Chapter 13: Demons

After Lux and his sisters got back in the house, they sat at a table. The atmosphere became a little bit tense as even Bella's expression hardened a bit.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush, there's a reason why I've called you here. I have some bad news, and some good news."

"Which one do you want to hear first, the good one or the and one?"

As Bella asked this, both Lux and Nia looked each other in the eyes.

Lux was the first one to raise his hand, "Do this news affect us personally or is there something more to it?"

Bella's expression became a bit complicated hearing her brother ask this, "For now… Let's just say that it could get bad, very bad…"

Nia was a bit afraid hearing Bella's tone, she never saw her big sister acting like this.

"Tell us the good news first." Nia directly said, she wanted to have some happy time before hearing the bad, unsettling news.

"Okay then. Listen very carefully. What I'm going to say now can't leave this house. At least until it would be officially broadcasted to the entire world."

"Don't worry."

"I won't tell a single soul."

Nia and Lux quickly agreed, they were curious about what Bella had to say.

Glancing at her younger sibling for a while, Bella sighed with emotion before continuing, "You probably heard about the First Trial, right? During the Ability Crisis."

Lux and Nia's ears perked up, though, Lux had a feeling that he knew what this was all about already.

"During the First Trial of Earth, not only did Portals appear and we lost a lot of inexperienced people, some with strong combat Abilities, others with powerful support ones, but our planet also began to come to life."

"This, as you may already know, prompted other beings to come back to life, Demons."

As Bella said this, Nia gasped, she connected the dots and arrived at a terrifying conclusion.

"Did the Demons find a way back?!"

Bella heavily nodded in response.

"Yes. They managed to crawl out of their hole, this time, stronger than ever, as even someone in Top70 Ability Users died at their hands…"

"What?!! How's that possible!" Nia exclaimed in terror, it wasn't that she couldn't believe it, but that it sounded too surreal for her.

From what she knew, during the First Trial as the people of Earth named it, Demons were apparently living underground, close to Earth's core.

They were locked away by something, something that broke once Abilities came to be.

At first, it was hypothesized that Demons didn't feel anything out of common, but it was after one of them managed to break their race's bad luck spell that they found out they're now freed from their prison.

Once that happened, the First Trial Began.

It was called, 'Nightmare of Doom'. This was because the havoc they created during that time was not only destroying infrastructures and the like, but also taking human lives, tens of millions more exactly.

At that time, there wasn't a Light God to protect them, and the people of Earth had to resort to more direct means, nukes.

No matter how much technology advanced during the passing of time, nuclear bombs were still the strongest.

Well, humans also stopped developing more powerful weapons of mass destruction after believing that they were alone under the sky, but the situation changed with a snap of a finger.

No one could've expected for the sudden blessing of Abilities to arrive, or for demons to emerge from the underground.

But it happened.

Successfully killing the first batch of demons before they could kill or destroy more things, the humans started to get a bit cocky.

They even sent teams of people on the same path they came from…

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best decision to make.

What they discovered underground shocked them and brought a chill down their spine.

Millions of demons, every single one of them was seemingly born for battle. Like bloodthirsty creatures, the demons killed almost every man and woman that was sent to explore the underground.

It was only after one demon stepped forward that things calmed down a bit.

That demon was different from any other demon seen until that point.

"Hello, human. My name is Prince Bellicus, I came here to speak with your representative and discuss in peace."

Not only were the humans shocked to hear a talking demon, they even panicked and delayed the matter for a while.

This brought about the displeasure of the so-called Demon Prince.

"I'll give you one day to send someone and discuss the terms of our agreement otherwise…" Saying so, Demon Prince Bellicus released a ominous black aura which instantly took the life of anything in a radius of fifty kilometers.

Be it humans or animals, even demons… They were all worthless in front of the Demon Prince's eyes.

As the Ten Families, Earth's Shield, and the Academies Alliance weren't yet formed, only the Military and World Government could make a call in that situation.

They hurriedly formed a team of ten people to try and see what the demons wanted.

After a few hours of strenuous negotiations, humanity found out a few things about demons.

One, they were stuck underground for tens of thousands of years.

Two, by using some special means once in a while, they could check on the planet's current affairs.

Three, they knew about the Ability Crisis more than the humans themselves.

And fourth, they wanted a place to stay, one that was above ground, a Continent.

This was everything the ten negotiators could find out in a few hours. The small team promised Prince Bellicus that they would be back with a decision.

But it was a lie, humanity's higher-ups weren't even considering the possibility of demons living above the ground.

So they did the thing they would regret a few years later, they threw tens of nuclear bombs inside the tunnels that connected demons to the land above.

Not only sinking the ground above them, but also killing Prince Bellicus in the process.