And (N)one Shall Remain

 

“Ner’Vhok the Annihilating Berserker, Elugurenas the Defiling Touch, Lanisheey the Queen of Temptation, and Znehctyi the Scheming Tactician. Those are the four names you all should always keep in mind, the four gods worshiped by the demons,” said Magus Drummond during a lecture he was giving to the three young summoned [Heroes] in a private room in the castle. “The main reason for this is because many of the better classes the demons possess typically had the name of their gods as part of it. In this way, you could take an educated guess at the capabilities of an opponent with a quick [Analysis].”

 

“Like how people could take a guess at what we can do just by looking at our class names,” noted Joshua as he nodded. During Magus Drummond’s classes he was less taciturn and acted more like a student listening intently to his teacher’s lessons, which the classes technically were anyway. “They are pretty vague to base a guess on, though.”

 

“Are there other versions or meanings to those names, Magus Drummond, Sir?” asked Alissa in turn after Joshue finished speaking. While Sir Inolet handled the classes they received pertaining to war strategy and tactics and the likes, Magus Drummond handled the bits that dealt with knowledge that the [Heroes] could make use in their fight. “Maybe the meaning in the demons’ native tongues, if that is known?”

 

“Excellent question, Miss O’Connor. I see why Henri often said that you are a good student,” replied Magus Drummond with an appreciative nod. While the old Magus looked like an archetypical cranky old man at first, he proved very knowledgeable and quite talkative during his lessons. “To answer your question, yes, we possess some more bits of knowledge about them. One of the few things we know about the demons, glimpsed from ancient literature from shortly after the rise of the Gods.”

 

“Supposedly each of the four gods of the demons correspond to one race, and their names were in each race’s original language, that had long been lost to time,” explained the old magus. “Ner’Vhok represents the Ma’Varok, the large, brutish tusked demons, and the name is a portmanteau of the words for ‘Honor’ and ‘War’. Those that received classes with his name are primarily some type of warrior or soldier, usually with a heavy emphasis on the Body attribute.”

 

“Elugurunas represents the Ragah-fiq, that is, the ones that looked sort of like hairy balls from a distance,” he continued. “The name itself was composed of the words for ‘Life’ and ‘Creation’, and as far as we have seen so far, those who had classes with his name were either healers or crafters for the most part, which are typically focused on the Soul attribute.”

 

“Lanisheey is the Goddess that the Tesh’ka, the smaller demons, primarily worshiped. Her name represents ‘Love’ and ‘Miracles’ in their language, according to the ancient tome,” added the old mage. “In our experience, the name was most commonly attached to magic-users, so you can expect anyone with that name in their class to have Mind as their primary attribute.”

 

“I’m guessing the last one is the all-rounder then?” asked Ethan as he raised his hand.

 

“Close enough,” replied Magus Drummond with a satisfied nod of his head. “Znehctyi is the primary god or goddess of the Nevilosk, there were no notes on its gender. Ah, the Nevilosk would be the tall, gangly demons who looked like someone stretched them out,” he said. “The name itself stood for ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Faith’, and unlike the others, had little rhyme nor reason on what sort of classes it was related to.”

 

“We have seen warriors, mages, healers, and all other sorts with classes bearing Znehctyi’s name, and if there was any similarity between them, it would be how most of them tend to be less direct in the usage of their powers, and instead used more indirect means,” continued the old mage. “This also made those with the name the least predictable, but that in itself is a clue that you would want to know should you be fighting against one.”

 

“Master,” interjected Joshua with a raised hand. “I had read in some older books that there was a fifth demon race, what about those? Do they have no god amongst the pantheon? And why are we not warned about them?”

 

“Ah, the Gour-ug’rech. Yes, they do still exist these days, but they’re not the issue at hand, and we do not foresee you having to fight against them, that’s why,” answered the old Magus. “They’re an aquatic race, and as far as we know, were not ones to worship any god. Some of them were heretics that worshiped the old gods, even, which put them at odds with the rest of the demons as well.”

 

“Either way, we do not encroach upon their waters, since it’s not like we could live in the bottom of the oceans anyway, and they cannot survive for long on land either, so for the most part, there’s an unofficial truce between them and everyone else,” he added. “We leave them alone, they leave us alone, basically. It works since neither side could really go far into the other’s territory.”

 

“What can we expect if we somehow ended up fighting against them, though?” asked Ethan once more. “Better be prepared just in case it happens, rather than not be prepared when it happens, just saying.”

 

“Fair enough, Mister Greene,” admitted the old Magus. “Most of the Gour-ug’rech use some sort of spear, and the mages amongst them would be good with water. Avoid fighting them in or under water at all costs, and if you have access to it, fire would hurt them greatly. They tend to be quite strong and swift physically, compared to us, so also watch out for that.”

 

“Any other questions? No?” asked the old Magus once more. “I guess we can conclude this lesson here, then. Joshua, come along, we’ll continue where we left off yesterday.”

 

Ethan and Alissa watched as Joshua trailed behind the old Magus as they headed to a different part of the palace for said lessons, before they exchanged meaningful looks with each other. The next moment, Alissa sank into the shadows as Ethan waited by the room they just took the lesson in, waiting for Alissa to return, which she did around a minute later. 

 

“All clear, nobody around for at least a couple minutes,” she said as she emerged from his shadow. At first the sight had surprised and creeped him out a little, but by now he had gotten used to it. Alissa had gone around on her own since she could scout their surroundings much faster that way. Having someone else along with her in the shadows always slowed them to a crawl.

 

“Four so-called ‘Gods’ on each side, periodical wars every so often, always with summoned people like us in the lead, all that sound as fishy to you as it did to me?” asked Ethan in a quiet, whispering voice once she returned. To all appearances, the two looked as if they were just walking towards their respective rooms at a different wing of the palace while making small talk.

 

“Yeah, definitely sounded way too arranged for it to make sense, I think,” replied Alissa, just as quietly. “I can sort of get it about the part where they summoned otherworldlers like us to be their heroes or whatnot, given how their system works and how we’re just far more powerful than the locals,” she added, noting how nowadays Sir Inolet took them on much more seriously during the spars, if not at full power yet. “But far too much of the rest just scream artificial to me.”

 

“It’s like someone set up the war like it was the… scenario of a play, with us and whoever those [Champions] are as the actors and the locals as the supporting cast,” muttered Ethan under his breath. “No possibility of negotiations or making peace just because they don’t speak each other’s language also sounded forced. They could have tried to learn it after so long, no?”

 

“Or maybe they can’t? Remember that these people had everything handed out to them since birth by this system of theirs. If they only ever learned things like language from receiving a skill instead of learning it the hard way, it definitely wouldn’t be easy to learn a whole different one from scratch,” mentioned Alissa in reply. “Which if I think about it further… would be a damn effective way to ensure that the humans and the demons never exchanged words with one another…”

 

“Think there’s more lies behind them being able to send us home and that it needed the opposing [Champions] as a sacrifice to power the ritual?” Ethan continued. “Or think it’s just a convenient lie to make sure we stick around until they win this war of theirs? They definitely want to capture those [Champions] for whatever this ritual of theirs does though.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t think they lied about that part, wanting the [Champions] as sacrifices, I mean. I’m not sure either what they’d get out of it,” admitted Alissa quietly. “On the other hand, I could also see it being true. Let’s face it, neither you nor I are the same as we were when we first came here. I bet it would be harder to send us back now compared to then.”

 

“True, I guess. Man, if only I could’ve been this good during the high school championship some months back… We would’ve totally steamrolled Benson High’s collective asses in the finals,” he lamented, somewhat jokingly. “Still doesn’t answer many questions though, and while we are pretending to trust them like the dumb musclebrains they probably think we are, I don’t know if we can keep this up forever.”

 

“Hopefully, we wouldn’t have to keep it up for too much longer,” replied Alissa with a contemplating nod. “They plan to have us hit another dungeon next week, then to the frontlines after we hit our third tier, if I remember right. Once we hit the higher end of the third tier or hit the fourth tier, for good measure, I don’t think they can enforce their will upon us anymore.”

 

“We’d be too strong for any leash they want to put on us by then, I get your idea,” nodded Ethan. “The question is whether they’d let us get that far without sinking some hooks into us some other way. Any change from the girls’ side? On my end the guys in our group seemed pretty genuine in what they’re supposed to be. Either that, or they’re all the best damned actors I’ve ever seen in my life.”

 

“I’d mostly say the same about the girls. They’re either truly just being themselves, some having their own agendas, with no knowledge of whatever the higher-ups here have in mind, or like you said, they all deserve oscars for their performance,” replied Alissa. “Given how skills are done here, I doubt they could do that while fighting so well at the same time.”

 

“Anyway, I’ll be off to get a nice dip in the tub for now, be seeing you later, Allie!” said Ethan suddenly, and notably more audibly compared to their near-quiet conversation just now. The reason for it made itself known to Alissa a moment later, when she heard the quiet footsteps from her left. She peered over Ethan to her left and saw that it was from a maid in the distance down the corridor, one she had not noticed earlier because the bulk of Ethan’s body prevented her from seeing in that direction.

 

Ethan must have noticed the maid out of the corner of his eye and reacted as they had planned, making “small talk” between them.

 

“Sounds like a good idea to me! Maybe I should have one too…” she replied, quickly going into tangents like which of the perfumed soaps they preferred to bathe with, to all listeners sounding just like a couple of youngsters being spoiled by the luxurious treatment they received in the Royal Palace. 

 

It was a good guise to adopt. Pretend to be playing the game while secretly preparing to flip to board.