The months went by as it quickly became the end of June in Leicester. The chaos surrounding the holy firebombing was all hands on deck with the Stygian Society. Every Daemon Knight needed to do their part to stop the three daemonic monarchs, Maven, Endspiel, and Saboten, from destroying all of Britain.

Along with the religious zealots of the third revelation, it was a complete mess. Miraculously, they were victorious and finally found their liberation and vindication from the media and those alike who sought out to improve relations of Nephalems and other humanoid creatures. Even though she couldn’t be out in the field due to her pregnancy, she became useful in a supportive role ideal for an Umbra Witch like herself.

But she wasn’t alone with Alphonse decided to stay with Marco and take care of her. Even though Marco was supposed to take care of him, they both took care of each other. Marco began to re-structure his memory little by a little while using Father Raphael’s past with some omissions and rewrites.

While doing her research on his past life, he had a rough childhood and wanted to be saved from his torment by his bullies and by his family for being different. That’s how he ended up being under the thumb of the Holy Mother four years ago. He wanted a way out, and he got it through violence.

But she rewrote his story as he and Marco were always there for each other during his childhood. Instead of meeting with the Holy Mother, he left Leicestershire and decided to do some backpacking around Europe for several years, reuniting with Marco when he returned to Leicestershire.

What a way to rewrite someone’s terrible history…

Beautiful enough, he believed it and didn’t question anything else. He was happy being with Marco, and that’s all that mattered to him. Gratefully, Leicester wasn’t hit too hard by the fighting between the two warring factions. The whole incident lasted for about a month until both sides officially surrendered peacefully on December 21, 2009.

She even had Lydia and her baby stay over when her house was rebuilt. Even Lydia doesn’t know who Alphonse is, but she was happy for Marco to get himself a man finally. Although, he was a femboy who loved wearing women’s clothing.

Even though she made a full recovery, the scars, burn marks, and welts traveling all over her body have mostly turned slightly visible. But scars, nonetheless. Although Lydia was resilient, the memories will remain fresh in her mind.

To no shock, she started to develop a nervous tic in her left arm. At times his entire left hand tenses up so badly he can barely conscious this or even move it. Mostly, there are times where he has tremors in his left hand. The tremors in his left hand have gotten so bad, Lydia couldn’t feed her baby anymore. However, with some magic of her own, Marco healed her while revealing she was a real Umbra Witch. Both happy and shocked by this confession, Lydia felt more connected with her best friend.

But it was time for her to move on and to get her own home with her baby. And so she did and that coming April.

But Marco and Alphonse were too busy making room for their first child together. After hearing the news, they both bought a five-bedroom house using Father Raphael’s assets to the help of Lydia’s younger days as a hacker. At least now Ralphie’s money was being put to good use.

Marco was even invited back to the Stygian Society. After the passing of Imperial Knight Morpheus, the dissolution between the Stygian Society and the Royal Nephalem Order has indeed been stalled by his replacement, a female Dragon Kemonomimi named Noah Owens. She was about the same height as Marco, with very long golden blonde hair and big golden eyes. She looked like she was in her 20s, but she carried herself with maturity as she was a lot older. As a Dragon Kemonomimi, she had blue horns, a pair of blue Dragon wings, and a scaly blue tail.

She sat beside a Japanese man named Hiroyuki Sakai, a Daemon Samurai who works in a special division of the Stygian Society. He had short black hair and had brown eyes. He looked like he was and is in his mid-30s with a 5 o’clock shadow. Both of them were dressed in their uniforms as four other administrative Daemon Knights flanked them.

The six of them listened to Marco’s statement about what happened eight months ago as she spoke, “so after the Imperial Knight Morpheus-- or should I say the previous Imperial Knight, sent me away to Leicestershire on a special assignment, my best friend was gunned down right in front of me when I was visiting her three days after I arrived at my original post. I was apprehended and taken to the nearest demon meat market where I saw the Four Horsemen of the Third Revelation.”

The Daemon Knights in attendance knew Marco for her frigid nature and they there taken aback by her flirty and over-confident nature. Along with her state of dress—wearing a super soft Over the Belly Skirt—and her huge pregnant belly.

But Noah wasn’t deterred by this, “What were they talking about?” she asked.

“They were deciding what they wanted to do with me. Lord Caliber wanted me to be a part of his demon meat market as a sex slave. Lord Raphael wanted to play games with me. The Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière chose Lord Raphael’s plan instead. I was taken to a nearby abandoned farm and left there to starve to death,” she explained.

“But you managed to get out of there alive…” Hiroyuki said.

Marco nodded, “Yes, barely… When I managed to stumble across a camp just 200 kilometers away from the plantation, there is nobody around.”

“A camp that size was abandoned with fresh food, running clean water, and electricity with no rhyme or reason? Where was everybody?” Hiroyuki wondered.

Marco shrugged her shoulders, “beats me. I was too busy trying to get water. It was pure Providence that I found a radio and called for help…”

“But you didn’t call the Stygian Society at all for back up…?” Noah asked with a stoic look.

Marco glared back at her, “why would I?”

Knowing the brief history between her and Morpheus’s family, Marco didn’t have to explain everything. She lost faith in trust in the same people she worked with for many years.

Hopefully, Noah would rectify that as well, “still, Marco, we would have come and helped you regardless… You didn’t have to shut yourself out or resign. Even with your latent abilities at that time, you were still an amazing Daemon Knight. That is why I am reinstating you with your new rank as Third Knight and giving you your full medical benefits.” Noah presented.

Marco scoffed at the idea, “now, I am accepted… I guess this is the part where, I don’t know, you call me on my bullshit?”

Hiroyuki tried to tread softly with his personal question, “in your previous photo, you had black hair and green eyes. But now I can see you have silver-white hair and cherry red eyes. I can tell both of them are natural. Is it because of the Daemonia Shift?”

“Yes,” Marco answered with a smile.

“And I see you’re pregnant. Says here in your medicals, you are due any day now. I am curious as to who is the father?” Hiroyuki followed up.

He was nervous asking the question knowing he was the lead investigator of Lord Raphael’s disappearance, apart from the two dozen male soldiers murdered at the abandoned camp. Unbeknownst to everyone, Lord Raphael came from a long line of ancient demon and witch hunters who were well-versed in holy magic and Aethereal abilities. One reason Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière wanted the young man to be a part of her little faction was short-lived because of his disappearance.

With a sinful smile, while rubbing her pregnant belly, Marco answered truthfully, “my boyfriend! And as for your charity, no thanks… I bagged a rich one, so I don’t have to work anymore. Now, if you excuse me, he’s waiting for me downstairs.”

Marco struggles to get up from her chair as she shuffles to the door.

Hiroyuki immediately whispered to Noah, “you can’t believe in this.”

“I don’t. That is why I wanted to hear it from her…” Noah confirmed. “Let’s go to my office and talk this over.”

Noah and Hiroyuki wasted no time going into her office to speak about the interview.

Hiroyuki closes the door as he spoke first, “I did a full investigation of the disappearance of Father Raphael. Even though all four of them are still large, he just seemed to disappear without a trace. We found his home outside of the Essex countryside. It was abandoned. They rallied up most of the workers there who were nephalems. They kept their code of silence, even though it was us.”

“Such loyalty among the broken…” Noah said while taking off her jacket and putting it on her chair.

“And let’s not forget the only two dead bodies that were in that entire mansion looked like bodyguards…” Hiroyuki informs.

“They were bodyguards…” Noah confirmed while sitting down in her chair.

Hiroyuki sat across from her as he continued, “we even did mitochondrial DNA analysis in every room. Spotless except for the bedroom. There was a dislodged finger that looked like it belonged to a young male underneath the table; a nephalem with a heritage of a Stoicheiódis Foínix, an endangered species of fire elementals. We even checked the bedspreads for fluids and found a match. The seminal fluids that we found on the bedspreads matched the blood and tissue samples of the dislodged finger.”

Noah was contemplating the information as she was rocking back in her chair.

“We even found vaginal fluid on the sheets. We swabbed every mouth of every female who was in that mansion, and there was no match.” Hiroyuki concluded.

“I guess we can forget about the coffee cup that Marco drank out of…” Noah agreed.

“So, what do we do…?” Hiroyuki asked.

Noah was indeed the active squad leader who, under her jurisdiction, can decide to distribute any information to any law enforcement agency she sees fit. But she has a better idea, “do you have your files?”

“Yes,” Hiroyuki got up from his seat and went inside his book bag to pull out three different redweld folders.

“Are these the only copies?” Noah asked as Hiroyuki handed them to her.

“Yes, they are.” He answered truthfully.

Noah nodded as she rose from her chair and walked towards the fireplace. She opened one red wild to separate the papers into separate wads and thrown them into the fire.

Hiroyuki was angry about the decision, but he would’ve wanted an explanation, “was it that obvious?”

“I guess you can say I am the lesser of the two evils. Morpheus would have used this against her. He already sent her away to Leicestershire as an act of exile. Meanwhile, he had a dormant Umbra Witch for him to cultivate and mold into a weapon but decided to have daddy’s little girl instead.” Noah explains while throwing the papers into the fire. “I never understood that about Marcus Halberstam Stryker. He was a politician before he was a soldier. I guess in his mind, it made him better, but only made him worse. The Stygian Society is based on what we can do for communities, not what we can do for ourselves. It makes us fearful and weak. None of this should’ve happened in the first place, but at the same time, it worked out for the best for Marco since she had finally found what was holding her back; her fear.”

Hiroyuki nodded in agreement as he saw his paperwork turned into kindling.

“It makes no sense. We should be better than this. Yet, on our darkest day, we sat on our hands and did nothing while we watched the world burn and tear itself apart through ignorance and greed. Father Raphael was just a boy in his early twenties with immense powers beyond his comprehension, and he was held back by those who wanted to mold him into their perverse image. Only to be cut down for the same reasons we see every day in public or our own home we turn on the television,” Noah lectured as she pulled another redweld and started doing the same thing. “But I do believe that Marcus Halberstam is an evil genius. He chose to stoop to the same levels as Holy Mother Maria Boutonnière, Daemon Archduke Endspiel, Daemon Princess Saboten, and Daemon Prince Maven to defeat greater evils. It made no sense; I can’t say it enough. He sent Marco Bennett to Leicestershire on purpose because he deemed her as a fake. Even though I signed off on her bloodwork saying she was a dormant Umbra Witch.”

Hiroyuki shook his head in disgust, “so he knew… Just like he was banking on The Third Revelation to storm her home village…”

“You would think Marcus would find someone who can help her awaken her true powers in proper and safe environment. But no, and that is what separates the old guard and the new blood. He wanted to traumatize Marco beyond the point where he needed her to be what he felt an Umbra Witch should be,” Noah confirmed. “The murderess of two dozen men, a violator of another. All because of one simple thing; Marco Bennett wanted to save the woman who took her place in the line of fire that night. And that is something that she will have to live with for the rest of her life… In the end, that is Marco’s reason why she will always do what is necessary to keep those safe who can’t fight for themselves. Following the true code of a Daemon Knight.”

It took Hiroyuki a while to process that. He felt that the former Imperial Knight Morpheus did Marco in favor by putting her through such a terrible experience. But at the same time, it was for her to be prepared for what is coming up on the horizon. Hiroyuki was never really a huge fan of Morpheus in general, but he respected some of his decisions even though they were extreme.

And with that, Hiroyuki helped Noah burn the last bit of evidence of the “disappearance” of Father Raphael.