Astral jogged passed the road that circled around the sleeping campus, carrying down the avenue that lead to the canyon battle zone. The whole campus was too large to patrol in one night. She decided that it was best to follow Mathias' guidelines: check for hot spots and make those locations a priority, then section off the rest of the area into manageable pieces.

Back when her father had been a resident of Clearwater, he and Mathias covered twice as much ground, offering better protection through increased patrols. However, the people believed that one Hunter per area was all that they needed to ensure their safety. The sad truth was, they were afraid that extra Hunters meant an increase in tribute to the Red Order.

These first few weeks would decide how much ground she could reasonably cover in a night. She would refine her patrol schedule as needed. She made a mental note to get Seth to show her where the entrance to the hidden training center was. She was certain that area would qualify as a hotspot, even more so if she continued to use the program to train the squad captain.

As she continued toward the large domed structure in the distance, the trees grew sparse opening the area up to a massive open field. The field had been cut short for fear of the things that could lurk between the blades of grass. She pressed onward, aware that lingering for too long would call security drones to her location.

As for Seth...

She needed Seth's cooperation, especially if she was going to get the details of what exactly happened in that last tournament. With that information, she could narrow down the enemy's objectives. Was this a chance occurrence? Doubtful, the demons didn't attack the squads. All participating members came back alive. Only a handful failed to return for a new Academic year, which opened the possibility of a planned infection. All they needed was one host to make it through the barriers to spread their demon seed across the campus. The shield technology would never allow for it, one stray demonic gene would render the host unable to enter the safe-zone.

As far as the status concerning the shield technology went, neither human nor demon knew exactly how her family's tech worked. It stood to reason that multiple parties would basically throw stuff at it until one of their weapons got through. A weakness in the design could be leveraged against them in the marketplace. It would be a suicidal move, but a sizable profit could be made with such a risky venture. Unfortunately, should any of those parties succeed, her family had a plan for that, and it wasn't one that would shine the Daamon's in the noblest of light. There was no point in keeping the shields up once a hole was punched through the screen. The whole mechanism would need to be replaced and re-calibrated, which could take years to accomplish.

It was important to her plan that Seth thought that he had the upper hand in their relationship. She hoped that she had given him just enough to suspect her secret, but not enough to know for sure. Combined with the Chief Warrant Officer's orders, it should look like the Council had their eye on her as a potential recruit.

The Council had legions of conscripted militarized men and women to throw at the demons and technology that could ruin the possibility of renewable life for centuries. Despite all of their crazy explosions that could deface hundreds of miles of land, poison water, and turn air toxic, modern weapons hadn't had much effect on the demonic hoards. The humans could ruin as much of the world as they wanted; it didn't matter to the demons who could adapt to the poisons and consume the flames. The problem was simple: the humans couldn't fight what they couldn't see. Or rather, they couldn't fight what wasn't there.

Explaining the manifestation process was considered a stone's throw past superstition into the realm of the occult. Since the one world religion law passed centuries ago, anything that was in conflict with the Red Order scriptures branded the practitioner as a heretic and sentenced to serve a lifetime on the killing fields.

Because of that stupid law, The Red Order Hunters remained the primary defense against humanity's extinction, and their services came at a price. Astral remembered all too well how the Red Order's Crimson Knights corralled them into the shelter and sealed them inside to fester in their fear.

She had to be careful with Seth. He was strong, and he had good instincts. All he lacked was the knowledge and the practice. If she wasn't careful and he decided to use his training for real world use, he could wind up shipped off permanently. All he wanted to do was survive his tour...

'It's not my place to train him,' Astral reminded herself. 'I should just focus on the mission. Get what I need from him, terminate the program and be done with it.' Her jaunt slowed to a walk. She understood what he was going through. He was desperate, he had nowhere else to turn. He was desperate for her to have the answers he sought. Maybe she gave him too much. Maybe she should have denied everything. But he could see her core lingering just beyond normal sight. He could see, and he wasn't afraid. Maybe his desperation made him numb to his fears. Maybe he was just a brave fool.

He knew that she was more than what she appeared to be; there was no hiding that from him. He clung to her as though she was his only hope. It was a heavy burden to bare. She knew she couldn't give him what he asked; at least not without robbing him of his future.

It wasn't fair. She knew the secret that the Red Order was so desperate to keep hidden. Hunters are born through death. Hunters are forged from the primal ether of survival and reinforced through the willpower to defend their brothers and sisters. Hunters are born through tragedy and die as champions.

She had Mathias to guide her down this solitary path. But Seth had no one. It wasn't fair. Why did he have to choose her to guide him? She wiped the tears that had begun to form in her eyes with the back of her gloved hand. She didn't want to be the one to tell him that if he wanted anything resembling a normal life, he needed to forget about killing demons. He claimed that he wanted to survive, but she could tell that he was the sort of person who would defend his men to his last breath. He'd hold his ground just to buy a few more seconds. One way or another, the Seth she knew today would die in the killing fields and would return as a cursed Hunter. The only way to stop that event from occurring would be to pay for his conscription release papers, an option available only to family members.

Like Kendra, Mathias, and herself, Seth would inadvertently draw demons to him. He would become a danger to friends and family, and eventually to the community he called home. Surviving is not worth the curse. How could he ask her to rob him of his dreams? How could he ask her to rob him of his humanity?

She sank to her knees. How could he ask her to take from him the only thing she ever wanted?

She'd do as he asked. What other option did she have? If he could see demons before they manifest, then there was a chance that he could save hundreds of soldier's lives. He might be able to make a dent in the demonic forces.

It was better that she taught him now than to abandon him to chance and desperation. She'd use the ghost in the machine to train him. She could keep it weak, she would have too.

Seth's soul was vibrant and strong, unlike anything she had ever seen before. There was no doubt in her mind that if the ghost consumed Seth, she'd have one hell of a fight on her hands. She'd be reprimanded for not dealing with the situation upon discovery. It's what should be done. But...

...She could keep it weak and use it to train Seth in ways that one-on-one combat training could not.