Hereditary

Berig was already on his feet, shield and mace in hand, ready to fight. Solphie hummed carelessly, twirling her staff as she faced the sprinting men. Lathan stood calm and silent until one of the men reached the group.

He bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath. “Sorry, ma’am… We… We tried to stop them. But they’re… too… many.”

“How many?” Lathan asked.

The answer came with a scream.

A body flew out of the tree line and hit the ground with a sickening thud.

“Cecil!” one of the three men cried, rushing to the fallen body. His spear pointing forward, plated shoulders and chest, a worrying look on his face.

A shadow broke from the trees and fell over the motionless body.

A demon.

The first one Duran ever saw.

Purplish skin, about the size—and no doubt the strength—of a chimpanzee. Its pointy big ears framed a hideous mouth bristling with teeth that stomped again and again on the man’s back, gnawing at it.

The demon’s head snapped up, and the blade of the spear drove clean between its eyes. The man pulled his spear to a side with a grunt and threw the entire devil away. He glanced down at Cecil without breaking his guard stance.

“Nano, sir, please, help Cecil!” he shouted to the trees.

Duran narrowed his eyes. Another shadow slipped from the forest. A little one. A cat. At least, it looked like one. The firelight wasn’t enough to be sure. And maybe it was just the flicker of the shadows, but Duran could swear the animal had more than one tail.

“Nano, take care of him!” Berig shouted, while receiving, ugly face first, a demon on his shield.

“I’m on it,” Nano, the cat, said. He jumped on Cecil’s bitten back and started to glow in a greenish aura.

There were about twenty demons—minus one—leaping, diving, growling, and screeching. Everyone was under attack. Everyone knew what to do.

Except for Duran.

He stood at the same spot, the warm glow of the bonfire at his back, as he watched the adventurers he had just met kick some demons' ass. He thought everything had to be a dream. There was no way he was there. No way he was dead.

And he thought of his big sis, Ellie.

If he had really died in his world, she’d be devastated. The last year living together was a very bonding year. They were never apart or indifferent to each other, but their relationship strengthened fiercely in the past months, and not necessarily for the right reasons.

Duran and Ellie's father died a year and a half ago from a heart attack. Duran didn’t know if it was because of it or because of a streak of bad luck, but he lost his job not long after. Without being able to find another job and having spent all his savings, Ellie was his last resort.

She opened her home without hesitation. Supportive and caring. Even though she was still mourning their father’s death, even when she had just gotten engaged. Ellie was always positive. Ellie was always smiling and taking care of others.

Duran took all of Ellie’s love with humility and embarrassment. He was the youngest, but he was already a man. So, he focused on searching for a job and trained in his free time. He trained every day in his room. He didn’t want to have the same death as his father did. The look on his face when they found him was one of absolute terror. And that sticks with you. That changes you.

The months passed, and after dozens of rejections, Duran’s feeling of being a burden grew heavier. He did all he could to help at Ellie’s home, but they were two people surviving on one salary.

Finally, he managed to earn some money streaming video games. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

Until he died.

He remembered Ellie clearly. He remembered his room, the streams, the last video game he played. Even the exact amount he earned that final month.

But not his death.

Only a flashy sting in his chest and a hollow thud.

A very similar sound to that of the winged demon crashing to the ground after Solphie jumped and kicked it down.

Berig hit a long-necked demon with his spiked mace, tearing off the lower part of its jaws. He swung back, caving another demon in the back. The crack of its bones combined with the shrill coming out of its bloody snout. Berig silenced the creature with a blow of his shield.

The man with the spear conjured half a dozen ice stalactites from the tip of the blade and hurled them at a pair of nasty orc-looking demons closing in on the other patrol members. The icy spikes pierced through. The demons dropped—knees first, tusked faces second—onto the ground.

Lathan stood beside Cecil, her long blue hair undaunted, emanating a serene, commanding energy. Her eyes darted from one fighter to another, as if evaluating the performance.

Nano, the talking cat, stopped glowing and climbed down from Cecil’s back. Cecil flexed his arms and legs, pushed himself up on his elbows, and coughed a few times. Then he sat up, patted the cat, and whispered thanks.

The other two members of the forest patrol dispatched five more demons. Two winged with elongated claws and three of the chimpanzee-like ones armed with swords and a battle axe.

One fighter darted side to side, his wand firing melon-sized fireballs. The other, brass knuckled, raised jagged soil spikes that impaled the demons.

In less than a minute, the battle was over.

Duran had just witnessed the existence of magic in this new world. He had expected it, but watching it firsthand was something else entirely. Astonishing. He stared at his hands, puzzled.

Did he have any magic of his own to fight with?

If he were truly the key to defeating the King-Emperor Baal, he should. Yet Solphie and Berig hadn’t shown any signs of magic. They just pummeled the demons with sheer might, acrobatics, and their weapons.

A rustle behind him made Duran snap his head around.

A gaping snout full of needle-like teeth lunged at him. His eyes widened—but his body moved on its own. Sliding his feet across the ground, he shifted position. By the time the demon reached him, he already had one hand locked behind its head and the other pressed against its pulsing purple chest.

With a sharp twist, his body carried through the motion and slammed the beast into the dirt. Its skull crunched on impact. Without hesitation, Duran raised his fist and hammered it down a couple of times, avoiding the horned crown each time—almost with elegance.

“The kid’s got skills,” Berig said, patting Duran’s back. “Nothing compared to Solphie, but still, impressive moves.”

Everyone gathered again at the bonfire.

“I like you even more now,” Solphie said, raising her hand for a high-five.

Duran inadvertently high-fived Solphie’s hand. He was still processing what he had just done.

He’d trained every day in his other life, kept him in shape for sure, but never in a million years had he thought he could move like that. Much less shatter a demon’s skull with his bare hands. All those hours of exercise hadn’t been a waste after all.

Ellie crossed his mind again. He looked up at the starry sky, none of the constellations he knew at sight. He thought about his dad, pressing a hand to his chest. To his heart.

“Don’t worry, Dad. It’s okay. I’ve got a second chance,” Duran muttered to himself.

“Don’t get too excited about it,” Lathan said. “You fought well, but those were lesser demons—maybe even less than lesser. With the corruption of the stones spreading, and if we manage to destroy them, more and more demons of higher ranks will infest Eden. And Baal…” Her gaze drifted somewhere far away, to a place only she could see. “Well, these demons would be like comparing dust-ants to a mighty-scaled-bear. It will be hard as hell.”

Berig chuckled while Nano jumped to his shoulder, his four tails now evident. Solphie jabbed Berig’s arm with her staff.

“Sorry,” he muttered, clearing his throat.

Lathan didn’t even blink. She stayed lost in thought for a moment longer. Then she sighed. “Okay, let’s get to it. But first things first. Donnie, give him the sword.” The brass-knuckled man handed Duran one of the demon’s blades. “It’s nothing special, a common rusted iron sword, but it should help you train and sharpen those skills we already saw.”

“Thanks,” Duran said, accepting the weapon.

“Where are we going first?” Nano asked, licking his left paw.

“To the Avaria Kingdom. You guys let the others know, the ritual succeeded, we’re after the first stone,” Lathan said to Cecil, Donnie, and the other two. A malicious grin drew on her face. Her eyes beamed with the reflected fire. “And we’re going to steal it.”