A palace of grand magnitude, walls and stairs made of the finest materials, a multitude of faction flags hanged at the top, crucibles and chandeliers illuminating the place.
Despite its bold and glamour, the palace itself still shows cracks, dust and cobwebs, the sun itself visible, illuminating a piercing ray of light through the open wall on the empty throne at the middle.
Damon's view of the throne was suddenly obstructed as Alucard bowed in front of him, "Welcome to your new home master."
"..." Damon stood there blankly, wearing Alucard's suit.
Belial and Efilim stood there, not knowing what to do.
"Mmm." Alucard then followed, "Master, can you withdraw your mana? The miasma you exude is harmful to humans, but to us demons, it activates a primal part of our instinct. Even standing before you is taking a toll on us."
Damon tilted his head, unfamiliar with the words he's speaking, "..?"
"Hmm, it seems like I'll have to start teaching from the very beginning." Alucard grabbed his hand and placed it at his stomach, "This is your core, master." A swirling pool of dark miasma flowing in and out of him could be felt, "You just have to be in tune with the energy that you possess and slowly place it back in your body."
Damon despite being unresponsive, closed his eyes and followed Alucard's instructions. "..." He felt the core of his body inside tremble and quake, as if it was trying to escape. He shaped and formed the mana into a sphere, completely containing it within his body.
Alucard and the two demons behind him sighed in relief as the miasma that was so intoxicating disappeared, "...That was quicker than I thought."
"...That's it?" Damon felt a tear run down his cheeks, "That's all it took? Something so stupid and simple like it?" He squeezed his hands, enough to draw blood from his fists, "If I just learned this then my father and mother didn't have to die, we didn't have to run away? Something so stupid, something so simple..."
"...Master?"
"God... DAMN IT!!!" Damon lost focus on his concentration as the black miasma kept exuding off of his body. "Something, SOMETHING SO STUPID!"
Alucard and the two other demons beside him fell to their knees, "E... Efilim! Contain him!" His face was like glass, breaking off, red flared up eyes, his body slowly growing larger, his demonic transformation slowly undoing. He grabbed the right side of his face, trying to hide his undoing.
"Are you kidding me!? I can barely keep myself together!" Efilim's skin gradually turning into a deep crimson red, marks appeared on her bare body, her mouth salivating.
"Belial!" He looked around only find him nowhere around.
"That fool is easily the most affected! He's probably invisible and lost control already!"
Alucard crawled to Efilim, lifted her up and threw her, "Then it's your job!"
"ALUCAAARD! I'LL KILL YOUUUUU!!!" Efilim latched herself into the rampaging Damon.
"Now!"
She whispered in his ears, her breath exuding that of a pink mist. "Sleep." Damon's body dropped from the ground, the rampaging miasma dissipating.
Efilim panting as she tried to regain her composure, the pigmentation of her skin returning back to its former self, Alucard's face healing itself back masking his demonic form.
Belial from behind the both of them sweating, "I thought I'd lose himself..." He walked up to Alucard, rage consuming him as he grabbed his collar, "What's the gameplan here Alucard!? You've brought a broken boy back home congratulations. Now what!?"
"A broken boy that killed the hero. What else is there to discuss?" Alucard nonchalantly replied.
"Is this all a joke to you!? We need a suitable candidate, not this scrawny kid who couldn't even keep the 'Abyss' in control!"
"That's what's bugging me you see. How can a kid who doesn't even know the basics of mana manipulation have access to 'Abyss'? To get and cultivate this type of mana is to completely convert the innate mana of a living being into a high level ritual that involves sacrificing countless humans to tap into their demonic nature."
"So you're telling me curiosity is what got you interested!? I am not giving my life to the cause to satiate your curiosity Alucard!"
"It's not curiosity, it's proof!" Alucard shove Belial away from him, "This is the most purest form of 'Abyss' miasma that we've ever encountered, great demons like us even from that old crone that died against the hero, didn't affect us. But this kid right here, even if it's powers in its infancy was enough to forcibly draw out our innate nature." He pointed at Damon, "That is hope, that is the answer that we've been looking forward to!"
"That is not proof enough, that is speculation. What use is his power if we can't even control him properly? This is a waste of time, we have to go out there and find a candidate as soon as possible."
"Enough!" Efilim shouted, flinging the both of them, slamming them to the walls. "I'm the one who saved both of your asses so I get to choose what to do with him!" She sighed, "We're keeping the boy."
"Efilim! You too!?" Belial exclaimed.
Alucard stood up and cleaned the rubble off of his body, "That kind of mana was pure and absolute. I'm sure Efilim felt it too considering she was the closest to him. Just like the demon of gluttony, that power clearly resembles that of a fragment of the true demon king."
Belial swallowed his saliva, "That so..?" He sighed, "Fine, I'll play along with this ruse as much as needed. But the moment I see that this is not a worthy endeavor to go through, I will kill him myself."
...
A deep comforting sleep as the summer's embrace wrapped around Damon's body. The overlooking house at the top of the hill, an open field and the view of the faraway kingdom in the distance.
"Damon!" A woman's voice called out to him.
He instinctively looked back, "Yes mother?" He instantly replied.
"Your father is having trouble with the firewood! Can you help him with that? The stew is nearly ready as well, call him over to get breakfast."
"Yes!" He stood up, the feeling of grass beneath his feet, the dirt that molds to his feet, the beautiful golden view of the scenery, the life that surrounded their home, butterflies, birds, boars and the like.
He took it all in, a beautiful symphony of the multitude of sounds of life surrounded him every single day in that place.
"Oh, look who it is?" His father with big burly structure holding an axe to his shoulders, ready to swing down on the firewood.
"Mom said she needs more firewood! Also that the stew is ready!" Damon replied
He raised his axe, "Ahaha! Is that so? I better get ready then."
Damon's eyes glistened as his father's form was perfect for a lumberjack. His axe glowed in a bright whi-
"Glow?"
Just as reality played a joke on him, the hero's face plastered over his father's body, a towering pillar of light, enough to reach the skies slams down back to earth.
His mother's body inside the house cut in half, her head rolling down towards him.
He fell on his back, "No..."
His mother's head opened its mouth, "Why did you have to exist Damon?" Blood flowed from her eyes and mouth, "We gave everything to let you live, and what did you do? Kill your mother and father? What kind of son are you?"
"No... no mother... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..!"
"Why were you born Damon? Why were you BORN!?"
"NO!"
Damon's view suddenly changed as he stared right into a ceiling. A comfortable fluffy bed that seemed to mold into his body.
His body, sweating profusely, "A dream..." He sat up, and then realized that his clothes changed from a rugged mismatch of cloth into that of a grand woven silk, a black colored suit that royalty would normally wear.
Suddenly, a head flipped upside down entered his view, "Sorry, had to use nightmares to wake you up."
"Grah!?" He jolted backwards. Noticing that there was another person in the room, he unconsciously tried keeping the mana that's trying to surge out of him inside him as much as possible.
Efilim, who was floating upside down fixed herself up and faced him properly as she floated, "Ah you're finally responding." She smiled, "Calmed down yet?"
Damon recalled his memories of what just happened for the past day. "...Yeah."
"Do you remember what happened? Otherwise this is going to be quite the shock to you, you know? The deal that Alucard asked of you."
His mind recalled back to the time when Alucard pledged his loyalty to him as his master, "...I don't think I answered."
"Yeah, you didn't. That's why I'm here, to ask as the mediator."
"Mediator..?" He recalled back to earlier when he suddenly felt asleep as soon as Efilim got near him. He covered his ears and nose with his hands instantly.
"Hey! I'm not going to use that!" She sighed, "Well, giving you context might give you ideas as to why we're doing this."
He loosened up, listening intently to her, "Why... do you need something like me? And... burning the world?"
She turned around, an exhausted sad snicker she let out, "Hah... We're looking for our home."
"Home? Doesn't demons already have a home?"
"Hell? No, that's not our home. It was never our home." She gritted her teeth, turning back to face him, "Demons like us were always stronger than the average human. We had a better source of mana, we were physically stronger, we had longer lifespans, genetics enough to have the ability to fly and other certain things. We were everything humans wanted to be."
She opened her mouth and breathed a pink mist straight to Damon's eyes. He recoiled, but as he opened his eyes, the scenery around them changed.
"It's an illusion, but it's the perfect recreation of what happened those days..." Efilim responded.
Demons and humans going at it in a large scale war. Blood was spilled everywhere, death was the norm.
"The humans grew in fear of us so they decided to eradicate all of demons that has existed and will ever exist."
The illusions of demons being killed were being projected through Damon's eyes.
"We never understood why it was just us demons, longer life span creatures or genetically better beings like elves or dwarves were spared from humanity's wrath. But we later understood down the line too late that it was because of the Demon King and the power the he held."
A crimson seal, far away the mountains, overbearing and grand. "Demons had the blood to use the so called forbidden magic that mages are not allowed to use. Death and life itself. Using demons and their blood as medium, they would be able to create weapons and armor."
Her fury encompassing from her eyes as she gripped her fists tightly, "The elves' magic to imbue the equipment, the dwarves' craftsmanship to create equipment and humanity's gold and greed. They all joined hands together, killing the Demon King and using his blood and body as medium to fuel a conquest."
"A conquest of domination to the other realms."
Flashing imagery showing through Damon's eyes, "The ones from beyond the depths of hell and the 'otherworlders'. Two realms ripe for taking, enough to influence and weave enough power to that of godhood."
"That's why we're looking for a 'candidate', a candidate that will help the demons back to where it was before... That's why we ask of you... No, we beg of you, to save us." She lowered her head as well as dispelling the illusion magic. "You are all that is left of the hope for the demon race."
Damon, moved by the words, feeling similar of what he experienced throughout his life was inclined to agree yet- "No... I'm sorry."
"Wha-" It was a response that Efilim didn't exist. "Why!?"
"My mother and father are dead, what's left for me to fight for..? I was raised by them, sacrificed everything they lived up to and built on their own just for a son like me to be born, what's worse is that I was the one who killed them in the end. If I stay with you, with the others then that just means that everyone will just die and leave me all alone again, and it'll be my fault." Damon's miasma exuded from his body as he lets go of the control he had over his mana.
"Grah..." The hue of Efilim's body changing, her mouth salivating. Horns grew from her head, marks, tattoos appeared throughout her bare body. "Damon..!"
"If I bear this curse on my own, I'm better off dying somewhere. If all my life I'm about to be around people that would appreciate me and all I could do to repay them was bear the burden of me just simply existing, then I'd rather not receive anything at all." Tears fall from his face, "I'm not gonna kill people I love again!"
"Who... said... this was a burden?" Efilim flew closer to him, her body growing larger as tall as seven feet, tails emerged from her back, fangs grew from her teeth. "This is no burden to us demons, it's a blessing. If you need a reason to survive then fight for us!" She reached in their foreheads touching. Sweat dripping from her as she keeps holding back the innate instinct of a demon, "We can be your new family Damon!"
Damon's eyes glowed, "I don't deserve it..." tears falling down like raindrops.
"You do, more than anyone else in the world! I have seen your story, it's time for a new chapter!" Wings sprouted from her back as the demon-ification of a succubus slowly emerged.
The miasma exuding from his body weakened as it retreated back into his core, "Can I... really have a new family?"
"Yeah... you can. This is our home, and we'll be your family." Her form reverted back into her basic form, her skin returning back to its former, the tattoos and marks disappearing, her tail tucked in and her wings growing smaller. "We won't die, we won't break so easily, as long as we have each other, this thing called family is nothing but an arms reach." She stepped back offering her hand to him, "So Damon, will you walk this journey with us, as family?"
Damon reached out, grabbing her hand. "...Yeah!"
She rubbed the tears off his eyes and hugged him, "Very well, we'll be the greatest demon family this world will ever see." Her eyes flickered with a red glare.