Leneas stared at his left arm. It laid beside the corpse of the Demon King, and he had to turn his head to the right to see it. He had won. They had won. Even though they had lost so much. Cassarah and Raine died together at their last stand upon a bridge against their demonic pursuers. Sam took a fatal hit meant for Leneas, and was irreversibly damaged. Jochi ran out of arrows, and was forced to improvise with melee weapons. Unfortunately, he did not survive. Leneas stared upwards at the Demon King's throne, smiling. Perhaps in his dying moments, he started to see things that weren't there. A glow, coming from the throne. Was it a ball of light, he wondered. He stared at it as it approached him, floating soundlessly in the air. In better days, he would have reacted. He would have asked Cassarah for her opinion, and attempt to analyse it on his own. But in the final minutes of his life, he just closed his eyes. They won. Everything ends. ----- The ground suddenly felt softer. Even a little bit bouncy. Leneas raised an eyebrow even before his eyes opened. A wooden ceiling, soft sheets upon a cosy bed, and... was this his room? In his house? Leneas got up and stared. Dying dreams were getting realistic. Everything was there, in its usual spot. A painting of him and his mother, smiling together hung on the wall. He recalled the day he had to run from his hometown of Arcus. When everyone was dead or dying on the floor from the demons that attacked, snatching this painting from the wall was all he could do. "How cowardly. I think this painting's here just to remind me of my failures," Leneas laughed cruelly at himself. When the demons attacked in proper force, slightly less than 2 years ago, the villages on the border fell like dominoes. Arcus was no different, and even the Duchy of Savoyard fell too quickly. Even a hastily formed alliance between Ishgardia and Loris barely held the line. The door opened, and a young woman looked in. "Brother, why are you crying?" she asked. Brother? The girl standing at the door was Kelli Solomon. His half-sister. Pure human. Her brown hair and blue-eyes matched his own, and most people called them pure siblings at first glance. And she died at Arcus, too. If this was a dying dream, perhaps the last thing Leneas could do was hug his sister. With tears in his eyes, he rushed Kelli and hugged her. She felt real. Everything felt real. Good enough. "Brother?! Brother?!" she yelped, struggling against his tight embrace. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" She launched her first to his cheek, shattering his grip and toppling him to the floor. Kelli panted for a few moments, before yelling again. "Give me a freakin' warning next time, you crazy bugger!" Kelli stormed off. Leneas held his cheek in his hand. It stung from the punch. Did dreams hurt? Something else felt off too. He reached to his lower back and touched it. The demonic tail, the one he grew when he was 18 years old, was gone. Did he become human? "No." An opportune glance towards a mirror told him everything he needed to know. "I'm 17 again. Did... I... travel into the past?" ----- Standing at the village gate, Leneas stared hard at everyone passing by. "Leneas, you're kind of on guard today? Did something happen?" asked Lee, the other guardsman beside him. Just as young as Leneas, Lee survived Arcus, and he managed to lead a group of survivors all the way from Arcus to Ishgardia before dying of his wounds. Not bad for a lazybum village guard. Leneas never expected that when he saw the badly injured Lee at the gates of Ishgardia, and even knowing the truth did not help the incredulity of the feat. He recalled an off-handed comment of Cassarah. [i]"I went to Arcus once. 3 years ago. I think I saw your face once, Leneas, but I didn't notice you at the time."[/i] Cassarah Vincent discovered the prophecy of the Demon King. That a demon, uniting the demons, would lead an invasion at the head of a massive host against the humans. No one believed her at the time, and she was too late, too. A single month after her prophecy, Arcus fell. He needed Cassarah. He loved Cassarah. But he needed Cassarah, more than he loved her. "Jeez, it's going to be awkward," Leneas mumbled to himself.