At the break of dawn a Minel stands facing the east barrier entrance, eagerly awaiting the return of Reiho and Estrella. His wife urges him to calm down.

  “Minel my lord! They have to be fine. Nothing is that dangerous out there that it would sniff them out in a single day! It’s been only 14 hours. There’s probably just less activity in the woods, especially at this time of year.” The woman spoke with a serene tone to her voice, while pulling Minel back to the village.

  “Look at the children. You must be proud of all the work we have done as a species. Only another year or so, and we will be able to survive out in that big dangerous world again like you always dreamed of, as a proud race of people.” She looks down at Minel’s rugged hands. Destroyed through decades of standing side by side with his people as a real leader, rather than walking above them.

  “Alechi my love. Forgive this worrisome old fool. I don’t believe in my people as much as I should. We’ve been hiding for decades. One hunt gone too long shouldn’t alarm me. It happens from time to time. Thank you for always soothing my nerves. It means more to me than you could ever know.” Minel smiles and reflects on the good fortune he has been bestowed in this life.

  “Aw! What a sweet sentiment. Unfortunately you demon scum are going to have to die!” Minel starts to turn, but his neck cracks before he knows what is happening.

  “Attention citizens of the sanctuary. My name is Samedi Dandin Gilas, and I am representing the commandment Sabbath of the demon king's cabal! Me and my comrades have come to erase you from this world!” The cultist started laughing maniacally at the sky yet again. Alechi starts to run for her life.

  “Where do you think you’re going, wench?” Samedi screams as he attempts to go after her. Another one of the commandments puts his hand on Samedi’s shoulder.

  “Do not worry about that one. We can find her later. She isn’t a demon. That there is a human! Let’s figure out the rest first!” the mysterious commandment starts walking towards the group of children practicing their fighting stance.

  “Hello young ones. We are looking forward to having you come along with us. We have a very important task we would like you to carry out!” The commandment asked quietly and calmly. My name is Azrin Wraxin, though you may have heard of me by a different name. Honor. I am one of the ten holy commandments of the demon king’s cabal. If you agree to our terms then we will let you live.” Azrin stated calmly and smoothly as if he rehearsed it a thousand times before.

  “We will never go with you!” One of the kids shouted.

  “Yeah! Eat shit Cabal scum!” another one yelled from the distance. Azrin visibly enraged retorted

  “Fine! All I wanted was to make a bunch of slaves out of all of you anyways. What’s a little bloodshed going to hurt? That was our original mission anyways! You little shits will get to see the demon king soon enough!” In nothing but a flash, every single child in that group was destroyed instantaneously as if they had just disappeared. Azrin and Samedi started walking away when Azrin muttered

  “I can’t believe I had to deal with that level of insolence from mere whelps. They should know just who we are!” Before finding their next targets the two looked up at the giant trees.

  “It amazes me more and more every second the fact that the village that was hiding in the crater has created such amazing magical illusions.” Samedi blurted out.

  “This is why you’re the weakest commandment in mind, body, and magic. Don’t promulgate such drivel in front of anyone important again. The illusion isn’t on the inside. It’s on the outside. This was never a crater in the first place. These trees are the real deal, and not that it’s of any interest to me, but they are brimming with magicule crystals. That must be the secret to how this barrier can be constantly active. Now that we figured this out, we can raid all the sanctuaries. Demihumans might finally be a thing of the past. It disgusts me to think that all this happened because somebody thought they could love a mink, or an elf, or an oni, or a good for nothing demon!”

  Azrin looked up to see the same woman from before standing with a weapon in her hand. She had bloodlust in her eyes, as if she was in fact a demon as well. Samedi stepped forth, and toyed with her a little bit.

  “I think you’ll find my air magic to be quite the incredible force. Do you not possess any magic at all? All you are doing is trying to hit me with a staff. That might work on some people but is that the best you’ve got?” She stops for an instant, and realizes that he didn’t even acknowledge her. Samedi lifts her up in the air seemingly with telekinesis.

  “Alechi was it? Let me make this simple. You were never worth a demons times, let alone a humans. You were born with nothing, you lived for nothing, and you will die for nothing.” Her arms ripped right off. Her head twisted so many times it split from the body, and her legs were torn at the knees and the hips.

  “Let’s go samedi. Stop playing with the human girl. We have demons to kill!”

  ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

  5 minutes earlier:

  Alechi is running faster than she ever has before. Charlotte looks up with glazed over eyes.

  “Alechi! What’s going on. You look out of breath.” Charlotte's bewildered and calm demeanor only panicked Alechi more.

  “If ever you trust me, now is the time to do it. Run as far away as you can. After the third tree to the west turn left. There's a vine covered tunnel. Get in there, and run all the way down. There will be a carriage, with a kiregane. It looks like a large flightless bird, but this is the bravest flightless bird you will ever see. Take the carriage. Go straight forward. When you get to a village ask about the Echet Amani manor. The villagers all know where he lives. And most of all, i love you. Keep running and don't turn back!” In an instant she turned around back from where she came from.

  “Charlotte lets go!” Mel grabbed Charlotte’s hand, now sprinting across the plains.

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  “I have never seen her like that before. Something must be really bad. I need to be prepared for whatever outcome. I can’t give Charlotte a choice, because I have a sinking feeling that this will be a life or death situation, and knowing him… I don’t even want to think about the stupid way he would be killed. All in the effort to spare another. No he must live. I will keep him by my side, just like I promised not even a day ago!” Approaching the third tree Mel took a sharp left.

  “Hey! Slow down! I can’t keep up! And why was that turn so sharp?” Charlotte asked, but Mel just kept picking up momentum and focused on escaping the sanctuary. They reach the tunnel, mel starts kicking vines loose, before finally getting an entrance spot.

  “Alright. I feel better talking now that we're in the tunnel. Did you feel that monstrous aura coming from the sanctuary, or was it just me?” Charlotte took a deep inventory of what he meant.

  “I do now! We have to go back, everybody is in trouble!” Mel yelled as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

  “There is no going back. They’ll either die or succeed, but we cannot change the outcome. Those guys are far stronger than I could ever imagine.” Mel kept running forward with that determined look on his face that Charlotte would only see when he was playing a really intense game.

  “I don’t understand Melyn. Why are we abandoning everyone?” Charlotte asked, tearing up, still somehow keeping up with him.

  “It’s better to live to fight another day than to die for no reason, don't you understand?. There is no way we’re winning that fight, and that's a fact!” Mel explained but Charlotte almost immediately jumped in.

  “We didn’t even try though!” He yelled holding back full on tears now.

  “I know! That’s the very reason we’re alive right now! It hurts to do this, but we have to listen to my mom! She knows best!”

  At the end of the tunnel as promised the kiregane awaited them.

  “Yeah! Alright! That’s our transportation out of here!” Mel excitedly hopped on holding the reins. Charlotte followed him, and passed out in his lap.

  “Too! Much! Running! Charlo- Magne! Tired!” He falls into a full on snoring nap. Mel whips the reins, and they start riding off into the sunrise which only appears more and more beautiful with each passing moment. The outside world is even more beautiful than he had ever imagined! Endless lakes, and rivers! Beautiful trees of all different varieties.

  “Hm! I wonder what that tall blobby thing with the top on it is called. I’ve never seen a tree like that!” The weird tree emitted a smell unlike anything Mel has ever seen before.

  “I hope Charlotte is going to be okay. This change might ruin her.” Mel thought to himself.

  Suddenly out of nowhere, the hairs on the back of Mel’s neck stood tall, and Mel felt a horrible pressure in his chest.

  ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

  In Mel’s vision

  Back in the village, a mysterious man stands face to face with both Alechi, and Minel.

  “It’s so pitiful. Here comes the doddering old fool who thought he could raise an entire race of people. Little does he know that he’s about to meet his maker. Everything you have ever done, ever achieved, and ever will be has been intercepted by me at this very moment, and all you can do about it is watch from the sidelines as the real leaders take over! You will know true suffering, fear, and great regret. Minel, chief of the demon clan.” Azrin slowed his breathing before shouting. “I pronounce your entire species obsolete, and eliminated!” He laughed maniacally in the sky before Minel got smashed into a wall hundreds of feet away, still breathing but barely able to move.

  “So this is the pride of the demon clan? I’d say that old drunk fool that Samedi fought had more strength than you, and frankly i’m disappointed. You’re weak! Just like your father. Actually, you’re weaker. At least your father could keep up with some of my subordinates. They would crush you like the insignificant roach that you are!” Minel kept gasping for air, but nothing would make its way through. As he looked up at the man who was about to take his life, he felt relieved that the boys made it out of the sanctuary before it was too late.

  “Well Minel, of the demon clan! Any last words? Or should I just kill you right here and now?” Minel tried to muster up what little strength he had to say something. Anything, but he passed out before that could ever happen.

  Azrin picked him up, and slung him over his shoulder. The old man started to come to his senses as they were walking. Azrin threw him up in the air, before unimaginable pain coursed through his entire nervous system.

  “Sleep now Minel. Along with your kin. The demon king would be proud of this momentous day!”

  ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

  “Holy shit!” Mel yelled to himself as his surroundings started to come back to him. He was in the middle of the forest, completely isolated from anyone but himself and Charlomagne. “That was one freaky dream, or was it a vision?” The thought loomed in his mind a little while longer.

  Mel looked down to see that Charlotte was still fast asleep in his lap. “I have to keep going!” he said to himself. “For Charlotte's sake!”

  Upon making the next turn Mel noticed a few houses. “Oh! This must be the village!” The people there stared at him in a group as he passed through. Eventually he stopped right in the dead center of town.

  “Excuse me! I’m looking for the mansion near here. I have business with the man who owns it!” A few of the children hid away behind their mothers, cowering as if they were a couple of other worldly beings.

  “Forgive the children's skittish conduct. They haven’t been trained to practise the best decorum around new people.” One of the mothers explained.

  “I wasn’t worried about that. They’re adorable! I’m just looking for his mansion. I was told they were taking us in.” Mel’s casual demeanor soon turned to caution as he saw the face of the mother turn grotesque, in the way that layers upon layers were hidden beneath.

  “Is that so? Master Amani sure does love his outcasts.” Her eyes glazed over into an almost completely white emptiness. “If you would like to visit the master then you should head left at the next crossing, and make your way up the hill. You will see the gates shortly.” The woman’s eyes softened before picking up her daughter while they laugh to each other in the most innocent bliss.

  “Me- Mel?” Charlotte somnolently moaned, barely even getting the words out in the first place.

  “Charlotte. We’re almost at the mansion. You passed out. That’s unlike you. Are you feeling okay?” Mel pestered as if Charlotte hadn’t just awoken from a deep and long sleep.

  “I just. I felt their mana. It was too much!” Charlotte soothed, while also being explicitly aware of Mel’s circumstance in all of this.

  “Well. It’s not like I have any mana prowess. I wonder if it was targeted towards you.” Mel prattled, breathing in the fresh summer air. It was gorgeous out in the world where they never got to go before, and Mel took that in every chance he got.

  “It’s impossible to say. I just know that it definitely was their mana.” Charlotte trailed off, knowing that is all that he could really add to the conversation, embarrassing as it may be he was completely clueless to what had happened.

  At least they were home now…

  Somebody's home.