Piers looked around his new dorm. Unlike the world outside, this one was an abyss with a floating city and a solar eclipse in the sky. Houses floated on debris connected by stairs. Piers looked at his dorm room and, using his Mephisto power, jumped from one place to another instead of using the stairs.
He thought, "These stairs serve no purpose. They're here just to train the devil holders in using their powers." He found his dorm, jumped to it, and opened the door. For a moment, he felt something checking him, but as soon as it verified his token, it stopped.
Inside, the room had a bed, a mirror, a table and chair, and some cupboards and closets. As Piers walked in, the mirror showed a different reflection of him—one drenched in blood, with a cold, determined expression, his bloody sword out, clutching the severed head of a person. Piers didn't notice the reflection.
He took a map and a rule book from the table. He read the rule book: "With every sound the token will make, it will refer to the next cycle. The cycle is as follows..." He saw there were specific times for when he would be free and when he would not. Exhausted, he decided to sleep.
A few hours later, a sound from his token woke him up. "Oh, it's time for me to go to the learning hall," he thought. He looked out the window. The sky was still the same. He sighed, gathered his things, and went outside. He used his Mephisto power to jump from one piece of debris to another, then took out his map to find the learning hall.
He reached the learning hall and went inside. A guard stopped him. "Are you new here?" the guard asked.
"Yeah, I am," Piers replied.
"Go to the left of the first intersection and to the end of the room," the guard instructed. Piers followed the directions and saw several students entering and leaving one by one. Soon, it was his turn.
He entered the room and saw a person whose skin was half-black. "I will now give you a dark arts book that will suit you," the person said. "Tell me about your wish."
"I wish to protect everyone I can," Piers said.
"You act like a white arts user, but I might have just the thing for you," the person said, handing Piers a book. "The Umbrae Codex, also famously known as the codex of black spirits."
"Spirits?" Piers recoiled.
"This is one of the weakest dark arts books," the man said, "but if used to its full potential, it could become the most versatile."
Piers took the book. He was surprised and pleased because one of Mephisto's powers was summoning spirits, which meant he would be able to use the Umbrae Codex.
Piers went to the learning hall's main hall and stood with other students. A man came and said, "I am Professor Drapes, and I am going to be your class professor. Before we start anything, the first thing is a test."
"A test? What does he mean?" Piers thought.
Professor Drapes clapped his hands, and a man dragged in chained white arts prisoners. "The test is simple," Professor Drapes said. "Sever this man's head. We don't want any weak-willed disciples in this learning hall."
Piers's hands shook. "Sever this man's head?" he asked. Everyone was shaken by the revelation, but one girl came forward and, with a single slash, severed the head of one of the prisoners. As everyone saw her do it, they too went to kill their assigned prisoners.
Drapes smiled, watching. Only Piers was shaking. Drapes went to him. "Do you want to quit?" he asked. Piers knew it was either do or don't. He resolved himself, took out his Phantom Insignia, and approached the man. The man looked at him in horror. "I beg of you, please don't kill me," he pleaded. Piers was very hesitant, but he closed his eyes and severed the man's head.
"Very good, disciple," Drapes said.
Piers looked at the dead men and wondered if he had joined the right place to protect everyone.
On the other side, Bret was sitting with Kaiser and his team. "So a man has made Rei lose his memories," Bret said. "During the last contact, he said that the man turned him into a boy named Piers. That's interesting because I just fought a boy named Piers."
"What? Piers? Where is he?" Kaiser asked.
"As far as I heard, Piers is going to the Devil Hell Branch," Bret said. "He holds the devil Mephisto and does not get corrupted from the presence of devil energy. In addition, he can use white arts."
"Yes," Lyla said. "From what you said, I can perfectly say that he is Rei's another version."
"However," Bret added, "the Devil Hell Branch is in another space, so it is not possible to access it."
"How do you know this much?" Adreil asked.
Bret threw a bundle of papers at him. "I did my study."
"There's no way Rei—oh, sorry—I mean Piers, won't come out," Ben said. "However, the problem is knowing when he will come out."
"He will emerge after a month during their task allocation," Bret said.
"Then we just have to catch him then," Ben said.
"It won't be that easy, Ben," Emilia said. "He might have started killing hands down."
"No, he must have started killing, because that's what they teach in the Devil Hell Branch," Bret said.
"Then it's all the more important to save him from their clutches before anything happens," Luc said.
"I will help too," Bret offered. "Rei also helped me at some point. However, during this month, how about you help me get the blueprints, which is one of my missions?"
Ben and Kaiser looked at each other with uneasy faces, and Bret just smiled.
While Piers was in the training hall, he heard a voice say, "You have to understand that killing the weak is one of the rules of survival." Piers looked around, but he didn't see anyone. His Phantom Insignia glinted with a slight light as it muttered, "I will soon turn him evil so that he could assume his rightful place, to become the greatest of all time."