Demon Hunters: Soulcrusher

WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD

Demon Hunters: Soul Crusher is the second volume of the Demon Hunters saga.

## Plot

Caan and Annie grow up together as Lew and Pia, and only slowly do they start regaining the memories of their past life. While growing up, they can spot other Souled and demons easily, and communicate with them. When Denden informs Caan of his past, Caan persuades Annie to leave their parents. Denden informs them that there is a faction of remaining demons that witnessed the conversation and are trying to crack open the Soul Rock to release all the trapped souls. Caan, who is only fourteen years old, decides to reveal the true history of the world to the people and travels to Aris' hometown to persuade him, as he is now known as a famed historian. They convince Aris, now an old man, of their true identities and explain the demon mechanics. Aris is not easily convinced, but they sense a faint energy below the castle. They go down to the dungeons and open up a wall, revealing small fragments of the same white stone that the Soul Rock is made of. They conclude that Gaio broke the falling stars into little pieces and scattered them across the land to prevent new Souled to be born. Aris decides to write a book called the True History of the World and adopts the two. They live in Aris' castle for a few years while he writes to other intellectuals. Only a few respond, but he cannot convince them. Caan and Annie decide to train their possession abilities to provide a demonstration. After he is possessed, the new king's brother is convinced and brings them to the throne room. The King hears them out and arrests them. He descends to the Soul Rock and obtains his own soul, but it is quickly absorbed and he dies. Caan and the others are again accused of regicide by the king's brother, who is now the new king. He keeps them imprisoned and tortures them, trying to find out how he can obtain a soul without dying. Under threat of being absorbed by the Soul Rock, Caan tells the King that if he cracks the rock open and takes out a huge chunk, he will both get a soul and release all the trapped souls. The King decides that it is too risky and ultimately frees them, promoting Caan to the Griffin Knight and Annie to Cloud Knight.

Years pass with Caan and Annie roaming the lands, restoring order to the lands. As the Griffin Knight, Caan is tasked with hunting down demons that possess people, and Annie is tasked with gathering intelligence as the Cloud Knight. Eventually, Caan tracks down the group of demons that is trying to crack open the stone, Denden among them. The leader of the pack and last greater demon, Blood, threatens to roam around and kill everyone if Caan does not agree to help. When Caan refuses, he unleashes a bloodbath that plunges the kingdom into civil war as the demons possess important lords and cause strife among them. When the kingdom starts falling apart and the capital is besieged by a large army, the King decides to break the rock and take a large chunk out of it, impaling himself on it with his sword. The thousands of souls are freed at last and start finding suitable targets to possess. Aris is possessed by Kan, who tracks down Caan and attacks him, forcing Caan to kill Aris. Gaio possesses the dead king's son, his own grandson, and kills Annie in a melee. Enraged, Caan swears to track down and kill all demons.

Ten years later, the Souled have once again become leaders of the population, overthrowing or possessing all former lords. They meet at a great council to decide the future of the land, fearing another human war. However, Kan assures them that with the Soul Rock destroyed there is no way for the humans to win. Caan now roams the land and kills lords who mistreat their population. He recruits brave human warriors to fight by his side, but cannot find Annie. He starts digging up remnants of the soul stone everywhere and combine them into a massive ball, hoping to recreate the Soul Rock. In the process, he bestows souls to his army. One night, he witnesses a large asteroid hitting the moon, sending rocks falling onto earth. He realizes that the soul stones all come from the moon, and the moon is a large Soul Rock. He decides to investigate the possibility of sending people to the moon, but his theories are not supported by his followers, who become estranged from him. Kan, who hunted down Caan, arrives with a large army and kills all of the rebels, including Caan. In the ethereal realm, he travels towards the moon. The closer he comes, the more he is attracted to it, and only notices too late that he cannot return. When he is sucked into the moon, he starts to receive visions from thousands of years ago. He sees that all souls are connected by invisible strings to the center of the moon, and are part of one big soul. As the only soul inside the moon, he realizes he can pull the others by the strings and starts pulling on the strings, returning all souls towards the moon. When the first souls arrive, they start fighting against him, confused. Annie starts helping him, as well as his army, and together they manage to pull all the souls back into the moon.