A/N: It’s a new month. Happy new month to everyone.

If you’re not yet in a new month like me, then take it in advance, lol.

Like always, the goals remain the same, yet the targets get higher.

I look forward to your continued support, so without further ado,

Enjoy....

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Both me and Khalifa just stared, shocked at what we just heard.

"What?" Khalifa asked, her voice cracking.

"Please... please... the boy doesn’t deserve this.. I beg of you, I might be worn, but please,,, just use me instead." The demoness was already crying, yet her eyes, her eyes were dead.

I looked deep into those weeping orbs, and though tears fell from her face, though words came out of her lips, she looked dead, like a hollowed out shell.

"Big sis! Big sis!!! Don’t cry!! Don’t cry!! Big brother is good!! He’s not like the other bad man!! He’s really good!! He saved you!! He saved Lucien!! He’s good I swear it!! So don’t cry big sis, you’ll make Lucien cry if you do."

The little boy immediately hugged the crying demoness, his anxious voice trying in any way he could to calm her down.

It seemed to work as the tears slowly stopped, yet her vigilance didn’t relent, it only seemed to go up.

"Lucien... stay behind big sis, alright!? Just let me handle this.." she tried to place the child firmly behind her, but,

Poof!

He was already gone.

His figure appearing before me in a cloud of purple smoke as he grabbed my hand.

"Big brother! Tell her!! Tell her you’re not bad!! You’re not like the other man!! You’re cool and good and tall and cool and, and, and..."

"Alright little man, it’s alright.." I couldn’t help myself as I patted the overexcited boy on his head, eliciting a giggling fit.

"You... what happened to you?" I could hear Khalifa’s heartbroken voice as she approached the apprehensive demoness.

Stopping short of her as the demoness visibly flinched and moved back.

"I’m not.. We are not going to hurt you. We just need to understand what.. happened to you." Khalifa asked, voice lowering to a minimum as she tried to pacify the situation.

The demoness looked between us. Her eyes going from Khalifa, to the little child that had somehow shrunken himself and found a spot on my head, then finally, it landed on me, and when I felt her gaze, my instincts shifted.

Not because she was dangerous.

But because of the overwhelming hatred and killing intent I felt directed at me.

I could have sworn to have never met this demon before in my life, yet the amount of hatred and killing intent I felt from her, one would think I’d slain her entire... family.

My thoughts slowed as the thought crossed my mind.

"Humans.... They’re all the same."

"Selfish. Cruel. Wicked."

"They abuse others just for the sake of it.

Just because they can.

You ask me what happened? You were down there weren’t you?

You saw the bodies didn’t you?

You saw.... Me...

.....

..... Didn’t you?"

Her words sent a chill through my spine, a dreadful thought creeping into my head as my eyes snapped towards the demoness.

She was looking at me as well, tears falling freely from her eyes, hatred and resentment present in her words as she opened her mouth once more,

"You tell me! What do you think happens to a group of captured women that were locked within an underground dungeon, picked out at random, then discarded once they’re no longer of use."

I could see Khalifa already a weeping mess.

"You tell me! WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED!?" Her last words came out a broken yell of pain, hatred, and resentment, as she broke down into full blown sobs.

"Big sis... big sis.. don’t cry.. pl.. please.. don’t cry.." the little demon child also broke down in tears.

I just stood there.

The sounds of weeping surrounding me as I refused to believe the conclusion I’d just come to, so,

"You’re saying...." My voice broke through the weeping noises.

Colder than I expected.

Emotionless.

Yet within it, an unfathomably boiling rage.

"You’re saying... a human.. did... THAT?" I had to confirm.

I didn’t want to believe what this demoness was saying.

Demons were all liars and deceivers, who was to say she wasn’t the same?

Yet the words of the little boy kept ringing in my head.

"He’s not the same as that bad man!"

"Tell me.." I urged...

"Sniff... the heir of the balor duchy was hosting a very important guest, and we happened to have just been captured by a group of human mercenaries, sold as slaves to the balor duchy where we found ourselves within an underground dungeon."

"It started with one woman, then two, then five. Eventually, they got bored, and they came down themselves.

The heir of the duchy Vito balor, and a human male."

"I had already known of the cruelty of demons, their lust and savagery.. yet...." Her words broke down at this point..

"Yet that human... he seemed even worse.."

"He... he...." She stuttered. Her voice shaky as her body started trembling violently.

Khalifa rushed towards her as she hugged the demoness tightly.

"It’s fine.. it’s fine.. they’re all dead... all of them.. you don’t have to be afraid anymore.." she spoke in that soft, gentle manner of hers that always seemed to come out whenever someone needed comforting.

Meanwhile..

"A human...." My teeth were already gritted hard.

I wasn’t feeling bad for the demoness, not even close, all I felt was rage.

An undiluted fit of anger bubbled within me.

"Who dares!!!"

Who dared sully my convictions?

"Who dares!!!"

Who dared put demons in the right?

"WHO. FUCKING. DARES?"

Here I was, campaigning about how demons were a wretched plague, yet reality had to go slap me in the face with this fiasco?

A human?

No.

Impossible!

That madness I’d witnessed within that dungeon, was all the handwork of a HUMAN???

I refused to believe it, so,

"Who...?"

The three of them, Khalifa, the demoness and little Lucien, looked up, and I could see Khalifa and the demoness tremble.

"Who was it?" I asked once more.

"I... I don’t..."

"Big brother!! Big brother!! Lucien knows!!! Lucien remembers his face!!" The excited voice of the little demon child immediately drew my attention as I suddenly kneeled, raising the child to eye level.

"Little fella, do you trust me?" I didn’t know what I was doing, all knew was I needed to wipe this stain off the face of the earth before it spreads.

"Hum. Hum. Lucien trusts big brother to death." The boy nodded with a comically cute serious expression.

"Then close your eyes." I instructed as I instinctively placed my forehead on his, a strange force passing through my body, and flowing into the child as I felt... something, connect with me and the world suddenly brightened.

It was colorful, cheerful, and absolutely beautiful.

The sheer level of optimism and excitement within this strange space was massive enough to temporarily stifle my mounting rage as I finally understood just where I was.

"Soul.... Lucien’s soul." The little boy’s soul was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life.

Beautiful.

Untainted.

And PURE. Were the only words to describe the place, but then, came the vision.

"Hahahahaha... lord caris, it’s the ultimate pleasure of the balor duchy to host a figure such as you."

The voice of a young man sounded out, the face clearing as I finally saw who it was.

"You flatter me, young Vito, I’m merely a messenger, hahahaha." The man the young man was addressing laughed as both figures descended into the underground dungeon,

"Ahhhh... there they are, how have you been my lovelies, did you miss me?" A sickening smile appeared on the man’s face, as the young demon, Vito, the son of the blood Duke, mirrored the smile.

"Lord caris, you sure do have exquisite taste."

"Hahahahaha... worry not, young Vito, for catering to this lord’s needs, I’ll be sure to put in word for your duchy with asmodeus, he owes my patriarch a favor either way."

"Hahahaha.. as expected of the Draken family, even my demon continent cannot compare."

I froze at the mention of that name.

Draken family? A member of father’s family had done... THIS?

Impossible.

My very being rejected the idea.

"Hehehe.. now let’s get this started." The man, caris, let out his aura and condensed something out of them, but I was no longer watching, for the moment he released his aura,

"Gotcha..." he had already sealed his fate.

....

My eyes slowly opened as I let the little boy down..

"Time for you to pay, you filthy human..."

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A/N: I don’t know if it’s fate being a bitch or just reality Trolling Dante, but you gotta love it..

Anyways,

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Thanks for reading..