Summary

Damien grew up the youngest son of Silvan Arias, the clan leader of Eltanin. Though his parents tried their best not to force him towards a hunter life, both he and his older sister Kiara felt the pressures growing up, especially since both their parents were famed hunters in their own right. His father indulging himself in his work a lot and not often being at home didn’t help matters either, and Damien easily found himself at odds with his father especially with his hotheaded nature, awkward silences often lacing their rare conversations.

This pushed Damien to confide more in his mentor and godfather, Isaac Satou, when he became of age, an uncle like figure who had been his father’s best friend in his youth. As Kiara and her team too, became notable young hunters in passing their trials early, Damien pushed himself to become a hunter better than his father. In his school life, he found solace in his friends and his literature and theatre classes - one of the few places he felt he could be authentically himself, much to his father’s chagrin, who thought it was best he focus on his science and math courses.

In the midst of the second trial in a series of four that he must complete to be inducted as a full-fledged hunter and on top of school exams, Damien comes in contact with the Deva Nadia, who forges the first magical bond with him in a century and speaks of unprecedented danger. As the rising cases of demons changes the human world to new heights previously unseen in the three clans, he is now not only on a journey to become stronger, but to help protect his home and the people he loves.

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{Bit of lore regarding demons related to Damien}

The demons in Damien's setting are actually a sentient species called the Asura, who are naturally magically gifted shapeshifters. Most of them have one preferred form that they take, based on popular mythological creatures - in Damien's case, it was a dragon. Asura are simply called demons because back in the day, humans got into a lot of wars with them and identified them as such. Most of the 'demons' that are fought in his setting aren't actually Asura, but monster minions they created by siphoning off part of their race's magic to jab back at the humans and try to take Earth as their own. These minions, ironically, have been called demons by the Asura as another jab against the human race.

Damien is the first Asura who chose to reincarnate as a human who, before the creation of these minions (meaning he still has all the powers inherent to his race before the magic was siphoned off to create the minions) gave part of his magic to a select group of humans, to give them a fighting chance against the Asura since they do not inherently have magical abilities. Though it seemed like Eltanin (the name of the Asura who gave himself up) had given away his life force, he actually just gave up the part of him that was Asuran in nature, leading him to reincarnate in humans among the descendants of the group he had blessed with his power for centuries. A few other Asura essentially betrayed the militaristic ideals of their society and followed suit, creating other Hunter clans. These Asura are a highly guarded secret among each hunter clan, though each one deals with the knowledge differently.

Fun fact if you read this: Each hunter clan is named after an Asura, and each Asura in turn is actually named after a star!

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{Plot Points}

- Damien's character arc is basically that of finding who he really is + coming to acceptance with it. This is also the main theme of the story. It's displayed with the struggles the main crew face: Lucian faces his loneliness + finding those who understand them, Nadia has to set aside her fears to accept herself as she really is. The lessons Isaac teaches namely stems from his misadventures when he was younger and when he was lost and trying to find himself. Kiara + Alice's relationship also compliments this and the point below.

-A secondary theme in the story is that of standing up for yourself + what's morally right, instead of being an innocent bystander (probably the majority of the Devas) or feeding into a rhetoric of hatred (probably the majority of the Asura).

- he has dreams sometimes, of things that don't seem to be his but that are familiar. these are, in actuality, the suppressed memories of the asura Eltanin, and act as foreshadowing for who he is.

- As a reincarnation of Eltanin, Damien has the power to semi-shift into his dragon form, by to growing scales and ethereal, shadowy looking wings. in this form, he is quicker and stronger. He deals more damage in this form, but tires quicker.

- Whenever his Asuran powers are activated, his eyes glow red.

-Throughout the series, Damien often gets shielded from more mature things. To the reader, this seems like it stems from Silvan's overprotectiveness as his father and a clan leader, but it actually comes from Damien's true identity.