"Ok, I must start by saying that you are an unfortunate bastard," Mask said with his black pupil'd eyes, outlined with a thin line of red that shone as he said it.
Tobey looked at him with a complicated expression. He was trying to figure out whether his demonic self was trying to mock him, be sarcastic, or say something serious. For all intents and purposes, he laughed.
"Don't laugh, I am talking seriously here, man," Mask solemnly said. There was no clue in his expression that showed any hint of sarcasm or mockery.
"W-Why do you say so? A-And why can't you start with something interesting instead of putting me down!?" Tobey knew his demonic self for just some minutes, but he already hated that part of his a little bit. He was rude and too straightforward.
"Stop being a hassle just because I am straightforward and blunt. It's precisely due to these traits that I am the most trustworthy person you could ever find. Also, we are the same person; and at this point of your life, you can only believe in yourself, right?" he said with an arrogant expression while crossing his eyes and raising his chin.
"Well, I am still struggling to accept the fact that someone like you really is part of me. I mean, I don't think I am this arrogant, nor so rude and blunt."
"You will discover that I am more part of you than your human self after a while. You just need some development by seeing how the world really works. Anyway, as I was saying, you can only trust yourself now. Being straightforward and blunt is the best way to advise you reasonably to keep you alive."
Tobey nodded, thinking about that matter. Indeed, someone like Mask was the best to talk to him at that point. It was unlikely that his own alter ego would lie to him, and the more information he could give, the better. Also, Tobey needed to get used to that new world that he got inserted so suddenly as fast as possible, so he needed some slaps of reality in his face.
"Ok, ok. I admit that you might be useful to me... Then, let's continue. Why am I an unfortunate bastard?"
"For two reasons: firstly, you are from a generation of demons born in the worst era possible. Basically, you were born a good eighteen years before the war started. Due to how old you are right now, it's been five years since this war began, and you don't have any preparation nor knowledge about this world you are going to live in."
Tobey stared at Mask's demonic face with a lost gaze. He felt quite helpless at that moment.
"Damn it... Ok, that's definitely a bad start."
"Don't interrupt me!" He cleared his throat. "Secondly, you chose the worst time and place to reveal yourself as a demon. I don't know much about that old woman, but she is truly dangerous. For some reason, she didn't unleash her full power against you and she sent only one troop of Paladins to hunt you down, low ranked Paladins by the way. In short, if it is just a coincidence or something of the sort, you were lucky that she didn't kill you."
Tobey stroked his chin while sitting on the ground. He didn't feel his legs tired at all. In that world, he felt like he didn't even need to breathe. After all, he could control most things there since it was his subconscious.
"Looking at what happened from this perspective, it's reasonable to think that I, indeed, am a very unfortunate bastard... I had the worst start ever."
"Yes," Mask nodded, his arms still crossed as he walked around Tobey while explaining everything to him. "Well, let's say that you will need to struggle three or four times as much as you would need if you had done things right. Your major problem right now is that you don't have much information from this war, nor do I; the knowledge I have comes from your instincts and the tiny bits of memories that you had from your childhood when your demonic nature was still sharp. The memories are shallow, but the things we learned are still here. I know the most natural things that a demon should know, but there are some important points that we don't know yet."
Tobey was surprised upon hearing such a thing. Now, he had another clue about the veracity of Mask's words about him being just his alter ego. He could be hiding information, obviously, but as far as Tobey could tell, his face showed no trace of malice or dishonesty. Also, that was his dream, he could control things there. Knowing whether someone was lying wasn't hard at all.
"Are you saying that I have hidden memories or something? I am aware that a great part of my childhood is quite... erased from my mind. But I never thought that this part hid this kind of thing."
Mask sighed, scratching his head and messing up his own white hair.
"Well, I am not entirely sure about it, but somewhere between his born until your ten years hide a lot of things. There are many important points of your past with big secrets, I suppose.
Tobey nodded his head, narrowing his eyes at the white floor of his subconscious world as he brushed off that matter for a while. Since they both didn't have any clue about his past, wondering about it for longer wouldn't be productive. For now, Tobey needed to solve his problem of lack of information regarding the war and this brand new world of paladins and demons.
"When you don't have information, you need to find clues or informants. I think that the safest way to go right now is to find an informant. I suppose that there are other demons out there who are willing to help me, right?"
"Yes. Most likely. It's just common sense that there will be other demons, but we are not sure about one thing..."
As Mask hesitated to say that, Tobey tilted his head, feeling curious.
His demon self finally was able to say something, in the end, after seeing his dumbfounded face.
"You don't know if all the demons are together in this battle. You don't even know their motivations. I don't give a shit about what is happening in the world as long as I survive, but you are completely different. A softy and righteous idiot like you would falter once you find out that something strange is happening among the demons. Also, as long as we remember, there are different clans of demons, and not all of them are friends..."
'The more I ask, the more complicated things become, huh?' he thought. Even though he was aware that Mask could read his mind he couldn't let that habit of his aside. Sometimes, he liked to rant to himself rather than externalizing every complaint he had.
"I am here just to tell you the truth and inform you about the most basic things about this reality you were pushed into, but it doesn't mean that I will know how to solve every single thing that is troubling you. Most of your doubts are mine as well. Sincerely, I would rather see you struggling by yourself, but we can't die just because our personalities conflicted."
Tobey sighed upon hearing this. He wanted to have a demon that was more useful to him. Even though he was in a world that didn't have such limitations as hungry, thirst, pain, or tiredness, he was feeling exhausted just by that explanation.
"Until now you just had pessimistic thoughts to give to me... Well, you gave me a goal as well, which is to find another demon and root for him not want to kill me. Besides it, is there something else?"
"There are many things that I need to explain to you, but I obviously won't do this inside this dream. I can still talk to you when you are outside this place. This dream of yours was just a trigger for me to come to exist, but now I will be constantly in your mind. This way, we can talk to each other when you have a doubt about something in front of you or when is pertinent to the situation. Just flooding your mind with information won't do any good. Just knowing that you are a screwed rat and having an objective is good enough for now."
Tobey found that to be really interesting. He wasn't expecting to keep in touch with him even outside his dreams. If that was true, things would be more convenient and natural to him, like having a guide beside him that would explain things that he couldn't understand about that new world.
"Well, there is two last things I would like to ask, Mask. I am not sure if you know about it, but it's better to ask now rather than living with the doubt."
His demonic self nodded.
"Go ahead. You have little time before waking up."
"Why is this war happening?"
"... There are many things behind this war, but the facade they show to the world is only one: demons and angels want dominance over Earth. That's it."
"Ok..." Tobey hesitated for a moment before asking the next question. It was something more intimate to him and was concerning him for a while now. "And... between my demonic and human side... which one is predominant?"
The demon didn't answer, he just shook his head slightly and turned his back.
"Time is over, Tobey."
This way, that white world went black entirely and Tobey got immersed in pitch darkness before opening his eyes.