Velvet gasped for air.

The saltiness of the air under a shadowed moon highlighted the world around. Everything ached, from her head to her feet. Clothing felt like itched rags, digging into her skin. Where was this?

Her eyes scanned the local area. Lips venting stale air. By the grace of clouds moving out of the way of a full moon, the world was painted around her. Ruined marble pillars surrounding a massive hole in the ground. Light crashing sounds of the ocean against the cliff's bottom.

"Th-this is…"

The ruins near Aball.

She crawled her way to her feet. Muscles already flaming and hurting as she barely stood. But she found her strength, taking her first steps closer. Leaning against the pillars, she found something new.

A new pillar was erected just before the ruins. Minor salt erosion chipped bits and pieces. Maybe a ruffian who thought little of the thing. Even under the darkened skies, Velvet could clearly see what this thing was.

To the villages of Aball, who souls could not be saved.

Velvet closed her eyes, leaning against the monument. It looked like the people of Eastgand hadn't forgotten the small village by the cliff. Her heart dropped like a weight.

Too many questions, too little answers.

The walk back through the woods back to her old home was devoid of life. Even the fallen leaves felt dead. A light breeze shook the fallow branches, casting shadows all along the path. Small snow mounds littered the pathway. A chill crawled down her body.

Wait… I'm… cold? Her eyes widened. But… was she still a therion? Or even a daemon?

Reactively, Velvet held her bandaged arm out. The mutated wolfen claw manifested and ripped the bandages away. Another simple thought and it disappeared underneath the ragged cloth. Hesitantly, she rolled up some of the tatters. Black and dark red veins menacingly flared, mimicking human flesh. Much like the side of Rokurou's face, revealing his true daemonic nature.

Right, back to the path at hand. No daemons seemed to trend around. Velvet checked herself again. Her wrist-blade loosely protruded a stub. Still broken after her battle with Artorius. Kicking her leg forward, a small blade pointed out of her boot.

It's something.

Her nose dripped. The cold weather was getting to her, and it wasn't as chilly as Northgand! But her short journey came the gates of her old hometown. Small black puffs floating upwards. Her eyes widened. That was the direction of her home! Against the pain, Velvet sprinted through the gate, noisily crunching against the burrow.

Just in front of her house, before her parent's graves, stood a single person. A long, tight ponytail held her hair together. A simple straight bang cut across her fair face with eyes that looked 'homely'.

"… C-celica?" Velvet coughed, fatigue settling in.

The woman gasped at her, rushing back to her home as the front doors burst open. Another person was inside. With long brown hair, the other person stood with twin blades at her side, flipped around. Her eyes darted around, spotting Velvet.

The other woman hid behind her as the rage Velvet felt earlier erupted again. Was she graverobber? How dare she used her house as home? Did she not respect the dead?!

Velvet leapt towards them, but her knees felt softer than before. She tripped and…

darkness.

-.-.-

When she woke up again, Velvet found herself in a bed. A familiar view of her home. The pain about her joints and body felt real. At least, what she remembered.

"Oh, you're awake."

She turned her head, seeing the same woman before the graves. Her hair was silver with a hint of mint. Eyes like turquoise gems. A fair face, one that seemed all too familiar to her. But there was one thing for sure. She was not a human.

A malak.

"W-who are..?" Velvet coughed again as the woman bent down, hand over her forehead.

"Mhmmm, a bit warm. Or, it's just me. Hang on, let me get… Amelia!"

Moments later, another woman stepped into the room. The other person that burst through her front doors. Warm pupils looked back as she smiled.

"I didn't expect to find someone, looking among the dead." The woman known as Amelia said, "You're Velvet Crowe, aren't you?"

"H-how would you know my name?"

"Oh, where are my manners?" She cleared her throat. "I am Amelia Le'Blanc, former Legate of Shepherd Hume's Exorcist corps. Now, just wandering do-gooder."

Velvet's brow lowered. Her mind spun like a top at her words. Shepherd Hume? The crybaby Exorcist? Eleanor became a Shepherd to the people? If this was a dream, it was a hilariously bad one starting off.

"Former?"

"Hume called a diaspora order. The entire organization splintered and… went our separate ways."

Her frown deepened. "That doesn't sound like Eleanor at all."

"There're many questions you wanna ask, but let's start slow. Can you do something minor things? Lailah, ball please." The other tossed over a small ball.

Amelia walked over to Velvet's bedside, opening her fingers up and closing them around the ball. Damn it, I can barely move…

"Try squeezing the ball."

The daemon snarled and curled her fingers up. It wasn't a particularly hard ball, made of some soft leather but it felt like pouring lava into her veins as she crunched up.

"Ok, let go."

Velvet breathed, and the ball fell from her hand.

"I'm surprised you managed to walk, much less scream."

Velvet felt her daemon arm flare up. Was it sarcasm?

"Velvet Crowe, how long do you think it's been?"

She closed her eyes. Dreams mended together, sometimes accelerating or retarding her sense of time.

"I don't know." She said.

"Alright." Amelia visibly gulped, slowly walking away. "Try not to panic. I'm afraid it's been…

Seven years

Her heart dropped. Emotions washing over as small purple wisps manifested around her shoulders and head. Seven years? She knew it could be a long time, but she hoped it was… Velvet gulps felt dry and parched, scratching and burning down her throat as the malak Lailah ran into kitchen. Muscles twists and bound as Amelia leapt to action, holding her down.

"Velvet! Please, calm down!"

Lailah returned with a glass of water as she passed it to the brunette, who quickly tilted it down the therion's throat.

Slowly, the malevolence around her disappeared. And darkness found her once again.

-.-.-

Propped up like a wooden plank, Velvet audibly growled. Whatever strength that she pulled herself from the ruins near Aball completely abandoned her. Now in the custody of some strange woman saying she was Eleanor's Legate, a small pus of disgust welled in her throat.

Eleanor wouldn't reuse the same names the Abbey used… right? The talk over the ocean, under the moon. She remembers it so lividly. For her it was like yesterday.

For her, it must've felt like an eternity.

"Say 'ahh'!" Lailah holds out a spoon with some porridge. Velvet opened her mouth, taking a bite as Lailah smiled. Apparently, she was a fire-malak.

"You do know I am the Lord of Calamity." Velvet huffed, swallowing.

"And we have fought a many pretender Lords of Calamity. They aren't all bad." She smiled. This type of carefree and happiness was almost infectious.

"Hmph." The fire malak continued to feed her, drumming her fingers across bowl's rim. "Mhmm, I wonder if you can take solids. You can take liquids just fine! Don't think you can have gases!"

The loopy one… Does it have to be the loopy one? Velvet internally groaned. Puns. Bad puns. Really shitty puns that just want you to punch the person that made it.

Not that she would (or could) for that matter. Instead, the therion woman leaned back in her spot, swallowing her food as Lailah gave another spoonful.

"Tell me something…" Velvet finally spoke again. "Why does this place still look like somebody's been living here? It's been seven years since we came through."

"Oh, Eleanor always came here. At least… twice a year? Yeah, about twice a year. And she keeps this place clean and nice and pretty!"

"She would even do that…" Her eyes gazed to the side. Velvet closed her eyes turning back to Lailah. "These past seven years… Eleanor becoming a Shepherd… What was she like?"

"Eleanor is… a very refined person. She keeps herself so upright, so poised. Even when several malakhim wanted to take revenge on humans."

"They… they did?" From all the malakhim they came across, to the many that still retained free will or the ones that broke free when Innominat's domain was suppressed, they all just wanted to get away from humans.

"W-what of the malevolence?"

"For them, they didn't care. The Abbey had done enough damage that a few willing wanted to become dragons or drakes just to simply rampage across continent and islands."

She stared back, lips open before quietly resigning. Who was she to speak against this? Countless malakhim, forced into servitude by the Abbey.

"It worked didn't it?"

"Eleanor was able to settle with them yes. It took a whole two years before she started rebuilding the Abbey to follow Maotelus."

Something stung in the back of her mind. "It wasn't the easiest thing, was it?"

"Many former Exorcists, especially the Praetors, denounced her. They called her a 'traitor' and 'usurper', taking Artorius's place."

Velvet growled. It's not like they'd know the truth. And yet…

"But you and Amelia remained."

"Only a handful of followers and priests remained. Not many malakhim trust humans now. It only got worse when the disappearances started."

"Dis… appearances?"

"Only a year and a half ago, we've been getting reports of disappearances. It started with a few traders. Maybe a farmer. Then it came entire convoys. Ships disappeared."

"No signs of daemons?"

"If it were daemons, we would've dealt with it. But this is… too strategized. Too controlled to be raiders."

"She's right you know."

Lailah and Velvet turned to see Amelia, just returned with fresh goods from Telliesin and local kills for food. A bit of blood splashed against the top layer of her clothes.

"People are losing their ability to see malakhim, but a good amount of that comes from Maotelus's Lord of the Land faltering."

"The Lord of the Land?" The raven-haired woman asked.

"Mhmm, you know how Innominat had great power? Empyreans, no matter what they say, are still malakhim. Every bit of their power comes from those that empower it."

"That's why the Abbey wanted to spread Innominat's teaching." Velvet blinked. "It'd make it a lot easier for his Suppression."

"Exactly. Maotelus's worship worked for awhile, Eleanor being an okay leader but… Well, she's not Artorius."

Angry flared. It was true. Artorius did have a charismatic aura about him, even before he was a Shepherd and the so-called "Savior of Mankind". But even that caused problems back then. If Eleanor didn't have that, then… what did she have?

A caring heart, a warm and courageous smile. It was the smaller things that made her… her.

Velvet's cheeks glowed a small red color as Amelia and Lailah worried. "Are you having a fever?"

"N-no."

"Regardless, as much as Prince Asgard supports her, if the people do not… There's very little he can do." Amelia looked to the side, drumming her fingers against her arm. "There's a few nobles that still believe that Artorius's method was the correct choice."

"WHAT?!" Velvet nearly leaped up from her seat, getting a coughing fit as Lailah helped her back down.

Amelia winced, "It's strange isn't it? Even with the truth, people are all too easy to fall to something more familiar."

The therion bit down hard. Her teeth could handle it. Even as people became mindless dolls, preaching about their logic and reason, they still wanted a world like that? Just because of all the daemons that roamed?

Then what happened with what Eizen said? Given some time, humans still stop seeing malakhim? Was seven years just not enough?

"In fact, it's kinda made it more scary with Maotelus's weakened power and resonance flipping out. Daemons manifesting in and out, frights are so common, and with the disappearances, people just lost faith in the Shepherd."

Amelia looked at Velvet. "There's been talk in the last half year about another Lord of Calamity appearing. And Eleanor's gone off to solve it with another Legate."

Her bound teeth let loose. Jaw finally slacking again. "So what? It's up to her to figure out what she wants to do."

"Aren't you at all concerned? Like whatever happened with the rest of your comrades? Eleanor always held them in high regard."

"I'm not. I…" She fell silent.

Passed her revenge, passed her feelings…

In the end, only Laphicet and herself remained.

Her mind so focused on that one pivotal moment, the defining end between her and Artorius. She left the world as it was for the rest of them to take care of it, to clean up the mess she created.

And now, she was back.

And for what?

It was almost like the time she saw her brother's talk about what happened. She was lost again. No longer human. Just another monster.

So why did these two still help? Was it pity?

"Can't find the answer huh?" Amelia looked to the side. "I can sympathize. If you still wanna be that Lord of Calamity, there's nothing really stopping you now. Hell, I'm surprised you still have some muscle definition, and just a lack of exercise and movement. You're recovering faster than a normal human too. Maybe it's because you're a daemon?"

Velvet looked to the side. The infinite cycle of malevolence and cleansing was supposed to keep both sealed. The question still rattled in her head.

"But that's all old news now. There's plenty of people that'll want you dead, running around with a name like that."

"A brand new start!" Lailah giggled. "And nothing to Lord over you!"

Velvet stared at the fire malak then back to Amelia, who casually looked away. It was hard to laugh. Harder to smile. The joke, while cringe-inducing, was welcomed. She'd have to ask her some more later.

But their short-lived antics faded as she coughed, sinking into the blankets, spent and tired again. She wondered how much longer she'd have to stay confide like this.

Held by a strange malakhim and her master, Velvet couldn't shake being unnerved. She didn't have a choice now. For now, she'll just have to trust them to help her.

Was this to be her reborn life?

I know "Rebirthing" is not a word, maybe I'm just that edgy...

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