The world drastically changed in the last twelve years.

Kihet found himself observing the sky painted in a dull grey stroke of clouds. The farther he peered into the horizon, the darker the clouds were. Only a few patches of sunlight made it through, but not enough to let land dwellers look past the gloom and admire how blue the sky once was.

The land outside the forest was vast just how he remembered when Kridas brought him and his friends out of the village. The spot of sunshine brought the warmth, the light breeze gently brushed the prairie and moving the grass almost like the ocean’s waves.

A week passed since he joined Lily’s journey back to Xu. Her soldiers haven’t gotten used to his scowling face even though it was now his default expression. Perhaps he needed time for deep scars in his mind to heal.

“What’s your problem?!”

“Tch.”

“I’ve had it with your attitude! If it’s a fight you want, you’ll get one!”

Swiftly closing the distance, a soldier threw a punch with all his might. The Devil kept a solid stance, twisting his fist as it flew towards Kihet. His fist moved in one direction, a simple straight punch. It was obvious it’d break something if Kihet took the blow.

He leaned to one side at the last moment, letting it graze his cheek as he casted a look back at the soldier with the most enraged glare he mustered. With his hand already forming a fist, Kihet rammed it into the soldier’s stomach, forcing his knuckles to dig into the leather armor. There was a solid thump as he felt every ounce of ripple reverberating through his opponent’s body. It was enough force to lift the soldier’s feet off the ground.

“Ack!”

The Devil’s eyes rolled up and collapsed. White foam flooded out of his mouth. He was knocked unconscious from one punch.

Satisfied, Kihet eyed the rest of the group. Their faces said it all. Half of them feared him while the other half antagonized him. Two antagonizing soldiers stood up in retaliation to his victory and made way towards Kihet as they cracked their knuckles. They dropped into their fighting stance and without words, round two began.

Suddenly, a hand seized Kihet’s collar. A Devil got between the fighters and waved her arms frustratingly.

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Why are you guys always getting into fights? You’re supposed to be fighting on the same side, not each other! Kihet, behave yourself. Stop glaring at them.”

“Priestess, it’s not our fault.” An Ogre argued. “The Oracle was looking down on us-!”

The critic’s blame earned a cold stare from Kihet. Every hair on his body stood on end as he gazed into the soulless eyes of the Oracle. Any more provocation, the Ogre would suffer the same consequences of his beaten up comrades.

Knowing this, Lily had to intervene before more of the group suffered meaningless injury. “Enough! Everyone get back to your post. Kihet, can you stop looking at them with such killing intent? You’re coming with me.”

Lily dragged him inside the tent. Inside, she passed him a copy of a map he requested a few days ago delivered by her Shikigami.

She crossed her arms. “How did you get into a fight?”

“I… hit them.”

“Why?”

“Not used to people.”

“Mmhmm…” She crossed her legs and nodded. “That’s going to be a problem. As you go out to other countries, you’re going to be forced to see new faces. If you don’t learn to control how you express emotions, it’ll be hard. I know you’re trying your best, but at least try to not incite others to fight you, understand?”

He nodded. It was unclear whether her words have gone through, but nonetheless it appeared he at least understood.

“Good! Here are the others papers you wanted. It’s not a lot, but it’ll have to do until we get back tomorrow.”

Kihet had a lot of catching up to do. He needed information at the current state of the world. Monsters prowled everywhere. The Shadow’s influence spread across the land, numerous towers appeared in each country and lastly, Rozzosea. Just thinking about Rozzosea, his blood boiled. He swore to have revenge for Shiba, Lemi, Salith, Kridas, Carmyn and Alam. He vowed kill Eizan and Rozzosea’s king.

The cold look in his eyes faded when Lily tapped him on the shoulder. He saw his expression reflected off her pupils and quickly turned away to avoid frightening her.

“Hmm?” She tilted her head adorably.

“Nothing.”

While silent, Kihet thought to himself even if he joined Xu’s forces, he’s only one person. He wouldn’t be able to protect everyone with just the Oracle’s flames and instead, should focus his current task to recruit seven other heroes.

“There’s one more thing why I called for you. I’ve been wondering about something. Y’see, there’s a weird thing on the back of my hand for a while.”

Under her glove, she revealed a crest. The design is like the sigil on Kihet’s arms but smaller.

“You should… focus on recruiting six other heroes…”

He recalled Henrick’s parting words. He knew. He knew Lily became one of the Heroes he was supposed to recruit.

“Hero…?”

He didn’t know if he was supposed to be happy about it. If Lily became a hero, that meant she would have to expose herself to more danger than she had to.

“Me, a hero? Wow! That’s great, isn’t it? Does that mean we get to travel the world together?”

-Yeah, but…-

“You don’t look very happy about it.”

He nodded.

Suddenly, he felt two painful impact on both sides of his face. His cheeks were squished as he was pulled down to Lily’s height.

Lily held his head and narrowed her eyes. “Kihet, did you forget what I said already? You shouldn’t force everything on yourself. You need to rely on me more. That being said, you’ve been the night watcher since we left the forest. You should get some good night sleep for once.”

“Soon.”

“No. You’re not going to hold out until we get back to Xu. You need clean yourself up properly, cut your hair and get some shut eye. You’re going to scare everyone when we get back with that appearance.”

She had a point. His hair was long and oily. His body was covered in dirt but thankfully have passed through some bodies of water for him to wipe away the stench he built up.

Kihet decided to leave the tent and find a place to close his eyes. That was until Lily caught his arm.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“Sleep.”

“I have a spot for you.”

No matter how much he looked around, it was cramped and there was only one bedding in the tent. Maybe it was invisible? Impossible. Kihet blankly stared at the girl happily laid on the mat and patted on the empty space beside her. Her innocent smile was encouraging Kihet to comply with her suggestion.

He turned away.

“At least stay with me until I fall asleep!”

“You, adult.” He quickly shot back.

“Don’t tell me you prefer smaller-. H-hey, Kihet?!”

He left before Lily’s complaints reached him. Using this escape, he decided to take a stroll around the camp. People from the group either glare back or scattered off. It must be from the fight he initiated earlier. He enviously observed a them from afar, chattering and playing cards. They lacked discipline and vigilance. Kihet asked himself why they were so relaxed at a time like this. They’re even including soldiers on duty. What if they were attacked?

He strolled by the torches and left some of the Oracle’s flames on them to act as wards against Shadows and monsters. He stood at the edge of the encampment staring into the pitch-black world. Usually there would be moonlight, but the thick layers of clouds prevented that.

He wrapped a blanket around himself and laid down on the dried grass. He rested his head on his hands, then surely closed his eyes to grab a supposedly short nap. When he woke up, his entire body was warm and something heavy pushed down on his chest. His entire right side numbed, but it didn’t feel life threatening. He moved his left arm over his eyes, rubbing them to clear this blurriness after a nap. His eyes eventually adjusted to the light.

Someone put an extra layer of blanket over him. That might’ve been the reason why he woke up at a later time than he wanted to. Underneath, Lily used him as a body pillow, sleeping soundly.

Although he wanted to pry her off, he remembered her father and mother were assassinated, her brother murdered by Eizan. The only person who was close enough to replace them was probably Kihet.

-Fine, you can sleep here. For five more minutes.-

It turned out to an hour until it was too late to regret his generosity.

They helped soldiers load supplies onto the cart for our journey to the capital. He hated the ride. The cart itself shook uncomfortably and the wheels squawked. It was better than not having one, and it at least showed no sign of forfeiting anytime soon.

Then he saw the tower on Xu’s land. Contrary to one from the obsidian tower back in the village, this one was blood red, closer to the color similar of Devil’s horns. Its height dwarfed the sacred tree which the tree’s size was already impressive.

He remembered flying over the land on Shiba’s flying carriage and the tower didn’t exist back then.

The Sacred Tree’s pink crown expanded into his entire view and continued growing strong. Although most of the land around it was dry and barren, it was just as magnificent as he first saw it when he travelled towards it with Martha and Lily.

Speaking of which, Lily only ever mentioned Miyabe and her Nephew.

“Lily-.”

Just then, an orange glow illuminated ahead on their path accompanied with shouting, screeching and explosions.

“Priestess, it would be dangerous to get closer. There are Shadows are attacking the main gate.”

“At a time like this?” Lily was eager to shower Xu a ray of hope she brought back from the expedition, but basic protocols were to be on standby until the defenders drive the threat away. “We have no choice but to wait. Kihet, did you want to say something?”

“N-no.”

-Maybe she didn’t tell me about Martha to stop me from worrying as much.-

“Let’s move over there. It’ll give us a better view.”

They decided to stop at the top of the hill and watched the battle unfold.

Kihet was annoyed since the enemy was in front of him, but he was forced to wait on the sidelines. Every time he laid eyes on those shadows, he was seething with anger. Everything happened because of them. The sooner he could return to Xu’s capital, the sooner he could plan against the enemies and the sooner he could travel to other countries to find his friends.

But he was impressed. This was the largest gathering he witnessed. Even with the Shadow’s destructive behaviour, the defenders were holding down the fort. They kept the Shadows from scaling the walls. Also, he noticed the archers were launching their arrows without worry of running out of ammunition.

“All the time?” He asked.

“Every so often. Waves of them would come trying to break through ever since the tower appeared but we’d always hold out long enough for them to disappear. I’d say we got the hang of defending for twelve years.”

“Disappear?”

“Unlike the ones we see wandering the land, this army vanishes after a certain amount of time. We don’t know why but it’s convenient for us. Look.”

That was why the defenders didn’t mind wasting their arrows. After the Shadows expired, arrows fell off the vanishing bodies and were collected to be reused for the next defense. From what Kihet gathered, the tower spawned Shadows. It would be safe to assume a Shadow Hero as powerful as Wizard was guarding the top since Henrick, a hero, would be guarding the one back at his village.

“And it’s over. What are you sitting here for? We can go to the capital now. You won’t believe how much has changed since the last time you were here!”

And she was right.

As soon as they passed the checkpoint, Kihet was overwhelmed by the lively scenic view. Red was a popular color after gold. It was said to bring prosperity and happiness in Xu’s culture while gold was for fortune and luck. Red was painted over frames of buildings, handles of bridges and a gate like structure. There were more people than the last time he visited, but majority of them were Devil folk. One in ten were Ogres. Buildings were built tightly next to each other and stretched down the streets like a wall. Several levels above had bridges connected from platform to platform. The layout of the capital completely transformed far more than he imagined.

Luckily, the main street was simple, directly leading them to the Royal Palace.

The first thing that came to his mind about the Royal Palace was the labyrinth like layout it had for its courtyards. Little did he know, the Palace went through extensive overhauling. The walls that separated the courtyards were removed, replaced by facilities for food production. The roofs of these buildings were used to sundry a variety of crops being brought from the underground farm.

It did make sense to some degree. With the land around the capital being the only haven, the people of Xu made the most of their space. Since the farm was closest to the underground farm within the palace, production was conveniently stationed near to reduce the need to transport out to the rest of the city to process them.

“So, this is the Oracle! Most welcoming!”

A Devil Captain offered Kihet a handshake, but in return he greeted back with stillness. When the captain examined Kihet, a bead of sweat formed and ran down his cheek. It’s just as Lily said. Kihet’s appearance was alien and made him unapproachable.

“Sorry, he’s shy.”

“That’s understandable as he was just brought out into the world. It’s good to see you made it back safely, Priestess. The entire capital was worried about your well being.”

“Much appreciated, Captain. How is the Empress?”

“As strong willed as ever. Her majesty is currently at a hearing, but she is eager to meet with the Oracle. For now, I shall escort the two of you-.”

“I heard Lily has returned. Where is she? Lily!”

Kihet’s heart stopped for a second after hearing a familiar voice ambushed him. A darkish brown-haired woman with a broken horn ran towards him. He recognized the worn bronze bangle he gave her the night before he left for Rozzosea.

“I’m here! Over here!” Lily waved.

“Thank the Creator! I’m so glad… Did you know how worried I was?”

“Owowowow! Martha, you’re squeezing my shoulders! It hurts!”

“Be quiet! You didn’t tell me you were leaving to find the Oracle! I’m angry, you know! You, you left your position as the Priestess! Do you know how much stress I was in because of you?! More importantly, any injuries? Is there anywhere you’re feeling unwell?”

“Martha, my shoulders! My shoulders! You’re squeezing them too hard!”

“Maybe you should think twice before leaving like that next time.” Her gaze then fell on Kihet. After collecting herself, she did a small curtsy. “Oh, my apologize for my behaviour. You must be the Oracle. Thank you for taking care of the Priestess. I know she caused you a lot of trouble, so I apologize in her behalf.”

“Martha, why are you acting like a stranger?”

“What do you… could it be?”

Instead of taking a step forward, his body instinctively moved back. Deep inside, he had a voice whispering lies he was going to be hated by Martha.

“Don’t tell me… Kihet?”

He flinched when she called him. He was happy but also afraid. The reason? He wasn’t the same as who he was. His hands were stained with hundreds of stolen lives and his appearance was a mess. He became something different than she once admired. If she found out about the murders he did, he was afraid she’ll think him as a monster.

“Is it really you? Please tell me it’s really you.”

For a second no air would come out of his lungs. He gritted his teeth for a second but eventually let out a tiny squeak. “Martha.”

Her eyes widened, recognizing his voice. She gently brushed his hair aside and took a good look at him. With nowhere else to look, his eyes bitterly turn to her. He saw tears formed at the corner of her eyes holding a sweet smile on her face.

“What’s with that face? Are you hurt?”

It was a simple question, but one that mattered to him right now. When Lily rescued him, his humanity returned but his guilt remained. When Martha asked how he felt, he couldn’t help but nod and realized what the aching in his soul was.

“It’s alright now. You’re back. You don’t have to think about anything else. All that matters is you’re back.”

-All that matters…? Yes. She’s right. All that matters is… we’re safe…-

A dizzy spell struck him. He found himself tipping forward and slumped onto Martha. His legs gave out right there and then. His eyelids grew heavier until they fully closed.

He felt a gentle squeeze and fell asleep not before hearing, “Welcome back, Kihet.”