Damis went by a great many names. To the vertit tribes of the north known by a great many few—oxymoronic as it was—he was called Nanuman which was known as man-eater. In direct translation, it was interpreted as man eating man as he ate man in human form. In old archives hidden from the sights of simple men he was called Feretae, which interpreted as son of Tae, lord of the demon cavalry. Personally, he hated Tae.

  There were more, however. Damis, deceiver of men. Janta, the king’s liar. The Destroyer—his personal favorite—for the havoc he had wrecked in a war once.

  And many more

  Personally, however, he preferred the one he’d chosen for himself; Voss. It was a simple name, and it rolled off the tongue with little to no need for unnecessary pronunciations.

  But for now, he had introduced himself as Damis and answered to the name for the duration of his time here.

  Damis sat on an elevated assemblage of rocks. In this section of his current shelter, the rocks were raised high enough that they looked like two steps of a failed stairway. They allowed him sit easily with a raised platform for which to raised his feet as well.

  Around him, most of the space was dark. Walled on all sides, he was covered in the brown rocks of a cave. It was interesting since the cave was not necessarily within a mountain but an actual forest.

  The entire space was moist with air so humid that his nostrils could quite literally smell the water in the air, feel it too. But he wasn’t against the air. It was a far better taste to the nose than the smell of blood that had once been a very constant part of his life.

  Tired and a little bored, Damis sat with his face to the sky. His chosen position was the one place where the slight almost nonexistent touch of moonlight streamed into the cave from an opening above him.

  Damis knew nothing of how the hole had come to be. It was probably a natural occurrence. In the same way, it could just have easily been man-made or the action or side effect of some random creature or the other. He couldn’t be sure, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  So Damis sat, hidden within a quiet cave, humid with the smell of rot, grass and water in its air. But even with all the rot, it was a better smell than the blood that had once been a part of his life.

  Eyes closed and enjoying the moonlight—little as it were—Damis’ interface popped up in front of him, informing him of a recent update.

  He cracked an eyelid open and looked at it.

  [You have lost 1 Tamed Demon]

  [Tamed Demon Basiliker has been slain]

  [Tamed Demons remaining: 5/6]

  A sigh slipped from his lips as he read the notification. Summoning tamed demons was, in its own way, a hassle for him. He was not a [Beast Tamer], a [Demon Tamer], or even a [Summoner]. So, it made summoning these things a real hassle requiring a lot of blood.

  And due to the recent developments that had brought him all the way to this unknown corner of the kingdom of Bandiv, he was trying to cut down on the blood sacrifices.

  Closing his one opened eye, he returned his sight to the darkness of closed lids and resumed his silent basking in the moonlight. History had taught him that the moon was better than the sun because its light was gentle instead of harsh.

  Where the sun was a tyrant, the moon was a gentle carer. Like a mother or an overprotective older sister.

  I will have to summon another demon, he thought to himself.

  But such a summoning would not take place here. He knew this as surely as he knew that his time in this backwater land of cannibals was over. If someone had killed the [Basiliker], then it meant that someone had either done something stupid or someone of some importance had come here because of all the missing persons.

  He had warned the foolish chief of the town. The [Basiliker] needed sacrifices to grow stronger, but not all the sacrifices needed to be gotten at the same time. But the fool’s hunger for the false promise of demonic mana had sent him into a state of stupid decisions.

  The bodies had begun turning up at an unhealthily fast pace, and Damis had known that it would only be a matter of time before someone with greater power than the chief came sniffing around, someone with much more power than the chief could handle. It was simply the way with kingdoms. You could commit all the crimes you wanted as long as you did it away from the eyes of powers greater than you and did it with some level of decorum.

  Damis almost sighed at the thought.

  What was I expecting, he thought to himself. Anybody with half a decent brain in their heads knew better than to expect control from a [Cannibal]. They weren’t the most reasonable of people, after all.

  His only regret in the recent update of his demon’s death and his need to move on to somewhere better was the loss of his information network.

  For now, however, he would wait and think and bask in the beauty of the moon’s glow. The cave he occupied wasn’t necessarily protected, but it was so heavily out of the way and too deep in the forest that it was a difficult thing to accidentally stumble upon.

  Whoever or whatever group of people that had killed the [Basiliker] would be hard pressed to find the place since a [Basiliker] was not known for leaving trails when they moved. With the time between the [Basiliker]’s departure from the cave and the notification he received being near thirty minutes, the group was sure to be unable to handle him even if the found him.

  It was just the way with—

  Damis paused and his eyes opened slowly. He’d heard a sound, a curious sound at that. It was familiar because he had been living with the sound for a long time now. It was the quick skittering sound that came from moving limbs stabbing across the ground in hurried movement. Mixed with the slithering sound of serpentine crawling, they formed a unique sound of their own.

  His ear tilted slightly, paying attention to the sound. He listened for a while. Heard it move from one point to another just beyond the cave.

  Searching? He wondered as the sound moved from one end to the opposite. He heard it stop midway through its movement then change direction.

  Movement sounds calculated, he thought, still listening as the creature changed paths once more.

  Judging by the sound across the distance, the creature was small, young. But youth to the creature was not measured by years and time, it was measured by its levels. This one seemed less than level fifty, maybe less than level forty.

  It piqued Damis’ interest enough to make him open his eyes. The [Basiliker] was not a creature indigenous to Nastild, at least not this side of Nastild. And yet, here he was, listening to the sound of a young [Basiliker] skittering around and climbing trees, and…

  He listened and his brows lifted slightly in amusement.

  The creature had just settled itself upon the branches of a tall tree. With good eyesight, it could watch and see anything from afar.

  A young [Basiliker] out here in the middle of nowhere. Damis almost wanted to leave the cave to study the anomaly.

  That was until he heard a new sound. This one was smaller, almost nonexistent. Damis realized with a touch of interest that the movements of the [Basiliker] had masked this one. The realization came with a question. Had it been intentional?

  If the answer was yes, then he was about to meet a very interesting person.

  Someone like me? He wondered, doubting the thought almost immediately. He had checked upon his arrival. There was no one like him in the kingdom of Bandiv.

  The footsteps were light, moving very slowly. Cautious instead of stealthy. It was the footsteps of someone who had just walked into an empty house and was amused by the sight but didn’t want to disturb anyone yet.

  It stopped after a while and Damis sighed.

  “Keep walking,” he commanded with a light and gentle voice. He made sure not to come out threatening, but he also made sure that his guest knew better than to disobey. “Be kind enough to not make me repeat myself.”

  He waited for a heartbeat, then another. The footsteps resumed by the third beat of the heart.

  When the footsteps were properly loud enough, only then did Damis turn his head. He made sure to be slow about it, non-threatening. Humans always reacted poorly to threatening situations, and he was intrigued enough to not want to threaten this one.

  When his eyes settled on his guest they narrowed in surprise. His visitor was no more than a boy. Cocking his head to the side in contemplation, he would put the boy old enough to have his interface but no more than twenty-two by human years.

  With medium length black hair, cut to three to four inches in length, he had a squared jaw that gave him a touch of human handsomeness. Easy blue eyes took in the cave.

  [You have used skill Detect]

  The boy squirmed under the weight of the skill and Damis almost felt sorry for him. His [Detect] skill was almost maxed out and his level was clearly higher than the boy’s so he could only imagine how disconcerting it must’ve felt.

  More disconcerting, however, was the boy’s follow up reaction.

  “That was very annoying,” the boy snapped. “Don’t do that again.”

  Damis paused, brows rising in incredulous surprise. He made sure to read the indicator above the boy’s head before addressing him with specifically chosen words.

  [Theodore Lacheart- Summoner (Level 38) Prey]

  That was interesting. At his age, his current level was very interesting. From what Damis had learned since coming here, the average level in Bandiv wasn’t that high. Its people weren’t struggling or suffering so they weren’t growing so fast.

  Even the village chief with the [Cannibal] class had barely reached level sixty-nine at the age of almost fifty. At the rate the boy in front of him was growing, if he didn’t get stuck at level forty-nine, he would be very powerful at the village chief’s age.

  What was more interesting than his growth, however, was the designation of [Prey]. For some reason, it kept flickering in and out of existence. As if his interface wasn’t even certain of it, at its default state, the word looked faded. Unsure.

  “Theodore Lacheart,” Damis said slowly. “Is it safe to assume that you are not aware of your current predicament?”

  “Lack heart.” It was all the boy said, eyes still studying the expanse of the cave. “Not Latch-heart.”

  “What’s that?” Damis asked, genuinely curious. The boy sounded more amused than threatened.

  The boy’s eyes finally turned and settled on him, undaunted. “It’s Lack heart. People always read the name and think it’s Latcheart for some reason.” He paused, cocked his head to the side as he studied him. “Nice horns.”

  Now that was not the reaction that Damis had been expecting.

  He blinked twice, recollecting himself from his shock.

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  “So, Theodore Lacheart,” he repeated, making sure to pronounce the name correctly, “tell me what—”

  “You can call me Ted,” the boy interrupted.

  Damis sucked in a calming breath. “Interrupt me one more time and I’ll call you something else.”

  Ted stopped looking amused and started looking curious. He had the expression of someone who had just realized something and yet also realized that he had no idea how he’d realized what he’d realized.

  It was a funny expression.

  “I know this place,” he said suddenly. “How do I know this place?”

  Damis knew that unlike most animals, humans did not have survival instincts strong enough to notice when they were in the presence of life threatening danger until the situation grew dangerous so he was willing to be understanding.

  “Do you have the [Detect] skill?” Damis asked, speaking with the patience of an adult talking to a child.

  The boy, Ted, nodded.

  “Use it on me,” Damis instructed.

  Ted raised a curious brow. “Isn’t that considered rude?”

  “I am willing to allow it while forgiving your discourtesy.”

  “Just in case you are worried that my nonchalance is a reflection of my stupidity, I would like you to know that I am very much aware of the fact that you are a demon.” The boy folded his arms over his chest but not before Damis caught the slight tremble in his hands.

  He’s afraid, he realized. Did that make the boy the kind of person that masks his fear with nonchalant arrogance?

  “I’m also aware of the fact that you are stronger than me,” he added.

  “Use the skill, child,” Damis repeated, finding the child interesting. “I will not mistake your nonchalance for stupidity as long as you don’t mistake my intrigue for kindness.”

  There was a momentary pause where a silence fell between the both of them. At the end of the very short silence, Damis felt the subtle effect that came with someone of a significantly lower level using the [Detect] skill on him.

  In reaction to whatever he had seen, Ted made a surprised sound. It was a simple nasal sound that came with finding something you did not expect.

  Damis wasn’t sure what was surprising.

  “Do you now understand the position you’re in?” he asked.

  Ted nodded. “I’ve always understood it. You can snap me like a twig. Why do you think I wanted to turn back?”

  Damis’ brows furrowed. “Then what got that reaction out of you?”

  “For some reason, you don’t look like a Damis,” Ted said.

  Damis could not believe the conversation he was having with a human. It was ludicrous. Then again, his father, Tae, had always told him that his curiosity towards humanity would be his downfall. They were livestock, and the stronger members of them that were not livestock, were nothing but the weak designed to be conquered.

  Beasts of burden, his father had called them.

  “Am I the only one having a little touch of déjà vu here?” Ted asked, looking around once more. “Why do I feel like I’ve been here before? Like I’ve met you before.”

  Damis stiffened for a very brief moment.

  Of all the things he was capable of, time magic was not one of them. Only the truly powerful knew about time magic, enough to cast one with enough strength to cause déjà vu.

  Damis spread his attention far and wide, reaching beyond the cave. A frown creased his brows as he continued to listen.

  “Did you come alone?” he asked, worry growing. He was powerful, but not powerful enough to fight against someone that danced with the magic of time.

  “I came alone,” Ted answered easily, a little too trusting for Damis’ liking.

  What annoyed Damis about the boy was that he believed him. Ted’s carefree disposition was also drawing him into a casual feeling. It was so natural, so simple.

  Does he have the [Charisma] skill?

  It was a rare skill, but not extremely rare amongst humans. As a passive skill, it was an indicator of a human’s ability to be—for lack of a shorter explanation—charismatic. It did not make the owner charismatic; it was proof that the owner was charismatic.

  Damis placed his finger on the ground next to where he was sitting. He was casual about it. Making sure that his action was out of sight, he carved a summoning spell into the floor with his finger and activated it.

  [You have summoned Tamed Beast Dirt Wyrm]

  He felt the rock beneath him move gently as the creature came to life within the rock and dirt. With a mental command, he sent it out to survey their surroundings.

  “So, Ted,” he said. “You mentioned déjà vu.”

  Ted nodded. “It’s a very weird feeling right now. It feels as if I’ve been here before, met you before.” He gestured back and forth between them. “It feels like we’ve also done this before.”

  “And you don’t think time magic has anything to do with it?” Damis quizzed him.

  The boy looked visibly confused. “Why would I think that?”

  That was a weird response to that as far as Damis was concerned. Then again, the human caste system placed people in a position where there were children who didn’t know much about time magic.

  The excuse for Ted’s reaction was displaced immediately by the simple existence of a second name. On Bandiv, the existence of two names depicted some level of royalty. At that caste level only dumb children who refused to learn what they were taught did not know about time magic.

  “Are you lying to me, lord Lacheart?” he asked, making sure to add a touch of threat to the tone of his voice. “I don’t like being lied to.”

  “I assure you that I don’t know enough about time magic,” Ted answered. “Also, I’m really not a lord. I’m just not from around here that’s—is it just me or does talking to you just come naturally?”

  This was a weird human. “It is just you,” Damis said. “Would you like to know about time magic and why I am asking about it?”

  “Are you offering to make me your student?” the boy teased.

  Damis ripped off a chunk of the elevated rock he was sitting on and crushed it violently to calm his growing annoyance.

  Ted jumped slightly at the display. “That’s quite violent of you, don’t you think?”

  “What in the name of your gods is wrong with you?” Damis growled in annoyance.

  “The honest answer?” Ted asked, sighing in resignation.

  Damis was doing his best not to just rip the boy in two. His days of extravagant violence were behind him. Now, he let others do the violence for him.

  “That will be preferred,” he answered.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Ted said. “But I’m not scared of you.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t mean it like that,” Ted added in a hurry. “It’s more like, I know you can kill me very easily, but it just feels like you won’t. Like…” he made a vague gesture with his hand, as if looking for the right word. “Like I’m going to be annoying and you’re going to put up with it because I’m tolerable?”

  The human was right about one thing, he was annoying. As for the tolerable part, he was also partially right about that. Damis blamed the latter on his charismatic nature that had earned him the passive [Charisma] skill.

  The boy folded his arms back after a while. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ll be more than happy to be taught about time magic and why you brought it up.”

  Damis’ jaw felt locked from how hard he had been gritting his teeth. But the quick and simple apology appeased him. It had sounded genuine.

  “Time magic,” he said, willing to educate, “is a type of magic that affects time.” Ted cocked a brow at him sarcastically, but Damis continued, regardless. “It is not like the [Time Walker] class.”

  “I know that one,” Ted said. “Shitty class. At least that’s what they taught me.”

  In truth, the [Time Walker] class was not a shitty class. It was a very powerful class, but only when the owner got to the level four hundreds. The problem with the class, however, was that only one in twenty ever got to level fifty and of those that got to level fifty, only one in thirty ever got to level hundred.

  Ultimately, the boy was right, and so were his teachers. It was a shitty class.

  “Well, among the powerful that wield time magic,” Damis continued, beginning to feel like a teacher, “there are those with the ability to turn back time.”

  “That’s… a little terrifying.” Ted paused. “Do you think someone has turned back our time?”

  “Your time,” Damis corrected.

  “Why mine and not yours?”

  “Because Déjà vu is a symptom of time reversal, although there shouldn’t be anybody capable of turning back time outside of a controlled environment.”

  Ted waved a dismissive gesture, but it looked hesitant. “Déjà vu is just a feeling people get, Damis… that name just sounds terrible. No offense.”

  Damis hated the name, too, even though he’d chosen it. “None taken.”

  “As I was saying, Déjà vu is just a feeling you get when you’re experiencing something your brain believes it has experienced in the past.”

  “Yes,” Damis agreed. “And that is why it is a symptom. If you have experienced this before and are about to experience it again, it affects the mind.”

  Ted frowned slightly. “What do you mean by about to experience it again?”

  Damis sighed. What kind of royalty wasn’t taught extensively about time magic?

  “Imagine you are having a conversation with me,” he began slowly, as if speaking to a toddler. “Then in the not too distant future, someone turns back your time to this same point and you start having this conversation with me again, does it serve as a déjà vu moment?”

  Ted paused, then nodded.

  “Good.” Damis was glad to be making educational progress. “And that is why that feeling you’re having is a symptom of time magic. There is a vague possibility that someone has used a time spell on you, something so powerful that while you have the déjà vu effect, you remember nothing of the time you lived.”

  “So, I’m supposed to remember the time I lived?” Ted mused, mulling over Damis’ words.

  “You are,” Damis confirmed. “But that is if someone has truly used a time spell on you. Tell me, how did you find this place?”

  Ted shrugged. “I got in the forest, and it just felt like if I headed in this direction, I’ll find something useful.”

  That was interesting. The boy continued to show signs of the effect of time magic. Familiar sensations. Guided instincts without reason. If the boy had come here before the disturbance that had sent the [Basiliker] out into the forest, he would’ve come in contact with Damis and the creature.

  What would I have done?

  With the way the conversation was going right now, if his [Basiliker] did not accidentally eat the boy’s brain, then he would have stopped it from doing so.

  Then what? We have a conversation like we’re having right now?

  Damis thought about it, really thought about it.

  Then what next?

  His mind went to the [Basiliker] the boy had brought with him still hidden in the trees. It was an odd summon for a human. With the non-human side of the world cut off from the human side, the [Basiliker] was a creature of demonic mana. It existed beyond this world in demonic worlds.

  There was a possibility that he’d found a way to get one from the non-human side since there were left-over creatures from other intrusions in this world’s history from what Damis knew. That seemed like the more likely answer for why the boy had the [Basiliker].

  So, what would I have done? Taught him how to make it stronger?

  That would’ve comfortably fallen within the realms of something beneficial. It gave weight to the time magic effect once more. There was a chance that he had benefited from the meeting somehow before his time was turned back because even now, Damis found himself with the inkling of an urge to teach the boy how to level up his [Basiliker] at a quick pace.

  But the kind of time magic required to turn a person’s time back without the person remembering the life they’d lived was… almost impossible. Damis would’ve liked to call it impossible, but at the boy’s current level, it was safe to say that anybody powerful enough would probably be able to pull it off if they put their mind to it. He wasn’t a time magic specialist after all.

  “What comes to mind when you look at me?” he asked.

  “You feel friendly,” Ted answered without missing a beat.

  Damis gestured at himself. “Two visible horns, blue skin, four fangs, and a dark robe. You get friendly from that?”

  Ted shrugged, unbothered. “You said you don’t like being lied to.”

  Definitely time magic, Damis concluded. Either that or I’ve found me a human that’s cracked in the head.

  But there was another worry. What was the possibility that he’d found a human that he would, in a matter of time, very quickly befriend?

  The boy had complained about his name feeling off and had said that he felt friendly. If time magic was an explanation, then it would mean that within a short period of time, maybe two days—because he’d never heard of time magic capable of turning back time for more than three days at the most—he had befriended this human well enough to either tell him that his real name was Voss or at least that Damis was not his real name.

  That was… terrifying.

  The idea of meeting a human like that twice in one lifetime and developing a bond that close was very terrifying.

  But now it was avoidable.

  “Here is what is going to happen, Lord Lacheart,” he began only to stop when the boy raised his hand. “What?”

  “It’s Ted.”

  Damis gritted his teeth but moved along. “What is about to happen, Lacheart, is that you are going to turn back and walk out of this cave. Once you are outside, you will head back to wherever you came from with your summoned creature.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Once you get there,” Damis continued, “for the next three days, anything you like doing, do the opposite.”

  “May I ask why I should do the opposite? Why don’t I just not do it?”

  “Because if I am correct and a very powerful person saw it fit to cast a time spell on you to turn back time when they were strong enough to simply kill you, then you most definitely do not want to meet them a second time. Doing the opposite will help ensure that.”

  Ted stared at him for a moment, clearly contemplating his words.

  Eventually, he said, “I have a question.”

  “This will be your last question. Agreed?”

  Ted nodded.

  “Good,” Damis answered, happy to be rid of the human. “Ask it.”

  “If a powerful person turned back my time, how exactly does that affect the rest of the world? How were you affected? How was everything affected? And how am I the only one that remembers?”

  Damis opened his mouth to tell the human that he’d asked four questions instead of one when the words died in his lips and he closed it. The questions the boy had asked were actually very good questions. They were also questions he did not have an answer to. It just worked that way, at least people just accepted that it worked that way.

  He opened his mouth, hoping to give an answer. Again, nothing came. He definitely didn’t have an answer. How did time magic affect everyone if it was only used on one person?

  If he was to give an answer to that, the answer would say that it was in the realm of magic beyond his understanding. But, for some reason, giving that as an answer would make him seem somehow less in the eyes of the human. He did not want to give that answer.

  It was like asking how someone at level four hundred was capable of doing the things that they did. How was he supposed to know? You might as well ask a human child to explain to you where babies come from.

  “What do I look like?” he snapped uncharacteristically. “A time [Mage]?”

  Ted cocked a brow, then gave him a flat look. “Really? Blue skin, horns, and a dark flowing robe? Dude, you could summon the gates of hell right now and I would not be surprised.”

  Damis wished he could summon the gates of hell. Only a very select number of demons in the history of demons were ever graced with the manifesting skill that peaked with the effect of summoning the gates of hell. The way his class and manifesting skill worked, the gates of hell were beyond his reach in his lifetime.

  “Well, I am not,” he answered finally. “And as for your questions, I do not know the answer to them. If you ever have the unlucky opportunity of meeting this time [Mage] again, perhaps you could ask them and get an answer.”

  “Perhaps,” Ted agreed.

  However, he stood where he was. Four heartbeats passed and he was still there.

  Perhaps he needs a push, Damis thought.

  He gestured with his finger, turning it in a circle that implied that the human turn around and leave.

  “Oh, yes.” Ted perked up as if he’d been thinking of something else.

  He turned around and began to move.

  “And take your [Basiliker] with you.” Damis had no intention of teaching the boy how to use it. Under his breath he muttered, “I don’t even know how you got one in the first place.”

  Ted must’ve heard him because he said, “That was easy, I saw yours and just did something of a reverse summoning.”

  Damis blinked. “What did you just say?”

  “I did a reverse sum—”

  Ted’s voice died in his mouth as he looked back at Damis, the both of them freezing at the same time. His blue eyes glowed a soft green, most likely an effect of his summoned creature in the tree telling him what Damis already knew.

  There had been a sound beyond the cave.

  Someone was coming. And by someone, he meant more than one person.

  Ted paled.

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