"A ten-year-old girl who had short red hair and green eyes?" Ed asked while he was wearing some clean clothes that hadn't been cut. "I can't say that I have seen one girl like that… is she your relative or something?"
Sigma was putting the bodies together to cremate them, and the girls returned to the shadow of a tree to change their clothes as well. Ed looked a bit suspicious, and he had all the reasons to be. It was rare for people to be kidnapped like the way Sigma described. Not to mention aside from the eyes, he didn't have any semblance with the girl he mentioned.
"I don't know, I don't remember anything aside from her and the fact that I was with her on my tenth birthday," Sigma said while feeling like sighing.
"So, you woke up today in a hut in a small forest nearby?" Ed furrowed his eyebrows even more. "I can't imagine people building one in these parts, and there is that cursed village nearby, after all."
"It is fine if you don't believe me. I just want to meet her because I think that I will recover my memories once I do," Sigma said and then sighed once he finished the job of piling the corpses. "By the way, what is the deal with that village? I walked for a while in this area, and I didn't find anyone either. Is there some sort of plague spreading around?"
"You could say that… do you really not remember anything?" Ed asked and then saw the lack of reaction in Sigma's eyes. "I guess I will have to start from the beginning."
Ed began to mention how things began to change around fifty years ago… apparently, the world worked under something called the blessing of the gods, and that made the world prosper in all aspects. Although there were the so-called evil gods, they also blessed the world to make it prosper in their own way since the creation of that world. They did that by making monsters and letting them be used as resources like animals.
The good gods made sure that humans of the world would have the chance to obtain knowledge and improve their society over time. They even helped humans by letting them learn magic while they helped them by controlling the weather and making sure that it would never be too harsh. They also gave strong bodies and health to most people…
All that ended fifty years ago when the gods went silent. People suddenly began to have problems with the weather, with their health, with monsters… thanks to those problems, people began to argue more often, and then they began to go their own ways, which caused even more problems since they couldn't solve those problems by splitting up.
Around forty years ago, most people were divided into small towns and villages even though they lived in large cities fifty years ago. Their numbers weren't small in those places, but they had a hard time defending them when large packs of monsters began to attack. That is what happens when you try to live with only those that agree with you, and you end up having to count on a small group of people. Regardless, people of the world began to suffer at the hands of the monsters. Still, things only got harder thirty years ago when intelligent monsters began to emerge, and they called themselves demons. Most of them were quite human-like and even convinced humans to join them and become demons as well.
Society only declined from that point on. Those that joined the demons did whatever they wanted since they also became more powerful thanks to the power of the demons. Some people with power high enough to rival those appeared, but they were far too small in number. People assumed that the gods hadn't given up on them, but not everyone was sure of that.
In any case, humans began to lose more often until they were forced to live on the run. Few cities still were left standing since they were constantly raided for monsters and demons. Ed, Eclair, and Sabrina lived in one of those cities, and they came to investigate one of the enemy's camps when they were caught.
"The enemies have been moving around a lot lately, and few people are willing to leave our city to check things… that is why things ended up like that," Ed added.
Eclair and Sabrina had already joined them, and they watched Sigma reacting to those pieces of information. Or rather, not reacting at all. While he was glad that he knew a bit more about the situation of the world, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or feel about it. It felt like it wasn't his problem since he didn't have his memories.
"... I don't want to bring this possibility, but the enemies also tend to capture people, mainly children and women," Ed said while looking down. "They sacrifice them and use them for other purposes… like increasing their numbers."
Sigma looked at Ed, finally showing some emotion… just a bit of anger that made him shrive. Sigma's anger wasn't being directed at him, but Ed couldn't help it. Regardless, Sigma wondered if Saria had been captured by those beings…
"It wouldn't make sense for them to leave me behind and alive when they took her, so I am not sure if she was kidnapped by your enemies," Sigma crossed his arms and then said it. "Anyway, I guess I need to check the enemy's bases and the cities that are still standing. Can everyone head there?"
"We can vouch for you since you helped us. No one will be against it," Ed forced a smile.
"Is it fine? I don't know what demons look like, but couldn't I be pretending to be human when I am one?" Sigma asked.
"Well, it isn't like that didn't happen before, but demons are bad actors," Ed furrowed his eyebrows. "Besides, they literally smell like blood and death… it is easy to notice when they are nearby.