The beginning

"What does he look like?" Cala asked. "Has anyone seen him?"

Soren nodded slowly, looking out towards the humans' campgrounds. "We will need to act then...we will need to exorcise those that are attempting to raise Athen, then we will need to reverse the incantation process." He put a contemplative finger on his chin as he thought out loud. "A Santo Scroll should be able to keep future demons from attempting it again in the future..."

Kallias handed her a picture from his pocket. "This is the only one left in our possession."




Kallias turned to Soren. "The council has given me permission to oversea any action and I intend to use it. Whatever means you have to take, I give not just permission from the council, but I advice and trust it."

Cala looked sadly at the picture. He looks so harmless and sweet. That must be his wife. How sad.

Soren nodded. "This will be a difficult task indeed. We may even be annihilated," he added matter-of-fact as he thought further about the mission. "The demon Athen will be very powerful; an existence such as love, when interrupted in a traumatizing manner, is one of the most powerful and rarest catalysts for a demon..."

"When you are ready, I've arranged for a guide to take you through the city." Kallias nodded to Cala. "Please keep the photo in case this event takes a turn for the worst."

Touching the photo, Cala nodded. I feel as if there is a mistake. Why does this photo bother me so?

"I must go now," Kallias continued. "The guide will meet you outside the city, in the empty block. You'll know him when you see him. He's a very rough looking man." With that, Kallias bowed and left in a hurry.

"Hey, listen up. People call me Point Five, but Five's good enough if you have a lazy mouth." Five announced to the market place. "I need the people that run this show to speak up. This is an emergency, so let's get with it and speak up if you're who I'm looking for or know where they are."

Nearby marketeers motioned and looked at Zander.
"What's this about, kid?" He shouted in a gruff voice to the man, his wrists hanging limply off the shotgun draped across his shoulders.

Soren clapped his hands together, a faint spark emanating from the sound. "Well!" He said. "We should get down to business. Cala, we will need our strongest material for this mission. It will be difficult."

Five crossed his arms. "Hey, if you're in charge, than it's in your best interest that we talk in private for a minute."

Zander frowned at the man in front of him. Looks like he's serious.
"Take care of watch, guys. I won't be long," he said to two other soldiers that had made an appearance since the confrontation had began. He walked towards the man and said in a low voice, "this better be worth my time, buddy."

"Depends on what matters to you. Does the camp matter? Than it's worth your time." Five lit a cigarette. "People don't like me in their establishments, so you lead the way."

"You're an arrogant little bastard, aren't you?" he muttered under his breath, leading the way to a nearby house. The structure had been turned into a small base for the civilian military. He opened the front door and stepped back to allow .5 in.

Five stepped in and leaned against the wall near the door. "Here's the deal. I'm going to explain this like you're stupid, but don't be offended. I just want to cover all the ground in one sweep and not repeat myself." He exhaled a mouthful of smoke. "So the technology you're using to spot demons works well with low-level demonic presences. Well, the larger ones are making their way here. Why? Because someone's summoning them. No one knows who, so the first thing you should do is investigate. Second, you should stop allowing travelers in without verifying their identities with the neighboring camps. Here's what we've found in the city. A summoning spell to call to Athen, a demon that kills everything, including other demons. If he comes here, his wrath will destroy even Hades. Whoever summoned him is asking for bloodshed. The closest large group of living creatures is your camp, so you'd be the first target. The reason I'm here is to warn you of that and ask for your recent visitor report."

Zander listened intently as the man spoke. A scowl showed on his face. Damn demons...
"If I show you the report, can you tell me exactly who could be a demon in our camp?" He needed to start there; if a demon with such massive power was going to appear, the first thing he had to do was protect the people.

"I might," Five said honestly. "I can't be 100%, but I can give you a good idea of where to start and how to tell."

Zander mentally kicked himself. We shouldn't have missed this...
"You'll need to tell me as much as you know. If there are demons in the camp, that's our first priority." He walked over to a rusty file cabinet and pulled the top drawer open, a deafeniing squeal of protest sounding. He pulled a file labeled "Visitor's Reports" and tossed them on a table in the center of the room.

"The first thing you can do," Five picked up the folder as he spoke, "is tell me if there's any young people with white hair. Then, if there's anyone here that's orphaned. From there, anyone gnawing on people's skulls is a good sign they're possessed."

Ezekiel was looking over a stand when the man had spoken of an emergency, his curiosity pulling him from trying to figure out what he was going to buy. He watched the man for a moment, then stopped once another man came up to .5. "Emergency?" He whispered, but didn't catch the rest. He shrugged it off and returned to the stand. "I'll take this."

"I'll keep a lookout for people with white hair then. Orphans will be difficult; there's a lot of those." He ignored the last part. "Where did you learn this information?"

"Common sense and living in the city," Five replied. He flipped the file open and thumbed through the papers. "I'm going to make a list and cross-reference with missing people. If I find a missing person's name, you probably have a problem."

William stayed hidden under his hood and reading the book he'd randomly purchased. Shaking and horrified of the humans around him, he decided on going somewhere less cluttered. I fit in. I fit in. I fit in. He kept telling himself this, hoping he'd believe it enough it would come true. He ran behind an empty house and climbed behind a stack of wood, curling up in a ball and looking back towards the street nervous.

Zander nodded and crossed his arms. "Go right ahead. Once you find anyone, we can just use our technology to find them. They're probably weak anyway."