After three days, Ed Warren's eyes opened.
"Ed?" A voice called out and he turned his head towards the direction it came from.
It was Abel but Ed wasn't in the mood to hear anything he had to say. He sure did look as if he had much to say given the huge book that was in his hands.
"The Baron said that you would be awake by the third day because of….."
Like he had told himself earlier, Ed wasn't in the mood to listen to him.
He didn't awaken because of any of the barons prediction nor because he had conquered the remaining pieces of the malicious demons inside him, but instead, one reason had caused him to.
"Don't you have any food to offer me?" He managed to mutter, surprised that he could still speak despite being unconscious for days like he had heard from Abel's blabbering.
"Food?" Abel repeated, surprised by the unlikely request. Shouldn't Ed be concerned about what had happened to him and why he had been unconscious for days instead?
"Yes,food. Don't you demon students know what that means?" Ed retorted annoyed by the question Abel had asked him as if he wasn't aware he had gone unconscious on an empty stomach.
Abel stood puzzled and then after his hesitation wore off the next few minutes,he walked towards a counter in the room and brought out a bread.
Ed stood up from the bed where he was on and rushed towards him, scrambling for the bread like one who had been starved from famine.
"Easy Ed! The food isn't running away and no one is definitely going to drag it with you" Abel warned, taken aback by how Ed was quickly gobbling the bread without even chewing on it properly before swallowing.
Ed gave no response. Abel wouldn't understand. He raised his head and stared at him for a brief minute. His palm looked soft, which was a contrast to the callous skin on his.
He wouldn't understand what hunger meant anyways. So he didn't bother to explain it to him.
"Here, well begin your training. The first order quest for the demon students will be coming soon and if you want to survive here, you'd have to make sure to pass"
A brief and momentary pause ensued from Ed's side as he didn't know what to think of the information that had been passed to him.
The information was so unsettling that it caused Ed to pause with the loaf of bread that he had been chewing and concentrated his attention on Abel.
"If I am to pass the first order quest for the demon students, what is in it for me?"
"At the moment Ed, you have no choice" Abel's voice was laced with a mixture of sympathy and yet it was firm in the way he has stated the obvious truth to him.
"What do you mean?" Ed asked, dropping the bread in his hands on top the bed entirely. What did he mean that he had no choice?
"Have you forgotten?" Abel asked, hoping to draw his attention back to the events of the previous day before he fainted.
"Forgotten what?" Ed asked.
Abel sighed. It would be of no use him trying to call his attention back to something he has already forgotten in such a hurry. Instead, he would have to remind him himself.
"Your time here is limited Ed. The moment you crossed the gates to this legion,you already became a part of us. You surviving from now depends on you and how best you do. It won't be a game of luck anymore like what happened that day in the hall"
There Abel went again. Ed thought to himself.
"I didn't ask you to remind me of such a memory" He muttered under his breath but loud enough for Abel to hear what he had said, fearing that he might get angry if he were to say ur out loud.
"What were you expecting me to say?" Abel in turn asked him.
A close up look at Ed from his side told him that he expected rewards if he were to try his best to survive the order quests.
Not as if he cared enough for him to know the end goal of it all but because he wanted to have him under his wings, working for him and being one of his loyal dogs,he knew he had to say something.
"You'll have everything you'd ever need and want in this world in abundance, Ed Warren" he finally answered him.
" Everything I will ever need and want?" Why did it sound as if it was a line out of a fantasy novel.
You know the types of novels young boys sneak out to the library at night to read because of the fantasy world with everything they want and need being readily available whenever they did.
But that was far from happening given his life and circumstances. Inshort,it didn't even seem as if what Ed needed would be available to him. Not now,not ever.
And if he couldn't boast of having his needs, of what use would be his wants?
"Lorraine Blai" Abel mentioned.
Ed's eyes didn't betray what he felt. Lost and uncouth. Ofcourse thinking that the end goal he has just told him was probably useless and a lie.
But he knew he had to guard his mouth else Ed would get greedy. He was a lowlife and has no rights to dream big dreams like he did. Dreams like possessing the world.
So instead of telling him that he might have the power to rule the world one day as an end product of passing all of the order's quests, he had mentioned a better attainable for someone in his level. But it didn't seem as if that had worked.
The name he called seemed to have carried more weight than any of the things he had said to Ed previously. He smirked within him. Atleast he had found a loophole.
"And what would you know about her?" Annoyed Ed questioned with bitterness laced all over his voice.
"Easy Ed. I am not the Lorraine who denied knowing you in public" Abel teased lightly.
Ed gave no replies. He couldn't even continue eating the bread that awaited him. The name that had been mentioned had caused the deepest upset to his mood and even if he would like to carry on with eating to quench the remaining pangs of hunger he felt, his appetite couldn't allow him.
"Do you know whom the man she had been making out with is?" Abel's question cut his silence.
" He is a celestial demon" Abel answered, not giving him room to or to nod in the negative like he had anticipated.
"What are those?" Ed leaned further towards him asking.
Being reminded that Lorraine had been making out with a man when she denied knowing whom he was not anyone by his name was already a chilling topic,but hearing about whom the man was seemed more important.
"You recall Lucifer from your seminary teachings?"
"Yes" Ed nodded. "He got jealous of God and fought against the heavens with some angels who joined his rebellion. After they were defeated, they came down to earth to deceive mankind to follow them to hell" Ed finished and sighed to himself.
As if it wasn't the same hell he was headed to being in the midst of these demonic people.
"You're quite a smart boy Ed. I thought you'd be vain and be concerned with only food" Abel commented and this earned him a thorough look from Ed.
He was quite bold and audacious for making such a statement. Ed thought. He didn't seem older than he was except that his body looked plumpier and well nourished unlike his that was lean with his bones almost showing.
"But in the end,only three of these angels who caused the great rebellion remained, and now it's just one of the three of them left"
"Lucifer?" Ed interjected.
He recalled the name was mentioned consecutively in various books and writings in the monastery library, so it meant the obvious.
Abel simply nodded in the affirmative, happy tbag Ed was quickly catching on the dots of the basis of the legion.
"What happened to the other two?"
"Good question Ed. That is quite a good question because I asked them too but no one knew either"
"Quite surprising" Ed muttered.
" Yes. It's surprising because one of those missing demons fathered a human born child"