The sun shone its rays over the island of Sanctorum as morning began approaching.
Sanctorum was a small, tropical, isolated island with a single village located on its northernmost coastline. The inhabitants of Sanctorum were quite a peculiar bunch, as despite not following a single religion, they all acted in a way most reminiscent of a cult. Dagon found their behavior to be very oppressive.
Dagon was a Caucasian, skinny, thirteen year old boy with messy black hair, bad posture and most interestingly of all; almost completely white eyes, as his irises were a light gray color and only his pupils were black.
The light of the sun infiltrated Dagon's home and the chippering of the birds woke him up.
Dagon opened his eyes and immediately realized
"Someone broke in here." He thought to himself.
As he got up, he looked around his small, empty, dirty, home, until he stumbled upon the word "DEMON" written with spray paint on his living room walls, as well as his bedroom's door.
-"Well, I'm surprised they only stopped there. Must've been some pussies if they only came in here to write this shit." Dagon told himself as he shrugged and started preparing himself for school.
Dagon's mother died at birth, and his father abandoned him when he was still a baby. The village people showed basic kindness to him and offered him a run-down apartment on the outskirts of the village, where they raised him until he reached the age of nine, which is when they stopped taking care of him. Dagon made a bit of money to get food by doing odd jobs around the village, leaving little to no time for him to participate in any activities with kids his age to create meaningful bonds, although he spent what little free time he had reading books that he "borrowed" (stole) from the local library. Oh, also, he could see things that were visible to nobody else.
"Aura" is an invisible manifestation of a being's emotions… Well, at least invisible to most. Dagon was born with the ability to see the aura of the people around him, of course he didn't know what it was due to his young age, but he soon realized that it's not something he should share with the village people, so he tried to understand himself and the world around him through the books he read.
Dagon put on his dirty, old clothes, ate a single loaf of bread and drinked a glass of water before getting on his way to school.
Although, the word "school" may be a bit of a stretch, as what Dagon and the Sanctorum kids his age really were attending a soulless, gray building where their teachers would fear monger them on a daily basis.
-"WATCH OUT for the demons living among us! Sanctorum is the last bastion of human civilization, everywhere else demons pretending to be people have taken over and are being worshiped as if they're Gods by foolish individuals!" The "teachers" would preach every day.
Sanctorum's people were stuck in the past, in more ways than just their ideologies and behavior, as the technological level of the island was medieval at best. If you insert that mindset in a world with supernatural beings with a violent tendency towards humans you get, well, Sanctorum. Day in and day out, the kids would be subjected to an unimaginable amount of propaganda and fear mongering every single day, but it would usually just stay at the preachings of the crazy teachers and other adults.
However, this morning was different.
Dagon was looking around his windowless "class", not paying any attention to what the teachers were saying, when somebody brought in a large crate, suddenly filling Dagon with an overwhelming sense of dread.
-"Contained in here is a demon. At some point in the distant past, mankind was overcome by their ignorance, and this ignorance began manifesting in the form of curses that they proudly started calling gifts and powers. Well, THIS is what happens to those 'gifted' individuals!" Dagon's teacher shouted before ordering the man who brought the crate to open it.
"The girl sitting on the desk next to me is feeling… Afraid… My teacher is feeling… Angry… This thing is…" Dagon thought to himself as he turned his stare at the opened crate.
The demon didn't resemble a human, not in the slightest. It was a long limbed, bipedal, skinless, green colored being with two splashes of teal where it's eyes should've been, it had been wrapped around in many chains to contain it and it looked furious, anyone could tell that much just by looking at it, but for Dagon, looking at the demon was nothing short of psychological torture.
For some god forsaken reason, demons also had aura, and their aura was much more negative and intense than that of humans, to the point that Dagon couldn't tolerate staring at them or being near them at all without being overcome by a sea of negative emotions.
-"Look at this carefully, dear children. These demons feed on the souls of the people they viciously kill, they are disgraces that deserve nothing short of death." The teacher remarked before signaling the man to close the crate back up.
-"SIR, SIR, LOOK! THE DEMON CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT ITS OWN KIND TAKING WHAT THEY DESERVE! CAN WE EXECUTE HIM NOW?!" A classmate yelled as he pointed at Dagon, who was trembling, sweating and trying to hold back vomit.
-"Tch, so I guess you're the idiot that thought of ruining my house last night, huh?" Dagon told him with disgust in his voice.
-"Wrong! It was my dad! I wanted to come with, but he said that if I came with you might have tried to eat me!"
-"So I guess being a pussy runs in the family?" Dagon insulted his classmate with a smirk on his face.
-"Better to be a… Whatever it is you said, then to be a demon!"
-"I'M NOT A DEMON YOU IDIOT! WHAT MUST I DO TO PROVE THAT I'M JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE?!" Dagon cried out in desperation.
-"Well, I suggest doing the world a favor and killing yourself!" The classmate said, only to be met by applause from the whole class minus the teacher, who tried to get them to calm down.
-"Hey hey. Dagon has passed all inspections, just because he has weird eyes doesn't mean he's a demon! We must focus our efforts on the real enemy, not ourselves! You're all dismissed, and I remind you that this afternoon the public execution of the devil we presented in class today will take place." He announced before everyone left the class and the school building to go on with their days.
Dagon wasn't in the mood to do odd jobs that day. He would get insulted on a regular basis due to his unique eyes, usually all it did was teach him new swear words, but for some reason, being told to take his own life was something that seriously brought him down.
The hours passed and afternoon arrived. Dagon decided to not attend the execution, even if his absence would only make people more suspicious of him. He just couldn't handle looking at the aura of a demon, and he figured that a demon moments away from death would be even more painful to stare at.
Dagon decided to get on the roof of his house, where he stared into the night sky, south of the village, as far away from the execution as he could.
"I do not get the people here. They keep thinking I'm a demon when all that's wrong about me is my color. Sure I can see people's auras, but I've managed to hide that fact from everyone. They'd kill me if they found out, just like they killed everyone with weird abilities. Come to think of it, if everyone who can do what people like me can do all turn into demons then maybe… I am a demon?" Dagon thought to himself as a single tear shed down his rough, dirty face. He was confused, he was sad, but most of all; he was lonely. His entire life, he lived in complete isolation. Even when the village people were in charge of taking care of him, they were all extremely emotionally distant to him despite his young age. He never made any friends, but through the books he read he knew that the life he led was not normal, but all he could do about it was ponder in isolation.
"Apparently my mom died when giving birth to me. My Dad left me too for some reason. Maybe if I'm to become a demon when I grow up, I might deserve all this? But if the worst thing demons do is kill people, humans kill other people all the time, what makes them different? Just what does it mean to be human?"
Many minutes of silence passed as he continued stargazing, when suddenly, one of the stars started moving. The star was getting closer and closer to the island as it started shining a red color and landed on the beach on the southern shore.
-"A star crashed on the island?!" Dagon told himself.
In childish excitement, he ran to the crash site. Due to the execution, nobody else had seen the crash, so he was the only one going there.
Once he arrived at the area, he was met by quite a confusing site.
A large, black and charred metal structure, and near it was a human.
The person was standing up while writing down something on a notebook. He was very tall, had long orange hair, tanned skin, and was wearing a torn outfit. He had his back turned on Dagon, so he couldn't see his face, but his curiosity got the better of him as he walked up to the person.
-"Excuse me, what is this thing?" he asked whilepointing at the metal object.
-"Oh, hey little kiddo. Uh, that thing is my jet… Or well, it was." The man responded as he turned to face Dagon. He had brownish red eyes, a black goatee and a look of relief on his face.
Looking at his aura, Dagon was quite confused, as the cloudish shroud of aura that surrounded every living being he looked at appeared to be much more refined and compact with this one.
Dagon was so taken aback, that he forgot to respond to the person.
-"Huh… Oh wait, how rude of me. I should've probably introduced myself first. I am Rudious Mostar, B+ rank Demon Hunter and pilot." The man introduced himself.
-"Demon… Hunter?" Dagon asked.
Rudious was seemingly taken aback by Dagon's question, but he eventually replied.
-"Oh well, I guess young kids in small islands probably wouldn't know us all that well. From where I come from, there are a bunch of people who work together to take down demons and preserve the safety of humanity. We're called Demon Hunters and, well, let's just say I'm one of the better ones." Rudious remarked as he assumed a smug look.
Dagon was quite confused.
-"Isn't B+ not that high of a grade?"
-"SHUT UP YOU BRAT IT'S GOOD ENOUGH!" Rudious yelled at him.
In response Dagon chuckled.
-"That's weird. Usually when people call me a brat that's because they hate me. But I can see by your aura that you didn't even mean it like that! My name is Dagon."
Rudious then noticed Dagon's eyes.
-"Oh, so you're capable of perceiving auras?" He asked him.
Dagon shook as he tried to mutter a response. Rudious noticed it and decided to change subjects.
-"Well, Dagon, what is it you usually do?"
-"Not much. Just odd jobs to get money and I stea- I mean borrow books to read in my free time."
Rudious laughed as he sat down on the sand and patted Dagon on the head.
-"Relax, I'm not the police. I actually find it very interesting how a kid steals books of all things. Why is that?"
-"Um, you see, the library won't allow me to borrow books since they don't really like me, and most people here can't read so they don't notice whenever a book is missing, so…"
-"Oh come on, that's absurd, what's there not to like about you? You're just a kid who wants to get some books, what could be so unlikable about that?"
Dagon hesitated before responding
-"Here's the thing. A lot of the village thinks I'm a demon."
Rudious almost took on a serious look on his face, but he quickly relaxed himself so as to not worry Dagon.
-"Why would they think that?" he asked him.
-"I'm not sure myself. I think it's mostly because of my eyes, they're different than everybody else's, and people discriminate against what's different."
Rudious was surprised by what Dagon said near the end.
-"I didn't expect a child to be capable of formulating such sentences. You really do like reading books, huh?"
-"Do you also like reading, mister Mostar?"
-"Please just call me Rudious -kids calling me mister makes me feel old. And yes, I do quite like reading books in my free time. My top three favorite activities are killing demons, reading books and drinking booze." Rudious jokingly remarked.
The night went on as the two of them discussed their interests.
-"This is the first time I've talked with someone in this way!" Dagon exclaimed with a childish smile.
-"You see, Dagon, this is what friends are for. When you grow up, hopefully you will make friends that you can have fun conversations with."
-"Mister- I mean, Rudious. I have a question."
-"What is it?"
-"What does it mean to be human?"
A period of silence ensued, as the sea waves hitting the shore echoed and the grass blades fondled by the soft winds were the only noises made. Eventually, Rudious responded.
-"Heh. You keep surprising me, brat. Your village doesn't sound that hospitable and I don't wanna meet them any time soon, so here is a deal I'm proposing. I need you to bring me food and water every night, and every night when you arrive we will have conversations similar to this one. Sound good?"
-"Uh, okay."
-"Great. Now go back home, your parents should be worried about you by now."
-"I don't have parents."
-"JESUS, YOUR LIFE REALLY SUCKS!" Rudious jokingly yelled out before sending Dagon on his way home.
"He didn't answer my question." Dagon thought to himself while laying on the bed. Either way, for the first time he could remember, he was excited about what the next day would bring, and that was enough for him as he closed his eyes and surrendered himself to a peaceful slumber.
Thus, the days went on and as Dagon kept up his side of the bargain, his conversations with Rudious continued, without him answering his question regarding humanity.
About a week after the crash landing, Rudious revealed to Dagon that he had built a small raft for himself to sail back home with.
-"Alright, brat, I just need you to tell me the name of this island so I can picture the map on my head and figure out which way I should sail in in order to get back home." he explained.
-"Oh… You're leaving?"
-"Well yeah, I can't stay on this island forever! I have a duty to fulfill as a Demon Hunter and a sister who will yell at me if I remain missing in action for too long."
-"Well, this island is named Sanctorum."
Rudious' heart dropped. All of a sudden, everything Dagon had described to him about the village people's behavior started clicking.
-"Brat. I'm gonna take you with me. Pack your bags, we're leaving. I'll be waiting for you here." Rudious told Dagon with a dead-serious look on his face.
Dagon was confused, but it's not like he didn't already want to leave this oppressive village behind, so he figured he'd ask Rudious to elaborate on why he wants to leave with him so badly after he's already packed up.
And so, he ran to his house, realized he had nothing valuable to even bring with him(he had already read all the books he had stolen up to that point), and promptly ran back to the beach. Only this time, Rudious wasn't alone.
-"You sick fucks. I'd heard of your cult, but I didn't think you'd go so far as to subject an innocent child to this much pain!" Rudious exclaimed.
Surrounding him were a bunch of men from the village, including Dagon's teacher, all of whom were armed with knives and swords.
-"What is going on?!" Dagon asked as he came out of the woods.
-"BRAT! COME TO ME, WE'RE GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Rudious yelled at him.
-"Not so fast. This man is from the outside world. He is a demon worshiper. Joining him would mean leaving the last bastion of mankind and surrendering yourself over to the demons!" The teacher warned him.
Rudious visibly took great offense in what the teacher said.
-"That's a bunch of bullshit. Listen up brat, this island is inhabited by a bunch of crazy people who kill gifted people like you and me because of a dumb prophecy that was made over a decade ago!"
-"Do not understate the prophecy made by the Demon of Darkness! Thirteen years ago he proclaimed that the king of demons had been reincarnated, isolating ourselves and killing all who have demonic powers was the only logical form of action! The rest of the world should be copying us, not opposing us!" The teacher explained.
Within this conflict, Dagon only had one question.
-"How did you find out where Rudious was?"
Everybody let out a sound of confusion.
-"Did you… Find out where he was because you followed me?" Dagon continued.
-"Well, no, a villager came fishing earlier today, spotted him alone and warned us of him. You had nothing to do with it. But that's not the point-" The teacher tried saying before getting interrupted.
-"That's good. I was afraid I may have gotten him in trouble. Well, will you let him go if I let you kill me?" Dagon proposed.
Everyone stood shocked.
-"What benefit could we have from killing you?" The teacher asked.
-"I am a demon. I only passed your tests because I managed to hide the fact I can see other people's auras. I have realized that since I'm gonna end up hurting innocents when I grow up, I may as well end my life protecting someone. That's what friends are for, right Rudious?" Dagon said with a smile on his face. He really did believe in what he said, he saw no value in his own life thanks to the fear mongering by the village.
Before anyone else could respond, the villager closest to Dagon pulled out his sword and attempted to strike him, only for Rudious to get over to them in the blink of an eye and strike him with a wooden blank with so much force that he was sent flying inside the forest.
-"DAGON, LISTEN UP! THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST DO WHEN SOMEONE THREATENS TO HURT YOUR FRIENDS! RUN TO THE BOAT AND I WILL ENSURE YOU GET TO SAFETY EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY LIFE!" Rudious proudly yelled out.
Dagon started tearing up, as this was the first time he was ever protected by someone claiming to be his friend.
-"I don't get it! I'm a demon, you don't have to protect me! Just let them kill me and you can return home to your sister safely!"
-"SHUT UP BRAT! I'm gonna say this only once so listen closely. You are not a demon. There are people who are born with special abilities, those specialties are called gifts. We use our gifts to fight against demons. You… Have a gift. And now I may as well say that… I, too, have a gift!" Rudious proclaimed as he took on a proud stance, inviting the villagers to fight him.
Dagon was experiencing an influx of emotions. Ironically enough, for someone with the ability to tell what a person is feeling just by looking at them, he had no idea how to describe his own emotional state at the moment. So, he just ran to the boat like Rudious told him to, with tears in his eyes.
Meanwhile, the teacher was absolutely furious.
-"It is unbelievable… Not only are there now two demons on the island… But we have been allowing one of them to live within us for thirteen whole years! MEN, KILL THEM!" He ordered the villagers, all of whom rushed in to take down Rudious, who easily incapacitated everyone that came at him.
It all seemed to be going well, until suddenly, a villager who was creeping up behind Dagon jumped at him, pulled out a knife, pointed it at his neck and announced
-"If you don't want him to die, drop your weapon and surrender."
Rudious had no time to think, he simply immediately dropped the wooden plank, and right after doing that, he realized
"I'm an idiot."
As Rudious expected, he was immediately stabbed from behind by a villager who was hiding within the jungle, while the man proceeded with killing Dagon either way, having a wide grin on his face and announcing
-"I AM THE ONE WHO WILL KILL THE DEMON!"
As he felt the cold knife penetrating his neck, Dagon could only think of one thing
-"It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, Rudious could've just beaten up everyone here and sailed away. It's all my fault for slowing him down. I only had to sit here and wait for him to beat these guys up, but I even failed at that."
In his final moments, the most prevalent emotion within Dagon was; disappointment, not in the village, not in Rudious, but in himself.
—--------------
After a while, Dagon opened his eyes only to be met with the sight of the entire island burning, the sand being covered in blood and Rudious in a heavily wounded state, weirdly enough; he only cared about the latter part.
-"Man, it sure was hard to contain him." Rudious remarked to himself.
-"W-what happened?" Dagon asked.
-"Don't worry about it. Just remember, no part of what went down today was your fault." Rudious answered as he caringly picked Dagon up from the sand and got on the rowboat with him, although it was obvious that just doing that took a huge toll on him.
-"H-hey! You're hurt! Don't worry about me!" Dagon told him.
Rudious smiled and replied
-"Brat, if there is something I shouldn't do, I wouldn't be doing it. I care for you because you are my friend and, admittedly, I see a little bit of myself in you. Here's the thing, thankfully, this hell hole of an island is not too far away from the country I'm from, if we sail on a straight line for about a day we will arrive there. I will make sure you're safe for the entirety of that journey."
And so, they started sailing, and sure enough, Rudious kept his word as they were conversing throughout the entire journey. Even if Dagon wasn't in the mood to discuss something, Rudious would still talk just to reassure him that he was still alive and protecting him.
After a while, a storm began and the waves started becoming wilder and wilder.
-"Oh no! There's no way the raft can take this!" Dagon exclaimed.
Rudious simply crawled to the end of the raft, put his right hand on the water and grabbed the raft his left hand, looked over at Dagon proudly and said
-"Look carefully, brat. This is how to use your gift for good." as miraculously, all the waves around them begun slowing down, while the raft started speeding up exponentially, to the point where Dagon had to grab onto something in order to not fall off.
Through that, they managed to get out the storm, however, soon after, Rudious realized he hadn't much time left.
-"Alright, brat. I'm gonna hand over two things very important to me. So pay attention."
He then pulled out his notebook and untied the necklace he was wearing, which had a ring attached to it.
-"This is my diary, and this is the ring my fiance gifted to me. Unfortunately, she died from a demon's attack a year ago and we never got married. I want you to keep it safe for me, but never ever wear it on your finger. Additionally, you can do whatever you want with my diary, but the second to last page is meant for my comrades, while the very last page has a message for my sister. Do not read the message, only make sure it gets to her." he explained.
Dagon realized what this all meant so he started tearing up once again
-"HEY! DON'T DIE, I… I-" Dagon couldn't muster together a single coherent sentence.
Rudious saw that, so he scoffed and said
-"I'm about to make a really bad decision… Oh well, hey brat. I just remembered I never answered your question. I thought about it real hard and I reached my conclusion; being human is something that's up to you to realize the meaning of. Live your life, make experiences, enjoy the time you spend with your friends. That is how you will find what it means to be human. Previously, you said you could see aura. Aura is the basis of all gifts, but only a few people are capable of perceiving aura to any meaningful degree. People like you and me who have gifts that give them a perception of aura have unique eyes, you have a powerful gift and I want you to use it for good. My gift gives me the ability to conceal energy into objects, a strong gift for sure, but your gift has the potential to surpass mine by far, so make sure not to ever use it to hurt anyone innocent. Once we arrive on land and you reach the age of eighteen, go take the entrance exams and become part of the Devil Hunter Corps. There, you will meet a lot of friends who you will want to protect. I'm gonna allow you to wear the ring, only in the instance that your friends are in immediate danger and you need a boost in power in order to save them. Can you promise me that?"
Dagon broke down in tears, unable to give an answer.
-"Please… Dagon…" Rudious whispered.
At that point, Dagon broke through his tears and let out a powerful
-"I PROMISE!"
That echoed throughout the sea.
Rudious smiled, tied the necklace around Dagon's neck and as they reached the shore, he uttered his last words.
-"You will meet people -bad people, who will tell you you shouldn't live. Don't listen to them. Dagon… Live on!"
Dagon yelled
-"I PROMISE!" once again, as the raft touched the shore and Rudious' comrades at the Demon Hunters rushed to help soon after.
In the end, Dagon's wounds were taken care of, while Rudious was already dead once the raft reached land. The second to last page in his diary acted as a voucher so the Demon Hunters Corps. would ensure that Dagon lived a safe life in a good home with proper education and all his needs met until he became 18, and at that point, having seen how much different the world is than the small island he was raised in, how much more advanced in every single way the rest of the world was in comparison to Sanctorum, Dagon was determined to become a Demon Hunter and protect the society that his savior brought him to.
Thus, five years later, he was ready to take the Demon Hunter exam.