The moment the giant claw lightly touched my forehead, my mind exploded with different memories and experiences. I inherited the knowledge and past of Exidium. There wasn’t much I could do with a lot of it, but it was his legacy that he left for me. I inherited all his happiness, his confusion, and his sorrow.

The first memories that are really coherent are around when he contracted to the first king. Zayne Vandran was the first and only other human that the dragon had contracted with. His name wasn’t Exidium at that point, it was Justitia. He was originally born into slavery. When he was given a chance to contract, Exidium saw that his heart was free of hatred, or any negative emotion at that point. He didn’t even mind too much that he was a slave, because he could still spend time with his family, who were also slaves.

The divine dragon contracted with the boy, and he broke free from his shackles as a slave because of that. As I went through the memories I found something funny; he was almost the exact opposite of me. His violet eyes and black hair were full of innocence, he disdained fighting, and was a beacon of light for others to follow. They went on all sorts of adventures around the realm, and Zayne made a name for himself. He established the country of Justitia, naming it after his cherished partner that made it possible.

During one of his adventures he found someone that he would love forever, and could compete with him in terms of strength like nobody else could. This was the original contractor of Salus. Scarlett Shade was a woman of his age, who could hold her own against anything someone, or something, threw at her. She had enchanting blonde hair and fierce red eyes.

Her personality could be described as adventuress and fearless. She dreamed of exploring the world, and filling her life with all different types of experiences. Their encounter was in a labyrinth. Zayne was in the middle of subjugating a group of hellhounds, when an orc had been sent flying into the pack.

Zayne looked at her with astonishment. It wasn’t easy to throw an orc that far, and then he knew that he found someone who was special. After their initial encounter, they were inseparable.

They would go on to travel the realm together for years, until they settled down and Zayne created a kingdom. They lived happily for years and had a few kids. Around when Zayne turned 50, he was killed. The memories don’t allow me to see what he was killed by, but whatever it was, is the reason behind sending Justitia to the dark realm.

This point was weird, since the books that I used to read with my mother when I was young, mentioned that the first king lived until he was 70. Something was up with the history of the kingdom, and I didn’t realize that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

The memories he had of the dark realm were blurry. It was dark, and mostly Exidium in pain and on the run. Either that or he was in the middle of killing something. Fear, misery, and anger. Those were the only emotions that he was feeding off of all those years in a foreign realm.

Eventually he was stronger than anything there, and spent the rest of his time finding a way back to the spirit realm. When he did return he secluded himself after being attacked by a group thinking of him as a daemon. The rest of the memories are the ones familiar to me.

“Walk tall, my son.” Those were his last words to me, as he ended his own life to save Lux. Pain filled my body, but I didn’t respond to it at all. It was the pain of the contract breaking. The marks were fading from my body and his life force was draining rapidly. He faded from existence and the there was a mark left behind on Lux, where the collarbone meets the sternum. It was a white dragon, that was curled up. A single dot in the sky appeared as he left his life behind him.

I recognized it to be Justitia, not Exidium. He left his darkness behind in me, and then joined with the one that he had a bloodline tie to. Lux is Zayne’s descendent, and he would naturally do everything he could to ensure her survival. Exidium held a fatherly love towards me, from what I saw in my memories, but the love that he held towards Lux was different. It was a familial love. He coveted her as his own descendent.

I wasn’t sure what the mark meant. Maybe she was now contracted to both Justitia and Salus now. Or maybe the mark was just him keeping equilibrium. Either way, tears were rolling down my eyes, as I just lost someone who had stuck with me for the past 7 years, whether he could actually talk to me or not, he was still there, always watching.

I was still covered in blood, as I stood there in the Starless World crying. There was a deep silence that reminded me that this place was now mine, that there wouldn’t be anyone waiting for me when I suddenly come here. There wouldn’t be anyone to talk to when I’m most alone.

Just then I heard someone gasp for breath. Lux was really alive. I ran over and hugged her close to me, being careful not to break or suffocate her. She had no idea what was happening but I didn’t bother to explain. It was too painful to try to explain at that moment. Salus reappeared in the Starless World, and looked directly at me.

“I’m sorry.” Those words were enough to set off another chain reaction of emotion. He was really gone. “He used his soul to piece hers back together, and the rest of his magic to fuse mine with that of the Archangel. Her soul isn’t just human anymore, but she’s still herself.”

Lux was still in shock from being dead, and couldn’t really move because of that as well as the vice grip I had on her. She simply stayed where she was, as I mourned my best friend as well as father.

I released the Starless World, and went back to the human realm. It passed like real time, because I wasn’t proficient in manipulating it. There, 4 sets of eyes were looking at me as I was still holding Lux from before I took her into the Starless World. Maximus and the others figured that we would be here, but were in shock to find Lux had died, just to mysteriously come back to life a few minutes later.

“Your skin started to smoke, too. The contract marks that were on your body... They disappeared before our eyes.” Ruby didn’t know what to make of the situation as the events happened one by one that made almost no sense to them at all.

I carried Lux as I stood up, and continued to hold her. It was too soon for her to walk. After being dead for a few hours, bodily functions aren’t the same for a bit. My coat was still covering her and Maximus gave me a weird look.

“Did...you get taller?” We used to be the same height, now I was a few inches taller than him. Lux was dead, now she’s alive, I just broke my contract, and he was worried about my height.

We made a camp for the night and I decided it was time for them to know who we were. We were around a fire, and I set Lux beside me. I was the first one to make an announcement. “We’ll start from the beginning. First, you might have already figured, but my name isn’t Dusk. It’s Noctis Lucifer.”

When my name left my mouth, their eyes turned wide. They knew that name. Anyone who had access to a small amount of global information knew that name. Apparently, my name was a symbol for fear. I was talked about non-stop for the first year or so after the Red Equinox. The boy who mercilessly killed dozens of men, leaving only the princess behind.

“This is Lux Justitia, princess of the Kingdom of Justitia.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Amethyst thoughtless said that before getting punched in the shoulder by Virgil. At first, I don’t think she knew what she said wrong. After a few seconds it dawned on her, she was dead a couple hours ago. “That wasn’t what I meant. You were supposedly found dead in your country’s labyrinth a while back.”

“Found...dead?” To the world, she was pronounced killed while investigating the labyrinth. Lux figured as much would happen, but to think that she was thought to be dead by the people she cherished still broke her heart.

From there, Lux explained the situation regarding her Archangel blood and I had to fill in the gaps, because she was dead. I was reluctant to tell them one thing though. I wasn’t just a half-breed anymore. Exidium made that much clear before he passed. He told me there was barely any human left in me. I conceded my humanity to the daemon blood, and I changed because of it. If I had to guess, I was probably now 90% Daemon. Only my heart is that of a human.

“I guess I should tell you one more thing. While I was fighting the army, I went beserk, I wasn’t thinking straight. There was a lapse in control, and I lost most of my humanity to my blood.”

“You mean you’re not human?” Virgil gave me a strange look.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I used to be a half-human half-daemon. Now I’m mostly daemon. And my bloodline belongs to that of a Sovereign of Hell.”

There was a silence after that, and nobody was willing to break it.