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The following is a summary of chapters 1 through 10.
Obviously there will be spoilers.


Chapter 1



A young vagrant named Felos sneaks into a vacant hotel room to escape the rain.
A cross mechanic named Gure, formerly traveling with a man named El, finishes her temporary job and heads back to her hotel.
After demanding a new room, Gure is given the room used by Felos. He tries to sneak out, but fails.
Initially holding him at casual gunpoint, a mix of sympathy and curiosity leads Gure to let Felos stay.
Two suspicious men drive through town, arguing over the clatter of teeth emanating from their trunk.


Chapter 2



The two talk over breakfast. Felos admits that he’s only wandering aimlessly, while Gure only divulges that she’s looking for something.
Gure plans to head to the bus stop, and see how far her earnings will take her. Gure races Fel through the alleys.
Stopping halfway through her supposed shortcut, Gure smells something sinister. She suggests Fel continues to the bus stop while she checks it out.
Gure finds a devoured animal carcass, crawling with the smell of demons. She hurries back to where she send Felos.
Felos happens on two crooks smuggling “biter” demons. He tries to eavesdrop quietly, and knocks over a trash can.
The leader of the two smugglers plans to kill Felos and feed him to the biters to keep both quiet. Gure arrives in time, and shoots the three biters.
The lead crook snaps and shoots Gure only to find it has little effect.
Gure conjures fiery magic in the shape of a hellhound, and scares away the crooks.
Gure takes the crooks’ newly abandoned car, and beckons Fel to come with her.
Against all good sense, Felos continues his wandering alongside the unpredictable devil girl.
A green-cloaked stranger finally receives Felos’s location from a “Wallfly” informant.


Chapter 3



Arriving in a new town, Felos and Gure find no vacancies.
Fel is spotted by his old friend Kahj, who promptly tackles him.
Despite Fel’s unexcited greeting, Kahj offers to share her hotel room with the duo.
Gure leaves to get food, and Kahj admonishes Fel for leaving after 6 months of friendship without a goodbye.
The green-cloaked man intercepts Gure to tell her about a fighting competition nearby. He warns that she should be wary of Felos, and takes his leave.
Gure describes how she met Fel over dinner.
Gure and Fel try to leave town before Kahj can notice, but Kahj is already waiting at their car with luggage.
At Fel’s request, Gure agrees to take Kahj along. They continue their travels as a trio.


Chapter 4



The trio arrives in the town where the fighting competition is being held.
To make things more interesting for herself, Gure enters blindfolded as “Canis”.Fel and Kahj watch from the audience.
After Gure easily finishes her first fight, Kahj leaves to visit the shops.
The green-cloaked man kidnaps Kahj at knifepoint, promising he means no harm.
A hired messenger delivers Fel a message. “One round, you and me. Win or lose, she’ll be fine.”
Arriving at the stated location, Fel reluctantly fights the green-wearing stranger. Soon realizing Fel has no further fighting ability to show, the man conjures a small blade formed from strange magic. He cuts Fel’s cheek, and Fel immediately feels dizzy. His cheek heals with the same sort of magic, and he falls unconscious.

Chapter 5



The green-wearing man finds Gure before her final match, and tells her that Fel and Kahj are back at their hotel. Gure threatens him, but has to hurry to the fight.
Eager to return to the hotel, Gure ends the fight in one punch, eliciting stunned silence from the crowd.
Upon Fel waking up, he and Kahj explain their history to Gure.
Gure leaves to collect her prize money.
Stating that she likely cheated, that she ruined his show, and that she has no identification, the competition’s proprietor refuses to pay her.
Kahj and Fel relax by a creek. Gure arrives with a bloodied shirt and a stolen briefcase full of cash. Stating first that she didn’t shoot anyone, she insists that they have to leave in a hurry.
The three flee the town by car.
A red-clad man with a sword tells a fiery messenger that the incident has confirmed Gure’s identity. He calls her “the heiress of Baliel”.


Chapter 6



Nathan Pfayer, General of the Paladins of Kings, sits in a locker room, hesitant to take his place in a parade.
Pfayer explains to his lieutenant, Garen Duislette, that he is having doubts about his status as a symbol representing the nation. Garen asserts that protecting the people’s hearts and minds is as important to their job as fighting.
Pfayer takes his place in the parade.
Chancellor John Vanderbeck watches the parade from a floor high above.
Vanderbeck tells a cloaked messenger to relay to his lord that “the plan” is in motion.
He decrees to no one but himself and his red-armored guard that he will guide the nation of Kings to its divine reward.
The parade continues on, with Pfayer feeling the weight of the crowd’s admiration.


Chapter 7



Gure dreams of a grey figure lying on a platform, bound to red wires. The harlequin appears to ask if Gure remembers the figure.
Fel tries to wake Gure, concerned about swaths of animals fleeing in the same direction. Looking for the source of trouble, Felos sees El standing in the road.
El reassures that he isn’t the cause. Upon introducing himself, Gure wakes, furious. She rushes to El, and punches him in the face.
El tells the two that more menacing demons have overrun the nearby town of Stalgo, prompting the wildlife to flee.
Fel insists on going with Gure while she looks for clues to the source of the demons. He asks why she carries a gun she doesn’t need, to which she replies “sentimentality”.
Initially skeptical of El’s story, the two find a 10-foot tall “Vierbein” demon in the town, and escape into an alley.
Gure explains that demons of that size shouldn’t be able to survive away from the north, and that she suspects something in the town is feeding them. Gure asks Fel to stay in an abandoned building until she resolves things.
Gure climbs a smokestack to gain vantage on the town.
Cama flees several biters through alleyways. Both Fel and Gure hear her scream.
Fel grabs a piece of nearby rebar, and without thinking rushes to the location.
Fel saves Cama from an attacking biter, and offers to help her to safety.
Gure spots the demonic fire causing the threat.
Cama explains to Felos that no one would help her escape, thinking that her moo-cow horns were in fact demonic. Cama and Fel are chased by a much larger group of biters.
The biters stop following them halfway down an alley. The two proceed nervously.
When Cama asks Fel why he helped her, he says he did did it without thinking, and that he would do it again.
The two find the demonic fire, and Fel assures Cama that Gure will be there soon.
Before they can get to safety, a vierbein emerges from the fire. Fel tries to fight the demon away from Cama. The demon throws him against a building, piercing his arm with his broken rebar.
Seeing the demon approaching Cama, Fel enters a sort of trance, leaping on the demon’s back and dispatching him with his fragmented rebar. Seeing more vierbein approaching, the strain causes him to collapse.
Gure arrives. After asking Cama to drag Fel to safety, Gure easily kills the three vierbein. She dispels the demon portal, disappointed that it awarded no clues.
Fel dreams of his past, when he was found in an alley by a tall stranger. He wakes up to find his arm healed completely. A curious Gure greets him, and he can’t quite explain what happened.
Gure insists to Fel that Cama is coming with them, on the grounds that she is awesome and can cook.
After dark, El finds Gure still awake. He assures her that the incident was indeed the work of Chalyb, the person she’s searching for, and that she should continue west.
Gure awakes to find that El has once again stolen her car, along with her briefcase full of cash.


Chapter 8



The four manage to catch a ride to town with a stranger.
Chancellor Vanderbeck speaks to a Wallfly. Vanderbeck confirms that the speech is in three days, and that the assassination attempt has to appear legitimate.
With support from his second lieutenant Amelie D’agneau, General Pfayer kills three vierbein from afar as an exhibition.
The group arrives in town and they set out to find a diner.
Their driver stops at a payphone to confirm that the four arrived without even stealing his vehicle.
The group are greeted in a diner by a Wallfly. He returns a portion of Gure’s stolen cash in unmarked bills as well as four ferry tickets to Esperancia, courtesy of El.
Upon eating and leaving the diner, Gure is offered a car by the Wallfly. He assures her that her money already paid for it.
A Wallfly tells the green-cloaked stranger about Fel and Gure’s destination.
While driving west, Gure explains to Fel that she’s looking for Chalyb, a dangerous person responsible for her possession by Baliel.
El rides a ferry, and speaks to the harlequin. He explains that he doesn’t wish to leave things to fate. The harlequin vanishes.
A demonic portal opens in an old throne room before a cloaked figure, who holds a peculiar white sphere.


Chapter 9



The four arrive in a coastal city, and find a nice hotel.
Gure and Fel speak after dinner. Gure explains that though El is selfish, he never seems to lie.
Gure tells Fel that she can’t sense any magic in him despite his strange abilities, and that she finds that interesting.
Unable to sleep, Fel goes out for a walk. Kahj tags along at a distance.
Stopping at a dock to think, Fel encounters the lead smuggler that Gure thwarted earlier. Wanting revenge, the crook accepted a contract to kill Fel.
After being shot through the abdomen, Fel once again enters a trance-like state and heals. He approaches the crook, unfazed by shots in his shoulder and cheek.
Conjuring a blade reminiscent of that used by the green-clad stranger, Fel slashes the crook’s cheek. The crook falls to his knees in shock.
Fel readies to finish off the crook, but his trance is broken by Kahj’s voice.
Kahj helps him back to the hotel.
The Wallfly that returned Gure’s money finds the crook, still stunned. He explains that the crook was merely meant to progress Felos’s abilities, and knocks him out.
The next morning, Kahj explains that Fel was shot but is okay now. He remains unconscious. Gure is unfazed by the information and goes with Cama to get breakfast.
While out, Gure and Cama happen on the crook, who has been bound to a fountain and left for the authorities.
Cama goes off on her own to visit a bakery.
Gure returns to the hotel, upset that she stopped Fel from killing the crook. She’s worried that mercy could endanger her new friends.
Kahj insists that she and Gure take turns drinking and sharing stories until they’re friends.
Cama returns to the hotel with a cake: a thank-you gift for Gure for saving her from Vierbein, and for being a friend.
Gure crawls into bed and hides her emotions, overwhelmed by the fact that she has real friends.


Chapter 10



Gure, Cama, and Kahj board their Esperancia-bound cruise, carrying a still-unconscious Fel.
Gure explains her loose plan to search a country directionlessly for a person she’s never seen, and hopefully smack El around on the way. Kahj leaves to find a much-needed bar.
At Cama’s request, Gure explains what she knows about Baliel and Chalyb.
Long ago, legendary warriors made pacts with powerful beasts. These warriors, the archegons, became half-beast humans capable of external magic, and the progenitors of the demi.
Three humans, unsatisfied with that level of power, stole pacts from powerful demons. Gure remembers only their smells and their names: Chalyb, Baliel, and something starting with “Dem”.
Gure knows that Chalyb is responsible for her possession, and that they are likely to hurt a lot of people. She feels that she has to use her wealth of power to stop them.
Cama asks what her smells is. Embarrassed, Gure admits that it’s “blueberries with sugar on a hot day”.
Fel dreams again of the tall man who took care of him.
Fel wakes up, confused. He walks onto the room’s balcony and nearly walks into the railing. Gure lets him know that he was unconscious for about two days.
Fel relays to Gure his decision to use his unknown power to help Gure stop Chalyb.
He thinks back to his time with his former guardian. The guardian mourns the old warriors’ eagerness to follow others, even if it leads to disaster. He warns Fel that if he is to follow those with power, then he must be very sure they can be trusted.
Fel lets Gure know that he trusts her, and silently promises that it is a sound decision to his old guardian, Demoth.
Will Muzzi 2011-16