Honestly, ever since I saw Städal, I’ve been worried a demon like this might appear one day. Even before we traveled to the past, I had heard about the demon in human guise caught in Sheera. There can be no doubt that some individuals among them are evolving.
“Are you there, Satanás?” asks Rockmann’s voice.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“After I chase it out of this body, it will no doubt try to run somewhere. Catch it with your wind magic before it does. I’ll keep it in until then.”
“You sure we shouldn’t just slay it here and now?”
“No, take it alive. Would someone else mind purging it from this body?”
A dream demon has no corporeal form. It’s like a black haze. Until three or four years ago, it was thought dream demons couldn’t leave the bodies they possessed before fully consuming them, and that exorcising such demons was the only way of purging them from the body. But with every year it became more and more difficult to catch them, and though dealing with dream demons is still not too common, when one does appear, often enough the sorcerer on the job finds that the demon is already gone from the body by the time they arrive. These days we assign a lot of this sort of job to teams of two.
“I’ll take care of that,” announces Prince Zenon.
“Wait!” I stop him.
“What?”
I bring my hands together and crack my knuckles.
“I’ll do it,” I say firmly as the prince looks on in surprise.
“O-Okay.”
Seeing my enthusiasm, he looks at me like he’s a bit concerned whether it’s okay to entrust this to me. Maybe I was making a scary face, like I was going to completely exorcise the demon rather than simply purge it from the body.
It’s just that I’ve been waiting for this moment.
I stand in front of the prince and extend my hand to the petrified young Rockmann.
“Here goes nothing...”
Approaching directly from the side, I embrace his shoulders, more slender than my own, and hold my hand to the back of his head. He’s too small for a sixteen-year-old, and his tiny head feels like it would break if I was just a little rough with it.
✦ ✦ ✦
How could this demon do such a thing to such a child...?
“Hey, don’t go killing it now,” reproaches Rockmann, still holding his younger self by the neck.
“I know, it’s just... I only have to make sure it doesn’t disappear, right?” I ask, totally deadpan.
I feel everyone behind me jolt. Why would he assume I’m planning to kill it? I’ll help capture it as I’m told, but nobody said it should be captured unharmed.
Rockmann doesn’t reply. Evidently, he doesn’t mind.
I’ve been through a lot because of this thing. Treyse may have lost some years off his life. Rockmann had a dagger thrust into his chest and has been possessed and controlled, and my young self was choked. How could I let it get away with all this? For better or worse, women don’t let go of grudges so easily.
I cast a purging spell that won’t cause the young Rockmann any pain, focusing only on the demon’s presence. Rockmann doesn’t show pain on his face or in his voice.
“Gohswes deaeir, eradicate the source of evil and turn it to ash.”
White light envelops the youth’s body as I finish speaking the incantation. Hopefully this will bring the whole incident to a close. While I’m standing there, feeling relieved, I recall Städal’s parting cries.
“Ice, darling Ice of mine—let us rule this world, you and I!”
“Ahhh, what sacred bliss...!”
I ponder his words as I watch the white light flicker. All that’s left is to return to the future and hand this demon over.
Still... This demon used to be part of Städal. It said it had Städal’s memories. Doesn’t that mean it has memories of its time with the ancients?
“Curse you, Ice! Curse you!” exclaims the dream demon.
Städal grew so resentful of the world because of the five ancients who gave birth to him, and because the Ice Ancient didn’t return his affections. That is surely why, even now that he’s been broken and scattered across the world, his shards still spawn demons ad infinitum, and he keeps eventually coming back and doing the same thing he tried last time. I suspect it will happen over and over, until there’s only one fragment of him left after he’s slain.
The world will remain this way until he can be brought to a permanent end. The chain will continue even if we stop this demon here. I can already see similar events happening in the future. Städal will pour his hate into the world forever, for that is the only thing he feels towards it.
This demon here is no exception. After suffering through my spiteful magic, it will no doubt be interrogated and experimented on by the knights. And sure, it’s more than earned such treatment. I certainly don’t feel like forgiving it.
“This is your fault!” exclaims the demon again.
Still, if this demon really is a part of Städal, doesn’t that mean it’s not to blame for what happened here? And if so, what if next time it’s reborn as something other than a demon?
“Do us all a favor and find a better love next time, okay?” I say to it.
Snapping my fingers, I change the spell to a painless one, meant only to purge the demon from the body. Then, I pat the youth on his small back. If the source of evil is hatred, perhaps it’s not great power that will save the world, but something different, something rather trivial.