From the cliff of a tall place, the demon was watching in the direction of Hazefal. The city seemed so small and had a certain charm to it as some lights were making it look as if from a fairy tale. But the demon wasn’t interested in the city for he was looking at what laid beyond it, the full moon that was lighting the dark night.

“Why must it be like this?” the demon said with gentle voice. The sound of branches creaking could be heard behind and beneath him from the tall trees of the forest. One, two, three howls went out one after another in the distances which gave that night a bit of chill. And an owl that was singing right behind him while looking at him with its big eyes.

None of this made the demon even flinch or move from his spot. He looked at the night sky with captivated eyes. As if charmed by it, he turned his gaze from the moon to the stars. The sky was full with plenty of shining stars, he extended his right hand with an open palm towards them. When his reach was at his limit he closed his fist and slowly pulled it towards himself before gently opening it. It was as if he was hoping to have caught something. His face was disappointed, almost sad.

His long face soon vanished as he heard voices in the distances. Someone was talking further down below, by a road. He had no way of knowing who they were, but decided check out, just in case the mercenaries might have showed up.

He pushed himself off of the cliff and free dived. He landed on the ground without any sort of impact or force, as if he had no weight. As soon as both of his feet touched the ground he sprinted like an arrows shot from the bow. Reaching the edge of the road in no time.

It was the mercenaries that were talking, but he didn’t go out right away, he waited and listened. After a bit of time passed he walked out of the tree line and presented himself before them. “Where is the star?” his voice was chilling and threatening. It was clear to them that it was the same demon as before, despite them not seeing him all that well since of the dark of the night and the trees blocking the light of the moon.

“We shall tell you where she is and even take you there. But for now come with us.” Archeon told him calmly. He turned around and started walking along the road. His comrades followed him as the demon sat in place and looked at them. He watched them go one by one, noticing that one of the six was missing, but didn't ponder much and decided to follow them. After a few minutes of walking noise started to be heard in the distance from between the trees, many voices and laughter. Soon a large open area could be seen in the forest, there a lot of tents were set up, the place was filled with all sorts of creatures and not even one human could be spotted between them.

They all walked through the camp, the demon looked around at the many different races that were gathered there. They all looked so odd and different from what he saw in the town, but he gave it little thought as he turned towards Archeon which was leading the group towards a larger tent to the side of the camp. There seemed to be two soldiers waiting for him there.

“What the hell took you so long Archeon?” one of the two started talking with a loud voice as he started swinging his spear towards him. It was a tall shirtless man, his prominent muscles were in plain sight, it seemed that he had just finished training since sweat could still be noticed on his abdomen. His constitution was just so well rounded to make the most of it in both strength and agility. Both of his hands were wrapped in some kind of golden cloth.

“Welcome back, leader.” a girly voice came out, she slightly bowed her head towards him. The second soldier seemed to be a dark elf girl. A bow could easily be spotted on her back, unlike the man sitting next to her, she was properly geared in a tight leather outfit.

“Lets just say that things got a little complicated and the auction house master is dead. Also general Pallas wanted to execute us.” you could see the disbelief on the faces of those two, their jaws dropped the moment Archeon said that Pallas wanted to execute them. “Just give me a moment and I will explain everything.” he continued “Have a sit, I won’t take long.” he made a sign towards the logs that were placed around a campfire. He then walked inside of the tent.

All of them started to take their sits on the logs. The two soldiers that waited in front of the tent sat on one log along with one more from the group. The big guy sat alone since he was taking most of the space by himself. Two more sat on the other log and finally the mage took his place on the last empty log. The demon was left out, all of them were staring at him with eagle eyes, scanning him from head to toe.

The mage waved his hand in front of him before tapping on the log, making him a sign to sit down next to him and so he sat on the left side of him. Finally Archeon got out of the tent and sat next mage on his right. He began to explain what exactly happened to the two as well as what’s with the demon that they brought along.

The elf girl had no problem with her leaders decision, she nodded her head a few times “I see.” and finally letting out a sigh “Nothing to be done about it, I guess.” But on the other hand the man sitting next to her, voice out his disapproval quite loudly “We could have negotiated with the general and got some money out of it. Also you could have just taken out payment from the safe and blame it on the demon if by chance you we would get questioned. And excluding all that, why the hell do you even have to help him?” he was really frustrated by the fact of not getting paid and even more so for helping the demon for free.

“You know very well we don’t steal, at all. Also negotiate with Pallas? We all know how that would have worked, in the worst case we would have been put to pay for the damages in case we did any and then kicked out of the city.” Archeon told him the outcome of the two situations he brought up “Also, I’m helping him cause I want to. If you don’t like it, tomorrow you are free to go with the men towards the capital.”

After hearing Archeon’s arguments, he decided to sit down and started to act mad about it just like a child that couldn’t go out and play. The place was quite after that, nobody was saying anything and was busy with their own things. Either tending to their gear, chatting or just warming up at the fire. “Since we decided to help you and all, could you introduce yourself? So we know a little about you and be a bit more relaxed.” Archeon asked the demon that was sitting further on his left. Curios eyes turned towards him awaiting his answer.

“I don’t see why not.” he made a pause “Someone used to call me Shade. Kind of fitting I think, considering what I’ve become.” he lowered his head, looking a little gloomy. He raised his head, looking towards Archeon “Anything else you want to know?”

“Yes, what is a demon like you doing a place like this?” the man that was angry about them helping him asked before his leader could even open his mouth.

“I don’t know what this demon thing you are talking about is. Not once did I claim to be such a thing.” he looked kind of angry being compared to a demon.

“Then what kind of creature are you?” the same person asked him again “Since you look exactly like a demon. You even have the tail, the horns and some parts of you almost look like an animal.” he looked at his legs as he said the last part.

Shade pondered over the answer a little, as if trying to remember what his kind was called “You could say I was a god.” everyone’s jaws dropped when he said that “As for my looks, I chose to have the horns since they make others fear you as for the tail it proves to be quite useful.” he raised his hands, grabbing both of his horns when he finished talking. With a little pull both of the front horns came out and slowly started to turn into a black smoke, vanishing completely.

“If you were a god, what happened to you? What are you exactly doing here?” Archeon finally got to say something since the rest were to struck by awe from Shade’s answer.

“I’ve been banished from my place. Now I have to stay in this place forever.” he turned his head towards the sky, looking at the stars again. “I’m looking for the star that had fallen.” just like before, he tried to grasp something from the sky.

Everyone looked at him with suspicious eyes, as if they all knew something but didn’t want to say anything about it. “Why are you so focused on finding the star?” Archeon was the one to ask again.

Shade’s expression went dark, he started to clench his fists “Because of her, my powers were sealed and I was sent in this place.” even his voice changed from calm to angry. It was clear in that moment for everyone why he wanted the star.

The situation around the campfire tensed up a bit, when suddenly two sets of claps made everyone snap out “Oke, how about we introduce ourselves also?” Archeon said to his team, cheering the mood a little.

He placed his hand on his chest, making a bow gesture with his head towards Shade, without getting up from the log “My name is Archeon Keranuos. I’m the leader of this group of mercenaries.” he spoke with a clear voice, his eyes were glittering from the flames of the campfire. You could see the pride and strength this man had just by the way he was talking alone.

The dark elf girl from before got up from the log, doing the same gesture as Archeon “My name is Ellion Lavassir. As you can see I’m a dark elf.” he pointed towards her skin which was a dark blueish colour, in contrast to her skin her eyes where of a shiny golden colour. She had a very long and dark silkish hair caught behind her back in a ponytail. Her ears were long and pointy with three earrings in the right ear and two in the left one. Lighten by the fire you could take a closer look at the gorgeous and tempint formes, one would question her race and say she’d be a succubus if not for the long ears. But despite her charming looks she was well armed, her left shoulder had a piece of armour on it that extended down to her elbow and from there it continued in the form of a small shield down to her wrist, her hand was also covered with chainmail. Her bow could be seen a little better, resting on her back and its limbs looked like blades on top of that the quiver was hanging on the right side of her waist. On the left side of her upper thigh three small knives could be noticed. After that the girl sat down back to her spot.

The angry man from earlier got up. He looked like a young man in his twenties with a well developet body, he wasn’t wearing a shirt so his well shaped muscles were in plain sight. The things that looked like bandages from before proved to be some kind of golden armour with bright red gems placed around his joints. The color of that armour fitted so well with his white skin while the gems matched the color of his eyes. “My name is Kuang.” he talked with a loud and proud voice, at the same time threatening and began to spin his spear around. “I’m a half-breed reptilian.” as soon as he said that his eyes changed shape and all of his skin went golden “You better act nicely or I will show you what I’m good at.” he couldn’t help but threaten Shade.

“Okay though guy, sit down.” the one sitting next to Kuang got up, placing one hand on his shoulder and pushing him back on the log. This man was wearing a dark knights armour, as soon as he moved his cloak out of the way, you could notice the amount of weapons he was having on him. Two daggers on both sides of his chest, two swords on the left side of his waist and one on the right side as well as a larger sword handle coming out from behind him. “My name is Raiden Fionn and I’m a high elf.” he ran his hand through his hair, making all of it lean on the back which revealed his pointy ears.

“Now its my turn.” the huge guy almost jumped from the place he was sitting “My name is Varris Hanuman.” he spoke with a thick and proud voice as he beat loudly on his chest with his huge gauntlets. Even without them his hands would be three times the size of those of a normal human. Besides his huge gauntlets he wasn’t wearing much of an armour as the rest of his gear was made of leather with some chainmail underneath. His face had a few small scars on his left cheek and forehead and a serious look in his brown eyes, a well grown beard like that of a dawrf as for his hair, it shaved on the sides of his head while the top was leaned back and caught in a ponytail. “I’m from the beastmen race and I’m very good at crushing things.” smirking as he finished talking, revealing his sharp fangs which made it look quite creepy.

“Greetings to you, Shade. I’m Nikas Hector.” a tall figure raised from the log at the same time removing his hood, his voice sounded way different than that of the others, it was more like an animal talking. His whole face was covered in short black fur, his ears looked like those of a cat. “I’m a pantherian and a very good hunter.” his cat like eyes were focused on Shade all the time he spoke. You could hardly notice anything from what he was having on him due to the cloak that he had on, the only thing standing out was his features and the bow that was on his back.

The mage cleared his throat, making Shade turn towards him. He remove the hood, revealing a long, red and silky hair which he found a bit weird considering how the rest of them looked. After he removed his mask Shade made a completely surprised face, he was somewhat shocked.

“Why are you looking like that at me?” a girly voice said towards him, it was a completely different voice from when the mask was on.

“Come on already. We all know why he is looking like that. You fooled everyone here when we first met.” Kuang started to shout again “Its because of that damn habit of yours to hide your identity that everyone acts like that when they find out you are a girl.” Varris and Nikas both tried to hide the fact that they were laughing.

She started to blush while also making a mad face towards the two that were laughing. But she calmed down quickly and turned back towards Shade. Here eyes of a bright green that were sparkling in the fires light “I’m Helena Hecate.” she held one hand at the top of her chest. “I’m a witch and I specialize in using magic of all sorts.” her voice was tender and soft, you could easily get charmed by it.

Shade was still confused by the fact that she was actually a girl and not a man. But snapped out of it in an instant when he heard the clash of weapons coming from behind him, in an instant turning in that direction. He noticed two of the soldiers from the camp fighting one another while a circle was formed around them, people were cheering and screaming around them.

“They are dueling.” Archeon said to him “Basically they are fighting without wounding one another.” he explained, since he looked confused. “Want to have a go?” he asked him with a smile on his face, as if he wanted to see what he was capable of.

“Come on, lets fight. I really wanna see if you really are capable of what Archeon said.” Kuang jumped from the log and challenged Shade. The two of them headed towards the ring where the two were fighting. Kuang kicking both of them out and making signs for Shade to step in there.

“Are you sure this is alright?” Varris asked him with a worried voice “We both know this isn’t gonna end up well.

“Don’t worry, in worse case I will step in.” Archeon assured him. They all started to walk towards the ring of men that was formed between Shade and Kuang. Archeon approached Ellion and whispered to her “I want you to watch him closely, observe him the best you can.” he ordered her before reaching the ring.

“Hey, Kuang why didn’t you give him a weapon?” Nikas shouted at him after seeing that Shade wasn’t wielding anything.

“You think I didn’t tell him to grab any weapon he might like?” he answered back slightly pissed.

“I got the best weapon for him. After all he defeated its former owner.” Archeon replied before throwing the fire sword that Pallas threw at him.

As the sword was flying towards him, he caught it in mid air without even looking by the blade and instantly crushed it to pieces in his hand. His eyes were focused on Kuang, he was observing his every movement.

“I bet he loved the sword, right?” Varris started to laugh at Archeon which lifted his shoulders.

“If you don’t have anything else you wanna add Archeon, I will be starting the fight.” Kuang shouted at him, seeing that he had nothing to reply he turned towards his opponent “Now I will teach this fake demon the difference between true strength.” his whole body turned golden as he clenched the spears shaft tightly.