It was bigger than Babyls as a whole, books flew back to their shelves. Some were tormenting the talkers. I went up to the help screen and typed in what I was looking for. The screen turned red, error, restricted access.
"Can I help you?"
I looked at the lady wearing a long white robe. "I am looking for anything regarding the origin of demons."
"No. That is restricted to the head librarian only."
"Listen, this is important. I'm from border patrol, and we are coming across demons who display origin like traits. We need to learn how to combat this."
Her eyes narrowed, and I showed her my eyes. "I see, this way." I followed her deep into the library, to a door with a lock on it. "He has not come out of there since Derkila left. Good luck getting in there."
"Then why bring me here. He could be dead."
"He is not, we still feed him. If you want the answers bad enough, you will find a way to open the door." She turned and walked away.
What a joke, how was I supposed to know how to open a door he did not want to be opened? I looked at the door, hands on my hips. "Open sesame." I chuckled. "Abracadabra." I laughed harder. I took a deep breath. "Open up old man, we in a crisis!" Books rained down attacking me. I put up a shield smirking.
I peered around the edges, at the top was Old Latin, I read it out loud for Khotan. "I walked away." Down the sides were gears made of gold leading to a number wheel that was in the same language. It was a puzzle, I sat down.
Pulling out my notebook, it might be a date. Something recent. Recently here, was like a thousand years old. I moved the dial to the most recent one where Derkila disappeared, he had walked away. The start of downfall in society in this era. The door clicked and clanked, shifting.
The number wheel transformed into a slid panel with numbers. Another puzzle.
'One step closer, what did you put in.'
I whispered. "The date of Derkila's disappearance in old Latin. The numbers look different than new Latin and even the language we speak now. We must put the dates into the door of significate events. This one says, 'new era."
'Derkila's date of inauguration was the start of a new era. He changed many things.'
I shifted the tiles around, putting the numbers in the dates order. It took me a minute to figure out how to move the tiles. It did nothing, another date maybe? I looked over the panel, three empty slots spaced together. I rearranged to put a space between the day month and year.
It clicked, shifting to a pin wheel for an astrological decode. A giddy little smile on my face. "Downfall of a city, easy. The last day of the longest night under the Cerberus constellation." I moved the days and the exact time according to the book. It clicked and clanked into a new puzzle.
'What was that?'
"I read history too, this one says 'prosperity." I entered the date of establishment for Orlantus. It moved and clanked. "Tainting" this number was much longer. Possibly in the tens of thousands of years. I knew the calendar also changed.
I tried a few times, but it was not correct. Khotan gave me a date he was told. That also did not work. I tried going back day by day, I spent twelve hours and then it clicked. I let out a sigh of relief. How many more would I have to answer?
"Birth of a goal." This one had a button to submit the answer.
'I am unsure, before the tainting most of society and history was not written. This library is only as old as the tainting.'
I sat back down, birth of a goal. The librarian said he has been in there since Derkila left. I looked at the sides again, a creation date was shortly before he left the throne. The numbers were short again, like we skipped forward. Think, dumb brain, think.
"Looks like you're stuck, everyone gives up after this one. It is unknown. You only get six tries and the door slams shut for a year" I looked at the librarian.
"Do you know it?"
She shook her head. "You would be the six hundred, and sixty-sixth person if it shuts on you. I will say you solved some of those faster than others. I went through all the books here trying to find any hint to the birth of a new goal. Nothing."
Derkila had a new goal when I died. That would not be in any books, it was only in the journal. I summoned the journal, I flipped to the back. Between this date and that. She tried to look over my shoulders and I summoned Yodh.
"Back up, this is private family affairs."
I tried three different dates starting from the last. It clicked and I wrote down the date in the book. A little bowl protruded out, 'blood.' I cut my finger, and a drop of blood landed in the bowl. It absorbed it and the doors opened to a large room with mountains of books.
"You figured it out. How?"
"It was the day Derkila's sister died."
"He had a sister?"
"Yes, I was reincarnated. Excuse me." I walked into the room Yodh beside me as the doors closed behind me, not allowing her to enter.
I felt so proud of myself, looking at all the books. Testaments older than the date of the tainting. I flipped one open and I tried to bite me. Gnashing its teeth at me it tongue slinging. I hit the book on my head with my fist, and it whimpered, opening on the desk.
Teeth and tongue vanished. "Good boy." I looked through the pages of this era of modern medicine. There was not a whole lot of aliments. Most pertained to injuries, not an illness. One thing, they used humans to gain strength, noting how it caused insanity.
I flipped a stamped 'forbidden' book open; humans were a main course. It was like chicken or beef to humans. Not a part was thrown out, hearts, brains, and livers. The intestines were cleaned for sausage. I closed the book, a shiver at the picture of eyeball soup.
Where is this man? Did it matter anymore? I was here and I could look for myself. "Khotan, start looking. Yodh, we are on the hunt for information on Origins. Leave nothing out, from behavior to how they lived. I want to know everything.
I myself sifted through the stacks and shelves. Anything that pertained to humans was stamped in red ink: Forbidden. Doubles of the ones not forbidden. One would look older than the other, the newer one would say reprint, with a date from within the last thousand years.
Most of these were novels, and stories about the human world and how we pillaged them for game. Then there was some on how humans enslaved demon kind and forced them to have children. Mentions of half breaded demons, and brothels for human pleasure.
They would use the children born in these situations for the same things. I thought I was going to be sick. The vivid storytelling left no detail out. I cried a little, Yodh taking the book from my hands. He shook his head.
"No more of this one. I think you understand enough."
I nodded, moving on. I could not get my mind off it. Was this why humans had all these spicy fantasies about being with something not so human? Was it in the memory of their blood? I know they had novels and other things from over a thousand years ago, but it was seen as fiction.
"The Princess." I closed the book I was looking at, turning. An old man with a beard down to his ankles stood in a long black robe. A cane in his right hand.
"I am Violetta, I solved the door riddle. Little tricky on that last one."
"Not for the one who lived it. Derkila said you would be back within my lifetime; I did not know it would be at the end. This way, I am sure you have many questions." He was going to tell me stuff. Finally real answers.
He took me to a small nook with a wooden table. Little sprouts of tree trying to grow from the edges. "Do sit. I am Alef. I have been inside these walls for nearly a century." He rubbed his chin. "Maybe a century or more. I no longer keep track."
"You said Derkila, my brother. What do you know?"
He rested his head on his cane. "Well, he was dead set on bringing back origins. He said it would solve all war if they could control demons. The queen born of Murdock, the last controlling demon king, said males should not be given such a privilege.
She was the first daughter allowed to live past infancy. Murdock treasured her for her beauty and planned to marry is own daughter. What he did not expect was for her to be able to control him better than he could all others. She led the rebellion."
"The queen?"
"Yes, Muranda. She resides in what you all call the fog. It is her power, control. She controls those lands, and who can leave once they cross. No one is allowed to leave; they are the last few full-blooded demons. I am full blooded demon and have been able to live for over a thousand years. Hmm, I think I am almost two thousand." He nodded off.
"Murdock was who?"
He jumped. "He was the demon king during the tainting. Awful tyrannical man. He enslaved humans just so he could eat them. One faithful night, a demon sleep with a human woman. He stole her from him, and she had the child in secret. He noticed that every time the demon king would call, the child was unaffected."
"And he told others."
"Right, you do know a little. Word spread in hushed whispers and others began to do the same. While these children where not as strong, they were able to use the word magic because of their human side. This gave them the upper hand. Maranda herd and moved to that side of things.
Humans were able to get pregnant fast and were then used to pump out children. Twenty- five years later and they had built an army to rise above the demon king. That is when the male humans joined in. They used their ability of word magic to help in this fight for the right to live freely.
When it was all said and done, the humans were able to mix and mingle as they pleased, thou most chose to go home. They did cross over from time to time, raising armies and crossing over. Steeling demonic children and women. Forcing them into bonds and other heinous things." He took a sip of tea.
"What happen next?"
"The world went to chaos; the humans had perfected their word magic skills. War after war with them, it did not help that demons were no longer organized under one hived mind. Our evil cycles were out of control being mixed with humans.
We could only access a partial of our potential for a short time. We had lost many times, that was when Meranda helped, she could not control but they looked to her and listened. When the war was won and all separated. Only those mixed with demon blood were allowed to stay.
Books were burned in the human realm, their minds erased by Muranda. The boarders were closed, and it took thousands of demon's magic to keep it closed. It did not last too long, humans who remembered came back, but it was an easy fight when we had Derkila.
He killed humans, rather than sent them back. Then he stopped demons from fighting peacefully. He created balance for us all, and a ranking system to keep them in line if he ever were to leave. Many wanted to live by his example. One thing he also did was ask Maranda to erase all their memories of humans. It is a myth now to most."
I gasped. "We lost?"
"No, dear. Derkila came along. He had pure blood, able to control his evil cycles. He and um, Somo…"
"Somya"
"Yes, him. Derkila ended all wars, and realized what it would mean if humans kept coming here. He, himself, Eradicated them with the help of Naberius Somya, and many world beasts. Once every human had been killed off. He shut the borders once more; thou cracks still exist."
"If cracks exist then…"
"They are small and weak, only one can pass through in the span of weeks. With the life span of a human being so short, it would not be worth it. That was when he implemented the ranking system. It was to weed out the weakest.
I was told that most demons are at least half now a days, that the love is love movement is diminishing the progress it had in strengthening the bloodlines. Nobility still marries for strongest abilities. Carrying out Derkila's orders."
"Yes, they do. Weak demons are still hated on, but not as much as in the past."
He pointed his cane at me. "And that is the problem. Humans are a disease themselves. While tasty they create insanity through hunger like a drug. They are not to breed with. It is like trying to breed with a Devi-dog, it does not work in anyone's favor. Mutations, ailments."
He summoned a book. "We used to look like this, all of us but a little different."
He showed me a picture of what seemed like a human, but with ears pointing out, magnificent wings, horns and a tail. Normal in my eyes for what I had seen. There were exceptions, some with wings on the head, or nothing at all.
"Humans blood is disgusting and destructive. Our worlds and races were never meant to mix. Now we have transgressed to this."
He flipped the pages wings of all shapes and sizes, tails of many kinds, or no tails. No horns or misshapen and size differences. Little or no wings. Big ears, little ones. One or more than two eyes. Then the animal mixes. Those mixed with horses, goats, birds, you name it, it happened.
"Did humans mess with animals?"
"They did around two thousand years ago." His face crinkled. "Any animal like demon you see, was descended from some human male impregnating the animal. Disgusting mutations, abominations that should have never been created. There are exceptions, but very few. That is the beast races."
Not just demons, but demonic animals as well. It was gross to think about. I knew humans had disturbing minds, but we always called those things the demons we hid. It was the other way around here. It was the human tendencies we hid. What a flip to the script of what I thought I knew.
"The tiara you wear, it is almost a complete crown. It means you have started the purification process, yes?"
"Not exactly, kind of."
"Ah, so then you have many accomplishments under your wings. The more you use it the more powerful you will become. It also comes with the more that follow you. So, tell me, what have you done." I told him my life story.
"My child, you have been busy. Your brother would be so proud. Keep up the good work and do get to purify the race. We really need to go back to what we had."
"I… Don't want to control anyone."
He chuckled. "You are scared because one was bad. Let me show you the history." He summoned a family tree book. "This one was the favorite; he reformed the world making peace. Oh, this one made sure demons were doing a good job and keeping each other alive.
Jezebel, while she was not full blood, she made the grandest city. She was granted a deity crystal. She created agriculture that help sustain larger cities and communities. Many took her practice and used it. The spell for growing. Quan-Quan. Created by her, she could grow anything.
"Jezebel had my abilities?"
"Not quite, but people followed her every word like she commanded it. It was because she never steered the demons wrong, and she told them just how hard it would be. She also told them how rewarding it would be in the end. A city of solitude now, I am sure it is still prosperous."
"Wait, Derkila did not destroy it?"
"Devi-child, no. She and Derkila made a deal. She did not want her city to be tainted as the last original city. The fog was a mixing of their powers, and it was to preserve the land and keep all others out. If you were not pure blood, you would become lost and wonder until you die.
"I had a dream about that place. The hands consumed me, and they kept asking for help."
"Have you ever gone inside?"
"Um, I think not."
He tilted his head. "But you can see the dead? They touched you, and it felt real." I nodded. "Odd, you see. Are you sure it was a dream?"
"Yodh can tell you."
His ears pulled back. "It was not a dream, I also pulled you from the fog. I misplaced my teleportation trying to leave. Sorry I made you cut your visit short, but they called to you, and you left."
I blinked. It was not a dream. I could not reprimand him for something he helped me with. "No, you helped me. You know me better than I know myself sometimes." I hugged him. "You really are the Bestest boy." His tail wagged as all three heads tried to lick me at once.
"If you still have Cerberus joined to you, then you must be soul bond."
"We are." Yodh snapped. "I am hers for eternity, and I am more than happy with it."
"Yodh, it alright." I scratched his neck; his hind leg thumped the ground.
"Now you know the truth, what are you going to do?" The old man asked.
"What will my blood do to those of animal decent?"
"Well, it could one or the other way. It will turn into a demon, or regress to an animal again. Either way, it needs fixed."
"What if I like the way things are?"
His eyes narrowed. "They get ready for the war of a lifetime. More demons cross the borders as we speak. They already know how the border works, and you cannot fight alone. An army of demons at full power can annihilate humans with word magic. We lost because the power struggle."
"I do not think that will happen. Humans are engulfed in their own dying world, global warming, over population, war, food shortages."
"What makes you think they would not want to take over this one as a fresh start?"
My eyes widened. "Then, more know about humans than I thought. Maybe Baal was not so in the wrong. But. You say humans here and demons think you lost it. You say demon in the human world and people think you lost it. Both consider the other a myth."
"Then hope the day never comes where you worry about humans invading us and taking our land."
If demons were taking over humans in the other world of high positions, then it was possible that demons would lead the armies here. Border patrol was in place, and they maintained things well. A whole staff of demons worked around the clock to keep the barrier in check.
What would happen if it were knocked down by a few slipping through using word magic? Iruma was proof of how word magic was feared here, as well as used. It could be silly spells, or catastrophic. The old man gave me books about word spells and how to counter them.
He gave me origin living books as well. He reminded so often that controlling and leading were two different things. The hive mind should only be used in an emergency. If I permitted freedom no one would rebel against a better standard of living and peace.
Some might see it as a new and strange way of living, but with understanding it would be accepted like it was over five millennium ago. One world under one demon, living together in peace and prosperity. He really believed I could do all of that, that I was this chosen one for all of this.
I never asked for any of this, and now it was piled on my plate. Now that I was here, there was no going back. If I wanted to keep Eli safe, I would have to do nothing but comply with all of this. I took all my materials home and studied them.
