Chapter 13: Chapter 13 : The Red Harvest

“will you answer my questions now?”

Adam and Onvyr were now alone at the In’shi clan’s private quarters, a rather humble building when compared to the palace they were just in.

“you wouldn’t like a change of clothes or a warm meal first? You are too hasty Moren, as I said I will—”

“it’s just the two of us here, why are you calling me that, my name is—”

Onvyr put a hand over his mouth, quickly silencing him before he could say anymore.

“the walls have ears here… names are very important to demons, your name is Moren In’shi, you might not like it but you must get used to it. Using your old name can be seen as treason, especially since most clans are overwhelmingly against the idea of a human joining us.”

Adam brushed Onvyr’s hand to the side and sighed.

“…fine, it doest really matter, now can we get to the important part?”

“yes, of course, your questions. Go ahead, I’ll answer what I can.”

With a distant, pained expression, Adam asked the first question, the one that has been on his mind since he found out about the extinction of his people, the one he didn’t even know if he wanted answered.

“what happened to humanity… why did we go…extinct?”

Onvyr closed his eyes and looked down at the marble floor in silence for a second or two before he started recounting the fall of mankind.

“after the peace treaty was signed, both humans and demons were left to gather what was left of our civilizations…unfortunately it wasn’t much. Humanity has seen its fair share of wars and so have we, but none came close to how destructive that one was.”

Adam listened in silent agreement while recalling the nightmare he lived on the battlefield.

“the use of forbidden magic, nuclear weapons, and virus bombs left much of the land barren and unusable… food shortages, complete destruction of infrastructure, and a critical lack of medicine led to chaos.

“don’t tell me… civil war?”

“the remnants of both armies defected, creating many small warring states… both of our civilizations became but a shadow of their former selves, the glory of the ancients became a distant dream, and recovery seemed impossible, that was until the summit of Arvan.”

“Arvan?”

“the demon lord of the time. he called for a summit with leaders of what was left of the human alliance and the two parties agreed to assist each other in suppressing the rouge factions.”

Onvyr smiled, recalling pleasant memories of his first human allies he fought side by side with.

“it took time and many lives but the human, demon alliance won in the end, ushering in a new age, an age your philosophers would later come to call the new golden age.”

“a golden age? We were in a golden age and we went extinct soon after? How?”

The look in Adam’s eyes told Onvyr all he needed to know. He was thinking that the demons betrayed humanity to take everything for themselves.

“the golden age came with many benefits to both sides, humanity brought modern medicine and agriculture to the demons and we repaid by sharing our magic and artifacts with them. The combination of magic and science was so promising that some even believed that we could conquer the stars…those days were…good.”

The smile vanished from Onvyr’s face and a woeful expression took its place, letting Adam know to brace himself.

“our golden age would come undone by a plague known as the red harvest. One that demonkind suffered from since we first glimpsed the light of magic.”

Adam was shocked. He did not expect that a mere disease would be responsible for the fall of mankind, not after all the advancements they’ve made in the field of medicine.

“I know what you’re thinking, with your knowledge of medicine how could you have fallen to a disease? The red harvest is…different from anything your people ever dealt with. it comes randomly every few hundred years as both a punishment and reward from the great spirits. It ravages the land killing those with weak magic power, it can’t be stopped or slowed, and no healing magic can cure its horrifying symptoms. The strong only suffer slight body pains and at worst they are rendered bedridden for a few days, but the weak…their fate is a cruel one.”

Onvyr stood up and reached for the bookcase near him, pulling out an old-looking leather-bound tome, inscribed in a long-forgotten demon language, one that only a few clans can hope to understand.

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he flipped through the pages, revealing many paragraphs of writing and illustrations of what seemed to be plants, beasts, and even creatures resembling quadrupedal demons. Adam understood none of it, but he knew that the knowledge held within its pages is priceless to those who can grasp it.

“this is a copy of one of the ancient books contained within the great library, made for me by one of my human friends long ago, it recounts the history of our original world, our humble beginnings, our rise to power, and the start of our eventual downfall…”

Onvyr finally landed on the section he was seeking, one about the red harvest. Amongst the many pages of unintelligible text were illustrations of demons with what seemed to be sharp red crystals protruding out of them from every direction. Adam was disgusted by the imagery because even if he couldn’t understand the writing, it was made clear enough that these tortured vessels were not empty, these demons were alive and suffering in silent pain; Tortured to wail in agony until they are finally released from their flesh prison.

“those unfortunate enough to be born into weakness are to be purged by the will of the great spirits. Their pained wails and bloody tears are but a small price to pay, for the great spirits know no rest or mercy, only glory. Let the red harvest come for it is a gift, let it ravage and contort the flesh of the weak for it is a blessing, let the strong remain and prosper, making us even stronger… this was written by one of the speakers of the spirits while dying of the red harvest himself, quite morbid, don’t you think?”

Adam scoffed at what seemed to be the raving of a religious madman, driven to insanity by a horrid disease that he and his people ironically came to worship.

“since humans don’t have any magical abilities they were just wiped out? …was no cure or vaccine ever made?”

Onvyr closed the book, stood up from his seat, and returned to the dusty shelf it belonged to.

“no…no magic or science could slow the spread of the harvest, I believe that they couldn’t even detect what was causing it and how but I can’t be too sure since communications became compromised at that time… that is all I know, I understand if you need time to—”

“no, I’m okay… Let’s move on, I have a few more questions for you.”

Onvyr was surprised. Such a reaction was too mild, even for a battle-hardened soldier, but he figured he’d make use of the opportunity anyway since he had his own questions after all.

“hmmm, very well but how about you answer a question for me first…how are you alive? you returned from the grave after over 500 years and died again in that forest only to return a second time. how is that possible? Are you immortal?”

Adam was waiting for this very question since he agreed to let himself be captured, yet he had no good answer for it.

“I don’t know, I was just a normal soldier who died on the battlefield, there is nothing special about me, even my augments were outdated by the time I died.”

I better keep the part about the phoenix project to myself for now, I can’t exactly trust this guy. There are more than a few holes in his story too.

“I see… how bizarre. Perhaps it’s the will of the great spirits of your ancestors that you are alive now. Hahaha I should apologize to Nula on behave of the others, he might just be correct in his assumptions about you.”

“back to what I was saying. Tell me how did—”

The door to the room suddenly swung open, grabbing the attention of the two.

A guard entered the room in a hurry and apologized for bothering the clan head during his important meeting.

“lord Onvyr you have been summoned by the demon lord, he requests to see you in private immediately.”

“very well, I shall depart in a moment. I apologize Moren but as you can see I have some work to attend to, but I will answer the rest of your questions tomorrow.”

God damn it this isn’t what we agreed on Onvyr, you old bastard.

“…fine, just make sure you uphold your end of the bargain before I have to go on that penance quest, speaking of which I also haven’t gotten any detail on that.”

“don’t worry about that, we still have time to—”

“sir, I have to insist on going right now, we must leave the demon lord waiting.”

The guard interrupted in a respectful yet demanding voice.

“go, I’m tired anyway.”

Onvyr nodded and left along with the guard, Leaving Adam alone with his thoughts. Pondering about his next move after learning about the truth behind humanity’s fall.

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