Mania; And Chaos In The Cottage

~Location: Cabin In Owyhee Mountains~

(1st POV: Orion Constantine)

You know, I wasn't expecting my day to become this off the rails when I was going to do my run to my car so I could drive myself to the area where Tristan was from the info I was given from a bastard named Julius, he's not bad but still a bastard.

I've hidden my Chevrolet C-10 further away from my cottage house, then BOOM, there was a random chick that smelled of sulfur coming to the front of my doorstep, so I quietly moved to the hidden side door of my cabin to my left to catch her off guard, and low and behold when I asked her what in the hell she was doing at my door.

She was here because of Julius, of all people. I mean how many people/species does he even know!?!? And it was a demon of all things that I let in my cabin!!! But she was a bit of a stunner, though, but that wasn't the problem.

It was the info she told me, as that was the only reason why I'd let her in the first place instead of just buckshotting her in the face with my shotgun... Also, I'm almost sure that the demon was possessing whoever that woman was... Probably a Cultist; I'm pretty sure there have been more and more Cultists these days. And the complete audacity of this demon to slap my handsome mug of a face in my house. Worst of all, she wanted to gamble with a man who had never won one a day in his life; I mean, until now, I thought. But oh boy, I was wrong, when watching the screen on TV.

[Breaking news: Alaska was struck by a radiation field spreading near the outskirts of Yukon, Senatti camps. There has been no reason behind the incident as of yet, and containing it has been difficult.]

Nuh, uh, this was just a huge coincidence. I didn't trust a single bit of this, but that phone call from my old colleague just smashed whatever sense of logic I had at this point, and was crushed by new revelations about Tristan himself. It kind of made me happy, though, that I wasn't the only one who was astonished. But Cal's astonishment was lived short as she started grinning at me with an I told you so face.

(Omni POV)

Caliel's smirk grew tenfold after Orion hung up the phone. "Well, now that was an easy bet for me, wasn't it, Or~i~on~" And oh boy, when she pronounced his name like that, Orion was growing livid as he tried taking a deep breath.

"Ok... You win, Cal, so what do you want from me?" Orion was truly hanging on, trying his best not to rage here and now as he actually wanted to win for once. And the demon in front of him, sensing his slowly increasing irritation, smirked even more.

"Oh~ it's nothing much~ you know what? I'll hold you to it when I need a favor~ Alright, because I am the winner after all and can't help myself as I am such a gambler, unlike you~." Orion finally lashed out at the statement.

"Shut the fuck up, you common house swine!!!!" He couldn't take it as he felt his pride in shambles when he was done lashing out; Caliel gave a pout.

"*Hmph!* And here I thought we were having fun, but sadly, I do have to tell you my information that was... slightly concerning... I think we should go back to the table instead of the living room as we wait for more guests, as we talk about problems." Both Orion and Caliel moved to the table in the dining area to talk.

"So, what do you want to tell me about?" Orion asked as they both sat across from each other.

"Well, first off, I'm pretty sure Julius didn't tell you anything about why he wanted you, of all people, to take care of his child, and it's probably because he wanted Tristan to become strong or to learn and adapt as a hunter would, and because of how much money he gave you his school life wouldn't be too much of a problem... If he and wife of his weren't such paranoic freaks... He has no ID, no birth record, nonexistent social security for healthcare, and, worst of all, he's basically an illegal immigrant without a free pass card here because of his parents. Luckily, faking it all is easy with the right money, especially with the help of that friend of yours." Orion, who didn't say a word, finally asked her.

"Let me guess, this isn't the real problem you were getting at?" Caliel smiled bitterly as she said.

"No, Orion, now I've said my piece about Tristan, I can now focus on a more difficult problem, which would be about a certain earthbound causing more trouble than usual. And this earthbound demon is [Kupala], a being that now dwells within Transylvania." Orion's eyebrow raised as he whistled.

"*Whistle* Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time, throwing that name around. You would think a demon like that came from a stuff of nightmares, too. Many stories have been told of such a being as the oldest and most powerful of demons to be bounded..." Caliel's eyes squinted a bit.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting you to know that much about earhbounds?" Orion gave a mirthless chuckle as he explained.

"Well, you could say I was spoon-fed by someone important to me... She really was a shining light to me... As she annoyed me with knowledge and I annoyed her by being myself..." Orion's eyes hollowed out just a bit, but it was noticeable to Caliel.

"....I'm sorry for your loss." was all Caliel said, but Orion held himself back together.

"Ah~ no need to worry about me, Cal; I've been doing better as the days go by. So Kupala has been becoming more of a problem?" Caliel shook her head yes as she spoke.

"Yes, and also, Kupala is a part of the reason why Julius is dead." Orion, who had just caught wind of what she uttered, raised his voice as he stood up from the chair.

"WHAT!?!?!?!?! HOW THE-?!?!? NO!!! WHAT ABOUT DAHLIA?!?!??!" With Orion's question about Dahlia, Caliel remained silent for some time, letting the reality set in as Orion finally slumped back to the chair. Caliel was still silent, and Orion was finally piecing together why Julius was bringing their son to him in the first place, only leading him to more questions. He then stated something to Caliel.

"So... Let me get this straight because I have no idea why he didn't just let me take the child in the first place if they knew they were going to die. They had ten or nine years of planning to get themselves ready to get out of whatever instead of wasting their time on the child... Did they just didn't trust me to take care of Tristan while they focused on fucking surviving, or what because I feel like you know more than I do." Both Caliel and Orion stared eye to eye as Orion emitted an immense amount of yellowish holy energy of faith. The pressure of it cracked a bit of the table. Caliel wasn't bothered by it and said to Orion.

"There are so many reasons, but all of it is linked together, so let's start with a little lesson about their fate as the 'stronger they tried to become or the more they tried to prep, then their death will either come quicker to them or worse of all their executioner would be something more terrifying.'

What makes it worse is that the fate that was randomly placed upon them from my study of their lifelines was something that was created spontaneously with the sole purpose of adapting and evolving along their victims on an abstract level and almost beyond abstract in some cases. I just have a knacking feeling that they won't be the last victims of something like this, either.

It wouldn't have mattered how strong they've become as that would only mean they would face even more horrendous problems. And they do trust you with Tristan. If they didn't, then they wouldn't have picked you, and I wasn't a reliable choice either, as I haven't found a perfect vessel, and I would be forced back to my world in hell. And they didn't want to part ways with their child immediately, so they took the apparent path of selfishness and did things as a family." When Caliel was done with her long speech, Orion was stunned silent as his aura disappeared a while ago.

"That... Actually sounds like them... Now, I feel bad for the child even more. But still, why would Kapula even try to go out of its way to go this far from its domain?" Caliel, who's leaning on the table with a hand on her face in the form of a fist, said.

"Well, let me tell you how I knew in the first place, there were a few remnants of Revenants turned into pieces, and they only are from Transylvania as they were known to be masters of the flesh craft, and I sensed an earth-bounds presence on the battlefield, good thing other organizations were more focused on something else, as I would've been caught otherwise with the amount of time I was at the scene. Those two in hand can only prove the rumors that have been spread rounded being right." Orion asked.

"And what were those rumors?" Caliel gave him a tired look as she explained.

"The first rumor was that [Kapula] grew in strength at an astounding pace; he was already known, like you've said, to be very powerful and the strongest of the Earth bounds, and every earthbound can affect the entire Earth if they were partly unsealed, and the other rumor was that [Kapula] is becoming desperate and wants a vessel." Orion was unsure but spoke.

"So, I would have to say that the first rumor seems to be far-fetched as you've said the earthbound from Transylvania brought people far away from their territory for a vessel that sounds like desperation to me, and that vessel would so happen to be either Julius or Dahlia. Where did you get the rumors?" Caliel smirked a bit as she crossed her arms and said.

"Are you jealous or something~?" said the demonic girl as she winked at Orion, and he wasn't amused at all by her antics as he only glared at her.

"Ahhhh~ come on, I was just playing~ *sigh* fine, you probably wouldn't even know as it's from a completely different plane of existence with different factions and houses that represent our 'abhorrent' race, I got it from an insider from The House Of The Fiends... Those geeks love their knowledge more than anything." Orion finally gets the gist of all that happened and doesn't know what else to say, and with the news he's gotten, he can't help but think, leading Caliel to talk even more.

"Hmm~ What else were you thinking of, huh~?" Orion snapped out of his reflection and said to her.

"You don't have to tell me, but I wanted to ask, what was the name of the body you are possessing? If it's too personal, then-." Caliel interrupted Orion as she spoke with a bit of sadness yet pity.

"Her name was Patricia Valentine before I possessed her and even before I met her. She was a loyal cultist to me; funnily enough, she found me through a papered magazine with my symbol and started praying, and when I got to know her more through her prayers, she had an incurable disease.

Her parents thought of her as an annoyance as they thought she was a waste of money. I really wanted to grant whatever wish she desired, and do you know what she wished for?

Of all the things she wanted me to possess her, I tried to change her mind, but she was dead set on wanting that wish, and the last thing she wanted was for me not to do anything to the people that hurt her, especially her family... Well, let's say I didn't hurt them directly, but financially though, as they deserved it for being stingy.

And here I am now, possessing the body of a follower who was lovely and not edgy for once... And what makes this sad is that this feels like a perfect vessel to me... And the only good thing I could do was send her back to reincarnation, as usually, possession is permanent. When I said that her soul would become mindless, she didn't care at all, she... Just wanted me to put her out of her misery." After that short story, there was an awkward silence between them. But her following statement turned into an argument.

"I wonder why you asked that? Were you perhaps interested in the person of this body~?" Orion immediately stood up from his chair and accidentally smashed the already weakened table with his hands, yelling at her.

"WHAT THE FUCK CAL!!!!!!!!!" Caliel shrugged her shoulders and said to him with a grin.

"I mean, hey~ I call what I see~ so here I thought your heartstrings went all doki doki or something that Japanese people will say about love~ am I right, sugar?" At this point, she was holding back her laughter. But Orion could already see through, pissing him off even more.

"YOU KNOW WHAT CAL GO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE!!!!" Caliel's smirk grew as he said that, and she said to him with as much salt as she could.

"*Hmh* Not if you go first, darlin~." Orion's face was turning red in rage, Caliel looking at him with such a smug look he yelled again.

"I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YO-" As soon as he was about to do something that Caliel would've remarked as 'kinky,' Orion was interrupted from their 'session' by a voice that came through the front door as it was left open.

"Orion?!?!?!" The voice was Kai, and next to him was the little boy whose clothes were still worn out from all the walking and fighting. Kai came here at the worst time possible, and he just had to make things worse.

"Holy crap, you two!!!! When's the marriage, Orion?!?!?!?!" Orion flew off the handle from that comment from Kai.

"The hell do you mean marriage!!!!! Do I look like some demon fucker???" Orion is already having a full-blown meltdown. Kai rubbed it in deeply with his following answer with a stoned faced expression.

"Well, of course, you do..." The way Kai said that with complete confidence, Orion was about to kill somebody here and now, but he would still probably get charged with manslaughter. But he could get away from that charge if he pleaded insanity, and yet, as Orion was about to lunge forward unexpectedly, Caliel stopped him as she spoke out.

"*Sigh* Calm down, Orion; there's no need to overreact at all, especially with a child just right next to who you were about to 'swing' with joy~." Again, silence pervaded the room—Tristan, who was still at the front door, had to watch the scene that turned into a full-scale bickering.

Kai: "THE FUCK YOU SAY YOU DAMN CUNT!!!"

Orion: "YOU LITTLE SHIT!!! SAY THAT AGAIN I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN!!!!!!!"

Both Orion and Kai yelled at the same time, adding more fuel to Caliel as she grew a foxy grin.

"Well, shucks, that's adorable~ I didn't know the both of you were so in sync with each other. I was only joking~ but now~ Ohhhh, I'm going to blush~ Kyaaa~." Both of the men felt terribly emasculated by this treacherous woman; Kai spoke up to Orion.

"ORION!!!! PLEASE SHUT YOUR DEMON WIFES MOUTH!?!?!? SHE"S EVIL!!!!!!"

Orion was spacing out heavily but then remembered the only way to defuse the situation. "*SIGH* Aren't we forgetting Tristan? The boy that needs somewhere to rest for now? And because this was only a temporary living place for me I will need to go somewhere closer, for him actually to go to school for once... Which school would be a good one for him?" Kai also spoke up.

"Oh yeah, about his identity here I have all of his fake identity with me so that he could go to school... And do you have any clothes around here that would fit Tristan?" Caliel then said something.

"I brought his clothing all the way here..." She said that as she brought out a suitcase, and Kai eyed her with confusion. And as of now, she asked Kai.

"Hoh~ Aren't you eyeing me a bit too much~ maybe I'll~" She was then interrupted by Kai.

"*Psh* I know when a woman's attracted to me or not, and you're showing signs of wanting to push me off a mountain for fun, and you're going to be Orion's in my head cannon." Orion's throat was dry, and he spoke with a shaking madness.

"What did you just say, Ka-" Kai then started to snap at him with his fingers while pointing at him like a dog saying to him.

"*Snap**Snap**Snap* hush now, my old friend, let me do the talking for you; I know you're shy, Orion. It's time for me to help you." Orion was in a frenzied state as he started growling in pure frustration, and he began to grind his teeth. He started to foam? It looks kind of worrisome, like if he needs to go to the hospital now. Caliel was worried for once and said.

"Um? Kai, is Orion alright?" Caliel was right to ask that, as he looked like he was bitten by rabies. But Kai wasn't worried at all, she told her.

"You don't need to worry about Orion; he does that sometimes, but it was that dimensional storage I was looking at. Was that an artificer that gave it to you? Wait??!!? I'm getting myself sidetracked!?!? Orion over there." He then pointed over the rabid Orion.

"He's a good man who needs help... A demon lady like you could help a mess like him." Caliel looked over to Orion, cringing at Orion's demeanor as she asked Kai.

"Ok... That's cool and all, but should we wait here and let him calm down?" Kai also thought for a bit, then told her.

"Huh? Orion would usually chase after me at this point... I guess you did a good job on softening him, demon girl..." Kai smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. Caliel, who was still watching Orion, watched Orion convulsing like crazy. 

"Kai... We should just leave and let Orion have his episode while we take Tristan to a bedroom..." Kai, for the first time, feeling uncomfortable with how Orion is acting, agreed upon her words and said to her.

".... I think you should take Tristan and find a room for the both of you to stay and settle in... I'm going to stay here and get my ass handed to me till my face becomes black and blue." Caliel immediately walked to Tristan to grab his hand and left to the room to the left side of the cottage house.

(3rd POV: Tristan Devroop Akvash)

Tristan watched it all go down and had almost laughed throughout it. And now, an oddly familiar lady was dragging him when they went inside a small bedroom. The walls were painted in a calming pale blue color. They had beautiful wooden wainscoting that complemented the polished hardwood floor with furniture, including a dresser and a small nightstand, providing storage and a simple bed in the middle of the room. She spoke to Tristan in an apologetic tone different from when she was riling those two up, "I am so very, very sorry, Tristan, for the scene that I've shown you from before, and I am so very sorry about your family... I'm not exactly great at comforting but they loved you with everything they have..." Caliel patted his head and then moved on to bringing out simple clothes for him to wear. She asked Tristan.

"Do you need me to dress you up? Or could you do it yourself?" Tristan spoke with a sigh.

"*Hah....* I could do it myself, mam... But thanks for asking me." Caliel smiled and said to him.

"You could call me Cal if you want; Tristan and I have to go check on those two to see-" Before she could say anything further, Caliel was interrupted by a large thundering sound just outside the Kitchen, and the sound grew further away outside of the house. Caliel then looked at Tristan with worry then shook her head as she told him.

"..... I have to check on the mess those two are making. I'll let you get dressed on your own." she walked away, leaving Tristan to dress in his new simple clothing, which was grey sweatpants and a blue T-shirt. As he dressed up in his new attire, he began to wonder what to do; as he began to play with his own shadow, and after the battle with the Nexus Crawler, Tristan had grown an ability to generate shadows of his own without the anomalous ability that came from an unknown small place, he was able to create a sphere like a shield around himself that was a diameter of six feet around him, he decided to make it grow. He turned the entire room into complete darkness. After five minutes, satisfied with his shadows, he commanded them all to go within his own shadow, turning the room back to normal.

Now, with the last thing he wanted to do before he lay in bed, he used his shadow, which was shaped like a disk in front of Tristan, and put his hand to pull out the beef Jerky that Ana gave him, and he talked to the beef jerky.

"You see, Mr. Beef Jerky~ I told you I wouldn't forget you.~ Now I'll turn you into infinite beef jerky... I'm going to eat ya forever while I lay on that bed over there and think of all the ways we could become a technological powerhouse of this world." Tristan said as he set his bar to high difficulty. His voice, Zil, popped up. He zapped the bag of beef jerky. 

623/669

<And here I thought that you wouldn't be even more insane... And go, raising the bar.> Tristan was still enjoying the infinite beef jerky on the bed, and the more he spoke within his own head, the more manic Tristan became.

'You know Zil... I think I'm completely fucked in the head, and all I can do is try to become stronger and enjoy what I have in front of me and try to create something for my own sanity, not to crack at this moment; I mean it's like I need something to distract myself from the bad thoughts.

If I were to think negatively, that's where I feel like I'd do something crazy. You and Ana have helped me by distracting me from my own grim reality with nice abilities I've never asked for in the first place. Still, I do 100 percent need them, and my god, I hate the feeling of where I'm always close to breaking down just to suddenly calm myself so suddenly-" Zil grew tired of Tristan's talking and interrupted his manic episode.

<TRISTAN!!! Could please stay quiet for a bit and close your eyes?> Tristan did as Zil said and closed them.

<What do you see, Tristan?> Tristan answered immediately.

"Nothing at all..." Zil then said to Tristan.

<The only thing that is against you yourself and nobody else; your entire focus has been entirely misplaced, I don't like to see this, Tristan. bet Ana would say the same but slap silly... Please pull together, just what 'parents' said, keep- moving- forward.-> Tristan couldn't help but smile and decided he was done eating the beef jerky as he put it back into the disk-like shadow. And as he fell back to sleep.

'Thanks again Zil' 

<Rest easy, Tristan...> 

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(A/n: It felt kind of weird not seeing Ana in this chapter... She was probably watching Tristan... Like one of those stalkers, but raise it to a hundred if she was some Skyrim character. (Stalker 100) And yeah, this is a pretty slow story.