On the east coast of Boon, the last continent on earth, sat a city called Azuma. It was often called the Demon Stronghold West. The city was one of two that were sanctuaries for demons to live freely among themselves. A little demon girl sat on her roof staring out into the wilderness. The girl had mainly human facial features, besides her crimson skin, bright cyan eyes, and singular horn, which gave her the nickname of Tusk by the other neighborhood kids.
"Tusk! Get down from there!" Her mother yelled, standing in the middle of the street with her hands on her hips. Her rocky face and body was covered by clothes specially tailored for her body type. With almost every demon having different body textures, shapes, and sizes, being a tailor in Azuma is a lucrative and honorable profession. Tusk's mother had a very thick manila sweater, with some holes in the shoulder area for the spikes on her shoulder.
"No way!" She shouted before sprinting across her neighbor's roofs down towards the plaza.
Above the city towered a giant castle, sitting in it sat a shadow among a large table, with various demons sitting and looking at the shadow.
"So—none have returned from The Harbor," the shadow rehearsed, staring down the demons at his table.
"That's right, sir," the timid and small Bluebell said, toying with a handcrafted plushie. As the shadow stood up, every demon except Bluebell flinched, watching the shadow carefully.
"My King—we're deeply sorry that our troops weren't enough to destroy both The Harbor and The Marina," the tall and usually intimidating Basil apologized.
"Don't call me that," the shadow demanded, "I am your leader, not your king. A king orders, I recommend." The room froze, suddenly, the leader turned and shrugged casually. "It wasn't the plan to take The Harbor, it was to distract them and destroy The Marina—which was successful." The room still sat still.
"Anyways, I have another problem to counsel you all about," the leader stated, "today marks the thousandth child born in Azuma under pure demon parents."
Shooting up, Basil questioned, "what do you mean 'pure' demon?"
After a short silence, the leader explained, "when a human becomes a demon, their midnight weapon becomes the core for their being, taking the place of their heart." The room suddenly raised it's eyebrows as they realized what the leader was talking about. "Eight years ago, our war with the humans became stagnant, and our own began to give birth. When they did, their children did have the skin tones and even some body mutations present only in demons, but their face shape and structures were distinctly human."
"But didn't the doctors say it had something to do with how human babies are born to be cute so that the human parents will grow attached and take care of it?" Basil asked, the other demons staying silent.
"That's what they say to keep everyone calm," the leader stated, "there's another thing." The leader placed their hands onto the table and said, "these newborn demons are core-less, unlike their parents, they don't have any midnight weapon that forms inside of them, they're just hollow!"
"What? You're saying these new demons are powerless?" Basil shouted.
"No, in fact, I believe we could use these half-demons to our advantage sometime—soon."