlude has the sole objective of introducing to you all the last member of the original canon heroes, Genis Sage. Or rather, General Sage. As you all could see from the last chapter, Genis wasn't raised by Raine. Quite the contrary. Here I'll give you a basic idea on his personality, thoughts, values and whatnot.

Thinking now, I never saw good fics with a Desian Genis that weren't parodies, but I always thought that if he applied ot them, he would quickly raise ranks with his expertise on magic. My basic intent is to turn Genis into one of the party's most powerful foes; an ass-kicking, master spellcaster of questionable sanity.

Genis: Yeah! ... wait. Questionable sanity?

Also, he gets to pwn Lloyd

Genis: That sounds interesting. *smiles*

But, unfortunatly, as you all must have guessed, there won't be any GenisXPresea in this fic, or anything remotely close to it.

Genis: WHAT?

After all, he was raised to hate humans and think of them as scum.

Genis: But... but... you mean I'll stay alone the entire fic?

Not necessarely. But who you might like is a closely kept secret that I won't reveal under any kind of torture.

Genis: Oh reaaaally? *grins and changes title and costume to "Demon's Student"* Soldiers! Capture this mongrel!

Oh-oh. Gotta go! Good reading! *runs off with a horde of demons following*

Genis: I think I'll like this General thing.

Interlude:
The Demon's Student

The setting was a battlefield and the opponents were a battalion of the Martel Knights. Their weapons consisted of ballistae, catapults and even some rifles which were used before the magitechnology canons and bazookas were developed.
Relics of the old times. the general who coordinated the demonic troops thought as the two sides clashed in a fierce dance of fire, steel, blood and death. This is boring…
A fourteen years old-looking boy with silver hair and aqua-blue eyes was resting his head on his hand, with this one set against a rock which he was sitting near to. The boy was dressed in a royal blue cloak with white linings and black, runic symbols along its edges, black shirt, gray gloves with yellow symbols engraved at their back, platinum-colored boots with bat wings-like ornaments at the sides and a silver collar on his neck with more golden runes engraved. Anybody who looked at him, would have instantly dismissed him as a bored child, however, such description couldn't be further from the truth.
"Rahishi. Tell them to press the attack on the left flank and the Tyrants should concentrated on throwing the humans up in the air, while the Scion Snipers shoot them," the boy called in well-pronounced demonic.
A demon with a woman's appearance, wearing a crimson and golden armor, bearing a wicked-looking sword at her waist looked at him, not in a contenting manner like demons normally would do to the Aselians, but with military professionalism and respect, like they would do to a commanding officer.
"As you wish, my General," the demonic woman with golden eyes, crimson hair and fanged canines replied. She then passed on the orders to the other demons who immediately complied, turning the tide of that battle.
The Purge Inquisitors' left flank immediately collapsed under the overwhelming numbers of the demons and the operators of the artillery couldn't fire in fear of hitting their companions who were sent airborne by the powerful bashes of the Tyrant's limb-shields.
Brown demons using gray-dull armors, helmets with glass visors and bearing two wrist mounted longbows, fired several arrows in a rapid succession skewering the airborne Martel Knights. Some of their arrows were deflected by the blessed armors, but others managed to hit the humans in the gaps of the armors, making blood rain in the battlefield, which made some of the demons of the beast species go into frenzy and attack with renewed vigor.
"Battle is proceeding as expected, General Sage," the demon woman said with a smile of admiration.
General Genis Sage was one of the most famous and feared members of the Desians. The Renegades and Vanguard never faced him if they could help it. The boy might have a young appearance, but the Desians and the resistance organizations knew better. Genis was what few could call a true prodigy.
Since he was a little child, Genis had been trained by Nebilim himself and ever since he learned to speak, the half-elf was already uttering enchantments and spells. Genis was a peerless spellcaster with proficiency in all elements, save for chaos. However, there was one thing that differentiated him from the other Desians and that was the motive why he strived so hard to win every battle he faced: Genis was a normal half-elf. The transfusion ritual which normally would result in him having demonic blood was a failure, because his body and soul rejected said blood completely.
He was mocked by that, since that would make him "weak". However, Genis proved that just because he was still a pure-blooded half-elf that didn't mean he was useless. With his great intellect and natural talent for magic, Genis asked Lord Nebilim to intensify his training and eventually became more powerful than any other Desian General.
His acute brain was also capable of forming excellent tactics, which always resulted in victory. However, even with his shining career and perfect score, Genis was still looked down, but his own kinsmen.
No… by half-demons. the young-looking General corrected himself. They ceased to be of the same race as me.
The demons, naturally, looked at him with scorn. But there was also another motive why he refused to take another attempt at a transfusion…
"You carry within yourself the heirloom of the elven people," Lord Nebilim once said to him. "So, you must learn everything about your people's lore, otherwise, who will keep their memory and culture alive?" when Genis asked him why he was saying that, all Nebilim did was smile and say. "You have the potential for great things, Genis. Never doubt that. Someday, you will revive the memory of the elves."
Genis took those words to heart and asked Nebilim to teach him every spell known to the elves. In only one year, Genis already knew every spell known to Aselia. He then started experimenting to create some of his own. The silver haired boy's enthusiasm for magic knew no bounds and his "colleagues" often said he got a freaky gleam on his eyes whenever someone mentioned a different form of magic or a new spell near him, but Genis didn't pay attention to them. Some people simply didn't realize the wondrous science that was the study of magic or the beauty of manipulation of the elemental forces.
Since Genis couldn't properly command demonic troops due to his lack of a connection to them that would put him in a disadvantage in comparison to the other generals. Nebilim then decided that Genis would be allowed to choose aides who would relay his orders to the demonic troops. It was then that Genis met Rahishi, or Sun's Blade.
She was a demon of high species that was sent to Aselia as a test to enter the Knight Guild, the organization that served directly under Grand Demon Lord Nerithmas and which was said to only accept the best-of-the-best between the high demons. Granted, getting her support hadn't been easy, like the other demons, she was skeptical to follow Genis, but after a series of events and a particularly violent sparring session, Genis managed to convince her that he was worthy serving.
When they entered the battle field, Rahishi's first reaction to how Genis led things was a jaw-drop, later it became admiration and soon it turned into pride. Genis had that calculative look about him, like he was constantly thinking on how he could make things go his way.
Since Genis had so much to prove, he didn't fight for the fun of making the humans suffer or for vengeance. He fought to win. Genis utterly crushed any resistance on his path and didn't spare his adversaries, if orders didn't dictate the contrary. However, he also felt some contempt for the humans, like the other Desians. For the way they twisted the world, oppressed his race and nearly destroyed all forms of magic when they burned the mana out of existence.
Plus, the bastards killed my family with their stupid war. Genis thought. He might not fight solely for vengeance, but he thought a little retribution was in order.
He looked at the battlefield again, where the Martel Knights were struggling against the fierce onslaught of demons. It seemed they decided to play serious, for they brought strange, spherical devices and placed it on the catapults, firing them over the demon hordes. When the devices exploded, Genis felt all of the chaos energy around burn while some demons either lost their powers or were severely weakened by the sudden shortage of their element.
"Disruptive Bombs, huh? Well, aren't they a clever bunch of hypocrites?" Genis said with a smirk.
"General?" Rahishi asked, looking at her superior.
"The Church condemn the study of the demonic lore, but how do you think they are able to produce something like this if they don't have a good understanding of the workings of demonic energy?" he replied in his aide's native language.
"Why would they condemn the study of the enemy's strength when that would allow them to fight better? That doesn't make any sense," Rahishi said, rolling her at another example of what she called "human stupidity".
Genis smiled to his aide. That was one thing he liked in her; she saw things from a logical standpoint. Genis looked and saw the battle was now titling once more. He sighed.
"Alright, enough of this waste of time. Rahishi…" he said, looking at her. The demonic woman nodded and Genis muttered a quick enchantment.
A runic circle appeared under the demoness' feet and in a blink of eyes she disappeared, just to reappear at the other extremity of the battle field, near the ballistae and catapults. When the Martel Knights noticed her approach, she had already drawn her sword and ignited the blade. What came next was a show of flames, burnt wood and charred corpses. The Purge Inquisitors tried to fight back, but even their so-called blessed blades were unable to counter Rahishi's flaming sword and their armors quickly melted at the super-heated strikes of otherworldly fire.
Without the artillery support, the Martel Knights quickly started losing ground and were effortlessly killed by the demons. Rahishi walked back to Genis, looking at the bloodbath that the once equilibrated battle had turned into. She shot a look of contempt to one of the Martel Knight's corpses and soon reached Genis.
The young-looking half-elf clapped at her with a smile on his face. He spoke:
"Bravo! Truly, I could see the fires from here."
"Thank you, my General," Rahishi said, putting one hand over her left breast and bowing to him.
"Now, pack it all up, we're done here,"
Before Rahishi could reply, a runic circle appeared in mid-air and moved revealing another demon woman, this one with black hair and blue eyes without irises. She used what appeared to be a white garment in the same style as those of Mizuho (a kimono, if Genis wasn't mistaken) and pink hair ornament at the right side of her head.
"Greetings, Master Genis," the demoness said, bowing to him from her waist up.
"Reriki," Genis acknowledge her with a smile.
Reriki was Genis' second aide, a demoness who was very proficient at the usage of seal spells, although her chaos magic was considered mid-level at best. Recruiting her had been easier for the half-elf, for she seemed to immediately have taken a liking to him, if her insinuations that he was cute and that he looked like he could satisfy her (something that Rahishi greatly disapproved of).
She smiled to him and took something from inside her white kimono, giving it to Genis:
"A message from Lord Nebilim."
"Really?" Genis asked, his interest perking up. He just received assignments directly from Nebilim when it was something important.
Generally, Genis was tasked with dealing with minor resistances or some bothersome Martel Knights by the Desian Grand Cardinals. The young-looking half-elf considered these duties quite dull, since he still had to find a decent adversary that could match his prowess. He heard the rumors about some human named Kratos Aurion giving trouble to even General Narom and had hoped he would cross paths with this Kratos, but had no such luck until now.
That man sounded quite competent, if what the rumors say is true. Genis thought as he opened the message and read it.
He saw it was his next assignment and… here his smile turned into a grin as he chuckled. His aides asked what was it and the small general answered:
"Finally! Lord Nebilim has given me permission to go after Ratatosk's group. And from what he says here, there is also suspicion of there being a reincarnated Summon Spirit in Ozette. I'm to meet up with him to set a trap. It seems he already informed Pronyma to set up a situation that will allow us to take care of the subject."
"Oh, is that so? Do we get to have some fun with this Summon Spirit?" Reriki asked with a smile.
"Why would you want to? They are our enemies, remember?" Rahishi replied.
"Oh Rahishi… you're such a close-minded person. It doesn't matter what somebody is, what matters is what he can do in a bed," Reriki said that with a bright smile on her face.
There was a moment of silence. Rahishi then bashed Reriki's head with the blunt side of her blade. While the kimono-wearing demon was nursing a bump on her head with tears running in the sides of her face, Rahishi scolded:
"Honestly, I should have known what kind of fun you were talking about, you succubus whore,"
"I'm a spiritual demon," Reriki complained.
"Then you must be part succubus."
Genis sweatdropped at watching the banter between his two aides. Apparently, the two had met each other before, if Rahishi's accusations of Reriki being an air-headed, perverted, half-succubus was anything to go by. He wondered if the spiritual demon had stolen Rahishi's mate or something.
That wouldn't be a surprise, considering Reriki's promiscuous behavior and the way she flirts even with me.
The silver haired Desian never stopped to think about his looks or how the opposite sex viewed him, that is, until Reriki came under his command. Thinking about it now, the reason why she joined him was because she said she was "bored of those guys that were all just talk, but couldn't properly satisfy her." Fortunately, that had been after he had recruited Rahishi, otherwise he might have been raped by the nymphomaniac demoness (he didn't know why, but whenever she approached him, looking like she wanted to take him, he found himself unable to concentrate and cast a spell to repel her).
"Anyway, prepare everything," Genis said, regaining control of the situation, his two aides composing themselves again. "We set out immediately."
"Yes, General Sage!" the two women said and proceeded to command the demonic troops to clean up.
Genis turned and started to walk away of the battlefield, his eyes shining with an almost maniacal gleam as he thought:
Ratatosk… I heard you use a unique kind of magic, one that utilizes your own spiritual energy as fuel. I can't wait to see just how strong your magic is!