ã€ŠDaemon Bornã€‹


 Prologue: White World

    I climbed to the top of the snow covered mountain, it was really cold. I stood on the peak of the mountain and looked around the white wonderland of snow. I could see my breath every time I exhaled. I grasped hold my black scarf and wrapped it around my neck more; even with all of the things I was wearing right now I was still feeling the frosty air. I breathed onto my palms as I rubbed them together.

    ¡°I¡¯m freezing up here.¡± I said to myself as I rubbed my arms with my hands.

    Even though it was really cold here, I did enjoy seeing the lush greenery of the forest, I couldn¡¯t compare which was a more enjoyable experience, the ivory white snow falling gently, how the city looked on top of the mountain, or maybe just the feel of it all. I soaked it up a little more, and then a breeze blew straight into my face.

    I shivered a bit.

    But it was still really cold so maybe I should get down from here now. I walked over to the slope of the mountain and I took out my green ring-crested snowboard and strapped into it. Then I hopped of the edge.

    As rode my way down the mountain, I could feel my black jacket and scarf flutter backwards as it got caught in the wind.

    Oh, I bet I haven¡¯t introduced myself yet. My name is Daniel, I¡¯m a high school student going through a lot right now, of course every student probably does, and the only thing that makes me different from any other student out there is that, I¡¯m a demon.

    Honestly that sounds like a lot to take in, and actually it is, I haven¡¯t told anyone, and I don¡¯t plan to, not right now at least.

    I bet you¡¯re thinking that even if I did tell anyone about this, they wouldn¡¯t believe me, but actually in today¡¯s modern world of 2090, the universe of science and magic or whatever you call it, collided.

    In actuality the existence of creatures and monsters dated long ago, but they never truly met, sightings and witnesses of these beings were usually doubted, and their case was immediately debunked.

    What they were experiencing, what they saw are now called ¡°Rifts¡±, simply put, they¡¯re magic portals to another reality. Science explains it to be nothing more than wormholes. They try to ignore the possibility of magic completely.

    The first time a Rift was permanently opened was in 2015, in the frozen wastelands of Greenland, during that time, people reported seeing things like ghosts and snow monsters roaming about, when the officials actually got there to see these ¡°things¡± for themselves, well let¡¯s just say there weren¡¯t too skeptical afterwards.

    I¡¯m not too sure, but I think that I may have come from one of these Rifts- or something like that, I wouldn¡¯t know. Of course at some point I figured out what I was because I was always into that mystical stuff, and when I discovered that I had powers, that sort of sealed the deal for me.

    I tried taking into account the possibility of me being nothing more than a human with special psychic powers or something, but if you take the fact of me having powers, becoming weak in the bare daylight, inside churches, witnessing any form of religious rights or rituals and ceremonies that depicted any god or faith, I would feel extremely sleepy and tired, and I also figured out that I wasn¡¯t one-hundred percent demon.

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    If I was, all those things would actually hurt, like you know bursting into flames or burning me or something, it just made me weak, which according to my research, meant that I was more likely to be just half-demon at most. The other half could be anything, I mean after all looking human doesn¡¯t mean I am human. I still haven¡¯t figured it out either.

    Even knowing this, it wouldn¡¯t really be a wise idea to reveal myself right now, when multiple rifts started to appear in populated areas, the Order of the Holy Knights stepped in, at the moment they were the strongest political and spiritual power, they controlled a lot of things, the government, the system, almost everything, they weren¡¯t corrupted dictators, a bad organization or anything like that, they were actually doing really well for the world¡¯s society and because of this.

    They had a big influence on people, which in turn gave them plenty of followers, and as they gained popularity, their power and influence has very significantly risen. The problem here is that, they volunteered to take control of the whole rift situation, which in this case was to kill the monsters coming from the rifts.

    Not all of them were evil, and some people actually made some kind of positive contact, but that wasn¡¯t really a popular opinion thanks to the media showing the acts of evil entities on the populace.

    I should expect nothing else from the media than catching peoples attentions by making anything even the slightest bit negative, even worse than it actually is, which in this case, they¡¯re demonizing demons, hilarious.

    Right now that¡¯s one of the many problems that I have to deal with right now, and as much as I would like to go on talking more about them, but I¡¯m about to have another problem right now, bugger.

    CRASH.

    There was a very audible thud as I crashed straight into a tree.

    I stayed down lying on the snow for awhile as I was trying to distract myself from feeling the pain coming from my now bleeding nose. My head was spinning a little bit from the impact.

    ¡°Ouch. T-that really... h-hurt...¡± I said as gasped for breath after having the breath knocked right out of me thanks to that tree.

    I could hear somebody yelling out from the distance, I couldn¡¯t really make it out due to the world spinning around really fast and blurry-like.

    I raised my head up a little bit and could see a black figure, they weren¡¯t very tall was what I could tell from where I was. As they got closer, I was feeling myself starting to pass out from the impact; I remember seeing them wearing something like a red winter coat.

    I could make out some words as I felt myself starting to drift into unconsciousness.

    ¡°Hey, are you alright?¡± I tried making their face out but I was already slipping away, I tried to stay awake, but couldn¡¯t. The snow felt really nice and soft against my back and head as I plopped my neck back down.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, bud. I¡¯ll get some help.¡± I could hear them say, and I made out a smile of sorts. Their voice sounded really gentle and soothing, I guess that made me want to fall asleep. The last thing I saw were a set of warm, gentle blue eyes.

    Then I finally blacked out, dammit.

 Chapter 1 | Part 1 | January

    I slowly opened my eyes trying to readjust my eyesight, everything was still really blurry and I could tell I wasn¡¯t still laying down outside on the snow, I¡¯ve been moved indoors and I was laying on a really soft bed. I sat up slowly and winced in pain, apparently I was hit pretty hard in my abdomen. I lifted up my shirt and saw the massive bruise that was deep purple. I also realized I was wrapped up in bandages.

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t look very good.¡± I said to nobody in particular.

    ¡°I¡¯d say!¡±

    I jumped a bit at hearing that familiar voice, I turned in the direction the voice came from; it came from somewhere close the doorway. There I saw the person who must¡¯ve helped me awhile ago. He stood at about 5¡¯6¡± and he had dark brown hair, he was wearing a white shirt with a black emblem that looked familiar, printed on it.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I didn¡¯t mean to startle you or anything. How¡¯re you feeling?¡± He asked in a very softly spoken tone, still as relaxing to listen to as before.

    ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡± He asked again.

    ¡°Huh? What? Oh I just-¡± I got a little embarrassed at how I spaced out just because I was too focused on listening to somebody else¡¯s voice.

    ¡°I¡¯m good, thanks for asking.¡±

    He looked at me a little confused but he ignored it and started walking over to me.

    ¡°Here you go.¡± He held out the folded laundry I didn¡¯t notice that he was holding.

    ¡°They got wet in the snow so I just, uh, cleaned them up for you.¡± He said smiling.

    I was a little confused at what he meant, what got wet in the snow? I took a closer look at what he was holding out, I immediately realized that it was my shirt and coat and scarf, all the stuff that I was wearing awhile ago.

    My face got flustered immediately as I glanced down and realized that I was wearing a hoodie that was obviously not mine.

    I looked up at him ¡°D-did you? Did you change me out of my clothes?¡± I said.

    ¡°Huh. What? Oh uh, yeah, yeah I did.¡± He scratched his head with his free hand and turned his head away from me, he was obviously embarrassed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry though; I didn¡¯t change you out of your pants.¡± Well I guess that was a relief as I looked down and saw my pants still on.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m a licensed nurse so, yeah...¡± He said.

    ¡°Oh. Okay then.¡± I looked around a bit then said. ¡°By the way, where am I?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± He looked back at me and rested the clothes down on the foot of the bed.

    ¡°You¡¯re in my room, in the Winter Lodge.¡± He stated.

    ¡°The Winter Lodge, huh?¡± That was the inn, hotel thing that was placed somewhere near the foot of the mountain. It was pretty expensive though, it was 50 Giletes a night, and that was the cheapest room they got.

    Oh, and by the way, a Gilet is about as much as a three hundred old American dollars. When the world was influenced by the Knights, they changed the means of currency.

    ¡°This place is good, but too pricey for me.¡± I stated. I wasn¡¯t exactly a wealthy person, to be honest I¡¯m pretty broke. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell.

    ¡°You don¡¯t really look like the type of person who is in the richer classes of society, no offense.¡± I just realized how bad that actually sounded.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can understand why. It¡¯s because I have a pretty big job actually, and it pays a lot, but recently it¡¯s become really dangerous.¡± He looked a little distressed.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to-¡± he cut me off before I could finish.

    ¡°No! No, it¡¯s fine, really.¡± He said shaking his hands apologetically.

    I started ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind, but what¡¯s your work?¡± I didn¡¯t want to bother him or make him uncomfortable but the description of his job made me curious, I mean he did mention he was a registered nurse, but he isn¡¯t a nurse, which meant that it was nothing more than a requirement to know medical procedures, and he also mentioned about it becoming more dangerous recently.''

    He looked up at me again and he rubbed his right arm with the other and was obviously not into talking about it.

    ¡°Well maybe- I guess I could tell you-¡± he wasn¡¯t able to finish his sentence because somebody rang the doorbell.

    He turned his head around to the hall ¡°I¡¯ll get it!¡± and he walked hurriedly off.

    Wait, he still didn¡¯t tell me what his job was. Well I guess I¡¯ll have to ask about it again some other day. My attention was pulled away from his work when I saw him walk back into the room with somebody else; the other person was a woman, dressed much like a physician.

    ¡°So how¡¯re you feeling?¡± She asked me.

    ¡°What me? Oh, I¡¯m doing better.¡± I replied to her.

    I could see the ¡°North Side¡± logo on that was printed onto her lab coat¡¯s shoulder. She must¡¯ve been a doctor there. Her red hair caught my eye right away, it was a deep ruby red, and it matched her eyes, which burned a deep scarlet.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, thanks to this guy...¡± She gestured her hands toward the young man standing behind her.

    ¡°... Cammy called me up right away after you had your accident. He did a pretty good job of fixin¡¯ you up; you broke quite a few bones. Also surprisingly enough, even though the impact was mostly focused on your nose and face, neither of those things are broken, I mean geez you didn¡¯t even get a concussion. You¡¯re pretty tough, kid.¡±

    ¡°Lexa, I told you not to call me that!¡± The smaller boy cried out.

    She laughed a bit. ¡°Yeah sure, whatever you say.¡± She said as she waved her hand in a light motion. She walked back over to the front door.

    ¡°I¡¯ll check on you in a bit- uh...¡± She glanced over to me.

    ¡°Daniel.¡± I said.

    ¡°Daniel, I think I¡¯ll call you, Danny. If anything happens, just call me.¡±

    She pulled out a small card and flicked it at me in a skilful manner. It glided slowly over to me, and then landed on my lap. I picked it up and examined it.

    It had the words ¡°North Side Medical Support Team.¡±

    NSMST huh, didn¡¯t think these kind of independent parties still existed. It also had a number located under the name. ¡°500-130-1987¡± I¡¯m going to assume that was the number to her office or something.

    ¡°Oh thanks I-¡± The door slammed closed as I started talking. She already left.

    ¡°... Will.¡± I said as I lowered the card. I sighed.

    I looked over to the door on the right of the bed. That boy, I think the doctor called him Cammy? He came out carrying a small tray carrying some tea over to the bed.

    ¡°Here, I made you some tea.¡± He said handing over a cup to me.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± I accepted the tea and took a sip from it.

    The lad looked at me and asked a little concerned. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay?¡±

    I think he was talking about my injuries because I was pretty much sitting up and moving around quite a bit, even though I look pretty beat up.

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    ¡°I mean you did dislocate your left shoulder, fractured three or four ribs, cracked your pelvis and you got pretty badly lacerated.¡± He said with concern.

    ¡°Wow, I didn¡¯t think I hit that tree that hard.¡± I really didn¡¯t feel any of those things he just mentioned; I was a little sore, but aside from that I couldn¡¯t really feel anything wrong with me.

    He laughed a bit. I smiled a little too just seeing him happy for some reason.

    After laughing we had a little bit of a silent pause. Then he looked up at me and said ¡°Oh, right! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Pyron.¡± He said as he put his hand on his chest. ¡°And you¡¯re Daniel, right?¡± He gestured his hand forward.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me.¡± I remembered that the doctor lady had actually called him Cammy, maybe that was some nickname, but it wasn¡¯t anything close to Pyron.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t that lady, Lexa was it? Call you Cammy?¡± I decided to ask.

    ¡°Haha! Yeah, but no, that¡¯s not my name anymore. My name was changed by requirement when I got my job. Apparently we weren¡¯t allowed to reveal ourselves to anyone else, so we had an identity change.¡±

    ¡°Just call me Pyron.¡± He said in a friendly manner.

    ¡°Pyron it is then.¡±

    I looked out the window and realized it was getting pretty late. I didn¡¯t want to overstay my welcome so I got up from the bed, to which Pyron responded by rushing over to me and held me up a little.

    He seemed pretty surprised.

    ¡°Hey, wait! What do you think you¡¯re doing?!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯m doing fine. I really shouldn¡¯t stay too long; I don¡¯t want to overstay my welcome.¡± I really didn¡¯t, and also I had to go some place tomorrow, and I have to be early. I glanced over to the clock and it read 08¡¯20¡±40.

    ¡°Wait! You should stay a bit longer.¡± He objected. ¡°At least until you¡¯ll have dinner.¡±

    I thought about it for a second. I looked at his blue eyes, this stranger really does care about me for some reason, and I guess it would be rude to refuse having dinner with the person who helped me out, not that I needed it, but I can appreciate it.

    ¡°Fine then, you win.¡± He had the look of success on his face. ¡°But only on one condition.¡± I said.

    He looked at me again looking puzzled.

    ¡°I won¡¯t stay longer than ten.¡± Partially because I had to go somewhere tomorrow, but mostly because I start changing as the night goes on, and it varies on how bad I change every time.

    He pondered on it as he rubbed his chin. He thought about it for a few seconds and then gave me his answer.

    ¡°Deal!¡± He looked cheerful again.

    I laughed at how enthusiastic he was acting, his cheerful nature really was addictive and it was nice to be around him.

    I took my clothes off the bed so I could change.

    ¡°Uhm, do you have anywhere I could go so I can change.¡± I asked him.

    ¡°Oh, you can use that room over then if you like.¡± He gestured for the door on the far right side corner of the room. ¡°I¡¯ll go and check on the food while you change.¡±

    He walked out into the hallways assumingly towards the kitchen, and by food I think he meant that dinner I agreed to having with him which we talked about awhile ago.

    I went for the door that he directed me to awhile ago. I made my way over to it and opened the door. It lead to a bathroom of sort, it was pretty big actually, almost as big as the room I was in awhile ago, in it there was a pretty big bathtub, a new-tech toilet, a pretty big mirror. It looked pretty good actually.

    I freshened up a little bit first, washing my face and taking a closer look at my bandages. There was some blood on it, but not that much.

    I removed the hoodie that I was wearing; it felt pretty soft for a hoodie to be honest. I took the dark shirt from the pile of laundry that I took from the bed earlier. I wore it along with my black hooded jacket, scarf, and my strap belt for all my stuff.

    I walked out the bathroom and went through the same hall that Pyron went through, and it brought me to a pretty high class living room. I was pretty astounded with the stuff that was in here. Everything looked really expensive.

    Then suddenly, I was struck with the most amazing aroma ever.

    I inhaled deeply and followed its source, it seemed to be coming from the kitchen, I went through and I saw Pyron facing the opposite direction towards a counter. He was cooking something that looked pretty fancy on the stove. I walked into the kitchen and found my way to the decent sized table; I took a seat on one of the chairs.

    Pyron turned towards me and then smiled. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just about done with the food.¡±

    I took the pan from the stove and took the food off and set it on a plate. He pulled out two glasses from the cupboard overhead and then set it on the tray along with the food. It looked really good.

    My face flushed red when my stomach made the loudest possible groan it could, I didn¡¯t think I was that hungry. I laughed a little as I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry! I guess I¡¯m pretty hungry after all.¡± I said.

    He just laughed back and set the food onto the table from the tray. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out some kind of juice. I wasn¡¯t paying too much attention to that though.

    He walked back to the table and poured some juice into the glasses, it smelled pretty citrusy; I sniffed at it a bit. I think Pyron noticed because he tilted his head to the side a bit and gave a confused look.

    ¡°It¡¯s just iced tea.¡± He gave another look at me.

    ¡°Huh? Oh, no! Sorry, just old habits.¡± I was raised as a beast for about a year or so after I figured out what I was, I made it training I guess, I didn¡¯t get to be very proper or learn etiquette until after awhile.

    Pyron just nodded. He handed me a glass and then took a seat. We started eating and I we talked a little bit more.

    ¡°So, what do you do?¡± Pyron asked me.

    ¡°What? Me?¡± I didn¡¯t actually have a proper job or anything like that, I didn¡¯t really mind, it isn¡¯t like I actually needed to eat, after all I am an almost-immortal being.

    ¡°No. I haven¡¯t had a good job in so long.¡± I looked down a bit. I didn¡¯t really enjoy my older jobs, but it gave me a sense of purpose, like I was doing something important.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to bring up anything painful-¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not anything like that. I just...¡± I looked for the right words to say. ¡°I guess I just miss it, is all.¡±

    He stared at me for a bit too long, and I felt a little embarrassed again. I looked away from his gaze. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s nothing, I promise.¡± I admit it was a little bit painful, always quitting a job before anything big happened. All the friends I made, all the fun I had.

    My eyes got a little bit teary. I looked down as I wiped the tears away from my eyes.

 Chapter 1 | Part 2

    ¡°I-I¡¯m so sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to-¡±

    ¡°What, no! I shouldn¡¯t have brought it up.¡±

    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t your fault Pyron.¡± My voice started to crack really badly.

    ¡°I-I really am j-just a mess, a c-complete and utter m-mess.¡± I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m crying, I don¡¯t usually feel anything when I talk about my personal life, no matter how sad. Maybe it¡¯s because this time, somebody actually cares about it.

    I started to sob like a child. God, what the hell is wrong with me.

    I felt something wipe my face, it felt like a hand. I opened my eyes and looked up to see Pyron wiping the tears from my face. I could see that gentle look he had in his eyes.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright Daniel. Sometimes things happen and you can¡¯t do anything about it. Don¡¯t worry, I understand, I¡¯ve been there too.¡±

    I don¡¯t know why, but I felt like he really did understand.

    ¡°Thanks Pyron.¡± I smiled as I wiped away my tears.

    The rest of the night went without incident. I slept in the bedroom that I woke up in. Pyron told me ¡°Goodnight¡± as he went into his room to sleep. I took off my coat and placed it on the nightstand. I sat on the bed, legs crossed; I raised my arm and opened my Neuro-syndex. It flashed up with the date and time.

    It read ¡°JAN16-2090 23:42:15¡± in green-coloured projections, I lowered my arm closing the device. It¡¯s pretty late. I should get some sleep. I have to leave early tomorrow, as much as I enjoyed meeting Pyron, I can¡¯t risk being anything important to him, or anyone for that matter. A small part of me wanted to think it¡¯s because I¡¯ll hurt anyone who gets too close, but in reality, it¡¯s because I think that in the end the one who gets hurt most, is me.

    I rested my head on the pillow and slowly closed my eyes. I fell asleep.

    I opened my eyes to a strange place, I was floating in a swirling black-purple void, like outer space, I could see stars shining brightly, I felt so relaxed. I felt something twitch on my back, I looked over my shoulder and saw my feathered dark-purple and black wings, it¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve revealed them to anyone, including myself.

    I closed my eyes feeling the peacefulness, I snapped them open when I sensed a strong force, I twirled around and saw a small chunk of violet ground floating a few metres away from me. On it there was a lady sitting on it, she glowed- more like radiated, a pure white light, and she had a beautiful curling ivory tail- wait, a tail? S-she¡¯s, she¡¯s an angel?!

    Then suddenly something sprouted or flapped open from her back, white leathery wings. She really is an angel. She snapped her head in my direction; I could see the horns that grew from her head.

    Then as if she was right by my ear I could hear her whisper to me:

    ¡°Hello, Daniel.¡±

    I sat up from my bed immediately, snapping myself awake.

    ¡°What was that, a dream?¡± I asked myself. I stood up from bed.

    I looked out the window as I walked towards it; I saw the bright full moon shining through the window. It seemed familiar this feeling.

    ¡°Luna.¡± I said.

    I gave a puzzled look. Who¡¯s Luna? I didn¡¯t know who this person was, but the name sounded familiar, like I had heard it a long time ago, a really, really long time ago. I lifted up my arm and opened up the Syndex on it.

    It blinked ¡°JAN16-2090 03:06:15¡±

    I think it¡¯s time for me to leave. I need to get going. I closed down the device once more and grabbed my coat from the nightstand and put it on. I quietly walked over to the door and turned it slowly, I peered out the door just a little bit, I didn¡¯t see Pyron. I guess this is my chance; I managed to get as far as almost touching the scanner on the door before I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me.

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    ¡°Daniel?¡±

    I turned around to see Pyron giving a cheerless expression. I could tell that he must¡¯ve been hurt by me leaving without saying goodbye, even if we did just meet, we did talk a lot and he did save my life after all.

    I turned to face him, a little startled.

    ¡°Pyron?! I was just-¡±

    ¡°Leaving?¡± He cut me off before I could finish.

    ¡°No! I mean yes! I mean, y-yeah.¡± Why do I feel bad? It isn¡¯t like I¡¯m doing anything wrong; I¡¯m doing what I always do: leave before I cause trouble. If anything I¡¯m actually doing him a favour, but this- this feeling, it... hurts.

    I clutch my chest.

    ¡°I¡¯m really sorry.¡± I say looking down.

    I turn around about to launch myself out of the door, but before I could, I felt something grab my left arm right as I was about to leave, and I heard him cry out.

    ¡°Wait!¡±

    I stopped dead in my tracks. I turned around slowly to face the other lad, it could¡¯ve just been my imagination or the dim lighting, but I could¡¯ve sworn that he looked like he was about to cry.

    ¡°Before you go...¡± He opened up his Syndex and pulled up a data window, he swiped it sideways in my direction and I heard my own Syndex sound out with a boop. I opened it up and saw a data cube which I opened. It was a contact file.

    It read:

    ¡°Name: Pyron C. Sowachowski

    Sex: Male

    Date of Birth: AUG3 2074

    Institute: [Access 5 Required]

    Employment Status: ACTIVE¡±

    I giggled a bit at his last name.

    ¡°Sowachowski?¡± I could control the very audible giggle that I made after mentioning it.

    ¡°What about it?!¡± He said as he turned red up until his face.

    ¡°Hah, does that make your nickname Sock?¡± I held in another laugh with help from both my hands. I snorted.

    He pouted at me, more mad than embarrassed. The laughter had died down after awhile. Pyron came with me to the entrance of the lodge to see me off.

    ¡°E-mail me or something, okay?¡± Pyron stood at the door. I was already standing outside.

    ¡°I will thanks.¡± I smiled.

    ¡°Good.¡± He nodded. ¡°Oh and here¡¯s one last thing before you go.¡± He got something from out of his pocket and tossed it. I caught in with my left hand up in the air. It was an Omni Card, I scanned it on my Syndex and a small window popped up, and my device read it aloud.

    ¡°+500 Gilets have been added to your balance.¡± I practically gagged after hearing that. I composed myself and read it again.

    ¡°500 Gilets?! I can¡¯t, that¡¯s way too much.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t act like you don¡¯t need it. I checked your profile when you first got here, you¡¯re pretty broke. Like really broke.¡± He said in a serious way.

    I guess I was. I would usually just steal and maybe even do some pretty odd jobs, like killing people, infiltrating, spying, piracy, crossing the street without looking both ways, that kind of stuff. The main idea is that I do bad things for money.

    So why would being given money from somebody be so bad. I mean if you remember that I literally take money from others.

    I looked at him with the most sincere face I could attempt to make without looking like I¡¯m faking it. I genuinely felt that he was looking out for me.

    ¡°Thank you, Pyron. I appreciate it.¡±

    I said goodbye one last time before walking through the door. Now back to where I was supposed to get to before this whole thing happened. Ah, yes.

    Ivory Citadel, here I come.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 Chapter 1 | Part 3

    I made my way through the light snow that was falling through the air, I could hear the snow crunch under my steps as I held close to my scarf around my neck; if I remember properly this part of the mountain was pretty dangerous, with all the thieves and wolfbeasts running around.

    Wolfbeasts were one of the first creatures to appear by the rifts, they were still wolves, I guess... but there the thing that makes them pretty terrifying to deal with, is that they¡¯re about five times bigger than a normal wolf, and most attack on sight, unlike wolves who attack if threatened or desperate.

    I remembered back when I first encountered one. I was running an errand for my mentor, I was climbing through the woods and I smelled like food, thanks to my already massive backpack being filled to the brim with it.

    Damn that bastard, using ¡°training¡± as an excuse for child labour. Anyways, I was about eight or so years old when I was doing it, I didn¡¯t really use my powers, or actually couldn¡¯t, I think at most I could do was sense the essence of beings and entities, essences are kind of like auras. And during that time I could literally ¡°smell¡± essences.

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    I trudged my way though the ferns and bushes that were in the way until I could feel a heavy presence in the area, usually I would just be like ¡°Oh there¡¯s something else here. Oh well.¡± But that time, I was terrified, almost paralyzed in fear, probably because deep down, I got a feeling that whatever I just sensed my back. That idea scared me to the bone; I could feel the aggressive malice within that presence, and I could tell it wanted to kill me.

    That though sent me running through the woods, almost sprinting. The backpack was really a really heavy burden; it was almost too heavy for me to run with it. I could feel the thing start closing in on me, so much to the point that I could practically hear it coming closer.

    And then I ended up tripping myself on an open root.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    Like the story so far? Leave me a comment or a review telling me what you thing. Reviewing is love. Also yes, short part, I''ll post more tomorrow.

 Chapter 1 | Part 4

    ¡°Gwah!¡± I ended up tripping flat on my face in the mud. Heart pounding out of fear I turned around out of instinct unsure if I really wanted to see what was chasing me. I looked up and saw two red eyes glaring from the dark slowly walking towards me. I could feel the soul leaving my body at that point.

    I immediately got up and started running again, this time dropping the dead weight attached to my back. I sprinted in the dark, and this time the only difference when I always do this from my usual routine is that this time I am running for my life.

    I could hear the hoarse heavy breathing coming from the beast behind me, it was definitely getting closer, and I had to find a way to lose it. I had to think fast at this rate, I looked around for a way to get away and the only option I had at this point is to run into the woods, like the literal foliage, which in this case was sharp brambles and thorn-coated shrubs and bushes.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± I said to myself as I got up and sprinted through the growing forest flora and I could feel tears forming at my eyes because of the pain I felt as the foreign objects pierced, punctured, and tore through my flesh. I could feel blood running down my arms and legs as I covered my face with my forearms. I could barely see where I was going and I didn¡¯t know where I was going, but at that point I didn¡¯t really care anymore.

    Then right as I saw some kind of opening in the foliage which I thought was the city at the time, I tried to head straight for it then I felt something wrap around my ankle.

    ¡°Argh!¡± I fell down again. This time when I tried getting up, I couldn¡¯t because right in front of me was the thing that was chasing me down. Very large and growling, it slowly revealed itself completely in the bright moonlight, dark coarse fur, emanating a dark aura.

    I could feel my pulse starting to race, I couldn¡¯t think of anything to do, and when I tried to, it already pounced straight for me. Then out of some kind of instinct I raised up my hand in front of me and I yelled out something foreign, something I myself have never heard or said before.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Then immediately I felt some kind of energy surge out from my hands, and made a barrier between me and the beast, and when it hit the barrier it was launched back really far.

    I couldn¡¯t really tell what just happened but I took that chance and this time I ran straight for the city, as I immerged out of the foliage I could see a large white tower from the distance.

    I focused back onto the snow trail and continued walking in the now heavy blizzard. Thinking back to that moment, I think that might have been the first time I actually used Onirigin energy, the source of my powers.

    That day after I got back to my mentor, he told me about the Onirigin. He knew about me being a demon when I was first sent to him. During that time, he also told me what I was; it was my first time finding out.

    Now I am definitely a lot better at using my energy than I was before.

    ¡°Maxima Prominence.¡± I said as I snapped my fingers. Then almost instantly I was surrounded by a thin stream of fire. It got warm pretty quickly as the fire started crawling around my limbs and forming a ring around me.

    As the snow started melting away, and it got a little bit warmer, I was already more or less covered in flames. Also as a demon I can¡¯t burn, as far as I know I am completely fireproof. I still feel heat, but I definitely can¡¯t burn.

    I couldn¡¯t make the flames any hotter or bigger, because I know for a fact nobody normal can actually use magic, at least not the same way that I can. If anyone saw me right now their first reaction would probably be something like-

    ¡°RIFTLING!¡±

    Yeah something like that- wait what?

 Chapter 1 | Part 5

    I looked up to see two men a little over 20 metres away from me; I could see that one of them already drew a great axe and the other a rifle. This will not end well, for them at least.

    I might be a demon but I don¡¯t want to hurt people, or I try to at least. I could see the one with the rifle was already aiming straight at me. The other one was just charging for me, he was getting pretty close.

    I don¡¯t think I could really explain my way out of this now, I have to act. I took my stance on and focused the flames into a massive orb and launched it at one with the axe, he was wearing a great paladin¡¯s armour, and I guess he might be part of the Holy Order.

    I smiled. No holding back at this point I guess. I put my focus into the ball and said aloud.

    ¡°Aerom Firra!¡± I hurled the massive fireball at the man. And I could tell he¡¯d probably get burnt to ashes, or get severely burned, if he¡¯s lucky I mean. Then right as it about to hit him. He swung his weapon down in the middle of the ball and split it in half, dispersing shortly after.

    I winced. Should have guessed his weapon is blessed. Then right as I was about to do something else, the other one took a shot at me. I was slightly caught off guard so the bullet managed to scrape past my cheek.

    ¡°Ow.¡± I said under my breath. I could sense him already reloading aiming back at me. A loud bang rang out and the bullet went right for me. I guess I couldn¡¯t move fast enough to dodge it, but I could still use Onigirin.

    I said the words ¡°Ultima Aegis.¡± Right after I said that an invisible barrier had formed before my face and the bullet collided with it, sending out bright sparks of lightning, completely blocking the bullet in the air.

    Then a second later after freezing in the air, it dropped into the snow covered ground. I countered him immediately summoning a blue bolt of energy into my left hand and shooting it out, aiming for the rifle.

    It zapped through the air and cutting through the snow it blasted the rifle apart. The man was also caught in the shockwave and was launched back into the white background.

    The other one was about ten feet before me and swung his massive axe and with my free hand I focused a pulse into my entire arm and blocked it, as I held the pose in the air, I know I can¡¯t hold this position for very long, aside from still being pretty injured, that weapon is blessed.

    It could break through magic and dark things pretty easily, but then again, I¡¯m not just some rift beast. Giving a loud scream I pushed the weapon back, the man recoiled and positioned it again.

    ¡°You monsters really don¡¯t know when to give up do you?¡± He said in a very grimacing tone. He lifted the massive object again and swung it sideways, but he is pretty slow, I managed to jump back.

    Then once I was out of range again, I motioned my hand for the ground where the other person stood.

    I whispered the word ¡°Bind.¡±

    Then right after I said that, a magic circle appeared on the ground, glowing red. I raised my hand opened my palm facing the man. Then the circle changed, and now glowed a dark colour, and then black tendril-like shadows had wrapped around the man¡¯s limbs and torso, restraining him as they pulled him downwards.

    He dropped his axe and yelled out in discomfort. The shadows started to materialize into massive steel chains. The paladin was brought down to his knees as he tried to resist the bindings.

    I took this opportunity to wipe him out. I closed my eyes again as I began focusing my energy into my hands, I opened my eyes and saw the massive forming sphere of energy in my palms, it was glowing a dark blue and had bolts sparking around it.

    With a burst of energy I took the orb and launched it forward as hard as I could focus on it. It bolted out of my hands and struck the man in the torso. After a second the man stood there.

    He seemed to have had the air knocked out of him, as he muttered under his breath. ¡°Damn you...¡± he let out a gasp and fell onto the ground. He looked pretty worn out, I¡¯m sure I didn¡¯t actually kill him. I think.

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    I crouched down on the ground a bit and listened. I heard very light breathing; I think he¡¯ll be fine. Just to make sure I kept him restrained so that he won¡¯t follow me.

    I walked over to where the other person was and looked for him. I saw the other man out cold on the snow, he looked fine, but I don¡¯t think he¡¯s getting up anytime soon. I wouldn¡¯t bother with him; he doesn¡¯t have a weapon anymore anyways.

    I left them there as I walked back on the trail leading to the city. I could tell that there wasn¡¯t much reason to kill these people, sure they¡¯re a pest, but I can¡¯t just kill people whenever I see fit. I put heat circles on them so they won¡¯t freeze to death before they come through.

    I trudged my way thought the blizzard again. I think that maybe I should tone it down a bit with the magic, that¡¯s probably a good idea, unless I want every single person to attack me on my way to the Citadel.

    I just can¡¯t catch a break can I? I sighed to myself; I could never really understand why people had to be so rude, wait no- that¡¯s not the word, racist maybe? Yeah that¡¯s probably it.

    Yeah I¡¯m a demon, so what? With the things people do nowadays you should call them devils. I guess I shouldn¡¯t judge either, I get where they¡¯re coming from I guess.

    As I walked further in the winter blizzard I started to see a clearing and some lights coming from the direction I was walking towards. The Old fashioned buildings reminded me of the town that was out here, Frost Valley.

    It was the town where my Inn was located, pretty cheap, but decent enough for me to be living there, around 5 Giletes for their middle class room. At least here I wouldn¡¯t be broke.

    This place had pretty decent rooms, comfy beds, warm, and it wasn¡¯t pricey, bearable for now I guess. After I had travelled all the way here from my original hometown, I¡¯ve been moving ever since I heard rumours about the structure hiding rituals and other magic happenings.

    After awhile I¡¯m back here, I left because I needed to scout out the entire area from the peak of Mount Neverspring, and from what I could tell; it looks like the Order is sending in some troops and Prodigies, or elite soldiers. This was confirmed when I had ended up encountering one of them at the top.

    That Paladin was really something though, he was tough, much tougher than any soldier I¡¯ve fought so far. It¡¯s been about a year since I fought somebody that strong. Before me was the trail entrance leading to the small town and I ventured inwards, what I saw definitely told me that I needed to move to a different town as soon as I could. There were at least 3 Knights standing close to the church, patrolling the area, even If I didn¡¯t use magic, it wasn¡¯t safe.

    I couldn¡¯t go back at this point because they were too close to me. If I did something like that I would probably be very suspicious, and that would only make things a whole lot worse than the situation already was.

    I tried to look inconspicuous as I went toward the inn, walking past them before I felt one of them look at me after noticing me, and then right after that he called me out. I think I just made a big mistake.

    ¡°Hey! You, what are you doing out so early?¡± He said in a very aggressive tone. I didn¡¯t turn around. He stood there and I could feel his buddies walking towards me. I don¡¯t think I can get out of this.

    Crap, what do I do, I can¡¯t turn around, they¡¯ll notice the soot from my face and that I¡¯m hurt, obviously meaning I¡¯ve just recently been in a fight of some sort, and that alone is already a problem in and on itself.

    I can just act like I wasn¡¯t doing anything, and say that I forgot about the curfew, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work if they come any closer. Knights have been trained to sense any form of magic, even if they don¡¯t approach me, it¡¯s only a matter of time before my aura is revealed due to all of those enchanted holy weapons and armour they¡¯re wearing. They¡¯re getting really crafty these days, the Order I mean.

    This is going to be some trouble, and I hope I won¡¯t have to do what I do.

 Chapter 1 | Part 6

    I didn¡¯t want to take my chances so I started casting a memory wipe charm with my hand. I¡¯m not sure if it will work, but at this point it is definitely worth a shot. With a small motion I turned around and waved my hand in their direction.

    A very visible bolt of energy shot out of my hand and detonated into a large area of aura that clouded the group. They jumped back in surprise and the first guy yelled out immediately.

    ¡°What the hell is this?!¡± They looked like they were about to attack me as they prepared themselves and were about to draw their weapons, but before they could they had started to cough and they fell to their knees and hands.

    ¡°You! What- what is this?!¡± He stuttered out as he fell to the ground on his hands until he had gave out and collapsed. They all did the same. Hopefully nobody heard all the noise they were making. I had to hide the unconscious bodies now before anyone could realize what just happened.

    After about ten minutes or so of dragging their bodies into my room, I laid them out on my bed and in the living room on the couches and comfy seat. I didn¡¯t really want to hurt them. Or more accurately, I didn¡¯t allow myself to.

    I took off their gear because they couldn¡¯t really fit in this room or on the furniture while they wore them. I took of their helms and shoulder gear, the chest plates, and greaves. I also took my time taking the gear and weapons outside to have them destroyed, every little bit of damage counts at this point.

    I piled them out on the roof of the inn and held a hand over the pile, then closed my eyes and chanted out a few words.

    ¡°Dexcibution Desancti Guilero.¡± Which the gear started to simultaneously combust and melt away into nothing, I also didn¡¯t want to waste all the holy energy, even if I couldn¡¯t directly use it, I could still convert it into something I could use.

    With the second word of my incantation, Desancti, I had corrupted the entire aura from the equipment into Onirigin, which I then absorbed. Now that the gear was no more, and the threat was neutralized, I went back inside and gathered my stuff, which wasn¡¯t much, but it was still important.

    The only thing I had to bring with me this entire trip is my weapon, food probably, my pan flute, and some spellstones. I travel really light, light enough that I won¡¯t have to carry a bag around. And even if I did have more stuff I didn¡¯t need to keep it as luggage that I would drag around everywhere.

    I had magic for that. Well moving on, I went into the closet of my room and rummage through that stuff that wasn¡¯t mine, and I found a gleaming ebony-coloured material, this was it. I grabbed it and pulled it out of the storage. The object was big and heavy, as it came into the light, it shone very polished and sharp like, my weapon, the Scythe of Death.

    It was found with me when I first came into this plane of existence, and I had only until recently have it given to me. I have yet to know how to use it or know how its power works, but I sort of found out how it works at some point, after all I was the only one who is able to wield it because if any other person would try to, they would have their souls taken into the scythe.

    I learned that the hard way.

    Next was my pan flute. No, there isn¡¯t anything special about it. It really is just an ordinary pan flute. It was made from ¡°150% pure wood!¡± as the guy selling it described it when I was looking for stuff through the Black Bazaar a year ago.

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    I figured that I might as well try to find something else I¡¯m good at, and that decision ultimately left with to deal with learning how to play an instrument of some kind.

    After picking up about every single instrument in the entire vicinity of the area, as well as trying to play them all lead me to realize that I could play just about every single one of them. But it didn¡¯t feel right, you know?

    I could completely harmonize with everything, but I just couldn¡¯t choose anything. The Bass was one of my favourites, and one of the easiest for me to play, and the violin I had picked up and learned about five symphonies with ease, but they lacked something, I¡¯m not sure what, but I knew what instrument had it when I started playing it. That instrument was the pan flute.

    It hard times or when there¡¯s a problem, it helps me think and relax through playing it. Well enough about that, I have to focus on grabbing everything I need before I leave.

    What else did I need again? Oh right! A couple spellstones would probably help. Basically small enchanted shards of energy that is held together by a person¡¯s will and the magic of runes laced around the entire thing. You can cast a spell into the stone and seal it for later use, so that when you will have to activate it you don¡¯t use up any aura or energy, basically a free spell in a stone.

    Pretty self explanatory, all of these things were pretty much essential for anything, I wouldn¡¯t be caught without them. Leaving them here in the room is an exception though. I can¡¯t scout out the area and be seen carrying those things around.

    The spellstones alone were already enough to land me enough strikes to get the death penalty, or worse. But I would rather not try to think about those kinds of things, for now getting out of here should be my first priority.

    As I grabbed my stuff and stuffed the stones and rations into my belt pouch, I turned away from my closet after I sensed something moving around behind me. Right as I caught sight of the moving figure, I got jabbed in the face.

    I staggered backwards, more from surprise than pain. I tried to process what had just happened, and it all came down the realization that one of the guards that I brought into my room awhile ago managed to wake up.

    I held my nose as I tried to react to this situation, but before I could I was already knocked down and was being pinned onto the ground. And there was a large figure that was right on top of me. I couldn¡¯t make their face completely but I could vaguely make out a stubbly beard and some deep hazel red eyes. That fixed expression had me completely frozen.

    I could feel him breathing on me as he held me down with his elbow, pinning my neck to the ground and held me there, he was kinda strong. I could feel his weight bearing down on me a little.

    ¡°You better give me a good reason on why I shouldn¡¯t kill you right now.¡± He said in a deep and husky voice.

    Maybe I think I can talk my way out of this, at least I hope I can.

 Chapter 1 | Part 7

    I didn¡¯t answer the man, or better said, I didn¡¯t know what to say;

    ¡®Oh nothing, I just thought we could laugh it over some drink over at the local pub so you can completely ignore the fact that I am a spawn from hell that potentially has enough power to completely wipe this city under the right circumstances.¡¯

    Didn¡¯t really sound like a very wise thing to say. But don¡¯t take this the wrong way. I don¡¯t think this guy, regardless of how strong that he thinks he is, but there is no chance of him being able to defeat me, gear or no gear.

    I just have to think of a way to diffuse this situation without killing him, or seriously maiming him to the point of him dying. I will admit now that is easier said than done.

    I could feel his pressure on me was firm, but there was something else. He wasn¡¯t putting enough force or weight to hurt me, which was saying something. If he was really serious about killing me, he would have made it painfully clear by now, but he wasn¡¯t.

    He was being gentle with me.

    I stared up and looked at him. He had a much softer expression than when he originally pinned me down, and he wasn¡¯t putting much force into his actions either. Something changed just now and I couldn¡¯t figure out what it was.

    He must have noticed the way I was staring at him. He turned away and sneered, I thought I could see him blushing for a moment. He said in an aggressive tone as he looked at me again.

    ¡°Do you think this is a game?! You¡¯re in some serious trouble right now, you know that? Unless you explain yourself, I really might have to kill you.¡±

    There was a slight seriousness to those words, and I guess either way, I¡¯m going to have to take him down. And just as I thought about that, I kicked my legs up aiming for his gut. He staggered in pain as he lost his handle and fell off of me, gasping for air. He held is abdominal area in pain.

    I jumped back behind him a few feet away and took a stance. I started thinking of a plan to be able to down this guy.

    ¡°Why you!¡± He got up and swung his leg around to hit me, I managed to block it just in time with my left arm. He is strong, I will give him that. I got pushed just a little bit to the right with that blow. As I was about to counter it he had already flipped around and was facing me, he took another strike by doing a full roundhouse kick with his right leg, striking the opposite side of where he originally struck me.

    ¡°Argh! I felt that one...¡±

    I said in a low muttered voice, as I backed up a few steps. He isn¡¯t holding back anymore, I can tell he is fighting me at close to full power now. That might be bad if he tried taking me down when I¡¯m not prepared.

    I took another stance, this time I started charging up power to my body to bolster my defence and also my offence. This is going to get serious really soon, he was getting serious as well. His presence was on full attack right now and he didn¡¯t have any plans of letting me leave.

    I could tell now he isn¡¯t just some ordinary guard, he might be a captain or a specialist. Either way, it isn¡¯t going to go well for me. But I do have all the things I need to move on to the next capital. I could just leave right now, wait- no, I can¡¯t leave yet, this inn has my records, he¡¯ll find out who I am. Looks like I have no choice but to take him down and wipe my records.

    ¡°Give it up kid, you can¡¯t take me out. Just come quietly and maybe I¡¯ll find a way to lighten your punishment a bit.¡± He said with cocky smirk, clich¨¦.

    ¡°No thanks, I prefer freedom.¡± I said as I dashed forward and struck him in the face with my right fist. I immediately took another shot as I brought up my left foot as it made contact with his arm when he blocked it.

    As I was fighting him, I was surprised at how well he took my attacks, especially when I got that clean hit to his face. That was a full powered blast attack in the form of a fist. There was no way he would have known how to block it, the only way he would have known how, is if he was a-

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.I couldn¡¯t finish that thought as I took a fist to the nose. I countered it by raising his fist up and pulling it over my shoulder in plan to flip him over. As I did so he countered my counter-attack by pulling my left foot backwards, toppling me forward. I thought that was a little dumb though, as he fell with me because I still had a firm grip on his arm.

    We both fell over, but I hit the floor, with my face. I lost my grip on his arm during the impact of my face with the marble ground occurred. As I laid there on my belly, trying to get up as I regain my composure. But as I did so, I could feel the larger man on top of me now, in the same position as me more or less.

    From that hard knock on the back of my head just a second ago, it felt like he accidentally struck his chin on the back of my head. Albeit it hurt a lot more for him, than it did for me.

    I couldn¡¯t really move from this position at all in this point of time. Not unless this lug could get off me, again. I tried to prop myself up from the ground, but this guy was really, really heavy.

    As I tried to recover from the fall, he pinned me down again, this time he held down both of my arms with his hands. He leaned in awfully close this time and said right by my ear.

    ¡°I told you already, you can¡¯t beat me that easily.¡± I could feel that warm breath on the back of my neck. I blushed a little bit as he did that, and this was getting really awkward really fast. I could feel my face starting to heat up because of this idiot.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Lost yer¡¯ fight already?¡± He said with a very lewd sounding tone.

    Oh lord, and I that pirate-esque accent, this is not the way I wanted this to go, I really don¡¯t want to do anything I wouldn¡¯t do right now. Dammit, I¡¯ll have to end this quick. I focused the aura into my hands.

    I am it upward and uttered out some words.

    ¡°Lumen Mentim!¡±

    And as I said that, a large flash of light was emitted from my hands and a wave of energy was blasted out like a shockwave. I sent the guy flying off into the edge of the room. A loud thud was heard as he hit the concrete-wooden wall. Right then I heard a beep of some sort, like a small device going off, I couldn¡¯t really tell what it was right now, but I had to focus at the task at hand.

    I went over to him raised my hand again. ¡°Animus Disrupto.¡±

    ¡°What? What are you doing-¡± He said as he dropped unconscious, that should be enough to keep him out long enough for me to disappear. I went downstairs and went over to the lady running the service desk.

    It looks like I¡¯m going to have to use that charm again.

    A few hours after I left the inn and wiped everything related to me from the records and from my room. Someone woke up in my room, and they remembered everything.

    ¡°Argh, that was really disorienting, but at least it worked.¡± He pulled out a blue talisman that was obviously broken now, as he got up and rubbed his head. These anti-magic lifeline charms really do work, pricey or not, it¡¯s worth it I guess.

    He looked at the massive crack dead in the centre of the talisman. He made a disappointed face and looked a little down. Letting out a annoyed sigh and closing his eyes, he took his index finger and thumb and held the bridge of his nose, rubbing it.

    ¡°But by the looks of it, I¡¯ll be needin¡¯ a new one. But it isn¡¯t all bad I guess.¡± He pulled up his wrist and waved his hand over a small black, bracer like object. A small cube popped up and he tapped it.

    Then out of the cube came a picture of my face and a profile and resume, as well as a short biography. He grinned and enlarged the image that was on his Syndex. He laughed and said very grimly.

    ¡°It looks like we¡¯ll be meeting again real soon, demon boy.¡±

    He stood by the window and looked outside at the early morning sunrise, as he tossed that digital data cube around in his hand, anticipation already seeping into his head at the thought of finding me again.

    I guess now I have one more problem to worry about don¡¯t I?

 Chapter 1 | Part 8

    After travelling for about five hours now, I was starting to feel pretty exhausted. Before I collapsed I managed to find a secluded pub in the outskirts of the next city I was headed towards, Hollow Lyche.

    I thought it might be too convenient for something like this to be all the way out here, but the exhaustion managed to push me enough to have me venture inside the establishment. The outside seemed a little plain, but the glowing sign by the entrance made it stand out a lot. The sign read ¡°The Beast Den¡±; it looks pretty new so I can¡¯t really judge it by how it looks. I decided that I might as well go in for a drink.

    I mean nothing could go wrong from getting a drink, right? Well I hope so anyways, if I see any knights or hunters I think it would be best to leave immediately, I¡¯ll have to keep low profile if I don¡¯t want to run into any trouble. More trouble that is, I don¡¯t think I have the power or the patience to incapacitate every single knight on the way, all the way going to the Citadel. I walked into the building and already noticed that it was really chatty on the inside, bustling customers were having conversations, the bartender seemed pretty nonchalant and lacked a bit of expression but still looked pretty content with his work, the waiters were walking around and delivering orders in a fashionable manner, and the atmosphere was almost completely different from the outside.

    That helped ease me the slightest bit. If other people can relax here I can too probably. It seems that there are a lot of people here right now, but it isn¡¯t crowded. A lot of these customers seem to not be from this region, maybe abroad or travelling? That helps me because that means I won¡¯t be too out of place.

    I walked up to the front of the bar counter and took a seat. The bartender was already making other people drinks but he still managed to give me a glance and smiled a bit while serving other patrons.

    ¡°And what¡¯ll you be having?¡± That question seemed awfully innocent, but I guess I just wasn¡¯t that used to having positive responses recently.

    ¡°I think I¡¯ll just have a whiskey please.¡± I didn¡¯t plan on getting wasted just yet, not here at least, I just needed a little break from walking. I looked up at the guy who was wearing a small top hat and a bowtie that seemed to match his black vest and white undershirt. He gave a small nod and picked up a bottle behind him.

    ¡°Right away.¡± As he did that though something ticked me off a bit. It wasn¡¯t like there were any knights in the area, nobody is trying to kill me, and everything seems fine. So why did I sense the slightest bit of magic just now, it was really subtle and it didn¡¯t seem like anything happened, so that made me suspicious just the slightest bit.

    I waited a bit trying to sense what the source of the magic was, and where it was coming from, but right as I did so suddenly it stopped. They must have noticed that I could feel the energy and stopped whatever they were doing.

    This didn¡¯t feel right so I had the feeling that I should leave now. I looked around again inconspicuously and made sure that nobody was watching. The chatter of the other patrons filled the room and I didn¡¯t get much out of that.

    ¡°Here you go.¡± My attention was pulled back to the man wearing that fancy waiter outfit. He slid the drink down the counter in a very cool manner. I don¡¯t think I should say that out loud.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± I picked up the glass and downed it, as I did I noticed it tasted different, not bad different, it was pretty good actually, almost fancy even. I think this was a really high class brand, it might cost a lot. I looked over to the bartender who was facing my direction, with a satisfied look while his eyes were closed. That made me feel a bit happier. I think I heard a content ¡°Hmph¡± coming from him.

    But then I remembered that I had to get out of here though, so I spoke up to pay for it. I stood from my seat and walked over to the front of the counter where directly behind it the server stood.

    ¡°Uh, thanks... um, how much did that cost?¡± I wasn¡¯t really accustomed talking with people that I didn¡¯t know.  I looked away shyly because of my social awkwardness when it came to engaging in ordinary conversation with strangers. It is an absolute nightmare, I will say that now.

    He spoke up after giving another soft sigh. ¡°It¡¯s on the house.¡±

    What? I looked up a bit confused and saw that same soft smile he had, this guy¡¯s calm disposition is starting to distract me a whole lot. I answered back again after trying to process what he just said to me.

    ¡°What? I can¡¯t just not pay for it, I mean I can¡¯t just-¡± He cut me off before I could finish.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. This is your first time coming in here right? You can consider that as a welcoming gift for your first time inside the Den.¡± He said in a soft spoken tone, it was really calming listening to him.

    Ah dammit, there I go again getting lost in the voices of people I just met. I realized that I spent a whole bunch of time talking to this guy, when I should in fact have left a couple of minutes ago.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ¡°Uh, um- t-thanks mister-¡± He spoke up as I said that.

    ¡°Please, call me Ryan.¡± He smiled at me.

    ¡°Oh, um thanks, Mister Ryan. I really appreciate the thought.¡± I said sheepishly. Oh my lord what the actual hell is wrong with me, I swear this is another reason why I can¡¯t have any friends. Completing my social link must be a complete and utter nightmare.

    ¡°Just Ryan is fine. You should come back for another drink sometime. Here, you should take this.¡± He opened his palm and a small holograph of a card came up and he flicked it over to me.

    The device on my wrist had sounded out and flashed an alert, notifying me of a message, I pulled it up and a small picture with a caption popped up. ¡®The Beast Den¡¯ ¡®A place for all monsters.¡¯ It also came with a contact number and a digi-map. I think I¡¯ll consider going back here at sometime.

    ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll think about it.¡± As I started to go on my way back to the entrance, I felt someone grab my wrist and held on, hard. I panicked a bit, because for some reason, they managed to do so without me sensing them get close to me prior.

    I turned back around preparing a stone to activate in case I needed to, and as I did I came face to face with a girl a little shorter than I was, she had pure white hair and her eyes were a deep pink, she was also dressed a little strangely wearing an all white outfit, with a familiar looking emblem on the front of her garments.

    She looked curiously at me and the words the words that came from her didn¡¯t match the way that she said them in such an innocent sounding tone. I couldn¡¯t focus on what she said right away but I managed to understand exactly what she said.

    ¡°Are- are you a demon?¡± Her innocent look cut straight through me.

    What the hell is going on? How did she know that I¡¯m a demon? How did she manage to grab hold of me without noticing? What¡¯s up with the outfit she¡¯s wearing? And where did I see that symbol before? I could feel the heat rise up to my head as I could feel the panic rushing through me. Did the knights find me? I didn¡¯t have time to find out as I broke free of her grasp and rushed through the other patrons inside to get to the entrance.

    I bumped into a lot of people. I couldn¡¯t even imagine what might happen to me of those holy idiots manage to get a hold of me. I shook the thought from my head and kept running.

    ¡°Hey! Wait up! I need to talk to you!¡± The girl was still following me and I had the feeling that I needed to lose her quick. I managed to get to the entrance and I pushed through the doors but as I did I could feel another presence waiting outside, a familiar one to be exact. As I got to the outside I really wish that I hadn¡¯t. Outside standing in the snow waiting for me was a figure with brown hair, and he was wearing a dark cloak and denim-leather belt straps on his arm and legs, also on his waist. All of the belts loaded with hunting tools and various weapons.

    ¡°Well it looks like I¡¯ve fin¡¯lly found yah lad.¡± I immediately recognised that familiar smug-sounding pirate accent. I realized that it was the guy I wiped a few hours ago. But that¡¯s impossible, I removed all evidence of my being there at the inn, there¡¯s no way he could have found me.

    He must have noticed the surprised and confused look on my face as he took something out of his pocket and tossed it over to me. I caught it and took a look at the thing I was holding. It looked like a medallion or amulet with a massive crack in the middle of it. I gave a bit of a shocked reaction as I realized what he just tossed over to me.

    ¡°You must be pretty strong to break one of them magic trinkets, and still manage to knock me out as well. I guess I really must have underestimated you, but no less, I will take you in, demon boy.¡± He said as he pulled out a curved dagger from his sheath on his leg. It was enchanted, it was pretty obvious.

    I really didn¡¯t want to do this right now, so I pulled out a clack diamond-shaped stone from my belt pouch and activated it, the runes started glowing on the shining stone and I received a massive energy boost which I focused into a projectile, and whether he¡¯s still using another amulet or not, this should be able to take care of him. A massive energy pulsating magic circle started to form around my palm. Then right as I could feel the power peaking, I blasted it out aiming straight for the hunter. I could see that he didn¡¯t have enough time to dodge, but he did say something loud enough for me to hear.

    He screamed out the words ¡°Aegis primum!¡± And a light magic barrier had appeared before him as he raised his arms in front of him in a defensive position.

    Oh fuck. That¡¯s really bad.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Comments are much appreciated.

 Chapter 1 | Part 9

    Moments after the hunter had produced the magical barrier which he took cover behind during the moment that I had engaged him outside of the establishment, after which I had produced a large sphere of energy which had the power of a mini nuclear strike which was detonated into a small condensed radius.

    Basically what I mean is it was a really big explosion. That wouldn¡¯t have bothered me one bit because it only detonates in small area all the while maintaining its condensed amounts of power. But the moment when the hunter slash pirate slash idiot used that basic spell, I panicked a little.

    The main reason behind that is because when he went ahead and did so he could have potentially reflected about half of the power that was directed at him, back at me. Some kind of principle is at work here. I think that just like you would be able to block swords and bullets using a sturdy metal shield but is vulnerable to lightning and fire magic, would work the same way as being able to block magic blast and energy projectiles using a magic shield, but it would be vulnerable to the effects of direct melee or physical attacks.

    There are some variations and exceptions to that rule depending on what kind of shield you are using, as well as what the characteristics and properties of that shield are. A good example was that time when I blasted that paladin back at the top of mount Neverspring, when he managed to dissipate my fireball with his massive axe (which I will consider as a shield for now, even though technically he parried my attack) because the axe itself was blessed and so was effective even against magic attacks. And the other example can be when the Rifleman took the long shot with his gun and I managed to completely block it with a high level barrier, and thus can be used to block physical attacks more efficiently.

    And now thanks to that hunter, he managed to defend himself and rebounded some of the energy back at me, and since I wasn¡¯t prepared that time I couldn¡¯t block it. Who would have thought that a hunter taking a freelance job under a holy order of knights that use blessed equipment and everything, to know how to use a spell that needs dark energy, not me apparently.

    Now that I¡¯m done explaining all of the technicalities and whatnot, where was I?

    Oh, I remember now. I exploded.

    The massive blast of energy wasn¡¯t enough to cause significant destruction to the surrounding environment but it was able to do a significant amount to any living thing in the vicinity of the detonation. As I knew what was about to happen then, I just closed my eyes seeing that I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything else as the shockwave reached me, I got blasted back and fell unconscious.

    I felt my consciousness returning to me as I slowly opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling, which obviously meant that I was inside right now, and that also means that someone brought me inside. I was lying down in a really comfy bed right now, like really comfy.

    I tried to take in the surrounding area in hopes of figuring out where I was but when I tried to sit up I felt an absurd amount of pain in my back and my chest, and also a little bit in my left arm and both of my legs.

    This was telling me that I sustained a very significant amount of damage from the spell. I closed my eyes for a bit and sighed. Where am I? Did I get captured? If I did who knows what might happen to me now. I will probably end up dead, or worse they¡¯ll torture me and take me apart bit by bit while I¡¯m still alive just to see how I ¡°work¡±. I cringed at that disturbing thought.

    As I was resting and trying to compose my thoughts, I had a weird feeling that someone was here. I opened my eyes only to find myself face to face with a pair of pink eyes looking down straight at me just a few inches from my face. I got startled by this and jumped up in my bed screaming.

    Meanwhile I must have surprised the girl with my sudden reaction and she fell backwards landing on the floor, all the while screaming.

    As I bolted upright into a sitting position on the bed, I had completely forgotten about me being seriously injured at the moment, and I immediately recoiled and then grabbed my arm, crying out in pain. After all that, I propped myself up on the bed using my arms. I groaned in pain, and I¡¯m pretty sure that I pulled something just then. Magic on the receiving end really is something to behold.

    While I was sitting up, I took a look around the room. It looked pretty not prison-like so I¡¯ll assume that this isn¡¯t some containment facility designed to hold me. The decent looking furniture inside the room was actually very nicely designed and looked comfortable, everything was mostly coloured black and white, with a bit of red here and there. There was also a large holo-monitor on the wall which was probably costs a lot.

    I shifted my attention back over at the white-haired girl lying on the floor. She had a pouty face and rubbed her head in pain I assume. We had a grumpy staring contest for about ten seconds before she spoke up from her growl.

    ¡°What was that for?! That hurt you big meanie!¡± she snapped at me.

    ¡°What do you mean?! You fell off on your own, you idiot!¡± I retorted to her, and then I immediately felt the pain in my body start acting up again from the sudden movements. I winced in pain again as I held my arm.

    ¡°Yeah well, uh, you¡¯re rude for yelling in my face!¡±

    ¡°Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have yelled at you if you weren¡¯t right next to my face!¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean that you should kick me off the bed!¡±

    ¡°Again, you fell off on your own!¡± my god there is no arguing with this kid is there? I looked around again as I tried to sit on the edge of the bed. I looked over at the girl and asked her a question.

    ¡°Uh what- what happened?¡±

    ¡°You got knocked out silly. Me and Mr. Ryan carried you back to the den and then he asked me to heal your wounds.¡± She said playfully as she stood up a little too excited.

    ¡°Mr. Ryan and I.¡± That was the first thing that came out of my mouth for some reason.

    ¡°What?¡± she said curiously as she held put a finger to her chin.

    ¡°Never mind, you said awhile ago that you healed me?¡± I really need to focus on what I¡¯m talking about.

    ¡°Yep, I sure did! After we carried you back here you were bleeding a lot and broke a whole bunch of bones!¡± she exclaimed in a very enthusiastic matter, and oddly enough that didn¡¯t really make me feel any better.

    I tried getting up from the bed really slowly and staggered just a little when I found my balance to stand. I noticed that I was covered in bandages again, and I¡¯m not really bothered by it, or I wouldn¡¯t have been bothered by it up until the point that I had realized that I had been completely changed out of my clothes. I wasn¡¯t even wearing the same underwear as before.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Hey wait, Mr. Ryan said that you aren¡¯t supposed to get out of bed yet!¡± She sounded a bit concerned as she gave a face to match the way she said it.

    ¡°Y-yeah, don¡¯t w-worry about me, I¡¯m fine. Uh h-hey, did- did you change me out of my c-clothes?¡± I could feel the heat rush to my head again and I couldn¡¯t really shake out the stutter from my nervous voice.

    She gave a very confused sounding ¡°Hm?¡± as she tilted her head to the side in a really childish manner. She closed her eyes for a short while before pointing her finger up exclaiming a very excited ¡°Ah!¡±

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t me. I¡¯m pretty sure that Mr. Ryan changed you after I healed up your injuries. I just washed your stuff!¡± She smiled again.

    Just the thought of being undressed by that guy already left me sweating nervously. But this situation seemed awfully familiar and I can¡¯t really remember why.

    I walked over to the girl in a really slow and crippled manner. Then I asked her for my clothes back, I still have a place I need to get to and I¡¯ve already wasted much time getting knocked unconscious like an Idiot.

    I glanced at my Neuro-syndex to check on how many hours I¡¯ve been out. I waved my hand over it and it flashed up showing the date and time. JAN17-2090 05:11:41 was the small combination of numbers and letters popped up. I turned off the device after estimating how long I¡¯ve been unconscious. It¡¯s already been a good 4 hours or so, and I¡¯m not even halfway to the capital yet.

    Anyways, after I asked the girl to give me my stuff back, she gave a happy nod and started walking to the door asking me to follow her to go get it.

    She pushed the door of the room open and started to bounce happily along the polished ivory floor, giving a light tap sound each time she took a step. As we started walking outside, I realized that I still had some questions that she needed to answer. But before I got the chance to do so she already piped up. She faced my direction without stopping her gleeful galloping along the hall.

    ¡°So what¡¯s your name?¡± she gave a cheerful look.

    ¡°I think I should be the one asking that.¡±

    ¡°Shiro!¡± she said as she raised her arms up in the air excitedly.

    ¡°What.¡±

    She faced forward again with the unnecessary strut of hers.

    ¡°That¡¯s my name. Shiro!¡± she repeated exclaiming her name as she raised her arms up again. She glanced over her shoulder with an innocent look and smiled at me.

    ¡°Now it¡¯s your turn to tell me your name.¡± She giggled a bit. Her happiness is starting to irritate me just the slightest. I considered lying to her and that I would tell her a different name. I don¡¯t think that I should go ahead placing my trust in people I just met.

    Yeah, that¡¯s what I¡¯ll do. I can¡¯t just trust anybody no matter how cute they- I mean persuasive. Not cute, no, definitely not cute. Honestly what¡¯s gotten into me, and as I shook the thoughts from my gaze shifted back to the girl staring at me cutely. I mean curiously, yeah, that¡¯s what I meant.

    ¡°So what¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Oh, it¡¯s Daniel.¡±

    Insert internal face-palm here. What did I just say?! Why did I just give her my real name, really, I can¡¯t believe it. This is it. This is how I die in life. I might as well get killed now if I just give away sensitive information to strangers. I have the strangest feeling that I already did that though. I¡¯ll look into that later, for now we were walking up to corner and at the end of that corner was a room.

    Moments later we walked through a slightly bigger room than the one that I was sleeping in, and I¡¯ve got to say, it looked impressive. The walls were lined with so much alcohol, most of it I¡¯ve never even heard of, probably because most of it was imported and really fancy.

    I can¡¯t even imagine how much this all costs. And that wasn¡¯t all though, the very shelves themselves seemed to have so much effort and work put into them, like someone had polished ivory and sculpted them into shelves, the carpet and the lights also seemed to provide a very calming and surreal atmosphere, there was even a grand crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of the room.

    It made me feel like I was in room of a grand mansion. Everything made it feel so fancy and high class, but all the while remaining very calm and comfortable, the same feeling you get when you go home, but everything¡¯s fancier. As I continued following Shiro we eventually made it to a lounge that looks like the bar from earlier, but a lot smaller and more personalized, with marshmallow chairs. They aren¡¯t actually chairs made of marshmallow. They¡¯re named that way because when you sit on them it feels like you¡¯re sitting on marshmallows.

    Go figure, I guess.

    ¡°Go take a seat on one of those, I¡¯ll be right back.¡± Shiro said with that now iconic smile of hers. She went into another room in the corner by the small coffee table to the left. I didn¡¯t think it would be a good idea sitting on a marshy chair injured, because that would probably hurt, like a lot. So I went on ahead and took a seat on the black glossy top counter.

    I waited a bit longer as I tried to soak in the atmosphere more. I felt the cold air reverberate around the room and slowly breeze past my face and the dim lighting in this area in particular gave it a special relaxing feeling. The aura from this place is amazing. It¡¯s always so calm, too calm maybe. Ever since I came into this place, it feels way too calm and quiet. It¡¯s almost as if something is trying to keep it that way.

    Wait, I smell something. I can smell something sweet, and fresh, like a newly watered garden of flowers, it was so alluring that I got lost in it and stood up with my eyes closed. I started being drawn to the source of the smell. I have heightened senses because of my blood, but smell is the sharpest of all senses for me.

    I started drifting towards the smell completely ignoring everything else all the way until I realized that there is someone here, and I didn¡¯t open my eyes until it¡¯s too late. I ended bumping into the source, and when I looked up I came face to face with the bartender, Ryan.

    ¡°It seems you¡¯re okay. Are you looking for something?¡± He said as he gave the gentlest smile that I¡¯ve seen today. I flustered up again, I should really stop doing that. I¡¯m now standing about a few centimetres away from the well dressed barkeep, and I can feel myself starting to heat up because of how awkward this is getting for me.

    Why does this always happen to me?

 Chapter 1 | Part 10

    Just to make it clear to you who are reading this and are probably going to ask about the beginning of this chapter. Yes, there is no yaoi or love in general, throughout the entire series, unless mentioned directly.

    Please do not personally ask if there is any. If you still want to speculate further on that, you''re free to discuss it with any other readers, just not with me.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I jumped backwards in shock and embarrassment, after realizing I probably looked really dumb, I managed to compose myself and stood upright after a bit. I can¡¯t even imagine how suspicious I looked just then. He gave me a curious glance and I blushed and looked away right away.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± he asked me after looking at me for awhile.

    I tried to compose myself again, because there was absolutely no reason for me to be getting fired up over bumping into another guy. I looked up at him and gave him a very calm nod.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. You just startled me is all.¡± I observed him for a bit, he seemed to be pretty calm as always, that nonchalant air around him is still the same as usual, I wonder why he didn¡¯t show any sign of hostility or even discomfort, the way he just reacts to everything so... calmly. It¡¯s almost like he¡¯s hiding something, I can tell because I used to be just like that, voiding myself of any negative emotions, I did it because I didn¡¯t want to trigger myself to hurt others.

    Something about the way he acts reminds me too much about me in the past. It worried me not only because that means he could be really dangerous, but because whatever he does to control himself, how he hurts himself to prevent him from hurting others. It bothers me knowing that he inflicts suffering upon himself to protect those around him.

    He walked around to the back of the counter of the mini bar and took out a glass. He looked over at me as he was preparing something.

    ¡°Would you like a drink?¡±

    I thought about that for a second, and I knew he was probably going to give it to me for free again, and I can¡¯t accept it because my pride won¡¯t let me take free things if they¡¯re offered to me. He took out a bottle of Whiskey again and I could tell by the amazing scent of the drink that it was the same thing I drank awhile back. I didn¡¯t want to have it for free so I asked him about it.

    ¡°Will you give it to me for free again?¡± I looked at him with a very concerned look. I didn¡¯t want to become a bother or a burden to anyone. I rubbed my arm a bit and felt the bandages wrapped around it, it hurt a little bit.

    I walked over to the counter and took a seat again. I just realized that my wounds didn¡¯t hurt as much as it did before, that probably means that I started healing again, or healing faster I mean. That¡¯s a good thing I guess, sometime it takes awhile for my accelerated healing to kick in, and sometimes I regenerate so fast that the wounds already heal before it even starts bleeding.

    Ryan took a look at me and held his chin with his hand. It looked like he was thinking about something for a moment, then he gave the same smile as usual and waved it off.

    ¡°Maybe, well here you go.¡± He said as he handed the drink over to me. He smiled and just didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by the fact that I¡¯m a complete stranger inside of the place that he lives, probably with all the knowledge that I¡¯m a spawn of hell or something. And yet, I feel comfortable here, I feel safe.

    I looked down at the drink, it was bright and clear, almost like melted gold. I saw my reflection in the glass, and I looked at how far I managed to make it thanks to the people that I met on the way.

    I took up the glass and raised it in the air.

    ¡°Cheers, I guess.¡± I downed the shot right after. I heard Ryan give a happy ¡®umpf¡¯, as I drank it I got lost in the flavour of it all, the way the smell reminded me of a cool breeze and the taste would dance around on my tongue as it would go down my throat, just smelling it was already something that was a delight, even more so drinking it.

    I gave out a delighted sigh. ¡°That was great! This... this is really good.¡± I smiled a bit, I think he might have put something else in this because the alcohol was hitting me harder than usual, this was still the same drink, but maybe he spiked it?

    ¡°This, this is really good... you- you shu¡¯ try this... heheh.¡± I started giggling like an idiot. I swear when I sober up again I¡¯m going to knock this guy down for doing something like this. He laughed and looked at me. He had a different smile this time.

    ¡°Maybe I should try it. Maybe I can taste it?¡± he still gave that same smile but the mood changed all of a sudden. Something was different and whatever it was I could feel it. His face got a little closer to mine, and also came closer to him.

    I was a few inches from his face now and I could tell that this was going a different route all together. Right as this happened I someone yell out from the corner of the room. I didn¡¯t feel anyone come in.

    ¡°Daniel! I got your stuff!¡± a loud voice rang out from the door that Shiro went through awhile ago. I pulled myself away from Ryan when I remembered what I was doing here. He still seemed to be in the same relaxed state as he was before.

    Wow this guy is really hard to break. I looked over at Shiro and I could feel my heart drop as a reaction to what she was holding up with both of her hands. It was a small black article of clothing.

    ¡°Your undies are huge, Daniel!¡± She giggled as she played with my underwear, waving it around in a silly manner. This is ridiculous. I got up and started chasing her around. This time I think I¡¯m very visibly red because of the situation.

    ¡°Give it back! Stop playing with that.¡±  I ran around chasing her as she laugh and kept waving my garments around. Of all the things that I had to put up with this is probably the worst thing that has happened since I got attacked.

    Right as I was about to catch her, one of my bandages came loose and I ended up tripping on it like a clumsy person. I hit my face on the floor again. Why does it always have to be the face, and as I lay there on the floor feeling the pain start rushing through all of my still healing bones again, I said to myself.

    ¡°This can¡¯t get any worse.¡± And I never in my life had thought that I would say something as clich¨¦ as that. But right then I felt someone walk in this time, that same feeling I got from when I walked out of the pub. I looked up to see a man with red eyes holding a stack of folded clothes. He didn¡¯t seem to notice me when he walked into the room.

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Hey Shiro, what do you think you¡¯re doing leaving me to hold all this junk! Who¡¯s is this anyway-¡± He looked down and saw me lying on the floor. After about five seconds of confused eye contact, I jumped back in a backhand spring and held stance. I forgot I was injured at the time and ended up hurting myself, again.

    He also dropped my stuff on the floor and got into position to fight. I didn¡¯t really have the strength at the moment to use any physical blows because of the recoil damage it could cause me. I took a very careful look at my opponent and I could see that he was probably as injured as I was, maybe even more. I bet he didn¡¯t have any regenerative abilities of any sort, so I should be fine. He doesn¡¯t seem to have any of his weapons either.

    He was just wearing some cargo shorts and was wrapped in bandages as well. I still have my powers and I could probably summon my scythe if I have any energy left, this fight will end quicker than he expects it.

    He made the first move and ran straight for me again, but this time I was prepared. I started to absorb energy from the surroundings and focused it around me body as a protective shell of sort. He launched a fist straight for me, and I blocked it anyways using my arms.

    I countered by sweeping him off with my leg, but he managed to catch it, he raised and arm up to strike my leg, but I saw what he was about to do and I raised my remaining leg and kicked him in the chest. He let go and fell backwards, as I flipped back and managed to land. Injured or not this guy is still really dangerous, I guess I¡¯m going to cut my chances and blast him with another spell.

    I raised both my hands up and faced my palms towards him. Then a glowing magic circle appeared around my hands. I focused myself on hitting him, and this time, I know what he won¡¯t be able to dodge it. I could feel the pressure change in the air as I prepared to blast him but before I could something dashed across my eyes and I felt myself be hit in many different areas of my body, and each time a hit landed on me, I lost control of that area and felt weak.

    It was really fast and didn¡¯t notice it at all. It also managed to disable the hunter all in the small window of opportunity that it got. As I fell onto my knees the energy that I took in was dispersed and I couldn¡¯t do anything but kneel there completely helplessly. The hunter also fell into the same position. What was that?

    Right as I processed what had just happened in the past second or so, someone stood between us, it was Shiro. She stood there hands on her hips and she made a grumpy pouty face. She looked a little bit mad.

    ¡°There will be no fighting inside the Den!¡± she huffed in a very childish manner, but I could tell that she was mad. ¡°I¡¯m going to make sure that you two stop fighting!¡± then she held up her hands, each one facing either of us and then her eyes started glowing a bright white light, and so did her hands.

    ¡°Nectom, Archanum, Amicia.¡±

    She¡¯s a mage? What¡¯s going on? How did she manage to disable us, and why was she so fast in doing so? Then as she was doing this I felt something tether around my right arm. I looked at my arm and saw a bright white light appear and start to form into a shackle and a chain. I looked at the chain form and it led to the hunter, it was bound to his right arm too.

    After the chain fully materialized and I saw that the shackles were not removable, I tried to use magic to remove it, but I saw that my shackle has runes on the outside. It was binding my magic.

    ¡°There, that should do it! If you two can¡¯t get along, I¡¯ll make you! I won¡¯t remove your shackles until I see that both of you learn to be friends!¡± She crossed her arms and she nodded her head with her eyes close.

    This is hell. I know it. It has to be.

    We both looked at each other with angry looks and turned away from him. I gave an angry grunt of sort. I did not like this one bit. I really didn¡¯t want to be stuck with the guy trying to capture me this whole time.

    Then that¡¯s when I heard it, it sounded a lot like a massive explosion coming from outside, the walls and the floors shook. Something was happening outside. I ran to the closest window outside in the hall. I looked out in the snow and saw about ten or more people wearing white and red armour. One of them was wearing a white cloak. I also dragged the hunter chained to me, into the hall, followed by Shiro and Ryan.

    ¡°Hey what do you think you¡¯re doing?!¡± The hunter yelled at me. Then he saw what I was looking at outside. We all gathered by the large window and looked down. We saw the cloaked figure look up at us and gave a very sinister smile.

    Beside the figure stood a person shorter than they were, they wore bright gold and ivory armour which matched the snow outside, they had a massive sword that was on their waist, floating magnetically.

    They had some really strong gear, and they wore a helmet which shone as brilliantly as the rest of the armour. And he looked at me, I could feel it.

    The figure in the cloak raised a hand that was held in a position, and I could see their mouth moving. As they did so, a massive, like literally massive, magic circle glowing red and black started to form behind them in the air, it was big enough to cover the building.

    And around that circle, smaller circles started forming around it in a pattern, and red lightning started to flash between them into the middle of the circle, forming a massive ball of energy in a strange shape.

    The cloaked figure smiled wide.

    What do I do? What can I do?

    I stood there watching frozen from the window as the sphere came right for us. I prepared myself for what was to happen next, bracing myself completely.

    Then I closed my eyes.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    Okay, so this is going to be the end of the first chapter, please go ahead and leave any comments on the story so far.

    All feedback is accepted and I will personally answer you if you have any questions. <del>just don''t ask about any of the character''s romantic relationships, ever, please. Especially not if, you''re going to be butthurt about it.</del>

 Chapter 2 | Part 1 | February

    I heard a noise out in the hall. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I still felt really tired and thought that it must be really early. I raised my arm and sent a thought to the device on my hand. It made a noise and a little light flashed.

    Then a projection was brought up and it read; "JAN16-2090 03:08:53". I wonder what''s making that noise so early. I rubbed the back of my head, rubbing my hair. I got up from my bed and looked around my room a bit. It was dark and everything was quiet.

    I walked over to the door that leads outside into the hall of my room. I passed some furniture that had various items on them, some turned off lamps, some digi-cubes, a pitcher and a glass of water, and a small framed picture of a red-haired woman, a small child with blue eyes and brown hair, and even shorter girl with short black hair, she had her eyes closed. She was rustling up the hair of the child and she smiled happily, the boy was laughing delightfully.

    I picked up the photo and looked at it, ran a finger over the image of the little girl, I could feel my heart drop remembering what happened to her. It was about a year ago. Me and my party took on a quest and were dispatched to the red forest.

    I could still remember it all and could feel how it all felt, the air and the people I was with. I closed my eyes and brought myself back to the place. I remembered the red leaves that would fall softly around the air, the trees would be a very brilliant maroon colour, and I can understand why it is one of the 10 wonders of the world.

    "Hey! Could you stop fooling around! We''re on a job you know!" A voice snapped from behind me.

    I opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder, it was a girl with long black hair and she wore a red and white uniform. There was our crew emblem embroidered into the shoulder of her top. She had a katana strapped onto her back, it looked really skilfully made. The girl had a serious expression on her face. Her black eyes cut through me like the blade on her back.

    I flinched at her look. I rubbed the back of my head and gave out a sigh.

    "You don''t have to be so serious Kiru." I gave a distressed sigh again. I straightened out my black cloak. I started walking towards her, and as I did I could hear the leaves crunching under my feet. Everything about this place was so relaxing. I looked up at the girl again.

    "It''s not like we found the thing yet. It''s been quiet the whole time." I complained to her.

    "That doesn''t change the fact why we''re here. Don''t forget, the mission comes first." She waved her finger around as she said that in a very mighty tone.

    I groaned at her. We were sent here to find and kill something that was disturbing the peace, or something like that, I wasn''t really paying attention to the briefing. Kiru would probably smack me if she found out I wasn''t listening again.

    We continued walking back to our small camp which we set up just awhile ago. It had a small campfire in the middle with something roasting on it, and there were our 4 tents that were set up. It was enough for each of us.

    Sitting by the fire was a large tanned guy wearing a white and tank top, and a blue and black cloak, emblem clearly on the front pocket of his torso. He smiled and waved at us. On his fists were knuckles of some sort, they seemed heavy and I''m not sure what they were made of, but they seemed specially made.

    "Where have you two been? We''re already cooking the food!" He laughed very heartily.

    Sitting beside him was a girl much smaller than he was. She wore a pure white cloak that seemed a little too big for her to be wearing it, she held her head down and I couldn''t really get a good look at her face. She looked a little shy. I can understand that considering she is the newest member of the group after me.

    "Hey Vuldgur, how''s Kuro holding up?" Kiru asked from across the campfire. Hands on her hips, she seemed as concerned as I was. She must be really nervous to be on her first job.

    Vuldgur looked over to his right and observed the girl sitting beside him. She shuffled uncomfortably. He laughed after looking at her for a bit, and ruffled up her hair. She seemed shocked at the gesture and jumped up in surprise.

    "Don''t worry bout'' it, she''s just a little tense is all, nothing to worry about." He grinned widely.

    He can come a bit strong sometimes, but I''m sure she doesn''t really mind, after all, she did say she was really happy to join the group, and she made quick friends with everyone.

    After that, she looked and she stared at me. I could see her face clearly now, under her black hair, her face gave a very soft and curious look, her green eyes shone brightly. Though she was very shy, her spirit was all that mattered right now and she was happy.

    After blushing at her looking up at me, I smiled contently at her. It''s fine if she''s nervous, after all, we can all work together to be the best team there is. Kiru and I sat down on the logs that were lying around.

    After we all ate and talked happily, we went about our search around the forest. It was a tiring search, we looked everywhere, we scoured the inside of yawning cave, and it was just filled with bats and giant cave frogs, not much to say about it.

    We got drenched looking for it at the golden lake, Vuldgur ended up falling inside and we had to get him out of there, which would have been easier to do that if we hadn''t angered all of the sprites and water pixies that lived there. Even Kuro had to step in to help us, she managed to bring down all the sprites using ice lances, but she ended up freezing the entire lake accidentally.

    When we were finished defrosting it completely, we even went up to crimson peak, the massive dormant volcano there.

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    It was absolutely exhausting climbing that thing, the amount of Treants encountered was crazy. But after all that, we managed to reach the peak. The air at the top was fresh and it was amazing taking it all in, it was so tall that the pink clouds were just in reach. This place really was is a magical place to be. At the crater of the volcano lived a massive dragon-like monster, it was long and the red and yellow scales matched the environment perfectly, of course we didn''t really want to deal with that right now so we noped out of there.

    We returned to the camp when it was already really late. The sky was dark and the stars were out and shining very beautifully, it looked amazing, because the atmosphere here changed the light from outside places, so from here the stars looked like they shined bright violet light. It was no doubt one of the most amazing things I''ve ever seen.

    We all went to bed after a very uneventful day, the only reason we chose to do this job was because it had a very high pay. 200,000 gilets in cash was something that we didn''t see that often. We didn''t want to turn down this too good to be true offer. We''d probably have better luck tomorrow. I went to sleep inside my tent and I could hear the calm serenity of the outside, it was peaceful.

    I could feel my eyes start to fall and I fell asleep.

    I opened my eyes to a completely strange place. It was a dark violet void with fragments of purple ground floating around. It was strange and didn''t seem normal at all, even I was floating around in the void. But even so, I didn''t feel fear.

    I looked around even more and noticed that it was like space, because of all the stars that was around, they were all so nice to look at. It was really relaxing to be here. Just then I had the urge to turn around, and when I did, I saw something.

    It was like a person, sitting on one of the massive chunks of ground, she was wearing all white, then I saw something else, she had a tail and wings. She turned and looked at me smiling, she even had horns.

    Who- or what, is that?

    Then I heard her voice, like she was right behind me.

    "Hello, Cameron."

    I sat up in my bed, it was a dream? I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and I was sweating a lot, what was that just now? Was that a demon? It was strange, but I felt like I knew her, she seemed too familiar for me not to know.

    "Luna." I said aloud for some reason.

    Wait, who''s Luna? That name seemed just as familiar. It was at the back of my mind, I''ve met her before somewhere, a really, really long time ago. I could have tried to remember harder but my thoughts were pulled back into reality when I heard Kuro scream from the outside.

    I immediately got up and grabbed my silver lance that was lying beside my tent. I got outside and looked around, there was a full moon out, and it was so bright, I ended up staring at it for longer than I thought.

    I heard another scream and started running through the forest, it would have been pitch black out here, but because of the moon and these strange floating golden lights were around I could see well enough, the lights were like fireflies except they were made up of some kind of strange energy. The life of the forest was very much awake and I could feel everything looking at me as I ran through it all.

    I made it to a wake and I couldn''t believe what I was looking at, Vuldgur was lying on the ground, surrounded in blood, I think he was dead. As I stared in horror at the body of my friend.

    I looked around and saw Kiru on the ground, she was crawling as she held her abdomen with her hand, and she was also bleeding a lot. Then I saw the thing that caught me off guard the most, it was a massive wolf, bigger than any wolfbeast I''ve ever seen in my life, maybe even twice as big, there''s no way that''s an ordinary monster, it stared at me with eyes full of anger.

    This must be the monster we''re looking for. I rushed over to Kiru to start tending to her wounds, she looked up at me, face filled with agony and pain. She held out her hand in a stop gesture.

    "No! You have... you have to go help... Kuro..." She was gasping and coughing blood. After she said that she fell onto the floor. I froze in place at the realization. I looked back at the monster and saw that beside it was another beast, it was smaller than the wolf I was looking at awhile ago. It was dead.

    Then the monster turned around again and I could see Kuro sitting down on the ground, and leaning on a tree, she was hurt and unconscious. She opened her eyes slowly and spoke.

    "Ca-cammy? I... I''m sorry." She started crying.

    Just then the massive beast grabbed her in its massive mouth. I yelled out.

    "Kuro! No!" I grabbed my spear and prepared myself to fight, but before I could get to it, a swirling purple void-like portal opened up behind it, and it turned around carrying Kuro.

    "Cameron! Help me!" She cried out in its mouth. The massive beast jumped through the portal before I could do anything, but as it did, I managed to throw my spear and it struck its back, but it still managed to escape.

    The portal closed right after I hit it.

    It was quiet now. The stillness of the forest was all that was left. There was nothing here except the moon and me. Kuro is gone, Vuldgur and Kiru are dead.

    And now, I''m all alone.

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    Yo, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did or did not, go ahead and leave a post, I''ll be happy to respond to any questions or concerns you have about the story.

 Chapter 2 | Part 2

    I remembered that I heard some noise coming from the hall and walked over to the door, and went outside, and it was very quiet. I didn''t think that it might have actually been anything worth talking a look at, but I decided to look around more.

    The dim light in the main room was very gentle and illuminated the area ever so slightly. I kept walking around and saw that the door to Daniel''s room was left open, and I didn''t see him inside either. Oh no, don''t tell me he left already.

    I mean I did promise that he wouldn''t stay any later than ten, but that doesn''t matter, he''s not in any condition to be leaving so soon. He needs to stay here, at least until he gets better. I don''t care if he is a stranger and we did just meet, but you can''t just leave all of a sudden. I don''t want to be left alone here again.

    I managed to reach the hallway that leads to the main door. Daniel was standing there, about to reach the door scanner. I spoke up before he could open the door.

    "Daniel?"

    I gave a cheerless expression, even if we barely know each other, I was slightly crestfallen to have him leaving so soon, he didn''t even say goodbye yet. He turned around and looked rather surprised.

    "Pyron, I was just-"

    "Leaving?" I cut him off. No matter what he says, that''s exactly what he was doing.

    "No! I mean yes! I mean, y-yeah." After he saw me, he returned an expression of sadness, he seemed just as down as I was. Maybe he didn''t want to hurt my feeling either, but I know that he must have his reasons.

    He clutches his chest. Then He looks down, something must be going on and I just don''t know what it is, and I don''t really want to ask.

    "I''m really sorry." He says in a low voice.

    Then he turns around, and it looked like he was going to leap out from the door, I didn''t want him to leave yet, at least not like this. Reacting quickly I dashed forwards and grabbed his left arm. I yelled out.

    "Wait!"

    He froze and then he faced my direction slowly. I could feel tears starting to form in my eyes. It wasn''t because of him, it was because I didn''t want to be left alone again, I just wanted to be with someone, anyone right now.

    "Before you go..." I opened up my Syndex. I decided that if he is leaving, he should at least stay in touch, I didn''t know that else to do. So I took my contact information and I created a data window. I sent it over to him.

    He saw a data cube and read the file. He giggled.

    "Sowachowski?" He was holding back another laugh. I forgot that that was my last name. I started to get embarrassed at the realization of how terrible my last name is.

    "What about it?!" I managed to retort, as I was starting to feel heat rush to my face. Honestly, it''s not that bad. I think.

    "Hah, does that make your nickname Sock?" He snorted as he covered his mouth with his hands, are you serious. I gave him a stern look, my embarrassment being replaced with anger.

    After that he managed to stop laughing, he really is terrible. Then I thought that I might as well see him out, and I walked him to the entrance of the Winter Lodge. We made our way down the hall and took the teleporter on the way down.

    I stood at the entrance of the building and saw Daniel walk outside into the snow, and it was still dark outside, he didn''t seem to be bothered by it though. Before he left, I said to him.

    "E-mail me or something, okay?" He turned around and gave me a smile.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    "I will thanks."

    "Good." I nodded to him. Then I remembered something I needed to do before he left. I know he will probably complain that it''s too much, but I know he will need this.

    "Oh and here''s one last thing before you go." I grabbed a spare Omni card that I carry around in my pocket, and it was still blank so as I grabbed it, I made it so that I transferred some money into the card using my Syndex. Just some spare change that I get leftover from jobs.

    After I transferred some credits into the card, I tossed it over to him and he caught it, he gave a confused look as he scanned it using the device on his hand. After he did so, a small voice rang out telling him what just happened.

    "+500 Gilets have been added to your balance." He gagged as he heard what the voice just said. He looked so shocked I didn''t really expect him to be that surprised, he really is broke.

    "500 Gilets, I can''t! That''s way too much." He tried to refuse as he was still processing how much he just got. It''s barely anything for me though, I really didn''t mind.

    "Don''t act like you don''t need it. I checked your profile when you first got here, you''re pretty broke. Like really broke." I said as seriously as I could. When I checked it, he had about 26 GIlets and a voucher for free food. Jeez.

    He stood there for a second thinking about something, I don''t know what he was thinking about but he was definitely contemplating his current situation. He paused for a long time, and the silence was filled with the blowing winds from the outside. A draft hit me in the face.

    He gave one of the most sincere faces I''ve ever seen anyone try to make without faking it. I believed it. I smiled back at him.

    "Thank you, Pyron. I appreciate it."

    He walked out into the slow blizzard until I couldn''t see him walking in the distance.

    I just wish that he would stay safe. I made my way back to my room. I needed to get some sleep. I made my way back into my room and sat on my bed. I closed my eyes. I was thinking about what just happened today. I sat there thinking about what I have to do, what I needed to do. I heard a beep coming from my Syndex.

    I opened my eyes again, and I opened up the message that I just received. I gave a shocked look at what the message said.

    "Category S - Riftling sighted, location is in the eastern section of the frozen plains, right next to the outskirts of a major city nearby. Coordinates will be given out to all Rank B and above agents. If you are available to participate, please send an approval message, and the dispatch team will pick you up in an hour. Prepare yourself accordingly.

    -Sec. G. Magus Isabel, H.O.K."

    My eyes widened at the opportunity that I was given. The pain of the past still stinging my heart, I don''t want to feel like that ever again, the way I felt then, it was something that broke me. Having the only family you have taken away from you. That was the time when I decided to join the Holy Order, and I swore that I''d slay every single Riftling in the world.

    I''ll do it to avenge my family, to avenge Kuro.

    I won''t stop until I accomplish what I set out to do.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Go ahead and tell me what you think about this story so far, I''ll be writing the next one right away so I''ll be off.

 Chapter 2 | Part 3

    I sent opened up another protocol window and wrote created an approval message. I signed it and then sent it back to HQ. I received a received a reply in no less than 5 seconds. It was a fairly short message.

    "Thank you for sending an approval letter Agent 198-7, Rank A. You have been selected to accompany the first squadron. The dispatch team is already on its way. Please prepare yourself accordingly, bring all the necessary equipment you''ll need. We will be seeing you soon.

    -Sec. G. Magus, H.O.K."

    It looks like this might be a hard fight, so I decided to call my manager. She''ll be able to send me my stuff in 30 minutes or less. I don''t know how she gets to me faster than a professional dispatch team, but I guess I don''t need to know about that right now.

    I opened up a contacts list which was then projected in front of me. ''10394 contacts available''. Okay, I didn''t remember having this much before. I sent a command to the device to search for ''Isabel''. After a brief moment, the contacts scrolled down to a contact labelled Isabel, which had a display picture of a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was poking her tongue out with a ''peace'' hand sign she held to her face. I really need to change this sometime.

    I tapped on it and then another window popped up, it was contacting her. After about a second of me doing so, someone had picked up the call and then decided to give me a massive headache by screaming through the call.

    "Pyron!!!~ What''s up, did''ja need something? Maybe you''re finally asking me out on a date? Dinner maybe?Oh! Oh! Maybe you want to go watch the Furious and Fast 50? I know a good place where we can f-"

    "Isabel. I need my stuff. I''m going to be on another hunt. It''s a category S. Do you have anything for something like that, and it''s probably going to be a long fight."

    "Aw, is it because you''re scared of a little Catey Esee?" She said in a mocking baby-talk way. I just wish she wasn''t so childish all the time. But it doesn''t matter because she''s actually an amazing manager, ever since she took me under her watch, I''ve been provided with all the top gear and highest ranking missions.

    Of course it''s also because I''m one of the strongest agents this organization has ever hired. I didn''t get an A rank for nothing, I worked for it. It was pretty great to be promoted to rank A in only a short time. Very few people have reached this rank at this age. I''m sure that if I managed to complete this mission, I''d be promoted to rank S agent, which would qualify me to be able to hold a position in the Grand Council.

    I sighed and replied to the girl that was almost squealing on the other end of the call. "Look, Isabel. Do you have anything or not?" I''m sure she did.

    "Don''t even worry about it Pyron! I have just the thing, I asked our engineers to create a really top notch set of armour and it looks so coooool!~" I really wanted to groan or scowl at that, but I didn''t.

    "Could you send it over? I need it right away. And could you also bring some supplies, it might be awhile before we find the target."

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    "Yeah, yeah, sure whatever! Oh! Take a look at the new set I made! It''s custom built for you too! I think... But anyways, you should look at it."

    A short beep later indicated I received a file. I opened my inbox and selected the data cube. It opened up some blueprint designs, as well as some features of how the set works. There was also a neat looking weapon that was hovering at the waist area of the set, probably magnetic. Still pretty cool though.

    "It has built in emergency oxygen, and it also maximizes movement and amplifies your normal strength by about five thousand time more! And It''s specially build to handle all kinds of explosions! And lasers, guns, even nuclear warheads!" The girl was squealing again.

    "Oh, that sounds pretty cool, when did y- wait what, nuclear warheads? Did you even test it out?" I was a little concerned by this.

    "Hmmm, well we kind of did." She said in a very unsure tone.

    "... well whatever I guess, I don''t think I''ll be fighting anything that involves the power of a nuclear warhead. So when is it going to get here?" I asked her again.

    "What do you mean silly? It''s already there." She giggled to herself again.

    What. I stood up from my bed and walked out into the hall again, then I walked over to the main hall leading to the exit of this lounge, and by the door I already saw a massive box wrapped in pink paper, with a red ribbon. There was a note on the box.

    "Here you go Pyron! I hope you like it! :P

    ~Isabel <3"

    It was written in bright red ink. It still scares me how she managed to do this. She''s gotta have some kind of teleporter that she made. I cringe at the thought of her knowing my current location at all times, and teleporting stuff to me.

    Wow. That isn''t embarrassing at all. I walked back to my room and plopped onto the bed lazily. I raised my arm again and looked at the data window that was on display.

    "Thanks Isa, I really appreciate it. I don''t think that I''ll be able to do this mission properly without the stuff you send me. I mean it." I was happy that I still get to do this thought.

    "I- I... t-thank you Pyron, I''m glad to hear you say that." Her tone softened when she said that. She must be embarrassed by what I said. I said goodbye to her shortly after and disconnected the call.

    I lay down on my bed and started to get sleepy. I probably shouldn''t sleep. They''re going to be here soon. I don''t really want to wake up to people in my room. I''m really tired though, maybe I could just take a quick nap. I''m sure it won''t really matter.

    I rested my head on the soft white pillow and closed my eyes, the cool feeling of the air and the softness of my bed made is so easy to fall asleep. I didn''t even notice that I practically went to sleep as soon as I touched the bed.

    But I didn''t fall asleep.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I''m sorry if this is a little short. I don''t feel to hot right now.

 Chapter 2 | Part 4

    I opened my eyes to a familiar swirling black void. I could remember the first time I was here, it was the time when... I lost her. I wonder why I¡¯m back here. The calm silence was the only thing that was here. The way everything looked illuminated even though there was no light at all. It was all so surreal.

    ¡°You¡¯re back.¡± I heard a soft voice from right behind me. I flinched at the way that I kept hearing that. I turned around and faced the woman that was here the last time. She still looked the same, wearing a white dress-gown, and she had those wings and horns of hers.

    ¡°Who are you? Are you a demon?¡± I asked out. I didn¡¯t have time to play games with this monster. If I wasn¡¯t floating around helplessly I would have already-

    ¡°Killed me? Ha, don¡¯t be silly Cameron.¡± She continued my thoughts out loud.

    What? Did she... did she just read-

    ¡°You¡¯re mind? I might have, I can do that after all you know.¡± I started getting nervous all of a sudden. How could she do something like that? That¡¯s impossible. The only beings able to read minds like that are-

    ¡°Angels. Is that right Cameron?¡±

    ¡°Okay Luna, you need to stop that!¡± I yelled out, I felt so violated having somebody read my thoughts so effortlessly.

    Wait, what did she say? Is she, an Angel? No, that¡¯s not right. She obviously looks like a demon, especially with those demonic features of hers. She must be trying to trick me or something, that¡¯s what demons do after all.

    ¡°And don¡¯t call me that, my name¡¯s Pyron!¡± I yelled out. How does she know my name? Actually how do I know her name, I¡¯m sure that I called her by her name just awhile ago. I¡¯m sure that I¡¯ve never met this person in my life, and yet she is so familiar it hurts.

    I should probably try to capture her and get some answers, even though I might not have any gear, but with my skills alone and some magic should be able to get her down long enough for me to get a good-

    She stared at me blankly. I backed away just a bit after remembering that she can actually read every single thought that I was thinking right now. I stared back at her. I could feel myself starting to sweat. My breathing starting get rugged, and my heart rate was increasing. I had the uneasy feeling that I needed to get out of here as fast as I could.

    ¡°If you wanted to leave so badly, you should have just asked Pyron.¡± She gave a small smile as she closed her eyes, and it was very unnerving for some reason.

    Right after though she snapped her eyes open and grinned so wide. Her aura changed all of a sudden. Her clothes turned into a dark shadowy colour with purple glows. It matched the environment around us. Just looking at her filled my heart with fear, I couldn¡¯t move and I just watched with a terrified look on my face.

    She started to fly as she stretched out her wings and gave a menacing look. She raised up her hand and snapped. And then underneath her, a small black hole-like object started to form, pulling everything in.

    I started to get caught in it as I started moving closer to it and everything around me, but she didn¡¯t move at all, she still stayed perfectly still. I could hear her giggling.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Pyron. We¡¯ll be seeing each other again very soon.¡± She waved at me slowly.

    I got pulled into the portal and I started falling so fast I could feel my soul leave my body. All of it was a pulsating void of darkness. It felt like I was falling forever. Then I felt space start to warp around me and there was so much pressure in my head that it felt like I was going to die.

    Then it felt like I hit the ground. I snapped my eyes open and sat up, sweating and breathing heavily, I was badly shaken up. I looked around and saw that I was back in my room, sitting on my bed. It all felt so real.

    I didn¡¯t even notice that my Syndex was beeping, it was a call. I answered it and a small holo-image appeared, on the screen it was my captain. He wore a black shirt and body armour.

    ¡°Pyro, you ready? We¡¯re already outside.¡± I raised my head and walked over to the window by the corner. I looked outside and saw a caravan with some agents already outside.

    I saw that there were some people I¡¯ve never seen before, they must be from other sectors or they¡¯re mercenaries. It must take a lot of people to take down a category S.

    I saw my captain walk out of the caravan and he looked up at me. His voice coming from the device I was wearing.

    ¡°Come down here, we¡¯re leaving in five.¡± He sounded so serious, but I knew that he was just really frank and didn¡¯t mean any harm, well, when he¡¯s not fighting anything that is.

    ¡°Give me a minute.¡± I ran down into the hall and opened that massive box, but when I unwrapped it was actually a massive energy cube holding my stuff in a cryo-state, which explained it wasn¡¯t so heavy. Then I accidentally turned it off and the barrier field disappeared, dropping everything onto the floor.

    It made a very large thunk as it hit the ground. It was really heavy, and I think it might have cracked the ground. I¡¯ll pay for that later. I saw the small note that was attached onto the helmet. The notes told me that all I needed to do was put the helmet on, and then just link it to my Neuro-syndex. I did so and then a HUD layout was displayed, it had a notification that flashed up after a second.

    ¡°Commence link with external device? Y/N¡± I gave it a yes, and the window was closed. Then it showed a progress bar which filled up pretty fast.

    ¡°Link is complete. Please stand still.¡± Stand still? What does it mean by that, I was about to move but then immediately found out why I needed to stand still. The armour pieces started flying towards me. It started clinging onto me piece by piece, starting from the torso and shoulder parts, then my arms and legs.

    It was all magnetized. It¡¯s pretty amazing what modern science can do. For a second I thought that it was all magic. But I know Isabel, she dislikes magic in particular. She only uses magic for making herself go to sleep.

    After all the parts had adjusted and fitted itself accordingly to my body type, which was pretty cool by the way. Another window popped up.

    ¡°Setup process is now complete. Prototype 15 is now active. Mobility is now possible.¡±

    I¡¯m going to assume that means I can move around again. I noticed that on the floor there was still one piece remaining. It seemed rather different; the colour palette of the object was way off. It was black and gold, which didn¡¯t match the white scheme of the rest of the armour.

    There was another note attached.

    ¡°Pyron!~ This is something that I¡¯ve been working on, surprise!~ It can be attached to the P-15, just link it with your helmet!~ Have fun!¡±

    It must have been that surprise that she was talking about, I lifted it up and it was unbelievably lighter than everything else. As soon as I touched it, the helmet flashed a screen.

    ¡°External object detected: DK-1 Prototype. Commence Link? Y/N¡±

    I gave it another yes, and another progress bar started to run. It took a little longer, but it still finished quite fast. It said that it was now operational. I placed it near where I would normally put a sword and it just stuck there on its own, hovering a few inches away from my waist. This was still so cool.

    After another short check, I had went outside and met with the rest of my squadron. This was a big party though, after I had counted most of them, our team reached about twenty agents, and thirty tactical team members. I felt pretty hyped for this kind of thing. I¡¯ve never been to a front line fight with a category S before. The first time that I fought one was when I was first recruited. I was just a support team back then.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.I sat down in the back of the caravan with the other agents. There were about six of us inside this vehicle. That was including the captain and the driver. It was just me and three other people. I took my helmet off when I got in. It was a big caravan so it wasn¡¯t cramped at all, and there were only few of us anyways. I sat down in the right seat of the middle row. I peeked around.

    I didn¡¯t mean to stare, but the three of them were all so different, and they seemed like interesting characters. The person sitting to my left was wearing a white cloak with the emblem of the Knights on the front, which was in black and red. They haven¡¯t said a word since I got here, but they just kept smiling the whole time, it was a little unnerving. They even giggled occasionally. I couldn¡¯t get a good look at their face at all. They were facing out the window.

    The other two behind us were also quiet. One was sleeping. The one who was asleep was directly behind me, they wore a black cloak and had leather straps and belts all over his body, it was all loaded with weapons and such. He must be a hired hunter. The order doesn¡¯t usually hire anyone unless they have at least three stars to their title, which means that this guy must be pretty good. Also he didn¡¯t have an emblem anywhere on his outfit.

    I glanced over to the person sitting beside him. He was wearing a white suit with a red tie and also some glasses. There was an emblem on the tie. Before I could get a better look, he gaze fixed on my so hard that it startled me. It was so intense that I actually flinched.

    ¡°It¡¯s rude to stare you know.¡± I didn¡¯t look away, because I saw something else. His eyes, they weren¡¯t the same colour. One was red, and I could swear it was glowing.

    Before I could speak, there was a blade already pointed at my face in the instant that I opened my mouth. He¡¯s fast, I¡¯ll give him that.

    ¡°Maybe I should teach you a lesson by taking one of those pretty blue eyes of yours.¡± He was holding his weapon so casually and yet I could feel that he was very skilful when it came to using it. And this vibe that he is giving off, along with the other two are very heavy. It scares me thinking about how much stronger they are than me.

    ¡°Aye! Keep it down both of ye. I¡¯m tryin¡¯ to sleep ¡®ere.¡± The hunter woke up and he said with an irritated tone. And that accent, what the heck. He sounds like a pirate. The one with the katana pointed it at him and he gave another death glare.

    ¡°Maybe I should start with you then.¡± His words as sharp as that blade he¡¯s wielding. Sparks were silently flying between them, both getting ready to fight. The air suddenly grew tense and I couldn¡¯t say anything.

    Then as was about to say something, the cloak snapped their fingers. Everyone¡¯s attention was pulled over to him, and we all gave uneasy expressions. He was still facing away from all of us, grinning wide. But them we saw what he was doing.

    He raised his right hand up a little and swirled a finger around in the air. There were two lighting beams coming out from his finger and they connected to two glowing blue magic circles which sparked occasionally, and they were both aimed right for the pirate and glasses. For some reason he seemed the scariest of the four of us.

    Dark magic users are usually the eccentric and unstable kind. Magic does that to you after awhile, the more you use it the worse you get. That¡¯s why I try not to learn any magic if it isn¡¯t necessary. As far as I know, I only know a grade C healing spell and a grade E shield spell. Healing spells are generally mild and light magic. The shield is a dark magic spell though, so I only use it for emergencies.

    After the intense feeling the two seeing the magic circles, they didn¡¯t fall back though, they just got into battle stance from their seats. Cloak snapped their fingers and two bolts of blue lightning flashed out and went for both of them.

    The hunter yelled out while crossing his arms before him. ¡°Aegis!¡±  The bolt struck the shield and was completely blocked. The barrier was smoking from the place where the bolt struck.

    Glasses immediately brought his blade up and slashed it so fast that it was completely parried. His expression unchanging from that stern look he had the entire time.

    Cloak smiled even wider, and just sat down. He didn¡¯t react at all.

    They reacted fast. They were all so prepared to fight and defend at any moment. This must be what it means to be top-ranking agents. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m strong enough to fight any of them at all.

    ¡°Captain, they¡¯re fighting! Shouldn¡¯t we do anything about it?¡± I immediately asked the man sitting up at the front. He didn¡¯t seem worried at all. He just pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. He blew out some smoke and said calmly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it kid, they¡¯re professionals, they know what they¡¯re doing. And besides, we wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything even if we tried. I mean just look at them.¡±

    I turned around and saw them fighting each other, there was a serious and intense feeling in the air, but there wasn¡¯t any malcontent coming from any of them, they were all okay with what was happening right now. Magic and weapons just moving around harmoniously without any flaws, it was all so amazing.

    ¡°The one in the cloak is a Rank SS agent. He uses pure black magic. Graduated the top of his class at the age of ten, he hasn¡¯t said a word since we found him, but he knows so much magic you wouldn¡¯t believe it. I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s blind too.¡±

    R-rank SS?! No way. I¡¯ve never even met a Rank S before. And he¡¯s blind? I took another look and saw that there were some bandages over their eyes, completely covering them.

    ¡°Those two are both Rank S, the one wearing glasses has been cursed, he was a failed sacrifice of a bunch of cult members. That red eye of his is of demonic origin, he was born with it. It was caused by dark magic being used on him before he was born. His mother was the head cultist.¡±

    The way glasses fought was fast and accurate, he barely moved his hand at all when he was fighting, but the slashes coming from his blade would flash by so fast you could see them for just a split of a second.

    ¡°And that hunter, he¡¯s the top in the district, former member of the order but got kicked out for attempting to kill one of the council¡¯s members, because there was a bounty placed on that person for five hundred thousand Gilets. He took a job as head hunter out in Black reach. He works alone, but we needed him to help with this because there wasn¡¯t anyone else good enough.¡±

    I sat down in my chair again and tried to process the people that I was riding with. I looked down onto the floor. They were all so insanely good, I can¡¯t believe I got to meet them all. The captain so the contemplating look that was on my face and smiled. He probably knew what I was thinking.

    ¡°And you, kid, will be fighting alongside them.¡± My eyes widened as I heard those words. To think I would be allowed to do something like that. I felt excited and confused all at once. This was the best opportunity that¡¯s ever been given to me.

    I smiled and gave a determined look. This is it, the chance to prove that I can also be a Rank S agent!

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    List of things that are amazing in this chapter:

    -That ending line which isn''t the cheesiest shit I''ve ever written in my life.

    -Underdeveloped main characters are underdeveloped

    -More Luna

    -The lack of feedback I am getting from this story

    Okay, so I know that you probably noped at the first chapter, and I get it, but jeez, it was a running joke, okay? Stop making a big deal about it. Just try to enjoy this arc, It''s definitely better. And please leave a rating or just a post telling me what you think so far, I would really appreciate it.

 Chapter 2 | Part 5

    We traveled through the tundra, all active and excited for the battle. They eventually settled down and we continued on to our quiet trip. After about thirty minutes we stopped by a station. We were going to pick up some supplies and refuel the vehicles. It must have taken awhile picking up all these agents.

    We dropped down from the caravan and walked around in the snow. We found some places to sit down, and other just stood there waiting. The hunter-pirate went over to the station and took a nap. Glasses decided that he needed to practice, and went over chopping adult trees down in one slash. The cloak got out and started creating magic circles again, probably some kind of meditation.

    Everyone found what they were going to do, and I was really bored. I put my sword in my seat and took my helmet with me outside. I found the captain over at the station having a smoke by the entrance, and he was leaning on the building.

    I walked over to him and asked him how long it would take until we''re back on the road.

    "I don''t know, kid. It should maybe take about ten to twenty minutes, if you''re that bored, why don''t you be the one to lead a patrol group out in the vicinity. Who knows, maybe you''ll find something interesting to do."

    He blew out some smoke.

    Wait, is he serious? He gave a patrol squad just now. Wow, this is definitely something, I never really got to lead much before, and now I have the perfect opportunity to look for something to test my new stuff on.

    "Go and call agents 1478 and 1638. They''re probably better than just taking a few members of the tactical team. They''re both Rank B, so you should have no problem at all."

    The captain said to me one more time before he focused on enjoying his outdoor smoke. I turned on my visor and scanned the area for number 1478 and 1638. After about a few seconds, my visor located them sitting on a boulder by the edge of the forest.

    One of them was lying down on the rock, and was wearing big bulky armour, way bigger than mine, and he was holding a great axe or something. The other one was a lot smaller, and was polishing their weapon. It was a sniper rifle of sorts, not the standard issue. It was a lot more powerful than an ordinary rifle.

    They seem pretty decent teammates. I walked over to them and called their attention.

    "Hey you two, the captain assigned me to be your party leader for this patrol team. I thought that we should start as soon as we can." I tried to sound as official as I could.

    The one lying down sat up and rubbed his eyes, and he yawned. He blinked a few time and looked at me.

    "You must be Pyron. Rank A right?"

    "Yeah, that''s me. You''re a paladin right?" I asked.

    "Yep! My name''s Gallow. Nice to meet''cha Pyron." He gave a happy smile.

    The one holding the rifle looked down on me before he jumped down, placing his rifle on his back. He started making his way over to the patrol route that was assigned to them. I started walking too and the paladin followed shortly after.

    When we reached the start of our route, I realized that I didn''t ask the person in front of me what their name was. I sped up my pace a little and walked beside them. They looked really serious and just kept walking normally.

    "Hey, I... uh, didn''t get your name yet." I asked him.

    He gave me a small glance and sighed.

    "It''s Shawk."

    He continued his silent march onward, not even stopping once. I slowed down, bu I kept walking. Shorty after though, the paladin caught up to me and patted me on the back with a thump. I was a little startled by this.

    "Don''t worry about him Pyron. He''s like this to everyone, so don''t take it personally."

    He gave a laugh after saying that. We continued our patrol seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

    Eventually, the blizzard started picking up and I couldn''t see as well. And this suit didn''t seem frost resistant at all, it was way too cold. I should tell Isabel about that when I get the chance.

    Then I realized that left my weapon back in the caravan because I''m an idiot. I stopped in my tracks and started running back.

    "Hey! Pyron, where you going?" Gallow yelled out confused.

    "Give me a minute, I''ll be right back. I just left something back at the camp."

    After backtracking for about a few minutes, I had arrived at the camp, everyone was still resting or doing something else. I went back over to the caravan and after awhile I managed to reach it. I found my sword in my seat, where I left it. I should really stop forgetting things so often. I was probably too excited that''s why.

    Meanwhile, back over to the two agents that I left alone on the patrol route we were supposed to scout out for awhile.

    They continued their cold march, both still in the same state as I left them.

    Gallow glanced over to Shawk who was still as unamused as he was before. He sighed and gave a worried smile. His friend was always so cold and distant, and yet, he still cares a lot about him.

    "Shawk, buddy. You shouldn''t give Pyron such a hard time. He''s just doing his job you know. I''m sure you''ve heard about him, right?" He was still smiling.

    "Of course I know who he is. A prodigy of the knights, he managed to rise up to his rank so fast. He graduated the academy quickly and at the top of his class too. It''s just... not fair. I''ve been working for this order for nine years. Nine! Just because he did really well doesn''t give him the right to get that high up in the order in less than two years."

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Gallow gave a worried sigh. He tried to cheer his best friend up with another smile.

    "Hey, don''t be like that. Life is all about surprises, and just because something doesn''t go the way you want it too, doesn''t mean it''s a bad thing. If you keep looking behind you all the time you''ll never be able to see the things that have yet to happen. That''s why you should always keep looking forward."

    Shawk''s expression dropped down a little and he rubbed his arm.

    "I... I guess you''re right. Thanks Gal." He gave a little bit of a smirk when he said that. Gallow kept walking, happy because he managed to cheer his friend up.

    But after awhile, walking through the blizzard, he managed to see something up ahead, something bright. He tried to take a closer look and saw that there was a figure, but there was something off about it. It was surrounded by fire.

    "T-that''s... a Riftling!" He yelled out as he drew his axe and went charging forward toward the enemy.

    "Dammit Gallow! Don''t yell out when you''re going to attack." Shawk screamed at his friend who was going right into hostile territory. They made contact and Shawk took position in the snow, pulling his rifle out faster than Gallow charged forward.

    He turned on his Syndex and contacted the captain and Pyron immediately. Gallow and the figure were already fighting in the snow, and then he looked through his scope and took aim at the figure. It was hard to see through the blizzard and they were fighting way to close to each other.

    The figure launched out a massive fireball at his friend, but managed to parry it. That Riftling must be a Category A, at least. This is going to be difficult.

    But Shawk wasn''t any ordinary sniper. He has been practicing with his shot ever since he learned how to use a gun, the best shot in the team probably. He took a deep breath and fired right away.

    He only managed to graze his face. He missed him.

    What? That''s impossible! There''s no way he could have dodged that! His reflexes must be that fast, or he can move faster than I can take a shot. Either way, I have can''t miss the next shot. Gallow is going to be in trouble if I can''t take him down.

    I reloaded immediately after taking the first shot, my heart racing. I focused hard and took aim. I exhaled slowly and pulled the trigger. It cut through the cold air and was going to hit the target dead in the face.

    "Yes! I got him!"

    Right after seeing the bullet collide, something wasn''t right. There was a bright flash of light and the figure was still standing. Before he could process what just happened a magic circle had appeared by his palm and a blue bolt projectile was fired at me. I didn''t have time to dodge as the bolt hit the centre of my gun, shattering it.

    The blast was strong enough to blast Shawk back into the snow. He was in a lot of pain, even if it wasn''t a direct hit, it was just a shockwave. He was gasping and could barely move. It must have a been a parabolt or something. His Syndex made a noise, and it connected him to Pyron and the captain.

    "Captain, we... we''ve been attacked..." Shawk managed to say as he could feel himself about to go unconscious. He held his arm as jolts of pain ran through his body.

    Pyron''s voice rang out from the device.

    "Shawk?! Shawk, are you okay? What''s going on?" The concern in his tone was very apparent. Shawk managed to say one more thing before he collapsed.

    "Come and... help Gal... he can''t beat it... It''s... a triple S."

    Two confused and shocked voices were heard coming from the device.

    "What?! Shawk! Where are you? Are you sure it''s a triple S?! Shawk!"

    The captain was yelling out, the urgency made him panic, he didn''t know that there was a Category SSS in the area, and he knew he wasn''t prepared for it at all, let alone the rest of the team.

    Shawk lost consciousness for a second, and then the call was dropped.

    After lying there in the snow for awhile, Shawk was prepared for what was going to happen to him. He felt guilt and anger for not being able to help his friend. But he didn''t want to die like this.

    He heard a large blast coming from where Gallow and that Rifling were fighting. That must have been the end for his friend. He could feel tears start to form in his eyes.

    The sound of crunching snow, like footsteps, started getting closer to him. He looked up saw a dark figure, he was still unable to move or react. He could feel fear in his heart overflowing; there was nothing to save him now, and then he shut his eyes.

    The figure raised a hand and he prepared himself for the last moment he would have. Then he felt heat around his body, but he didn''t die, and he wasn''t burning. He was still alive, and the figure just walked away.

    And Shawk thought about one thing as he lay there.

    "Who- who was that?" Was the only thing that could come to his mind.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I was thinking of putting this story on hiatus for awhile, what do you think?

 Chapter 2 | Part 6

    A few hours later back at the alliance encampment, the paladin and rifleman that were rescued from the white wasteland of snow. The Captain along with Pyron went ahead along with some tactical troops, and found them laying in the snow unconscious, the paladin was bound with heavy magic, and they both had some kind of charm casted on them.

    Later on inside the main caravan, the danger duo, Shawk and Gallow had heated blankets casted around their bodies. They were both shivering from the freezing cold that they were exposed to just minutes ago.

    On the elliptical table that was set up for meetings like the one which was taking place at that moment, sat Shawk. Across from him sat their Patrol leader, Pyron, and beside him was the captain, who was busy staring at a map of the local area. He had a very bothered expression as he scratched his face. He gave out a sigh and slammed his palm onto the table.

    "This is impossible." He said in a low and annoyed tone.

    He turned over to one of the agents that sat across from him and fixed his gaze on him. He stared back with a hint of surprise.

    "Are you sure, that it was a triple S?" A serious expression plagued his features.

    "Yes sir, we made sure of it. We had the cloak check the bindings on Gallow when we rescued them. And they said that they were sure of it, that kind of magic could only come from a Category SSS." He sounded nervous as he said that. The sweat that dripped from his face was very visible, even when it was pretty cold, even inside the vehicle.

    The captain sat back down and rested his eyes as he rubbed his forehead. He was trying to think about a plan to deal with this monster. He already had his hands full with trying to contain the threat that they were currently facing, and the reason why they were here in the first place. He was more stressed out than anything. Then at that moment, Pyron raised his voice and asked him a question.

    "Uh, excuse me captain, but what exactly is a Category triple S? I don''t think I''ve ever heard of anything like that, is it a new category?"

    The captain raised his head from his hand and looked at the armoured lad that was sitting beside him, and curiosity was all over his face. He grunted and scratched his head before answering, and then he took a deep breath as the boy leaned in closer to listen to his words.

    "Well, uh... yes and no. You see Pyron, those kinds of Riftlings were always present. Shortly after finding most of the kinds and classes of demons that had come pouring into our dimension were done, the elders, one of the oldest knights, had come into contact with one of the strongest demons that she had ever met."

    "Wait, she? You mean the angel? I thought that was just a myth!" Pyron had interrupted the man with the vest. He was very surprised to say the least.

    "Well she isn''t. After the first rift was opened back in 2015, the order had done some secret ritual stuff to contact ''God'' and apparently, he sent them their first agent. Suzahn, the angel."

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Pyron was awestruck by what he was hearing. The first agent was an angel? He knew that angels existed at some point, but to think that one of them was the first agents.

    "Now where was I? Oh, right. She had accompanied the orders knights to ground zero, where the first rift opened up. After about fifteen hours of non-stop battles and endless fighting, the angel triumphed and managed to defeat all the demons that had leaked into this plane. But as she was leaving with the troops that were left, a heavy presence had appeared, and they all froze in their tracks."

    The wind outside howled and the blizzard had continued on. The vehicle was being driven back to the camp. Only the dispatch soldiers were inside the vehicle right now, because they had rescued the two freezing agents. The captain continued with his story.

    "The blizzard had thickened and they all stood their ground, after about a minute of silence, with only the sound of the cold wind blowing. A figure had started walking out of the fog. He was wearing nothing but a black cloth around his torso and waist, and his eyes were a gleaming green. He raised a hand and gestured beside him, and almost instantaneously a portal had immerged from six purple crystal-like objects which started rotating in a circular manner and formed a screen of a strange hole that looked like space, that had seemingly come from nowhere. It was a rift."

    When Pyron had heard this, he interrupted the captain again.

    "Wait, what?! He made a rift?! That''s not possible!"

    "Exactly, that was the first time they ever witnessed pure dark magic. After that though, I''m not too sure what happened. The old documents didn''t really say much, but they had a big fight and... Some knights and the angel..."

    He looked down, with an agitated expression.

    "They went missing."

    "I heard of that, sort of." Pyron had said.

    "You did?"

    "Well, just some stories and gossip around HQ, but I never actually put much thought to it. It just, seemed too strange to be real."

    The captain grunted as he slouched back in his chair.

    "Well you''re going to have to get used to strange if you want to stick around here."

    "Yeah, I know."

    The caravan was filled with semi-quiet whispers and plans for how to deal with the new threat that has risen. The blizzard continued to fall harshly throughout the wasteland as they traveled through, the snow and the wind dancing around to a perfect tune of frost and noise.

    This was going to be a long ride, and Pyron knew it.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Sorry for short chapter. I''m working on something.

    Also, I wanted to ask if you like Danny better, or Pyron so far. Don''t worry, I''m just asking.

 Random Update and Poll #1

    For those of you who are currently reading this story so far [and hopefully enjoying it? Or just reading it?]. I decided that I should probably give a one or two day gap for the upload time, because as much as I want to update it daily, I can''t.

    And if you''re interested with the story or the plot itself, you can probably learn a little bit of lore from my other story "The God Fragments" which may or may not be related to the universe of "Daemon born" at all. I did not drop it, it is just on hiatus until Daemon Born is complete.

 Chapter 2 | Part 7

    Pyron looked outside the window and watched as the ice crystals fall harshly outside, the winds and the cold violently pounding on the outside. At this point, his mind started to block out all the noise coming from the other people inside as well as the exterior ambience.

    He was lost in his thoughts. For some reason he couldn''t really shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he wasn''t sure why. Then for no reason he remembered Daniel. It wasn''t that long ago that they split ways, and then the realization hit him in the face.

    Daniel didn''t actually give him his contact information. He gave himself and internal facepalm and wondered how stupid he could get. It wasn''t that he didn''t trust Daniel enough to have him contact him, but there wasn''t much point in being able to do so if he didn''t have the means to get through to him.

    He slouched back into his seat and gave a long sigh. It was strange, the armour he wore was a little bulky, and yet, it wasn''t uncomfortable in any way at all. It barely weighed anything after you put it on, it was pretty breezy, it had cup holders, it was so good that he wouldn''t mind if he didn''t have to take it off.

    He raised his hand as he looked at the carbon-fibre shell of the armour on his hand, the way it was so smooth and yet durable. It was still pretty flexible and sleek when you move around in it.

    He tried exploring the software and tech that was inside the helmet. Looking at the visor as he picked it up, he stared at his reflection in the glass for awhile. He put it on right after that and an HUD interface had appeared. He looked at all the files that were programmed into the device.

    This kind of technology was just based from those virtual-reality helmets that were created a few decades ago. This version is probably a whole lot better than the old ones, after all, the reason that the ever-so-popular "Neuro-syndex" was created from gaming companies coming together to create a revolutionary life changing device that will last indefinitely.

    But eventually, they looked past games, and thought that they might as well patent it for everything else that was created at that point. It''s funny how people can reach new heights and exceed their limits, if only they would stop fighting and join forces. Maybe if there wasn''t all that war and near fallout situation had happened all those years ago, the human race could probably accomplish anything.

    Of course that meant everyone has to stop fighting first. Which probably isn''t going to happen any time soon, but the Knights World Order took one step closer to that future by uniting everyone. And ever since the Rifts started opening, it made even the more reason for people to band together and join them, to completely annihilate the Underdark, the Riftlings.

    After about thirty minutes or so, they returned to the camp. Everyone got off and prepared to make the upcoming plans. Especially since a new opponent has revealed itself. Pyron made his way to the main caravan where the captain and the other Rank S agents were.

    Inside the others were already seated and discussing their plans. His attention was immediately drawn by the Hunter. He brought his palm down hard onto the makeshift table.

    "Ye can''t be serious! I''m a hunter, not some kind o'' grunt that does clean-up."

    The captain sat back in his chair and stared right at the angry pirate.

    "Look, the higher-ups decided that it be best if we strike hard and strike fast, so we''re going to be in a speed-type mobile unit with the best qualified for the current mission."

    "What?! Are ye saying that I''m not good enough?"

    The swordsman with spectacles spoke up.

    "That''s enough of that. I''ll be staying behind too."

    Pyron decided that he should pipe into the conversation because he had no idea what they had just spoken about.

    "Wait what? What''s going on?"

    The captain directed his gaze back onto the armoured youth. He sighed and scratched his head. He pulled up his Syndex and sent a file over to him.

    Pyron''s device made a boop as he received the file. He pulled it up and opened the message and it was from the Grand Council.

    "They decided that were going to have to split up into three major groups. You and Cloak will be taking the mobile-unit A and will complete your main objective: To find and destroy the source of that dark pulse coming from this area. Glasses and the Pirate-"

    "Stop callin'' me that!" The pirate yelled out in an irritated tone.

    "-the Hunter, will be staying behind and clearing out the area because if they should  encounter the triple S, both of them should be able to handle it well enough, in the meanwhile me and the remaining crew will go ahead and scout around the sector to make sure that there isn''t anything else that might cause a problem."

    Everyone nodded in unison.

    "Alright, now that you all have your orders, move out! We don''t have time to waste." The captain got up and grabbed the two semi-automatic rifles that were under his seat.

    Everyone did the same as they had taken out their equipment and prepared to dispatch from the group. I pulled up my helmet and wore it again, the flashing HUDs were still a little disorienting, but he was getting use to it.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    The captain pulled up his Syndex and sent out a transmission to all of the members present in the area, including everyone inside the caravan at that moment.

    "Attention to all units, new orders has been issued and you are all required to accommodate them. I will be sending them out now, be sure to look for your ID number and what your role will be. Be sure to be at your designated area with your new unit members. We move out in five."

    Then shortly after, everyone''s Syndex flashed, signalling that he had sent out the orders. Everyone looked at them and began to move to their given positions.

    Pyron gave an anxious look as he remembered he was stationed with the unstable magic user, the cloak. It''s funny how the entire time he''s been here he still doesn''t know any of their names. Maybe he should ask them later on.

    He walked out of the caravan and prepared his weapon. It gleamed ever so nicely in the light. The dark metal was very sharp and was significantly heavy, but the suit made it seem as light as a feather.

    He hasn''t really used it yet, he thought to himself that he should try to practice with it at least, but with no targets, he could only do a few test swings. He was about to try it out but he stopped, because right as he was about to do so, a window popped up on the display of his visor.

    "Activate linked external device? Y/N" He blinked at this for awhile.

    Then he selected yes. Right after he did so, the weapon that he was holding suddenly started to light up around the edges in a dark red energy. He remembered seeing the swords properties awhile ago when he was riding in the caravan and saw that the sword had a prototype core of a very powerful material.

    The name wasn''t familiar to him at all, but just by seeing the energy level coming from it, he could tell that it wasn''t any ordinary core. In fact, it had more energy in the weapon than the actual suit itself.

    And now that he tried swinging it, it felt a lot faster and as he would do so, energy would be released from it and it was very strong as he could feel the residue left in the air from within the armour.

    "Whoa." He stared in awe at the weapon he was wielding.

    It was definitely going to be useful against what he would probably have to fight. He placed it back onto his waist and walked to the mobile unit that he was assigned to.

    He saw it being loaded up and outside stood the cloak staring at the soldiers bringing equipment into the vehicle. He got closer to the area and saw the cloak still grinning widely. He cringed knowing how strong and scary this individual is.

    Before he could get into the vehicle though, the cloak faced right into his direction. He jumped up a little as he was startled. The other agent tilted their head to the side and brought up their hand.

    Pyron was sweating nervously. He knew that that meant he was going to try something. He placed his hand over his weapon in anticipation. Even though it was freezing right now, he was starting to sweat.

    Then a glowing circle with strange runes appeared all of a sudden, and then when the cloak snapped their fingers, a bolt of black lightning shot out and went straight for Pyron.

    He wasn''t fast enough to block it at all and it hit him right in the torso, but as it collided, a large burst of energy was released all of a sudden from the armour, and completely dispersed the bolt. And the grin from the cloak disappeared, and they gave off a very confused look.

    The cloak stood there for a second staring at the armoured teen. Then suddenly looked over to the side where the soldiers that were loading up the equipment, were now staring at them.

    And then they raised their hand again with another chaotic grin, the soldiers were startled and started packing the equipment again as they panicked.

    Pyron got into the caravan shortly after along with his new temporary partner. They sat on the seats right behind the drivers. The cloak then looked over to Pyron again and reached a hand out to him.

    He stared at him for a second and hesitated, before placing his hand on theirs, and then they just had their hands on top of each other for a couple of seconds. He found it a little strange, but then the cloak removed their hand and stared out the window again.

    Pyron pulled his hand back and stared at it. Though it was only for a few seconds, he felt that he had earned something, was it trust? Maybe it was acceptance or approval? He wasn''t sure, but he felt like he bonded a lot closer to his semi-hostile partner.

    Pyron also looked outside from his seat and could feel a rush of excitement and anticipation, to which was unmatched by anyone else. The determination he had to prove himself worthy of being a Rank S agent, to everyone, for his friends, and to avenge Kuro.

    Whatever was going to happen, he was ready for it.

 Chapter 2 | Part 8

    After a few minutes, everyone had already set out to their designated positions, the revving of vehicles and the marching of troops in the snow was very audible as the blizzard started to get stronger.

    Morning was approaching soon, but the sun would not come to rise until eight am in the morning due to the snowstorm and how dense the clouds were. The loud revving of engines and snow-mobiles were starting up and they propelled themselves through the snow.

    Pyron was caught off guard and fell back in his seat but managed to regain his composure. Since they were riding in a speed-type vehicle, there weren''t any noticeable windows or roof. The cold air was swirling around through the entire vehicle.

    Pyron stared out and stared at the trees that they were passing by so quickly. It was all covered in snow. He looked at the very top of the trees and he was still amazed at how big they were. The shortest had to be at least a hundred feet tall.

    It was all because of the Holy Knights doing, ever since they started the rejuvenation of the world back in 2030 the world was starting to heal, and because of the rifts opening up at the same time, all the strange new animals and creatures had perfect homes.

    The magic and different species also had a major effect on the changing of biomes and ecosystems. It was funny though, because even though most Riftlings were hostile to humans, they had almost zero interest in other fauna. "Neutrals" was the name that was given them, most were still dangerous but would only attack if provoked.

    But even so, I vowed to eliminate all Riftlings, no matter what. I have to do it for her, for Kuro. And now I''ve been given the first chance to get even closer that goal. Becoming a Rank S agent would open up all kinds of doors and opportunities for being able to accomplish my goal. I would be given access to all the information I need and also the firepower and control to completely eradicate everything that spawned from the underdark.

    The memories of that night still fresh in Pyron''s mind. His intentions were as clear as day. He swore to find out what happened to her, he didn''t want to believe that she''s dead. His reason for becoming a grand council was to obtain classified information about the creatures, and also about Rifts. It''s been over 75 years since the first Rift appeared, and the public still hasn''t been informed about any new discoveries the Order has learned.

    There were plenty of rumours that they have already learned about what is on the other side of the Gateway, and he wanted to know what it was. The answer he was seeking held the key to finding out what happened to his friend.

    Pyron managed to doze of completely and managed to sleep through a few hours of the ride. The rest of the ride went off without much incident, and then a loud screeching halt was heard and Pyron was still asleep, so he ended up knocking his head on the driver that was in front of him.

    A loud thunk followed the motion accordingly.

    "Ow!" The grunt rubbed his head where it was struck by the carbon coated helmet.

    "Oh my god! I''m sorry, are you alright?" Pyron reached out a hand in an apologetic manner.

    "I-I''m fine. Don''t worry about me sir." He waved a hand dismissively.

    The other driver turned around and faced clumsy teen and the cloaked nightmare, and he said in accordance with signalling the other agents behind the vehicle to stop.

    "We''ve reached the vantage point. This was the last place where the Category S was reported to be seen. It is the first of three spots we have to search."

    He gave a nod and got out of the vehicle. The other agents followed shortly after.

    The vehicle stopped right on the outside of the clearing of the forest. The dark green trees still lined the area, but it was a lot more dangerous since now it is lined with all sorts of dark and magical beasts that reside inside.

    Pyron shook himself awake and helped unload the equipment from the back of the vehicle. There wasn''t much so he didn''t tire himself out at all. The other crew members had already fully equipped themselves.

    They started to form small groups and ventured out into the area. Pyron and the Cloak were both assigned to different parties but shared the same objective: search the area for the designated target.

    They left the original campsite where the vehicles and extra equipment were left to be watched by a small group of scouts. Pyron was leading a small party of five people including him.

    They entered the forest in an orderly manner. Two of the men were armed with pulse rifles and the other two with the signature weapons of the order, a polished blessed sword and shield. They were being led by the much younger fully-armoured boy carrying a large black sword.

    The snow rustled beneath their feet as they trudged through the forest ground. The snow barely fell once they were inside the brush. The trees were so thick that you could barely see the sky, and because of this, it also gave the atmosphere a sort of quiet and heavy feeling of nature.

    Nothing made a sound except them, and after awhile they could definitely sense something watching them as they made their way even deeper into their route. As they got closer to the very centre of their designated endpoint, Pyron''s visor lit up and a warning was shown.

    "WARNING: Category A Riftling Detected. Caution is advised."

    Pyron help up a hand to his side motioning for the other troops to hold their position. They waited and listened to the silence which was starting to become more and more eerie.

    Pyron activated his visor and then a crosshair locked into an energy source that appeared as a red spot on his visor. He immediately prepared his weapon and raised it up in a battle pose.

    The knights behind him took stance and prepared themselves to have an encounter but before they could advance a large leopard-like creature lept out and attacked them. Pyron managed to dodge the creature and the person behind him managed to raise his shield up and hold back the enraged beast. It rammed it''s head right at the shield and pushed the other agent back a bit.

    From a glance Pyron could identify it by its very distinct features. It had a two tails and both were had sickle like blades on the end of each, and they were really sharp. It also had jet black fur and horns that you would see on a Ram and it also had a brown mane that seemingly shone even without any light.

    It was a Chimera variation. Most Chimeras were extremely dangerous, and get ranked as at least a category B. Its species isn''t generalized enough to have any specific details so they couldn''t be classified as any single species, and every new generation would change accordingly in very strange and different ways than a parent.

    Most Chimeras have a specific weakness that you must find out immediately after you encounter one. Agents with higher experience usually lasted longer when fighting dangerous Riftlings, and that managed to buy other agents enough time to find a weakness and neutralize the target. You had to pay attention to every single detail of their body and see how they work.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.The only real disadvantage with Chimeras is that since they practically evolve or mutate differently as every new generation is birthed, any genes that they inherit from their parents will be close to practically useless.

    A good example is having a Chimera parent having the features of wings and is able to fly but then it has a child with a scorpion tail and uses hearing for sight, the genes of being able to learn how to fly is naturally passed down, but is useless because of it not having any wings and having different features completely.

    And aside from that, it was possible that the different body parts would contradict with each other, and would make it difficult to accomplish certain tasks. An example is having developed gills and bat wings at the same time would probably be really ridiculous.

    Pyron paid close attention to the beast that was attacking his comrade. When it first attacked them, he noticed immediately that it uses its massive curling horns as a charge attack, much like a ram does. It was really fast and was practically unavoidable for any agent below rank A, and it was really strong in addition to that. If they weren''t prepared, they could have easily been knocked unconscious or even killed if they were hit with that attack head on.

    But he noticed that when it would do so it was unable to turn and would rush straight on which meant that its momentum was easily could be used against it.

    The Chimera tried to slash the knight behind the shield with its claws, just barely reaching him. Then the other knight tried rushing to his aid but then it knocked him back with the sharp tails that it had.

    The soldier with the shield used that opportunity to push it back, but right as it did it pounced back onto him, and this time it managed to scratch his arm.

    The defending knight yelled out in pain.

    Pyron locked onto the creature with his visor and rushed forward. He noticed that when attacking with its razor tails, the beast would temporarily stop attacking and shift its attention toward the new threat which would leave it vulnerable to any other attacks.

    It had a mental blind spot. This Chimera has short ''lapses'' in its attention and has to fully focus on one target at a time, meaning it can''t multi-task very well. But right as he was about to attack it from behind where it''s blind spot was, another warning popped up and he turned around immediately and blocked something that came flying his way. It sparked as it hit his sword before it fell to the ground. It was some sort of projectile that was shaped like a spine. He looked up to see an even bigger Chimera standing upright at around six or seven feet tall, it was hidden behind a tree.

    It had red eyes which glimmered in the dark, but before Pyron could react, the creature shifted just a little before sending about five more projectiles his way. He managed to block three of them but the other two had managed to pierce his shoulder in the space where the joints would disconnect from his shoulder to his forearm. He winced at the pain as he pulled it out.

    "Injury has been detected. Applying medical treatment." A voice had notified Pyron of the suit''s other special features such as this.

    He read most of the manual but still barely got the idea of what it can do at its full output. Right after he was notified of this, an anti-biotic spray was administered onto the area from the interior, which was then followed by a ray of heat which seemingly sealed the wound temporarily.

    He remembered that this suit has different modes that could be changed with mental commands. He activated the ''defence'' mode and the carbon-fibres started contracting and formed an even sturdier shell-like feeling, and right after that a sort of magnetic aura that repelled everything else also acted as a shield that could probably block the projectiles.

    He started analyzing the beast that was hidden. Enhancing the images and turning on the Rift energy sensor, he could see the creature clearly now. It stood at seven feet tall, arms and back completely covered in spines. It had a very wolf-like face but a humanoid figure with hooves for feet and claws.

    It fired another projectile but it was deflected by the energy from the suit. Pyron decided that the best way to get information about this thing was to see what it could do.

    He turned on his transmitter and broadcasted a message to the other four knights.

    "Hey, I''m going to need you to keep that one busy for awhile, I''m going to take on this one. Good luck."

    "Yes sire." They all responded.

    Pyron switched the suit from ''defence'' mode into ''speed'' mode and suddenly the armour felt almost four times lighter than it originally was. He received a massive movement boost as the fibres loosened up and turned into ''muscle'' like textures, which contributed to his, movement. With one quick motion, he dashed to the right circling around the beast at high speeds. A gust of wind followed him as he ran through the trees.

    He got around to the back of the creature and jumped up and swung his blade straight down, but as soon as he touched its back a flurry of spines flew out at him. He managed to switch it to defence mode immediately and blocked the incoming spikes. He fell back and took a defensive stance again.

    The Chimera slowly turned around and stared at him right in the face. It started backing away, moving its position further from Pyron. It raised its arms and launched more spikes at him. He switched to speed mode and managed to dodge them this time.

    He moved closer from the front this time and charged forward using his sword as a lance, before he could get any closer the Wolf jumped back really far away and stuck onto the side of a tree. Pyron stopped and looked up at it, and he saw the red eyes from the darkness.

    Another rain of spines came raining onto him and he blocked it again. After awhile he realized that it had a pretty simple attack pattern, it probably wasn''t very good at close combat because of its size and weight, but it has enough power in its legs to launch itself away from the enemy then using its spines as projectiles again.

    He looked closely at its back and saw that it was slowly regenerating the spines that it released awhile ago due to his attack from behind. It only took a few seconds to regenerate, and even if he did try to attack it from behind multiple times, he knew that he wouldn''t be able to do it fast enough to strike at it when it was vulnerable.

    The weak point was obviously its bare skin, but those spines served as live armour every time you attack it. There were even very small spines on its torso now that he noticed it. But they didn''t seem to be releasable at all, they were too small and upon closer inspection they seemed to serve as a layer of protection.

    He attacked from behind again after circling around it a second time and activated the projectiles. He went to the front and used his visor to see any changes. Then he saw how the bristles would ''relax'' or weaken when it entered it''s regeneration state.

    This was going to be tricky.

    ~~~~~~

    Dying story is dying.

 Haitus

I don''t feel too good.

    I have to get ready for some things too.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.Be back in about two weeks.