Sakura's face told him she found the subject change strange, but she said nothing about it. Instead, she asked, "What do you have in mind?"

"To begin with, monsters." If there was a demonic monster on Earth, as Luke suspected, the Demonic Horde might find a way to send even more. Even if they didn't, he could still help humankind prepare for whatever monster was already there. "We should reveal everything I know about how to kill the monsters in my memories. When they try to conquer the world, I want as many people to survive as possible."

"Agreed," she said. "Some will grow strong from it and abuse their power, but this is about the race's survival. Humankind as a whole comes first."

Luke understood the hidden meaning of her words. They would get SP from killing monster and be able to use it to grow really strong only if the system was there.

"So you think the system will really become active for everyone?" he asked.

She nodded. "I thought about that the most. The system message about injecting mana on Earth and becoming fully functional suggests that. And when it does... The system wants to protect Earth, and even in the corrupted tower, it helped by letting people grow strong spending...—what was it called?—sentinel points. It makes little sense to change that approach unless it just chooses some people to turn into superhumans for free. "

Luke hadn't thought so much about it, but her words made sense. A defense plan meant there was something to defend against, and it might be a few demons as much as the entire Demonic Horde. Either way, Earth couldn't resist without some help, and the most likely way for the system to help was as it did in the tower. Or maybe even more than in the tower, now that it was purging demonic influence from itself.

That brought him to the next subject, how to help humanity protect themselves from demons. "I don't know if the system will give mana channels to everyone when it gets active, but I think we shouldn't wait to see. We should tell the world how to build the same mana channels the tower gave to everyone who passed the Test Floor, including the purity rune."

"Test Floor? Purity rune?" Sakura asked. Luke hadn't gotten into details in their talk about his memories. He gave her a crash course. "So that's how things work, huh?" She shook her head. "I don't think it's a good idea to teach it to everyone. Imagine if terrible people in prison just started controlling their locks with magic and ran away."

"Teaching everyone how to build mana channels will bring some trouble," he agreed, "but the gains outweigh the losses. It's important to give people a way to protect themselves."

She bit her lower lip, then said, "If you really want to give that knowledge for free, we could release the information on mana channels slowly. The governments... A lot of them suck, but it's better than utter chaos. We can release it to the governments one month, then select clans and groups the next month, and only then release everything to the masses. It'll help."

Luke didn't like that plan very much. His experience with policemen and judges was less than stellar, and they worked for the government.

However, he agreed it was better than a serial killer or a rapist already in jail suddenly getting powerful enough to leave. As for the unknown evil people in positions of power, he could only hope for the best, like the original plan.

Or was it like his original plan?

"No," he said firmly, surprising even himself. "My plan is for the average Joe to have a way to resist the Demonic Horde. But if the ill-intentioned people in positions of power get mana channels first..."

"It's the same, only on a smaller sample," Sakura argued. "People in government instead of everyone."

"I don't think it's the same, no. It's easier for a demon to control a smaller group of superhumans first, aka the government. They only have to do that, and they can rule over the masses before everyone can grow strong, too. That's why the innocent and weak need to know the path to power in the first place, and why everyone should get the same shot at it." He looked her in the eyes. "Jackson is proof that demons are already walking the Earth, and they'll be in positions of power rather than living on the streets. Big companies' CEO's and important government officials are exactly the people they target, and thus the wrong people we should teach first."

Sakura looked interested. "So when you said Jackson's a demon, you really meant it in the tower way? It wasn't just a curse? I thought he was just doing magic like yours."

Luke nodded. She had said she wanted to talk about it, but both of them had almost forgotten it. He explained to her what had happened that night, then told her everything he knew about demons and Demonic Seeds. At some point, she just sat dazed on the bed, taking care not to hurt him.

"That..." Sakura said. "There might be demons in my clan? In my family?"

He nodded. "Maybe. It depends on how deep the demons have infiltrated humanity. And that's the reason we must tell the world everything we know about demons. The Demonic Horde exists, in the first place, because demons control the leaders of existing races, then use that position to change the race over time until they become capable of terrible acts. That's what makes the tower classify them as monsters."

"Humanity wouldn't be like that," she said defensively.

Luke chuckled ironically. "Really? Remember the nazi? It only took a crazy man with a lot of charisma for innocent people to get killed in gas chambers." He made a pause. "I'm the last person who would doubt human evilness and pettiness. I saw it up close with Jackson before he became a demon, probably. But Hitler or someone close to him might have been a demon in the past. We can't know for how long demons were around."

That seemed to bother her even more. "I thought the demons came because of the tower?"

"I believe that too, but we can never know." He shared his theory with her. "Anyone from any race can become a demon if they find out how. If your ancestors learned how to feel and use mana to some extent, couldn't someone have found how to become a demon, too?

"I have been thinking about the Sentinel Tower's purpose. It always claimed to be against demons, and it is named 'Sentinel.' What if it was created to fight against demons in the first place? What if there are demons going around in the cosmos, and the Sentinel Tower was originally a tool meant to help worlds fight back, but it got corrupted?"

He smiled sadly. "History is full of atrocities that happened because of supposed bigotry or greed, but maybe they happened for a darker reason. Maybe they were engineered to help a demon, or a group of demons, grow stronger. Maybe some witches getting burned in the Middle Ages were actual demons that our ancestors wanted to get rid of, or maybe the people burning them were the demons feeding on their suffering. We can find needless anguish everywhere."

An uncomfortable silence than before befell them as both considered the implications of that. Sakura broke it after reaching the same conclusion as him.

"There's a chance that's true," she said in a somber tone. "And no matter how small a chance it might be, we can't risk demons controlling the people who grow stronger first. Limiting the number of people just makes it easier to control them. Information about monsters, mana channels and demons should be released to everyone." Her voice was firm.

"Everything else..." Luke said. "I think we shouldn’t divulge. We’ll use what we can, sell some of it, gift other things to the people we trust." He took a deep breath to steel himself. What he was about to say was the hardest decision he had ever made. "I... I can't do this alone. I need someone strong to help me with all that, and your family is the only powerful people I know. You also say they are honorable and... Well... You're here. You and my grandfather are the only people I trust."

She smiled brightly at his words. "You're a great boyfriend, did you know that?"

Luke felt all fuzzy inside hearing that word.

'Boyfriend,' he repeated to himself. He had a girlfriend. Yup, he did, and that was awesome. More than awesome. In the past two years, he had never dared imagine he would date one day.

"I have a lot of things to do,” she continued. “Talk to some people, decide on how to transition some business to something more magical, discuss a few things with the clan head. Speaking of which, don't tell the truth to anyone else. I trust the clan head and most of the core family, but she would be required by family rules to tell the truth to some branch elders, and they might do something stupid. I need to prepare the ground before we reveal the things in your mind to everyone." She stood up, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then rushed at the door. "Oh! And show me another spell next time I'm here!" She left.

Luke just smiled as she went away and kept looking at the door for a long while.

What an awesome girlfriend he had.

After his girlfriend—he had one!—left, his life became one of cycling mana and resting non-stop. He didn't even want to waste time or willpower casting new spells. Having the system give him enough "skill learned" messages would provide a new milestone and achievement, but the SP would be useless, so no reason to do that.

An Afro-Japanese wardrobe-of-a-man in a black suit, obviously a bodyguard, interrupted him that night. The man entered his bedroom with a smartphone in his hands.

"Mr. Kells, your grandfather wants to speak with you."

Luke brightened at once. He wasn't used to being so far away from the old man for so long and was missing him. He was also ashamed of not thinking of calling the man before because of his focus on magic—a common shortcoming of mages. Though he couldn't be considered a mage yet, he already had the bad habits of one.

He nodded, and the bodyguard put the smartphone at his ears. "Grandad?" Luke said.

"Luke... My boy..." Arthur whispered.

Luke's heart clenched at once. His voice was much weaker than the last time he had heard it, his pauses longer, and the amount of words he spoke between each pause fewer.

"Grandpa? What happened? Is everything alright?"

"The cancer... has grown... too much. The treatment... is very... aggressive. I'm... fine."

He had heard how cancer treatment could do terrible things to the body, but he had never witnessed it. It made him feel terrible to hear his last living family like that. "Don't overextended yourself. We can talk after I heal you. Give me a couple weeks and I'll be ready."

"Alright. Talk to... you... later. I love... you." It was a testament to his grandpa's weakness how he agreed to say goodbye barely after the call had started.

"I love you too, grandad."

The old man said nothing after that. Luke heard Mr. Akira asking if Arthur was done, and they hung up. Luke nodded to the bodyguard, who nodded back and left with the smartphone.

The call reminded him of the main reason he had to do his best.

So Luke focused on his runes with renewed vigor until he fell asleep with a headache.