DEMON HUNT

Chapter 71: The man and the beast X

        After leaving eight whole years without a name, John's boy was finally named after his father. She named him John Kado, as she had resolved to confess her sins to her husband.

      However, she never got a chance to tell him. At about midday, John Kado set off on his favourite boat, and never returned...alive. Some fishermen spotted a floating mass and hastily attempted a rescue, after discerning it was a person. They were hours too late, though. John Kado was already dead.

      John's death left behind a power vacuum. A country much in need of a leader, as well as a comforter. Every inhabited area of Malvay had people mourning his demise. The kingdom desperately craved for a source of solace, his guilty wife more so. Gaius, the next most widely regarded person in Malvay, sensed that it fell on him to take over. With his tired back, bald head, grey eyebrows and tired limbs, Gaius declared a period of nationwide mourning, spanning three days. The masses decided to mourn for a week.

      As was his desire, John was given a quiet funeral, sparing the kingdom of its expenses. Sahara broke down at the funeral, crying like a child. She was a tough warrior-woman, but the grief was overwhelming, even for her. After picking herself up, she decided John would want her to be strong, and if another plague was coming, Malvay would need all the strength in the world. Condolences came in from the world over, as John had no shortage of secret admirers. Even Novali out put a statement, but not the kind Sahara would have wanted to hear.

      After the funeral, Sahara unveiled her son to the world. It was the glimmer of hope Malvay craved. The unaware masses were more than happy to learn of the boy's existence, but Gaius and every other Oragonian understanding person at Bravestone that day, had a sense of cautiousness. The northmen decided that allowing John's son live was the least they could do to honour him.

      As Gaius grew older, and consequently weaker, it became obvious that a new monarch had to be crowned. John Kado junior was already twenty, at the time. Old enough for many to push him forward as the obvious choice, because of his resemblance to his father, in most aspects of his character. Gaius, however, from his sick bed, chose to uphold John's wish. Sahara gave her full support, and after a few more deliberations, princess Sasa Real was offered the crown. She was Gregor's only surviving child, and his only legitimate offspring.

     Flattered by the proposal, Sasa thanked Sahara with a hug. She, in a shocking turn of events, however, denounced the crown. She wanted a more private life with her husband, on a farm somewhere. As the sole reasonable option, John Kado was crowned king of all Malvay.

    The north also had its own bit of drama. Lord Orchard of Extalia had been slain by his younger brother, and his position as head of the tribe had been usurped by the same. Lord Nabilat resolved to kill all his brother's heirs, and he succeeded for the most part. Young Klaus was the only one who managed to escape the slaughter, fleeing the defilement and subsequent murder of his sisters. The boy found protection under the wings of Magmaterre's leader, Kelechi.

    Receiving the news, John Kado tagged Nabilat's actions as utterly reprehensible, asking him to surrender or face military action. The idea of having to go to war in the first year of his reign never excited the king, but he was keen on keeping his promise of justice and unity to the people. Besides, Nabilat would see the might of the reactionary force, a combination of northern and traditional Malv fighters, and waver into submission, he thought.

     Nabilat did not waver, though. He never got a chance to. Just as King John sent his men marching, the second plague arrived. Widespread reports of deadly illness among the indigenous Oragonians sprung up from the north. No tribe was spared. The physicians were useless in the situation. With multiple calls for help  racing in, King John, with much protest from his mother, decided to go see the situation for himself.

     Luckily for them, the king's party had not traveled too far before the real calamity struck. The illness ceased suddenly, but every full-blooded Oragonian transformed. Their eyes became blue, like Kardama's was. They became faster, stronger and more importantly, they somehow developed regenerative properties. While the northmen were trying to adjust to their new characteristics, there was a feeling of relief among them. The strength and speed could be controlled, and the regeneration was like a blessing. The only real problem was having to look in the mirror and see his eyes. A night after, however, was all it took to change their minds.

    The king had been advised to put his venture on hold, while scouts moved on ahead to access the situation. The scouts never came back. A night after the transformation, a strange extreme hunger swept through the northern lands. That day, the Oragonians developed an uncontrollably urge for human flesh. It only took a few hours for the king's party to bear the brunt of the plague. Oragonians, like mindless demons, flooded the king's camp, tearing people limb by limb and feeding on them. King John drew his sword, in a bid to defend the camp, but he soon realized his blade was useless. No matter how deep a cut he inflicted, the attackers healed completely and just mindlessly went on with the slaughter.
   
     As his chances of survival began to evaporate completely, John Kado unwittingly broke the limiter his father had set, allowing him to possess an ability. Unlike the previous cases he encountered, John found himself able to control his ability, gaining unnatural speed, strength and stamina, and most importantly, the attribute proved capable of killing the cannibalistic northmen.

    Returning home as the sole survivor, John knew the situation had to be put under control, but it was far from easy. Despite his best efforts, news of recent events had spread to the ends of the world, giving Malvay a horrifying global image. Novali lead a wave of travel bans against Malv, and it was bound to get worse. John felt the only way to save his nation and the rest of the world was to shut its doors. By John's royal decree, no one was allowed to leave the island, and no one was allowed to come in. He created a commission to enforce this law, calling them the red crossing surveillance squad, naming them after the crime they were meant to prevent...the red crossing. The RCSS set a boundaries and built outposts away from the mainland. With first-class access to funding and technology, the RCSS swiftly became effective.

     John married Princess Sasa's only child, Blossom Real, effectively merging the old royal family with the current one, and taking up the house name 'Real', taking Gaius' advise. John realized soon after, when the time for Gaius to rest eternally came, that Malvay could not survive with the amount of fear that gripped the land. It was in that moment that John Kado junior decided to restrict freedom of speech on subjects relating to the plagues. After strenuous enforcement, King John managed to create an entire generation of Malv common-folk that knew nothing about the plague. He owed this success chiefly, though, to the invention of the memory wiper.

     Blossom created the memory wiper by imbuing her memory erasure attributes in simple objects, making it difficult to suspect what was about to be done with them.

     John Kado's last move was the creation of a secret group of people able to skillfully wield their innate curses, which he termed 'kado', after his father. The brave group of people charged with dealing with the Oragonians became known as demon hunters, and John Kado became the first father.

     Shortly after, John Kado was diagnosed with cancer, bound to die within a year. In reaction to his predicament, John named Jeremy Cadel as the next father of the corp. Spotting his potential, Jeremy Cadel, with John's permission, decided to have a teenage hunter, Lumine Gransbelle wield the mighty dark nemesis.

  One hundred and thirty four years later, a blue haired boy is born to house Real...