Demon Hunters: The Feast

WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD

Demon Hunters: The Feast is the first installment in the Demon Hunters saga.

## Plot

Caan Salvas is a young warrior that takes part in the tourney at Ashenburg. There, he is approached by Sir Glenn the Griffin, one of the Royal Knights. Sir Glenn lends Caan his sword, but the young man loses it before his final battle with Manrock. After searching for it and almost forfeiting his final match as a consequence, Sir Glenn reveals that the sword was taken under his own orders, and that it was a test to Caan's character. Caan loses the final duel against Manrock due to a technicality. He joins Sir Glenn's group of Demon Hunters, which further consists of Annie and Aris.

The group is traveling to Lakeshore, where an ancient ritual sacrifice to a powerful demon is supposed to take place. On the way, Caan faces off against Korro, a baby demon, and defeats it easily. Aris teaches him what they know about demons. He develops a close friendship with Annie, who shares a common tragic past. Caan reveals that his parents were murdered by the Dragon Knight, and that he is seeking revenge. Sir Glenn informs him that the Dragon Knight has since gone rogue and is nowhere to be found. When they arrive at Seashore, they find that most villagers are under a spell by the Winged Night demon. They are attacked and cornered, but a party of Royal Knights appears and rescues them. Caan is outraged when the possessed population is decimated. While the Royal Knights move on hunting the Dragon Knight, Sir Glenn suspects that the nearby town of Laketown is the demon's next target. The group travels there only to find that the people are building pyres to sacrifice themselves. The party splits up to knock as many people unconscious as possible, which breaks the spell. During his mission, Caan finds that he is being the target of strong hallucinations, and has a hard time questioning what is real and what is not. He figures out that the demon is trying to communicate with him. Meanwhile, the population suddenly turns aggressive and attacks the members of the party. When Caan is possessed, he is shown visions of the Winged Night's past, and concludes that it was once a human and needs Caan's help for something.

Sir Glenn breaks Caan's possession, and the villagers stop attacking them. Caan demands to know where Sir Glenn's abilities come from, and leaves the party when the knight refuses to answer. In the forest, Caan is visited by a messenger demon called Denden that invites him to a meeting of Demons who are interested in him, promising to reveal the identity of the Dragon Knight in return. Caan reluctantly agrees to join, and is picked up by a huge bird which is the material form of the Winged Night. On a remote mountaintop, Caan demands explanations from the demons present. The Winged Night exposes the true nature of demons. Long ago, there lived people called the Souled, who were humans with souls. They gave birth to normal soulless humans and possessed their children upon their death. But after some time, the population of soulless humans vastly outgrew the population of souls and rebelled against them. After some time, a powerful Souled called Kan weaved a spell that ripped souls out of the Souled, killing them and imprisoning their souls forever in the Soul Rock. Facing such a threat, the remaining souls remained in the ethereal realm or inhabited harmless animals to remain unnoticed, while the humans thrived. Over time, humans became more and more closed to souls as their bodies and brains changed, so that only the most powerful Souled could enter new bodies. However, the children of the Souled were easy to possess. The Winged Night reveals that Caan's own parents were powerful souls who violated the wishes of Kan, who came after them and imprisoned their souls in the Soul Rock. Finally, it is revealed that Sir Glenn is actually the latest reincarnation of Kan, and has made it his mission to imprison the remaining souls in his rock to become the most powerful being and rule as a God. He keeps Aris, Annie and Caan around himself, because they are the children or grandchildren of souled who he has personally killed, and their bodies are easier to invade once he is killed. Seeing this, Caan agrees to put a stop to Sir Glenn. However, he wants to know what the plan is for the thousands of released souls if the Soul Rock is destroyed. The demons say that after so much time has passed, they no longer wish to inhabit humans, and just want to reconnect with the entrapped souls. Since Sir Glenn can sense whenever there is a soul nearby, no demon dared to attack him for fear of being entrapped.

Caan is returned near the road and stumbles upon his old party, who welcome him back. However, the Cloud Knight appears and reveals that he has followed Caan's movements, accusing Sir Glenn of being the Dragon Knight. A fight ensues, during which both the Cloud Knight and Sir Glenn are killed. Caan, knowing that Kan planned to retreat into either him, Annie or Aris, starts suspecting the two, but does not reveal his knowledge. He searches the Griffin Knight's old possession, but cannot find the Soul Rock. The three of them part ways, but Caan decides to follow Annie secretly. When she is assaulted by a man and kills him, the nearby baron orders her arrested. Caan tries to free her, but is chased down himself. He retreats into the woods, where Denden helps him lose the baron's men. Caan begs him to help him free Annie, because if Sir Glenn is living in her, his death meant that they would lose knowledge of Kan's position, and if she is not possessed then she is innocent. Caan hands himself over to the baron and explains that demons possessed the man whom Annie killed, who turns out to have been the baron's cousin. The baron, who is extremely superstitious, will not act unless he is shown proof, and decides to hang Annie. Annie is strangled, and Caan attacks the baron in rage. He is seized and brought to the gallows himself, where Annie awaits him, alive and well. Caan suspects Denden possessed them, and the baron lets them go, even hiring Caan as the new captain of the guards to deal with the demon threat. However, that same night the city is attacked by a large host of demons. When Caan questions them why, Denden reveals that he had decided not to help Caan, and Annie is under Kan's possession. The greatest demon host of the last hundred years had gathered to put an end to Kan's tyranny. Can is distraught when Annie is severely hurt. The demons manage to overpower Kan, but he does not reveal the location of the soul rock to them, as they would imprison him in it.

Finally, Kan reveals the gap in the history of the world to Caan. For a long time before the wars with the humans, the Souled People gave birth to other Souled People. However, this meant that whenever a Souled died, they either had to roam the ethereal realm forever, or force themselves into another Souled. When the number of dead souls vastly outnumbered the number of Souled, soul invasion became a massive problem. Gaio, an old and powerful soul, found out that souls arise from the ground when the mother is pregnant, and that there were spots with more powerful energy emanation which gave birth to powerful souls. When he was in the ethereal realm again, he found and somehow closed the ether springs which lied under the ground, deep within the earth. As a consequence, the Souled stopped giving birth to other Souled, but to ordinary humans with no souls, which eventually lead to the human wars, where Kan himself decided to support the humans. Gaio himself proved too powerful and cunning to be captured, and lives on as the new incarnation of every king of the Golden Dynasty. Over time, the humans forgot the existence of the Souled and started to call stray souls demons. The demons are faced with a dilemma and debate whether they want to reopen the opportunity for souls to be born. Kan reminds them that it would cause the number of souls to increase exponentially, and cautions them to learn from history. The demons agree to never re-open the ether springs if Kan reveals the location of the Soul Rock, to which Kan responds that Gaio has long stolen it from him, and that is why Kan is on the run. He does not wish for the souls to return to the world, as most of them would not be able to find host bodies due to the evolution of humans. However, the strongest Souled could bear children for the souls to possess over time. Kan and the demons agree to create a society far away where population would be controlled, and the souls could live in harmony. In return, he would help them defeat the Golden King. Caan begs him to leave Annie's body, to which Kan agrees if they can find Aris.

The army of demons overpowers the capital and slaughters many innocents, which infuriates Caan. They storm the castle, where Gaio is waiting for them. In a cruel twist, Kan reveals that he has since started working with Gaio, and that the Soul Rock is the place where they are all standing, a rock that can bind souls underneath the throne room. A large trapdoor opens up, and most demons fall in, their souls sucked into the rock. Caan identifies the rock as a large meteor, a fallen star, and concludes that the Souled must come from outer space. Gaio and Kan thank Caan for delivering the strongest remaining demons to them. Caan suspects that the fallen stars contain the ether, and when they fall to earth and crack open they turn into the ether springs, causing souls to emerge in life. Gaio confirms this, and says that the soul rock is an uncracked ether spring, which attracts ether instead of exuding it. They discuss the negative sides of a large Souled population, but Caan says that they only wish to rule as Gods, but there can only be one God, sooner or later. This prompts a fight between Kan and Gaio, leading both to fall onto the Soul Rock. While falling Kan tries to kill himself and stabs his own side with Annie's knife. With his soul drained into the rock, Annie returns to consciousness. All the demonic spells having been broken, the hall is swarmed by armed guards. They see Annie and Caan with the body of the dead king lying on the rock and shoot arrows at them. While some hit, others miss and open little cracks in the rock. Caan holds Annie's hands as they both die from their wounds.

In what Caan believes is the afterlife, he is actually in the ethereal realm with Annie. The cracks in the stone released small amounts of ether, which formed small, weak souls in the two of them. And since they died while being carried away from the rock, their souls are now free. Annie and Caan debate on what to do, and finally decide to return to human form. They both sense a new life entering the world nearby, and find that a woman has just given birth to twins. With the future uncertain, they decide to enter the two bodies, one boy and one girl, promising to remember their time together.