Runaway Hero and the Demon Researchers

I continue along my solitary journey to the edge of the world. All that’s left for me in this world is violence and death. That’s all I can let myself have. And yet I aim for a place far away from the battlefield. And yet I find myself having drawn closer to my barrier.

Off the beaten path, as I ran away from humanity, I felt something tugging on my soul. Before I knew what I was doing, and without my desiring to do so, I found myself so much closer to the battlefield once more and so much farther from my destination.

Delays and detours are no good. They get in the way of efficiently carrying out duties. I always made sure not to dawdle, but all of a sudden I find myself compelled to. Is it because I abandoned my duty myself? Is it because I’m no longer the Hero? Is this waste of time no more than a self-inflicted punishment for the greatest failure of all?

But even when I realize that, I don’t stop moving. My body refuses to obey, still spurred forward by something I feel I’ve felt before but cannot place. This continues for several days. Without so much as a thought of an intent, I cross cracked wasteland, the ground crumbling and reforming as though trying to swallow me. Even as a hero, I deemed the time gained by crossing this route too little a reward to warrant the difficulty of doing so. However, and perhaps due to the barrier’s presence, the land is not nearly as treacherous as I had feared then. I eventually come across a lone house with a large field beside it.

I approach the front door and knock. Behind the door I can hear frantic dashing around. When it stops, a man with thick-rimmed glasses pushes the door open, nearly falling out of the house as he does. When I look behind him, I see a woman staring at us from slightly deeper inside the house. They both have deep bags under their eyes, and their expression betrays a sort of desperation. The man collects himself.

“Welcome, welcome, please come on in. It’s been so long since we had guests.”

I walk inside following his invitation. The inside of the house is a mess. There are papers and books everywhere, organized neatly and strewn about haphazardly. On the few pages and spines I can read, I can see that there’s a mix of notes and books on human/demon relations.

I suppose that makes them researchers. And they haven’t been razed to the ground by a demon attack, so they must know some secret that protects them. Those sorts of secrets are all the military must be wanting right now. If they knew about it, I’m sure they’d be hounding these researchers for it. It’s not like it would matter though. The Demon King will wipe all of us out at the end, no matter what.

“What are you two doing here?” The man answers me.

“We’re researchers. We’ve been out here since before the Hero was even found studying demons. And we’re pretty sure we’ve found a way to save humanity.” I don’t know what’s making me feel so relieved, whether it’s the fact I really don’t matter or something else.

“Without the Hero?”

“Not only without the Hero, but without any violence at all! We can put an end to the fighting, hopefully forever.”

“How is something like that possible?”

“We’ve learned so much about demons, about how they behave. We can communicate with them without any problem. We’re sure there must be a common ground between us and them. We’re sure we can find peace. We can coexist with the demons. Nobody has to be hurt anymore, us or them.” Are they stupid?

“Are you stupid?”

“So you’re just like everyone else. So caught up in your own hate that you can’t even hope for peace. All you people want is their extermination. Nothing else will ever satisfy you!”

“You’ve been studying them for so long, so why are you lying to yourselves? Have you gone insane from the isolation? You know what they are. They’re beasts, all of them. They’re less than that, even. All they know is cruelty and all they desire is the destruction of man. They have no heart and no soul. They barely even exist.”

The woman slaps me. I can tell that her hand stings as though I were the one who struck her, yet she scolds me unfazed.

“How dare you speak like that! All you want to do is kill, kill, kill! You can’t even fathom something else! Get out!”

There’s no point in engaging with their hysterics. All three of us know they’re fools. Demons are nothing more than energy held together with malice. Even the greater demons, the ones who can speak our language and think with much the same capacity as us, have the same disposition as their lessers. They exist to destroy. They are the Dark God given form, made to overrun humanity and corrupt the world. They are nothing more than convenient pawns for that end, capable of affecting the mortal world where the Dark God can’t. When they die, they come apart because they are not real and have no substance. We all know this.

As I step out of the threshold, my mind is flooded with images. Among my powers as Hero is the power of premonition. Erratically, I can see glimpses of a disaster soon to come. The location is always random, and something I need to figure out on my own. I often heard of the disasters later on, if I wasn’t the one who first discovered them. I’ve never once been able to prevent them.

Perhaps it’s coincidence or perhaps it’s providence, but for the first time, the disaster I see is right here. Soon, demons will raid this building and kill the two researchers. Would they try and vie for peace even then?

I sit beside the door, just beneath the window, and hope neither researcher happens upon me. I sit here and wait all day.

When night has fallen and dawn is soon to come, I see the silhouettes of demons creeping closer. I stand and step closer. The demons are almost all wolf shaped, save the leader, the sole greater demon among them, an armored man with the head of a wolf and curved black horns who towers above me. The greater demon laughs.

“Gahahaha! So there was another besides the researchers! How entertaining! Amuse me with your death, swordsman!” There was no secret. The demons simply thought this would be more fun for them. I draw my sword and point it towards him.

“All they want is peace. Leave them and swear to do no harm to humanity, and I shall spare you.”

“Gahahahahaha! Peace! Are you stupid! All I crave is your blood! There will be no peace! And you think to order me! Killing you will be more fun than I thought!”

I cut the wolfman in half. Then I fire spears of light at each wolf. The demons are dead and I see no trace of comrades. I walk away from the building, no longer compelled to seek it out, and return to my journey, the rising sun illuminating my path.