10 Hunger's story and a risk of friendship!

"Ne-Nemesis... how can I trust you?" Shane quivered as he asked Nemesis his question.

Nemesis could sense the amount of dread, anxiety and pain that Shane was feeling, and he was even starting to question himself. How could he trust himself? He had lost his mind, blinded by his lust... his craving for flesh. There was also Hunger, how would he explain how an ancient, extinct race had returned back to the realm of the living. Would he lie or would he be honest, and suffer from the possible fear Shane felt expanding, and running him away.

"I... I honestly don't know how you can trust me..." Nemesis softly replied. His voice was full of remorse for his actions. Not towards the demon he had just brutally consumed, but towards Shane. He didn't wish for Shane to witness this display.

"For me to try and explain it all to you would take days just to finish my tale, and it would take even longer for you to absorb the information."

"What..?" Shane wasn't expecting that answer. He thought Nemesis would try his best to excuse himself, making himself seem as pitiful as possible, so as to make him feel guilty for discovering such a horrible secret of his. Not that it would've worked, after all, such a graphic and violent scene would certainly have imprinted itself into his mind.

"A- are you not going to try and defend yourself, Nathan?"

"No. It is the truth. And you can't hide the truth. I... am indeed a cannibal." Nemesis shook his head and let out a quiet sigh, rubbing his thumb and index finger. Hearing him caused Shane's heart to be torn. From him honesty in admitting his actions to his soft sigh to finally the subtle rubbing on his fingers, which he barely noticed, he felt as if they were actions of penitence. Unfortunately, the scene before him took away any innocence he had for Nemesis. He was torn on whether or not he should trust him, even if only for a small collaboration.

"B-but..." Shane started to shudder as he pointed his index finger at Hunger. He wanted to say more, but the pentagon-eyed demon staring at him, unblinking, as if he were an ant which he could crush at any moment made him extremely uncomfortable.

Nemesis followed Shane's finger. His gaze quickly ended up on Hunger. "Ah... I guess an introduction is needed..." Nemesis lifted his hand, directing it at Hunger. "Shane, this is Hunger, a Notchum." He then, like a gentle river stream, waved his hand back to point at Shane. "Hunger, this is Shane... Griffith. The third and most talented son of the Griffith family. Rulers of the Kingdom of Griffith, respectively."

"A pleasure to meet you, spawn of humanity. A great sin you must've committed to having earned the prestigious title of 'Fool condemned and banished to an eternity in Hell'." Hunger spoke mockingly, his words like ice, cold and uncaring. His clear displeasure of humanity being easily distinguishable.

Shane froze, not at only the fact that Nemesis knew his surname, but also because they knew why he was here. "How..? How do you two know that? And... what's a Nocthum? Also, why did you eat him? For sustenance? For some sick, twisted pleasure? What were those two red, spirits around you, and why did that thing... Hunger... absorb them into his eye?" Shane couldn't contain his curiosity as he released a flurry of unrelated questions, all directed at Nemesis.

"..I'll be honest." Nemesis shifted his head to the left in a bashful manner, as his tongue was pressing against the inside of his right cheek, which Shane could clearly see. The two stood there for a full minute as Hunger returned back into Nemesis' shadow, only to surprise Shane precisely a second after the minute ended by appearing in the hallway behind him, pushing him and obstructing the doorway.

Nemesis at the same time withdrew his tongue. He once again opened his mouth, slowly inhaling and exhaling breaths. When he was finished, he continued. "My name is... Nemesis. As I've stated before. I don't have a surname, not that I really care. I'll answer some of your questions one by one, starting with 'what is a Nocthum'."

Nemesis closed his eyes as he began to speak, not wanting to see what Shane look like when he told him what Hunger was. "A Nocthum is an ancient de-... demon, one from an era far gone now. They were once the rulers of the entirety of demon-kind, infamous for their misdeeds, cruelty, stealth and were feared as masters of assassination. Hunger is the last one left. They'll never die from ageing, are immune to all types of poisons, parasites and other means ranging from the common blade to the most advanced Angelic spell, they only have a few flaws, one is their inability to reproduce."

Nemesis slowly turned his head back to face Shane and opened his eyes only to see Shane staring fixated on him, intrigued, but he could also see the confusion in his eyes. "I presume that you're going to ask the question 'why aren't they controlling all of demon-kind anymore' and 'why is Hunger the last one left', right?" Nemesis questioned, with a small friendly smile.

Shane saw Nemesis' friendly smile, and gave a small nod, looking away. The dry and fresh blood on his face made his smile look like it was full of wicked intentions, but as Shane couldn't sense any wicked aura or unfriendliness in Nemesis, he didn't care. The memory of Nemesis asking for a chance from him surfaced as another memory of his surfaced as well. It was of the time he had first sneaked into the Griffith dungeon, seeing the cruelty of his family, how wrong everything was. How they weren't the chosen from the Gods to save humanity, for if they were, he would not have seen his elder brother laughing maniacally as he tortured a man he recognised. It was his own personal servant.

Nemesis, unaware of what Shane thought, slightly frowned as he saw Shane look away. He knew earning trust after doing what he did would be tough, so quickly his frown vanished as he continued explaining. "Nocthums although are strong, intelligent and deceiving, have one glaring flaw which the other races used against them. They were deeply loyal to the [Lord of Pestilence] to the point of stupidity." Nemesis once he made that remark, quickly gazed at Hunger, to see how he would react to his quip. All he could see was Hunger's tall frame, but no eye. He was looking away from him, but he knew that Hunger had heard him.

"Sorry Hunger... I know how much you dislike me recanting the tale, but you know it to be true." Nemesis apologised after his remark, hoping that Hunger didn't take any personal offence to it.

"..." Hunger stayed motionless, the purplish-black aura around him had even disappeared, as if he were a statue. Nemesis knew how badly it hurt him inside. After all, all his friends and family back then had been sacrificed.

"Shane." Nemesis said, making Shane focus his attention on Nemesis. "All the Nocthums died. They sacrificed themselves in a satanic ritual, all in an attempt to revive the [Lord of Pestilence]." Nemesis stated bluntly before continuing and an angered tone. "And they failed. Demons, humans, elves, dwarves, angels, orchestriala and every other god damn race all teamed up together and interrupted the ritual, saving the world from the wrath of Phantasmal, but..." Shane could see Nemesis was seething with rage by this point; tears starting to swell up in the corner of his eyes.

He himself had once heard of a story about humans, angels, orchestriala, elves and many other races working in tandem with each other to fight against the tyrannical demons, stopping them from reviving their [Demon Lord], but he never heard of demons teaming up with them, nor did he know that they all teamed up to face a single sub-race of demon; Nocthums.

One point however stuck in his mind. 'How is Hunger here then...' Before he could ask what was lingering on in his mind, Nemesis beat him to it.

"Hunger, however, survived. Hunger survived due to one reason and one reason alone. His unique ability, that is to absorb souls. You saw him absorb two souls right in front of you. He takes them and places them into his eye, consuming them forever. He had absorbed a stupid amount of souls, numbering over two billion, from all types of races. He sacrificed all those souls and his physical form, all to survive the ritual, so he could've met his lord, Phantasmal. That was why he survived.

Now it has been so long that most don't even remember the name, Nocthum, it's now a forbidden word. I believe you humans have stories about this tale, though it... simplifies several matters, also hides the fact that humans colluded with demons and that they were facing Nocthums."

Shane was shocked at this tale. All he could do was nod dumbly at the end as he was right, he did hear a book like this and had seen several more copies of the book 'The Heroes save the world from Demons!' in the royal libraries and in the hands of noble parents reading the book to their successors.

"The reason I consume flesh and why Hunger consumes souls is to restore his body back to a state before he was ruined. Right now he still can't exist out of my shadow for long. Even now he's already pushing it. Hunger, come back, please. Your time is nearly up!"

Hunger didn't respond and instead silently returned back into the ground, a black circle ingrained on the floor where he was once. The circle moved at an extreme speed before entering the dark room.

"So... you do this not for yourself, but for Hunger's sake? Is it wrong that I'm starting to sympathise with him?" Shane asked, now conflicted. He wished to be a hero, but he didn't wish to be known as the one who exterminated an entire race.

"No, it isn't. Yes, they did try to revive a demon who was named the [Lord of Pestilence]... but I doubt that anyone actually knew anything behind his cause or why he killed so many."

"...Why do you speak as if you're familiar with this [Lord of Pestilence]?"

"...Hehehe... there more stories to tell..." Nemesis bashfully chuckled a bit, before his face turned serious. "But not right now, time is of the essence, I can't explain anymore until we deal with that brothel." Nemesis then quietly muttered under his breath. "Time is running out... I got to destroy it soon or else I'll miss Deale." Shane barely heard him and was curious but also sceptical.

A purplish-black aura appeared beneath Nemesis, rapidly spiralling around him. Shane was surprised and watched engrossed as the purplish-black aura moved up, spinning around Nemesis as if some fascinating transformation would occur. In a minute the purplish-black aura had moved from Nemesis' feet to his head, cleansing him off all the blood which had been one him, dry and fresh.

Shane stared at him, confused at both his bizarre power and this Deale person he spoke of. He had seen Nemesis use his power to form a claw on Nemesis' hand, now he saw it do something completely different... It was used to clean him. Shane could still smell the heavy scent of blood with his sensitive nose, though he could tell that after the thing cleaned him, the scent of blood vanished off of Nemesis. His power was so practical and strong... yet, it seemed like this 'Deale' was captured by them... who even is Deale?

"Shane, I have one question for you now," Nemesis asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Uh.. yeah?" Shane quickly responded.

"Do you trust me?" Nemesis asked fully serious waiting for Shane to reply.

"I -" Before Shane could finish his sentence, Nemesis interrupted him; Shane feeling as if it were planned.

"I know I may not seem trustworthy, after all, for all you know I could be lying and be secretly be planning on how to kill then eat you. I just... nevermind, you don't have to answer me. Just... tell me, are you willing to join me in destroying the brothel? Afterwards, you can decide on whether to trust me or not. Alright?" Nemesis said as he extended his hand out to Shane. Nemesis was taking a chance, waiting for Shane's decision to either accept his hand and agree to help him or to abandon him and leave. He knew he didn't have a second chance... this was a risk Nemesis was going to make, in hopes for friendship with Shane.